'Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice' Progression Details Revealed

New details on the progression system in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice have been revealed, a system which includes skill trees and some deviations from the level-up mechanics in the Dark Souls series.

Game Informer spoke with FromSoftware and learned more about the game's progression system. Distinct, specialized builds such as Dark Souls creations which utilized strength weapons, dexterity weapons, or magic are out, but players can still customized the game's protagonist to fulfill different playstyles. Experience points will also be the game's way of leveling up the protagonist, but there's also another resource available where gold drops from defeated enemies.

But also unlike the Dark Souls games, players won't lose this experience when they die, nor will their gold be lost. Sekiro director Hidetaka Miyazaki told Game Informer that there's still a detrimental effect associated with dying, so Dark Souls veterans can't totally ignore their learnings from past games, but Miyazaki didn't elaborate on that the effect would be.

After leveling up, players will net themselves a skill point which can be used in different skill trees, but those paths will have to be unlocked first. These paths are unlocked via special items which are found around the world, though details such as whether or not those items can be missed or have to be acquired in a particular order weren't provided. Some of the skill trees previewed so far include a shinobi arts tree, a samurai arts tree, and a third which lets players build up their prosthetic arm that's used to attack enemies and traverse the environment. Each skill tree has different pathways to allow players to progress through them with the trees focusing on different attributes like evasiveness or power.

Experience and leveling up won't be the only ways players progress their characters though with in-game items found throughout the world providing different benefits. Finding four prayer beads levels up players' posture and health, Game Informer said, and the tools which augment the prosthetic arm to make it shoot out shuriken and spit flames can also be found throughout the world.

Yasuhiro Kitao, manager of marketing and communications with FromSoftware, shared info on how the progression system shapes the game as well as some insight from Miyazaki himself.

"This is actually using Miyazaki-san's own words – You could think of the previous Souls games as more expanding laterally, and adding breadth to these various options and builds," Kitao said. "While you are a fixed shinobi protagonist, you do feel like there's a sense of progression, there's a sense of building your own character and finding your own playstyle, and experimenting with this throughout the game."

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is scheduled to release on March 22nd.