SMT V Vengeance: Beastly Battle of Wits Quest Guide for Shin Megami Tensei V

One of the new enhancements in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is the addition of many new sidequests, with Beastly Battle of Wits being one of the first many you can find in Da’at. Here are all the answers and locations you’ll need during this quick task.

How to Complete the Beastly Battle of Wits Quest in Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance

Beastly Battle of Wits can be started by speaking with Nozushi at the Northmost point of Minato, close to the Kamiyacho leyline. You can find it by going through the Magatsu Rail by the broken bridge next to Jatayu’s nest. Speak with the Demon, and it’ll immediately give you a riddle once you accept the quest, which comes in three steps.

The first step will be to solve said riddle:

• THE PATH YOU HAVE WALKED HAS ENDED. WHAT PATH DO YOU TAKE TO RETURN?
  • An empty path.

With the first step done, Nozuchi now asks you to solve another riddle, which involves finding the hidden Sangaku Beads around the place mentioned in his poem. Speaking with it repeatedly will make it spit some tips about the correct place, but you still need to find it on your own merits.

Head to the Shiba leyline and enter the big area with no exit directly to its left, where you can find a bunch of Kodama hanging around the hill. You can see a small blue shining point around the sands, which are the exact beads you’re looking for. Grab them and return to Nozushi to get to the final stage.

After presenting them to Nozushi, save the game before speaking with it again and proceeding to its final request: Making it walk. To do this, just hit it once. Nozushi gets pissed off and immediately attacks you, starting a boss fight against it alongside two Kodamas. I recommend being around Level 17 or higher for this fight.

Related: SMT V Vengeance: All Difficulty Settings Explained

Nozushi and the Kodamas attack you with Force-based skills, so be careful if your Nahobino or your Demons have a weakness against it. Despite having high HP, Nozushi is weak to Fire, Ice, Lightning and Force. Both Kodamas are also weak against Ice, so any Demon with Mabufu (such as Aquans, Mermaid or Apsaras) can make short work of them. You can also use ailments such as Sleep (right before it gets a turn) to make the battle easier.

Bringing Fortuna in a support position is a good call as she Nulls all Force attacks, effectively making the opponent lose a turn when they hit her. Nozushi is quite beefy, but doesn’t hit as hard as most other bosses around this point, so you should deal with it without much trouble. Be careful when it uses Concentrate, though.

You get the Virtuous Neutral Periapt for completing this quest, which allows certain Demons to use the Omagatoki: Momentum skill during battle, which gives you 1 Press Turn Icon for every foe you defeat during the turn. Perfect for big encounters or bosses who like to summon adds to the fight.

Shin Megami Tensei V is available now. You can read our review here.