“Death.” You’ll be seeing this screen a lot.

Let’s face it - Sekiro:Shadows Die Twice is hard. Very hard. For me, and for many of my fellow gamers, shadows actually die a lot. In over a hundred hours of play, I couldn’t even count how many times I’ve died. So, if you’re struggling, how do you move on to master the combat and finally beat the game, including all of the tough-as-nails optional bosses? 

One word: prosthetics. Don’t underestimate them! They can completely change your play-through for the better if you know what to get, where to find it, and how to use it. So here’s a guide on just that, listing the top prosthetics from least to most helpful.

Sekiro’s prosthetic arm. Pretty cool, right? 

#5: The Loaded Shuriken 

This is a weapon that shoots ninja stars (shuriken) at enemies. It has the power to defeat some smaller animals in one hit, such as dogs, geckos, and regular monkeys. It can also interrupt enemy attacks. 

Whoosh! Ninja stars mid-flight. 

In-Game Text Description: “A Shuriken Wheel Prosthetic Tool, fitted to the Shinobi Prosthetic. Costs Spirit Emblems to use. Pull a shuriken loaded into the wheel and launch it at a target in a single, flowing motion. The swiftly thrown shuriken damages enemy Vitality and Posture, particularly against those with a tendency to take to the air.”

What Makes It Awesome: While it’s one of the first prosthetics that you get, don’t let that fool you. It’s one of the most useful in the entire game, by far! The standard shuriken can be used for anything from interrupting a powerful enemy’s attacks (I’m looking at you, Lady Butterfly) so that you can stay on the offensive, to chipping away at a regular baddie’s health from a distance. 

Oh, Lady Butterfly! Why are you such a pain?

The shuriken also has some really kick-butt upgrades: the gouging top and the phantom kunai. The gouging top lets you hold down the Right Trigger (RT) to charge a more powerful version of the attack that does more damage to an enemy’s health, fills up more of their posture bar (which is crucial), and has a better chance of interrupting their attacks. It’s effective even when an enemy blocks. The phantom kunai, which you get late in the game, eventually becomes really helpful, and it’s a great tool to use when you embark on New Game +. It’s a much deadlier weapon than the other kinds of shuriken, and you can use it to pick off enemies from afar.. 

How To Get The Loaded Shuriken: To unlock and use the Loaded Shuriken prosthetic tool, you need to find the Shuriken Wheel. Fextralife explains that you can loot the Shuriken Wheel off of a corpse in the Ashina Outskirts, near the Sculptor’s Idol labelled ‘Outskirts Wall - Gate Path.’ Here’s a YouTube guide. 

Find more information at the Fextralife Sekiro wiki here. 

How To Get The Gouging Top: To get the Gouging Top upgrade for your shuriken, you need to already have the Loaded Spear Thrust Type prosthetic upgrade. To find the Loaded Spear Thrust Type, use this guide. 

Once you have that, you will need to find three pieces of scrap magnetite, a crafting item that can be dropped by enemies, and 600 sen, which is in-game money that you can also get from enemies. 

Find more information at the Fextralife Sekiro wiki here. 

How To Get The Phantom Kunai: You probably won’t be able to get this upgrade until later in the game, because it needs a crafting material called phantom kunai, which can only be found in two places. One place where you can get it is in the Ashina Outskirts. It’s sold by Anayama the Peddler, and it’s expensive, costing 3000 sen. The second place where it can be found is in the Offering Box at the Dilapidated Temple - but it’s only available there after killing the Divine Dragon, and it costs 4500 sen. The other materials needed for this upgrade are 3 lumps of fat wax, 6 pieces of scrap iron, 3 pieces of scrap magnetite, and 1000 sen. Here’s the video guide. 

Find more information at the Fextralife Sekiro wiki here. 

#4: The Flame Vent

The in-game description and the Fextralife wiki confirm that the flame vent is a prosthetic tool that blasts enemies with fire, dealing damage, inflicting the burn status, and inspiring fear in certain enemies. 

I didn’t know shinobi had flamethrowers…

In-Game Text Description: “A Prosthetic tool made from a loaded Flame Barrel. Costs Spirit Emblems to use. Deals fire damage to enemies via a short-range blast of fire while also inflicting Burn status. It is difficult to control the rage of those with “Red Eyes” through the power of man alone. They do, however, fear the flame above all else. This tool has the power to make them tremble.”

What Makes It Awesome:

This is another early-game prosthetic, but it can make a world of difference, especially when you come to your first mini-boss: the chained ogre. That guy killed me easily in my first few attempts, but then I took a break from him, found this prosthetic, and came back. Much easier! He hates fire, so using this or the shinobi firecracker is a no-brainer. The flame vent does fire damage to the ogre, but it also scares him, so he stops attacking for a moment, and you can get in a few hits before he recovers. Use it a few times, and it should make your experience a lot better. 

Uh-oh.

The flame vent works wonders in all kinds of situations, whether you’re fighting a huge boss one-on-one or just tackling a group of ordinary scrubs. Keep it available as an option whenever you’re struggling. It has a slightly longer attack animation than some other prosthetic tools,though, so make sure that you have a safe time window to use it. 

How To Get The Flame Vent: For this upgrade, you need to grab the Flame Barrel. That can be found inside a campfire surrounded by enemies, near the ‘Estate Path’ Sculptor’s Idol in Hirata Estates. This video guide should help. 

More information at the Fextralife Sekiro wiki here. 

#3: The Shinobi Firecracker

This handy tool scatters bright and loud firecrackers that can be used to stun enemies, leaving them open to your attacks. 

In-Game Text Description: “A Prosthetic Tool fitted with Robert’s firecrackers. Costs Spirit Emblems. Unleashes an explosive flash that briefly blinds foes and inflicts Posture damage on beast-type enemies. Has a wide, frontward field of effect that can impact multiple foes at once. Suitable for temporarily immobilizing enemies and particularly good for scaring beasts. 

Take that! 

What Makes It Awesome: 

Like the flame vent, this prosthetic can come in handy against several bosses and mini-bosses. While you can use it effectively against the ogre, I’d recommend saving it for other battles. It’s really helpful against the Raging Bull, Gyoubu Oniwa, the Guardian Ape, and many other enemies later in the game.

Yeah, this guy is hard. The firecracker really helps!

Basically, it’s different from the flame vent because while it doesn’t do much damage, it’s faster and more effective at interrupting enemies and letting you get in some free hits. It works against just about all enemies in the game, so it’s a great go-to.

It’s especially good against animals. The Raging Bull, Gyoubu Oniwa’s horse, and the Guardian Ape are very vulnerable to being stunned by it, so you can use it several times during those battles to gain an advantage. 

How To Get The Shinobi Firecracker: To unlock this prosthetic tool, you’ll need to buy Robert’s Firecrackers from the Memorial Mob merchant at the Battlefield in Ashina Outskirts, or the Crow’s Memorial Mob merchant in the Ashina Outskirts. This video should help. 

Find more information at the Fextralife Sekiro wiki here. 

#2: The Loaded Axe

It’s an axe that springs out from your prosthetic arm! Neat, huh? It’s useful when you go up against shielded baddies, or enemies with lots of posture to break through. 

In-Game Text Description: “A Prosthetic Tool loaded with a heavy Shinobi Axe. Costs Spirit Emblems to use. The strength of the Loaded Axe lies in its heft. One strike can easily turn a wooden shield into splinters or shred an enemy’s posture.”

The Corrupted Monk boss battle - focus on his posture meter.

What Makes It Awesome: An axe seems pretty straight-forward, right? This weapon is deceptively versatile, though. 

Since you get the axe very early on, it’s a great weapon to use throughout the game, and it can help you out of tricky situations. Use it to fill up the posture meter on an enemy, so that you can break that posture entirely and kill the enemy quickly. 

You should also use the axe against certain enemies that have breakable shields, like the Senpou Temple assassins. These little guys may look pretty easy to deal with at first, but they can be surprisingly challenging with those shields. The Senpou assassins themselves are squishy and don’t take a lot of hits to kill, so use the axe to break their shield and go to town on them. That’s faster than circling around and waiting for them to drop their guard!

He’s tougher than he looks. Trust me.

How To Get The Loaded Axe: This tool is unlocked after you find the Shinobi Axe of the Monkey and give it to the Sculptor. The Shinobi Axe of the Monkey can be found at the Hirata Estates, inside of a small house in the gardens. This guide shows the location. 

Find more information at the Fextralife Sekiro wiki here. 

#1: The Loaded Umbrella 

This is a tool that folds out from your prosthetic arm to protect you against attacks. So, basically, a shield. Good to have!

In-Game Text Description: “A Prosthetic Tool created by fitting an indestructible iron-ribbed umbrella to the arm. Costs Spirit Emblems to use. When spread open, it will protect against attacks from all directions. Hold it out while moving to protect from light attacks. But this is an umbrella after all. It won’t protect you from low attacks such as sweep attacks.”

This came in handy! 

What Makes It Awesome: Use the Loaded Umbrella to block attacks that would otherwise be unblockable. It’s great against the annoying sharp-shooting fellows in the Sunken Valley Gun Fort, including the mini-bosses there. Also, you can use the Loaded Umbrella to parry attacks if you time it correctly! The time window for a true parry is longer and more forgiving with the Loaded Umbrella than with just your sword, so it’s worth it!

You’re gonna want the umbrella for this guy - Snake Eyes Shirahagi.

The upgrades for this tool are extremely valuable, especially later on in the game. If you’re going for all of the optional bosses, then you really should look into the Phoenix's Lilac Umbrella upgrade. It’s super useful against apparition mini-bosses, like The Headless and The Shichimen Warrior. Instead of needing two to four Divine Confetti buffs per battle against these foes, just use the Lilac Umbrella to block and absorb their attacks, and then send that energy right back at ‘em when you close the umbrella! It may make the battle a bit longer, but it means that you don’t need to waste limited and precious resources like Divine Confetti. 

The Shichimen warrior is much easier like this!

The other excellent upgrade for the umbrella is the Suzaku Lotus Umbrella. It protects you from fire damage, which is a huge help against the Demon of Hatred at the end of the game. That guy uses a lot of fire attacks, and they do a ton of damage if you get caught in them. Block some of his biggest area-of-effect fire attacks with this tool, and then you can redirect all that nastiness back at the demon when you close your umbrella - give it a taste of its own medicine!

You need to use all of your best tools against this guy. Don’t hold out!

How To Get The Loaded Umbrella: To make the Loaded Umbrella, buy the Iron Fortress from Blackhat Badger.  He hangs out inside of a building with a hole in its roof at Ashina Castle, near the ‘Old Grave’ Sculptor’s Idol. Fextralife shows players how to get it here. 

Find more information at the Fextralife Sekiro wiki here. 

How To Get The Phoenix’s Lilac Umbrella: Speak with the Sculptor in the Dilapidated Temple to get this upgrade. The upgrade requires 1,000 sen, 6 pieces of scrap iron, 4 lumps of fat wax, and 4 pieces of scrap magnetite. 

Find more information at the Fextralife Sekiro wiki here. 

How To Get Suzaku’s Lotus Umbrella: Talk with the Sculptor, and give him these required materials: 1,500 sen, 2 pieces of adamantite scrap, 2 pieces of fulminated mercury, 6 pieces of scrap magnetite, and 6 pieces of yellow gunpowder. 

Find more information at the Fextralife Sekiro wiki here. 

Now you’re ready to go toe-to-toe with all of the challenges that FromSoftware and Activision can throw at you. Get out there and win!

Sweet, sweet victory! 

Also be sure to read:

• [Top 10] Best Sekiro Mods That Are Awesome
• Top 5 Best Sekiro Prosthetic Upgrades And How To Get Them
• [Top 5] Best Sekiro Combat Arts and Why They’re So Good
• [Top 10] Sekiro Best Farming Spots
• Sekiro Endings [All Sekiro Endings Guide]