September 2026
Oni Armaments
Oni Armaments are the tools that are not a sword. The gauntlet itself is one. The Oni Bow is the one the expanded demo finally lets you string. Gamescom footage also flashes a pair of maces that seem to crack the floor — treat that as a full-game tease, not as a pickup in Kiyomizu-dera. Blue souls pay for these. Yellow heals. Red upgrades. Mixing the colours is how people waste a boss.
The bow is combat and a key
Capcom’s August demo notes are explicit: the Oni Bow shoots Genma and it shoots puzzles. Marked crates slide when you hit them, opening ledges the blade cannot invent. That is why the Oni Refuge exists in the free file — to force a ranged verb before Daidara turns the camera into a club. On PS5, drawing the string increases DualSense resistance. Sealing a demonic “Rift” later asks you to squeeze the trigger through its full travel. Practise the draw in the Refuge; the campaign will not pause to teach it again.
The PlayStation overview trailer above is the tone piece for the gauntlet-and-bow fantasy, not a frame-data sheet. Button homes live on controls (R2 / RT on console; remap on PC). If absorb and bow share a finger in Active type, switch back to Basic before you blame the weapon.
Blue souls, and what the gauntlet is for
Kills with Armaments return extra yellow souls — Capcom’s own combat primer says so. That makes a bow kill an economy decision, not a style point. The gauntlet is also a character: the Oni Lady speaks from it, and the DualSense speaker is used for those voices and for absorb cues. That is flavour until a Rift asks you to drink a portal dry. Then it is an input.
Charms are not Armaments. Lion Dog, Kubi Akari, Deluxe names sit in the Spirit Mirror equipment screen and change Musashi. Sword skins do not. Do not spend a pre-order on a skin because you thought it was a gauntlet. The items page is the charm list; this page is the spenders.
What Trailer 6 and FGS added
The Future Games Show reel at Gamescom flashes additional Armament shapes — maces, a heavier gauntlet look — around the Lion Dog rescue beat. Director Nihei used that same showcase to talk about Lion Dogs trapped by Malice. Rescuing them is a campaign verb, not a demo verb. Petting a dog in a trailer is not a build. It is a reminder that the Oni world has more than bosses in it.
Until 4 September, the only Armament you can master in public is the bow plus the basic gauntlet spend from the original demo reel. Everything else is a screenshot. Keep the souls guide open if you keep arriving at a door with the wrong colour.
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Frequently asked questions
Is the Oni Bow in the original June demo?
It becomes available in the August expansion / Oni Refuge. The June temple loop is sword-first.
Do Armaments use red souls?
No. Blue fuels Armaments. Red upgrades. Yellow heals. Walking while absorbing is allowed.
Are charms Armaments?
No. Charms are equippable boosts. Armaments are spent tools.
Will PC get the bow trigger trick?
The resistance cue is DualSense. On PC, remap and watch the on-screen draw; the puzzle is the same.