Hirata Estate (Owl's Memory) Walkthrough - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Guide - IGN (2024)

Welcome to IGN's Walkthrough and Guide for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. This area-based Walkthrough will cover all enemy encounters, items to pick up, secrets to find and more as you complete your journey as the shinobi known as The Wolf.

This guide contains information on the Hirata Estate (Owl's Memory), an alternate version of the Hirata Estate that can only be accessed if you decided to side with Lord Kuro against Owl, and undertake the the Purification Ending Questline through a specific series of events.

How to Access the Owl's Memory

Video Guide: How to Access Owl's Memory and Hirata Estate Walkthrough

After defeating Owl at the Ashina Castle (Dusk) by refusing to abandon Lord Kuro, you can return to the young lord, and eavesdrop on him from the back of the room behind a screen.

After this, look for Emma at the top of the tower and speak with her to confirm that Lord Kuro should not be allowed to die. After resting and talking with her once more, she'll give you Tomoe's Note, and head down to the Old Grave at the bottom of the castle. Speak with her in front of the graves, and she'll then say that she plans to ask the Sculptor about what can be done.

Return to the Dilapidated Temple and go around the back of the building to find a broken wall to eavesdrop through, and then confront Emma and press her when she doesn't want to explain herself. Finally, she'll give you Father's Bell Charm and explain that the way to save Kuro may lie in Owl's memories of what happened at Hirata Estate - which will offer a different perspective.

When you use the Father’s Bell Charm at the Buddha Statue in the Dilapidated Temple, you’ll be transported to a slightly altered Hirata Estate - much the way Ashina Castle was altered after returning from Ashina Depths.

You’ll start at the entrance to the Main Hall, across the bridge from the Bamboo Thicket Slope - just before the area where you met Owl in the original memory. In this version, all of the Sculptor’s Idols from the Main Hall and onwards have been deactivated, and the enemies in this part of the estate have changed as well.

Mini-Boss - Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer

When you reach the burning front gate, inside you will find not Owl, but Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer, the very same enemy you faced at Ashina Castle’s Serpent Shrine.

He seems surprised to see you alive again after what went down after defeating Lady Butterfly, but wastes no time trying to take you down, and you don’t get a chance for a stealthy opening. What’s more, he’ll introduce several Shinobi Attack Dogs into the fight and sick them on you while pressing his own attack.

You’ll want to stay on the defensive and have your Shurikens or Firecrackers ready to stun his friends and pick them off quickly, as three will jump out to attack you - mostly when he gives a whistle signal.

However, things get even more frustrating as even if you clear out all three dogs, the Lone Shadow may jump back and prepare a long loud whistle to summon three more attack dogs to replenish his stock. Knowing this, you need to be extremely fast and aggressive against this mini-boss. You cannot allow him to pause to get backup, or you’ll find yourself constantly attacked on all sides, while Masanaga backs off to heal his posture. By sticking close to him and making sure he doesn’t get a break, you can stop him from whistling, and build up his posture damage by deflecting his kick combos, dodging into his foot thrust, or jumping on top of him after his high flying slam attack that he always follows with a low sweep kick spin.

As long as you press the attack, he’ll fall before you, and grant you Adamantite Scrap, as well as a Prayer Bead.

Main Hall

At this point, you can backtrack to the entrance to the Main Hall via the well by the graveyard - but you can also find a new shortcut in the arena where you fought the Lone Shadow. A wall has broken down off to the left, where you can spot a Bandit Archer waiting.

Grab some Fulminated Mercury as you rush him, but be aware of another Bandit Archer further back, who is supposed by two Taro Troop Brutes - one with a mace and the other with a giant shield. Lure them back into the arena away from the archer, and then use an upgraded Loaded Axe with extra swings to rip apart the shield first, taking one brute out of the fight before you focus on the second.

Once the Taro Troop are dealt with, rush the last Bandit Archer and then go right to re-commune with the Main Hall Sculptor’s Idol. From here you can find a new path right into the area with the pond, or you can go left to take out a nearby Bandit Archer and turn the corner to find an armored Taro Troop - which you can use your Loaded Spear to break away his damage-absorbing gear.

As for the pond’s edge - be wary. It may look like there’s less Bandits than before, but this is because the rooftops above hold three Lone Shadows lying in wait to ambush you when you engage the Bandits.

This doesn’t mean you can’t find a way to turn the tables. From the Sculptor’s Idol, crouch down and move forward to the edge of the building and its stairs to find a porch you can sneak under to avoid the gaze of both Bandits and Lone Shadows. Take it all the way to the end, where you can jump up to grab the roof and climb up behind the ninjas to take at least two of them out silently, or use the Puppeteer Ninjutsu to have some fun. Be sure to look around the roofs for a nest with Adamantite Scrap.

After engaging the Lone Shadows above, drop down to say hi to the Bandits and grab the Mibu Balloon of Wealth they were sitting around. There’s no new loot to find inside, so head to the end of the water’s edge to cross the pond.

Mini-Boss - Juzou the Drunkard (Round Two)

As you cross the pond, you’ll soon notice that old Juzou is now in a very different place than he was the first time around. He also has a friend, the Lone Shadow known as Masanari. Thankfully, this enemy doesn’t also have two health bars, but he can make things considerably harder. Still, you won’t be able to rely on the help of Nogami Gensai this time.

Head to the far side of the pond to spot a Bandit with a torch outside a small building with four more inside. Get behind the Bandit outside and take him out quietly - which shouldn’t alert the two drunks closest to you inside. From here you can try throwing Ceramic Shards around the corner to get one to investigate (some of the drunk ones won’t bother coming over), and then quickly rush in to eliminate them before they make too much noise. Look around and be sure to loot the Light Coin Pouch and Ashina Sake.

Move along the walkway to get up behind Juzou and his friend. There’s two Bandit Archers here - both with poison arrows and one on either side of the mini-boss, so you’ll need to quickly stab one and rush to the other before the Juzou and the Lone Shadow can react.

Part one of this fight is again getting Juzou alone - and this means getting the Lone Shadow to chase you faster than Juzou can keep up, and get in damage before you keep running from Juzou. Specifically, Juzou usually has trouble navigating around the house the Bandits were in, so use that to your advantage as a potential temporary battleground before running back to the center and making sure the Lone Shadow is first on the scene.

Lone Shadow Masanari is a Vilehand, and will use his poison fist strikes - which can be extremely aggravating along with the Bandit Archers and Juzou himself - so be sure to jump or dodge away to the side of these vertical blows. Remember to be aggressive but always try and keep Juzou in frame to know if he’s getting close, and focus on eliminating the Lone Shadow from the fight.

When only Juzou remains, you’ll find that even though he still does tremendous damage, you should be much more experienced in taking him on. Be sure to use items like Gokan’s Sugar or anything that regenerates your posture to be able to stand against his heavy blows - and try to dodge to the side of his two-handed overhand downward slash to get damage on the side. If he goes for a swig of poison, unload on him, and then be ready to dash around behind him if he goes to spew it out.

As long as you keep the pressure on him, and only hang back to regenerate your own posture, you can take out both of his health bars quickly as long as you don’t get too co*cky and lower your guard on his big strikes. Defeating him will earn your another Prayer Bead, and you can inspect the nearby grounds for Adamantite Scrap by a tree, and the body of your old pal Nogami Gensai, who holds a Fistful of Ash.

Audience Chamber

Entering the Audience Chamber, don’t be fooled by the lone Bandit Archer standing past the open door on the right. Instead, hug the wall to the left and peer down the left corner to find a patrolling Shinobi Hunter, and wait until his back is turned to take him out.

Look in the nearby room for Gokan’s Sugar, and then go down the hall to find Fulminated Mercury. The hidden room past the Shinobi Shortcut door doesn’t hold anything new, so instead slash the screen doors by the item you picked up to reach the next Sculptor’s Idol, and look right to find two Bandit Archers - as well as another Shinobi Hunter who was waiting by the entrance to ambush you should you have taken the bait. There’s also a Pellet in the back of the room.

Both the old woman and her son aren’t here in this memory, nor is the bandit that guarded the entrance to the hidden temple, so you’re free to head down into the boss room, where you’ll find a different and much harder foe compared to Lady Butterfly.

Boss Fight - Owl (Father)

Video Guide: Owl Boss Fight

You now face Owl in his prime, and he is not happy to see you. Expect a much more difficult fight than at Ashina Castle for several reasons. Owl now hits harder, uses many more tricks, and can move extremely fast - to name a few new variations.

Most importantly, Owl won’t bother trying to rig the game with anti-healing grenades - so all his attention will be focused on offense all the time, making it much harder to find times to heal up. Instead, he’ll be zipping around the ground darting from side to side before running up with slashes - or worse.

This younger version of Owl loves to initiate his own brand of Shinobi Firecrackers - spreading powder into the air in front of him before it ignites in a deadly blow that will damage and stun you, setting him up for either a rushing perilous thrust attack, or he may go for the quick shuriken followed by his massive lunging slash attack that can clear out your health bar or send you staggering back if you deflect it. If his rushing perilous attack hits, he’ll follow up with a spinning downward slash that can make the combo even harder to survive.

Because of this, any time you see him toss out the firecrackers - you need to act fast. If he throws them out in the middle of his combo string of slashes, quickly sprint behind him as he slices to ignite the firecrackers to score some free hits on him. If he throws them at range, it may be better to sprint backward to better see which attack he’s preparing to dash through the blast with.

In particular, his shuriken chasing slice combo is so powerful that you may want to counter it by dodging to the side as he moves up, allowing you to get a hit in, as the slice doesn’t cover enough ground to catch you, and deflecting it only sends you skidding back. If he tosses a shuriken before taking to the air, you can sometimes dodge to the side of his downward slice, or even get in behind him if you’re close enough since it has a limited vertical range.

At times, he may try to initiate a rolling low sweep attack if you see him hunch over. It’s hard to counter this as he rolls forward with the sweep (though you can jump backwards to land on him), but he’ll usually come out of it by preparing a prolonged overhead slice. This attack can have several outcomes - as he will watch your movements first. If you stay in front of him, he’ll eventually bring his blade swinging down overhead - but if you dash to his side, he’ll perform a fakeout and swing his blade horizontally. Even if you jump back, he’ll alternate into a leaping slice to catch you off guard. Because of this, you’ll want to play chicken with him and stand in front of him until he’s ready to slice, then dodge at the last moment to get to his side and get in a few free hits.

Due to his fast moves and aggressive posture attacks, this will be a tough fight to survive. Take every opportunity to hold block and lower your own posture when possible, and focus on lowering his health down to at least half before you start to get in his face and apply your own posture damage. With his backflips and firecrackers, he’s too good at putting distance on you to worry about chasing him down when his health is high, as his posture will regenerate too fast.

Take things slow and methodical, and you can shave off his first health bar. Unlike the other Owl fight, he won’t switch to using smoke bombs. Instead, he will summon a literal guardian Owl spirit.

The blue owl won’t attack you directly, but at times Owl will vanish using his familiar and it will fly around the room, before Owl appears in the air to slice at you with little warning. When this happens, it’s best to just sprint around the room and put distance on the flying owl, then sprint in when Owl lands to try and score a hit.

That said, the spirit owl isn’t just for show. At times, Owl will hold up his hand to summon his spectral pet, and it will glow red with flames - before zooming at you in a low unblockable flaming sweep. Watch for its approach and leap over it - but be ready to dodge forward as Owl will usually take the time to prepare his zooming thrust attack.

His only other new attack is a familiar one - as he’ll now throw out shurikens when backflipping off his kick attack, which you’ll need to be prepared to dodge or block. Other than that, you will still need to take this fight slow, watch for his slow attacks and punish them until his health is down enough that you can beat up his posture.

Stay far back from his owl to give yourself time to jump over and mikiri counter his thrusts, and sidestep his vertical slices and chasing slice in between deflecting his combo strings and dashing behind his fireworks to hit him where it counts. Defeat your father one final time, and you’ll get the Memory: Foster Father, as well as the Aromatic Flower, unwithered by time.

With this in hand, you can return to Emma and find that instead of severing Lord Kuro’s immortality, you now have the option to purify him by using the Divine Dragon Tears along with this flower - though there will still be a price to pay.

At this point, you should now head to the Fountainhead Palace, which you can do by going back to the Wedding Cave in Ashina Depths and praying inside the wedding palanquin with the Mortal Blade and the incense aroma of the fountainhead.