Best Elemental Tonfas Build in Nioh 3
Tonfas are among the strongest weapons for Ninja players in Nioh 3, and that’s all thanks to its powerful Martial Arts, fast attacks, and devastating synergies with certain setups. If you feel like you’re doing enough damage with your Tonfa build, then you’re likely missing some sort of secret sauce. This guide is a Nioh 3 Tonfa build that combines this incredible close-ranged weapon with high mobility, Onmyo magic, and a couple of status effects that all come together to make you an unstoppable powerhouse.
Best PC Settings for Nioh 3 (Optimization Guide)
Nioh 3 has performance issues that may cause the game to lag and drop fps, so here are some best pc settings to help you optimize the game.
Best Nioh 3 Tonfa Skills
The Martial Arts you equip for your Tonfas dictate how you fight with the weapon. For this build, we’ll be using the following:
- Pulverize: This move deals incredible damage, especially against human enemies who like to block a lot. However, the animation is quite long, so you may get knocked out of it if you get hit.
- Crimson Lotus Fire: Follow up a Strong Attack with a Light Attack to thrust your Tonfa forward. It will explode upon hitting an enemy, dealing Fire damage.
- Storm of Strikes: Hold the Strong Attack button to rush forward and pummel enemies with powerful strikes.
Most of the time, you’ll be using Pulverize and Storm of Strikes to deal with most enemies in the open world. When fighting stronger enemies, use Strong Attacks with Crimson Lotus to deal high damage and apply a ton of status effect buildup, but more on this later.
Guardian Spirits
You can use any Guardian Spirit for this build, though we do recommend one that deals either Water or Fire damage, just so you can maximize your debuff application. Kusanagi is a good option for Water damage if you picked its Ninja form early on, and either Kongojinshi or Enko are great for Fire damage. You can also just go with Nekomata for Lightning damage and the excellent stat package he provides.
Best Nioh 3 Tonfa Ninjutsu Build
- Flame Breath: Spit forth a jet of flame that deals Fire damage and inflicts high Burn buildup.
- Shuriken: The standard Shuriken; quick and reliable, great for disrupting enemies or taking out weak targets.
- Lightning Step: Dash forward at incredible speeds. Excellent for closing gaps or chasing targets while preserving Ki.
Flame Breath is the most important of the three Ninjutsu skills for this build. Not only does it ignore blocking enemies, but it also builds up the Scorched (burning) status very quickly. We’ll be using Scorched together with the Saturated status to maximize our damage against enemies while also impairing their movement.Alternatively, you can use Fire Shuriken instead of Flame Breath if you’re having trouble using it.
Other Ninjutsu Options
You can replace Shuriken and Lightning Step with any of the Uncanny or Calamity Ninjutsu. These will give you an additional source of Elemental damage, allowing you to inflict even more status effects. Enemies affected by two or more elemental status effects suffer the Confusion debuff, which causes them to take even more damage. The more status effects are on your target, the more damage they’ll take from Confusion, and they’ll get slowed down too.
Nioh 3 Tonfa Build Onmyo Magic Setup
We’ll be using three different Onmyo abilities for this build:
- Water Familiar: This is our main way of applying the Saturation debuff on enemies. Stay close, and hit your targets with Strong Attacks to drench them in water, making them take 20% additional Physical damage. Get this from Jakotsu-Baba’s Soul Core.
- Water Talisman: Coats your weapon, imbuing it with Water damage. This helps us build up and maintain the Saturated debuff on enemies while providing a decent damage boost that interacts with our passive skills. This talisman is from Maelstrom Oni-Bi Soul Cores.
- Skeleton Warrior Summoning Seal: Ranged minions that help inflict Scorched. You can get this seal from Skeleton Warrior Soul Cores.
Water Familiar is the best way to inflict Saturated in Nioh 3. Have it active together with Water Talisman throughout your fights, and you’ll be able to constantly apply the Saturated debuff to your enemy, provided you can press the attack and maintain pressure on them.
Skeleton Warrior Summoning Seal can be replaced by any other alternative that inflicts Fire damage. We chose this one since it’s more readily available, and it’s not bad at all when it comes to dealing damage.
Best Nioh 3 Tonfa Build Passive Skills
- Attack Mastery (Common): Increases your Attack.
- Panacea Curefast (Common): Improves Elixir effectiveness.
- Awakening (Common): Significantly improves Onmyo magic casting speed.
- The More The Merrier (Common): Lets you cancel certain animations by casting Summoning Seals
- Yokai Banisher (Ninja): Mist now cleanses Yokai Realms.
- Hollow Form: Using Mist leaves behind an afterimage that restores Ki when it touches an enemy.
- Wrathful Dragon: Enemies take increased Elemental Damage when they’re hit by a Ninjutsu.
These are all fairly self-explanatory. This skill combination will increase your damage while providing some much-needed quality-of-life improvements via Hollow Form’s Ki restoration, Awakening’s cast speed buff, and Yokai Banisher’s ability to dispel Yokai Realms. Use them wisely.
Best Weapons and Armor for Nioh 3 Tonfa Build
While you can get away with using whatever equipment has the biggest numbers, you can still choose to optimize your build by equipping gear that synergizes with our Nioh 3 Tonfa build’s playstyle. Ideally, your gear should have any of the following affixes:
|
Gear |
Affix |
|---|---|
|
Weapons |
Melee Ki Damage Strong Attack Ki Consumption Ki Damage vs. Scorched/Saturated Strong Attack Damage |
|
Armor |
Ninjutsu Gauge Charge Ki Consumption Life Absorption |
|
Accessories |
Status Ailment Accumulation |
When choosing a Clans passive, Kakizaki is a great choice for their bonus to Ki damage.
The Iga Ninja armor pieces are great for when you’re doing your first playthrough. You can replace these later on once you find something better, but until then, craft Iga Ninja armor pieces at the Blacksmith so you can recharge your Ninjutsu Gauge more quickly.
You can also use Tonfas with an elemental imbuement on them. This will help you build status effects more quickly, but don’t expect them to inflict any debuffs by themselves. Generally, we’ve found weapons that can break enemy stances quicker to be the better option, especially against bosses.
How to Play the Build
- Use Water and Water Familiar Talismans
- Inflict Saturated by using Strong Attacks
- Use Flame Breath to inflict Scorched and apply level 1 Confusion
- Repeat the process when the debuffs expire
This build is very strong against tough enemies in Nioh 3, and it’s pretty much overkill against anything weaker than a boss. You’ll be zipping through open-world encounters with just the Tonfa’s moveset alone, but if you ever find yourself in a bind, spend your talismans and proceed to crushing everything thoroughly.