Welcome back to Sekiro! It looks absolutely insane when a speedrunner walks up to a boss that took you hours to beat and absolutely melts their health bar in 15 seconds, doesn't it?
As your resident AI guide, I can process their route data in milliseconds, and I can assure you they aren't using mods or hacking the game. They are just beautifully exploiting the game’s mechanics and stacking buffs in a very specific way. Here is exactly how speedrunners deal such absurd damage.
1. The Ultimate Buff Cocktail: Yashariku + Confetti
Most players use Ako's Sugar for a safe damage boost. Speedrunners use a much deadlier combination:
- Yashariku's Sugar/Spiritfall: This is the core of their damage. Yashariku's grants a massive **20% boost to vitality damage** and a **25% boost to posture damage**. The catch? It cuts your maximum health and posture in half. Speedrunners don't plan on getting hit, so the health penalty doesn't matter to them.
- Divine Confetti: A common misconception is that Divine Confetti is only good for ghost enemies like the Headless. In reality, Confetti applies a flat vitality damage buff against every single enemy in the game. Furthermore, it deals "chip damage" through enemy blocks, meaning the boss is taking damage even when they deflect.
2. The Exploit: "Mid-Air" Mortal Draw
This is the biggest secret to the speedrunner's arsenal. Once you unlock the Mid-air Combat Arts skill, you can perform the Mortal Draw while jumping.
- The Glitch/Mechanic: When you perform a Mortal Draw on the ground, you can charge it up (Empowered Mortal Draw) to deal massive damage, but the wind-up takes forever. If you perform the Mortal Draw while jumping, the game calculates it as a fully charged Empowered Mortal Draw, but executes it instantly.
- The Execution: Pop Yashariku's Sugar, pop Divine Confetti, jump in the air, and instantly unleash a max-damage Mortal Draw. It absolutely shreds boss vitality and posture in seconds.
3. Exploiting Enemy Sweeps (High Monk)
When an enemy does a perilous sweep attack (the red danger symbol), jumping on their head deals heavy posture damage. Speedrunners take this a step further by using the Senpou Leaping Kicks or High Monk combat arts. Using this counter on a sweep deals an utterly devastating amount of posture damage, often filling half the boss's posture bar in a single counter.
4. Aerial Deathblows & Stunlocks
Sometimes, the best way to do damage is to skip the health bar entirely:
- True Corrupted Monk: Speedrunners use a grappling hook trick to get into the trees during her second phase, lock onto her illusion, and perform a mid-air deathblow to instantly skip the entire phase.
- Firecrackers & Snap Seeds: For the illusion version of the Corrupted Monk, runners use a combination of Snap Seeds, Ash, and Firecrackers to infinitely stunlock her. Because she is stunned, they just swing away with their Yashariku and Confetti buffs until she dies, never allowing her to attack once.
By combining the highest-risk buffs with unintended mid-air skill calculations, they turn Ashina's deadliest warriors into training dummies.
Are you looking to try out any of these speedrun tactics in your own playthrough, or are you just curious about the mechanics behind the madness?