Last updated: 9 September 2026

Onimusha: Way of the Sword Oni Armaments Guide — All Locations & Effects

Oni Armaments are the game's supernatural side-weapons — swap into one mid-fight for a specific job your main katana can't do, whether that's healing, breaking stance, or clearing a crowd. There are seven of them, each a one-time pickup, and each built around a distinct combat role. Here's what each one does and roughly where to find it.

01How Oni Armaments Work

Unlike your main katana, which you upgrade continuously, Oni Armaments are discrete tools you switch into for a single high-commitment action. Six of the seven run on blue souls: absorb enough during a fight, then activate the Armament to unleash its effect and drain the gauge until it refills. Several also generate purple souls while active, which feed your Oni Awakening gauge — so using them well isn't just about the immediate damage, it also fuels your strongest transformation. The seventh, the Oni Bow, ignores this gauge entirely and can be fired at will (see below).

You find each Armament once, as a chest or mandatory story pickup while exploring Kyoto and its surrounding districts, rather than crafting or buying them. Once you have one of the six gauge-based Armaments, you enhance it further using Oni Stones at the Spirit Mirror under "Enhance Equipment/Abilities" — the same currency and menu used for Special Skills like Oni Vision and Oni Awakening.

02Oni Bow — Not a Gauge Weapon

Found in a chest on the main path through the Oni Refuge — you can't miss it, since the story requires it to progress. Unlike the other six Armaments, the Oni Bow doesn't run on blue souls: it's a normal bow you can fire at will, with charged shots for extra damage. Its main use isn't raw damage but utility — hitting distant switches and cores, and interrupting boss attacks, since several bosses lock a phase behind a bow shot.

03The Two Celestials — Sustain and Healing

Found in a cave during the Kiyomizu-dera Temple section of the story. The Two Celestials' main job isn't damage — every strike with it generates yellow souls, which you absorb to restore health. It's the closest thing the kit has to a sustain tool, useful for stretching a fight where healing items are running low rather than for burst damage.

04Wind-Whipper — Crowd Control

One of the earliest Armaments you'll pick up, handed to you at the Practice Grounds not long after the opening tutorial. Activating it spins the weapon into a whirlwind that interrupts and damages every nearby enemy at once, making it the pick for thinning out a pack of smaller Genma rather than dueling a single tough target. Trigger it a second time and the whirlwind ignites, adding fire damage on top.

05Earth-Shakers — Armor and Stance Breaking

A pair of heavy clubs picked up during an underground section of the story. Earth-Shakers deals heavy stamina damage and breaks enemy armor, which makes it the go-to Armament against armored Genma or any enemy you're trying to force into a stance-broken state so you can follow up with Break Issen.

06Firebird Flute — Ranged Burn Damage

A ranged Armament found as a chest pickup later in the Kyoto campaign. It launches fireballs that ignite whatever they hit and stagger the target backward, giving you a way to apply burn damage and control spacing on enemies you'd rather not close the distance on.

07Flashing Void — The Execute

Located in a side cave near the Castle Entrance Spirit Mirror on Mount Oe. Flashing Void is a charge attack that deals high direct damage on its own, but its real value is as an execute: use it on an enemy that's already been stance-broken and it can trigger a Break Issen outright, cutting a dangerous fight short.

08Still Water — Buff and Purple Soul Generation

Found in a side cave near the Swamp Spirit Mirror in the Arashiyama Swamp area. Activating Still Water infuses your blade with power and makes every hit generate purple souls — useful for feeding your Oni Awakening gauge mid-fight. Press the button again to end the effect early and unleash a golden wave of sword energy for extra damage and an additional burst of purple souls, instead of waiting for the buff to run out on its own.

09Which One to Prioritize With Oni Stones

Oni Stones are shared with the rest of your Special Skill tree, so you won't be able to fully enhance every Armament on a first playthrough (see our full skill upgrade priority guide for how that currency stretches). If you have to pick early, Earth-Shakers pays off the most consistently — armored Genma and stance-breaking come up constantly — while Two Celestials is worth investing in if you're finding yourself short on healing items during boss fights. The rest are more situational and safe to enhance later or in New Game+.