Snake Eyes Shirahagi – Ashina Depths
Location: Literally the room after the Ashina Depths idol. This is the Poison Pool area and surprisingly the water here is poisonous. The boss is the enemy at the cave exit.
Strategy: You’ll want to fight him in the mouth of the cave so you don’t draw the attention of other enemies. From the idol drop straight down and kill the closest enemy. Now grapple across the trees onto the head of the statue. Crouch and make your way round to this enemy and start with a backstab. One health bar down. Use the firecrackers here and just lay into him, you can spam them on him. Get two hits then use them again and repeat. If he attacks you just block except for his heavy attack. Double dodge in any direction except forward for that.
Prize: Prayer Bead.
Tokujiro the Glutton – Hidden Forest
Location: Another pretty easy boss who can’t be missed. Make your way through the forest until you see a clearing with the boss and some monkeys. He’s identical to the earlier Drunkard boss.
Strategy: Get rid of the monkeys then run away and open with a stealth attack. Keep to the same side as his sword and always dodge forward then attack his back. You can easily block and deflect his attacks, he’s very slow in comparison to most enemies. You can run away to get a breather at any time as he doesn’t have great range.
Prize: Unrefined Sake, Prayer Bead
Mist Noble – Hidden Forest
Location: From the idol, make your way through the forest and eventually you’ll come across a temple. You can reach this from a tree branch up above that you backtrack to after beating the Glutton boss. Drop through the hole in the roof to confront him.
Strategy: Just hit him a few times. Or land on him for a stealth takedown. It’s not an actual fight, more a set piece to get rid of the fog and ghosts in the area.
Prize: Lump of Grave Wax.
O’rin of the Water – Water Mill
Location: Round the corner from the water mill idol you’ll encounter a woman who appears to be an NPC. If you approach here she’ll eventually attack. If you run past her she’ll attack. She is technically missable but you’ll literally walk right past her to reach the next core boss.
Strategy: This is an odd one. Some people find it intensely difficult and it’s clear why. As usual, you’re focusing on posture. She has some really odd attacks so take your time learning the patterns and working out when to properly deflect. Deflect all of her moves and when she prepares her heavy attack, perform a double jump on her. This protects you and does amazing posture damage. Don’t worry about attacking unless you feel like there’s a huge opening. Don’t move either. Just stand in the spot and block. Combat arts slow you down too much same with prosthetic tools and even dodging will leave you really vulnerable. For healing sprint to the other end of the arena.
Prize: Prayer Bead, Breath of Life: Shadow (Skill)
Corrupted Monk – Water Mill
Location: Head up from the idol, past O’rin, and past the little house with loads of enemies. Here awaits the Monk.
Strategy: The Corrupted Monk hits very hard. You can block and dodge most of his attacks with practice. All of his sweeps can also be jumped pretty easily. His jump attack is easily dodged under. The easiest way to deal with him is to dodge backward and simply run away. He’ll chase you around the arena and be vulnerable for a couple of hits. Once you get the timing of the blocks down it’s pretty easy to simply play hit and run here. Another tactic is using the combat art Mortal Draw. The Monk can’t block this, it does decent damage and even occasionally blocks him. You do not need spirit emblems to use this despite the description. When he’s vulnerable simply run in and unleash this attack.
Prize: Prayer Bead, Breath of Life: Shadow (Skill).
For the previous guide section (Armored Warrior, Long Arm Gentipede and Folding Screen Monkeys) click here.
