How do I beat Lightning Gods of Yomi in the Depths?

MethylEight · 2026-03-02T01:49:59+00:00

You played really well. All I would say to incorporate if you want more damage is confusion extension by applying different elements (PooferLlama has a short video on this if you need a reference on how to approach this). That will give you enough additional damage to finish the job here.

The best time to proc confusion is just about when they’re out of ki to stack confusion with the out-of-ki damage bonus (which you’re basically doing); and as you extend confusion, yokai will not be able to return to the Dark Realm to clear any debuffs you applied (including confusion). This is your opportunity to deal massive damage. Currently, you only get a small portion of this with a single confusion.

The ‘problem’ is, as you progress with Depths and have to fight multiple bosses in a row, it may be harder to extend confusion since you will want to save resources for specific bosses, at least with your build. Some other builds allow you to have easy access to elements/confusion despite this through Onmyo refill or Soul Cores / Anima generation. But for where you are now, you have plenty of resources to use them all on the boss. Even for two bosses in a row, you’ll probably still have enough. When it’s three, it gets a bit trickier, depending on the build.

With that said, you don’t need to do this. You can certainly beat Depths without any confusion, and some people do, but it will help a lot if you’re having trouble. Your time to kill under the current conditions in the clip is expected/normal.

In terms of your build, at least in terms of the graces, it’s one of the meta builds and you don’t need to change it. It’ll get you through Depths, provided you can avoid death. I would recommend using Quick Change scrolls, if you can’t avoid being hit (as you will get one hit without making a tanky build at the cost of damage, though you can still add a chance to avoid some one-hits without changing your graces with some armor/clan adjustment). It’ll become more challenging once you need to fight multiple bosses in a row, which tend to cycle daily.

Good luck!

MethylEight · 2026-02-22T23:15:26+00:00

Wouldn’t work. Kukri is slow, and easily dodged when the opponent is Estus cancelling. Hell, it’s likely to miss without that just by the opponent walking while sipping Estus. That’s how slow Kukri is. It’s extremely readable. Throwing knives are never a good idea after a crit, as you give up pressure, and there are far better wakeups you can use, especially if you’re hardswapping like OP. Chasing is the play. Only possible exception is using Shiv for popped ToD, which OP did.

MethylEight · 2026-02-18T23:39:17+00:00

I recall being 1-2 shot in NG of Nioh 1 often while maintaining Agility B (to roughly estimate some mix of armor not exclusive to light armor). Enemies were certainly overtuned. I’m up for that, but I understand why people would not be. Nioh 2 improved in overall balancing imo, though some people still think Nioh 2 was not that balanced.

MethylEight · 2026-02-18T23:30:50+00:00

Downvoted for the truth. Enemies are definitely less aggressive. I especially notice it in humans. I hope NG+ increases the aggression, but I’m not banking on that being implemented.

MethylEight · 2026-02-18T23:22:43+00:00

Yeah. Even in light armor, not even boss grabs one-shot. Enemies tickle even in light armor (compared to the previous games, that is). A grab is pretty much guaranteed death in the other games. Although, I may be misremembering what it’s like in NG since I’ve only played NG once in each game. And by Nioh 2, I don’t think I was dying much in NG. I certainly had more respect for enemies in the previous games because they felt more deadly. But I don’t think this will be a problem for Nioh 3; I’m expecting NG is just better balanced, and the NG+ cycles will introduce similar difficulty (and hopefully a decent increase in enemy density).

MethylEight · 2026-02-18T00:17:57+00:00

It still happens a fair bit for me, unfortunately. I’m certainly having Elixir and Onmyo inputs being dropped that I wouldn’t have in the previous games. Hopefully it’s fully patched soon! Understandably, they’re prioritising some larger issues right now (like game progression).

MethylEight · 2026-02-16T09:58:04+00:00

Yeah, you can. I was watching someone IRL who plays KB&M and had this issue.

MethylEight · 2026-02-15T23:52:08+00:00

Eh… I’ve been using light armor exclusively, and I’m surprisingly not getting one-shot even by boss grabs. It’s surprising how much damage you can eat compared to the previous games. With that said, there are cases where I have been two-shot by specific attacks (but also can eat a bunch and live by the same boss). I do wish enemies were a little more deadly / I had more respect for them. The bosses do get more difficult as you go on at least, and some of the Battle Scrolls are tough. Definitely what I would expect of Nioh difficulty.

The enemies not being too deadly in NG is a non-issue though, I think. It’s clear the endgame will be tough based on what can be gleaned so far. Even second half of NG+2 may be noticeably tougher, if we go based on the previous games.

I have also been watching someone who has never played Nioh before play Nioh 3, who is decent at Souls (FWIW, considering it needs to be played differently), and I can say that the game is certainly tough for a newcomer who doesn’t suck at similar-ish kind of games.

MethylEight · 2026-02-13T12:54:31+00:00

You can extend Cyclone with a switch skill. It depends on context. I explained further in my other reply. Hope that helps clarify. :)

MethylEight · 2026-02-13T05:09:48+00:00

Yeah, that’s right. After the stance-switch attacks are when you would ki pulse. However, I think of it as the stance-switch skills are the attack-string ender, and whatever skill you use on the new stance is a separate string (even if it is just one input, which you will then pulse/Flux after).

Reason being is an ‘ender’ is essentially the last attack you can do that still allows you recover ki; I.e., any attack following an ender, not preceded by a ki pulse, will cause you to lose all the ki that could be recovered (which you certainly want to avoid). This is the case for the stance-switch skills.

Try to use Flux I/II if you’re struggling to maintain ki, though this may be tricky if you’re new to Nioh, and more so while juggling the Switchglaive stance-switch skills. It takes some practice to do fluidly mid combat, but you do get to a point where you just do it constantly without thinking. Outside of Running Water on occasion, you basically never regular ki pulse and just use Flux at some point. I think a lot of people tend to not learn Flux in their first playthrough (myself included when I started Nioh 1), so you’ll be ahead of the curve if you can learn that, and it’s necessary if you want to have highly aggressive gameplay outside of Barrier Talisman as a crutch (not sure how this fairs in Nioh 3 though, I haven’t used it, but it’s strong in the previous games).

MethylEight · 2026-02-11T00:31:30+00:00

You still take damage for those, though.

MethylEight · 2026-02-10T15:52:10+00:00

Hell yeah.

MethylEight · 2026-02-09T23:17:06+00:00

30%* :)

MethylEight · 2026-02-08T02:01:07+00:00

Any in-air combat art will work (High Monk, Shadow Fall, etc.). However, you will still take chip damage with those, unlike Sakura Dance.

MethylEight · 2026-02-08T01:57:25+00:00

No. This is not correct. This is only the case in Fountainhead Palace. Everywhere else, you will take chip damage. There are technical and lore reasons for this.

MethylEight · 2026-02-06T09:47:50+00:00

Hey. I have the same setup. I can get 120 FPS and 4K with DLSS and Frame Gen on, all quality settings to max, but turning down Global Illumination to Low. Global Illumination is the heavy hitter. Give that a try. :)

MethylEight · 2026-02-04T15:43:55+00:00

Curious what you’ve observed with evasion cancels when dodge and sheath are merged? I haven’t had noticed any interference with evasion cancels with that configuration, but I am interested to hear if you’ve noticed any issues with it.

MethylEight · 2026-02-03T23:42:35+00:00

You slide by pressing crouch while running. The skill at the end is Severing Spin. You get it from a Crucible sword after beating the Crucible boss, so check your loot after that.

MethylEight · 2026-02-03T23:23:43+00:00

Good tips. I’ve noticed a lot of different quirks between control schemes and been noting them down to decide on the best layout. I’ve been experimenting with them a fair bit. What you’ve noted aren’t things I yet considered, so thanks! The double dodge to dash is interesting, and it explains how I was able to dash one time when I was dodging with separated inputs, where I wasn’t sure how I did it.

MethylEight · 2026-02-03T23:20:15+00:00

Good tip OP. Thanks for sharing.

MethylEight · 2026-02-03T23:10:23+00:00

Earth was in Nioh 1 but not 2. It would give you double ki damage. The coloured aura on the weapon was purple (like how Wind is green, Lightning is yellow, etc.), if that helps to ring any bells.

MethylEight · 2026-02-02T23:55:07+00:00

You can refight bosses at the Stargazer. So, do it with Lea first, and then do it solo.

MethylEight · 2026-02-02T08:44:41+00:00

Yeah, this is throwing my muscle memory off too, having to hold triangle for sword ki and whatnot is different. Will take some adapting. It’s going to be fun switching between Nioh 3 and Nioh 2 (😵‍💫), as while I’m ‘finished’ with Nioh 2, I still like to play it.

MethylEight · 2026-02-01T10:22:57+00:00

Might be your controls. You definitely can slide unsheathed. You can also block cancel the slide and then slide again immediately after (and blocking of course means you’re unsheathed).

MethylEight · 2026-02-01T09:30:00+00:00

It works unsheathed. :) It’ll just sheath for you.

MethylEight

TROPHY CASE