Nioh 3 has been released, which means it’s time to sharpen your katana, rescue some friendly Kodama, and try to survive nearly everything trying to kill you. At the top of the food chain is the large roster of bosses, with the ones tied to the main story being some of the trickiest to defeat.
One of these is Minamoto No Yoritomo, who is the final boss of the second act and one that can obliterate your health bar if you’re ill-prepared. Here’s what you need to know so you can successfully vanquish Minamoto No Yoritomo.
How To Defeat Minamoto No Yoritomo
Before going into this boss fight, I recommend putting on anything that might provide you with some wind damage resistance, along with ways to either buff your damage or debuff Yoritomo’s defenses. I also suggest using any magic or weapon imbued with lightning damage so you can try to apply this elemental debuff and slow him down, since he’s pretty mobile.
When the fight starts, Yoritomo will take advantage of his weapon’s reach and mobility to begin pressuring you with attacks. His main moves include launching a flurry of strikes with his blade, which can be blocked, launching a column of wind at you, and flying across the arena to cut you twice.
The former has both a Burst Break and a normal version, where Yoritomo brings his blade low before dashing across the room to slash at you horizontally before turning around to do it a second time. If this is the Burst Break version, he will glow red when it looks like Yoritomo is sheathing his blade. You can counter this by swapping forms on both the first and second slash of this attack, so if you miss his initial cut, be ready to counter the fast follow-up.
If it’s the normal version, you’ll want to roll or block both. It only does physical damage, and he moves too fast to really counter, so your best bet is to play defensively. His other big attack you want to avoid has him bring his sword over his head before slamming it down in front of him. This sunders the earth and releases a wave of wind energy in a straight line. Unless you’re close, the best option is to roll to either side because this move does a lot of damage.
His grab is also one of the easiest to dodge in the game, as he will fly into the air, hover there, and then come down in a straight line to grab you. Simply roll past him and turn around so you can hit him several times before he recovers!
Upon entering the Dark Realm, Yoritomo will imbue his sword with wind energy, which means all his moves will do both elemental and physical damage, making it less favorable to outright block his moves. He’s very vulnerable during the transition animations, so this is a good time to unleash a heavy-hitting combo before he begins attacking.
Yoritomo’s big new attack has him hover in the air, launch four crescent-shaped wind projectiles, and then slam down onto the ground to create a line of wind energy in front of him. This move, while appearing scary, is actually not too difficult to deal with, so long as you don’t panic. When he is firing the projectiles, stand in the middle of them and move slightly right and then left twice to avoid all four of them. Right after you avoid the fourth projectile, dodge immediately in either direction to avoid the wave of wind energy.
Another move to keep in mind involves him spinning around twice and launching small circles of wind entirely around his body. This move can be tricky to dodge since it comes out fast and the only animation tell involves Yoritomo thrusting his sword forward first before following up with the discs of wind.
When he is back in the normal world, Yoritomo will be able to launch a couple of discs of wind at you from his sword. These move fairly slowly and can be avoided by either rolling or dashing in either direction once you see them. He will also perform a frontal slash that actually strikes twice in a 180 arc in front of him. If you see Yoritomo bring his sword over his head and begin to spin, it means he’s going to perform this move.
Finally, I strongly suggest you don’t use your Living Artifact while in the Dark Realm with Yoritomo. While it might seem ideal to try and force him out of this phase faster, the sheer amount of AoE (area-of-effect) moves he can do will quickly chunk away at your Amarita gauge if you just tank the blows. Yoritomo is way easier to bully when out of the Dark Realm, allowing you to maximize your damage while in this form.
Once Yoritomo’s health bar is depleted, he will fall to one knee, and you’ll need to perform a critical hit on him. This triggers a short animation sequence where you perform a flashy series of attacks to finish him off.
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