6. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Part 4: Senpou Temple: Mt. Kongo

Once you exit the building you'll be in Senpou Temple: Mt. Kongo. Look down and to the right and you'll see Kotaro sitting against a tree. Jump down and talk to him (ask why he's crying). Backtrack up the hill for an item, then go back to Kotaro and look down and left to see a Monk on a broken bridge below. Lock on and jump down to him to deliver a deathblow, then drop down and turn around to grab the items under the bridge. Feel free to kill the rat enemy by the kite contraption as you can't do what you eventually want to do with him and the kite just yet. Grapple/climb back up to the main path which leads the opposite direction from the broken bridge.

This linear path leads to a building with a grapple point in the ceiling on the left side. There are several monk enemies along the way and I'll leave it to you to take them out and explore the area for items. The three monks walking together beyond the wooden structure present a good opportunity to use the Bloodsmoke Ninjutsu. A Heavy Coin Purse can be found on a ledge on the upper right side of the area.

Once you reach the main building, you'll see a grapple point in the ceiling. Climb up and you'll be attacked by a bunch of crickets. Head right, through a hallway, and into a room where you can backstab a monk. There are three more monks praying in front of an undying monk and the item they are looking at is a Gourd Seed (7/9), which you definitely want to get. Start by hugging the right side wall to get around to the back of the area and backstab the large enemy. Then quietly backtrack to the other side of the room behind the praying monks. You can kill them fairly easily with Bloodsmoke Ninjutsu or just grab the Gourd Seed and then run an jump out the open window to the left. You'll see a woman who requests rice from the Divine Child, which you don't have yet. If you come back with some later and give it to her, she tells you how to use the rat/kite from earlier to get to a new area. You can ignore the big tree on the right for now and instead look off to the left where there are several enemies patrolling. The new enemy with a rice hat and a bladed staff is particularly dangerous and there are two of them in this area. The goal is to jump to a grapple point to the left of the broken bridge in the back of the area that leads into a cave, so it's up to you whether you want to clear out the enemies or just run past them. There's a Sculptor's Idol just ahead so you should probably get to it and rest, then come back if you want to scour this area.

Grapple into the cave and climb up a ledge, then continue forward to see the Sculptor's Idol. Commune and rest, then travel to the Upper Tower - Kuro's Room and have Emma reinforce your Healing Gourd. Return to the Shugendo idol, then jump down to a rickety platform to the left. Continue along to find another Memorial Mob and purchase a Persimmon (for use later), then head back to the idol. Going the other way, you can grapple to a branch, then continue along an upper or lower path (that ultimately lead to the same place).

Your goal is to get to the upper wooden walkway which leads to a ledge that you can use to reach a new area. There are a few rat enemies along the path so dispatch them as you work through. Once you reach the top you need to shimmy across a ledge until you can climb up. From here, grapple to the tree branch above, then once more to solid ground. The wooden structure on the right leads to a mini-boss, so ignore that for now and circle around to the left and head towards a lone tree. Pick up the Red and White Pinwheel, then turn around and head back. Looking off the cliff to the right you'll see some platforms below. Drop down to them, then look right to see a wooden walkway along the cliff. Make a running jump to get to it, then follow it to the end and look down to see a grabbable ledge. Jump down to it and press to grab on, then shimmy left and climb up to solid ground. Follow the path to a place where you can jump between vertical sides get up to the top. The White Pinwheel at the top is not needed, so then turn around and jump across the gap to the other side. Make your way up some walkways until you reach a dilapidated structure. Go in the opening on the right and take the items, then open the door and enter. Kill a new enemy and look to the left to see the outline of a person on the wall. If you hug the wall here, the section rotates and you can enter a secret area. Don't bother, though, as this leads back to a cave you briefly visited earlier that contains a Headless mini-boss. You have no reason to hassle with him other than to kill him for the satisfaction of eventually doing so. Exit this building through the rear door to find a Sculptor's Idol (commune/rest) and you'll see a large bell to the left. Ringing this bell makes it so enemies are more difficult and increases their item drop chance and how much sen they drop. If you ring it, you receive the Bell Demon, a consumable item that you can use to reverse the effect. There's no reason to bother with this right now, so travel from the idol to the Shegundo idol and make your way back to the wooden structure at the top of the area (the covered wooden bridge).

As you enter the bridge, the Armored Warrior (VIDEO) will emerge from the right. While you fight him, he will thrash about and break the walls of the bridge. Because of his armor, you cannot damage his health- only his posture. You must break his posture then deliver a deathblow close to an open ledge to kick him off, causing him to fall to his death.

You want to deflect his attacks and counterattack when you can to chip away at his posture. In addition to some basic sword attacks, he will do a perilous thrust that can be Mikiri Countered and a hard-hitting four attack combo that starts with a crouching motion (GIF), after which he is stunned long enough for several counterattacks. After defeating him you receive a Prayer Bead (16/40) and the Breath of Nature: Shadow Skill. Exit the bridge into a new area and commune/rest at the Sculptor's Idol. Redeem four prayer beads to receive the Fourth Prayer Necklace. For skills, continue working towards getting Ascending and Descending Carp, Flowing Water, Suppress Presence and Suppress Sound, Shinobi Eyes, and then Emma's Medicine: Potency.

The next destination is the large building above you to the left. Follow the path from the idol downward and kill some dogs at the bottom and if you want, follow the path on the right to reach the other side of the earlier broken bridge and a Heavy Coin Purse (and several other items, as well). Back up at the top, the path leads past some monks and to a large building. Clear out the monks, some of which throw exploding bombs, and grapple onto the roof of the large building. You can clear out the rats and drop into the courtyard to search this area if you want but there's nothing terribly worthwhile to be found. Instead, follow the roof around to the right and drop onto the roof of the adjacent building.

Grapple to a cross beam inside, then stealth kill the two enemies around the upper perimeter. There are a few more enemies on the ground below including a dangerous mini-boss- Long-arm Centipede Sen’un (VIDEO).

Stealth-kill a small enemy from above, use a firecracker, then kill the second small enemy. This should allow you time to grapple back up to safety before the mini-boss can attack you. Leave the building through the open door and go far enough along the outside path to lose the Centipede's aggro. Wait briefly, then slowly sneak back inside and grapple back up to the wooden beams. Lock on and deal the first deathblow with a plunging attack, after which you'll have to engage Long-arm Centipede directly. This boss really just has two attacks: a flurry of several slashes that you want to deflect and a three slash combo followed up with a perilous sweep that you want to jump over. His longer slashing combo has a timing of 1234.. 12345..6. You can break his posture through deflections alone, after which you can deal the second deathblow to receive a Prayer Bead (17/40). Exit this building through the open door and continue along the path ahead.

Fight through several enemies as you follow the linear path and you'll eventually reach a platform with a burning fire. Continue further and you'll arrive at a small building before the larger building. Fight past some more enemies until you reach the walkway along the outside of the larger building. You need to circle the building on the left to find an entrance and there are a few of the tough bladed staff enemies in your way. I do not suggest engaging them- just run past them and around the building until you find your way inside (ignore a cave on the left as you work your way around the perimeter of the building). Once inside, run forward, then turn left and you'll see a Sculptor's Idol. Commune and rest, then run back outside and head into the cave that you passed on your way in.

Kill a monk and continue forward past a few small enemies that can be annoying with fire attacks (just run past them). After you drop down to the area below, turn around and crouch to get into a low path. Follow it to the end where you can grapple up a couple of times and make your way outside. Open the door of the pagoda and inside you'll find the Senpou Esoteric Text which unlocks another skill tree. You can either grapple across the gap to the left or use the Homeward Idol to get back to the last idol. There is a table nearby that can be interacted with:

Doing so transports you to the Halls of Illusion for a boss battle with the Folding Screen Monkeys (VIDEO).

This encounter is a game more of cat and mouse more so that an actual battle where you must chase down and kill four monkeys who attempt to elude you. Apparition monkeys will appear and attack you but the battle ends after the fourth main monkey is defeated.

The monkey in the Purple Robes will run away from you when it sees you approaching. It has really good vision, but poor hearing.
The monkey in the Orange Robes will alert all other monkeys when it spots you, which causes all of them to flee. It has poor hearing and vision.
The monkey in the Green Robes will run away from you when it hears you approaching. It has really good hearing, but poor vision.
The monkey in the White Robes, which is invisible, will follow you while creating apparitions. This monkey will leave glowing footprints indicating where it has been.

The absolute easiest way to complete this battle in about a minute is to use a Gachiin's Sugar before ringing the bell, then as soon as you enter the Hall of Illusions, turn around and kill the invisible White monkey behind you. Turn back around and grapple to the roof on the right, then run forward and kill the Orange Monkey. Run across the roof to the left side of the area and follow the roof to the right where the Purple monkey will see you. Chase him forward, then into a building (grapple to the top level) and kill him. To be safe, use another Gachiin's Sugar, then quickly run and grapple back to the tree in the middle of the area to kill the Green monkey, ending the battle and unlocking a trophy:

• Folding Screen Monkeys

  Caught the Folding Screen Monkeys

  
  

After the brief cutscene, you will be teleported to the Inner Sanctum and receive Memory: Folding Screen Monkeys. You will also learn the Puppeteer Ninjutsu skill which allows you to take control of an enemy after dealing a backstab deathblow. Most enemies will simply fight on your side but there are a few places where this can be used to get enemies to do specific things for you.

Once you regain control, you can look behind you to see an access point to the Hall of Illusions should you need to go back there for any reason. Head forward to the Sculptor's Idol, commune and rest, and enhance attack power with Memory: Folding Screen Monkeys to permanently increase your attack power (from 4 to 5). Spend skill points if needed. Head inside and interact with the Divine Child. Say "I do" to trigger a brief cutscene, after which you receive the Mortal Blade. Talk to the Divine Child again and you will receive Rice. Consume it from your inventory (it is essentially a stronger pellet, but you must consume it to receive more from the Divine Child moving forward). Exit, follow the path to the right and open a door that leads back into the Main Hall. You are now able to kill the Undying Monks permanently with the Mortal Blade (which requires a second deathblow).

When you are ready to move on, travel to the Under-Shrine Valley idol in Sunken Valley.