There are a few bosses that you’ll fight multiple times in Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and the Nue is one of them. It’s definitely on the easier side of the repeat bosses, but if you’re not prepared, you might approach the battle the wrong way and end up on the losing side.
This guide is meant to help you prepare for defeating the Nue no matter which version of the fight you’re facing.
Nue - Legendary Chimera boss fight guide in Onimusha: Way of the Sword
The Nue is a lion-like Chimera, a truly horrible creature created by Dokyo. These creatures are an amalgamation of several different animals forced together into a single Genma body. Their story is genuinely disgusting, so it’s up to you to put them out of their misery.
This fight is all about Reflex Dodging. Parries really aren’t going to help you against a Nue, and if you try to rely on them, you’ll probably find yourself losing more often than not. Most of its attacks are designed to be dodged instead.
If you look at the Nue, it has the body of a lion with a snake head for a tail. When that snake head cocks back and hisses at you, it’s preparing to lunge. Dodge the attack, then prepare to strike while you have an opening.
After you attack, the Nue may use its tail to cover its face and block your attacks. If it does, you’ll need to use the Oni Pillar strength to stagger it out of this defensive position, leaving it open for another attack.
When the Nue hits you, the snake head will attempt to absorb souls. If it absorbs enough, the Nue will enter a second form and gain lightning-based attacks.
When it charges up and begins firing balls of lightning at you, I recommend deflecting them. Not only will this keep you from taking damage, but the reflected projectiles can also deal a good amount of damage back to the Nue.
Double Nue boss fight guide in Onimusha: Way of the Sword
Later in the game, rather than simply making the Nue stronger, Dokyo decides to make things more difficult by throwing you into an arena with two Nue at the same time.
This fight functions a little differently from a normal Nue encounter, but for the most part, the same rules still apply. The biggest difference is that you’ll want to play much more defensively.
Make sure you lock onto a target and constantly swap between the two Nue. They’ll both be attacking you, and you don’t want to accidentally get turned around because they will absolutely take advantage of it. Basically, whenever one Nue attacks you, switch your focus to the one that just attacked.
The two Nue will also try to back you into a corner, and you really don’t want to let that happen. Try your best to stay near the middle of the arena. This gives your camera more room to work and gives you as many directions to dodge as possible.
If you’re struggling a little extra with this fight, a good item to bring with you is the Horn Token (Reflex). This will help your Reflex Gauge fill faster, giving you more opportunities to use Reflex counterattacks.
Most importantly, do not overextend in this fight. If you get greedy and spend too much time attacking one Nue, the other one will hit you in the back.
Stay on your back foot, keep track of both enemies, and only commit to an attack when you’ve successfully dodged one of theirs.
This won’t be the last Nue fight you’ll get in, in fact, the very next fight will be against the Greater Nue which does function similarly but it’s also more parry heavy than these fights.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword is available now on PC via Steam, Xbox Series X|S, Playstation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2.
