Takezo the Unrivaled is the most difficult duel in Ghost of Yotei. I recommend fighting Takezo only after you’ve completed Yotei’s main story, and have found most, if not all, of the hot springs and bamboo strikes. That way you have very high maximum health and spirit. That said, certain gear can make the duel against Takezo the Unrivaled much easier to win.
The Myth “Takezo the Unrivaled” can be started by listening to Ugetsu the Storyteller’s tale at the Coastal Dueling Tree on the southern coast of the Yotei Grasslands, southwest of Atsu’s home. You will then have to travel to five dueling trees throughout Ezo (they will appear on your map) and defeat Takezo’s disciples. After that, return to the Coastal Dueling Tree to meet Takezo, who will test your mettle before giving you a riddle that must be solved for the final confrontation.
Where To Find Takezo The Unrivaled & How To Solve His Riddle
A Duel Atop Mount Yotei
Finding Takezo is the easy part; there will be a symbol on your map leading you to the summit of Mount Yotei. If you haven’t been to the peak already, you have to take the Mount Yotei Shrine trail, which begins on the western edge of the Yotei Grasslands, just northwest of the White Dye House.
Takezo’s riddle involves simply equipping the five charms you’ve acquired from defeating his disciples, and then waiting near the dueling ring atop Mount Yotei, on the rim of the peak’s crater. Here are the five charms you need to equip:
Takezo’s Charm of Renewed Determination
Takezo’s Charm of Bold Deflection
Takezo’s Charm of Stout Heart
Takezo’s Charm of Bracing Victory
Takezo’s Charm of The Unrelenting Warrior
You will have to progress a sufficient way through Ghost of Yotei to unlock five charm slots. Charm slots are unlocked by completing shrines.
How To Win The Final Duel Against Takezo The Unrivaled
Use The Bounty Master Armor
Takezo is an extremely challenging foe, but a lot of the difficulty can be mitigated by equipping the Bounty Master Armor. You can get the Bounty Master Armor by completing the bounty for Soma the Condemned in the Yotei Grasslands. I recommend fully upgrading the Bounty Master Armor, but also getting enough charms so that you unlock the sixth charm slot.
The Bounty Master Armor, when fully upgraded, crucially makes it so that the perfect parry and perfect dodge windows are increased by a major amount, but regular parries are disabled. You’ll want to equip the Charm of Futsunushi in your sixth slot, which stacks with the Bounty Master Armor and makes perfect parries and perfect dodges even easier to perform.
You’ll still have to be on your toes while dueling Takezo, as he moves exceedingly fast – he has by far the quickest attacks of any enemy in the game. In essence, you want to press L1 to parry as soon as he starts moving to attack, unless there is a red or yellow glint. If there is a red or yellow glint, dodge instead. When fighting other enemies, you can counter a yellow glint by holding and quickly releasing the Triangle button, but Takezo is too fast, and it’s nearly impossible to hold and release fast enough – it’s much easier to just dodge.
Only attack after a successful perfect parry; with the Bounty Master Armor fully upgraded, you then get three attacks before Takezo can recover. Once you get the parrying down, the only difficulty is killing Takezo before the blizzard wears down your maximum health, and you run out of spirit from reviving yourself. Takezo is likely to take you out in one hit once the blizzard starts, so only use spirit to revive yourself – healing is almost pointless.
On the Onryō Survival skill tree, the Improved Onryō’s Will skill will let you use two spirit to revive yourself instead of three.