How to Beat Burai in Onimusha: Way of the Sword (Lightning Keeper Boss Guide)

Burai, the Lightning Keeper, shows up during the mission “A Tempest at the Temple” with a simple objective attached to him: Defeat Burai. He mixes quick jabs with heavy, committed swings, and if you treat him like a normal Genma and trade hits, the fight drags long enough for his second phase to end you outright.

Quick answer: Deflect his strings to drain stamina, grab every power orb he drops before he can pull it back, and the instant he lifts off the ground in phase two, switch to the Oni Bow and shoot him down before the lightning attack lands.

The two mechanics that decide the Burai fight

Everything else in this encounter is standard swordplay. Two systems are not, and both punish passivity.

The first is the power he sheds while you fight him. Those drops are contested — Burai will take them back if you leave them sitting, and he gets meaningfully more dangerous when he does. The second is his flight. In phase two he leaves the ground to set up a lightning attack that hits hard enough to erase most of a health bar, and the only reliable answer is knocking him out of the air first.

Phase	What Burai does	Your response
Phase 1	Alternates fast strikes with slower heavy swings; drops power during the exchange	Deflect the strings, punish the recovery, sprint to every drop and absorb it first
Phase 2	Same ground pressure, plus takes flight to charge a lightning attack	Switch to the Oni Bow the moment he rises and shoot him back down

Phase 1: Win the power race

Open with one-handed attacks and short strings. Burai’s fast attacks come out quickly enough that long two-handed commitments get you clipped mid-recovery, so keep your combos to two or three hits and cancel out.

Deflect instead of dodging whenever you can read the swing. Holding guard and hitting the deflect input intercepts the blow safely and drains his stamina gauge, which is what actually opens him up. Dodges keep you alive but do nothing to his posture.

Break off the attack the second a power drop appears and hold your gauntlet input to pull it in. Absorption works while you move, so you do not need to stand still in front of him to collect. Denying the pickup matters more than the two or three hits you skipped.

Musashi striking Burai the Lightning Keeper during the Defeat Burai objective at the temple — Pressure Burai between his swings during “A Tempest at the Temple,” then break off to sweep up the power he drops. Image: Capcom

When his stamina bar empties, cash it in. A Break Issen on a broken posture bar does severe damage to a boss, and it is the fastest way to move this fight along before phase two arrives.

Phase 2: Shoot Burai out of the air with the Oni Bow

Watch his feet, not his blade. The transition tell is him leaving the ground — once he is airborne, the lightning attack is already being set up and chasing him with the katana accomplishes nothing.

Draw the Oni Bow immediately and fire. Arrows are unlimited, so there is no reason to ration shots. A connecting shot brings him down and cancels the attack before it goes off.

Burai - Lightning Keeper health bar on screen as Musashi presses the attack in the second phase — Phase two of the Burai – Lightning Keeper fight, where every liftoff needs an arrow before the lightning lands. Image: Capcom

Close back in as he lands. He is open briefly after being knocked down, so put a short string or a heavy swing into that window, then reset to your defensive stance.

Keep collecting power drops. The soul race does not stop in phase two, and letting him feed while you are also eating lightning is how runs end here.

Deflect, Issen, and Break Issen: which one to use on Burai

Burai’s fast attacks have tight windows, so leaning entirely on Issen is a coin flip you do not need to take. Deflect is the safe engine of the fight, with Issen saved for the swings you can genuinely read.

Tool	Use it on	Why
Deflect	His quick strings and mixed pressure	Safely intercepts the hit and drains stamina without risking a mistimed counter
Issen	Slow, heavily telegraphed swings only	Big damage, but a miss against a boss usually costs you a large chunk of health
Break Issen	A fully depleted stamina bar	Severe boss damage; the main way to move his health bar quickly
Dodge	Anything you cannot read in time	Keeps you alive; contributes nothing to stamina, so use it as a fallback
Oni Bow	Every liftoff in phase two	Unlimited arrows, cancels the lightning attack, creates a punish window

Tip: if your sword clashes with his mid-swing, switch stance — one-handed to two-handed or the reverse — to win the Blade Barrage rather than mashing attack.

Why the Burai fight goes wrong

Ignoring the drops. Every orb Burai reclaims makes the rest of the fight harder. Collection is not optional greed, it is damage prevention.
Waiting for him to land. Ceding the air means eating the lightning attack. Reach for the bow on the liftoff, not after the charge starts.
Over-committing to two-handed swings. His fast attacks punish long recovery animations. Save the heavy hits for knockdowns and stamina breaks.
Fishing for Issen on everything. A whiffed counter against a boss is a huge health swing. Deflect the ambiguous stuff.

You will know it worked when the “Burai – Lightning Keeper” health bar empties and the “Defeat Burai” objective clears at the temple. If you are still losing, the problem is almost always one of the two contested resources — the power you let him take back, or the airspace you let him keep.