I have no idea what possessed me to even attempt this to begin with, but I have somehow managed to beat all 18 bosses on Carnage Difficulty using only Issens without using any Charms or the Bishamon Sword. I did have to make exceptions for Dokyo due to a lot of her attacks being outright impossible to Issen, but the rules were otherwise as follows:

- Issens as the only form of damage (except Grab Counters since grabs can't be Issened)

- No parrying/deflecting (except Unavoidable and Unarmed attacks. Unavoidables can't be Issened and parrying/deflecting Unarmed does no health/stamina damage)

- No Blazing State, Reflex Combos, Oni Armaments, or Oni Awakening

As for Dokyo, since many of her attacks can't be Issened, I allowed myself to interrupt her attacks so long as my attacks do not make direct contact with her, and I can perform a Grab Counter on the Phase 2 variant of the Kubi Akari swarm.

Finally, since Phase 3 of Yoshitsune's fight outright requires Oni Awakening to deal damage, Oni Awakening is permitted for that phase only. Also, since Issens don't guarantee Purple Souls, Still Water is permitted in Phase 3 as long as I still stick to Issens.

https://youtu.be/rjiAhCR6Bfs?is=ifGh3isvMflazKBn

Carnage bosses feel spongy to a lot of people, so I put together an Awakening-focused build and wanted to share how it works. The idea is to get into Awakening form (with the help of Still Water) as often as possible and land a lot of issens while it’s active. I beat the game with all my gear at proficiency 3, so you don’t need to max everything out.

Quick breakdown:

• Charms: Inner Strength (issen and break issen damage), Fencer’s Strength (+15% to regular attacks) and the Charm of Awakening (faster gauge fill)
• Playstyle: parry to get blazing state, deflect until the blue gauge fills, activate Still Water, keep deflecting (and charging the golden wave) until the purple gauge fills, then awaken
• Soul absorption: let the souls hang in the air and absorb a bunch at once instead of absorbing after every hit, this helps with filling up the blue/purple gauges faster
• Hozuki pouch: the awakening pouch obviously, but can use the healing one too

I made a video covering the full setup plus some combat showcase, including the Ganryu fight: [link]

What other Carnage builds are you guys running?

I hate grab attacks man, 7 out 10 times I get hit with those when it comes to bosses

An onimusha to collect Genma souls? They were all in hell with him, and he was their leader. While we don't know the mechanics of souls entirely, we know strong enough Genma respawn in Hell and can get back out with extreme effort or assistance. If he has his own onimusha tattoo, why didn't he farm infinite genma souls himself?

He knew Ganryu's gaunlet would be more willing to consume human souls, and seemed already certain Musashi would be his genma collector.

This probably doesn't have an answer. Other than him being an insane megalomaniac tactician who didn't want to do the dirty work other than one-tapping two onimusha (ig a second genocide would be too much work for him). But other people's thoughts would be cool.

I just wanna see Yoshitsune answer a rematch challenge from Ganryu, only it's THIS Ganryu that shows up

I understand this has been posted to death but curious if there is a definitive youtube or something on the right way to do it.

Thus far I have only mastered Issen for the long, slow overhead strike the Hitotsume Gasa do. Largely using the "press button after weapon is no longer white" technique. But I can't seem to issen any other sword slash from these trash mobs.

For the Hitotsume Sho, I can't even issen the big jumping attack. Which seems the obvious thing to issen.

I occasionally get the arrow issen. And weirdly I was an issen master for Benkei... unsure if he just has way bigger windows.

Hey everyone, sharing this because i had an awesome fight with iffu and burai on my carnage playthrough and i found a really cool deflect animation on them. You can see me do the move at the 1:39 mark. Its pretty awesome because musashi actually dual wields for it. Something i wish he did more in the game. Ive been really loving this game and all the combat avenues it gives. Its so much fun and every boss has been a fun challenge. Ganryu is next!

https://youtu.be/eIYwxZ0HlHw?is=YvXtof7OSD4b_2b1

Has anyone run into any other cool special deflects like this?

It was a good run, 2 playthroughs... but action was harder !! Only tough part on Carnage was Ganryu 3 and yoshitsune, but Ganryu was harder !! Most other bosses on carnage I beat in under 10 tries, typically 5 or 5 attempts. Some of the earlier bosses, like the 2 brothers individually each, i beat on the 1st try....

Finished with my sword being 1 upgrade away from fully maxed, and my gauntlet and clothes being level 4. This bishamon sword was worth it. Rematch Ganryu on Carnage in the boss Rematch challenges and cooked him with unlimited issen teleports.. very satisfying.

I am replaying Onimusha in carnage mode.

Since I’m up to speed with the story, I spend more time practicing combos on the bosses this round.

I’m psyched finding out new ways to combine charms for max damage.

Also, knowing which attack to block or dodge makes it more fun.

I need some help, whats the trick to consistently hitting issins on bosses? Ive beaten WotS and im trying to learn to do it, any tips?

Took two days of playing to beat him in carnage mode and rematch.

Every time I fight them I think "Oh, I've beaten this guy a million times already. Their attacks are so obviously telegraphed, this should be easy" and I let my guard down. Then I die.

Thanks for everyone's tips and the insults. Really helped correct myself. Honestly didn't know the window for issen increases in Oni mode, so corrected myself as much as I could in the next fight with benkei. Lost my rhythm a bit towards the end. Please do comment regardless of good or bad.

…And the feeling is bittersweet…Time to leave the Byakue and Dohatsu for a while. Thanks for the support fellow Onimushas. See you on the DLC(s?)

Finally beat Altered Ganryu, took about a dozen attempts but I had second life / extra health etc so without them it’s very diffucult to beat him if I go back and do a replay. Do we get the new sword in the replay boss fight???

9 straight minutes of just wailing on this guy.

Finally I've got a platinum trophy and i can surely admit, that it was harder than Sekiro platinum, either because i got older, or because it's really harder!

So I'm working on finishing Yoshitsune (getting very close, got well into third phase, just a few little mistakes I need to tighten up). When you're working on a boss and you die, it kicks you back to the retry screen. What I didn't notice til tonight is if you want a different combo of charms than what your original save was for and you play with those and you die, it'll reset me to the default charms.

So right as you hit retry and it loads into the game, immediately hit the touchpad button before the fight starts and scroll over to equipment to make sure the charms are how you want. Cause I have to switch them to my now preferred charms every time I die and retry. Mildly annoying but at least now I am getting better results. Good luck!