Struggling to upgrade your sword in Onimusha: Way of the Sword because you keep running out of materials? You're not alone — it's one of the most common questions in the community since the game launched, with players on r/Onimusha asking bluntly, "where do I find upgrade materials?" The short version: your gear needs both Red Souls and named crafting materials, and the materials come from a mix of chests, boss drops, side content, and one easy-to-miss merchant. This guide breaks down every upgrade currency, exactly where the materials come from, and how the whole enhancement system works — verified against IGN, PowerPyx, GameRant and Maxroll as of September 24, 2026.
Quick answer: In Onimusha: Way of the Sword, you upgrade your Sword, Clothing (armor) and Oni Gauntlet at any Spirit Mirror using Red Souls plus specific named materials (Whetstone/Iron/Tamahagane for the sword, cloth/leather for clothing, Malicite for the gauntlet). Materials drop from Genma, hidden chests and side quests, and — after the "Careful What You Wish For" mission — can be bought with Red Souls at Yorimasa's Monument. Skills use Power Stones and Oni Stones on top of Red Souls. Each equipment piece caps at Level 5.
What are the upgrade currencies in Onimusha: Way of the Sword?
The game runs on the series' classic soul economy, absorbed from defeated Genma with the Oni Gauntlet. But post-launch play makes clear it's deeper than "kill enemy, get points." There are several soul colors and two separate stone resources, and they do very different jobs:
- Red Souls — the main upgrade and shopping currency. Earned from killing almost any Genma. You spend them on skills, charms, healing-pouch upgrades, and to buy physical upgrade materials. If you're short on anything, you're usually short on Red Souls. (Confirmed by TheGamer, GameRant, PC Gamer and GamingBolt.)
- Blue Souls — power your Oni Armaments (the special elemental weapons). Per GameRant: "All Oni Armaments require blue souls, which you can get by defeating enemies, hitting targets while in the Blazing State, or using Break Issen on a boss' purple weakspots."
- Yellow Souls — healing.
- Power Stones — used to unlock Basic Skills.
- Oni Stones — used to unlock Special Skills and Oni Armament abilities.
The stones are the part most guides gloss over: you can have a mountain of Red Souls and still be blocked on a skill because you're out of Power Stones or Oni Stones. Both are collectibles found through exploration, so open every chest. (If you're still learning the combat, our Issen parry guide covers the counter that pays back the most Red Souls per kill.)
Where do you upgrade your gear? The Spirit Mirror
All permanent upgrades happen at a Spirit Mirror — the glowing checkpoint mirrors scattered throughout Kyoto. Open one and choose "Enhance Equipment/Abilities" (the exact label the shipped game uses, per PowerPyx and TheGamer). From there the system splits into a few tracks:
| Upgrade track | What it improves | Costs |
|---|---|---|
| Sword | Regular attack, Issen and Oni Armament power all scale off it | Red Souls + sword materials |
| Clothing (armor) | Defense / survivability | Red Souls + cloth materials |
| Oni Gauntlet | Gauntlet proficiency and related abilities | Red Souls + Malicite-type materials |
| Basic Skills | Attacks, parry/deflect, dodge, Issen, Blazing State, charm capacity, soul absorption | Power Stones + Red Souls |
| Special Skills | Oni Vision, Oni Strength, Wall Run, Oni Awakening, per-armament skills | Oni Stones + Red Souls |
| Charms | Stat buffs (charms are NOT purely cosmetic) | Red Souls + Favor |
Two things to know up front. First, each of your three equipment pieces — Sword, Clothing, Gauntlet — maxes out at Level 5 (TheGamer, allthings.how). If you're deciding whether to save resources for a tougher fight, our breakdown of the difficulty settings and Carnage mode explains where the real damage spikes are. Second, your sword is a single katana you deepen through upgrades, not a weapon you swap out — so investing in it is never wasted, because it simultaneously raises your normal attacks, your Issen counters, and your Oni Armament damage.
The named upgrade materials (and where each comes from)
This is the core of the question. Enhancing equipment past the early levels needs specific named items, not just souls. Here are the confirmed material lines by equipment type (allthings.how, corroborated by TheGamer and PowerPyx):
- Sword: Whetstone → Iron → Tempered Iron → Tamahagane (the top-tier sword material)
- Clothing: Hempen Cloth → Cotton Cloth → Leather → Fine Silk Cloth
- Gauntlet: Malicite → Malicite Mass, plus Byakue's Talisman and Dohatsu-ten's Horn for the highest tiers
Where they come from:
- Genma drops. Mid-tier and tougher enemies drop materials like Malicite directly — so farming enemies gets you both Red Souls and crafting mats at once.
- Hidden chests. Large chests are marked with map icons; your Oni Gauntlet glows blue near hidden ones, so follow the glow. Higher-tier materials (Tamahagane, Fine Silk Cloth) are gated behind exploration and later areas.
- Side quests and rift-closing. Completing side content and closing Malice rifts rewards materials.
- Yorimasa's Monument (the merchant). This is the fix for a materials shortage. Per IGN's guide: "you can also trade in Red Souls for upgrade materials. To do this, you'll need to complete the Careful What You Wish For mission. Once you've done that, you'll be able to travel back to Yorimasa's monument, where you can trade in your hard-won Red Souls for materials." Yorimasa's Monument sits north of Rokudo-chinnoji Temple (Vandal). Crucially, its stock grows as you play — PC Gamer notes to "check back in after you complete every major story mission, because Yorimasa's Monument expands the shop inventory several times throughout the game."
One heads-up on costs: buying top-tier materials isn't cheap. PC Gamer reports higher-tier upgrade items run upwards of 8,000 Red Souls each, which is exactly why efficient soul farming matters (below).
How to farm Red Souls fast (early game)
Since Red Souls buy skills, charms and materials, they're your real bottleneck. The most-cited early farming method comes from GamingBolt:
"The earliest good Red Soul farming spot is around the second checkpoint in the Kiyomizu Temple. Once there, double back into the previous zone to reset the enemy clusters, and then eliminate them as quickly as possible."
Two multipliers stack on top of that:
- Reaper's Charm — increases Red Soul absorption by +5% / +10% / +15% as you level it up (Maxroll). Equip it before a farming run.
- Play cleanly. Landing Issen counters and using armament finishers raises your soul yield per kill, so aggressive-but-precise play out-farms button-mashing.
And if you played the demo: the Kubi Akari charm — claimed from your demo save via Settings → Privacy → Demo Bonus → Collect Reward, then equipped at a Spirit Mirror — gives a Soul Absorption Trigger Boost of +10% / +15% / +20% by level (Maxroll), making soul-absorption bonuses fire off more often. It's a small but genuine head start on your upgrade grind.
A sensible upgrade priority order
You'll never have enough resources for everything at once, so spend deliberately:
- Sword first. It scales your normal attacks, Issen and armament damage together — the single best per-material investment.
- Soul Absorption and key Basic Skills. More souls per kill compounds every later purchase; parry/deflect and Issen skills keep you alive to farm.
- Charms (Reaper's Charm early). Equipping the right charm effectively raises your farm rate — remember charms buff Musashi's abilities, they aren't cosmetic.
- Clothing / Gauntlet as needed. Bump defense and gauntlet proficiency when a boss wall demands it, not before.
- Oni Armament skills last (Oni Stones). Powerful, but Oni-Stone-gated — upgrade the armaments you actually use. If you're pushing toward the endgame, our Oni Awakening guide covers the transformation those skills feed into.
For reference on how steep the back half gets, PowerPyx lists example skill-tier costs climbing from around 3,500 up to 8,500 Red Souls per rank, with 2–3 Power Stones or Oni Stones per upgrade — treat those as example figures, not a fixed table, since costs vary by skill.
FAQ
Where do I find upgrade materials in Onimusha: Way of the Sword? Upgrade materials come from four sources: dropped by Genma enemies, found in hidden chests (your Oni Gauntlet glows blue near concealed ones), rewarded from side quests and closing Malice rifts, and — after the "Careful What You Wish For" mission — bought with Red Souls at Yorimasa's Monument, north of Rokudo-chinnoji Temple.
How do I upgrade my sword? Visit any Spirit Mirror, choose Enhance Equipment/Abilities, and select the Sword. Each upgrade costs Red Souls plus sword materials (Whetstone, Iron, Tempered Iron, Tamahagane). The sword — like your Clothing and Gauntlet — maxes at Level 5, and enhancing it raises your regular attacks, Issen and Oni Armament power simultaneously.
What's the difference between Red Souls, Blue Souls, Power Stones and Oni Stones? Red Souls are your main currency for skills, charms and buying materials. Blue Souls power your Oni Armaments. Power Stones unlock Basic Skills and Oni Stones unlock Special Skills — both are collectibles found through exploration, and you spend them alongside Red Souls in the skill tree.
How do I farm Red Souls quickly? The most-recommended early spot is the second checkpoint in Kiyomizu Temple: double back to reset enemy clusters and clear them fast, then repeat. Equip the Reaper's Charm (+5–15% Red Soul absorption) and land clean Issen counters to boost your yield per kill.
Do I need to buy materials, or can I just find them? You can find most materials through normal exploration and combat, but Yorimasa's Monument is a reliable safety net when a specific material is holding up an upgrade — its stock expands after every major story mission, so revisit it as you progress.
Is the Kubi Akari charm worth claiming from the demo? Yes, if you played the demo. It grants a +10–20% Soul Absorption Trigger Boost, which makes soul-absorption bonuses fire more often and gently speeds up your Red Soul farming. Claim it via Settings → Privacy → Demo Bonus, then equip it at a Spirit Mirror.
| *Facts in this guide were verified as of September 24, 2026 against IGN, PowerPyx, TheGamer, GameRant, Maxroll, PC Gamer, GamingBolt and Vandal. Onimusha: Way of the Sword released September 4, 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X | S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC. Some exact material costs and skill-tier figures are outlet examples and can vary in-game.* |
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Want more? See our Onimusha: Way of the Sword souls and upgrades overview for the bigger picture on the soul economy.
