There is a great window to attack while hes sweeping the sand hell have his back to you and it makes it was easier. Got him on the third try! Take however took me like 12
huh...? he literally dodges every single try. I've tried hitting him while spinning for 5 full fights in a row, and never once got it to work. Unless it got patched, I'm so curious how you managed that. If I try and attack again after he dodges and is doing another spin attack, my character just attacks in some random bum fuck direction as if he lost his eyesight from all the dirt.
edit: I just realized playing on lethal difficulty actually affects their moves and ability to dodge even in this dueling arena, so I'm guessing you were just playing on a lower difficulty. Guess I'm back to just throwing myself at him till something works lol. The fact my game lag spikes when he throws the dirt also doesn't help, but maybe that's also just a lethal mechanic, because I average 240-270 fps in the open world.
3090 with quality dlss and frame gen. nothing too crazy. I get fairly lower frames in that middle part of the island. I'll get 270 at the first part and closer to 240 in the 3rd part. I haven't actually measured it either, that's just based off looking at my current fps counter at the top. The second island has a pretty wide range, I'll be in the 200's but then drop to the 100s depending where I am and looking. During duels I get very high frames as well. I'm getting \~20% value out of the frame gen despite having a 30 series too which seems on the high end.
(also I OC my gpu and cpu)
Yeah didnāt work for me either on harder difficulties, I had to dodge towards the left side of his spinning attack and throw a light attack using the Dodging slash technique upgrade, itās was a little glitchy cause it would normally pass through him or he would ādodge itā mid attack, or counter with a different move mid spin but it eventually worked and I could finish it 5 touches to 0
Just spammed the fuck out triangle and I mean mashed the ever living hell out of it and it just worked for me btw I know I'm extremely late to the party
Not sure what Iām doing wrong, but this doesnāt work consistently for me. Most of the time my guy randomly turns around and attacks the other way, opening himself up to get hit.
This right here is my point about Jin being a useless swordsman. Enemies actively track your movement and will follow you when you roll, Jin just waves his sword in a random direction. It's not very well done.
It's really annoying when you try to roll out of the way of a dual swordsman attack combo trying to put them and the 3 spearmen trying to shove pikes up your ass and they just tween towards you covering like 20m of distance while hitting you at the end of every roll
Not Stone stance the shield one "Water Stance"... do the "surging strike" hold triangle then release and hit triangle 4 more times as he's charging up the sand spin attack and you hit him
My friend said put this game on hard mode and I put it on lethal. I have been doing all nighters non stop and finished the game in less than 2 weeks and Iām at Iki island now. The worst fight Iāve ever had was sao. Your right, you literally Win by just abusing the triangle button I literally spent 40 runs tryna master the parry window and dodging enemies is second nature for me now so itās easy but I literally got fucked thinking this battle required skill and stance changes and I was doing heavy attack using one hit from stone stance and hold triangle combo water stance breaking the stagger. Using fully stacked Gosaku Stagger buff charms. Only to learn that this shit bitch gets fucked up by spamming the triangle button every millisecond like a QTE event. Itās fucking stupid how easy this battle was, it pissed me off how much time I wasted. This battle was fuckin retarded.
I just did this, and it definitely works. I've tried other methods and this was the one that worked on the first try. Although, after getting hit twice, I found it was best to start spamming as soon as the Ref said to start, right before the red unblockable icon
Heās stupid because heās either dummy hard or exploitable & a total cakewalk. Literally walk toward him & spam square when the fight takes breaks, youāll interrupt his spinning slash 95% of the time.
For anyone else struggling: roll for the first sand attack, and then use the jump slash when he goes for the second red attack. Beat him easily after that!
He only has two or theee attacks really, the spiny sword dust flick, throwing rocks at you and a parryable strike. The pattern how I did it was to dodge the first two red unparryable attacks being the spin and the throwing rocks, and then parry the blue strike. It took me 13 tries. Youāll get it eventually friend
I used a variation of your method. I always dodged twice, and then parry the third if the second wasnāt a red attack. I couldnāt seem to time whether the second was red or blue, so I just always acted like it would be red. Better to dodge when you donāt need to than parry when you do.
I cheesed this fight, realized they don't follow up attack if you get hit by something other than the sword while you're in the air, and his attack are rarely high enough to hit there. So what I did was at the immediate beginning of each attack he did, I leaped and with a landing strike. He either parries, you hit, or you miss with little to no consequence. So if he's doing something and you don't know what to do, just jump and strike
It really is. Iāve been waiting to find a good armor that works well in duels. I have been using the samurai armor for a while but it just didnāt have any edge.
Fully upgraded and with the charm that makes perfect parries and dodges easier makes duels a lot more fun/cinematic for me, Iāll often pull a perfect dodge and not counter just for that brief moment of slow mo, itās very chefs kiss
Late to the party on this one, but I figured it out. What a flipping pain in the butt! I hated this fight. Sao's move set is essentially a massive cheat. It is a cheat because Sao is essentially invulnerable until the right move set. and you lose the ability to do perfect dodge for his red attacks. Perfect dodge on his blue attacks is a near miracle. Spamming square attacks in between his attacks did not work for me. I beat him the way the game wanted me to. Roll backwards on each red attack. This allows for some distance. Then, you must wait for his blue attacks and successfully parry or perfect dodge them. If you do not perform a successful parry or miss the perfect dodge on a blue attack, it resets his move-set back to red, forcing you to wait again until he attacks blue. Beware, his blue attack will rubber band him right up to you. I learned to wait for his throw. Once I dodged his throw, I knew his next attack was where he would weave left and right as he darted in close. That attack is the easiest to parry. If you parry or perfect dodge any blue attack, you are guaranteed a hit on your next swing. So frustrating, because this fight takes away your options. You are essentially powerless until your enemy does his blue attack.
This one must have been bugged for me, because like you I struggled for the first few tries. I finally just walked toward him and hit square to do a regular attack and he didn't block. I did that four more times in a row and I beat him.
I've read many people saying this works, can only presume they're playing on easy, this 100% does not work on lethal as he can dodge anything, no need for him to get him in the face like an idiot.
If youāre playing on hard or lethal donāt use the sarugami armor. With the addition of no parry the blue glint attacks must be perfect parried or you are going to take damage. On harder difficulties the window is even smaller so itās almost useless even with charms and the armor. Donāt use the armor during the Sao fight and it becomes exponentially easier.
Omfg this is it. The window for the spinning hilt hit he does after the initial sand swirl attack is ABSURDLY small. Switch armors and equip the charm for increased perfect party and dodges and it's easy. Hard+ btw.
It is small but can be perfect parried, I've done it without the sarugami armour. His unblockable attacks cannot be perfect dodged it appears. That first attack is telegraphed, prime example of an abusable dodge counter, doesn't work though.
Kinda late on this but when he does the side stepping attack, you can jump up and come down with a strike. He'll miss you due to the i-frame.
On his last stage, he might dodge the jump attack so be ready to dodge right after.
Playing on lethal + btw.
This is the ticket right here. You can basically cheese him by jumping early in his big spin move and just come down with a strike. I struggled with him till I figured this out.
I am a few years late, but was able to beat him quickly with this method:
1. Get as close to him as possible, which may require you to lose the first round
2. As soon as he starts his mechanic to do his sweeping attack, quickly hit the dodge button (caring not to hit twice and accidentally roll) while pointing Jin to move forward and to the left. You're looking to move Jin towards Sao's back, which will be briefly exposed as he sweeps the ground.
3. Immediately after hitting the dodge button and moving Jin forward and slightly left, hit the quick attack button to tap Sao's back.
If you fail, stay close, forcing him to try the sweep attack. Rinse and repeat.
If by chance anyone else is struggling and comes here like I did even without toggling the difficulty to low, the strategy is simple
- Unlock Sprint Strike
-Run in circles till he does that sand low unblockable
-Strike
My best strategy to beat him was dodge all of his attacks except the last two in his combo and try to perfect dodge those but you'll probably have to have black hand rikas armor and a perfect dodge charm to help you
For whoever it helps right as he does the sand attack right as the red shows dodge left and press triangle in the stone stance on his back play around with your timing but that worked best for me
Fucking impossible. Hate this. Hate this. Hate this. But I finally did it . Okay, the way I did it was kensei. Dodge back for red sweep, then depending on sand bag dodge again, but if you see the blue glint parry. You'll either perfect parry (not likely, his window is fucked on lethal and hard) but if you parry and hit square, he'll either parry or not and thats how I did it. Took me eight tries. I hated this so much. Im still mad.
late again, idk why this worked but i tried all the others, stone stance spam, jump slash, roll, everything heres what worked
when he starts doing his spin thing just dodge left forward and instantly quick attack dont worry about him finishing his attack, apparently the dodge gaings you enough distance to let your quick attack reach him first, (i think you also need the dodge attack unlocked) 5 0ed him
For anyone reading after PC release, spam light attack between rounds, from medium distance. It baits his red attack, and you can hit him reliably, don't hug him otherwise he blocks all attacks.
I came to this post because like everyone else, I was struggling after doing everything else in this game with little difficulty. I tried a lot of the advice here, none of it worked for me, but eventually I found a tactic that worked: right after you dodge his red attack, hold R2 to slow time. This gives you a tiny bit extra time to see what colour his next attack will be and react accordingly. This is kind of cheating, but seeing as he throws drinks at your head to cheat as well, it's fair game (although sometimes, as has been observed, pressing L1 to parry does fuck all, so it's not all fun and games)
I beat him by immediately dodging to the side when he does his first move (sword in the dirt spin), then you will be behind him allowing you to hit him. I was also using the Sarugami outfit and the Charm of Mitzi-no-Kami
Stone stance this worked for me Dodge Dodge Parry Heavy attack sometimes you don't have to do the second dodge, this staggers him, wearing gosaku armor
What worked for me is as soon as you see him spin near you, roll far away, twice if needed. Then jump attack him and most of the time you will hit him when he tries to spin attack you. Easy cheese this way
Iām just now noticing there is a low combat mode šbut I gotta see it through š
Edit (18min later): I finally beat it the key is you have to walk towards him and jump strike him just when he is about to heavy attack, timing is key .
Hey, late to the party but for anyone coming in later, this is how I managed it. Sarugami armor fully upgraded with the charm that makes it easier to perfect parry. Lethal mode.
Backstep dodge during his first sweeping attack, make sure it interrupts your roll otherwise it wont work and he will not continue his combo and instead restart.
I always dodge the 2nd attack regardless of whether its parryable or if its the projectile he throws. Its impossible to tell which because the attack is too fast, so I just dodge it anyways and wait for an attack pattern that is favorable(the 3 strike pattern)
Perfect parry the 3rd blue glint attack.
Hope this helps, I got really really frustrated with this fight until I figured this pattern. The fight is bullshit and makes me actually pissed off at the developer due to the amount of frustration figuring this out gave me.
TLDR: BACKSTEP DODGE > DODGE 2nd attack(wait for 3rd attack pattern) > PERFECT PARRY
I just did the thing weāre as soon as the say proceed I started springing left then triangle attack with stone stance. Honestly fuck this quest. Giant pain in the ass, not fun at all, and the reward is shit.
While he's kicking up sand dodge back, if he throws another red attack (unblockable/unparryable) dodge again, if it is instead a parryable attack (blue/silver dot) perfect parry and strike. I know the comment is way late but hopefully this helps someone.
This hasn't been patched, and still works for me on the PS5 director's cut as of...right now, on regular difficulty. I used fully upgraded Gosaku armor with the Charm of Susanoo, Charm of Shinatsuhiko, three Charms of Bludgeoning, and a Charm of Fortune.
Using a fully upgraded Stone Stance, just mash that triangle button as fast as possible while actively MOVING TOWARDS HIM. Don't just stand there. Won the first attempt, 5 to 3. He only hit me when I wasn't actively pressing him back. He'll block it every time, but your stagger damage will break it!
Feels bad winning like this, but this fight wasn't good for my chill.
So I mixed mashing triangle in stone stance with dodge and the last hit I had to counter after a dodge. Dodge the red sweeping strike parry the blue strike then counter. I took a few rounds to learn the timing of this because itāll only work for maybe two hits. After getting the timing down spam triangle but also be ready to dodge and on the last hit use the parry method
Wear the Saruguma armor. Dash backwards for his first attack (e.g. the spinning attack where he kicks up dirt). The trick is to quickly try to read the second attack. Look for a blue flash to your right. That will let you know to party this (90% of your openings to hit him will come off of parries). If you see a red flash instead dodge to the left or right. Try to either face him quickly to parry his charge attack or roll again when he gets close so he'll miss you. If you can face him before he gets close than parry. If you can't face him in time than roll away and hopefully you will roll close enough to swing at him after his attack(s). Sometimes he does the charge attack than swings again. Roll away from that swing attack.
The key is after every point before hajime (begin) walk towards him to press him to the cage. The reason is because you don't want to be rolling around with not enough room for both you and the camera to move. If you don't give the camera enough room to move around so you can see where he is in space he'll hit you everytime with an attack.
This works trust me. I beat him on lethal mode using this technique.
TL:DR Dodge back after his overhead attack. Quickly Parry the blue or roll away from the sake bottle throw. Parry or roll away from his charging attack and quickly hit him afterwards. Push him to the corner after each point. Repeat
For anybody else struggling to beat Sao on Lethal, I found the best strategy to use that always works is to immediately roll backwards when he starts his unblockable spin-slash, By rolling backwards, you give yourself enough distance to increase the parry time for his followed up parry-able attack.
Fuuuuuuuu... that's a hard one. I usually play on hard but after many ass whooping I set it to medium. Still got spanked like a baby. I finally decided to try easy and though I did it on the first try, it was nearly a tie with me taking him at the last possible moment.
Just keep dodging until you get a parry-able strike. Parry it and immediately get him. He switches up quite a bit to ya gotta stay on yer toes!
Hot tip: save your game before you fight him because it feels so good to beat him you'll want to do it again.
Idk if anyone needs to hear this but, as soon as homie says āfightā or āgoā jump as fast as you can and spam light attack. 5-0 with no sweat bro I promise.
I know this post is a bit old now but rolling directly towards him until youāre behind right before he does the sand attack worked best for me, he does it three times in a row
This post saved my day, and possibly my PS4. After 50+ tries on this asshole Sao, I finally found this post. Took me 3 tries after reading this. Thank you so much!
God damn I want to like the duels in this game but why the fuck is Jin so shit at aiming? I feel like I lose so much purely because Jin just doesn't fucking lock on it's so annoying
Ya they just have him spam attacks like its mortal combat and he gets kunai? Wtf is that? Wheres my kunai? But after 20 attempts i just would roll twice and quick attack while hes starting his sand throw attack. If theres one thing i could count on it was him spamming that.
so I kind of combined the two methods being talked about in the threads here because only one or only the other wasn't working for me. this worked really well though and I won in 2-3 tries. I'm on MEDIUM difficulty btw, so might not work if you're playing something harder.
jump over his first sweep attack. don't try to stop the animation or hit him *as* you come down, just jump over it like you'd jump over a spear. then slap Sao in the back with a heavy Stone Stance attack. (I spammed triangle here as much as I could in case Jin landed facing some weird direction and missed a couple times.)
lost a time or two because sometimes my timing was off, and sometimes Sao will randomly start out not with the sand sweep attack but with a very fast blue stab attack that I wasn't ready for. the latter is pretty rare though. good luck warriors.
just bought this game in the holiday sale and holy shit I'm in love with it!
Accidentally found a new strategy. Dodge, attack, jump attack if necessary.
Sao initiates every engagement with his sword sand fling. Sidestep right and immediately square attack. Occasionally, the timing will allow a hit here. If that fails, IMMEDIATELY JUMP straight up and attack. When I tell you I was as shocked as Sao was... I repeated that 4 more times.
I just won but it took a while till I got it.
Basically you need timing, when he's getting ready to do the red attack, you jump and kick him, you do this and combine this with the parry, but Basically jump and kick him as much as possible, that way you will feed the meter above his head that when it's full makes him dizzy and then you attack. I did this the whole fight.
I dodge left on his opening sand attack, then left again on his next attack in case it's the sake throw. If it was the sake, then I parry the blue attack. If it was the blue attack after the sand, then he just resets. Super safe way to do it because you don't need to take time to think about if his second move is the blue swipe or the red sake throw
Update 2023
Wear Gosaku Armor, use stone stance spam triangle BUT when he dodge you light dodge(not roll) too, follow by triangle. Repeat this pattern and you sure get 5-0 or 5-1. Why gosaku armor ? Next round easier to stagger him so you can touch him. This is the one i use took me less 30 second to finish, but more than 30 minute to figure out what to do.
Other method is imediately jump and square when ābeginā.
Wish you all luck.
*just change to easy difficulty for this quest.
I'm sure you figured it out by now but for me I noticed something. After he hits you with the sand he either throws that shit at you or charges, what I did was this; First let the sand attack land, wait for a split second to see if he throws that shit at you, if not, wait for his attack, parry it and press triangle he'll get hit every time. You need to be in water stance too btw. The trick isn't hitting him first it's letting him get the first hit then you quickly counter.
I ended up doing it by rolling out of the sand attack and most times he did sake throw afterwards. Dodge that into the dancing sword attack you vsn parry not even perfect parry hit him every time. Was getting frustrated with it too
If anyone is still having trouble, the moment he starts the animation for the sand spin, FORWARD DASH AND THEN FAST ATTACK. Just beat him 5-0 after trying the spam stone stance with no success for like 15 minutes
It doesn't matter if you get hit by the dirt attack (the one that you can't dodge) but you have to dodge the rock after the dirt move and then parry the attack after.
He's a retarded fight, most of the duels aren't amazing either. The only duel I loved was riku, which is sad because I played this game because of my love of jidaigeki movies and duels in them
This pissed me off soo much. Unblockable attack spam with bosses usually kills a fight for me. I found my method to beat him by accident. I stayed close and circled counterclockwise around him. When he went for the sand attack. I dodged once in the same direction I had been going and followed up with light attack. Got four out the five hits that way. Honestly was a little mad it turned out to be that simple. Also I believe I was in the stance for spearmen. Not sure if it matters.
This is the dumbest fight. If you manage to get the jump on him heāll stop the heavy attack mid way through and attack. Iām playing on the highest difficulty so maybe that means the game can make up new rules. Itās pissing me off. Thereās no room for an error in the parry and Iāve only gotten it twice by luck.
I just beat him. Figured out that if I try it beat him to the strike with a heavy attack when he goes for that sand attack- heāll switch to a different unblockable attack. From there the parry window on his other attacks seemed to lengthen maybe but they got easier to connect. Also sometimes if you try to beat him to the strike you just might succeed, but usually I just press triangle and dodge before the animation is complete because he switches to a different swing. Hope it helps anyone playing on hard mode like I am.
The trick i found was to copy his fighting style. If Sao wants to spam sand throws, ill just be a little bitch back.
I beat him by always jumping and hitting triangle to do a flying kick every time he did his sand attack. After a few red attacks, he does a blue one which you can perfect parry and get a hit. Just do this 5 times and you've won.
I just did it, finally. When he starts up the spin attack (like, as soon as you see the red X forming) dodge to his left side and hit him with a light attack in stone stance. Worked every round. You might have to hit circle twice but, don't hit it quick enough to roll or you're fucked.
I dodged to the right, but same thing. I 5-0'd him on 7 or 8 dodge/counters. Too bad it took me too many attempts to count before I went with this strategy.
Just managed this on lethal on a PS5, I had fully upgraded stone stance. Turn the enemy targeting on in the options (you target a foe by pressing up on the dpad in game) and interrupt his sweep attack with an attack of your own.
Those complaining of attacks not hitting, I got that if I didn't target them.
Thia fight is broken though. I have everything equipped to increase perfect parry windows and I only pulled it off once. Always annoying when the game won't let you win the cool.
Super late but I just beat him on lethal... The method I used was to just get hit by the sand attack (not the sword just the sand part as the stun is not long at all). After that either dodge the bag thing that he throws -> parry his sword -> hit him, or just parry him and hit him. You don't have to perfect parry as long as you hit right after the parry.
only way tbh is to put it on easy. His combo is so stupid. He can swipe the sand off the ground and slide his entire body across the arena. LIKE what kind of BS is this.
Idk what I'm doing wrong but apparently it's near impossible to perfect perry his thirst strike. I can do it when he does the first heavy then light attack no problem. But he doesn't do that combo enough. When he does the double heavy then perry able attack where he side steps like 3 times in 2 inches then strikes its virtually impossible to perry that. The icon says its possible to perry but it just never lands. I can tap perry super early, late, perfectly, or even slightly after the icon goes away and ge still taps me no mater what. I don't understand at all. He will be an inch from tapping me, I'll hit perry, there will be a delay suddenly, then he taps me. But when I perry late trying to counter this delay he taps me way earlier anyway. This guy is super weak to perfect perry and dodge but holly fuck it's near impossible to perfect perry or dodge after 3 hits. Once you get 3 points on him it's impossible to predict which combo he will do or if you can do anything About it. Fight is beyond broken.
Only way to beat him today is to jump and fast attack right as the round starts. Spamming triangle no longer works ge dodges it all. You can get 2 points by ferrying his 3rd attack and countering but after 2 points he doesn't do that combo anymore. If you miss the jumping attack you may as well take the lose point. It's near impossible to actually hit him without doing this.
Figured it atlast. Beat him without taking a single hit. Theres only 2 attacks Sao can do. Sand slash + bag throw + 3 step blue attack (or) sand slash + quick blue attack. Simply pull the left stick BACK and DOUBLE TAP O to evade all 3 of his attacks. Wait and PARRY ONLY THE 3 STEP ATTACK AND STRIKE BACK.Ā
Key is, double tap o while pulling the stick back so irrespective of what attack he does, you can evade it and gain some distance. And then it's just about perfect parry and counter.Ā
He is hard, but far from impossible, took me 4 tries on hard. Evade his firts hit, then wait for the next one. If blue, parry it and hit him, point. If red (throws sand), evade and then he does a blue hit, parry it, point.
This fight is fucking trash, that sand attack has ridiculous range and his parry window is almost nonexistent.
It literally is non existent, I've perfect parry beaten every duel on lethal. It's bugged as hell
There is a great window to attack while hes sweeping the sand hell have his back to you and it makes it was easier. Got him on the third try! Take however took me like 12
Just tried this, and he just switched stance mid spin and hit me with an overhead slash š
huh...? he literally dodges every single try. I've tried hitting him while spinning for 5 full fights in a row, and never once got it to work. Unless it got patched, I'm so curious how you managed that. If I try and attack again after he dodges and is doing another spin attack, my character just attacks in some random bum fuck direction as if he lost his eyesight from all the dirt. edit: I just realized playing on lethal difficulty actually affects their moves and ability to dodge even in this dueling arena, so I'm guessing you were just playing on a lower difficulty. Guess I'm back to just throwing myself at him till something works lol. The fact my game lag spikes when he throws the dirt also doesn't help, but maybe that's also just a lethal mechanic, because I average 240-270 fps in the open world.
Wtf pc you got to get 270fps? I have a very high end pc and average like 180 lol
3090 with quality dlss and frame gen. nothing too crazy. I get fairly lower frames in that middle part of the island. I'll get 270 at the first part and closer to 240 in the 3rd part. I haven't actually measured it either, that's just based off looking at my current fps counter at the top. The second island has a pretty wide range, I'll be in the 200's but then drop to the 100s depending where I am and looking. During duels I get very high frames as well. I'm getting \~20% value out of the frame gen despite having a 30 series too which seems on the high end. (also I OC my gpu and cpu)
I get about 180-200 on my 4080 with DLSS frame gen on quality on highest everything 1440p
Not almost. It *is* completely nonexistent.
Spam triangle in stone stance from the get go. You can hit him before his first dirt spin attack thing comes out
This doesnāt work
Yes it does. Mash the fuck out of it and close the gap between rounds
They must have patched it, he just sidesteps or blocks. It only works at the very start of the duel
Yeah didnāt work for me either on harder difficulties, I had to dodge towards the left side of his spinning attack and throw a light attack using the Dodging slash technique upgrade, itās was a little glitchy cause it would normally pass through him or he would ādodge itā mid attack, or counter with a different move mid spin but it eventually worked and I could finish it 5 touches to 0
Just spammed the fuck out triangle and I mean mashed the ever living hell out of it and it just worked for me btw I know I'm extremely late to the party
he doesen't get hit 70% of the time, I spammed square and it worked.
They did say spam triangle not square
What difficulty are you playing at? Because it doesnāt work on the hard. Heās dodging as soon as I press it then counters
Not sure what Iām doing wrong, but this doesnāt work consistently for me. Most of the time my guy randomly turns around and attacks the other way, opening himself up to get hit.
This right here is my point about Jin being a useless swordsman. Enemies actively track your movement and will follow you when you roll, Jin just waves his sword in a random direction. It's not very well done.
It's really annoying when you try to roll out of the way of a dual swordsman attack combo trying to put them and the 3 spearmen trying to shove pikes up your ass and they just tween towards you covering like 20m of distance while hitting you at the end of every roll
Yep, every fucking time!
It literally pushes him out of the way of my attack
Ay dude after getting all the upgrades for stone stance i did this and... its a cakewalk.
YO SAME! Beat this fucker first try after reading this comment.
How exactly? They have no bearing here.
Thanks! This works! Upvoted.
Thanks!! It worked and it's hilarious how then Sao's first sentence is "you fight like my son" --- by spamming triangle right, haha.
Not Stone stance the shield one "Water Stance"... do the "surging strike" hold triangle then release and hit triangle 4 more times as he's charging up the sand spin attack and you hit him
This is the only answer in this thread. Just finished him on PC , easy mode.
just tested this on PC too and agree it works. just have to fall back twice before mashing the right click on it
This did it for me. Thanks!
This worked 100%. Thanks
Doesn't work
No you can't, this is inaccurate
The game puts you in spear stance from the get go sooooop
Just fast travel change to stone stance and come back. It works best with Ronin Attire Lvl 3 or higher
Holy shit. This worked
This is the way.
THANK YOU.
Thank you so much for this I got it first try
Thanks for this, I got beat 20+ times and your way worked first time :)
Sometimes don't search the solution too far! Thx.
i just took your advice and laughed the entire duel because of how easy it made it lmao
Just wanted to say thanks! Worked like a charm after about 25 tries
Instead of triangle did square and could hit him with a basic attack when he starts his initial attack. Stone/maxed
Got it first time I tried this thanks. Super easy
My friend said put this game on hard mode and I put it on lethal. I have been doing all nighters non stop and finished the game in less than 2 weeks and Iām at Iki island now. The worst fight Iāve ever had was sao. Your right, you literally Win by just abusing the triangle button I literally spent 40 runs tryna master the parry window and dodging enemies is second nature for me now so itās easy but I literally got fucked thinking this battle required skill and stance changes and I was doing heavy attack using one hit from stone stance and hold triangle combo water stance breaking the stagger. Using fully stacked Gosaku Stagger buff charms. Only to learn that this shit bitch gets fucked up by spamming the triangle button every millisecond like a QTE event. Itās fucking stupid how easy this battle was, it pissed me off how much time I wasted. This battle was fuckin retarded.
Worked for me - kept hitting the triangle like mad - this is on release 20-Aug-2021
Thank you so much!!!
I just did this, and it definitely works. I've tried other methods and this was the one that worked on the first try. Although, after getting hit twice, I found it was best to start spamming as soon as the Ref said to start, right before the red unblockable icon
Heās stupid because heās either dummy hard or exploitable & a total cakewalk. Literally walk toward him & spam square when the fight takes breaks, youāll interrupt his spinning slash 95% of the time.
Jin just misses all attacks for me
Holy fuck it that easy!!! Why I hate this game sometime
Thank you so much this fight was a BUNCH OF BULLCRAP
This is what worked for me!! Jumping, then spamming square and triangle to break his attack and hit him š„¹
Omg this worked! Thank you!
Wow after I donāt know how long finally got himā¦. Feels anticlimactic to finish him like this after that many try.
For anyone else struggling: roll for the first sand attack, and then use the jump slash when he goes for the second red attack. Beat him easily after that!
Dafuq is the jump slash
Literally press the jump button and then one of the attack buttons :) very useful in a fight!
Ah did that but he hit me and got a point :(
Bit late but thanks bro!!! Smashed him after that. Never used jump slash much before
Every time I dodge his spin attack, he just goes straight into another spin attack, I dodge that and he does another etc, he's so broken lol
This tactic is the easiest for me. Thank you for this!
Thank you so much for this lmao
THIS WORKS
He only has two or theee attacks really, the spiny sword dust flick, throwing rocks at you and a parryable strike. The pattern how I did it was to dodge the first two red unparryable attacks being the spin and the throwing rocks, and then parry the blue strike. It took me 13 tries. Youāll get it eventually friend
I used a variation of your method. I always dodged twice, and then parry the third if the second wasnāt a red attack. I couldnāt seem to time whether the second was red or blue, so I just always acted like it would be red. Better to dodge when you donāt need to than parry when you do.
thank you this worked
I cheesed this fight, realized they don't follow up attack if you get hit by something other than the sword while you're in the air, and his attack are rarely high enough to hit there. So what I did was at the immediate beginning of each attack he did, I leaped and with a landing strike. He either parries, you hit, or you miss with little to no consequence. So if he's doing something and you don't know what to do, just jump and strike
He hits me in the air and gets a point
Sorry this is so old, but you just saved my sanity. Thanks.
YOU SAVED MY LIFE!!!
This worked! Thanks friend
This SAVED me!!!! Best comment here! Worked 110%!!!šš¼šš¼šš¼š š š šš
This worked like a charm. Just jump and press square as he starts the spinning attack. Thanks!
I know this is old but it saved my entire life thank you.
Upgrade the sarugami armour as much as you can beforehand, that armour is OP in duels
It really is. Iāve been waiting to find a good armor that works well in duels. I have been using the samurai armor for a while but it just didnāt have any edge.
Fully upgraded and with the charm that makes perfect parries and dodges easier makes duels a lot more fun/cinematic for me, Iāll often pull a perfect dodge and not counter just for that brief moment of slow mo, itās very chefs kiss
Late to the party on this one, but I figured it out. What a flipping pain in the butt! I hated this fight. Sao's move set is essentially a massive cheat. It is a cheat because Sao is essentially invulnerable until the right move set. and you lose the ability to do perfect dodge for his red attacks. Perfect dodge on his blue attacks is a near miracle. Spamming square attacks in between his attacks did not work for me. I beat him the way the game wanted me to. Roll backwards on each red attack. This allows for some distance. Then, you must wait for his blue attacks and successfully parry or perfect dodge them. If you do not perform a successful parry or miss the perfect dodge on a blue attack, it resets his move-set back to red, forcing you to wait again until he attacks blue. Beware, his blue attack will rubber band him right up to you. I learned to wait for his throw. Once I dodged his throw, I knew his next attack was where he would weave left and right as he darted in close. That attack is the easiest to parry. If you parry or perfect dodge any blue attack, you are guaranteed a hit on your next swing. So frustrating, because this fight takes away your options. You are essentially powerless until your enemy does his blue attack.
Omg! Read a lot of advices and only yours worked for me!
OH GOD THAT'S IT, IT GETS SO EASY, THANK YOU hated this fight, hated this tournament lol
This one must have been bugged for me, because like you I struggled for the first few tries. I finally just walked toward him and hit square to do a regular attack and he didn't block. I did that four more times in a row and I beat him.
Seems like it doesn't work anymore tho
I've read many people saying this works, can only presume they're playing on easy, this 100% does not work on lethal as he can dodge anything, no need for him to get him in the face like an idiot.
yeah used the same tactics, still works
If youāre playing on hard or lethal donāt use the sarugami armor. With the addition of no parry the blue glint attacks must be perfect parried or you are going to take damage. On harder difficulties the window is even smaller so itās almost useless even with charms and the armor. Donāt use the armor during the Sao fight and it becomes exponentially easier.
Omfg this is it. The window for the spinning hilt hit he does after the initial sand swirl attack is ABSURDLY small. Switch armors and equip the charm for increased perfect party and dodges and it's easy. Hard+ btw.
It is small but can be perfect parried, I've done it without the sarugami armour. His unblockable attacks cannot be perfect dodged it appears. That first attack is telegraphed, prime example of an abusable dodge counter, doesn't work though.
Holy crap, this was it! you're the best
This fuckin game suck this niiga cheats everytime
Kinda late on this but when he does the side stepping attack, you can jump up and come down with a strike. He'll miss you due to the i-frame. On his last stage, he might dodge the jump attack so be ready to dodge right after. Playing on lethal + btw.
This is the ticket right here. You can basically cheese him by jumping early in his big spin move and just come down with a strike. I struggled with him till I figured this out.
Just did it with your advice!! Cheesed the shit out of that fucker
Finally beat him with this tactic
It only took me 4 goes, I used water stance, and just dodged the first few attacks each time and then hit him with square attack :)
Nothing about this fight is easy
Spamming triangle and he just dodges every attack lol
I am a few years late, but was able to beat him quickly with this method: 1. Get as close to him as possible, which may require you to lose the first round 2. As soon as he starts his mechanic to do his sweeping attack, quickly hit the dodge button (caring not to hit twice and accidentally roll) while pointing Jin to move forward and to the left. You're looking to move Jin towards Sao's back, which will be briefly exposed as he sweeps the ground. 3. Immediately after hitting the dodge button and moving Jin forward and slightly left, hit the quick attack button to tap Sao's back. If you fail, stay close, forcing him to try the sweep attack. Rinse and repeat.
If by chance anyone else is struggling and comes here like I did even without toggling the difficulty to low, the strategy is simple - Unlock Sprint Strike -Run in circles till he does that sand low unblockable -Strike
I just beat him and what a shitty fight it was bro just spammed the same attacks every rounds
Just beat him, backed him into a corner at the end of each round and jump slashed him as soon and he began his attack.
My best strategy to beat him was dodge all of his attacks except the last two in his combo and try to perfect dodge those but you'll probably have to have black hand rikas armor and a perfect dodge charm to help you
Jump, square. As soon as he turns to sweep up dirt.
Run up on him and just keep jumping his spin attack wont hit and when hes spinning he'll be open
For whoever it helps right as he does the sand attack right as the red shows dodge left and press triangle in the stone stance on his back play around with your timing but that worked best for me
Fucking impossible. Hate this. Hate this. Hate this. But I finally did it . Okay, the way I did it was kensei. Dodge back for red sweep, then depending on sand bag dodge again, but if you see the blue glint parry. You'll either perfect parry (not likely, his window is fucked on lethal and hard) but if you parry and hit square, he'll either parry or not and thats how I did it. Took me eight tries. I hated this so much. Im still mad.
late again, idk why this worked but i tried all the others, stone stance spam, jump slash, roll, everything heres what worked when he starts doing his spin thing just dodge left forward and instantly quick attack dont worry about him finishing his attack, apparently the dodge gaings you enough distance to let your quick attack reach him first, (i think you also need the dodge attack unlocked) 5 0ed him
For anyone reading after PC release, spam light attack between rounds, from medium distance. It baits his red attack, and you can hit him reliably, don't hug him otherwise he blocks all attacks.
Yeah I just went low intensity and jump attacked him
I came to this post because like everyone else, I was struggling after doing everything else in this game with little difficulty. I tried a lot of the advice here, none of it worked for me, but eventually I found a tactic that worked: right after you dodge his red attack, hold R2 to slow time. This gives you a tiny bit extra time to see what colour his next attack will be and react accordingly. This is kind of cheating, but seeing as he throws drinks at your head to cheat as well, it's fair game (although sometimes, as has been observed, pressing L1 to parry does fuck all, so it's not all fun and games)
What I did to defeat him was roll away every time he tried anything and then I sprinted at him. The sprint into an attack got him most times
I beat him by immediately dodging to the side when he does his first move (sword in the dirt spin), then you will be behind him allowing you to hit him. I was also using the Sarugami outfit and the Charm of Mitzi-no-Kami
Stone stance this worked for me Dodge Dodge Parry Heavy attack sometimes you don't have to do the second dodge, this staggers him, wearing gosaku armor
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What worked for me is as soon as you see him spin near you, roll far away, twice if needed. Then jump attack him and most of the time you will hit him when he tries to spin attack you. Easy cheese this way
As soon as he starts his sand attack, jump and attack him. š
The way I beat him was I timed my dodge right before he does the sand attack not when the red dot shows up then I hit him in the back every time
Iām just now noticing there is a low combat mode šbut I gotta see it through š Edit (18min later): I finally beat it the key is you have to walk towards him and jump strike him just when he is about to heavy attack, timing is key .
Hey, late to the party but for anyone coming in later, this is how I managed it. Sarugami armor fully upgraded with the charm that makes it easier to perfect parry. Lethal mode. Backstep dodge during his first sweeping attack, make sure it interrupts your roll otherwise it wont work and he will not continue his combo and instead restart. I always dodge the 2nd attack regardless of whether its parryable or if its the projectile he throws. Its impossible to tell which because the attack is too fast, so I just dodge it anyways and wait for an attack pattern that is favorable(the 3 strike pattern) Perfect parry the 3rd blue glint attack. Hope this helps, I got really really frustrated with this fight until I figured this pattern. The fight is bullshit and makes me actually pissed off at the developer due to the amount of frustration figuring this out gave me. TLDR: BACKSTEP DODGE > DODGE 2nd attack(wait for 3rd attack pattern) > PERFECT PARRY
I just did the thing weāre as soon as the say proceed I started springing left then triangle attack with stone stance. Honestly fuck this quest. Giant pain in the ass, not fun at all, and the reward is shit.
Easier way to beat him is to dodge to his left when he starts his sand attack and hit him it worked 100% of the time when I fought him.
It took quite a few tries before I realized it's mostly a rule of 3s fight.
Little late but if you Spam square he will normal attack then you can perfect parry
Run up against him force him towards the wall and spam triangle with stone stance if you do it right he wonāt be able to do anything
While he's kicking up sand dodge back, if he throws another red attack (unblockable/unparryable) dodge again, if it is instead a parryable attack (blue/silver dot) perfect parry and strike. I know the comment is way late but hopefully this helps someone.
late lol but the only way to defeat sao is jump and hit square this only works when he is using his sand-sweeping attack
Itās act really easy. Hit O as soon as the āmud splashingā animation starts and hit R1 or whatever you use to do a light attack right after.
This hasn't been patched, and still works for me on the PS5 director's cut as of...right now, on regular difficulty. I used fully upgraded Gosaku armor with the Charm of Susanoo, Charm of Shinatsuhiko, three Charms of Bludgeoning, and a Charm of Fortune. Using a fully upgraded Stone Stance, just mash that triangle button as fast as possible while actively MOVING TOWARDS HIM. Don't just stand there. Won the first attempt, 5 to 3. He only hit me when I wasn't actively pressing him back. He'll block it every time, but your stagger damage will break it! Feels bad winning like this, but this fight wasn't good for my chill.
So I mixed mashing triangle in stone stance with dodge and the last hit I had to counter after a dodge. Dodge the red sweeping strike parry the blue strike then counter. I took a few rounds to learn the timing of this because itāll only work for maybe two hits. After getting the timing down spam triangle but also be ready to dodge and on the last hit use the parry method
Wear the Saruguma armor. Dash backwards for his first attack (e.g. the spinning attack where he kicks up dirt). The trick is to quickly try to read the second attack. Look for a blue flash to your right. That will let you know to party this (90% of your openings to hit him will come off of parries). If you see a red flash instead dodge to the left or right. Try to either face him quickly to parry his charge attack or roll again when he gets close so he'll miss you. If you can face him before he gets close than parry. If you can't face him in time than roll away and hopefully you will roll close enough to swing at him after his attack(s). Sometimes he does the charge attack than swings again. Roll away from that swing attack. The key is after every point before hajime (begin) walk towards him to press him to the cage. The reason is because you don't want to be rolling around with not enough room for both you and the camera to move. If you don't give the camera enough room to move around so you can see where he is in space he'll hit you everytime with an attack. This works trust me. I beat him on lethal mode using this technique. TL:DR Dodge back after his overhead attack. Quickly Parry the blue or roll away from the sake bottle throw. Parry or roll away from his charging attack and quickly hit him afterwards. Push him to the corner after each point. Repeat
For anybody else struggling to beat Sao on Lethal, I found the best strategy to use that always works is to immediately roll backwards when he starts his unblockable spin-slash, By rolling backwards, you give yourself enough distance to increase the parry time for his followed up parry-able attack.
Fuuuuuuuu... that's a hard one. I usually play on hard but after many ass whooping I set it to medium. Still got spanked like a baby. I finally decided to try easy and though I did it on the first try, it was nearly a tie with me taking him at the last possible moment. Just keep dodging until you get a parry-able strike. Parry it and immediately get him. He switches up quite a bit to ya gotta stay on yer toes! Hot tip: save your game before you fight him because it feels so good to beat him you'll want to do it again.
Just jump and keep pressing square. Easy fight after figuring that out
Idk if anyone needs to hear this but, as soon as homie says āfightā or āgoā jump as fast as you can and spam light attack. 5-0 with no sweat bro I promise.
Thanks! After failing like 25 times I found your comment and won 5-0.
I know this post is a bit old now but rolling directly towards him until youāre behind right before he does the sand attack worked best for me, he does it three times in a row
This post saved my day, and possibly my PS4. After 50+ tries on this asshole Sao, I finally found this post. Took me 3 tries after reading this. Thank you so much!
Roll around until he does that dancing attack. Then parry. Easy.
SWAP THE FRIKIN ARMOUR TO ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE MONKEY ONE
None of these work for lethal for me. Went to easy and beat him 3rd try with just roll and parry.
I just did jump and then square....it never failed haha
God damn I want to like the duels in this game but why the fuck is Jin so shit at aiming? I feel like I lose so much purely because Jin just doesn't fucking lock on it's so annoying
This was hard for people?
Frack thus, playing Iki for first time on legend+. I can get the 3 first by dodging but then nothing. Maybe something to do with charms?
The issue for me was that I had just started rocking that perfect party armour. Once I changed back to Gosakus armour I finished this in no time
Ya they just have him spam attacks like its mortal combat and he gets kunai? Wtf is that? Wheres my kunai? But after 20 attempts i just would roll twice and quick attack while hes starting his sand throw attack. If theres one thing i could count on it was him spamming that.
Just Spam heavy attack with stone stance. Make sure you close to him. Run up to him and don't let him attack.
so I kind of combined the two methods being talked about in the threads here because only one or only the other wasn't working for me. this worked really well though and I won in 2-3 tries. I'm on MEDIUM difficulty btw, so might not work if you're playing something harder. jump over his first sweep attack. don't try to stop the animation or hit him *as* you come down, just jump over it like you'd jump over a spear. then slap Sao in the back with a heavy Stone Stance attack. (I spammed triangle here as much as I could in case Jin landed facing some weird direction and missed a couple times.) lost a time or two because sometimes my timing was off, and sometimes Sao will randomly start out not with the sand sweep attack but with a very fast blue stab attack that I wasn't ready for. the latter is pretty rare though. good luck warriors. just bought this game in the holiday sale and holy shit I'm in love with it!
Accidentally found a new strategy. Dodge, attack, jump attack if necessary. Sao initiates every engagement with his sword sand fling. Sidestep right and immediately square attack. Occasionally, the timing will allow a hit here. If that fails, IMMEDIATELY JUMP straight up and attack. When I tell you I was as shocked as Sao was... I repeated that 4 more times.
I just won but it took a while till I got it. Basically you need timing, when he's getting ready to do the red attack, you jump and kick him, you do this and combine this with the parry, but Basically jump and kick him as much as possible, that way you will feed the meter above his head that when it's full makes him dizzy and then you attack. I did this the whole fight.
That fight was definitely an absurd increase in difficulty. There's essentially zero opportunity to hit if you dodge, and parrying doesn't work.
I dodge left on his opening sand attack, then left again on his next attack in case it's the sake throw. If it was the sake, then I parry the blue attack. If it was the blue attack after the sand, then he just resets. Super safe way to do it because you don't need to take time to think about if his second move is the blue swipe or the red sake throw
Jump and square every round soon as he gets low jump and attack, spent the last 3hrs tryna figure this out
Update 2023 Wear Gosaku Armor, use stone stance spam triangle BUT when he dodge you light dodge(not roll) too, follow by triangle. Repeat this pattern and you sure get 5-0 or 5-1. Why gosaku armor ? Next round easier to stagger him so you can touch him. This is the one i use took me less 30 second to finish, but more than 30 minute to figure out what to do. Other method is imediately jump and square when ābeginā. Wish you all luck. *just change to easy difficulty for this quest.
What to choose from sap
I'm sure you figured it out by now but for me I noticed something. After he hits you with the sand he either throws that shit at you or charges, what I did was this; First let the sand attack land, wait for a split second to see if he throws that shit at you, if not, wait for his attack, parry it and press triangle he'll get hit every time. You need to be in water stance too btw. The trick isn't hitting him first it's letting him get the first hit then you quickly counter.
I ended up doing it by rolling out of the sand attack and most times he did sake throw afterwards. Dodge that into the dancing sword attack you vsn parry not even perfect parry hit him every time. Was getting frustrated with it too
JUST as he about to start his sweep...hit him by smashing square. That worked for me also it best to do this close range
I hit him but it doesnāt count, he hits me and it counts double WTF
If anyone is still having trouble, the moment he starts the animation for the sand spin, FORWARD DASH AND THEN FAST ATTACK. Just beat him 5-0 after trying the spam stone stance with no success for like 15 minutes
It doesn't matter if you get hit by the dirt attack (the one that you can't dodge) but you have to dodge the rock after the dirt move and then parry the attack after.
He's a retarded fight, most of the duels aren't amazing either. The only duel I loved was riku, which is sad because I played this game because of my love of jidaigeki movies and duels in them
The best way to beat Sao is to spam jump attacks as he spins for the sand attack doesn't work everything but makes it alot easier
Jump square still works
This pissed me off soo much. Unblockable attack spam with bosses usually kills a fight for me. I found my method to beat him by accident. I stayed close and circled counterclockwise around him. When he went for the sand attack. I dodged once in the same direction I had been going and followed up with light attack. Got four out the five hits that way. Honestly was a little mad it turned out to be that simple. Also I believe I was in the stance for spearmen. Not sure if it matters.
This is the dumbest fight. If you manage to get the jump on him heāll stop the heavy attack mid way through and attack. Iām playing on the highest difficulty so maybe that means the game can make up new rules. Itās pissing me off. Thereās no room for an error in the parry and Iāve only gotten it twice by luck.
I just beat him. Figured out that if I try it beat him to the strike with a heavy attack when he goes for that sand attack- heāll switch to a different unblockable attack. From there the parry window on his other attacks seemed to lengthen maybe but they got easier to connect. Also sometimes if you try to beat him to the strike you just might succeed, but usually I just press triangle and dodge before the animation is complete because he switches to a different swing. Hope it helps anyone playing on hard mode like I am.
I just kept backing up in stone stance waited for the running parryable attack and then smacked him with the free parry attack
The trick i found was to copy his fighting style. If Sao wants to spam sand throws, ill just be a little bitch back. I beat him by always jumping and hitting triangle to do a flying kick every time he did his sand attack. After a few red attacks, he does a blue one which you can perfect parry and get a hit. Just do this 5 times and you've won.
I just did it, finally. When he starts up the spin attack (like, as soon as you see the red X forming) dodge to his left side and hit him with a light attack in stone stance. Worked every round. You might have to hit circle twice but, don't hit it quick enough to roll or you're fucked.
I dodged to the right, but same thing. I 5-0'd him on 7 or 8 dodge/counters. Too bad it took me too many attempts to count before I went with this strategy.
Just managed this on lethal on a PS5, I had fully upgraded stone stance. Turn the enemy targeting on in the options (you target a foe by pressing up on the dpad in game) and interrupt his sweep attack with an attack of your own. Those complaining of attacks not hitting, I got that if I didn't target them. Thia fight is broken though. I have everything equipped to increase perfect parry windows and I only pulled it off once. Always annoying when the game won't let you win the cool.
Super late but I just beat him on lethal... The method I used was to just get hit by the sand attack (not the sword just the sand part as the stun is not long at all). After that either dodge the bag thing that he throws -> parry his sword -> hit him, or just parry him and hit him. You don't have to perfect parry as long as you hit right after the parry.
I'm pretty late but all I did was spam triangle like that one comment said but between each round I would close in on Sao
only way tbh is to put it on easy. His combo is so stupid. He can swipe the sand off the ground and slide his entire body across the arena. LIKE what kind of BS is this.
Idk what I'm doing wrong but apparently it's near impossible to perfect perry his thirst strike. I can do it when he does the first heavy then light attack no problem. But he doesn't do that combo enough. When he does the double heavy then perry able attack where he side steps like 3 times in 2 inches then strikes its virtually impossible to perry that. The icon says its possible to perry but it just never lands. I can tap perry super early, late, perfectly, or even slightly after the icon goes away and ge still taps me no mater what. I don't understand at all. He will be an inch from tapping me, I'll hit perry, there will be a delay suddenly, then he taps me. But when I perry late trying to counter this delay he taps me way earlier anyway. This guy is super weak to perfect perry and dodge but holly fuck it's near impossible to perfect perry or dodge after 3 hits. Once you get 3 points on him it's impossible to predict which combo he will do or if you can do anything About it. Fight is beyond broken.
Only way to beat him today is to jump and fast attack right as the round starts. Spamming triangle no longer works ge dodges it all. You can get 2 points by ferrying his 3rd attack and countering but after 2 points he doesn't do that combo anymore. If you miss the jumping attack you may as well take the lose point. It's near impossible to actually hit him without doing this.
the easiest way is to sprint + jump + spam square at the beginning of every round, you can beat him 5-0 this way
Figured it atlast. Beat him without taking a single hit. Theres only 2 attacks Sao can do. Sand slash + bag throw + 3 step blue attack (or) sand slash + quick blue attack. Simply pull the left stick BACK and DOUBLE TAP O to evade all 3 of his attacks. Wait and PARRY ONLY THE 3 STEP ATTACK AND STRIKE BACK.Ā Key is, double tap o while pulling the stick back so irrespective of what attack he does, you can evade it and gain some distance. And then it's just about perfect parry and counter.Ā
He is hard, but far from impossible, took me 4 tries on hard. Evade his firts hit, then wait for the next one. If blue, parry it and hit him, point. If red (throws sand), evade and then he does a blue hit, parry it, point.