Nioh 2 - How to beat Tokichiro
All good things come to an end - even friendships. Here’s how to take down Tokichiro in Nioh 2.
Do you have a Mujina Soul Core? Go and have a look. They’re the Yokai badgers that pop out of fake chests and murder you. Their Soul Cores come with a Special Effect called “Copy Enhancement” and it’s tailor made for this fight.
Tokichiro uses spirit stones to massively buff his attack power and defensive capability. The Mujina Soul Core essentially lets you negate that buff by copying his bonuses. It makes the fight, much, much, easier.
Nioh 2 - How to beat Tokichiro
Despite being the comic relief for much of the game, Tokichiro can really swing a sword. His relentless fast attacks are tough to live with, but his guard isn’t that strong, and he leaves himself open often.
The video below shows you the gist of the strategy.
This fight is similar to Maeda Toshile, but more exploitable. Tokichiro is vulnerable to headshots from your bow or rifle. If you’re fast, this can be a good way to interrupt an attack and get a strong grapple off.
When Tokichiro produces a spirit stone from his pocket to cast some buffs, you can either shoot at him or cast buffs of your own. Due to the explosive nature of his moveset, Quick-change is a good choice to stop you from getting unexpectedly bodied.
With his guard up, Tokichiro can parry your melee combos really easily. There’s only a short window after his combos to punish so you have to dash in close and be ruthless.
You can block his regular, non-elemental, combos with your primary weapon, so make use of your own guard. Backpedal away from his attacks, block when you need to, then dash in and punish the end of his combos. You need to be fast, but it’s a simple strategy.
Watch out for where he brings his left-hand sword back and it flashes black-and-white. This is unblockable and bad news if it hits you. Luckily it’s very short range, so step backwards when you see it.
When Tokichiro sheathes his weapons or leans back with both swords, he’s going to lunge at you. It’s best to block here because it’s so fast. If you get caught napping you’ll likely die from the flurry of hits.
At around 75% health, Tokichiro will cloak his sword in fire and start to rely more heavily on magical attacks.
When he stamps on the floor he’s send out a fire shockwave you need to sidestep. Then he can summon his monkey Guardian Spirit which you need to backpedal away from for around 5 hits.
The jumping combo he does here is quite short range and can be both punished at the end or interrupted half way through. This is one of your main openings in this section of the fight.
As for the Burst Counter where he leans back and gathers a wall of flame, don’t be faked out by the long wait time. You can Burst Counter this head on as soon as he moves.
At half health Tokichiro starts to pull out even more magic attacks, but the strategy remains the same: dash away from his hits, strike back when he guard is down, then retreat.
He starts to do a spinning Burst Counter with fire and lightning now, which is also quite easy to interrupt.
Replacing his fire shockwave is a lightning one which you need to dodge roll under, and to interrupt his Tapir lightning puddle Burst Counter, you need to catch the double swipe with his swords at the start rather than the puddles.
If the puddles make it out, you can safely step in them for half a second before the lightning strikes and they’ll time out on their own.
Continue to chip away and ping off headshots where you can, and he’ll eventually hit the floor.
Here's our list of Nioh 2 boss guides!
To make things a little easier, try throwing out a couple of Sloth Talismans - they're one of the best skills in Nioh 2, and can help get off a few free hits.