Damn bro u dropped this at the perfect time for me 🙌🏾 keep it up bro your goin places!

For anyone still playing in 2024, I'd like to present a counter argument: You can absolutely make builds the moment you get a Yasakani Magatama. You can start farming for that in the Abduction mission in Dream of the Strong (the second difficulty level). Look it up here on KZfaq, the old video guides are still valid. Yes, you should prioritize putting builds that you can actually survive with, which means maybe not prioritizing damage or just a cool looking build, but something you yourself can actually pilot and survive comfortably with, but it is definitely doable and possible. Why? Well for starters you're still going to spend a lot of time leveling up and farming gear BEFORE you reach Wise and Nioh difficulties. If you're not having fun with your character then you're not going to make it that far. Second, Wise and Nioh were added later on into the game. Same with Demon. And before they were added, the devs made sure that you can create builds. Again, they key for now is the Yasakani Magatama accessory. Third, once you're in Strong and moving forward, you don't have to play ALL the missions. You just have to play a certain number of missions and eventually you'll unlock Afterglow again in that higher difficulty, allowing you to fight the final boss again to progress to the next difficulty level. This is absolutely essential for your time and sanity because I am sure that there are some main missions that you don't want to go through again and again. And since your main concern is leveling up and farming, there are sub missions specifically made for that, such as the Scampuss mission in the first region, the Formal Match in the third, Refined Man of the Underworld in the fourth, and Calamity's Pulse and Winds of Ruin in Afterglow. Finally, builds are very doable to put together once you have the Yasakani because now you can farm Smithing Texts in the first region. There is zero reason to farm texts in higher difficulties unless you also want to farm XP and gear, which I do not recommend if you're just starting out. If you're missing a lot of texts coming out of Strong, level up til you get your weapon stat to 99 then temper item drop rate on all your armor and accessories. Don't go out of your way to temper luck. All we want right now are texts, and for that item drop rate is the only thing that can help you. Then look up the missions where Smithing Texts drop and go back to the first difficulty and farm those missions. When you go to a region, except for afterglow, always make sure to set the shrine bonus to the last option, the increased material drop rate. If you leveled up enough you'll have zero trouble with the enemies in the first difficulty. You should be able to defeat a boss in less than a minute. Keep doing that until you've farmed the smithing texts you want. Now go back to Strong and farm for money and inheritables. Check out revenants and see what they give you. For example, in Imagawa Diehard I found a revenant with the Kodama Bowl, and another one with the Sudama Skull Hat. Huge time savers that I otherwise wouldn't have at Strong or most of Demon. As for the Book of Reincarnation, stop buying that shit from the Blacksmith. Go to the Teahouse and donate extra gear and tea sets to get Glory, then trade for books using your Glory. I'm still in Demon and having fun grinding and farming precisely because I've been able to make different builds. Maybe it's enough for some to stick with one playstyle or weapon type from Samurai to Wise, but that's boring and sad for me. Will it take you longer to reach Wise this way? Yep. Will you spend more mats and time this way? Yep. But for me, if I had to stick to one build from Samurai to the start of Wise I would just stop playing. You can still have fun, make builds, and make progress. But yeah you absolutely have to max out your main weapon stat and factor in survivability. Don't keep trying to copy shit you see online. The Ninjutsu builds in particular are traps because they all force you to wear light armor. Plus kunai and shuriken damage have been nerfed, so unless you're really good at dodging, using the kusarigama, and using feathers, stay away from Ninjutsu builds and other light armor builds.

This is exactly what I needed!!! Thank you so much!!

You make good points, I will say tho that some early game builds can carry you thru late game. My buddy uses flying Kato from the first time he got it and just upgrades it as he goes.

Your stat argument is a valid one. Sadly most players are not skilled or patient enough (ie spending 100,s of hours). So they have to rely on gear and a solid mid game build. Like you stated you has to go through trial and error . As well as multiple builds until you figured out which one you needed to get you through difficulties of the game. I do agree with your point though. My kunai build is almost useless in the mid game. So now I am more reliant on trying to build up my fist/ onmyo build. By pumping points into heart, courage, magic, and constitution. The game forces you to be patient lol. After you beat the game the first time its just a grind to make your character as OP as possible. I don't farm. I just play the game. Only frustration I have is trying to beat the more annoying and tough bosses. I,m over lvl 260 and stuck.on the mansion boss that have eyeballs that spam range magic lol. Its a lvl 209 mission lol.

Just got done beating this game all the way through the dlc stuff at the end . I'll say saving your currencies and materials is good but it is possible to make builds without crafting. This game is not kind to people who spread stats out to much and don't know about builds . I made nice tanky builds focused on odachi with str and stm using armor that helped my max hit points until I got to divine gear. Also your stats are a part of your build and very important to build right until you manage to get the end game gear.

I have had to start over twice and I can say for the most part waiting for an end game build helps a lot. However, if your end game build uses a set bonus that is not a grace it's not bad to get it ahead of time. After you can pick up lucky armor, weapon and acc it's not too hard to simply upgrade the current set to orange. The divine graces are rarely worth anyone's time.

You cannot forge Ethereal gear?!!!! OMFG this game grind and difficulty gets insane in the higher levels... Is it even worth it!?

So even if I know what weapons and armor I want to use I still shouldn’t optimize the stats for that specific build? I keep seeing people say don’t worry about it and spread the stats out evenly but I don’t see how it’s still not better overall to level the stats which benefit your weapons and armor the most? I’m starting Nioh 2 in a few days and it’s so weird to me to not have a build in mind on my first play through

I have a question. my question is in the game Nioh 2 I have progress in Dream of the Nioh, and I notice my weapons attack and base attack are over 2000 attack. but for some reason in the gameplay I deal melee per hit I deal only 500 damage to 700 damage but I'm level 468 in the game and my weapons and base attack are 2000 attack damage, but in the gameplay it's not dealing 2000 damage can you help me if you can please and thank you.

@kingreddiamondgaming I was wondering if you can please make a video on how to deal alot of damage even though I only deal only around 500 damage to 700 damage please and thank you, so I can get help please and thank you.

King red senseiii how do i lv up faster im on dots right now

What are your stats bro