Sekiro O’Rin of the Water boss fight strategies

The O’Rin of the Water boss fight in Sekiro can be a demanding one. You’re starting to get towards the end of the game, so even though she’s a mini-boss, she’s a hard hitter. This is an optional boss fight, but the reward of a Prayer Bead and the Breath of Life: Shadow Latent Skill is too good to pass up. Fortunately, while O’Rin of the Water is tough in a straight up fight, she’s one of the easier bosses to cheese in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Sekiro O’Rin of the Water boss fight | How to beat O’Rin the right way

So, if you want to go toe to toe with O’Rin of the Water on equal footing, you’re going to have to learn her combos. The first move in the fight should be to do a regular jump (not a double jump) onto her head. You should then be able to Deathblow her just as if it was a stealth attack. Now you only have to worry about taking down one more Deathblow marker.

After one of O’Rin’s combos, you’ll have time to get a few shots in, but she’ll quickly regain composure and start her attack again. At certain points in her loop, she’ll retreat, which gives you a chance to heal if need be.

The critical thing to remember in the fight with O’Rin is that you can’t run away to heal as you could in some boss fights. She can reach you from almost anywhere in the area you fight her in, so you’ll most likely die if you attempt to retreat.

O’Rin is less predictable in her movements than most bosses, so if you find yourself overwhelmed you can just focus on defense. She attacks often enough that by just parrying you can break her posture. When she goes to use her Perilous attack where she sweeps you, you can counter by jump kicking off of her. This does a ton of posture damage, and before long you’ll score the opportunity for a Deathblow.

O’Rin is also very susceptible to the Sabimaru Prosthetic Tool. If you can pull off two combos with it, she will be poisoned, in which case you can just hold her off while her health drains.

Sekiro O’Rin of the Water boss fight | How to cheese O’Rin

There are two methods you can use to cheese O’Rin in her Sekiro boss fight that we’ve discovered. The quickest way is to actually do the opposite of what you would do in a straight up battle. Just run around her while springing and she’ll quickly close with you and do her 2-hit combo. As she’s closing, sprint around her and when she begins her combo give her a quick slash or two. She’ll just keep doing the same thing over and over, and you can wear her down.

A safer way to cheese O’Rin is to lure her towards the idol. When she gets far enough away from the arena, she’ll start slowly retreating. When she’s doing this she won’t attack you; she’ll only block. You can get her stuck in this state by forcing her towards the rock on the right side. She’ll try to walk around the rock, but if you keep on the attack it will push her into the corner of the rock, and she will stay stuck in her retreating pose.

Just keep slamming her with attacks. Some will connect, and she’ll also take posture damage from blocking. Eventually either her vitality or posture will deplete enough for you to execute a Deathblow. Just repeat, and you’ll drain her second bar, and O’Rin will be no more.

What do I get for beating O’Rin of the Water in Sekiro?

Once you take our O’Rin in Sekiro, you’ll get a Prayer Bead, which can be used to upgrade your Vitality and Posture meter. You’ll also get the Breath of Life: Shadow Latent Skill. This skill allows you to recover Vitality upon a successful Deathblow and is probably the most useful Latent Skill in the game.