Blacksmithing in Nioh 3 is not just a side system, it is the foundation of long-term gear progression. While early missions constantly replace your equipment through drops, the Blacksmith is what allows you to craft specific weapons, reshape scaling to match your build, and upgrade a favorite weapon instead of abandoning it every few levels.
This guide covers how to unlock the Blacksmith, what each of her systems actually does, and how to upgrade weapons properly through Soul Match.
1. Blacksmith Overview
The Fox-Masked Blacksmith is your central hub for crafting and upgrading gear. Once she’s available, several systems open up that determine how your equipment grows throughout the game.
- Forge lets you craft weapons and armor from materials.
- Forge Tools is used for consumables and utility items.
- Disassemble breaks unwanted gear down into materials.
- Remodel changes weapon scaling to fit your stats.
- Soul Match upgrades level and plus values.
- Soul Extraction converts gear into upgrade resources.
Not every feature is usable right away. Some unlock later through her myth questline.
Fox-Masked Blacksmith
2. How To Unlock the Blacksmith in Nioh 3
You gain access to the Blacksmith early in the story after clearing the first major Crucible mission.
- Complete the Hamamatsu Incident.
- Defeat Jakotsu-baba at the end of the Hamamatsu Town Crucible.
- Return to the hub area, the Eternal Rift.
- Find the Fox-Masked Blacksmith inside her building.
Speaking with her unlocks Forge, Forge Tools, Remodel, Reforge, and Disassemble. Soul Match and Soul Extraction remain greyed out until you complete the myth quest A Fierce Flame at Lake Sanaru.
3. How To Use the Blacksmith
Once unlocked, you can fast travel back to the hub whenever you need her services. Each system plays a specific role in how your gear evolves.
3.1 Forge
Forge allows you to create weapons and armor directly using materials and gold. Choose the item type, select an available rarity, pay the cost, and receive a newly rolled piece of gear. Higher rarities come with more special effects and stronger scaling potential.
Forging shines when you want a specific weapon again, need to complete a set, or are chasing a stronger version of something you already enjoy using.
Forge Blacksmith
3.2 Forge Tools
Forge Tools focuses on usable items rather than equipment. This includes healing-style consumables, status-application buffs like poison or paralysis, and special tools that store excess Amrita.
Most tools don’t appear automatically. They require crafting texts, which permanently unlock recipes once obtained.
Forge Tools
How To Unlock Crafting Texts
Crafting texts act as permanent recipe unlocks. Once acquired, the associated item becomes craftable at the Blacksmith from then on. They come through normal gameplay progression, including:
- Mission rewards tied to story or side objectives
- Enemy drops from specific encounters
- Loot found during exploration
- Sudama-related exchanges later in the game
When you obtain one, it registers automatically in the Blacksmith menu.
3.3 Disassemble
Disassemble breaks unwanted equipment into crafting materials. Higher rarity and higher-level items yield better returns, and those materials feed directly into forging, remodeling, and reforging.
Early on, dismantling common and uncommon gear usually provides more long-term value than selling it.
Disassemble
3.4 Remodel
Remodel adjusts a weapon’s reference stats, letting you align its scaling with your highest attributes. The weapon must already have a plus value before this option becomes available.
While Remodeling, choose three stats for scaling, and the one with the highest value contributes the most to damage, followed by moderate and minor contributions from the other two. Because remodeling can become costly, it makes sense on weapons you intend to keep long term.
3.5 Reforge
Reforge lets you change certain special effects without touching level, rarity, or plus value. It’s designed for refining strong gear, not boosting raw stats.
Only specific effects can be rerolled, while locked bonuses remain unchanged. Reforging becomes relevant once you’ve settled on a long-term weapon and want its bonuses to better match your build.
Reforge
4. How To Upgrade Weapons in Nioh 3
Soul Match is how you strengthen gear instead of constantly replacing it. It unlocks after completing the myth quest A Fierce Flame at Lake Sanaru, where you retrieve Kagutsuchi’s Magatama and return it to the Blacksmith.
Soul Match
4.1 Level Enhancement
Level Enhancement raises an item’s base level, increasing core combat stats. For weapons, that means higher attack power and improved scaling output. For armor, it means stronger defense and survivability. Inside Soul Match, you feed upgrade resources into a piece of gear to push its internal level upward.
4.2 Plus Values
Plus Values are the “+” numbers shown after an item’s level, such as Lv. 150 +2. They add additional stat growth beyond standard Level Enhancement.
How Plus Values Are Applied
Plus Values are upgraded through Soul Match. To increase a weapon from +1 to +2:
- You must use another weapon of equal or higher plus value.
- You must pay the required gold and upgrade resource cost.
- The process becomes increasingly expensive as the plus number rises.
The higher the + value, the stronger the stat increase, but the steeper the cost.
5. Efficient Blacksmith Workflow
To use the system efficiently:
- Forge when you need a specific weapon or set piece.
- Disassemble gear you do not need for crafting materials.
- Soul Extract gear with plus values for upgrade resources.
- Soul Match your primary weapon instead of constantly replacing it.
- Remodel only after committing to a long-term build.
Mastering this loop is what separates early-game gear swapping from proper late-game build crafting in Nioh 3.
