Onimusha Way of the Sword Boss Guide (Carnage Difficulty)

Onimusha: Way of the Sword features 18 main boss fights. This guide walks you through the best tactics for defeating every one of them on the highest difficulty “Carnage”, listed in the same order as they appear in the Boss Rematch sub-menu in the Practice Ground. Beating the game on Carnage difficulty unlocks the True Onimusha trophy/achievement. Beating all bosses on all difficulties in Boss Rematch mode unlocks the Glutton for Punishment trophy/achievement.

General Tips

1. Set your controller to the Defense fighting style. It’s the safer and more accessible option, with a control scheme in line with most action games these days, thus introducing a less steep learning curve.
2. Do your first playthrough on Action (Medium) difficulty. Doing so is the best way to prepare for Carnage mode. Carnage difficulty isn’t available on the first playthrough, it unlocks after beating the game once (the videos below are captured on Carnage difficulty). You can also experiment with turning off Action Prompts during the first playthrough to feel the difference, since Action Prompts are automatically disabled on Carnage. Action Prompts tell you which button to press for every attack shown on screen, but they won’t tell you when to press it – and that timing is the whole game. If you learn this timing during the first playthrough you’ll have an easier time on Carnage later.
3. Hold off on spending Oni Stones until you can unlock Oni Vision: Treasures, Oni Vision: Treasures 2, and Oni Vision: Search Range. Together, these three Special Skills make it far easier to track down every collectible in the game, from equipment-enhancement materials to chests holding Power and Oni Stones. While exploring, get into the habit of holding and repeatedly pressing so nothing of value slips past you.
4. Complete the side content. As you work through the story, make it a priority to tackle side content along the way. It rewards you with key enhancement materials and new charms that help you grow stronger and settle on the build best suited to your playstyle.
5. You’ll quickly find that you’re barely making a dent in bosses’ health. From here, you have two real options: master Deflect to whittle down enemy stamina and leave them open to a riposte, or master Issen outright. The latter is far less forgiving, owing to its razor-thin timing window — but if you make a habit of going for Issen instead of a perfect dodge, you’ll find it isn’t nearly as brutal as it sounds. If you’d rather play it safe, simply dodge, particularly against bosses with very fast attacks. Almost all bosses follow this one pattern: deflect or counter with Issen, deplete their stamina bar, siphon their souls, rinse and repeat.
6. Once you unlock the Oni Awakening skill, weave regular parries into your fighting style too. Every parry gradually fills the Blazing Gauge (the blue meter in the bottom corner of the screen). Once it’s full and Blazing State kicks in, you deal more damage and stand a better chance of blue souls appearing. Blue souls are essential for using Oni Armaments, which, once activated, generate purple souls and, in turn, build up your Oni Awakening gauge.
7. When you transform into a full Oni once the gauge is maxed out (press and simultaneously), resist the urge to press straight away for the devastating finisher. Instead, focus on landing Issen strikes – which become dramatically easier while in Oni Awakening state – and save for the finishing blow only once the meter is on the verge of running dry.
8. On your first playthrough, try to go easy on consumables. Hold on to as many as you can for your Carnage run, especially Amulets of Introspection, Sun-Dried Hozukis, and Stimulants, all of which prove invaluable during the final boss fight.
9. Bosses in this game are dynamic, meaning they can slip into their enhanced state much sooner depending on how much damage you take and what type it is. In other words, take too much damage too early and they’ll enter their enhanced state well ahead of schedule, making the fight considerably tougher.
10. Virtually everything can be countered with Issen, bar a handful of attacks that can only be dodged, and any white-glowing attack. It’s purely a matter of nailing the timing window. The more Issen counters you land, the higher the reward in terms of absorbable soul types.
11. After depleting an enemy’s stamina bar, you can choose between red soul sparkles, allowing you to deal direct damage to a boss, or purple ones, which release yellow (health), blue (Oni Power) and purple souls (Oni Awakening). Neither is a wrong choice – it’s really about reading the situation – though avoiding red soul damage is generally the safer bet.

Recommended Builds

1. Recommended build for 1st Playthrough (Action Difficulty)

1. Maxed-out Charm of the Healer (boosts healing effectiveness)
2. Maxed-out Charm of Protection (reduces health lost when hit)
3. Maxed-out Fencer’s Strength Charm (boosts regular attack power)
4. Maxed-out default Hozuki Pouch

2. Recommended build for 2nd Playthrough on Carnage Difficulty

1. Maxed-out Charm of Awakening (increases the Awakening gauge’s fill rate)
2. Maxed-out Charm of Oni Power (increases the Oni Power gauge’s fill rate)
3. Maxed-out Fencer’s Strength Charm (boosts regular attack power)
4. Maxed-out default Hozuki Pouch

3. Recommended build for Minamoto no Yoshitsune (specifically for Carnage Difficulty)

1. Maxed-out Charm of Awakening (increases the Awakening gauge’s fill rate)
2. Maxed-out Charm of Oni Power (increases the Oni Power gauge’s fill rate)
3. Maxed-out Fencer’s Strength Charm (boosts regular attack power)
4. Maxed-out default Hozuki Pouch
5. Following consumables
   1. Heavy Restorative
   2. Amulet of Introspection
   3. Stimulants
   4. Sun-Dried Hozuki
   5. Greater Defense Talisman
   6. Greater Might Talisman

Boss #1: Byakue

Difficulty: 2.5/10

Strategy: The Byakue is a hulking white monster clad in talismans in place of fur, wielding a massive axe. The trick to this fight is simple: dodge when he isn’t swinging his axe, and deflect when he is. Once you’ve nailed the timing, you can counter every one of his attacks with Issen — except when he shoulder charges you or charges in with a sprint. He’ll occasionally unleash a blue attack in which he lashes out with his talisman hair; press right before his hair makes contact. Rinse and repeat until he’s down.

Boss #2: Byakue (Enhanced)

Difficulty: 3/10

Strategy: This fight plays out much like the standard Byakue, with the same strategy applying almost across the board — bar one wrinkle. Once his health drops below 50%, he wreathes his axe in Malice. From there, he’ll either slam it into the ground (dodge this by jumping right before impact) or spew pools of Malice, which you’ll want to steer well clear of to avoid losing health. Everything else about the fight remains unchanged.

Boss #3: Dohatsu-ten

Difficulty: 3.5/10

Strategy: Dohatsu-ten is a devil wielding a massive katana. Beyond his standard, deflectable attacks, he’s fond of kicking you square in the face. When he does, you can either attempt a perfect dodge or simply parry/deflect at the cost of some stamina. At some point in the fight, you may notice that none of your attacks are making a dent — if so, press and together to break his defense.

He occasionally unleashes white-glowing attacks that can only be parried or deflected; he’ll bark “No escape” right before landing one. If you put enough distance between yourselves, he’ll hurl sword slashes at you that can be sent right back with a well-timed deflect — a good tell that he’s winding up for one is when he shouts “Shatter,” “Prepare,” or “Perish.”

Once he shifts into his enhanced state, he starts teleporting rapidly around the arena, with every teleport ending in a deflectable attack — sometimes with his weapon wreathed in Malice. During this state, if there’s too much distance between you, he’ll close the gap with a dash into a devastating slash, which can likewise be deflected.

Boss #4: Dohatsu-ten (Enhanced)

Difficulty: 3.5/10

Strategy: The same fight as above, with one caveat: he can unleash some of his enhanced-state attacks even in the fight’s early stages.

Boss #5: Nue (Blue) and Nue (Red)

Difficulty: 3/10

Strategy: The two Nues are chimeras with serpent tails that wield electrical attacks. This fight is more a test of patience than skill, and the key to victory is perfect-dodging the bulk of their attacks. I’d recommend not locking on to either Nue at all — leaving the camera free makes it far easier to read when they’re about to strike. With the camera unlocked, stay aggressive toward whichever Nue is nearest, landing katana slashes while staying ready to dodge their claw swipes, lunges, or head and tail smashes — and always keep half an eye on whatever the other Nue is up to. When a Nue raises its tail to shield its face, break its guard with and .

Once either Nue’s health drops to roughly half, its tail joins the fight in earnest. Their attack patterns barely change, but every so often the tail will hiss and fire off electrified orbs, which you can deflect straight back at them.

Once one Nue falls, it’s simply a matter of finishing off the other using the same dodging and deflecting approach outlined above.

Boss #6: Sasaki Ganryu

Difficulty: 3.5/10

Strategy: The game’s true first boss, Sasaki Ganryu spends most of the fight weaving around the arena, combining quick, piercing strikes with slower, wave-like delayed ones — all clearly telegraphed, even the delayed attacks. He’ll occasionally leap into the air for a stomp attack, which you can dodge or shut down with Issen, and every so often he’ll reach out with his left hand to grab you. This is a blue attack, so press right before the hand connects. Nothing too difficult for the first story boss.

Boss #7: Sasaki Ganryu (Altered)

Difficulty: 7/10

Strategy: The second-toughest fight in the game. This is the same Sasaki Ganryu from earlier, now in his enhanced form and backed by his Oni, Gioh. The fight unfolds across two phases, each with its own separate health bar, and the boss hits astonishingly hard — on Carnage, he can kill you in two hits if you let your guard down.

His katana attacks stay broadly the same throughout, but land much faster, especially his thrusting strike. He can also leap into the air for a slash attack that’s slow enough to deflect comfortably. Whenever you deplete his stamina bar, go for purple souls to quickly top up both your Oni Awakening and Oni Power gauges, then transform into an Oni whenever you can to land a few Issen strikes.

Throughout the fight, his Oni companion, Gioh, joins in with her own katanas for quick strikes, which can likewise be deflected — these aren’t always easy to spot, so keeping an eye on her tentacles is a habit worth building. Gioh can also replenish Sasaki’s stamina bar by siphoning the red flower plants scattered around the arena; when she extends her neck to do so, quickly draw your Oni bow and shoot her in the neck to break her concentration.

In phase two, once Sasaki shouts “Smash him flat, Gioh!”, her tentacles turn purple, adding two new attacks to her arsenal: she’ll either try to slam you into the ground with them, or lash out with her neck while you’re busy attacking Sasaki. Both are easily avoided with a perfect dodge or countered with Issen. A third of the way into phase two, Gioh wreathes Sasaki’s katana in Malice, unlocking his most fearsome attack — a blisteringly fast, white-glowing strike capable of killing you outright, especially on Carnage. One further attack that seems to crop up at random in either phase is Gioh’s blue mouth grab, which must be countered by pressing at just the right moment. In the closing stages of phase two, Sasaki imbues the ground with Malice, sending red sword-slash waves surging toward you — these, too, can be easily deflected or dodged through.

Boss #8: Daidara

Difficulty: 3/10

Strategy: Daidara is a massive, armour-plated troll wielding a giant mace. The fight unfolds across two phases, each with its own separate health bar — but don’t let that fool you, because the boss himself is fairly weak and ranks among the easier fights in the game. His biggest weakness by far is indeed his sluggishness: nearly every attack is heavily telegraphed, making them easy targets for a perfect deflect.

The one thing to watch closely throughout the fight is his habit of siphoning any blue souls left hanging in the air if you don’t grab them first. Let him do that too often and he’ll grow steadily more powerful, hastening his slide into his enhanced state — you’ll know he’s reached it once his belly starts glowing red. One further attack worth noting in phase one is a sprint straight at you, which can be dodged with the right timing.

In phase two, he adds a blue hand-grab attack that can be deflected with a well-timed counter. His single most devastating move is when he licks his mace before swinging it around — if it connects, you’ll be sent hurtling across the room and take substantial damage.

Boss #9: Rasho-gan

Difficulty: 4/10

Strategy: Rasho-gan is a multi-armed monster wielding a katana who takes evident delight in hurling every projectile imaginable at you, from Malice orbs to entire trees. The fight spans two phases, each with its own separate health bar.

In phase one, the very first thing to do is activate your Oni Vision skill (hold , then press ), which highlights the cord he’s tethered to — shoot it down with your Bow to weaken him. Second, if you let too much distance build up between you and the boss, he’ll start swirling blobs of Malice at you in rapid succession, which can be genuinely tricky to perfectly deflect; do your best to deflect them, or parry them at the very least by holding down . If he instead lobs a larger, bubble-like Malice orb your way, shoot it down with your Bow. Beyond that, he mostly sticks to regular katana attacks that are easily deflected with proper timing, though two are worth watching for in particular: one where he leaps into the air, and another where he spins back around on himself. In either phase, he can also unleash a grab attack that must be countered with precise timing, or he’ll start pummelling you in the gut. He has a second grab attack too, in which he uses his red cord to reel you in before following up with a regular katana strike. At some point in phase two, he’ll shift into his enhanced state and use his cord-like arms to hurl trees at you — easily avoided with a well-timed perfect dodge, or simply by putting as much distance between you as possible.

Boss #10: Greater Nue

Difficulty: 5.5/10

Strategy: Greater Nue is a massive chimera, whose basic move set is akin to the smaller Nue chimeras you fought earlier in the game. The fight introduces white-glowing attacks, i.e. moves that can only be deflected or parried, with no way around it. The fight nearly always opens with a huge tail-swipe attack, which falls into that category: deflect or parry it, and the boss will follow up every single time with standing claw strikes, themselves deflectable.

Beyond that, his moveset — largely consistent across both phases — includes mauling swipes, a shoulder-charge attack, and a leaping body slam that’s easily dodged or shut down with Issen. He’ll also charge you outright with a sprint attack, which is likewise simple to dodge, and follow it up with a claw-scratch attack once he closes the distance.

When it comes time to choose which souls to absorb, one option lets you sever his tail and hurl it back at him — I wouldn’t recommend it, though, since you can still take damage during the animation while going for and throwing the tail. If you do cut it off, it grows back before long anyway.

In phase two, the same attack patterns carry over with one major addition: several of his moves are now imbued with lightning. His tail swipe returns in a considerably larger, more telegraphed form — still a white attack that can only be deflected or parried — but afterward, lightning orbs wreathe the tail entirely, and these need to be avoided as well. Once his health drops to roughly the halfway point of phase two, he’ll also rain lightning bolts down from the sky; these can’t be dodged or deflected, only sidestepped by staying on the move.

One further attack that can crop up in either phase is a grab performed with the worm lodged in his mouth — this is a blue attack, so counter it with . Finally, whenever he raises his tail to shield his face, break his guard with and together.

Boss #11: Benkei

Strategy: 3/10

Strategy: Benkei is a hulking, heavily armored soldier, and the defining wrinkle of this fight is that you can’t damage him at all until you’ve stripped away several pieces of his armor. The only way to do that is by depleting his stamina bar and then choosing red soul spots when given a choice, which in turn comes down to deflecting the bulk of his polearm attacks. Issen can still land both health and stamina damage, but unless you’ve already mastered it, I’d reserve it specifically for his jump attacks which are easier to counter with Issen, during which he leaps into the air and slams down onto you with his whole body. The fight spans two phases, each with its own separate health bar, but this approach is largely the same for both.

Once you’ve exhausted his stamina bar, you get a choice: go straight for the purple soul for health and Oni Power souls, or instead target one of the red marked points on his armor to strip away a piece, whether that’s his leg guards or the plating across his shoulders and arms. Removing all armor pieces will allow you to damage him with regular attacks, but this will take a while

In phase two, he sets the gear strapped to his back alight, though his attacks otherwise stay much the same, particularly the polearm strikes. One new addition is a lunging polearm attack, and he’ll also occasionally draw a second polearm for a white-glowing attack that can only be deflected or parried — phase two is where white-glowing attacks first appear in this fight. Beyond that, it’s the same pattern repeated for the rest of the encounter: one that really tests how sharp your deflect timing is, but otherwise nothing to lose sleep over.

Boss #12: Benkei (Fully Armed)

Difficulty: 5/10

Strategy: This fight spans two phases, and while phase two brings a genuinely different rhythm, the encounter as a whole plays remarkably close to the standard Benkei fight — with one key exception: right from the opening bell, phase one already throws in attacks that were exclusive to phase two of the previous Benkei encounter. The core strategy carries over unchanged too: deflect his attacks, or counter with Issen if you’re confident enough with it. However, don’t underestimate this version of Benkei. On Carnage he deals massive damage.

Once you’ve exhausted his stamina bar, you again get to choose between stripping away another piece of his armor or going for one of the soul options instead — yellow, blue, or purple. Don’t forget that he’ll occasionally draw his second polearm here as well, unleashing a rapid flurry of white-glowing strikes that can only be deflected or parried.

Phase two introduces a genuine handful of new threats. By far the most dangerous — and capable of killing you outright on Carnage — is his giant cannon throw: dodge the cannon itself, since a direct hit will slam you to the ground, and once it lands it splits the ground around you into cracks of fire. A few seconds later, the cannon detonates, so time a jump to clear the blast — failing to do so costs you close to half your health bar, especially on Carnage.

He keeps using his phase-one polearm attacks throughout, but adds two new projectile attacks alongside them: a volley of daggers, which can be deflected straight back at him, and a set of spinning axes, which are safer to dodge outright — you can send one back if you’re perfectly aligned with it as it’s about to connect, but the damage they deal makes dodging the more reliable option. He’ll also occasionally kick or grab at your face with standard (non-blue) attacks, alongside a genuine blue grab attack that needs to be dodged by tapping and pushing the left stick to the right at exactly the same moment — the timing takes some getting used to, and getting caught costs you a hefty chunk of health.

Two further phase-two attacks are worth watching for: he’ll mount his explosive hammer on his shoulder like a cannon and charge it up — shoot it down with your Oni bow immediately, since letting the shot fire off is an instant kill on Carnage — and he’ll also use that same cannon to lob fireballs around the arena, in which case your best bet is simply putting as much distance between you as possible. Beyond that, it’s the same pattern of attacks recurring for the rest of the fight.

Boss #13: Ifuu

Difficulty: 4/10

Strategy: Ifuu is a giant Oni wielding a massive double-edged axe, with a strange, bladder-like blow bag strapped to his back that he inflates to power a handful of special attacks. The fight spans two phases.

In phase one, his bread-and-butter move is a close-range swinging attack, easily deflected, alongside a blue grab attack he unleashes by leaping into the air — dodge it before it connects. When he puts distance between you, he conjures a slashing gust of wind and hurls it your way, which can be deflected or parried just as easily. Most of his attacks fall into this slashing category and, at close range especially, are heavily telegraphed and easy to read. One weapon attack worth flagging: he plants his weapon in the ground, then thrusts it toward you — parry it while holding the left stick in the same direction the weapon is angled, so your parry lines up with the thrust. He’ll also occasionally leap into the air and blow a gust of wind straight into your face; there’s genuinely little you can do to counter this one beyond simply riding out the damage.

Phase two marks his transition into an enhanced form. He adds a new charge-up spin attack that whips around at you — deflectable like everything else — and leans much more heavily on shoulder charges. His weapon attacks otherwise carry over largely unchanged. The attack unique to this phase is when he charges up the bladder-like organ on his back and sucks you in toward him; the only counter is to shoot the balloon that forms on his back with your Oni bow. He’ll sometimes use the same mechanic to launch himself into the air instead, and the same counter applies — shoot the balloon down. He tends to follow this attack right after wreathing his weapon in Malice, and if you manage to shoot the balloon while he’s airborne, he’ll drop straight to the ground and take damage.

Boss #14: Burai

Difficulty: 5/10

Strategy: Much like his brother Ifuu, Burai spans two phases and wields a massive mace, though his is imbued with lightning rather than wind — lightning is very much his signature element, alongside a set of very fast piercing thrusts.

Phase one is where that signature element first shows up. Beyond his standard close-range slash attacks, he’ll lay down an array of lightning orbs across the ground that you need to sidestep; while you’re weaving through them, your goal is to close the distance and land a few regular slashes, since his eye is left exposed during this window — doing so releases blue souls that feed your Oni Power gauge. He’ll also occasionally kick at you, an attack that’s simple enough to shut down with a perfect dodge or an Issen counter, and he’ll summon crackling rays of lightning overhead that form crosses around you — when that happens, just run to either side to clear them. Outside of these set-piece moves, he falls back on his usual close-range slashes and thrusts for the rest of the phase.

Phase two shifts him into his enhanced form, where he fully charges the contraption on his back to max out his lightning output. His single most dangerous attack here — capable of an outright kill on Carnage — is a leap that takes him out of view for a few seconds, followed by a giant bolt of lightning crashing down where you’re standing, and then, a beat later, a ground slam; learning the timing to dodge clear before that slam lands is essential. His melee attacks otherwise stay much the same as phase one. One thing to watch for in either phase, though it crops up more in phase two: if you keep hammering him with close-range katana slashes, he’ll sometimes raise his right leg as a tell — stop attacking and back off the moment you see it, or he’ll answer with a genuinely punishing kick. Another new attack specific to phase two, which tends to surface once he’s roughly halfway through his health, is a mace spin that seeds the ground with orbs firing beams of light at you, immediately followed by a mace slam that unleashes a massive lightning shockwave — get clear of it the moment it goes off.

Boss #15: Ifuu and Burai

Difficulty: 6/10

Strategy:  This time the two brothers, Ifuu and Burai, take you on together, and the fight spans two phases. Individually, both stick close to the moveset from their solo encounters.

As with the Nue fight earlier, I’d recommend not locking the camera onto either brother here; keeping it free lets you hold both of them in view at once. It’s also worth trying to whittle their health down at roughly the same rate, rather than letting one brother’s bar crater while the other stays near full — though, admittedly, that discipline won’t necessarily make the fight any easier. The genuine silver lining is that whenever the two are standing close together, breaking either one’s stamina deals health damage to both of them at once.

Phase one introduces a shared new attack: one of them will shout either “Let’s end this!” or “Together!” before both brothers close the distance and lunge at you with their weapons simultaneously — the line itself is your cue, which makes the attack easy to read and deflect.

Once a brother crosses into phase two, he shifts into his enhanced state and picks up new moves — some of which he performs together with his brother. The moment that happens, shift your focus onto whichever brother hasn’t entered phase two yet, rather than the one who has. Don’t forget Ifuu still has his blow organ trick in play here too: once he’s fully inflated the organ on his back and leaps into the sky, shoot it down with your bow, exactly as in his solo fight.

Once both brothers are in phase two simultaneously, their single deadliest attack comes into play: they meet in the center of the arena, rise together into the sky on a cloud, and conjure a storm. It unfolds in stages — lightning bolts rain down across the arena first, followed by gusts of wind, and finally the two of them swoop down together in a wide ramming attack that has to be parried or deflected at exactly the right moment, or it can kill you outright on Carnage. Outside of that, phase two is otherwise just their regular phase-one attacks layered with each brother’s individual specials from their solo fights.

Boss #16: Shuten Doji

Difficulty: 5.5/10

Strategy: Shuten Doji’s defining quirk is that his health regenerates over the course of the fight, and there’s genuinely little you can do to stop it outright beyond staying on the offensive — fire is his signature element throughout, so bringing any fire-resistance items with you is beneficial.

Phase one opens with a set of slightly delayed greatsword strikes, and his overall movement is deliberately erratic, weaving around the arena the way a heavily drunk man might stagger, which makes his patterns genuinely harder to read than most. He’ll slam his liquor bottle into the ground (dodge with good timing, or counter with Issen), leap into the air to pierce the ground with his weapon (dodge or Issen again), and lash out with the occasional kick, which is equally dodgeable. Once he’s roughly halfway through phase one, he imbues his bottle with fire and starts drinking it outright, unlocking a set of fire-based attacks: the first sees him leap backward and lay down trails of fire along the ground, which you’ll want to dodge or sidestep, and he’ll occasionally draw breath before unleashing a massive gout of flame — the moment you see that windup, draw your Oni bow and shoot him to cut the attack short. One further attack, which also shows up in phase two, has him reel you in with his liquor bottle while winding up a white-glowing great-sword strike that can only be parried or deflected; fortunately, it’s heavily telegraphed and easy to see coming. Throughout phase one, keep the pressure on as much as possible — the longer you go without attacking, the more chances he gets to top his health back up with a sip.

Phase two adds Shuten Doji’s severed head into the mix, acting almost like its own sidekick alongside his body. You don’t need to switch your lock-on away from the body, but keep half an eye on the head at all times, since most of the new attacks come from it. One of those is a full-speed charge from range, telegraphed by the head visibly spinning toward you before it comes — a blue attack, so dodge it by pressing at the right moment. There’s also a new four-hit combo that always opens with the body: first a ground slam from the body, then the same from the head, followed by a body slash, and finally a massive fire attack on the ground from the body, which can only be deflected, parried, or countered with Issen. Phase two is also where the Oni Awakening gauge comes into play — once your purple gauge fills, transform into an Oni and focus on landing Issen strikes, saving for the finishing blow only once the gauge is on the verge of running out, never before. The head has one more trick up its sleeve too: inflating itself into a giant explosive balloon, which you’ll want to shoot down with your Oni bow to interrupt. Once his health drops to around a third remaining, he starts regenerating both health and stamina noticeably more often — use those windows to land some quick regular strikes. Otherwise, the rest of phase two plays out much the same as everything described above.

Boss #17: Dokyo

Difficulty: 2.5/10

Strategy: Dokyo is a genuinely original, gimmick-driven fight. Rather than standing and trading blows, she spends most of both phases sprinting around the arena, keeping her distance and peppering you with an assortment of tricks — this is fundamentally a chase, and your job is to close the gap whenever you can to land a few quick hits.

The fight opens with the first of several tricks, thrown at you in a random order. These include spiky balls that can be countered, dodged through, or simply outrun; a different kind of projectile fired in a single direction; and electrified barriers she spins up and hurls at you. Weave through whichever combination she throws, close the distance, and land a few quick attacks — she’ll then teleport elsewhere in the arena and start the cycle over with a fresh set of tricks.

One of those is a golden circle she conjures around herself, accompanied by a floating balloon on the verge of exploding — draw your Oni bow and shoot it down before it detonates, and she’ll drop to the ground, opening her up to regular attacks. Another has her summon a row of metal fire turrets in a vertical line across the arena; dodge both the turrets themselves and the fire they emit by standing between two of them (on Carnage, that fire hits considerably harder). She’ll also occasionally hurl a giant spiky ball your way, which can be deflected straight back at her. Sometimes she conjures a double of herself, and both copies charge you together wielding a giant electrified net — activate Oni Vision (hold , then press ) to pick out the real Dokyo, who always glows gold, and shoot her specifically. One further attack, which recurs in phase two as well, sees her lock you in place and surround you with mask copies which turn into blue explosive enemies; once you regain control, run behind her and angle the camera so those explosive enemies collide with her instead of you. Whatever the trick, the underlying loop stays the same: dodge, close in, land a few hits, repeat.

Phase two shifts her into an enraged, enhanced state, and while most of her tricks carry over, a few wrinkles are added. She’ll now constantly fire orbs at you on top of her usual phase-one tricks — dodging through the barrage builds up a gauge that lets you land a attack once it’s full. Her spiky ball throw also changes: deflect it back at her and, unlike phase one, she’ll simply return it to you, so you’ll need to deflect it a second time before it actually damages her. Her mask attack gets an addition too — alongside the usual blue explosive enemies, she can summon a red one that doesn’t detonate on contact; that one needs to be shot down with your Oni bow instead. A new and genuinely tricky-to-predict attack sees her blink into existence right beside you out of thin air and swing her staff at you; the best tell I’ve found is timing — if she’s taking noticeably longer than usual to start her next set of tricks, she’s probably winding up for this one, so stay ready to deflect or more safely hold to parry. Her single most dangerous attack, however, is exclusive to phase two: she soars into the sky wreathed in what looks like a miniature planet and shatters every rock in the arena except one. Spot the rock left standing without cracks and get behind it immediately — failing to do so is an outright kill on Carnage. Once the rocks come down, you can grab a shard from the wreckage and hurl it at her for some extra damage.

Boss #18: Minamoto no Yoshitsune

Difficulty: 8.5/10

Strategy: The final boss of the game, and by a wide margin the hardest and longest fight in it. The encounter unfolds across three full phases, so it’s worth equipping — and rationing — a specific loadout of consumables before you even step in:

• Amulet of Introspection – temporarily widens the window for actions like Issen counters and parries.
• Stimulant – gradually refills the Awakening Gauge over a set period.
• Sun-Dried Hozuki – instantly restores your Hozuki Pouch to three health charges.
• Greater Defense Talisman – sharply reduces the health and stamina damage you take for a short window.
• Greater Might Talisman – sharply increases the health and stamina damage you deal for a short window.
• Heavy Restoratives – your fallback once you’re out of Hozuki charges.

You can carry a maximum of two of each, with the exception of Sun-Dried Hozuki, which is capped at one. Try to hold off using any of them until the second half of phase two and all of phase three, where they’ll matter most.

Phase one leans mostly on straightforward one-on-one katana attacks, which are easily deflected. He frequently leaps into the air and tries to kick you in the face with both legs at once; play it safe with a deflect or parry, or, if you’re confident, go for a perfect dodge or an Issen counter instead — landing a perfect dodge or Issen counter will actually knock him to the ground, opening him up for a few free hits. He also leans heavily on white-glowing attacks here, deflectable or parriable only, most notably a combo of three massive white-glowing katana slashes: your response depends entirely on positioning — dodge these from a distance, but deflect them if you’re already up close, adapting on the fly. His slightly delayed hand-grab attack is one to avoid at all costs, either by dodging clear or countering it with at the right moment — if it connects, he siphons a large number of souls from you and shifts into an enhanced phase-one state, wreathing his katana in Malice. One attack that recurs across all three phases and is particularly dangerous here in phase one is his shoulder tap: the instant he taps his katana against his shoulder, he’ll dash-slash toward you with a lightning-fast thrust, so treat that tap as your cue to parry.

Phase two always opens with him airborne, slamming down into the ground — the two things to watch for the moment it begins are the slam itself and the ground subsequently cracking open beneath you, so the instant you regain control, sprint as far away as possible; that’s the safest way to dodge both. He’s considerably more mobile here, both on the ground and in the air, and the safest overall approach is to lean on deflects rather than Issen counters — slower, but far more reliable. Bear in mind that regular attacks won’t dent his stamina bar at all in this phase, since he’s fully armored; his armor can technically be shattered with and , but I wouldn’t lean on this too heavily — he moves too quickly to strip pieces off reliably, so deflecting and dodging remain your bread and butter. He’ll occasionally test your reflexes by leaping into the sky and loosing arrows at you, sometimes from both sides at once — all deflectable — and he’ll also chain together three rapid white-glowing attacks that demand razor-sharp timing to deflect in full; letting even one connect on Carnage is close to an instant kill. His hand-grab attack changes slightly here too: up close, it plays out exactly as in phase one, but from range he’ll warp in to you first before grabbing, which makes it considerably harder to read and counter. Whenever you deplete his stamina bar, you’ll be offered a choice between red souls and purple souls — go for purple to quickly build both your Oni Power and Oni Awakening gauges; unleashing your Oni Armament, in turn, nets you even more purple souls and speeds up your route into Oni state, since Issen counters become noticeably easier to land once you’re transformed. One more attack worth flagging: he’ll shout “Shatter” and attempt to tear open the fabric of reality itself — the instant he does, sidestep or perfect-dodge just before it shatters. The same read applies when he instead tries to crack open the ground beneath you.

Phase three changes the rules entirely: he simply cannot be damaged by any attack unless you’re in your own Oni Awakening state. From here you have two viable approaches. If you’re confident with Issen, chain as many counters as you can to rack up blue and purple souls quickly; alternatively, lean on parries to fill the Blazing Gauge, then unload on him repeatedly while in Blazing State, which extracts the blue souls you need to fuel your Oni Power — once that’s ready, using it lets you extract purple souls from him as well. His attacks in this phase stay largely consistent with phase two, but the damage restriction above still applies regardless: without one of these two approaches, nothing gets through. One further mechanic to watch for: he’ll periodically pull you in toward him as he absorbs every soul in the arena — when that happens, do the same yourself, grabbing as many souls as you can to quickly top up your Oni Power and Oni Awakening gauges, because right afterward he unleashes a devastating slash that sweeps across the entire arena; connecting with it is essentially game over, so dodge it outright or counter it with Issen. Whenever your Oni Awakening gauge fills, transform immediately, land as many Issen counters as you can while transformed, and hold off on your finisher until the gauge is nearly spent — this time around, that finisher lands considerably more hits and deals noticeably more damage than usual. That loop is essentially the rest of phase three, and the fight, in a nutshell. And if all breaks loose, don’t forget to use all of your quick-slot items.