Onimusha: Way of the Sword Skills

Last verified: Sep 19, 2026 · Launch edition

Way of the Sword's skills split into Basic Skills and Special Skills, purchased and enhanced with Red Souls, Power Stones and Oni Stones. This guide explains the skill families, the upgrades worth prioritising, how the system feeds the Well-Rounded trophy, and how sword, clothing and gauntlet enhancement fits alongside the skill tree.

How Skills Work

Skills are purchased in the menu at any shrine checkpoint. Each skill has a base purchase cost and enhancement levels; enhancements cost Power Stones (for Basic Skills) and Oni Stones (for Special Skills and weapon skills), with 54 of each type scattered across the world as chest pickups and side-content rewards. Red Souls are the general currency.

The trophy targets are explicit: learn and upgrade all basic or special skills for The Winding Way of the Sword, and learn and upgrade all basic and special skills for Well-Rounded (silver). Because every skill must be maxed for the platinum, the question is never "if" — it is "in what order."

Basic Skills

Basic Skills expand Musashi's swordplay and core techniques. The major families:

• Issen — enhances the precision counter. Its upgrade lines improve the counter's range and follow-up potential; the Issen skill family is what makes the signature technique viable as a primary tool rather than a parry reward.
• Break Issen Combo — extends the stamina-break follow-up into a combo chain, letting a single Break Issen convert into multiple hits against tougher enemies.
• Deflect — required for the Pinch Hitter trophy (deflect 50 projectiles). The basic Deflect is a prerequisite for the game's stamina-pressure game against bosses.
• Oni Bow skills — charge speed, headshot handling and arrow capacity, all of which make the Ace Archer side missions and the Deadeye trophy (100 headshots) far easier.
• Assassination — unlocks stealth kills from behind (Silent Violence trophy: 20 assassinations). The family includes Petrify, purchasable after the first Oni Portal for 2 Power Stones, which freezes unaware enemies for clean assassinations.

Special Skills

Special Skills cover the supernatural and exploration side of the kit — the Oni powers tied to the gauntlet:

• Oni Vision — the Eye Awakening line. Oni Vision: Destructibles (3,500 Red Souls) highlights breakable objects; Oni Vision: Treasures (2 Oni Stones) and its follow-ups reveal treasure; Oni Vision: Search Range widens the detection radius. This is the collectible-hunter's core kit.
• Oni Strength — the Arm Awakening line, unlocked after defeating Rasho-gan. Destroy breaks demonic barriers; Handle Bigger Objects (3,500 Red Souls) extends environmental throws.
• Oni Agility — the Leg Awakening line, unlocked during the "The Roots of All Evil" mission. Wall Run opens the game's late exploration routes.
• Issen: Range — available after the first Oni Portal for 2 Oni Stones; extends Issen's reach so the counter connects from a safer distance.

Weapon Skills (Oni Armaments)

Each Oni Armament has its own skill node, unlocked when the weapon is discovered and enhanced with Oni Stones:

• Two Celestials: Combo Strength (2 Oni Stones) — extends paired-sword combo routes.
• Wind-Whipper, Earth-Shakers, Firebird Flute, Flashing Void and Still Water each carry their own enhancement, purchased with Oni Stones once the weapon is found. These upgrade the weapon's core performance rather than adding new moves — the movesets themselves are fixed per weapon.

Weapon skill nodes unlock when the relevant Oni Armament is discovered, so the order you collect Armaments (see the Oni Armaments guide) shapes when each node becomes purchasable.

Oni Awakening

Beyond the purchasable tree sits Oni Awakening, the transformation unlocked through the souls economy rather than the skill menu. It is powered by purple souls: when the Awakening gauge is full, Musashi transforms and Issen windows become dramatically easier. The transformation is where the "max all skills" run pays off — every enhanced Basic Skill and Special Skill carries into the awakened state, which is why Well-Rounded and the combat trophies (Oni's Oni, Wielder of Oni Armaments) are usually earned together near the end of a completion run.

Skill Upgrade Materials at a Glance

Both stone types are found in chests across Kyoto and as Chance Encounter rewards; the Oni Vision: Treasures line makes them visible from a distance. Our collectibles guide covers where the full 54+54 set is found.

How Sword & Equipment Enhancement Works

Musashi does not replace his gear with better drops — the sword, the clothing and the Oni Gauntlet are enhanced step by step, in a system that runs parallel to the skill tree. It unlocks during the mission "The Oni's Apprentice"; from that point on, the Enhance Equipment/Abilities tab sits in the menu at any Spirit Mirror, right alongside where skills are purchased. The key distinction is what each system consumes: skills are bought with Red Souls plus Power Stones or Oni Stones, while equipment enhancement runs on the material families below. A stockpile of Oni Stones does nothing for your gauntlet.

Each piece climbs through five Proficiency Levels, and the three tracks are independent — a level of clothing is never competing with a level of sword, so there is no wrong order. One thing worth planning around: clearing a Proficiency Level takes ten individual enhancement steps for the sword and clothing, but only five for the gauntlet, and the later levels ask for the rarest material in the family. Dressed to Kill is the trophy that tracks the finished set.

The materials come from the same world as everything else you collect. Whetstone and Iron sit in the small unmarked chests dotted around Kyoto and the surrounding regions, and also arrive as quest rewards; Tempered Iron is the rarer version of the same iron drop, while Tamahagane only comes out of the large chests that stay marked on your map — the 25 Tamahagane listed in our collectibles guide. Clothing follows the identical ladder in cloth form, from Hempen and Cotton Cloth up through Leather to Fine Silk Cloth. Gauntlet materials are Genma prizes: Malicite and Malicite Mass from closing Genma Rifts, Byakue's Talisman and Dohatsu-ten's Horn from defeating those two foes. Chance Encounter rewards and the citizens you rescue round out all three families.

Skills FAQ