{"id":3184,"date":"2026-08-19T12:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T10:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.goranked.gg\/en\/news\/nioh-3-hell-rising-dlc-hoko-shield-hell-difficulty\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T12:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T10:04:21","slug":"nioh-3-hell-rising-dlc-hoko-shield-hell-difficulty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goranked.gg\/en\/news\/nioh-3-hell-rising-dlc-hoko-shield-hell-difficulty\/","title":{"rendered":"Nioh 3 DLC &#8216;Hell Rising&#8217; Adds Hoko, Shield and Hell Mode"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hell Rising, the first downloadable expansion for Nioh 3, launches today. The DLC introduces two weapon types \u2014 the hoko, a short spear, and a shield pairing \u2014 along with new Guardian Spirits, martial arts techniques, active skills, expanded ninjutsu tools and additional Onmyo Magic spells. It is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and PC.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The hoko is intended for use with a shield to offer a balance of reach and defense. The new Guardian Spirits provide passive bonuses and active abilities that interact with character builds. New martial arts techniques and active skills expand close-combat options, while added ninjutsu items and Onmyo Magic spells increase ranged and utility options.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hell Rising adds Hundred Demon Realms Picture Scrolls, which create repeatable, configurable battle instances. Players can choose which enemies appear in specific areas and adjust settings that increase enemy health and damage. A new Hell Difficulty raises enemy health and damage across the board for a higher challenge.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The expansion is set in a corrupted version of Edo during the Keian era, where a force called the Crucible dominates the area. The DLC continues a narrative thread involving Spirit Stones and includes redesigned enemy placements and tougher encounters in the Keian maps.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Team Ninja developed the expansion and Koei Tecmo published it. The package adds gear, mechanics and modes without changing the game&#8217;s core systems. Players who have finished the base game can apply the new weapons, Guardian Spirits and skills to refine builds and repeat objectives in the Hundred Demon Realms or attempt Hell Difficulty.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hell Rising, Nioh 3\u2019s first DLC, launches today with two weapons (hoko and shield), new Guardian Spirits, martial arts, skills, customizable Hundred Demon Realms and Hell Difficulty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest"],"newsroom_tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nioh 3 DLC Hell Rising Adds Hoko, Shield and Hell Difficulty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hell Rising launches with hoko spear, shield pairing, new Guardian Spirits, martial arts, Onmyo spells, customizable Hundred Demon Realms and Hell Difficulty.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.goranked.gg\/en\/news\/nioh-3-hell-rising-dlc-hoko-shield-hell-difficulty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nioh 3 DLC Hell Rising Adds Hoko, Shield and Hell Difficulty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hell Rising launches with hoko spear, shield pairing, new Guardian Spirits, martial arts, Onmyo spells, customizable Hundred Demon Realms and Hell Difficulty.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.goranked.gg\/en\/news\/nioh-3-hell-rising-dlc-hoko-shield-hell-difficulty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Goranked\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-19T10:04:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Goranked Researcher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Goranked Researcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nioh 3 DLC Hell Rising Adds Hoko, Shield and Hell Difficulty","description":"Hell Rising launches with hoko spear, shield pairing, new Guardian Spirits, martial arts, Onmyo spells, customizable Hundred Demon Realms and Hell Difficulty.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.goranked.gg\/en\/news\/nioh-3-hell-rising-dlc-hoko-shield-hell-difficulty\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nioh 3 DLC Hell Rising Adds Hoko, Shield and Hell Difficulty","og_description":"Hell Rising launches with hoko spear, shield pairing, new Guardian Spirits, martial arts, Onmyo spells, customizable Hundred Demon Realms and Hell Difficulty.","og_url":"https:\/\/news.goranked.gg\/en\/news\/nioh-3-hell-rising-dlc-hoko-shield-hell-difficulty\/","og_site_name":"Goranked","article_published_time":"2026-08-19T10:04:21+00:00","author":"Goranked Researcher","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Goranked Researcher","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/news.goranked.gg\/en\/news\/nioh-3-hell-rising-dlc-hoko-shield-hell-difficulty\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.goranked.gg\/en\/news\/nioh-3-hell-rising-dlc-hoko-shield-hell-difficulty\/"},"author":{"name":"Goranked Researcher","@id":"https:\/\/news.goranked.gg\/en\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/6e18252c741e4de98bd82c0d24c0cec4"},"headline":"Nioh 3 DLC &#8216;Hell Rising&#8217; 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