Current Events > Nioh is done downloading. Any early game tips for a new player?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Just simple things, you know
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Delete it

Are you familiar with souls-style games?
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s0nicfan posted...

Are you familiar with souls-style games?

Yep, as well as Ninja Gaiden
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Bad_Mojo posted...

s0nicfan posted...

Are you familiar with souls-style games?

Yep, as well as Ninja Gaiden

You should be fine, then. I can't think of anything in particular that jumps out as a "need to know" that the game doesn't tell you.
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Diablo 2 loot mechanics
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TheDarkCircle posted...

Delete it

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*continues laughing like the guy in the alley that laughs at Van Damme in Bloodsport*
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Early tips?

Well, you eventually get access to infinite respecs, so first and foremost I recommend you welcome experimentation. There's A LOT of different styles in Nioh, and no one can really tell you what you'll like. Best to play around, see what clicks with you. Not a ton of different weapon types, but each has a really distinct feel that expands as you unlock skills for them.

With regards to Nioh vs. Souls, one thing you might notice is Nioh gives you way less i-frames. You can get a passive skill that increases i-frames in low stance dodges for two different weapons, but otherwise, you can't really go through the game just i-framing everything. Blocking, in turn, is a lot more important.

Actually, don't try to mash dodge to get out of enemy combos either. Because enemies can easily stunlock you. You can block out of a combo, but not dodge out. I've seen people get really tripped up on this, like in LPs, and end up eating a ton more damage because of it.

I don't remember if the game explains this or not, but healing items work on a blend of Blood Vials and Estus: they are consumables that you find/get as drops, but you can never fully run out. Even if you have 0 left, when you rest at a shrine (bonfire) or die, you will be given 3. This number increases in each region as you find Kodama in the levels, so, the game greatly encourages you explore carefully.

Attacks decrease stamina (I mean of the one being attacked) to varying degrees, which is relevant because if you're hit and put into negative stamina, you are basically parried/put into a visceral attack state for the enemy to wreck you. This works both ways though. So, stamina management is more important than even in Souls, but enemies have to manage their own stamina too.

As someone else said, it does do loot Diablo-style. Hopefully you're familiar with that system because it's...a lot to take in for first-timers. >_>
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Be ready to enjoy some of the most refreshing combat in the action genre in a long time.

Also my tip is. If you don't get into the story it's fine to ignore it. I did.
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There are a lot of different combat combinations. So if you find yourself having trouble, remember to play around with weapons and stats.

Also, stance switching is incredibly important, and its easy to overlook in the early game
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Thanks, everyone. I'm outside now after overhearing a conversation about going to Japan or some shit. I'm doing pretty well, I think I've only died 4 times so far. When you get knocked down there is like zero chance of recovery, lol

Already have a quick question. Do I need to watch out for walls to break? Is there an indicator that says something can be broken?

Builds, huh? I didn't know this game was like that. What kind of builds? Like is there a Skill Tree?
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WalkingLobsters posted...

Diablo 2 loot mechanics

literally ruined the game smh
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I never used sorcery in the Souls games, but I like the magic in Nioh.

the ninjutsu is also pretty decent.

you don't have to worry about stuff like poison, paralysis, or any other elemental damage until like the third area. but then, there are spells/jutsu that help you out

and fighting remnants (red graves you come across) can give you good loot, and you get more prestige by beating them, iirc
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Bad_Mojo posted...

Already have a quick question. Do I need to watch out for walls to break? Is there an indicator that says something can be broken?

Builds, huh? I didn't know this game was like that. What kind of builds? Like is there a Skill Tree?

There is a mechanic for false walls of sorts, but it's not...breakables. Aside from that one in the tutorial prison cell, you don't really need to worry about that. The wall mechanic I speak of, the game will graciously point out to you the first time you encounter the situation.

The leveling system is like Souls. You level 1 attribute one point per level, and armor has stat requirements, weapons scale off stats. There's also Dex and Magic (these are the equivalents to faith and intelligence basically). In addition, it goes further, due to guardian spirits, each offering a pretty distinct set of bonuses to further personalise things.

Finally, yes, there are skill trees actually. Each weapon class has one, and there's one for magic, and one for dex, as well. You gain skill points from rare consumables you can find/be awarded, as well as from leveling specific stats. You can eventually get more than enough to buy EVERY skill for EVERY weapon class, and then some. I believe the same is true for magic/dex too, but it will be quite a bit more daunting to literally buy everything in those (which is fine; not all of it is really worthwhile).
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for false walls, basically *minor spoilers* you look for two holes close to the top, which are its eyes
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Oh yeah I should also mention: all skill points you spend, are refunded when you respec too. So don't be too scared about using them either (well, use some discretion initially, since you can't respec at the start of the game).

There is also situations where there are destructible environments to access something, but those aren't the sorts you attack. Generally involves baiting like, a big enemy to break some of it, or have a mounted cannon to fire there, or throw some fire bombs on an explosive barrel nearby. That sort of thing.
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Okay, thank you. I think that's all I need on that front.

Ohh, is there a cap to how many Healing Potions I can hold at at time? Just so I don't waste them
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There is a cap, any excess you pick up automatically go to storage, where they will then automatically be taken out to go on top of your base 3 next shrine visit.

There is a passive skill in the ninja tree (tied to Dex) to increase the number of heals you can hold. Onmyo skill tree (tied to magic) has a passive skill to increase how much they heal, and also has healing spells in it (items in these two trees work like Dark Souls 1 spells, in that they have fixed uses, you can get multiple copies for more uses, they replenish on shrine visit, and you have a capacity stat that determines how many you can have prepared (attuned) at once with different items having different capacity costs).
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When you get to bosses, running around to avoid attacks is more useful than you'd think.
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BignutzisBack posted...

WalkingLobsters posted...

Diablo 2 loot mechanics

literally ruined the game smh

Literally comes down to preference.
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Lost_All_Senses posted...

BignutzisBack posted...

WalkingLobsters posted...

Diablo 2 loot mechanics

literally ruined the game smh

Literally comes down to preference.

I'd prefer that they didn't ruin the game
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That kind of loot system doesn't automatically ruin a game, though it will if done wrong/half-assed. Nioh actually handles it REALLY well. It's very forgiving/user-friendly.

Whereas Bloodborne half-assed it with blood gems and made the endgame total ass.
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Okay, I beat the first boss, but I have to go through the Tutorial now? Like, what the fuck? Wasn't the thing I just did the Tutorial?

Anyways, I I picked Ax, Double Swords and the Fire Dog
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Really hoping this goes on sale on ps4 again soon. Missed that shitty weekend sale a little while back.

Is it possible to do a magic build?
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Okay, there was more to learn in the Tutorial. This Weapon Stance gimmick, I'm not sure if I'm going to like it or not. But we'll see
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Damn game just crashed on me when I was watching the videos on the skills I could pick.
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Touch posted...

Really hoping this goes on sale on ps4 again soon. Missed that shitty weekend sale a little while back.

Is it possible to do a magic build?

yes.

Leviamon posted...

Touch posted...

Really hoping this goes on sale on ps4 again soon. Missed that shitty weekend sale a little while back.

Is it possible to do a magic build?

yes.

Is it fun/effective? <__<
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Single katana is the true way to play the game

but spear is acceptable too

OmegaShinkai posted...

Single katana is the true way to play the game

but spear is acceptable too

So the opposite of what I picked?
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Bad_Mojo posted...

Like, what the fuck? Wasn't the thing I just did the Tutorial?

Lmao, that's exactly what I thought to myself as soon as I got there. Like wtf was the point of the whole castle part? It gives you a shitty partial-tutorial and gives you an expectation for the way that levels are built that is immediately dashed as soon as you get to the 'real' game.
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The beginning of Nioh is weird and rough around the edges, likely due to there having been an alpha test, beta test and then last chance demo before release.

Isle of Demons, the level after the tutorial, was the first thing you did in the beta, so it used to have to double as a tutorial, and for whatever reason they left it fully in like that, while making a lesser tutorial before it. It's weird.

As for a magic build, sort of.

It depends on what exactly you mean. Like, using magic as a primary damage source? Because that wouldn't be the best idea. Dex is more meant to be your ranged damage option. Honestly, a lot of this doesn't really matter this early into the game, but longterm/endgame, magic and dex are balanced very, very poorly. In favor of Dex. Onmyo is not supported much, whereas Dex is extremely well supported.

Onmyo has very good spells, but they're largely supportive, something to make something ELSE you do much stronger. The damaging projectiles are slow, fewer than Ninjutsu gets, and can't even hit as hard, at endgame, as Ninjutsu can, and there's tons of other factors that further this gap, like the differences in available sets and their bonuses for Onmyo vs. Ninjutsu (you won't even have a chance for an Onmyo set until NG+++, lol, and it sucks).

Another issue is a lot of the best Onmyo, doesn't really need you to invest a ton into Magic to make them good, since their scaling isn't significant. The elemental shots, like "Fire Shot" those do need investment, but they're never great. Also I'm guessing they never fixed this, but some descriptions for things are misleading/bad/wrong. Like the Shot spells in Onmyo sound like they're buffs for your ranged weapon, when in actuality they're projectile spells.

Pretty much everyone eventually starts using some Onmyo, but it's buffs/debuffs that don't need a ton of investment to make great use of.

That said, "endgame" is an extremely long ways off from even a first playthrough really, and the further you are from reaching endgame, the less scrutiny the game puts on how you play, so the more you can get away with comfortably.

One thing Onmyo does have is Confusion. This is a special status effect that occurs when an enemy actively has two different elemental statuses on them at once. On humans, Confusion greatly lowers stamina regen, and causes all damage they take to increase by 50%. On yokai, it makes them take 50% more damage, and nulls their stamina entirely, for the duration of Confusion.

Onmyo has easy access to renewable elemental buffs for your weapons, and combined with elemental shots, it can make inflicting Confusion easier and something you can do regularly. In addition, most elemental statuses are pretty good in their own right.

So basically, magic is never really about doing pure damage via magic. it's about buffs, debuffs, and if you want to invest more seriously into it: statuses.

But Ninjutsu is just better overall. A lot. Even early game it's worth considering that it's not very long before you can get a ninja set, and the FIRST set bonus it has, is a way to replenish ninja items you have via your guardian spirit, allowing you to make a lot more use of them (and the ninja items already comparatively get more uses than Onmyo).

All that said, you absolutely can focus on Onmyo heavily, and go through the game, and even go through the endgame, and hardest content. You can. I did. It's frustrating and not remotely optimal, but you can do it. But you know, you can get to well over level 700 eventually, I don't mean only leveling Magic. This really isn't the kind of game where you just only raise one or two stats and expect to do well. Just about everyone can get some use out of at least a small investment in just about every stat.

The stat that falls out of usefulness to level the quickest, is Spirit. Beyond 51 leveling it does almost nothing, and 51 is already pushing pretty high.
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Learn how to dodge and manage your ki. You WILL NEED to be able to do those things flawlessly.
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Touch posted...

Leviamon posted...

Touch posted...

Really hoping this goes on sale on ps4 again soon. Missed that shitty weekend sale a little while back.

Is it possible to do a magic build?

yes.

Is it fun/effective? <__<

it's effective

so effective that the boss of the 2nd main level was the easiest one.

note. I never used magic before fighting him.

2nd to last main level I mean. literally the third last boss if I am right

I have 10 Weapon skills I can level up, but I don't know what to level up. I've been doing really well with my Ax, but I have the Spin Attack and that's pretty much the only thing I can buy besides getting the Ki back from doing the charge thing and switching stances, which I'm fucking terrible at. Like, I don't even understand what's going on when I do it.

Someone said earlier in this topic that most people don't switch stances well enough, well I see why now, it's hard to get used to. So many someone can explain it a bit more, please? I'm always in the Middle Stance, but what is the point of going Low or High? Low is more defense, right? I think it said you auto-block or some shit. And I guess High gives you more attack.

But is it like Rock-Paper-Scissor? Like if someone is in Low, should I go High? I don't know, I don't like this part of the game. I wanted more skills to play around with, not ways to better switch my stance and get more Ki back. I don't know what I want to spend my Weapon Skill Points on because I don't even do the Stamina thing because I don't understand it.

Still having a blast, even though I'm not getting very far.
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There's nothing set in stone about each stance. You should just look at it as two-handing a weapon vs. one-handing. It's the same concept. So when you switch from untransformed to transformed weapons in Bloodborne, that's like switching stances. When you two-hand a weapon in Dark Souls, switching stances. Nioh only differs in that there are 3 stances, instead of 2.

There's not really a rule for how each stance functions. It mostly just changes how your dodge works. If you're in high stance, you roll. If you're in mid stance, you do something more resembling a quickstep, but if you dodge again right after, then you roll. In low stance, it's just quicksteps.

In mid stance, you can block and move around without stopping your ki from regenerating; low/high stance will halt ki recovery when blocking and moving.

That's...pretty much it. Beyond that, it's just a matter of moveset.

Generally speaking though, high stance will do the most damage, be the slowest, and cost the most ki. Low stance will do the least damage, be the quickest, and cost the least ki, and mid will be in between.

Some people just stick with one stance they like, but most do that early on I think, and just slowly branch out and experiment as they get more comfortable.

Now, that skill you're talking about, is called Flux. What that does is, when you ki pulse, then switch stance right after, you get a boost of ki. You may not fully understand how a ki pulse works so I should clarify: as you are surely aware, after attacking, you can press R1 (or whatever it is for you) to ki pulse. If you time it right, you do a "perfect ki pulse" thus get back the max amount of ki you could. The ki you get back is a portion you spent on the attacks you did in a row. It can never be 100% of the ki you spent. Flux, in turn, appeals because it lets you get closer to 100% of the ki you spent. The timing window to stance switch after ki pulsing is fairly generous for flux, however, I don't think anyone really bothers to get comfortable fluxing this early in the game. You can basically just ignore that for now, it doesn't really matter.

BUT, one thing I do want to say and forgot to just now when explaining ki pulse: it does something else the game never mentions and you just have to notice on your own, or be told: it cancels recovery frames. Therefor, it is not always ideal or even wise to try to do a perfect ki pulse, because if you ki pulse immediately, you cancel the recovery of whatever attack you did. This can have a very significant impact on how nimble you feel. Ki pulsing immediately to cancel recovery can go a long way in making you more effective, but never doing it will lead to feeling sluggish, especially using something like axes/hammers.

There are also passive skills in every weapon tree (but it's the same skill, and once you buy it, regardless of what tree you bought it in, it just applies globally) that make you ki pulse when you dodge. These are very useful and should be obtained sooner rather than later as it effectively cuts down pretty significantly in your ki consumption overall. You have to buy that for each stance though, so there's 3.

If you want just some general advice about good axe skills to buy, though mind you I don't remember very well when these all unlock: Roar, a mid stance skill, Heaven & Earth, a high stance skill, Cloud Crush, a low stance skill, Tri-Spark, a mid stance skill. Roar blocks while charging forward and can knock human enemies over, though to make the max use of this takes some finesse as if you hit them as they're tumbling on the ground, they go into a floored state where if you hit them again, they stay down a long time, and can be stabbed while on the ground. Heaven & Earth is just a heavy damage combo finisher that makes high stance much stronger. Tri-Spark breaks guards easy and consumes little ki for how powerful it is. Cloud Crush is a high ki damage low stance combo finisher.
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Oh yeah, if you have Mad Spinner for the axe: that is a VERY powerful skill, but it won't be for awhile. The thing that makes it really good, you need the second upgrade for it, and a lot of ki, which early on you won't have. It's a very dangerous move to use so be careful with that.

Lumber Chop, a high stance skill, is another pretty good one. It's a focused VERY high damage strike that can send humans tumbling (like Roar).

...This is probably too much info and goes into more obscure mechanics, but heck, maybe you'll find it useful, eventually: Nioh has kind of a weird mechanic when it comes to when you can stab someone on the ground. Generally, when someone is knocked to the ground, you are permitted to hit them once, and they stay down. If you hit them again, they insta-get up, robbing you of the chance to stab them while on the ground. Some attacks however, send enemies tumbling if you score a direct hit, tumbling along the ground. In this state, if they are hit again, they lie on the ground, but will get up pretty soon. If you hit them AGAIN before they get up, they are then in the "normal" on the ground state I mentioned above, where you can hit them once more, but no more if you still want to stab them while they're on the ground.

This is mostly relevant for axe, dual katana and single katana users, as they have very useful skills that can put human enemies into a weird state that can lead to them on the ground and taking a lot of damage. Though Spear and Tonfa can do it some too.

So as an example, if you got Lumber Chop and charged it up, smacked a human enemy and he was sent tumbling away, then rolled towards them and did a rolling attack to hit them so they're on the floor, then hit them again, then stabbed them while they're on the ground, that's a sort of...combo. It's a tank-based combo, whereas using Roar instead (harder, but possible) you can do it really safely, since it blocks while you're doing the move. But... Eh, this is likely too much to take in this early. But, Nioh's combat mechanics are more complex than they appear, and sometimes in pretty weird ways. <_<
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Thank you very much. You went above an beyond to help me.
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i skimmed so sorry if this was mentioned, but you NEED to get proficient at doing the R1 thing at the end of a combo to regain stamina. whether you just hit R1 or use it to change stances it doens't matter, but the combat was designed with this in mind, so if you don't use it, you'll have trouble.
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Another thing that maybe hasnt been mentioned is the weight of armor makes a big difference

With heavy armor it plays a lot like a souls game, with light armor and low stance you can basically dash around like a ninja gaiden game. But of course that also effects your defense
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Giant_Aspirin posted...

i skimmed so sorry if this was mentioned, but you NEED to get proficient at doing the R1 thing at the end of a combo to regain stamina. whether you just hit R1 or use it to change stances it doens't matter, but the combat was designed with this in mind, so if you don't use it, you'll have trouble.

Yeah, I know. I'm trying to, but I forget, lol. I just need to keep doing it over and over and do it all the time.
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1. get a spear

2. go to the high stance or w/e it's called, the one where you press R1 + triangle

3. watch as you are able to cheese just about every enemy in the game with long distance spear attacks

also use this cheesy method to kill other players so you can farm good gear and ochoko cups and shit like that
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Bad_Mojo posted...

Giant_Aspirin posted...

i skimmed so sorry if this was mentioned, but you NEED to get proficient at doing the R1 thing at the end of a combo to regain stamina. whether you just hit R1 or use it to change stances it doens't matter, but the combat was designed with this in mind, so if you don't use it, you'll have trouble.

Yeah, I know. I'm trying to, but I forget, lol. I just need to keep doing it over and over and do it all the time.

eventually it will be muscle memory, but yes, practice practice practice.

once you get comfortable with it you can start doing the Ki Flux (Tmk explained it) and chain moves from different stances together.
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Walls of text above, gonna drop you some concise advice.

1: Get the sword skills that lets you have more ki, and the ones that let you do a ki pulse on dodge. It's invaluable and should have been a default mechanic.

2: Spear/Sword is a good beginner combo. I like Med Stance Sword/High Stance Spear.

3: Encumberance just like Souls. Stay below 70% unless you liked "slow rolling" in souls, too.

4: Avoid all Omoyo damage spells/lasers. Get Healing Pool, Sloth, Confusion and pick one elemental to main when you need it. I liked wind.

5: Your... uhh, animal attack? Big spirit bomb? I forget. It's important, but cheesy. Try to level up spirit to keep up with it.

6: Speaking of spirit in the shrine look at your guardian, it has a list of passives that help you that are behind a soft-cap wall of spirit level. Most usually give full passives by 13-15 spirit. Try to reach that soon.

7: Muskets for life. "talk" to the blacksmith, then request stuff from her. They're passive unlocks that grant you more stuff.

8: Complete the dojo duels as they pop up to increase your tech tree. I didn't realize this until like level goddamn 85.
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Oh yeah and if you wanna coop with a friend avoid the dumb cup system, I dunno why it's still in the game. Just do Torri Gate. You can play the entire game through with the exception of 6-8 duels/defend the bridge/SP missions together seamlessly.
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Spearfall is amazing, it's hilarious how it cheeses human bosses.

Every weapon can end up being pretty powerful and amusingly cheesy in some ways. It's pretty neat. Tonfa kinda falls off in higher NG+ cycles though due to how much ki/resistance to ki damage enemies end up with, since that's a big part of the weapon. Still usable, but not really in league with the others. But it does eventually get the ability to animation-cancel from any attack into a dodge, so that's something.
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So I'm still on the second stage (started over) and I can't seem to navigate my burning city part of the stage. There is one part where stairs are on fire and I can't seem to get around it, so I just take the damage and go down. There is another huge area down here, but I don't know how to get down there without being burned
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