After the tutorial mission when given the choice, pick sword, spear, and isonade (the shark), which will get you heart, body, and spirit at +1 to start with

You can respec everything later on except the initial stat boost from those choices, and those 3 are going to get increased no matter your build.

Don't worry about the guardian spirit, there's a side quest to get the 2 you didn't pick after you do a few missions

That's if you're gonna min/max your stuff eventually. If not, just pick whatever and have fun

I picked whatever (swords/axe/shark) and am having fun, the games a lot easier than the alpha/beta so far. I like that the intro reminded me of the original Dark Souls and Morrowind. Good start.

Oh yeah I mean the difference is between 99.9% and 100% optimized build potential. As far as beating the thing, it matters not at all. This is just for OCD people like me who stress out over tiny stuff like that

This guy didn't put any points into heart for his build (https://www.reddit.com/r/Nioh/comments/5sn06n/spoilerfree_beginners_guide_w_6_starting_tips/)

"I don't have points into heart and I'm level 74. Hasn't felt necessary as long as you're good with ki pulse."

Care to comment?

Also, what do the other two guardian spirits get you instead of spirit?

@bson: as someone who's gotten way into the endgame meta every Souls game, I feel confident in saying this dude is making things way harder than they need to be by ignoring ki. It is by far the most vital stat to increase, at the very minimum until you start seeing drop offs in how much each level gets you. Ki pulse is good, but not good enough to where max ki is irrelevant

The other 2 spirits get you either strength or skill, only one of which is good depending on the weapon your build is centered around