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While you might not have expected it in a Tower Defense game,Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddesshas a surprisingly deep combat system for the playable character, Soh. While they may seem decently commendable at the beginning of the game, it’s once you unlock their upgrade tree that Soh’s true depth appears.
Yet with five categories to choose from and over 30 abilities spread across them, you’re spoiled for choice. This little guide is going to show you which ones to focus on first to have you climbing back to the top of Mt. Kafuku in no time.
Best Abilities
While every ability has its place within the game and each player can carve out their own playstyle with them, there are definitely some that prove more useful than others, especially in the early game. As such, we’re going to recommend which abilities ineach category you should focus on firstto ease your initial playthrough of the game.
Combat Abilities
Listed in-game as ‘other abilities’, these mainly comprise those Soh can use in combat or that involve extra interaction within the stage.
Worship
Worshipcan be very helpful in a pinch when a particular night gets challenging.
Punishing Strike
Punishing Strikelets you deal extra damage, since you’ll likely be depleting the Resist Gauge anyway.
Perfect Guard
Perfect Guardcan keep you on your feet much longer if you can time the block well.
Worship lets you interact with the Chozusha Basins within levels, including boss battles.These make you stronger and invincible, which can be great when you want to quickly whittle away the last sliver of a boss' health bar.
Punishing Strike lets Soh deal a critical hit against enemies once their Resist Gauge has been depleted. Keep in mindthe stun ends once you perform an attack, so attempt to get a few regular attacks in first before dealing the Punishing Strike.
Perfect Guard relies on you being able to time your blocks well, though once you’ve learned an enemy’s attack patterns well enough, you can functionallystay in the fray indefinitely.
TheClarvoiyance Mazo Talismanmakes it even easier for Soh to perform a Perfect Guard if you’re struggling to get the timing down.
Archery Abilities
Archery unlocks awhole new gameplay function, so this one is a no-brainer to invest in.
Archeryis great to have and is needed for its upgrades.
Butterfly Shot
Butterfly Shotis needed in some stages to access optional objectives and treasure chests.
Spider Shot
Spider Shothas the same effect as an Ascetic but weaker, letting you deploy Villagers in other Roles.
The bow isn’t very powerful and hasquite a slow firing rate, though it gives Soh guaranteed aerial capabilities.
Butterfly Shot lets youteleport to the enemy it hits, which is great for catching up with an enemy, but some stages also need it for reaching certain treasure chests.
Spider Shot is wonderfully powerful because it works in a large area rather than a single enemy.The slowdown isn’t as long as the Ascetic’s, but you’re able to at least control when and where it happens.
TheCrow-Billed Tengu Mazo Talismanis essential if you really want to turn the bow into a powerhouse.
Shiden Dance Abilities
Sohstarts with the Oka Dancefighting style, though the Shiden Dance fighting style opens up a whole new realm of possibilities.
Shiden Dance
Shiden Danceis especially good against bosses, and having a second fighting style to swap to is always handy.
Shiden Form 2
Shiden Form 2deals massive Resist Gauge damage and can be unleashed very quickly.
Shiden Dance wants you to plan your attacks more as you can’t move as much nor attack as fast, though ithits much harder.
Shiden Form 2 also lets you charge your Dance Attack after the first Regular Attack, which can deal a franklyabsurd amount of Resist Gauge damagefor how quickly you can pull it off.
Command Screen Abilities
The Command Screen abilities actually come withsome upgrades for Soh’s equipmentas well for some reason, though the actual Command Screen abilities are pretty useful too.
Assemble
Assemblecan be very helpful in a pinch to drag all your Villagers to one spot to protect Yoshiro.
Tsuba Guard And Mazo Talisman Slot Increases
Even just one extraMazo Talisman and Tsuba Guardequipped can dramatically improve your chances in any given mission.
Assemble lets you call all of your Villagers (except those with Fixed Position) to thesame location all at once. While tactical placements are best, sometimes you need to pull yourself out of a difficult situation, and commanding upwards of 12 Villagers all at once is just a slog.
Getting every Tsuba Guard and Mazo Talisman slot increase is far from essential, though every extra slot you get lets you build out Soh with exponentially more diversity, such asoffensive and defensive Tsuba Guardsat the same time.
Keep in mind that, unless you have theSynergy Mazo Talismanequipped, only the highlighted Tsuba Guard will recharge.
Every ability has its place, though even these few to start can be a great advantage when you’re going through the game.
All of Soh’s skills are availableas soon as you unlock the ability to upgrade them, so don’t worry about new ones unlocking as the game progresses.
A reminder that Musubi can always be refunded free of charge if you’d like to try upgrading something else instead.
Is Oka Or Shiden Dance Better?
In this article so far, you’ve probably noticed that Oka Dance, the default fighting style in the game, and its various upgrades have barely been mentioned. Does that mean you shouldn’t be using it? Not at all, it’sjust as valuable as Shiden Dance, though offers a completely different way of using Soh.
Shiden Dance and Oka Dance both specialise in different areas. We’ll give a quick breakdown below to start.
Oka Dance is much better when it comes tohandling hordes of smaller enemiesand letting Soh quickly manoeuvre, while some Dance Attacks let you attack enemies in the air more easily. Meanwhile, Shiden Dance isstronger against enemies with health barsthat require more attention to take down, though it offers very little in terms of versatility.
In that sense,Oka Dance is better to use in stages, while Shiden Dance is best used against bosses. If you feel confident in your Villagers being able to handle small enemies, then feel free to use Shiden Dance in stages as well. Ultimately, it comes down topersonal preference, though having the option to swap combat styles is a must-have regardless.
