Nioh 3 Rarity Colors, Explained
For a Soulslike game, Nioh 3 has tons of loot for players to sort through. You’ll likely have to rifle through hundreds, if not thousands of items throughout your playthrough, and similar to ARPGs like Diablo, gear in this game is randomized and divided into different rarity/color categories. Rarer items are typically more powerful than their more common counterparts, and if you want to maximize your character’s power in Nioh 3, you’ll want to equip the best gear possible. Here’s a brief overview of how the gear system works and what you can expect from it.
How to See Set Bonuses in Nioh 3
Set bonuses in Nioh 3 are special effects that can only be triggered by wearing a certain number of items of an armor set. Here’s how to see them.
Nioh 3 Gear Rarity System, Explained
Every piece of gear in Nioh 3 has an intrinsic stat as well as several bonus stats that are completely randomized. Intrinsics are the same among items that bear the same name, but the bonus stats (referred to as affixes), will almost always be different from item to item.
There are four rarity colors in Nioh 3, with an additional one that’s reserved for New Game Plus:
- White (Common)
- Yellow (Uncommon)
- Blue (Rare)
- Purple (Exotic)
- Divine (Green; NG+ only)
Item affixes themselves also have rarities that follow more or less the same scheme as the one above, though Green affixes typically refer to set items or unique effects. Affix rarity is not tied to gear rarity, though.
What’s the Difference?
The biggest difference between gear rarity tiers is the number of affixes attached to an item. White items only have one affix, blue and yellow have two, and purple has three. Divine gear, on the other hand, has four affixes, with one of them being a Divine Grace set bonus.
Ideally, you should always have a full set of purple gear equipped so you can fight as effectively as possible in Nioh 3. However, higher rarity items don’t always translate to improved DPS or survivability. Intrinsic stats on an item matter a lot, especially if you’re trying to build into a specific style.
If you truly want to increase your gear’s effectiveness, you’ll want to go to the Blacksmith back at the Eternal Rift level your items up through the Soul Match function. This lets you either level up your item’s level, or increase its +value. Both will increase your gear’s stats, but the latter is available only for Exotic-tier items.
What to Do With Your Gear in Nioh 3?
You can choose between four options when choosing to dispose of your excess gear:
- Sold for Gold
- Disassembled for crafting materials
- Used for Soul Extraction to get Soul Match materials
- Offered for Amrita
Only keep gear you know you’ll be using. Don’t worry too much about granular changes in base stats, as weapons can always be upgraded to remain relevant even later in the game. If you find a weapon or armor piece that has perfect affixes, consider locking and upgrading it later once you get enough resources.