Where to Find and Beat the Headless in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Guide by Hirun Cryer Contributor

Published on May 24, 2023

There are a grand total of four Headless bosses in Shadows Die Twice, and each one is pretty tricky to take down. In this Sekiro Headless guide, we'll be providing you with all the information you need to know to track down and kill all the Headless bosses.

Sekiro Headless Locations

All in all, there are four total Headless enemies to be found and slain throughout Sekiro. Further down this page, we'll be giving you all the tactics and tips you need to defeat all four Headless. But first, immediately below, we'll be rounding up the locations of all four Headless mini bosses in Sekrio, so you can find each of them.

Ashina Outskirts
Ashina Castle Tower Lookout
Sunken Valley
Fountainhead Palace
How to Kill Headless in Sekiro

Ashina Outskirts

From the Outskirts Stairway Sculptor's Idol, run past where the Chained Ogre would normally be. Either grapple up to go through the building, or run through the open door ahead of you, depending on which stage of Sekiro you're at.

Go past where you fought the Chained Ogre. | *Hirun Cryer/USG, Activision/FromSoftware*

Now turn right, and go through the one open wooden gate door. Go forward down the hill, and you'll reach a hut with the following message on it.

You'll find this note. | *Hirun Cryer/USG, Activision/FromSoftware*

At the end of the path, behind the hut, jump out and grapple to the tree branch. Now look to your right and down, and you'll see a ledge that you can jump to and then hold on to for dear life.

Jump to the ledge with white markings. | *Hirun Cryer/USG, Activision/FromSoftware*

Shimmy left around the cliff edge, until you can pull yourself up again. Now jump down to the large area straight in front of you and below. Go through the large gaping mouth of the tunnel, and you've found the Headless.

In the tunnel, you can find the Headless. | *Hirun Cryer/USG, Activision/FromSoftware*

Ashina Castle Tower Lookout

The next Headless is actually pretty easy to reach. Warp straight to the Upper Tower - Antechamber Sculptor's Idol, then turn around and jump out of the window.

Go through the window near the Sculptor's Idol. | *Hirun Cryer/USG, Activision/FromSoftware*

Now, simply look down to the water below, and dive straight in. Underwater, you'll encounter the next Headless.

Dive down into the water below. | *Hirun Cryer/USG, Activision/FromSoftware*

Sunken Valley

Start out from the Great Serpent Shrine Sculptor's Idol. Go forward to the edge of the gorge, and jump down to one of the tree branches beneath you.

Now look to you right. There'll be a platform with two Snake Eyes-like enemies patrolling there. Jump to the platform, where you can take out the enemies if you want, but otherwise jump up the wall on the other end of the platform, where you can hang off a cliff ledge.

Now you need to keep pressing to the right, going all the way along the cliff, until there's no more path left. Jump down to the area beneath you, and a few illusory enemies will spawn, which you can easily run straight past.

Jump into the pool of water at the end of this area, and dive underwater. Now swim ahead, going through one large tunnel, until you can resurface. The Headless will now be directly ahead of you, and ready for a fight.

Fountainhead Palace

This Headless can actually be found underwater. Starting out from any Sculptor's Idol that you find after the Flower Viewing Stage. But ideally, you want to start out from the Feeding Grounds Idol.

Jump into the large lake near the Feeding Grounds Idol. | *Hirun Cryer/USG, Activision/FromSoftware*

Now dive straight into the water, and descend downwards. You can now find the Headless immediately ahead of you, swimming around underwater.

Head downwards towards the bottom of the lake. | *Hirun Cryer/USG, Activision/FromSoftware*

How to Kill Headless in Sekiro

Killing Headless in Sekiro is no easy feat. Firstly, you're going to need to use both Divine Confetti and Pacifying Agent items before you fight them, the former so that you can deal more damage to the monsters, and the latter so that your Terror build up is reduced.

Headless aren't affected by the Firecracker. Don't make our mistake. | *Hirun Cryer/USG, Activision/FromSoftware*

Every time a Headless attacks you, you're going to sustain Terror damage. If your Terror gauge fills up completely, it spells instant death. Unfortunately for you, even if you parry the attacks of the Headless you still take Terror build up damage, and you take even more if you're outright struck by an attack from the mini boss.

The strategy for defeating a Headless in Sekiro is to constantly be deflecting attacks. Their Posture meter works the same as any other enemy in the game, so the aim here is to repeatedly deflect their sweeping attacks, which are actually relatively slow, and hit them once at the end of one of their two/three chain attack combos.

You'll need to be swift on your repeated deflections. | *Hirun Cryer/USG, Activision/FromSoftware*

Because your movement speed is severely reduced near the Headless, don't try jumping around them. You're only going to get hit, and the Terror build up will kill you even the actual attack damage doesn't.

For every Headless enemy you defeat in Sekiro, you'll earn one Prayer Bead. So for all four defeated, you'll have enough Prayer Beads to raise your health and Posture meter forever.

This is absolutely all the information you need to know about the Headless in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. So keep in mind that having immediately beaten a boss, your progress won't be saved until you interact with the next Sculptor's Idol that you find. For more help with the game be sure to check out our definitive boss ranking. Elsewhere there's also our look at how to parry.