Trek To Yomi Sanjuro Boss Fight Guide: How To Beat The Sanjuro Demon

The Trek to Yomi Sanjuro boss is one of the more difficult encounters you'll come across during your journey through the Shinto version of Hell, bookmarking the end of the fifth chapter. Trek to Yomi has a series of boss fights across its playtime, typically coming during the end of a chapter and challenging you to utilise the skills you've previously learnt. So if you need a quick primer on how to deal with the Trek to Yomi Sanjuro Demon boss, we've got you covered. 

• We also have a breakdown of the Trek to Yomi Artifacts, which serve as the game's collectibles and illuminate a bit about the Japanese Edo period. 

How To Beat The Sanjuro Boss In Trek To Yomi

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The Sanjuro Demon boss comes at the end of the game's fifth chapter, while you're in the depths of Yomi. This is a representation of Hiroki's old sensei that's manifested as a demon from his own guilt at failing to protect the village from the bandits. Sanjuro marks a bit of a difficulty climb, as he has a wider moveset than previous bosses and deals a lot more damage to you even on lower difficulties. But fret not, he's more than beatable, and there are some key strategies to make use of which will ensure he's defeated in no time. 

The majority of Sanjuro Demon's attacks cannot be blocked, so you're best off dodging them when you can, and due to the fact he's much larger than you, you can roll through his legs most of the time. Any of his overhead swing attacks will blast through your defence and damage a significant portion of health. He can perform this move on its own, as the final attack in a combo that's preceded by two light attacks, or after jumping far back before leaping toward you again. 

Each time he does this move, do not roll away from his as it will still damage you. To avoid it you will need to roll through his legs just as the attack is landing, which gives you a small chance to attack him from behind. He will react to this by slamming his staff in front of him, then behind him, and then in front of himself again. To dodge this, wait for the first attack and then roll back to avoid the second entirely. Sanjuro can also perform a slash in front of himself before quickly turning around slashing at you, but this can be blocked. The last move to worry about in this phase is his roar attack. If you move far away, he will stomp his foot and roar at you, causing you to stumble and any ranged weapons to be pushed away. This deals no damage, and you can roll through it to get close and hurt him with some quick attacks.

Once he hits half HP, he will add some new attacks to his arsenal, with one of them being able to one-hit kill you no matter your HP. This is a shoulder barge attack that causes you to be launched from the combat arena, but he will only do it following a specific attack. Watch for this by waiting for Sanjuro Demon to spin around with his blade, before jumping in the air and slashing downward diagonally. If you run toward him straight afterwards and roll between his legs, you can avoid the following shoulder charge. 

Whenever you roll between his legs and have an opportunity to attack, it's best to employ one of the directional attacks that lets you turn around quickly. Our choice is the directional light attack that is followed by a heavy attack, which can be performed by pushing backwards on the left analogue stick (relative to the direction you're facing) and pressing the light attack button, before letting go of the stick and pressing the heavy attack button. This deals a tonne of damage and is one of the quicker attacks to get off, giving you plenty of chance to back off. The next best choice is any of the quick attack combos, such as holding down or up on the analogue stick and pressing light attack twice. 

If you employ enough patience to avoid his harsher attacks and get in the damage on his back when you can, you should drop him after a few cycles. 

That's all for our walkthrough of how to defeat the Trek to Yomi Sanjuro Demon boss, and now you know how to avoid his deadly attacks and when you should attempt to deal damage.

Once you're done with the Sanjuro Demon boss, check out our guide for the final encounter - the Trek to Yomi Kagerou boss, so you can ace the fight and win without taking a hit.