In the Light of an Icy Moon is the penultimate main mission in Onimusha Way of the Sword. The story moves ahead significantly here as you get further context to the antagonist’s actions. Also, this mission boasts of two key fights – as expected – against Sasaki Ganryu (for the third and final time), and against Dokyo.
The boss fights, though, are just part of what is a sprawling mission across several areas, and it looks like here the devs threw in everything that they have – including a couple of new things that we have not yet seen in the game before.
The route to moving ahead can also be pretty convoluted, and if you are stuck at some point – hopefully, this guide will help you get out from there, move on ahead, and complete the In the Light of an Icy Moon quest in Onimusha Way of the Sword. Let’s get started!
Investigate Arashiyama
The game takes us to a completely new, unexplored region – Arashiyama. Once you travel there, move ahead. Collect the Prayer Beads from the right, and Iron * 1. As you rightly guessed, Prayer Beads will be help in the next few Malice filled sections.
Progress on the linear path, till you arrive in an open arena, and get introduced to a new enemy type – one that spews acid, that can deplete your health. I wouldn’t worry much about that, though – the tick damage is too low, and the enemy variant can easily be downed in a couple of hits or so.
After taking down wave 1, you will get wave 2 … but with a Dohatsu-ten thrown in. Get rid of the trash mobs, and focus on Dohatsu. You have several environmental objects to help you out, but in any case, by now, the moveset should be pretty comfortable for you to handle. It will help greatly if you destroy the Malice emitting node at the other end of the area.
Once he is taken care of, absorb the Rift, and the path that had got blocked will open up. Go back there, and progress ahead to come across another rarity in the game – a puzzle.
Find the hidden path
Shizuka will prompt you to read the glyph, which goes as ‘When going through Hell, one must keep going’. To the left will be 5 statues, one of which is Hell.
Now, what you are supposed to do here is stand with your back towards the Hell statue (ensure that you align yourself perfectly), and then walk ahead. The stones and the wall in front are actually an illusion, and you will be able to get through it – provided you have aligned yourself correctly and taken a path straight ahead.
Go ahead, and it will open up an Oni Portal to the now-familiar terrain where you must shoot blocks and align them to be able to progress ahead
Take the Oni shortcut
As soon as you enter, you will see a block straight ahead with a red orb on its right. Shoot it to move it to the right. Take the path on your right, and you can now use the block to jump over to the other side.
From here, take the path on the right first that winds downwards (don’t do anything to the block in front of you for now).
Here, at the edge, on your top right, you will see the block with the red orb, shoot it to move it to the right.
Now go back and shoot the block in front of you on the left orb, it will move to the left, and align itself nicely with the one that you shot before that.
You can now go back up, and cross over using both the blocks to progress ahead. Keep moving, and use the wall running sections to finally arrive at another portal that takes you back to Arashiyama, with a Spirit Mirror on your right.
Head for the center of the key sanctuary
Keep moving along the linear path till you arrive at a huge area filled with Malice. The area, once you enter, you will see also has a full section of paths above you, and we will be getting there in a bit. On the map, you will see a circular section in the middle, with four paths branching off from there, with one of those leading to the right where the objective marker is.
What we will be targeting first, is getting to that central circular area. For that, make your way to the left. From here, you will see little Malice-free islands and enemies nearby. Bait them to the nearest such area, take care of them, and move ahead.
When standing at the place as shown in the image above, make note of the Malice emitting node on your top left. You can’t reach it yet, we will come here at the very end.
Open the Oni Barrier ahead, take a left and defeat the trash mob. You will see a path that leads to a blocked Oni Barrier – you need to open it from the other side. Can’t do much about it, so come back to the open Malice filled area. You will also have a Byakue here, again, bait it to the raised area without Malice, and then take it down.
Keep to the left, and keep clearing enemies as you come across them. Finally, you will arrive at a raised level that has red flowers growing, and a path to take on the left. Keep moving ahead, using the wall running sections, and we will finally make it to the central circular area that we had targeted.
Before taking the left path as shown in the image above, take the path that continues straight ahead on the right, and you will come across the first Malice node that you can destroy.
Now, retrace your steps, and take the wall running section to enter the arena. This will be one of the tougher enemy groupings to defeat before you can absorb the rift.
We now have 2 Malice nodes to close. Take the path as I have indicated in the image above, and you will see the Malice node on the roof on your left. Jump down into the now clear area, and activate the Spirit Mirror on your right.
Oni Armament Location
We will make a detour to get the 5th and final Oni Armament before progressing the quest. Take the Malice filled path on the right, and you will have a chest at the very end of it that unlocks the Still Water Armament.
This one is useful in that it generates more Purple Souls to fill your Awakening Meter, and can be especially useful in the 3rd phase of the Yoshitsune fight. For now, make your way back to the Spirit Mirror, and let’s progress In the Light of an Icy Moon quest.
From the Spirit Mirror, move straight and take the ramp on your right to get back to the central circular section. Take the right path, and keep following it, defeating the trash mobs on the way, and you will arrive at the other side of the Oni Barrier that was locked before. Destroy it to open up that path – but you don’t need to take it now.
Instead, continue ahead, and take the left branching path to destroy the final Malice node in this area – the one that you had made note of right at the beginning of the section! Go back to the branching path and go straight this time; and you will see a Spirit Mirror on your left.
With that you are done with this large and confusing area in the mission In the Light of an Icy Moon!
Continue along the path, looting all collectibles and defeating enemies on the way. You will see a ladder on your left. Use that to get on to the ramp, and jump on your left side to cross over to the side that was blocked. Take the second ladder, to arrive at an open area, and a new game mechanic – this time we are shooting hidden cannons.
Destroy the cannon
So, the setup is that you will have places in between to take shelter from the cannon fire. Archers will constantly shoot at you to try get you out of it, and Genma mobs as well as the Mermaid-type Genma will attack you as well. You can use conveniently placed explosives to take care of the melee attackers, and shoot from cover at the archers.
The path is a zig-zag one across the arena that will eventually lead you to the place that I have shown in the image above. The door will be locked, and you will need to shoot the the hanging explosives to destroy the gate.
This will then open that last path which you can run across to and use this ladder that was inaccessible. From here, we can shoot the hanging explosives over the cannon. This will unload an explosive barrel right next to the cannon. Shoot it to destroy the cannon.
Take the path to the right to loot a chest, and then progress the quest by taking the path to the left.
Open the gate, take care of all the enemies, use the ladder, and climb up across the ramps, and the wall running section. Open the Oni Barrier, and absorb the dark mass to get an insight into what is Ganryu’s plan.
Continue across the next linear section, defeating the enemies on the way till you reach the next Spirit Mirror.
Sever the threads at their source
Time for the familiar red threads, and this time there are 3 of these.
Take the path on the right which leads to the Malice filled area. Run through the area, and you will see a ladder on your left. Use that to climb onto the rooftop, across the wall running section and to the Malice node.
Jump down, take care of the enemies, and move ahead to arrive at the next Malice filled area. Bait the enemies here into the clearer area, defeat them, then take the ladder on the left to destroy the Malice node.
The building opposite the Malice node has a thread going into it. So, enter the building, take the ladder to the first floor, and sever the first red thread. Two to go.
Retrace your steps, and when you come out into the open, you will see two threads. Follow the right one, and it will lead to a building on the left with an Oni Barrier on the right. The thread will be there on the ground floor itself. One last left.
Destroy the Oni Barrier on your right to lead back to the Spirit Mirror.
Follow the last thread, and you will see it going into the first floor of a building. Just ahead, you will see a wall running section above you. You have to clearly use it to get into that building.
Use the ladder on the other end of this section to climb onto the roof, and from there, use the wall running section to enter the building. Sever the final thread, and the locked gate next to the Spirit Mirror is now open.
Unlock it to find a samurai grappling with Genma. Take care of three waves of Genma enemies. There are environmental objects to take advantage of, along with Hozuki if you need topping up. Once the enemies have been defeated, speak to the samurai who will hand over the Rear Gate Key to the gate behind the building.
Unlock the door and the Spirit Mirror just ahead. Absorb the dark mass to learn more about Ganryu, and then progress ahead. Use the wall running sections to arrive at an arena with … another cannon to be destroyed.
Destroy the gate
Defeat the trash mob and the archers. Take the ramp, and from the top, aim for the explosive barrel kept on the other side of the gate.
On crossing the gate, loot the chest on your left to collect Genma Note: Mohja. Use the ladder and the wall running sections to arrive at the next arena with enemies and the cannon to be destroyed.
Take the ramp, and keep moving up. Watch out for enemies that ambush you here. Once they are defeated, line up your shot to destroy the explosive barrel, and the gate.
Make your way through the now destroyed gate, and save at the Spirit Mirror shrine.
Scale the ramp, there will be 2 rifts to close. Keep moving ahead and unlock the Spirit Mirror.
Confront Ganryu
The next section is a frantic run across delicately placed paths on the lake, across wall running sections, while all the time the Mermaid-type Genma, pesky archers, and melee attackers try their best to take you down.
You have two options here -take each and every enemy down, and progress, or treat the enemies also as part of an obstacle course that you need to outrun. I would suggest to go for the latter. The area does not have any major loot that you will miss. Here is the path of least resistance to get you to your next Spirit Mirror:
- Head straight, and when you arrive at the area with 2 wall running sections, take the one on the left.
- Then the ramp upwards, where two enemies will ambush you.
- Climb up, and take the wall running section to the right.
- Take the right path across the lake, and then a left.
- Open the Oni Barrier
- Take the wall running section, across the lake, and then to solid ground.
- Continue along the linear path. to arrive at the Shrine Mirror, right next to the boss arena where you will take on Sasaki Ganryu.
Look for Dokyo
After defeating Ganryu (finally), take the linear path back to the main arena to fight Dokyo. On the way, before the stairs, next to the well is a chest containing Tamahagane * 1. Save at the Spirit Mirror, and to your right will be the boss fight area.
