How to Beat the Tiger Vanguard

The Tiger Vanguard is a mandatory boss located in the Crouching Tiger Temple in Chapter 2. This boss uses his agility to punish reckless dodging. You need to pay attention to his moves and be especially careful when he draws his sword. Despite this, the boss is much easier when you're able to aggressively pursue him and continue to deal damage. When you're able to dodge around or behind his attacks you often have a good opportunity to finish a Light Attack sequence or use a charged Heavy Attack to deal damage and stagger him.

Tiger Vanguard Move Set

Most of the Tiger Vanguard's basic moves involve mobility and he frequently chains multiple sequences together. You can take advantage of this by dodging to the left or right and allowing his movement to carry the Tiger Vanguard past you. Many of the final attacks in his sequence have a longer animation giving you a good opening to deal damage. Here are some of his most common moves and how to counter them.

Basic Moves

• The Tiger Vanguard mixes claw swipes, kicks, stomps, rolling strikes, jump attacks, and double-handed overhead smashes. Because most of these attacks incorporate movement, you should dodge to the left, right, or forward and NOT backward!
• It's common to panic when facing the overwhelming power of this bestial foe, especially when his blows can send the Destined One flying back with ease. However, your charged Heavy Attacks can interrupt most of his sequences meaning this fight rewards aggression when combined with methodical dodging!
• His jump attacks are a bit tricky to avoid, if you roll immediately when he leaps in the air there's a good chance he crashes down on your head right as the animation ends. Instead wait a moment before dodging as he starts to crash down, if you execute this correctly you have a good opportunity to deal damage to the boss while he recovers and you might even be able to use a Light Finisher or Heavy Attack to stagger him and give yourself more damage uptime.
• Sometimes, the Tiger Vanguard draws his sword and then executes a flurry of quick slashes. These have a bit more range than his regular attacks but you can avoid them in a similar way to his basic combos.

Stone Tiger

• During the fight, the Tiger Vanguard turns himself to stone, this heralds him using one of two moves! Pay close attention to the pictures below to learn the difference between the two.

Counterattack Stance

• Counterattack Form, for this move the Tiger Vanguard turns himself to stone, then if struck executes a counterattack in retaliation. When using this version, he hunches down but does not fully get down on all fours. The animation for this is pretty quick so it's easy to accidentally attack the boss before you notice he's turning himself to stone and trigger the counterattack. If you make this mistake, simply dodge the counterattack and continue the fight.
• Decoy Form, when the Tiger Vanguard gets down on all 4 paws, and then turns himself to stone this is his decoy move. He turns himself invisible before unleashing an extremely high damage attack against the Destined One. To counter this you need to look or listen for where the boss is attacking from, then dodge. You can track his movements by the ripples he creates splashing through the bloody water in the temple. If you're struggling with this you can use Cloud Step to create a decoy and give yourself more leeway on the dodge.

Take This!

• When the Tiger Vanguard places his hand on his sword and begins to focus, he is about to unleash his Unsheathe attack accompanied by the voice line "Take This!" The attack does massive damage, but it's a single strike with a short windup and long recovery so after you dodge, this is a great time to punish the boss. If you aren't confident in your ability to dodge you can use Cloud Step to get behind the boss, Immobilize to give yourself more time, or a Transformation to protect yourself from the damage.

Lay Waste and I'll Wreck Ye

• The Tiger Vanguard has two long range variants on his Unsheathe attack in which he starts from the same stance, but then executes a different move. During these, he yells the voice line "I'll Wreck Ye" or "Lay Waste." Both variants involve ways to strike at you from across the arena, but they are much less dangerous than the base Unsheathe. Because it's difficult to tell when he is using one of these moves instead of Unsheathe, you can dodge as he draws his blade just to be on the safe side!

The Tiger Vanguard's Stance

• The attack begins with wild slashes followed by two more decisive strikes that create tornadoes of blood that fly toward the Destined One. If you're avoiding this at a distance, sprint to the side to dodge the tornadoes. If you want to close distance, hang back until the flurry of slashes completes, then phase through the boss with Cloud Step to avoid the first tornado, you may need to dodge the second, but if you end up far enough behind the boss you can deal a bit of damage instead.
• He can continue the sequence with 3 more slashes that send blood waves flying from the Tiger Vanguard's sword, as long as you dodge left or right these are easy to avoid.

Key Rewards

Defeating the Tiger Vanguard rewards you with the Rock Solid Spell, turn yourself to stone and deflect enemy attacks! This is a powerful defensive ability, but it takes up the same spell slot as Cloud Step so you need to decide if you would rather avoid enemy attacks with Cloud Step, or counter them with Rock Solid. You also obtain the Keenness of Tiger key item, which allows you to continue the main story.

Video Guide

If you want to see the Tiger Vanguard's move set in more detail check out this video guide by Tenkiei.

Summary

The Tiger Vanguard is a powerful martial artist, counter his aggression with your own but beware, when this tiger turns himself to stone or draws his blade he is about to unleash a dangerous technique!

• The Tiger Vanguard's basic attack sequences are very aggressive, the best way to counter this is with a mix of precise dodges and your own aggression as you can stagger him fairly easily with charged Heavy Attacks. Don't spam dodge, instead use it with precision, especially when the boss uses a jump attack!
• Because most of his attacks incorporate movement you can dodge to the left, right, or forwards to avoid damage and set yourself up to punish his moves.
• When the boss turns himself to stone, stop attacking. If he crouches down on all 4 legs when doing this, he's going to attack you so look around and prepare to dodge or use Cloud Step.
• Be very careful of the Tiger Vanguard's unsheathe attack, this deals massive damage!
• Good luck on your journey!

Written by: Tenkiei