So, Ren hayabusa...

[Tether Me Daddy]

Let me just say, i'm a long time fan of Nioh (Nioh 1 is probably one of my all time favorites).

With that being said, never in my life, i've been more dumbfounded by a boss in a video game Lmao...

I guess should've been angry, but for some reason i just laughed my ass of at how ridiculous he is.

i) First 7-8 times, i literally died within 10-20 seconds, as any 2 of his attacks(quick attacks, not skills) fully depleted my ki bar, only to be finished off by izuna drop( i was lvl 158, with full dragon ninja light armor)
ii) Took a while to get used to the fact that his cross map leap attack has a whopping 0.1 sec animation.
iii) Had to stare at the screen for 2 full minutes upon finding out he can final blow u after his unblockable grab attack.
iv) But what literally made my jaw drop is that he actually attacks you DURING your knock down animation(I Repeat, not when u r knocked down, but during the animation of u falling to the floor) , which has no invincibility frame, and of course during which u can't block. I don't think i've ever seen a human enemy do that in both nioh 1 & 2.

Anyway, i did beat him after around 20 tries by just spamming moonlit snow redux like a noob, but i honestly don't know what i'm supposed to do on higher difficulties.
He clearly has more speed and damage than all other human enemies, and is at this moment clearly above my skill level.
Onmyo doen't work since he just dodges everything, plus i didn't really see any form of opening from his attacks, since he'll just block everything.
I know u can knock him down if u hit him with kunai/shuriken during his leap attack, but its so quick i can't realistically pull that off.

Any helpful tips would be highly appreciated.

P.S. i'd really like to see ppl whining about Nameless king or Midir take on this guy...

[Kelchesse]

Some of the yokai abilities are quite good against him. Heavy ki damage like, for example, Gozuki or Ippon Datara. Keeping the pressure on him makes him result to block all the time, just keep up and don't let him do stuff.
Headshot him when he casts his spell for free final blow.
You can snatch him out of the air if you space yourself, which baits his jumping slice (i usually shot him down with a hatchet), another freebie final blow.
Burst countering his burst counter-able moves really shuts down his ki regen. Hitting him with lifeseal talisman might be harder, but one counter can do the world of difference.
finally, you can still go for a parry or two, since you're getting guard-broken easily.
Getting faster recovery out of ki may allow you to not get grabbed (by, for example, using yokai ability to change into something that is too big for a grab).

Besides, the further you go, the better your stats will be. More ki allows you to block more attacks. A in Toughness greatly reduces ki consumption from blocking (200 toughness minimum), heavy armor can really dampen his damage (with my mid-heavy'ish set on first ng his attacks were not that super powerful).

[Filthy Cur]

Use caltrops, and toss in some scampuss summons.

[Fraktal]

I just used three roller kitties and the fight became a total joke.

Some of the mechanics in this game is just bizarre.

[Calm Hostage]

Just beat him last night. I used the splitstaff's long range attack almost exclusively, sometimes it would knock him out of the air for the free followup attack, without me even trying to. The caltrops bomb is helpful but not necessary, either.

[Tether Me Daddy]

Originally posted by Filthy Cur:

Use caltrops, and toss in some scampuss summons.

I had actually used caltrops, found it to be extremely useful...

[Thoughtzilla]

Caltrops and Shruiken spam make him a bit of a joke

[Blaudari]

Using caltrops & then use fists only for the dodge speed when in low stance or put away your weapon to keep your dodge speed high whil spamming the yokai ability that brings out 4 white hairy tentacle things. ( you get it from the gigantic house boss) he literally can't escape that attack. I had the box that allows you to use yokai abilities even if you have no anima so thats what helped me. Even if he gets outside the ring of that yokai ability, he'll at least get hit once or twice.

[Tauriz]

Just use a cat gang, watch Ren being cucked :D
I used parry against him, staying close and waiting for attack pretty much ez. His attacks are so fast that i didn't even have to catch a timing to parry.

[jjj0309]

Even top Nioh 2 players who beats all the bosses on the DoTN like chewing gums, mostly agrees that cheesing out or exploiting the hell outta game is the proper way to beat Human Bosses in Nioh 2. And the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Ren Hayanusa is the king of all Human Bosses.

If you don't wanna cheese out, then storming him without giving him a second with either Fists or Tonfa, or keep dodging all of his attacks in low stance and hitting him time to time for 10 minutes is the only way to beat him. And trust me, if you try the later you might get a cancer out of stress.

Try get 3 cats, spam Yokai Abilities and arm with various Ninjitsu, Onmyo skills. If you wanna beat him in honest way, well good luck, you are trying to be 1% of all players. Top players often says remembering patterns like against Yokai Bosses does not applies to Human Bosses, because they requires ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ top 1% of Human reflex. Normal people like you and me can't even respond to their attacks, so cheese out to not get cancer out of stress.

[orthostatic]

His telegraphs are pretty obvious once you spend a moment to identify them. You can punish lightly after each. Once you habituate your response to his jump telegraph, you can knock him out of the air for a free final blow, or a more punishing combo since fb is not always the best choice.

Eventually you'll figure out methods to ki-break and all, but learning telegraphs is a good habit early on. Expect to die a few times while you practice defending, and then you'll know where his openings are. Trust me, he gets boring after a fashion.

[Fat Valentine]

Originally posted by Tether Me Daddy:

Let me just say, i'm a long time fan of Nioh (Nioh 1 is probably one of my all time favorites).

And somehow you don't know about Jin Hayabusa from Nioh 1 which was arguably worse. *doubt*

[Tether Me Daddy]

Erm, i fought and killed jin hayabusa, he was way easier. killed him first try.
Also, before jumping to conclusions, the least you could do is check my achievements...

[la_nague]

get a sword with backwave tempest, all you need to kill him.

that or you learn how to loop human bosses with your weapon of choice.

[GrayHound]

He's one of the easiest bosses in the game. I probably died 3-4 times to every boss in the game (as I went in blind and didn't have any builds) but I did him 2nd try (iirc).

You just bait his attack and punish him. Evey other boss has some kind of completely unfair BS but Ren is fair. Maybe the only one.

[Tether Me Daddy]

Originally posted by GrayHound:

Evey other boss has some kind of completely unfair BS but Ren is fair. Maybe the only one.

I don't even know what to say fam, i genuinely find human bosses more interesting than yokai ones(Except hanzo on ninjitsu mystic art mission), but until this point no one was this BS with speed and damage.