Characters / Nioh Main Characters

Nioh/Nioh 2 Main Character Index
Main Characters | Guardian Spirits | Other Characters | DLC Characters | Enemies and Bosses

Nioh

William Adams

William Adams

Voiced by: Ben Peel

An Irish-born English sailor, William lost his parents in an unknown conflict when he was a child, which also took his life, until the Guardian Spirit Saoirse resurrected him. Thanks to Saoirse's ability to find Amrita, William was able to find the powerful spirit stones, making him an invaluable privateer by the English government. When he stumbled upon a secret military project by the English to weaponize Amrita in their war against Spain, William is imprisoned in the Tower of London, awaiting his execution. His escape with Saoirse serves as the start of Nioh.

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• Adaptational Nationality: The historical William Adams was English, but the Nioh version is Irish. Nioh 2's biography now states that he's English, but the character still has Ben Peel's Irish accent.
• Babies Ever After: At the end of Nioh 2, it is revealed that he's settled down with Okatsu and had a son with her. The child has inherited his mother's Guardian Spirit.
• Bilingual Dialogue: Zigzagged — he can understand Saoirse, who speaks Irish Gaelic (given William is Irish himself in Nioh). Also, when he meets Nekomata, he's granted the ability to speak and understand Japanese when it possesses him, but played with when it's implied his Japanese isn't entirely spot on. Lampshaded by Tachibana Muneshige in the post-mission dialogue for their duel, who states his use of their language is crude. It's also reflected in the proper audio; we still hear William primarily speak in English even if others around him speak in Japanese.
• Childhood Friends: Saoirse's been William's Guardian Spirit since he was a child, though the in-game encyclopedia suggests their bond is more than mere friendship.
• Death Faked for You: At the end of the game, William convinces Hattori Hanzo to report to Tokugawa Ieyasu that he's Killed Off for Real, knowing the Ninja is sent by his master to assassinate him after completing his quest, wishing to live the rest of his life in relative obscurity - away from the eyes of those who'd further seek to exploit him and Saoirse for their own ends.
• Determinator: Nothing will stop this man from rescuing Saoirse, not even Yōkai.
• Fighting Irish: He's an Irishman who can go toe to toe with some of the mightiest warriors and monsters in Japan and win.
• Guardian Entity: William can equip upwards to twenty Guardian Spirits that will provide him with active and passive benefits. This impresses the various characters he meets, and probably plays a role in Okatsu falling in love with him.
• Heroic Build: William's introduction shows him in nothing but underwear, showcasing how incredibly jacked he is.
• I Choose to Stay: After all the fighting is finally over, William comes to the conclusion that others will inevitably come seeking Amrita in Japan. He decides to stay and protect the country from the shadows along with Hanzo whose probably his only mortal friend in the world.
• I Know Mortal Kombat: Played with - although William learns basic weapon techniques from a book he finds aboard the Liefde during his journey to Japan, advanced abilities and skills from the skill tree can only be acquired by completing training regiments in the dojo learned from Hanzo, Narume Nagayoshi, Fuku, Yagyu Sekishusai, and Hozoin Inei.
• In-Universe Nickname: Kuroda Kanbei suggests the Japanese name "Anjin" ("pilot") for William, a reference to him being a seafarer. The historical William Adams was given the name "Miura Anjin" when he became one of the Shogun's top advisers.
• Magic Compass: Left behind by Saoirse, this guides William to her location in Japan. After killing Edward Kelley, the compass points him back to London for him to confront Sir John Dee; once defeated, the compass stops working, signaling William is free to pursue his own destiny rather than be guided by one (though he winds up returning to Japan of his own volition.
• Magic Knight: He is a Samurai who can draw upon ki, channel the power of a Guardian Spirit into his weapons, and uses ninjutsu and Onmyōdō magic. For bonus points, he can acquire European plate armor and weaponry in the prologue level and in the last story mission.
• The Musketeer: As well as being able to use a variety of melee weapons, he can also use ranged weapons such as bows, hand cannons and musket rifles.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: Initially, William only joined Ieyasu’s side to get closer to finding Saoirse. It wasn’t until the Battle of Sekigahara, upon gaining Ieyasu’s Guardian Spirit via spirit division and seeing just how dedicated he was to bringing peace throughout Japan, did William wholly join his cause. His dialogue with Yasuke after their fight lampshades this:
  William: I have met men who have fought, struggled, and died to create a world without war. Where people and spirits can coexist in harmony. I fight for them.
• Pet the Dog: Whenever he finds a kodama and the player selects "Guide back to shrine", the way William kneels over and talks to them makes it appear as if he's gently talking to a small child.
• Power Copying: William often gains new Guardian Spirits from those he defeats.
• Previous Player-Character Cameo: Returns in the sequel as the penultimate boss fight, and as an NPC ally for post-game content.
• The Quiet One: Despite being able to be understood by the locals via Translator Microbes, as well as understanding the Japanese language, William doesn't usually speak unless it's important to the plot.
• Resurrective Immortality: Justified; as per Saoirse's own words, so long as she exists, William can come Back from the Dead.
• Roaring Rampage of Rescue: His mission is to save Saoirse, his original Guardian Spirit, from Edward Kelley.
• Spell Blade:
  • Using onmyōdō amulets imbues William's equipped weapon with the elemental powers of earth, fire, lightning, water or wind.
  • Channelling a Guardian Spirit's power into a "Living Weapon" also causes said weapon to be wreathed in the Guardian Spirit's elemental power.
• Stock Ninja Weaponry: The kusari-gama is one of the five (seven in the Complete Edition) primary weapons available to use, alongside ninjutsu weaponry such as explosives, kunai, shuriken and smoke bombs.
• Super Drowning Skills: When William falls into the water off the Tower of London, he's seen sinking motionless clutching one of Saoirse's feathers, and Saoirse gives her speech about the cycle of life and death and being able to revive him before he starts moving again. It can be implied that William actually DID drown, but she revived him - like she does any time he falls into water and drowns in the rest of the game, where falling into water means instant death in gameplay terms.
• Truth in Television: Played with - there was a historical European named William Adams in the 17th century, the first Caucasian Westerner to be given the title of Samurai by the Shogun^note But not the first foreigner: that goes to Yasuke, a Mozambican from the same time period, who also appears in Nioh), and the first Englishman to reach Japan. William being Irish, however, is fictional.
• Walking Armory: William can carry two melee and two ranged weapons on him at all times, in addition to various offensive items via Stock Ninja Weaponry.

Edward Kelley

Voiced by: Nicholas Boulton (English), Hiroyuki Kinoshita (Japanese)

Edward Kelley is an English alchemist. Having mastered the secret of turning lead into gold, he uses Amrita to turn humans into monsters and reanimate corpses. He has a Guardian Spirit named Uroboros and is able to disappear, disguise himself as another, and steal other people's guardian spirit to use for his own purpose. On the orders of John Dee, he stole Saoirse-who is able to detect Amrita-from William, and set out for Japan, a land full of high-quality Amrita lying fallow. He is cruel and determined, willing to do anything to achieve his goals. He thrives in the chaos of war, taking sadistic pleasure in human suffering.

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• Alchemy Is Magic: Despite his label as an alchemist, there's little actual alchemic techniques seen from Kelley in Nioh; instead, most of his sorcery is based on incantations and spell-casting.
• Artificial Human: As seen in the lower dungeons upon returning to the Tower of London, Sir John Dee grew Kelley in a laboratory, with multiple backup copies of him.
• Animal Motifs: Snakes, from his Guardian Spirit, Ouroboros, to his teleportation and transformations taking the pattern of a snake's scaly skin.
• Bald of Evil: The rare sight of him without his hood reveals that he hasn't a single strand of hair on his head.
• Dark Is Evil: Clothed entirely in black, and makes no effort whatsoever to hide his sinister, vile nature.
• Didn't Think This Through: His complicated plan to resurrect Oda Nobunaga to keep the war going falls apart completely because Kelley has no way to actually control Nobunaga once summoned, who promptly tells him to piss off and goes back to the afterlife voluntarily without complaint.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Even though he's overall a pretty despicable person, he is genuinely shocked that when he threatened to kill Ieyasu's daughter that he had hostage, Ieyasu balked at his demand and said that Okatsu meant nothing to him.
• Evil Brit: He's an imperialistic agent of the British Empire.
• Expy
  • The numerous snake motifs he has, particularly his One-Winged Angel form, hearkens to Kabuto and Orochimaru. And that's not even getting into his penchant for resurrecting powerful warriors to serve him.
  • A Bald British Evil Sorcerer with a snake-like Guardian Spirit following him at all times: are we talking about Kelley or Voldemort?.
• The Heavy: The primary antagonist of Nioh who fights William but the ending reveals he is simply an agent of Sir John Dee.
• Historical Beauty Update: Most of the cast exhibit slight improvements on their historical appearances at minimum, but Kelley is the most extreme example, going from a bearded, hunched, and decidedly weedy old man to a handsome, muscular, youthful hunk. Justified when Kelley is an Artificial Human, thus his physical traits were engineered to render him as such.
• Large Ham: Has moments of this, particularly when he's yelling.
• Master of Disguise: Played with - Kelley can magically change his appearance to whomever he wants; if it's a warrior, he can even mimick their fighting style and weapons. Demonstrated when William finds Muneshige in the Daizaifu catacombs, but Tachibana Ginchiyo sees through his disguise immediately and attacks Kelley until she spots her wounded husband. William apparently inherits the ability, both implicitly with the Hidden Teahouse's "Transform" option, and explicitly in the final stage, where he apparently impersonates a Kelley clone to re-infiltrate the Tower of London.
• Necromancer: Resurrects several historical figures who are dead by the time of Nioh such as Lady Nō and Oda Nobunaga and uses them as his pawns.
• Obviously Evil: He simply appears evil and makes no attempt to hide his vile nature.
• One-Winged Angel: Transforms into Yamata-no-Orochi, the strongest Yōkai in Japan, for the final battle in the main story.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: He's directly responsible for most of the chaos in the game with clear, red irides.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The appearance of Ouroboros; Kelley even fuses it with the Amrita to become Orochi.
• Sadist: He is ruthless, cruel and utterly delights in the slaughter he initiates.
• Squishy Wizard: Done painstakingly straight - when players finally get the chance to fight him, Kelley resorts to long-ranged magic attacks and Teleport Spam. His defense is not significantly better than previous humanoid bosses, and his Ki is so piddling that a few solid whacks to his guard will consistently break it.
• Tattooed Crook: Has multiple tattoos on his body, from his arms to his chest and head.
• Telepathy: He is able to speak Japanese via telepathic communication.
• Villainous Breakdown: After Nobunaga defies becoming his servant and returns to the afterlife by besting William in combat, Kelley decides to transform into Orochi for the Irishman to deal with. Back at Edo Castle, Kelley is incensed when Ieyasu refuses to sacrifice his life in exchange for sparing Okatsu.

Hattori Hanzo

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa

Hattori Hanzo is a ninja in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu. His real name is Masanari; "Hanzo" is a name inherited by each successive head of the ninja clan in Iga province. Although his father was known as "Hanzo the Oni", the current Hanzo has more of his father's skill as a ninja than his prowess as a military commander. He is a master of intelligence, concealement, and sabotage, and leads an army of several hundred ninja who lurk in the shadows waiting to carry out secret orders from their lord. As one of the few people in Japan with knowledge of foreign languages, Hanzo also guides the newly arrived William in his search for Kelley.

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• Bad Liar: After Kelley dies, William asks Hanzo to lie to Ieyasu about being assassinated by the Ninja as per orders from his master once Kelley is defeated; Hanzo does. However, Ieyasu Lampshades how he doesn't believe for a second Hanzo did what he asked after his mission debriefing.
• Cunning Linguist: One of the few Japanese characters who can converse with William in English, albeit heavily accented.
• First-Name Basis: As William's Only Friend in Japan, it's fitting he's the only one who always addresses as "William" rather than "Anjin".
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a subtle one across the left side of his lips.
• Hammerspace: Just where was he storing that cat in his tunic?
• Japanese Ranguage: He has a heavy accent while speaking English to Willaim.
• Legacy Character: Played with; he is not the historical Hattori Hanzo, but rather the third person to inherit the name, the grandson of the original.
• Ninja: Current head of the Iga ninja and the clan's present successor.
• Only Friend: There are a number of people in Japan who William likes and respects, but Hanzo is the only one he has an actual, ongoing friendship with, which is why he agrees to fake William's death to Give Him a Normal Life. Upon seeing a vision of Hanzo in peril from Sir John Dee's Amrita orb, it convinces William to return to Japan.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Hanzo's historical prototype had died in battle during the second siege of Osaka, with his younger brother picking up the mantle and becoming the fourth Hattori Hanzo. Nioh's Hanzo simply decides to step into the shadows with the war over.
• Stock Ninja Weaponry: More true to this than William, Hanzo's weapon is a ninjato, including an arsenal of explosives and kunai. In the dojo training sesssions, he will also use poison shuriken and smoke bombs that emit the paralysis status effect.
• Strong Family Resemblance: We meet his dad in Nioh 2, as the then-current Hattori Hanzo. They're actually very similar, with the main difference being that Hanzo the Oni uses a spear rather than a sword.
• Truth in Television: His ability to tell time using a cat is based on an actual time-keeping technique.
• Undying Loyalty: To Ieyasu; even though Hanzo admits his master is a Well-Intentioned Extremist, he is bound to him in servitude as his clan has from the beginning.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Hanzo can't help but admit his father "Hanzo the Oni" still can't pass up a chance to teach his son a lesson.

Okatsu

Voiced by: Emi Takei

Okatsu is a female ninja or "kunoichi" under Hattori Hanzo and the daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Trained in the same Iga ninjutsu as Hanzo, she accompanies William on his travels. Okatsu's mastery of every aspect of the ninja is said to rival even her teacher Hanzo's and makes her a strongly trusted figure. Her elder brother Nobuyasu was killed at an early age, allegedly to ensure the safety of Ieyasu himself. She has borne a grudge against Ieyasu ever since, and left his household as soon as she could to study under Hattori Hanzo. She despises not only Ieyasu but all samurai - and, indeed, the entire bloody, warlike world she is forced to live in.

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• Action Girl: In the penultimate mission, Okatsu joins William as a Non-Player Character and fights alongside him and Hanzo.
• Animal Motifs: Her Guardian Spirit is Gyukuto, a golden rabbit. In her Brainwashed and Crazy boss fight, whenever Okatsu summons Gyukuto, she gains an increase in mobility by hopping around the room, often evading attacks by side-stepping.
• Babies Ever After: Nioh 2 reveals that she and William settled down at some point and had a son, who inherited Gyukuto.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Kelley brainwashes her at Edo Castle, forcing William to fight her when he reaches the top of the fortress.
• Canon Immigrant: Subverted; Okatsu is the same-named Original Generation character from Tecmo Koei's Kessen series. However, she is heavily based on one of Ieyasu's favorite concubines Eishoin - instead, her Nioh counterpart makes her Ieyasu's estranged daughter most likely based on his first daughter Kamehime from his first wife, while Nioh 2 makes her a Composite Character with Oyuki, William Adams' Japanese wife.
• Cunning Linguist: Like Hanzo, she can also speak English to an extent.
• Daddy Issues: Okatsu's father, Tokugawa Ieyasu, killed her mother and brother to defend his family name, causing her to hold a strong grudge against him. Ironically, she also works for him.
• Deadpan Snarker: During her introduction, Okatsu cements herself as dry-humored when she tells William to pass on a message to Hanzo, but won't do it herself (in English, no less).
  Okatsu: "I dislike the company of drunk samurai."
  William: "Hey! I am no samurai!"
  Okatsu: "So a common drunk. Even worse."
• Expy: Of Ayane from Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden - both characters are young kunoichi who come across as an aloof, uncaring person on the surface, but is actually a deeply insecure Broken Bird, desperately longing for affection and love in spite of her own denials.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Okatsu is too proud to admit it, but she has always wanted to be acknowledged by her father, and for him to show her genuine parental love like any other child. He never does, and it's through this that she gradually developed her cold, icy demeanor towards men, along with her resentment of the Samurai lifestyle.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Okatsu is pretty much her voice actor Emi Takei given a different haircut.
• Ninja: Trained as a kunoichi (female ninja) by the Iga clan after she runs away following the death of her brother.
• Japanese Ranguage: Like Hanzo, she has a heavy Japanese accent while speaking Enlgish.
• Tsundere: It's subtle, but her budding affections for William stems from her view that he is not like other Samurai - arrogant and selfish. However, she still acts aloof around him, but comes across as a jilted lover when he leaves Japan.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Her father may be a chubby old man who was clearly at the back of the line when they were handing out chins, but she's still as beautiful as any other Team Ninja heroine from Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension:
  • Stoic as he might be, the face William makes the moment he first lays eyes on her indicates this is in effect. Okatsu keeps up her attitude for most of the game, but it's heavily implied she does so only as a self-defense mechanism for fear of being hurt again, crying for William almost like a jilted lover when he decides to head back to England to confront Sir John Dee. Considering she is not present for the events of the DLC, things don't evolve beyond that.
  • Nioh 2 resolves it by revealing William's son, who's clearly mixed-race and has Okatsu's Gyukuto.

Tokugawa Ieyasu

Voiced by: Masachika Ichimura

Tokugawa Ieyasu was daimyo of the "Eight Provinces" of the Edo region, and leader of the Five Elders advising Toyotomi's government. As a survivor of battle after battle, he became known as the "Greatest Archer on the Eastern Way" - in other words, the most skillful general in Eastern Japan. He was also gifted and a cunning schemer, which earned him his other nickname: the Tanuki. At a young age, he served the Imagawa clan as a hostage. After this, he formed an alliance with Oda Nobunaga and struck out on his own. The ongoing threat posted by the Takeda clan, however, meant that the pact with the Oda clan became more of a master-servant relationship, and he became familiar with the struggles of being a minor force. After his service to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, today he is considered closer than anyone to conquest - and unification - of all Japan.

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• Big Good: Played With. The game treats him as one since like in real life, he unites Japan and end the Warring States Period at the end of the game. It doesn't portray him as a saint, however. When Kelley had Okatsu, his daughter, at his mercy and demands he trade places with her or watch her die, Ieyasu tells him stoically that she means nothing to him, which throws even Kelley off guard. He also orders Hanzo to kill William after his mission is over to keep Amrita a secret from the general public. To his credit, he is privately happy that Hanzo didn't go through with it after the fact.
• The Chains of Commanding: Ieyasu doesn't enjoy making the ruthless decisions he's made throughout history, as the cloud of miasma and vengeful spirits William saw surrounding him shows. His Spirit Division (and his literal pain of sacrificing Torii Mototada to buy himself time for the Battle of Sekigahara) detailing the pain he feels in carving a path of blood, regardless of whose it is, in order to achieve peace is what convinces William that Tokugawa is a worthy leader.
• Dragon Ascendant: Previously a vassal of Nobunaga, Ieyasu carried on his master's dream of conquering and uniting Japan following his death.
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Well not everyone, but the last thing we hear before the credits is Ieyasu's content laughter after stating to himself that Hanzo is a Bad Liar and that William lives. Something he's obviously happy with.
• Good Is Not Soft: He earnestly wants to unify Japan, but makes plenty of ruthless decisions to ensure his complete victory. Justified when feudal daimyo committed less than ideal deeds to ensure their clan's survival.
• I've Come Too Far: He's sacrificed the lives of his family and followers for the path of ending the Civil Wars that have plagued Japan. Even before the Battle of Sekigahara, Ieyasu cannot back out no matter what.
• A Lighter Shade of Grey: The game doesn't gloss over his more ruthless actions in history and makes it clear he's done a lot of despicable things. He's still depicted as a better person than both his predecessors and William's enemies, and he's a strong leader capable of ending the strife raging throughout Japan.
• Meaningful Echo: Ieyasu refusing to give his life in exchange for Okatsu's at Edo Castle is reminiscent to his own childhood, where he was offered up as a political hostage to the Imagawa clan by his father. The Oda clan took advantage of the situation and intercepted the young Ieyasu (then Takechiyo) as he was traveling to the Sunpu Province. The leader of the Oda clan at the time, Oda Nobuhide, threatened to kill Takechiyo if his father and clan did not sever their ties to the Imagawa. Takechiyo's father refused; out of respect, Nobuhide spared the boy's life and kept him as his own hostage. The similarities end with Okatsu freeing herself.
• Pet the Dog: Ieyasu could’ve punished Hanzo for lying about William’s death, but instead was willing to let the lie stand and was even happy about the outcome.
• Pragmatic Hero: Much like his Real Life counterpart, Ieyasu makes a couple of decisions that seem morally ambiguous, such as leaving Mototada to die at Fushimi Castle when Ishida Mitsunari's army attacks it, which will give Ieyasu time to mobilize his other troops for Sekigahara. Regardless, Nioh establishes him as the Big Good.
• Redeeming Replacement: Downplayed in lieu of Nioh 2. Ieyasu is definitely no saint but more or less a very pragmatic Well-Intentioned Extremist. But when compared to his predecessor Hideyoshi (or just Kinoshita Tokichiro) who turned out to be possessed by a demon that amplifies his negative traits to the point of ruling Japan like a selfish tyrant playing on his own playground with no moral ambiguity, Ieyasu would look like a saint and legit in his quest to bring peace to Japan.
• Tanuki: His Guardian Spirit is Narimaka Tanuki, contrasting Mitsunari's Kitsune Guardian Spirit. Another true-to-history example as Ieyasu has always been associated with the tanuki due to his combined wisdom and cunning the creatures were once looked down upon for.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Orders William assassinated after his monumental efforts to win Ieyasu the war so that he could bury the influence of foreigners and yokai on history. Luckily, Hanzo does not follow through with the order. Also Subverted, as he knows Hanzo didn't follow the order, but is more than happy to let the lie stand.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The man wants to bring an end to the Civil War that has torn Japan apart for over a century. His methods of doing so, however, are a bit harsh.
• Written by the Victors: Justified; having seen the extent of what Amrita is capable of, Ieyasu ensures no record of what happened at Sekigahara and William's exploits (or any foreigners) against Kelley and Yōkai must ever be told to the public.

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Nioh 2

Hide

Hide

Hide's appearance on box art

The player avatar and one half of the legendary "Toyotomi Hideyoshi". A half-yokai Hanyō/Shiftling, Hide can transform from a human to a yokai form.

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• Always Identical Twins: Hide has a twin sibling identical to them in appearance, Saito Yoshitatsu, who is possessed by Kashin Koji and serves as an early boss.
• Animal Eyes: One of the options for Hide's eyes gives them vertically-slitted pupils, emphasizing their half-human nature.
• Archnemesis Dad: Well, uncle at any rate. Hide's mother is Suzuka, Otakemaru's sister making the serie's Greater-Scope Villain your uncle.
• Been There, Shaped History: Hide is responsible for most of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's early military victories, though Tokichiro took credit for them and usurped the shared identity for himself after going insane.
  • More then that the entire plot of of the game is actaully a stable time loop. Hide is the warrior that original defeated Otakemaru.
• Collective Identity: Tokichiro petitions Nobunaga to grant himself and Hide a shared identity combining their names, proposing Yoshihide. Nobunaga agrees, but chooses Hideyoshi instead. While Hide wins most of Hideyoshi's early military victories, Tokichiro claims the identity for himself alone when he becomes a ruthless warlord and drives Hide away with his cruelty.
• Cool Sword: They have a wakizashi forged out of amrita, with the kanji for "Hide" inscribed on the blade. This weapon effectively makes them immortal, and is part of the legendary Seven-Branched Sword used to slay Otakemaru in the past.
• Gender Bender: You can change Hide's gender mid-game, and nobody bats an eye. Being a Shiftling enables this kind of thing. The game does enforce Gender-Inclusive Writing, so barring very specific NPC interactions, Hide's gender isn't made a big deal.
• Guardian Entity: Hide can equip upwards of twenty Guardian Spirits that will provide them with active and passive benefits, and impresses several characters with their ability to bond to multiple spirits.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Hide's father was a human, specifically the daimyo Saitō Dōsan, but their mother, Miyoshino/Suzuka Gozen was a Yōkai — giving them the ability to change between human and monster forms.
• Heroic Mime: They never say a word, which is lampshaded by Tokichiro when they first meet.
• Heroic Sacrifice: The crux of their destiny seems to being the one to seal away Otakemaru once and for all, even if it means becoming the seal and sleeping for all eternity.
  • Does it a second time where they jump in front of Tokichiro, getting possessed by Otakemaru for him.
• Horned Humanoid: Hide's yokai forms all sport glowing orange horns, the shape of which can be customized.
• Hunter of Monsters: Nioh 2 opens up with Hide saving a panicking local from a Gaki. Hide then comments to the player that they're already known for hunting Yokai, implying they've been at it for a while.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: Not only can you pet Scampusses in gameplay and have them follow you around and help you in battle for a time, but Hide is shown playing with them in a few cutscenes.
• Legacy Character: Saito Dosan bestowed parts of his former name, Hidetatsu, onto his twin children Hide and Yoshitatsu.
• Long-Lost Relative: Their father is revealed to be none other than Saito Dosan. This in turn makes Dosan's children, Yoshitatsu and Nohime, to be Hide's siblings with Yoshitatsu in particular being their twin.
• Magic Knight: Hide starts out as a samurai but can learn ninjutsu and onmyodo magic.
• The Magic Goes Away: After Otakemaru's true final defeat in "The First Samurai" DLC, with his hatred taking the form of Kshin Koji cleansed once and for all, upon heading back to their own time, the Sohayamaru, the sword used to defeat Otakemaru and passed down through the generations after, loses its luster for good, no longer able to allow for Time Travel.
• Mukokuseki: Ethnically Japanese, but players can make them look like they were of European or African descent through character customization.
• Not So Above It All: Despite generally being a stoic straight-man/woman, when they go to see Rikyu, the tea master, and they see Mumyo choke on the tea he offers, when it's their turn to drink they quickly pass it off to Nekomata while Rikyu is bowing (and thus not looking at them).
• Pet the Dog: Realizing who the real culprit behind the Honnoji incident is and honoring Toshimitsu's dying request, Hide spares Mitsuhide's life and instead lops off his Samurai Ponytail.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When the seal on Otakemaru's is disturbed, Hide wakes from their slumber with red eyes due to being posessed by him, even attacking William who had come to check on them.
• Resurrective Immortality: Just like William, Hide's blessing from their Guardian Beasts allows them to return to life if killed. Though their death at Tokichiro's hands after his Face–Heel Turn takes a few years to come back from, presumably due to Otakemaru's power.
• Super Mode: Hide is able to shift between their human form and one of three yokai forms — two of which resemble oni and one of which resembles a tengu or kitsune.
• Sword Beam: One of their Yokai form's special abilities when wielding a daishō is to unleash a flurry of ki crescents from their swords.
• Virtual Paper Doll: Hide's appearance is completely customizable, with players being able to select their gender, skin tone, hair, facial features, and just about everything else about them.
• Walking Armory: Like William before — or rather, after — them, Hide can carry multiple melee and ranged weapons, as well as an assortment of ninja tools and onmyo talismans.
• Walking the Earth: Or rather, Japan. Together with Mumyo after Otakemaru's ultimate defeat, to protect the country's newfound peace.

Kinoshita Tokichiro

Kinoshita Tokichiro

Voiced by: Naoto Takenaka

One half of the legendary "Toyotomi Hideyoshi", a street-smart Spirit Stone-peddling self-described reprobate with ambitions of reaching the peak of Japan's social and political hierarchy. He possesses the ability to use spirit stones to pacify rampaging yokai, turning them from aratama into nigitama.

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• Actual Pacifist: He's initially adverse to combat and killing, instead using amrita to pacify rampaging yokai and relying on Hide for protection. As his ambition and greed consume him, however, he loses this trait — best evidenced when he casually stabs Toshimitsu with his katana, shocking Hide in the process.
• Ambition Is Evil: Tokichiro's ambition to become the shogun leads to him accepting Toshimitsu's Spirit Beast, casting aside his pity and compassion, aiding Mitsuhide in assassinating Nobunaga, and becoming a cruel and ruthless tyrant.
• Animal Motifs: Monkeys. He has a monkey as a Guardian Spirit, and when he's excited they both do a goofy monkey-like dance. Unsurprisingly enough, he eventually becomes cruel, just like how monkeys are surprisingly violent.
• Back from the Dead: Paralleling Edward Kelley's resurrection of Oda Nobunaga in the first game, Maria resurrects Tokichiro believing he's an evil warlord, but Hide stops Otakemaru from possessing him again and he's brought back as his true self. However, he chooses to return to the afterlife of his own accord after catching up with his old friends.
• Beware the Silly Ones: As goofy as he may seem, he is the same man who the previous game revealed forced Ginchiyo to have an affair with him while her husband was away leading his troops, and threatening to have her family executed if she refused. The reason for this disparity in characterization is due to him being corrupted by his ambition and the amrita he collects into a ruthless and cruel warlord.
  • Beyond that, even though he's something of a coward normally, after his Face–Heel Turn, he unflinchingly faces Hide when they come to stop him and puts up a pretty good fight. Though how much of his strength was truly his own and how much was from the Amrita stones he'd gather can be debated, he certainly frequently absorbs Amrita throughout the fight to buff himself.
• Came Back Wrong: After Hide kills him, Kashin Koji uses his massive amrita stockpile to resurrect him and then possesses him, turning him into a powerful purple-horned oni.
• Character Tics: Swiping a finger under his nose as though wiping it, emphasizing how goofy he is. During his tenure as a despot he drops this, but picks it back up after returning to his true self.
• Collective Identity: Tokichiro petitions Nobunaga to grant himself and Hide a shared identity combining their names, proposing Yoshihide. Nobunaga agrees, but chooses Hideyoshi instead. Tokichiro eventually claims the identity for himself alone when he becomes a ruthless warlord and drives Hide away with his cruelty.
• The Corruptible: Tokichiro goes from being a goofy comic-relief character to an ambitious and cruel warlord courtesy of Kashin Koji taking advantage of his obsession with amrita to manipulate him into assisting with Nobunaga's assassination.
• Demonic Possession: When Kashin Koji resurrects Tokichiro using his amrita stockpile, he takes the amrita merchant-turned-warlord as his host.
• Dying as Yourself: After Hide kills him a second time, Tokichiro recalls their first encounter when he brought Hide to their senses when they were going berserk, and thanks them for waking him from the nightmare that had consumed him before dying with a smile on his face.
• Et Tu, Brute?: During the first battle with him, if you transform into your Yokai form, Tokichiro genuinely seems betrayed that you would use your power against him of all people. Even though he is attempting to kill Hide at that same time.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: After being corrupted into a ruthless warlord, Tokichiro can't comprehend why Hide is disgusted by his actions and assumes he can bribe them into joining him by offering them a share of his amrita stockpile.
• Evil Costume Switch: Tokichiro's outfit becomes more elaborate throughout the game to reflect his rising status and villainy. He goes from wearing the humble Merchant Armor to the fancier Golden Gourd Armor and at his highest point in society and lowest point morally he wears the truly extravagant Child of the Sun Armor complete with a crown-like helmet.
• Face–Heel Turn: Toshimitsu — possessed by Kashin Koji — bestows him with the Yumehami spirit beast and manipulates him into assisting with Mitsuhide's assassination of Nobunaga. After this, he becomes increasingly cruel and ruthless, even deciding to kill Hide when they reject his offer to rule together.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He starts out as a goofy amrita merchant, but becomes the vassal of Oda Nobunaga and eventually succeeded Nobunaga's ambitions as a unifier of Japan, a process that was finished by Tokugawa Ieyasu. He's also corrupted by the spirit stones into a cruel and ruthless warlord.
• Historical Villain Downgrade: Of the three unifiers, Tokichiro is the one who looks more villainous, being the more ruthless man and eventually doing a lot of evil, selfish actions to sate his own ambition, some influenced by Kashin Koji, some on his own accord that he's gone too far to come back after all he's done. But still, this incarnation of Tokichiro/Hideyoshi abstained from the disastrous Korean Invasion.
• Ignored Epiphany: At one point he realizes the effect the spirit stones are having on him, seeing his reflection in them with glowing red eyes, but chooses to ignore this and continue stockpiling them to pursue his ambition. This amplifies his negative traits to the point where he becomes a ruthless warlord.
• Ink-Suit Actor: His own Celebrity Voice Actor, Naoto Takenaka, lends his image to Tokichiro. And not for the first time too: he has been the go-to actor for the role for at least four times.
• Lovable Rogue: He's a chatty, goofy, middle-aged merchant with ambitions of becoming the Shogun, but he's a self-described reprobate who trades in dangerous materials like Spirit Stones. Mumyo even accuses him of being a con artist.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In a world where several people are distrustful of or actively violent to yokai and Shiftlings, Tokichiro’s easy befriending of Hide and Koroku establishes him as remarkably tolerant. He’s deeply upset by the events of the Bird in a Cage mission, however, and in the Japanese audio version ends his emotional speech about his conflicted feelings profiting from a war that causes so much suffering with a cold remark to Hide that a demon like them wouldn’t understand. Along with the red flash of eyes he sees in his reflection, this is one of the first hints he’s beginning to fall under Kashin Koji’s influence. Taken further when he unsuccessfully tries to bribe Hide over to his side after his possession-induced Face–Heel Turn and then sneers that he’s “expecting too much from a yokai.”
• Parental Abandonment: His desire to gain status is in part fueled by his experience of being abandoned by his parents at a young age. One amrita memory features him wondering if the protagonist will abandon him, too.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: A subtle example. When Hide defects from their forces in horror of what Tokichiro has become, Tokichiro simply watches them go, plaintively saying a quiet “Hey…are you really going?” to himself. Tied in to his fear of abandonment as listed in Parental Abandonment above.
• Pose of Supplication: He frequently brownnoses to Oda Nobunaga by kowtowing whenever in his presence, and often forces Hide to do so as well.
• Sexual Extortion: The first Nioh reveals that during his tenure as a warlord he inflicted a Scarpia Ultimatum on Ginchiyo, forcing her to sleep with him by threatening to have her and her husband executed if she refused. Ginchiyo's subsequent miscarriage left her unable to have children and contributed to her eventual death.
• The Sociopath: As the corruptive influence of his amrita stockpile grows and amplifies his ambition and greed, Tokichiro becomes increasingly arrogant, cruel, and ruthless; leading to him betraying Oda Nobunaga and becoming his successor. Kashin Koji possessing him makes him even worse by amplifying those traits even further, but he's eventually restored to his true self.
• The Starscream: After succumbing to his greed and ambition, he betrays Nobunaga by helping Mitsuhide assassinate him. He then casually kills Toshimitsu to cover up his involvement in the betrayal and goes after Mitsuhide, though he seems saddened when Hide refuses to join his side.
• The Unfettered: After Tokichiro witnessed how the Amrita may be corrupting him for his own ambition to gain further status, he sought advice from Saito Toshimitsu, unaware that he's the host of Kashin Koji at the time. Toshimitsu proceeded to teach him that he's never going to reach his goal if he bound himself with notions of morality, and thus Tokichiro hardened his heart and became The Sociopath for achieving his lifelong dream.
• That Man Is Dead: Before facing Hide a second time, Tokichiro declares himself the one true Hideyoshi.

Mumyo

Mumyo

A masked scythe-wielding demon-hunter who reluctantly joins Hide and Tokichiro on their quest.

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• The Ageless: Due to possessing the tsuba of the Seven-Branched Sword, she doesn't age over the several decades the game spans.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": As noted under Legacy Character, Mumyo is actually her title. Tokichiro and the game at large treat this as her name, though an NPC in the sub mission Immovable reveals that her given name is Minami.
• Fantastic Racism: She hates yokai and attacks Hide on-sight for being a Half-Human Hybrid, disparagingly calling them a "thing".
• Fire-Forged Friends: With the protagonist, eventually.
• Heel–Face Turn: She initially intends to kill Hide for being a Shiftling, but is talked out of it by Tokichiro and joins their quest as an initially-reluctant ally.
• Hunter of Monsters: She hunts yokai for a living and initially doesn't care if they're aratama or nigitama. In her mind, the only good yokai is a dead yokai.
• Ink-Suit Actor: The spitting image of her Japanese voice actress, Haru. They even included the beauty mark below her mouth.
• I Was Just Passing Through: She saves Hide and Tokichiro on a few occasions, claiming she wasn't doing so to help them or demanding they pay her for doing so.
• Legacy Character: "Mumyo" is a title passed down by members of the Sohaya clan.
• Loner-Turned-Friend: In the beginning of the game she appears sporadically, and if she lends you her blade, she considers it strictly Teeth-Clenched Teamwork. But after she and the protagonist discover their connection, and Tokichiro makes his Face–Heel Turn, she and the protagonist arguably become each other's Only Friend. From then on they travel together, with Mumyo either fighting at Hide's side or holding off enemy reinforcements.
• Older Than They Look: In the portion of the game set after Hide has been unsealed by William, Mumyo doesn't appear to have aged a day in decades due to possessing the tsuba of the Seven-Branched Sword.
• Sinister Scythe: Her weapon of choice is a switchglaive, a scythe with an unfolding blade.
• The Not-Love Interest: Mumyo fufils a role similar to Okatsu from the original; A female warrior who initially distrusts the protagonists, before assisting them in their endeavors even sharing some tender moments. Unlike Okatsu and William, Mumyo and Hide are never hinted to be developing feelings for one another.
• Tsundere: While initially holding genuine animosity for the protagonist due to their yokai heritage, she still shows signs of this early on, particularly in a side quest where exhausting her dialogue will prompt her to join the protagonist for the duration of the mission because Hide’s “so useless on [their] own,” adding that she’s not there because she likes their company. Mellows out considerably as the story progresses and she lets go of her automatic prejudice toward all yokai.
• Walking the Earth: Or rather, Japan. Together with the protagonist after Otakemaru's ultimate defeat, to protect the country's newfound peace.

Kashin Koji/Otakemaru

Kashin Koji/Otakemaru

Kashin Koji

Otakemaru's True Form

Voiced by: Hōchū Ōtsuka

A mysterious entity involved in Hide's past who obstructs them at every opportunity.

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• All Your Powers Combined: In his first phase as Otakemaru, his moveset is based on and switches between the brute, feral, and phantom Yokai Shift forms. Strangely, he only uses these forms during final boss fight against him. When fought in side missions, he always starts in his second phase.
• Arch-Enemy: Of Hide, with the final DLC outright calling him the arch-nemesis of the protagonist.
• Big Bad: He is the main antagonist that corrupted Tokichiro and influence the events of Nioh 2.
• Cain and Abel: The Cain to his sister Suzuka's Abel. He finally kills her centuries later during the game's prologue during her time under the name Miyoshino.
• Cool Sword: As Otakemaru, he wields the Sanmyoken, the three legendary swords which Otakemaru was said to possess. Each is imbued with a different element.
• Demonic Possession: He indwells several characters throughout the game, indicated by their eyes glowing red.
• Doppleganger Attack: As Kashin Koji, he'll occasionally summon copies of himself that will each use different magical attacks. Thankfully, these copies have very little health and can be dispatched with only a few hits
• Evil Uncle: "The First Samurai" DLC reveals that his younger sister Suzuka Gozen is Hide's mother, making him their uncle. He seems to realize this when defeated in the base game, commenting that Hide's eyes are like Suzuka's.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: He can use all three elements, with each of his swords representing one.
• Final Boss: He is the last boss that Hide fight against in the base game pre-DLCs.
• Floating Limbs: In his demon form, he has several floating hands hovering around him, two of them wielding two of his three swords.
• Gentle Giant: Despite being a Yōkai, he was this when alive. Unfortunately, distrustful humans changed things...
• Greater-Scope Villain: He is this retroactively for a lot events in the first game, especially Bloodshed's end, via the various hosts he has possessed throughout history. He unleashes the other 2 Great Yokai while possessing Tokichiro, including the Nine Tails from Nioh 1.
• Hellish Pupils: He has three separate pupils in each glowing red eye.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: While Kashin Koji was, allegedly, an illusionist, magic user (and possibly a shinobi too), making him the reincarnation of one of Japan's most feared Yokai is a tad too much.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: According to the opening cutscene, Otakemaru was originally kind and helpful, but when the villagers he was living amongst began to attack him out of fear, he responded in-kind and eventually became a hateful and murderous demon.
• Physical God: One of the Three Great Yokai alongside Tamamo no Mae and Shuten Doji, who are also so powerful they have turned into Kijin, or "Demon Gods", Otakemaru being the most powerful of them all.
• Related in the Adaptation: While Otakemaru and Suzuka Gozen's relationship varies depending on the legend, they're usually portrayed as allies turned enemies. Here, they're brother and sister.
• Storm of Blades: One of his many attacks as Otakemaru, where he calls down a rain of copies of his three swords. It's also the attack utilized with his soul core.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Shown in the 2nd DLC where After leaving Ashiya Doman's body after he's defeated, he states outright that he can never die, implying that the Otakemaru from the end of the Main Game wasn't the real one and just another fragment of the Otakemaru from the Past.
• Villain Teleportation: As Kashin Koji, he makes a quick exit via a dark portal each time his current host is defeated. In his boss fight, he upgrades to full on Teleport Spam.
• Would Hurt a Child: Mercilessly stabbed Hide when they were just a child after striking down Miyoshino. The only reason Hide didn't die was thanks to the power of their mother's dagger.
• Yōkai: He is an oni, sporting a pair of horns and tusk-like fangs in his monstrous form.

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Weapons

Sword

An ordinary weapon that emphasizes fundamentals over flashy or complex gimmicks. By default, scales primarily with Heart, followed by Strength and Skill.

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• Balance Buff:
  • Received very minimal changes between the first and second game (Shadow Sword, Sword of Celerity, and the hidden True & Through and Dragon Fang). When the second game's DLC chapters came out, it kept receiving more hidden skills all the way through the final DLC.
  • Version 1.20 then added 3 very practical additions with Blue Moon, Omnislice, and Light in Darkness. It had very few skills that used the "Guard+Quick Attack" input (Haze and Leaf Glide are restricted to mid stance, Sword of Discernment was the only other skill that used that input), until adding Kurama Sword Dance, Severing Spin, and Blue Moon/Omnislice. Two of these are hidden skills.
  • These updates also normalized all of the weapon tree passives among all weapons. Previously Sword's passives were almost entirely defensive focused, lacking passives such as increasing damage when at max health.
• Blade Spam: Of two different flavors.
  • Omnislice, repurposed from the first game's Living Weapon-exclusive skill, Quadrisect. It slices so quickly that enemies will not be able to guard the rest of the strikes if they get hit unlike most other skills. The Necessary Drawback is how long it takes to perform Omnislice from its parent skill, Blue Moon.
  • The hidden skill Severing Spin creates a large sphere of slashes around you that would make Vergil proud.
• Boring, but Practical: Was firmly this until the Complete Edition of 2, when other weapons were taking more and more after Team Ninja's grandfather series, Sword was much more down to earth, but no less effective. Most exemplified by its Mystic Art, Sword of Execution, which just further increases damage dealt from behind with a Sword, when most other weapons' were impractical, niche, or just outright bad. The second game's DLC and updates later gave it plenty of powerful and flashy skills.
• Charged Attack: True & Through takes after the Odachi's Devastating Rush in function, but naturally it lacks the same reach of an Odachi and doesn't travel quite as far. Omnislice functions similarly, receiving a potent but brief damage increase if one allows Blue Moon to finish its motion.
• Cool Sword: Includes the classic Kusanagi Tsurugi, and all five of the greatest swords of Japan: Mikazuki Munechika, Juzumaru Tsunetsugu, Odenta Mitsuyo, Dojikiri Yasutsuna, and Onimaru Kunitsuna... as well as the Dragon Sword.
• Counter-Attack:
  • Leaf Glide neutralizes an attack and grants an attack buff, but doesn't really allow for a counter-attack.
  • The mutually-exclusive option, Haze, focuses on immediate damage and is usable against Skeleton Warriors as well as humans.
  • Water Shadow is easier to execute and uses an alternate input slot if desired, with slightly less follow-up reward than Haze.
  • Backwave is a Timely Guard parry, being much safer than the other options and being the most practical way to execute Tempest.
  • Sword of Discernment is the odd one out, as it is an offensive skill that has the ability to block attacks during the sheath poke at the start.
• Double Unlock:
  • Izuna Drop was originally the only Art of Combat that dropped from an enemy in the first game, from Jin Hayabusa, in the sequel, it's a guaranteed drop from Ren Hayabusa upon your first victory against them.
  • Dragon Fang is obtained from Saito Yoshitatsu.
  • True and Through is obtained from Azai Nagamasa.
  • Kurama Sword Dance is obtained from Minamoto no Yoshitsune.
  • Severing Spin is obtained from Minamoto no Yorimitsu.
  • Reverse Impact is obtained from Fujiwara no Chikata.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Downplayed, but it's notably the only weapon whose low stance attacks loop infinitely. It also shares a unique side-spin when sidestepping in low stance with Spear, which has faster recovery than the usual step dodge.
• Easter Egg:
  • Haze uniquely interacts with the Kamaitachi's Signature Move, parrying it during its sideways jumping spin will have it stumble over Hide, leaving Hide untouched. This cannot be followed up with stab even if the player has learned Haze II unlike any other successful usage of Haze.
  • Having the "True Dragon Sword" effect from the full set bonus of the Dragon Ninja set has the magatama inlaid in the Dragon Sword's hilt, giving it a faint purple glow like its home game, only if the Sword equipped has the Dragon Sword's model, be it the sword itself or a different one refashioned into it.
  • Izuna Drop in the original game is this, as nothing previously suggested bosses could drop skills, and it was the only skill that dropped; the other hidden drop was a Ninjutsu.
• Every Japanese Sword is a Katana: Averted, naturally. The games' copious amounts of Flavor Text often covers not only the type of sword, but the school of swordsmithing that made it. Uchigatanas and tachis has slightly differing icons, while tachis have slightly less Strength scaling in favor of slightly more Skill scaling.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Juzumaru Tsunetsugu's description calls it a Living Weapon, like the ability from the first game. This has no bearing on its function as a Blessed Weapon in the sequel, and Blessed Weapons do not display any sentience like Yokai Weapons do.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Any cutscene involving action with weapons has William and Hide default to the ordinary Bizen Uchigatana, regardless of what the player has equipped.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: Downplayed. It's not what the weapon's playstyle revolves around unless players build their gear to specialize in it, but it does have a total of four Sheathed Active Skills (Iai Quickdraw, Tiger Sprint, Night Rain, and Severing Spin), when other weapons are lucky to have even one.
• Immune to Flinching: Sword of Meditation's power walk lets you shrug off anything, even a cannon blast. Just try not to think about the damage you'd take from such things.
• Jack of All Stats: Steady damage-per-second, burst damage, crowd control, counters, (eventually) respectable reach, decent pressure and ki breaking capability. There are few categories it's not already beat by another weapon type, but you'd be hard pressed to find a weapon that has it all and without having to fight over which skills to assign to its slots, despite how many choices Sword has.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Averted on multiple levels. The first game allowed players to use/refashion an English bastard sword, katanas aren't inherently better than the tachis available, and they're also not inherently better than other weapon types.
• Magikarp Power: Especially in 2, it suffers more from its Early Game Hell without its plethora of skills, lacking reach and damage in particular, as well as having to suffer the rarity of skill drops from bosses later in the game. The necessity of all of its skills coming together makes earning its Skill Points a great exercise in patience. It eventually comes around to becoming an incredibly versatile weapon.
• Mana Drain: Saito Yoshitatsu's Dragon Fang grapple restores a large amount of Anima when Hide uses it, and loses Anima if Yoshitatsu uses it on them.
• No, I Am Behind You: A more mundane version done with Swift Step, it has invulnerability and an afterimage effect to achieve a similar result though.
• Non-Indicative Name: This game's depiction of the Kusanagi Tsurugi is clearly not a tsurugi, given it is both single-edged and curved.
• Shown Their Work: Minamoto no Yoshitsune's personal sword, the Usumidori, is accurately modeled after Heian-era swords.
• Spinning Piledriver: Izuna Drop, the original game's only secret skill, was exclusively available to Sword. The sequel would also give Fists the ability to use it too.
• Swipe Your Blade Off: Sheathing your weapon while it's bloodied has William/Hide elegantly twirl their blade around to flick the blood off as they sheathe it.
• Sword and Fist: A number of skills involve kicking, the Kick, namely. Heaven Flash requires the user to kick off an enemy to jump up, and the hidden skill Kurama Sword Dance mixes a kick in with a graceful sword combo. Shadow Sword has Hide swing their sheath like a haymaker. Most of these emphasize doing ki damage more than health damage.
• Weak, but Skilled: Within its own skill tree, Sword lacks any abilties that dominate each other in effectiveness, so there's no one skill that can carry a player. Playing Sword effectively requires becoming familiar with its vast amount of skills, and it has one of the most diverse distribution of skill inputs. Sword best embodies the "easy to learn, difficult to master" sentiment among the weapon types but it's not quite a Skill Gate Character since it being easy to learn doesn't necessarily make it good at the start either, especially compared to some other weapons. High-level play with Sword will look more like effortlessly dismantling threats with a constantly changing variety of abilities than simply using the "strong" ones.

Dual Swords

A highly aggressive and mobile weapon type that boasts a high hit count with its attacks. By default, scales primarily with Skill, followed by Heart, then Strength.

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• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Its skills lend itself to mounting offensives that only end when you run out of ki. Winter Wind allows Dual Swords to use ki pulses as an advancing attack. Even a guarding enemy can't stop it, as Moon Shadow deals an incredible amount of ki damage to blocking enemies, and is only usable when bouncing off blocking enemies too. One of its Mystic Arts simply reduces ki consumption as you attack, further encouraging Dual Swords users to stay in the fight, it's even called Momentum!
• Balance Buff: It was already a solid weapon, so 2 only added Dual Dragon. However, including hidden skills, that adds another four, it had the most hidden skills until the DLC chapters released, giving Sword a total of six hidden skills. Version 1.20 added Winter Wind and Spinning Dragon.
• BFS: Special mention goes to the Yamanba's "Knives" which are larger than most katanas, fit more for the size of Pyramid Head. There's also Daitoren & Shotoren, wielded by Otakemaru and dropped by Nightmare Bringer, which are incredibly large even after being scaled to your size.
• Bifurcated Weapon: The hidden skill Double-Headed Slice has Hide or Tokichiro connect the two swords at the hilt and twirls it around for many hits.
• Counter-Attack: Even more than Sword, Demon Thrust, Piercing Wheel, the hidden Punish the Proud, Heavenly Flow, Earthly Flow, and the Shrike.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Water Sword requires Button Mashing to keep slashing. In 2, you simply hold the button to extend the slashes.
• Double Unlock:
  • Punish the Proud is obtained from Imagawa Yoshimoto.
  • Dragon Claw is obtained from Saito Yoshitatsu.
  • Double-Headed Slice is obtained from Tokichiro.
  • Ultimate Sign of the Cross is obtained from Tokichiro as well.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: If Sword didn't have four Sheathed Active Skills, it would count as this more than Sword proper. For some reason, Sign of the Cross activates faster than Sword's Iai Quickdraw and travels farther too. Sign of the Cross II, which makes it even faster is available as early as completing the Novice Dojo Mastery Mission, where Sword needs Adept Dojo Mastery in to perform it even half as fast as Sign of the Cross. Sign of the Cross even has a hidden upgrade called Ultimate Sign of the Cross also performed by Tokichiro.
• "Just Frame" Bonus: God of Wind III turns the finishing slash into a faster and more powerful double slash while also throwing human enemies off balance, if timed properly after the roundhouse kick.
• Mana Drain: Saito Yoshitatsu's Dragon Claw grapple restores a large amount of Anima when Hide uses it, and loses Anima if Yoshitatsu uses it on them.
• Royal Rapier: The Tarobo Kanemitsu comes with a rapier in the offhand, the model is reused from Maria's.
• Situational Sword: Water Sword can output a truly disgusting amount of damage, but its short range and stationary nature means the enemy will have to be backed up against a wall, ki broken, large enough that it won't be hit out of range, or more likely some combination of the three conditions.
• Skill Gate Characters: As mentioned above, Sign of the Cross is incredibly powerful, while also being able to be fully mastered as early as after the second Main Mission. In fact, most of its Active Skills are available by the time you reach Adept Mastery. Combine this with God of Wind II as a basic combo finisher, and Mind's Eye to help dodge and you have an incredibly simple, but core moveset that can deal with most enemies even in the learning stages of the game. However, it also has little else going for it. Many of its counters conflict with each other, with The Shrike generally being the most useful with a near-instant activation window allowing players to use it on reflex, on top of leaving most enemies grounded for a Final Blow afterward. An experienced Dual Swords user can get great returns on Water Sword and Double-Headed Slice, but skills like Mortal Flow and Raijin have far less speed and reach than the rest of its moveset, so its moveset can feel a bit more limited compared to other weapons.
• Spectacular Spinning: It would be easier to list the skills that didn't involve spinning but Spinning Dragon in particular puts the rest to shame by flying into the air while spinning at incredible speed, and then spinning back down, it's rather evocative of a Magatsu Warrior's attack. Mind's Eye adds a spin as a mostly invulnerable safety net when dodging in low stance.

Spear

A common infantry weapon due to its practicality and lesser usage of iron boasting superior reach. By default, scales primarily with Constitution, followed by Strength and Skill.

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• Absurdly Sharp Blade: As always, Honda Tadakatsu's Tombokiri's Flavor Text describes the mythical event of a dragonfly that flew into the spear's blade at rest and cut itself in two. The extra range added to thrusts with the Stability Mystic Art translates to the spear making the air around its thrusts sharp enough to cut just as well.
• Balance Buff:
  • 2 removing weapons bouncing off walls benefitted Spear the most, allowing them to make use of their wide crowd control swings in tight spaces without recoil. The added skills include Resounding Lunge and Rainbow Ruse, which gives low stance even more mobility, and a brief moment of invulnerability (and a more sensible input than Spear Flourish). Its two hidden skills, Bracing Breeze and Triple Threat are highly practical. The former being a counter with near-instant activation window, the latter having superior reach and damage compared to many of its other skills.
  • Bracing Breeze was also subject to this too, funnily enough. Originally, enemies would always recover from hitstun just in time to dodge out of the counter attack, just as players would if Toshiie countered them with this, out of fairness to the player. Slightly speeding it up for the player made it hit much more consistently.
  • Version 1.20 added Cull the Herd, an alternate high risk, high reward follow-up to Flying Monkey, and Fatal Thrust, another charging rush that automatically grapples human enemies if the attack depletes their ki.
• Boring, but Practical: "Playing it safe" in Nioh usually brings to mind Spear's mid stance strong attacks, decently powerful thrusts with good speed and reach that kept it from reflecting off walls. It became less prevalent by 2, but you'll still see some new players rely on this while they adjust to the Early Game Hell.
• Charged Attack: Twisting Spear, combined with some Weapon Twirling while charging it to increase the power and distance traveled.
• Combat Pragmatist: Outspacing enemies with Spear's reach is not only easy, but wholly recommended. Combining Triple Threat with the Stability Mystic Art gives it utterly massive reach, letting you attack even large yokai from a safe distance. Other skills include Body Swap, throwing enemies' backs to you, and Entangle, which sweeps their feet.
• Double Unlock: Triple Threat and Bracing Breeze are obtained from Maeda Toshiie.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Spear Flourish is the earliest example of a ki pulse attack in the series, but its condition was simply ki pulsing in high stance. Later equivalent skills would add a forward input while ki pulsing to execute, letting players better control when they wish to activate them, this can make Spear feel a bit clunkier to work around in comparison. This is also why the Mystic Art Fluidity is actively avoided by Spear players, since it makes every ki pulse, something that should theoretically speed up recovery, longer by adding an attack, forcing players to ki pulse by dodging otherwise.
  • Most weapons' running attacks are similar to the start of that stance's combo, but without the ability to combo. Spear's high stance running attack is a surprisingly quick upward slice that doesn't resemble any of their high stance attacks at all, and is also great for combo filler. Like Sword, it is also the only other weapon that possesses a low stance sidespin dodge that has faster recovery than the usual step dodge.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Merciless Barrage lets you effortless toss enemies high into the air before making a human kebab out of them and tossing them through the dirt. If that didn't kill them, you'll get a free Final Blow after.
• "Just Frame" Bonus: Triple Threat becomes much more powerful if you time the following thrusts based on a perfect ki pulse. It's a bit unusual for being treated as a ki pulse within the skill's attacks. Despite this, the proper version of the skill can be executed even if Reckless Slice (increases damage of a skill but removes the ability to ki pulse after it) is applied to it.
• Nerf: Spear Flourish had its hitstun reduced in 2 to prevent infinite combos on some enemies.
• Not the Intended Use: Chidori's main gimmick is that if the first hit ki breaks a human, they'll be launched up into a powerful thrust combo while they're in the air. Given how hard that is, the more common use is to use it on yokai that are large enough that the thrusts can still hit them for high damage, launch capability be damned.
• Shout-Out: Windmill looks an awful lot like Maeda Keiji's Charge Attack 4, funnily enough, in Nioh 2 he uses it as a miniboss too.

Axe

A heavy weapon that excels in bursts of damage. By default, scales primarily with Stamina, followed by Courage, and minimally with Strength.

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• Balance Buff: Between the original and 2, it was probably the worst off of all weapon types with the least amount of changes despite arguably needing them the most. Southpaw is an unremarkable combo finisher, and the hidden skill Spirit Storm offered little as a counter. Version 1.20 added a practical and quick finisher with High Kick, which follows into Tidebreaker. Spinning Slide is an evasive counter that works on any attack, which was sorely needed with how much more complicated enemy attacks became in 2, allowing Axe users to quickly charge their big hits after doing so.
• Dishing Out Dirt: A number of Axe skills' area of effect property comes from driving it through the ground to kick debris up alongside the shockwaves the impacts make.
• Double Unlock: Spirit Storm is obtained from Obsidian Samurai, though only in 2.
• Mighty Glacier: While the stance system generally tries to make sure that every weapon has access to every necessary type of attack rather than keeping them within their usual archetypes, Axe is still this. The Adamantine further emphasizes it, increasing defense in exchange for movement speed.
• Multiform Balance: Downplayed, as using these skills isn't required, but The Adamantine increases defense at the cost of movement speed, Rage increases power at the cost of ki consumption, while Battle Focus decreases attack ki consumption by increasing dodge ki consumption. Since there are only 3 of these Axe-specific buffs, one can be applied to each stance.
• No-Sell: The Adamantine also makes you Immune to Flinching. In terms of offense, it is one of the few weapons (the only among the original five) whose mid stance attacks are not deflected by blocking enemies.
• Situational Damage Attack: Attacks deal the best damage when hitting at the end of the weapon towards the axehead, being too close deals suboptimal damage.
• Spin Attack: Mad Spinner. Stacking ki consumption reduction can let you perform it for quite a long time.
• Thrown Across the Room: Cloud Crush takes enemies for a spin before throwing them with the centrifugal force. Unfortunately, since the original game the launch angle has been nerfed downward, so it'll be unlikely to throw anyone into a Bottomless Pit.

Kusarigama

Short sickles with a long chain and metal weight attached to the end of them, which allows for attacking at both long and short range. By default, scales primarily with Dexterity, followed by Skill, then minimally by Strength.

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• Balance Buff:
  • 2 adding Serpent Bite and Bird of Prey which are hardly must-haves, but the two hidden skills, Second Wind and Water Drop add interesting options for attacks, the former providing a grapple for enemies who try to back away being close to getting winded, and the latter adding an escape or chasing option in the air after Leaping Strike.
  • Version 1.20 added Hornet Sting, a follow-up attack to the Timely Guard skill, and Deadly Mark, a risky skill that has long recovery if it whiffs but does great damage while homing in on the target.
• Counter-Attack: Waterfall is the most traditional example in its class, Serpent Bite and Bird of Prey are skills that can block at the start, and Masterful Guard is a Timely Guard parry. Weirdly, Masterful Guard didn't have any proper follow-up to it till Hornet Sting was added.
• Double Unlock: Water Drop and Second Wind are both obtained from Hachisuka Koroku.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Of the original five weapon types, there aren't any parallels to draw to any other weapon from Dark Souls, so it may seem like a bit of an oddity in how it handles. With the exception of high stance, sickle strikes are relegated to strong attacks, and quick attacks are entirely with the weight. It's also one of the only weapons that uses the "Hold Quick Attack" input for a skill, and having a variety of skills that involve pulling enemies toward you or vice versa depending on their size. It has many traits of a Fragile Speedster archetype, but has some rather powerful high-commitment attacks, as well as Reaper, which is stationary like Dual Swords' Water Sword, and doesn't slash as fast as it, but doesn't inflict as severe knockback and does a deceptively large amount of ki damage as well. Bird of Prey is also a unique high stance specific counter, the kind of skill that would normally be exclusive to mid stance.
• Multiform Balance: Downplayed like Axe, there are three Kusarigama-specific buffs, so one can be assigned to each stance, but they aren't required to use. Summer Twilight is alternate take on a Glass Cannon buff, increasing attack but increasing ki damage taken, rather than health damage taken. Autumn Dusk decreases dodge ki consumption while decreasing defense, and Winter Dawn increases ki damage dealt while increasing attack ki consumption.
• Shoryuken: Leaping Strike. Unfortunately, it lacks invulnerability, but you can still use it to dodge some attacks in an unorthodox manner. You can then follow-up with a Drop Attack or if you've got the hidden skill Water Drop, execute an angled dive kick.
• Shown Their Work: With the exception of maybe Reaper, most of your damage (and ki damage) on a Kusarigama will come from the metal weight. Historically, due to farming sickles being ill-suited for combat, they were mostly an improvised solution, what with farmers being one of the most common disguises for ninja. They were just there as a backup if someone somehow got past the chain weight, which is a big "if" considering how dangerous it was. Throwing the sickle, on the other hand, is just pure fantasy indulgence.
• Wrestler in All of Us: The hidden follow-up skill Second Wind pulls enemies in if it ki breaks them, and then delivers an epic body slam.

Odachi

Introduced in the DLC "Dragon of the North" from the original game. Odachi are large, heavy swords that can extend their combos by moving from one stance to another. By default, they scale primarily with Strength, followed by Stamina, and minimally with Heart.

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• A.I. Breaker: Most human enemies will notoriously insist on standing in the way of the hidden skill Swirling Snow, which will usually end in them getting ki broken as they try to block in vain, or die shortly after because they simply didn't.
• Anti-Infantry: Possesses the unique Passive Skill Sword of Severance which increases the damage Odachis deal to human enemies.
• Balance Buff:
  • 2 added Bolting Boar and Swallow's Wing, the latter originally being exclusive to Sasaki Kojiro in the original game. Curiously, it does not require learning an upgrade that allows it to perform the dodging somersault like Sword does, nor does it require maintaining A rank Agility.
  • Version 1.20 added Thunderbolt and Moonlit Snow Redux, the latter, again, originally belonging to Sasaki Kojiro, it's a faster, higher damage-per-second variant of Moonlit Snow but is more vulnerable to being staggered unlike any other Odachi skill.
• BFS: It goes without saying, but it's especially true of the Yokai Odachis, like the Namahage's Bloodstained Blade or Ryomen Sukuna's Sword.
• Charged Attack: Devastating Rush, a "parallel thrust" that must be held to maximize the distance traveled and damage dealt. Moonlit Snow must also charged to maximize its power with each swing, signaled by the "seasonal" Sword Lines.
• Counter-Attack:
  • Bolting Boar has unique trait of not discriminating between Man nor Yokai, many Demonic Spider included. Hell, it even works on Yoshitsune.
  • Cuckoo's Call can block at the beginning, letting you charge it to extend the window before the attack.
  • Thunderbolt is an extremely high risk, high reward counter that requires you to purposefully take a hit before your swing comes down, and if the enemy is a human, immediately retaliates by running the blade through their torso as they fall to the ground. The damage bonus is still available if performed against Yokai, but it won't incapacitate them the same way human enemies would.
• Double Unlock:
  • Dragon Horn is obtained from Saito Yoshitatsu.
  • Swirling Snow is obtained from Magara Naotaka.
• Every Japanese Sword is a Katana: Averted like Sword. Odachis that have deeper curved blades balance its Stamina and Heart scaling. Special mention goes to the Kamui, whose design is partially inspired by Ainu blades.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: Imperative Strike. Rather impressive given the size and weight of an Odachi. It trades the speed and distance of Dual Sword's Sign of the Cross and the power of Sword's Iai Quickdraw for a much wider swing.
• Launcher Move: Retrograde Flow launches on its second hit if it depletes a human enemy's ki, it's easier said than done beacuse of the first hit more often than not, though.
• Mana Drain: Saito Yoshitatsu's Dragon Horn grapple restores a large amount of Anima when Hide uses it, and loses Anima if Yoshitatsu uses it on them.
• Skill Gate Characters: It is perfectly viable to completely disregard the Odachi's unique trait in the Waking Winds and Sunset Breeze skills that allow you to chain normal attacks from one stance into another. Twin Moons is a very powerful skill that's available immediately, Bolting Boar too is a basic skill that can defang many troublesome Yokai. Groundquake meanwhile provides Immune to Flinching that early on can be spammed to deal with certain enemy types. Mastering Bolting Boar can consequently leave a player unfamiliar with Yokai's actual combos if they're too used to stopping them in their tracks. Later on, Odachi will run into an issue when needing to deal big bursts of ki damage or applying status debuffs due to their overall low hit count outside of Tiger Blade and Moonlit Snow Redux. Odachi has a very strong start compared to other weapons, but they'll need to get creative much later on to keep fights from dragging out too long.
• Sword Plant: Undaunted has Hide wrench their Odachi into the ground to brace against incoming strikes.

Tonfa

Introduced in the DLC "Defiant Honor" from the original game. Tonfa are characterized by unstoppable chains of strikes to tear through enemies' defenses. By default, they primarily scale with Skill, followed by Constitution, then Dexterity. 2 changes the primary stat to Courage.

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• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Attacks ki pulse into Demon Dance, which can be followed into Pulverize... which can be ki pulsed into Demon Dance again. Further enforced with Demon Dash allowing Tonfa to push even further in their offense.
• Balance Buff:
  • 2 increased Pulverize's ability to turn in order for it to keep up with the increased speed of the game. It also added Fleetfoot to help Tonfa users stay right under their enemies.
  • Version 1.20 added Demon Dash and Demon Fang, an offensive oriented variation of Demon Dance, and a grapple finisher for human enemies when Pulverize has worn down their ki, respectively.
  • "Darkness in the Capital" added the first inherent Blessed Weapon with the Pagoda Tonfa. Previously, Tonfa players would have to randomly forge Tonfa with Purity.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Meant to evoke the spirit of the trope... until 2's "Darkness in the Capital" added a "proper" hand-to-hand weapon type.
• Charged Attack: Focused Strike, which sends human enemies tumbling to the ground.
• Counter-Attack: Thousand Tongues, which is a standard counter that doesn't require as many skill points as the other option, Impenetrability, a Timely Guard parry. Impenetrability requires learning the follow-up attacks, which ends with a Shoryuken.
• Double Unlock: Storm of Strikes is obtained from Hattori Hanzo, but only while using Tonfas.
• Glass Cannon: Invoked by the Tonfa-exclusive Buoyancy passive that increases damage dealt based on the lightness of your equipment. Much of its offense relies on dodging through Demon Dance rather than blocking (despite having a better Block stat than many other weapons), so you can immediately retaliate with Pulverize.
• Lag Cancel: The Mystic Art Kannagi uniquely allows you to cancel at any point during a skill into Demon Dance, effectively removing nearly all openings in your offense. This can also be abused to begin a skill and immediately cancel into Demon Dance instead of having to ki pulse into it, becoming an alternate method for dodging.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: Sarutobi's Gunsticks come with the "Tonfa Gun" trait, hollowing out the inside of the sticks with a gunpowder mechanism that allows for short range explosions with the Crimson Lotus and Devastation skills. Tonfa Gun can then be obtained on any Tonfa, don't think too hard about how an ordinary Wooden Tonfa gets gunpowder loaded into them without it breaking into pieces. Tonfa are the only weapon type that have skills reliant on the weapon's effects list.
• Simple, yet Awesome: Discounting that Demon Dance and Pulverize must be learned for each stance, Tonfa has one of the smallest skill lists of any weapon, and even then it leans heavily on Pulverize, which can be considered its primary skill. Because it's a skill, it doesn't get deflected by guarding enemies while dealing solid health and ki damage, can be dropped into a dodge at a moment's notice and then resuming offense all the same. Most of Tonfa's offense will come to Pulverize.

Hatchets

Introduced in 2. Possesses a myraid of ways they can be thrown at enemies. By default, scales primarily with Skill, followed by Courage, and minimally with Magic.

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• Balance Buff: Version 1.20 added Dual Hawks and Wild Surge.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: 2 is fond of giving bandits hatchets. Subverted with the Sohaya, due to hatchets being equally associated with the mountain-climbing asceticism of Shugendo... which won't stop them from trying to kill Hide anyway.
• Charged Attack: The majority of Hatchet throws have some charged component to them.
• Combat Pragmatist: The general concept of the weapon is using its throwable nature to play keep away with enemies. Also observed in Demon Undercut, which throws a hatchet at an enemy's foot for large amounts of ki damage and can lead to a unique grapple state where they clench their foot in pain as opposed to the usual landing on their butt and getting back up winded. Getting the most of its pragmatism may be easier said than done, however.
• Counter-Attack: Spiked Wall is a skill that blocks before it attacks, while Tile Shaker is a Timely Guard parry.
• Double Unlock: Deadly Spiral is obtained from Shibata Katsuie, in both forms.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: Justifiably averted, the Hatchets have two good Sheathed Active Skills, but because the weapon lacks a technique to resheathe them quickly, they can be awkward to use except at the beginning of a fight. This is, ironically, closer to how Iaijutsu techniques for swords are applied in real life.
• "Just Frame" Bonus: Dual Hawks throws the Hatchets such that they orbit around Hide, timing the swing correctly will cause them to bat the other Hatchet out of the air towards the enemy at full speed. The Mystic Art Trained Throw also increases damage for releasing charged attacks at the correct time.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: By far the most unusual weapon in the duology. It has many mobility and ranged options inherently with many different properties, lacking more traditional skill list options like combo finishers. Dragonfly in particular has the unique trait of being able to root enemies in place temporarily. Its unorthodox moveset and many caveats for maximizing its damage give Hatchets possibly the largest difficulty floor and curve of all weapons in Nioh.
• Spectacular Spinning: The aptly named Spinning Crab deals a good amount of ki damage. The hidden skill Deadly Spiral is also quite useful, spinning repeatedly before throwing the Hatchets spiraling outward.
• Throwing Your Hatchet Always Works: The modus operandi of the weapon, each stance has a unique throw and a different trait you can apply to it between decreasing the charge time or increasing the maximum throwing distance. Indeed, because they count as projectiles, this makes them susceptible to being reflected back at the wielder through Gust Talismans or the Yata Mirror, among other things.

Switchglaive

Introduced in 2. A fantastic tri-form weapon made by the Sohaya for Yokai-slaying that is part-scythe, part-glaive, and part-guillotine. By default, they primarily scale with Magic, followed by Constitution and Skill.

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• Attack! Attack! Attack!: The Switch Stance skills allow linking together each stance's quick attack combos as long as your ki allows. The Mystic Arts, Wildfire Flux and Tempest Flux give stacking bonuses for each Switch Stance attack landed between attack power and ki consumption respectively, up to 5 stacks.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Active Skill finisher for Wildfire/Tempest Flux consumes all stacks for a slow, short, two-step attack that does truly impressive damage, but is far too easy to whiff, which will cause all the stacks to go to waste, regardless of whether it hit anything or not. On top of that, the stacks have a very short duration, and can only be increased if the Switch Stance attacks inflict damage, so guarding enemies can cut the buffs short if they don't cooperate.
• Balance Buff: Version 1.20 added Cyclone and Kiboshi Kicker, adding faster-paced combo finishers to its skill list. "The First Samurai" also adds the hidden skill Arc of Chaos.
• Counter-Attack: Tranquil Edge. Just Reprisal works on Yokai attacks as well.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Switchglaive's Switch Stance skills have to be activated before a ki pulse window in order to extend combos, however, it can be just as easy to ki pulse Flux while trying to Switch Stance... or vice versa.
• Double Unlock:
  • Windswept is obtained from Imagawa Yoshimoto.
  • Fleeting Edge is obtained from Mumyo.
  • Arc of Chaos is obtained from Tate Eboshi.
• Hurricane Kick: Kiboshi Kicker, of the "Spinning Bird Kick" type, it follows up with a grapple if it depletes a human enemy's ki.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: Again, it transforms between a scythe, glaive, and hand-guillotine. The Hunter's Workshop would be proud.
• "Just Frame" Bonus: Cyclone II adds a conditional strike grapple to Cyclone, with the glaive form driving the blade through the enemy's torso, and the scythe form dragging them across the ground.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Holds the sole distinction of having a Mystic Art that acts in some way as a unique Active Skill. The Switch Stance skills also are somewhat more fluid than Odachi's Sunset Breeze and Waking Winds skills, but involve switching stances using the appropriate stance changing inputs directly in the middle of the combo rather than as a standard combo finisher. Additionally, its own Sheathed Active Skill forces you into mid stance due to utilizing the glaive form, and it has a unique second grapple in high stance that uses the quick attack input rather than strong attack.
• Spectacular Spinning: Spinning to dodge even yokai attacks, spinning around enemies while attacking, deflecting projectiles, spinning to grab winded enemies... We mean everything.
• Spin to Deflect Stuff: Whirling Blade, which (mostly) negates the need for such things as a Gust Talisman or Yata Mirror, for Switchglaive players, it'll likely be their first capability for dealing with projectiles too.
• Throwing Your Scythe Always Works: Arc of Chaos, which naturally returns to Hide. After all, what's a scythe but an unusually large and somewhat-misshapen boomerang?

Splitstaff

Introduced in the DLC "The Tengu's Disciple" from 2. A staff that splits in multiple ways, using centrifugal force to attack more or extending the weapon's reach by holding attack inputs. By default, they scale primarily with Magic, followed by Courage, and minimally with Strength.

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• Balance Buff: Version 1.20 added Heron Kick and Changing Ways. Changing Ways was notably strong enough on its release to be nerfed soon afterward.
• Boring, but Practical: Shin Crusher is the undisputed leader in ki damage, and much safer than many of Splitstaff's fancier skills that have you flying through the air. It simply amounts to hitting enemies' legs with the detached end of the staff like a speedbag.
• Counter-Attack: Shockstopper is a skill with a guard window at the start. Deft Counter is a Timely Guard parry, you also recover from it so fast while the enemy is still stumbling back up that you're guaranteed to land the next attack as long as it's not Roar Power.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: It's a double-edged sword for Splitstaff that allows them to apply elemental debuffs easily and in general, easily ki break. The weapon lacks singular powerful strikes, which can make certain encounters tedious, such as small staggerable Yokai like Koroka and Yamanba, or human enemies blocking in the middle of extended attacks that will cause the entire Splitstaff to deflect off their guard.
• Double Unlock: Roar Power is obtained from Benkei.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Every attack and skill has a variation for holding its inputs called Fluid Form. Even multi-stage skills like Twin Phoenix require holding the skill input for each step. Extending the staff consumes extra ki, so care must be taken to not overexert. For Darting Cloud, the repositioning ki pulse skill (similar to Spear's Rainbow Ruse), rather than holding an attack button, requires holding the ki pulse button. Additionally, the stance a skill is assigned may change how the extension property changes with the skill, either extending its reach or granting more hits. Because of Fluid Form, each stance's normal attacks are very short in sequence that discourage Button Mashing.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: A Martial Arts Staff that splits at the center making two oversized Instant Chucks using the chains at both ends of the staff for flails... or keeping the center connected while activating the nunchaku part, making it something of a Sanjiegun too. The hidden skill Roar Power adds a bit of Telescoping Staff for good measure.
• Situational Sword: Like Dual Sword's Water Sword, Dragon Dance is a very powerful sustained damage skill. Even though you walk forward during it, it's large range and knockback still prevent it from being used to solve every problem. On top of that, if you manage to fully deplete your ki while finishing it, you can grant yourself one of the most powerful attack buffs in the game which is also unique, making it very risky to go for total ki expenditure, but very rewarding. You'll need a very large opening to fully perform Dragon Dance while getting the buff.
• Shout-Out: Quite a few of its attacks are references to the Lunar.

Fists

Called "Tekko" in Japanese. Introduced in the DLC "Darkness in the Capital" from 2. Not to be confused with the weaponless, bare-handed attacks, these are gloves designed for devastating hand-to-hand martial arts. By default, they scale primarily with Strength, followed by Dexterity, and minimally with Heart.

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• An Arm and a Leg: The Demon Arm Fists, Watanabe no Tsuna's weapon of choice, really is just a female yokai's (implied to be Ibaraki Doji) severed arm, with a matching opposite for good measure. If you unlock the weapon's thoughts, she's not really pleased being used to beat other Yokai to death.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: The Unbroken passive allows you to immediately follow a skill with another skill or even any normal attack. This can also be used to change stances mid-combo as necessary, creating combos as long as your ki allows. In addition, Rising Gale allows you to attack with your ki pulses, and its skills are generally better at closing distance than most other weapons, allowing them to stay right in their faces. The Unbowed Mystic Art reduces ki consumption when activating Unbroken in fights. It's quite welcome considering how high the ki consumption on this weapon is by default.
• Balance Buff: As if it needed one. Nonetheless, Version 1.20 adds Wolf Claw and Beyond Infinity to its moveset.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Less emphasis on the "bare" part, but considering most enemies wield swords and spears that this "weapon" has no trouble getting around, it still stands out. While its attacks draw inspiration from a variety of martial arts, Wing Chun seems to be the biggest of them.
• Counter-Attack: Takedown, as cool as it is to launch people into air and slam them into the ground between your legs, only works on human enemies. Opportunist on the other hand, works on just about any attack and is much more adaptable, being able to weave it between enemy combos and allowing you to stand your ground. Defensive Drop requires you to set up by laying prone and then catching the enemy strike with your legs.
• Death or Glory Attack: Limitless sets your ki to zero the moment you initiate the skill, where even the slightest breeze will wind you. It delivers a rather satisfying wallop that will stagger even large Yokai if it didn't kill them, even better if you somehow manage to land a back attack with it.
• Difficult, but Awesome: For someone coming from the slower and methodical Souls series, the actions-per-minute, having to remember all the combos or which stances skills are applied, and switching stances on the fly to suit the situation can seem rather overwhelming. On the other hand, a Fighting Game player is likely going to feel right at home, being able to switch from offense to defense in the same breath. It's a veritable Master of All, if you find your way around its enormous ki consumption.
• Double Unlock: Izuna Drop and Tiger Claws are both obtained from Ren Hayabusa. The former is guaranteed on your first clear.
• Gathering Steam: Unbroken increases your damage as you chain combos together, stacking up to ten times. You can extend the timer with perfect ki pulses if you're not able to press the attack.
• Idle Animation: Notably different in style than every other weapon. While wielding a weapon necessitates properly maintaining its kamae, standing still with Fists ready has Hide constantly shifting forms, keeping their hands ready and limber regardless of what stance they're in, emphasizing the need for fluidity.
• "Just Frame" Bonus: Beyond Infinity is a long and powerful combo skill that attacks faster if you press the input for the next attack right as your fists glimmer.
  • Opportunist II adds an additional attack with a "one-inch punch"-like variation for timing the follow-up to the counterattack properly.
• Mana Drain: Wolf Claw has Hide drive their hand into the enemy, gaining a large amount of Anima after. Oddly, this skill is not a grapple.
• Necessary Drawback: Beyond Infinity's sheer power is held back twofold by its length, risk of retaliation is an obvious one, but it also prevents you from refreshing Unbroken, and if you've maxed out its stacks, it'll likely run out by the time you finish using the skill. It's not a significant drawback because the skill is absurdly powerful, but it's a drawback nonetheless.
• Nerf Arm: The Scampuss Fists stand out as the sole example in the entire series, which otherwise takes weapon depiction seriously.
• Shout-Out: Where to even begin?
  • Fists of Reckoning is very obviously a Dempsey Roll.
  • Beyond Infinity takes a few cues from Geese Howard's Deadly Rave, albeit much easier here.
  • Opportunist evokes the classic fighting game parry stance.
  • Takedown looks very similar to Holds from Dead or Alive.
  • The mid stance strong attacks perform a "Dragon Kick" followed by the distinctive bounce-step similar to Jann Lee, also from the above series.
  • The grapple is awfully reminiscent of Ip Man's signature No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from the original movie.
  • Tiger Claws itself is taken wholesale from Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge, even if it's slower.
• Spinning Piledriver: The only other weapon besides Sword that can use the Izuna Drop.
• Wolverine Claws: Claws exist as a subtype within the Fists category. They lose the striking weapon modifier, but are required to execute the hidden skill Tiger Claws. This is the only skill whose usage requires a specific weapon subtype. Refashioning Fists into Claws doesn't count either. Generally, the claws attached to the knuckle-side of the gloves are reasonably sized, but they can get pretty ludicrous, especially the Falcon Claws.