The Village of the Cursed Blossoms - Nioh 2 Guide - IGN (2024)

Welcome to IGN's Walkthrough and Guide for Nioh 2. This area-based Walkthrough will cover all enemy encounters, including Mezuki and Gozuki tips, items to pick up, secrets to find and more as you complete your journey.

This guide contains information on the Main Mission: Village of the Cursed Blossoms, the first large region that you can explore in Nioh 2. It includes winding paths through a village leading gradually upwards.

Walkthrough

After you load in, head straight. You’ll run into your first search point in the game.

These points will always be indicated by a yellow light above a corpse or other point of interest. Interact with it and you’ll receive a randomized item.

To your right after searching the body, you’ll see your first Shrine. These act as points of respite for you along your journey, so take advantage of the opportunities they offer as you progress through your journey.

At the Shrines, you can Level Up using your stored Amrita, which is effectively experience points. You can make offerings to get Divine Rice to buy more Elixirs and other necessary items. You can change your Guardian Spirit, among many other things.

After finishing up at the shrine, directly ahead of you will be a body you can loot that lies in front of a locked gate that will act as a shortcut in a moment. Grab the item, and head left. You’ll see another body on a cliff overlooking a small ravine with another body at the end of a path to your left, and if you look carefully, something is munching on the body.

This will be your first encounter with the enemy known as a Gaki, and these little buggers can be annoying. Thankfully, in this first area, they’re not as powered up as they’ll be in future areas and make for a great way to experiment with Nioh’s Ki systems. Though they become a bit harder later on, in this first area, they will attack you with a simple jump slash, as well as throw rocks at you if you keep your distance. They also have an Burst Attack you can use your Burst Counter on too, indicated by the flash of red light before they attack. If you stay aggressive on them, they won’t have a chance to counterattack, as their own Ki is very low in this first mission. We’ll circle back around to their new attacks as they enter the fray, but for now, don’t worry too much. Just slash away until they topple over when their Ki is drained, then murder them with a Grapple.

Loot the body the Gaki was munching on, then head forward to find another body just in front of a large open field, complete with what amounts to a boss battle with an enemy known as a Gozuki.

While you CAN take on this massive foe right now, we cannot in good confidence recommend it. In fact, you should almost certainly avoid it for now and come back to it later.

There are two bodies found in the field, one on the right and one on the left. The Gozuki will circle back and forth horizontally on the field, so wait for him to be on either opposite end before looting the bodies so you don’t get spotted. On the opposite side of where you entered is a locked gate. The key is actually held by the Gozuki and you can skip much of the early area if you can defeat him to get it, but the task is daunting. Instead grab the body that’s in front of it and head right up a hill.

Passing a cherry blossom tree, head down the right fork to find a body then double back and head down the lefthand path. You’ll see another Gaki munching on a body. Once again, aggression here will get you far, so take him out, and loot the body. Once you’ve done this, the gate you saw immediately next to the Shrine at the start will be directly in front of you, creating an easy access shortcut back as you move forward.

You’ll also most likely have noticed the red grave markers known as Bloody Graves by this point. This indicates a point where other players died somehow, and examining the points tells you how they died, giving you a chance to avoid the same peril, or at least prepare yourself. Each of these points also gives you a chance to fight the Revenant of that player, an enemy that represents the player who died.

If you wish at this point, you can head back to the shrine and restock your Elixirs, though note you’ll need to beat the Gaki you just defeated once the area resets when you Pray to the Shrine.

When ready, cross the small bridge near the second Gaki. You’ll see a lootable body on the path up ahead and as you approach a Gaki will appear and notice you, not allowing you to ambush it like the first two. Defeat it, grab the body, and then continue forward.

You’ll find another fork in the road. To the left lies a small canopy with a loot spot and building, with a strange smoke to the left of the building that blocks your path, we’ll double back on this in a moment, for now, grab the loot and double back taking the righthand path. To your right, as you head up the path, you’ll see a Gaki chomping on a body, but what you may not notice if you’re not careful is the Gaki playing dead on the ground, waiting to ambush you. As you approach, black and grey smoke will envelop his hands. As you make your way through the game, this will become a familiar tell for grab attacks that do heavy damage to your character if they connect, so be vigilant for them. After letting the ambush miss, take out the aggressive Gaki, then approach and ambush the one preoccupied with the corpse. Be careful not to engage both simultaneously.

Snag the item on the body. Then you can either head through the house in the area where you are currently which will put you out directly in front of the mysterious smoke you saw earlier, or double back and approach it from the fork in the road. We recommend option 2.

As you approach the smoke, you should be prepared for an ambush from a brand new Yokai, and one that you have yet to have faced known as an Enki.

This smoke represents enemies you’ll only have to face the one time. Should you die, after defeating them, they won’t respawn.

Fighting Your First Enki

An ape-like Yokai carrying a long spear, the Enki will present your first real test in the game, and you’ll be fighting it a lot over the course of your journey, so it’s best to get to know its moveset now. You’ll want to consistently shift around the side of it whacking away and regaining Ki via Ki Pulse as you go. Some attacks to look out for when it jumps in the air, if you are far away it will throw the spear at you, dodge left or right to avoid this. If in close range it will slam the spear downward creating an AOE attack around it that you can dodge through and get some hits off. He also will have a two swing attack, first left, then right, then a stab forward, that if you sidestep, leaves him open to some swings. If you see the red light go off indicating a Burst Attack you can Burst Counter, don’t use it unless you’re right next to the Enki. Back away from the initial swings and wait for it to jump into the air before burst countering into straight into its body. This is the easiest way to time it, though you can get it off on the initial swings if you time it right. It may take a few tries (we died quite a lot figuring it out) but once you have this down, you can quickly deplete the Enki’s Ki for a major hit. Remember to use a Ki Pulse specifically to get rid of the pools of cloud smoke that indicate a Yokai Realm. These will slow your Ki regeneration to next to nothing. So having too many of these around can be a real problem.

After defeating the Enki, you’ll most likely receive an Enki Soul Core. Soul Cores are essentially special attacks that can be equipped to your character, borrowing a specific move or embodiment of the attack style of the enemy from which they drop. Like armor and weapons, each has a level, so as you fight other higher-level Enkis, you’ll receive versions of the Enki Soul Core that do more damage than the one you just received, though the attack pattern never changes. These Soul Cores can be swapped out at any time from the Shrines.

After taking out the Enki, head past where you first ran into him and you’ll come to a fork in the road. While you’ll see some tempting items on the left-hand path, hold off and head right instead. You’ll come to two Gaki in a small grove with a tree in the center. After taking them out, look to the left of the tree, where you’ll see a body on a wooden overhang above the path below. Loot it, but don’t drop down, head back to the tree and continue forward where you’ll see another body on your left, overlooking an archer. This introduces you to human enemies in the game as well as drop attacks. As you enter into freefall, press R1 or R2 to do a drop attack, which should kill the archer. Another ax-wielding soldier below cannot be killed by a drop attack but can be severely injured. After he gets up, back up and wait for him to charge, and while he runs out you, hit him and stun lock him to death. Repeat until dead. Head back towards the initial Enki you killed (left of where you dropped down), and you’ll find a spear-wielding soldier just hanging out. Get the jump on him, and similarly to the ax wielder, if you run out of Ki, back up and let him come to you, then attack.

Head up the sloped steps where you’ll find another body, along with the path to the Enki area on your left, but to your right is a hidden path you may not have seen! Head that way and you’ll run into a Gaki walking towards you, followed by another one munching on a body a little further down. In front of the second Gaki is an overlook of where you came from. As you double back from the overlook, look to your right. You’ll see a small green creature on the ground in a dead-end path. These are Kodama, and finding them and engaging with them will lead them back to the shrine. You can think of them as a hidden easter egg, and there are tons to find so here’s your first!

After guiding the Kodama to safety, head back down the path where you ran into the three soldiers until you see…. A SHRINE! Just a moment though, before you use the shrine, make a hard left and you’ll see a path with a spear-wielding soldier. Take him out and there’ll be one last item at the end of the path before you use the Shrine.

At the shrine, it’s time to level up with all the Amrita you’ve gained thus far. In terms of what to upgrade, Heart and Stamina seem to be fairly safe options regardless since both give many advantages. Though if you’re running a specific type of build, your mileage may vary.After using the shrine, head forward where you’ll see a body. To the right is a locked gate you’ll come to the other side of soon enough. To your left is a bridge, go on across, and take out the spear wielder on it. You can hit him into the river for an easy kill.

Make sure not to fall in yourself, as it’s an automatic death.

As you enter into the town, you’ll see a couple of guards straight ahead, but you don’t need to take them head-on. Grab the body on the corner of the building, then head left and break through the boxes. Heading around the backside of the building, you’ll see a break between two buildings with those two guards you saw earlier. Try and lure them one by one, though you may aggravate both to come after you. At the very least pull them around to the backside of the building to avoid the archer you may not have seen earlier from shooting you with fire arrows. From the backside of the building, you can head up a small path that comes to a fork. If you make a left you’ll come to a body on a broken bridge along with a locked gate. Loot the body. This is the gate that leads back to the Gozuki, who holds the key to it. So forgo it for now. If you make a right, you can find another body and a ladder you can kick down that puts you right into the Gozuki arena. I’d still say forgo it for now. Come back later.

Double back and you can run along the left side of the village on a small path overlooking it. You’ll come upon a bridge that leads to the rooftops. Crossing it will present you with a path of bridges that will put you on the centermost house where you can take out the archer with the fire arrows.

Looting the nearby body on the roof yielded for us our first longbow and some arrows. Longbows are naturally ranged weapons and can be used by holding down R2 and releasing an arrow with L2. There’s no drawback time, so the arrow will release immediately and goes surprisingly far! Always try to go for a headshot indicated by your cursor turning red, as oftentimes with lower-level enemies, this will result in an instant kill. Though once you hit some enemies and they see you, you may not be able to hit them again through their block, so make your shot count.

From here you can use the longbow to take out any enemies nearby you wish. There’s an ax wielder walking below you, along with a spear bearer in one of the houses near him and a sword wielder in the other. There is also a loot chest in the house with the sword wielder and a body in the other house. Heading out the back of the house where the spear bearer came from, you can drop down a small ledge to find a hidden Kodama as well!

Now to the enemies across the river. The two on the roof/upper bridges can be taken out with an arrow to the head, along with the one on the bridge crossing the river. After taking out as many enemies as you can, follow the wooden path that snakes out over the river, where you can find two bodies to search, along with another body in the house just in front of the bridge to cross to the other side. The man across the river has a helmet on, so even a well-placed shot will only knock off his helmet. Hitting him will also aggro a hidden enemy to his left, so be prepared for a two on one fight as you cross the bridge and don’t fall in.

To the left of the bridge, you’ll find a loot spot on a boat that leads into a boathouse on the left-hand side. There’s a ladder here that leads up to the paths back across the river, so don’t worry about this unless you’re still taking out any enemies over there. Heading straight down the center path from the bridge, you’ll reach a dead end with a loot spot. The building on your right you passed initially after crossing bridge has a ladder on it that allows you to get to those enemies there if you didn’t take them out with an arrow or two. You should still head up and follow the path as it puts you into the second building on the path as it turns right. Inside this building on the second floor will be a Gaki lying in wait to ambush those below. But you’re in the know. Take him out. There’s another Gaki below him playing dead, murder time. After taking them both out, you can loot the chest inside and head out. Across the way is another house with a body in it.

Outside, the only way forward is blocked by another cloud of grey smoke. As you approach, a Yokai known as a Yoki will emerge.

Fighting Your First Yoki

We recommend not taking him on before doing the following since you’ve made a whole lot of progress that would be a shame to lose: Run straight past him to the right, where you’ll find a gate, engage with it quickly to unlock it, and even if you die, your corpse will be right by the Yoki fight waiting for you.

This sword-wielding Yoki, like the Enki is fairly difficult the first time you face him. He hits hard and is fairly aggressive. The main strategy here is to bait him into an attack that has him rush forward, avoid the attack and then attack back. He has a rush followed by two slash combo. He also has a kick that he can combo either on its own or prefaced by a swing if he feels you’re being overly aggressive. The most dangerous attack comes in the form of it charging at you, swinging consecutively 4 times. If you get hit, you’ll be stun locked and most likely die. If he comes at you with this, it’s in your best interest to use your Burst Counter to become temporarily invulnerable and get passed him. He has a Burst Attack that results in him swinging wildly in front of him, use this to your advantage and Burst Counter it if he chooses to do it. After it’s defeated if you haven’t already, head back to the Shrine through the shortcut and deposit all your Amrita into a Level Up. Now’s also probably a good time to upgrade to whatever the best gear in your inventory is as you move forward as well as restock Elixirs and Arrows at the Kodama Bazaar in the Make Offerings tab.

Head back through the shortcut gate, and take the path to the right. This will lead you up a set of stairs to a resting spear-wielder. Heading to the right, you’ll see another set of stairs. Careful not to rush in too quickly, as there are quite a few enemies in this small area. You should see an archer perched on a cliff above the next area, take him out first at a range. After you’ve done that, get the ax wielder’s attention and bring him down the stairs and take him out too. After this, you’ll be free to rush in and murder the resting sword wielder on the ground that’s beneath the archer’s cliff.Head up the right side of the cliff where you’ll find a body to loot, along with a strange bulbous cat known as a Scampuss. These little guys are littered throughout the world of Nioh 2 and they’re super friendly. (Honestly we’re still not sure what exactly they do other than follow you around and do minimal damage to your enemies)

Head up the left side of the archer’s cliff and you’ll encounter one last curveball this area has to throw at you before taking on its bosses.

Yokai Realm

You’ll approach another cloud of grey smoke, only this time, you’ll pass through it, and all of the color will wash out of your screen, and horns will appear on your half Yokai head. These are Yokai Realms, and like the small versions that the mini bosses of the Enki and Yoki summon, your Ki regenerates extremely slowly here, making Ki Pulse management paramount.

Loot the nearby body, then head up the stairs where you’ll see a shrine, only you can’t use it, given that it’s corrupted by the realm. You’ll need to find the mini boss within the realm and take him out to make the whole thing go away.

At this point you should see some friendly blue grave markers nearby. You can use one fo these to summon a friendly ally to help you in this tough area. Left of the shrine is an archway leading into an open courtyard. Grab the loot near the arch and then begin to head through. You’ll find two patrolling Gaki along with a stationary one to the left. Try your best to get the attention of one at a time, and remember your Ki management!

Note that hitting them til they fall over will result in a spew of pink electric goo that forces you to stay in one place, paralyzed. So don’t be so aggressive once you knock them down.

After defeating all three, loot the bodies on the left and right sides of the open yard, noticing the path to the left, but don’t take it just yet. Ahead of the yard is a small temple, and inside is going to be an Enki you’ll have to take out. This is where that ally become especially useful if you’re not yet used to the Enki’s attacks. There’s no new moves to look out here for, but he moves fast, making Ki management much harder. Just try your best to focus on using your Ki Pulse when you can to quickly regain that much needed Ki.

After taking him out with or without help, the Yokai realm will dissipate, and you’ll be free to loot the chest on the outside of the temple, as well as the body on the interior that holds the Inner Shrine Key. Make sure to not forget to double back down the left hand path where you’ll come to a Gaki you can drop kill, and a body directly ahead of that to loot.

Now you’re ready for the bosses! Head back up the hill to the left to the newly cleansed Shrine and upgrade your character before heading forward.

At this point, should you wish to, we recommend going back to take on the Gozuki and a guide for it will be included after our guide for the main boss: Mezuki.

Note that once you beat this boss, the mission will be over and you won’t be able to double back to Gozuki. Click here to jump to Gozuki.

Mezuki

As you open the gate, you’ll see a Gaki to take down in front of a corpse, do so, loot and continue forward, and you’ll come to a set of doors, opening them will trigger a cutscene that will introduce you to your mighty foe.

A Yokai-horned, horse headed humanoid creature, the Mezuki is a good early test of your skills thus far. In terms of weapon, he wields a massive cleaver in his right arm that you can guarantee will be swung your way, but this isn’t his only means of attacking.

In general, you’re wanting to avoid the heavy swings and slams, and look for the times he attempts to use a Burst Attack, and punishing him for it. The swings are massive so it can be challenging to avoid everything, but use your objects in the field effectively, creating distance when needed.

Make sure to use other elements at your disposal too. Don’t forget your Soul Core attacks and Yokai Shift ability, especially when he transports you to the Yokai Realm. Some fast and heavy damage will make it all the quicker to get out of it if you can stagger him.

Close Range Attacks

• He will swing his blade around counterclockwise in a large horizontal slash. Dodge through this or back up to avoid. He can follow this attack up with a slash the opposite direction, and then another the same direction as swing 1 creating a visceral three swipe combo. This makes this attack fairly unpredictable because you can have 1 2 or 3 swings in the combo.
• A single swipe of his left arm, mostly used to gain space from an aggressive player.
• If you find yourself attacking from behind Mezuki, he can buck backwards in an unexpected attack.

Burst Attacks

• Burst of red light, followed by three consecutive vertical slams of his axe as he moves straight ahead. The best counter for this is of course the Burst Counter, but if you can’t get that, dodge to either side. Getting hit with all three is likely a death.
• A burst of red light, and then Mizuki will charge forward on all fours trying to mow you down. This is perhaps the easier of the two to Burst Counter.
• A red burst of light followed be a single deliberate slam of the cleaver, sometimes accompanied with a jump beforehand.

Ranged Attacks

• He can summon tracking ghost-like faces that when they hit you, drain your Health a bit and your Ki a heck of a lot. If they miss you and hit the ground, they create Yokai Realm pools that you can of course remove with a Ki pulse.

Grab Attacks

• His left arm will envelop itself in smoke before he reaches immediately in front of him. If it connects, he picks you up and saws through you with the cleaver. Dodge right to avoid this.

Yokai Realm Transition

About halfway through the fight, Mezuki will summon you both into the Yokai Realm, forcing you to manage your Ki more carefully. His moves don’t change during this phase much, but he gets generally faster in all of them, forcing you to switch up your timing a bit.

The one new move that is added is another Ranged attack in which he can send two lines of shockwaves at you from afar, dodge either direction to avoid this.

Ok. You got all that? Took him out? Great! After finally taking him out you’ll be treated to a cutscene where your Yokai self is out of control with rage, and a strange man keeps it at bay with a glowing yellow stone. How weird. Grab the items dropped including your shiny new Soul Core, and talk to the man to finish the mission.

Gozuki

So you’re doubling back to take on the boss everyone expected you to skip? Good on you. Let’s tackle him together.

Similar to Mezuki in both scale and somewhat in appearance, Gozuki is actually just a bit tamer version of Mezuki with slight differences. Where Mezuki had a large cleaver, Gozuki has a spiked mace. As you would expect, many of his attacks are more centered around slams of the weapon than swings. Though he has a few of those too.

Rules still apply here though, try to keep your Ki in check, and use Ki Pulse to remove any Yokai Realm Pools he summons. Wait for his Burst Attacks and punish with a Burst Counter where possible.

Close Range Attacks

• He can perform a massive 360 degree spin with his weapon, can’t really avoid this one other than with invulnerability frames and good times.
• A single swipe of his mace from his left to right, mostly used to gain space from an aggressive player.
• If he notices you’re behind him, he’ll turn doing a 180 spin and swinging his weapon as he does. Dodge through this.
• Single slow massive slam. Dodge to either side to avoid it.

Burst Attacks

• Burst of red light, followed by a three sixty spin and a huge slam. The delay can throw you off, but time a Burst Counter right for massive damage.
• A burst of red light, and then Gozuki will drive his mace into the ground and bulldoze you with it. Face him head on and Burst Counter him into oblivion.

Ranged Attacks

• This one’s different, he can use his mace in the same pattern as Mezuki when he sends the shockwaves your way, only here he sends a flurry of boulders out at you. Dodge to the right when you see it coming to avoid getting hit.
• He can run up towards you closing the gap before performing a hop jump and slamming his weapon down.
• Mezuki will bring his head down and rush towards you like a bull. Dodge to the side.
• He can roar, creating a Yokai Realm Pool