Should you pick Samurai or Ninja in Nioh 3?

You can play as either a Samurai or a Ninja in Nioh 3, with each one offering a vastly different play style. This isn’t an exclusive or game-defining choice — you can switch between the two with a single button press during fights — but if you’re anything like me, you’ll likely gravitate towards one or the other depending on how you play the game.

So there’s no right or wrong answer here, it depends on your strengths and weaknesses, and the type of abilities you want to use. Here’s a complete Samurai vs. Ninja breakdown in Nioh 3 so you can decide which one to focus on, or if you want to use them both equally.

Nioh 3 Samurai explained

The Samurai style is all about heavy melee attacks, managing your Ki (stamina, essentially) consumption, and countering your enemy. This will be more familiar to anyone who has played either the first or second Nioh game. Here are some of the key aspects of the Samurai style:

• Ki Pulse: After attacking, you can instantly recover a portion of the Ki spent on that attack by timing a button press correctly.
• Stances: You can hold your weapon in either a high, mid, or low stance, which determines the type of attack you can use, how strong it is, and how much Ki it consumes. High stance is typically for more offensive attacks, while low stance is for defensive.
• Deflect: Deflecting is more or less the same as parrying, where you can guard as an enemy attacks to negate damage, recover Ki, and replenish the Arts and Ninjutsu gauges (more on that shortly).
• Arts gauge: When you fill the Arts gauge, you can activate Arts proficiency, which enhances both strong attacks and martial arts. As a result, Ki consumption is reduced, damage dealt is increased, and different martial arts can be used consecutively.

Nioh 3 Ninja explained

Image: Team Ninja/Koei Tecmo via Polygon

Meanwhile, the Ninja style is focused on playing in a more agile manner, which means it excels at dodging, mobility, and using ranged attacks, not to mention Ninjutsu. Getting behind your opponent and attacking will deal more damage as a Ninja, and you can attack while in midair. Here are the key aspects of the Ninja style:

• Mist: Press a button after attacking to perform a quick dodge, often ending up behind the enemy for increased damage opportunities. This also restores Ki if an enemy comes into contact with the afterimage left behind.
• Evade: If you dodge right before an enemy attack is about to connect, you’ll recover Ki and replenish the Arts and Ninjutsu gauges. Evading successfully also grants invulnerability for a short period.
• Ninjutsu: Various abilities and actions, such as long-range attacks or traps you can lay. Equippable via the menu, with more unlocked via skill points.
• Footstool Jump: If you jump while in midair near an enemy, you’ll bounce off them and can land behind, opening them up for damage opportunities.

Should you play as Samurai or Ninja in Nioh 3?

So should you focus on Samurai or Ninja? It all depends on your preferred play style. In my experience, approximately 50 hours in, I’ve played most of the game focusing on the Ninja style as it suits my dodge-heavy play style. I can keep my distance from bosses, fire off some ranged Ninjutsu attacks, then as soon as they’re open to damage after they commit to a heavy attack, I can nip in behind them and deal severe damage from behind. Rinse and repeat.

It’s not flawless though; my abilities to parry and counter are reduced, and I can’t deal as much damage in one attack. Learning how and when to switch styles and letting it become second nature is key to becoming a Nioh 3 master and, as a result, making the game look like an elegant dance with death. If you’re confident in your ability to guard and successfully recover Ki after every attack, the Samurai style may be more to your liking.