Kusarigama Core Stats--Top Priority Beginning Game

[RyRy McPWN]

Greetings All,
I find myself spending more time on Google in game making sure I don't mess up this build leveling up. I know the fun part should be just discovering it on my own, but my playtime is limited so I want to progress when I do have time to play.

Anyhow, here is what I like so far. I like using the high stance of Kusarigama. I think I want to focus in on using Ninjitsu skills in synergy, but I also have Katana as secondary...don't plan on using it much, if any.

What core stats should I pump up first as a base?
What weapon skills are best to aquire to start with?
What kind of points should I invest it in Ninjitsu tree?

Sorry, I am sure this question has been asked many times before, but any recommendations would be great. Thank you for your time.

Cheers

[RyRy McPWN]

Heeeeeeelp :)

[Tanjiro]

These are many question and depending of situation and way u r playing. But u use Katana + Kusarigama, so the hayabusa Set would be the best.

Put most of u points in heart for katana and in dexterity for Kusarigama (Ninjutsu). In body some for health, in spirit for defense and u should put also a few in endurance ...

You should put skillpoints in all passiv skills, in Kunai, arrow but to be honest, later you will reset you points so like mostly of us do.

Good luck !

[RyRy McPWN]

Thanks, Cuba, I apprecciate it!

[montengo]

Originally posted by RyRy McPWN:

What core stats should I pump up first as a base?

20 in everything as a base if you just started and are in Way of the Samurai - helps with armor and unlocks some dodjos

What weapon skills are best to aquire to start with?

Ki Pulses while dodging. Don't forget to invest in passives skills in all but tonfa (unless you use tonfa) trees

What kind of points should I invest it in Ninjitsu tree?

depends. tool mastery obviously, all reduce ki and quick charge scrolls seem like a base.

For some reason your post reads as if you think you could not re-set your points later. If that's the case, don't overthink your skills, stats or anything really, you can re-spec your character as many times as you want.

[DarkFenix]

High enough stats to wear whatever type of armour you want, high enough spirit to fully use your guardian spirit of choice, high enough magic and dex to do the dojo missions, high enough stamina to use your armour at B agility at worst, 15 heart to hit the first ki soft cap. Beyond that pump either your primary damage stat, body for health, or your choice of magic/dex for onmyo/ninjutsu.

You can respec very readily reset any time, so it really doesn't matter for now. You're going to be point starved for the whole first playthrough, so don't worry about coming up short.

As for kusarigama, you primarily want low and high stances, mid is rather mediocre. You want the two abilities that pull your enemy to you (or you to your enemy), you want the high stance trip move (pull -> trip -> gg any human opponent). For yokai low stance quick attacks horn break well, low stance strong attack and high stance quick attacks are good for damage. And of course you want everything ki pulse related, this weapon guzzles stamina so the sooner you get used to ki pulsing the better.

If you're pumping dex for the kusarigama, feel free to abuse the hell out of ninjutsu for damage too. You can carry a lot of shurikens, kunai, and storm kunai, more than enough to make a hell of a mess of most bosses.

[puzzlefox]

If you’re going kusarigama with sword and want to incorporate ninjutsu, dragon ninja set is a no brainer, it accomplishes all the above in flying colors. If you want higher defense, kingo’s set is really good too.

The stats you want to focus are dexterity, skill, and body. Kusa does REALLY well in LW too, so you may want to dump points into spirit as well.

For weapon stats, you’ll want familiarity dmg bonus, change to attack dexterity, close combat dmg (comes on dragon ninja kusa by default) , and the rest are subjective. I personally like serpent strike dmg bonus and weaken melee weapons.

My suggestion for kusa is don’t get into the habit of just spamming blade spin. Kusa can offer a glorious and impressive onslaught of beautiful combos. Also don’t be shy about spamming reaper on those big yokai, you can use reaper in LW too.

Kusa strong attack in LW is bizarrely powerful too.

Also renegade dragon sucks lol...

[RyRy McPWN]

Hell yeah, bad ass advice. Thank you everyone for chiming in. Exactly what I needed. You guys are awesome!!

[puzzlefox]

I ran a kusa build at one point. I didn’t use dragon ninja though.

Kusa scales with body, dex, and skill. Tonfa scales with those 3 as well so they harmonize nicely. I used the leader of the ten braves set. That set includes a special tonfa that has special abilities that other Tonfas don’t have, which are explosive attacks that can bring some serious pain. That build got me through floors 400-700 in the abyss, and it could have easily cleared the rest up to 999.

Kusa has the best range of all weapons by FAR but it’s break is practically non-existent. That’s where tonfa steps in cause it has mad break, it’s glorious against human foes.

Since sword scales with heart > skill > strength, a build primarily focused on kusa won’t have much to offer a sword. Don’t let that discourage your build idea though, in your first playthrough that doesn’t matter much.

For ninjutsu, blister beetle balls are baller, especially the paralysis ones. Groundfire traps and paralysis groundfire are great. Makibishi balls are nice too. Surprisingly, even big yokai can be paralyzed easily. They don’t poison so easily though.

[RyRy McPWN]

These comments are like my own personal guide now...this is perfect. I've taken a bit from everyone. Once again, thank you for taking the time to comment and give me some guidance. You guys are awesome!

I played through all The Dark Souls series and Nioh wans't even on my radar until I saw a killer sale on Green Man gaming and actually clicked on it. Once I clicked on it, and started watching gameplay and read reviews, I was like, uhm, this is my next punishment obsession, wooohoo!

[puzzlefox]

Lol it’s definitely a great game for people who want a tough challenge and like exploring and experimenting with complex combat systems. My favorite thing about Nioh is how rewarding it is to master the difficult combos. It’s not easy to master a weapon, and it’s really not easy to master multiple weapons, but you will eventually get to a point where you’re fluidly switching between weapons and stances in between attacks to really put on a good show.

I’ve ran builds for every weapon and tbh, imo, kusa has the coolest combos. But my personal favorite is sword and dual sword

[puzzlefox]

Here’s a demo of what each weapon can do

https://youtu.be/B2hJxp9f5ug

[AGH!Bear]

Originally posted by puzzlefox:

Kusa has the best range of all weapons by FAR but it’s break is practically non-existent. That’s where tonfa steps in cause it has mad break, it’s glorious against human foes.

Sometimes you can roll the starred Tonfa Gun skill onto other tonfas in NG+ too. On my last save on ps4 I've got a Twin Dragon Tonfa that randomly rolled it for me which made me nerdsquee that it could happen.

The Tonfa is definitely amazing vs. human foes especially because of their tendency to turtle. For revenants though it's easier to throw the kusa weight and drag them to you, trip them, then final blow. Tonfa is better for fast moving dodgy annoying enemies like Maria, Okatsu, or Muneshige, because they'll dodge that weight throw and punish you, or recover extra fast from the momentary stun it causes before you can finish the trip move, and punish you.

[puzzlefox]

I’ve found the tonfa gun other Tonfas before, but leader of ten braves set is so good I didnt have any use for any other tonfa. Demon dance (a skill that activated on ki pulse, it’s a quick backwards dodge) paired with the mystic art that allows you to use it any time during any attack to cancel the attack is the absolute shining star of Tonfas. The “at end of combo” attacks are all also amazing.

Tonfa and kusa really is such a great combo. The only thing about kusa is it’s the only weapon lacking a true charge-up attack, but tonfa can kill that void. So can lai quickdraw from the sword.

[RyRy McPWN]

Nice, I will mess with a Tonfa since I have not really had fun messing with the sword. I almost decided to literally throw the kusari at my screen out of frustration the first few hours until I started getting the hang of it. It has a learning curve, that's for sure, but now that I am getting it down, it is hella fun. I've also found myself using the bow....A LOT. Do bows scale with Kusari stats higher up?

[RyRy McPWN]

This thread is super helpful. While I was able to get bits of information here and there on google/Reddit, Youtube, and random information, everyone is boiling it down quite nicely. Nice to have a supportive community. I do understand that there are SO many variations though which also games the game so appealing. It really does feel like Dark Souls meets Diablo