It’s time to slay some Yokai.
Nioh is quite a bit more than just Dark Souls with Samurai – it’s a convincing blend of the action-packed combat Team Ninja made its name for with Ninja Gaiden with some of the RPG structure and challenging difficulty that made the Souls series great. Part of that formula are the bosses – massive, epic encounters that you’re sure to die to a few times before learning their patterns and fighting style, eventually learning to use that against them.
Some bosses are harder than others, however, and so below we’ve put together our guide to the bosses in the game. It’s a work in progress as we work through the game for the second time, starting with a focus on the bosses found throughout Nioh’s main story quest. Don’t let the frustration get you – get even!
Needless to say, there’ll be spoilers of boss names and strategies on this page.
Derrick the Executioner – Tower of London (Mission Level 1)
This first boss battle is really about as simple as they come, since it’s the battle that tops off the starting area. It’s really designed to test your knowledge from throughout the prologue level, which is basically a lengthy disguised tutorial for what the rest of the game will be.
The good news is that Derrick is big and lumbering, meaning all of his moves have pretty obvious tells and wind-ups as you approach him. The basic strategy here is to make Derrick whiff: dodge his heavy attacks, and when he swings and spectacularly misses that’s your cue to get in there and lay on some hits to do some damage. At this point in the game you’ll have a lot less weapon choice, so allow us to make a base suggestion: use the battle axe. It’ll smash him.
Eventually he’ll transfer into a second phase (because of course he does), you’ll want to hang back a bit. He’ll charge at you like a big ol’ idiot, and once again you can sidestep him and get in on him while he’s open from his ill-considered dash towards you to attack. Keep this up and he’ll go down quickly enough.
Onryoki – Isle of Demons (Mission Level 5)
After old Derrick, second boss Onryoki might well be viewed as the first ‘true’ boss of the game. He’s an enormous demon that swings chain balls around – and even if you’re blocking, you really want to ideally avoid being hit by them. If you’re not blocking it’s going to really, really hurt. As such, this is a test of dodging as much as it is of offence, and it can be a humbling test indeed.
Your basic strategy for this battle should be to walk in a little closer and wait for him to swing the balls about wildly. Eventually he’ll slam his balls into the ground, baited (hur hur) – just don’t get hit (great advice, I know) and watch out for the second ball, which he sometimes uses to sweep the area. Once he’s stopped swinging, dash in and lay on some pain and as he recovers dodge back. This is the rhythm for the fight: let him swing his weapon about wildly, and when he tires and comes to a point where he’s forced to stop, dash in and hit him as much as you can while remaining safe.
Elements of this boss might frustrate, but one gets the impression that the developers intend this as a deliberate skill-check on your ability to dodge. Die a few times if you must – what’s important is to learn the tells in Onryoki’s animation to have an idea of when he’s going to attack. Dodge carefully. We found the low stance was best for this battle thanks to its dodge speed and stamina/ki savings.
If things go really badly wrong you might find some healing items in the boxes in the room, so smash them or goad him into doing so. Eventually you’ll get the chance to break the chains to detach his balls – do that. This is basically phase two now: instead of swinging them, he’ll pick up the balls and throw them at you. Dodge if this happens, but also try to keep him from them, but beware of his stubby but very powerful attacks at close-range. Pretty soon he’ll drop.
Hino-enma – Deep in the Shadows (Mission Level 12)
Hino-enma is found in the third chapter of Nioh’s main story in a mission titled Deep in the Shadows and is the third boss you’re likely to face. This boss is found inside a cave, and in a cutscene this yokai will swing down from the rafters. She has wings, and, yes – she can fly. That makes things a little more complicated, though I actually found her quite a bit easier than Onryoki.
She basically has two types of attacks – projectile attacks that aim to hit you with either spikes or a blast of wind, or a dash to you that body-slams you. For most of the battle she’ll be at a distance and so these will be your primary worries, but if she gets in close she has a few different close-quarters attacks too. Generally speaking, you want to keep her at range at first and then try to lock her down once you close the distance. Spears are great for this battle thanks to their enhanced reach over other options.
The ultimate key is to avoid her projectile attacks. These things are deadly and can lead you from full strength to death in a matter of seconds – but they’re also well choreographed, with Hino-enma’s animation making well clear what she’s up to before she does it. Dodge and block.
The best bet is to wait for one of her dashing body slam attacks. Avoid it, using low stance to have the fastest available dodge. Switch stances once she’s close by and strafe around her, aiming to launch an attack each time your strafing and dodging causes her to whiff. Only get as close as you need to for your weapon to make contact – get too close and she’ll be far more likely to catch you. Eventually, she’ll be downed.
Nue – The Spirit Stone Slumbers (Mission Level 19)
Nue is Nioh’s fourth boss and is an enormous yokai that is a mangled mix of several types of animal. It can fly and spit lightning and poison at you – it’s a deadly one. As with Hino-enma for this encounter we recommend a spear so that you can snipe damage off Nue here and there without getting caught up in its attacks by being too close. Use low stance so that you have the maximum ability to move and dodge at speed.
The key here is to wait for Nue to use its lightning or poison attacks; when it does, dodge about to the side and get in to attack. The lightning and poison attacks lock Nue down for some time, giving you plenty of time to get in, let rip some combos, then retreat before the beast is able to raise its defences once more
Once Nue takes enough damage that its Ki is depleted, then is a good time to deploy your Guardian Spirit and really go to town. Go nuts, and if you’re aggressive enough this beast won’t even have the time to recover from its depleted Ki state.
Tachibana Muneshige – The Spirit Stone Slumbers (Mission Level 19)
Tachibana Muneshige is the second boss in The Spirit Stone Slumbers main mission and is the fifth boss in Nioh’s main story progression. He’s also just a dude, something we haven’t seen since lumbering old Derrick. Tachibana is also encountered as part of the side mission ‘An Invitation from the Warrior of the West’, and much of what we write here applies to that (admittedly harder) encounter with him.
Given that this is a one-on-one duel, it’s unsurprisingly about defence as much as offense. Try to dodge rather than block, and when you manage to dodge and force him to whiff one of his attacks, get in and counter hard. While in previous boss fights we’ve recommended low stance for speed, here we’d recommend medium – it allows you to dodge but medium stance’s heavy attacks are an ideal damage-dealer for this encounter. The spear or sword both seemed to work great in equal measure for this encounter, though given that he’s not the fastest to recover the spear allows for a little more distance for safety’s sake.
Once he’s out of ki, you’ll want to knock him over and perform a ground attack on him (Triangle) to really deal massive damage. Ultimately this isn’t too challenging a fight, and the dodge-and-weave dance that you end up doing is reminiscent of Derrick.
Great Centipede – The Silver Mine Writhes (Mission Level 27)
Seventh on Nioh’s list of deadly main story bosses is the Great Centipede, and this boss is… pretty much exactly what you’d expect based on its name. That goes for how gross it is too, for better or worse…
The first phase of this boss is pretty simple – get in close and attack its legs. That’s the weak point. For this I used low stance with a sword, essentially getting in close and slicing and dicing like a mad-man. If it dashes at you with its pincers, don’t worry too much about dodging – just block instead and then kite around to attack the legs. The Great Centipede also rears up; if it does, be ready to dodge to the side as it slams back down to the ground.
The key trick for this fight is to try to always remain behind this boss; block an incoming pincer or slam attack, then dodge around to the rear of the centipede and go to town on its legs. It’ll turn to face you and rear up for one of its attacks – when it does, block, then again dodge back around behind it. Follow this basic rhythm for the entire fight and though while challenging the Great Centipede won’t really get a chance to deploy its nastiest, dirtiest tricks and will soon enough fall.
More to come! Bookmark this page… if bookmarks are even still a thing.
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