Nioh 3 Hell Rising: All New Skills, Passive Buffs, and Masteries

The Hell Rising expansion for Nioh 3 pushes character power past the base game’s ceiling, and the skill pool grows to match. On top of new weapons and the Enlightened One’s Journey difficulty, it adds higher-tier passives, fresh masteries, and several new named techniques for the Common, Samurai, and Ninja categories. Every one of them still runs on the same system as the base game, so you learn them from a Secret Skills Text and then slot them from the Skill Management menu.

Quick answer: Pick up each new skill’s Secret Skills Text in the Hell Rising areas, register it at a Shrine or Bodhisattva Statue through Skill Management, then equip it in its category if you have the Skill Capacity to spare. The standout upgrades are Fortitude III (+300 Life), Attack Mastery III (+20 Attack), and Defense Mastery III (+24 Defense).

How the new Hell Rising skills are unlocked

Skills are not bought from a tree with points. Each named skill is tied to a Secret Skills Text that you find in the world or buy from a Sudama Merchant. Once you have the text, open Skill Management at any Shrine or Bodhisattva Statue and learn it. The skill then becomes available to equip in its category, provided you have enough capacity left.

Capacity is tracked separately for Common, Samurai, and Ninja skills. You raise each pool by finding the Warrior’s Memorandum, Samurai’s Memorandum, and Ninja’s Memorandum, so grabbing more memoranda is what lets you carry the heavier picks like Ethereal Sway and Venomfang Technique alongside your existing loadout. You need the full game and access to Hell Rising to reach these texts; the expansion is sold on Steam and the PlayStation Store.

New Common skills and tier-III passives

Common skills work in both Samurai and Ninja style, which makes these the most flexible additions. The tier-III stat passives are the obvious grabs, but the Burst Break and Summoning Seal skills reward specific playstyles.

Skill	Cost	Type	Effect
Fortitude III	5	Passive	Increases Life by 300.
Attack Mastery III	5	Mastery	Increases Attack by 20.
Spirit Channeler	5	Passive	Using a Guardian Spirit Skill inside the Yokai Realm removes the realm from that area and applies Increased Guardian Skill Power to you.
Supreme Parry Kai	6	Passive	Recovers 400 Life after a successful Burst Break.
Divine Burst	5	Passive	Adds 15 Spirit Force on a successful Burst Break.
Ethereal Sway	10	Mastery	A successful Burst Break raises your available Summoning Seals, up to your limit.
Sublime Impetus	6	Passive	Increases damage dealt by Summoning Seal attacks by 30.0%.

New Samurai skills

The Samurai additions lean into Deflect timing, Ki Pulse recovery, and Arts Proficiency uptime. Defense Mastery III is the flat survivability pick, while Tempestuous Deflect rewards chaining clean parries.

Skill	Cost	Type	Effect
Defense Mastery III	6	Mastery	Increases Defense by 24.
Purify Yokai Realm: Spirit Kai	4	Passive	Adds 10 Spirit Force when you purify the Yokai Realm with a perfectly timed max Ki Pulse. Cannot be combined with Purify Yokai Realm: Spirit.
Tempestuous Deflect	5	Mastery	Applies Attack Efficiency after a Deflect. Each Deflect adds a stronger stack; a normal guard or getting hit resets the count.
Ki Pulse Mastery Kai	6	Passive	Increases Ki Pulse Ki recovery by 15.0%.
Mindful Spirit	4	Passive	Damaging enemies with Guardian Spirit Skills also fills the Arts Gauge.
Polished Persistence	8	Passive	Extends the duration of enhancements granted by Arts Proficiency.

Skill Management Samurai tab with Defense Mastery III selected, showing its 6-cost passive — Defense Mastery III in the Samurai tab of Skill Management, a 6-cost mastery that raises Defense by 24. Image credit: Team Ninja / via @Fredchuckdave

New Ninja skills

The Ninja set is built around Martial Arts, elemental output, and status buildup. Rigorous Focus and Rigor of the Gods scale raw damage, while Venomfang Technique speeds up Poison and Paralysis for ailment-focused builds.

Skill	Cost	Type	Effect
Rigorous Focus	5	Passive	Increases damage dealt by Martial Arts by 7.0%.
Rigor of the Gods	6	Passive	Increases elemental damage dealt to enemies by 10.0%.
Venomfang Technique	8	Passive	Increases Poison and Paralysis buildup rate by 35.0%.
Wrathful Dragon	5	Passive	Inflicts Increased Damage Received (Elemental) on an enemy after you land a Ninjutsu hit.
Patience of the Gods	4	Passive	Increases the rate at which you build up status ailments by 24.0%.

Where to find the Hell Rising skill texts

The 1651 Keian-era map holds the new texts across Kanda, Koishikawa, and the areas around its Shrines. Most come from chests and Amrita Corpses, one is bought from a Sudama Merchant, and one is gated behind a boss and a side myth.

Skill text	How to get it
Sublime Impetus	First large chest you can loot in the Hell Rising area.
Ethereal Sway	Corpse at the end of the broken dock in the southwestern Kanda region.
Divine Burst	Large chest inside the house south of Wisteria Shrine Hall Shrine.
Spirit Channeler	Stone altar in the large clearing where you fight Otoroshi.
Senju Shift	Amrita Corpse in the cave where you fight the Ichimokuren Elite Yokai, northeastern Kanda.
Polished Persistence	Amrita Corpse on the roof of the broken building in northern Kanda.
Rigorous Focus	Amrita Corpse at the bottom of the Vast Cavern in Koishikawa, on top of the square pipe.
Attack Mastery III	Bought for three Yokai Teardrops from the Koishikawa Sudama Merchant.
Ki Pulse Mastery Kai	After defeating the Giant Toad boss and completing the Way of the Yagyu Myth.

Ki Pulse Mastery Kai is the one that will not appear until you clear a fight and its side myth, so do not expect to grab it early. Otoroshi and the other named enemies you meet along the way also drop equipment and Soul Cores, which is worth keeping in mind while you hunt the texts.

Hell Rising boss fight with an enemy's health bar shown across the top of the screen — A Hell Rising boss encounter, the kind of fight that gates certain skill texts behind clearing it. Image credit: Team Ninja / via @Fredchuckdave

Confirming a skill is learned and equipped

Rest at a Shrine or Bodhisattva Statue and open Skill Management. Scroll to the Common, Samurai, or Ninja category that holds the skill you picked up.

Learn the skill from its Secret Skills Text. The node’s name, cost, type, and full effect appear in the detail panel on the right once it is registered.

Equip it and watch the capacity readout at the top of that category. If the skill takes hold, the used total climbs by its cost; if the game blocks it, you are out of capacity and need to unequip something or find another memorandum for that category.

Between the tier-III stat masteries and the new Burst Break, Summoning Seal, and ailment passives, Hell Rising gives every style a reason to revisit its loadout. Pull the memoranda first so capacity is not what holds you back, then build around whichever of these new skills fits how you already fight.