What Lurks in the Shadows

What Lurks in the Shadows begins with Okuni's request and takes you from Nijo-jo Castle through the Underground Laboratory to the Kyoto Imperial Palace. This guide covers the required route, the laboratory's door and blade mechanisms, and practical responses for the battles through the final report to Murasaki. Optional treasure rooms and the full range of boss attacks are outside its scope.

Inputs use the displayed PlayStation layout: Cross (×) to interact, Square (□) to attack and Circle (○) to evade. Follow your displayed bindings if remapped.

Speak with Okuni and examine the castle garden

At a Spirit Mirror, choose Travel → Eastern Kyoto → Rokudo-chinnoji Temple. Enter the room beside the temple's main hall and speak with Okuni. Continue the conversation and castle arrival scene until the objective becomes Investigate Nijo-jo Castle.

Go through the entrance gateway, activate the Spirit Mirror and open the paired wooden gate with Cross. Inside the garden, use L2 + R2 — Oni Vision and approach the claw marks on the large roots near the back wall. After Shizuka comments on them, follow the golden footprints toward the pond.

At the pond-side rocks, press Cross — Examine. The view points across the water toward a burning tree, and the objective changes to Examine the burning tree.

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Follow the footprints around the pond and along the castle wall. At the burning tree, step up to the claw marks on the ground between the trunk and wall. Wait for the exchange identifying the Nue, then continue along the revealed trail to the double wooden door in the wall. Open it and enter the storage yard. The Nue appears on a roof, and your objective becomes Pursue the Nue.

Pursue and defeat the first Nue

Follow the storage alley through the gateway and across the wooden bridge to the lantern-lined street. Fight through the Genma while leaving room to move away from lightning strikes.

At the piled supplies, climb the collapsed bamboo roof, cross its crest and drop to the next street. Continue past the hay bales and ladder, clearing the courtyard enemies and shooting the rooftop archer with the Oni Bow: aim, hold R2 and release. The side room reached over the bamboo fence contains optional loot.

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Continue through the wooden gateway and alley toward the Nue. Activate the Spirit Mirror beside the bamboo scaffolding, then enter the pond clearing to fight Nue — Legendary Chimera.

Stay where you can see its body and snake tail. When it raises the tail for a sweep, stop attacking and evade sideways with Circle. Return to its flank for short Square attacks after the sweep or landing finishes. Avoid staying directly in front of its claws or following the tail blindly behind its body.

Use Triangle + Circle — Oni Strength when the Destroy prompt appears. If your Oni Power gauge has enough charge, R1 releases your equipped Oni Armament during an opening. Continue until the Nue falls and the objective becomes Search the area.

Find the lift into the Underground Laboratory

Go across the far side of the pond and follow the path past the small lantern shrine and around the houses. Approach the dark mass between the buildings and hold L2 to absorb it. After Hinagiku's memory, the objective changes to Look for Hinagiku.

Enter the torch-lit storehouse doorway. Step into the lift cage behind the stacked boxes and use the lever on your right inside the cage: Cross — Use. Ride down, leave the cage, descend the stairs and open the gold-trimmed double gate to reach the Underground Laboratory.

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Cross the upper balcony to the opposite doorway. Follow the stairs down past the torn wall coverings, continue through the hall and open the next door to a Spirit Mirror room. Go through the gold lattice gate and approach the kneeling figure for the scene.

Beyond the next door, a mass of Malice blocks the passage. Approach it and hold Cross — Use Oni Power until it breaks. Go through the cleared passage to the next lift; the side gate that will not open from this side is not your route. Use the lift's right-hand lever to descend to Dokyo's workroom.

After Dokyo's conversation, defeat the eye-and-tongue Genma. Keep outside its sweeping tongue while it attacks, then step in for short sword attacks as it draws back. The objective becomes Find the key.

Ride the moving bridge and reach the mask door

The round black-and-gold door in the workroom needs a key. Return across the red-railed bridge to its platform and use the lever on the left side. Wait for the bridge to move into position, cross to its new destination and open the door at the far end.

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Follow the hall to the gear-decorated door. Clear the Genma that appear, then open the door after the fight. Continue through the red-cord corridor to the door with a face mechanism and press Cross — Examine. Your objective becomes Find a way to trigger the door's mechanism.

Activate the Spirit Mirror alongside the face door. Take the door beside the mirror into the laboratory rooms and climb the ladder in the red-railed stairwell. Clear the moonlit room above, then climb the second ladder against the wall beside the pottery workbench and windows.

Follow the upper walkway and window-lined corridor, fighting through the Genma. Open the gold-trimmed door, follow the red-railed overlook and descend the stairs into the large room filled with cages and bodies. Use the Oni Bow against archers above while keeping room to defend against enemies on the floor.

Leave by the gold-trimmed door on the lower floor. Follow the corridor to the wide gate at its end. The room beyond has round paper windows and hanging masks; the objective becomes Solve the mask puzzle.

Solve the mask puzzle and return with the Unsettling Mask

Face the four masks hanging above the barred altar. Number them 1 through 4 from left to right and shoot them with the Oni Bow in this order:

3 → 4 → 1 → 2

Aim at each mask, hold R2 and release. The masks rise when the sequence succeeds, and the altar opens. Take the Unsettling Mask.

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Use the side doorway in the puzzle room, then follow the corridor past the red-lit cages and go downstairs to the original face door. Press Cross — Examine and fit the Unsettling Mask into the mechanism. Go through the opened doorway; your next objective is Stop the contraption.

Stop the contraption and escape the pitfall

Enter the mechanism hall and approach its exit, the door with glowing red eyes. After the scene, defeat the Genma in the room. Return to the large circular device between the red lantern panels.

Stand directly in front of its central mask and press Cross — Pull. Musashi pulls the mask down; the exit's red eyes go dark and Shizuka confirms the door has opened. Leave through that door when Find the key returns.

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Go upstairs to the next red-railed moving passage and use its lever. Stay aboard through the conversation, then open the door at the far end. Continue along the hall with red cords until the floor gives way.

When Escape the pitfall appears, defeat the enemies in the pit. Approach the barred gate beside the torch and press Cross — Use at its crank. Turn it to open the stairway; Find the key confirms you can continue upward.

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The white fog elsewhere in the pit leads to an optional Byakue encounter. The stairway opened by the crank is the onward route.

Reach the Gore-Spattered Key

Climb out of the pit and follow the corridor into the room with barrels. Defeat its Genma, open the gold-trimmed door and continue to the room with ropes and a loose panel on the floor. Clear the enemies here.

The first gear-decorated door and adjacent gold lattice door are locked. Take the side corridor beside the loose floor panel, pass the stacked boxes and follow the passage around the broken screens crossed by red cords. Keep around those screens to the other room, where you can open the gear-decorated double door. Go through and take the stairs up.

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Defeat the Genma in the next room. Once Find the key returns, open the gold-trimmed door into the prison corridor. Hold L2 at the dark mass to view the next Hinagiku memory.

Return from the cells to the room where you fought the Genma. Follow its outer corridor through the gold-trimmed gate to the stairs going down. Enter the lift cage and use its right-hand lever. At the bottom is a circular room with a blood-covered floor and a blade mechanism overhead. Pick up the Gore-Spattered Key from the floor.

Stop the blade mechanism and return to Dokyo's workroom

When Stop the blade mechanism appears, look up at the large rotating blades. Aim the Oni Bow at the red moving components inside the small cage frames around the outside of the machine. Hold R2 and release to shoot them as they pass through your aim. Keep targeting the red components until they break; aim inside the frames, rather than at the central blade.

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After the components break, the blade's final collapse plays out in a scene. Wait until the objective changes to Return to Dokyo's workroom, then leave through the opened gate.

Open the chest on the exit route to obtain Earth-Shakers. With sufficient Oni Power, press R1 to use the hammers; hold R1 to charge their attack for more damage. Give yourself enough room to charge safely.

Use the nearby lift's right-hand lever to ride up. Follow the corridor and open the gold-trimmed gate back into the workroom. Approach its round black-and-gold door and interact with it: Used Gore-Spattered Key confirms the door is unlocked.

Activate the Spirit Mirror beyond. Step onto the square lift platform with a circular gold emblem on its floor and ride down to the large underground stage.

Defeat the red and blue Nue

The fight has separate Nue (Red) and Nue (Blue) health bars. Keep both in view and pull back if one moves behind you. Concentrate short attacks on one when it is in front of the other, so you are not standing between their claws and tails.

After a leap or claw sequence finishes, move to that Nue's flank and attack. Evade out when its tail rises or the second Nue closes in. Earth-Shakers with R1, when charged with Oni Power, gives you a way to hit the nearby enemies during an opening; avoid holding a charge while both are already attacking.

Once one Nue falls, use the same flank-and-retreat approach against the survivor. Defeat both, then leave the stage through the gold-trimmed side doorway as the investigation continues.

Reach the Imperial Palace and defeat Greater Nue

Climb the stairs beyond the stage door and use the next lift's right-hand lever. Exit to the Kyoto Imperial Palace and activate the Spirit Mirror nearby. Your objective becomes Locate the source of the commotion.

Follow the open courtyard path around the large roots and palace buildings. Clear the Genma along it, using the Oni Bow for ranged enemies. At the blocked end, climb the collapsed tiled roof beside the building, cross it and drop beside another Spirit Mirror. Prepare there, then continue into the next courtyard for Greater Nue.

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The pre-fight tutorial introduces Unavoidable Attacks. Watch for a body part glowing pink before the strike. To counter it, press L1 just before impact to Parry, or hold L1 and press Cross just before impact to Deflect. Reflex Dodge and Issen do not work against this attack type, and simply holding guard costs heavy stamina.

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Keep the head and tail in view, defend against its approach, and use short sword attacks after its strikes finish. When its pink-lit attack begins, stop your combo and time the Parry or Deflect. During the lightning phase, watch the boss's next movement as well as the bolts around the courtyard; a lightning effect does not mean the melee sequence has ended.

Use Earth-Shakers when you have enough Oni Power and an opening. When Greater Nue staggers and a Square prompt appears on its glowing weak point, move close and press Square for the punish, then return to defense if the battle continues. Repeat until the fight ends.

Defeat Hinagiku and report to Murasaki

There is another battle after Greater Nue's scene: Defeat Hinagiku. Stay just outside her long sweeping appendages, evade with Circle as the horizontal sweep reaches you, then close in with short Square attacks as she draws back.

When both appendages rise and glow, back away instead of approaching to absorb souls. This wind-up leads into a grab that can catch you at close range. Resume attacking when she settles after the sequence. Reduce her health to finish the battle and continue the Okuni scenes.

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Finish the conversation back at Rokudo-chinnoji Temple. After Murasaki contacts you through her butterfly, use a Spirit Mirror to select Travel → Eastern Kyoto → Yasaka Shrine. Follow the shrine path to the building beside the cart piled with books, climb its steps and speak with Lady Murasaki.

Continue the report and her explanations of Curious Cases and Lion Dogs. Story Complete — What Lurks in the Shadows is the endpoint. The following notice introduces The Light of Vengeance; the laboratory and palace fights alone do not finish this report.