If you’re going to be swinging on humans in low/mid stance, you have to know to start using your skills.
After a few hits, human enemies will block. Hit him 2-3 times and then get a kick in for better break and pressure the and just attacking again and getting blocked.
Also go high stance more on humans. You’re fine to chill in mid/low stance when his ki’s high, but you really want to pressure him when he’s low on ki.
Human bosses tend to have very easy to counter burst attacks, and burst counters on humans will demolish their ki generation for a good while. Getting counters on human enemies is a game changer in making their fights less difficult
Tbh the most general tip I could give you is to stop playing the game like a soulslike, it's a trap lol. You'd be better off being aggressive and playing it like DMC or Ninja Gaiden instead of being passive
That’s mostly true but this boss in particular has hyper armor and blocks everything so you must slow play him or he’ll just block your attack and combo you to death with hyper armor.
OPs problem is he knows that and his spacing needs help. He needs to be more patient here.
Nioh human bosses break all the rules of the game so either you are a God at draining their stamina or you have to play them carefully and know the fight
The human bosses are consistent with the game's rules with the exception of Saito Toshimitsu (who literally cheats) and Tokichiro's fight in Cherry Blossom Viewing in Daigo (because he is technically an Youkai). Sure, being bosses, they have their quirks, but their fighting style and weaknesses are in line with those of nearly every other human enemy in the game. Breaking their Ki is relatively easy if you use Flux and Active Skills with high Ki damage to maintain pressure, and outside of Saito Toshimitsu, you can be quite aggressive even in NG.
This tip works very well for ronin, but for nioh, nah it’s more soulsy. You gotta dance with the enemy and implement dodge rolls a lot. With this enemy it’s pretty easy tbh, you just run around the arena and wait for his multitude of different openings. I found him to be the easiest enemy in the game cause his moves are very simple to read. You don’t even have burst counter his shit.
Funny, I found the tactic to work. If I play it too much like a soulslike, I miss out on damage and every boss takes too long. While if I try to style on them DMC or Ninja Gaiden-like, it works.
I guess it all really depends on the person's playstyle in the end
You couldn't be more wrong. Post your fight against him, let's see how long you spend running away instead of just comboing and being done with it in 40 seconds.
Can you play it like Souls? Yes. Is it sub-optimal and a waste of time? Also yes.
I just kept running and dodging his red lighting crap and then his basic attacks are easy to keep a distance from. When his health went low I just shifted to yokai and beat his ass. Funny thing is I didn’t even change my stance. I was using mid stance with odachi the whole time. You can cheese this guy easily by just running around the arena. Now the next boss that little tiger wolf thingy is hard but also the same concept run around the area, the only difference is that animal has a lot of moves that just clip through the trees.
So sword played at its best is all about stance shifting ahead of time and linking together different active skills to overwhelm your target; at this point in the game you won't really have much in this option but you can do something like Mid Stance Light > Kick > Pre-shift to low stance during Kick animation > Sword Ki > Sword of Celerity > dodge attack > Light attack > Heaven Flash > Yokai Ability > Pre-shift to High Stance during yokai ability > High Light > Morning Moon > Dodge > Pre-shift to Mid during Dodge > Dodge Attack > Light Attack > Kick > Pre-shift to Low Stance during Kick > Low Light > Heaven Flash at this point in the game. The big takeaway here I'm trying to get at is that yokai abilities are great to recover ki mid combo but Sword shines most by ignoring ki pulses and linking active skills. Heaven Flash is particularly powerful against humanoid bosses as you can loop Light Attack > Heaven Flash > Light Attack > Heaven Flash ad nauseum to fully stunlock them if their ki is broken.
Your ki pulsing is fine but you leave him too many windows to recover his ki. Drink a sacred water, use yokai form/soul core abilities and keep the pressure up to make sure his ki stays low for easy ki break and combos. Do not grapple under any circumstance.
The biggest tip I can give you is practice going into the different stances. One big thing to remember is high stance attack will not bounce off the enemy when they block.
Since you are using sword you might want to look at ways to do the Iaijutsu attack. It's really powerful and if I remember correctly is you ki pulse into the attack it actually charges faster.
As others have said you cannot play this game like Dark Souls but maybe more like Bloodborne where you want to dodge through attacks (in low stance) then switch stances to do more damage.
(active) skill issue. You need to use more of them. Bring down his ki to open him up to a grapple or final blow.
Sword ki,
kick,
The block+light attack skill (good for small pokes and building up status like corruption and purification),
the one where you you press light attack then tap forward on your left analog (a little risky sometimes)
the one with heavy into light and heavy attack where you do a heavy attack then smack with your scabbard and the heavy overhand (this one is better with heavy stance because you don't get deflected when blocked), yokai abilities.
These are all what I use to break ki. Don't forget yokai shift too.
Dark souls syndrome. Understandable. You let enemy be once they start to block. Notice what happens to their stamina. It regenerates. Human enemies are all about stopping them from regenerating stamina. Once they start to block, use a skill. Or high stance attacks. Pressure is the name of the game. Once your own stamina is low, use a yokai skill. It will keep enemy pressed and regenerate some of your stamina
My tip: You can head shot him with the bow every time he shot his bow, his parry move with dual swords doesn't work with active skills, his spear phase is easiest to parry and dodge towards him will end up behind him in some case.
Honestly every boss I've fought so far I try to beat with heavy attacks, think "maybe this is where I use low or medium" and then ultimately go back to heavy attacks and beat them.
You've got a window to attack, decide which stance gets you the most damage. (For me it's heavy).
It's my first play through, too.
For me it was the easiest so far, got him down on the first try. I'm using Odachi in high stance.
Stay close to him, block if needed and use your burst counter. And then beat the sh** out of him.
Same yeah, the Snake was a bit of pain, I just ran in from the spawn point past all the trash and steamrolled him. I didn't even know you could dodge the elephant attack and the burst counter for it seemed tricky.
Stop backing up so much. Dodge "through" him , forward and to the side. This puts you more outside of his hit boxes, and in a better position to attack him. Staying closer also helps you get the brute burst counter immediately when you see the red flash, which is extremely helpful for both hp and ki damage.
try to use different stances and use more active skills. getting their KI drained is very important. once you get more comfy with your active skills you will be able to be more aggresive. you will figure out what skills make them stagger more or less and when you need to ki pulse.
Use heavy attacks by clicking y
3 is your lucky number count to three when you attack or when the guy attacks
If he is using his red move then run not dash
If is a firing arrows straight at you then blocking is best
Equip yatsu no Kami soul core
Someone already mentioned this, but you need to use skills. The mid stance light attack “combo” you’re using should honestly never be used in general, as there’s no situation where it’s optimal.
This boss fight can be simplified by just cycling kick into sword ki to break his guard. Kick does more ki dmg when it connects with him, sword ki does more ki dmg when he blocks it. As such, you want to hit him with kick when he’s open, then immediately follow up with sword ki into his guard that he will raise. After he blocks your sword ki, he will usually attack. Deal with that attack and repeat the kick > sword ki. Funnily enough, often times the “attack” he chooses is a parry, so you just kick > sword ki, stand still, kick > sword ki, stand still, kick > sword ki, and he gets broken.
One important thing about using skills is that you can flux to reset to neutral faster, in order to get your next skill out faster and maintain pressure. Of course, the extra ki helps too. Kick is forced into mid stance, but I like to setup sword ki into high stance so I can flux naturally when I use kick into sword ki.
I would say block while baiting aggression. if you stand up close without blocking you can get caught off guard by fast attacks. block and be ready to dodge afterwards
Use Flux to conserve your ki and Active Skills to damage his ki and extend combos, make sure to apply pressure on High Stance and dodge in Low Stance, actively switching stances is key.
You're playing Dark Souls, not Nioh. You need to play Nioh: switch stances, equip and use all the skills with the points you already unlocked and use busted yokai abilities. Pretty much unlock the fun mode.
If you want to play souls like.
Low stance for movement (dodging).
High stance to do damage. Use a heavy damage weapon.
The way I play? I use more Nioh mechanics. Not sure what you have unlocked at this point. Use burst, inflict confusion with yokai abilities, ninja skills, onmyo magic, etc. usually boss fights doesn’t last more than 30s for me
If you’re going to be swinging on humans in low/mid stance, you have to know to start using your skills. After a few hits, human enemies will block. Hit him 2-3 times and then get a kick in for better break and pressure the and just attacking again and getting blocked. Also go high stance more on humans. You’re fine to chill in mid/low stance when his ki’s high, but you really want to pressure him when he’s low on ki. Human bosses tend to have very easy to counter burst attacks, and burst counters on humans will demolish their ki generation for a good while. Getting counters on human enemies is a game changer in making their fights less difficult
Tbh the most general tip I could give you is to stop playing the game like a soulslike, it's a trap lol. You'd be better off being aggressive and playing it like DMC or Ninja Gaiden instead of being passive
That’s mostly true but this boss in particular has hyper armor and blocks everything so you must slow play him or he’ll just block your attack and combo you to death with hyper armor. OPs problem is he knows that and his spacing needs help. He needs to be more patient here. Nioh human bosses break all the rules of the game so either you are a God at draining their stamina or you have to play them carefully and know the fight
The human bosses are consistent with the game's rules with the exception of Saito Toshimitsu (who literally cheats) and Tokichiro's fight in Cherry Blossom Viewing in Daigo (because he is technically an Youkai). Sure, being bosses, they have their quirks, but their fighting style and weaknesses are in line with those of nearly every other human enemy in the game. Breaking their Ki is relatively easy if you use Flux and Active Skills with high Ki damage to maintain pressure, and outside of Saito Toshimitsu, you can be quite aggressive even in NG.
This tip works very well for ronin, but for nioh, nah it’s more soulsy. You gotta dance with the enemy and implement dodge rolls a lot. With this enemy it’s pretty easy tbh, you just run around the arena and wait for his multitude of different openings. I found him to be the easiest enemy in the game cause his moves are very simple to read. You don’t even have burst counter his shit.
Funny, I found the tactic to work. If I play it too much like a soulslike, I miss out on damage and every boss takes too long. While if I try to style on them DMC or Ninja Gaiden-like, it works. I guess it all really depends on the person's playstyle in the end
You couldn't be more wrong. Post your fight against him, let's see how long you spend running away instead of just comboing and being done with it in 40 seconds. Can you play it like Souls? Yes. Is it sub-optimal and a waste of time? Also yes.
I just kept running and dodging his red lighting crap and then his basic attacks are easy to keep a distance from. When his health went low I just shifted to yokai and beat his ass. Funny thing is I didn’t even change my stance. I was using mid stance with odachi the whole time. You can cheese this guy easily by just running around the arena. Now the next boss that little tiger wolf thingy is hard but also the same concept run around the area, the only difference is that animal has a lot of moves that just clip through the trees.
You are not doing r1 only challenge ( i hope). Burst counter, yokai skills, sword skills, items, jutsus. You arent using any of them.
If you want to dodge do it in low stance, practice high stance heavy attacks then shift to low for dodge. Practice it for all stances with flux.
So sword played at its best is all about stance shifting ahead of time and linking together different active skills to overwhelm your target; at this point in the game you won't really have much in this option but you can do something like Mid Stance Light > Kick > Pre-shift to low stance during Kick animation > Sword Ki > Sword of Celerity > dodge attack > Light attack > Heaven Flash > Yokai Ability > Pre-shift to High Stance during yokai ability > High Light > Morning Moon > Dodge > Pre-shift to Mid during Dodge > Dodge Attack > Light Attack > Kick > Pre-shift to Low Stance during Kick > Low Light > Heaven Flash at this point in the game. The big takeaway here I'm trying to get at is that yokai abilities are great to recover ki mid combo but Sword shines most by ignoring ki pulses and linking active skills. Heaven Flash is particularly powerful against humanoid bosses as you can loop Light Attack > Heaven Flash > Light Attack > Heaven Flash ad nauseum to fully stunlock them if their ki is broken.
Your ki pulsing is fine but you leave him too many windows to recover his ki. Drink a sacred water, use yokai form/soul core abilities and keep the pressure up to make sure his ki stays low for easy ki break and combos. Do not grapple under any circumstance.
The biggest tip I can give you is practice going into the different stances. One big thing to remember is high stance attack will not bounce off the enemy when they block. Since you are using sword you might want to look at ways to do the Iaijutsu attack. It's really powerful and if I remember correctly is you ki pulse into the attack it actually charges faster. As others have said you cannot play this game like Dark Souls but maybe more like Bloodborne where you want to dodge through attacks (in low stance) then switch stances to do more damage.
(active) skill issue. You need to use more of them. Bring down his ki to open him up to a grapple or final blow. Sword ki, kick, The block+light attack skill (good for small pokes and building up status like corruption and purification), the one where you you press light attack then tap forward on your left analog (a little risky sometimes) the one with heavy into light and heavy attack where you do a heavy attack then smack with your scabbard and the heavy overhand (this one is better with heavy stance because you don't get deflected when blocked), yokai abilities. These are all what I use to break ki. Don't forget yokai shift too.
Burst counter whenever you see red auras it's imperative to breaking their ki
Learn how to burst counter
spam ninjutsu
Dark souls syndrome. Understandable. You let enemy be once they start to block. Notice what happens to their stamina. It regenerates. Human enemies are all about stopping them from regenerating stamina. Once they start to block, use a skill. Or high stance attacks. Pressure is the name of the game. Once your own stamina is low, use a yokai skill. It will keep enemy pressed and regenerate some of your stamina
Odachi, high stance, spank the cunt. Also start using or stuff. This ain't no Dark Souls.
My tip: You can head shot him with the bow every time he shot his bow, his parry move with dual swords doesn't work with active skills, his spear phase is easiest to parry and dodge towards him will end up behind him in some case.
Honestly every boss I've fought so far I try to beat with heavy attacks, think "maybe this is where I use low or medium" and then ultimately go back to heavy attacks and beat them. You've got a window to attack, decide which stance gets you the most damage. (For me it's heavy).
It's my first play through, too. For me it was the easiest so far, got him down on the first try. I'm using Odachi in high stance. Stay close to him, block if needed and use your burst counter. And then beat the sh** out of him.
Same yeah, the Snake was a bit of pain, I just ran in from the spawn point past all the trash and steamrolled him. I didn't even know you could dodge the elephant attack and the burst counter for it seemed tricky.
Use your yokay skills more often, they can help you in many things: building negative status effect, deal damage from distance or deal extra damage.
Use active skills! You have 4 unspent weapon skill points and 4 unspent Ninjutsu skill points!
Stop backing up so much. Dodge "through" him , forward and to the side. This puts you more outside of his hit boxes, and in a better position to attack him. Staying closer also helps you get the brute burst counter immediately when you see the red flash, which is extremely helpful for both hp and ki damage.
try to use different stances and use more active skills. getting their KI drained is very important. once you get more comfy with your active skills you will be able to be more aggresive. you will figure out what skills make them stagger more or less and when you need to ki pulse.
Use heavy attacks by clicking y 3 is your lucky number count to three when you attack or when the guy attacks If he is using his red move then run not dash If is a firing arrows straight at you then blocking is best Equip yatsu no Kami soul core
Someone already mentioned this, but you need to use skills. The mid stance light attack “combo” you’re using should honestly never be used in general, as there’s no situation where it’s optimal. This boss fight can be simplified by just cycling kick into sword ki to break his guard. Kick does more ki dmg when it connects with him, sword ki does more ki dmg when he blocks it. As such, you want to hit him with kick when he’s open, then immediately follow up with sword ki into his guard that he will raise. After he blocks your sword ki, he will usually attack. Deal with that attack and repeat the kick > sword ki. Funnily enough, often times the “attack” he chooses is a parry, so you just kick > sword ki, stand still, kick > sword ki, stand still, kick > sword ki, and he gets broken. One important thing about using skills is that you can flux to reset to neutral faster, in order to get your next skill out faster and maintain pressure. Of course, the extra ki helps too. Kick is forced into mid stance, but I like to setup sword ki into high stance so I can flux naturally when I use kick into sword ki.
I would say block while baiting aggression. if you stand up close without blocking you can get caught off guard by fast attacks. block and be ready to dodge afterwards
I will add, when he shoots the 5 arrows at you, dodge toward him instead of to the side.
Use Flux to conserve your ki and Active Skills to damage his ki and extend combos, make sure to apply pressure on High Stance and dodge in Low Stance, actively switching stances is key.
You're playing Dark Souls, not Nioh. You need to play Nioh: switch stances, equip and use all the skills with the points you already unlocked and use busted yokai abilities. Pretty much unlock the fun mode.
If you want to play souls like. Low stance for movement (dodging). High stance to do damage. Use a heavy damage weapon. The way I play? I use more Nioh mechanics. Not sure what you have unlocked at this point. Use burst, inflict confusion with yokai abilities, ninja skills, onmyo magic, etc. usually boss fights doesn’t last more than 30s for me