Throughout the story of Onimusha: Way of the Sword, you'll face a good number of bosses that must be defeated in order to progress. In this section of our guide, we'll give you some tips for taking on Byakue, Hundred Defilements. This is the creature you first encountered at Kiyomizu-dera Temple, and it will appear while sealing the Rifts during The Curse of Kiyomizu-zaka Slope.
Let's start with its close-range attacks. If you move a short distance away, Byakue will charge forward with several heavy steps. This is relatively easy to dodge. Its other close-range attack is a very fast leap that is unfortunately easy to confuse with its jumping slash, so expect it to catch you off guard more than once.
Other than that, this is fortunately a fairly straightforward boss. It has the jumping slash mentioned above, a simple combo and a powerful vertical smash. None of these should cause too much trouble, although Byakue attacks more relentlessly than many other bosses and rarely gives you much breathing room. However, its Stamina Gauge also recovers extremely quickly. If you don't want to win by slowly whittling down its health, you'll need to be every bit as aggressive as the boss.
It's worth noting that Byakue becomes much stronger later in the game and gains some extremely dangerous attacks in subsequent encounters. If you see that its blade suddenly appears to grow teeth and red smoke begins pouring from the ground, get ready to jump at the exact moment Byakue strikes the ground or you'll almost certainly die. It becomes considerably more aggressive and gains a few additional attacks, but the red-smoke attack is the one you need to watch most carefully. Remember that you can use the Practice Ground to train against Byakue before facing it again.
Byakue is an optional boss that appears several times throughout the game. Defeating it is important because you'll receive Byakue's Talismans, which are required to enhance the Gauntlet. You can encounter Byakue in the following locations:
