Similar to Blood Vials in Bloodborne, you carry Elixir in Nioh. Unlike in Bloodborne, you always start with at least a set number each time you spawn. At the beginning of the game, you spawn with 3. I currently spawn with 4.
What did I do to increase this number and how can I increase it further? I'm (still) having a lot of trouble fighting Hino-Enma and having more Elixir would really help.
You can respawn with more elixir from the shrine by collecting Kodama. For every five Kodama you've found and led back to a shrine the amount of free elixirs from praying at shrines is increased by one.
You can carry up to eight elixirs at a time. The rest get sent to your storage. If you die with elixirs in storage, upon respawning, your inventory will be filled up to eight elixirs from there as well. You can get more elixirs by defeating enemies or offering excess equipment at the shrine.
Of course, these are only one use though, so collecting Kodama is the way to get more base elixir on each respawn.
