Guardian Spirits in Nioh provide the player with individualized Living Weapons and passive benefits. They will also protect the player's Amrita upon death.
Living Weapon is used by pressing △ + O when the meter is full. Trigger the weapon changes the Health and Ki gauge to the Living Weapon gauge. As long as the gauge is active, you are impervious to damage and your close combat attacks inflict more damage. The gauge decreases over time and when enemy attacks land. Once the gauge is depleted its effects wear off. While a Living Weapon is active, pressing △ + O will perform your Guardian Spirit's unique skill.
In New Game Plus, you may select the Enhance Guardian option to spend Amrita to upgrade the effectiveness of your Guardian Spirits. Each Spirit can be leveled up to 30 and doing so improves their Protection and Living Weapon stats nominally. DLC: Dragon of the North added Nekomata, Bisha's Centipede and Blue Dragon spirits.
With patch 1.08, you can now equip a second Guardian Spirit, which will confer a passive benefit. You can alternate which is your primary spirit for living weapon as you wish. With a secondary guardian, you not only inherit one of its halved attributes, but also get a combination attribute.
This combination attribute is determined by the dual spirits. The general rule is based on spirit element combination: (contributed by /u/aquCHAOS)
- ELEMENTAL DAMAGE: 2 spirits with same element
- WEAKEN MELEE WEAPONS: fire + water
- KI RECOVERY SPEED: fire + wind
- LUCK: fire + earth
- QUICK ATTACK DAMAGE: fire + lightning
- LIFE RECOVERY (AFTER USING LIVING WEAPON): water + wind
- LIFE: water + earth
- EXTEND ELEMENTAL EFFECT: water + lightning
- GUARD KI REDUCTION: wind + earth
- DASH SPEED: wind + lightning
- ELEMENTAL DAMAGE REDUCTION (GUARD): earth + lightning
Besides the general rule, there are also a lot of exceptions. Some of the exceptions are pretty interesting attributes. In the video I tested all the possible spirits combinations, trying to find out all the exceptions. Here is the complete exception list (Video):
couple with Saoirse:
- SKILL DAMAGE: Saoirse + Kato
- CLOSE COMBAT LIFE RECOVERY: Saoirse + Isonade
- EVASION KI USAGE: Saoirse + Daiba-washi
- LIFE RECOVERY FROM AMRITA ABSORB: Saoirse + Fuse-ushi
- AMRITA EARNED: Saoirse + Mizuchi
- SKILL KI DAMAGE: Saoirse + Paired Raiken
- CLOSE COMBAT ATTACK (CRITICAL): Saoirse + Hi-nezumi
- LIFE RECOVERY BY KILLING STRIKE: Saoirse + Aya-komori
- GRAPPLE DAMAGE: Saoirse + Enko
- STRONG ATTACK KI DAMAGE: Saoirse + Usura-hicho
- NINJUTSU POWER: Saoirse + Gyokuto
- RETRIEVE LOST AMRITA: Saoirse + Narikama Tanuki
- STRONG ATTACK LIFE DRAIN: Saoirse + Shin-Roku
- LONG RANGE ATTACK DAMAGE: Saoirse + Yatagarasu
- AMRITA EARNED (USING LIVING WEAPON): Saoirse + Suzaku
- SKILL LIFE DRAIN: Saoirse + Kara-jishi
- EARN AMRITA (STRONG ATTACK): Saoirse + Izuna
- ONMYO MAGIC POWER: Saoirse + Genbu
- LIFE RECOVERY BY GRAPPLE: Saoirse + Atlas Bear
- THROWN WEAPON DAMAGE: Saoirse + Nekomata
- PIERCE GUARD (CLOSE COMBAT): Saoirse + Bisha's Centipede
- DAMAGE REDUCTION (WHEN ATTACKING): Saoirse + Blue Dragon
other couples:
- HAND CANNON DAMAGE: Fuse-ushi + Mizuchi
- KI DAMAGE (BOW): Hi-nezumi + Aya-komori
- LUCK (USING LIVING WEAPON): Itokuri + Tengen Kujaku
- EVERLASTING KI: Enko + Narikama Tanuki
- DAMAGE NULLIFIED (USING LIVING WEAPON): Usura-hicho + Tengen Kujaku
- ELIXIR BURST: Gyokuto + Narika ma Tanuki
- NINJUTSU DAMAGE LIFE DRAIN: Gyokuto + Nekomata
- DAMAGE REDUCTION (ELIXIR USED): Narikama Tanuki + Shin-Roku
- NO KI CONSUMPTION (GUARDING): Narikama Tanuki + Suzaku
- PREVENTS DEATH AS LONG AS YOU ARE NOT IN A CRITICAL CONDITION: Narikama Tanuki + Tengen Kujaku
- RECOVER NINJUTSU ITEMS (FINISHED USING LIVING WEAPON): Narikama Tanuki + Nekomata
- NO KI CONSUMPTION (FINISHED USING LIVING WEAPON): Kara-jishi + Izuna
- DAMAGE REDUCTION (GUARDING): Kara-jishi + Bisha's Centipede
- ONMYO DAMAGE LIFE DRAIN: Genbu + Tengen Kujaku
- SELF & ALLIES HEALED (ENEMY DEFEATED IN CLOSE COMBAT): Atlas Bear + Tengen Kujaku
- DURABILITY OF LIVING WEAPONS: Bisha's Centipede + Blue Dragon
Guardian Spirits have interesting passive abilities, which can be unlocked by raising the Spirit Stat.
You can check these passive abilities when choosing a Guardian Spirit at The Shrine.
Active abilities are presented in white, while locked abilities are presented in grey, with the required Spirit Level attached in red.
Guardian Spirits
Fire Elementals
Enku
Nine Tails
Water Elementals
Saoirse
Nurarihyon
Earth Elementals
Wind Elementals
Tengen Kujaku
Blue Dragon
Janomecho
Lightning Elementals
AnonymousWhat should I use against Ogress? I’ve tried the water/ice ones not very effective. Please let me know :D
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When you get summoned via "Random Encounter" and encounter the other player the Spirit appears and go towards them. Does it do something or is just a cool effect?
- Anonymous
This game is basically JoJo but with Swords... **choose your stand**
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roses are red violets are blue axes are *****ing trash so you should throw it away and find help
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Genbu, Suzaku, Seiryu, we are missing the last one of the final fantasy legend collection bosses! Byakko the White tiger..
- Anonymous
I distinctly remember there being some female moth like guardian spirit that came out of that rabbit looking boss....so do we never get that guarian spirit or even ajournal entry?
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So there is Seiryu, Genbu, and Suzaku. No Byakko? this is a sad day for me.
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We got Nekomata, Blue Dragon and bisha's Centipede in the 1st DLC
We got Enku and Nurarihyon in the second DLC
I am not sure what is coming in the third DLC but it looks like we will be getting the Moth Girl there, and by my guess we will be getting two other's as well.
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Guardian Spirits can actually be upgraded to Level 40 now. Extremely expensive though.
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R1+R2 is the shortcut to swapping your main and alternate guardian spirits. You won't lose the full gauge for living weapon however you can't use it for ten seconds after swapping.
- Anonymous
New DLC dragon's special attack/guardian spirit talisman pattern is piece of*****! Centipede is good.
- Anonymous
I managed to switch between my primary and secondary guardian spirit outside of the shrine, is this a command that's mapped to a specific button because not being able to change back to my primary spirit is messing with my build.
- Anonymous
Which is the strogest wind guardian spirit ? (I want to make a wind build)
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Hope with DLCs they introduce new guardian spirits and new weapons and armors.
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Pretty sure if they add more guardian spirits two will be byakko and seiryuu. I mean we already have genbu and suzaku.
- Anonymous
I think that we will get one guardian spirit per dlc.
1) Date Masamune - Dragon
2) Sanada Yukimura - Yoshitsugu Otani's Moth girl ( Since Yoshitsugu is his father in law)
3) Toyotomi Hideyori - Monkey (Oda Nobunaga mentions that monkey and tanuki follow his trail)
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Is here an Admin where i can give new Informations ( when you complete the game you can level your Spirit Guardian from level 1 to 30 ) And i have already some Spirit Guardians on Level 30 and the new Stats
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i have a question. ok to you need to add points to spirits to get buffs after i reach max buff why would i put more points into spirit?
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Is the information the game gives on the spirits wrong? Because if the game is right most Isonade stats shown here are wrong...
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The removed "Table key" was useful.
Might Rate at which the Living Weapon gauge decreases if you are hit while using the Living Weapon.
Action Rate at which the Living Weapon gauge is reduced when you consume Ki while using the Living Weapon. The higher it is, the more you can use it.
Atlas Bear
Recovery Rate at which the Living Weapon gauge recovers when you absorb Amrita while using a Living Weapon.
Tenacity The effectiveness of a Living Weapon that is active when your Life is under a certain level.
Amrita Gauge Rate The rate at which you gain Amrita. The higher it is, the quicker the gauge fills. When the Amrita gauge hits maximum, you can invoke a Living Weapon.
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I uploaded this picture so someone can try and fill in the gaps in this list:
http://imgur.com/a/CRsTC
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There was a Bunny spirit I earned in the demo just last night.
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There's also a dragon spirit but i can't recall its name just that its owner is the bull spirit owner's father or something
- Anonymous
tabien comes another spirit of a girl with wings on his head
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there's one missing The Buffalo like Spirit where is it and whats it called
Not seeing it here, but using Tengen Kujaku + Usura-Hicho gives Nullify Damage (Using Living Weapon) instead of Life Recovery (After Using Living Weapon). Seems to stack with the Oda clan bonus.
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