Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess | Soh Upgrades Guide

For a game that has a lot of tower-defense elements, it sure does involve Soh a lot. For much of the game, you’ll control the character, and he will be your main tool for exploration and defeating bosses. There are a lot of ways to upgrade Soh, and with the Tsuba Guards, Soh can specialize himself to be adept at most playstyles. This also means that a lot of the upgrades can be catered to specific playstyles.

Of course, some abilities are better than others, and more than that, some help you specialize better. So, this guide will go over the best abilities to focus on for each play style and role spread amongst the five categories of abilities.

Soh’s skills are spread into five categories, with only a few prerequisite skills to unlock. You can select most of them freely, letting you hyper-specialize. You will be able to upgrade Soh after you defeat Batsu at the eleventh level.

The Other Abilities

There are some abilities that are extremely good, no matter the circumstance. Amongst the category of Other Abilities, these are actually anything but Misc. things. This is part of the reason why it's listed first.

The first ability you should get as soon as possible is Punishing Strike. Punishing Strike lets Soh do critical hits against enemies that have empty Resist Gauges. This is a versatile ability as it stuns most enemies and basically finishes them off. For bosses, it deals absurd amounts of damage.

The Chozusha Basin can strengthen Soh for a small amount of time thanks to the Worship ability that makes him invulnerable, faster, and stronger, letting you bully enemies and take bosses head-on, even if it is for only a short amount of time.

The final ability here is the Perfect Guard, and this ability makes it easy to not take much damage. If you are unable to perform the perfect guards, you can always equip the Mazo Talisman called Clairvoyance, which you unlock pretty early at the Adashino Village once you purge it of defilements.

Dance Abilities

Soh has access to two Dance fighting styles, the Oka Dance and the Shiden Dance. The Oka Dance is more about movement and is your default style. The second style is more about strength.

The Shiden Dance keeps you stationary, making a target, and uses the same Dance attacks. Whereas the Oka Dance lets Soh move around freely while he is doing his attacks. Naturally, this means your damage is lower, but this also means they are faster and can easily be canceled.

You will probably stick to one style, but it's effective to alternate based on the situation. Of course, there are a few very useful upgrades for each style.

The Oka Form 2 and 4 are the best in their style. The Form 2 offers a versatile way to easily take out enemies in the air. It only costs 5 Musubi as well, making it a very promising option to act as a backup to the bow for flying enemies.

The Oka Form 4 takes a wide range of attacks to activate, yet it does a lot of damage and is ideal for blobs. You shouldn’t rely on this, though, as it is somewhat hard to pull off.

The Shiden Form 2 is somewhat of a contrast to the style as it is fast to pull off and deals massive amounts of resist gauge damage at the same time.

Archery Abilities

Archery starts off as the lesser of Soh’s weapons, being just good enough to poke at enemies or deal with annoying fliers. It is much more reliable to use archers for both tasks while you get close and personal to hack at the enemies. You need to unlock it first as well, and you shouldn’t really bother with it until much later.

The bow is slow and has an abysmal firing rate. However, when you have a lot of Musubi, you can upgrade it to become really strong. The most effective of these is the Spider Shot, and this ability does the same job as the Ascetic, wherein it slows the enemy. This slow is weaker and isn’t as long as the Ascetic’s, but it has an area of effect.

Aside from the combat options, the bow can be used to complete optional objectives and unlock treasure chests. This is doable via the butterfly shot that lets you teleport things you hit.

So far, the bow has served more of a utility role than an active combat role. This is further emphasized by the third ability to focus on. This is the Pinnacle shot. The pinnacle shot charges the bow, deals high amounts of damage and knocks the enemy back. This ability is most effective when paired with the Crow-Billed Tengu Mazo Talisman.

Command Screen Abilities

A strange section contains upgrades for micro-managing villagers, but some for Soh as well. You might not be inclined to focus here as it is about moving the villagers. However, you’ll probably be spending most of your Musubi here as it contains some of the most essential upgrades in the game.

Assemble lets you quickly call your villagers to a specific location. This is good in a pinch, especially if Yoshiro or Soh is in trouble. Note that you will not be able to move the villagers with fixed positions. Ordinarily, you will not be moving the Villagers as you want them to keep their tactical positions, but it helps if suddenly there are 12 Sumo Wrestlers around Yoshiro, protecting her from any prospecting Seethe.

Yoshiro’s guide is another quality-of-life upgrade that lets you order Yoshiro using the command screen. Normally, you can only do this when you have Soh next to Yoshiro, but this ability lets you do it regardless of where you are as long as you do it from the command screen. As Soh, you’ll be moving around a lot, and having this ability helps you move Soh around easily.

You can also upgrade the Tsuba Guard slots here. The Tsuba Guards are incredible abilities that exist on a cooldown; these cooldowns only progress if you have them equipped. The first one was cheap enough, costing 10 Musubi, but the final one cost 50. It is still worth it because, as mentioned before, they are incredibly effective. 

They are best paired with the Mazo Talismans to lower their cooldown and give them the ability to cooldown while inactive, respectively. The first one is done through the Rabbit’s Cup, which is unlocked once you defeat Yatsurao without using Tsuba Guards. The second is Synergy, which is unlocked if you beat Yatsukahagi in under 3 minutes.

Speaking of Mazo Talismans, you can also unlock more Mazo Talisman slots through this. You can unlock three more for up to 5 Mazo Talismans in total. With over 70 Mazo Talismans, you’ll probably try to get 5 slots as soon as possible. 

Some of the best bonuses and cost-effective upgrades are inadvertently found through this upgrade. These bonuses can range from decent, like the small damage boost from the Deva or the villager efficiency bonuses, to really good ones, like the Sacred Tamagushi, probably the best Mazo Talisman in the game. It is unlocked once you purge all defilements in Yuminari Lake.

Check out our review and other guides on Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess:
- Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Review
- Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess | Beginner's Guide Tips & Tricks
- Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess | Achievement Guide
- Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Guide | How to Get Musubi
- Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess | Best Mazo Talismans
- Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess | The Best Tsuba Guards
- Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess | The Best Upgrades to Get