The first chapter of Nioh 2 is where you’ll learn that this game isn’t messing around. There are three major bosses to fight here — Mezuki, Enera and Yatsu-no-Kami — and each one is more challenging than the last. This is a Dark Souls game, where the boss fights are the real stars of the show. If you’re struggling against these massive monstrosities, and I really wouldn’t be surprised if you are, we’ve got in-depth guides explaining how to take them down.
All three of the first bosses are strange Yokai monsters. It isn’t until Chapter 2 that you’ll face more traditional human opponents. These guys are all special in some way, and you’ll be able to hone your skills before moving into the second phase of the story. All of these bosses can unleash a second form by summoning a ‘Dark Realm’ that puts you at a disadvantage. The boss will get powered-up while your stamina / ki recharges slowly.
Thankfully, these sequences are only temporary and they’ll eventually disappear. This isn’t like other Dark Souls, where bosses change forms and become something completely new. At least, not yet.
More Nioh 2 guides:
12 Tips To Help You Get Started Slaying Yokai | Beginner’s Guide | 8 Extremely Useful Advanced Tips | Healing Fast, Instakill Attacks, Invisibility & More | How To Farm Proficiency & Earn Skill Points Faster | Ch. 2: Imagawa Yoshimoto, Kamaitachi & Saito Yoshitatsu | Ch. 3: Tatarimokke, Magare Naotaka & Azai Nagamasa | Ch. 4: Gyuki, Kasha & Ryomen Sukuna | Ch. 5: Shibata Katsuie, Tokichiro & Daidara Bocchi
How To Beat Mezuki
The massive horse-headed demon is waiting at the end of the first mission. The creatures attacks with slow axe swings that cover an incredibly wide arc, while spitting tracking ghosts at you. You can roll through the wide axe arcs, and simply sprint to avoid the incoming projectiles.
The deal with his first form, bait out his charging gore attack and practice using your Burst Counter. A few Burst Counters will seriously drain his anima — if you drain it, you can land a powerful Grapple. After Burst Countering, use an Enki Spirit to drain the rest of its anima from long-range.
Eventually, Mezuki’s arm will glow and he’ll unleash a Dark Realm. Your stamina will recharge slower, and it will unleash new powerful attacks. If you wait long enough, the Dark Realm will dissipate and the boss will return to normal.
You can use the small shrine to block charge / swing attacks, but ghost projectiles will fly straight through the shrine. Fight, and save your Spirit Guardian for the final bit of health. You can dish out a ton of damage with your Yokai Shift. It’s a great way to cheese the final bit of health off the boss. You can also charge it up before a big boss battle.
How To Beat Enenra
The fire ogre Enenra resides deep inside the forge, and uses fire-based attacks to burn you to ashes. Watch out for his vortex wave, and sprint out of the way when he summons explosive blasts from the floor. He’s extremely aggressive, bounding forward with multiple melee punches and kicks. Wait for him to glow red, then block his tornado charge with a Burst Counter.
At 50% health and 30% health, Enenra will summon a Dark Realm, but he doesn’t gain more attacks. You can wait this sequence out, or just retreat and try to bait out his red burst tornado charge. It’s pretty easy to block with the Burst Counter, and doing so gives you a good opportunity to lay down damage. When he unleashes a melee combo, back away until he finishes with a stomp. He’ll pause here, giving you time to hit him a few more times.
Take your time, learn his attacks, bait out his Burst Counter opportunities, and the Enenra fight should go well. In general, I think he is the easiest of the first three Chapter 1 bosses. The final boss? That one is a lot tougher.
How To Beat Yatsu-no-Kami
- NOTE: Find as many Snake Statues in the mission. Destroy them to remove the poison — the more you smash, the less poison you’ll have to deal with in the boss arena.
This massive snake fights dirty. It sticks its snake ‘arms’ into the ground, where they’ll spring out to attack you, or swings itself in an extremely wide arc with its tale. If you’re far away, it prefers to launch a wave of semi-tracking projectiles that can be blocked. It will also spit a poison blob on the ground that lingers.
You can sever its snake arms independently — just attack when they pop out. Eventually, the boss will sumon a Dark Realm and uses its newly elongated horn to stab you. Watch out for its grapple attack — you can counter its charge-grapple with a Burst Counter. Watch for the red glow. You’ll need to stay close or it will continue to use its long range snake-arm attacks or projectiles.
You can slice off both arms early by baiting the snake projectiles. Either attack when they pop-out of the ground, or just sprint to the boss and attacks its arms directly while they’re in the sand. Killing the snakes makes life a lot easier — they can summon Yokai Realms when they’re separated from the main body. Attack the snake-arm head to dish out way more damage.
Eventully, it will regrow its snake arms. The trick to this fight is balancing when you destroy the snark arms, and when to let them stay. It helps to get rid of the snake arms before it enters the Dark Realm — which it will do about twice in this battle. At 60% health and 40% health; if one of the snakes is dead, you’ll have a much easier time dealing with the Dark Realm sequence.
After it regrows its arms back, use this chance to damage the main body. Whittle it down, destroy at least one of the arms to prepare for the Dark Realm, then kill the second arm. After two Dark Realms, use your Yokai Shift power to transform and finish the boss off.
You can interrupt the boss charge attack with your bow, or kill off the annoying snakes when they’re separated with the bow — if you’re struggling to get rid of them in the Dark Realm, where they’re most annoying.
