Nioh 2 - How to beat Shuten Doji

The end of Nioh 2 draws close, but there’s still plenty of hardship to face yet. Here’s how to beat Shuten Doji in the upside-down castle.

After the Daiara Bocci, this is a more conventional battle, and combines elements of two Yokai enemies you’ve faced before: Yoki, and the magical fire guy that looks like Spectre Knight.

There’s not much of a strategy to this one other than don’t die - but there are a few tricks that aren’t immediately obvious.

Nioh 2 - How to beat Shuten Doji

I’ve embedded a video of me beating Shuten Doji below. I do a couple of things wrong - chiefly trying to shoot him too much - but it shows you the general strategy.

What you’re trying to do is dodge his attacks, dash in behind for some chip damage, then retreat to a safe distance. However, if you can make him smash the amrita crystals littering the arena, then they’ll build up on his gourd of booze.

Too many swigs of a jug full of amrita makes him drunk and sick. Eventually he’ll fall over leaving him susceptible to a grapple.

Try to avoid hitting or shooting the crystals on his gourd while you’re battling so you get this advantage.

You’ll know he’s drunk when you see him throw up and stagger around. Dodge his attacks to make him fall over. Don’t get greedy and immediately back off after you’ve stabbed him though - he’ll lazily swing his club around from the ground.

For the rest of the fight, he leans on three moves most of the time. The first is a three-hit combo with two long swishes of his club followed by an overhead slam. Roll backwards to dodge the swishes (which have a much longer range that you’d expect), then sideways away from the slam.

Don’t try to go backwards away from the slam - it will hit you, the range is huge. Sometimes if he’s feeling fruity he’ll tack an extra swing or two onto the end, so don’t assume it’s safe and take your eye off the ball. Otherwise, dash in as he resets to quickly deal some damage.

The second main attack is where he whips his hair back and forth in a circle. You can dodge roll backwards underneath this.

Lastly, when he heaves the club onto his shoulder, he’s about to jump in the air and slam down his club before following up with a spin kick.

Dodge sideways to avoid the club, then roll towards and past Shuten Doji’s body to avoid the kick. This way you’re set up for a quick counter before you retreat. If you do dodge the kick by rolling backwards, watch out for a horizontal sweep at the end of the combo.

If you stay in close too long he’ll whack you with his gourd, so don’t get greedy.

His main Burst Counter is borrowed from the fire magic Yokai. He sucks in a glug of the good stuff, then breathes a jet of fire slowly out in front of him. Meet the pillar of flame head on to Burst Counter.

He also has a Burst Counter where his Gourd blurs black-and-white. Meet this head on to Burst Counter too.

As well as these attacks, he can swig from his gourd and spit out fire puddles, but they have a short range.

He leaves himself wide open when transitioning between the real and Yokai worlds, so take that chance when you get it too.

Eventually he’ll hit the mat and you’ll be free to track Tokichiro down.

Here's our list of Nioh 2 boss guides!

For more on Nioh 2, here are the best weapons we've seen in the game so far!