Snake Eyes Shirafuj – Gun Fort
Location: From the Sunken Valley idol this guy is directly in front of you. Grapple across and there he is. Ignore him though and run past him to the left to reach the Gun Fort, find the idol waiting here.
Strategy: From the Gun Fort idol you’re going to backtrack to this enemy. You’ll be shot at a lot but keep moving and you won’t be hit. When you get to the enemies platform sneak up on him and perform a stealth kill to begin the fight. Really just focus on deflecting him, he’ll use three attack combos each ending with a gun blast. This can be deflected. Hit him once in between each combo and use firecrackers to give yourself a breather or get an extra two hits in. His heavy attack is a devastating, unblockable grab. I HATE this move. You’ll have to double dodge backwards as it has really good tracking. To heal you can hide around the corner. He has pretty weak posture so just keep on top of him and you’ll succeed!
Prize: Prayer Bead
Long-arm Gentipede Giraffe – Gun Fort
Location: Straight after the Gun Fort idol.
Strategy: Identical to the Long-arm Gentipede Sen’un fight. The only exception is the stealth takedown but it’s still equally fast and easy. When he starts his combo on you just start deflecting. L1 every time an attack lands. His posture is so weak that you only need to do this twice to break it. When he tries his heavy attack double jump on top of him to avoid it and do even more posture damage. It’s a really simple fight once you get your head around it but it’s an incredible feeling to pull it off.
Prize: Yellow Gunpowder, Prayer Bead.
Guardian Ape – Bodhisattva Valley
Location: From the Bodhisattva Valley idol this boss is right in front of you. You’ll have to beat General Ashina before getting here though.
Strategy: Phase one of the Guardian Ape can be a challenge. He is very aggressive and does high damage with his combos. However, his combos are very basic and you’ll learn them quickly. Everything he does can be blocked and he can’t block any of your attacks. He’s also very susceptible to firecrackers. Use those then start smacking him with normal attacks. Try to stick to his back. He has a poison fart which you can dodge to the side to avoid, he’ll then jump in the air and throw poison poo at you, sprint towards him to avoid it and you’ll get a couple of attacks in. His worst attacks are the grapples. One he’ll sweep his arm at you for, you can jump over this and hit him a few times. The other you’ll have to sprint to the side to dodge. It’s very hard to time this. At certain intervals (75%, 50%, 25% health) he’ll stagger and be open to a lot of attacks. This also gives you a chance to breathe.
The second phase is a lot harder. You’ll chop his head off and he gets a big sword with incredible range. Stay as far away from him as possible. This phase is really easy if you play it really safe. He has an attack where he launches himself at you along the ground. Simply jump over the sword slash and you can get a few attacks in before running away. You can block all of his attacks except one, the worst one. One of his heavy attacks sees him screaming and doing terror damage in an area of effect. It can be devastating. Don’t block or dodge. Literally, sprint away when you see this coming, it’s really easy to read. Have pacifying agent equipped just in case of terror build up from the scream. Another easy to read attack is when he does a huge leap into the air, get out of range and just jump to easily avoid this. At the end of some of his combos, he’ll prepare a huge overhead strike that is really easy to read. If you deflect this you’ll stagger him and get around 5 or 6 free hits. It is a very slow attack and very easy to deflect.
Prize: Memory: Guardian Ape, Slender Finger – the finger has some amazing lore implications.
For the previous area (Ashina Castle) click here.
For the next guide section (Armored Warrior, Long Arm Gentipede and Folding Screen Monkeys) click here.
