Otoroshi in Nioh 3 is a mandatory story boss that you can’t skip. And that’s a good thing, because he’s a really interesting opponent. You’ll encounter new mechanics, unique attacks, and an overall enjoyable experience, since defeating Otoroshi is actually quite straightforward.

Nioh 3 Otoroshi Boss Guide

For this fight, I use available magic and simple Ninja Tools. At the start of the battle, when I first encountered the enemy, I thought the fight would be difficult. But to my surprise, despite the enemy’s interesting attacks, I managed to defeat Otoroshi on my first try. The fire debuff played a key role in the victory; I tried to keep it on Otoroshi for as long as possible after he started taking extra damage. Fire shurikens helped me with this. For better control of the debuff, I also recommend using any fire bomb as a Ninja Tool. In this battle, I used regular kunai and shurikens in addition to the fire shuriken. That’s also enough to win.

To be honest, I was absolutely fascinated by how Otoroshi grabs huge icicles and tries to hit me with them. It really looks stunning in motion. A massive boss, massive weapons, and a tiny ninja who is determined to defeat this opponent. If you’re having trouble with this boss, I recommend using the tactic I liked best throughout the entire game. I try to stay as far away from the boss as possible and throw all my Ninja Tools at him. To succeed in this mode, you need to equip all seven items from the Head of the Iga Ninja set. It offers some really nice bonuses specifically for your Ninja Tools.

Nioh 3 Otoroshi Boss fight

This battle was far from perfect. I took a lot of damage and could easily have lost. But remember, this was our first encounter, and the plan was really just to get acquainted with the boss. So sometimes I was actually more focused on admiring the enemy’s cool animations than on trying to defeat him. Nevertheless, Otoroshi failed the test and lost this battle. For me, it was a very interesting and enjoyable experience, so I was very pleased.