Shigatari is a roguelike turn based combat/ text RPG set in Feudal Japan. The combat system is similar to Legionary's Life, another historical turn based, and utilizes limb based damage/hp, energy, fighting stances, and time as as universal resource to spend on actions.

Outside of combat, the gameplay is choosing a path on a map as you make your way rightwards towards the bossfight of the region. Different icons are different types of locations, which generate different types of a small selection of encounters. Every icon will always have the few same possible encounters, but which one you'll actually get is randomly chosen. This means the game is less random than one might first assume, and you can have a fair amount of confidence in what you'll get from any memorized icon.

Characters level up as they gain xp. Xp is gained largely through killing enemies, meditating, drinking sake, or eating fine meals. Xp is spent on stats or one of the 7 fighting styles in the game.

After every death or Seppeku (its own run ending mechanic where you can double rewards and negate reward debuffs) youll start the game over with more "ancestral favor" which is a currency that you can spend on upgrades before a run start.

There are multiple characters that slighlty alter preferred playstyles and metas.

Combat in Shigatari is the main gameplay, and is a turn based melee fight with limbs, 2 types of attacks, 3 kinds of defence and 5 kinds of stances that all use time as a quantified currency. So rather than an attack being one turn, it can cost 30-150 time units, probably measured in miliseconds, so Ill refer to them as MS or time.


Stats

Strength, Speed, and Perception

Strength allows higher damage, gives damage resist, and increases the likelihood of breaking enemy parries (which are uncommon on easy or lower levels). Speed reduces the MS/time cost of all actions, and governs the success of the disengage dodge. Perception allows you to have more accurate readings of the enemies projected attack times (possibly only relevant for enemies with +secrecy buffs), governs the success of the weave dodge, and lets you see where the enemy is attacking, either by tier of limbs or a specific limb.


Energy

Most actions cost energy, a secondary resource along with time. Attacks and parries cost 1 energy, weaving costs 2, and disengaging costs 4. Most characters will have 6 or 7 energy max. You can overspend energy (going into the negative) but will be unable to spend more (or even brace) until you come back to 0 energy. This means that an enemy that has overspent cannot attack or defend until he has replenished.


Health and Limbs

Every character has 8 HP pools, each its own limb, 2 shoulders, 1 head, 2 arms, a torso, and 2 legs. DMG to the arms and legs will reduce certain combat capabilities like dodge time or attack time, and DMG everywhere else (including shoulders) has a chance to crit (weakspot) which will increase dmg and give bonus XP if it kills the enemy. Characters will die if they lose one of these weakspot limbs, or a set of same tier limbs. Losing a leg wont kill you, and losing a leg + arm wont either, but losing both legs or both arms will kill you. Any DMG to the arms (or fatal dmg anywhere) will stop an attack if the attack is less than halfway through its total time cost at the point of your attack. Meaning that if you kill someone/hit their arms during their attack, they can still hit/kill you unless you hit early enough.


Attacks

Slash and Thrust

Slash does more damage but costs more time. Thrust does less damage but costs less time. Thrust can still one shot enemies, but slash is more consistent in one shotting. Certain stances only allow slashing. Damage to the arms will increase the time cost of attacking.


Defenses

Parry, Dodge, and Brace

Parrying is using the sword to block an attack, and can be targeted at specific limbs or at a tier of limbs (low, mid, and high). Parries will consistently fail if the enemy has higher strength than you (enemies will have their highest stats named on their card). Successful parries force the opponent to stagger (free time for you), and parries on specific limbs will cause much larger staggers. Because perception is needed to identify what tier or what specific limb within a tier will be targeted, low perception will make parrying the right place a gamble, a very bad gamble. Parrying costs one energy.

There are two types of dodge, weave and disengage. I am unsure if either is by default stronger, but presumably disengage is less likely to fail due to it costing double the energy. Weave requires perception, and disengage requires speed. Weave and disengage will negate all the damage of an attack, unless your opponent has a perception advantage on you. Weave costs 2 energy, and disengage costs 4. DMG to the legs (the only low tier limbs) will make dodging cost significantly more time, meaning even a single leg hit can cripple a dodge based build. Both dodges take 50 time base.

Brace is a strength based defense where you soak up the damage and reduce it based on strength and time braced. Brace costs no energy, but the guaranteed DMG taken makes it easily the least viable.


Wait

There are 4 wait actions, that are only marginally impacted by speed until late game. Waiting is used to either recover energy or waste time. Blinking is purely a time waster and does nothing else. Heartbeat, breath, and brow wipe all replenish energy at increasing time cost and efficiency. You should almost always be spending extra time on waiting to replenish energy. Enemy attacks can be feinted aswell, so waiting forces an enemy to commit.


Stances

Stances change the speed of certain actions, what actions are possible, and possibly modifiers onto things like damage and secrecy. Stances mostly affect what limbs you can target with attack or parry. I will share Dr. Jekyll's stance guide alongside my own.

Judan only allows high tier parrying and slashing and gives awful parry speeds, apparently it also gives a dmg buff. Judan is meant for oneshotting/dodge builds. Top levels give attack intterupt resist and basically guaranteed oneshots, potentially strong with builds that can tank heal in combat or can hit first. Any attack that does over 200 damage will always interrupt an opponents attack.

Chedan is the average stance most enemies use. It targets mid and high and allows for below average parrying on mid and high. Chedan cannot parry or target legs. Top levels give large buffs to attacks made after dodging and makes dodging cost 0 energy.

Gedan is the easiest stance to use as it is a defensive parry stance. It targets all tiers with parry, but only low to mid with attacks. Its parry times for high tier are much slower than low or mid. Top levels give infallible parries and 1-10 time cost riposte attacks after parrying, If an enemy is staggered by a parry, this allows you to get 2 attacks in, enough to kill a limb (aim torso and youll win).

Hasso is an all rounder that can parry and attack all limbs with equal and moderate parry speeds. Top levels give infallible dodges and double damage after dodging.

Waki is a unique one that allows slow mid and low tier parries with all tier slashing. Waki is seemingly meant to be used for feinting and oneshotting, as it receives speed and secrecy buffs (which will throw off the AI's parries/time calculations). Top levels give the ability to infinitely stack damage and attack speed with the wait commands. This allows for a Gozen waki master to kill certain usually unkillable enemies like the Oni, blacksmith, or the Emperor.


Dr Jekyll has been kind enough to record most base attack, defend, and stance switch times for us, and I will post them here.

Stance switch times:
Chudan > Hasso > Chudan = 29
Gedan > Waki > Gedan = 29 (Hasso) = 59
Judan > Chudan > Judan = 49 (Hasso) = 59/29
Chudan > Judan > Chudan > Gedan > Chudan = 49

Stance attack times:

Judan( Slash only)
Head 118/Shoulders 123

Chudan (Slash)
Head 99/Shoulders 103
Torso 108/ Arms 108
(Thrust) 79

Gedan (Slash)
Mid 108
Low 99
(Thrust)
Mid 87
Low 59

Hasso (Slash)
All 108
(Thrust) 89

Waki (Slash only)
Head 113/Shoulders 108
Torso 99/Arms 89
Legs 69


Stance parry times:

Judan (High)
High 113
Head 79/Shoulders 84

Chedan (High/Mid)
High 74
Head 54/Shoulders 54
Mid 74
Torso/Arms 74
Legs 89

Gedan (High/Mid/Low)
High 108
Head/Shoulders 74
Mid 69
Torso/Arms 54
Low 59
Legs 44

Hasso (High/Mid/Low)
High 69
Head/Shoulders 59
Mid 69
Torso/Arms 59
Low 69
Legs 59

Waki (Mid/Low)
Mid 89
Torso/Arms 79
Low 79
Legs 69

-Judan-
The Alpha strike stance. Speed and Strength are your stats. Judan stance gives bonuses to the first strike of the battle, and if you miss it, you're dead. Find the highest damage sword you can and use the highest speed armor you can find.

-Chudan-
The counter-thrust stance. Chudan has the fastest thrusts to the arms in the game, making it ideal for an interrupt style. Speed is love, speed is life, for it decides wether or not your disengage is successful. With the high pool of energy that speed grants you, added with the fact disengage costs no energy at Chudan V, you'll quickly get into the rhythm of disengaging into interrupt counter-thrusts. Once your opponent has lost too much speed into his attacks from the damage to his arms, finish him off. Armors with speed are paramount. As for a weapon, the waki master and chudan master swords are priority. Any damage to your legs can be catastrophic to your battle plan, and the ability to heal them during battle is crucial.

-Gedan-
The parry stance. Perception is your weapon, speed is your armor. The ability to identify where attacks are going and having the speed to parry them is your life. Remember that you have to wait for your opponent to commit to the attack before you commit to your parry or else they'll feint and get a free hit. So keep an eye on their energy and capitalize with the fastest thrust in the game. Once again highest speed armor wins, and the gedan master's sword is the only sword you want, though stance master's sword could be comical, another mention is the +5 to perception sword on the weapon master.

-Hasso-
The versatility stance. Another dodge centric stance, hasso focuses on weave rather than disengage. Also since weave is infallible in hasso, stat points can be invested in speed to hasten the slower hasso stance attacks. Perception and Strength can also be prioritized to exploit Hasso's fast parries, but above all, Hasso is the patience stance. Using your blindingly fast weave and using the extra time to wait and gather your energy back, you simply let your opponent exhaust himself, leaving him open to devastating attacks. As always, speed armors are your priority. As for weapons, you still want the chudan and/or waki master's swords to keep the health up on your legs. The Hasso master sword also works here for when you do attack, you're taking off limbs in one strike. The weapon master's sword that gives +5 str and the gedan master's sword also works here if you want to take the parry approach.

-Waki-
Living on the Razor's Edge. Waki is the gambler's stance. Strength is your stat, with speed as the secondary. Your gamble is to wait until the last second, just before your opponent strikes you, to attack. With your increased speed and damage from waiting, the idea is to hit them so hard that you overkill, thus cancelling the attack seconds from your face. Waki has no defense other than pure defense, so the highest defense armor should be your choice. Waki and chudan master swords work here as well to replenish lost life in case your attack fails to kill. Once you're more comfortable with landing killing blows on the first try, you can look for a more speed/damage based sword since you won't need to heal during battle. Then, eating between battles and focusing on overkilling so you don't take damage at all.

-Stance Master-
This is a dodge centric stance focusing on changing stances between dodges to gain a boost to speed, damage, and defense, all the while regaining energy(2 energy for switching stance at Stance Master 4). Chudan and Hasso go well with this mastery. With no energy disegages that further increase speed, defense, and damage, and infallible weaves that double the damage of the next attack, Stance Mastery utilizes the defensive nature of Hasso and couples it with the offensive nature of Chudan. Here, again, keeping your legs healthy is most important. So chudan master and waki master swords are sought after. Armor with speed is still the go-to to help with disengage dodges.

-Weapon Master-
A parry focused stance with comical amounts of jank. Switching weapons allows you to parry instantly, so gedan stance naturally fits with this style. Start with the + 5 perception sword to see where there attack is coming from, than switch to the + 5 str sword to parry. Once parried, let them have it, and then start over again. Like gedan, perception is your weapon, speed is your armor. Once you start collecting more dojo master's swords, feel free to experiment. Good combinations are gedan master with hasso master, allowing you to stagger your opponent into infinity and then dismembering them in a blink of an eye. (Beware, I encountered a game crashing bug when I chopped the waki master's arms off)
Speed armor is always best.


Prefferred Ancestor Buffs:

-Judan-
Militant + Vanguard for parry and dodge ignore for the crucial first strike.

-Chudan-
Sycophant to keep your legs healthy.

-Gedan-
Inhibitor to have extra time to let the enemy commit to their attack and still have time to parry whilst making your stagger even more devastating.

-Hasso-
Sycophant + Dynamo to keep healthy and be able to keep up the pressure when you decide to make your assault.

-Waki-
Guardian + Redeemer to protect your glass cannon play style.

-Stance Master-
Sycophant for them legs!

-Weapon Master-
Inhibitor to make the weapon switch more viable and added stagger.


Stance Combinations:

-Gedan + Waki-
Parry them into a huge stagger and then stack damage while waiting.
Bullies slower stances/samurai by waiting till the last second to parry then stacking more by waiting till their next attack.

-Gedan + Weapons Mastery-
Parry them into a huge stagger then slice and dice.

-Chudan + Hasso + Stance Mastery-
Dodge and poke.

-Judan + Hasso + Stance Mastery-
Tease out their first attack to weave for the damage bonus, then switch to Judan and drop the hammer. Probably unnecessary.

-Judan + Chudan-
Judan bonuses just stack on top of Chudan. Tease out the first attack, disengage for the bonus and then run them through.

-Judan + Waki-
Judan bonuses just stack on top of Waki. Wait till the last second and then beat them to the punch.


Universal Stance Bonuses:

-Judan II, III, and V-
+20% speed to the first strike.
+20% damage to the first strike.
First strike does double damage.

Useful with everything.

-Chudan IV and V-
Gain 30% Damage, Speed, and Defense after a Successful Disengage.
Disengage costs no energy.

Useful for Judan for a defensive option and to be able to fail your first strike and still be a threat.

-Hasso V-
Double Damage to your next Attack after a Successful Weave.

Also useful in Judan but seeing that Perception will be the last stat to max it's up to you.
Makes for some ludicrous damage numbers when you tease out the opponents first attack and then drop the hammer.

-Waki IV and V-
Increased Damage for your next attack after waiting, Stacks.
Increased Speed for your next attack after waiting, Stacks.

(I found that Waki V does not increase speed of attacks in other stances other than Waki despite it not specifying so. However Waki IV does increase damage in other stances)

Useful for any stance that relies on waiting to regain energy or health with the chudan master's sword.

Also good for Gedan for the Coup de Grace. After staggering an enemy, switch to waki and wait for them to recover. Once they have committed to their next attack, rend them in twain.

Stance Mastery is not required for this seeing as Gedan > Waki only costs 29 time with base starting stats.

You can equip weapons, armor, and clothing (hakamas) in the game.

Weapons

Weapons have differing marginal buffs to speed, dmg, or defense. Some weapons have hidden stats or effects. Each region has a regional sword. Dojo Masters carry swords with specialized effects useful for most builds. Canes, Go-Boards, and Bokken will only do 4-6 dmg per hit.

Mountains have a high likelihood of meeting blacksmiths, who will give and upgrade a single sword up to level 6, where it will do +20% speed, 20% defense, and +20% dmg at level 6 (Masamune level).

Defeating the Oni or blacksmith will give you a special sword that always oneshots and costs less than 1-3 time to attack. The Oni and blacksmith also has this sword equipped when you fight them, making them near impossible without certain builds and some luck.

Having the prudent trait will allow you to buy the Eblisi Katana which has 25% Damage, +20% Speed.

Regional Weapons

Shimon - +10% dmg
Odano - +15% spd
Morusu - +10% dmg +5% spd
Imagaji -
Takega - +5% dmg, +5% spd
Tokuma - +20% dmg
Uesubo - +10% spd

Dojo Master Weapons

Shimon/Judan - +50% secrecy
Odano/Sword - +5 Strength or +5 Perception
Morusu/Waki - "Never Full" Can eat as many food items per battle as you want
Imagaji/Gedan - +50% stagger time on parry
Takega/Chudan - Heal every time you wait
Tokuma/Stance - Change enemy stance after parrying them
Uesubo/Hasso - cripples limbs on hit


Armor

Armor is structured similarly to weapons, except special dojo master or blacksmith armor is absent from the game, meaning there is a limited amount of variety, and most of it comes from regions.

Having the prudent trait will allow you to buy the Eblisi Armor which has +25% Defense, +20% Speed.

After failing the tengu lord's riddle, if you suvvessfully dance for him you can gain Tengu armor, which has +25% Defense, +20% Speed.



Regional Armor

Shimon - +15% Def
Odano -
Morusu - +10% Spd
Imagaji - +5% Def
Takega - +10% Def, +10% Spd
Tokuma - +5% spd
Uesubo - +15% Spd


Hakamas

Hakamas, or clothing simply changes the strength of personality point gains, including tailors. This means that a prudent action will change the bar much further in high quality clothing than in low quality clothing. Because this is such a marginal aspect of the game, it can be ignored unless you want to pay a tailor to get a specific ending.

The Main Regions:

-Morusu-
Region of waterfalls. This is my favorite area to start in for all the free xp at waterfalls. With 5-6 waterfalls you can gain 450 xp without fighting, double that with Sordid Soul. Morusu weapons and armor also have a great bonus to speed, and the Waki master will spend most of his time eating shushi while you chop his head off.

-Takega > Imagaji-
These two regions go hand-in-hand. Help the farmers in Takega to gather food items and then travel to Imagaji in search of chefs. At 150 xp for each item you can gain another 600 free xp, and then possibly more if you happen to find a festive village and have a dojo master's sword.

-Uesubo-
Region of mountains. The place for forging Masamune. If you're lucky you can forge Masamune and find a Tengu Armor.

-Tokuma-
Region of forests. Start here if you want to find the demon and gain his favor. Bring him 8 innocent hearts to get the Demonic Power (One extra life per battle). If you have a jar of sake and 6 swords you can try to find Son Goku, I haven't completed this side quest yet. I suggest Looter for this for her 2 extra inventory slots.

-Odano-
Region of merchants. Merchants are poor combatants at any stage of the game and difficulty. They mostly have poor weapons, armor, stats, and lots of coin, making them easy prey for the early ronin. The Weapons Master however, is one of the most difficult of the dojo masters due to the jankiness of her stance.

-Shimon-
Region of beaches and bridges. A predominantly late game area for the fact that bridge battles at low level can be a chore, unless you're into that sort of thing. Seaside tailors can grant you traits that you want to have, but if you want courageous, you're going to have to pay full price (10 coins) because if you haggle with them you'll gain prudence which is the opposite of courageous, which, in turn, makes you pay more.

Wanderer (Starter character)
- 150 starting XP
- Can build earlier
- No long term benefit


Gozen (oneshot a dojo master on his head)
- Male characters (not dojo masters) wont act until dmg taken
- Most enemies are male, massive advantage even without one shots
- can setup one shots
- can kill the Oni for its OP sword
- benefits you the whole game
- No benefit against women


Gaijin (Find the gaijin trader, buy 3 gaijin items, and use the sake while the others are equipped)
- Comedic dialogue replaces normal options
- all NPC text is in japanese script
- starts with a 5 dmg weapon
- hardmode/veteran player character


Looter (1000 coins held in inventory)
- +2 inventory slots
- Allows for more tactical map/text gameplay
- Makes certain item quests more viable
- Extra consumable slots for combat


Harrier (beat the game on hard with no ancestor favors)
- bonus xp for completing regions quickly
- description and benefits are vague


Sordid Soul (meditate under a waterfall with a Hachimaki and Salt.)
- Double xp for meditating,
- -50% xp for combat.


Malevolent (5 regions finished in a row where die is chosen every time its on screen)
- 25 exp everytime you say die
- weaklings become a large exp source
- normal enemies get a large boost, max of 90 exp


Benevolent (go 5 regions in one run without choosing the die option)
- Gain 15 more exp from fights, gain none from fighting helpless enemies
- after fighting 10 people this will give more XP than wanderer


Miyamoto (show up late to the duel with the Gedan(?) master, win the whole fight with a bokken)
- Hard to acquire, requires getting a bokken and beating him, bokken deals 6 dmg average per swing
- Starts with a +20% dmg and +10% speed sword
- great early start, sword can last until a legendary is acquired.

He he he, I like it. It’s pure fantasy! Wait here a moment while I fetch something.


Chef Items
The Chef in villages will cook certain items for XP.

Tengu Nose - 150xp
Live Turtle - 150xp
Spoiled Soybeans - 180xp
Jar of Matcha - 150xp
Dried Plum - 150xp

Much of this is work done by Jekyll, thank you.

-Festive Village-
The Lunar festival will grant experience multiplied by the value of the item sacrificed.
Dojo master's swords are the highest valued item at 250, so 500 xp. Since it is a religious event, the Gracious trait will multiply this again by 2 for a total of 1000 xp.

-Sake Waterfall-
Some waterfalls will be made of sake, when using the Courageous option you will drink until you pass out. You will be robbed of all of your money but you will gain 150 xp.

-Waterfall-
Meditating under waterfalls will grant you 75xp, with a hachimake OR salt it will grant 82 xp, with a hachimake AND salt it will grant you 90xp. If you are the Sordid Soul character, this is doubled for 150/164/180 xp.

-Chef's Village-
Bringing a food item to a chef will grant you 150 xp. Food items are acquired by helping farmers. Food items are: Living turtle, Slimy Fish, Jar of Matchka, Tengu Nose, Spoiled Soybeans and Dried Plum. If not, ordering food from the menu will grant xp according to the value of the item ordered. 70 xp max.

-Teahouse-
Teahouses grant xp according to the tea ordered. The cheap tea (5 coins) will grant 25 xp.
The expensive tea (15 coins) will grant 50 xp. If you wish, you can check behind the teahouse for a food item.

-Geisha House-
Spending money at a geisha house will get you a date with a prostitute. This will grant a bonus to xp FOR THE REST OF THE REGION dependent on how much money you spent. Tier 1 - 20% bonus, Tier 2 - 40% bonus, Tier 3 - 60% bonus. These tiers cannot be stacked with multiple Geishas

-Temple with Priest-
The priest will ask you to make a donation. When making a donation, you will gain the Ancestral Protection bonus. Ancestral Protection will reduce the damage of the next hit you take equal to the coin you donated. So, 50 Ancestral Protection will reduce a 70 damage attack to 20 damage. The priest will kill himself for any donations over 100, and you receive the choice of finishing him off or not.

-Temple with Monk-
You will encounter a monk dragging a bell, help him carry the bell to the temple. Then ask him to train you. This grants 75 xp.

-Mountain with a Thousand Steps-
Climb the steps without taking a break and meet the monk at the top, ask to meditate with him. This grants 75 xp.

-Brewery-
Enter through the front and steal 3 jars of sake of varying quality. This is better than the 1 jar of low quality sake you'll recieve for resolving the Brewer and his son's dispute. Killing the brewer's will net you atleast 1 jar of medium or high quality and one low quality jar.

-Hasso Master-
The Hasso master can be defeated without fighting her with the Prudent and Cunning traits. This is necessary for the True Pacifist achievement.

-Judan Master-
The Judan master can be defeated without fighting him with the Courageous and Gracious traits (IIRC). This is necessary for the True Pacifist achievement.



Dishonorable Events


Christian Hunter
-Killing the christian after killing the christian hunter is dishonorable.

General/Misc Strats:

My personal favorite (and possibly easiest build to play), Gozen Gedan.

Gozen allows you to always get a first hit in without prior or mid retaliation against male enemies. This means you can build them in a number of ways, especially for one shotting. However, I instead make a Gedan defensive build and use the Gozen trait as an early game crutch till reaching Gedan 4. Gedan builds are focused around parrying and riposting for kills with near perfect safety. Gedan allows unbreakable parries, meaning you dont have to invest in strength, and allows you to attack twice as a riposte combo. This build requires perception as the main stat, as specific limb parries offer a larger stagger which start at 60-90 can get into 120-150 with stagger buffs. Easily enough to kill every enemy in the game. Speed is secondary, as the stagger can make up for it till later. Strength is the dump stat. While this build can't guarantee one shots, it can take on everything else, which is the vast majority of fights. At the start of a fight you should wait or feint until you can parry, then riposte. Since high limb parries are much more time expensive, consider dodging until they swipe low or mid. With high enough speed stats, parries become very low cost. (Perception might also low parry time cost, unsure.)

Preferred Items

Gedan Master Sword for +50% stagger time or the master crafted sword
Any armor that grants speed buffs
Tabako bag and pipe for the speed and perception buff


Gozen Demon Die Strategy
This strat is to get the 5 region achievement for always saying die when the option is presented, and requires only the Gozen and enough ancestor favor to get 50% avoid vital dmg and 50% avoid enemy attacks. Start off in the dense forest region or the mountainous region as the gozen and rush to visit as many forests or mountains as you can until you find the demon or the blacksmith. Fight them and keep slashing for the head, it will be a diceroll as to whether your ancestor skills will keep you alive long enough to kill him, and it will take around 3 attacks to kill him. I accomplished this without any levels whatsoever as my 2nd place visited. After you kill them, you can take his sword and one shot evertyhing for 1s time cost, making this run very easy afterwards. Remember that you only have to say die when it comes up, and dont need to create situations for it to come up, meaning skipping events is viable, especially ones that might give you dishonorable penalties.


Master Specific Strats:
-Shimon-
The Judan master is very slow, but if he lands his first strike, game over. He cannot be interrupted either because he benefits from Judan IV, so don't try it. So either cut him down quick, or invest in a powerful defensive ability. Another possibility is to use the counter to Judan in Waki. Wait till the last second and overkill.
On the other hand, the Judan master can be defeated without killing him. I don't remember the exact combination of traits but I know that it is NOT Prudent, Courageous, or Brazen.

-Uesubo-
The Hasso master can be very dangerous with her sword. Any SLASH attack results in a crippled limb, so beware. She can also be defeated without fighting her with the Prudent and Cunning traits.


-Tokuma-
The stance master is a push over and this area used to be my go-to starting area for that purpose.

-Morusu-
The Waki master is stupid dangerous from the benefits of Waki IV and V. Take the initiative and get rid of him fast. Defensive playstyles in Hasso and Gedan are no use against him.

-Takega-
The Chudan master can be a hassle because she heals while waiting. So trying to tire her out won't be of any use. Staggering her with a parry to get some quick attacks in to whittle her down is one strategy.

-Imagaji-
The Gedan master is also dangerous in the extreme. After parrying you, can instantly attack, and sometimes that means he attacks twice before you can react. He also has stupid fast thrusts at your legs so dodge builds wont help you here. You can either alpha strike with Judan, wait him out with Waki, or play the most dangerous game with parrying in Hasso or Gedan itself.


-Odano-
The Weapons Master is crazy dangerous. Without high perception, you won't be able to tell what she is doing. Add the fact she can parry or attack instantly after equiping a weapon only makes matters worse. Parrying or dodging won't work, so invest in a one-shot build and catch her while she's switching weapons.

A note on the True Pacifist, White Knight, and MRA achievements.
Dojo masters and the Imperial Ward and Emperor count towards the totals.
The Hasso Master, Chudan Master, and Weapons Master are female.
The Waki Master, Judan Master, Gedan Master, Stance Master, and Demon are Male.