Learn how to fight against Nowaki in the Claws of Awaji expansion for Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Nowaki is a tough boss whose skills rival and in some ways surpass Naoe’s. This guide will show you how to beat her and the quest, Turning the Tables.
Table of contents
Ambush Nowaki
After obtaining the Templar Cross from Nowaki’s home from the quest Home of a Killer, go to Sannomiya Shrine and look for a rock near the main shrine. Hide behind it to start a cutscene, don’t worry if you’re low on supplies right now.
After a cutscene, you’ll need to follow Nowaki through a new mechanic. Using the Aim button/key, you can focus on Nowaki’s voice. If you’re facing her direction, the screen will have a blue border like the following image:
As you track Nowaki, you’ll find a ration box and a toolbox near a lantern. Take the time to refill on all your supplies as you’ll need them for the fight ahead..
Learn the secrets of the area
Nowaki will lure you into the Hidden Swamp. She’ll get the standard “Boss” zoom-in. When it zooms back out, immediately dodge to avoid getting shot.
This entire area is incredibly dangerous due to the numerous traps strewn about. The thing you should be the most careful of are the tripwires. They are everywhere in this swamp, so you’ll need to tread carefully until you can disarm them.
Don’t be hasty and assassinate Nowaki the moment you see her, it could be a dummy trap. You can tell it’s face due to the grass and sticks popping out of their body and masks. If you damage these, they’ll explode and release poison gas.
Should you make too much noise, trigger any of the traps, or unsuccessfully hide, Nowaki will take a shot at you with her teppo. This will take out a large chunk of your health and it deals poison buildup on top of that.
Finding Nowaki
With numerous dummies populating the area, you need to rely on the new ability to listen in on Nowaki’s sounds. If you have a good set of headphones or surround sound, you can also use that to get an idea for her location.
Nowaki is very perceptive and can easily spot you if you lack good cover or are too loud. This forces you to take your time when sneaking and makes the fight more slow and methodical.
Use Shallow Water Breathing
A great feature to use is the Shallow Water Breathing ability from the Shinobi Mastery Tree. This fight makes an otherwise useless ability a life saver. Go prone and crawl through the water as you disarm traps and track down Nowaki.
Be sure to pause when you run low on air and watch out for sudden increases in elevation such as rocks in the water. This can make Naoe stand up and expose her location.
On the edge of madness
Slow and steady wins the race with this fight. Nowaki will always be on the edges of the swamp, typically at an elevated area. This means you can ignore a majority of the dummies in the center.
Fight shenanigans with shenanigans
While the following method is a bit cheesy, it’s still incredibly useful for this fight. You can activate camera mode and zoom in on an area by increasing the focal length. If you don’t see twigs popping out of the mask, then you got the real Nowaki in your sights.
Eagle Vision Countermeasures
Eagle Vision won’t be too useful in this fight. Nowaki is a bit of an anomaly as she won’t pop out with Eagle Vision if she’s too far away.
If you get close enough, she’ll begin to turn red. If she’s red with Eagle Vision, you’re within range to give away your position through noise, so be careful.
Use the traps against Nowaki
While you can’t use Nowaki’s traps to damage her, you can use them to reposition her to a more favorable spot. Use your shuriken to pop a dummy then get ready to dodge as she takes a shot at you. This might place her in an area that’s easier to access.
Damaging Nowaki
Finding her is one challenge, getting close enough to hit her is a far greater one. You cannot damage her with kunai at a distance until you take out two chunks of her health.
Your best bet is to find a way to get around and behind her and slowly make your way to her while minimizing sound. When able, use the Assassinate prompt to take off one chunk of health.
Only sneak attacks will damage her. You cannot damage her with conventional attacks as she’s preparing to throw a smoke bomb.
This fight gets a lot easier if you can stab her twice, bringing her down to 3 chunks of health. From here on, you can damage her with ranged attacks. Don’t throw your kunai recklessly, use them when you got a lock on her head. This will save you the hassle of sneaking up behind her.
When you get her down to 1 chunk of health, she’ll position herself on the ruined tower in the middle of the swamp. Climb up the tower from behind and finish her off for good.
When defeated, she’ll grant 5000 XP, 3 Mastery Points, Nowaki’s Momento, and the following Teppo and Engraving:
Little Helper (Teppo)
Stats Boost
+ Weapon DPS
+ Headshot DPS
+ Ability Damage
Engraving
Bullets build up 35% Poison affliction
