Ernest Goes To Japan - Let's Play Nioh

Ginchiyo is very right when she says she know how to use Raikiri, in her hands it does waaaay more Lightning damage. That one room you have her is a great spot to learn about Discord, since there’s an achievement to Discord an enemy for the first time. If you circle the room before fighting the Ogre you’ll run into the Fire heads, likely kill one and get the buff, and then using that against the ogre with Ginchiyo will swiftly Discord the ogre.

The reason to Forge items at the Smith is tied up mostly in when you get Smithing Texts to drop. If you want unique Armor Sets and Unique Weapons (Like Raikiri and Warrior of the West’s Honor) at your level and rarity you want, you either grind like mad or go to the Forge. If you get the smithing texts. Some are mission rewards but most are tied to bosses and are ridiculously rare to drop, but once you get to NG+ they’re a godsend if you have a specific set in mind for a build, or just want a very good baseline like the Raikiri is.

Another little detail is the Amrita Memories option in your menu works differently in and out of mission. Out of mission it breaks out into a sub-menu with five options: Thought Amrita, Yokai Illustrations, Guardian Spirit Illustrations, Character Directory, and The Tale of Nioh. In mission it just puts you straight into Thought Amrita which has Tutorials and some other minor details that come from corpse amrita. The middle three serve as information on enemies, allies, and list of ghost pals, and Tales of Nioh lets you rewatch cutscenes.

Just talking about Mizuchi today, who has Enemies Defeated Damage Bonus (A); Gold Earned +15%; Amrita Sense; VS Water +20; Amrita Earned +12.5%

Summary

Enemies Defeated Damage Bonus crops up here and on equipment, based on the letter grade it gives you stacking damage for every enemy you defeat that resets to zero when you die, leave a mission, or use a shrine. A rank gives about 1% more damage per kill, to a max of 15%. If you have multiple sources of this bonus, only the highest rank gets used and in general isn’t great. Gold Earned +15%? :moneybag: You wanna get paid, Mizuchi’s got deals. Amrita sense means the various intractable points show up on the radar, which give an item or two, some Amrita, and occasionally some dialogue. Very good in levels where specific Amrita points drop Skill point items when you first interact with them. Mizuchi’s also our first spirit with Element resist, +20 is a fair amount. Amrita earned is, well. Want more XP? Want to charge your gauge faster? Yeah, your living weapon charges based on Amrita received, so if you get more through buffs like this you charge quicker. Speaking of Living Weapon, Mizuchi’s is about on par with Daiba-Washi, just slightly better stats everywhere but Gauge Rate. Even with the Amrita Earned Daiba-Washi charges faster. Really the only thing keeping Isonade from being the better Water Spirit is Mizuchi’s summon is distinctly superior, pushing forward in a serpentine pattern dealing light damage. It can multihit and as such inflicts Saturated easily, and any human enemy hit will be knocked to the ground after they stop receiving damage from the summon, leaving them open to attack. Nothing special happens to Yokai however. 11/10

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Update 5 - The Silver Mine Writhes

[Content Warning for Centipedes]


Before going to the main mission we deal with sub missions. Tachibana Muneshige has challenged William to a duel. The great Warrior of the West wishes to test their skill to see who is the greater warrior. We’ll see this as a recurring theme with a lot of the samurai we meet.

On our journey further east William’s ship the Liefde is attacked by an Umi-Bozu. Narrowly the crew escape with most of their lives. Landing in a new region, they need to wait as their ship is repaired before going to meet Tokugawa Ieyasu. Afterwards we defend a gateway to the underworld from a bunch of Yokai.

A message arrives from Kikkawa Hiroie who is a subordinate to the Mori Clan. Their silver mine is overrun with Yokai and request help from William. Delving into the mind, we discover it is full of poison. After fighting through it William is ambushed by the Great Centipede and must battle it. Sir Anjin returns to the mines later to find a fire to aid the blacksmith Senji Tome. He finally gets a haircut and a shave as well.

Boss Information:

Great Centipede Profile
The Great Centipede is a massive Yokai made up of multiple pieces of crab rocks that exude poison. This boss is weak to wind, allegedly. It is resistant to earth, poison, and paralysis. Its arena is often filled with poison so it is a good idea to bring multiple antidotes. One can very easily face tank this boss as it does not deal too much damage with most of its attacks other than its slam. You can attack its rear and mid section to break apart the segments which will stun it for a time. The poison spray of the Great Centipede is its weakest attack as you will probably be poisoned already anyway. Anything it fires from its mouth can be easily dodged while its slam requires a bit of extra positioning. When the Great Centipede is approaching while gnashing its mandibles guard to block the hit.

Characters introduced

Shima Sakon

Shima Sakon Profile

Kikkawa Hiroie

Kikkawa Hiroie Profile

Senji Tome

Senji Tome Profile

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A detail I love about Muneshige is he largely does things that you can, the exceptions being his multi-arrow shots, that attack buff where he slowly brings his sword around, and flurry of slices he likes to follow up that buff with. Which means he’s pretty good as a way to learn parry timings for Katana users.

So Dwellers, the miner yokai, are a pain in the butt when crawling since Nioh has the part of attacks that hit match the model. This cuts both ways so on inclines you can play fun games with enemies, particularly human, but there’s something to leverage against this. Stances! More on those under the break.

Summary

Talking general about stances is incredibly hard because each weapon has slightly different details that go against the generalization. The specifics that are constant are High Stance attacks don’t bounce of guarding opponents and deal more damage, Life and Ki, making them good against Blocking opponents. They have large openings as well, and do a slower more vulnerable roll as their dodge. Middle Stance blocks better, having innate cost reduction to blocking baked into it. Middle Stance attacks also go wider generally, doing horizontal attacks that are good for keeping multiple foes in check. It can do a quick step and immediately hitting dodge during/after that quickstep follows up with a roll. It’s weakness is poor vertical coverage. Low Stance has better, cheaper dodges. First dodge in a chain will be a rapid spin that’s even more iframes than the quickstep, each successive input doing the quickstep from middle stance, until you stop dodging or run out of Ki. Which will take a while with how cheap they are. Low Stance attacks have excellent vertical coverage and are cheap and fast, but are noticeably less damaging, Ki included. Each stance holds an advantage over another stance. It’s not strictly a hard counter but blocking a high stance axe attack is a really bad life choice, even in Mid Stance, while you have plenty of time and Ki to dodge and hit with Low.

There’s two really common armor sets to see player revenants decked out in and Warrior of the West’s Honor the first, coming early and being solid. Sets are a thing, usually involving one weapon and some armor pieces but some sets have seven pieces, Warrior of the West’s Honor included, having a katana, a bow, and a piece for all the armor slots; Head, Chest, Hands, Legs, Feet. It’s a solid set, that synergizes with Raiken/Paired Raiken and electrifying enemies. With one drawback. The 7 piece bonus is Close Combat Damage (No Rear Damage Bonus) +14%. That (No Rear Damage Bonus) tag means while that passive is active you do not get back attack damage boosts at all, period. And baseline the Back Attack bonus is a helluva lot more that 14%, and that’s before you get access to things that boost Back Attack damage. Common knowledge holds to skip the katana, using Raikiri since the innate Lightning pairs well with the 5-piece bonus which grants bonus damage against Electrified enemies.

I skipped talking about Raiken before because it’s strictly a weaker spirit until you defeat Muneshige in the duel, lacking it’s final passive and having lower Living Weapon stats, and even having a different Summon Attack. Single Raiken’s summon is what Muneshige uses, calling the pup out who dashes forward after a short delay, dealing light damage. But as for Paired Raiken, it brings Dash Endurance 15%, Skill Ki Damage +12.5%, VS Lightning +25, Treasure Sense, and exclusive to Paired is Yokai Close Combat Damage +15%.

Summary

Dash Endurance reduces the Ki cost of sprinting, Skill Ki Damage is how much Ki damage skills do. Yeah that’s separate from Skill Damage, and this makes skills that are good against blocking enemies even better, while making them better at chunking out Ki in general. Lightning has a nasty status effect tied to it and Paired Raiken gets 25 more Lighting Defense. Treasure sense makes chests show up on the Radar, which generally have better loot first time through a mission. 15% more damage against half the enemies in the game is Good. And unlisted but the most powerful upgrade Raiken gets going from Raiken to Paired Raiken is it doubles the number of puppers. I don’t even need to finish 14/10 heckin’ good bargain a doggo for each hand.

To actually talk Living Weapon, Paired Raiken is powerful, being the first to have better elemental damage at 42 Lightning where each previous Spirit has had 30 of their element. Packing 15% damage boost, good Might, Recovery, Best possible Tenacity and great Gauge Rate, the only stat below a B is Action, at a C. Even if the enemy resists Lightning there’s still the 15% damage boost and you get it quick. Surely there’s a mediocre summon attack to stop these lighting dogs? Ha ha no, cute kills. Paired Raiken packs a potent Summon whose only weakness is not dealing Physical damage so Lightning resistant foes are largely unaffected. The attack summons down both Raiken who dash forward. When they hit an enemy, instead of continuing forward they rapidly dash back and forth in the area, centered on the poor sap who’s now the focus of two incredibly excited puppies, each dealing low lightning damage per hit. The number of hits means anything not resistant is Electrified, and enemies other than the one hit can still get tripped up by the attack. Heckin’ good and powerful dogs.

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Update 6 - The Ocean Roars Again

Okatsu has a job for William. It is to delve into some ruins that belong to three ancient gods. We are to purge them of the Yokai tainting the sacred grounds. In doing so we gain the other two Guardian Spirits from the beginning of the game.

Kobayakawa Hideaki informs us of a ghost haunting Itsukushima. For helping them out he will aid us in getting our ship repaired. It is none other than the Umi-Bozu that is haunting the waters and frightening the crews. William first links the flames to aid him in warding off evil and in subduing the great water spirit. He fights it near the waters.

It is revealed Ishida Mitsunari is indeed working with Edward Kelly. They have formed an alliance to defeat Tokugawa Ieyasu. A dark alliance which abuses the Amrita for evil.

William goes on to practice with the famed Marume Nagayoshi. Further on still Hideaki requests our aid in cleansing a bridge of more evil. Hiroie goes on to ask for help in retrieving an important sword and we learn of the two Nioh and of his insecurities.

Boss Information

Umi-Bozu Profile:

The Umi-Bozu is a fight that is simply about recognizing patterns. To talk about the fight we also need to cover the arena a bit. It is a medium sized area surrounded by water with three great braziers. By lighting the fires in the level itself these braziers are each lit. At the start of the battle three smaller water monsters spawn where the fires are, each fire lit kills one with three spawning requiring all three fires to be lit for no adds to aid the boss in the fight. If they do spawn they can be ignored while making the rest of the fight more difficult. If you choose to fight them keep your eyes on the boss as the Umi-Bozu likes to fire a beam that one-shots while you’re distracted.

As for the boss itself it can fire wrecked ships or tainted water that creates a pool of Yokai realm where it lands. These can be dodged just by strafing. Stand far away from the boss and wait for it to strike at you with its arms. It has different patterns so rather than just dodging after a set time dodge when you see the arms about to whip down. Hit the yellow glowing parts for extra damage. When it fires its beam you can run up and strike at or shoot its core when exposed after firing. When it uses two arms at once back up to the left, wait for them to land, then attack.

For its second phase it jumps and lands on the arena. It will rear up and slam down, dodge this and hit the core. If too close to it the Umi-Bozu will jump then land dealing damage, afterwards the core is exposed for extra damage. Sometimes it swipes with a tendril which is very fast but easy to block, though it can be dodged. The boss is weak to fire, and in the second phase spawns three more adds which you’ll have to deal with if the fires aren’t lit. If they are lit as well you can use them up to light your weapon on fire for a time.

Characters Introduced

Otani Yoshitsugu

Otani Yoshitsugu Profile

Kobayakawa Hideaki

Kobayakawa Hideaki Profile

Marume Nagayoshi

Marume Nagayoshi Profile

Folklore References

Also for the LP, what haircut should William sport?

  • Ponytail
  • Samurai Knot
  • Pirate Bun
  • Wakajishi

0 voters

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Update 7 - Spider Nest Castle


[Spiders Suicide Mention]
Guess what? Someone lost another sword. So naturally they turned to expert sword finder, William Adams. After retrieving it from the clutches of a ninja Yokai we go to a cemetery to discover the source of a crying woman.

Afterwards Ii Naomasa has something for us. A castle has turned into a nest of spiders. We go to Shigisan, the former castle of Matsunaga Hisahide. There we fight spider after spider while learning about the horrors committed by Matsunaga Hisahide and his soldiers. Then we discover the Jorogumo and defeat her in combat. To our surprise Matsunaga Hisahide himself appears, offering William tea and a bit more information on the mystery of a man he was to even Oda Nobunaga himself.

Boss Information:

Jorogumo Profile

The Jorogumo is one of the easier fights in the game. This boss is allegedly weak to wind. She is mostly slow and a lot of her attacks are delayed. In the fight she’ll spit out webbing on the ground to slow you and also spray it onto you directly to slow you for a time. Avoid the webbing at all costs as it levels the playing field for her. Her weakness is her big spider butt but attacking it will cause her to go into a defensive mode. In it she crawls on the ground with her legs wrapped about her butt. The legs of the Jorogumo are shielded and protect her main body while her torso is still available. When low on health she’ll jump about quickly shooting more webs around the arena. Her two most dangerous attacks are a slow open armed grab, and when she spins as she crawls which both should be avoided at all costs.

Characters introduced

Torii Mototada

Torii Mototada Profile

Ii Naomasa

Ii Naomasa Profile

## Matsunaga Hisahide

Matsunaga Hisahide Profile

Reference for the Jorogumo

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So all the transformations for the ladies were added somewhere around the second DLC and are all more expensive than any of the men. Okatsu alone costs ten times more than 90% of any of the men. Other details are while their armor looks are set, your weapons are shown and if you turn off display helmets in basic options the transforms will also ditch their helmets.

To talk about Glory now that the reason to bother is shown, the clan wars are maybe the most simple of Nioh’s systems. Each period the clans are randomly split between White and Red and then begin tracking Glory earned. Players receive extra Glory at the end of a clan battle based on if their team won, how much glory their clan earned compared to other clans, and how much glory they earned compared to others in their clan. What this means is there’s a handful of clans with a lionshare of the players for their passive benefits, as some are better than others. Date being incredibly popular for it’s synergy with a build that just got nerfed less than a month ago. Other uses for Glory is buying crafting mats, new gestures, rolling for gear ala Diablo 3 bloodshards, and buying consumables you otherwise can’t.

Earning Glory is a matter of interacting with players. Co-op and revenant killing, and when actual PVP got patched in that way. They also added the ability to donate gear, which works like selling gear, but for Glory and each clan has rotating Wanted items that reward items and bonus glory after donating enough of what’s asked for.

The first fight with Jorogumo has a gimmick, in that for each piece of the teakettle retrieved in map removes the armored chitin on her back legs. Which just count as a guarding target, so if you high stance and attack her abdomen while she’s protecting it your attack won’t reflect and will likely hit the weak point anyway.

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Oh never knew that about her legs!

I was curious if you know. For all the post game super tough multi boss fights, do they give any story or can I completely avoid them for the LP? I ask because they are so fucking hard I have actually been injured trying to do them and it’s really destroying me mentally to keep trying them to practice for the lp.

Just extra entries in the Character Directory for one specific person, as their fight in the main story doesn’t count as defeating them. Most of those were added in later patches and shouldn’t be taken on before you get all Divine items in your gear slots. While most don’t have a shrine, that Yellow Torii gate symbol on the map screen means it can be co-op’d through Yokai Realm With A Companion, which makes them way less horseshit. Looking at you, Return of the Gourd.

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Oh really doing them in co-op counts? Thank goodness, and I know exactly who you are talking about,. I’m gonna do those in co-op then for the LP because fuuuuuuck how hard they are.

I do wonder though, do ya’ll think I should maybe add under info a sort of directory for bosses and enemies too? Finally looking at the in game directories and I could add them.

  • Add Them
  • Don’t Add Them

0 voters

Spirit talk time!

Aya-Komori brings Unlimited Ninjutsu +15%; VS Paralysis +20; Damage From Behind +12%; Life Recovery from Final Blow 120; Agility Damage Bonus A

Summary

UN! LIMITED! NINJUTSU! This is a 15% chance to not use a charge of a Ninjutsu item when you use it. Even with gear rolling Unlimited Ninjutsu you can’t get the raw numbers up to 100% but still, if you’re invested into being a ninja just getting more charges occasionally is fine to great, depending on the Jutsu. (More Quick-Change charges is Good.) Not getting paralyzed when you could be paralyzed is Good. Damage From Behind is where Aya-Komori steps out and introduces why you should be friends, because that gets added to the damage boost already present. Damage from Behind is a Great skill and is why you should hang out with Aya-Kmori. Final Blow is the downstab you preform on enemies on the ground, getting 120 Life for doing that is a neat reward, with the real reward being Final Blows get the Damage From Behind bonus unless turned off by other effects. Agility is your weight category, so you get a damage boost base on your grade of agility. The four types are Blue, the lightest; Green, the general sweet spot for most players; Yellow, which is rough on dodge distance and Ki regen, and Red which happens when you go over your max weight. Don’t do that for any reason. Either way the bonus damage isn’t much to write home about even with blue weight, but it’s there and is extra damage even if you have green weight. The Living Weapon stats are pretty bad, the only high points is how quickly you can build it up and the short cooldown after using it and there’s builds that synergize with that, but by itself Living Weapon is not why you use Aya-Komori. The Summon Attack is similarly mediocre, a few bats rush forward dealing light wind damage. Against bigger targets it’ll Bluster pretty quick with multiple hits. 12/10 just for how good Damage from Behind is.

Itokuri brings Luck +50; Human Item Drop Rate +30%; Familiarity Bonus +16%; Yokai Item Drop Rate +30%; Paralysis +30

Summary

Item Drop Rate means that enemy type drops stuff more often, not just equipment. Familiarity Bonus increases how much Familiarity you get with Gear. This bundled with the Luck makes Itokuri the farm Spirit for sure. Gear can have abilities with a symbol that looks like |>| on part that means if you use it as Soul Matching material the item it’s getting fused into will inherit that ability, but only if the item has max familiarity. Paralysis +30 adds a bit of paralysis to all of your hits but it’s not enough to be worth it, especially since the weapons best at applying status effects are multihit, and getting hit while paralyzed clears the effect entirely. Itokuri’s Living Weapon Stats are as mediocre as Aya-Komori, but it’s Earth instead of Wind. It’s summon attack is neat however, a small spider swings in and shoots out four webs one at a time. Enemies hit take light damage and have their movement speed slowed. The webs stick around on the ground, also slowing movement speed while the enemy is standing in them. This doesn’t affect attack speed, just how quickly they move, and the debuff stacks with the terrain effect. Useful for running away or herding enemies into a big clump for something like a cluster bomb getting thrown at them, or other AoE effects. Still, really only bring Itokuri for grinding gear. 11/10

2 Likes

Update 8 - Falling Snow

[Suicide Mention]
Something is wrong, it’s snowing in the summer? Hanzo knows that something is up and asks William to go to Honnoji Temple and discover the source of what is going on. There are the sounds of a crying woman coming from the temple. After fighting our way through the temple’s various Yokai, we discover the origin of the snow. A Yuki-Onna, who in reality is Oda Nobunaga’s wife, Lady No.

Ii Naomasa has challenged Sir Anjin to a duel. Being a warrior, William cannot refuse such a request and fights a grueling battle against Naomasa.

William goes to the grasslands yet again to deal with the Yokai there and once again we fight Onyroki.

Then at a bridge a giant ghost has been haunting the place. William faces it in a one on one battle to the death.

Boss Information:

Yuki Onna Profile
The Yuki-Onna is water based and a lot of her attacks are fast moving bursts of damage. Never stand close to her for too long as she will stomp the ground and cause an ice explosion that hits very hard. She can throw her weapon spinning through the air leaving herself vulnerable. Don’t try to do trading of blows with her as she’ll win. When she rears up she is preparing a grappled attack and dodge this as soon as she starts running at you. Fire is your friend for this fight as she is weak to it. From time to time she’ll try to blow a kiss and will send out a spray of frost to slow you down. Over her head she can spawn two kinds of ice shards. One home in on you and fire. The other fire into the ground and explode after a short time.

Characters Introduced

Tenkai

Tenkai Profile

Reference for the Yuki-Onna

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The way to know how Amrita Fiends are going to explode is as they take damage of their element their crystal glows brighter and brighter until eventually they fall to the ground and explode. The explosion is purely elemental of their respective element, and affects enemies too. With a bit of Magic investment and the right elemental shot you can use one talisman to turn an Amrita Fiend into a powerful bomb to open a fight with.

Ii Naomasa is a rough duel because like all NG duels he follows the rules of his gear set, and where Muneshige slower Ki regen Naomasa clearly is rocking that blue agility, meaning his dodges are better and he regens Ki very quickly when not attacking or blocking. There’s a few tricks you can use to put a finger on the scale early, Lifeseal Talismans dramatically slow Ki regen and Shockwave Talismans do big Ki damage. For ninja, throwing shuriken and kunai to interrupt his movements and make him block (the AI likes to block when many attacks are pushed at them) which gives you a chance to recover your own Ki, as throwing crap doesn’t use Ki and lets you keep regenerating Ki. Depending on your weapon load out you can even use the block happy AI against itself, bringing skills that have excellent Guard Break and just being hyper aggressive to smash his Ki and then Grapple him, though straight katana users have some issues as their best Guard Break skill is Kick, a combo move that can only be done in Low/Mid Stance, whose attacks will bounce off blocks. Further, Naomasa doesn’t Living Weapon, just fakes it with the one thing he can do that players cannot, he’s managed to mix a Guardian Talisman and Fire Enchant Talisman into one, applying a fire buff to his weapon while Summoning Enko. Speaking of Enko, deep dive!

Enko has Strong Attack Ki Reduction -8%; Break +15; Fire Damage +12%; Grapple Damage +25%; Strong Attack Damage +13%

Enko Details

Enko’s a good pick if you’re using Strong Attacks a lot, which if you’re using Spear all of its stances have very good Strong Attacks. Break is how good a weapon is at dealing with blocking opponents, higher break deal more Ki damage to blocks. It’s not terribly relevant as a stat as what Skill you’re using matters more than the weapon’s break but it’s there. Grapples do big damage, so adding 25% more to them is Good. Enko’s Living Weapon stats are more aggressive than Kato’s, packing a 22% damage boost and 42 Fire and similar Action, Might, and Gauge Rate while having one grade lower Recovery and Tenacity. Enko is here to hurt. On the topic of Summon attacks, recent testing has shown Kato can hit more than twice, the number of hits linked to how far the spirit travels before hitting something, so close range it can hit somewhere like six to seven times. Still doesn’t hold a candle to Enko’s summon, as Naomasa demonstrates for me, the tiger leaps forward and slams the ground causing a fire pillar to erupt, then two more at an angle from the initial pillar. The pillars do big damage and knock human enemies into the air, meaning they crash land and are ready to be hit with a Final Blow immediately. Big kitty for big damage 12/10

Ii, The Red Demon set is the other set you will see a metric ton of, lasting longer than even Warrior of the West’s Honor as Way of the Strong (NG+) will absolutely be littered with people in full Red Demon armor. It’s fairly lackluster because it doesn’t add much in the way of bonus damage and it’s 6 piece is Ki Recovery Speed, which since Red Demon gear is light armor, matters way less since there’s no way you aren’t Blue agility if you have the 6 piece Ii, The Red Demon. It’s not even saved by the Ii clan passive bonus, for aligning with the Ii you get Close Combat Attack +2% and +8% Toughness per piece of Red Demon armor equipped but 40% of light armor’s toughness is barely reaching Medium armor levels and there’s cooler things Clan passives can do (like clearing status effects when you use an Elixir or extending Living Weapon duration.)

And that’s a wrap… Wait what was that other fire Spirit in the video? We’ve just seen Kato and Enko now… Oh! It’s Hi-nezumi!
Hi-nezumi brings Onmyo Magic Power +50; Stealth for Enemies A+; VS Fire +20; Close Combat Attack (Critical) +18%; Unlimited Onmyo +15%

Hi-nezumi Details

Onmyo Magic Power affects Onmyo magic damage and +50 is solid. Stealth for Enemies makes enemies detection much worse and let me setup this 100% unintentional joke. Resist is resist, moving on. Recently I’ve learned that Close Combat Attack is not Close Combat Damage. CCAttack only works with non-skills, so just Quick and Strong attacks, while CCDamage is all damage. Still 18% more damage from a majority of your attacks is Good if risky. And a 15% chance to not use a charge of Onmyo is Good to Great since on average the big spells are way cooler to just get more of for free. Hi-nezumi’s Living Weapon stats are largely comparable to Aya-komari, but slightly worse in a few spots. The summon is also lackluster if unique. Hi-nezumi pops out, scurrying in a triangle pattern and dropping small explosives onto the three corners of its run. Contact with the spirit deals light damage, and the bombs detonate after a short time or contact with an enemy, dealing slightly better damage. It’s unique but also underwhelming, likely to keep Guardian Talismans from being too ridiculous with the Unlimited Onmyo. Also smokes a pipe; tiny sneaking mission magic mouse 12/10

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Update 9 - The Demon of Mount Hiei

Edward Kelly has gone to Mount Hiei, a barrier to the northeast of Kyoto. Sir Anjin goes to the mountain to discover his plans. It is dangerous for the evil alchemist to be there as the Amrita spikes he creates can release a great amount of dark energy. Along the way William breaks many of them weakening Edward’s grip on the area. Evil Onmyo Mages working in the service of Kelley have also appeared and are dealt with. A confrontation happens, William catches up to Edward who releases the Amrita and Nekomata uses himself as a shield to protect Tenkai, Fuku, and William. Hanzo rushes off to warn Ieyasu who Kelley said he is coming for. Nekomata becomes a tainted version of the White Tiger and William must defeat him to purge the malice within.

Boss Information:

White Tiger Profile
The White Tiger is very similar to Nue. It is weak to water and resists lightning, poison, and paralysis. From time to time it will meow leaving itself open to attack. This big cat is fast and swipes in front of it. Be way of standing behind the White Tiger as its tail can both spin and grab you. If they split get out from in between them because it means they are about to grab. When it rears up prepare for to dash at you. It can dash once or twice. If you stay in front of the White Tiger for too long it can do a backflip that strikes very hard. Sometimes when doing a backflip it will shoot out hard hitting fire or throw fire bombs around it. The fire you need to dodge through and the bombs can be avoided by staying close to the White Tiger. Finally it can fire a beam of lightning similar to Nue. The same tactic applies, hug its right side or dodge through it. This is the perfect opportunity to get some hits in.

Characters Introduced

Sakata Kintoki

Sakata Kintoki Profile

White Tiger reference
Nekomata reference

2 Likes

The Fox Spirits were actually added to the game with DLC, the same patch added them to a few mainline missions to add to the enemy diversity since once Amrita Fiends show up new enemy types kinda dry up a bit. It also helps for getting crafting mats for Forging gear, which I recently found out forging armor halves the stat requirements to get the Armor’s effects. A nice tip for min/maxing, make your own stuff. Other gear related note is that getting gear unlocks the ability to refashion it, but not if it was looted from a Player Revenant.

Another note of Mount Hiei’s main mission is those smaller grey crystals can be broken by your attacks and doing so gives you a Lightningstop Talisman buff, dramatically increasing your Lightning defense. The smaller crystals don’t buff enemies, so they’re strictly there as a buff that make Nue+ easier to handle in that cramped ditch. and deal with the myriad Lightning elemental yokai in the mission.

I also completely forgot about Usura-hicho ruining my unintentional goof with Hi-nezumi so here we go.

Usura-hicho has Life Recovery from Purification 150; Evasion Ki Usage -20%; VS Yokai Realm +300; Water Damage +15%; Strong Attack Ki Damage +15%

Usura-hicho Details

Clearing a Yokai pool is Purifying it, so when you clear those pools you get 150 Life. Evasion Ki Usage returns, and better than Daiba-Washi. VS Yokai Realm increases your resistance to the Yokai Realm, reducing the amount to slows down your Ki regen. 300 is quite a lot of it, but it’s still not a dealmaker. Water Damage +15% is where the good stuff comes in, increasing ALL Water damage you deal by 15%. Onmyo Spells? Check. Weapon Enchant? Check. Living Weapon bonus elemental damage? Check. Strong Attack Ki Damage is alright but only affects basic Strong Attacks and only how much Ki damage it does. Weapon dependant, works well with Axes.

Living Weapon Stats Usura-hicho is another like Aya-komori and Hi-nezumi, but packs the innate 42 Water over the baseline 30, which gets boosted by the Water Damage 15%. Packing weak might and 4% damage boost it doesn’t hit big numbers and breaks easily when hit, but packs good Action and best Recovery and Gauge Rate means you can use Living Weapon a lot and if you avoid taking hits can stay in it a while. An important note is Ki Pulsing properly during Living Weapon not only purifies yokai pools but unleashes a small burst of the elemental damage. The Summon Attack is a decent defensive one, summoning a small horde of snow butterflies that drift in front in a short fan pattern, of you dealing light damage to enemies caught in the area repeatedly and staggering them (including yokai, most Spirit Summons do). It comes out incredibly quick but has a short range. Catching bigger enemies like Yoki or the bigger bosses in the attack all but guarantees Saturating them. 11/10

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Man, I knew I was missing out on something intresting when I quit this game on the second level. The combat just really didn’t click with me and I didn’t find the levels all that interesting. So thanks for playing this so I don’t have to!

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Isle of Demons and Deep in the Shadows are pretty rough just for what you’re dropped into and what you have. Isle expects some grind and deaths I feel like, while Deep in the Shadows has a hidden third shrine and a fairly lengthy run to the boss from the second. Onryoki gets more complicated when his chains breaks, going from slow and predictable to faster and more aggressive, while Hino-enma in the new player grinder. Fun tips for Hino-enma is she (and most other flying enemies from basic testing, like the oni heads) take increased damage from projectiles while in the air, making shuriken and kunai really good at chunking out her Ki while she’s throwing blasts at you from the sky. I haven’t tried using a bow or a gun on her but I know hand cannons can do some silly work against bosses if you line up the shots quickly enough.

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Yeah I find Nioh not exactly new user friendly. Something I was hoping with this LP is to show tips to people to help them through the game as well or get them more invested in it. But it’s also cool for people it doesn’t click with to enjoy the game through the LP without playing it.

And I can confirm arrows and bullets work just as well against her. I suggest the bow since it’s faster to use for when you need to dodge her blasts.

Update 10 - The Iga Escape

Ishida Mitsunari’s army is in the way of us. They’ve blocked off our paths to Tokugawa, but Hanzo has a plan. He takes us through a mansion in the Iga territory. Formerly the Iga ninja clan was wiped out by Oda Nobunaga. Surprisingly this isn’t a walk in the park. Edward Kelley has resurrected the Iga ninjas as revenants of evil. William must fight his way through while exorcising the spirits of the dead. At the end he faces a Giant Toad, who is Hattori Hanzo the elder, our Hanzo’s father. Who was known as Demon Hanzo.

Boss Information:

Giant Toad Profile
Giant Toad is a boss that is weak at short range. Try to stick to his backside and back off when he jumps up. When at the front he can swipe and thrust with his spear and deal massive amounts of damage in succession. Just in front of him with his pipe he can smack at close range or spray Yokai realm upon the floor stopping your stamina regeneration. He’s weak to lightning and earth, I suggest lightning as it slows him as well. At long range he can thrust with his spear or use his tongue. Demon Hanzo has a wide variety of ninja tools he can use, such as fire bombs, throwing weapons, and paralysis bombs.

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Just thought I’d mention I decided to buy the Nioh DLC so after I beat and practice it I’ll be doing it in the LP as well.

Update 11 - Memories of Death-Lilies

On the way to joining up with Tokugawa Ieyasu around the castle and town of Futamata lilies and Yokai have appeared. Hanzo cannot join us but Okatsu knows the area. Both her and William head to Futamata. After fighting his way through the Yokai, William discovers the source of the lilies. A large weeping Ogress who is in reality Tokugawa Ieyasu’s former wife Lady Tsukiyama.

Boss Information:

Ogress Profile
The Ogress is a very straight forward fight. She telegraphs every move of hers quite a bit allowing you to prepare to dodge early, but don’t do so too early as a lot of her attacks are delayed. Lady Tsukiyam can swipe, she can jump and land down with a slam, and smash her claws into the ground then bring up rocks which deal damage. When she’s low on health and stamina she’ll summon lilies that create Yokai realm around the arena. This will slow your Ki regeneration and hasten hers. A dangerous attack of hers is a flurry but if you hug close to her face it will go right over your head. Sometimes she’ll breath fire which you need to dodge through. Generally hug her butt. She is weak to water and earth.

Characters introduced

Senji Muramasa

Muramasa Profile

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