Introduction

This guide is meant as a comprehensive ressource to take you from getting your first run all the way to learning the most advanced tricks that are currently used. As such, for each section, I will present the most basic and ineffective strats first and we will build upon that knowledge sequentially. Intermediate methods may be explained if there is enough of a skill gap between beginner and pro strategies. The only thing that won't be covered is the pathing taken between the different tricks as this can easily be learned from watching a run. Finally, this guide is meant for PC players, console players being a minority. If you are a console player, however, you will still be able to apply most of the knowledge of this guide, but be aware that monkey skip is almost impossible to perform on controller. If you wish to perform this run, I would encourage you to look into alternative strategies, such as the one used in the current console Any% world record. This guide currently only exists in written format. Video alternatives may be added later.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you should check out Mitchriz's setup tutorial. It will teach you all about the tools that are necessary for speedruning Sekiro. I would also encourage you to join the Sekiro speedruning Discord. We have all struggled and are happy to help but be aware that providing a video clip of your attempt and mentioning your specific point of struggle within a trick will lead to more precise answers. Also make sure that your layout fits the rules :

Resources

In case you need another outlook on how skips can or should be performed, checkout the complete list of video speedrun tutorials

I you want a complete video guide with no interruptions or cuts, checkout Gin42's guide below :

Should I Downpatch ?

Downpatching for Any% is 100% a matter of personal preference. I wouldn't recommend beginners to go through the extra trouble, but here's the few points where it matters :

1.06 :

• Some people believe that 1.06 has better responsiveness, especially when using keyboard and mouse

1.04 :

• Has one less idol menu option

• Enemy proximity cancels you out of idol menu (instead of them needing to hit you) which matters exactly once in this run

For more information, check out Holm's complete summary of version differences

Why should I play this category ?

Choosing a category can be a bit of a headache for new players. While I believe you should at least watch a run from each category that you might consider to figure out what looks the more fun to you, this list might help you decide. Let's take a look at the few characteristics of Any% that make it stands out compared to others :

• It is currently the shortest category (n.b. before the introduction of a forcequit category). This means it is very intense as it will make sure to use every little optimisation, but could lead to less frustration at resetting.

• It uses a lot of glitches and skips a lot of bosses. This can be seen in two ways, either you love the parkour or you don't. In my opinion, it makes it a little more skill based than luck based. This is not to say there is no RNG in Any% (because the game WILL fuck you up) or that other categories don't require skill.

• It requires a lot of investment before your first run. Some of the glitches are brutal. At a high level all categories will require an insane amount of work, but this is definitely one of the highest skill floor.

• It is neither extremely popular nor deserted. This means you will find sufficient information and help during your journey but the competition might not be as intense as, let's say, Shura Glitchless.

In conclusion, while this category is the fastest, it is relatively similar to No Airswim, which has a unique route. If you want to play a glitched category, I encourage you to compare both of them before you make your choice.

General advice

• Make your own saves. This will let you customise your resources and spawn point and help you learn about the route.

• Watch a run and take notes. This will be the most crucial step in your learning, as it will provide you with a tailored ressource that you can refer to. Don't hesitate to have these notes opened when doing your first few runs, this will help you remember the details.

• Don't be afraid to fail, but make sure to understand why and learn from it.

• When starting, it is usually better to finish the run than to worry about being perfect about every little bit. This will help you build consistency not only in the early game, but also at the end of the run, when it matters.

Recommended learning order

The following table will give you my appreciation of each trick's difficulty (highly subjective) as well as the learning order that I would recommend to a new player. Of course, speedrunners with previous experience in other games are encouraged to weight the risk/reward of learning advanced strategies immediately if they feel like it.

General tricks/knowledge

These mechanics, while basic, are used during the whole run. Make sure you understand them.

Wall jumps

Wall jumps come in two different flavors, vertical and directional wall jumps. When performing tricks, you usually want to avoid getting vertical jumps as they will lead to falls and timeloss. Fortunately, the trick is pretty easy. A directional jump will be given to the player depending on his camera alignement as well as the directional input. When looking for a directional jump, make sure to keep your camera parallel to the wall and input a direction that is at least 45 degrees away from it.

Finally, be aware that Sekiro can jump with any part of his hitbox, not just the feet. While this doesn't really get used in a useful manner in this category anymore, it can hinder your movement in tight places such as tunnels. As such, avoid kicking in the air when any part of your hitbox (e.g. your head) is potentially touching a piece of terrain.

Delayed jumps

Delayed jumps are an integral part of Any% speedrunning. This trick refers to Sekiro's ability to jump slightly after leaving a platform. Some are easy to perform and some are harder. Effectively, leaving a platform that has an edge on it (where Sekiro wouldn't immediately run off) will make the delayed jump frame perfect, giving you approximately 1/60th of a second to perform the input. In such cases, setups and approches will be discussed. You should, however, learn how to adjust your timing based on the type of mistake you're making.

An jump off the platform without falling first means your input was too early :

A fall with no jump means that your input was eaten. This can only happen when the jump input was performed at the exact time Sekiro was falling, your were late by a slight amount (about 1 frame).

A fall with a wall jump (or an air kick) means you were late by a greater amount than the previous one.

Deadangles

Deadangle refers to the inability of an enemy(or yourself) to deflect an attack that was originally not directly aimed at them. In the case of enemies with no hyperarmor moves, this effectively stunlocks them. Advanced versions of this trick exist and will be discussed later.

Dialogue skips

Dialogue skip can be performed by using the menu button after the important part of a dialogue has happened (e.g an item popup or a dialogue choice). If no important part is happening, dialogue can be canceled immediately. This trick requires the subtitles to be turned off. In Any%, this only happens during the Kuro tutorial dialogue and the mortal blade dialogue, but considering how easy the trick is, there is no reason to not implement it.

Tutorial

You will have to bear with me for a while there because this section is very knowledge heavy. Don't worry too much though, as this is all pretty easy stuff and, when all put together, will result in a significantly faster tutorial.

Jump kicking/grabing

If you watch any of the runs on the leaderboards, you will see the player jumping and kicking or grabing the air every time Sekiro is without a sword. Jumping is faster than walking by a considerable amount. Both kicking and grabing have been proven to have no effect, but spamming the jump button will make sure that you can jump again as fast as possible.

Exiting the well

There are basically two ways to exit the well. You can perform a directional method of the wall on the left or a simple wall jump as you would in a casual playthrough.

At a basic level, I would recommend the first option, the second option only being faster by about half a second, it can lead to a greater timeloss if your wall jumps are not consistent.

Avoiding the Kuro turn

When jumping towards the moon view tower, certain event can lead Kuro turning around, wasting about 2 seconds before the dialogue is starting. He will usually do this if any of the gunner's shots hits part of the tower's hitbox.

To avoid this, you will need to aggro the enemy closer general on the left directly after exiting the well before the first gunner sees you. You will know you succeeded if you see said gunner on the right crouch for a second. The enemy you should trigger first is circled below :

A potential backup in case of failure is to perform the path up to the window while looking down.

A grapple in tutorial ?

When exiting the window, the most efficient way is to grapple to the closest point available. Grappling in tutorial can be executed, under some conditions. You need to be hanging from a wall and press your grapple button at the same time as one of the following inputs : jump, block or use prosthetic. I would not recommend jumping as this will potentially make you fall off. Instead, spamming grapple together with one of the other two inputs should very easily get you the grapple.

Advanced tricks

Avoiding timeloss

As you perform more runs, you will sometimes inevitably get shot in tutorial or have to reset to missed jump. Unfortunately, due to a quirk of the game, resetting in the Ashina Reservoir zone will lead to a timeloss on your next run. Sekiro will actually start moving about about half a second later than he usually would. You have two options to avoid this, either load another save before performing your next run, or close the game and relaunch it.

Locked on jumps

Another version of the path to Kuro uses locked on jumps to get there faster. Be aware that this method is almost exclusively used on controller (An efficient path on keyboard has not yet been found due to only having access to 8 directions). When being locked on, your directional jumps have the same movement speed as if you were already able to sprint.

The Genichiro Zip

By looking down at a precise timing, Genichiro will sometimes teleport to you and hit you faster at the end of tutorial.

Ogre

Fighting Ogre

This version is mentioned for people who don't want to learn the frame perfect ogre skip. It is significantly slower to fight ogre but will lead to less resets in early runs. I will only mention the Gachiin version of this fight since it is eventually meant to be replaced by the skip. Intermediate versions can be found in glitchless categories if one is interested.

You will need to pickup and equip the Gachiin sugars found at the following location :

From there, use the gachiin, get the deathblow and fight the second phase of Ogre. Note the jump at the spot of the flag planted in the ground, this will ensure that the two enemies close by don't notice you. I would recommend trying to grab the deathblow as fast as possible, this usually results in better consistency. As you approach, press crouch, lock on and attack at the same time and you will usually get the the deathblow. For phase 2, a simple approach such as a 3hit-dodge loop will do the trick. It is recommended to unlock your camera for this fight.

Ogre Skip

Ogre skip is a frame perfect trick that allows you to entirely skip the fight, resulting in a 30s+ timesave. As you fall, you will need to quickly switch direction to curve around the wall, perform a wall jump and grab the ledge that becomes available to you. You can perform a small setup for this jump but it will not lead to a much easier jump and will lose a minor amount of time. Let's look at both options :

• Setup version

Standing at the edge of the banner before you start running will make you briefly stop on the ledge before performing the delayed jump. This methods has you timing your jump comparatively to the moment you started sprinting.

• YOLO version

This method has you running at the wall with full speed. You will need to briefly change direction as you hit the wall and perform the jump with timing related to the directional input.

Canyon

A basic canyon

The easiest way to perform canyon is simply to run through it, mostly following the intended route. The basic trick is to mash your directional button while going through the tunnel as this is faster than simply holding it. As you get towards the end of the tunnel and you see the rocks falling below your feet, you can before a small jump to gain a little bit of time. Going through the palanquin is too slow to be considered in a speedrun, so to avoid the scripted hit, keep to the right until you pass it, then immediately take a diagonal left to avoid the scripted snake hit.

Baby canyon skip

Baby canyon skip consists in doing a wall jump instead of going through the icicle tunnel, saving about 10seconds. You will still need to avoid the scripted snake hit. This jump is fairly easy and can be performed from a variety of starting positions.

Backup

In rare occasions, when you get a vertical jump, it is possible to land on a piece of terrain and perform an additional jump that could save your run. As such, I would encourage you to spam the jump button in case it might occur, as there is no other way to save it.

Double canyon skip

Adding the first canyon jump to your runs should only be done when you have reached a good consistency on other frame perfect skips and your time should already be considered really good. This jump saves about 7 seconds, a decent amount of time, but at great risks. There is no real trick to this jump other than pressing it at the right time, you can, however, set it up in a similar manner as ogre skip :

One more thing to note is that if you should fail this jump and wish to reattempt it, you will be attacked by the snake while you are on the branch. It is a small known fact that you can parry or block this hit and then proceed to attempt the jump again. Should you be successful in performing a double canyon (including the baby skip part), the snake will not do the usual scripted hit and you can just run towards the next step.

Gyoubu skip

Gyoubu skip consists in a delayed jump from the tower closest to the wall followed by specific pathing to make him fall off the ledge. Should he not fall off, your run will suffer greatly from the lack of attack power. This skip is potentially the only skip that is easier than the fight, as fighting Gyoubu efficiently requires a lot of practice. Note that to get up the tower, it is important to jump from the side furthest to the wall, as the terrain is slightly higher. We will look at two setups, as well as an advanced path that has a low (but consistent) chance of being available.

In case of failure, it is recommended to immediately quitout to be teleported back to the start of the arena and avoid Gyoubu destroying our precious tower. This will lead to significant timeloss but save the run.

Legacy Setup

A slower but easier path towards making the tower jump. This gives you a bit more lenience before Gyoubu destroys the tower and allows for use of the old jump setup. Make sure to run off the side of the tower as the front has a ledge that will prevent your fall.

Current setup

This setup uses a faster pathing to Gyoubu, as well as a smaller, curved path towards the jump. Note that you will need to adjust the curvature to line up your jump at the end of the sprinting animation depending on the spot you get up the tower. I usually aim for slightly left of the middle pillar that supports the tower. One advantage of this setup is that you can queue the jump to play automatically at the end of your startup sprint animation (as it can't start during that time).

Advanced Strat : Gyolo

In rare cases (~20%) a path known as Gyolo becomes available. This saves time by taking a faster route and skips the 2 ako pickup that is usually taken, resulting in a minor timeloss during the Snake Eyes fight. To ensure Gyoubu falls off, you can only use this path when Gyoubu destroys the far tower slightly after you've reached the top of the wall, just before the first grapple :

The only way you have to tell the right RNG, is to listen for the destroyed tower. You also need to be careful to not confuse it with the sound of the tower you were standing on being destroyed.

Bull Skip

Bull skip contains two important components, the timing of the wall jump, and the direction of said jump. The timing of the jump isn't nearly as precise as it might seem. As for the camera angle and direction of the jump, you want to be as close to 45 degrees as possible between you and the wall. When you get the wall jump, immediately hold right and move your camera in the same direction. Legacy runs might feature "right side" bull skip, which was patched. The version demonstrated here is both easier and faster, so don't worry about it.

Dealing with Gyoubu death timing

!OBSOLETE OUTSIDE OF CONSOLE : In some cases, the Gyoubu popups can appear mid jump and complicate things. After the two popups, two tutorials that are skipped by the livesplit pluggin also can result in an unwanted sprint reset or mid air kick. Make sure you acquaint yourself with those timing. In case of a late Gyoubu death, I usually wait for the popups before doing the first jump.

First setup

This setup is slightly slower than the next, but could be easier to learn for new players, especially on controller, with you not having to worry about camera alignement. Run diagonally on the roof and aim to take your jump about 6 rooftiles from the edge.

Faster setup

This setup is slightly faster. You can take a straight line on the roof at the cost of having to move your camera to the 45 degree angle during the jump.

Coming from Gyolo

Of course, coming from Gyolo implies a different approach to Bull skip. If you are advanced enough to do Gyolo, it is probably worth looking at this optimal path.

Lone Shadow and skip

This step is a little bit of a weird one as I wanted to include both the lone shadow fight and the newly found skip for it. Similarly to Ogre, the fight strategy is only included here as a way to avoid resets early on in your learning and make the experience smoother, but I do recommend learning the skip once you start getting a grasp of the run as I don't consider it to be one of the hard ones. As such, only a very basic strategy will be explored.

Lone shadow corner cheese

Remember the intro about deadangles? This is the time to put it into practice. As you try to take the fall, stop sprinting to not risk missing the deathblow. After the deathblow head in the corner, use the ako and jump as he tries to hit you. If you do this properly, he will be stuck with no way out.

Lone Shadow skip

While I failed multiple times trying to find a reliable setup for this skip, the "yolo" version of it seems to be very reliable to me, I will thus explain the steps to achieve what I believe to be the most reliable way of doing it right now. This skip is timed, as you will get attacked and die in case you take too long. This section might evolve as people find other ways to do it as this is a still a relatively new strategy.

After avoiding the spawning ball of death, align yourself with the plank on the ground. About midway through said plank, jump and immediately buffer your wall jump. Let go of any direction at the top of your jump. This should land you on the first platform, which is the hard part. The wall jump should be no cause for trouble if you aim your camera to the wooden pillar.

Snake Eyes

We will look at three versions of the snake eyes fight, building upon the first every time. In case you're doing Gyolo, you won't have an Ako sugar to use there.

Basic pathing & Snake eyes deadangles

Killing the gunner here is the safest strat. From there jump as soon as possible and follow the path. After snake eyes deathblow, push her to the ledge and start hitting away.

The Snake Eyes deadangle is a bit harder to perform than Lone Shadow as she can still use her grab, which is an hyper armor move. Fortunately, it is one of the only grabs that can be parried. The timing is much later than you might think, try pressing the parry button as you see her pull you towards her. Learning to deflect the Snake Eyes grab is an essential part of this fight, even in more advanced strategies.

No gunner kill pathing

Not killing the gunner is obviously faster than what we have previously demonstrated. To able able to not get shot during your fight, you will have to make sure that he sees you (turns to yellow agfro) before you take the first deathblow on Snake Eyes. As you can see, this requires a pretty specific path. If you are still taking the deadangle approach to the fight, make sure to look at him (have him in your camera frame) during the whole fight to keep him in yellow aggro state.

180 Snake Eyes

180 deadangles is a trick that will be discussed later in the Advanced Strategies section. It is still mentioned here as it is a very common way of fighting Snake Eyes. In addition to the grab, Snake Eyes will also be able to perform a backdash here. You want to avoid this move as it represents a small timeloss. This can be done by keeping her back to a wall during the entire fight.

Monk

In all speedruning categories, Fake Monk deathblow is achieved by pushing her back towards the pillar without being seen, which lets you perform a stealthy aerial deathblow. This trick can be made easier or harder depending on the amount of ash you want to use. Of course, picking up and using extra ash will lead to a slight timeloss. The lowest possible ash count is 4, those being the pickups in tutorial and in the Gyoubu arena. At 5 ash and above, the pathing isn't too precise and you will be able to retry the jump in case you fail it. I don't see any reason to go above 7 ash (and even then, 6 would be better), as such we will only discuss two extra pickups.

2 Extra Ashes : Before Snake eyes

This ash pickup can be done just before falling to Snake Eyes swamp.

1 Extra Ash : Ashina Outskirts

This extra ash is in Ashina outskirt, on the path to Ogre.

Optimal path, 4 ash

I've decided to only include an example of 4 ash. More ashes only means that the pathing is more permissive so in all cases you will want to try and copy this as best as possible.

The first seed

From the point where the stone stops you, align yourself towards the circle in the picture. The first seed can be used at the earliest in the middle of the patch of grass shown here. Using it earlier will result in the Monk not getting staggered, as such, if you have extra ash, consider using it slightly later as you have more lenience.

The wall jump

The pillar jump should be performed at the peak of your jump to be effective. First, use a neutral jump (don't input any direction), then do a forward jump at the peak of your jump.

Genichiro

This part will discuss the setup and the different ways of performing the door cheese. Phase 3 will not be explored in detail as all the responses to his attacks are fairly straightforward and, if you put enough pressure on him, shouldn't last very long. We will, however, take a look at a small optimisation.

A quick note on the Airswim

If you watch recent runs of Any%, you will see that we use a newer airswim found in Ashina castle to get to Genichiro. If you fear learning it, you can use the same airswim entrance as for Emma and only lose about 5 seconds. I would not recommend learning frontside dojo as an alternative but using it if you already know it from another category is a valid alternative (~2 seconds slower).

Setup

In Any%, we have the luxury of disposing of a divine confetti. Contrary to popular belief, divine confetti raises the damage dealt to health for all enemies. To setup the Genichiro cheese, you will need to use the confetti at the spot where the ground is slightly elevated :

Using it too late will usually result in an arrow to the back, while using it too early will make it harder to get him in the spot. Immediately after using it, perform a first jump towards the wall and a neutral wall jump before falling to his right.

4-Hit combo

The 4-hit strategy is, in my opinion, the easiest way to perform the cheese. Your camera and character alignement never has to change and should be slightly above 45 degrees relating to Genichiro. I like to hold forward the entire time, this gives you a very easy visual cue as to when you can hit again. After performing 4 hits, wait until Sekiro starts his walking animation and repeat. Don't wait for too long, however, or he might be able to hit you.

1 Hit/Block loop

The hit-block loop is mainly here for referencing. I wouldn't recommend learning it but it could be an alternative if you struggle learning the basic loop. It should be a middle-ground between 4 hit and 5 hit in terms of both speed and difficulty. It also prevents the arrows with greater efficiency.

5-Hit combo

The 5-hit combo is a more natural evolution of the 4-hit one. The 5th hit would not usually connect so you will need to turn the character during this one. Don't turn too early or it will result in a block. To keep the deadangle effect of the hit, the turn should be performed almost as late as possible. My queue is when Sekiro's right fool hits the ground during the 5th hit animation.

The arrow move

The arrow move is the only one that you should ever see during phase 1 and phase 2. This move is always preceded by a backdash but won't always follow the backdash. Genichiro will only do the arrow combo if his health is lower than a certain threshold (~50%). There are two options for reacting to this move. You have to either cancel it, which is naturally done by your 4th and 5th hits, or dash towards Genichiro during the move before repositioning.

Advanced phase 3 : Fast lightning reversal

Fast lightning reversal occurs when the lightning hits you exactly as you jump and hit. The setup that can be observed above is an easy and reliable way to do it : After 2 hits, dash back once then immediately input a forward jump and a hit at the same time.

Ape Skip

Ape skip is a mandatory part of Any% and a pretty scary one. To perform it, you will need to exit airswim at the right spot and perform a wall jump to get back to the ground. After getting past the stage where you get in range of the Ape, a further 2 jumps need to be performed. Let's dissect the different parts.

Getting out of the water

This part is probably the hardest part of Ape skip and the scariest part of the run. Failing it means redoing airswim and losing about 3 minutes of precious time. My personal setup consists in aligning the diagonal part of the perpendicular wall to a light spot on the rock below. Any part of it can work, but being slightly above the middle of the diagonal has been the most reliable for me :

Once you surface from the water, make sure to hold a diagonal left direction. Once you stop moving, get to the correct camera setup. Once this is done, you will need to move your direction to straight forward and jump slightly after. To perform the wall jump, it is usually considered better to do it later rather than early. Once you get to your feets, a gap in the ground lies in front of you and you have two options : hug the wall or jump over it.

Getting to the flower

During your pathing, you will come to a solid piece of wall. Once you've carefully made your way around it, the Ape will see you and start attacking. The second wall is not solid but has a hole in the floor, make sure to jump :

The only attack that can actually hit you is his infamous poop throw. You can anticipate it when the camera zooms out and prevent it by turning around and blocking it :

The previous clip also shows the alignement you want to be at for the first wall jump. Once you reach it, a vertical jump will get you to a safe spot. Make sure to keep your camera pointed down if you want to be able to see something :

Finally, from the safe spot perform a sprinting jump and, if needed, a directional jump from the ground's texture to get to the last part of the skip. Carefully make your way to the flower and pick it up.

Monkey Skip

Monkey skip is the final and required frame-perfect jump in Any%. This jump can be considered the hardest in the run because it also requires precise camera alignment and, as such, can only be performed reliably on keyboard.

Alignment

To get the right alignement, you will first need to be in the right position, which can fortunately be done by not moving from the grappling point on the branch. After that, align Sekiro's head with the little edge sticking out from the wall.

The wall jump

Getting enough distance can be a bit tricky at first, though it is undeniably the "easy" part of monkey skip. Turn your camera as late as possible and try to keep a straight line parallel to the wall to get enough distance and make it onto the roof. The timing of the jump is approximately as you start descending from the peak of the jump.

Emma

As an advanced strategy, Emma is very weak to the 180 deadangles. Refer to the advanced strategies for more information. This section will take a look at how the fight can be performed at a basic level.

The basic loop

The ideal situation is to get Emma stuck in a bit of a loop, which she can keep going for during a good chunk of the fight. The basic idea it to spam a 1hit/1parry loop resulting a in scripted and rhythmic fight. If you get a health hit on her, keep attacking until she blocks you once.

Avoiding the grab

Emma's grab can be easily avoided by circling around her.

Cancelling the 4hit combo

Emma's 4-hit combo leaves enough space for you to cancel her with an attack between the 3rd and 4th hit. This is slightly more optimal than parrying the final hit.

Aerial Deathblow

Emma's aerial deathblow animation is slightly faster than the regular one, try to jump on her and kill her that way if possible. It might be harder to perform when close to a wall.

Isshin

The goal of this fight is to get through phase 1 without using your emblems as they will be used in phase 2 to cancel all the fire moves.

Basic loop

Similarly to Emma, as long as Isshin doesn't do any of the moves listed below, he can sometimes enter a bit of a loop. You can usually spam your attacks until he parries you, at which point you will need to deflect at least one of hit attacks.

Dealing with the sweep

First, when you see Isshin sheath his sword you should always run towards him. This will prevent him from charging his attack and instead let you parry a quick move that will be followed by a sweep. You should simply jump on him to deal maximal posture damage. Two other responses exist to this move : you can cancel with a properly timed attack or go for a stomp cancel. The r1 cancel will not be discussed as it is very rarely worth even going for it. The stomp cancel version can be found in the advanced strategies section. As demonstrated here, this move can sometimes be immediately followed by the dodge, so be ready for it.

Ichimonji

Ichimonji is an hyper armor move that should simply be parried. This only applies for phase 1 as phase 2 is an unpariable fire move.

Thrust attack

The thrust attack should always be dodged as we don't have the luxury of using Mikiri counter.

The dodge move

Whenever you see Isshin backstep and not move, it means he will dodge you attack and go for either a single attack that comes out fast or a grab. The grab can be avoided similarly to Emma. The attack should be parried to resume the main loop. One mistake I often see new players make is that they are too eager to go back into the fight after using a resurrection. In such a case Isshin will always pull off this move. Trigger the move with a single attack and be ready to react.

Cancelling the fire attacks

I would recommend you use mortal draw as soon as you see any hint of a fire attack. The exception is a quicker version of the fire Ichimonji that will usually happen when he's close to wall. In all cases, if you have trouble with fire Ichimonji, you can dash behind him and perform the mortal draw from there. DO NOT hit his back with a regular attack, this will trigger an hyperarmor fire sweep that is very tricky to deal with. A mortal draw without emblems will deal less damage but still cancels the fire attacks.

Advanced Strategies

Stomp cancel

Stomp cancel is a strategy where you get the posture damage from the stomp but get to the ground instead, allowing you to resume combat faster. The setup to this is to jump, buffer a hit, wait a very small amount of time (think about 1 frame, just as a reference) and input the final kick. This can be terrain dependent.

180 deadangles

180 deadangles can be performed whenever an enemy cannot start an hyperarmor move from a block. In Any% this strategy mainly concerns Snake Eyes and Emma. It must be noted that in Emma's case, using 180s is not faster than the perfect normal fight but prevents cases of bad RNG. As for performing the strategy, you must turn around every second hit, do the hit and turn back to hit the enemy . The timing is hard to get and will require a lot of practice.

180 block deadangles

180 block deadangles are just a more advanced version of 180, but infinitely more tricky. This strategy uses a block every second move to reset your combo instead of the enemy block. This strategy is only mentioned in order to future proof this guide.