I'm having trouble finding a good way to deal with the first boss. It seems like he randomly decides to do a sweeping attack and so it's a bit hard to judge when to go in and attack. Any tips?

I suppose it depends on what weapons you are using, but do your best to get on his side/back. Staying in front of him is the absolute best way to get destroyed in that fight. Stay close to him as well, because once you break off his weapons, he will start throwing them at you when you get far away. I found wailing on his arms and ass worked best for me. I used the sword in medium or low if I am not mistaken. You should be able to do a few quick hits on his side and then dash to match him when he turns. Also keep in mind that Ki pulsing is way more important in an extended boss fight, so try to get into the habit now before you get to the second boss (who is just the worst imo. I one shot the first boss, and died on the second like 10+ times. But Souls bosses are always different strokes for different folks so you could find her just super trivial). Good luck!

dash around and poke him in the butt a couple times, dash away, catch your breath, dash around and poke him in the butt again

@starkfanatic: thanks! I think I found a pretty good rhythm. I almost had him a few minutes ago, but zi got stuck on a crate and he threw a ball at me ? this isn't even my first souls type of game either. I beat bloodborne and played a fair amount of ds3.

@giantlennonx_x: The arena for that fight is REALLY small so getting stuck is easy to do...the second boss has a much larger arena, so you have that to look forward to. Try to stick like real close to his body if you can, as it will make not getting stuck easier. If I may...

dash around and poke him in the butt a couple times, dash away, catch your breath, dash around and poke him in the butt again - Shadow, 2/8.2017

Don't forget about your living weapon. I also never hit him more than 2-3 times before backing out. I also would use my fire weapon item on him. Surprisingly got him down first time but I think I was level 12-15'ish.

Listen to this guy. His advice will be valid for the majority of souls-borne type games.

@acura_max: To be fair, this boss has an attack that requires you to be a considerable distance from him so simply "dashing around" could be cause for failure.

Keep in mind that dashing doesn't have i-frames while rolling does (double tap x)

@chudamaru: dashing totally has i-frames. Just not many. And it's different for different stances.

Low: a ton of i-frames

mid: less i-frames

high: like...1 i-frame

butt poking is always a sound strategy. 78% of super mario world had a furious amount of it,

Here is what I did: summon a visitor. That is what I do for most bosses after the first try.

@giantlennonx_x said:

Tips? Sure. Git gud, scrub!

Nah, I'm just joking with 'ya :) Like a lot of other people have said, dash in, poke him in the rear, and then dash out again.

I think that in general, a lot of Dark Souls advice still applies to Nioh. It's still learning patters and waiting for openings, the game pace is just faster so the adaptation is just getting used to that. If anything, I'm finding the boss fights are slightly easier since the controls are more responsive and the camera is generally better. I haven't encountered any situations yet like the Cleric Beast in Dark Souls, where the boss leaps up into the air while the camera gets stuck behind a bridge.

@shadow: Ok good to know but I still think rolling would be better used against the boss than dashing.

He always does his hardest to avoid attacks if you are behind him so the butt poke seems like a bad strat.

Defeated him on the third attempt (video below). As far as I can tell, he isn't random at all though. He completely wiped me out on my first try because I couldn't judge his movements and range of those cannonballs. Went better with each attempt. I really liked him as a boss fight. This game is great. So mechanics heavy.

Anyone else here beat the second boss yet? She beat the shit out of me like the first 10 times. How did you end up beating her?

She's the first real challenge in the game. Don't over extand yourself. I get 2 hits in in medium stance with a sword after most of her combos. After her spinny move counter with an attack and ki pulse to dispel the yokai realm. You can use some moves like the upercut from low stance with a sword or the heavy attack on high stance to bring down her ki. When she runs out you can go nuts but beware, she does a grab right when she gets up.

Use pills from the ninja skill tree to prevent paralysis. When you feel you have a good handle on her you can start using projectiles when she flies around. You have time to land 1 arrow in between each one of her flying attacks. Just do L2 and R2. The auto aim is pretty generous.

@starkfanatic: When she screams, she's about to fire her paralyze ball. Maybe wanna dodge that. Hit-and-run tactics are the only way I've found to kill her

Her melee combos are short, just wait patiently for them to finish then dash in for a few hits. Dodge through the blasts at an angle so that you can attack after each one. If she charges you don't dodge until she has started moving or she'll home into your face.

Most important thing with that fight is probably just hit discipline. She recovers very very quickly so you need to deal a little damage and back the fuck off.

Oh, I beat her last night, but just wanted to make sure I wasn't nuts in thinking that she was tough

I think until that point I was just used to the game letting me get in a full combo/pulse when enemies left themselves open and she was just not having any of that and the penalty for trying it was harsh.

i have spent the last 3 hours on onryoki and have made no fucking progress. what in the actual fuck is happening in my life

I am super impressed by this games bosses so far. Every one has followed the arc of getting destroyed and each attempt showing marked improvement. No bullshit tactics or random variables, just execute on fundamentals.

I am simply not good enough to do this. I've spent hours on this guy. I know exactly what needs to be done. I've watched videos, talked to people, etc. I get the fight but I'm just incapable of doing it. I had a period of progress where I was getting closer and closer, now I'm getting worse with each attempt. I went back and farmed some levels (First attempt was level 8, now trying it at 12) and still no luck. Now I'm not even getting to phase 2 anymore. This game makes me feel real shitty about myself like no other game (even Souls) has. Like... I'm not bad at video games.

I had fun most of the day, but now... 8pm, no progress, feeling defeated, wondering if i wasted my money, etc. I'll try it again in the morning with a fresh head.

This is a fantastic game. It's 100% me that's the problem on this boss.

edit: he dead.

I've played every Souls game and I think Onryoki is specifically there to fuck with Souls players.

Point 1 - if you attack him from the front you can break his horns and stun him, and when attacking his butt you prompt him to use his most dangerous attacks.

Point 2 - dodging backwards is always terrible in Souls games, but for this boss to dodge the sweeps you MUST.

After adjusting my strategy to stick around the front of him and dodge back to avoid the cannonball sweeps he went down pretty easily. Took me around 9 tries though!

@starkfanatic: I found her AI to almost glitch out by just poking her with my spear (mid heavy) and dashing back every time she ran at me. Probably not the quickest way to kill her, but it was super simple once I figured it out. If you happen to get hit by the stun you can hold block and you'll block most of the follow up damage, and when she flies in the air you can easily block her spears. You can even block her dash attack, but it'll drain all your Ki which is kinda risky.

@thatonedudenick: If a boss is giving you that much trouble, try to focus on improving on one aspect of that fight at a time. Just start that fight expecting to fail, but try to avoid one specific move of his and get that timing down. Once you do, move on to the next move. Be patient and you'll fuck him up before you know it.

@quid_pro_bono:From what I gathered, the people that are having trouble with Nioh are the same ones that are block fanatics in Souls games. I really love Nioh because it pushes the genre forward, but it is not harder than Souls for me so far.

I'm going to say something that might be contentious: in Nioh, getting out of range of attacks is more important than actually dodging them. Not that it works absolutely every time, but it's a safe strategy that few enemies - including bosses - have an effective counter to. You move very quickly when sprinting, so if you have a faster weapon you can sprint out of range, then back in and hit with a sprinting attack.

When you face an enemy or boss for the first time, get into low stance and bait out their attacks while staying at the middle distance. Try to work out the boss' openings from there. It's a bit tricky with Onryoki, since he actually has more reach in the first phase and the environment is really cramped, but he also doesn't have a lot of moves. Also, you can totally block his attacks if all else fails because that first phase doesn't have a lot of combos.

Beat that second boss. Thought she was easier than the first one to be honest, but I also finished her on the third attempt.

@zevvion: You were either wearing way better armor than me or are just overleveled as fuck. I swear those paralysing projectiles did like 30% of my hp or more while they seem to be doing 10% of yours. Good job either way

@pyrodactyl: I was wearing the heaviest armor I had at about 95% equipment load. I am now wearing lighter armor, but to be honest, I don't really see the benefit of it. I might go back to heavy armor as soon as I get some good drops. Very unlikely I'm overleveled though. I don't ever grind and I haven't even used one of the items that gives you Amrita, I still have tens of the different ones in my inventory. I also don't really die twice in a row though, so I also never really lost any. I also do all the sub-missions.

EDIT: Third boss has been the most difficult for me so far. He raped me no less than 9 times. All deaths were because of his instantaneous lightning OHK. If that move wasn't in there I would've probably beat him first try. I'm not confident I would beat this guy if I were to fight him again, because that thing was a bit difficult to predict and dodge both.

I never saw an instant death lightning attack for that guy, just his 4 in a row which I eventually learned had a brief after image before each strike. Maybe I had better resist accessories or something. I really liked that guy though, now I know how to Ki Pulse under extreme duress.

The boss that has given me the most trouble so far though is the next one, but an optional sub-quest version of it.

Right, I hate this guy. First phase is fine. If you're behind him, he'll swing all day but you can usually block it. You can bait him into the overheads by staying just off to the side of him as he faces you. Second phase is ... rough. I think getting distance when he starts going all shot put on you is the only option as you can't dash to his arse quick enough.

@efesell: He does it when you get close to him while having an angle on the front. It strikes twice instead of four times, but you stagger from the first hit so the second is a guaranteed hit. One did about 90% of my HP.

He does it recovering from a Ki break every time so you need to wail on him when his Ki breaks but be ready to get the fuck out. The key with that boss is that he is extremly vulnerable to Ki break when he does certain moves and his chest glows. I attack at an angle when he uses his mouth beam and break his Ki almost every time with a low stance spear.

Are we talking about the tutorial boss? Executioner? Or someone after that?

@pyrodactyl: I already beat him though. Fourth boss too, if you can call that one a boss, as well as the fifth one. Those last two were not great. Both too easy and not very interesting.

When I fought him he just always wanted to melee and he kinda just launches himself forward. Pretty easy to just wail on him after that so long as you remember to save enough to block his spin.

Man i can't beat this dude at all...I wonder if i'm just too low level? Is 16 too low or am i just not getting something? I can't dodge his spinning attack too well and blocking kills my stamina. Almost beat him once but his last attack followed me through the dodge and got me. I can see why people say it's harder than darksouls, I only had trouble in 3 and that was probably because of input lag and buffering running a dex character.

Oh I think I reached the guy you are talking about. He he's kind of a pain solely because of that whip around attack that stun locks you and kills you in two hits. The second phase isn't bad though, just keep distance and avoid his grab attack. For the first phase, you need to learn the tells of his four moves. Bait the overhead slam by staying in front of him and dodge left or right depending on the arm he's swinging.

@oursin_360 you definitely aren't too high of a level. I got him 5th try at level 7.

oh my god. This game is already better than dark souls... refashion option is the greatest thing ever. fashion souls!!!!!

Hey quick tip i just found out, you can equip the elixir on both item menus.

@nevergameover: wow, i wonder why im having such trouble. Leveled up to 18 and its way easier now, added ki so i don't get drained when i block. Lost first try at the end but got him down pretty easily. Also stocked on elixer didn't even realize it worked loke bloodborne.

@oursin_360: Elixers work kindof like bloodborne the more Kodama you find in the region the more elixirs you get at a shrine, however you can also pick them up.

Well i figured out what i did wrong, for one you can get close to him and block the AOE attack and 2 i was holding block while dodging thinking that was the right way to do it lol.

Might go back and grind. Dual Katanas give me the recovery time but not the damage to avoid this being death by a thousand cuts. I've got no suitable buffs so base damage is all I can use. I still couldn't outlast him with 8 elixirs.

That's almost twice the level I had when I beat him. You can probably finish this game at level 1 as well, just like Souls. Haven't seen anything that indicates you couldn't. Pattern recognition and execution should work.