Nioh

[Meteor_of_War]

Just an opinion Meteor - if you dump Nioh 1 now, in all honesty you really aren’t missing much other than the satisfaction of putting together new builds.

Nioh 2 offers more in later difficulties, but this one - it’s good, but not really worth the time if you’re super busy, and you usually are.

Speaking HZD from experience, I think you’ll be glad you moved on once you begin seeing the story (and everything else) that game offers

And 2022 will be full up just with Elden Ring and Nioh 2.

Just a couple of honest pennies worth of thoughts from a friend.

Yep, I am definitely thinking the same way.

When I last left off playing HZD, I just got to where I leave the tutorial area and head to the "proving ritual." So I haven't at all gotten deep into it yet but it feels like the game is just about to open up. That's probably when I will get hooked and be able to move on from Nioh.

I'm definitely leaving Nioh installed though. I just need to discipline myself to not spend ALL my gaming time with it lol. I need to be able to jump in once or twice a week and just tinker with my build a little here and there, and maybe bang out a few missions in Way of the Strong and Demon. Hopefully I'll get hooked on HZD enough to do that.

 

[Lazy8s]

Yep, I am definitely thinking the same way.

When I last left off playing HZD, I just got to where I leave the tutorial area and head to the "proving ritual." So I haven't at all gotten deep into it yet but it feels like the game is just about to open up. That's probably when I will get hooked and be able to move on from Nioh.

I'm definitely leaving Nioh installed though. I just need to discipline myself to not spend ALL my gaming time with it lol. I need to be able to jump in once or twice a week and just tinker with my build a little here and there, and maybe bang out a few missions in Way of the Strong and Demon. Hopefully I'll get hooked on HZD enough to do that.

After the Proving Ritual is where HZD really takes off

I just unlocked DoTN in #2 Now the underworld is open, so I can die even faster

 

[koralis]

I'm definitely leaving Nioh installed though. I just need to discipline myself to not spend ALL my gaming time with it lol. .

Best $0 I've ever spent. Free from Epic

 

[Meteor_of_War]

After the Proving Ritual is where HZD really takes off

I just unlocked DoTN in #2 Now the underworld is open, so I can die even faster

Good job bud. hey, as long as you're still having fun dieing!

Best $0 I've ever spent. Free from Epic

Have to admit, same here. Can't think of another game I got on a free giveaway that I put more time into, and got more enjoyment out of. Going on like 130 hours logged.

 

[koralis]

Have to admit, same here. Can't think of another game I got on a free giveaway that I put more time into, and got more enjoyment out of. Going on like 130 hours logged.

Well, it worked out for them... I didn't buy Nioh, and probably would never have bought Nioh 2. Now, I'm more inclined to give them my money. Maybe the winter sales.


Redid one of the one-eyed dragon castle on Way of the Strong... oof. tougher. Almost as tough as the initial region of Way of the Demon, but a whole lot less rewarding in terms of drops.

But I just got Weaken Weapon rolled on my axe, so I think i'll stop there. my defenses needed a bit more buttressing for Way of the Demon and sounds like that'll work out just fine.

Some of the enemies are shrugging off my spells fast now. Not happy about that.

 

[Meteor_of_War]

Did you unlock Way of the a Demon yet? There are way more high level divine weapon drops. Just use 10 ochoko cups before starting a mission.

Both my weapons and most of my armor pieces i got to level 160-165 and +13.

 

[koralis]

Did you unlock Way of the a Demon yet? There are way more high level divine weapon drops. Just use 10 ochoko cups before starting a mission.

Both my weapons and most of my armor pieces i got to level 160-165 and +13.

Yes, I had Way of the Demon up, but wanted to try getting a ravenwing rifle to work on and wanted to compare the DLC and Way of the Demon. Just like Way of the Samurai, its DLC is comparable to the next tier up.

I got suckered into trying to use up some of my last less-than-+10 soul matching divines before starting to use the +11 and up items. Stupid of me. More efficient just to sell those and use the mega items I think.


Doing soul matching on the high level high+ items is really pricey. I have a weapon spec'd out to soul match to which would bring it to level 174 (+10)

I need to get to the Samurai of Sawayara to farm for decent Obsidian footwear. Still wearing a level 150 purple for the set bonus! I need to beef up my weapons and other armor a bit first though.

 

[Meteor_of_War]

Nice, sounds like you are pretty hooked into the gear farming/upgrading meta game that I was so addicted to.

I was also asking if you unlocked Way of the Demon yet because I was curious if you also had all Way of the Strong regions unlocked and could just go straight to the Queen's Eye's and beat that to unlock Demon. I am 99% sure if you beat all the DLC missions in Way of the Samurai the game is nice enough to just unlock all Way of the Strong missions for you and let you progress straight to Demon by just beating that final epilogue mission.

The game difficulty does indeed ramp up quite a bit in Demon though (NG++). Enemies hit super hard, have much more HP, and they included those red highlighted enemies that are much much tougher, but in turn drop lots more equipment. I am intrigued about getting the orange gear in the next difficulty, NG+++ but I don't think I want to put anymore time into the game right now. Maybe some point in the future I'll return to it.

 

[Lazy8s]

Nice, sounds like you are pretty hooked into the gear farming/upgrading meta game that I was so addicted to.

I was also asking if you unlocked Way of the Demon yet because I was curious if you also had all Way of the Strong regions unlocked and could just go straight to the Queen's Eye's and beat that to unlock Demon. I am 99% sure if you beat all the DLC missions in Way of the Samurai the game is nice enough to just unlock all Way of the Strong missions for you and let you progress straight to Demon by just beating that final epilogue mission.

The game difficulty does indeed ramp up quite a bit in Demon though (NG++). Enemies hit super hard, have much more HP, and they included those red highlighted enemies that are much much tougher, but in turn drop lots more equipment. I am intrigued about getting the orange gear in the next difficulty, NG+++ but I don't think I want to put anymore time into the game right now. Maybe some point in the future I'll return to it.

There are other routes to get ethereal gear. Not that I want to tempt you back into the game or anything

 

[koralis]

I was also asking if you unlocked Way of the Demon yet because I was curious if you also had all Way of the Strong regions unlocked and could just go straight to the Queen's Eye's and beat that to unlock Demon. I am 99% sure if you beat all the DLC missions in Way of the Samurai the game is nice enough to just unlock all Way of the Strong missions for you and let you progress straight to Demon by just beating that final epilogue mission.

Yes, I had the same experience. When I first unlocked Way of the strong, it was only 3 regions. When I switched back to Way ot the Samurai to finish the DLC all of the regions in Way of the Strong were then unlocked and I could do the Queens Eye mission.

The game difficulty does indeed ramp up quite a bit in Demon though (NG++). Enemies hit super hard, have much more HP, and they included those red highlighted enemies that are much much tougher, but in turn drop lots more equipment.

The red guys have permabuffs on them. I'm getting settled into a new okay-ness now. The Weakened Weapon helps that to bring the expected damage back into line with what I'm used to.

 

[Meteor_of_War]

There are other routes to get ethereal gear. Not that I want to tempt you back into the game or anything

What? So you don't have to beat Way of the Demon first? You got to be kidding me. How?

Yes, I had the same experience. When I first unlocked Way of the strong, it was only 3 regions. When I switched back to Way ot the Samurai to finish the DLC all of the regions in Way of the Strong were then unlocked and I could do the Queens Eye mission.

Good to know you had the same experience. I didn't even go into Way of the Strong until after I finished all the DLC. When I first noticed it I thought my game was bugged.

 

[Lazy8s]

What? So you don't have to beat Way of the Demon first? You got to be kidding me. How?



Good to know you had the same experience. I didn't even go into Way of the Strong until after I finished all the DLC. When I first noticed it I thought my game was bugged.

Nah, you do. That’s easy though. Just saying playing Way of the Wise isn’t the only way to get them. Sorry for the half troll post

 

[Meteor_of_War]

Nah, you do. That’s easy though. Just saying playing Way of the Wise isn’t the only way to get them. Sorry for the half troll post

Oh wait, are you talking about the Abyss? I have not even tried the abyss yet since I learned you can only go so many levels unless you open further NG's. But I guess it makes sense you would get drops there.

[EDIT] I was curious so I tried the abyss. Did floors 1-10, then it told me I need to beat Way of the Demon to go further. My guess is once I do that the abyss would start dropping ethereal gear.

 

[Lazy8s]

Oh wait, are you talking about the Abyss? I have not even tried the abyss yet since I learned you can only go so many levels unless you open further NG's. But I guess it makes sense you would get drops there.

Yep that’s it, but it isn’t just drops. You can “defile” gear at a shrine and get it back 3 levels later with a much higher chance of either improvements, or ethereal, or both.

If you dive back in, just keep in mind that ethereal isn’t always the better piece of gear….

 

[Meteor_of_War]

Yep that’s it, but it isn’t just drops. You can “defile” gear at a shrine and get it back 3 levels later with a much higher chance of either improvements, or ethereal, or both.

If you dive back in, just keep in mind that ethereal isn’t always the better piece of gear….

I did see that message prompt about the defiled weapons/armor. I managed to get a few drops of defiled armor and a defiled odachi, and also got 12 "Droplets of Decay." I think I was holding the odachi the longest in the abyss (can't remember how many levels though), and it came out as a divine +5.

I am definitely curious to defile my current equipped weapon, fight through a few floors of the abyss then leave and see how it improves. Argghhhh! This game!

 

[Lazy8s]

I did see that message prompt about the defiled weapons/armor. I managed to get a few drops of defiled armor and a defiled odachi, and also got 12 "Droplets of Decay." I think I was holding the odachi the longest in the abyss (can't remember how many levels though), and it came out as a divine +5.

I am definitely curious to defile my current equipped weapon, fight through a few floors of the abyss then leave and see how it improves. Argghhhh! This game!

No kidding right? Once you get ethereal you’ll also see some cool new graces drop

 

[Meteor_of_War]

No kidding right? Once you get ethereal you’ll also see some cool new graces drop

I think I'll jump back into it in a bit and defile one of my main weapons and see what happens to it when I come back out of the abyss after beating a few floors. Backing up my save first of course. I am definitely curious to see how the defilement system works and what it can do to improve my already upgraded weapons.

But that's it I swear! I will save Way of the Wise and ethereal equipment for another time.

 

[Lazy8s]

I think I'll jump back into it in a bit and defile one of my main weapons and see what happens to it when I come back out of the abyss after beating a few floors. Backing up my save first of course. I am definitely curious to see how the defilement system works and what it can do to improve my already upgraded weapons.

But that's it I swear! I will save Way of the Wise and ethereal equipment for another time.

I can’t stop laughing at “I swear!”

 

[Meteor_of_War]

OK, I just tried out defiling. I did not have enough Amrita at the moment to defile one of my main weapons, so went with a lvl 150 divine Twin Dragon Tonfas (no + value) that I had. Did 4 bosses and left the abyss and it turned into a level 162 +3.

Pretty cool. I can see this as a little bit of an easier/faster alternative to soul matching. You still need to spend a ton, but its amrita instead of gold which I find is much easier to farm. Good to know!

 

[Lazy8s]

OK, I just tried out defiling. I did not have enough Amrita at the moment to defile one of my main weapons, so went with a lvl 150 divine Twin Dragon Tonfas (no + value) that I had. Did 4 bosses and left the abyss and it turned into a level 162 +3.

Pretty cool. I can see this as a little bit of an easier/faster alternative to soul matching. You still need to spend a ton, but its amrita instead of gold which I find is much easier to farm. Good to know!

Yes it is a nice alternative, just costly the deeper you go.

TN really knows how to build a game that makes you want to keep on playing