Sekiro General Tenzen Yamauchi fight - how to beat and kill General Tenzen
How to beat the mini boss General Tenzen Yamauchi in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
General Tenzen Yamauchi is the next mini boss in Sekiro, found in the game's Ashina Outskirts area, following almost immediately on from the Chained Ogre both in the game and of course in our walkthrough of the game's bosses and mini-bosses.
You'll find General Tenzen Yamauchi waiting for you in the centre of the courtyard just the other side of the building behind the Chained Ogre - he's surrounded by grunts through, so taking him on is going to require some work.
Below, we'll cover how to beat and kill Sekiro's General Tenzen Yamauchi, including any particularly strong methods or weaknesses they might have and any handy things to bear in mind.
For more guides and pages like this, meanwhile, cycle back to our main Sekiro walkthrough and boss guide hub.
Sekiro General Tenzen Yamauchi fight - how to beat and kill General Tenzen
General Tenzen Yamauchi is a fairly standard mini boss for Sekiro - you'll find this samurai general archetype is a semi-regular occurance in the game as you progress - but he's still very tricky if you lose concentration, and an absolute nightmare if you don't isolate him from all his guards first.
There is a way to "cheese" him - in fact we ended up doing this by accident ourselves (it really was by accident, promise) - although we recommend you to fight him until you beat him if possible. He'll serve as great practice for future, similar mini bosses down the road.
How to set up General Tenzen Yamauchi before the boss fight
To set General Tenzen up you're going to need to do a fair bit if stealthing.
First, hang far right, grappling to the tree then right into the bushes. You might notice a little alarm-ringing gremlin starting to kick off just up ahead on this right-hand wall. Rush it and kill it as quickly as possible.
Then, it's a case of picking off all the other guards, one by one. With the alarm gremlin down we actually found it easier to go back inside the building you arrived through after beating the Ogre and instead head to the far left, into the grass and then hanging down off the far left ledge.
Use Ceramic Shards (you have to lock on to an enemy and literally lob it at their head for it to work and actually draw them towards you), and all the usual methods to take them out, and then you'll be down to just you and General Tenzen Yamauchi.
How to beat General Tenzen Yamauchi
Killing General Tenzen Yamauchi is best started in the usual way for mini bosses - getting in one free backstab to take him down to just the one Deathblow mark. Jump from high up behind him to get that easy Deathblow in, and then it's just you and him, one on one.
In our experience General Tenzen Yamauchi didn't use any Grab attacks, so there are just the two Perilous Attacks to mind out for: a Sweep, which he performs from both the left and right-handed stance, and a Thrust.
Counter the Thrust with the Mikiri Counter Skill, and the sweep by jumping and double-jumping on his head.
His Posture bar refreshes pretty quickly too, so you're going to need to be aggressive. Go for two hits every time he's static, then get ready to deflect or guard a flurry of attacks, back off, get a couple of hits, and repeat.
He also does the same 'channelling' move that General Naomori Kawarada does too, where he's very vulnerable for a moment as he pauses to meditate in a kind of whitish-blue flurry of wind. Attack him as soon as you see him do that for some precious Vitality damage, then back off.
How to cheese General Tenzen Yamauchi
We don't like recommending you 'cheese' bosses because, honestly, you'll need to learn the fundamentals of Sekiro's combat - and keep learning and re-learning them throughout - if you want to stand a chance against later bosses as they come.
Still, if you're in a rush or he's proving more of a pain than that practice is worth, there's a very simple way to cheese him.
Instead of killing the alarm gremlin, just straight away go left out of the gatehouse building at the start of General Tenzen Yamauchi's area. The gremlin will start banging away at his bell and alerting everyone to your presence, and several guards - along with General Tenzen Yamauchi - will come rushing up to you on that left hand side.
Simply go up to the very far left ledge, in the gap between the fence, and drop off to hang there (pressing Square / X to do so), and several of the guards, including Tenzen, will come rushing up to that edge.
Looking for more Sekiro pages like this? First up, the first main Sekiro patch notes for update 1.03 are live. Otherwise, our Sekiro boss guide, boss list and walkthrough hub has everything in one place, including pages on Lady Butterfly, Genichiro Ashina Way of Tomoe, Folding Screen Monkeys, Corrupted Monk, Guardian Ape, Great Shinobi Owl, Emma and Isshin Ashina, True Corrupted Monk, and Divine Dragon. We also have in-depth pages like Sekiro tips and tricks to get you started, Sekiro Skills, skill tree and Esoteric Text locations explained, our deep dive on the Sekiro combat system, Posture, and Perilous Attacks, or details on all Sekiro Prosthetic Tool locations, how to cure Dragonrot and Rot Essence in Sekiro, Gourd Seed locations, a Divine Confetti farm route method, all Treasure Carp Scale locations, all, Prayer Beads locations and all Snap Seed locations, too. And when you're ready - the how to beat Isshin Sword Saint and an Isshin Sword Saint cheese, plus the many Sekiro endings.
Shimmy back and forth along the edge, getting a few free deathblows on the grunts if you fancy it from that ledge-hanging position, and General Tenzen Yamauchi will awkwardly shuffle right up to the edge of the wall to try and reach you. Keep going back and forth along the ledge and, if you get lucky, he'll end up falling straight off. You'll still get the rewards when he eventually hits the ground, too.
Like we said, it won't do you much good in the long run and it's not exactly elegant, but it's there if you need it!
That's all you'll hopefully need for tackling this encounter. Next up in our guide is Gyoubu Oniwa, or you can cycle back to our main Sekiro walkthrough and boss guide hub for much more bosses, explainers and advice.