The Nioh 2 Mysterious Warrior Monk boss is Tengu’s Disciple’s first big challenge as he is the first big opponent you’ll face. He can quickly cut you down if you’re not careful, especially if you are coming to the DLC way after you’ve played the main game. Here are some tips and strategies so you can figure out how to beat him.
How to beat the Nioh 2 Mysterious Warrior Monk boss
The Nioh 2 Mysterious Warrior Monk boss isn’t the hardest boss in the DLC but you will need to nail the basics to beat him. This includes pattern recognition, knowing when to Burst Counter when he glows red, being smart about how you manage their Ki and health bars, and using the Yokai Shift (Circle and Triangle) to close out the fight. He’s not the fastest boss so your weapon choice shouldn’t be limited to your fastest armament. You can even kill him rather effectively with the new splitstaff.
Right off the bat, be sure to block immediately when you enter the fight. He will sometimes very quickly toss his weapons at you from his backpack or immediately dash and slice you. He’ll also throw his blades at you if you get far enough away from him so just be careful. One of this sword tosses shows him winding up counterclockwise. It’s a wide projectile so block or dodge laterally.
His grab, signified by the white glow, is his most powerful attack. Dodge laterally and not backwards because, given the nature of the stabbing, you’ll probably get snatched and stabbed. This combo does a lot of damage so be careful and learning the relatively lenient timing. Just also be sure not to be to close to him. If you are too close, he’ll sometimes still suck you in even if you dodged laterally.
He has a couple Burst Counter moves that glows red like all the other Burst Counter moves in the game. And luckily, they are all on the slow side so you should have plenty of time to pull off your Burst Counter as he slowly whips around and charges his weapon or vertically spins at you. The spin one is a little faster but still not hard to counter.
His other attacks are pretty standard. His vanilla slash attack where he does a quick lunge first usually has five attacks to it and is broken up into two sections (the last two hits are an overhead slam and regular slash). Just simply guard them and try to stay close or behind him to counter attack. He tends to slash horizontally so dodging is a little more risky. The same applies to his more basic four or five-hit attack with the spear and the three-hit attack with the axe. He also seems to be immune to damage when he stomps down his staff and a small tornado blows over him.
Sometimes he will stagger and stumble backwards, allowing for some easy hits. It appears as though he can do this if you wail on him hard enough when he reaches in his backpack to pull out another weapon.