There are a lot of different skills and abilities you need to master if you want to dominate in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, but one of the most important is Posture. A pseudo stamina bar, both you and every enemy in the game has this meter. When you attack enemies the yellow bar in their Posture meter will begin to fill. Once it’s completely yellow, that foe will be susceptible to a death blow and dealt heavy damage. Just like health, you can actually upgrade this ability throughout Sekiro.
To upgrade your Posture meter you’ll need to obtain and turn in 4 prayer beads. These beads are littered throughout the map and can be turned into the Sculptor’s Idol. Doing so will instantly increase both your health and Posture bars. You won’t need to choose between one or the other, which makes obtaining these beads critical if you want to succeed against Sekiro’s toughest foes.
You can find most of the prayer beads on the corpses of bosses and sub-bosses you kill. Most of the time these are named enemies such as generals or specific beasts such as the Blazing Boar. Slaying one will net you a single prayer bead, so make sure to actually kill as many as possible. Additionally, you can find prayer beads hidden throughout the world, but this is pretty rare – especially in the early game.