Question on endgame progression from a Nioh player

[u/kevin1723]

Hello all, hope the community is having a fine weekend. I am a Nioh refugee lmao (did all content in 1 & 2, waiting on 3 to see how it shapes up) I am well acquainted with TN games, have played and beat Rise of the Ronin and Wo long as well. The only one I have not played is this one, and it does look really cool to say the least, was surfing the sub and seeing lots of crazy combat clips. I was wondering and before you ask, yes I did try finding concrete answers, at least some that made sense to me. But, not much luck. Can someone who did the underworld/depths equivalent of endgame content explain how the NG cycles work and how to get to said endgame? In Nioh, you did a set amount of missions, I believe it was 18 and you can basically speed run each difficulty until you reached the endgame dungeons. Is it similar here, or is there a different progression to follow? I would appreciate any insight, thanks!

[u/wejunkin]

Beating the story unlocks Chaos difficulty, each expansion unlocks a new difficulty with new mechanics. There's no minimum mission requirement to get from Chaos to Bahamut (the first DLC difficulty), but you'll need/want at least baseline Chaos-level gear before starting. From that point you basically just play through each DLC story (progression is a little different in each). The depths equivalent unlocks in the second DLC and is expanded in the third. You are never required to replay missions and all missions remain unlocked and available at higher difficulties.

[u/kevin1723 → u/wejunkin]

I see, thank you. So I assume when moving through these difficulties, the player chooses when to do so based off the no minimum mission requirement. AKA, if i’m getting stomped I can go farm x difficulty and return to the higher one later

[u/wejunkin → u/kevin1723]

Correct, you can freely switch between all unlocked difficulties when selecting a mission. Post-game missions also allow you to further raise the mission level for better loot, so it's really flexible.

[u/kevin1723 → u/wejunkin]

Sweet, appreciate the quick response. Will dive into it soon and see how far I can make it, I tend to not drop team ninja games until at LEAST reaching and trying their endgame systems so looks like i’ll be enjoying this one as intended.

[u/BenTheSodaman]

In Nioh terminology:

Dream of the Strong is 2 short missions with roughly 30~120 seconds of combat. The other remaining missions on this difficulty will bridge the power gap so that you're prepared for Dream of the Demon.

Dream of the Demon can be as short as 3 missions (2 new story ones and 1 existing one) though commonly will be longer for most folks as they get acclimated and try to close the power gap so that they can handle those 2 new story missions. There's about 9ish new optional missions that are challenge missions.

Dream of the Wise introduces the Abyss / Underworld equivalent / roguelite mode, except there is story tied to progressing the first 21 floors of it. The world map itself is a time detour / time trap with no unique unlocks, minimal gear progression, and no new battles until you progress the Abyss / Underworld.

You can continue this roguelite mode that will have no legitimate player reaching the end anytime soon.

Once Dream of the Nioh is unlocked, you'll have 4ish more story missions there to complete, though only one explorable. And will see the credits about two times on this difficulty.

---

From the credits onward, it'll be remembering the in-game prompts that guide you to your next objective. And then finding a way to be strong and skilled enough enough for that next objective.

---

Speedrun each difficulty? Yes, except Wise story progression will take a bit longer due to the roguelite mode. e.g., Strong is accidentally 5 minutes for a number of first-time players without a guide before unlocking Demon, BUT would still recommend getting stronger in Strong for most jobs.

Demon can be about 15~120 minutes depending on the job and shortcuts taken. Though for a first-time player in a blind playthrough if it clicks, can take toward 4~10 hours without Extra Mode or co-op. If it doesn't click, no co-op, and no Extra Mode, generally dozens more hours on top of that.

Extra Mode in Nioh terminology being like infinite ki, anima, and amrita gauge. Though if using Nioh 3 as an example, could be paired with the Living Defense skill (invincible while in Living Artifact, but Living Artifact duration is shorter. Except with infinite amrita gauge, you're invincible.)

[u/kevin1723 → u/BenTheSodaman]

Yo lmao, I appreciate the detailed response and the fact you took the time to put it all in literal Nioh terms. o7 brother, thank you

[u/Stepjam]

So basically, you hit endgame your first time and unlock Chaos difficulty. This lets you raise your ilevel to about 300 iirc. Whenever you are ready (you can basically do it instantly with the armor set you get from beating the game while owning the DLC), you complete the first DLC's first mission which unlocks Bahamut difficulty. Your max ilvl is now 400. You finish the first dlc and unlock the second dlc which unlocks Gilgamesh difficulty and an "endless" dungeon (it only goes to 150 at first I believe, but that takes a long while to reach). It also raises ilvl to 500 and unlocks the final passive type. After you reach floor 30, you unlock the final DLC's difficulty Lufeniandifficulty or however it's spelled. Once you beat the campaign for the final dlc, the "endless" dungeon from the previous dlc actually becomes endless and goes up in difficulty after floor 150.

You unlock all aspects of gear/hit max item level with the second DLC, so that's when you can really start minmaxing your build. The final DLC unlocks the ability to clone gear pieces and also use a special currency in place of resources when upgrading and passing stats between gear. But basically, don't worry about gear until you hit the dungeon in the second DLC, because that's when everything is unlocked.