Rise of the Ronin: Yellow Bar On Weapon [What Does It Mean?]

If you played the previous Nioh games from Team Ninja, then you’re bound to run into the question of what the Yellow bar means on your Katana weapon during combat in Rise Of The Ronin. This is the small bar on the lower right of your screen in combat, which will charge up periodically depending on how many enemies you damage and defeat. This guide aims to discuss the effects of this mechanic as briefly as possible.

What Are The Effects Of The Yellow Bar

The Yellow bar is directly tied to a mechanic, Blade Flash; when you defeat or damage enemies, you will generate blood on your weapon, and by pressing R1, you can expend this bar to restore your Ki/Stamina.

• How to Activate: As shown in the image above, you can only activate Blade Flash after an attack, but usually, what I’d do was press R1 during certain combo strings against groups of enemies.
• Advantages: The effects of the Blade Flash are extremely useful when battling against a mob of targets in missions where managing your Ki can become a task, as activating it with a full yellow bar can provide a hefty amount of Ki back to your character so you can keep up the aggression.
• Boss Fights: In the duel boss fights of Rise Of The Ronin, Blade Flash can also become mandatory to use in there because parrying certain attacks also consumes stamina.

How To Generate More Ki From Blade Flash

As the image above showcases, I strongly recommend grabbing the Ki Recovery Up skill under the Charm tree, increasing the amount of Ki you recover from using Blade Flash.

At Level 2 of this skill, I could generate upward of 15% of Ki, but excluding the skill’s effects, whether I had maxed out the bar or not, I didn’t notice much difference in Ki/stamina restored aside from Blade Flash. In my opinion, this mechanic mostly feels like an unintentional gimmick by the devs.

This brings me to the end of my short guide on what the Yellow bar means and does in the game. If you enjoyed reading this, then be sure to check out my friend and Soulsborne fanatic, Haris Umar’s extensive Review on Rise Of The Ronin, where he dives deep into its highs and lows. You can also check out his detailed guide on how to defeat the Blue Demon boss fight.

If you have any kind of questions or concerns, be sure to let me know in the comments section below! I hope you’re enjoying this game as much as I am being a casual fan of Team Ninja’s action titles.