Nioh 3: Handbook Locations & Interactive Tracking Guide

Handbooks are Nioh 3's most direct route to expanding your active combat options. Each one permanently unlocks a Martial Art, Ninjutsu tool, or special ability unavailable anywhere in the standard skill tree — from the underground Burrow evasion to Fire Shurikens, from the Shadowstitch stealth technique to transformation abilities that shift you into a Scampuss mid-combat.

Over 30 confirmed Handbook locations are included across all areas on the Nioh 3 interactive maps, with exact acquisition conditions for every entry.

What Do Handbooks Unlock?

Handbooks provide skills that fall into three practical categories.

• Martial Arts are weapon-specific techniques — Tiger's Blade for Odachi users, Spinning Dragon for Dual Ninja Swords, Lumber Chop, Reverse Impact, and others that reshape your combo options depending on your weapon type.
• Ninjutsu tools expand your field utility with items like Blinding Shell, Poison Mist, Paralytic Groundfire, Caltrop Ball, Enhanced Shrapnel Bomb, and Fire Shuriken.
• Mobility and stealth arts — Burrow, Falcon Strike, Shadowself, Shadowstitch, Fleetfoot — give the Ninja Style the repositioning depth it needs for high-level encounters.

After finding a Handbook, spend a single Ninja or Samurai point in the Skill Management menu to activate it, then equip it in the Customize Martial Arts or Ninjutsu menu and assign it to your preferred input.

Two Sources: Masters and World Pickups

Most Handbooks come from one of two places.

The majority — including Flying Buck (Fuma Kotaro), Falcon Strike (Nasu no Yoichi), Thin Air (Tomoe Gozen), Beyond Infinity (Ishikawa Goemon), and Tornado (Takahashi Deishu) — are dropped exclusively by defeating Masters.

The remainder are world finds: Amrita Corpses on rooftops and cliff faces (Burrow, Fire Shuriken, Caltrop Ball, Enhanced Shrapnel Bomb), and chests inside buildings or behind Spirit Veins (Poison Mist behind a destructible wall panel in Shimabara, Blinding Shell in a Sanjo house, Rakansen Coin atop a Kamo Village hill).

One Master prerequisite to note: Tomoe Gozen (Kamo Village, Heian) only appears after completing the Follow the Soldier's Shadow Myth. Her Handbook — Thin Air — cannot be claimed before the Myth is done.

The Two Scampuss Transformation Handbooks

Two Handbooks don't come from Masters or world pickups — they come from the Great Scampuss in the Eternal Rift.

The Pufferpuss Form and Great Scampuss Form Handbooks are earned progressively by exchanging Scampuss Furballs with the Great Scampuss.

Each Furball is given by a Scampuss after you catch and pet it. Both Handbooks unlock short-duration transformation abilities that shift you into a Scampuss during combat — unusual enough to be worth specifically noting.

One Handbook Locked Behind Story Progression

The Enhanced Shrapnel Bomb Handbook is on a corpse atop a roof in Awawa no Tsuji (Heian), accessed via a Spirit Vein by the river.

Our guide flags it explicitly: that Spirit Vein only becomes available after you reach Bakumatsu. Players who see the Awawa no Tsuji Spirit Vein on their map while exploring Heian and can't activate it should plan to return once Bakumatsu unlocks rather than spending time searching for a way through.

All Handbook Locations by Source

• Master duels (14 Handbooks): Warring States — Fuma Kotaro (Flying Buck), Taigen Sessai (Lumber Chop), Ito Ittosai (Tiger's Blade), Sugitani Zenjubo (Urgency), Kosaka Masanobu (Reverse Impact), Anayama Nobutada (Punish the Proud). Heian — Tomoe Gozen (Thin Air, Myth-gated), Nasu no Yoichi (Falcon Strike), Shinran (Changing Ways), Demon Slayer (Archer's Impact). Bakumatsu — Sawamura Yasusuke (Fleetfoot), Takahashi Deishu (Tornado), Ishikawa Goemon (Beyond Infinity), Takashima Shuhan (Tri-Spark), Blade Spin (Kyoto Imperial Palace Master).
• World chests and corpses (14 Handbooks): Spread across Warring States, Heian, and Bakumatsu — full pin coordinates in the checklist.
• Great Scampuss, Eternal Rift (2 Handbooks): Pufferpuss Form and Great Scampuss Form, earned through Scampuss Furball exchanges.

All locations can be found properly documented on the Warring States area map, Heian interactive map, Bakumatsu map guide, and Eternal Rift interactive map, with any Myth prerequisites and access conditions.