Sekiro doesn’t actually feature as many full-on boss battles as other From Software games. Unlike Dark Souls and Bloodborne, it uses these moments to punctuate major story beats, while the world itself is littered with deadly mini-bosses. But that just makes each “real” battle all the more iconic. And few Sekiro bosses are quite as iconic (or tricky) as Lady Butterfly. That’s why we’ve put together a brief guide full of tips on how to beat Lady Butterfly in Sekiro. Read on for more details!
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Lady Butterfly Location in Sekiro
Depending on how you play, Lady Butterfly might be the very first boss you face in Sekiro. She’s located at the very end of the Hirata Estate — an optional area full of useful tools and items for your journey — shortly after you defeat Juzou the Drunkard. And, because she’s in an optional area, she’s also an optional boss. So you should know that you can totally skip her if you so choose.
But it’s well worth defeating her. Lady Butterfly doesn’t just drop a Memory that you can use to increase your attack power, like every major boss in Sekiro. She also provides a unique item (more on that at the end of the guide) and some extra context for the story.
Preparing to Beat Lady Butterfly in Sekiro
Much like any boss in the game, Lady Butterfly is more vulnerable to some Shinobi Tools than others. Luckily, since you can enter the Hirata Estate at almost any time in the game, you can also bring nearly any item to battle the boss. So you have some options. Personally, though, we recommend you carry at least one more more of the following:
- Loaded Shuriken (preferably with the charge upgrade)
- Loaded Umbrella
- Snap Seeds (consumable – nowhere near mandatory, but useful)
Those last ones are the real trick. Snap Seeds are a rare, consumable item found throughout the world of Sekiro. You get one for free by talking to the wounded soldier just outside of the Lady Butterfly boss fight. After that, though, you have to do some searching. Luckily there’s a whole clutch of Snap Seeds not too far into the game. You’ll find them in two spots on the pathway to “Ashina Castle Gate,” just after dealing with a certain snake.
The rest of the Snap Seeds are found much, much deeper into the game. But the ones you get early on should suffice. They’re not actually mandatory for for beating Lady Butterfly — just helpful. And we’ll give you some other options to deal with her illusions (which the Snap Seeds disperse) later in the guide.
Strategies to Beat Lady Butterfly Phase One
Lady Butterfly is, despite all the hubbub around her illusion magic, pretty straightforward. That’s especially true in the first stage of the fight, where she only uses conventional attacks. Although your parrying skills had better be on point.
That’s because, like most enemies in the game, deflecting her attacks will fill her Posture gauge much sooner than going for her Vitality. And, oh, does Lady Butterfly ever love to attack. She’s an incredibly aggressive boss (especially compared to other early game enemies) that uses a mix of dagger swipes and kicks. Although she’ll switch to ranged kunai if she gets any distance. That’s why, during the first stage of the fight, it’s best to stay close.
If you don’t want to be completely defensive, however, you can always kill two birds with one stone. Performing a single attack against Lady Butterfly will usually cause her to block. After which she’ll follow up with her own single counterattack. You can often catch her like this in an almost perpetual loop: strike, deflect, strike, deflect, etc. Assuming you land your parries, which isn’t hard to practice when the timing is so uniform, her Posture gauge should fill all the way up up in moments. At which point you can land your deathblow and initiate the second stage of the Lady Butterfly fight.
Your main concern during this phase should be your own Posture gauge. It’s going to fill up pretty quickly no matter what you do. Thankfully, the combat arena is very large. That gives you plenty of space to run and/or dodge backwards. With some distance between you and Lady Butterfly, you can hold your guard up to empty your Posture bar (it depletes faster when you’re blocking).
Lady Butterfly might take this chance to jump onto one of her fishing line perches, hidden throughout the area. From there she’ll almost certainly try to wham you with a jump kick Perilous Attack (which you can easily avoid by dodging, and follow up with your own attack). Or the boss will throw more kunai your way. Blocking prevents normal kunai damage, though, so you’re pretty safe. You can also throw a shuriken to pause her own Posture gauge recovery — a charged throw, if you have the upgrade, will even knock her to the ground
Strategies to Beat Lady Butterfly Phase Two
Stage two of the Lady Butterfly fight is where things actually get dicey. And you might be thinking: What stage two? Lady Butterfly only has one health bar! Well, that’s not actually true. Landing your first deathblow against the Sekiro boss will cause her to vacate the arena… for a time. But she’ll return with full health and a new bag of tricks. Although the delay between phases gives you time for two very important things.
First you can heal up! This is an especially great chance to use a time-consuming Pellet to restore your Vitality, without dipping into your Gourd charges.
Second: Get in position. As soon as Lady Butterfly “leaves,” rush to the big statue at the end of the room (on the opposite side of the arena from where you entered). Then face towards the entrance (away from the statue). Lady Butterfly should reappear in front of you — with a long, overly dramatic animation. That’s the perfect opening to land a charged attack. Just hold the attack button (R1 or RB) to skewer Lady Butterfly with a surprise thrust. You do eventually need to land a second deathblow, but more Vitality damage will still cause her Posture gauge to fill faster.
From there phase two mostly plays out like the first half of the fight. Except now Lady Butterfly enhances her usual attacks with homing energy blasts. These are, to put it mildly, extremely annoying. Thankfully you can deflect them. Blocking also works, but won’t completely stop the damage. So it’s often best to avoid them altogether, either by dodging or circling around Lady Butterfly with a full-speed sprint. Running won’t disengage your lock-on, but it should let you outpace the missiles!
Eventually, Lady Butterfly will also summon a small army of illusory soldiers to get in your way. They’re not particularly tough, but there are a lot of them. That’s where Snap Seeds come in. Just stand in the center of their group and pop the item to harmlessly disperse the specters.
And even if you don’t use a Snap Seed (or don’t have one), the soldiers will eventually disappear on their own. Specifically, they’ll turn into more homing missiles that float upwards and rain down on you. You can dodge them just like anything else, or you can use one of the surrounding pillars to block the shots as they fly. The Loaded Umbrella is also fantastic here. It lets you erect a multi-directional shield for just one Spirit Emblem. Said shield will protect you from both the magic missiles and the surrounding soldiers.
Otherwise you can mostly use the same tactics from phase one against Lady Butterfly herself. Focus on deflecting rather than attacking; bait her into counterattacking by striking exactly once; use shurikens to knock her out of the sky.
She will occasionally summon one or two missiles while you exchange close-range blows. But you can easily avoid these with the sprinting method; just back up to medium range and, remaining locked on, circle her at high speed. Then close the distance and reengage the usual dance.
Rewards for Beating Lady Butterfly in Sekiro [MINOR SPOILERS]
Once you land your second deathblow (and the usual end-of-boss quick-time event)… That’s it! You’ve beaten Lady Butterfly in Sekiro. You’ll be rewarded with a Memory that you can exchange for a boost in attack power at any Sculptor’s Idol.
In addition, you’ll receive the “Sakura Droplet.” This is a special, incredibly useful item. After you beat Genichiro for the first time (assuming you haven’t already) you can bring it to Lord Kuro. He’ll take use the Sakura Droplet to permanently increase your total number of resurrections. That’s… awfully useful. Although you still need to charge this third resurrection by killing enemies — it won’t refresh when you rest at an Idol!
And there you have it! Those are all our best tips and strategies to beat Lady Butterfly in Sekiro. Thanks for taking the time to read. We wish you the best of luck with this and all future boss fights (you’re gonna need it).
