The madmen and women at Sucker Punch amped up Ghost of Yotei’s combat fluidity and adversity factor so much that almost every duel boss fight feels on par with the difficulty of a Soulsborne title. And you guessed it right, that realization hits when you come toe-to-toe with Takezo the Unrivaled.
Takezo’s final duel at the top of Mount Yotei is possibly the most challenging and arduous thing Sucker Punch has crafted thus far in their catalog. I won’t blame anyone who had to tone the difficulty down to below normal just so they could nab the Platinum Trophy.
But being the tenacious bonehead I am, after gritting my teeth against him for an hour on hard difficulty, I’ve provided an extensive guide below that should help you beat him with an optimal build and strategy amidst the fight itself.
How To Prepare For Takezo The Unrivaled
Firstly, it goes without saying that I strongly recommend fighting Takezo atop of Mount Yotei only after you’ve beaten the main story as well as gotten every single charm or gear piece that you need.
This is an endgame fight at its finest that tests your parries, patience, and general combat prowess to the utmost, so try to get every charm that you can to benefit your playstyle before heading to him.
To describe everything as straightforwardly as possible, I’ve detailed the full build below, as well as quick information on why we’re using each component. To reiterate, feel free to tweak out a couple of the charms to your preference to suit your playstyle.
Although Takezo requires having all of his associated charms equipped to summon him, you can switch them out once he’s arrived at camp.
|
Gear |
How To Get |
Explanation |
|---|---|---|
|
Complete the Soma The Condemned Bounty |
A must-have armor set for this fight alone. The perfect parries combined with the three follow-up counterattacks will allow us to have a simultaneous offensive and defensive playstyle. |
|
|
Charm of Futsunushi |
Faithful Leap Shrine in Tokachi Range |
Will further increase our perfect parry and dodge timing windows, making it even better to use the Bounty Master Armor. |
|
Takezo’s Charm of Renewed Determination |
Takezo’s Disciple (Before the Mountain) |
Increases our spirit gained by a minor amount when taking damage. You can swap this one out with any other one of your choice. I recommend the Father’s Charm, which allows you to regain health if you land Perfect Parries. |
|
Takezo’s Charm of Bold Deflection |
Takezo’s Disciple (Beneath Red Leaves) |
Another must-have one for this fight, as successful parries will inflict a major amount of stagger damage. You’ll likely own this because it’s a Takezo charm. |
|
Takezo’s Charm of the Stout Heart |
Takezo’s Disciple (Duel Among Ruins) |
Regardless of whichever difficulty you’re playing from normal or above, Takezo can almost one-shot you with his hellacious attacks, so being able to fully top off your HP from healing is necessary here. |
|
Charm of Mount Yotei |
First-time clear of a Reliquary Puzzle |
Makes a bit of a difference in a hit or two if you have it fully upgraded. However, this charm is almost useless on Lethal difficulty, since Takezo will likely one-shot you anyway. |
|
Charm of Thoughtful Restoration |
First-time Hot Spring usage |
An increase to your max HP is highly requested for this fight. And it goes without saying, make sure you’ve acquired all the Hot Springs for the general health upgrades. |
And lastly, another obvious pointer I want to make out is to have a couple of Sake on hand. I made the mistake of not replenishing them beforehand, since having emergency spirit on hand can drastically help you towards the end of the fight.
When you’re at the camp at the top of Mount Yotei to summon Takezo, make sure to eat a meal to activate an extra spirit orb as well as have a chance to get a major or minor melee perk to help with the duel.
How To Reach Takezo On Mount Yotei
This might confuse a couple of players, so I figured I’d include this for them, but to reach Takezo’s final bout at the top of Mount Yotei, you’ll need to utilize the path of the Mount Yotei Shrine.
You’ll likely have gone through it before, so get ready for a two-minute climb. Thankfully, it shouldn’t be too arduous since it skips half the climb to the peak with a cutaway midway through the climb.
Once you’ve reached the top, make sure you’ve equipped all five of Takezo’s charms and rest at the campfire to summon Takezo.
After the short moment of respite, make sure to do any last-minute things you want here, such as a meal buff or replenishing your quickfire ammo, before heading to the area beside the campfire to talk to Takezo and initiate the duel.
How To Beat Takezo The Unrivaled
First Phase
Disclaimer: As with any game like this and its endgame boss fights, remember, the majority of the fight mainly comes down to your own skill. The better your reactivity with the perfect parries and dodges, the quicker you’ll be able to take him down.
The main strategy that you need to utilize in this fight is to primarily play it defensively as much as possible. And I know you might be thinking that’s the complete opposite of what this game’s combat system encourages.
But the reason I say that is because, with the Bounty Master Armor and the Futsunushi Charm, you’re guaranteed to have a huge window of opportunity to land the Perfect Parry and Dodges.
Most importantly, Takezo loves to block and counterattack your normal inputs, so that’s even more of a reason it’s better to stick to just landing perfect parries to demolish him.
The majority of the first phase is all about the learning curve. Get a flow for Takezo’s lightning-fast attacks, and don’t worry if you die in the first few seconds here. I can’t stress it enough, get comfortable enough to hopefully land a Perfect Dodge against his red glint attacks.
Speaking of which, an unavoidable red glint attack is when he does a spin move with his dual katanas before quickly unleashing a disarming low sweep attack, just as I’ve shown above.
If you do get disarmed, I highly advise throwing down a smoke bomb to help you recover your weapons or even possibly get a second to catch your breath.
This is easily one of the deadliest moves in his arsenal, since it leaves you disarmed and prone to getting killed in a second unless you get your bearings back in a split second.
Second Phase
The latter part of the fight kicks in when you’ve chipped away at a quarter of his HP, as you’ll slowly get afflicted with the frost status effect. This will accumulate over time to the point where it’ll leave you with 20% HP at the end of the fight, so you’ll get one-shotted either way.
Again, this is exactly why I recommend playing it safe and relying on your Bounty Master Armor’s counterattacks to do most of the damage. With enough successful parries and retaliating strikes, you should break his stagger for some hefty damage.
Be consistent enough with your parries, and if you see an unblockable attack incoming, do your best to time your Perfect Dodge on it to interrupt further attacks. And with enough tries, you can beat him to a pulp with ease. But besides that, there’s not much change in the fight itself or the aforementioned strategy.
If you want to take that risk factor even further, you can also use Takezo’s Dual Slash Technique or Onryo’s Strike to create a brief moment to attack him at the cost of your spirit orbs.
This might be a bit risky, but another thing that you can also do is use your Tanzutsu Pistol once or twice to interrupt Takezo’s attacks to gain some extra leverage on him. After that, and towards the end, he may block the pistol shots, so use them as early as possible.
Finally, don’t feel bad about reviving a ton throughout this fight. Treat the first dozen tries as practice runs, but make sure you’re giving each run the utmost attention, because a single mistake towards the end can finish you, especially if you’ve run out of spirit orbs to revive you.
Rewards
For beating Takezo the Unrivaled in your final bout on top of Mount Yotei, besides the “Unrivaled” Trophy for conquering this fight, you’ll also receive the following rewards:
- Strawhat of the Unrivaled Hat
- Gilded Night & Gilded Dawn Weapon Kit (Pick up from burial site)
- Security Camera Installation – indoor/outdoor IP CCTV systems & video analytics
- Access Control Installation – key card, fob, biometric & cloud‑based door entry
- Business Security Systems – integrated alarms, surveillance & access control
- Structured Cabling Services – voice, data & fiber infrastructure for new or existing builds
- Video Monitoring Services – 24/7 remote surveillance and analytics monitoring
Author: 360 Technology Group
