Nioh

This is by far the hardest and most time consuming trophy in the DLC and whole game. Not only do you have to complete Way of the Samurai, you also have to complete most missions on Way of the Strong to unlock 'The Queen's Eyes' which upon completion will unlock Way of the Demon difficulty. You must then complete EVERY single mission on Way of the Demon. When I say every mission I mean everything from the main game, including Twilight, Dojo, Tohoku region and all missions added by the 1.06 patch, some of which are considerably more difficult than the base game missions.

General Tips:

• Upgrading Equipment - Powerful equipment drops very regularly on Way of the Demon. You can get many Divine items that are commonly +7 and above right from the first mission. Make sure you are always soul matching to upgrade equipment to combat the more powerful enemies and bosses. See The Chosen One for gold farming tips.
• Weapon/Armour Skills - The skills on your weapons and armour will be more important than the equipment itself in most instances, especially on weapons. An excellent way of getting weapons/armour with excellent transferable bonuses are by killing revenants left by other players on Death to Bandits Way of the Strong. The shoreline and general area is where a lot of players purposely die and drop weapons and armour with great skills on, so feel free to farm here as I did to get useful skills to soul match transfer to your own weapon. You can see the skills I used in my build below.
• New Enemies - Some enemies can kill you in a single hit depending on your build, in particular the new red enemies which are special variants with several buffs. I recommended debuffing them with sloth and weakness talismans to defeat them quickly, as they can give you hell. What you will also notice is the new blue Ninja Yokai; they are similar to the main game counterpart but will also shoot you with a handcannon from range very quickly. Projectile enemies in general have a much higher rate of fire here which can be difficult to manage during a fight so take them out quickly. Other than that, enemy layout is mostly the same as on Way of the Strong.
• Kodama Blessing - Use the Healer Blessing (you should have all Kodama collected before attempting this). The 25% Elixir drop rate increase allows you to heal very frequently and engage most enemies on maximum health.
• Co-op - Don't be afraid to summon visitors as this can be a huge help, especially as a lot of players use Ninja builds which are extremely powerful.
• Quick Change Scroll - This is extremely useful and I would say it is almost mandatory as it can save you from death once per use. It lasts a while and you can carry up to 3 at a time if you fully upgrade it (which I strongly recommend that you do).
• Useful Ninjitsu Skills - Quick Change III, Medicine Man III, Power Pill III, Dodging III, Dashing III and the Enlightenment Mystic Art.
• Useful Onmyo Skills - Sloth Talisman III, Weakness Talisman III, Heaven Cursed Earth II, Steel Talisman, Evil Ward III, Carnage Talisman III and the Awakening Mystic Art.
• Elemental Talismans - I mainly used Earth as it paired well with the Raging Bull Set bonus adding 30% extra damage against muddied foes. Lightning is also one of the best as it slows down enemies, Wind reduces enemy attack power and Water reduces defence, whilst Fire causes recurrent damage. Feel free to use whatever you prefer or that suits your build, they are all useful.
• Passive Weapon Skills - Sword, Relentless III (+10 Ki). Duel Swords, Tachi Arts III (+20% Damage against enemies with full HP), Defence Arts III (+20 Ki Recovery speed when guarding). Axe, Fortitude III (+200 Life). Kusarigama, Armour Piercer III (+16% Final Blow damage), Shadow Strike (+12% Damage from behind). Odachi, Passage to the Afterlife III (+12% Grapple damage). There are also some skills that increase damage with that particular weapon, feel free to unlock them as well if you use that as part of your build.

For all of the above recommended skills you will need to invest around 30 or so points in to Dexterity and Magic provided you have been using the locks of hair which grant you more skillpoints during your previous playthroughs. Samurai skillpoints are much more plentiful so do not worry about these.

Build Advice

If you already have a solid build that got you through Way of the Strong without too much hassle, then just upgrading your current equipment and leveling up as appropriate will likely be fine. I personally used a Spear/Axe build, mainly using the Spear as I find it to be the perfect balance of speed, power and range, it is versatile and can wreak havoc with the right skills and equipment, but all of the other weapons can be just as devastating.

Below is my build and stats.

Level 332
Health 6036
Ki 186
Defence 3106
Toughness 298

Body 99
Heart 20
Stamina 66
Strength 81
Skill 6
Dexterity 30
Magic 32
Spirit 40

As you can see I have very high HP and defence. The Raging Bull set adds a nice amount of % damage reduction so I was pretty tanky. I was able to withstand 4/5 hits from most enemies before being on the verge of death, 2/3 from red buffed enemies. Make sure your toughness is above 200 at all times, this way your attacks cannot get interrupted if you get hit.

Try to also put most of your prestige points in to Yokai Close Combat damage, Ki, Life and Living Weapon Durability if you can.

Weapons:

Weapon 1: Oni Sakon Spear (Max Familiriaty) - Familiarity Damage Bonus A, Weaken Armour (Torso) 22.4%, Lightning +18, Close Combat Damage +15.4%, Pierce Guard (Close Combat) 13.4%, Change to Attack (Body) A+
Weapon 2: Kaido Axe (Max Familiarity) - Familiarity Damage Bonus A, Skill Damage (Lumber Chop) +30%, Lightning +22, Close Combat Damage +20%, Pierce Guard (Close Combat) 13%, Change to Attack (Strength) A+

Recommended Skills

I strongly recommend using some of the skills I have on my weapons or the equivalent to suit your own build. For Armour this isn't quite as important, but try to get skills like Elemental Damage Reduction, +Ki, +Life, +Attack, +Defence and Evasion Ki Usage. The rest aren't essential.

As for accessories the Yasakani Magatama is by far the best, especially if you are lucky enough to get Yokai Close Combat/Living Weapon Damage on it, they also reduce set bonus requirements by 1 which means equipping just a single piece from any set will grant you the first bonus regardless, usually a small amount of damage reduction.

Guardian Spirits:

Main: Kato - The reason I chose Kato is because of the 14% close combat and 21% skill damage at level 40 which synergise with my weapon skills very well and grants me a big increase in overall damage from close up. The extra 28 Ki and 29% Ki recovery speed makes overall Ki management easier, giving you more chances to attack and evade. It is also one of the best guardians for living weapon, granting one of the highest attack enhancements and the chance to set enemies on fire. If you rely heavy on Living Weapon Paired Raiken is arguably the best guardian to use.

Secondary: Paired Raiken - I used Paired Raiken here for the +2.2% quick attack bonus, it's not huge but it was the best one for me to pair with Kato.

Strategies

I maxed out on Suppa and Catwalking Scrolls which make you invisible and silent. I used these to sneak up on enemies and kill them with Lumber Chop. This makes some of the harder missions trivial up until the boss fight, so it's a strategy you may want to employ.

Against human enemies I mainly used the spearfall skill as this often knocks them down ready for a final blow; the axe is also good for ki breaks which allows for easy grapples. For horned yokai I used the axe more often for easy breaks. Feel free to use Power Pills often as they give a nice attack boost and you can hold 6 at a time.

For bosses, make use of all of your skills, magic and ninjistu such as Sloth, Weakness, Carnage Talismans to debuff bosses and buff yourself, use spirit/soulstones to power up your living weapon before a fight. Make sure you always have a Quick Change Scroll active so you can survive any hit without dying.

One of the most overpowered builds in the game is a Ninja build. This focuses on building up damage on thrown weapons such as shurikens and kunais to nuke everything in seconds. This build is very squishy and equipment reliant however, so it is not without its flaws. There is a link to example of this build courtesy of aquCHAOS here. It was nerfed slightly in a recent update, but it is still very powerful.

It will feel like a big step up in difficulty at first, but once you start upgrading your equipment and leveling up more it becomes much more manageable and will not seem that much harder than Way of the Strong in the end. The most challenging part of the run will be the dual boss fights, Hanzo and Okatsu, as well as the solo fight against Maria which I found to be the most difficult.

You can track your progress by pressing and scrolling to Titles, Gameplay Record, Dragon of the North, your 'Way of the Demon mission achievement rate' must be 100 to unlock the trophy.