Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - GOTY Edition

You will come to this boss once you reach the top of Ashina Castle. After defeating Ashina Elite - Jinsuke Saze, you go out the window and grapple to the top to begin the fight against Genichiro.

This is a three-phase fight. The best tip I can give for this fight is to stick close to Genichiro and be aggressive. Attack when there is an opening, then when he deflects go on the defensive. Keep closing the distance so he can't use his bow. You want to fill up his Posture gauge as he has too much vitality for the battle to go on forever.

The best strategy is to just block his attacks, and eventually he will go for a jumping overhead. Deflect this, and he will immediately go for a thrust attack. Use the Mikiri Counter by dodging into the thrust for some serious posture damage. If you need to heal, be wary as he loves to pull out his bow and take some pot shots at you.

Once you take both his lives and think you've killed him, he takes off his armor and summons lightning for the third phase. Here do the exact same again. Be aggressive, when he deflects you, deflect his attacks and keep attacking.

The only difference is the last phase is the addition of lightning attacks to his arsenal. There are two methods to dealing with these attacks. The first way is to just dodge sideways as the attacks are mostly frontal. This is the safer option. The riskier alternative is to jump into the air and hit as the lightning hits you for a deflect and some huge posture damage. If you can pull it off it makes the third phase really simple. Take down his last life bar, and claim this achievement.

After hours and hours I developed a simple technique for all 3 phases. After completing the game I still maintain this guys is in the top 4 of most difficult. For the lightning phase scroll to end.

Phase 1
Block his initial attacks then do the Shadowrush. 2 hits on descent then jump back.

If he is walking slowly do another shadowrush. If he starts running hold block, once his attack is finishing shadow rush.

When you run out of emblems you can still perform shadowrush but you wont vault into the air so jump back immediatly.

Remember Whenever he is walking slowly shadowrush. Whenever he runs hold block as he will attack. Always maintain a distance.

You should be able to get through these 2 phases using your pellets and 1 or 2 gourds. It will take practice but you will get there dont give up.

Phase 2
This gave me so much trouble but now is the easist phase for me.
As soon as the battle starts he will launch a mikiri so do a counter. Instead of attacking him jump back and eat an eel liver which massively reduces lightning damage.

Stay in his face keep your block up dont deflect just hold block after a few of his attacks he will jump in the air, when he does you should also jump, hit Rb in the air and you will do a lightning reversal, hit him with 3 strikes while he is stunned. Immediately hold your block up. Stay in his face, wait for his jump then repeat.

The reason we stay in his face is that when you jump you are guarenteed to hit his lightning so all you have to do is reverse it. Always keep block up. Dont try and deflect just block.

If your posture bar is high jump back and hold block to quickly empty the meter, once it is gone get back in his face holding block.

You will quickly learn the animation of when he is about to perform his lightning attack. It will take around 3 to 4 lightning reversals to finish the phase. Remember to attack when he is stunned or if your eel liver has depleted use his stun as a chance to consume another. Trust me trying to win this phase with deflects or standard attacks will take ages. This method you wont even need a health gourd. Remember the eel livers really reduce lightning damage so if you mistime the jump and the lightning hits it only does a fraction of the damage.

Again this will take practice but dont give up.

In this video guide I will show you how to defeat Genichiro Ashina. He is located on the upper part of the Ashina castle. First off your going to need Mikiri counter to counter his lunge attacks. Second you will need to basically attack a few times and counter his and go back and forth to build up his posture meter. The fastest and easiest way to beat him is to break his posture. By doing that you need to play aggressively and keep on him so his meter doesn't go down. Once you get your first death blow his lunge attacks will most likely change to sweep attacks, just jump on him to hurt his posture. Now he may still do lunge attacks to be prepared. Once you get him to his lightning stage right off the bat counter his lunge and stay on him like before. Now he will do lightning attacks and when he does if your close enough to him just jump so you get hit by it. Once your in the air and if you got hit by the lightning, just hit the attack button to send it back. Once he does another lunge attack just counter it again like before. Now by this point his posture should almost be broke. One more lightning counter and a few attacks should do the trick and he will break.

For those struggling with Genichiro - I feel your pain. So, I want to provide some useful tips for you so it would be easier for you to kill him.
You need to learn his combos, otherwise there’s no chance you will be able to deflect well enough to win.
He always starts the fight with his four-hits combo (bow shot, roll, three sword hits). Learn it, because you will need to deflect these hits every time you start your new attempt - and there will be a lot of attempts.
Here’s the first tip - be aggressive. By constantly attacking him and not giving him the chance to regain his posture, you will not only defeat him quicker, but also reduce the amount of combos he uses on you. After getting hit, he will perform one of his “defensive” combos (e.g. one/two hits with his sword, or some others). Be aware of his seven-hits combo, which I would recommend to dodge rather than block (because it will do a ton of damage to your posture). You can recognize this combo by the way he charges it - he will run to your side and perform slow turn while starting the sword swing. This combo is a perfect opportunity for you to heal/use items while he is busy fighting air. If you need to heal in any other time, he will shoot you while you do so. To avoid getting shot, do the following: run far enough from him, then, while drinking healing potion move to the right or left and the moment before he shoot dodge in a different direction. I’m not sure wether it is actually the way to kind of “trick him”, but it works, so who cares. And don’t even try healing near him.
The second dangerous combo is his four bow-shots attack, which can be a bit unexpected. Just remember that every time he jumps back from you (dodges) he can (not always though) then jump up and shoot four arrows at you while in the air. Deflecting is key here - just repeatedly press the block button and you will be fine.
Another thing he can do is the thrust attack, which you need a mikiri counter skill for to deflect. He will always jump up and try to land his sword on you from above before thrust attack, and I recommend to dodge this hit to the right or to the left and not back, because his sword is long and there’s a chance you will get hit anyway. After performing mikiri counter, I recommend to use charged attack on him (hold RB) to deal a significant amount of damage to his health and posture.
Genichiro also has a grab attack. Dodge it, do not try to block/deflect.
There are slight changes in the second phase - for example, after jumping up he can go for a sweep attack instead of thrust attack. The only way to avoid it is to jump up. You can also just dodge back/to the side if you’re sure you’re out of his reach. I’ve also noticed that in the second phase he uses his four bow-shots combo a lot more often.
After you perform the second deathblow, third and final phase will begin. He always starts it by performing his third-phase-exclusive thrust-attack - jumping at you from great distance. Mikiri counter will do the trick here. The thing you have to be aware of in the third phase is Genichiro’s lightning attack, which if handled well can be turned into a deadly weapon against Genichiro himself. When he rises his sword, he then jumps up to perform a lightning attack. Face him, jump and press attack button before landing to deflect the lightning and deal huge amount of health and posture damage. You have to face him for it to work. You will beat him by pulling off this trick for four-five times. You can also fight him as usual and dodge the lightning, but it will make the fight a lot longer.
It took me few hours to beat him. I hope my solution is helpful and informative and I wish you good luck)