You traversed the mythical lands of the Fountainhead Palace to finally meet the Divine Dragon in all its glory in Sekiro Shadows Die Twice. However, you are not here to praise this ethereal entity but to get your hands on one of his Divine Dragon’s Tears. Sadly, the dragon won’t give up this without putting up a fight.
Luckily, the fight is only a spectacle and not a skill check. You’ll easily bring down this ginormous beast and snatch its tears without much trouble.
Fighting the Divine Dragon
The Divine Dragon is the only source of Divine Dragon’s Tear, a key component to severing the link that makes Kuro the object of desire for power-hungry emperors. You must face the Divine Dragon to rid your master’s curse.
This boss fight, however, is a bit of a letdown. The splendor of the towering dragon will send shivers down your spine, making you wonder how a teeny weeny mortal like you take on such a behemoth. Turns out it’s quite simple.
Not only the Divine Dragon is a one-trick pony but the gimmick revolving around this fight is just as straightforward, to say the least.
The fight has two stages. At first, you have to face a mob of continuous Old Dragons of the Tree that will keep on spawning until their cumulative health bar is depleted. They are weak and nothing special going on here.
Once they are killed off, the Divine Dragon appears to burst out of a tree in the background to initiate the true fight with the boss. With a humongous sword and a lithe body touching the skies, the sight of this boss is mesmerizing and frightening.
Although, the fight is just you dodging his wind projectiles and firing lighting back at the dragon. The fight is cinematic but you don’t need to be at the top of your game to finish it.
Here are some tips and tricks that can aid you in this battle:
- Keep some Antidote Powder on you if you get poison in the first phase of the fight.
- You must know how to counter Lightning attacks. As soon as lightning is about to hit, stay in the air, press the block button followed by a quick R1 before you hit the ground to fire the lightning at the dragon.
Phase 1 – Old Dragons of the Tree
At the start, three Old Dragons of the Tree will fight you. They are weak and only a few standard attacks will lead to a deathblow. More and more dragons will begin to spawn as you kill their brethren. They share a health bar so it doesn’t matter which one you kill. Just spam that attack button and watch as they fall.
These dragons only have a few attacks which are easier to tackle. Just be careful of their poison cloud attack and you are good to go.
Later on, trees will sprout out of the ground. The first two will try to hit you and disappear thereafter, the last one remains in the arena. You can grapple onto this tree and use it to jump onto a dragon to perform an aerial death blow.
Doing so will fling the victim in a radius, taking out all the other dragons caught in its path. It is a good technique to quickly kill off multiple dragons and take out huge chunks of HP. Try to aim for the dragon in the middle of the pack for maximum radial damage. Repeat the pressure till the health bar goes down to zero.
The fight will be over before you know it.
Moveset
Listed below are all the moves used by the Old Dragons of the Tree and how you should react to them:
- Punch: The minor dragons can punch you if you give them an opening.
- Reaction: Dodge or block the feeble attack.
- Poison Cloud: A random dragon will spew a cloud of poison that will build up poison if you stand in it.
- Reaction: Move out of the cloud ASAP.
- Tree Burst: Three trees will burst out of the ground near you. It will hurt if they hit you while sprouting. One of the trees will linger for you to grapple onto.
- Reaction: Start running in a direction and stop only when all three have sprouted.
Phase 2 – Divine Dragon
After the cutscene, the giant Divine Dragon comes into the scene. The fight begins with the dragon pushing you back with a gust of wind. Soon after, five trees sprout near the boss, which you can grapple onto; however, you are too far away at this point to grapple.
Your goal is to make your way to the trees all the while dodging the projectiles the boss throws at you. The reactions for each attack are listed below.
Once you are near the trees, you will have to spot the one that is glowing. This signals a lightning strike about to land on the tree, and you must grapple onto the tree.
The lightning will strike as soon as you propel towards it, and then you have to just press the block button followed by the attack button R1 to send the lightning to the dragon. You have to do this 4 to 5 times before the trees disappear.
The boss can and will use his wind push attack in the middle of these 4/5 attempts to throw you farther where you have to dodge the incoming attacks again. You have to repeat the process, spot the lightning tree, and counter it properly.
When the dragon’s posture meter is full, he will push you back one last time and the trees will go away. At this point, the boss will go berserk and start spamming quick wind projectiles. Block or jump over them accordingly.
Thereafter, the boss will tire out and the trees will sprout again. The boss won’t attack at this point and you have to locate the tree with the glow and grapple onto it.
This time you’ll be pushed into the air much higher and automatically counter the lightning attack. Press the attack button when you are at the top and this will effectively end the fight.
Now make your way on top of the downed dragon’s swords and use your Mortal Blade to cut open his eye and get yourself some sweet Divine Dragon’s Tears.
Moveset
Listed below are all the moves used by the Divine Dragon in Sekiro Shadows Die Twice and how you should react to them:
- Overhead Slam and Diagonal Slashes: Either slams his sword vertically or slashes it diagonally to send forth a giant vertical or diagonal wind projectile, respectively, at great speeds toward you. Can chain them together as he chooses.
- Reaction: Choose a direction and start running to ignore the projectiles. Or you can block at the right moment to deflect it like a badass.
- Sweep: Swings his sword sideways to send a grounded horizontal wind projectile towards you at great speed.
- Reaction: This attack triggers a perilous attack kanji over your head; thus, jump over the projectile to ignore it.
- Stretch Attack: Stretches his whole body towards the tree you are standing on to attack you.
- Reaction: Grapple onto another tree right before he reaches you.
- Wind Push: Sends forth an arena-wide gust of wind to push you to the far end of the arena.
- Reaction: The attack doesn’t hurt, but you must now return to the trees. Watch out for wind projectiles during your return.
- Last Ditch Effort: When his posture is all gone, he pushes you back with the wind gust and continues to fire a flurry of quick wind projectiles that are harder to react to.
- Reaction: Stand in place, deflect the vertical/diagonal projectiles, and jump over the ground swipes.
Rewards for Defeating the Divine Dragon
Taking out this Divine Dragon will rake in the following rewards in Sekiro Shadows Die Twice:
- Memory: Divine Dragon
- Divine Dragon’s Tear. A key item for one of the endings.
- 12000 XP