Nioh 3 provides a way to keep your favorite weapons viable for far longer, even if you acquired them earlier in the game, through the Familiarity gameplay mechanic. This system basically amounts to grinding for XP specifically for the weapon that you are actively using, but there are some additional benefits besides mere increases to statistics.
This guide is all about raising weapon Familiarity, and how to do it quickly, in Nioh 3.
How To Raise Weapon Familiarity
The Familiarity meter is located directly beneath the weapon name in the center of the screen when viewing your Equipment. Starting out a zero, you can fill the gauge by simply attacking enemies and dealing damage, not necessarily killing them outright. As such, it may be ideal for you to identify a particularly high HP enemy that you can use to farm weapon Familiarity, rather than slicing and dicing your way through many low-level mobs, which would force you to waste time travelling the map in search of further targets.
The Battle Scroll will be a great resource for farming Familiarity for each of your weapons.
Why Raise Weapon Familiarity
Aside from keeping the statistics of the weapon almost on par with newer equipment for a while at least, raising Familiarity also increases its souls exchange value. Filling the Familiarity gauge is unnecessary, as just 5% of the bar is enough to drastically increase Amrita value.
You can observe this for yourself from the Offer menu: while at zero Familiarity for a given weapon, note the ‘Amrita Earned’ value in the lower-right corner. Next, deal some damage to enemies until Familiarity is about 5-10% of the maximum amount displayed. Check the souls earned value again. It will be significantly higher.
Continuing to level up the weapon beyond that point does not seem to impact Amrita Earned value enough to make it worth your time and effort, though unlocking the Crucible Art from a full Familiarity meter would be.
In fact, that is one major reason to maximize the Familiarity for weapons that you do not necessarily intend on holding on to for the long haul. While only Crucible weapons have locked Crucible Arts, once you have unlocked it, you can dispose of the weapon if you wish, and find the Art itself under Customize Martial Arts. This allows you to then use the Crucible Art with any weapon of the same type.
That is everything about farming weapon Familiarity and the benefits from doing so, in Nioh 3.
