Sekiro Snake Eyes Shirahagi fight - how to beat and kill the first Snake Eyes, Shirahagi
How to beat the Snake Eyes Shirahagi mini boss in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Snake Eyes Shirahagi is the next mini boss fight in Sekiro, found in the game's Ashina Depths area, following on from Folding Screen Monkeys in our walkthrough of the game's bosses and mini-bosses.
You'll find Snake Eyes Shirahagi waiting for you across the toxic pools found just after the Ashina Depths Sculptor's Idol. She's surrounded by snipers, but thankfully there's a way to sneak up to her easily.
Below, we'll cover how to beat Sekiro's Snake Eyes Shirahagi, including any particularly strong methods or weaknesses they might have and any handy things to bear in mind.
For more guides and pages like this, meanwhile, cycle back to our main Sekiro walkthrough and boss guide hub.
Sekiro Snake Eyes Shirahagi - how to beat and kill the first Snake Eyes, Shirahagi
There's a very simple bit of setup required for Shirahagi, involving just one stealth kill and a specific route over to her from the Idol, allowing you to get a free stealth Deathblow on her taking her down to just one life for your fight.
How to set up Snake Eyes Shirahagi
From the idol, drop down onto the first wooden platform below, then down onto the one below that, and sneak up on the nearby sniper for a deathblow.
Then, grapple across the poison pools towards the fallen, giant buddha statue, and sneak down its back and hide until you lose any aggro you picked up along the way.
Now you can sneak up behind Shirahagi for an easy Deathblow, leaving it with just the one remaining. Keep the right in that area, too, to avoid alerting any other nearby snipers and causing yourself a load of hassle.
Looking for more Sekiro pages like this? First up, the first main Sekiro patch notes for update 1.03 are live. Otherwise, our Sekiro boss guide, boss list and walkthrough hub has everything in one place, including pages on Lady Butterfly, Genichiro Ashina Way of Tomoe, Folding Screen Monkeys, Corrupted Monk, Guardian Ape, Great Shinobi Owl, Emma and Isshin Ashina, True Corrupted Monk, and Divine Dragon. We also have in-depth pages like Sekiro tips and tricks to get you started, Sekiro Skills, skill tree and Esoteric Text locations explained, our deep dive on the Sekiro combat system, Posture, and Perilous Attacks, or details on all Sekiro Prosthetic Tool locations, how to cure Dragonrot and Rot Essence in Sekiro, Gourd Seed locations, a Divine Confetti farm route method, all Treasure Carp Scale locations, all, Prayer Beads locations and all Snap Seed locations, too. And when you're ready - the how to beat Isshin Sword Saint and an Isshin Sword Saint cheese, plus the many Sekiro endings.
How to kill Snake Eyes Shirahagi
When you're toe-to-toe with Shirahagi after the first deathblow, try to get a free Combat Art hit off as she stands up from the deathblow, and then be very offensive, staying close and attacking as often as possible.
You can usually get three to four hits in before Shirahagi will do a spin kick - deflect it - followed by either a shot from her cannon or a Perilous grab.
Both of those you counter by dodging. So it's three or four hits, deflect, dodge, repeat. Stay close, pinning her in the corner by the wall and the pool if you can, and repeat that cycle and her Posture bar will fill up very quickly, landing you the second and final Deathblow. Try Firecrackers, too, if that's not working for you - but it should!
That's all you'll hopefully need for tackling this encounter. Next up in our guide is O'rin of the Water, or you can cycle back to our main Sekiro walkthrough and boss guide hub for much more explainers and advice.