Nioh 3 Wiki

Weapons

All 14 Samurai and Ninja weapons ranked S to C — stat scaling, Ki damage, movesets, requirements and the best starting picks for every playstyle.

Weapon Types

7 / 7

Samurai / Ninja Split

Axe & Tonfa

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On This Page:Introduction·14 Weapons Ranked (Quick Table)·Weapon Profiles·Core Mechanics·Advantages·Challenges·FAQ·Quick Tips·Articles·Explore More

Introduction

Nioh 3 ships with fourteen weapon types split between the two combat styles: seven Samurai weapons — Katana, Dual Swords, Spear, Axe, Odachi, Switchglaive and Cestus — and seven Ninja weapons — Ninja Sword, Dual Ninja Swords, Kusarigama, Tonfa, Hatchets, Splitstaff and Talons. Each weapon has its own moveset, stat scaling, Ki damage profile and stance modifiers, which means 'the best weapon' is really 'the best weapon for your stat allocation and playstyle'. Our weapon hub ranks all fourteen with an S-to-C tier list, then breaks each one down: how the moveset flows between stances, which stats to level, how the weapon fights bosses versus crowds, and the easiest builds to start with.

14 Weapons Ranked (Quick Table)

Tier	Weapon	Style	Best Stat	Key Trait
S	Axe	Samurai	Strength	Biggest raw damage and poise break; hits hard enough to ignore status.
S	Tonfa	Ninja	Skill	Fast, safe Ki damage with near-infinite combo potential.
A	Switchglaive	Samurai	Skill	Adaptive form-change moveset for aggressive play.
A	Spear	Samurai	Heart	Reach, Ki-efficient attacks and strong stance mixups.
A	Hatchets	Ninja	Skill	Ranged throws plus solid close combat for mid-range control.
B	Odachi	Samurai	Strength	Slow but heavy hyper-armor swings for poise builds.
B	Kusarigama	Ninja	Skill	Versatile chain moves but requires practice to shine.

Weapon Profiles

Axe

The poise-breaker's dream — every swing chunks Ki and stuns yokai.

Best StatStrength feeds its damage and poise break. Add Constitution later for survivability; you do not need much Heart because the Axe's slow swings leave you plenty of time to Ki Pulse.

PlaystyleHigh Stance heavy attacks, charged Overheads and Rage skills demolish boss Ki bars. Its weakness is speed — you must Ki Pulse and Flux cleanly or you will be punished between swings.

Starter TipIf you pick the Axe as your first weapon, invest in poise-friendly armor and learn to trade hits — your hyper-armor lets you ignore most small enemy attacks and win neutral exchanges.

Tonfa

The safest aggressive weapon in the game — nonstop Ki damage with tiny commitment.

Best StatSkill scaling drives Tonfa damage and Ki damage. A Light-Weight agility build keeps you nimble while the dual-barrel combo strings keep pressure on.

PlaystyleTonfa excels at stunlocking humans and draining boss Ki fast enough to chain Final Blows. Use Low Stance for poke, High Stance for the devastating Tonfa Gun finishers.

Starter TipTonfa is the most forgiving Ninja weapon to start with — fast attacks mean you rarely overcommit, and Flux refunds make your stamina bar last half a combo forever.

Switchglaive

A form-shifting Samurai weapon that adapts its moveset mid-fight.

Best StatSkill is the main scaling stat. The weapon transforms between a glaive, scythe and dual blades depending on the stance, so its versatility rewards players who master all three stances.

PlaystyleScythe form has long range and crowd control, dual-blade form is fast single-target damage, and glaive form has the strongest poise break. Chaining stance-switch attacks is the core loop.

Starter TipMost players overlook Switchglaive because its moveset asks for stance discipline. Spend ten minutes in the dojo mapping each form's best attack, and it becomes one of the most flexible weapons in the game.

Spear

Reach and rhythm — the stamina-efficient pick for disciplined players.

Best StatHeart feeds damage and Ki; you can also scale Skill for the stance-specific skills. Spear wants a moderate Toughness so trades with its long reach stay safe.

PlaystyleKeep enemies at the tip and punish whiffs. Spear attacks are Ki-cheap, making it the easiest weapon to chain Ki Pulse combinations against crowds of humans and small yokai.

Starter TipMaster the High Stance thrust and the Mid Stance sweep — they cover charging enemies and grouped mobs, which is 80 percent of what the early game throws at you.

Hatchets

Throw first, then finish in melee — the ranged hybrid that controls space.

Best StatSkill scaling focuses on thrown-damage and melee finishers. Hatchets want an Agility-focused Ninja build so you can kite while regenerating Ki.

PlaystyleUse charged throws to soften enemies before they close, then switch to melee for the execution. The mid-range control makes Hatchets excellent in open fields where you can dictate engagement.

Starter TipLearn Hatchet stance-cancel throws — a throw in Low Stance can be canceled into a dash or Ki Pulse, letting you keep kite pressure on bosses without ever standing still.

Odachi

Heavy hyper-armor swings for poise-craving Samurai who love trading.

Best StatStrength drives Odachi damage, with Stamina for the weight and Toughness for poise. This is the chunkiest weapon — take the weight seriously or your agility tanks.

PlaystyleHyper-armor means you can trade through small hits and keep attacking. Charge its heavy attacks for the huge poise break, but leave yourself Ki for a pulse — an empty bar with an Odachi is a death sentence.

Starter TipOdachi punishes greedy play hard; if your first few areas are a wall, switch to spear or tonfa to learn the combat loop and come back with better timing.

Kusarigama

The chain weapon with style — great versatility, high skill floor.

Best StatSkill powers its damage; the chain attacks scale far better with status nodes later, so a hybrid Skill/Intellect setup works well for elemental Ninja.

PlaystyleThe Kusarigama's pulling attacks yank humans out of position and its scythe mode cleaves groups. It lacks the raw damage of Axe, so it leans on status effects and mind games.

Starter TipReserve Kusarigama for players comfortable with long recovery frames — its flashy punishes require knowing exactly when an enemy's pattern ends.

Core Mechanics

Every weapon has three stances with separate movesets, a stat-scaling profile (usually two or three stats), and a Ki-damage figure that decides how fast you break enemy guard. Weapons also share universal systems: Weapon Proficiency levels up the weapon, unlocking its skill trees; Samurai Locks buy Martial Arts for that specific weapon; and Soul Matching lets you carry a favorite weapon's level up with materials. The weapon tier list reflects all of this — S-tier picks combine strong base numbers with skills that are easy to use well, while C-tier picks may be perfectly viable but ask too much from the average player.

Advantages

Weapon guides are among the highest-traffic pages on any Nioh wiki — 'Nioh 3 best weapon' and every per-weapon search are constantly searched by players both at launch and during DLC hype. Our hub serves both groups: the tier table answers 'what should I use' in one glance, while the individual profiles answer 'how do I play this weapon' for players who want to invest. Because weapon balance is a community-long debate, the guides naturally win long-tail keywords and build the site's authority. The hub also captures the community's endless ranking debate, which produces fresh discussion every time a patch lands. Because every weapon has its own page, we can own both generic terms like 'best starting weapon' and per-name queries like 'Switchglaive skills' without cannibalizing each other — the tier table feeds readers down to profiles, and the profiles feed readers into build and equipment guides.

Challenges

Weapon rankings are subjective and sensitive to patches. The community has already flagged Switchglaive placement as debatable, and a single balance patch can move a weapon a full tier. We mitigate this by always giving the 'why' behind each rank and labeling rankings as current-community-consensus, but players who see an outdated tier list after a patch may lose trust. Weapon-specific drops and unlock requirements also vary by region, so location data can drift as the wiki grows. The S-to-C framing also invites complaints when a favored weapon drops a tier, so we always explain the 'why' behind a rank and invite discussion in the comments. New players may also treat the tier list as gospel and skip weapons that would actually fit them better, which is why every profile includes a 'who should play this' note.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the strongest weapon in Nioh 3?+

Community consensus puts the Axe first for raw Samurai damage and poise break, and the Tonfa first for Ninja players who value safe, fast Ki damage. Both are S-tier; the real answer depends on whether you prefer trading hits or out-fluxing enemies. If you plan to focus on PvP-style duels or speedrunner-style clears, the ranking shifts slightly — the S-tier pick for boss farming is not always the best dueling weapon. Try both in training mode against a practice dummy before committing, because the feel of the weapon matters more than any number.

How many weapon types are there?+

Nioh 3 has fourteen weapon types — seven Samurai (Katana, Dual Swords, Spear, Axe, Odachi, Switchglaive, Cestus) and seven Ninja (Ninja Sword, Dual Ninja Swords, Kusarigama, Tonfa, Hatchets, Splitstaff, Talons). You can equip one of each style and swap as the fight demands. You equip one Samurai weapon and one Ninja weapon at a time and can swap them mid-fight with the style switch, so your loadout actually holds two of the fourteen simultaneously. That makes the 'which weapon should I use' question really two questions: one for your Samurai hand and one for your Ninja hand.

Which weapon scales best with which stat?+

Generally Strength feeds heavy Samurai weapons like Axe and Odachi, Skill feeds agile weapons like Switchglaive and all Ninja weapons, and Heart feeds Ki-based weapons like Spear and Katana. Every weapon lists its exact scaling in the stats UI — check it before committing points. Skill typically pairs with agile weapons and Ninja tools, while Strength feeds the heaviest Samurai weapons; weapons like Katana and Spear lean on Heart because their Ki efficiency matters as much as raw damage. Every weapon menu shows its exact letter grades per stat, so a ten-second check beats guessing.

Are C-tier weapons unusable?+

No. Tier lists reflect ease-of-use and peak performance, not viability — every weapon can clear the campaign. A C-tier pick you enjoy and understand will outperform an S-tier weapon you never practiced. Many streamers and challenge runners clear the entire game with C-tier picks simply because deep practice beats raw numbers. What the tier list predicts is how fast a typical player will master the weapon — so treat it as a learning-curve rating, not a viability verdict.

Quick Tips

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Set your weapon's skill tree order before leveling stats: unlock the two or three Martial Arts that define your combo first, because those skills change how much Ki and damage you need from your stat spread. Unlocking those two or three key Martial Arts first also tells you which stats your weapon really cares about, because skill requirements and stamina costs reveal the intended stat profile — so your leveling order and your skill order should inform each other, not be chosen separately.

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Keep one secondary weapon that covers your primary's weakness — a Spear main wants a fast Ninja offhand for tight corridors, and an Axe main wants a Ki-damage tool like Tonfa for bosses that never stay still. A ranged Ninja offhand like Hatchets also saves you on open-field kiting when your main weapon is too slow for a mob; the cost of carrying a second weapon is just weight, and the flexibility it buys in corridors and boss rooms is almost always worth the small stat investment.

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Re-check your weapon's scaling after every major patch — Nioh 3's live balance passes have already shuffled stat priorities, and a single patch can make the stat you were dumping into a dead weight. Patch notes often buff or nerf one scaling stat, and switching your allocation after a rebalance can make a weapon feel brand new — the reverse is also true, so a weapon that felt mediocre at launch can become a hidden gem after its scaling gets fixed in a later update.

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Explore More

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Builds

Top Samurai and Ninja builds for early game, endgame and NG+ — stat allocation, skills, Crit setups and Grace set bonuses explained in detail.

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Combat

Master Ki Pulse, Flux, stances, Deflect and Evade — the stamina-driven combat loop, Yokai Pools, Life Corrosion and status effects that define Nioh 3.

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Equipment

Armor sets, rarities from Rare to Ethereal, Grace bonuses, Soul Matching, tempering and the loot systems that fuel every Nioh 3 build.

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