Nioh 3 Beginner Guide: Your First 10 Hours Made Simple

I died 17 times to the tutorial boss. Seventeen. And I've beaten every Souls game twice.

So if you just booted up Nioh 3 on your PS5 or PC and you're getting shredded by the first Yokai you meet, you're not bad at the game. The game is just that hostile for the first few hours. Team Ninja's tutorial honestly explains maybe 40% of what you actually need to know. The rest you learn by dying. Or by reading guides like this one.

Forget Everything Nioh 2 Taught You About Stances

The biggest trap for returning players is muscle memory. Nioh 3 introduces dual combat style switching, and it completely changes how you approach every fight. You pick between two styles: Samurai and Shinobi. Samurai is the traditional Nioh feel, high/mid/low stance switching, precise ki pulse timing, and a block that actually works. Shinobi is faster, built around aerial combos, and trades the block for a dodge that covers way more distance.

You can swap between them mid-combat with a single button press. I didn't learn this until hour 8. Don't be me.

Here's the thing, I mean, nobody tells you: you don't need to master both. I spent my first playthrough, you know, almost exclusively in Samurai mode and only switched to Shinobi for traversal and for one specific boss in the Heian era that has an aerial phase. The game won't punish you for picking a favorite. What matters is that you commit to learning one deeply rather than being mediocre at both.

Pick Your First Guardian Spirit Based on Personality, Not Stats

The Guardian Spirit system returns from Nioh 2 but with more flexibility. You'll get Kusanagi, the grass-cutting sword spirit, as your first major Guardian. It ties directly into the time-travel narrative (Takechiyo uses it to jump between the Sengoku, Heian, Bakumatsu, and Edo periods).

Early on you'll also unlock secondary spirits. The Onibi fox spirit gives you a fire buff that melts through Yokai armor. The turtle spirit, Genbu, reduces damage taken by a noticeable chunk. My pick for a first playthrough: stick with Kusanagi for the story missions, then swap to the lightning bird spirit whenever you hit a boss you've died to more than five times. The lightning debuff slows enemy attacks, which gives you more time to read patterns.

Soul Cores drop from defeated Yokai and slot into your Yin-Yang Box, which is basically a second equipment menu. Each core gives you one Yokai ability you can fire off when your Anima gauge fills. The one you want early is the Yoki core, the horned red demon from the first real mission. Its charge attack breaks enemy guard instantly. I used it all the way through the Edo chapter.

Open Areas Changed Everything, So Stop Playing It Linear

Nioh 3 ditches the mission-select structure from Nioh 1 and 2 for open region exploration. Each time period has a large map with strongholds, side mythic quests, enemy camps, and hidden shrines. The game still gates some areas behind story progress, but you have way more freedom to wander into trouble.

The radar on your HUD shows undiscovered points of interest as tiny question marks, among other things. Follow them. I ignored them for the first six missions thinking they were filler, then went back and found a full set of medium armor that carried me through three bosses. A lot of the side mythic quests are basically mini-dungeons with unique boss encounters, and they drop crafting materials you can't get anywhere else.

Enemy camps respawn when you rest at a shrine. Use the one near the blacksmith in the Sengoku hub area to farm the first few camps repeatedly. Each clear gives you gold, Amrita, and a chance at weapon drops with transferable skills. Do this for an hour and you'll walk into the second main mission massively over-leveled.

The One Combat Habit That Will Save You

Stop dodging backward. I know it feels safe. It's actually the worst thing you can do in Nioh 3 because most Yokai have forward-lunging combos that track your backstep. Dodge through attacks instead, using the generous invincibility frames. Forward, diagonal, to the side. Anything but straight back.

Ki pulse timing is more generous in Nioh 3 than previous games, but the game still doesn't explain that a perfect ki pulse purifies Yokai corruption pools left on the ground. These pools slow your ki recovery and buff nearby enemies. If you see dark purple goo on the ground after a Yokai attack, a well-timed ki pulse clears it. This mechanic alone saved me from dying to at least three bosses that keep spawning corruption fields.

The Yokai Shift transformation from Nioh 2 is gone. In its place is the Crucible system, which is unlocked in the endgame but has echoes throughout the main story. When you're in a tight spot against a boss, use your Yin-Yang Box's charged ability, not your basic Yokai attack. The charged version has iframes on startup and usually staggers the boss long enough to heal.

Don't be ashamed to summon help. The 3-player Expedition mode is available from the start for most story missions. Bloody Graves on the ground are player death markers just like previous games, but Nioh 3 adds Bloodedge Demons, which are AI-controlled phantoms of other players that assist you for a limited time. Summon one before any boss fight. Nobody's grading you on purity.

Your first 10 hours in Nioh 3 will be rough. The game doesn't hold your hand and the dual style system has a real learning curve. But once you find your rhythm with a Guardian Spirit you like and a combat style that clicks, it's the most satisfying action RPG Team Ninja has ever made.

Oh, and if you're coming from Elden Ring or Dark Souls, unlearn the panic roll. Nioh 3's dodge covers less distance than those games and has a smaller invincibility window. The block button exists for a reason. I blocked maybe twice in my first 30 hours because Souls muscle memory made me dodge everything. Once I started blocking the first hit of a combo and dodging the follow-up, my death rate dropped by more than half. The game is designed for you to block. Use it.

Just. Don't. Dodge. Backward.