Combat guide: Sha-Chi, parries & Breach

Light attacks and dodges are free. Heavy attacks and Sha-Chi combos spend Sha-Chi but break the enemy's gauge faster. Holding block drains it on every hit; if it reaches zero your guard breaks and you are stunned.

Switching primary weapons fully recovers your Sha-Chi — the demo's own loading tip adds “with good timing, this could save lives.” Swapping to a Phantom Edge does not. The swap itself performs a quick attack that extends the combo.

• To parry, tap L1 just before an incoming attack lands. A precise parry negates the Sha-Chi cost and reduces the attacker's Sha-Chi.
• Blue attacks (Brutal Moves) drain huge amounts of Sha-Chi if blocked — parry them.
• Red attacks (Killer Moves) cannot be blocked or parried — dodge with R1 at the last moment.
• Countering either triggers a Ghostep: Soul reappears behind the enemy, your gauge refills and theirs takes heavy damage.

Sha-Chi Essence (L2)

Built by parrying. Spent by weapon surges — 1 per use on every card shown so far.

Demo build

Remnant Spark (R2)

Phantom Edge charges, shared by both edges. 10 in the demo. Refilled at bells.

Official footage

• Bells are the checkpoints. Ringing one heals you, refills potion charges and reveals part of the region's ink map; any discovered bell is a fast-travel point.
• Near a bell, a thin red thread links to Soul and points the way to it.
• Boss fights keep their phase: players who died in a boss's second phase restarted at that phase, not from the top.
• Death costs nothing — there is no currency to drop and recover.
• Respawns are disputed: most hands-ons say enemies stay dead when you rest, one January 2026 report says resting resets them. It will be settled at launch.

• “Parry blue and dodge red. Keep this in mind and you'll go far.”
• “Breach enemies by depleting their Sha-Chi! Breached targets can't block and take extra damage.”
• “Switching primary weapons fully recovers your Sha-Chi. With good timing, this could save lives.”
• “Stay in concentration mode to automatically block all incoming attacks. Except for those with blue/red warning signs, that is.”
• “Assassinating or executing enemies has a higher chance to recover potion charges.”

Captured from the 2025 demo builds. “Concentration mode” is holding L1: it blocks everything except the coloured attacks, which need a parry or a dodge.

Keep combos on a target until its Sha-Chi runs out and it is breached. Sha-Chi combos breach faster. A breached enemy cannot block and takes extra damage — the window for execution chains, which can hit several enemies in one cinematic finisher.