Nioh 3 is a very technical game with loads of mechanics and systems thrown at you all at once. So let me help you overcome that difficulty hump so you can focus on what truly matters - dissecting demons!
Video version of this guide (~10 minutes)
1) Experiment
If you take away one thing from this guide, let it be this - experiment. Your first playthrough is essentially the tutorial. The game won't demand optimized builds or perfect play until you're deep into the New Game+ cycle.
And since respeccing your build or changing weapons is both easy and free, you should absolutely try all of them. Poke around the different playstyles. See what you enjoy. You might be surprised by what kind of weapon you end up with. I certainly was!
2) Samurai vs Ninja
Nioh 3 has two different forms for you to play around with - Samurai and Ninja. So which one is better? And the answer is neither, and both.
Different enemies have different weaknesses, and usually one form handles them better than the other. Does this mean you have to swap constantly though? Not at all. You can stick to one form for 95% of the time and be perfectly fine - just don't let your stubbornness make you smash your head against a wall when a quick swap could solve all of your problems.
Personally, I like to go 60-40 between the two. It just feels the most fun to keep mixing up the gameplay.
Both stances are fun, so you should definitely swap around
3) The Three Stances
Each samurai weapon has three different stances you can use, and I would recommend you unlock them as quickly as possible since they're all powerful in their own special way.
But what do they do? Well, how you use each stance depends heavily on what weapon and skills you have, but here's a general overview:
High Stance is good against human opponents or situations where you can attack safely. It deals the most damage, expends a lot of Ki, and smashes through the enemy's block.
Medium Stance is great against fodder enemies. It hits reasonably hard and attacks fast, but the catch is that it doesn't pierce the enemy's block. So use it mostly against enemies you can stunlock just by attacking.
Low Stance is hyper mobile and defensive. Use it mostly when fighting bosses or annoying enemies as you'll be able to avoid their attacks and keep your Ki high while still applying pressure.
4) Manage Your Ki
Ki is a precious resource, and running out usually means you're about to eat an absurd amount of damage. So how do you stay topped off?
First of all, don't go on the offensive if you're nearly empty. Stay back, avoid the enemy, and let it naturally regenerate. Then, when you're nearly full, that's when you should go back on the attack.
But you can also regenerate while fighting, though it requires a bit of practice. After every attack or combo, a white light will start to fill up whatever Ki you spent. If you then use Ki Pulse, or change stance once you have that perk, you will instantly regenerate that white bar.
The tricky part is that you can't just Ki Pulse immediately after an attack as you'll get basically nothing back. You have to wait a moment for the bar to fill up, and doing that while fighting is not easy. So try to Ki Pulse as often as you can because it's a core part of the combat, but don't beat yourself up if you mess up - it really does take practice.
Besides the light pictured above, you can also use the swirly blue mist to time Ki Pulses
5) Blocking is Brilliant
Unlike Souls games where blocking is generally worse than dodging, in Nioh 3 it's one of your main defensive tools. With good toughness you can block even the most brutal attacks without losing much Ki - the kind of attacks that feel like they should turn you into a pancake.
But wait, there's more! If you press block at the exact moment an attack lands you will get a perfect block, which negates the Ki loss and potentially even triggers a bunch of buffs for you. So if you're struggling to stay alive in the early game, you're probably not blocking enough!
6) Slow and Steady
While you can absolutely demolish bosses in record time once you know their patterns, until then I'd recommend taking it nice and easy. Don't just blindly charge in and let them kill you over and over again.
Take a moment to observe. Figure out their attack patterns and how to avoid them. Learn their parry timing and whether specific attacks are even worth the risk. And then, once you have a rough idea of what they do, that's when you should start getting offensive and punishing them whenever they leave themselves open.
But even then, take it easy and don't rush things. Nioh 3's bosses are essentially an elaborate dance. Just stick to the rhythm of the fight and you'll do great, but try to go off-beat and you're going to get beat.
Patience will get you a lot further than just raw aggression
7) Don't Hoard Consumables
If you're anything like me, you're probably the type of person that hoards thousands of consumables because there might be a really hard boss later on. It's a bad idea in pretty much every game, but especially in Nioh 3.
Why? Because quite a few of your consumables come from your spirit cores or ninjutsu abilities - meaning they're effectively infinite and meant to be used frequently. But even the consumables that do deplete are common enough that you can easily burn two dozen per boss fight and never run out.
So don't make your life harder than it needs to be - use all the tools at your disposal!
8) What to Wear?
Nioh 3 is going to bombard you with loot, so what do you even look for? The good news is that while there are a million different stats, most of them don't matter for your first playthrough.
So with weapons, just go for the ones that have the highest damage. With armor, go for the highest defense. And if you find a really, really good item, you can always boost its level at the blacksmith to keep it relevant throughout most of the game.
But much like real life, you'll want to watch out for your weight. As soon as you go over 70% - the yellow zone - you're going to start suffering heavy penalties to your Ki, so always avoid that - even if that means equipping a slightly worse piece of armor. Trust me on this - a bit of extra defense is not worth the crippling debuffs.
The stat bonuses are fairly small, so just focus on the raw damage/defense
9) What to Do With Loot?
But what about all the other loot? Early on I'd recommend setting a filter that lets you automatically offer items below a certain rarity for extra experience. This will give you some nice bonus power in the early game.
Once that stops being relevant, there's a small checklist you'll want to follow. At the blacksmith, filter for items that have special traits (hammer icon) and disassemble those. Then filter for items that have +value and soul extract them for the useful azure soul ores.
Once that's done, the rest of your inventory is going to be purely junk. See if you can donate anything to your clan, and if not just visit your friendly neighborhood merchant and dump it all into his hands.
10) Outscale Your Problems
One of Nioh 3's best and worst features is that the world doesn't scale to your level. So if you're having trouble against a boss, a quest or even a certain zone - just go somewhere else and come back later.
A few hours of exploration will give you more stats, more damage and more armor, so stuff that once looked like an impossible challenge might end up being a complete pushover. Similarly, if you want to give yourself a challenge, you can always try to push ahead of the curve and see how you fare with your skills alone.
You get a lot stronger with time, so don't brute force a fight if it's not going well for you
11) Hunt for Secrets
Either way, you'll definitely want to thoroughly explore each region as there are tons of cool items to be found. And I'm not just talking about equipment, but permanent upgrades as well.
These include new recipes and techniques, extra stats thanks to the Kodama and Shrines, extra skill points thanks to the Locks, and perhaps most importantly, increased skill capacity which gives you access to some incredibly powerful passives. So yeah, definitely snoop around for secrets as there's a lot of goodies hidden out there!
12) Spread Your Stats
Unlike the Souls series where you're generally better off specializing into a couple of stats, in Nioh 3 you're encouraged to be a jack of all trades. The big reason? You need all sorts of different stats to get the most out of your equipment.
But even if you're just looking to beef up your character, increasing strength won't make you that much better of a fighter. You're better off adding Intellect or Heart to boost your Ki and its regeneration, or increasing your Constitution and Stamina to make yourself tankier and lighter.
The stats also become less effective the more you pour into them, so that's even more incentive to spread the love. And if you ever make a mistake, respeccing is literally free, so there's no harm in trying stuff out.
Intelligence is awesome even for warriors
13) Don't Forget Battle Scrolls
While they're very easy to ignore and forget, Battle Scrolls are great. Not only are many of them fun, unique missions, but all of the non-tutorial ones give some great loot as well - including permanent upgrades and unlocks.
So if you're ever in a lull during exploration and you're in the mood for an intense boss fight, definitely give the Battle Scrolls a try. You can also play most of them in co-op if that tickles your fancy, though they are perfectly beatable solo - even if some of the later ones do get a bit tricky.
Got Any Questions?
And there you have it. If you have any questions, about the guide or Nioh 3 in general, drop them in the video's comments and I'll do my best to help you out.