When starting ‘Nioh 3,’ players have only one melee weapon equipped for both styles of play currently available: Samurai and Ninja. There is an option to switch weapons in your control scheme, yet this does not become available until later in the game’s early stages.
Additionally, players can’t unlock two melee weapon slots simply by levelling up, obtaining specific pieces of equipment, or earning achievement rewards associated with beating story missions. To unlock the additional slot, players have to complete optional training dueling sessions with each of your combat instructors inside the Eternal Rift Hub.
You will need to progress through the early acts, unlock the Eternal Rift, and reach the Heian era before the real unlock becomes available. In order to obtain the second melee weapon slot, you must first complete optional training dueling sessions against your trainers.
Samurai Weapon Slot Unlock In ‘Nioh 3’
To unlock a second melee weapon slot in the Samurai style of play, you must enter The Eternal Rift and find Yagyu Munenori. Speaking to Munenori will begin the Way of the Warrior training missions. These missions consist of several tasks, the first of which is a basic sparring exercise with two combatants and is mainly meant to introduce the player to techniques such as stance pressure and Ki damage.
To unlock it, you have to move further along in the story into the Heian Period, where you will be offered an Adept trial by Munenori. This time, you will engage in combat with Munenori during a duel, and this fight is more about reading sword swings, breaking Munenori’s guard, and landing critical strikes, rather than forcing damage through brute strength. Players have found a comfortable level to do so, as needing to be level 50+ to defeat him.
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Defeating Munenori and completing this trial will unlock a second melee weapon slot in the Samurai style of play. You will receive notification of this on the equipment screen and will then have the ability to equip both weapons at the same time.
Ninja Weapon Slot Unlock And How It Works
Like most things in ‘Nioh 3,‘ the Ninja Weapon Slot also has two trainers, but the Ninja uses Hattori Hanzo instead of Hattori and will be found in different locations based on your refinements. To unlock Way of the Ninja missions, simply speak with Hattori Hanzo in the Eternal Rift, complete the novice sparring fight, and after reaching the Heian period, return to face the second adept duel against Hanzo, which you can win to unlock the second melee weapon slot for Ninjas independently of each other.
Once both Ninja weapon slots are unlocked, you can carry two weapons, but they will not increase your equipment weight, and can be swapped from one to another during combat by using either R1 or RB followed by Down on the D-Pad, or Tab on your keyboard.
Therefore, you can trade between heavy Ki-damaging weapons and lighter, faster damage-dealing weapons depending on the enemy. Thus, you no longer need to keep opening up the menu to switch out weapons, making combat flow much better.
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After completing both Adept Trials, ‘Nioh 3‘ now feels like it should have always felt as a full dual weapon combat system, allowing you to react to enemies with whatever you have, rather than being forced to choose one weapon for the whole mission.
