How to beat Snake Eyes Shirafuji in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

 Snake Eyes Shirafuji is an optional mini-boss in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. She's one of two bosses responsible for guarding the entrances to the Gun Fort and is located on a platform between the Sunken Valley and the Gun Fort Idols.

How to find Snake Eyes Shirafuji

From the Sunken Valley Idol, jump from the cliff but be immediately ready to grapple the trees as you're falling. From here you'll want to move quickly from platform to platform to avoid the gunfire from enemies in the area. You'll find the boss straight ahead, but instead of engaging her, you should veer left and jump up to a ledge to hug the cliff wall. Head across the bridge, being careful of the gap in the middle—as well as the gunners still firing at you—and make your way to the Gun Fort Idol. Resting here will reset all of the enemies that you've aggroed along the way.

When you're ready, backtrack across the bridge and along the ledge to start the encounter.

Snake Eyes Shirafuji Strategy

The Sabimaru prosthetic tool is a good option for this fight as Shirafuji is susceptible to poison. You'll need to perform two deathblows to defeat her and she has a number of devastating ranged attacks up her sleeve, meaning you'll want to stick as close to her as possible for most of the encounter. You can approach her normally or sneak up behind her to perform a stealth attack which will make short work of one of her lives.

A lot of Shirafuji's moves can be deflected, including most of her ranged attacks; she likes to attack with two or three hit combos, most of which will end with a gunshot, so don't be caught off-guard. She'll try to kick you away to gain distance to use her gun but this can also be deflected. If you see a red icon appear at any point during the fight, dodge away as this signals her unblockable grab attack which will deal a lot of damage if it connects. 

Once you've taken around a third of her health, her posture becomes much easier to break; Firecrackers can be helpful here and will allow you to stun her to get some free hits in. If you need to heal up, make use of the terrain for cover as she will simply resort to shooting you if you move away from her to recover health. 

If you're still having trouble with Snake Eyes Shirafuji, you can check out our combat tips for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Want to enjoy the game in style? Ge new outfits and cool sword effects with our round up of the best Sekiro mods.

Sarah James
Guides Writer

Sarah started as a freelance writer in 2018, writing for PCGamesN, TechRadar, GamingBible, Red Bull Gaming and more. In 2021, she was offered a full-time position on the PC Gamer team where she takes every possible opportunity to talk about World of Warcraft and Elden Ring. When not writing guides, most of her spare time is spent in Azeroth—though she's quite partial to JRPGs too. One of her fondest hopes is to one day play through the ending of Final Fantasy X without breaking down into a sobbing heap. She probably has more wolves in Valheim than you.