Sekiro Beginner Tips
Train With Hanbei
This should absolutely be the very first thing you do the moment you enter the Dilapidated Temple hub in Sekiro.
Before going off on your adventure, head to the right of the Sculptor’s Idol to find a man standing next to a shrine and offering box. Defeat him in battle, and he’ll essentially become your one-stop tutorial buddy for the entire game.
It’s highly recommended that you go through all the fundamental training sections with him before even thinking about stepping into the open world. This will get you used to the regular deflect timings, and teach you how Deathblows work in Sekiro.
Long story short: all enemies can be killed with Deathblows, with the exception of bosses and mini-bosses, who will have Deathblow Markers in the form of red orbs above their health bar. If a boss has two Deathblow Markers, you need to land two Deathblows to kill them.
You can land a Deathblow by either breaking their Posture or depleting their health bar.
As you unlock more Shinobi skills later on, Hanbei will get more training options as well, allowing you to practice your new skills on him before testing them out on enemies.
Training with Hanbei is literally free and doesn’t cost you anything, so make sure you do this first.