Nioh Derrick The Executioner - How to Beat First Boss

Derrick The Executioner is the first boss in Nioh you’ll encounter. Relatively speaking, he’s not too difficult if you get his pattern down. In this guide, we’ll show you how to defeat Derrick The Executioner in Nioh.

How to kill Derrick The Executioner in Nioh

Luckily, Derrick is not that hard of a boss. There’s two stages to this fight, and it plays out pretty much how you’d expect. The first stage is easier, then he gets stronger in the second phase. Don’t forget to mind your ki gauge!

Once you get up to the tower, Derrick will jump at you from behind. His attacks are fairly quick, so keep your distance. Dodge his attacks, approach him quickly and land one or two hits, then back off again. If he does a charge attack, you can dodge roll towards him and end up right behind. Use the opportunity to knock him a couple of times. He’ll go down soon enough.

In the second leg of the fight, Derrick is much stronger and even more like a death metal album cover. Fortunately, his patterns are pretty easy to predict, so he shouldn’t give you too much of a headache.

His main weakness is his charge attack. Stay as far away as you can, and stay on your toes. He telegraphs his charge attack by lowering his ax to the floor. Dodge the attack (you can roll or not, it’s up to you and depends on the situation), get behind Derrick and land one or two hits, then roll away. If he falls to his knees, you can land a few free hits, but don’t get carried away. If you’re precise enough, you can dodge the charge attack by rolling towards the boss and to the side, so you end up behind him.

Rinse and repeat until the executioner is down.