We'll hammer the point home.
The Blacksmith in Nioh 2 allows you to forge new equipment, Soul Match your gear, disassemble your weapons and armour, and even refashion your hair style, among many other things. Below we will break down how it all works.
With easily one of the most intimidating menus in Nioh 2, the Blacksmith can be impenetrable if you’re coming into the game having never played the original. And even if you have, it’s still tough to get your head around.
To help you get to grips with it all, we’ve broken down all of the Blacksmith’s features into digestible chunks of info. Hopefully after reading this, you’ll have a better idea of what each system does.
Nioh 2: Blacksmith explained
The Blacksmith allows you to tinker with your equipment, buy new gear, and plenty of other particularly useful things. However, it’s a headache-inducing prospect to understand fully.
If you already know your stuff on one topic, but aren’t so sure about another, our nav bar should come in handy!
How does Buy and Sell work?
The Buy and Sell menu is used to purchase or sell Weapons and Armour for Gold.
Select Buy or Sell, depending on what you’d like to do.
Then it’s simply a case of scrolling through your equipment and looking at the bottom right of the screen to see how much it’ll sell for, or cost, and the amount of Gold you have in your inventory.
What is the Forge?
The Forge is used to craft Weapons, Armour, and Tools from Smithing Materials found in Missions or from Disassembling them.
This is one of the most important aspects of Nioh 2 as it allows you to create some powerful weapons and armour, which can then be upgraded through the Soul Match and Temper features.
What do I need to craft things?
To craft weapons and armour, you need to get hold of Smithing Texts and Smithing Materials.
– Smithing Texts are recipes for creating gear. After obtaining a text, speak to the Blacksmith and you will permanently unlock the ability to craft the gear described in the text.
– Smithing Texts can be dropped as loot by bosses and enemies, or found in Chests. Some missions may also hand them out as rewards upon completion.
– Smithing Materials are the ingredients you need to craft equipment.
– Smithing Materials can be obtained in all manner of ways. Bosses and enemies may drop them, chests may grant you rare materials, while random floor loot may also end up reaping some material rewards. Mission completion may also reward you with some particularly valuable materials.
How do I use the Forge?
First off, talk to the Blacksmith and select the Forge option. Now select one of three categories depending on which piece of equipment you’d like to craft: Weapons, Armour, or Tools.
Step 1:
On the left side of the screen you can cycle through each weapon type using [L1] or [R1] and each drop down will show craftable weapons.
Hover over a weapon on the left, and the centre of the screen will show its outcome if you were to go ahead and craft it.
- Level – Shows the range at which your crafted gear will fall into. If it’s just one number, then your crafted equipment will definitely be of that level.
- Rarity level of forged item – These four boxes are indicative of the game’s rarities. White (Normal), Yellow (Uncommon), Blue (Rare), and Purple (Exotic). The % by each colour represents the chance you’ll craft gear at that rarity.
- Required Material – On the right side of the screen, you’ll see what Smithing Materials are required to craft the piece of gear you need. Each piece of equipment requires a varying amount of ingredients. You can mix and match different rarities of a specific material to increase your outcome rarity.
- Forging Cost: This indicates how much Gold it will cost to craft the item. If more expensive materials are used, then it will cost more and vice versa. The amount of Gold you have in your inventory is listed just underneath.
Step 2:
Once you’ve selected the equipment you want to craft, you’ll have a couple more things to think about. Here’s a quick overview:
- Required Material – The number on the left (x5, for example) displays the total amount required. The numbers in varying colours (rarities) displays how many of each rarity you’ve selected.
- Select Materials – If you’d like to change the rarity of materials used, select the material by pressing [X]. A menu will pop up in the middle of the screen which will show you how much material of each rarity you own. You can scroll through these four and mix up to the material limit. The higher amount of high rarity material you use, the higher the chance you’ll craft something of powerful quality, and vice versa.
Once you’re done, select “Forge” and you’ll craft your chosen equipment. Even if it’s not exactly what you wanted, there are still a number of options available to you to refine your gear even further.
How does Soul Match work?
Soul Match allows you to increase the level of your gear by infusing it with another piece of equipment. It also enables you to transfer special effects, something which can make a huge difference to your build.
To kick things off, talk to the Blacksmith and select the Soul Match option from the drop down menu.
Step 1:
On the left side of the screen, you can choose the weapon or piece of armour you’d like to Soul Match. Use [L1] or [R1] to scroll through each category and search for your chosen piece of equipment.
On the right side of the screen, you’ll see the details of whatever you’re hovering over. This is where you’ll see Special Effects, base stats and more. Once you’ve decided on the equipment you’d like to Soul Match, press [X].
Step 2:
Next, you’ll need to choose the piece of equipment you will infuse into your base. It’s worth noting that the level of the Finished Form will match your infusion material. If it’s lower than your base equipment (the thing you want to improve), only transferable Special Effects will carry over and its level will remain the same.
Hover over infusion materials and on the right side of the screen you’ll see the “Finished Form” window. As the name suggests, this displays how your chosen piece of equipment will improve post infusion.
The Soul Matching Cost at the bottom right of the screen displays how much Gold you need to perform the Soul Match. The more powerful the equipment used, both as the base, and infuser, the higher the cost.
Last but certainly not least, if you Soul Match a piece of equipment with a transferable Special Effect (note the small rectangular icon) and infuse it with another piece of equipment with a transferable Special Effect then there’s a chance the Special Effect of the consumed weapon will transfer to the new one.
More essential Nioh 2 guides:
- 1. How to quit Missions – Nioh 2: How to quit missions
- 2. How to reset your level and skills – Nioh 2: How to reset your level and skills
- 3. Yokai Shift – Nioh 2: Yokai Shift explained
- 4. Soul Cores – Nioh 2: Soul Cores – Attunement, Fusion and Fragments explained
- 5. Purple Kodama – Nioh 2: What to give the Purple Kodama
How does Temper work?
Temper allows you to modify the Special Effects of your equipment using Umbracite. Depending on the quality of the Umbracite you own, you’ll be able to select from a random pool of Special Effects.
Types of Special Effect
These are unique bonuses found on equipment. More efficient Ki usage, higher damage when using a particular stance, elemental damage, and the like.
- Fixed: These Special Effects cannot be swapped or exchanged. They are represented by a hexagonal icon.
- Transferable: These Special Effects can be transferred to another piece of equipment using the Soul Match function. They are represented by a rectangular icon.
- Free: These can be swapped using the Temper function. These are not represented by an icon.
What is Umbracite?
This is Smithing Material used in the Temper process. As with almost all other loot, there are different qualities of Umbracite, with higher qualities conferring greater benefits.
You can acquire Umbracite by disassembling materials.
How do I Temper my equipment?
Talk to the Blacksmith and select the Temper option to begin the process.
Step 1:
Hover over the piece of equipment you’d like to Temper and select it by pressing [X]. This will open up a new menu which will show you its Special Effects. Those you can highlight are free to swap via the Temper process. Use the D-Pad to scroll through them all.
Once you’ve decided on the Free Special Effect you’d like to swap, press [X] to select it and look out for the menu on the right side of the screen.
Step 2:
The menu on the right side of the screen will display all the swappable Free Special Effects you can equip. More powerful Special Effects will become available if you have high quality Umbracite in your inventory.
NOTE: If you choose to swap a Free Special Effect, but suddenly realise you’d like to swap it back – you may not be able to! The pool of swappable Special Effects changes each time, so be careful when locking in your choice.
Step 3:
Before you decide to purchase your swap, pay attention to the menu on the bottom right of the screen. It will display the Umbracite and Gold cost required to Temper your equipment.
How does Disassemble work?
Disassemble allows you to dismantle equipment for Smithing Materials which you can use to Temper and Soul Match your gear.
Amazingly, disassembling your equipment isn’t too tricky. Here’s how it works:
Step 1:
The menu on the left displays your equipment. You can sort this list in numerous ways, and select multiple pieces of gear if you want to dismantle a few in one go.
Hover over a piece of equipment and the windows on the right will display its stats, and the materials you’ll acquire if you disassemble it.
Step 2:
Once you’ve decided on the gear you’d like to disassemble, press [X] to proceed.
Take note of the “Number of materials that can be acquired through disassemble”.
”x20” – This indicates the total number of each material type you will obtain.
(4/0/16/0) – Each of these numbers corresponds to a different rarity. In this case, you will acquire 4 Normal, 0 Uncommon, 16 Rare, and 0 Exotic of a certain material.
More essential Nioh 2 boss guides:
- 1. Matsunaga Hisahide – Nioh 2: How to beat Matsunaga Hisahide
- 2. Ryomen Sukuna – Nioh 2: How to beat Ryomen Sukuna
- 3. Mezuki – Nioh 2: How to beat Mezuki
- 4. Enenra – Nioh 2: How to beat Enenra
- 5. Yatsu-no-Kami – Nioh 2: How to beat Yatsu-no-Kami
How does Refashion work?
Refashioning your equipment in Nioh 2 enables you to change the visual appearance of a weapon or armour to that of another. It’s essentially transmogrification from World of Warcraft.
Depending on the type of equipment you’d like to Refashion, select Weapon or Armour.
Step 1:
Select your Item to Refashion by pressing [X] and scrolling through your gear.
Step 2:
Select the piece of equipment which you’d like to copy the appearance of.
When you’ve finalised your choice, select Refashion and press [X] to complete the process.
The cost of the Refashion will be displayed at the bottom right of the screen. The more valuable the pieces of equipment are, the higher the cost, and vice versa.
How does Remodel work?
Currently we don’t have any information on how this works in Nioh 2. However, we believe it’s an endgame feature which will open up more options to tweak your equipment. Stay tuned for a big update soon!
