Nioh boss guide: Nue

Featuring classic Japanese creatures from kapa to oni and an incredibly unforgiving level of difficulty that brings to mind Ninja Gaiden and Dark Souls, Team Ninja’s Nioh offers a very satisfying level of slicing samurai mayhem.

Get ready to memorize every last detail of that “You Have Left This Mortal Coil” screen though, because you will see it more than any other part of the game. When you do manage to make it past any given segment, there’s an undeniable sense of accomplishment.

Besides brigands and enemy samurai, Nioh features a series of gigantic, hyper-stylized bosses who will test your skills and push you to the limits as you try to figure out some way to stay alive long enough to develop a strategy.

Below we’ll show you two different ways to take on second boss Nue. If you are wanting to battle Onryoki instead, check out our guide here.

Fighting Nue

Following the previous battle with Onryoki on the boat, at first the lion-shaped, lighting-spewing Nue will seem even more difficult (or perhaps even impossible) to defeat. Don’t ditch that controller just yet, because there’s even more of a pastern to take advantage of with Nue than there was with Onryoki.

As soon as you figure it out and take proper advantage of the boss’s moment of downtime, this battle becomes significantly less challenging. There’s also more room to run around than in the previous boss fight, so you have a better shot at staying out of range of Nue’s lightning breath attack.

He always looks so surprised when you hit him!

The Super Easy, Sorta Cheaty Way

There is a simple method that will hopefully get patched out at some point, but it is entirely possible to beat Nue while taking absolutely no damage in less than a minute.

Use your living weapon with the shark guardian equipped (as Nue is susceptible to water damage) and hit him directly in the head, then simply wail on him indefinitely.

Nue’s ki will drop to empty almost immediately – effectively stunning him – while your living weapon gauge will continuously regenerate. Less than a minute later, Nue will be dead.

It’s certainly not a very exciting or epic battle if you do it this way, but hey, if you are getting frustrated and can’t finish the fight any other way, a win is still a win.

Shark guardian to the rescue!

The Actual Playing The Game’s Mechanics Way

When you enter the courtyard, avoid the temptation to rush up and hit Nue immediately. Just walk far enough in for him to appear, then wait for him to start coming towards you. Approach Nue slowly until he starts glowing with electricity, and immediately run the other way until you are out of range of lightning breath.

Continue to stay away from him and wait for him to lunge at you from range. If you dodge at the last second, he will stumble and fall, exposing his soft underbelly and allowing you to get in six to seven hits while utilizing the middle or low stance.

Avoiding lightning breath

As soon as he gets up, repeat the process. All that will change is what attack he utilizes. Instead of lightning breath, he may summon lighting strikes from the sky that chase after you, regardless of your distance.

You shouldn’t even need to waste stamina by dodging – just run in a wide circle away from Nue and you should be able to avoid the bolts.

Avoiding lighting strikes

His next attack is a poison spray, which he typically will wait to unleash until you are within range. For this attack, run up towards him and then dodge out of the way as soon as he waggles his tail up, which heralds the unleashing of his poison spray. It has a very limited range, so as long as you aren’t directly in front of Nue, dodging should be simple enough.

Avoiding the poison spray

Nue’s final main attack is a roll in a straight line towards you where he will stumble and fall at the end. You can tell this attack is about to happen when he rears up on his hind legs just before rolling at you.

Now that you now the obvious “tells” for his attack types, just repeat the pattern until Nue is dead. Wait for him to lunge at you again and dodge to the side if necessary, but quickly approach and attack his vulnerable underbelly while he’s lying on the ground.

Hitting the vulnerable underbelly

After six to seven hits, run out of range again and dodge whatever attack is coming. Simply don’t get close to him until he’s fallen over, and you shouldn’t get hit by any of his devastating attacks.

Victory!

Let us know if you discovered any other tactics for taking on Nue, and congratulations if you managed to beat him with using the stunlock cheese method!