The Hatchets are Weird

My explanation for why hatchets sometimes hit twice:


This is how I undertsand it. The game registers the 'head' of an enemy and the body as two separate parts of the body. When a hatchet is thrown, it is possible for it to pass through both hitboxes of an enemy, allowing it to hit both parts of the enemy. However, the game itself does not allow a weapon to 'pass' through the same hitbox multiple times. Usually, a move like True and Through on the Sword only has one hitbox that is allowed to make contact with an enemy. After that, the move will harmlessly glide through any other part of the enemy.

Misc:

The hatchets can use combo finishers after a dodge attack.

Hatchets used to be able to combo from a sprinting attack in the Alpha of Nioh 2, but this was quickly rectified by Team Ninja. This is one example of the hatchets being overlooked and also of its strange tech since day one.

Advancing Storm can be Ki Pulsed before the attack even comes out so that should be a good example of the weapon's oversights, because I don't know another weapon that has a move that can be Ki Pulsed like that.

Dodging from any stance and pre-shifting to high stance allows one to do a super fast dodge Strong Attack.

Hatchet throws do not build Ame-no-Uzume stacks, but it builds stacks of susano's.


Tile Shaker and Spiked Wall work in tandem. Spiked Wall is essentially Plan B if Tile Shaker fails. This works best on revenants that spam hyperarmor and quick attacks, and if they are low on ki, a Spiked Wall will Wind them and can be used immediately in place of a tile Shaker.

Upon using Tile Shaker, it's possible to squeeze a mid-stance quick attack and Bell Ringer before they either block or turn around. You can charge the slightest Piercing Hurl or Boulder Breaker as they turn around just in time to hit them with their guard down.

Dragonfly can lock down jumpy enemies like Ubumes and Korokas.

Between the Light and Shadow versions of the throws, I prefer Light.

Boulder Breaker cannot be upgraded with a Light or Shadow version, and while it is harder and longer to time, it is a strong move regardless of that.

Piercing Hurl is thrown higher than many throws which allows it to hit multiple hitboxes at the same time and sometimes score double hits.

The All Ablaze buff gives a 20% attack increase and the speed buff is eauivalent to a Tiger Running Scroll, which makes it slightly faster than a Kasha and Ame-no-Uzume speed buff. This effect can be buffed further via the 'dash speed' effect on boots (10%), Fuki's Kusarigama (5%), and Hellish Hag core (~6%).


The most intriguing aspect of build crafting with the hatchets is deciding whether or not Ame-no-Uzume is worth it or not as the throws don't build stacks. However, the stance-shifting dodge attack synergizes well with it.

Susano works just fine, maybe even better than expected because the Hatchets have a large variety of skills on each stance and throws don't invalidate Susano stacks.

Hatchets scale with Skill (mainly), Courage, and Magic (secondary). With a transform bonus, Skill can be swapped to anything. For ex. you can make them scale with Constitution, Courage, and Magic, the three most popular and desired stats in the game.

I use a Susano 6pc and Oyamatsumi 7pc. I just use whatever weapon I like and hatchets don't suffer at all with these Graces. I have Path of the Ruthless on a Damned scroll, but use Veteran's armor sans the boots and Onyroki core to mitigate damage heavily. Either way, it's fairly versatile to swap to whatever is fun or works.

My Hatchets have 7315 Attack. Here are some ways to boost Attack:

Put all 1000 focus levels into Attack.

Inherit a transferable Attack effect from random pairs of gloves to each piece of armor sans the gloves themselves as Attack can be tempered onto gloves.

Also, having Attack on each soul core helps. Some spirits like Baku and Inosaosao have higher attack multipliers than others so that 66 Attack from each core can go far. But it's hard to get lucky so just be on the lookout for 22-25 Attack cores on rank 1-4 as those go to 66 on the dot for each one.

A star effect on 'Attack Bonus [Stat]' (on a stat with 200 points put into it) also boosts Attack more than the regular effect. Remodeling the weapon to scale better with 1-2 stats helps a lot. If you have 200 in two stats, you can remodel a weapon to scale better with two stats rather than one. On the remodel screen, press triangle on one desired stat and then move to another.

You can roll a star effect for Attack on gloves but it's really rare and the dmg% values are better if you have to choose between them.

Don't forget that Defense is just as important. Remodeling armor is a big boon and you can even remodel accessories too.


Anyway, Hatchets are very powerful, fast, versatile weapons and are probably my favorite weapons in the game.

And I hit the character limit so I had to remove half of the desc lol