Nioh Slash-All!

I’ve gone from Nioh 2 being nowhere on my radar to it being one of my most anticipated games of 2020. Although I may have to delay getting it in order to have some clear water between it and the original.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Coldstream wrote:
Maclintok wrote:

Everyone's favourite early game boss is back!

She is quite literally the reason that I hesitated for so long on restarting the game.

This is my situation with this game but with Nue instead of Hino-Enma. I didn't struggle at all with Hino-Enma (I think I beat her on my second attempt?) but got stuck for hours on Nue. Some six months later, and I've been eager to return to this game, but I'm in a tough spot: I don't feel like I can pick up where I left off because my skills have atrophied, but I also don't feel like restarting and facing that boss again. My solution at this point has honestly been to kill time until March and just plan to buy Nioh 2. :P

If it's any consolation, I don't think Nue is a hard skill boss, it's more about timing and playing things super safe.

Spoiler:

Fighting Nue the other night, I finally got it through my thick skull that he's only got TWO safe openings for when you can go in on him. The most common one is when he shoots out the lightning beam from his mouth. You want to be to the left of his head and dash/sprint in right underneath his chin to start your combo. This ensures you'll hit his glowy weak spot. The other opening typically happens when you're at range from him for an extended period of time and he goes for the big pounce. He'll end sprawled on the ground revealing his weak belly at which point you can start whacking him there.

Execution-wise you're gauging the right distance to stay away from Nue so that you have the time to react to those lightning beams. And you should judge how much you can swing at him before he reacts. Getting hit by him (even in heavy armor) is very damaging.

Going in after the 6-consecutive lighting bolts or after he rolls into a ball is usually quite unfavourable. His retaliations following those moves are especially damaging (the big lightning bolt that follows his ball form is super bad) and you only have time for one or two hits tops.

Nue...yeah, that one was a bit of a brick wall for me, couldn’t tell you how many attempts it took. The worse was the Tachibana duel, I beat my head against that one for a few days before finally pulling out a win by using the rocks as cover and cheesing him.

Spoiler:

The second optional Nue that you run into later was even worse. Same fight with about a third of the space to move around.

Just a reminder that you can summon help for boss fights and there seems to be enough people still playing that it rarely takes more than a few minutes to summon. There are some fights in Nioh that are straight obnoxious and you shouldn’t feel above some jolly cooperation now and then.

Glycerine wrote:

Nue...yeah, that one was a bit of a brick wall for me, couldn’t tell you how many attempts it took. The worse was the Tachibana duel, I beat my head against that one for a few days before finally pulling out a win by using the rocks as cover and cheesing him.

Tachibana duel was the first time my wife stuck her head into the room to tell me to cool off or cut it out. I had set aside the evening to defeat him and goshdarnnit I was gonna do it. This was also one of the rare times when victory resulted in me pacing back and forth, silently yelling to myself like a nut because it was already late into the night.

I didn't think this post got through so I did it again *face palm*

ruhk wrote:

Just a reminder that you can summon help for boss fights and there seems to be enough people still playing that it rarely takes more than a few minutes to summon. There are some fights in Nioh that are straight obnoxious and you shouldn’t feel above some jolly cooperation now and then. :)

That's good to know. I haven't needed to yet (is it weird that Onmyo/magic feels like cheating sometimes even though it's part of the game) but I'm perfectly willing to call for help and I wasn't sure if there would be people out there to call on. I should actually offer my services to help others. That was one of my favourite things in the Dark Souls games.

ruhk wrote:

Just a reminder that you can summon help for boss fights

Not if you're on an island with the world's worst internet. There are literally villages in the Amazon with a better connection than I have! This fight is solo all the way, which I guess forces me to really get good.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

This is my situation with this game but with Nue instead of Hino-Enma. I didn't struggle at all with Hino-Enma (I think I beat her on my second attempt?) but got stuck for hours on Nue. Some six months later, and I've been eager to return to this game, but I'm in a tough spot: I don't feel like I can pick up where I left off because my skills have atrophied, but I also don't feel like restarting and facing that boss again. My solution at this point has honestly been to kill time until March and just plan to buy Nioh 2. :P

FWIW, I did start again and it really helped. I had some confidence from having played previously, and enough awareness of how carefully I needed to approach things. I've been doing much better in this run, and I'm having a ton of fun. I've had very limited time to play, but I'm just about to take on Hino-Enma, so we'll see how I do. My build is high-mobility and low armour, which is fun but doesn't leave a lot of room for error. I imagine I'll get my first shot at HE tonight, so if you hear yelling echoing from the Indian Ocean region, it will just be me regretting my life choices.

Maybe restart, and if you get truly stuck again, then you haven't lost anything while you wait for Nioh 2.

Also, Onmyo does seem to help a lot even if you just use Devigorate to weaken a bosses attacks.

Maclintok wrote:
Glycerine wrote:

Nue...yeah, that one was a bit of a brick wall for me, couldn’t tell you how many attempts it took. The worse was the Tachibana duel, I beat my head against that one for a few days before finally pulling out a win by using the rocks as cover and cheesing him.

Tachibana duel was the first time my wife stuck her head into the room to tell me to cool off or cut it out. I had set aside the evening to defeat him and goshdarnnit I was gonna do it. This was also one of the rare times when victory resulted in me pacing back and forth, silently yelling to myself like a nut because it was already late into the night.

And you didn't get a video of this? Not the defeat of Tachibana, but your packing back and forth, silently yelling to yourself like a nut. That's the video I want to see!

As for me, I haven't been able to play this week, but I'm hoping to get back to the game soon, even though all those boss fights you people have been posting are scaring me a little.

Higgledy wrote:

This is how I did it. Not pretty but it worked.

The Onmyo I had was Water stop 2, Fire shot 2, Fire talisman, Guardian spirit talisman (that lets you fling your guardian spirit at an enemy three times) Sloth, Devigorate. I would have applied some buffs before I went in but I forgot in my haste to get on with the fight.

Ranged attacks knock her Ki down really well. I was out of hand canon ammo or I'd have used it. Once she's out of Ki she's vulnerable but only for a short while. After that, in my experience, she'll just take you down very fast if not instantly.

Oooh, didn't know about the ranged attacks, that's a great tip. I had also forgotten about that dash grab she has, which looked rather frightening. Some close calls in there but it was great to see you smell blood at the end there to finish it off after the Living Weapon expired!

I have a tendency to just go for it at the end with bosses in Nioh. So far I’m getting away with it.

I had one run where she did that dash grab on me three or four times in quick succession. It almost felt like she was countering my attempts to stay at range.

Bloody hell I'm awful at parrying. There are some really neat moves that evidently involve hitting R1 or R2 as you block, but thus far I've never successfully performed one. Not sure if my timing is really that bad, the window truly that small, or whether I've misunderstood the mechanism.

Coldstream wrote:

Bloody hell I'm awful at parrying. There are some really neat moves that evidently involve hitting R1 or R2 as you block, but thus far I've never successfully performed one. Not sure if my timing is really that bad, the window truly that small, or whether I've misunderstood the mechanism.

Each weapon has their own special timing window. In my limited experience (and much to my chagrin), the spear seems to have the trickiest one because of the added delay to the parry startup animation. You literally have to watch for the first couple frames of the incoming attack to execute the parry. Sometimes it feels like you're predicting when the attack is coming and going for it to even have a chance at nailing it dead-on.

Here's a parry tutorial:

Maclintok wrote:

Each weapon has their own special timing window. In my limited experience (and much to my chagrin), the spear seems to have the trickiest one because of the added delay to the parry startup animation. You literally have to watch for the first couple frames of the incoming attack to execute the parry. Sometimes it feels like you're predicting when the attack is coming and going for it to even have a chance at nailing it dead-on.

Here's a parry tutorial:

Thanks! That was super useful. I'll practice later today. Seems as though my strategy of light armour and dodging is probably more effective than parrying, but it would be nice to have the option. I had planned to beat my head against Hino-Enma yesterday, but I idly booted up Factorio and looked up six hours later. Maybe today!

And Hino-Enma is down! It took me probably ten attempts, a couple of which were just dodging sessions trying to figure out her tells and techniques, and how to avoid them. Got a little frustrating, especially as my build either takes no damage or all of the damage. Striking her while she was in the air was critical, and my Ninjutsu build really helped, as it let me strike her while flying without the aiming annoyance of arrows/guns. Feels good to know that I actually beat her legitimately, as I might have been tempted to call in help otherwise.

Fun stuff! I did all of the available side-missions and now I'm off into the third main mission, which I recall involving me getting absolutely destroyed by a lightning dog over and over and over.

Gratz. It’s a relief to get her out of the way.

I didn’t take long to beat the lightning dog. I was expecting to. I found x2 +14 lightening charms that might have helped when combined with lightening resistant armour. After watching a guide I basically ran in diagonally to his side and just kept running if he tried to hit me with the series of lightening strikes.

I've got a second date with Tachibana Muneshige today.

Good luck. Give him hell.

Higgledy wrote:

Good luck. Give him hell.

One and done for both encounters!

In the crypts:

The duel:

Tachibana is aggressive and does crazy damage with his lightning slash. But he's also a show off who likes to gas himself out doing flashy attacks. And his breath stinks. I had a few rules going into the duel: 1) Attack the bastard's Ki; 2) Try to parry his slower slash attacks and; 3) Don't use the Sloth Talisman.

I actually forgot to use the Lifesteal Talisman to drain his Ki untll well into the fight. Gosh I felt so much slower in this fight now that my Agility is C but boy did the extra toughness save me from getting finished a couple times during the fight. Totally failed on the parry practice but seeing as I was just killing some time while waiting to pick up my wife from the coffee shop, I will gladly take this one-shot W to the bank!

Nue is down! I began by exploring his move-set and predictably died several times figuring out what he does. I did learn that the overhang by the entrance gate completely blocks his overhead lightning strikes, although I quickly discovered that it turns the encounter into a close-combat affair. Interestingly, this actually worked out for me, as my fifth or sixth attempt just turned into a balls-to-the-wall close combat right at the gate, completely devoid of subtlety or running. It was especially tough because my light armour meant that he could usually two-shot me.

A breathless couple of minutes of dodging, quick strikes with immediate evading, and a fair bit of Ninjutsu, and he crumbled. I think the killing shot was with a basic shuriken, which was the only thing I had left. I don't think I left the immediate gate area for the entire fight.

I'm now officially further in the game than I've ever been. I'm starting to enjoy some of the more unusual armour and weapon effects. Right now I have a helmet (the only medium piece of armour I'm wearing) that has about a 50% chance to replenish a fair amount of life each time I gain amarita. I also got a katana that has life-on-hit. Annoyingly, I've spent a fair amount on dual-katana skills, so I probably need to figure out what my second weapon is actually going to be.

I'm really enjoying this, and I'm really glad that I decided to come back to Nioh after debating with myself for so long about a restart. Totally worth it, and the game has really clicked so much better this time around!

Progress is being made. It is brilliant to return to a game you’ve been meaning to get back into and find you’ve clicked with it.

I’m going to try offering some co-op help in the hopes of building up my amrita reserves.

Tachibana Muneshige is down, as is the Great Centipede! I was able to down both of them on the initial encounter, so I'm chuffed about that. I wasn't able to quite pull off the Tachibana side-mission yet (he keeps one-shotting me) but decided to press on to see more of the story. Presumably I can come back to that one. I'm enjoying the challenge of the side-missions. At some point I'll level up my magic to the point that I can get access to Sloth Talismans, which I imagine will make my life slightly easier as the bosses get harder.

Onward!

@Coldstream: Yeah! Nice work, you've got a lot of momentum on your side. I found once I got going in this game it was progressively easier to overcome all challenges as they came up.

That is a dope trick you discovered with the Nue fight! I had no idea the gate area protected you from the lightning blasts. That's part of the beauty of this game's boss fights: there isn't just one approach you have to take.

I'm on my way to the Great Centipede myself. I busied myself with tackling a lot of the side missions in that region first but I remember the Centipede mission being quite interesting, not least of which was the boss fight itself which turned out to be the first "puzzly" boss encounter in the game.

Overall, so glad you're sticking with it. I think I saw you in the weekend thread debating Nioh versus other Soulslike games and even saw a Goodjer try to steer you away from Nioh!

I’ve been helping others out. I’m not sure what the appeal is but I so enjoy turning up in other people’s games and steering them through a level or helping with a boss fight. The boss fights ain’t easy though. I think I remember reading that the bosses health double and it seems to be the case. I need to concentrate more than I did in Dark Souls.

New stage and boss shown in recent Nioh 2 live stream:

I finally hit a frustration point in Nioh. Not quite controller-throwing, but close. I'm fighting Umi-Bozu and while I've been able to get him to the second stage, I just can't quite finish him off. The issue is that I really need to use fire to take him down, but my Onmyo is too slow, and I'm getting one-shotted.

At first I was raging that surely what I needed was the Sloth Talisman or, better yet, the instant self-Onmyo skill. Since I had read that people recommended using Sloth for Hino-Enma, I reasoned that surely my game was bugged somehow. Woe is me!

Nope, turns out that I just need to git gud and beat Umi-Bozu like a big boy. Apparently those options open up *after* I beat him, not before. So I'm going to go on a long bike ride tomorrow, do some working out, and then I'm going to come back and kick that blobby bastard's arse (assuming he has one).

Annoyingly, I quit the Umi-Bozu mission because I was convinced that I had somehow missed a dojo mission. Now I'll have to do it all again. Oh well, it's still fun and now I know the map. Haha!

Sorry if I contributed to that. I saw a video where someone was using Sloth on Hino-Enma and presumed I’d get it a lot earlier than I did. This is the guide I used to beat the big whatsit but it was a painful process.

Umi-Bozu tipz n' trickzzz:

Spoiler:

- Lighting all of the fire pit things will remove all the mini Bozus from the first phase and greatly reduce the number of them in the 2nd phase
- I think I saw someone post a video of this fight (Higgledy's?) that showed a very aggressive method in the 2nd phase, which I think is a great approach. The longer he stays alive, the more time you have to lose your footing and take a swim. Probably save your Living Weapon for this part, wait for him to flop down to expose his glowy spot then go YOLO on dat azz. Put the fire on your weapon if your Living Weapon expires and Big Bozu still standing. If you haven't lit all the torches, the biggest danger here are the mini Bozus and falling into the water, not the boss itself, ironically.

Just watched Higgledy's walkthrough video.

Spoiler:

That is dope. All this time I've been fixated on dodging the tentacles and hitting their glowy spots. Getting up in his face looks a lot easier and may take about the same amount of time despite not doing as much damage per hit. *slaps forehead*

Umi-Bozu down! Those tips were good stuff, and basically what I was already doing. I just wasn't quite quick enough on the dodges, and I got locked into animations by using the kusurigama for fast hits. Turns out that switching to dual katanas was the trick, and those coupled with a fire talisman worked a treat. I took probably twenty runs at that boss and inevitably got one-shotted at some point in the proceedings. But when I finally beat him, it was an absolute ass-kicking. The entire fight probably took 30 seconds. I just needed everything to click all at once.

I completed all of the dojo challenge missions for Adept. Now I'm dicking around with a couple of the side missions before I proceed...

Onward!