Sekiro General Kuranosuke Matsumoto fight - how to beat and kill General Matsumoto
How to beat the mini boss General Kuranosuke Matsumoto in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
General Kuranosuke Matsumoto is the next mini boss in Sekiro, found in the game's AShina Castle area, following immediately on from Blazing Bull in the game and indeed our walkthrough of the game's bosses and mini-bosses.
You'll find General Kuranosuke Matsumoto waiting for you at the top of the stairs, straight on from the Sculptor's Idol you find at the entrance to Ashina Castle after beating the Blazing Bull.
Below, we'll cover how to beat and kill Sekiro's General Kuranosuke Matsumoto, including any particularly strong methods or weaknesses they might have and any handy things to bear in mind.
For more guides and pages like this, meanwhile, cycle back to our main Sekiro walkthrough and boss guide hub.
Sekiro General Kuranosuke Matsumoto fight - how to beat and kill General Kuranosuke Matsumoto
General Kuranosuke Matsumoto is a tricky mini boss, in the same style of the other Generals you'll have face a couple of times by now already.
The frustrating thing is that he's surrounded by several riflemen, which will make your life living hell if you try to fight him with all of them still alive.
That means you have to take them out, which is time consuming and requires some stealth, but it also means you'll be free to land a stealth Deathblow on General Kuranosuke Matsumoto once you're done and take him down to just the one Deathblow mark for your face-to-face battle.
To clear out the gunners, use the rooftops to either side. Sneak up on either the left or right, drop down for a deathblow, and then whilst you're still in the Deathblow animation, unlock the camera and sprint back downhill. Grapple up at the first opportunity, get the other side of some rooftops or walls and hide, and repeat.
We found the best wall for running to and hiding behind was on the left side as you look up the steps, just in front of the gunners. There's a little area here where you can hide and no one can see you, and no other enemies around - over on the right hand side there are quite a few enemies that can spot you on the rooftops as you flee, making things even more awkward.
Repeat this until all the riflemen are gone, then sneak back one last time to get behind General Kuranosuke Matsumoto for a backstab Deathblow, and the fight begins.
Looking for more Sekiro pages like this? First up, the first main Sekiro patch notes for update 1.03 are live. Otherwise, our Sekiro boss guide, boss list and walkthrough hub has everything in one place, including pages on Lady Butterfly, Genichiro Ashina Way of Tomoe, Folding Screen Monkeys, Corrupted Monk, Guardian Ape, Great Shinobi Owl, Emma and Isshin Ashina, True Corrupted Monk, and Divine Dragon. We also have in-depth pages like Sekiro tips and tricks to get you started, Sekiro Skills, skill tree and Esoteric Text locations explained, our deep dive on the Sekiro combat system, Posture, and Perilous Attacks, or details on all Sekiro Prosthetic Tool locations, how to cure Dragonrot and Rot Essence in Sekiro, Gourd Seed locations, a Divine Confetti farm route method, all Treasure Carp Scale locations, all, Prayer Beads locations and all Snap Seed locations, too. And when you're ready - the how to beat Isshin Sword Saint and an Isshin Sword Saint cheese, plus the many Sekiro endings.
How to beat General Kuranosuke Matsumoto
General Kuranosuke Matsumoto is probably the trickiest General-style mini boss so far, but he's still very beatable.
He has two main Perilous Attacks - a sweep and a thrust - which are countered in the usual ways (jump on his head, deflect/Mikiri Counter).
The main thing to note is that he has quite a tricky attack pattern, but there are a few opportunities you can use to get damage in during it.
One is his jump attack, which looks scary but is actually a great window for attack if you're feeling bold. When he jumps go for one quick slash then instantly block, and that'll mean you both deal Vitality damage with the slash and heavy Posture damage straight after.
Otherwise, we recommend you keep your guard up for a few encounters with him first, as he has one particularly hard to read move where he feints, then elbows you and follows up with a big slash of his sword. Once you get a good read on that and his regular rhythm, try some consecutive deflections and combined with the other tips above, he'll fall soon enough.
He does also, very rarely, do that 'channelling' move the other Generals have, where he stops to meditate or charge up for a moment and some white-blue streams of air appear around him. Always attack him when he does this, as quick as possible, for some free damage.
That's all you'll hopefully need for tackling this encounter. Next up is Ashina Elite Jinsuke Saze, or you can cycle back to our main Sekiro walkthrough and boss guide hub for much more bosses, explainers and advice.