Sekiro Posture Explained: How to Break Enemy Guard, Maintain Posture & Why It’s Important

How to Break Enemy Guard, Maintain Your Own Posture & Why It’s Important in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice‘s combat is just as brutal and methodical as past games from developer FromSoftware. While the game has dumped the stamina bar of the Dark Souls and Bloodborne titles, that doesn’t mean this is a walk in the park. Here’s what you need to know on how to break posture in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Before we dive straight into breaking posture, it’s a good idea to give you a rundown on exactly what posture is and why it’s an important mechanic within Sekiro’s combat, so let’s start there first.

What It Is & Why It’s Important

Posture is kind of like a ‘stamina’ bar so to speak, which, when lowered entirely, will leave you or your enemy open to a Shinobi Death Blow attack.

Both yourself and any enemies you come across in Sekiro have posture when a fight begins, and you’ll be able to break posture by performing actions in battle that fill up the yellow bar just below the enemy’s health.

At all times, you’ll want to make sure that your posture bar is nice and low, while you’re building up those yellow bars of your enemies. This is because once this bar is filled and Posture is broken, this opens up a window for a Deathblow move to be performed, resulting in an instant kill on an enemy.

How to Break Posture in Sekiro

There are a number of ways to break posture in Sekiro. Straight up dealing damage to your enemy will lower their posture, as will them constantly blocking all of your attacks without trying to parry.

While we’re on the topic of parrying, this is also a way that you can put the metaphorical boot on the other foot and cause your enemy some problems when they’re attacking you.

By pressing the right button exactly as their weapon is about to hit you, a number of visible sparks can be seen as your weapons clash. The enemy will recoil back, your health bar will still be intact, and your enemy’s posture will have taken a hit. Your posture will be intact from parrying successfully.

Once you’ve successfully managed to break an enemy’s posture in Sekiro, all you need to do is press R1 on PS4 or RB on Xbox One to execute a Deathblow. You’ll only have a small window of time to pull this off while they’re staggered, though, so be sure to get in and deal the damage fast.

It’s worth noting that performing a Deathblow on an enemy will result in them being instantly killed. The only exception to this are any kind of bosses you come across in the game, who have a set number of Deathblow markers above their HP bar, indicating how many Deathblows they take to finish off once and for all.

Tips to Maintain Your Own Posture in Sekiro

The simple matter of the fact is, while Sekiro doesn’t strictly have a ‘stamina’ bar, its Posture bar should be treated as such in combat. Allowing your own posture bar to be depleted entirely enables your opponent to deal a ton of damage to you as you’re staggered.

As such, we’ve got a few tips for you to ensure you’re maintaining your own bar while breaking your enemy’s in Sekiro efficiently.

First things first, you’ll want to try and avoid just blocking all incoming attacks. Every time you do, you’ll hear a dull noise of clanging metal, and your posture bar will take a hit. Try and effectively parry by nailing the timing of your block as the enemy is just about to land a strike on you.

As previously mentioned, this will prevent you from taking any damage, your posture bar will remain intact, but your enemy’s will take a hit. Essentially, a well-timed defense is your best form of attack in Sekiro’s combat.

Similarly, if you’re struggling to read an enemy’s attack pattern, use dodges and jumps to avoid having to make a block and lowering your own posture. Learn their pattern and then once you’re comfortable you can nail the parry, do so. Execute a Deathblow as soon as possible to deal massive damage and put the enemy to bed.

If your posture bar is getting a bit too high, get some distance between you and your enemies and hold the guard button. Guarding will help to decrease the posture meter faster.

In addition to that, you’ll also want to keep an eye on your Vitality. The more health you have, the faster your posture will recover, and vice versa. The same goes for enemies as well.

That’s all you need to know on how to break posture in Sekiro, and maintain your own effectively. For more tips, tricks, and guides on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, be sure to check out our ever-expanding guide wiki.