Prosthetic tools... hardly any use during playthrough?

[UlvenFenrir]

how many of you are using prosthetic tools during your playthrough? i experimented a bit at the beginning but slowly forgot all about the tools and havent really used them since. the main mechanic of the game is parry and deflect and thats what youre going to use against all bosses anyway. could just be my lazyness but whenever i find something that personally works for me then i stop experimenting, in this case the different tools. just something i thought of, would be interested if its just me or if others feel the same way.

[De_Band]

Firecrackers is by far the most usefull, also the Kunai's that's pretty much it, Flame vent isn't that bad either, but didn't use any other tbh.same for the special moves, Whirlwind attack and Mortal blade are good the rest are pretty trashy, atleast for me.

[nudoetcrudo]

I used less than I should have had, mostly because I didn't unlock skills related to them, like the ones that allow to hit with the blade right after using a tool. Some give very cool abilities, for instance if you use the flamethrower and then the blade, the blade will be covered in flames and deal additional fire damage.

Anyway, I used a bit the shuriken against wolves or monkeys (but rarely), the kunai against bosses (guaranteed damage), the axe against shielded enemies and rats, sabimaru againt Shirafuji at the Sunkey Valley, firecrackers against the bull and the ape, the whistle only against the Demon of Hatred, the fan for farming exp mid-game against gunner in the Fort (it turns them and you can backstab). The shield was the most useful: the fire one makes red-eyed enemies trivial (like the Ashina elite at endgame), and it is great to parry attacks (even unblockable (red sign) or the ones that you can block but still do damage (like Genichiro black blade)).

I never used the spear, the money-throwing one (but I will start using it now in NG+, seems powerful) and the feathers (I have the feeling that this last one could be very powerful, though).

 

Overall, I used them but not extensively, I relied more on deflecting and simple attacks.

What I really barely used are combat arts. I used Ichimonji a bit, but I find any too slow and too risky (leaves you open) and basically stopped using as soon I got confident with deflects.

Now in NG+ I will try the art that Isshin gives you at the end, as well as Mushin arts (they seem powerful).

Edited March 30, 2019 by nudoetcrudo

[JustOneStingray]

Firecrackers and lazulite shurikens is pretty much all I used.

[Mori]

I think thats the problem, you can finish the game just by deflecting. 

 

The only prosthetics I found useful were Shurikens and Firecrackers. Shurikens helped me mostly with keeping the bosses Posture High and giving them not much time to regain it, while regaining my own posture. Also you can interrupt a few attacks. Firecrackers obviously to stun them, but I didnt rely on it that much, because most of the time, they didnt get stunned and I lost a lot of my health.

[Way_of_Tomoe]

I always use the whistle on the monkeys just to watch them kill each otther lol.

 

But, yeah just Shurikens for me.

[RevengeancePrime]

I found certain tools to be more useful than others such as the firecrackers and umbrella. I do agree that parrying and countering are far more useful than any tool, but I think that's the way the game is supposed to be. Tools are usually situational or they can provide you with a little extra help during certain fights.

[NarcissusBaz]

I mainly used firecrackers and shurikens but plan on using all of the prosthetics and skills in NG+. First run I just tried mastering the raw mechanics of fighting with my sword/dodging/parrying.

[Solarus755]

I rarely used the tools, but the times I did, they were incredibly useful. In addition to the Firecrackers (MVP by far) and the shurikens mentioned above, I found the axe extremely good against some bosses that had long enough recovery windows on some attacks because it spikes posture damage so much.

 

Also, for some attacks the umbrella does RIDICULOUS posture damage if you use it to deflect instead of your sword. In particular, against the 2 Ashina Elite minibosses, 3 deflects with the umbrella = deathblow and makes both fights an absolute joke. The final upgrade for the whistle is incredibly useful against the Demon of Hatred. Mist raven is pretty darn useful if you're having a lot of difficulty dodging quick attacks, plus it lets you get some free damage in usually. Subimaru is uniquely good in that it enables a passive playstyle. If you're able to get off a full attack with the maxed blade, you can back off and let the poison damage tick for a while, then rinse and repeat.

 

I think all of the tools have their uses, but most of the time the firecrackers just outshine everything because of how obviously amazing they are. I have almost no need for money anymore, so in new game plus I might try the "throwing money" tool to see how good it is.

[nudoetcrudo]

58 minutes ago, Solarus755 said:

Also, for some attacks the umbrella does RIDICULOUS posture damage if you use it to deflect instead of your sword. In particular, against the 2 Ashina Elite minibosses, 3 deflects with the umbrella = deathblow and makes both fights an absolute joke.

 

I found this out yesterday in NG+. The Ashina Elite was the first one killing me and had to try a few times. When I managed a deflect with umbrella I was like "WTF". If you also have the ability that allows you to hit right after deflecting with the shield enhancing the blade with the element of the shield (like fire) it's almost a 1-hit posture kill.

 

I am also using some of the end-tier combat skills and sometimes they are good. I think that the full potential of the combat can be truly enjoyed only in NG+ with every skill/arm unlocked.

[IntrepidHunter]

A lot of the tools are extremely useful. I loved them, and used them fairly often with great results. Some was trial and error, but here's some of my takeaways. 

 

Subimaru is the weapon of choice for breaking the elite enemies posture in Fountainhead - it absolutely wrecks them. You can also use it on several bosses (O'rin of the Water among them) to poison them - while the game is designed to reward for posture breaks, health is directly correlated to how fast posture is broken and how quickly posture regenerates. 

Malcontent Whistle will stun Demon of Hatred and allow you to wail on it for several seconds, and I essentially stun-locked him for the entire duration of phase 3, save a few attack animations I had to wait for. Whistle was also extremely useful on animal enemies - like monkeys, or dogs in very large groups.

 

Firecrackers are useful against most bosses to stun, including both bulls, Isshin Sword Saint, and Guardian Ape (1st phase) and many others. Perhaps the best use of them, however, is the True Corrupted Monk as you can literally non-stop spam Firecrackers in the 3rd phase and kill her without her initiating a single attack by stun-locking her with them.

 

Shurikens are supremely useful against Lady Butterfly to bring her down out of the air, as well as insta-kill dogs in all zones, or interrupt some bosses (like Lone Shadow in 2nd Hinata memory from summoning dogs).

Loaded Axe is SUPREMELY useful in massive posture damage to most enemies - as good as or better than doing a mikari counter - and will certainly punish many enemies, not to mention break shields. This is especially true when you get the follow up skill that allows a synched sword attack after it. I wouldn't have beat Seven Spears without it. It wrecked him.

 

Suzannon's Umbrella is a near-necessity when fighting Isshin in the Shura ending from the video walkthroughs I've seen (this is the only one I haven't tried myself).. 

 

Fire Vent will help you against the uber-strong red-eyes, and also set quite a few bosses on fire to both stun them, and do health damage (which again affects posture) including the eng-game version of the Ashina Elite MIni Boss (when he has red eyes), Chained Ogre (1st one), Isshin Sword Saint, and others.

 

In fact, the only boss that I found no tools worthwhile against was Owl. However, I never tried umbrella against him.

I also never really tried Mist Raven. I tried it in one fight, and didn't care for it. But some people have used it apparently very effectively in some boss fights to evade difficult attacks and do damage (the 2nd cloak version) to enemies/bosses.

The Divine Fans are great for farming items/sen as you don't have to fight, you can hit R2, run into a group of enemies and R2 again, and they all disappear & you get all their sen & items. Really useful if you are farming some end game mats, etc without having to grind too much.



 

[AyAerith]

I've almost exclusively used the axe, firecrackers, and the fire hat, but I'm usually saving my charms for Shadowrush or the permanent sugars.

[Makaveli0160]

Umbrellas are extremely effective when deflecting Ashina Elite's attacks. Building up posture gauge on NG+ took me two uses of Umbrella when he was doing his rapid slash combinations. 

 

Most of the time I used Axe and Firecrackers, however Axe was only useful when breaking shields/hats of Enemies.

 

During boss fights there's little time to think about using those in some well-thought manner.