Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Multiplayer Mod Finally Exists

GameSpot’s 2019 Game of the Year, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is Japanese developer From Software’s most recent release. Unlike other From Software titles like Bloodborne or Dark Souls, Sekiro is a purely single-player experience, until now that is. Independent developer Luke Yui has developed a mod called Sekiro Online that allows up to six players to play through the samurai's journey together.

Sekiro focuses on heavily intricate combat, with foes trading blows and parries with precise timing. Patience and timing are the key to fighting and surviving through Sekiro, with the main damage mechanic revolving around breaking through an enemies ‘posture’ and striking a heavy blow. Adding more players to the mix breaks the tension of Sekiro’s combat, with every fight no longer feeling like a duel that could go either way, but more like a drunken tavern brawl.

The mod includes player-vs-player combat, with other players able to invade sessions similar to Dark Souls and Bloodborne player interactions. Friends can also be summoned as friendly phantoms that can play alongside the main character. This is again similar to using the bell in Dark Souls to get help on a boss fight from another play, only the player won’t disappear after the boss fight.

Both summoned and invading players are scaled to the host player's level to ensure a level playing field, preventing players from being trounced by a single invader or players using a higher level character to easily beat boss fights. Yui has found this method is the best way to balance out PVE multiplayer with the mod.

“For example, if you have 40 attack power and your opponent has 1 attack power, they will hit you as if they have 40 and you’ll hit them as if you have 1,” Yui explains on the mod page.

All players will need the mod installed to play together, along with the Steam version of the game on PC. Yui has no plans to expand the mod beyond any non-Steam version of the game at this time.

The current build is quite buggy, but Yui intends on releasing regular patches and updates to improve the player experience as much as possible. It took the modder months to create the multiplayer mod, so make sure to tune in over the next year or so to see how it has progressed.