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Equipment upgrades in Onimusha: Way of the Sword unlock naturally as you progress, the same as most other systems in the game. Once available, you'll find the option inside the Spirit Mirror menu, the game's equivalent of a Dark Souls bonfire, used for resting, saving, fast travel, changing your appearance, and now enhancing gear. Your clothing, sword, and gauntlet each level up independently using their own dedicated materials, so there's no need to weigh one upgrade against another. Just be aware that chests holding these materials are one-time pickups, while loose materials scattered around the world tend to respawn.
Where to upgrade your equipment
Open the Spirit Mirror menu and select "Enhance Equipment/Abilities", the second option once it becomes available. From here you can switch between your three equipment categories, clothing, sword, and gauntlet, and spend materials to push each one up a level.
What each piece of equipment upgrades
Clothing boosts your health and stamina. The sword increases the general damage your attacks deal. The gauntlet strengthens your Oni powers and soul absorption. Each piece can be levelled up to a maximum of level 5, but getting there takes several smaller upgrades along the way rather than one big jump.
Where to find upgrade materials
Clothing materials lean towards silk and leather, with higher-quality versions showing up later. Sword materials are iron-based, starting with iron itself before moving on to tempered iron. Gauntlet materials are tied to Genma, the game's enemies. You'll pick most of these up as quest rewards, and you don't have to guess what you're getting either: hover over any quest on the map to preview its rewards, and for main quests, the materials on offer are shown in the bottom-left corner as soon as you open the map. Chests scattered around the world are another source, though each one only gives up its contents once. Materials you find loose in the world, rather than inside a chest, tend to respawn, so those are worth a repeat visit if you're short on something specific.
How the level system works
Getting a piece of equipment from one level to the next takes multiple individual upgrades, not just one. Clothing and the sword each need ten upgrades to climb a level, while the gauntlet only needs five. That's worth keeping in mind if you're trying to decide where to spend a limited batch of materials.
Quick tip: If you're one or two materials short of your next upgrade, don't assume you're stuck until your next quest reward. Loose materials scattered through the world respawn, so a quick lap of an area you've already cleared can often close the gap.
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