Sekiro guide: The best items to buy

Sekiro isn’t exactly teeming with items like other FromSoftware games, but there’s enough to make managing them overwhelming. In this guide, we’ll simplify things and explain our favorite items to buy and use.

Spirit Emblems

At the beginning of the game, there’s almost nothing that you can buy with sen. In fact, there’s almost nothing available except Spirit Emblems. They’re the fuel you burn to use your Shinobi Prosthetics like your shuriken (and also some … other things that you won’t get for many, many, many, many, many, many hours). You can buy Spirit Emblems from any Sculptor’s Idol.

You lose half of the sen you’re carrying when you die (unless you receive Unseen Aid), and you really won’t need much sen to buy anything for quite a while, so there’s no need to save up.

Our advice is simple: Spend your money on Spirit Emblems.

This applies at any time, really, but it’s particularly acute when you hear the sound of the sen that you might lose jingling in your pocket. Especially early on, don’t donate your sen back to the game when you die. Don’t face a boss while you’re holing hundreds of sen. Put it to good use. Buy Sprit Emblems, which are as useful in hour one as they are in hour 50.

Gourd Seeds

Gourd Seeds are arguably the most valuable item in Sekiro because they allow you to take another swig from the magic health potion in your Healing Gourd. More health means more healing, which means less death (probably).

You’ll get Gourd Seeds from defeating certain enemies and (rarely) just sitting in the world. Sometimes, merchants will sell them, too.

FromSoftware/Activision via Polygon

Whenever you see a Gourd Seed for sale, stop whatever you’re doing, and make it your mission to buy it. There are a couple of ways to do that.

You could consume the Coin Purses in your inventory to get more money. A Light Coin Purse will get you 100 sen, a Heavy Coin Purse is 500 sen, and a Bulging Coin Purse is worth 1,000 sen. If you do a little math and determine that you can afford it, use those Coin Purses right then and there. We straight up can’t imagine a better use of your money. (But if you need to make more money, don’t open those Coin Purses until you’re out of danger and standing in front of the merchant.)

If you don’t have enough sen or Coin Purses, warp to a Sculptor’s Idol and run a loop around the area to kill enemies and collect sen. Repeat the process as long as it takes to earn the price of the Gourd Seed.

If you’re just farming for sen, consider using a Mibu Balloon of Wealth. That item temporarily lets you “acquire more coin for a period of time,” as the item’s description says. You won’t see astronomical gains, but if you’re out farming for cash, that’s the perfect time to use it.

Or you can do a combination of that the two methods above. Regardless, buy your Gourd Seed, give it to Emma at the Dilapidated Temple, and drink more deeply.

Coin Purses

For hours, this seemed like a classic FromSoftware prank to us. Why would you buy a Light Coin Purse that holds 100 sen for 110 sen?

And then it dawned on us: You can buy coin purses to protect your sen.

You’ll likely lose half of the sen you’re carrying when when you die. But the sen in Coin Purses stays with you. For a 10 percent tax, you can effectively put 100, 500, or maybe even 1,000 sen into savings and keep it safe.

Merchants only have limited quantities of Coin Purses, so don’t go wild. Save them for a time when you really want to keep your money.