How to easily beat Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is an incredibly challenging game, and a lot of the time you have to either upgrade skills or purchase items from vendors. However, the most difficult part of the title has to be the boss battles. A lot of the enemies attack without much force, but sometimes you run into exceptions like Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer.

Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer is one of the easiest fights if you trick the monk to do it. This mostly requires a lot of running.

If you follow the steps detailed below, you'll be able to beat Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer in a few minutes.

• Before you go to Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer, you have to spawn at the Old Grave Sculptor's Idol.
• There is a powerful monk and general there, but the general will be killed by a purple warrior that jumps onto the bridge the moment you leap onto the bridge that takes you to the Sunken Valley entrance.
• Before you trigger Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer, you have to make sure that only the monk is alive close to the Old Grave Sculptor's Idol. The general, his minion, the purple warrior, and the other guard next to the monk should be dead.
• Usually they'll all end up killing each other if they're fighting the purple warrior, but be sure to kill off any stragglers.
• Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer is located at the entrance to the Sunken Valley.
• He has a lot of wolves guarding him, so sneak through the bushes and take them out before confronting him. Sometimes there's also another purple warrior hiding somewhere close.
• Instead of walking through the front door, sneak around the side where the railing is. Doing so will allow you to sneak up behind him to deliver a stealth blow to knock off one health bar.
• If you can't do this, then run past him and make sure he follows you to the gate with the bridge you just came from.
• Walk across the bridge and wait there until Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer's health bar disappears. This means he's looking for you. This will give you another chance to take out a health bar because he'll be walking back to his original location.
• Once you've knocked off his health bar, make sure he stays close to the gate. He won't be able to cross it because of the way the enemy is programmed.
• Next, run across the bridge to where the monk is and make sure he follows you to the gate. He's quite slow so you'll have to wait a while for him to catch up to you if you run ahead.
• Now, when the monk is behind you and Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer is in front of you, stand close to the gate and wait for them to start fighting.
• Once they start fighting you can retreat to a safe distance and wait for them to kill each other.
• The monk has a long-range attack which is quite powerful so the monk will always win.
• Once Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer's health has been depleted, go close to him to deliver a Deathblow.
• If you want, you can kill the monk after that because his health will be quite low.
• If for some reason Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer ends up killing the monk, use Firecrackers to distract Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer and knock off his last remaining health.

It took us quite a while to figure out how to beat this boss, but once we did, it was rather easy. Hopefully this walkthrough will help you just as it helped us.

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In our review, we said, "It's definitely harder than Dark Souls, but the sense of satisfaction you feel after defeating powerful titans is a reward in itself. The more you play, the stronger you become. The story and gameplay take you in new directions, but Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice's difficulty may limit its appeal. Unlike previous FromSoftware games, it lacks multiplayer so you can't summon allies to help you."