nope, there's a very short quest (essentially a cutscene) in walk of echoes where you can unlock any empy WS so long as you have at least the lvl 90 emp, or lvl 99 coin weapon with that ws.

once it's unlocked you can use it with any sword.

they also changed the path for the coin weapons (or added a new path?) so they no longer require the nm kills, just the woe part: coins, residue, dice, seals. you could almost BUY an emp ws...