Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - How death and resurrection work in the game

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice doesn't just have gameplay consequences when the player dies but also ties into the game's cryptic story this time around. In fact, the number of times the player dies in one playthrough will also alter the game's ending.

What's different this time around from the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games is that in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice the players can resurrect themselves twice once they die, giving them a fair advantage of dealing extra damage to the enemy who killed them in the first place by sneaking in from behind.

Some people might assume that this will make the game relatively very easy when compared to other Fromsoftware games but that is actually not the case. In fact, this makes the game even more challenging and difficult.

You see in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, once the player actually dies then they lose half of the XP they are carrying and like in Dark Souls games and Bloodborne they won't have the opportunity to retrieve them.

Aside from this, the most important thing tied to dying in Sekiro is that the more the player character dies, the more a sickness called Dragon Rot will spread in the game's world and alter the things happening around.

Just like in Dark Souls and Bloodborne, there are NPCs in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice that players can interact with. The more they die, the more this Dragon Rot will affect the NPCs they meet. For example - they might stop talking or sell stuff to them or just die (who knows).

The sickness is represented by an item called the Essence of Rot which will be added in the player's inventory every time an NPC gets affected. Apparently, this will also alter the game's ending in some ways.

Activision has however stated that there will be an option in the game to cure the disease but then didn't give a hint on how to do so. Even though dying means losing half the XP the players are carrying around, there will also be a way to avoid them, at times at least.

This will be possible by a mechanic called Unseen Aid. This mechanic is though completely random and will help player save their XP even after dying. Keep in mind however that more the Essence Rot a player is carrying, the lesser the chance of trigging Unseen Aid. Overall death has a huge consequence in Sekiro, even more than the previous Fromsoftware titles.

In other news, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice reviews won't be out Day 1 because Activision is planning not to send the review copies before launch.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is out 22 March 2019 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.