Blazing Bull will be the next boss that you face in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, shortly after you beat Gyoubu Oniwa just outside of the Ashina Castle Gate.
Blazing Bull is a pretty daunting boss to take on, mainly because he’s an enormous angry bull charging at you continuously, but he’s actually pretty easy to take down as long as you know what you’re doing and utilize some patience. The first trick, however, is getting to him. Blazing Bull appears in a courtyard a short distance from the Sculptor’s Idol at the Ashina Castle Gate, but there are quite a few enemies between the Idol and where he waits, which can be pretty damn frustrating if it takes you a few attempts to defeat him (I confess). Thankfully, there is a way to bypass most of these enemies and get to the boss fight pretty quickly.
From your starting position at the Sculptor’s Idol, sprint straight through the gate and around the corner and charge the rifleman to kill him before he can even take a shot (don’t run in a straight line, or he will get a shot in that hits you). Then, grapple up to the gatehouse, turn right and drop on to the lower tiled roof and then on to the floor below. You’ll see set of stairs leading downwards just in front of you, but we’re going to double jump up the wall just next to it and press the grab button to climb up.
Run around the ledge behind the trees and you’ll come to another wall with a raised ledge, just run and jump to the near corner and you should land on the raised ledge. Follow the path and you’ll come to the back of a tall pagoda than you can grapple up to. Grapple up and turn right and you’ll see two guards stood on some steps – drop down behind them and deathblow one and then kill the other. Head up the steps and through the gate and deathblow the guard inside – now it’s time for the Bull.
You’ll notice two other guards stood on the other side of a wooden fence just in front of you – don’t attract their attention from afar. They both have Perilous/Red Kanji attacks and one of the first lessons of Sekiro is not to try and take on two enemies at once. Instead, creep forward near to the wooden tower on your right and eventually the Blazing Bull will come charging out of the wall in front of you. You’re going to need to turn and run back towards the gate here, and hopefully the Blazing Bull will trample the two guards that were just ahead of you. If he doesn’t then don’t panic, just run around the courtyard and let the bull rampage around destroying all of the obstacles and he should trample them along the way.
There are a few methods for taking down the Blazing Bull, and which one you choose depends on how skilled, patient, or well equipped you are. If you’re skilled with your deflects then don’t be fooled into thinking that the Blazing Bull’s fiery horns can’t be deflected because they can, but the timing of his attacks is difficult to read. If you can master this then you can deflect all of his attacks until his posture bar breaks and then take him down with a deathblow. This is easier said than done, but if you can learn the correct times to deflect his attacks then you’ll take him down pretty quickly. If you’re struggling with that, read on.
Your main tactic is to keep moving and not allow yourself to get backed into a corner. Keep it simple and run to one end of the courtyard, letting the bull charge at you and then sprinting out of its way and around it when it gets close. Don’t leave it too late before you try to move out of the way or the bull will catch you – it has a large turning circle so you don’t need to worry about moving too early. When you’ve baited the bull and ran around him, you should get yourself into a position where you can get behind the bull, and this is where we’re going to try and stay for the remainder of the fight. When you get behind the bull, go for a few hits on his arse; don’t get cocky and go for more than a couple of hits at a time or the Blazing Bull will swing his massive head around and hit you. When you’ve got your couple of hits in, move out of the way and the Bull will start charging around again – it’s easy at this point to hang back and wait for him to charge back at you, but instead we’re going to chase him and try and stick as close to his rear end as possible, in a completely non-weird way.
Chase him around and stick close to his rear and get in a couple of hits at a time when he’s turning around, as this is when he’s at his slowest and most vulnerable. If you have the Shinobi Firecracker prosthetic tool then you can use this on the Blazing Bull to stun him, causing him to rear up and allowing you to get a few extra shots in. If you don’t have the Firecracker then don’t worry, just follow the method of chasing him around and staying behind him and you should be fine. If the bull does charge away from you and you suddenly find yourself exposed again, run a distance away and bait him into charging you again, then run around him and get yourself back in position.
Keep doing this for the entire duration of the fight and you’ll eventually chip away at his vitality enough that he’ll rear up and fall backwards, leaving himself open for a deathblow. Be quick on the trigger and don’t miss the deathblow prompt, or the Blazing Bull will get back to its feet and you’ll have to repeat this process again for a short while.
Killing the bull will reward you with Prayer Beads, the Shinobi Medicine Rank 2 skill (a latent skill that increases the healing effect of recovery items), and some experience. Don’t run around your room celebrating when you kill him, as the door to the Ashina Castle will open straight away and a number of guards will charge at you seeking revenge for their fallen bull, so you don’t have time to rest on your laurels.
What a load of bulls**t.
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