Use emotes to outsmart two tricky yokai in Nioh 3 without unsheathing your sword.

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Nioh 3’s controls can be quite perplexing, making it hard to fully appreciate the cool features available. While the tutorial introduces you to emotes, you might find yourself several hours in before mastering the various button combinations.

In Nioh 3, emotes—referred to as gestures—aren’t just for player interaction or capturing epic screenshots. You can actually use them to ward off two types of yokai: Nurikabe and Mujina. Here’s how to do it.

To emote in Nioh 3, press the right bumper and the start button on your controller, or ‘G’ on your keyboard. This opens the gesture menu, where you can choose from a variety of gestures (there are multiple pages, so you’ll find an emote for every situation). Select your emote, and your character will perform it.

If you’re curious about the color-coding of emotes, it plays a crucial role in dealing with Nurikabe yokai.

You can interact peacefully with two types of yokai using emotes: Nurikabe and Mujina.

Nurikabe are yokai that disguise themselves as walls, often guarding treasures or hot springs, like the one found in Ryotan Temple in northern Iinoya. Get close enough, and you’ll see their eyes open. You can attack them, which will lead to a fight. However, the color-coded emotes—red, yellow, and blue—mean that using the correct color will make the Nurikabe vanish. This gives you two chances to guess the right color before you provoke them.

Mujina, on the other hand, disguise themselves as treasure chests and drop valuable loot when you either defeat them or interact peacefully. When you open a Mujina chest, the yokai will emerge, mimic your appearance, and perform an emote. You need to respond with the same emote before it strikes.