“With the latest PSSR update, Silent Hill f now delivers an even smoother gameplay experience than before,” said Konami’s production team. “Fine details – from swaying blades of grass to shadows cast across the ground – are rendered with greater clarity, deepening immersion in the fog-shrouded Japan of the 1960s.” A short new trailer highlights the difference between the current PSSR and its upgraded version with the latter pretty much eliminating any flickering.

Ninja Theory head, Dom Matthews, noted the team’s excitement to collaborate with Sony while also being impressed by “the quality of particle effects with this latest update, helping to bring key gameplay moments to life through enhanced visuals.” Remedy’s graphical technical director, Tatu Aalto, also noted how the improved image upscaling resulted in “efficient stochastic sampling without sacrificing image stability” and how it “responds quickly to visibility changes in games, keeping motion clear while improving temporal stability.” The result is even “better, more stable image quality” in Control and Alan Wake 2.

Those worried that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on consoles would never fully depict the beauty of its characters’ hairstyles should also rejoice. Director Naoki Hamaguchi notes how “fine details such as character’s hair are naturally restored.” Of course, “less flickering and afterimage feeling” is also a bonus. You can also expect sharper edges for wildlife scenery in Nioh 3, whether it’s foliage or various flowers.

And while Capcom didn’t provide any additional comments on the technology, it will be available for Monster Hunter Wilds and Dragon’s Dogma 2. Resident Evil Requiem was the first title that leveraged Upgraded PSSR, and the results have been quite stunning thus far. Stay tuned for more details on other titles that will implement it in the coming weeks.

“Nioh 3 is a great game, but it’s not perfect,” said Yasuda. “I think there are a lot of things that we could improve upon. We want to take that knowledge that we gained with Nioh 3 and open-field elements and to be able to work on that, and hopefully incorporate and improve upon that in future titles as well.”

Further in the interview, Yasuda discussed some of the improvements that could be made to Nioh 3 going forward. Yasuda spoke about the game’s narrative and environmental storytelling as being particular vectors for improvement. While he acknowledged that the game’s density and immersion are well done when it comes to telling the world’s story, the studio wants to go into deeper details about the yokai. He wants the Nioh franchise to be more about just going to a place to beat some yokai and getting new loot.

“While we were successful with the immersion as well as the density of the game itself, I think in terms of being able to convey a lot more about the world, the narrative element, I think we could improve upon that,” he explained. “As well as the artistic elements, to give it a more distinctive look. Really understand why the yokai, or why that particular yokai, is in that environment. And why does that environment look like that? I think we could have done a lot more to really convey that aspect.”

“It’s not just a game where you sort of go in there, defeat the yokai, obtain the equipment or items in that area. There’s a little bit more to the narrative that we could have added. And I think that’s what we can see in some other titles that really give more to that experience as well. So that’s something that we saw that we could improve upon, and something that we do hope to do more in the future.”

Producer Kohei Shibata, on the other hand, believes that the studio could have done better with the variety of enemies it presents throughout its world. He noted that the studio tried to bring in brand new enemies based on Japanese folklore, as well as yokai that had popped up in previous Nioh titles. When it comes to variety, however, he said that “we do hear the criticism.”

“We are aware of the criticism on this,” he said. “In terms of how we respond to that, I think, with the yokai, these are creatures that have existed, in Japanese folklore, even before wild animals, even before humans had existed. These are creatures that existed much earlier. There is that element, that they appear as things that have been here in Japan before. We also wanted to incorporate some of the enemies that were in previous games, and we tried to make sure that there was a lot more variety to the battles against them so they didn’t feel repetitive.”

“But some people might have felt that there was a little bit of variety lacking there. So we do hear the criticism, and we do hope that, if there’s future titles, we can improve upon this. We would like to take that opportunity to look into that and see what we can do better.”

Nioh 3 is available on PC and PS5. For more details, check out our review. Also take a look at our thoughts on how it stacks up against FromSoftware’s Elden Ring.

This Nioh 3 guide is an exhaustive list of every boss to be beaten in the game, their locations and eras, along with some basic tactics to do so. Note that you will encounter some bosses in multiple distinct eras and locations, but their attacks and your counter tactics will usually remain the same, with a few exceptions such as Hattori Hanzo.

Those are all 81 known bosses in Nioh 3 with the eras and locations they are encountered in, as well as the recommended tactics to defeat them.

An accolades trailer has been released to celebrate this milestone, and you can also check out our review – we gave it a nine out of ten, praising Nioh 3’s open field levels, combat system, and boss battles. As a reminder, Nioh 2 sold over a million units in a few days, having launched on March 12th in Japan and March 13th worldwide on PS5. Koei Tecmo hasn’t provided a time frame for the sequel’s sales.

Of course, there’s more to come for hardcore fans of the hack-and-slash, Yokai-slaying title. Team Ninja has yet to outline what its free updates will include, but two paid DLC are in the works: Hell Rising and Bloody Insurrection. The former launches in September, while the latter is available in February 2027.

Both add new stories, enemies, loot, and bosses, and if they follow Team Ninja’s traditions with the series, you can expect higher difficulty levels, new endgame activities and fresh weapon types.

Grand Theft Auto 6

Rockstar’s upcoming return to Vice City is easily the biggest open-world release on the horizon, and the perfect candidate to start off the list. Grand Theft Auto 6 promises a living, breathing world packed with dynamic NPC routines, reactive law enforcement, and an unprecedented level of environmental detail. The dual protagonists inspired by the adventures of Bonnie and Clyde look to be a promising storyline filled with several emotional moments. Of course, missions, side activities, and emergent mayhem are also important pillars of the experience – so we are definitely looking forward to this one.

Interestingly, China constituted the largest number of players on both platforms at 48.7 percent. That number rises to nearly two-thirds of all players when Japan and Taiwan are included. A healthy chunk of Nioh 2 players showed up for the sequel with 66.6 percent on Steam and 69 percent on PlayStation.

However, over 80 percent players had previously delved into Elden Ring on Steam. Black Myth: Wukong fans were also out in force, with about 71.3 percent of Nioh 3 players having experienced Game Science’s action RPG on the platform.

In terms of overall sales, it’s a stronger start than Nioh 1’s one million-plus sales in two weeks. However, it’s trailing Nioh 2, which sold the same in just two days (and without a PC release). You have to wonder if the $70 price point had an impact, but these are only estimates. Koei Tecmo has yet to provide official sales figures.

For more details on Nioh 3, check out our review. You can also see how its open field design matches up to Elden Ring’s open world here.

Nioh 3 is the result of several titles that did very exciting things with the Soulslike concept, and is a culmination of Team Ninja’s journey over two past entries and a couple of other great titles.

They’re both giants in their own right, with very different philosophies that govern how they interpret the combat, exploration, and general vibe of a Soulslike. They represent differing design goals that underline core aspects like how player freedom and agency can be woven into combat in a manner that gives it depth, or how difficulty and a challenge is balanced against fairness, and even in how you express your build and how that carries over to New Game Plus.

There’s no way we’re saying that either one of these masterpieces is better than the other. But we think that it’s fascinating that they both deviate and intersect with one another in important aspects of their gameplay loops. Their design goals merit closer scrutiny, and that’s exactly what we’re setting out to do. Let’s get started!

Clear Visions, Forward-Thinking Directions

While Nioh 3 takes a very clinical approach to the open-world, combat, and its take on the player agency that a Soulslike provides, Elden Ring is focused on being an experience that puts you right at the center of an epic tale.

The story in Nioh 3 is there, but it isn’t where Team Ninja has focused its efforts, existing to give you an excuse to do battle across time periods which almost feel like a logical extension of the Spirit Stones’ utility after the first two games. Team Ninja, however, isn’t trying to tell a good story in Nioh 3, aiming to bring a combat-focused game to a region-based progression system that improves on the mission-based one in its previous Nioh games.

The focus on creating builds that suit you, and unleashing your best moves after a lot of practice, potential min/maxing, and a lot of grinding to gain mastery over your chosen weapons. You could choose to ditch your build entirely, with no costs associated with doing so. Nioh 3 is all about the action, and unabashedly so, and it’s a choice that works well for the experience it is trying to be.

Elden Ring, on the other hand, was targeting a different gameplay loop, with a sense of discovery underlining a player-authored adventure. Yes, it does have a lot of build-freedom and multiple options to suit your playstyle but switching things up midway does come at the cost of a Larval Tear, a fairly rare item with a limited number being present in each playthrough. Its story backs all of that up while giving the game a distinct identity, going for a fantasy-adventure vibe instead of Nioh 3’s mythology-driven approach.

But where both games come together is in their pacing, with an exploration-driven focus on allowing your character to gradually grow more powerful and take on more dangerous regions of their maps. They’re both Souslikes in that regard, but their priorities differ wildly enough to make them very different experiences in terms of their combat and gameplay.

Similar Fights, Different Techniques

As far as combat is concerned, it’s a good idea to see where the two titles intersect in terms of how fights are structured before we examine how they vary. They’re both challenging games in their own right, and you’re going to find that out within an hour in either ancient Japan or The Lands Between.

That’s true for both the grunt enemy and boss designs in both titles, as they come with well-telegraphed, readable animations, and openings that you’re meant to exploit as well as you can after considering the situation in a matter of microseconds. That’s a very specific vibe that Soulslikes bring to the table and is almost a given in any title that now enters the genre.

But then you see the differences in pacing and the tools you’re given to do damage in each game. Nioh 3 frankly brings a whole array of systems to the table to better support its faster pacing and a more aggressive playstyle for your character. Deflections are now a thing for the Samurai style, adding on to Ki pulses, stances, and Onmyo magic that can either summon yokai or use spells.

Couple that with the evasive Ninja style and you see a combat experience that has you constantly on the move, seeking an advantage against foes that hit hard and hit fast. It’s pressure-heavy to the point where every fight feels like you’re freestyling a very complex and nuanced dance, and once you get good enough, the consistency of your wins is a reward in and of itself.

Come over to Elden Ring and things are a tad more slow-paced although you’re always in danger of being summarily dispatched towards the nearest Site of Grace. Enemies, especially bosses, come at you with long combos with delayed strikes that vary their timing, requiring a more methodical approach and solid positional awareness for you to exploit openings that they provide.

The timing of each attack, dodge, and counterattack is more deliberate, and you’re meant to recover stamina the old fashioned way without opportunities to quickly regain it in the heat of battle. While you could argue that stamina isn’t an infinite resource in Nioh 3, and with good reason, it’s a lot more precious in Elden Ring thanks to the fact that you don’t get to pulse back chunks of it right after a combo.

But Elden Ring has its own tricks up its sleeve, with the Ashes of War, spells, a hidden poise system, and a focus on moveset mastery to let your Tarnished take on even the most fearsome of foes. Its combat is about spectacle, and a sort of push and pull in which you’re almost always the underdog until you see more of the world it presents and begin to give your Tarnished a distinct identity. Nioh 3 gives you everything you need to dominate its early game and trusts you to make the most of it, in comparison.

And that brings us to an aspect of the experience that is both crucial, and one in which the intersectionality and divergence between these distinct design philosophies begin to be more prominent. And that’s the open-world and their respective approaches to it.

Encouraging Exploration

From the very outset, Nioh 3’s version of Japan stands out in contrast to The Lands Between. The spaces are tighter, and getting from point A to point B is distinctly faster thanks to the Gale Sprint, and perhaps even the fact that you’re travelling on foot instead of a horse. The semi-open level designs are structured around a density of activities packed tightly in every region, and each of them leads back to combat in some way.

That helps with tying the world neatly to your character’s progression, and the approach to loot helps with that. You’re meant to keep updating your Samurai’s and Ninja’s loadouts, trying new combinations to create synergies between your gear, weapons, and stat investments. You’re meant to try and squeeze out as much damage as you can from your build, and exploring the world to make that happen is the way to go.

It’s more like a build-engineering system that’s backed by the exploration loop, the two of them working in tandem to keep you constantly trying out new builds or ideas, or even changing things up entirely if the situation demands it.

In Elden Ring, it’s more about forming an identity for your build, directing your take on the Tarnished in a way that encourages planning your stat spread early for the type of weapons and gear you’re looking at. Are you going to channel your Strength and deal devastating blows to your enemies while tanking their attacks? Or do you prefer a more agile approach, weaving in and out of enemy combos while dealing damage with quick slashes or stabs, or perhaps staying away and using your spells? All of it is viable, and any approach still results in a potent character.

However, new weapons, spells, Ashes of War, and gear are not dropped all over the place. They’re earned in a design choice that ties in to the game’s exploration loop just like Nioh 3, but diverges from it by encouraging a more calculated approach to the open-world. It helps that a plethora of side quest chains and hidden events constantly underscore The Lands Between, encouraging you to take as much of it in as you can with every session of play.

Elden Ring also has The Shadow of the Erdtree, a DLC that feels like a whole game all on its own. It’s going to be interesting to see what Nioh 3 does on that front. But both games do have an excellent replay value in common, with New Game Plus being almost a requirement for players who want to actually enjoy the characters they’ve invested a lot of time in building. Elden Ring a more sprawling, larger map that encourages you to explore it, yes, but for a set of reasons entirely different from Nioh 3.

Where Elden Ring is about an adventure that is built around a sense of wonder, Nioh 3 is one that’s built around a sense of constant danger, and a need for vigilant responses to threats that come at you. And yet, both their gameplay loops drive you towards a throne.

A Shared Crown

Elden Ring and Nioh 3 are excellent at probably the best titles to represent the distinct ambitions they bring to the table. As an adventure myth, Elden Ring places a spotlight on rewarding discovery, weaving in a sense of awe and adventure into its world that’s reflected in the spectacle of the battles you fight in it.

Nioh 3 takes a more combat focused approach, constantly keeping its players engaged through a more technical approach to combat that can get very addictive, very fast. It’s about taking down anyone getting in the way of your rise to the Shogunate with brutal efficiency and stylish grace.

Nioh 3 is sort of a combat laboratory, where you’re constantly looking for ways to tackle its new world design via experimentation and exploration. Elden Ring, on the other hand, is about an adventure that’s uniquely your’s, discovery-driven rewards and a sense of wonder woven into a story and gameplay loop that can have you thinking about it long after you leave The Lands Between.

And yet, despite their differences, the main thing that they share in common is that they’re both excellent titles, and brilliant showcases of what a good studio can do with the Soulslike formula.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

This guide for Nioh 3 is all about earning souls as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Repsawn Point Reset

The simplest method to amass souls is to simply farm enemies in the vicinity of any given Respawn point. Plot a route that takes you through as many enemies in the surrounding area as possible, in the shortest amount of time, and then fast travel right back to the Respawn point in order to respawn them and do it all over again.

Battle Scroll

Later in the game, certain side missions can be replayed ad nauseum using the Battle Scroll option. Boss completion is not necessary for farming the souls you are seeking, though it does provide a significant bonus if you can do it efficiently.

Instead, simply fast travel to the respawn point at the beginning of the Battle Scroll in order to reset and repeat the run. Sometimes the run can be as short as the nearest mid to high-level enemy you can encounter, rather than a full gauntlet of low-level enemies.

Equipment Bonuses

Be sure to hold on to any equipment that grants you bonuses to souls, so that you can then equip them specifically for souls farming runs. These particular Special Effects are listed as ‘souls Earned’ or ‘Gain souls’ alongside either a percentage or a flat bonus.

Trade

Trade in all of your excess equipment, and receive souls in return. You will be looting a great deal of weapons and armor, most of which will soon be made defunct by something better, so keep trading up and earning souls for your efforts.

Items with higher Familiarity will earn more souls as well.

Be sure to turn on Item Auto Pick-Up to avoid having to mash buttons in order to recover loot, saving both time and effort.

Skill Bonuses

Certain Skills such as ‘Vital Spirit’ confer passive bonuses of extra souls for defeating enemies. This secret skill in particular offers a 4% bonus and can be found inside a chest atop a wooden lookout platform on the edge of the Enemy Base. This base is situated north of the Prospect Hill respawn point. Once acquired, fast travel back to a respawn point to learn it via Skill Management.

Clan Pledge Bonuses

When you finally get the opportunity to make a pledge to a clan, the Toyotomi clan in particular offers a 5% bonus to all souls earned. This will add up massively when grinding specifically for souls on farming runs.

Do Not Hoard souls

Since respec is both free and easy via the Reset button on the Level Up screen, be sure to spend souls as often as possible, rather than hoarding it. This is to avoid losing large amounts of souls in the event of your death. While you can always recover lost souls, it does carry with it the potential risk of dying yet again to whatever killed you the first time.

Those are all the tips and tricks you can use to farm souls and level up quickly in Nioh 3.

It can get pretty daunting to try and survive the brutal landscape you’re trying to navigate, with enemy soldiers and yokai waiting to take you on nearly every step of the way. However, take heart! We’ve put in the hours and have come up with a few things that the game doesn’t really tell you to prioritize, but you should thanks to how easy they can make your time with it.

Let’s dive in!

1. Master Your Burst Counters

Every enemy in Nioh 3 has one or more Burst Attacks in their arsenal. These are telegraphed with a red glow and an audible cue to show an impending attack. You can’t block these attacks, and while you can dodge them, countering them with a well timed Burst Counter can negate the attack and do a sizable amount of Ki damage in the process.

Try to learn the timings of these attacks when you encounter an unfamiliar enemy or boss to gain the upper hand every time they try to hit you with one of these. It’s tricky, yes, but all it takes is patience and practice.

2. Learn Enemy Attack Animations

Combat in Nioh 3 is all about finesse, and patiently wearing down your opponent’s defences with caution and deadly precision. To that end, it pays to hang back and observe an enemy’s attack patterns. That’s doubly so for the game’s bosses as they hit hard and rarely offer you any respite with their onslaughts of attacks.

Knowing your foe’s attack patterns goes a long way towards giving you the scope to formulate a strategy to take them down. Early bosses in the game have a fixed set of patterns that you can learn to make them far easier to take down, exploiting every tiny opening to your advantage. They’re a stepping stone to harder encounters so take your time with them.

3. Master Ki Management

While it’s important to manage your own Ki (or stamina) in this game, it’s equally important to keep up a constant flow of attacks against your enemies to drain them of their Ki. As long as you’re patient and unrelenting in your offence, you’ll find that they get exhausted a lot faster, allowing you to deliver a blow for some massive damage.

The Ninja style is a great way to keep up the assault even if you’re forced to withdraw from enemy attacks. The Samurai style’s Parry is another great way to achieve this, as each one does a significant amount of Ki damage.

4. Don’t Sleep On The Samurai’s Stances

It can be easy to overlook that the Samurai style brings back the stances from Nioh 2, and they’re every bit as effective as they were in that one. While you begin the game with Mid stance unlocked, It’s a good idea to invest a few skill points into the Low and High stances as quickly as you can.

The High stance gives you a good way to deal a bit of extra damage with your combos while the Low stance is a great way to attempt draining enemy Ki bars. Constantly switching between them and using Ninja style when you create some distance can have you draining enemy Ki bars a lot faster than the effort would otherwise take.

5. Explore, Explore

The main missions, or Crucibles as they’re called, are gauntlets that can send you packing to the nearest respawn point faster than you’d care to admit. But explore the area in which they’re located, and you’re going to come across a lot of ways to level up your character and have an easier time of things once you’re in them.

You could happen upon an Enemy Base with a few grunts to take out for some valuable XP and guaranteed loot. Or you might happen upon a Lesser Crucible that’s going to be challenging but definitely worth it.

6. Check the Recommended Level Of An Area Before You Explore It

Nioh 3’s map is massive, there’s no denying it. But the developers have divided it up into smaller chunks, each of which comes with a recommended level which you can view on the map screen. It’s a good idea to keep track of your character’s level and try to explore areas that are either close to it or slightly above it to gain XP efficiently as you explore.

Of course, you could always level up above the recommended limit via farming and then go on an absolute power trip through the region. We tried it and it’s a lot of fun!

7. Abuse Your Ninja Style

As you explore, you’re going to come across grunt enemies hanging out on rooftops or in the air, staying just out of your reach while annoying you with projectiles. The Ninja Style is your answer to all of them as it lets you stay at range and take them down without too much hassle.

But it’s more than that. You soon gain access to elemental bombs with AoE damage that can be quite handy in taking down groups of fodder enemies like the Gaki. They’re also quite effective at building elemental status effects and exploiting any enemy weaknesses you may find. It’s also a great way to create distance in battle, its evasive capabilities getting a massive boost with a few early upgrades.

8. Complete Enemy Camps ASAP

We highly recommend completing Enemy Camps as soon as you uncover them, as they’re generally easier than Lesser Crucibles, and often house either Samurai or Ninja Locks, both of which are essential to upgrade their respective skill trees. There’s also a strong chance that you can pick up new skills that you can then equip to your character at the nearest respawn point.

With the game’s new stealth options, it’s going to be quite easy to pick off a few isolated enemies before challenging the others if you’re looking to even the odds a little. Take things slow and you’re golden.

9. Activate Auto Pickup

Like past titles in the franchise, Nioh 3 comes with a ton of loot from enemies and chests that you find out in the world. It can get quite tedious to keep having to pick them up one by one but thankfully, the game’s settings come with a nifty auto-pick up option. Turn it on before you begin your playthrough and let your inventory fill itself with useful items and gear which you can then browse at your leisure.

Just remember to keep checking your equipment and ensuring your Samurai and Ninja Styles are geared up to maximize their damage, defense, and passive utility while you’re slashing and hacking away at any yokai unfortunate enough to meet the pointy end of your blade.

10. Time your Ki Pulses 

Speaking of slashing and hacking, the Ki Pulse mechanic doesn’t tell you to wait before triggering the Ki Pulse. Keep an eye on your Stamina gauge and hit the button only when your expended stamina is fully white to generate the entire chunk of it back in one fell swoop.

The timing on each weapon type can vary but it’s going to become second nature once you get the rhythm of your combos committed to muscle memory. Managing your Ki well could mean the difference between life and death in Nioh 3, and your Ki pulses are a huge part of that aspect of its combat.

11. Use The Ninja Right

The Ninja is a masterclass in chipping away at your enemies from a distance, but don’t neglect its ability to dish out some serious damage in close quarters. Its boosted evade abilities are perfect for dodging through enemy swings and exploiting the increased damage that the Ninja deals when attacking them from behind.

We found enemy health bars melting away faster than even the Samurai’s high stance could achieve and getting back into position is as easy as a well timed dodge guided in the right direction. It’s also a good idea to use all of the Ninjutsu in your arsenal before you switch over to the Samurai style for a few hits to refill them before you rinse and repeat.

12. Use Your Ranged Weapons Right

The Longbow and Matchlock Rifle are great options for dealing with foes from a distance as long as you line up your shots well. Take your distance from an enemy into account and try to approach them unseen before letting loose an arrow or bullet to their head. This can one-hit kill fodder enemies who don’t have a helmet on, and might even work on some who do have one depending on your level.

They’re also great options for taking out weak points on yokai, significantly draining their Ki before they even know you’re there. It could also open up an opportunity for a Killing Blow if things play out well.

13. Pick A Couple Of Favorite Weapons

There are a lot of skills for each weapon type in the game. And we mean a lot! You’re going to want to pick a couple of favorites and slot them in for your Samurai and Ninja and stick with them, as this lets you focus all your skill points on two weapons, gaining access to more powerful moves and techniques earlier in comparison to trying to unlock them all.

Your skill points aren’t infinite, especially in the early game, and this lets you focus on a playstyle that suits your preferences before you begin to branch out and experiment. You’re going to want to try maximizing your familiarity with the ones you do use, as this improves their damage output by a long shot. Just stay the course with the weapon you like and you’re going to find that you build familiarity with it fairly quickly.

14. Be Smart About Your Stats

While the open-world does make level farming a tad more convenient in Nioh 3, you’re still going to want to be clever about where you invest your stat points. We recommend picking weapon types that rely on either Strength or Skill, assigning them to your Samurai and Ninja slots and focusing on the stat that gives them a damage boost. Constitution, Heart, and Stamina are the other three stats you should go for while Magic and Intelligence are for those of you who prefer to use spells over blades.

That’s going to be quite the boon in difficult areas where the enemies you face hit harder and take less damage.

15. Pick Your Revenants Wisely

Bloody Graves are a great way to get your hands on some cool loot and some much-needed Ochoko Cups which you will need to summon help during tough encounters at Lesser Crucibles or boss fights. But if you pay attention to the Revenant’s levels, you’re going to be efficient at farming great gear, as fighting ones at your level or a tad higher nets better loot for you to use in the field.

Better loot means more durability and damage, both of which are almost necessary for survival in the harsh world that Nioh 3 puts you in.

And that’s a wrap on our hidden tricks to make your time in ancient Japan a tad easier. The title of Shogun is going to be easier to obtain as you make your way across your kingdom. And rest assured, we’re going to be at your side every step of the way once you begin your journey.

This guide is all about raising weapon Familiarity, and how to do it quickly, in Nioh 3.

How To Raise Weapon Familiarity

The Familiarity meter is located directly beneath the weapon name in the center of the screen when viewing your Equipment. Starting out a zero, you can fill the gauge by simply attacking enemies and dealing damage, not necessarily killing them outright. As such, it may be ideal for you to identify a particularly high HP enemy that you can use to farm weapon Familiarity, rather than slicing and dicing your way through many low-level mobs, which would force you to waste time travelling the map in search of further targets.

The Battle Scroll will be a great resource for farming Familiarity for each of your weapons.

Why Raise Weapon Familiarity

Aside from keeping the statistics of the weapon almost on par with newer equipment for a while at least, raising Familiarity also increases its souls exchange value. Filling the Familiarity gauge is unnecessary, as just 5% of the bar is enough to drastically increase Amrita value.

You can observe this for yourself from the Offer menu: while at zero Familiarity for a given weapon, note the ‘Amrita Earned’ value in the lower-right corner. Next, deal some damage to enemies until Familiarity is about 5-10% of the maximum amount displayed. Check the souls earned value again. It will be significantly higher.

Continuing to level up the weapon beyond that point does not seem to impact Amrita Earned value enough to make it worth your time and effort, though unlocking the Crucible Art from a full Familiarity meter would be.

In fact, that is one major reason to maximize the Familiarity for weapons that you do not necessarily intend on holding on to for the long haul. While only Crucible weapons have locked Crucible Arts, once you have unlocked it, you can dispose of the weapon if you wish, and find the Art itself under Customize Martial Arts. This allows you to then use the Crucible Art with any weapon of the same type.

That is everything about farming weapon Familiarity and the benefits from doing so, in Nioh 3.