Nioh 2

[Nortar]

I'm getting cores from bosses, those are unique right? Should I read up on those so I don't waste them or are they just whatever?

It depends on your playstyle.
The one I used the most is Ippon-Dattara hammer strike. It has fast animation and hits pretty hard.
Another good thing about these soul-core abilities, is that while you're doing them, you recover your ki.
So after a basic chain of attack-combo > ki-pulse > yokai-ability > and you already have enough ki to keep rolling non-stop.

Other than that, I kept some soul cores just for the bonuses they provide.
I used one with "enemy sensor" for awhile, for example.

 

[Wunderbar]

Wow, that cow spider boss is a total bullshit. Spins like crazy, hinders your movement with its legs, damages you despite its hitbox not even connecting with yours.

Yeah, when you first see it, it gives you that cool feeling of "how tf do I even fight this".
But it has very clearly indicated weak spots.

Spoiler

Just go for it's back legs, it will try to stomp you, but that's easily avoidable.

i've posted this after killing him.
Funnily enough, the intended tactics of hitting weak spots for massive damage was harder than just hitting him in the arse and blocking his jumps.

 

[Nortar]

Wow, that cow spider boss is a total bullshit. Spins like crazy, hinders your movement with its legs, damages you despite its hitbox not even connecting with yours.

Yeah, when you first see it, it gives you that cool feeling of "how tf do I even fight this".
But it has very clearly indicated weak spots.

i've posted this after killing him.
Funnily enough, the intended tactics of hitting weak spots for massive damage was harder than just hitting him in the arse and blocking his jumps.

It's not just weak spot damage, once you cut it's legs, it just falls flat and opens up for a killing strike.
So you just have to this routine twice and maybe add a bit of good thrashing from your "final form".

 

[Suicidal]

Lately I've been using the soul core of the wall mimics and I really like it. It basically reads "destroy the weak points of all demons and drain all stamina of all enemies in a large area in front of you".

 

[NJClaw]

Also all that new stuff like cores, corruption, blessing, sentient weapons...is it something I don't have to worry about until NG+? It's kindda overwhelming. I'd have to spend half a day just to read and watch guides.

Don't worry, it's simpler than it seems.

Sentient weapons are just weapons that awaken after you deal a certain amount of damage with them. This awakened state has a duration and gives a massive boost to your weapon damage. While a wakened, after a strong-attacks combo you also fire a projectile. An important feature of sentient weapons is that you can soul match them with soul cores: the main benefit of this process is that, just like with the normal soul matching with another weapon, you can transfer an inheritable property from a soul core to the weapon.

Corruption and purity are just two new status effect, exactly like shock and saturation: after a certain number of hits that depends on the enemy's resistances, the enemy gains a status. With the purified status, an enemy takes 50% more ki damage. With the corrupted status, an enemy takes 35% more ki damage and you regain ki with every attack. Weapons that have the imbue purity property also have a unique mechanic: while using them you can ki pulse after blocking an attack to regain your ki, just as if you finished one of your attacks combo. Humans are weak to corruption, yokai are weak to purity.

Soul cores are new equipment slots for your guardian spirit. Each soul core gives you a new attack that you can use with R2: you should try to experiment with them(just equip them and try their attack), because they definitely make combat more interesting. For example, the Ippon-Datara ability sends enemies prone, while the Enki ability allows you to evade up in the air. Each soul core comes with a set of bonuses, but they are there mostly for the real autists out there.

I'm getting cores from bosses, those are unique right? Should I read up on those so I don't waste them or are they just whatever?

No soul core is unique. You can retry the mission as many times as you want.

 

[Wunderbar]

I've stumbled upon a weird bug (or maybe it's not a bug and i'm missing something).
I'm trying to forge a piece of armor (onmyo hunting hakama), and it ends up being common no matter which materials i use or how many times i try. Other pieces of armor are doing just fine, i've made a full purple set with good affixes.

I wonder if anyone else has encountered something similar.

 

[NJClaw]

Spoiler

Life Recovery (Purification) HOW MUCH?!

 

[Hyperion]

Lately I've been using the soul core of the wall mimics and I really like it. It basically reads "destroy the weak points of all demons and drain all stamina of all enemies in a large area in front of you".

Yes, Nurikabe was my personal favorite Core in the game. Fast, immunity to any and all enemy grapples for the entire duration, dirt cheap per slam, can be wombo combo'd into 3 hits with the 3rd hit doing double damage and being a guaranteed pancake on human enemies, bonus damage reduction as a stat to give a little extra oomph to a tank build, incredible ki damage, and he's practically a Codex mascot . Only real downside is that enemies tend to sidestep and cause it to miss on later difficulties, so you need to actually time it.

I tried Kinki when the last DLC came out since he has the same damage reduction bonus, but it just isnt the same. Too much movement, you can be grappled, and too much of the damage hinges on the people's elbow at the end.

Ippon-Datara is considered to be the best general use in the entire game since it's so fast you can weave it into combos, also pancakes, ignites in the dark realm, and has fairly impressive damage and ki damage for how spammable it is.

Onryoki is pretty much a must on any build that likes any sort of damage reduction. The passive bonuses are insane, arguably the best in the game except for those builds who avoid damage altogether. Also, the most recent DLC sped up its attack animation (less hits on big shit, but more reliable on everything else) but made it hit VERY hard, and it has a 360 degree attack animation which completely buttfucks Kashin Koji's doppleganger attack.

It's the most expensive core in the game, but Shuten Doji is my 3rd go to core. The attack is fast, anima cost is only 6, but more importantly the core has the strongest defense buff in the game on Amrita Absorption (same power as a Steel Talisman but with virtually 100% uptime) and using the attack gives 15-20s of Extraction Talisman, freeing up even more Onmyo slots.

 

[cvv]

Who else hated that fucking forest cat?

I'm getting too old for this shit.

 

[Wunderbar]

Didn't find forest cat to be all that hard. Just block its strikes instead of dodging.

Hardest bosses so far - giant snake (Yatsu no kami) and a dude with two axes (Shibata Katsuie).

 

[cvv]

Didn't find forest cat to be all that hard.

Any strats you found effective?

Hardest bosses so far - giant snake and a dude with two axes.

Giant snake, you mean the one with the long nose and two hands? I needed maybe 4 runs at him. 20 at the cat.

 

[Wunderbar]

Didn't find forest cat to be all that hard.

Any strats you found effective?

- when the cat climbs on a tree / creates doppelgangers - try blocking its ranged attacks;
- try always be near the edge of the arena, this way you will be able to punish the cat after it rushes at you. Staying in the middle makes cat fly through you;
- best time to punish the cat is when it performs a three-hit combo (paw - paw - tail);
- use lightning talisman, it slows cat down once accumulated (don't remember whether sloth is available at that point);
- didn't really use burst counter during that fight, the timing was pretty tricky to nail consistently.

Hardest bosses so far - giant snake and a dude with two axes.

Giant snake, you mean the one with the long nose and two hands? I needed maybe 4 runs at him. 20 at the cat.

yep, died like 20 times there. It was the moment Nioh 2 got real for me.

 

[Deflowerer]

If you don't want to get too aggressive, pretty much as Wunderbar said: block most of his attacks. He also does that burst counter attack which is telegraphed miles away, even through that you can chip away at him quite easily.

Edit: Wunderbar was quicker. But I disagree with burst counter, as long as you have Feral (the dodge one) it's almost fail proof if you have sufficient distance. You can see him rolling off the tree easily and dodging ahead with Feral counter gives sufficient buffer for countering too early.

See my short clip from the very same fight: https://streamable.com/t4aacw

 

[cvv]

- didn't really use burst counter during that fight, the timing was pretty tricky to nail consistently.

If you don't want to get too aggressive, pretty much as Wunderbar said: block most of his attacks. He also does that burst counter attack which is telegraphed miles away, even through that you can chip away at him quite easily.

Edit: Wunderbar was quicker. But I disagree with burst counter, as long as you have Feral (the dodge one) it's almost fail proof.

I've already beaten the damn cat, just wondering what worked for people. I for one could NOT see any way to beat her without counters. Also I couldn't time Feral counters to save my life. Only way I could do it was with a Brute.

Btw Dark Realms with bosses like that are fucking cruel. With the cat I relied on blocking and stamina management was a clusterfuck in the Dark Realm. Went through my entire stock of sacred water.

 

[Shackleton]

- didn't really use burst counter during that fight, the timing was pretty tricky to nail consistently.

If you don't want to get too aggressive, pretty much as Wunderbar said: block most of his attacks. He also does that burst counter attack which is telegraphed miles away, even through that you can chip away at him quite easily.

Edit: Wunderbar was quicker. But I disagree with burst counter, as long as you have Feral (the dodge one) it's almost fail proof.

I've already beaten the damn cat, just wondering what worked for people. I for one could NOT see any way to beat her without counters. Also I couldn't time Feral counters to save my life. Only way I could do it was with a Brute.

Btw Dark Realms with bosses like that are fucking cruel. With the cat I relied on blocking and stamina management was a clusterfuck in the Dark Realm. Went through my entire stock of sacred water.

You'll be pleased to know you've not seen the last of that cat.

It's significantly easier when you meet it the next time though, just because you've levelled more and got more tools to play with. And Sloth is most certainly available by the time you do that mission, for I am old man sloth cheese.

 

[Haplo]

At the same time, the freaking Yatsu No Kami took me more than 20 tries

The pinocchio snek boy seems to be the biggest noobs-filter in this game.

Seems like I'm currently filtered
Really nasty in Dark Realm Phase and it seems to last forever.
Using Odachi high, btw - so already pretty optimal.

 

[Wunderbar]

At the same time, the freaking Yatsu No Kami took me more than 20 tries

The pinocchio snek boy seems to be the biggest noobs-filter in this game.

Seems like I'm currently filtered
Really nasty in Dark Realm Phase and it seems to last forever.

damage the appendages without killing them. This way you can dispel the dark realm quickly by killing off little snakes.

 

[NJClaw]

At the same time, the freaking Yatsu No Kami took me more than 20 tries

The pinocchio snek boy seems to be the biggest noobs-filter in this game.

Seems like I'm currently filtered
Really nasty in Dark Realm Phase and it seems to last forever.
Using Odachi high, btw - so already pretty optimal.

I'm playing a build centered around poison right now, so snek boy is my friend and I cherish you dying by his hand long neck. GO LONG SNEK!

To make things easier on yourself you could try switching to a phantom spirit, since the phantom burst counter is great to deal with the constricting grab. You need to time it perfectly to counter it, but even if you're a bit off time you still avoid the grab attack, and that's the most important thing. Once you understand how huge his openings are and how easy it is to exploit them, it becomes a joke.

I'm experimenting with the brute counter and I don't really get it. It counters basically any slow attack and it's great to deal with attacks with a very long delay because you can hit the enemy whenever you want, while with the feral and phantom you have to time the counter perfectly. However, I don't understand how to use it against very quick attacks. I guess you could use two different spirits to deal with everything in the optimal way, but I believe there's an easier solution...

 

[Suicidal]

Today I learned that you can learn secret combat skills from bosses. I killed the first DLC final boss and learned the skill that lets you shoot beams out of your holy sword thingie and it can be used with any weapon (a shame that you have to equip it in one of the skill slots and I really like my spear skills to exchange them for it). Apparently this is not guaranteed to happen and only has a small chance to "drop" from the boss and you can actually learn different special weapon skills from many of the human/humanoid bosses.

It's impressive how many different (sometimes hidden) mechanics this game has. I can firmly say that Nioh 2 is truly the most autistic action game ever made. I love it.

 

[cruel]

I've already beaten the damn cat, just wondering what worked for people. I for one could NOT see any way to beat her without counters. Also I couldn't time Feral counters to save my life. Only way I could do it was with a Brute.

Btw Dark Realms with bosses like that are fucking cruel. With the cat I relied on blocking and stamina management was a clusterfuck in the Dark Realm. Went through my entire stock of sacred water.

If you suffer in dark realm, make sure to upgrade your shifting skills related to stamina penalties in dark realm. Helps a lot.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

 

[NJClaw]

Today I learned that you can learn secret combat skills from bosses. I killed the first DLC final boss and learned the skill that lets you shoot beams out of your holy sword thingie and it can be used with any weapon (a shame that you have to equip it in one of the skill slots and I really like my spear skills to exchange them for it). Apparently this is not guaranteed to happen and only has a small chance to "drop" from the boss and you can actually learn different special weapon skills from many of the human/humanoid bosses.

There's at least one skill like this for each skill tree. I say "at least" because I'm sure that generic skill trees (shiftling and samurai) have more than one.

 

[cvv]

Needed about 15 runs at the owl. With the cat I thought "how the fuck imma fight this?" With the owl I couldn't understand how I'm having so much trouble with such a goofy boss. Then I realized I ran out of my elixir stock in the first two tries so I had only the default 4. Brutal, especially in this fight.

For comparison, all the human mobs, minibosses and bosses have been a total joke so far. Especially the two main bosses, jesus, first-tried both. Compared to the unstoppable terminators in the N1 DLCs this is breeze. But I'm sure the game will ramp up hoomans too.

 

[Wunderbar]

if you suffer in dark realm, make sure to upgrade your shifting skills related to stamina penalties in dark realm. Helps a lot.

do they really help?

tbh according to their respective descriptions, a lot of passive skills are useless (i mean not just shiftling, but passive skills in general). +3% to grappling attacks, -5% damage taken when your health is 30% or lower, -5% ki regeneration penalty while in dark realm, etc. Reads like some sawyeristic garbage, so I don't know whether they are helpful or not.

The ones that let you dispel yokai puddles with yokai skills are pretty good tho.

 

[Filthy Sauce]

do they really help?

tbh according to their respective descriptions, a lot of passive skills are useless (i mean not just shiftling, but passive skills in general). +3% to grappling attacks, -5% damage taken when your health is 30% or lower, -5% ki regeneration penalty while in dark realm, etc. Reads like some sawyeristic garbage, so I don't know whether they are helpful or not.

The ones that let you dispel yokai puddles with yokai skills are pretty good tho.

You can get 15% penelty reduction, and yes it's worth it.

As far as your criticism goes, The nioh games are part arpg at it's core. And just like all arpgs like Diablo, titan quest, grim dawn, torchlight.etc, (some) advancement is gained in small increments. It may be worthless by it's self, but your stacking dozens of turds to make the motherload.

 

[NJClaw]

Then I realized I ran out of my elixir stock in the first two tries so I had only the default 4.

In the Kodama Bazaar you can set the option to automatically restock elixirs when you run out of them. You buy them with divine rice, and you should be swimming in that shit, especially if you're using the birdy spirit. To avoid running out in the first place, you should try to collect all the little kodama, so tempering the Kodama Sensor property on one of your accessories is a good idea (or just use Tengen Kujaku when you unlock him). Then once in a while you should offer all your unused equipment to the shrine, and you will gain tons of elixirs and amrita (doing that just once per main area, I've been sitting on max elixirs for the entire late game). Lastly, try to use alternative sources of healing, like collecting soul cores and the various life drain properties (on melee kill and onmyo hit are my favorites).