Black Rider is a fiend that you must defeat in the DLC Subquest “Return of the True Demon” in Shin Megami Tensei V. Most Subquests will reward you with a large amount of experience, some Macca, and then you’ll receive an item of sorts. Most of the time, it’ll be a Talisman which allows you to have access to the different Magatsuhi skills in the game.

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Black Rider is the third Horseman you will face

How to Unlock Return of the True Demon - Black Rider¶

As this entire quest line is DLC, you will need to purchase the Return of the True Demon DLC from the Nintendo eShop. Before you will be able to fight Black Rider, you will need to have defeated Red Rider. Once you have, teleport to the Akihabara Electric Town Leyline, then climb the fallen pillar right next to it. This is the same path you took when reaching the second Abscess in the area during the main walkthrough. The familiar purple light will be off to the side, after dropping off a climbing block, onto a rooftop.

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Black Rider’s location on the map once you unlock him

Black Rider’s Stats¶

Icon	STR	VIT	MAG	AGI	LUC
	35	32	40	34	35

Black Rider’s Resistances¶

Physical	Fire	Ice	Electric	Force	Light	Dark
–	–	REPEL	–	WEAK	RESIST	RESIST

Black Rider’s Skills¶

Type	Skill	Effect
	Soul Divide +5	Severe Almighty attack to all foes. Chance of inflicting Seal. Low accuracy.
	Glacial Blast +7	Medium 2-5 Ice attacks to random foes.
	Megidolaon +5	Severe Almighty attack to all foes.
	Dekaja +1	Negates status buff effects on all foes.
	Call Souls	Summons a demon.

Recommended Party¶

Icon	Name
	Sarasvati
	Belphegor
	Yurlungur
	Black Frost

Black Rider is going to be a tricky battle, as he can be nasty, depending on how you go about the fight. At the beginning, like the previous Horsemen, Black Rider will summon two demons to help him. These will be two Legion, who aren’t particularly troublesome on their own, as their skills aren’t going to turn the tide in the enemies’ favor. They are weak to Electric and Light, while being immune to Dark. They can use Tetrakarn, which will reflect a Physical attack for one turn, so if you’re using a Physical-based party, this can be bad. There is also Heat Wave, a weak Physical attack to the party, but it shouldn’t amount to much. The biggest threat is Matarukaja, as this increases all of the enemies’ attack, so be ready with Matarunda or Dekaja.

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(1 of 2) Ice immunity can make this battle a lot easier

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Ice immunity can make this battle a lot easier (left), Leaving the Legions alive, you will want to focus fire on Black Rider (right)

So, there’s two different approaches to the battle, depending on how you deal with the Legions. If you focus on them to get rid of the demons, then Black Rider will tend to spam Megidolaon a lot. This is an Almighty attack that is going to deal a lot of damage, and it cannot be resisted at all, so things can get hectic if you don’t have a dedicated healer. Should you leave the Legions alone, then you will see Glacial Blast more often, which is an Ice elemental attack, and can be mitigated with resistances. In fact, if you get your team immunity to Ice, then the battle will become a little bit easier if you leave the Legions alone.

That will be the extent of the battle here, as those will be two main options for Black Rider, depending on how you go about things. He also has access to Dekaja, so be wary of that whenever you decide to buff yourself. You will want to debuff Black Rider here, since he can’t remove those, so Masukunda/Sukunda and Tarunda are ideal. The latter of the two will be important, especially if you allow the Legions to stick around for the battle. At some point, you might see Soul Divide from Black Rider, a severe Almighty attack that can also inflict Seal. Thankfully, this move has a low accuracy, so debuffing Black Rider’s accuracy should hopefully help make it miss more often, in case it does come out.

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(1 of 2) Megidolaon can do some major damage, even if his attack is debuffed

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Megidolaon can do some major damage, even if his attack is debuffed (left), Soul Divide has low accuracy, so hope it misses someone (right)

Black Rider is weak to Force, while being strong to Light and Dark, and reflects Ice. Since the majority of demons with Force skills at this range not having any protection against Ice, you will need to improvise a little bit. That means using Essences to put Force skills on demons with resistance/immunity to Ice. That could either be something like Zanma, or for those Strength-based demons, Wind Dracostrike. All of the above demons, under Recommended Party, are immune to Ice, but will need a Force skill to participate in the offense. If you leave the Legions alive, concentrate solely on Black Rider, as the battle will end whenever he goes down.