Nioh 2

[AngryGazelle]

Bought this on Wednesday and am hooked.

It's hard as Phil Mitchell, though.

Any of you played it?

[madhair60]

N(i)o(h)

But I do intend to. I liked what I played of the first game, and I got this in Humble Choice recently

[The Crumb]

Yes I have. Really enjoyed it once I got into the groove of what it wants from you. Twin swords and kusarigama 4 life. If you're coming from Souls, don't try and play it like that, it's quite a different beast.

I recommend getting the Ninjutsu that allows you to have an extra life.

[AngryGazelle]

The ki pulse isn't clocking with me as it should. I'm getting better at the game but still suck; often dying to basic enemies.

Any advice on how the combat flows?

[The Crumb]

The ki pulse isn't clocking with me as it should. I'm getting better at the game but still suck; often dying to basic enemies.

Any advice on how the combat flows?

There's quite a lot to it, so apologies if it's an excessive post.

The general flow of the combat is dictated by stamina - yours and the enemies'. You want to avoid yours getting depleted, and learning the timing for ki pulse definitely helps with this. It's not totally essential in the early game, and should be become more natural with time.

Enemy stamina depends on if they're human or yokai enemies. Human enemies use up stamina from actions and recover it over time like you do. If you play defensively they can nearly exhaust themselves, then you can hit them to finish off their stamina and open them for a grapple (triangle). Yokai don't spend stamina from actions, but theirs doesn't recover over time. You have to deplete their stamina by attacking them.

Which attacks deal most stamina damage depends on the weapon and stance. You also unlock specific moves for weapons designed to cause stamina damage. Basically you want to work out which attacks deal good stamina damage to open up the enemy, then use a grapple on human enemies or some high stance attacks on Yokai to deal damage when they're opened up.

This is easier said than done at the start of the game, where your options are very limited and you are frail and easy to overcommit your stamina reserves. Start by learning your basic attacks in each stance amd getting a feel for how much stamina they use. Generally low stance is good for dodging and quick attack with low stamina drain, mid is good for blocking and wide attacks for dealing with groups, and high is for your powerful hits with good range. Getting used to swapping up stances on the fly against each enemy is a big part of getting better at the combat. At a very basic level, you probably want to approach in low or medium stance while you wear down an enemy's stamina and suss out their patterns, then swap to high when you get a good opening for damage. Maybe start getting into ki pulses after you've done a few big high stance attacks.

It's a bit of a snowball effect in terms of your power level as the game progresses - once you get a handle on the mechanics and you gain some levels to improve your character and open up abilities, you can approach enemies much more confidently and control the pace of encounters. It never gets 'easy' though - enemies will always be able to drop you quickly if you're not careful.

What weapon(s) are using at the moment?

There's also the whole Yokai form, Soul cores burst counters side things but I think this post is long enough already.

[AngryGazelle]

Thanks for the reply. Not too long at all.

I rarely stance switch mid encounter, so that's something I need to work on.

I started with dual swords and a spear but am tempted to drop the duals for a single sword, and maybe even drop the spear too.

Burst counters I'm not too bad on. I probably don't use the yokai form much, but it was helpful on the first big boss.

[The Crumb]

Spear or Kusarigama are great because of the range and because they have skills you can unlock which let you trip human enemies for an instant grapple. Worth playing around in the early stages and seeing what suits your play though.

You get enough levels that you can always dabble in some magic and ninjutsu, you get some really helpful stuff from both. They recharge at shrines too.

Not sure how well the game explains this, but for every 5 kodama (little green guys) you rescue in a region , you get an extra healing use. So it's very worth tracking them down. If you find an accessory with the Kodama Sensor effect, hold onto it.

[AngryGazelle]

Thanks for the tips. I'm looking forward to having some time off work soon and absorbing myself in this one. The graphics are a bit meh but the mechanics are so good.

[AngryGazelle]

Reached a snake boss ( Yatsu No Kami) the other night and thought I best wait as it was already nearly 11 and I have work in the morning.

Can't wait to die 20 times then feel like a boss when I finally scrape a win later! The game has started to click with me a lot more, though. It is shaping up to be something special.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Nioh
He say Nioh

[AngryGazelle]

Beat the giant owl last night and it was not a hoot - bastard had me raging.

The combat is really fucking good even if it is infuriating too.

[The Crumb]

Beat the giant owl last night and it was not a hoot - bastard had me raging.

The combat is really fucking good even if it is infuriating too.

Nice one. The combat and bosses certainly tread a fine line. It's wild how quickly you can die from one or two mistakes.

What kind of build n gear are you going for?

[AngryGazelle]

I'm mainly using dual swords and I have been wearing the shinobi armour - I want to be a light as possible.

Any good gear you recommend?

[The Crumb]

I'm mainly using dual swords and I have been wearing the shinobi armour - I want to be a light as possible.

Any good gear you recommend?

Nothing too specific, I think the gear system is random enough that specific pieces will still have slightly varying effects. If you can find something that works for your play style, some of the set bonuses from wearing matching pieces are really good. Weapons with elemental effects are usually worth holding onto for a few levels.

If you can be faffed with it, the blacksmith feature that lets you transfer effects between weapons is good. You can trade out fairly useless bonuses for the more useful ones. More trivially, if you care about looks you can make one bit of gear look like another. You also want to regularly bulk disassemble your useless kit to make forging materials and stop your inventory filling up.

Have you dabbled with the ninjutsu or omyo magic stuff?

[AngryGazelle]

Pathetically, I've spent more time on the look of gear than the stats!

I've used the shuriken and kunai a little and have used some talismans (fire, lightning). I'm using a sentient weapon as that's supposed to be good?

I fought a lightning samurai last night and he was pretty spongy but I got him in four or five tries, which I was happy with. He was in a side mission, so not a main boss.

[AngryGazelle]

Have defeated a few more bosses, the last of which was Gyuki. Have beaten the last three bosses in under 10 tries, which is good for me.

Tried out the tonfa and they are awesome!