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There are a lot of Ghost of Yotei weapons to unlock, and getting them all will dramatically improve your combat abilities thanks to how different weapons counter each other. Following the main story will lead to everything eventually, but there's nothing to stop you leaving that behind until you have all the weapons first. You'll need to open up specific regions and obviously you need to know where to look, but once you've opened up a few key areas there's nothing stopping you from finding all the weapon masters, and the weapons they unlock.
The reason why it's worth taking the time to do this is that the main Ghost of Yotei weapons - katana, dual katana, odachi, yari, and kusarigama - all operate in a rock-paper-scissors capacity. Each one has a specific counter weapon it has a big advantage over when fighting enemies. So finding them all gives you much more power in a fight to deal with threats more specifically.
How Ghost of Yotei weapons pair and counter each other
Ghost of Yotei weapons are best used to counter specific other weapons, in these combinations:
- Katana has an advantage against other katanas.
- Double katana has an the advantage against spears.
- Spears have an advantage the against kusarigama, (the hook and chain weapon).
- Kusarigama has an advantage against shields.
- Odachi has an advantage against heavy enemies.
While you're free to use whatever you want, using these exact weapons combinations in Ghost of Yotei has a clear advantage in a fight. You can also level them up individually to increase things like stagger and unlock more devastating moves.
How to upgrade weapons in Ghost of Yotei
All core weapons in Ghost of Yotei can be upgraded using your father's forge at home. Upgrades increase the damage each time, through the following stages from the base state:
Altered - costs 20 Metals
Reinforced - costs 20 Metals, 20 Oni Raider Mask Pieces
Enhanced - 30 Metals, 20 Shinobi Steel
Perfected - 60 Metals, 15 Gun Parts, 15 Rare Metals
As you upgrade you'll need various materials. Everything costs metals but you'll also need Oni Raider mask pieces for Reinforced, Shinobi Steel for Enhanced, and Ghost of Yotei gun parts and Rare Metals for Perfected. (The Odachi will also need Shinobi Steel for Enhanced as it lacked an Altered level). These are largely region locked, so your progress is tied to that and will stop until you reach new areas with the next level of upgrade resource.
Now let's take a look at all the weapons you can unlock in Ghost of Yotei in more detail.
Ghost of Yotei Wolf Blade
- Unlocked from the start
- Best against: other swords
The Wolf Blade is your basic sword in Ghost of Yotei and you'll start the game with it. It's pretty good in almost every situations, but absolutely the best option against other swords. However, every other weapon below will eventually give you a better counter to the various enemies you'll fight, once you get them.
Ghost of Yotei Bow
- Unlocked when you find Ran the Bowyer at the Shadow Inn
- Best against: range
There are different bow types in Yotei you'll be able to unlock as soon as you reach the Shadow Inn during one of your first missions and find Ran the Bowyer. She'll sell you the faster firing Hankyu medium bow and a Yumi longbow, which is functionally a sniper rifle. The latter is 2000 mon though so you'll need to earn a little more Ghost of Yotei money than you'll probably have when you first reach her. Ammo is short for both initially until you get a few upgrades, so they're best for taking out some lookouts pre-stealth or reaching more distant enemies in a straight fight. If you really want to use the bow more you can eventually get a useful charm for the Hankyu that auto targets enemies, letting you fire without precision aiming.
Ghost of Yotei Dual Katana
- Unlocked by completing the The Way of Dual Katana quest in Yotei Grasslands
- Best against: Polearms
Dual Katana are one of the first extra weapons you can unlock, and excel again spear-type weapons. They're faster, with slightly less damage to offset the increased speed, and absolutely the best thing to deal with Yari, polearms and anything pokey.
Ghost of Yotei Odachi
- Unlocked by completing the The Way of the Odachi in Tokachi Range, as part of the The Saito Brothers mission
- Best against: Heavy enemies
The Odachi is a big, slow to swing sword that hits like a hammer and is perfect against big, slow, hit like a hammer brute enemies. Unlocking various skills will let you take less damage from heavy attacks, keep hitting through standard attacks, shove enemies to stun them, and interrupt unblockable attacks before they happen.
Ghost of Yotei Kusarigama
- Unlocked by completing The Way of the Kusarigama in Teshio Ridge
- Best against: Shield enemies
The Kusarigama is a sickle with a ball and chain on the handle that excels at disarming shield enemies by smashing their protection. The chain also gives it a range that makes it useful in crowds and for stealth - to pull in distant enemies for a quiet kill. It's probably the most niche weapon here overall, given that it's main usefulness is to take out shields but for that, and it's ranged stealth kill ability, it's incredibly useful.
Ghost of Yotei Yari
- Unlocked by completing the Way of the Yari in Ishikari Plain
- Best against: Sickles and Kusarigama
The Yari is basically a spear in Ghost of Yotei, and using it is all about levering its range to keep enemies at bay. Especially anyone using Kama/sickles and Kusarigama. It's also good for countering and creating space with its pokey stabs and kicks.
Ghost of Yotei guns
- Unlocked when you reach the Oshima Coast
- Best against: any enemy
There are two guns in Ghost of Yotei, a Tanzutsu matchlock pistol and Tanegashima matchlock rifle. Their main strength is that you can shoot through any defense. The pistol's great for a quick high-damage shot (and technically a quickfire weapon, which I'll explain more about below), while the rifle is great for ranged high damage against armor. Overall they're powerful but not something you can use loads due to expensive ammunition and slow reloads. They're also obviously incredibly noisy, so prepare to fight everyone in earshot when you fire one.
Ghost of Yotei quickfire weapons
Quickfire weapons are, as the name suggests, weapons you can use quickly in Ghost of Yotei. They're all fast options you can use to get you out of trouble, make space or generally tip things in your favour with a single button press. They include the following
- Kunai throwing knife, unlocked during the Winter Farm mission in Teshio Ridge.
- Metsubushi (aka blinding powder), unlocked by completing the Crow Genzo bounty.
- Oni's Flame, unlocked during the Oni questline from Mad Goro.
- Smoke Bomb, unlocked from Oyuki after completing The Tale of the Kitsune in the Kitsune mission.
- Blind Bomb, unlocked via the Fight Fire With Fire objective from the Bomb Maker mission.
- Scorch Bomb, gained by unlocking the merchant in the Bomb Maker mission.
- Tanzutsu, unlocked from the Guns and Consequences objective in the Saito Brothers mission.
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