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

[puzzlefox]

Bow scales with heart but rifle scales with skill so rifles will do a lot of dmg with your build.

Sword is one of the hardest weapons to master and that’s largely due to the swords quick attacks (just pressing X or Y) are not very useful overall.

[puzzlefox]

I posted this in another thread, you may find it useful

Opprinnelig skrevet av puzzlefox:

I’m having a bit of an enlightening experience on my second character. I’m having a pretty easy time of it overall, but when drawing comparison between first toon and second, I’ve noticed that my ease is largely stemming from knowing how the mechanics work and knowing enemy weaknesses. It took me a long time to figure this stuff out, so it’s true that the devs created an incredibly complex combat system with very little explanation. A few things that are making a big difference are:

1. Low stance should be your default stance. Your dodge iframes are increased in low. High stance quick attacks are garbage except for when used to break yoki horns, otherwise high stance should be used only for skills and player should really switch back to low once the attack is done. Mid stance for break and parry.

2. Some attacks do heavy ki damage while doing very little hp dmg. Kicks at the end of combos for example. Yokai are very weak against ki damage, when their ki is depleted, they lose all toughness and can be stunlocked for days. This can drastically alter the difficulty of bosses like the snow lady.

3. Go online and join a clan ASAP. By failing to do this, the player is missing major bonuses.

4. In the menu, go to titles and select “prestige summary”, from here you can get very handy bonuses for your titles earned.

5. Quick change scroll, carnage talisman and steel talisman (used in that order), kekkai talisman, and weakness talisman. These are game-changers.

6. Spirit stones are not meant to be used to gain Amrita for leveling, they’re intended for the player to use to recharge LW.

7. Many skills can be used in LW.

8. Agility dictates how much ki the player uses to attack, run, and dodge. Higher agility = less ki used.

9. Attacking from behind gives the player a significant damage bonus.

10. Buying weapons via hidden tea house is cheaper than soul matching old ones or forging new ones.

11. Agility damage bonus, familiarity damage bonus, consecutive attack damage bonus, equipment weight damage bonus, ect on your active ranged weapon grants the bonus to your melee weapons. However if your melee weapons has the exact same bonus, they do not stack. If they are different, then they do stack.

And that’s not even half of it...

[puzzlefox]

For #3, I recommend the Honda clan for the first playthrough. Then after that, I recommend Kuroda.

[RyRy McPWN]

Nice. I had no idea about going online to join a clan. Are these clans part of the larger community, or just allow you to do multiplayer and earn more perks? Also, how should prestige points be spent? Oh, and how low should I keep my weight load? I read somethinga saying I needed to be below 30%

[puzzlefox]

You can join a clan after you beat spidernest castle. This unlocks the hidden teahouse which can be accessed from the mission select screen. You can join a clan via the hidden teahouse. The purpose is purely to get special bonuses. There are many clans to choose from and the bonus will increase as you spend more time as a member of the clan and earn honor points. I highly recommend clan Honda.

You can switch to online mode on the mission select screen, this is a good idea because it will make player revnants appear which can be killed to gain gear and honor.

Oh and an unrelated tidbit: Kato is objectively the absolute best guardian spirit in the game. The Honda perk actually synergizes with it nicely for big skill damage bonuses.

[RyRy McPWN]

Nice, yeah I noticed that. I am doing a side mission right now and i turned online on and had tons of revenents. On another note, do I want to level both magic and spirit to get dojo missions, or should I just focus on Ninjitsu?

[puzzlefox]

Level spirit, and magic in moderation. Don't neglect your damage stats over it.
Magic is actually more useful than ninjutsu, but kusa uses Dex as a primary damage stat, so that should be your highest stat. For ninjutsu, quick change scroll is really all you need. Tiger Running scroll is also very nice to have, and suppa scroll definitely has its uses. Power Pill is bad, don't bother with it. There are 3 damage bonus jutsu skills. Leeching being the strongest but VERY detrimental to the player (i would avoid it), carnage talisman (the defense debuff is VERY detrimental, but the steel talisman overwrites it so if you do carnage THEN steel it has no downside), and power pill which is a very small bonus.

In every build I've ran, I've had these magic skills:
carnage talisman, steel talisman, extraction talisman, kekkai talisman, pleides talisman, and weakness talisman.
In your first playthrough, the elemental weapon buff talismans are kinda useful, not very imporant though.
and these ninjutsu: quick change scroll (but for many I've also used suppa scroll, tiger running scroll, blister beetle balls (poison and paralysis) and the groundfire traps. I haven't found much use for anything else. The passive skills are good to have too. The magic passives are good too, but the luck/gold find/amrita gain ones are a massive waste as they require so many points for such small gains.

[RyRy McPWN]

Perfect, going to give this route a shot. I also had a tonfa drop last night, I might tinker with them as well. I just got my first side mission and I keep farming the area, but I think I am overleveled so I should just move forward.

[RyRy McPWN]

What in the world do I do at the Blacksmith, lol? Nevermind, I found a decent guide :)

[puzzlefox]

Yeah tonfa is sweet! I love the heavenly chain skill and the other fast combos

[RyRy McPWN]

I just got destroyed by an npc with a tonfa...damn that guard break is insane, I couldn't get an attack off in high stance to save my life.

[puzzlefox]

You think that's bad, just wait until you start seeing hyperarmor tatenashi revnants... But if you're using tonfa, focused strike breaks through their enormous toughness and if you're still using sword then Backwave or haze works wonders.

Kusa also has a foot sweep attack that knocks them down for a finishing blow aa well.

[RyRy McPWN]

I'm making progress...finally got past Hino Enma. I was just getting impatient trying to plow through her, but I managed to down her using a more tactful approach. I'm trying to both use guns and shurikens, but am readily using any ammo I can find.

I just got the grapple skill last night, but think I have to do side missions to unlock foot sweep. I'm going to put Tonfa into rotation tonight to tinker with the playstyle as well. Stoked I have the next 4 days off to play :).

[montengo]

by all means do experiment with all weapons and search for what you like but keep in mind you won't have enough samurai points to make two different melee weapons maxed skill wise until much later (~character level 250-300 if I remember right). If I were you I'd concentrate on one with all right passives in other trees of course.

If Nioh world records (completing main game minus DLCs for example under an hour) are something to go by weapon wise, people seem to choose kusarigama / dual katanas for their speed runs, which tells me there must be at least one good reason.

More advanced skills will unlock once you progressed further - doing main missions in each region will unlock dodjos and once you completed these next skill tier will unlock (like foot sweep).

Also, have a look at titles - some of them should be doable already - they help maximizing your character potential, just place points thoughtfully with combat / survivability in mind (though these also can be re-set later).