Nioh 3 Character Building and Leveling Guide with Tips
2026-02-17
Starting your adventure in Nioh 3 can be overwhelming, with countless weapons, stats, and gear choices to consider. But with the right strategy, you can level up smarter, fight stronger, and progress faster. This guide will help you build a powerful character, choose effective weapon builds, prioritize the most important stats, and equip early-game gear sets for a strong advantage. Whether you prefer Samurai or Ninja playstyles, you’ll be able to dominate the early game and conquer every boss with confidence.
Table of Contents

If you want to experiment with different Nioh 3 character builds, OSLink makes it simple and mobile by allowing you to play Nioh 3 on your phone. This lets you test various weapon combinations, stat setups, and gear builds on the go, or in more comfortable settings rather than being tied to your PC chair. Try different character builds, explore every playstyle, and level up efficiently while making steady progress.
Your First Priority: Farm More Amrita
In Nioh 3, the first thing you should prioritize for Nioh 3 character building is collecting Amrita. Amrita is the main resource used to level up your character and skills. Collecting more Amrita helps you progress steadily, become stronger, and defeat hard bosses more easily.

Below are the best ways to farm Amrita:
-
Exploring the Map and Defeating Enemies: While you are exploring, you will be able to defeat enemies. Defeating enemies will give you Amrita to add to your collection as well as allow you to level up faster.
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Kill Enemies Near a Shrine: You can battle with yellow elite enemies or Yokai near a Shrine. And again return to or fast travel to the Shrine to respawn the enemies. Then you can defeat them again to earn more Amrita.
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Use Battle Scrolls to Replay Battles: You can earn a high amount of Amrita once you clear battles in your story path, especially boss battles. You can use Battle Scrolls to replay these battles and collect more Amrita.
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Sell the Extra Weapons: You can sell extra low-rarity weapons that you do not need at the Shrine. Selling unwanted weapons gives you Amrita in exchange.
Leveling Up Your Character
The main leveling method in Nioh 3 is upgrading your character’s stats. There are seven stats that you need to focus on to level up your character. Each stat has different effects and is useful for different build setups.

Below are the details from this Nioh 3 stat guide:
|
Stats |
Effect / Best Build |
|
Constitution |
Greatly increases maximum HP (Life) Best Build: All builds for more survivability |
|
Heart |
Increases maximum Ki, Ki recovery speed, and ranged attack damage Best build: Samurai melee, Ki management |
|
Stamina |
Improve the maximum HP and maximum equipment weight. Best Build: Heavy armor/tank |
|
Strength |
Increases Ki damage dealt with weapons Best Builds: Pure melee DPS |
|
Skill |
Increases the power of weapon skills, arts, and Ninjutsu Best Build: Hybrid Arts/Ninja |
|
Intellect |
Increases Ki recovery speed, ranged attack damage. Best Build: Duration buffs, hybrids |
|
Magic |
Increases magic attack power Best Build: Magic/Onmyo builds |
You can use Amrita to level up these stats and make your character more powerful. Make sure to upgrade stats based on the weapons and Nioh 3 character best builds you are using.
Stat Leveling System Mechanism
Before leveling up your character stats, you must understand how does the Nioh 3 Stat Leveling Works? - Each of the weapon types is tied to three stats. By upgrading these stats, weapon performance and related attributes are also increased. These improvements affect Melee Attack, Ranged Attack, Arts Proficiency Power, Defense, and Weight Limit, which all change based on stat upgrades.

Below is a breakdown of weapon types and their scaling stats.
Samurai Style
|
Samurai Weapons |
Scaling Stats |
|
Sword |
Heart, Strength, Intellect |
|
Dual Swords |
Heart, Strength, Magic |
|
Spear |
Constitution, Heart, Skill |
|
Odachi |
Stamina, Strength, Magic |
|
Axe |
Constitution, Stamina, Strength |
|
Switchglaive |
Skill, Intellect, Magic |
|
Cestus |
Heart, Stamina, Strength |
Ninja Style
|
Ninja Weapons |
Scaling Stats |
|
Ninja Sword |
Strength, Skill, Intellect |
|
Dual Ninja Swords |
Heart, Intellect, Magic |
|
Tonfa |
Constitution, Strength, Skill |
|
Kusarigama |
Constitution, Skill, Magic |
|
Hatchets |
Stamina, Skill, Intellect |
|
Splitstaff |
Strength, Intellect, Magic |
|
Talons |
Heart, Stamina, Intellect |
Tip: Choose your weapon type first and then level up the corresponding stats to gain further advantages.
Choose the Best Weapon Combination
Now you are ready with the knowledge of how the stats work. For better progress, you must choose the best weapon combinations with one for Samurai Style and one for Ninja Style to keep leveling up your stats equally and further improve the abilities of the weapons you are using.
So, here are the Nioh 3 character best builds for weapons and the Nioh 3 best stats to level up for better battles.

Versatile Slash Build (Samurai Sword + Dual Ninja Swords)
Both of these weapons are tied to the Heart and Strength stats. Leveling up these stats can make these weapons more powerful. Then, you can switch your fighting style without worrying about weapon power. This weapon build works for most boss battles easily with maintaining higher mobility and balanced damage.
Tanky Poke Build (Samurai Style Spear + Ninja Style Kusarigama)
Both of these weapons are tied to Constitution and Skill. You can increase these stat levels equally and do not need to worry about one weapon decreasing in power. This build is perfect for attack from safe ranges.
Tip: Choose the stats that are similar and focus on leveling up these stats more than the others for a better advantage. If you are building with different weapon setups, you have the chance to change your leveling stats and maintain the most important stats for higher levels.
Pick the Best Gear Setups Early
The equipment is the major staff for making the Nioh 3 character best builds and a better progression of your gameplay. The gear in Nioh 3 consists of Head Armor, Torso Armor, Arm Guard, Leg Guard, Boots, Accessories, and other usables. These gears come with different rarities and sometimes include set piece bonuses.

For better battles, you need to focus on the best gear for equipping from the early game. Below are some of the best Nioh 3 gear setups:
Crimson General Set
Best For: Samurai-style beginners
Armor Type: Heavy armor
Equipping the pieces of the Crimson General Set grants bonuses that make your build stronger and easier to play early on.

Set Bonus Effects:
-
2-piece: Defense bonus scales with Stamina
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3-piece: Reduces Ki consumption when guarding by 13%
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4-piece: +21 Ki Pulse bonus when attacking an enemy
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5-piece: Increases Ki damage dealt by Martial Arts by 7.2%
How to Farm:
Keep defeating early-game bosses to collect Crimson General gear drops.
Demon Horde Set
Best For: Ninja-style players
Armor Type: Medium armor
The Demon Horde Set is perfect for early boss battles and provides bonuses that help you gather more Amrita, which speeds up your progress.

Set Bonus Effects:
-
2-piece: Life Drain (Melee Kill) +100
-
3-piece: Life Recovery (Crucible) +7.0%
-
4-piece: Faster Ki Recovery (Amrita Absorption)
-
5-piece: Amrita Earned (Crucible) +12.0%
-
6-piece: Crucible Weapon Damage +13.0%
How to Farm:
Defeat the Demon of Envoy boss multiple times to collect all pieces of the Demon Horde Set early in the game.
Conclusion
And that’s it for our Nioh 3 Character Building and Leveling Guide. You need to choose the best weapons for your playstyle, then level up the right stats to create a powerful build and improve your gameplay progression, exactly as outlined in our guide. Also, you can use OSLink to play Nioh 3 remotely from your phone, even when you’re away from your PC. Keep leveling up and enjoy epic battles anywhere, anytime.
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