Nioh – Dual Swords Build
The Dual Swords in Nioh are probably the fastest weapons you’ll find in the game. Compared to the Sword, Axe, and Spear, they can feel pretty weak. However, the Dual Swords are invaluable when it comes to mobility and the capability to dash in and out when trying to land attacks on your foes. First off, let’s go through the different stances offered by the Dual Swords:
Low – Using the Dual Swords in Low stance will make your attacks incredibly fast, and will also use up the least amount of Ki. Ideally, you should use this stance for weaker mobs and crowd control. The Spider Nest level in Kinki is a pretty good place to make use of the Low stance as you’ll encounter a lot of enemies that will easily dodge the wide sweeping attacks of the other two stances.
Mid – Mid stance is another great one for crowd control, but it’s more suited for dealing with larger enemies clumped together. With its broad strikes, Mid stance is also best used in wide open areas where you’re less likely to get your combo interrupted because you hit a wall or something. It’s also great for parrying attacks, if you’re planning on doing that a lot.
High – This is where your damage is with Dual Swords, and it’s the stance that you should largely be using for stronger yokai or even bosses, depending on the situation. Most of the offensive Dual Swords skills will make use of High stance as well. The Ki consumption is pretty high in this stance, so it’s important to manage your stamina will doling out consistent damage at the same time.
Dual Swords – Stats and Armor
Because the Dual Swords favor speedy players who like dashing in and out, getting a quick hit or two here and there, you’ll be dealing mostly with light armor. This means that your defense will likely take a hit, but hey, that shouldn’t matter at all if you’re going to dodge all the attacks anyway, right?
For the Dual Swords, here are the primary stats that you’ll want to focus on for your build:
- Skill
- Heart
- Dexterity/Ninjutsu
Skill is the primary stat that increases your damage output with the Dual Swords. Simply put, level this up, and you’ll deal a lot more damage to enemies.
Heart is also incredibly important with Dual Swords as you’ll most likely spend the majority of your time in High stance. While leveling up Heart to raise your Ki meter isn’t quite as important as leveling up Skill, this is something that you’ll definitely want to look into if you plan on stringing together long combos to stagger your enemies with.
Dexterity and Ninjutsu don’t do a whole lot for your damage output with Dual Swords, but they can be useful if you take advantage of the other tools that Nioh has to offer. The Kusarigama, for instance, scales with Dexterity, and it can be a pretty good secondary weapon to make use of if you need a weapon that stuns enemies quickly. Alternatively, Ninjutsu can also work wonders if you pour enough time into it. Harassing enemies with shurikens and laying traps for them will make your foes easy targets for you to whack with your Dual Swords. Get a few hits in while they’re distracted, and get out. They won’t know what hit them.
Dual Swords Skills
Finally, to make the most out of your Dual Swords build, you’re going to want to pick up some samurai skills. Of course, it’s best to unlock all of these eventually, but here are the ones that you should prioritize when you’re first starting out.
Flux: Flux is incredibly useful with Dual Swords because of its utility when it comes to stringing combos together. By changing stance while activating a Ki Pulse, you’ll recover a little more Ki than usual, allowing you to continue your combo reliably.
God of Wind: This is a move for Mid and Low stance. God of Wind allows you to perform a roundhouse kick at the end of a combo. It may not sound like much, but that simple kick is usually enough to stun regular enemies for a second or two, opening them up for yet another combo.
Ki Pulse: Because your High stance is your primary offensive stance, this skill will help immensely in raising your damage output even further. If you happen to recover full Ki after a Ki Pulse, your next attack will deal even more damage than usual.
Living Water: You should get this skill for all three stances with Dual Swords as it allows you to activate a Ki Pulse even while dodging. While you won’t recover much Ki this way, you will still be able to dispel the yokai pools if you’re positioned correctly.
Defense Arts: Even if you’re built to dodge attacks, it can be helpful to guard against them sometimes, especially if it’s something you can’t outrun. Defense Arts will raise the Ki regeneration rate even while guarding, allowing you to build up enough Ki to get away while still staying safe at the same time.
Heavenly Flow: I’d only recommend this for Dual Swords if you’re planning on parrying a lot of attacks in Nioh. This skill is exclusive to the Mid stance, but the ability to parry attacks will increase your damage output quite significantly if you can pull it off.
Be sure to check back with Twinfinite and our ever-expanding wiki for more tips, tricks, and information on Nioh.
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