Brutal boss battler Nioh 3's first major post-release patch has arrived today, February 13th. Among its array of tweaks is a "partial" fix for a pretty serious issue - it sometimes being impossible for your character to down any healing elixirs in battle.

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Total sales for Nioh 3 have surpassed one million units worldwide, publisher Koei Tecmo and …

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Nioh 3 is one of the best releases of the year, and despite a few technical shortcomings in the PC version, it’s Team Ninja’s best port to date. With a plethora of settings to adjust, you can customize several aspects of your Nioh experience.

Though if you want to jump into Nioh 3 a bit faster at launch, here is how you can skip the intro logos and videos thanks to Lyall’s patch, which adds a few other neat features as well.

Publisher Koei Tecmo and developer Team NINJA announced that total sales for Nioh 3 have surpassed one million units worldwide. It achieved this milestone faster than any previous entry in the series, making it the fastest-selling title in the franchise. Total sales for the series have now exceeded ten million units worldwide. Nioh 3 launched on February 6 for PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam. An accolades trailer highlighting the game’s positive critical reception was also released.

The game’s details:

Conquer the crucible, become shogun.

Overcome difficult challenges in an open field.

This game is set in an open field, in which players can freely explore, while enjoying the unique tension that accompanies all Nioh titles. Face formidable encounters with powerful yokai, explore villages where suspicious beings lurk, take on the daunting challenges of The Crucible, and enjoy the thrilling, hostile new environments as you fight to survive the cursed kingdom!

 

Two Styles: Samurai and Ninja

In Nioh 3, players can enjoy two different fighting styles: Samurai and Ninja.

Based on the tendencies of the enemies and stages, players can switch seamlessly between Samurai and Ninja techniques instantly at any time, or choose to fight using only one style continuously based on the challenge ahead. Feel free to play with the style you like best.

Samurai Style – This style provides a gameplay experience similar to previous Nioh titles. New actions such as “Arts Proficiency”, which enhances the power of martial arts, and “Deflect”, which allows players to block enemy attacks at the last moment, have been added, helping create a series of intense and deadly face-to-face confrontations.

Ninja Style – This style excels in quick movements like dodging and aerial actions, giving ninjas the advantage of being able to attack from outside of the enemy’s range by utilizing a variety of “Ninjutsu” techniques according to the situation on the battlefield. Players have the ability to use techniques like “Mist”, which leaves a clone after an attack, and “Evade”, which allows for narrowly avoiding enemy strikes. Both techniques help players outmaneuver foes while delivering devastating speed attacks from behind.

 

Online Multiplayer

Players will now be able to assist and seek help from other players through the “Summon Visitor” mode, or even explore the open field with others through the online multiplayer mode “Expeditions”, popular in the previous entries of the Nioh series.

This feature will come in handy to those who have reached a stalemate playing solo, or those who would like to overcome challenges together.

Stay tuned at Gaming Instincts via Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook for more gaming news.

The post Nioh 3 Is The Fastest Selling Title In The Series appeared first on Gaming Instincts - Next-Generation of Video Game Journalism.

It’s quite hard to believe that Nioh 1 released almost a whole decade ago in 2017. The sequel Nioh 2 was released in 2020, and it’s been long enough that Koei Tecmo have decided to release a third entry into the franchise. Nioh 3 enters the fray with a revamped battle system and touts enough…

The post Nioh 3 Review – Brutal Masterpiece Returns appeared first on Invision Game Community.

In this episode Carlos joins Brad, and the two hosts start with a huge load of housekeeping followed by a passel of games including:

Mewgenics
Reanimal
God of War: Sons of Sparta
Centipede Gun
Nioh 3
Lovish
Starless Abyss
High on Life 2

…And more!

You can also hear the show on iTunes

Please send feedback and mailbag questions to SoVideogamesPODCAST (at) gmail (dot) com, or post them in the comments section below. Thanks!

The post So Videogames Episode 475: Mewgenics, Reanimal, God of War: Sons of Sparta, Centipede Gun, Nioh 3, Lovish, Starless Abyss, High on Life 2 appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

In this Nioh 3 build guide, we’re going to take a look at how to put together the Ferocious Claws build using the Talons of the Ninja style as the main weapon.

Nioh 3 has enjoyed a strong release, with players praising its battle systems and open world exploration. However, Mewgenics is giving the new Soulslike a surprising challenge, beating it and other releases on Steam Charts.

Nioh 3 has been off to a strong start, enjoying a positive reception from fans. Despite this, players have taken to social media, pointing out that the game suffers from "spectacle" syndrome.

This morning, KOEI TECMO and TEAM NINJA announced that Nioh 3 has already become a million-seller and is, to date, the fastest-selling game in the action RPG series. We previously had a glimpse of the game's early success in its concurrent player peak on Steam, which far surpassed its predecessors'. Another side is the very strong critical reception, which is being celebrated with a dedicated accolades trailer that prominently features our own review score (9.8/10). Earlier this month, Francesco De Meo explained in great detail why he felt Nioh 3 is the Japanese developer's best work yet: Nioh 3 is […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/nioh-3-sells-1m-copies-fastest-selling-game-series/

Beating Nioh 3’s main story unlocks Shogun’s Journey, the New Game Plus mode transforming your playthrough with tougher enemies, Divine rarity equipment, Grace sets, and powerful endgame systems designed for build perfection. Understanding what carries over, how Divine gear works, the restoration mechanics using Sands of Recollection and Scarlet Sands, Soul Core transformation options, Sudama Blessing for targeted farming, and preparing for the dramatic difficulty spike separates casual completionists from dedicated endgame grinders. This comprehensive guide explains how to unlock Shogun’s Journey, what transfers to NG+, Divine rarity weapons and Grace sets, all restoration systems, and optimal preparation strategies.

How to Unlock Shogun’s Journey New Game Plus

Shogun’s Journey unlocks automatically after defeating the final boss across all four time periods in Nioh 3. Once you clear the campaign, a pop-up notification confirms Shogun’s Journey is available. Access it anytime by opening your map and pressing L2 to select between Heir’s Journey (your original save) and Shogun’s Journey (New Game Plus).

Your original Heir’s Journey save remains intact and accessible, allowing you to switch freely between difficulties without losing progress. This lets you farm easier content in Heir’s Journey or revisit uncompleted collectibles before diving into Shogun’s Journey’s heightened challenge.

When starting Shogun’s Journey, the game offers to skip the introductory Edo period prologue, jumping directly to Escape from Hitokoto Slope in the Warring States era. This skip saves approximately thirty minutes for players who completed the prologue during their first playthrough and want immediate access to open field exploration.

What Carries Over to New Game Plus

Shogun’s Journey carries over everything meaningful from your first playthrough, ensuring you enter the harder difficulty with all hard-earned progress intact. Your character level, stat distribution, equipment loadout, Soul Cores, Guardian Spirits, unlocked skills, and Amrita all transfer directly.

Exploration Level progress carries over completely, meaning regions where you achieved Exploration Level 4 retain that status in Shogun’s Journey. Fast travel to previously unlocked shrines becomes available immediately, and Kodama you found during Heir’s Journey remain collected, maintaining your increased Elixir count. This eliminates tedious re-exploration for basic collectibles and lets you focus on new challenges.

All equipment including weapons, armor, accessories, and Soul Cores transfers to Shogun’s Journey. Your optimized build from the first playthrough provides the foundation for tackling tougher enemies right from the start. Blacksmith services remain accessible with all previously unlocked features, and your crafting materials carry over for immediate gear upgrades.

Battle Scroll missions unlock as you progress through the story again, with some training missions like Warrior, Ninja, and Onmyo becoming immediately available. However, rewards for these missions change to scale with Shogun’s Journey difficulty, providing Divine gear instead of Exotic rarity.

Certain progress does not carry over, creating fresh challenges. Main story missions must be completed again to unlock subsequent regions. Bodhisattva statues require re-activation by praying at them. NPC-related Myths like Fated Land and Abundant Evil reset and need completion again, though their objectives remain identical.

Divine Rarity Equipment and Grace Sets Explained

Divine rarity represents the new equipment tier exclusive to Shogun’s Journey, surpassing Exotic as the highest loot quality available. Divine weapons and armor feature green text coloring by default and unlock after defeating the final boss, with the first Divine drops occurring during the post-credits loot collection.

The defining feature of Divine equipment centers on randomized Grace effects replacing or supplementing traditional armor set bonuses. Grace sets function similarly to armor sets but activate when equipping multiple pieces sharing the same Grace regardless of specific item names. This flexibility enables mixing different armor pieces and weapons under one Grace, unlocking powerful scaling bonuses impossible through fixed armor sets.

Divine gear features four affixes compared to Exotic’s three, with one affix always being the Grace set bonus. This additional affix slot provides substantial stat improvements alongside the Grace effects. Familiarity caps at 999 points for Divine equipment versus lower caps on inferior rarities, and armor pieces gain defense stat increases as familiarity rises through combat use.

Popular Grace sets include Grace of Tsukuyomi regenerating Onmyo Magic uses on enemy kills, perfect for magic-heavy hybrid builds. Grace of Vaisravana emphasizes Martial Arts damage and Ki pressure, rewarding aggressive Samurai close-range combat. Grace of Amaterasu increases Close Combat Damage and provides bonuses against specific yokai types, benefiting pure physical damage dealers.

Grace sets activate through tiered bonuses based on equipped pieces. Two-piece bonuses grant minor stat increases, four-piece bonuses provide substantial passive effects, and seven-piece bonuses unlock build-defining abilities transforming your combat effectiveness. Building around a single Grace creates focused endgame loadouts outperforming scattered equipment choices.

Divine gear drops from all enemies in Shogun’s Journey but appears more frequently from bosses, Crucible Wraiths, and restored Enemy Bases using Scarlet Sands. The randomized Grace affixes mean farming specific combinations requires dedicated grinding, though Sudama Blessing helps target desired drops.

Restoration System – Sands of Recollection and Scarlet Sands

The restoration system introduces repeatable content by allowing you to reset Enemy Bases, Lesser Crucibles, Master duels, and Myth sidequests after completing them. When you clear an area, a spirit appears offering restoration using Sands of Recollection or Scarlet Sands of Despair as currency.

Sands of Recollection restore content to its base Shogun’s Journey difficulty, enabling you to reclear areas for additional rewards including Divine gear and Amrita. These items drop throughout open field exploration and reward from Battle Scroll missions, making them relatively common for standard farming loops.

Scarlet Sands of Despair create enhanced versions of restored content featuring significantly tougher enemies with increased health, damage output, and aggression. The elevated challenge comes with substantially better rewards including higher-level Divine gear, rare Grace combinations, and increased Soul Fragment drops for enhancement.

The game automatically restores conquered Enemy Bases when strong negative Ki grows rampant from defeating many open field enemies. After praying at a shrine following this message, one previously cleared Enemy Base restores itself without consuming restoration items. This automatic system encourages continuous exploration rather than exhausting all content immediately.

Restored Lesser Crucibles provide the most efficient method for farming specific Soul Cores at high levels. The wave-based combat format guarantees Crucible Wraith encounters dropping their associated cores, and using Scarlet Sands increases drop quality and quantity compared to standard restorations.

Strategic restoration focuses on high-density Enemy Bases containing multiple elite enemies or those guarding rare equipment chests. Restoring these locations repeatedly using Scarlet Sands creates efficient farming routes for Divine gear while maintaining engaging combat challenges.

Soul Core Transformation for Build Optimization

Soul Core Transformation unlocks after beating the main story, allowing you to change special effects on Soul Cores using Soul Fragments at any shrine. Access this feature through Manage Soul Cores, select Soul Core Transformation, and spend fragments to reroll random affixes on cores.

This system eliminates reliance on perfect core drops by letting you manually optimize existing cores. If a powerful Ibaraki Doji core drops with poor affixes, you can transform it repeatedly until receiving desired bonuses like increased Attack, Ki damage, or Anima generation matching your build requirements.

Each transformation attempt consumes Soul Fragments scaled to the core’s rarity and level. Higher rarity cores require more fragments per reroll, encouraging targeted optimization of your most critical cores rather than transforming everything indiscriminately. Farm Soul Fragments by dismantling duplicate cores through Resting Rites at shrines.

The transformation system pairs perfectly with the restoration mechanic. Repeatedly restoring and clearing Lesser Crucibles using Scarlet Sands generates duplicate high-level cores for dismantling into fragments, then transforming your equipped cores until achieving perfect affixes for your build archetype.

Rare-grade Soul Cores with blue coloring become available in Shogun’s Journey, featuring additional special effects compared to standard cores. These rare variants drop from restored content, particularly enhanced restorations using Scarlet Sands, and provide superior base stats before even considering transformations.

Sudama Blessing System for Targeted Farming

Sudama Blessing represents a shrine-based feature unlocked in Shogun’s Journey that increases drop rates for specific equipment categories by spending Ochoko Cups. This targeted farming system eliminates endless grinding for particular Grace sets or weapon types by biasing loot tables toward your desired items.

Access Sudama Blessing at any shrine after entering Shogun’s Journey. The interface displays equipment categories including weapon types, armor slots, and accessory types. Select your target category and spend Ochoko Cups to activate increased drop rates for a limited duration measured by enemy kills rather than real-time.

The blessing’s effectiveness scales with Tsukumo Fragments in your inventory. More fragments compound the drop rate bonus, dramatically improving your chances of receiving specific Divine gear pieces. Farm Tsukumo Fragments by exploring thoroughly and interacting with Tsukumo NPCs scattered throughout regions.

Strategic Sudama Blessing usage focuses on targeting the final missing pieces for Grace set completion. If you need Divine chest armor with Grace of Tsukuyomi to complete your seven-piece set, activate Sudama Blessing for chest armor then farm bosses or restored Enemy Bases until the desired piece drops.

Combine Sudama Blessing with Scarlet Sands restorations for maximum farming efficiency. The enhanced enemies from Scarlet Sands drop higher quality Divine gear, while Sudama Blessing biases those drops toward your specified equipment type, creating targeted loot acquisition impossible through random farming.

Level Sync Feature for Challenge Runs

Level Sync temporarily decreases your character level when accessing Battle Scroll missions, rewarding you with better loot for accepting additional challenge. This optional feature appears when selecting missions from shrines in Shogun’s Journey, allowing you to voluntarily handicap yourself for improved rewards.

The sync scales your level down to the mission’s recommended range, reducing your effective stats to match intended difficulty. Your equipment and skills remain functional, but raw stat advantages from overleveling disappear, forcing you to rely on mechanical execution rather than pure numbers.

Level Sync rewards include increased Divine gear drop rates, higher chances for rare Grace combinations, and bonus Amrita compared to completing missions at your natural level. This creates meaningful incentive for skilled players to engage with content they’ve outleveled rather than trivializing it through stat advantages.

Experienced players use Level Sync for deliberate practice against specific bosses. Syncing down to fight challenging encounters at intended difficulty hones combat skills applicable to even harder content like Scarlet Sands restorations where mechanical mastery determines success over stat advantages.

Difficulty Spike Preparation and Survival Tips

Shogun’s Journey enemies deal approximately fifty percent more damage than Heir’s Journey while possessing thirty percent larger health pools. Even early-game opponents like standard yokai can three-shot your character, demanding refined defensive skills and perfect Ki management compared to the more forgiving first playthrough.

Enemy placements change throughout Shogun’s Journey with additional yokai appearing in previously safe areas. Human enemies sometimes swap for yokai variants, and existing yokai upgrade to stronger versions like Oni-bi becoming Enenra. Bosses appear in unexpected missions, such as Enenra spawning during Crucible Manifested before you’d normally encounter them in Bakumatsu.

Defensive builds incorporating healing effects, damage mitigation, and Life recovery become significantly more valuable alongside pure damage setups. The Grace of Hotei provides health regeneration from talismans and deflects, creating sustain enabling extended encounters. Quick-Change Scrolls transform from optional insurance into mandatory survival tools providing second chances during boss attempts.

Maximize your Exploration Level to 4 in all regions before attempting their Shogun’s Journey story missions. The permanent stat bonuses from complete exploration compound with Divine gear, providing effective power equivalent to ten or more character levels. Combined with increased Elixir counts from Kodama, this preparation makes borderline impossible encounters manageable.

Focus builds around single Grace sets reaching seven-piece bonuses rather than mixing partial sets. The power spike from complete Grace activation far exceeds scattered two-piece bonuses from multiple sets. Farm Divine gear systematically using Sudama Blessing until achieving full seven-piece Grace, then tackle the most challenging content.

Summon co-op help liberally during early Shogun’s Journey progression until you’ve farmed sufficient Divine gear. The difficulty spike makes solo attempts frustrating before optimizing equipment, and allies provide breathing room to learn enhanced enemy patterns without constant death penalties.

FAQ

How do I unlock Shogun’s Journey New Game Plus?

Shogun’s Journey unlocks automatically after defeating the final boss and completing Nioh 3’s main story across all four time periods. A pop-up notification confirms availability. Access it anytime by opening your map and pressing L2 to select Shogun’s Journey. Your original Heir’s Journey save remains intact, allowing free switching between difficulties.

What carries over to New Game Plus in Nioh 3?

Everything meaningful carries over including character level, stats, equipment, Soul Cores, Guardian Spirits, unlocked skills, Amrita, Exploration Level progress, collected Kodama, and fast travel to shrines. Blacksmith services and crafting materials transfer completely. Main story missions must be replayed to unlock regions, and some Myths reset, but your build and progression remain intact.

What is Divine rarity and how do Grace sets work?

Divine rarity is the highest equipment tier exclusive to Shogun’s Journey, surpassing Exotic gear with green text coloring. Divine equipment features randomized Grace effects that activate when equipping multiple pieces sharing the same Grace, regardless of specific item names. Graces provide tiered bonuses at 2-piece, 4-piece, and 7-piece thresholds. Divine gear has four affixes versus Exotic’s three and caps familiarity at 999 points.

How does the restoration system work with Sands of Recollection?

The restoration system lets you reset Enemy Bases, Lesser Crucibles, Master duels, and Myths after completion using Sands of Recollection or Scarlet Sands of Despair. Sands of Recollection restore content to base Shogun’s Journey difficulty, while Scarlet Sands create enhanced versions with tougher enemies and better rewards. These items drop from exploration and Battle Scroll missions. The game also automatically restores Enemy Bases when defeating many open field enemies.

What is Sudama Blessing and how does it help farming?

Sudama Blessing is a shrine feature in Shogun’s Journey that increases drop rates for specific equipment categories by spending Ochoko Cups. Select your desired weapon type, armor slot, or accessory, activate the blessing, then farm enemies to receive more drops in that category. Effectiveness scales with Tsukumo Fragments in your inventory. Combine with Scarlet Sands restorations for maximum farming efficiency when targeting specific Divine Grace pieces.

Last week, we asked you to explore the world of Nioh 3 and share moments fighting yokai using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:

KeenEyeVP shares their protagonist striking a artful pose

Mayuchemaru shares characters wearing ornate armor

kisa0315ragi shares their character reeling back to attack an enemy on horse

sayaka693518 shares shares a character surrounded in red with a devilish smile

flamfura shares a moment of respite near a shrine

themarkplumb shares a masked character surrounded by red slashes

Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme, or be inspired by other great games featuring Photo Mode. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?

THEME: Framing
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on February 25, 2026 

Next week, find unique ways to frame your subject using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Nioh 3, the challenging Team Ninja samurai action game, has passed one million copies sold in two weeks. According to the game's publisher Koei Tecmo, this makes it the fastest selling entry in the series' history.

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Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little about the games we've been playing. This week, Bertie plays a classic but finds himself getting a bit bored; Marie adopts a black cat called Salem; Tom can't get out of the menus; Victoria makes a young child cry; Dom Platinums a game and feels very smug about it; and Connor finds an inventive way to play two MMOs at once.

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Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo have released a new patch for Nioh 3, with a swathe of fixes addressing - among other things - crashing and progression issues.

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Even before the game came out, it was pretty easy to guess that Nioh 3 would be a hit. From the word of mouth leading up to launch, to the well-received free demo, there was little chance the action RPG wasn’t going to be a major deal.

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Nioh 3 has received a hot new update that brings plenty of bug fixes to very specific issues, but it also implements fixes for a few of the most common - and incredibly annoying - bugs. Patch 1.03.01 arrived earlier on all platforms, and it comes with a chunky set of notes.

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Nioh 3 has had a massive weekend on Steam, the type of launch you just don’t often see for Koei Tecmo games. Indeed, this has very clearly been a monumentous release for both the publisher, and developer Team Ninja.

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It sounds like Koei Tecmo’s decision to finally release a Nioh game on PC day-and-date with PlayStation has paid off. The highly-anticipated Nioh 3 has gone live across both platforms, a first for a series that typically spends its initial release months as a console exclusive.

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The moment Nioh 3 was revealed as Team Ninja’s next project, it immediately jumped to the top of my most anticipated games of 2026. That excitement was dampened somewhat when the studio revealed the game’s “open field” level design. I am very much over open-world games, but I was particularly worried that we were about to get the Nioh version of Rise of the Ronin - which, really, was itself Nioh-lite in an open world.

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