How To Beat Cursed Soh in Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess

Cursed Soh is the true final boss for Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. The very personification of human sin, this powerful opponent brings the battle to a whole new level. Here’s how to beat Cursed Soh in Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess

How To Find Cursed Soh in Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess

Cursed Soh can only be fought in a New Game+ in Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, so you won’t be able to fight them in your first playthrough, which ends after beating Nanamagiri/Yatsukahagi. After overcoming the final two bosses once again, the cutscene will change, with corruption leaking out of Yatsukahagi and taking the form of Cursed Soh, which will be waiting for you as an Ominous Presence stage next to Grand Shrine Passage.

Take this chance to upgrade your own Soh and the villagers’ roles once more, as you’ll need every bit of extra punch for this fight. Just like Nanamagiri/Yatsukahagi, you can only fight Cursed Soh once per playthrough.

Cursed Soh has all of Soh’s Tsuba Guard abilities (even those you haven’t unlocked), and will not think twice about using them. They will use corruption-enhanced versions of all of your attacks, including Perfect Defense and all arrow types at once. Most attacks can one-shot you, so there’s no room for error. If you die and there are no villagers left, Cursed Soh will slowly walk up to Yoshiro and kill her.

Best Build for Fighting Cursed Soh in Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess

While you can tackle this mighty opponent however you prefer, this is the combination I found the best for this fight. You can swap some of them according to your needs.

The Shinden Dance feels better for this fight as it helps you not accidentally hit Cursed Soh while they’re on their parry stance (although you can parry the counterattack yourself). Punishing Strikes are always some of your best damaging options, but try to use them as late as possible. Cursed Hound is basically mandatory, as all attack windows are very small.

Taion’s Lightning will instantly deplete Cursed Soh’s Resist Gauge once, but even with Synergy, you won’t be using it more than once in the whole fight. However, both the Guard and the Talisman are invaluable for the strategy. Most of your villagers will die by Phase 3, but they can still help immensely with their damage contribution, so don’t sleep on them. Avoid using Rations on them, though.

How to Defeat Cursed Soh in Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess

Cursed Soh has four different phases in Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess and becomes more aggressive as the battle goes on. They always teleport away before changing phases and will automatically do so as soon as they reach certain HP thresholds and aren’t stunned. If you keep dealing good damage, it should happen whenever you deliver a Punishing Strike.

The main tips here are:

• Avoid using Rations on villagers (unless you deem it really worth it)
• Respect Cursed Soh’s counterattack stance.
• Cycle through your Tsubas accordingly.
• Save the Chozusha Basin (the dragon fountain buff) for the last phase.
• Respect Cursed Soh’s counterattack stance!

Phase 1

In this phase, Cursed Soh only attacks you with regular sword hits and isn’t as dangerous. Be wary of your villagers, as they can accidentally trigger their counterattack and make you take some free damage. This will happen throughout the whole fight, so be careful as long as you have villagers up.

As soon as the fight starts, use Taion’s Lightning to instantly knock Cursed Soh down. Send your villagers to attack them while you do the same with heavy attack combos. Remember to finish with the Punishing Strike, and if you deal around 20% of its maximum life as damage, you should see the first phase change.

Phase 2

Cursed Soh now gets access to archery skills, which will most likely one-shot you if you’re not careful. They usually go with Kingfisher Shots (a flurry of blue arrows) followed by Butterfly Shots (purple shots, Cursed Soh teleports to them if they hit you). Kingfisher Shots have many variations, and taking them too close to the opponent will likely kill you. They can all be dodged by jumping or sidestepping.

Cursed Soh resorts to archery whenever it’s far enough from you, and few attacks will knock them out of the charging stance, so don’t test your luck. Your only openings are when they’re doing sword combos, so be patient and wait for those. Respect the arrows and counterattack with one of your Tsubas when you have the chance, but save the other for the next phase. Aside from the arrows, there’s nothing really new going on here, and you should still have some villagers with you.

Phase 3

Cursed Soh gets access to Oxalis Shot (explosive yellow arrows, will blow up after a few seconds) and Spider Shot (green arrows, low damage but slow you and locks your dodge), as well as more sword moves. Use the remaining Tsuba and keep applying the same things here as you did before, but avoid using the previous Tsuba again for now (if it’s already back, somehow).

The most dangerous movement they have is counterattacking you and knocking you to the ground, then immediately using Kingfisher Shot. This will always kill you, and you only have a tiny window for dodging after being thrown on the ground. It’s possible, but missing will probably cost you the fight, so avoid getting counterattacked twice as hard now, until you finally deplete a bit more than half of their health. They’ll do a slightly different transition, indicating the final phase is coming.

Phase 4

The final phase is the hardest by far. Cursed Soh will summon a spiritual clone that remains on the field until destroyed, then proceeds to create a barrier twice in a row in two separate zones. You can destroy the barriers, but it’s not worth the trouble and they disappear quickly anyway.

Instead, focus on defeating the clone summoned by Cursed Soh, as destroying it will instantly deplete its Resist Gauge. Use the Chozusha Basin and go ham on the duo, bringing the mirror image down to deal some nasty damage to the main enemy. If you somehow still have some villagers alive, command them to attack again. If they’re gone, one of your Talismans is now finally in effect, making you even stronger.

Cursed Soh will be even more aggressive with its attacks now, and gain ensnare traps it can set up on the ground, as well as the Byakko’s Claws Tsuba Guard move, which is another instant kill, so be careful. However, they’re already on their last legs and will keep repeating the same moves. The openings are, as always, after they complete the sword combos.

If you stall for a bit, they will summon the mirror image again, which you can quickly dispatch with another Tsuba Guard. Suzaku’s Flames is enough for doing so and recharges relatively fast, so it’s a great choice for beating the clone quickly.

It may take a lot of tries, but once you finally defeat Cursed Soh, you’ll be granted the game’s true ending, where Yoshiro is freed from the corruption and returns to normal. She remains in this state inside tents too, and it feels great to see her back to normal! You also get the achievement The End, as well as Cursed Soh’s Ema Plaque (which might be the last one missing) and the last few Emaki Scrolls, depicting the whole adventure Soh and Yoshiro went through, so Congratulations on truly beating Kunitsu-Gami!