Every game needs one. Things just wouldn’t feel complete without the torso of a giant beast leaning in from the middle distance. Now it’s time to fight Nioh 2’s obligatory huge Yokai boss: Daidara Bocci.

While the format of this battle is a little different to what you’ve come up against so far - there’s still a fair amount of cross-over in the attack patterns.

Because of the Daidara Bocci’s unique size - even bigger than the Gyuki - you need to finesse your positioning more than usual. If you try to square up to this big boy then you’re just going to get squished.

Nioh 2 - How to beat the Daidara Bocci

The Daidara Bocci has been looming over the horizon for the entire mission, spamming eye beams at anything that moves.

However, once you get into an arena with it, it’s probably less dangerous, but still needs to be treated with respect.

Below is a successful run from my playthrough of Nioh 2. I derp a bit of the end, but in my defence it’s really hard to see the red circles against the brown/green floor when you’re colourblind.

The key thing to remember in this battle is that you can block the Daidara Bocci’s eye beams with your primary weapon. It will probably knock out just about all of your Ki, but it’s possible. Don’t bother messing about with the camera, just block the hits.

Otherwise, you’re pretty safe if you tuck yourself into the extreme sides of the arena, as shown in the video. Position yourself right next to the monster’s fingers and strike away. This will keep you out of range of pretty much all of the slamming and beam attacks which target the centre of the arena.

If things seem a bit too quiet, then it’s probably charging up an eye beam. Lock-on to the boss and throw up a guard. It doesn’t matter where you’re standing - the beams will clip through scenery to hit you (even the Yokai’s own body).

After you’ve made the block you can go back to wailing on the fingers, which break one by one.

As the fight progresses, Deidara Bocci will reach into the ground and red circles will appear on the floor underneath you. Sprint in an arc away from these circles to the other side of the arena and position yourself next to the other set of fingers. Don’t set off too early, because this is a timed attack and you’ll need to keep running until the circles stop.

When Daidara Bocci’s stamina runs out, it’ll fall over and you can run up its arm to grapple.

Sometimes it will throw shockwaves that home in on you out during this phase. You can block these with your primary too.

If the red circles appear larger than normal, then bigger damaging puddles are about to form. Since these take up more room and come out slower, you might need to do two laps of the arena to avoid them.

Rinse and repeat this strategy until it falls over again with about 33% of its health left.

After downing the beast twice, you’ll be dragged into the Yokai Realm and the fight really gets started.

Your target is still the fingers, but your stamina regeneration penalty will make it much more difficult. Stick to your pattern, but mix in more Ki Pulses.

To defeat the Daidara Bocci this time, you need to break every single one of its fingers - including the thumb nubs. Keep cool, stay at the side of the arena, and you should be able to chip it down with patience. Make use of multiple hit Yokai Abilities for quick bursts of damage.

At some point it might spam a load of beams out in front of it, but you should be safe in your ring-side hidey hole.

Grapple it’s face to finish the job!

Here's our list of Nioh 2 boss guides!

For more on Nioh 2, here are the best weapons we've seen so far!