Ghost of Tsushima Legends Tengu enemy guide

Once you’ve cleared your first few story and survival run in Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, you’ll want to bump the difficulty from bronze to silver, then gold before attempting the weekly Nightmare challenges.

In doing so, you’ll introduce tougher, more varied enemy patterns. These will include a mix of supercharger Oni who can trigger deadly area attacks, heal their allies, and even summon soldiers to their aid. However, the most frustrating Oni by far are the Tengu crow demons.

Not to be confused with the Tengu Demon, a boss character Jin Sakai encounters during the Mythic Tale mission “The Curse of Uchitsune”, these Oni will continue to appear when playing Ghost of Tsushima: Legends.

But what makes them so annoying to fight? Every enemy you encounter in the game and its online multiplayer can be countered in some fashion whether evading, dodging, or parrying. However, the Tengu crow demons have an OP attack that completely bypasses these battle reflexes you’ve spent hours memorising.

Tengu techniques and strategies

The Tengu will frequently level their spear at a target and unleash a barrage of crows. This works like a magic beam or torrent of projectiles, locking onto unfortunate Ghosts and whittling down their health. The damage output is moderate and when combined with getting hit by other attacks (or more Tengu crows!) can lead to a quick death.

There isn’t a quick and easy way of cheesing the Tengu, sadly. Ghost of Tsushima developer, Sucker Punch, may introduce an exploitable weakness in a future balance update for Legends but for now here are some reliable strategies to take them down.

Let’s start with the crow attack. It cannot be blocked, parried, or evaded – the only way to avoid being damaged or killed by the Tengu crows is to disengage. This is particularly devious in survival mode as you’ll be forced to flee capture points, potentially failing the mission. Running away, stunning, or breaking the Tengu’s line of sight is the only way to escape.

In desperate situations just run, or use the Assassin’s invisibility power – standing your ground won’t work even if you’re managing to land hits on the Oni. Even at a distance the crows can still reach you though the further you get away, the easier it is to curve roll away from them.

You’ll still need to kill the Tengu, however. Doing so requires team coordination and/or the spamming of various ghost weapons, abilities, and ultimates. One tried and tested technique is for two players to land consecutive critical strikes from stealth to deal massive damage. Your aim here is to keep the Tengu locked in recovery animations and unable to use his crow attack.

Sticky bombs, smoke bombs, and dirt throws are essential in this respect, following them up with heavy attacks and then finishing with a Samurai, Hunter, or Assassin ultimate. This becomes trickier if there are multiple Tengu but if you are serious about playing Ghost of Tsushima: Legends on gold and Nightmare difficulty tiers then you’ll quickly learn how to overwhelm Tengu, prioritising them before moving onto other enemies.


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