Nioh 3: Weapon Scaling Explained

2 hours ago 1

Published Feb 6, 2026, 6:02 PM EST

Christian has over three years of experience writing in the gaming industry, including guides and reviews, for publications such as DualShockers, Attack of the Fanboy, and PC Invasion. He has been an avid gamer since he was a kid, viewing it as the best possible art form and medium. Some of his favorite genres include Survival Horror, Soulslikes, and RPGs, but he finds joy in almost any type of game.

Just like any Soulslike, creating a strong build is important in Nioh 3. You can do this through a variety of ways, such as equipping powerful Soul Cores, upgrading your Guardian, and farming for the strongest armor.

However, one of the most important aspects of a strong build is focusing on leveling up stats that scale with your weapons. Unlike other games in the genre, Nioh 3 doesn't use a letter system for its weapon scaling, and instead, it does something completely unique.

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Weapon scaling can be a bit confusing in Nioh 3, so this guide has you covered with everything you need to know. Read further to learn about weapon scaling in Nioh 3.

Nioh 3 Weapon Scaling Explained

Weapon scaling in Nioh 3 is completely different than what you would see in other Soulslike games. Instead of having a letter, ranking from E to S, all of Nioh 3's weapons scale with three stats. These stats are known as "Reference Stats."

The three stats the weapon scales with can be found on the equipment screen when hovering over the weapon. It's located at the bottom of the weapon's description card, below special effects. The image attached above shows you where to find the three stats a weapon scales with.

While the weapon scales with the three Reference Stats shown on its description card, it's not entirely even. Whichever Reference Stat is highest will be the main influence on damage output. For example, if a weapon has Constitution as a Reference Stat, and that is your highest stat out of the three, then the weapon will mainly scale with that.

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The weapon will also scale with the other two stats shown, just not as much. Your second-highest stat has higher scaling than your lowest stat. In other words, the game adjusts the scaling of each weapon depending on your character's stats at any given time.

However, this doesn't mean that you should just focus on leveling one Reference Stat for the whole game. Once you hit a certain number on a stat, your weapon (and character) begins to see diminishing returns.

To maximize the amount of damage a weapon can do, you should level one Reference Stat to about 35 and then move onto the next Reference Stat. Once you're done leveling that stat to 35, move onto the last Reference Stat.

Keep in mind that "level 35" is just an example and not all weapons necessarily begin to see diminishing returns at that level. If you want to see when a weapon stops gaining a ton of benefit from a stat, you can go to the training ground to test the numbers.

How to Respec in Nioh 3

Since weapon scaling is so important to any build in Nioh 3, it's important to know how to respec. Respec will allow you to reset your character's stats, in case you make a mistake when leveling up or decide to change to a new weapon with different Reference Stats.

The best feature of Nioh 3 is that players can respec whenever they like by the press of a button. All you have to do is go to any Shrine and select the "Level Up" option to be brought to the leveling screen. Next, press down on the left analog stick to respec, allowing you to adjust your stats. It's really that simple.