Game Info

Nioh Guide: Strategy tips, item locations & everything you need to know to take on the yokai threat

There's a good chance you've already heard, but Nioh is pretty damn good. Tecmo Koei's marriage of the Dark Souls style formula with the action game minds at developer Team Ninja has resulted in a unique and interesting new action RPG that's currently taking the RPG Site staff by storm.

But... it is a Souls-like game, and one with its own interesting little quirks and foibles. That basically means that there are some sides to Nioh you'll need to learn - and there are some sides you might need a little help with. Since Nioh was released to the world just under a week ago, we here at RPG Site have compiled a number of comprehensive guides to help you through this challenging game. To make your life a little bit easier in finding these resources, we have compiled all of the articles into this central hub!

Nioh: Learn the basics

For those who don't know where to start, this guide is for you! We'll run through all of the different stats featured in the game and where best to spend them depending on your particular play style.

There are some sides to Nioh you'll need to learn - and there are some sides you might need a little help with. We're here, and though we do have a few other unique guide pages based on specific topics, here are a few top tips we think all Nioh players need to know. Read 'em, then go slay some monsters. 

At the onset of William's adventure in Nioh, you'll be given the chance to choose your two starting weapons. You pick two because protagonist William will always have two equipped at any given time - so think of these picks as his main preferred weapons as he heads into the main story.

Broadly speaking stances make an awful lot of sense for Nioh's setting - it tries to channel the energy and feeling of the samurai, and stance is of course a hugely important element of that type of swordplay. You have three distinct stances in Nioh, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

We're a website for RPG fans, and that means most of you are pretty damn familiar with the concepts of element-based strengths and weaknesses and elemental attacks in games. They're pretty much an RPG staple, and Tecmo Koei's Souls-like samurai title Nioh is absolutely no exception: there are a few elements in the game, and they can be used to your advantage or by enemies against you.

Nioh: Location guides

In this guide, we'll show you how you can find all of these adorable things in the first level of the game (after the prologue) in the Isle of Demons! Follow these steps and you won't struggle to find a single one of these little guys.

Continuing on from our previous walkthrough on how to find the shrine kodama in "Isle of Demons", we move on to the second stage! This is going to very important as collecting the kodama here will help you grind at a fantastic leveling spot early in the game. With that, follow our steps to find all 9 kodama for the "Deep in the Shadows" mission!

In total, there are 25 important kodama to collect in each region of the game, and after doing so, you will have maxed out the drop percentage (25%) the kodama blessings give you at the shrine. There are 150 in all as of the time of this article, so we'll help you get a strong start on your journey.

Summoning in Nioh is handled via an item called Ochoko Cups - basically, these items are what you use to encourage another wayward soul to land themselves in the deadly world of your save file. There's a catch, however: Ochoko Cups are fairly limited items, and if you want to co-op a lot, you'll need to have a lot of them. That we can help you with.

Guardian Spirits play a very important role in Nioh. Not only do they provide passive stat bonuses, but they can be absolutely crucial during boss battles when you trigger their Living Weapon. This special ability makes you invulnerable against attacks while also imbuing your weapon with elemental damage.

Nioh: Other helpful guides to get you through the game

If there's one thing Nioh has going for it above all others, there is A LOT of loot to pick up. And when you're going through a game that puts so much emphasis on its difficulty, it's important to choose the right weapon you feel most comfortable with in order to dispatch enemies - especially when you near the later parts of the game.

Sometimes you select something and regret it, and other times you might just feel like a chance. When things go wrong or you want to mix things up you might want to respec - reset William's progression so you can spend skill points again and turn him into a different kind of character. Nioh mercifully has this feature, but getting to it is a little obtuse. Here's what you need to do.

At the Hidden Teahouse, you can join a clan and participate in Clan Battles which you can earn you stat bonuses, among other benefits. With Glory, you can buy rare items and equipment, but more importantly, you can also purchase new character skins and gestures. Of course, you can run out and kill every soldier and yokai you come across. But if you'd rather have an (arguably) easier time with this process, follow our guide below!

Nioh can be a very challenging game for those who go into it feeling unprepared. Fortunately, there are spots around the game that make for easy grinding locations. In this guide, we’re going to show how you can find one of the best spots early in the game!

There's a second side to Nioh's character progression, however, and that comes in the form of skills and skill points. Skills are a major part of Nioh, adding all-new abilities to William or powering up his base abilities in significant ways. But which should you prioritise? Well, we have some ideas...

While Nioh's main story takes you on a fairly set path throughout the game's map, Twilight Missions are a little different. They're basically harder variants of the regular missions you'll complete during the course of the story, but there's a twist: they're only available for a set period of time.

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