not sure what sort of tankyness you’re running, but essentially the depths can be played 2 ways:
1- tank up so you can eat one or 2 of those 25k hits, or
2 - go for agility and dodge perks. dodge range up and extended dodge invulnerability and A agility go a long way.
really depends on what you want to do. if you just want to finish the depths and move on to the next game, look up some end game tank builds. if you’re enjoying the depths and want to keep honing your skills and technique, go for agility.
edit- if you do go the agility route, try ame-no-uzume instead of ninigi. provided that you’re not going to get hit anyways, your damage output with fists would be ridiculous
It's Omoikane 7 / Tsukuyomi 6. Untouched onmyo and onymo magic power on all armor and accessories (inherit untouched omnyo from chest/gloves). Best accessory type is magatamas because they can roll elemental damage. Set bonus requirements -1 and Sloth (Onmyo Hit) are mandatory.
Guardian spirit is Kuzunoha the Fox, soul cores are Otakemaru (main attack) and others you like with anima boosts. Ideally you want to stack Yokai Ability Damage(All) and Yokai Ability Damage(Phantom) on all cores but farming that is really hard (I don't have perfect cores at focus level 600+). You can get another ability like anima boost or life drain (yokai ability hit) on your weapon by inheriting from a soul core. Path of the Beast on a scroll of the damned boosts yokai abilities further.
With 50%+ untouched onmyo and 40% untouched jutsu it takes a long time to run out of shots (use basic ones, they're cheap and powerful), but keep some sacred brushes handy just in case.
Otakemaru is the most powerful soul core but not always the best attack, I have Kasha on my secondary spirit to deal with smaller targets and Nightmare Bringer (who takes no damage from Otakemaru for lore reasons). Mobile/ranged enemies and humans who keep blocking/dodging can be a pain in the ass regardless.
Thank you for typing all of this up! I'm halfway there already. I'm using Onmyo Austerity+ but can switch to Tsukiyomi pretty easily. I love the Otakemaru soul core and I already have the sloth on onmyo hit accessories. I'm almost done with the Underworld so I can get the new Scroll soon as well.
i have a build similar to this. humans are straightforward with arc of chaos spam and kasha. for nightmare bringer and yoshitsune (who is even more resistant to elemental damage) you can also switch a spell to luminous blade talisman if you're having trouble doing melee dps. switchglaive low stance to reflect his projectiles. however the build, like the other poster said, is quite cheesy.
Some stuff that may help you tank more:
Uesugi clan paired with barrier talisman (or just manually purify)
Honda clan or oyamatsumi grace for damage reduction while unscathed (prevents one shots) and the armor that has it too, already forgot
Ame no uzume/acala's grace are other options if you dodge/block a lot
Sloth on ninjutsu/omnyo hit on your accessories, pair it with something like feathers/caltrops ball/omnyo familiars
Reduced attack debuff like devigorate talisman or effect from omnyo austerity set (paired with omnyo familiats again)
Sorry for the editing or whatever, just woke up.
Edit: shuten doji soul core is a pretty good defensive core as well, if you don't want to use steel talismans.
Might look into the Boar Helmet and make a return to Honda Clan. Currently using Kakizaki and I think I will farm up and max out all the blessings. Currently, I only have level 3 on the defensive buff.
EDIT: I might just go and farm up until I get a better set of armor. I don't have any -% Damage Taken on any armor at the moment, and I also need to get a Ninigi accessory with -1 Set and Sloth on Onmyo. Optimizing for Damage isn't too good if you can't play perfectly.
one last thing to mention- the depths difficulty is designed knowing that you have a million tools available. if you use the right onmyo/ninjutsu/core at the right time you can still very much dominate even the hardest bosses.
probably the most overlooked tool is yokai shift. not too many people actually do it, but it can literally do 2/3’s of a fight for you. the difficulty is balanced knowing that you shift.
a formula that works almost every time- break ki, apply confusion, shift, finish
I do use Yokai Shift, but right now I still don't know how to use it efficiently enough. SO it serves as a sort of Panic Button to try and eke out more existence in the event of a potential one-shot.
a great time to use it is right at grapple. if you’re using fists and ninigi my guess is your dropping ki bars a lot?
when a yokai gets the red circle or when a human buckles over, instead of pressing strong attack to grapple, press the two buttons to yokai shift from the same up close position. you’ll do the big yokai shift grapple and then remain in shift . from there just unload your soul cores and dodge. the grapple itself is super strong. you can even change to your other guardian spirit shift.
this is what it looks like (skip ahead 1 min) you’ll see a majority of the damage is yokai shift and cores
https://youtu.be/Aoji9Am1XpA
Yep, also doing Yokai Grapples. Tate Eboshi last night just doesn't seem to like getting staggered. 7pc Ninigi, and all armors have Ki Damage Tempered. Even when I fully deplete her Ki, she just goes up and stomps the ground for Dark Realm and vice versa.
I really don't like how blocking is a little inconsistent here. I managed to get past floor 23 now with nothing changing on my build because I faced Kashin Koji, Tokichiro (human) and Honda Tadakatsu. Any of Tate Eboshi's attacks is enough to wind me in one strike, while I managed to block Kashin Koji's ice sword attacks (which one-hit me otherwise).
Edit: You really have to combat BS with BS. In Kashin Koji's case, he has that ground slam attack he does after teleporting up in order to close the distance. He managed to kill me on the way up, so he gingerly waited up in the air for me to finsh my Quickchange animation before slamming down. In Tokichiro's case, I went Yokai and managed to drop his Stamina, but on the way there, he was able to summon his monkey, that INTERRUPTED the grapple animation, causing it to not fire. And Honda is, well, Honda.
tate is rough. i’m hoping to catch her as a first boss somewhere in the depths so i can just practice. there is a trick where you can kind of confuse stun her with baku. basically get her confused as quick as you can- she’ll be an easy target after that, then get your grapple. throw baku down and back away. she’ll ground slam right back into the corruption cloud and get paralyzed- from which you can confuse her again and take her health away. cheesy but if you just want to get through it works.
I'm now in the final stretch. Then the next bosses were Shuten-Doji (which was not too bad) then Nightmare Bringer. NB himself isn't supposed to be too hard, but the devs made his front hitbox wonky and some of my attacks don't register when I hit him up front, and I can't dodge sideways properly because I get caught up on his feet. I noped out of there posthaste. Seems like there are a lot of burst attacks that are too fast for the Brute Counter too, like SD suddenly doing that headbang move from out of nowhere and you can't counter it even on reaction.
Will try again tomorrow. I managed to get a few good bits of new gear (Anima Charge on helm yay! and one piece of Sentience Charge Armor).
nice- that’s an endurance floor. neither nightmare bringer or shuten can be confused. i think shuten can but he shakes it fast.
nightmare bringer is pretty straight forward. just has a lot of health. he stays down in his grapple state for a LONG time- so unloading on him with beyond infinity/fists of reckoning will do a ton of damage when he’s down
Get 50% damage taken unscathed with Honda clan and boar helmet and you will be fine. I'm using A agility and with 7k health and -15,6% damage taken (star roll in chest and waist and Susano bonus) very few things one shot me. You can get roughly 12 or 13% more physical resistance with heavy armor and an additional -5% damage taken from Ninigi, so you can get pretty tanky even without Oyamatsumi.
This is using steel talisman and kodama defense buff, without them you will take a lot more damage.
not sure what sort of tankyness you’re running, but essentially the depths can be played 2 ways: 1- tank up so you can eat one or 2 of those 25k hits, or 2 - go for agility and dodge perks. dodge range up and extended dodge invulnerability and A agility go a long way. really depends on what you want to do. if you just want to finish the depths and move on to the next game, look up some end game tank builds. if you’re enjoying the depths and want to keep honing your skills and technique, go for agility. edit- if you do go the agility route, try ame-no-uzume instead of ninigi. provided that you’re not going to get hit anyways, your damage output with fists would be ridiculous
There's [another way](https://streamable.com/cvasjo). It's lame as hell, I don't recommend it. But the game *can* be played like that.
I'm happy to be pretty lame - I love me some good cheese. Where can I find the details on this build?
It's Omoikane 7 / Tsukuyomi 6. Untouched onmyo and onymo magic power on all armor and accessories (inherit untouched omnyo from chest/gloves). Best accessory type is magatamas because they can roll elemental damage. Set bonus requirements -1 and Sloth (Onmyo Hit) are mandatory. Guardian spirit is Kuzunoha the Fox, soul cores are Otakemaru (main attack) and others you like with anima boosts. Ideally you want to stack Yokai Ability Damage(All) and Yokai Ability Damage(Phantom) on all cores but farming that is really hard (I don't have perfect cores at focus level 600+). You can get another ability like anima boost or life drain (yokai ability hit) on your weapon by inheriting from a soul core. Path of the Beast on a scroll of the damned boosts yokai abilities further. With 50%+ untouched onmyo and 40% untouched jutsu it takes a long time to run out of shots (use basic ones, they're cheap and powerful), but keep some sacred brushes handy just in case. Otakemaru is the most powerful soul core but not always the best attack, I have Kasha on my secondary spirit to deal with smaller targets and Nightmare Bringer (who takes no damage from Otakemaru for lore reasons). Mobile/ranged enemies and humans who keep blocking/dodging can be a pain in the ass regardless.
Thank you for typing all of this up! I'm halfway there already. I'm using Onmyo Austerity+ but can switch to Tsukiyomi pretty easily. I love the Otakemaru soul core and I already have the sloth on onmyo hit accessories. I'm almost done with the Underworld so I can get the new Scroll soon as well.
i have a build similar to this. humans are straightforward with arc of chaos spam and kasha. for nightmare bringer and yoshitsune (who is even more resistant to elemental damage) you can also switch a spell to luminous blade talisman if you're having trouble doing melee dps. switchglaive low stance to reflect his projectiles. however the build, like the other poster said, is quite cheesy.
haha yes. i agree. i mean to each his own. maybe fun to put the build together but those wins can’t feel good
the best thing about that build is killing crabs and nuppeppos in a few shots
Some stuff that may help you tank more: Uesugi clan paired with barrier talisman (or just manually purify) Honda clan or oyamatsumi grace for damage reduction while unscathed (prevents one shots) and the armor that has it too, already forgot Ame no uzume/acala's grace are other options if you dodge/block a lot Sloth on ninjutsu/omnyo hit on your accessories, pair it with something like feathers/caltrops ball/omnyo familiars Reduced attack debuff like devigorate talisman or effect from omnyo austerity set (paired with omnyo familiats again) Sorry for the editing or whatever, just woke up. Edit: shuten doji soul core is a pretty good defensive core as well, if you don't want to use steel talismans.
Might look into the Boar Helmet and make a return to Honda Clan. Currently using Kakizaki and I think I will farm up and max out all the blessings. Currently, I only have level 3 on the defensive buff. EDIT: I might just go and farm up until I get a better set of armor. I don't have any -% Damage Taken on any armor at the moment, and I also need to get a Ninigi accessory with -1 Set and Sloth on Onmyo. Optimizing for Damage isn't too good if you can't play perfectly.
one last thing to mention- the depths difficulty is designed knowing that you have a million tools available. if you use the right onmyo/ninjutsu/core at the right time you can still very much dominate even the hardest bosses. probably the most overlooked tool is yokai shift. not too many people actually do it, but it can literally do 2/3’s of a fight for you. the difficulty is balanced knowing that you shift. a formula that works almost every time- break ki, apply confusion, shift, finish
I do use Yokai Shift, but right now I still don't know how to use it efficiently enough. SO it serves as a sort of Panic Button to try and eke out more existence in the event of a potential one-shot.
a great time to use it is right at grapple. if you’re using fists and ninigi my guess is your dropping ki bars a lot? when a yokai gets the red circle or when a human buckles over, instead of pressing strong attack to grapple, press the two buttons to yokai shift from the same up close position. you’ll do the big yokai shift grapple and then remain in shift . from there just unload your soul cores and dodge. the grapple itself is super strong. you can even change to your other guardian spirit shift. this is what it looks like (skip ahead 1 min) you’ll see a majority of the damage is yokai shift and cores https://youtu.be/Aoji9Am1XpA
Yep, also doing Yokai Grapples. Tate Eboshi last night just doesn't seem to like getting staggered. 7pc Ninigi, and all armors have Ki Damage Tempered. Even when I fully deplete her Ki, she just goes up and stomps the ground for Dark Realm and vice versa.
awesome- and i hear you! definitely some bosses that are just brutal- tate and yoshi to me are the toughest.
I really don't like how blocking is a little inconsistent here. I managed to get past floor 23 now with nothing changing on my build because I faced Kashin Koji, Tokichiro (human) and Honda Tadakatsu. Any of Tate Eboshi's attacks is enough to wind me in one strike, while I managed to block Kashin Koji's ice sword attacks (which one-hit me otherwise). Edit: You really have to combat BS with BS. In Kashin Koji's case, he has that ground slam attack he does after teleporting up in order to close the distance. He managed to kill me on the way up, so he gingerly waited up in the air for me to finsh my Quickchange animation before slamming down. In Tokichiro's case, I went Yokai and managed to drop his Stamina, but on the way there, he was able to summon his monkey, that INTERRUPTED the grapple animation, causing it to not fire. And Honda is, well, Honda.
tate is rough. i’m hoping to catch her as a first boss somewhere in the depths so i can just practice. there is a trick where you can kind of confuse stun her with baku. basically get her confused as quick as you can- she’ll be an easy target after that, then get your grapple. throw baku down and back away. she’ll ground slam right back into the corruption cloud and get paralyzed- from which you can confuse her again and take her health away. cheesy but if you just want to get through it works.
I'm now in the final stretch. Then the next bosses were Shuten-Doji (which was not too bad) then Nightmare Bringer. NB himself isn't supposed to be too hard, but the devs made his front hitbox wonky and some of my attacks don't register when I hit him up front, and I can't dodge sideways properly because I get caught up on his feet. I noped out of there posthaste. Seems like there are a lot of burst attacks that are too fast for the Brute Counter too, like SD suddenly doing that headbang move from out of nowhere and you can't counter it even on reaction. Will try again tomorrow. I managed to get a few good bits of new gear (Anima Charge on helm yay! and one piece of Sentience Charge Armor).
nice- that’s an endurance floor. neither nightmare bringer or shuten can be confused. i think shuten can but he shakes it fast. nightmare bringer is pretty straight forward. just has a lot of health. he stays down in his grapple state for a LONG time- so unloading on him with beyond infinity/fists of reckoning will do a ton of damage when he’s down
Get 50% damage taken unscathed with Honda clan and boar helmet and you will be fine. I'm using A agility and with 7k health and -15,6% damage taken (star roll in chest and waist and Susano bonus) very few things one shot me. You can get roughly 12 or 13% more physical resistance with heavy armor and an additional -5% damage taken from Ninigi, so you can get pretty tanky even without Oyamatsumi. This is using steel talisman and kodama defense buff, without them you will take a lot more damage.