- Burai — Crashing Lightning is Ifuu’s brother, fought in A Tempest at the Temple quest. He wields a lightning-imbued mace and strikes with fast piercing thrusts.
- His signature mechanic: the teleport-punish pose. When Burai locks into it, stop attacking completely and back away — attacking during this animation is the most common way to die in this fight.
- Lightning orbs seeded across the ground expose his eye as a weak point — sidestep the orbs, close the gap, and strike the eye to release blue souls.
- X-pattern lightning crosses overhead must be run to either side to avoid — do not try to dodge through them.
- Parrying or deflecting Burai’s crashing lightning attacks causes him to stumble and fall, creating one of the best punish windows in the fight.
- Phase two adds a lightning aerial (two-part: bolt then ground slam), a mace spin seeding beam orbs, and a massive lightning shockwave — get clear the moment the shockwave fires.
- Trophy: Crashing Lightning. Reward: one Oni Stone on quest completion.
How to beat Burai in Onimusha: Way of the Sword comes down to two disciplines: reading the teleport-punish pose and stopping your attack the moment you see it, and knowing which of his many lightning-based attacks can be punished and which must simply be survived. Burai — full title Burai the Crashing Lightning — is Ifuu’s brother, the lightning counterpart to Ifuu’s wind. He is faster than Ifuu, more mobile, and has a significantly more varied attack toolkit. Where Ifuu tests your Oni Bow interrupt and close deflect discipline, Burai tests your ability to stop attacking at the right moment — one of the hardest habits for aggressive players to build.
Burai is fought during the A Tempest at the Temple main story quest. He arrives motivated by revenge — Musashi has already defeated his brother Ifuu, and Burai brings considerably more tricks than the first fight suggested. For how the Ifuu fight prepared you for this one and what carries over, the Ifuu boss guide covers the wind-element solo fight in full. And for where this fight sits in the full campaign context, the complete boss roster lists every encounter in story order.
Who Is Burai
Burai is one of two Oni brothers — the lightning counterpart to Ifuu’s wind element. He is larger and more aggressive than his brother, wielding a massive mace imbued with crackling lightning. His signature visual is a bladder-like organ on his back — the same structure that defined Ifuu’s fight — but where Ifuu uses his to power aerial wind bursts that the Oni Bow can interrupt, Burai’s organ charges a different kind of suction attack in phase two.
Burai later reappears alongside Ifuu in the Storm Chaser mission, which is one of the hardest combined fights in the game. Everything you learn here about reading his lightning telegraphs, his teleport pose, and his orb patterns carries directly into that paired encounter. The solo fight is the training ground for the harder version.
The Teleport-Punish Pose — The Fight’s Central Rule
Before breaking down individual attacks, this rule needs to be understood clearly: when Burai enters his teleport-punish pose, stop attacking immediately and back away.
The pose has a distinct animation — Burai locks into a specific stance that signals a teleport-based punish counter. If you are mid-combo when he enters it, every additional hit you land feeds into the counter. This is the most common way players die in this fight. It does not look like a traditional attack wind-up. It looks like a momentary pause. That pause is the tell. The moment you see it, cease all attack inputs and create distance. Waiting out the pose and then re-engaging is always the correct play. Trying to push through it is almost always fatal.
Burai’s Attacks — Phase One
Two-Hit Mace Combo
Burai’s standard close-range exchange is a two-hit mace combo. The hits are fast and the rhythm is consistent. Parry or deflect both hits. A clean deflect on the second hit creates the primary punish window for standard melee damage. Get the timing of this combo firmly in your muscle memory early — it is the most repeated sequence in the fight and the main source of stamina drain toward Break Issen.
Fast Piercing Thrusts
Burai has a set of very fast piercing mace thrusts that are his most difficult close-range attacks to read. They come in quick succession and the spacing between hits is tight. Deflect is the most reliable defensive tool here — the stamina drain from deflected thrusts adds up quickly. If you are landing parries cleanly on the two-hit combo but catching the thrusts unexpectedly, step back slightly to create more reaction time.
Sweeping Pushback
A lateral mace sweep that pushes Musashi backward on contact. Parry or deflect this to avoid the knockback. Being pushed back in the middle of a punish sequence costs time and positioning. Learning to deflect the sweep keeps Musashi in the fight’s optimal melee range. If the sweep connects and you are pushed back, close the gap immediately rather than waiting — Burai will use the distance to start his lightning orb patterns.
Lightning Orbs — Eye Exposed Weak Point
Burai drops an array of lightning orbs across the ground. The orb pattern spreads in a semicircle around him. While these orbs are active, his eye is exposed and becomes a targetable weak point. The correct response is to sidestep through the first orb’s path when it fires, sprint directly to Burai, and strike the exposed eye. Landing hits on the eye releases blue souls that feed the Oni Power gauge. The punish window is short — roughly a second after closing the gap — so commit to the sprint immediately after reading the orb. Do not wait to see where all the orbs land first.
X-Pattern Lightning Crosses
Burai summons crackling lightning overhead that forms cross-shaped patterns around Musashi’s position. These cross beams rain down in an X formation. Run to either side the moment the pattern begins — not through the center and not backward. Clearing to the left or right moves Musashi out of the intersection and avoids damage from both beams simultaneously. After the crosses clear, close the distance and land a punish before the next attack.
Kick
A forward kick that appears when you are at close range and have been landing too many consecutive hits. The tell is the leg raise — the same pattern as Ifuu’s kick. Stop attacking and step back when you see the leg rise. A clean Reflex Dodge or Issen on the kick creates a good punish window, but the faster choice is simply to disengage before the kick fires rather than reading it under time pressure.
Teleport-Punish Pose
Covered at the top of this guide, but worth repeating in the attack list: Burai locks into a specific stance and teleports into a punish counter if attacked. Stop all attack inputs the moment you see this animation. Back away. Wait. Re-engage when the pose ends. This is the single most important read in the fight.
Burai’s Attacks — Phase Two
Lightning Aerial — Bolt then Ground Slam
Burai leaps out of view and a giant bolt of lightning crashes down where Musashi is standing. A ground slam follows a beat later. This is a two-part sequence that requires two separate evasions. Move out of your current position the moment Burai leaps — the bolt targets where you are standing when it fires. Then dodge again for the ground slam that arrives a beat after the bolt impact. On Carnage, this attack can kill outright if either component connects cleanly. Learn the gap between bolt and slam — it is consistent once you have seen it twice.
Suction Organ Attack
Burai charges the bladder-like organ on his back and uses it to suck Musashi toward him. The counter is the Oni Bow — shoot the balloon that forms on his back immediately when it begins to inflate. A clean arrow hit interrupts the suction and creates a punish window. Letting the suction complete and getting pulled in puts Musashi in close range exactly when Burai is ready to counter, which is a dangerous position. This is the same interrupt mechanic that Ifuu’s blow bag uses — the tool is identical even if the context is different.
Mace Spin into Beam Orbs and Lightning Shockwave
A multi-step attack that appears in late phase two. Burai spins his mace and seeds the ground with orbs that fire beams of light at Musashi. Immediately after the beam sequence, a mace slam follows that unleashes a massive lightning shockwave across the arena. Get clear of the slam and the shockwave the moment the mace starts coming down. The shockwave radius is wide and the damage at Carnage level is fight-ending if you are caught in it. Move outward and away from Burai as the slam animation completes.
Crashing Lightning Attacks — Stumble on Perfect Parry
Burai’s lightning-charged attacks in phase two can be parried or deflected. A perfect parry on his crashing lightning strikes causes him to stumble and fall — one of the best punish windows in the fight. This stumble window is longer than his standard recovery animations and gives Musashi time for a full combo rather than the short two-hit punishes that characterize most of the fight. Prioritize landing perfect parries on the crashing lightning attacks specifically, not just the standard mace exchanges.
Core Strategy — Phase One
Stay close but read every moment for the teleport pose. The two-hit mace combo is the interaction you want — deflect both hits, take a two-hit punish, reset. When lightning orbs drop, sidestep through the first and sprint to the exposed eye. Strike the eye, collect blue souls, and return to the deflect loop.
The X-pattern crosses are pure movement — run to either side, let them clear, close the distance. Do not try to deflect them or dodge through the intersection.
Manage the kick the same way as against Ifuu — stop attacking when you see the leg raise, step back, wait for the kick to miss, then resume. Over-extending is what triggers the kick, so the fix is always shorter punish sequences with complete guard resets between them.
The blue souls from eye strikes are the most efficient Oni Power generation available in this fight. Prioritizing the orb-to-eye pattern over standard mace exchange punishes accelerates the path to Oni Armament activations, which can significantly speed up stamina depletion toward Break Issen.
Core Strategy — Phase Two
The two new threats that define phase two management are the lightning aerial and the Oni Bow interrupt on the organ suction.
When Burai leaps out of view, move immediately. Do not stand and wait. The bolt lands where you were. Move laterally, wait for the bolt to land, then dodge again for the slam. Two separate evasions, consistent timing.
When the organ begins to inflate, draw the Oni Bow and fire. This is the same reflex built in the Ifuu fight — interrupt the inflation before the attack releases. Missing it means being pulled into Burai’s counter range at the worst possible moment.
The mace spin and shockwave in late phase two needs one read: get away from Burai as the mace slam begins. The shockwave covers a wide radius. Distance is the only reliable protection. After the shockwave clears, close in for a punish during the recovery.
Crashing lightning parries remain the highest-value defensive exchange in phase two. A perfect parry causes a stumble and opens the longest punish window in the fight. Practice reading the crashing lightning wind-up specifically and prioritize perfect parries on those attacks over the standard mace combos where the parry window is tighter.
Throughout both phases, absorb blue souls from the eye strikes and from the arena floor consistently. The Oni Power gauge charges fastest in this fight through eye-hit generation — keeping it filled gives you Oni Armament access when the shockwave or aerial has cost you positioning and you need a fast damage burst to close a phase.
Parrying Crashing Lightning for the Stumble
This is worth covering separately because it is the highest single-value defensive action in the fight. Burai’s crashing lightning attacks — particularly in phase two — are parryable. A perfect parry on these specific attacks, not a deflect, causes Burai to stumble and lose his footing. The stumble animation takes longer than any of his standard recovery windows and gives Musashi a full combo opportunity rather than the two or three hits that standard deflect punishes provide.
To land these parries consistently, identify the crashing lightning wind-up — a distinct heavy overhead wind-up before the bolt-and-strike sequence. That wind-up is your read. Time the parry to the strike rather than the wind-up itself. On a clean hit, the stumble is unmistakable. Use the full window — four to five hits in this recovery is achievable and significantly accelerates stamina depletion. For how parry timing and the broader Blaze Gauge system work together, the combat mastery guide has the full breakdown.
Common Mistakes Against Burai
- Attacking during the teleport-punish pose. This is the single most consistent source of player deaths in this fight. The pose does not look like an attack — it looks like a pause. Stop attacking the moment you see it. Every hit during the pose feeds the counter. Back away and wait.
- Not moving for the X-pattern crosses. The cross beams rain down in an X formation. Running to either side clears both beams. Standing still, dodging backward, or trying to parry results in taking one or both hits.
- Missing the orb-to-eye window. When lightning orbs drop, the eye is exposed for a short window. Sidestep through the first orb immediately and sprint. Waiting to read the full orb pattern costs the window entirely.
- Not shooting the suction organ. The inflation animation is the tell. Draw the Oni Bow and fire the moment it starts. Letting the suction complete pulls Musashi into counter range at the worst moment.
- Standing still after Burai leaps in phase two. The bolt targets your position. Move the moment the leap begins. Two separate evasions — one for the bolt, one for the slam — are required.
- Staying close during the mace shockwave. The shockwave radius is wide. When the mace slam begins, move away from Burai. Distance is the only protection.
- Over-extending and triggering the kick. Burai raises his right leg as a tell. More than two to three consecutive close-range hits is the trigger. Short punish windows, full guard reset between them.
- Using deflect instead of parry on crashing lightning. A perfect parry on crashing lightning causes a stumble. A deflect does not. The stumble window is the longest punish opportunity in the fight — it requires parry, not deflect, to trigger.
Burai in the Ifuu and Burai Combined Fight
Burai reappears alongside Ifuu in the Storm Chaser mission’s combined encounter. Every mechanic from the solo fight is active — teleport pose, orb pattern, X-pattern crosses, phase two aerial and shockwave. The complexity of the combined fight comes from managing both brothers simultaneously and from their shared phase-two storm attack when both enter their enhanced states at the same time.
In the combined fight, focus damage on whichever brother has not yet entered phase two to prevent them both escalating simultaneously. Keep the blow organ interrupt on Ifuu active even while fighting Burai — the same Oni Bow shoot that applies in the solo fight still applies here. When both reach phase two together, the storm attack — cloud rise, lightning rain, wind gusts, then a ramming swoop — requires a parry or deflect on the final ramming hit timed precisely at contact. On Carnage, mistiming this is often fatal.
Burai on Carnage Difficulty
On Carnage, the lightning aerial is capable of an outright kill if both the bolt and the ground slam connect. The teleport-punish pose is more dangerous — the counter damage at Carnage values is severe. The mace shockwave in late phase two deals enough damage that even catching the edge of it at Carnage is a significant health loss.
The core strategy is identical but the execution margins are significantly tighter. The stumble from crashing lightning perfect parries is even more valuable on Carnage because the extended punish window it creates reduces total time in the phase — less time in phase means fewer dangerous attacks to navigate. Prioritize those parries specifically. For how Carnage changes the game across the full campaign, the difficulty guide covers what to expect and how to prepare.
What Burai Teaches You
Burai teaches patience in a different way from every earlier boss. Daidara taught soul absorption discipline. Benkei taught armor economy. Burai teaches the hardest discipline in the game: recognizing a specific animation and voluntarily stopping your attack string before completing it. The teleport pose punishes greed directly. Every player who dies to it in this fight learns the same lesson — reading an enemy’s state matters more than maximizing your current combo.
The orb-to-eye punish pattern also introduces the concept of a delayed punish — a moment where the boss’s setup creates a window not immediately but after you navigate the setup correctly. That delayed read, where you move first and attack second, appears in more complex forms against Dohatsu-Ten and Yoshitsune. Building the instinct here, against an enemy whose setup is relatively readable compared to what comes later, is the right time to develop it.
Where to Get the Game
Onimusha: Way of the Sword is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. Find it on the official Capcom page, the Steam store, PlayStation Store, or the Xbox store.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Burai’s teleport-punish pose and how do you avoid it?
The teleport-punish pose is a specific stance animation Burai locks into that signals a teleport counter. If you attack during this animation, every hit feeds into the counter and the resulting punish deals heavy damage — often enough to end a run on Carnage. The only correct response is to stop all attack inputs the moment you see the pose begin and back away. The pose lasts a moment and then ends. Re-engage after it clears. There is no deflect or parry answer to the pose — the only answer is recognizing it and choosing not to attack.
How do you use the lightning orbs to exploit Burai’s weak point?
When Burai seeds the ground with lightning orbs, his eye becomes exposed as a targetable weak point. Sidestep through the path of the first orb as it fires, then sprint directly at Burai and strike the eye. Each hit on the exposed eye releases blue souls that charge the Oni Power gauge faster than standard combat. The window is short — roughly a second — so commit to the sprint immediately rather than waiting to read the full orb pattern. Hesitating costs the window. Landing the eye strikes consistently is the fastest route to Oni Armament charges in this fight.
What trophy does defeating Burai earn?
Defeating Burai earns the Crashing Lightning bronze trophy and completes the A Tempest at the Temple main story quest. The quest completion reward is one Oni Stone, used for upgrading skills at the Spirit Mirror. Burai reappears alongside his brother Ifuu in the later Storm Chaser combined fight, which earns the Perfect Storm trophy when both brothers are defeated. All of Burai’s mechanics from the solo fight remain active in the combined encounter — including the teleport pose, orb pattern, and phase two aerial.
How does Burai differ from his brother Ifuu?
Ifuu uses wind element attacks and his defining mechanic is the blow bag aerial interrupt with the Oni Bow. Burai uses lightning and his defining mechanic is the teleport-punish pose. Burai is generally considered the harder of the two solo fights — he is more mobile, his attack toolkit is more varied, and the teleport pose requires a discipline that the Ifuu fight does not test in the same way. Ifuu’s pattern is about Oni Bow timing and close deflect discipline. Burai’s pattern is about reading a passive animation and choosing not to attack during it, alongside managing several different lightning hazard types simultaneously. Both carry their mechanics into the combined Storm Chaser fight.
