Nioh 2 Trophy Guide & Roadmap

Twilight Missions are NOT needed. Dojo Missions are not required. There are also no difficult double bosses like Nioh 1 had.

For a list of all Missions with Walkthroughs, check out the complete Nioh 2 Walkthrough & Missions List.

To see your current level, press Touchpad > Status > Level (row below your attributes).

You don’t need to farm any XP for this. By the end of the Story you will be Level 100+ easily if you did all Sub Missions along the way.

To make things faster, collect all Kodama at the earliest opportunity and select the Kodama Blessing for more Amrita at a Shrine. If you find all Kodama in a region you get +25% Amrita (XP).

Every time the Sentience Gauge (bar below your weapon on right side of screen) has filled up, the weapon turns purple and will talk to you. However, the trophy does not pop on the first time it talks to you. You need to listen to it multiple times. Whenever the Sentience Gauge has filled up it will talk to you. Do this a few times and the trophy will pop after it has exhausted all the dialogues. Just stick with one such weapon for a while and it will happen naturally over time.

Mystic Arts are bought in the Skill Tree (Touchpad > Learn Skills). The skill tree entries with a red circle are mystic arts. When you scroll over them it shows the requirement. All of them require you to beat the highest-level Dojo Missions. To unlock those Dojo Missions you must get 120,000 proficiency by actively using these weapons and advance in the story.

Each hit you land with a weapon or spell adds to your proficiency. The more damage you do, the more proficiency you get. This means the further you level up and the further you get into the game, the more proficiency you will earn per hit (because you will be a higher level, have better weapons and deal more damage).

To see how much proficiency you got with each weapon, press Touchpad > Status > . Do not confuse this with weapon familiarity.

9 Weapons (120,000 proficiency required each):

1. Sword
2. Dual Swords
3. Spear
4. Axe
5. Kusarigama
6. Odachi
7. Tonfa
8. Hatchets
9. Switchglaive

2 Support Abilities:

1. Ninja – 200,000 proficiency
2. Onmyo Magic – 250,000 proficiency

In New Game+ this starts to get significantly faster. On your first playthrough you can reach 120,000 proficiency with at least 1 weapon, possibly 2 if you switch to a new weapon right after reaching 120,000 proficiency with the first. You can still use your main weapon for bosses the first time around to make it easier. But as soon as a weapon is maxed out, switch to a new one to reduce the endgame grind.

Also equip accessories that give you a +% Proficiency Bonus. This way it goes faster.

*NOTE: Patch 1.04 (and above9 makes you earn proficiency 4 times faster and you only need 120,000 instead of the previous 180,000 proficiency for the mystic arts. Make sure you have the 1.04 patch (or newer) installed.

How to Farm Proficiency after Story:

After the story you will likely still be missing Tea Utensils and maybe some Soul Cores. Combine the 50 Tea Utensils (random drops from enemies) with farming proficiency by playing through New Game+. The further you get the more proficiency the enemies will earn you! Not only that, but it allows you to level up further and get ready for DLCs should you want to play them.

Fastest Method (~12 Minutes to 120,000 Proficiency) – requires you to play through New Game+:

The fastest method I found was in New Game+ “The Golden Castle” (Region 6). At the first Shrine go left, there are 2 enemies (1 small, 1 big) standing there and another 2 in the room behind them. Enter the room for a short moment and go back out to lure the 4 enemies together. Hit all 4 at the same time with attacks that cover a wide radius (usually mid-stance with most weapons). For example, with the Spear or Kusarigama you’d use mid-stance  because that covers the widest radius and is easiest to hit multiple enemies. You’ll want to use a move that hits as many of them at once. This allows you to defeat 4 enemies in a much faster time than fighting each of them individually. Killing all 4 gives you 10,000+ Proficiency and only takes a few seconds. Go back to the Shrine to make them respawn and repeat. On average each run took me 1 minute (10,000 Proficiency per 1 Minute = 120,000 Proficiency in 12 Minutes). You can also buff yourself with Steel Talisman + Rejuvenation + Barrier Talisman, then you have higher defense, automatic health recovery, and faster Ki recovery which makes it easier.

Also remodel your weapon at the Blacksmith to increase its damage as much as possible for your character build (or alternatively, consider respecing your attributes with a Book of Reincarnation, bought at the in-game shop and received as mission reward). You’ll want to maximize your damage output. The more damage you do, the faster it goes.

Combine this always with Ninjutsu and Onmyo Magic Spells to level them at the same time. Because you can combine it with the 50 Tea Utensils for trophy “Tea Connoisseur” you have to keep playing after the story anyway.

Slower Method (~50 Minutes to 120,000 Proficiency) – doesn’t require playing through New Game+:

Another strategy is to farm the 1st big enemy “Gozuki” in the 1st main mission in New Game+ (the big bull enemy). Let him kill you or do a Harakiri when he gets low on health. Then you respawn and he has full health back, just repeat this. You get around 7000 Proficiency per try which takes around 3 minutes (around 50 minutes per weapon with this method). Or you can simply go through the level, killing all enemies along the way which will take a little over an hour per weapon.

Turbo Controller Method (~2 Hours to 120,000 Proficiency) – requires Turbo Controller:

This requires a special Turbo Controller. Play Dojo Mission: “The Way of the Onmyo – Veteran”. In the PS4 System Button Assignments switch out and (so that makes you lock-in on enemies). Then in Nioh 2 press Touchpad > Controls > Control Configuration = Custom > change quick attack to instead of . Equip the weapon you want to farm with. Now all you do is turbo and (the attacks and makes you respawn when you die, the locks in on the enemy). Every 2 hours or so you should have a weapon maxed out without playing yourself, the turbo controller does it for you. *Thanks to Hakoom for this method – check his video to see it in action.

Brute, Feral, Phantom are the different types of Guardian Spirits. They each do a slightly different type of counter animation with different timing. At the Shrine where you equip Guardian Spirits it will say what type they are.

The Burst Counters from the Dojo Tutorial do not count for this. But you can farm it easily at the 1st big enemy in the 1st mission. He will often do red aura attacks. You won’t have access to all colors of Guardian Spirits from the beginning, new ones are unlocked as rewards for completing main- and side missions. Just keep playing until you have all 3 types, then alternate between them at a boss to do the 5 counters, let the boss kill you to change guardian spirit at a shrine and repeat.

After the story, the fastest and most reliable method is to farm the boss Obsidian Samurai in Sub Mission “A Formal Match” (works with any sub mission that consists of only 1 single boss fight).

Obsidian Samurai and other sub mission bosses tend to drop 1 tea utensil every 4-6 playthroughs. After the story you will be high level and can kill him in 10 seconds. Simply farm this one boss until you have 50 tea utensils. Keep this for your last trophy to reduce the grind (you’ll get many tea utensils automatically while working on the other trophies).

Once you have gotten Tea Utensils, go to World Map > Starting Point > Hidden Teahouse (unlocked automatically during story) > Appraise Tea Utensils. The old man sitting there will appraise them. It’s okay to skip the cutscene while he does this. Often he will throw out tea utensils that he doesn’t like but those still count as an appraisal towards the trophy.

To see how many appraisals you have, press Touchpad > Titles > Title List > Ungyo Title List > Reputable Tea Ceremony Master (it shows how many of 50 you got).

To increase the drop rate you’ll want to display Tea Utensils with high Eccentricity in your hut. Go to Starting Point > Hut > Remodel Hut > Tea Utensils > Select Placement > place the ones with highest Eccentricity Stat (purple icon).

They cost 1000 Glory each. Buy one of them. You get Glory from defeating Revenants from red graves.

After you bought it go to Starting Point > Hut > Remodel Hut > Hanging Scrolls and place it. This pops the trophy.

This requires “Divine Rice” which you get from donating items to Shrines (Shrine > Make Offering > Make An Offering).

The Kodama Bazaar Stock will only replenish items that you possess in fewer numbers than the current stock. E.g. if the Bazaar has arrows or other projectiles, shoot all of yours away and you will be able to buy new ones from the Bazaar.

Interact with 10 blue graves to summon the AI companion for this trophy.

In order to interact with blue graves you must get Ochoko Cups. These are rewards for defeating Revenants from Red Graves (Bloody Graves). They tend to drop 1-5 Ochoko Cups depending on the Revenant’s level. Summoning an Acolyte from Blue Grave tends to cost 2-5 Ochoko Cups.

This also includes the Side Mission “Master of the Three Evils that requires 120,000 Dual Sword Proficiency (this mission contains a boss which gives you a Guardian Spirit, which will likely be the last one for most players).

In total there are 25 Guardian Spirits:

1. Makami
2. Ame-no-Mitori
3. Kagewani
4. Masaru
5. Shirohami
6. Rokugezo
7. Okuri-Inu
8. Usura-Hicho
9. Yaonami-Hime
10. Shin-Roku
11. Hiyokucho
12. Hyobishin
13. Itokuri
14. Nine Tails
15. Atlas Bear
16. Genbu
17. Yatagarasu
18. Inosasao
19. Tengen Kujaku
20. Nekomata
21. Hakutaku
22. Isanagami
23. Yumehami
24. Saoirse
25. Gyokuto

For a list of all Missions with Walkthroughs, check out the complete Nioh 2 Walkthrough & Missions List.

Sudama are purple-colored Kudama – a small creature found at fixed positions throughout many missions. The first place to encounter a Sudama is in Main Mission 2: The Beast Born of Smoke and Flames. Immediately after passing through this mission’s first corrupted Yokai Realm (a burning village), you will go across a bridge and there are two wooden houses on the right. Inside the second wooden house is a ladder leading underground. Climb down and you’ll find the Sudama there.

Now in order to exchange gifts, simply drop it an item from your inventory that you don’t need, e.g. any low quality weapon will do. He will drop you a bunch of items in exchange which unlocks the trophy. If you talk to him he won’t do anything, you have to drop the item from your inventory close to him and he’ll pick it up automatically.

This is what a Sudama looks like:

These are random drops from defeating or interacting with enemies as well as friendly creatures (Sudama, Scampuss, Mujina). The name of the Soul Core correlates to who drops it (except Kodama Core which is a random drop for giving Soul Cores to Sudamas).

90% of these you will automatically have after the 1st playthrough without worrying about it. Then you simply compare your in-game list with the below list (see the Soul Cores in your inventory and order by Type. The below list is in that same order).

The ones with special instructions have an asterisk (*). Anything else is considered self-explanatory as it’s dropped by the enemy with the same name. It’s worth noting that enemies inside Dark Realms (Yokai fog corrupted areas) have a higher drop rate of Soul Cores. While dispelling all Dark Realms for trophy “Let There Be Light” you’ll get a lot of Cores. Also use the Kodama Blessing “Yamabushi Blessing” at a Shrine (+5% Soul Core Drop Rate) & Equip Accessories that give +% Soul Core Drop Rate.

To be safe, keep at least 1 of each core type in your inventory and don’t fuse or destroy it. Duplicate cores you can get rid of if you wish (you only need 1 of each type).

Useful Links:

• Nioh 2 – All Kodama Locations (to select Kodama blessing that gives +5% Soul Core drop rate)
• Nioh 2 – All Enemy Locations (so you know where you can farm these enemies until they drop their core)
• Nioh 2 Boss Guide (so you know in which mission what bosses are which have their own soul cores)

List of All Soul Cores (ordered by “Type” in-game menu):

1. Gaki
2. Enki
3. Yoki
4. Gozuki
5. Mezuki
6. Ippon-Datara
7. Infernal Oni-bi
8. Kappa
9. Nurikabe (*kill it instead of using gestures to get rid of it)
10. Mujina (*they are rare enemies that can jump out of treasure chests at random. When you see them, do the same gesture they do instead of attacking. This is a friendly method to make them go away and has high chance of getting their soul core)
11. Enenra
12. Nure-Onna
13. Aberrant Soldier
14. Toxic Slime (*found in the Poison Pools of 3rd Main Mission “The Viper’s Sanctum”).
15. Yatsu-no-Kami
16. Yamanba
17. One-eyed Oni
18. Karasu Tengu
19. Waira
20. Karakasa Umbrella
21. Lesser Umi-Bozu
22. Skeleton Warrior
23. Kamaitachi
24. Koroka
25. Dweller
26. Rokurokubi
27. Onryoki
28. Mitsume Yazura
29. Biwa Boku-boku
30. Tatarimokke
31. Flying Bolt
32. Namahage
33. Tesso
34. Ubume
35. Onyudo
36. Gyuki
37. Wheelmonk
38. Kasha
39. Ryomen Sukuna
40. Daidara Bocchi
41. Shuten Doji
42. Magatsu Warrior
43. Lady Osakabe
44. Otakemaru
45. Kodama (*give Soul Cores to a Sudama and if you’re lucky it gives you back a Kodama core. It seems to like Mortal Cores a bit better than other Cores).
46. Scampuss (*you get it sometimes as a drop after having a scampuss go around with you until its timer runs out)
47. Maelstrom Oni-bi
48. Thunderstorm Oni-bi
49. Mortal (Blue) *can drop from either the non-respawning human enemies during levels, or from the human bosses
50. Mortal (Red) *can drop from either the non-respawning human enemies during levels, or from the human bosses
51. Mortal (Purple) *can drop from either the non-respawning human enemies during levels, or from the human bosses

Here are pictures of all soul cores via in-game list:

Select a Soul Core that you have many times, e.g. Enki or Gaki are most common. Under your Soul core it shows the attack, defense, and “Soul Core Rank”. Rank 9 is the maximum. The way you get there is by fusing your base core with cores of the same type or Mortal Cores. E.g. fuse an Enki Core with another Enki Core (or a Mortal Core which can be fused with anything).

Each Fusion gives you +2 Soul Core Ranks. At most you’ll need to do 4 fusions to get to rank 9. Soul Cores drop a lot throughout the story, so don’t worry about this. After the story you’ll have more than enough of them to do this.

Dark Realms are corrupted Yokai Realm areas surrounded by gray fog. When you enter them, everything will look black & white. Enemies are buffed and your Ki (Stamina) recovers slower than usual. In order to dispel these Dark Realms, you must defeat one specific enemy inside them. The enemy you must kill will have some red particles flying around them. All other enemies in the Dark Realm can be ignored. Once you clear a Dark Realm it won’t return if you die.

You must clear all 47 Dark Realms in the Main Missions only (Sub Missions don’t matter). You will automatically have to go through 90% of them on the main paths. A few are in side areas which you must visit for the Kodamas and Hot Springs anyway. None of these Dark Realms are particularly hidden, they are in plain sight and easy to spot from afar.

To see how many you get in each mission, on the world map click on a mission and then to see the collectibles in it. This way you can easily figure out where you are missing one. Just explore the map fully and you’ll get them all. In the early game they can be challenging, so if you have trouble with this return later after beating the game.

• The Village of Cursed Blossoms = 1 Dark Realms
• The Beast Born of Smoke and Flames = 2 Dark Realms
• The Viper’s Sanctum = 3 Dark Realms
• The Hidden Monsters of Okehazama = 2 Dark Realms
• The Mysterious One Night Castle = 3 Dark Realms
• The Hollow Fortress = 2 Dark Realms
• A Way Out = 3 Dark Realms
• Corpses and Ice = 3 Dark Realms
• Bird In A Cage = 3 Dark Realms
• Pervading Waters = 2 Dark Realms
• The Frenzied Blaze = 3 Dark Realms
• The Sun Sets on Mount Tenno = 2 Dark Realms
• Ruin Draws Near = 4 Dark Realms
• The Two Faces of Hospitality = 2 Dark Realms
• The High-spirited Demon = 3 Dark Realms
• The Mausoleum of Evil = 2 Dark Realms
• The Golden Castle = 3 Dark Realms
• Cherry Blossom Viewing in Daigo = 1 Dark Realms
• The Blue-eyed Samurai = 0 Dark Realms
• In the Eye of the Beholder = 3 Dark Realms

This takes place in the first main mission “The Village of Cursed Blossoms”. You need to defeat an optional enemy and the mission boss to get this trophy. The optional enemy “Gozuki” is the second enemy you encounter at the very start of the mission. He looks like a bull with a big spiked club weapon in his hands. The second enemy “Mezuki” is the mission boss, which is unmissable and must be defeated to finish the mission. Just make sure you have defeated “Gozuki” before killing the mission boss “Mezuki”. Also, Gozuki will stay dead even when you respawn or visit Shrines. You don’t have to kill both in a single life.

This is what Gozuki (optional enemy) looks like:

Both of them have similar move sets and the strategy is the same: Use High Stance of your favorite weapon — I recommend the spear due to its long reach. Keep your distance and let the enemies miss their combos. When they have missed you run up to them and land two quick attacks in High Stance. These drain the enemy’s Ki (stamina) more than mid or low stance, which is crucial. The goal is to deplete their Ki. Whenever you see them charge up a red glowing attack, be sure to use + to counter it. This causes massive Ki drain to them. Also use your Soul Core attacks + / + when their Ki is nearly depleted. Once their Ki is gone, attack with everything you got. Use KI Pulse after landing a hit to recharge your Ki more quickly (helps to maximize damage output while they are staggered). It’s all about bringing their Ki bar down and then unloading your most powerful attacks while they are staggered. Play it safe and slow, watch the enemy’s move set without attacking. When you have memorized all their attacks you will know when they have finished a combo, which gives you an opening to land 1-2 hits. And remember to always counter their charged attacks.

You also have to fight Gozuki + Mezuki together in the missions “The Refined Man of the Underworld” & “The Golden Castle”.

You find Ryunojo the Dung Lover in Main Mission 9: Bird in a Cage.

After the 2nd Shrine, head left into a cave with poison pools. Ryunojo is at the end of the cave, after climbing up a ladder.

You must give him 30 Dungballs to get the trophy (Noble Dungballs count as 2 normal Dungballs). You can farm Dungballs from killing Tesso enemies (the poison farting monks). You should get 1 Dung Ball every 5 Tessos on average. You also find plenty of Dungballs and Noble Dungballs from corpses (yellow item pickups) in this mission and throughout the rest of the game. To make this less grindy, keep this as one of your last trophies. You’ll encounter many more Tesso enemies on your way to platinum.

When you are done with the story come back to this mission. If you don’t have 30 dungballs by that point, keep killing Tesso. Then hand all dungballs to Ryunojo and the trophy will unlock.

This takes place in Main Mission 11: The Frenzied Blaze. During this mission there are 3 swarms of butterflies you can interact with. They are glowing blue and stand out from the rest of the environment.

Here are their locations:

1. In the first Dark Realm area.
2. After the 2nd Shrine, in a side area before talking to the samurai that joins your team.
3. In a side area to the right just a few steps before the 3rd shrine (last Dark Realm before the mission boss).

In Main Mission 15: The High-spirited Demon there are 6 big Amrita Shards. You must destroy all of them. Be careful as they cause you damage when near them.

Here are all the Amrita Shard locations:

1. On a cliff under the 1st Shrine.
2. After going downhill to a village area, head along the left side of the village to drop down to a Kamaitachi miniboss (cat yokai) in a woods area. The crystal is there.
3. After destroying the last spirit stone, follow the path behind it across a tree stump and you’ll come to spirit stone number 3.
4. After the 2nd shrine you go in an area where you’re being shot at with cannonballs. Open the gate on the right. It leads to a rooftop, through which you can drop down into a room with another crystal.
5. Just after passing through the area where you get shot at with cannonballs.
6. Just before the 4th Shrine where the last boulder is being rolled at you downhill.

In this mission you can find 3 Snake Statues. You could destroy them to get rid of the poison in the area, which also drains the poison pools in the boss area. With the poison pools gone from the boss battle it makes the fight easier. But for this trophy you must do it the hard way. This can be pretty challenging on the first playthrough of the mission. It’s better to ignore this trophy until you’ve beaten the game and reached Level 100+. Then replay the mission and head straight for the boss without destroying the Snake Statues. Because you are so overleveled, you will be able to defeat the boss quickly despite the poison.

If you decide to tackle it early on, be sure to buy the Ninja Skill “Medicine: Anti-toxin Pill II” and equip as many of them as you can carry. This cures the poison effect. Also equip the Magic skill “Rejuvenation Talisman” to heal yourself over time. As long as you stay out of the 3 poison pools in the boss fight it won’t be too bad. Attack the boss when it slithers past you and when it summons its snake arms through the ground. Try to destroy both its snake arms before it goes into Yokai Realm mode.

Throughout the mission are strong enemies that look and behave differently from other enemies. They have a unique armor and different move sets. All of them are human. Make sure you kill all of these enemies, just clear out all enemies in one area before moving to the next.

The trophy won’t pop right away! It unlocks during the cutscene at the mission boss. Beware that unlike other missions you can’t backtrack all the way to the start in this mission. Therefore, you should watch out to clear all enemies from the beginning so you don’t end up missing one and having to replay.

During the 7th main mission “A Way Out” (3rd Region), there will be two areas with searchlights. Simply let the searchlights detect you, then destroy the big red orb that spawns. Destroying the red orb makes the searchlights go away. The trophy will unlock immediately after destroying the 2nd one, no need to finish the mission.

This takes place in the first main mission “The Village of Cursed Blossoms”. The second enemy in the mission (at very start of mission) is a huge bull monster holding a big spiked club. He is much stronger than other enemies in the mission. Defeat it and the trophy will unlock. Wait for it to miss a combo, then run up to it and land 1-2 High-Stance quick attacks. When the enemy uses an attack with a red glow, be sure to use + to counter it, thus breaking his Ki bar (stamina). Also use Soul Core attacks when his Ki is nearly broken. Once his Ki is empty you can deal a lot of damage in short time because he’s unable to move. Your goal should be to break his Ki bar, once depleted attack with everything you got, repeat until he’s dead.

Here is an image of what Gozuki looks like:

This takes place in the 10th Main Mission (4th Region) called “Pervading Waters” against the 2nd boss of the chapter. It’s a big gigantic spider-like Yokai monster called Gyuki. This takes place after beating the Saika Magoichi boss in the same mission. As soon as the fight against Gyuki starts, stand at the dam wall where you dropped down to the boss fight. Just stand there holding to block and wait for Gyuki to attack you. He will hit the damn, giving you an easy trophy. Ideally, you should get it on the 1st playthrough, otherwise you must beat the Saika boss again to get there.

This takes place in the 13th Main Mission “Ruin Draws Near” (5th region). Throughout the missions you can find a total of 6 big bells. To be safe that it counts, hit each of them 3 times with a high-stance attack (I used Spear) until they fall off.

Bell Locations:

1. In the 1st Dark Realm.
2. In the 2nd Dark Realm.
3. From 2nd Dark Realm, backtrack just a few steps and take the side path leading to the basement of a building. One bell is in the first room of the basement.
4. Another bell is located in the room connected to the last bell.
5. In Dark Realm after 3rd Shrine, same floor where the Shrine is.
6. In Dark Realm after 3rd Shrine, ground floor.