Musashi IX

''Musashi IX fought alongside humans against the Punishing Virus until the end. Now it walks upon the abandoned ruins of civilization as a Corrupted, but for some reason it has kept the clumsy bandaging that a kind-hearted civilian once gave him.''

Musashi IX is a common boss enemy.

Note: The following skill list includes all skills denoted in Musashi IX's Phantom Pain Cage arsenal. However, this list does not necessarily encompass all of his attacks. See Combat Behavior for more information. *This skill was disabled in Phantom Pain Cage upon implementation of the Grand Blue patch.
 * Scorched Earth: Bends the battlefield to his will, causing enemies on the battlefield to continuously take extra damage.
 * Blade Shockwave: Musashi IX unleashes multiple shockwaves at an enemy from multiple directions.
 * Heart of Sword Mode: Musashi IX conceals his own form, leaving only a shadow behind, and unleashes a shockwave at the enemy.
 * Jet Blade: Musashi IX fires a powerful blade shockwave at the enemy.
 * Leaguestep: Musashi IX closes the distance quickly with an enemy.
 * Blade Storm*: Musashi IX spins his great sword, unleashing shockwaves at nearby enemies.

During any encounter with Musashi IX, he will cycle through several unlisted skills ー Thrust, Cleave, and Swing ー at close range. He will also attempt to use Blade Storm whenever it is not on cooldown. When at a distance, Musashi IX will use Jet Blade up to three times before using Leaguestep to approach his target if it does not approach him. At ~66% HP, Musashi IX will activate his Heart of Sword Mode. He will dash away and become invisible (but will still be vulnerable to damage). After a randomized* number of dashes, he will launch an attack akin to his Jet Blade skill. He will then repeat this action cycle twice more before returning to his normal combat mode. At ~50% HP, Musashi IX will use his Blade Shockwave skill. He will vanish from the battlefield and become invincible during this skill's execution. While the skill is active, a number of afterimages will "blink," appearing and disappearing from the battlefield. After three* afterimage blinks, a large number of attacks will descend from all directions upon the player character. This blink-attack cycle will then repeat twice more. Note that the second and third cycles will only blink twice*. At ~33% HP, Musashi IX will activate his Heart of Sword Mode again. At ~20% HP, Musashi IX will attempt to use Blade Shockwave again, however it will often only include one blink-attack cycle instead of three. At any point throughout an encounter with Musashi IX, dealing overwhelmingly heavy burst damage to him will cancel his current action and cause him to temporarily kneel. Note that Heart of Sword Mode cannot be cancelled this way; if the player inflicts what otherwise would be enough damage to cause Musashi IX to kneel, he will do so once the skill effect ends and he returns to the battlefield.
 * Thrust has substantially shorter wind-up than the other two attacks.
 * Blade Storm is notably lethal at point-blank range. Players are advised to either gain distance from Musashi IX or utilize invulnerability actions to mitigate risk.
 * * The number of dashes Musashi IX will perform between attacks varies between servers. In the Global version of the game, this number will range between two and four dashes on the first cycle, followed by between two to three dashes for the remaining two cycles.
 * * The number of blinks that this attack will display is very often 3-2-2, but has been observed to sometimes produce up to four blinks on the first cycle, and up to three blinks on the second and third cycles. The variation frequency on these numbers decreases in later versions of the game.