Some Tips for Nioh 2 Beginners

List of useful tips for players who are new to Nioh 2 or the Nioh series.

Tips for Beginners (part I)

Nioh 2 is complex and the ingame documentation is somewhat lacking.
There's a lot of stuff that is either NOT explained or not explained in a good way.

So I'll just list some things that I would have liked to know from the start and I am sure it will help you as well.

• Spear, dual swords and Katana (sword) are good beginner weapons if you never played a Nioh game before to get to grips with the mechanics
  
• It may be tempting to go with the highest damage per hit weapons (Odachi, Axe, Hammer) but they are not particularly well-suited for new players as you leave yourself open to counters if you don't know exactly what you're doing. That said, you can start with any weapon you like, of course. The 3 mentioned above just happen to be a bit more forgiving because of range (spear) or animation/attack quickness (DS/Katana).
  
• The newly introduced soul cores can have a MASSIVE impact on your combat performance so you should integrate them from the start and get used to them. One great way to utilize them is a separate way to apply status effects (debuffs) on enemies. This means you don't need ninjutsu points or weapon imbuement to apply that particular ailment! Let's say your weapon is imbued with water. You attack with it until the enemy is saturated. Now you want to inflict lightning ailment. You could either spend precious ninjutsu capacity to get e. g. lightning talisman OR you just use the Oni-bi soul core skill and get a 'free' imbuement.
  And let's be honest: seeing a boss being burned to a crip by Kasha's fire wheel is just SO satisfying :)
  
• Get ASAP all 3 stance talents (Samurai) that let you Ki pulse on a dodge. It means you can dodge and at the same time profit from the huge Ki generation of a pulse. This is a game-defining mechanic so use it.
  
• Another ASAP contender is Flux I and II which give you INSANE amounts of Ki back when you switch stances on a Ki pulse. This way you can start e. g. in expensive high stance, delete your Ki with attacks, then just switch to Mid stance and get almost everything back. Flux restores much more Ki than a regular Ki pulse!
  
• Burst counters are powerful but not mandatory. Any burst move can be avoided by dodging/blocking as well. The primary advantage of burst counter is that it deals huge Ki damage to the enemy and fills up your own Ki at the same time.
  
• Revenants (the red graves) are an easy way to stock up on rare drops. Defeating them (which is mostly very easy and comes down to simply attacking without pause) grants you Glory, which you can trade at the Tea House for different rare drops like Yoki horns etc.
  They are also an easy source of high-quality gear. Because it comes from actual player characters it will be more useful than random drops from mobs and it will often be part of a set.
  
• Don't use the blue graves. Doing so will remove most of the challenge from tough fights and you won't learn the attack patterns of your enemies as well. Only a boss defeated solo is a good boss! Obviously, if you are certain you know it well enough, then by all means, to just farm the boss, use the AI help.
  
• Lifeleech is beguiling but, again, makes you rely on it instead of evading attacks. In Nioh, it's always better NOT to take damage instead of leeching it back. Rejuvenation is OK but I would recommend not to use lifeleech talisman as a beginner. Just my suggestion.
  
• Similar advice regarding Sloth talisman. It is my opinion that it breaks the game because bosses have obviously not been balanced around it. Slowing them down like Sloth talisman does means you will rely on their animations being timed as they are. This is bad because it affects your muscle and timing memory.
  The more truthfull to a painful Dark Souls experience you want to be, the less lifeleech, Sloth and other 'cheese' mechanics you should use.
  And generally as a beginner it's always better to get to know the encounters in their 'true' form. Later on you can always switch to using these tools, and who knows, they may actually be necessary in higher difficulties. You will see.
  
• For beginners in the game I suggest a Feral primary Spirit. The burst counter can and should be liberally used to dodge even normal moves. This saves some of your Ki and can be done even when normal dodge is impossible (because you are staggered, for example). You can also use it to 'double-dodge' a long way to get out of massive area attacks.
  
• Investing points into Magic and Ninjutsu is never wrong. The biggest mistake a Nioh player can make is to focus on attacks and neglecting the tools and powerful magic offered by the game. I never leave home without Rejuvenation talismans (talismen!?), some way to quickly apply elemental status (lightning familiars or stuff), some poisonous ninja stuff (it's free true damage!) and attack power pills. But there's a whole host of other cool gadgets that can turn the tide of battle quickly. Don't feel cheap for using them, you are meant to!
  
• Mid stance enhances blocking, good while you don't know the attack patterns yet and for attacks that are hard to dodge
  
• Low stance enhances dodging
  
• A mistake many new players to Nioh make (including me) is dodging when sidestepping would suffice. Try actively stopping yourself from automatically dodging on enemy attacks, instead just walk or run a bit to the right or left. You will be amazed how many enemy attacks are 'sidesteppable'. This saves you Ki (you can attack more often) and time (no need to reposition after dodge, easier to keep enemy in front of you). Less time spent dodging, more time spent DPS-ing. Practive it in the dojo or against live enemies.
  
• Don't fear high stance. It's expensive and prone to counters but literally deletes easy enemies.
  
• Enemies out of Ki will be staggered by your attacks which prevents them from (most) attacks of their own. Once a foe is out of Ki, that's the time for you to mercilessly attack and exploit the window of opportunity. Some weapons (like tonfa) are especially powerful against Ki bars.
  
• Not all enemies have weak spots and those who do aren't always weak at their heads. The 'rat' Yokai for example are vulnerable on their golden tails. In general it's a pretty good bet that enemies with soul stone growth somewhere on their body can be hit precisely there to do extra damage, deplete their Ki and other cool effects. Another example are the cannon-arm Yokai who are vulnerable, predictably enough, when you hit the golden-glowing soulstone growth on their arm.
  
• Cyclops can be shot in the eye to make them stagger and vulnerable.
  
• Imbueing your weapon with elemental magic is a great way not only to deal considerable extra damage but also apply debuffs to enemies. Lightning slows them down, water makes them take more attack damage, fire let's them suffer periodic damage.
  There's also poison (periodic true damage), paralysis (stuns and gets human enemies into grab state), Corruption and Purity. The latter two are a bit more advanced, with Purity being both rarer to find and more useful overall as there are hardly any enemies with good resistance. (while yokai are generally resistant to Corruption)
  
• Applying 2 ailments or more at the same time applies the 'confused' debuff which gives you a HUGE damage increase and hinders the enemy greatly. So you see only attacking is not enough, you should also find ways of applying at least 2 ailments. Contrary to popular belief, none of them need to be Corruption or Purity. Water+Fire or Fire+Lightning work just as well.

To be continued.

Tips for Beginners (part II)

• Both Corruption and Purity ailments increase the amount of Ki damage your enemy takes considerably, meaning you will sooner reach the 'massacre him' phase where your foe is out of Ki and interrupted by any hit.
  While Corruption replenishes your Ki by some of the extra Ki damage you deal (i. e. you gain Ki and your foe loses it), Purity instead removes and prevents applying positive effects on the enemy. This can be HUGE for bosses who like to buff themselves. Purity also allows you to use Ki pulse to recover Ki spent blocking that enemy, which is normally not possible. (without Purity you can only recover Ki from attacking and/or dodging, not blocking)
  
• The 'Ki Pulse' is one of the, maybe THE, most important mechanic in Nioh that you may not know from other titles in the genre.
  If you played Nioh 1, then you already know all about it and can ignore this bullet point.
  If you're new to the Nioh series, read on.
  After any attack chain, blue sparks start coalescing on your character. Once they are almost concentrated, press the Ki pulse shortcut and your character will regain a big part (but not all) of the Ki spent on this attack chain.
  There are many ways to utilize Ki pulse with certain talents (like Ki pulsing on Dodge or Stance Switch) and also some weapon type-specific traits. Tonfa, for example, give you some i-frames (invulnerability) while Ki-pulsing.
  Without Ki pulse you will constantly be out of Ki which is bad for your damage output AND your hitpoints. The worst thing about it is that enemies can do powerful grapples when you are out of Ki (same as you can do to them).
  
  Only in the first few fights do you need to pay attention to the blue sparks. You will very soon know the timing by heart, don't worry. Plus, even if you don't do it PERFECTLY on time, you still get back part of your spent Ki, just not as much. And some talents/traits only trigger on a perfect pulse. However, before you let yourself hit by your enemy waiting for a perfect pulse, rather pulse early or dodge away ;)
  
• Armor weight, a whole cosmos of complexity?
  Well yes, but it can be summarized quickly.
  There are thresholds to weight which are <30% to have grade A agility, <70% to have B agility and upwards of that is C agility. (I leave out more advanced grades here)
  This is the one and only effects armor WEIGHT has. (the armor itself will give you more or less defense, physical resistance etc.)
  
  Agility is important for dodging. The better it is (A and later AA being best), the longer your dodge distance and the cheaper it becomes in terms of Ki.
  On the other hand, heavier armor means less damage taken and cheaper blocking.
  Like most things in Nioh, it's a compromise. The tresholds are fixed by the way, if you have 10% or 29% weight makes NO difference, as long as it's below 30%. So you are well-advised to try and reach 29% (or 69%) because this means you can don some heavier armor probably.
  
  So: heavier armor = better block, lighter armor = better dodge. Easy, eh?
  
  The stat that increases your weight limit AND current weight % is Stamina. It scales well with weapons that profit from heavy armor (what a surprise). If you like mobility and dodging, you may want to try and reach A agility with medium armor (at least medium chest & leg armor). If you like blocking and 'tanking' through hits, you may want to try and stay within B agility on heavy armor.
  C agility makes it quite punishing to dodge, beware. Not advised for beginners.

[TossBoy2121]

theres some decent knowledge in here, good job.

[BullyHunter_69]

Lmao don't use blue graves and don't use life leech, how about don't use quick change next? How about don't use elixirs? My man really said its ok to not counter burst attacks when it's literally the most important habit to develop, but then goes ahead to forbid new players to use mechanics to make this overwhelming game a little bit managable.

[Jake the Snake]

Blue graves and life regen "stuff" is a crutch that new players lean on and don't develop good game play habits. That can lead to unsatisfying difficulty spikes for newer players causing them to stop playing. This was explained above really well, but some people just don't understand that...

[Snooze Juicer]

i stopped reading this when the author stated dont use blue graves, and not to use life regen stuff. those are the best things for beginners....

[the_bastarded_one]

i lost like 6 times against the viper so i tried summoning and they got bodied right away, doing absolutely nothing. they did however give me time to think and thats what i needed, since he dives at you right away and those snake arms dont give you a chance to stop and think. nailed him that time. it was so tense and close.

[Obi Wanyama Kenobi]

Don't feel cheap for using ninjitsu or magic but don't use any of the ones that help with bosses. Got it.

[johny]

this is quite the well of valuable knowledge, thank for this

[MochaAndChill]

I think you did well on this, I will use this as much as I can. The more you know, woot !!

[vassiton]

Thanks. Can you play more than one character at a time or does creating a new character delete the last one?

[Zohar]

thank you! great post