There are many Ghost and Yotei tips and tricks to try during Atsu's quest for revenge against the deadly Yotei Six – for exploring, for combat, and for other more general purposes. There are all sorts of secrets in Ghost of Yotei spread across Ezo, but if you're looking to get the most out of the game, the following tips and tricks will make for a much smoother experience.
Unsure about which Ghost of Yotei horse to pick when presented with that decision? We've got the lowdown on how to choose your steed.
1. Unlock all the weapons first
Ghost of Yotei's story will inevitably make you unlock its various weapons in order to complete the game, but you can also dip in and out of the various regions without fully completing most of them in order to visit their respective weapon masters (and any secondary weapon unlockers) fairly early. The only weapons you'll really have to wait on are guns, and honestly they don't add much that the rest aren't already better at.
2. Follow the Golden Bird
The Golden Bird, which is part of Atsu's Wolf Pack menu in Ghost of Yotei, is basically just one of many different methods to highlight something nearby that's important or meaningful without directly revealing it right away.
More often than not, the bird will lead you toward Altars of Reflection, Hot Springs, or Bamboo Strikes, all of which have direct mechanical impacts by adding a skill point, max health, or more spirit. It's always a good idea to follow the bird wherever it wants to take you.
3. Free kills are the best kills
Ghost of Yotei combat is no joke, and any ability to automatically kill an enemy or even damage them should be used with great frequency. Stealth assassinations are great, and certain skills and armor can improve how many you can do or how good you are at this.
Standoffs similarly can let you absolutely demolish a group of tough enemies with a couple quick-time events – and can be even more deadly if your wolf friend is with you. Always thin the pack if you can before engaging.
4. Use the right weapon for the job
For the core weapons, there's a simple "rock, paper, scissors" kind of mechanic in place. Double katana is good against polearms/yari/spear, which is best against kusarigama (the hook and chain), and kusarigama is good against shields. The nodachi is best against heavies, and the regular katana is meant to take on… the regular katana. It's almost always the best possible move to pay attention to this matchup and swap on the fly as needed.
5. Pay attention to colors and sounds
Ranged archers and gunners will both shout right before firing, which is the signal to dodge, but other enemies have more complicated attack patterns with flashing colors. If there's a blue glint, it's an attack you can parry but not block. Red means you can dodge but not even parry, and yellow means they're attempting to disarm you – which you can counter to disarm them instead. If you don't pay attention to these signs, you're going to have a bad time.
6. Swap the difficulty on the fly
While there are multiple difficulty options available, you can easily change it up or down through simply going into gameplay options in the settings. That's it! No reloading, no going back to the start menu, no being locked in for the entire game. At a particularly difficult fight you'd like to be done with? Drop it down to Easy or even Story before moving right back up to Medium for the rest of the game. There's no shame in it; the developers built it this way to be used.
7. Customize your armor and charms whenever possible
Armor and charms (Minor and Major) are the only equipment with mechanical gameplay improvements tied to them, and they can be highly specialized. A certain set of armor and charms might be extremely useful while assassinating enemies while another is great for regular combat and yet another is best for ranged combat. Ghost of Yotei lets you swap whenever, and even has saved outfits, so it's a good idea to set specific outfits up for different goals and quickly mix things up in the spur of the moment.
8. Pay attention while riding your horse
While you're likely to reach a point where you're using fast travel often, be mindful when riding around on your horse. The aforementioned Golden Bird can appear, various landmarks can showcase hints at their location like smoke or steam, and perhaps most importantly: Saito's forces will sometimes ambush you. That last one can be a bit of a pain if you're not paying attention, and if you are and spot them before they engage Atsu, well, there's nothing stopping you from ambushing them instead.
9. Take full advantage of tall locations
Be it watchtowers, mountains, or anything similar, never let a good vantage point go to waste. You can always pull out your spyglass and have a good look around to add new points of interest to your map that weren't there previously. If you hover over a spot you're looking at that rumbles slightly or the reticule changes color, it should eventually give a name for it and add a placeholder to your map. You can also track a location you see in your spyglass if it looks interesting but doesn't pop as a new location.
10. Don't skimp on your swordplay
While there are plenty of different combat options that you can use to take on enemies, the lone katana is core to just about everything – and that goes doubly so for basically every single boss fight. While the various bosses might sometimes use other weapons and therefore play into the "rock, paper, scissors" mechanic of it all, more often than not it comes down to dueling each other with a katana. If you've learned to rely on, say, thrown kunai, that can quickly become a problem as bosses will eventually entirely deflect or dodge that sort of thing. In order to proceed, you must master the blade.
11. Talk to everyone you possibly can
With no real minimap to speak of, it's important to talk to everyone possible. If you can interact with a person that isn't a merchant, chances are good they have some kind of quest for you or are otherwise useful to speak with. Maybe they saw a hot spring nearby, or they want to complain about a local Saito encampment not already on your map, and so on. It's always worthwhile to at least hear them out and more often than not leads to more money and materials if nothing else.
12. Do every Mythic Tale available
Mythic Tales are basically Ghost of Yotei's legendary quests. You look into the strange tales found in Ezo about, for example, undying generals or mysterious assassins and come away with powerful armor, charms, or abilities.
Again, not everything is going to fit your play style, but you'll definitely want the options available to you. In each region, there's typically at least one Mythic Tale, but I'd recommend completing the Ishikari Plains first if you're looking for some kind of order.
13. Climb every shrine you find
There are several shrines hidden throughout Ezo that present a fairly straightforward challenge: climb to the top. At the end of the climb, which is always linear if sometimes convoluted, a Major Charm can be obtained and a giant vantage point can be used to survey the local surroundings.
The Major Charms are useful to varying degrees – it really depends on your playstyle – but combined with the ability to add a bunch of locations to your map with a spyglass, shrines are a simple way to make your playthrough smoother.
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