Daidara — Way of the Sword Boss Guide (Fight 8)

This is the boss guide for Daidara in Onimusha: Way of the Sword — fight 8 of 18, the armour-plated troll between the Nue duo and Rasho-gan on the boss list.

Onimusha Curious Cases: Daidara — official Capcom profile — YouTube

Onimusha Curious Cases: Daidara — official Capcom profile

The fight at a glance

The perfect-deflect target

Do not let the two-phase structure fool you — the boss himself is fairly weak. His biggest weakness by far is his sluggishness: nearly every attack is heavily telegraphed, making them easy targets for a perfect deflect. The Issen explainer is the whole game plan here.

The blue-soul siphon

The one thing to watch closely throughout: he siphons any blue souls left hanging in the air if you do not grab them first. Let him do that too often and he grows steadily more powerful, hastening his slide into his enhanced state — you will know he has reached it once his belly starts glowing red. Grab your souls; starve the troll.

Phase by phase

• Phase one — the standard telegraphed mace set, plus a sprint straight at you: dodge it with the right timing.
• Phase two — he adds a blue hand-grab attack, deflected with a well-timed counter.
• The mace-lick swing, either phase — his single most devastating move: he licks his mace before swinging it around. If it connects, you are sent hurtling across the room for substantial damage. The windup is unmistakable — be anywhere else when it lands.

Where this sits on the road

Daidara holds fight 8; Benkei waits at 11-12 and the final boss guide caps the run. On the Platinum push he returns in Boss Rematch at every difficulty — part of the Glutton for Punishment sweep on the trophy roadmap.