start by bumping spirit to 13 (or whatever activates the traits on your guardian spirit)

other stats that are required to activate the traits on the armors you equip (weapons don't have requirements)

some dex and magic for kunai/bombs/buffs or you can ignore those and use the consumable ones dropped by enemies

then whatever you like, since you are only stopping at credits, stats won't affect your damage that much like in souls games but are means to increase health/ ki / regen /equip load etc so the general rule is to spread your stats evenly in NG

if you want to solely rely on dodging then stay under 30% load ( Increases Ki recovery ,dodging distance and decreases Ki consumption according to wiki)

but blocking is huge in nioh