This Nioh Ki Guide will help you learn everything you need to know about stamina management which can create a difference between life and death.
It’s paramount that you learn to manage your stamina as early as possible. If you ever run out of stamina during a battle, the enemies will easily be able to stagger you and deal massive amounts of damage.
For more help on Nioh, read out our Beginner’s Guide, Shrine Locations Guide, and Boss Battles Guide.
Nioh Ki
Ki is essential to your survival and victory in every fight in the game. Below we have included some handy tips to help you with managing and utilizing Ki to your advantage.
Trigger Ki Pulse
Ki Pulse is a feature which enables you to quickly replenish your Ki. While in combat, you’ll see blue orbs gathering around your character.
At this point, you simply need to press R1 in order to trigger a Ki Pulse. This is something you need to master during early game and it’ll serve you well during boss battles and normal enemies.
Make sure you hit the pulse at the right time to regain maximum of your Ki. It seems hard but becomes so easy that in later games you’ll end up doing it on instinct.
Not only will it help you keep your stamina, but also disperse any Yokai Realm around you, allowing you more area to roam freely.
Yokai Realm
Similar to blue orbs you produce during a battle, enemies produce an area which prevents you from replenishing your Ki while you’re in it. It should be noted that this AOE circle doesn’t completely prevent you from replenishing your Ki, but the rate at which you replenish is vastly reduced.
While you can simply stay out of this area to negate the effect, there is another way out. While you’re inside an enemy’s Yokai Realm, you can successfully trigger a Ki Pulse in order to disperse the Yokai Realm and completely replenish your Ki.
Make sure that it needs to be a perfect Ki pulse. This means you have to hit R1 when the Ki is at its maximum.
This will cleanse the aura around you, removing the Yokai Realm. You can see it as at the critical point, a halo of light will surround you for a second or so.
Equipment Weight
Unless you’re left with no other alternative, you need to keep your equipment weight as low as possible.
Equipment weight also determines the speed you sprint at, as well as the distance you can dodge. This means that your armor highly affects your play style.
Having a higher equipment weight will not only force you to walk slow, but also dodge ineffectively and replenish Ki at a much slower rate. Since Ki management is the part and parcel of the game, keeping your equipment load at the bare minimum is the way to go.
You ideally want to keep you weight in yellow range (less than 70%). you can see the weight percentage in the top right corner of your armor screen.it it turns red, this means you are too heavy.
You cannot dodge, you walk instead of running on default and Ki consumption is very high.
Utilize Samurai Skills
When it comes to your skills, you need to invest in your Samurai Skills. There is one skill that basically notifies you when your enemies are out of Ki and can be staggered. With this skill equipped, you should be able to see a red reticule whenever an enemy is open to attack and is out of Ki.
In addition to this, there is another skill that allows you to kick enemies at the end of a combo. This kick basically depletes an enemy’s Ki greatly, allowing you to go on a rampage and deal massive amounts of damage.
