Best Weapons To Use In Nioh 3—All Must-Have Samurai & Ninja Weapons

Nioh 3 lets you effortlessly dual-wield Samurai and Ninja builds, and the Souls title has a huge arsenal of weapons. Some are objectively better than others, which is why this guide will help guide you.

There’s a lot of room to experiment with how to eliminate Yokai. You can opt for Low Stance barrages with lighter, faster weapons, or you might enjoy the thrill of doing massive damage with big Axes, for example. Nioh 3‘s weapon pool is healthy, but only a handful are top of the food chain.

Best Samurai Weapons In Nioh 3

The two best Samurai weapons you should focus on using in Nioh 3 are the Axe and Spear.

Axe

If you obtain an Axe, any other weapon rarely overpowers it from an Attack standpoint. It’s literally a giant Axe designed to carve and crucify opponents. You don’t even want to think about wasting Low Stance on it either; committing to an Axe build means staying in the middle ground, or ideally, unlocking and prioritizing High Stance to deal the most damage.

Not only is its default Attack power unmatched, but huge Axe attacks can break enemy guards and destroy stamina. The Lumber Chop Swift is a charging attack you can unlock. It consumes a hefty amount of Ki, but it can one-shot many mobs and deal huge damage to bosses.

Spear

Easily the greatest strength of Spears is their reach. If you’re not keen on parries and getting too close to enemies, you can poke and prod from a distance with the Spear. Big charging attacks are the perfect recipe to dip in, do a chunk of damage, and quickly duck out again.

Its versatility and slightly better mobility mean it’s also easier to reel off a mini-flurry of strikes—once again keeping a nice distance between you and your enemy, thanks to the extra frames. Twirl II is a great skill that increases your Attack and potency during a fight.

Best Ninja Weapons In Nioh 3

The Tonfa and Talons are comfortably the best options for the nimbleness of a Ninja in Nioh 3.

Talons

You could argue that the Talons and Tonfa are fairly interchangeable, but one of the biggest qualities of Talons is strong combos, which can absolutely decimate enemy Ki. This leaves them open to generous windows where you can inflict damage and make use of regular Grapple attacks to chop that HP bar down.

Many skills are effective for the Talon, but the Beyond Infinity unlock is the clear winner. If your timing is on point, you can link multiple attacks together, each as devastating as the last.

Tonfa

Again, the Tonfa is another dual-weapon capable of inflicting great HP and Ki damage. They scale with Strength, so if that’s a crucial stat for you to level up, a good Tonfa might be the ideal choice for you.

Dragon Slayer II is a hot pick for skills. You’re one good parry/deflect away from rebuttling with a big counterattacking move, increasing your Attack, and beginning another combo of strikes.

It’s all subjective at the end of the day. What works for IG might not work for you, and vice versa. So, this is where you’re encouraged to share your favorite weapons to use in Nioh 3 and what you think dominates the game easier. You can do this through the Insider Gaming Discord Server.