‘Nioh 3‘ has lots of interesting skills, and the Frost Moon remains one of the best. It’s a set of three stance-specific martial arts. They can be found right on the far right of the samurai skill tree, and they allow players to attack during a Ki Pulse without even using any Ki. That makes it one of the essentials for combos.
Not only that, but they also stop you from staggering during attacks. This means that incoming hits won’t bother you during a move. This is critical during boss fights and for the players who like to play with a rough playstyle. Here is how you can unlock them for your Samurai build.
How To Unlock Frost Moon Skills In ‘Nioh 3’?
All three Frost Moon skills are locked behind the Way of the Warrior: Novice side mission. This quest only becomes available after cleansing the Hamamatsu Town Crucible during the Hamamatsu Incident story mission, which ends with a boss fight against Jakotsu-baba.
After clearing that Crucible, Ii Naotora gives players the Guiding Mirror, enabling fast travel to the Eternal Rift. Head there and talk to Yagyu Munenori, who stands near the building at the top left of the area. This adds The Way of the Warrior: Novice to the Battle Scroll menu at any Shrine.
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The mission itself is straightforward. Players fight three standard human training partners, and at this point in the game, they should go down easily. Completing the mission rewards a Samurai’s Locks and unlocks the three Frost Moon nodes in the skill tree. Each one costs a single Samurai Point to learn.
How To Perform Each Frost Moon Skill?
The three skills are tied to specific stances. Frost Moon: Heaven activates in High Stance, Frost Moon: Humanity in Mid Stance, and Frost Moon: Earth in Low Stance. To perform one, players need to initiate a Ki Pulse and press the corresponding stance button.
When already in the stance they have to use, a single press executes the Frost Moon attack during the Ki Pulse. But if you are thinking of switching from a different stance, then it gets a bit tough since you will need to press the stance button twice while holding R1 or RB.
While the first press will trigger the Flux stance switch, the second press will fire the Frost Moon attack. Now there are other ways to trigger it as well, but this double-tap is the most reliable way, and while it takes time, it will help once you understand when to do it.
Why Frost Moon Skills Matter For Combat?
Frost Moon attacks cost zero Ki, which makes them perfect bridge moves between heavier martial arts in ‘Nioh 3.’ Players can perform a combo, Ki Pulse into a Frost Moon, switch stances, and immediately launch another Martial Art without ever running dry on stamina.
They also count as valid moves for maintaining Arts Proficiency chains. Since Arts Proficiency requires players to alternate between different attacks without repeating, Frost Moon skills add three free options to the rotation. This will help you a lot in extending your high-damage combos.
But while all weapons benefit from the Frost Moon skills, stance-heavy ones like the Switchglaive or the Odachi are the best choices for the skill. They already have stance-changing movesets, and adding Frost Moon just makes everything much more offensively seamless.
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Some weapon-specific Martial Arts can also link directly from Frost Moon, like chaining Frost Moon: Earth into Iai Quickdraw with the Sword for devastating burst damage.
