One thing you wish you knew/Nioh 2

Here are some things I’d like you to know;
1) Ki Pulsing (R1) is as basic of a mechanic in Nioh then let’s say dodging or blocking. You don’t have to always Ki Pulse the maximum amount of Ki back but you do always want to end in a Ki Pulse. 2) The real mechanic you should be focusing on is your Stances. The mini-boss in the beginning of the first level and the final boss in the first level share a very similar design-philosophy in that their attack patterns strongly incentivize active use of your stances.
Spoiler free summery; dodge wide sweeping attacks and head on charges in Low Stance as dodging costs reduced Ki in Low Stance and your dodge covers more ground while offering more invincibility. When punishing (damaging your opponent when they recover from the attack animation you just dodged) you want to switch to Mid Stance as you’ll do more damage compared to Low Stance and if you have to quickly block an incoming attack you’ll do so at reduced Ki cost. Slowly but surely you will wither away your opponents Ki, once it’s completely gone you want to put the hurt on in High Stance because every single hit will stagger your opponent rendering them unable to counterattack. High Stance offers your biggest normal attacks but every also costs more Ki which is why we reserve that for special occasions early on.
If you approach the beginning of the game as described you’ll find that in no time you’ve build enough muscle memory that the act of switching stances becomes second nature. Coincidentally this is generally also around the time where you start adding your first Active Skills and you can work on mixing those in.
TL;DR: start by practicing stance switching early. You will likely struggle a bit as your brain and fingers are getting accustomed to it but it is worth it in the long run. Remember; there’s no shame in dying in this game. 3) Use your items, the game will litter you with consumable items and ninja tools, use those! There’s no need to hoard them. As an added bonus their usage will also count towards your Omnyo Magic and Ninjutsu proficiency; nearly every items has a learnable counterpart so if you find something you like take a look in the Omnyo Magic and Ninjutu skill trees to see if you can strive towards learning it. 4) Everything related to you being a Shiftling is meant to be used actively. Burst Counter speaks for itself by Yokai Abilities and Yokai Shift can most certainly be thrown out willy-nilly, by doing so you’ll learn when to use them or what purpose they serve. Rule of thumb: you never want to sit at a full Anima- or Amrita Gauge to long. It’s perfectly fine to hoard gauge when you expect to be near a bossfight but during general traversal of the level you don’t want to be topped off.

/r/Nioh Thread