Best ways to farm experience 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. While it's easy to gather coins by defeating enemies, experience is hard to come by because the majority of enemies only grant around 11 to 20 points. Luckily, that's not always the case.

The assassins and samurai in Ashina Castle are the best candidates because they grant you 80 to 90 experience points for each kill. We've found two places which are accessible during the early portions of the game and are great for farming coins and experience. Take a look at them below.

Pre-invasion

You can only use the following methods before you kill the Corrupted Monk Apparition and Guardian Ape.

Ashina Outskirts - Ashina Castle Gate

After you've defeated Gyoubu Oniwa, you'll immediately see a Sculptor's Idol next to the large gate. This is the Ashina Castle Gate checkpoint and can be fast-traveled to from any other Sculptor's Idol or using the Homeword Idol.

• Once you're at the Ashina Castle Gate checkpoint, you'll want to kill the soldier with the rifle first. You can rush at him and he usually misses.
• Grapple up onto the next gate and turn right. There's an assassin hiding behind the first tree you see. Sneak up behind him and take him out.
• Next, you will see two more assassins next to the other large tree. Only kill the one on the right. Fighting the other one will take too much time and resources.
• Run to the right and drop down to where the Ashina Castle Gate checkpoint is. Rest at the checkpoint to respawn all the enemies and repeat this process as many times as you like.
• Unlike normal enemies, the assassins provide 80 to 90 experience points each, so farming them is almost equivalent to four or five normal foes.
• You can earn roughly 200 experience points every 30 seconds with this technique.

Ashina Castle - Upper Tower Antechamber

After you've defeated the Blazing Bull, you'll have to defeat another general and grapple up the buildings to eventually reach the Ashina Castle Upper Tower Antechamber. There will be a lot of enemies attacking you on your ascent so be careful. Once you reach this area, you'll see another Sculptor's Idol.

• Once you're at the Upper Tower Antechamber, you'll want to kill the samurai behind the paper screens. Sneak up behind him and kill him by using the opening to your right.
• After that, you'll see another samurai walking in front of you in the large room. Sneak up behind him and kill him, and then turn right on the bridge-like area.
• Next you'll have to unfortunately take out an old maid who raises the alarm if you don't kill her. She doesn't give much experience, but needs to be silenced to prevent a dozen enemies from decending on your location.
• Next, go straight after killing her and you'll notice another samurai standing next to a window. Kill him and then turn left into the other larger room.
• Depending on how you've played, there may not be a screen there to hide your movements. Rush up to one of the two samurai sitting on the floor and stealthily kill one.
• Run back to the Sculptor's Idol and do not engage the remaining enemy. Fighting him will waste too much time and resources.
• Once you're at the Sculptor's Idol, rest and respawn the enemies. You can repeat this as many times as you like.
• Unlike normal enemies, the samurai provide 80 experience points.
• You can earn roughly 400 experience points every minute with this technique.

Senpou Temple - Main Hall

You can gain access to the Senpou Temple early on by going through the Abandoned Dungeon. However, you'll have to beat the Armored Warrior in order to get to the Main Hall. The Armored Warrior is quite easy because you just have to lock onto him and move to the left or right to avoid his blows.

• This is the most efficient way to farm because the Sculptor's Idol is located right inside the Main Hall and the enemy you have to kill is outside the door.
• Walk out the front door and immediately run up to the confused enemy on the right. The one of the left will spot you, but if you're quick enough, you can stealthily kill his companion and run back inside.
• Killing the deranged warrior on the right will grant you almost 200 experience points every time. Don't try to fight his friend, but instead run back inside the door and rest at the Sculptor's Idol again.
• Resting will respawn the enemies and you can repeat the process as much as you like. You should have a lot of health before you attempt this because their blows can be fatal.
• You can earn roughly 200 experience points every 15 seconds with this technique.

Sunken Valley - Gun Fort

After you've defeated a couple of bosses, you'll gain access to the Sunken Valley and what lies beyond. Travel to the Gun Fort Sculptor's Idol, the area before you have to fight Long-arm Centipede Giraffe. You just have to kill one enemy here, but can get a lot of experience just by repeating that move.

• This is one of the better ways to farm experience later in the game, but it's quite dangerous if you don't have much health.
• Turn around from the Sculptor's Idol and walk along the path until you reach the hidden gun fort.
• There will be one enemy in the doorway which you have to kill.
• Stealthily kill him and run back to the Sculptor's Idol. Don't engage others because it's a waste of time and resources.
• Be careful because other enemies will immediately shoot at you and one hit can be lethal.
• Repeat this process as many times as you like because it's quite easy.
• You can earn roughly 300 experience points every 20 seconds with this technique.

Post-invasion

You can only use these methods which yield even better results after enemies invade Ashina Castle. This happens after you've killed the Corrupted Monk Apparition and Guardian Ape.

Ashina Castle - Upper Tower Antechamber

You can pit enemies against each other by aggravating them. Since they both belong to different factions, they'll kill each other and you'll gain the coins, experience, and items.

• Either spawn at the Ashina Castle Antechamber or Dojo, and make your way to where the blue samurai enemies are. This time around, there will be purple enemies who are very difficult to kill.
• You can sneak up behind the enemies and take them out, earning you roughly 700 experience points, or you can run past the blue samurai and purple warriors, and then find a safe spot to watch the fight.
• This is the easiest way because you can drink a cup of tea while you wait for them to kill each other.
• This method gives you thousands of experience points every minute depending on the route you take.

Ashina Outskirts - Stairway

There are a number of enemies here you can sneak up on in order to quickly get a couple of thousand experience points.

• Grapple to the top of the tower and kill the rifleman.
• Drop down and kill the second rifleman at the bottom of the tower.
• Go forward and kill the third rifleman past the burning gate.
• Sneak up behind the cannon soldier and stealthily kill him.
• Lastly, kill the final warrior with two swords.
• If you're at this area, you can easily overpower them all.
• Even if you're spotted, just give them a few blows and trigger an execution.

This is what we've been using to level up our protagonist and buy different items from vendors. Hopefully this will help you just as much as it helped us.

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."