While the Demon of Hatred is an optional boss, it’s definitely not an easy one. The three health bars, and the amount of different attacks in its arsenal, make it one of the hardest bosses in Sekiro. Defeating the Demon of Hatred is no small feat, but there are a few things that can make it easier.
First, while you can make do without it, Suzaku’s Lotus Umbrella can help you avoid some fire damage and the buildup of the “Burn” status. You can avoid taking any fire damage during the encounter with good use of movement and parrying, but if you ever get caught in a bad spot, the Lotus Umbrella can help you salvage the situation.
The Malcontent Prosthetic Tool can also be used to stun the boss, though the uses are limited, so try to wait until the third phase to use it.
Everytime you get through a health bar, the boss will gain new attacks on top of the previous ones, so by the time you’re working on the last health bar, there will be a lot of things to look out for. One thing that will consistently help you is sticking as close as possible to the boss. This lets you avoid his most dangerous fire attacks and bait him into using the ones that are easy to deal with.
Phase One
The key is sticking close to the boss. If you are not close enough to the boss, he can punish you with attacks like the head slam or a quick, thrusting palm strike that has a tight parry timing. To avoid that, stay almost under the boss, and closer to his right leg (your left if you’re both facing each other). You will still have to watch out for a few attacks like a low swipe followed by a swing with his left arm, or a 4 attack combo that starts with two left arm swings, that will happen when the boss does a small hop to create some distance. The easiest way to deal with those is parrying, although on the 4 attack combo, you can easily run circles around the boss.
Another attack to look out for is a leap forward followed by a slam, which can be avoided by just running through the boss while he’s mid-air. By staying under him, you will compel the boss to use stomps. There are 2 different stomp combos: one slow stomp with his right leg, or two smaller stomps with his left and then right leg. For the slow one, simply sprint to the left around the boss, which will help you dodge, and give you time to attack him a few times. As for the 2 stomp combo, you can either parry them, or jump backwards twice.
Along with small hops, the boss will attempt to create some distance in a few ways:
He will leap into the air just to fall down on the spot, which will result in a fiery explosion on impact. Either sprint away from the boss or jump backwards twice to avoid the explosion. Once he lands, you can grapple onto the boss to stick close to him, and use the Grappling Hook Attack to inflict some light damage while doing so. Make sure to wait around a second or so after the boss lands before grappling in to avoid the explosion’s shockwave, which would otherwise prevent you from landing both attacks in most cases.
If the boss jumps backwards, you can expect either a fire volley or a slam attack with his left arm. For the volley, if you start sprinting towards the boss as soon as he jumps backwards, the attack will land behind, giving you an opportunity to land a few attacks of your own. In case you are a bit too slow, remember to use Suzaku’s Lotus Umbrella, as the volley deals a lot of damage and is really hard to dodge if you’re not under the boss. There is also a low swipe that is almost identical to the volley, and you deal with it the exact same way. If it’s the slam, sprint forward to the left, which will make you avoid the attack all while closing the distance.
The boss will regularly initiate an unblockable charge forward. Simply jump over his attack and start closing the distance, as he will follow it up with his more dangerous attacks like the volley or the slam.
Once you deal with his first health bar you will be reaching phase two, which will add more mechanics on top of the ones from phase one.
Phase Two
Phase two begins with the boss pushing you away, and using an improved slam attack. This slam attack will happen mostly after his unblockable charge, and is much harder to avoid. Sprint to the side and jump right before the slam hits the ground, which will give you the opportunity to grapple onto the boss.
From phase two onward, the boss will gain another deadly ranged attack. He will start hurling a series of homing fireballs that can be challenging to avoid. However if you’re far away from the boss, you can sprint to the side while slightly going towards the boss to avoid them. On the rare occasion where you will have to deal with this mechanic while close to the boss, simply sprint clockwise around the boss.
Phase two doesn’t add many new mechanics, but dealing with all of the attacks combined might take you some time. Once you do, it’s time for the final phase of the fight.
Phase Three
Phase three will always begin with the boss showing off his cool new move: low, unblockable swipes followed by a circle of fire. At the start of the phase, you can avoid this mechanic altogether by creating some distance with the boss once he initiates the attack. Once he finishes making the circle, he will run towards you and out of it. However if at some point you aren’t able to avoid it this way, circle around the boss clockwise while sticking close to him.
One other change is that the unblockable charge will now sometimes be followed by another one, however it won’t always be the case and the boss might follow it up with the slam from phase two instead.
Cheesing the Boss
Whether you’re still having trouble with the boss, or just looking for a quick and dirty way to dispose of him, there is a way to cheese this boss fight.
Start by baiting the boss to one side of the room by standing behind a rock.
Once he reaches you and starts attacking, run to where the gate is, so that the boss gets stuck behind the tree next to the wall.
Climb the tower by following the angle from the video to be able to grab the ledge.
From the top of the tower, run along the angle in the video and turn left, to be able to jump far enough to reach the ledge. If you try to just run to the left straight away, the tower’s small ledge will break your momentum.
Climb on top of the roof, and stand above the boss to bait him into falling to his death.
You should now have all the tools at your disposal to beat the Demon of Hatred. Good luck and have fun!
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Spannah
Video game fan since TMNT: The Manhattan Project, I'm always on the lookout for games that could top Outer Wilds or Disco Elysium, or for new songs to listen to.
