Seven Judgments
the Seven Judgments is a multi-phase boss fight where defeated allies can be revived if you don't deal with them quickly enough which honestly makes this fight feel more like triage than combat sometimes, the Sha-Chi depletion mechanic is the real key here because bosses regenerate their resources the longer the fight drags on and if you play too passively you just get overwhelmed by revived enemies and resource attrition and all that, I've seen people spend literal hours on this fight because they kept letting revives go off and then the fight spiraled completely out of control and there's no coming back once that happens
Phase Breakdown
Phase 1 - First Judgment
a single judgment entity with fast sword combos that are actually pretty telegraphed once you know what to look for, this phase is basically the training wheels for the rest of the fight so focus on learning the parry timings rather than trying to maximize damage because those timings carry over directly to later phases and if you didn't learn them here you're in trouble later, basically treat this as a practice round and don't waste any resources on it
Phase 2 - Two Judgments
two entities spawn and one fights you while the other tries to revive the downed ally and this revive is the absolute top priority always because a completed revive resets the boss to full HP and basically doubles your work, use Dragon Fire or any ranged Phantom Edge to interrupt the channel immediately and never let a revive complete under any circumstances because the fight becomes exponentially harder each time it happens and you run out of resources and then you die
Phase 3 - Three Judgments
all three entities active at the same time and this phase is pure resource management chaos honestly, you need to constantly rotate between targets draining Sha-Chi with parries while using AoE Phantom Edges to keep everyone staggered and if you lose control for even a few seconds the whole thing falls apart, save your Power Surge for when one of them is staggered because that's your biggest damage window and wasting it on a non-staggered enemy is just throwing away your win condition, I'm not entirely sure but I think the boss AI gets slightly less aggressive if you focus one judgment at a time instead of spreading damage across all three, maybe it's just confirmation bias from my runs but it feels like they coordinate less when you're only pressuring one target
Attack Patterns
| Attack | Type | Description | Counter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swift Slash | Brutal | Quick horizontal slash | Parry (wide window) |
| Judgment Strike | Brutal | Overhead slam with AoE | Parry or dodge sideways |
| Vengeful Dash | Killer | Teleport thrust attack | Ghoststep through |
| Revival Channel | Special | Channels to revive fallen ally | Interrupt with any attack |
General Boss Tips
Brutal Moves have that blue flash indicator and you need to parry these to drain enemy Sha-Chi and create damage openings, every boss uses them at predictable HP thresholds so you can actually learn when they're coming and prepare your parry in advance instead of just reacting, it's way more pattern-based than it looks at first and once you learn the rhythm of each boss the blue attacks become free essence generators basically, I'm not 100 percent sure about this but I think some bosses have slightly different parry windows depending on which phase they're in so don't get too comfortable with the same timing throughout the whole fight
Killer Moves flash red and you should never ever try to parry these even if your muscle memory from Sekiro is screaming at you to parry everything, instead dodge to trigger Ghoststep which teleports you behind the boss for a free combo window and generates Sha-Chi essence at the same time which is like getting paid twice for the same action
most bosses are completely invulnerable during phase transitions and I cannot tell you how many times I've wasted Power Surge trying to hit through immunity like an idiot, just use this downtime to heal and reposition and swap your Phantom Edges and catch your breath because the next phase is always harder and you want to be ready for it with full resources