How to Get the Chest Behind the Locked Door in the Cave in Onimusha: Way of the Sword

• The locked door chest is inside the Oni Refuge cave, encountered during the main quest “The Stage is Set at Kiyomizu.”
• You first need the Oni Bow, found in a chest nearby — you cannot open the locked room without it.
• The door cannot be opened from the front. Go around to the back of the room and find the broken window opening.
• Aim through the broken window with the Oni Bow and fire an arrow at the locking mechanism on the inside of the door.
• The arrow hits the mechanism, unlocks the door from the other side, and you can then walk in from the front to collect the chest.
• This puzzle also teaches you how the Oni Bow works on blocked paths and gate mechanisms — a skill you will use repeatedly throughout the game.
• The Oni Bow is story-tied and cannot be missed — it is required to progress, so you will always pick it up before reaching the locked door.

How to get the chest behind the locked door in the cave is one of the first real puzzles Onimusha: Way of the Sword throws at you. You walk through the Oni Refuge, spot a chest sitting tantalizingly on the other side of a locked door, and find that no amount of attacking the door or hunting for a key does anything useful. The game is not being cryptic for its own sake — it is teaching you one of its core exploration tools. This guide walks you through every step, from entering the Oni Refuge to collecting what is inside.

Once you have the Oni Bow from this sequence, it becomes one of your most important tools for both combat and exploration throughout the rest of the game. For a full breakdown of how every Oni Armament — including the Oni Bow — works in combat and what each one is best used for, our Oni Armaments and Oni Power abilities guide covers all seven in detail. And if you are new to the game and want to understand the broader systems around exploration and collectibles, our tips and tricks for beginners is a solid place to start.

How to Get the Chest Behind the Locked Door in the Cave in Onimusha Way of the Sword

When Does This Puzzle Appear?

The locked door chest is encountered during Chapter 2 — “The Stage is Set at Kiyomizu.” This quest begins immediately after completing Ruckus at Rendaino. It takes Musashi to Kiyomizu-dera Temple, where he fights Sasaki Ganryu and encounters the massive creature Daidara for the first time.

The key moment is after the brief cutscene involving Daidara — the giant beast runs into a wall and disappears into a dark mass. This encounter unlocks Oni Glyphs, giving Musashi a new way to interact with hidden elements in the environment using Oni Vision. Specifically, golden eye-shaped portals become visible that Musashi can enter to access secret areas. One of these portals leads directly into the Oni Refuge.

Step 1 — Enter the Oni Refuge

After the Daidara cutscene, activate Oni Vision and look around the area carefully. You are searching for a golden eyeball-shaped glyph — a circular portal symbol glowing in the environment. Interacting with this glyph reveals the passage into the Oni Refuge and pulls Musashi through. You will know you are in the right area when Musashi comments on the rocks around him being filled with gold-coloured cracks.

Follow the path forward into the Oni Refuge. This area is a cave section distinct from the main Kiyomizu-dera Temple environment. Keep moving along the main route — this is a linear path at this point, so there are no branching choices to worry about.

Step 2 — Find and Open the Oni Bow Chest

As you move through the Oni Refuge, you will reach a point with a locked door. Just ahead of the locked door and to your right is a treasure chest sitting in plain sight. This chest is not the one behind the locked door — it is a separate chest placed nearby specifically to give you what you need to solve the puzzle.

Open this chest to receive the Oni Bow — the game’s ranged Oni Armament. The Oni Bow fires spirit arrows with unlimited ammunition. Unlike your sword, which requires closing distance, the Oni Bow lets you target things from range: enemies, floating rock cores to bring platforms down, padlocks on the far side of gates, and — most importantly here — the locking mechanism on a door from behind a wall.

This is also the moment the game introduces you to the bow’s mechanic: immediately after collecting it, use it to target the topmost circle on the stone block ahead of you to unlock the path leading further into the cave and eventually outside. Practice aiming here before you get to the locked door. The bow controls become second nature quickly.

Step 3 — Return to the Locked Door

With the Oni Bow in hand, return to the locked door you spotted earlier. Stand in front of it. You will see the chest clearly visible on the other side — it is right there, just one door away. Do not try attacking the door, hitting the lock from the front, or searching for a key item. None of that works. The solution is positional, not item-based.

The important thing to understand is that the door cannot be unlocked from the front. There is a mechanism on the inside of the door — facing away from you — that needs to be triggered. The only way to trigger it is to get to the other side of the wall and shoot it through an opening.

Step 4 — Find the Broken Window at the Back

Leave the front of the locked door and walk around the structure to the back side of the room. As you circle around, look for a broken opening in one of the windows in the wall. This gap is large enough to aim through but not large enough to physically pass through — Musashi cannot squeeze in, but an arrow absolutely can.

Position Musashi directly in front of the broken window opening so he has a clear sightline into the room. You should be able to see the interior of the locked room from this position, including the door’s locking mechanism on the inside.

Step 5 — Shoot the Lock with the Oni Bow

Equip the Oni Bow. Aim through the broken window opening at the locking mechanism on the inside of the door. This mechanism is on the opposite face of the door from where you were standing at the front. It will be visible as a lock, clasp, or circular target on the inner side of the door once you have the right sightline.

Fire a single arrow at the mechanism. The arrow passes through the broken window gap and hits the lock on the inside. This is exactly the same principle as shooting a padlock through a fence gap — the same technique you will use repeatedly later in the game, including when entering the Oni Refuge for the first time through its locked gate.

When the arrow connects with the mechanism, the door unlocks from the inside and swings open.

Step 6 — Go Back Around and Collect the Chest

Now that the door is unlocked, walk back around to the front entrance of the locked room. The door is now open and you can walk straight in. Approach the chest and open it to collect your reward.

After collecting the chest, continue exploring the Oni Refuge. The Oni Bow remains essential for the rest of the cave section — use it to shoot cores on floating rocks to bring ramps down, and to shoot at mechanisms on blocked paths ahead. The game continues introducing new applications for the same tool throughout this area.

What Is in the Chest?

The chest behind the locked door contains items useful for your current progression at this stage of the game. The exact loot depends on your playthrough state, but at this point in Chapter 2 it typically contains materials, healing items, or upgrade components that contribute to your early-game power curve. The chest is worth getting not just for the contents but because this section of the Oni Refuge is part of the story path — you are going through this area regardless, and the chest is a direct reward for understanding the Oni Bow mechanic the game just handed you.

It is worth noting that the Oni Bow itself, collected in the nearby chest just before the locked door, is the more significant reward from this entire sequence. The Oni Bow is Oni Armament #2 in the game’s full collection of seven Armaments, and it is required for story progression — you cannot advance without picking it up. By the time you reach the locked door, you already have the tool you need. The locked door puzzle is the game’s way of teaching you how to use it.

Why Does This Puzzle Confuse Players?

Several things make this moment trip people up:

• The chest is very visible. You can see it through the locked door before you have any way to reach it. This makes players immediately focus on the door itself rather than looking for another approach.
• There is no prompt at the door. The game does not flash a hint telling you to go around the back. You have to work it out from the environment — the broken window is the only visual clue.
• Players try attacking the door. Several attacks on the door produce no effect, which can feel like a bug rather than a design choice. It is intentional — the door is unpickable from the front.
• The Oni Bow is brand new. You literally just picked it up. Its full range of uses — shooting locks, hitting mechanisms, targeting cores — has not been fully explained yet at this exact moment. The locked door is the first real test of applying that knowledge.
• The broken window is behind and to the side. It is not in the obvious eyeline from the locked door’s front. Players who do not circle the structure miss it entirely.

The Oni Bow Beyond This Puzzle

Once you understand the Oni Bow’s mechanic from this puzzle, you will recognise its applications everywhere. Here are the key situations where the bow solves problems that would otherwise seem impassable:

• Locked gates with padlocks on the far side. The first time you enter the Oni Refuge itself, a gate blocks the path. Head left of the gate to find a gap in the fence. Aim through the gap and shoot the padlock on the far side. Same principle as the cave door — just a shorter setup.
• Floating rock cores. Throughout the Oni Refuge and other cave sections, rocks with glowing cores float in the air. Shooting the core destroys the rock, which brings down walkable ramps or clears platforms for traversal.
• Stone block mechanisms. Several doors and paths in the Oni Refuge are blocked by stone blocks with circular targets on top. Shooting the topmost circle lifts the block and opens the path. You do this multiple times in Chapter 2 alone.
• Sealed gate mechanisms at range. Later in the game, gates in exposed outdoor areas have mechanisms visible from a distance that can be shot with the bow to open them without needing to reach the gate directly.
• Malice Rifts. The Oni Bow is also useful for sealing Malice Rifts in flooded swamp areas — hitting a floating rift with an arrow exposes its core for sealing. For more on Malice Rifts and how the fog system works, our Malice fog guide covers all five types of Malice in full.
• Enemy interrupts at range. The bow can interrupt enemy attacks that would otherwise be difficult to stop in melee — specifically Shuten Doji’s fire breath attack in the Mount Oe boss fight. Shooting him the moment he draws breath cancels the attack entirely. See our Shuten Doji boss guide for full details on that fight.

The Oni Refuge Gate — A Similar Puzzle Nearby

While you are in this area, a very similar locked-gate puzzle appears at the Oni Refuge entrance itself. You reach a gated area with no obvious way in. The solution follows exactly the same logic as the cave door: look left of the gate for a gap or hole in the fence, aim your Oni Bow through the gap at the padlock or mechanism on the far side, and shoot it to open the gate. The Oni Refuge gate and the cave locked door are the game’s paired tutorial for the same mechanic — once you solve one, the other is immediately obvious.

Understanding these two puzzles back to back means you will recognise the same pattern in every similar blocked-path situation for the rest of the game. The visual language is consistent: a gap you can see through but not physically pass, a lock or mechanism on the far side, and the Oni Bow as the solution.

Collectibles and Items in the Oni Refuge Area

While working through this section, it is worth slowing down and collecting everything the Oni Refuge has to offer. The area contains items, power stones, and loot tucked into the cave environment that are easy to miss if you rush straight toward the story objectives. Use Oni Vision to scan as you move — the collectible-reveal pulse highlights any nearby chests or glowing items through cave walls.

The Oni Refuge also contains the third Oni Stone location in the game (reward for completing the “A Strength in Refuge” objective), so explore thoroughly before exiting. Oni Stones are used to upgrade skills at the Spirit Mirror and are worth picking up every time they appear. For the full list of Oni Stone locations and how they connect to the Well-Rounded Silver trophy, our trophy and achievements platinum roadmap covers the complete upgrade path.

Charms to Equip Before This Section

By the time you reach the Oni Refuge, you may already have your first charm from completing “The Stage is Set at Kiyomizu” (which gives you the Charm of the Healer). If you are struggling with the Daidara encounter or the Genma in the cave, equipping the Charm of the Healer boosts your Hozuki healing effectiveness and helps you sustain through the harder fights. For the full list of charms, their effects, and which ones to prioritise at this stage of the game, see our charms guide.

Save Before Entering — Spirit Mirror Reminder

Before entering the Oni Refuge via the Oni Glyph portal, make sure you have used the nearby Spirit Mirror to save your game and rest. Resting fully heals Musashi, which is useful before the Daidara encounter and the cave section. The Spirit Mirror also gives you a respawn point close to the action if anything in this sequence goes wrong.

If you are not yet fully clear on how Spirit Mirrors work — including how they save, heal, fast travel, and serve as your upgrade station — our Spirit Mirrors guide covers every function in the menu.

Quick Step Summary

1. Complete the Daidara cutscene in “The Stage is Set at Kiyomizu” to unlock Oni Glyphs.
2. Activate Oni Vision and find the golden glyph portal — interact with it to enter the Oni Refuge.
3. Follow the cave path forward until you see a locked door with a chest behind it.
4. Look to the right of the locked door — open the nearby treasure chest to collect the Oni Bow.
5. With the Oni Bow equipped, circle around to the back of the locked room.
6. Find the broken window opening in the rear wall and position Musashi in front of it.
7. Aim through the gap with the Oni Bow and fire an arrow at the locking mechanism inside the door.
8. Walk back around to the front — the door is now unlocked. Enter and collect the chest.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword is available on Steam (PC), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Visit the official Capcom Onimusha site for full game details. If you are on PC and want to check specs first, our PC requirements guide has everything you need.

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