Here's how you go about it.
Encounter a Defiled Shrine in Nioh 2 and you won’t be able to pray at it. In this guide we will explain how to cleanse one.
Shrines in Nioh 2 aren’t just places of respite, but precious checkpoints which will save your progress and allow you to spend many of the resources you’ve collected to improve strengthen your character.
So there’s nothing more frustrating than spotting a Shrine in a Yokai defiled area and not being able to Pray at it. In classic Nioh fashion, there’s also a little message which doesn’t really give much away.
How do you cleanse a Defiled Shrine? Well, below we’ll explain how to go about the process so if you ever encounter one, you’ll instantly know what to do.
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 to pray at a Defiled Shrine in Nioh 2
Here’s what you’ll need to do:
First off, you’ll know if you are in a Defiled area as the world around you will darken and flowers will sprout from the ground. Your Yokai horns will also emerge, and to round it off, your stamina will take longer to regenerate.
Essentially, if you find a Shrine in a Defiled area, you will need to cleanse it before you can use it – no matter what.
- If you encounter a Defiled Shrine, you cannot interact with it in any way.
- To unlock the Shrine, you need to locate large Amrita Crystals in the area and destroy them.
- However, near these crystals there will almost certainly be one or two very strong Yokai enemies.
- You do not need to fight these enemies! If you destroy the crystals, the enemies will perish and the area will be cleansed.
- To destroy the crystals, we would recommend equipping a heavy weapon and striking them as quickly as you can. We’re a fan of holding [Triangle] with an Axe equipped to spin and output huge damage in next to no time.
- Once you’ve destroyed the crystals, the area will transition back to normal and the Shrine will be unlocked for use.
As soon as you’ve destroyed the crystals, we’d recommend praying at the shrine to save your hard earned progress. And don’t worry, the big enemies and crystals won’t magically reappear.
