Yokai Shift | Nioh 2 Wiki

Yokai Shift is a mechanic in Nioh 2 that allows players to become possessed by their Guardian Spirits and enact powerful attacks and special moves. Additionally, players can attune their Guardian Spirits with Soul Cores, and these grant Yokai Skills that may be used without a transformation, and consume Anima.

Burst Counter

A Burst Counter is a special move that allows players to perform a quick action that negates or dodges an enemy's dangerous attack. Press R2+O to consume 1 of Anima and unleash a Burst Counter that varies based of the Guardian Spirit currently in use.

Burst counters can be used even if you are currently doing an attack, not only allowing you to protect yourself but also shortening your recovery.. Each burst counter has uses outside of countering burst attacks, and there are trade offs between using each one.

• The Brute Burst Counter transforms you into a yokai temporarily and then unleashes a powerful attack. If you manage to interrupt the enemy's Bust Attack with this move, a large amount of Ki damage will be inflicted.
  • This is the slowest burst counter to use, running the risk of trading hits with whatever you are trying to counter hit, and being extremely risky against anything that grapples you. In exchange, there are certain attacks that can only be countered by this burst counter. The attack itself naturally doesn't stagger if hit during the attack.
• The Phantom Burst Counter transforms you into a yokai temporarily, and then readies a weapon to guard against the incoming attack. Guarding at just the right moment to block an enemy's Burst Attack will stagger the enemy and inflict a substantial amount of Ki damage.
  • This is the most intuitive to use with the fastest recovery time for whiffing, only requiring you to be at the right place and timing the block correctly, It's comparable in function to the feral burst counter against burst attacks, except this is more spacing dependent and less punishing if you do it to early, as you will block the attack, even against certain grapple burst attacks, and the recovery time is faster than your other options. In exchange the recovery on hit is the worst of the three, meaning you lose or have worse opportunities for free damage after the burst counter if you don't have more Anima to spare for yokai abilities. Offensively, this is the best Burst Counter to use to remove recovery from attacks, allowing you more combo opportunities that you wouldn't have otherwise.
• The Feral Burst Counter transforms you into a yokai temporarily, followed by a rapid dash movement that leaves an after image in your wake. If you dashed forward and an enemy's Burst Attack comes in contact with your after image, that enemy will be dealt a substantial amount of Ki damage.
  • This Burst Counter requires you to aim it at enemies in addition to timing the counter properly. It's situationally more lenient than other burst counters, especially for attacks that advance from afar, and spacing is less important, but up close you can occasionally miss. It has the worst recovery on whiff than the other Burst Counters, mainly because it also functions as a proper invincible dodge. Because of this it has the best defensive applications, allowing to cancel any attack or even your normal dodges into a longer distance dodge that costs Anima instead of Ki, while also changing directions.

 Non-Boss Yokai enemies who had their temporary Ki drained by a burst counter, or who are Burst Countered while it is gone, will be automatically put into a grapple state, even if they still have permanent Ki remaining.

How to activate Yokai Shift

Activate Yokai Shift by pressing △ + O (B + Y on Xbox/Steam controller) when the Amrita Gauge is full. Activating Yokai Shift will replace your Life Gauge and Ki Gauge with the Yokai Shift Gauge. While in Yokai Shift, any damage you receive will not affect your health or Ki, depleting your Yokai Shift Gauge instead. The Yokai Shift Gauge will also deplete with time, transforming you back into human form when it is fully depleted.

Unlike the first game, you gain little Amrita Gauge by killing enemies. Instead, the most efficient ways of filling the Amrita Gauge involve using Yokai Abilities, as they fill large amounts of the Amrita Gauge upon absorption. You can also use spirit stones to manually fill the gauge, based on the amount of Amrita earned within each "tier" of spirit stone type. The smallest stone tier (for example, Small Spirit Stone) gives 13% Amrita Gauge, the middle tier (Spirit Stone) gives 33%, and the highest tier (Large Spirit Stone) gives 66%.

While Yokai Shift is active, your melee attack power will be increased and touching the Yokai Realm will automatically disperse it. Holding R1+R2 will absorb Amrita into your body charging the Yokai Shift Gauge. Alternatively,  △/Y will charge up your attack manually, while also absorbing any amrita nearby to charge it faster, increasing the amrita gauge and temporarily strengthening your weapon, while also doing a more powerful attack. While your weapon is powered up, it will release amrita with every melee attack.

Yokai Shift is the obscure art of channeling your Guardian Spirit's power in order to unleash your own, temporarily transforming you into a full-blooded yokai. master this art to enhance your performance in battle, fleeting though its effects may be.

Yokai Shift Modes

 Using Yokai Shift Effectively

It's important to understand that melee damage is not the point or the strongest feature of Yokai Shift, and shouldn't be the focus for the mechanic (at least until the end of the last DLC). Your melee attacks are not necessarily stronger unless you charge your strong attack, and that is only temporary and takes too much time unless amrita is already available to be absorbed. Your melee options are also more limited while in Yokai Shift, it ignores any special effect that activates based on you being at critical health, and taking a hit significantly reduces the amount of time left remaining in Yokai Shift, making melee very risky anyway. The main benefit for melee attacks during Yokai Shift is the Increased Ki damage you deal with them.

Instead, the best feature is the changes of how Anima works. Using a Burst Counter no longer costs anything to use, and instead of all your Yokai Abilities pulling from the same Anima pool, each individual soul core has it's own pool of Anima, meaning you can use up to three times the amount of Yokai Abilities. You can use this to your advantage by either using soul cores that stagger the enemy in order to stun-lock them without giving them a chance to retaliate (ie. One-legged Fury, Fiendish Frenzy, and Brutal Charge), or individually powerful Yokai Abilities for a large amount of burst damage (such as Impaling Doom).

When you gain access to two Guardian Spirits, you can switch between their respective forms by pressing L2+R2 during Yokai Shift. This costs you some your time, but you are completely invincible during the transformation, and nearby enemies will be staggered. Doing this while an enemy is in a Grapple state will also grapple them with the new form.

Gaining Anima

Gaining Anima during Yokai Shift is even more important than normal, as that is where the power of the form lies.

• Try to enter Yokai Shift by grappling an enemy, it will give you are large head start on Anima, and potentially immediately allow cheaper Yokai Abilities to be used.
• The main purpose of melee in Yokai Shift is to fill your Anima.
  • For Phantom, the melee attacks have such good range you can safely attack from a distance to fill Anima at low risk. The strong attack also counts as a ranged weapon, activating the Anima Bonus (Ranged Hit) effect all Phantom Spirits have.
  • For Feral, you should play in a hit and run style as you can cancel attacks at any point into a dodge, and even cancel that dodge with the feral burst counter. Dodging just as an attack would hit you releases Amrita, allowing you to absorb it to immediately counter attack with a charged attack, briefly stunning the enemy and allowing some more attacks before backing away again.
  • For Brute, Fang Break has the widest amount of parryable attacks in the game. It essentially works against anything that isn't a projectile, terrain effect, grapple or shockwave, and successfully doing it will give you a large amount of Anima while also giving you an opportunity to attack even more.
• Pay attention to each Guardian Spirit, as there may be alternate ways of gaining Anima based on their effects - for example, Rokugezu gives you a large amount of Anima when you block an attack just as it would hit you. Similarly, consider equipping Soul Cores with easy to activate effects that give you more Anima.
• Using a Yokai Ability that lasts a long time before entering Yokai Shift will allow you to start Yokai shift with a large amount of Amrita waiting to be used for a Charge Attack.

Extending Yokai Shift

Besides the Extended Yokai Shift effect, you can manually extend the time you have by doing certain actions. However, there is a limit to how much gauge you can refill during a Yokai Shift.

• Absorbing amrita, as shown above, by either using a Charged Attack or holing the R1+R2, though eventually Amrita will be absorbed regardless of what you do.
• Doing a Grapple while in Yokai Shift.
• Hitting with a fully Charged Strong attack.
• Activating Yokai Shift while at 30% health or lower significantly increase the amount of Time you can stay in it.