Weakness and what to bring
Poison, for both of them. Fextralife, Game8, Sportskeeda, DualShockers, allthings.how and OSLink all list Poison independently — this is one of the better-corroborated facts in the game right now. What none of them publish is a number: there is no resistance table anywhere, so Poison is a confirmed weakness, not a measured multiplier. Anyone quoting a percentage is guessing.
- Sword — Hunter's Sword (Poison, Envenomed: Poison buildup +8 for 5s). Fextralife names this weapon on both the Nue Malefact and the Shidou & Nue pages. You can pick it up in Chapter 3 from the weapon rack near the Great Forest: Entrance camp, which is early enough for every encounter in this fight.
- Ranged — Poison Arrows and Poison Bolts, stocked up. Use them on Nue only: Shidou can parry your ranged attacks.
- Koo — Higanbana: Roots has a chance to Bind Nue. Land the Bind, then open Entanglement Overdrive to stretch the down time.
- Kiku: Bloom Strike on Shidou knocks him down almost every time. DualShockers' writer called this the single thing that turned the fight around for him.
- Armour — Floral Wraps, from a strongbox near the Old Sagami Colony: Approach camp, if you are heading into the Chapter 11 version.
Do not bring Black Blossom to this fight even though it is the strongest Poison sword in the game (Poison Storm, buildup +20). It drops from the final Shidou & Nue encounter, so you cannot have it before you win. See the weapons table for the disputed detail on where it is actually collected.
All six encounters
Nue shows up more often than any other Nushi, and the level scaling is what changes between visits — the moveset itself does not change, only the damage goes up (DualShockers).
| Encounter | Chapter and place | Boss level |
|---|---|---|
| Nue alone | Chapter 1 — Ogouchi Colony (flashback) | Lv 16 |
| Nue alone | Chapter 3 — Great Wall Terraces (Mountain Plaza: Forefront, Great Forest Clearing, Titan Buddha) | Lv 16 |
| Shidou & Nue | Chapter 3 — Great Wall Terraces, chapter finale | Lv 20 |
| Nue alone | Chapter 6 — Fuji Frontier | Lv 32 |
| Shidou & Nue | Chapter 6 — Fuji Frontier | Lv 35 |
| Shidou & Nue (final) | Chapter 11 — Mount Hiei Zone | Lv 48 |
On the spelling: every external guide writes Nue Malefact, matching Crimson Malefact elsewhere in the game. Some older pages (including ours) wrote "Nue Malefact". We have standardised on Malefact.
Nue's attacks
Nue is a dog-bodied creature with a lotus-shaped head. Its whole kit is readable once you learn one rule: if it glows red, you cannot parry it.
| Attack | Tell | Parry? | Response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giant Leap | Backs away, glows red, then jumps at you | No | Perfect-dodge in the instant before it lands. Rolling early gets you caught by the landing |
| Claw string (also written "Throwing Punches" or "Six Hit Combo") | A claw is drawn out to the side | Yes, every hit | Five claw swipes into a body slam. There is roughly a one-second pause after the first two. The closing slam looks slow but arrives fast — press parry early in the descent rather than waiting for it to look right |
| Tail spin | Tail lifts and the body rotates | Yes | About two seconds between the two hits, which makes it the easiest parry in the fight. Careful: it sometimes chains straight into another string instead of leaving an opening |
| Lightning strikes | A roar, usually fired while you are busy with Shidou | No | Strafe laterally until the pattern resolves. Nue stands still while casting, so a confident player can dodge through it and punish |
| Projectile | — | Dodge or guard | Reported by Fextralife and allthings.how; less well documented than the four above |
Nue's most reliable opening is the moment after the claw string finishes with the slam — it pauses to catch its breath, which is when you go for the head.
Shidou's attacks
Shidou is a male Purifier and a straightforward duellist. Three attacks, plus the mechanic that defines the encounter.
| Attack | Tell | Parry? | Response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sword flurry (two hits, sometimes four) | Blade pulled back to his left hip, rising cut into a downward cut | Yes, each hit | Roughly one second apart. The four-hit version is the most dangerous move in the fight — a failed parry takes most of a health bar. The two-hit version is forgiving; the hard part is reading when the first swing starts |
| Branch swing (vine arm) | His left arm turns into a branch, then sweeps left and right | Yes, both hits | About 1.5 seconds apart. Slow to start, fast to follow — you can almost hold the parry rhythm |
| Tree Slam | Rises into the air and glows red | No | Perfect-dodge on the landing. The window is generous, and what follows is your biggest damage or healing opportunity in the fight |
| Siphon | He disengages when low and starts draining Nue | — | See below — this is the decision that decides the fight |
The Siphon mechanic, and the two ways to play it
When Shidou drops low he stops fighting and drains health from Nue. The important detail, reported by HardcoreGamer, is that he takes more out of Nue than he puts into himself. That single fact is why guides split into two camps, and both of them work.
We are deliberately not picking a winner. Approach A is backed by four guides and is safer if your parries are shaky. Approach B is backed by one guide and is faster if you can survive long cycles. Both rest on the same underlying mechanic, which is well corroborated even though the tactic built on top of it is not.
Why the fight stalls
- You killed Shidou too early. allthings.how names this as the most common reason players get stuck: with Shidou gone you have to grind Nue's full bar with no Siphon interrupts to stagger it.
- You are manually switching lock-on. Don't. The game automatically moves the reticle to whichever boss is about to attack — follow it. Expect roughly a minute per one-on-one exchange.
- You are standing between them. Fight from outside the pair, not in the middle.
- You are shooting Shidou. He parries ranged attacks. Save arrows and bolts for Nue.
- You are trying to parry the red glow. Both bosses have exactly one unparryable move each, and both are flagged the same way. Red means dodge.
Rewards
| Encounter | Drops |
|---|---|
| Nue alone — Chapter 1 (Ogouchi) | No reward |
| Nue alone — Chapter 3 | Ursine Memories · Nushi Skill: Rampaging Asagao · Blade Art: Asagao |
| Nue alone — Chapter 6 | Dokuzeri: Fang II (Koo) · Finisher: Dokuzeri (Emma) |
| Shidou & Nue — final | Nue Memories · Bloom Art: Erica: Strangle Lv.1 · Blade Art / Finisher: Blade Art: Nue Lv.1 · Black Blossom (Poison + Lightning sword, Poison Storm) |
The trophy and achievement are both named Shidou & Nue.
FAQ
What is Nue Malefact's weakness?
Poison. Both Nue Malefact and Shidou are weak to Poison, and six independent guides agree on this. Bring the Hunter's Sword plus Poison Arrows and Poison Bolts. No source publishes numeric resistance percentages, so treat Poison as a confirmed weakness but not a measured multiplier.
Should you interrupt Shidou when he siphons Nue?
Guides disagree, and both approaches work. Fextralife, DualShockers, HardcoreGamer and OSLink say interrupt it immediately, because one interrupt staggers both bosses at once regardless of Nue's stagger bar. allthings.how says the opposite: stop attacking Shidou at roughly 30 percent health and let him drain Nue, because he takes more from Nue than he gains, then kill him once Nue is also low.
How many times do you fight Nue Malefact?
Up to six times. Nue appears alone in Chapter 1 at Ogouchi Colony around level 16, again in Chapter 3 at the Great Wall Terraces, and in Chapter 6 at the Fuji Frontier around level 32. The paired Shidou and Nue fight happens at the end of Chapter 3 around level 20, again in Chapter 6 around level 35, and finally in Chapter 11 in the Mount Hiei Zone around level 48.
Why is this fight taking so long?
The most common reason is killing Shidou too early. Once he is dead you have to grind down Nue's full health bar alone with no stagger openings from the Siphon interrupt. Damage both bosses in turn and let the automatic lock-on follow whichever one is about to attack.
What we haven't verified
- No resistance percentages exist for any boss in this game, from any source. Poison is qualitative.
- No recommended player level. Every figure above is the boss level. Nobody publishes a "come back at Lv X" number and we are not going to invent one.
- Nue going berserk in the Chapter 11 fight is reported by allthings.how alone. Single source.
- The 30% Siphon threshold is likewise a single source.
- Where Black Blossom is actually collected is disputed — some guides tie it to this fight, others to Crimson Malefact. Flagged on the weapons page rather than resolved here.
- Update 1.0.7 made unlisted boss balance changes. Difficulty impressions below are launch-week; weaknesses, tells and rewards are unaffected. See the patch notes tracker.
Related guides
- All Nushi, weaknesses and chapter order
- Kunai & Kirin — the other paired Nushi fight, also weak to Poison
- Every sword, element and drop location
- Parry and Koo command fundamentals
- Current build routes
Sources
- DualShockers — How to defeat Nue Malefact & Shidou (Christian Bognar, Aug 3, 2026; both attack tables, Giant Leap and Tree Slam red-glow tells, Kiku: Bloom Strike tactic, "moveset unchanged, damage scales"; checked Aug 13, 2026)
- HardcoreGamer — Nue Malefact & Shidou (Adam Beck, Aug 4, 2026; parry intervals, "press early on the slam", Shidou drains more than he gains; checked Aug 13, 2026)
- allthings.how — Shidou and Nue boss fight (Aug 4, 2026; the 30% Siphon cycle, "killing Shidou early is the common failure", Chapter 11 berserk state; checked Aug 13, 2026)
- Fextralife — Shidou and Nue and Nue Malefact (Poison weakness, drop lists, "interrupt staggers both regardless of stagger bar", Hunter's Sword recommendation; checked Aug 13, 2026)
- OSLink — boss location guide (encounter locations and levels, "Nue is stationary while casting lightning"; checked Aug 13, 2026)
- Fictions — Patch Notes v1.0.7 (unlisted boss balance changes; checked Aug 13, 2026)
- Inven Global — press demo (Nue's body shape and the two-hit tail sequence; retained as the earliest description, superseded elsewhere by retail guides; checked Aug 5, 2026)