Ghost of Tsushima: How to Beat the Khotun Khan Boss Fight
The leader of the Mongol invasion will challenge you to a duel in the epic finale quest, "Eternal Blue Sky."
Everything in Ghost of Tsushima has led to this: a bloody confrontation with Khotun Khan, the Mongol's leader and an incredibly powerful opponent who beat you once before. We'll show you how to beat the Khotun Khan boss fight and end the Mongol invasion for good.
On this page:
- How to Beat the Khotun Khan Boss Fight in Ghost of Tsushima
- Khotun Khan First Phase: Duel in Izumi Bay
- Khotun Khan Second Phase: Warship Fight
How to Beat the Khotun Khan Boss Fight in Ghost of Tsushima
To beat the Khotun Khan boss fight in Ghost of Tsushima, you'll need to know how to beat enemies both in an one-on-one duel, and as part of larger groups, as Khan will fight you in both ways with different rules each time. We'll cover them both separately below, as well as the different tips and tricks you can use to defeat him.
Khotun Khan First Phase: Duel in Izumi Bay
Your first fight against Khotun Khan is a straightforward duel in which he wields an incredibly large halberd designed to keep you at a distance and knock you away with every swing. Fortunately we've worked out some key advice on how to handle this behemoth.
- Khan mainly uses wide, swinging attacks, the vast majority of which are unblockable and must be dodged to escape safely.
- Samurai Clan Armor, Gosaku's Armor and the Sakai Clan Armor are all good options, as you're more than likely to get hit multiple times and all these will alleviate the damage. We've laid out where to find all the armor here.
- To fight him, both Wind and Moon Stance are good options, though we'd say Wind Stance is better. However, if you've heavily upgraded Moon and don't have any techniques from the Wind Stance, you might want to stick with Moon. Try both and see which works for you.
- Khotun Khan has excellent stagger resistance when it comes to heavy attacks, though this does not apply to parries. If you can time a parry perfectly, you'll really damage his defenses and go some way to staggering him completely.
- Some of Khan's attacks can be interrupted by hitting him with a quick attack as he winds up his strike, though you have to be very fast and it's not easy to pull off.
- If you're too close, Khan will hit you either with a very fast handle bash (though this can be blocked/parried), or spin his halberd around him while stepping back. This second attacks is unblockable and difficult to avoid, so step in quickly to attack then back away again before he tries to drive you off.
- When he does a full unblockable arc around him with the halberd, he's going to follow it up with at least two more unblockable swings that carry him forward with his own momentum, followed by a
- When Khan twirls his halberd in a quick flourish, he's preparing to do a devastating overhead slam that actually does a small amount of splash damage. It's incredibly hard to dodge, and your best chance of success is to roll straight backwards.
Once you beat him, Khan will flee back to his warship, sending in soldiers to cover his escape. Fight your way through the soldiers and to the ship to confront him again.
If you want all the guides you'd ever need on Ghost of Tsushima, why not check out our full Guides Hub here? Whether it's bosses, collectibles or getting the best armor and weapons, we've got everything you'll need to liberate Tsushima here.
Khotun Khan Second Phase: Warship Fight
This time Khan will fight you as one of many enemies. While this means it's much easier to get overwhelmed, there are advantages too, as it opens up your Ghost Weapons for use and allows more options.
- Khan will start off with all the same moves as before, but now he's got no visible health bar. He'll also summon continuous enemies.
- You can use the enemies to gain resolve to heal yourself and power your most special moves. If you're in danger, the Dance of Wrath can clear out the immediate area nicely.
- There'll be archers on either side firing at you. Take time to fire back at them, as defending yourself from multiple positions is no picnic. Otherwise use the environment to gain as much cover as possible.
- Learn to swap stances quickly and in the middle of a fight, if you haven't already. For now you can still use Wind or Moon Stance on him, but make sure to watch the other enemies and change combat stance on the fly to best deal with them clear them out quickly.
- You can also use stealth, though it's very hard to get into cover without a smoke bomb to hide you. You also can't use stealth kills or assassinations on Khotun Khan, though if you sneak up behind him you can get a guaranteed strike.
- Make the most of your Ghost Weapons on Khotun Khan! Kunai, Sticky Bombs and the Way of the Flame can tear through the Khan's defences and allow you to do powerful follow-up attacks, or thin the enemy ranks in a quick instant.
- After doing enough damage, Khan will fall back and you'll get a prompt to press triangle next to him. Press it to perform a special attack that knocks away his halberd and forces him to switch to a sword and shield.
- From this point on, all the same rules apply, but you should be in Water Stance to fight him. Khan here has all the same moves as a standard shield-wielding captain, so the worst move to watch out for here is the quick shield bash that's completely unblockable.
Once you've defeated Khan in shield mode, he'll stagger backwards, another prompt for the triangle button appearing above his head. Run up to him and tap it repeatedly to disarm him and launch a deadly strike that'll win you the fight!
Killing Khan will end the Eternal Blue Sky Tale, and take you close to the ending of the game. Once the mission is done, you can also head to any of the Gift Altars to get the Kijin's Blood Mask.
There's plenty more Tsushima content here at USG. Mike's review is waiting for you here, or why not try our interview with Daisuke Tsuji, voice of Jin Sakai himself?