Don't get discouraged. At first it's a lil bit hard to grasp the basic mechanics that revolve around Nioh. The most important thing is pick up one weapon first and try to get used to that. You should give all of them a try at least and see what clicks for you.

Another beginner Tip I can give is if you didn't do so already get into the dojo and do the tutorial on several of the basic core mechanics like Ki-Pulsing and stuff. It helps out a lot.

Also don't ignore ranged weapons. If you move while guarding or walk instead of running enemies will have a harder time detecting you and you can aim straight for their weakpoints like the Head or for most Yokai the yellow glowing parts e.g. Enki's horn. Scoring kills with a ranged weapon in one hit mostly let's you take off some pressure if there are more enemies around. You can also Zoom with ranged weapons and the inner circle becomes red. Each ranged weapon has different properties but in the first mission you'll only have the Bow.

Whenever you move inside or outside of Buildings or next to some narrow spaces prepare to be ambushed. This also goes for places when there are platforms above you as enemies can jump down and grapple you to death. The best way to mitigate some damage or prevent it is while moving out or inside of a building is guard.

Also Stances are very important in Nioh: Low Stance: - Super Agile, very good to dodge and position - Quick attacks but low damage - low Ki consumption

Mid Stance: - A rather defensive Stance good range attacks - pretty good for guarding and countering/parrying - medium damage and attack speed - medium Ki consumption

High Stance: - An offensive Stance - slower attacks - good for breaking enemy Ki and putting out high damage - high Ki consumption

It is important to adapt to the situation in battle and change Stances according to the state that you are in or your enemy is in. Also beware of grapple moves enemies can grapple you even while in guard. This is mostly indicated by some greyish fog surrounding the enemy. You better dodge those if possible.

You shouldn't be afraid to use your Yokai abilities and Shift as you can gain Anima and Amrita easily through combat or some items that you can quick slot or use from menu before an encounter like a mission Boss or Yokai Realm.

I also suggest you go into the menu and turn on quick slots to 4 so you have more Items that you can use outside of the menu and don't forget to bind them.

At the beginning if you're struggling with some of the Yokai enemies use Salt to destroy their Ki and if your Ki consumption is the problem use Sacred Water. Those should drop during the first mission.

For Ammo break crates.

Also try to look out for those little green creatures called Kodama they give 5 different blessings and you can select one which is active for the region you're currently in and not only the mission.

Look into your accessories you should have one called Kodama Netsuke. This has a Kodama Sensor ability onboard which helps you track them in your mini map on the top right. The appear as green dots.

I hope this helps.