Sekiro skill points - where to farm experience and money

Experience is primarily used to unlock new skills in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. You'll want as much of it as possible and occasionally that involves going on a farming expedition. But where are the best places to go experience farming, and do some have added benefits? Here, we'll be going over some of our favourite spots.

Those new and old to the library of From Software may wish to know more tips and tricks to get started, as well as some of the more complicated things that can occur while playing. Head to our Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice guide hub for everything you need to know.

It might also be useful to nab the Mask so you can spend experience points to upgrade your attack. Find out how in our Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice masks guide. Alternatively you can also take a look at our Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice boss for strategies for every boss in the game, as well as the Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice endings guide for the requirements to get the best ending.

Sekiro: Shadows Die skill point experience farming guide

This guide will give details of two decent late-game experience farming locations, as well as one for the beginning of the game. We'll begin with the best of the bunch, even if it's very late-game territory.

Best experience and Sen farming location

While there are easier ones, this one reaps the most rewards. When Ashina Outskirts becomes unavailable due to some invading forces, you'll need to travel from Old Graves in Ashina Castle and across the bridge. Kill the Juzou the Drunkard variant (this one spits fire) and make your way down the stairs and to the next courtyard. Scale the tower and look out to the cliff edge. You'll see the Outskirts Wall - Stairway Idol. Use it and rest. This will be your return point for the experience farming.

The samurai that you ran past or defeated here will reward you with plenty of experience, even at lower levels. The average experience per enemy you'll get is 662 experience, while tougher enemies reward you with 1324 experience. Scale the tower first and kill the gunman, before dropping behind it and to the base, while hiding in the grass, to kill the second. The third one is easily ambushed from behind the gate. Depending on how the next two are walking, you may be able to sneakily kill both, but prioritise the swordsman if you can't. The flamethrower has far less posture, so can be killed with ease.

Scale up to the wall and go through the hole to the right. Kill the small man with the pan and the samurai that's patrolling nearby.  Run across the left side (don't go down to the main courtyard) and kill the samurai waiting in ambush. Turn right and run across to take out the rifleman, before descending down. Kill the second rifleman and then the two samurai warriors as they are attacking the Ashina Castle guard. By doing this route, you'll get 8786 experience by killing the samurai, plus a small amount of bonus experience for killing the regular guards per run for around a minute and a half's worth of work. Simply use the Homeward Idol item to warp back to the Outskirts Wall - Stairway to go through it again. This method also rewards you with plenty of Sen to spend on items and upgrades to your prosthetics, as well as some invaluable materials. If you're doing this in subsequent NG+ modes, the experience reward will be higher.

Easiest experience farming location

If you'd rather not have the hassle, there's a much easier one by the Feeding Grounds Idol in Fountainhead Palace. The general idea here is to repeatedly kill a single enemy that's relaxing on the edge of the broken bridge. From the idol, jump across to the ground heading towards the cliff face. Turn right and find the purple spear corrupted man and approach. You can run up to him and backstab him before he fully gets up, but make sure you see the red indicator before attacking him. He's a lot easier to kill this way than fighting fairly. You'll get 1060 experience every time you kill him, and you can repeat the entire process three times in one minute.

The GIF above shows you the route from the Palace Grounds Sculptor's Idol to the Feeding Grounds Sculptor's Idol, but there's also description of the route below:

• From the Idol, head into the Palace.
• Turn right and head out the exit.
• Wrap around to the right and look for the grapple point that leads to above the palace.
• Run across the roof and look for the grapple point on a branch to the left.
• Grapple across to the other side. There will be enemies here.
• Make your way down to the ground level and activate the Idol here.

Decent early game experience farming

Finally, here are some decent locations for experience farming earlier in the game should you need it.

• The Outskirts Wall - Stairway Idol is also relatively good for early game experience. You'll need to have defeated the Chained Ogre, but if you then jump down, kill the two guards, then run up the hill to kill the spear guard, you should have a good amount of experience gained for a small amount of work. Just rinse and repeat.
• The Hirata Estate - Audience Chamber Idol has lots of easily ambushed enemies that you can find behind you. Two are indoors, while many are outside. You'll need to use an Axe Prosthetic attack against the shields if you're a lower level, but make sure the archer is eliminated as well to give yourself an easier time.

And those are the farming locations in Sekiro and how to get them. It's a good idea to have your PC optimised so that you have plenty of frames to dodge or deflect attacks. Katharine has had plenty of experience with the game's options menu, so head to our Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice PC graphics performance guide to find out the best settings for your rig.