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