While you might not have expected it in a Tower Defense game, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess has a surprisingly deep combat system for the playable character, Soh. While they may seem decently commendable at the beginning of the game, it'𒐪s once you unlock their upgrade tree that Soh's true depth appears.

Yet with five categories to ch❀oose from and over 30 abilities spread across them, you're spoiled for choice🦋. This little guide is going to show you which ones to focus on first to have you climbing back to the top of Mt. Kafuku in no time.

Best Abilities

While every ability has its place within the game and each player can carve out their own playstyle with them, there are definitely some that prove more useful than others, especially in the early game. As such, we're going to recommend which abilities in each category you should focus on first to ease your initial playthrough of the game.

Combat Abilities

Listed in𝓀-game as 'other abilities', these mainly comprise those Soh can use in combat or that involve extra interaction within the stage.

Worship lets you interact with the Chozusha Basins within levels, including boss battles. These make you stronger and invincible, which can be great when you want to quickly whittle away the last sliver of 🍌a boss' health bar.

Punishing Strike lets Soh deal a critical hit against enemies once their Resist Gauge has been depleted. Keep in mind the stun ends once you perform an attack, so try to get a fe🌟w regular attacks in first before dealing the Punishing Strike.

Perfect Guard relies on you being able to time your blocks well, though once you've learned an enemy's attack patterns well enough, you can functionally stay in the fray indefinitely.

The Clarvoiyance Mazo Talisman makes it even easier for Soh to perform a Perfect Guard if ꦗyou're struggling to get the timing down.

Archery Abilities

Archery unlocks a whole new gameplay function, so this one is a no-brainer to invest in.

The bow isn't very powerful and has quite a slow firing rate, th🔴ough 𒅌it gives Soh guaranteed aerial capabilities.

Butterfly Shot lets you teleport to the enemy it hits, which is g🅰reat for catching up with an enemy, but some stages also need it for reaching certain tre🍨asure chests.

Spider Shot is wonderfully powerful because it works in a large area rather than a single enemy. The slowdown isn't as long as the Ascetic's, but you can at least control when and where it happensᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ.

The Crow-Billed Tengu Mazo Talisman is essential🏅 if you really want to turn the bow into a powerhouse.

Shiden Dance Abilities

Soh starts with the Oka Dance fighting style, though the Shiden Dance fighting style opens up a ﷽whole new realm of possib༒ilities.

Shiden Dance wants you to plan your attacks more as you can't move as much nor attack as fast, though it hits much harder.

Shiden Form 2 also lets you charge your Dance Attack after the first Regular Attack, which can deal a frankly absurd amount of Resist Gauge damage for how quickly you can pull it off.

Command Screen Abilities

The Command Screen abilities actually come with some upgrades for Soh's equipment as well for some reason, though t🐈he actual Command Screen abiliꦬties are pretty useful too.

Assemble lets you call all of your Villagers (except those with Fixed Position) to the same location all at once. While tactical placements are best, sometimes you need to pull yourself out of a difficult situܫation, and commanding upwards of 12 Villagers al🐻l at once is just a slog.

Getting every Tsuba Guard and Mazo Talisman slot increase is far from essential, though every extra slot you get lets you build out Soh with exponentially more diversity, such as offensive and defensive Tsuba Guards at the same time.

Keep in mind that, unless you have the Synergy Mazo Talisman equipped, only 🃏th🐻e highlighted Tsuba Guard will recharge.

Every ability has its place, though even these few ꦯto start can be a great advantage when you're going through⛦ the game.

All of Soh's skills are available as soon as you unlock the ability to upgrade them, so don'ꦆt worry about new ones unlocking as the game progresses.

A reminder that Musubi can always be refunded free of charge if you'd like to try upgradi♌ng something else instead.

Is Oka Or Shiden Dance Better?

In this article so far, you've probably noticed that Oka Dance, the default fighting style in the game, and its various upgrades have barely been mentioned. Does that mean you shouldn't be using it? Not at all, it's just as valuable as Shiden Dance, though offers a completely diff♛erent way of 💟using Soh.

Shiden Dance and Oka Dance both specialise in different areas. We'll give a quick brﷺeakdown below to start.

• Shiden Dance
  • Prioritises damage and being stationary.
  • Has more predictable moves.
  • Uses the same Dance Attack no matter what part of the combo you're on.

• Oka Dance
  • Let's Soh move freely while attacking.
  • Dance Attack has different effects depending on when they're used in the combo.
  • Lower damage but much faster and easily cancellable animations.

Oka Dance is much better when it comes to handling hordes of smaller enemies and letting Soh quickly manoeuvre, while some Dance Attacks let you attack enemies in the air more easily. Meanwhile, Shiden Dance is stronger against enemies with health bars th🌞at require more attention to take down, though it offers very little in terms of versatility.

In that sense, Oka Dance is better to use in stages, while Shiden Dance is best used against bosses. If you feel confident in your Villagers being able to handle small enemies, then feel free to use Shiden Dance in stages as well. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference, th🎐ough having the option to swap combat styles is a must-have 🦹regardless.