Tozen

## General Tozen

**General Tozen** (jp: 刀千) is the final boss of the Viking Story in For Honor's single-player campaign.

## Overview

A legendary general among the samurai, Tozen was tasked with protecting the city of Koto. A formidable opponent, many warriors who fought him were usually never heard from again. When the Vikings approached the front gate, inadvertently cornering themselves, Tozen led a brigade to attack them from behind. Even to the Vikings, it appeared that this was a killing maneuver, but The Raider managed to defeat Tozen. Before Tozen was killed by The Raider he acknowledged the Raider's fighting skills, but before he could finish he was struck by the Raider and plunged to the bottom of the bridge. This inspired the Vikings and caused the Samurai under Tozen to retreat and leave Koto open to plunder.

## Personality

Though he's shown as an honorable warrior, Tozen was not above using deception to fight his foes. When facing The Raider, he threw down a smoke bomb and sent in three warriors dressed as him to fight. Tozen is confident in his fighting abilities, especially his speed; when he realized he was losing to The Raider, he threw down one more smoke bomb and retreated so he could shed his armor and move faster. He acknowledged that the Champion is a better swordsman than him.

## Appearance

Tozen appears as an Orochi warrior who has unique armor, including lacquered wood Tosei dou gusoku that are studded with metal pieces, along with a variant of the *manju no wa* armor piece that serves as distinct shoulder plate protection. Compared to the helmets worn by other Orochi, Tozen's *kabuto* helmet lacks *mabizashi* pieces, though his helmet is decorated with a distinct crest. Tozen's lower face is concealed by a dark cloth.

During the final phase of his fight, Tozen sheds most of his upper body protection, except for his gauntlets, his face cloth and nawa ropes that circles his shoulders. It is revealed that he his entire upper chest and arms are covered in tattoos.

Tozen wields the Ikeda weapon set for his katana blade.

## Boss Battle Tips & Tricks

The boss battle against Tozen has three phases. The use of Revenge mode is key in this fight.

### First Phase

When you first approach Tozen, he will throw down a smoke bomb and three Orochi dressed as him will emerge. They will attack you simultaneously and relentlessly until they are out of stamina, then retreating to play defensively. While doing this, they are nigh untouchable, blocking almost everything and repelling nearly every guardbreak. Once their stamina has returned, they will repeat the process.

Attacking while they attack is inadvisable and difficult. The three Orochi aren't as defensive but your strikes will likely get interrupted. Attacking while they are defending is also practically futile.

Play defensive when they attack. Lock onto an orochi at the side so your external block only needs to face one direction. Once you get and activate revenge mode, go on the offensive with the Raider's zone attack, which is unblockable. Once Revenge runs out, play defensive and repeat the process. Fighting becomes progressively easier as each Orochi is killed off.

### Second Phase

Time to face Tozen himself. He has all of the Orochi's moveset plus an additional unblockable move. Right before he performs that unblockable move, he will twirl his sword a bit. Although he looks vulnerable, he will parry incoming attacks; instead, attempt a guardbreak when he's twirling his sword, as he won't counter it. It is also possible to parry his unblockable or strike him right before it lands. Tozen is not as aggressive as his Orochi duplicates and there will be openings in his defense.

### Third Phase

Tozen has shed his armor, and will now play more aggressively. His stamina is now higher, he has more moves, and much longer attack chains. Together with all the previous moves, he can now call archers to fire at you, and has an unblockable kick that will knock you over.

Revenge can be a big help here. Long combo chains simply feed the revenge meter. Unless you have Revenge, do not be aggressive in response to Tozen's attacks. With faster attacks, more stamina and much longer combos, he will outlast you. Getting him to fight indoors is also very helpful since you will be shielded from his arrows.

If you can, you may attempt to guardbreak him when standing near the ledge and push him off (usually after his attack, as he would not be able to counter your guardbreak), resulting in a quick victory. However, take note that this may not always work.

## Trivia

* There was a bug related to Tozen's line "You are a raider! Legendary!", where it would replace all of Tozen's battle lines to be it, creating a redundancy in line delivery.
	+ Originally many fans found it to be either annoying or his only line when in combat. Later on though, it became accepted as a meme, even when the bug was fixed.
* Tozen occasionally appears as an enemy in Arcade Mode.
* Oddly enough, as shown when he removes his armor, Tozen possesses tattoos, which have been taboo for a long time in Japanese culture.
	+ The idea of relating tattoos ("irezumi" in Japanese) to criminality in Japan started as far back as the 6th century. However, throughout the centuries, its role in society changed, where at one time, it was perceived as an art form fad. Tattoos only became a true taboo during the Meiji period when the Japanese government outlawed tattoos in order to make a clean appeal to foreign powers.
	+ It may be likely that in the world of For Honor, tattoos hold a different connotation (such as a spiritual purpose), are downplayed or noble warriors like Tozen are an exception in having them.
* The Enma armor set for the Hero Hitokiri possesses a golden ornament that is recycled off of Tozen's helmet.
* Tozen is assumed to have been a Kyoshin warrior at some point (or still was at the time of his death), justifying his ability to perform mystical techniques such as the shadow clone technique. It is also possible that Tozen was not a Kyoshin, but the clones were actually Kyoshin warriors in disguise.
	+ The Kyoshin has a few moves that are similar to what Tozen exclusively has available apart from the Orochi moveset he is originally based off of.
	+ The Kyoshin has access to an armour set that is a carbon-copy of Tozen's armour, both when he's armoured and when he is unarmoured. Unfortunately, this armour set lacks Tozen's signature helmet.

## Gallery

Enma (left) vs Tozen (right)Tozen's armor used by the Kyoshin