EXERCISE 1 (2:54)
High Stance Heavy, Flux back to Low
(Ex. 1B Mid Heavies, Flux back to Low)

EXERCISE 2 (3:11)
High Stance Lights, Flux back to Low
(Ex. 2B Mid Lights, Flux back to Low

EXERCISE 3 (4:12)
Mid L1 + ◻ Skill, Flux back to Low,
High L1 + ◻ Skill, Flux back to low

EXERCISE 4 (4:34)
Mid L1 + △ Skill, Flux back to Low,
High L1 + △ Skill, Flux back to Low

EXERCISE 5 (5:43)
Mid Lights, Low Light, Flux to Mid,
Mid Lights, High Light, Flux to Low

EXERCISE 6 (6:23)
Mid Lights, Low Heavy, Flux to Mid,
Mid Lights, High Heavy, Flux to Low

EXERCISE 7 (6:53)
Low Light, Mid Light, High Light

EXERCISE 8 (7:14)
Low Heavy, Mid Heavy, High Heavy

EXERCISE 9 (7:32)
Mid Dash, Mid Evasion, Mid Lights, △ Finisher

EXERCISE 10 (7:44)
Mid Dash, Mid Evasion, Mid Heavies, ◻ Finisher

SHEATH CANCEL 1 (9:52)
R1 + ◯, Flick Left Stick

SHEATH CANCEL 2 (10:53)
Tap R1 + ◯ twice while dodging (hold on second tap for sheath attack)

**BONUS EXERCISES** (12:55)

- Low Evasion, Switch to Mid during, Mid Lights

- Low Evasion, Switch to Mid during, Mid Heavies


PS4 to Xbox Controls:

◯ = B
◻ = X
△ = Y
R1 = RB
L1 = LB

For Reference:
Switch Stance: Retribution = the high stance one
Switch Stance: Edge = the mid stance one
Switch Stance: Blade = the low stance one
"SS" = Switch Stance

WHY SHOULD I USE SWITCH STANCE ATTACKS?

Switchglaive needs its own finger exercises because of its most important moves - Switch Stance: Retribution, Edge, and Blade. These moves are activated by switching stances during the animation of another attack.

Why are these the most important moves? The most obvious reason to use them is because you can build stacks for its Mystic Arts, which give a great reduction in ki consumption or a huge boost in attack power (or both if you have the Mystic Dyad effect which starts to pop up in DotW!). And at 5 stacks, you can unleash a huge attack that will even stagger yokai bosses.

The Mystic Arts are not the only reason to use them however, perhaps not even the best. When you use one of the Switch Stance moves, you shave time off the recovery of the previous attack, and after, the first light or heavy attack in the new stance will have a faster animation as well. What's also important to know is that when you chain a bunch of attacks using these, the game will count it all as one combo and allow you to ki pulse back all of it. With a high "Ki Pulse" stat this is amazing - with corrupted weapons it's actually busted lmao.

ENDING COMBOS WITH SWITCH STANCE ATTACKS?

In addition to being a great way to transition between attacks in different stances, I actually END my attack strings with a Switch Stance move a lot. I'd say like 80% of my punishes end in a Switch Stance attack, because:

1. You build EZ stacks for your mystic art, even when fighting an enemy with very short punish windows. Ex: One Light or Heavy attack in Low or High -> SS: Edge -> Flux to low is a great quick punish to build stacks and maintain high ki.

2. With the SG, it can be easy to accidentally trigger a SS move when you were actually trying to flux, getting you killed. This won't happen when you intentionally end with a SS move, because switching stances during one SS won't trigger another one. And for Retribution and Edge the timing is very clear as to when you can immediately flux.

3. Most of the switchglaive's moves have a very late ki pulse window - when I first tried SG I was very put off by this. However I realized that it was just the game encouraging me to use the Switchstance moves, because it became clear that these moves shave frames off the previous attack's recovery time. I frame tested:

- High Stance Heavy -> Ki Pulse

vs.

-High Stance Heavy -> Switchstance: Edge -> Ki Pulse

...and the latter was only a couple frames longer despite it being two attacks.

Edge (mid) is my favorite one to end in because it's faster than the others, followed by Retribution (high). I don't end a combo too much in Blade (low) because of how long the animation is - I mostly use it to transition into low stance attacks. However it does a low tumble which can be good for ducking under attacks, and Mid Stance Running -> SS: Edge -> Spamming dodge to get the f out of dodge can be useful for hit and runs (more on Mid Stance Running attack later).

If I don't end a string in a SS attack, it's probably because the ki pulse window is nice and tight to the end of the attack's animation and I don't want to spend more time in an attack animation than the enemy will allow. Good moves for this off the top of my head are Skyward Blade, Mind's Edge, and Empty Retribution.






EXERCISE 1
- Low Lights -> Switch Stance: Edge -> Flux back to Low.
Repeat, but starting with Low Heavy attacks.

EXERCISE 2
- Low Lights -> Switch Stance: Retribution -> Flux back to Low.
Repeat, but starting with Low Heavy attacks.

...now the variations starting from mid or high:
- Mid Lights or Heavies -> Switch Stance: Retribution -> Flux to Low
- Mid Lights or Heavies -> Switch Stance: Blade - > Ki Pulse
- High Lights or Heavies - > Switch Stance: Edge -> Flux to Low
- High Lights or Heavies -> Switch Stance: Blade -> Ki Pulse

Next couple will incorporate △ combo enders and SS moves. I suggest using Transient Blade or Kibosh Kicker in Low, Mind's Edge in Mid, and Cyclone in High. Remember that after an SS move that first light attack will come out faster. Try not to spam ◻, just get used to the different timing of pressing it once before △

EXERCISE 3
- Transient Blade -> Switch Stance Edge -> Mind's Edge -> Switch Stance Retribution -> Flux to Low.

EXERCISE 4
- Transient Blade -> Switch Stance: Retribution -> Cyclone -> Switch Stance: Edge -> Flux to Low

...and of course, if you want more, you can make variations starting from Mid and High

Next will be about using L1 + (◻ or △) skills after SS attacks. What's important to note is that if you want to use an L1 + (◻ or △) skill right after an SS attack, you must ki pulse in between. Otherwise, the game will only register the (◻ or △) and you will do Light or Strong attacks.

(Note: for Calamitous Blade and any of the parry abilities you need to make contact with the enemy in order to follow up with a SS move, so for Low stance L1 + △ we'll just use heavy attacks)

EXERCISE 5
Low L1 + ◻ Skill -> Switch Stance: Edge -> Ki Pulse -> Mid L1 + ◻ Skill, Switch Stance: Retribution -> Ki Pulse -> High L1 + ◻ Skill -> Flux to Low

EXERCISE 6
Low Stance Heavies -> Switch Stance: Edge -> Ki Pulse -> Mid L1 + △ Skill, Switch Stance: Retribution -> Ki Pulse -> High L1 + △ Skill -> Flux to Low

...and of course variations starting from Mid and High if you want...


The running and evasion attacks with switchglaive have no unique animations. They're mostly garbage and to be avoided so I won't make any exercises with them. However, I will note that the Low Stance Evasion attack - you can dodge out of this stupid fast - so fast that you can do it before you even get a ki pulse window, so this can be useful for quick in and outs. Try chaining a single dodge and a single light attack together as fast as you can to see. Also, Mid Stance Running attack lets you go into a Switch Stance attack even BEFORE the attack has connected. So if you can time your SS to right when you make contact with the enemy, this can be useful for a quick punish that also builds a stack when running at an enemy.

Anyhow, when you can start everything together, the Switchglaive becomes quite a beast. Its probably the most fun weapon to pressure humans with for me. Since Skills and High Lights/Heavies don't bounce off guard (SS attacks count as Skills of course), pressuring with the Switchglaive becomes a nice flow of: Skill -> SS attack -> Flux to a different stance -> Skill -> SS attack -> Flux to a different stance...etc etc.

I recognize that other people have fun with Nioh by trying to have powerful builds and clear content as efficiently as possible. So try and recognize that not everyone is trying to have fun in the same way as you before commenting about what you feel is necessary to learn or not. At the end of the day, all that matters is that you have fun doing what you're doing.

I added a link to a Nioh 2 Combo Mad below to showcase some ways that people have fun with this game's combat. I guarantee they can do everything in this tutorial easily.

I'd also add that being able to do something basic like dodging in low and punishing in high stance is a more efficient way of playing than only staying in one stance, for reasons stated in the video.

Yeah I know, everyone is using Fists/Claws in this. But that's because they had just come out on PS4 with DLC 2 and everyone was hyped and wanted to show what they had learned.