I recently beat Nioh's main campaign and started on the first boss of the Dragon of the North DLC: Date Shigezane. I am having a bit of trouble since the boss hits really hard and has a long reach. At this point, I have 25 stats into body and have 2, 400 health. A hit from his centipede arm can usually take off about 25% to 90% of my health. I have about 45 skill and 45 spirit since I am a dual swordman with a focus on living weapon. I am currently around level 123.

I have looked into a couple guides on the internet. And so far they have recommended staying mid range and hitting the centipede head. What should I do?

I used the Sloth spell, applied an elemental effect, used living weapon to apply a second element which put the boss into the discord status which allowed me to beat him within 20 or 30 seconds.

Basically, I’m not sure how that fight actually goes because Sloth and discord end bosses before you can see what they can do :/

I died a whole bunch to this guy! I run dual swords and naginata, and while I started out trying to keep my distance and poke at him with the naginata once he finishes an attack chain (which totally works), I also found that if you're willing to work in a very high-stress environment that you can actually get in with dual swords and dodge around most attacks (there's one, I think it was a spinny one, where you just need to back up fast).

That was a while ago -- if I hop back in and run him again I'll let you know what I see.

@acura_max: Assuming you still haven't beaten him, here's the report from my most recent run.

* I'm level 150 now, so a good chunk higher than your 123-ish, but also it's my first time in Nioh in about 3 months (and also your skill and spirit are higher than mine). I ran all dual-swords for this fight.

* I was in low stance the whole time. The only thing you can even THINK about blocking is his standard sword slash, so you might as well be ready to dodge.

* Stay about 2 dashes away from him -- out of reach of a surprise swipe, but close enough to get in when he gives you a chance, such as...

* His sword-throw attack. This is your best shot to get in on him, nice big tell and all. Side-dash the first sword, then dash towards him through the second sword and get in for some hits. I was hitting maybe 5-ish low-stance quick attacks before looking for his next move.

* The move where he vaults up on his centipede arm twice and then comes down and slashes once is another good chance to get in. He sometimes only vaults once, and I had less success getting in on that one. Speaking of which...

* One thing that can make this fight tricky is that a lot of his moves, especially his close-range ones, have variants, or look similar to other moves. Make sure he's doing what you think he's doing!

* There's a long recovery on his grab move, the tell for which is that black yokai glow on his centipede arm.

* As has been mentioned before, discord can be your friend. Since you're big on spirits and quick weapons like dual swords, you can try to apply one elemental status with attacks and then follow up with a different-element spirit.

Ok, so he does a sword-throw, you get in, land some hits, and now you're stuck up next to the guy. What then? Get your ass back to that safe range! Most of his up-close moves start out the same way, with a sword slash followed by a bug-arm swipe, so if you get the dodge cadence for those two attacks, you can pretty reliably make your escape with a few dodges. At that point, rinse and repeat, trying to bait out the sword throw or double-vault, which that medium distance should do for you. If you aren't running them already, I highly suggest the Extraction Talisman, which will allow you to actually build spirit meter during the fight, and the Pleiades Talisman, which will speed it up. You can easily ice half of Date's health with even a short-charge spirit!

Element-wise: weak vs. wind, strong vs earth/poison/paralysis