General Naomori Kawarada – Outskirts Wall Gate Path
Location: From the idol, you’ll see a building. Inside is the Shuriken prosthetic, on the other side is an empty courtyard with the general.
Strategy: Stay high and stealthy on your approach. Get behind him and begin the fight with a backstab cutting his health in half. From here stick to his right and throw a couple of basic R1 swings where possible. Deflect with L1 when he attacks you. If you’re struggling just hold L1 to block and play it safe. At the end of his combos, he’ll be open for a couple of hits. Don’t think about dodging, just block and deflect and if your posture is at risk put some distance between you and the General to recover. Don’t be afraid to die, you’ll have a resurrection and the gourd gives you a chance to heal.
Prize: Prayer Bead, Gourd Seed. If you collect four prayer beads you can upgrade your health and stamina (vitality and posture). Gourd seeds let you upgrade your Gourd to give it extra uses.
Chained Ogre – Outskirts Wall Stairway
Location: From the idol, you’ll see a stairway. The Ogre awaits at the top.
Strategy: People are struggling with this, it’s your first real challenge. Take out the two men at the bottom of the stairs. You can actually get a stealth attack on the ogre if you sneak around from the right while he’s breaking free. Do not dodge backwards on the ogre. Don’t bother deflecting either. His grab attack is devastating at this point. For this reason, focus on dodging. Always dodge into his attacks. Push the Left Stick forward and double dodge whenever he starts his attack chains. He’s so aggressive that you’ll always end up behind him. Poke him twice with the sword and repeat. He will not hit you if you do this. Just keep it simple.
Prize: Prayer Bead & Shinobi Medicine Rank 1
General Tenzen Yamauchi – Outskirts Wall Stairway
Location: In the courtyard straight after the Ogre. From the idol, you’re going through the hole in the gate in front of you. There he is patiently waiting.
Strategy: Work your way around the area taking out all the enemies. Head to the right from the gate to find an odd creature with a gong. Kill him, he’ll alert the rest. The boss will likely be pacing now as he’s been alerting. Sneak behind him or drop onto him from the wall to get a stealth attack. If he has spotted you already just run away and come back without resting at the idol. This is a good chance to practice deflection. Wait until the last second before the sword strikes you and use L1. Do this as many times as necessary. Only attack on the rare occasions he leaves himself open. Ignore his health bar and focus entirely on posture. It is the key to the entire game. Once the posture damage is high increase your aggression. Dodge twice through his attacks and hit him from behind. Only one or two strikes will be enough.
Prize: Prayer Bead
Gyoubu Oniwa – Ashina Castle Gate Fortress
Location: As you progress through the game you’ll encounter a massive snake. It is, quite literally, a massive snake. Once you’ve dealt with it you’ll reach the Ashina Castle Gate Fortress Idol. There’s a handful of enemies but just head by them and you’ll see a lonely tree. Grapple up to it and into the huge battlefield where you’ll meet the first true boss, Gyoubu.
Strategy: Gyoubu is pretty cool. He’s on horseback and will use a spear for his attacks. He’s also pretty weak. Don’t think about dodging, blocking is the way to go. He’ll do an attack chain and always finish with a heavy. After the heavy get two attacks in then dodge backwards twice to regain posture. That’s really all there is to it. If you see the grapple icon (green arrow) above his head hit L2 and you’ll grapple towards him. This will get you a couple of hits. For his red icon attack, it’ll be a sweep. Jump. Another handy thing here is the firecracker prosthetic that you can purchase from the Crow mob. It stuns the horse and gives you a chance to recover/attack.
Prize: Memory: Gyoubu Oniwa, Mechanical Barrel. The memories are an upgrade to your attack power.
For the next area (Hirata Estate), click here.
