Blazing Bull

The **Blazing Bull** (火牛) is a Mini-Boss found at the doors of Ashina Castle.

Eavesdropping on the nearby soldiers reveals they tied the flaming straw to the bull out of desperation and that the animal will attack anyone on his path indiscriminately.

As the Third Prayer Necklace states, the bull was merely an enraged beast planned by Genichiro to be used as the last line of defense for Ashina Castle.

## Behaviour and Tactics

### Phase 1

* **Charge Slam**: charges forward at its target, readying its head for an uppercut slam. If the attack doesn't connect, it will lose balance and stumble.

* **Frenzy**: enters a crazed state when at low health, in which it leaps about slamming its head up and down. May hit a wall and stumble.

* **Side-to-Side Swing**: swings the burning bundle side to side in a frenzy, charging forward.
* **Swing**:a wide-angle side swing or two when in close range with the target.

Before the fight starts, it's possible to lure the two Ashina Soldiers before the boss to the player by either getting spotted by one, who'll then proceed to alert the other, or by using Shurikens on the one left.

Visiting the Hirata Estate to collect Dousing Powder to cure Burn is recommended.

Shinobi Firecracker can be used to easily scares the beast, opening him up for further attacks, especially when it's up against a wall. Shurikens can also be used to safely damage the Bull, as it can't defend himself against them. The Mist Raven can also be employed to escape safely in a hit-and-run tactic that focuses on damaging the head of the Bull.

Attacking the head will deal way more damage to his Vitality and Posture than hitting any other part of his body.

It's safest to try to stay behind it all the time and watch for the *Side-to-Side Swing* as it may rapidly turn mid-fight during the attack. For this reason, it's advised to lose the lock-on while attacking and only using it to keep track of the Mini-Boss when he's running around.

When it swings the bundle near a wall or charges into a wall, it will stumble and will take a few moments to regain its balance, but he'll still be able to damage Wolf with his rear.

When it charges forward directly, move towards it and just as it lowers its head, jump forward over the bundle on one side, completely avoiding the attack, then attack when it loses balance.

After receiving many consecutive hits, the Bull will remain staggered for a short while.

Once depleted most of the Vitality of this Mini-Boss, he'll start jumping around and if he hits his head against a wall, its Posture Bar will fill completely and he'll become vulnerable to a deathblow.

As the Mini-Boss is defeated, the gate to Ashina Castle will open and a Spear-wielding Soldier and a Swordsman will charge at Wolf. If one chooses to use the Homeward Idol to return to the "last commuted idol", they'll end up by the Ashina Castle Sculptor's Idol.

## Notes

* Once the Bull is killed, the Ashina Castle Sculptor's Idol will become commuted automatically.
* The Vitality and Posture of this miniboss were reduced with patch 1.03 and then re-adjusted with patch 1.04.
* It's still possible to exploit an out-of-bound jump to skip this miniboss on the current patch.

Gallery
Concept Art