10 ‘Ghost of Yotei’ Tips the Game Doesn’t Tell You

Ghost of Yotei, like its predecessor, is a massive open world that takes you across the sights of ancient Japan. This time, you play as a mercenary named Atsu, hellbent on a quest of revenge to bring justice to her family’s assassins, the Yotei Six. But it’s a long road to get there, and as you might expect from a modern open world game, there are countless things to see and do — from helping a sad man say goodbye to his pet bear, to bringing peace to a distraught samurai. There are dozens of sidequests and little details in Ghost of Yotei, on top of an expansive main story. And if you want your journey to go as smoothly as possible, we’re here with a few tips to help you on your way.

Use White Flowers to Give Your Horse a Boost

A lot of Ghost of Yotei’s gameplay elements are woven into the open world as emergent elements. If you played Tsushima, you likely know how to use the Guiding Wind, and know to keep an eye out for the little gold birds that can help lead you to secrets. But there are a couple of new elements worth pointing out in Yotei.

The big one is the fields of bright white flowers that you’ll see strewn about the world in patterns. And there’s good reason for that, as these essentially work like boost pads for your horse. If you want to go a little faster while roaming the open world, make sure to hit these flowers to drastically increase your speed — and there’s even a skill you can unlock under the Horse tab to increase the effect.

Another little visual detail to watch out for is any Jizo statues with yellow clothing, as these mark the way to valuable shrines that give skill points.

Pay Attention to Enemy Weapon Types

You’ll be fighting a lot of enemies in Ghost of Yotei, and going up against a dozen at one time can make it tough to think about anything other than parrying. But in Yotei, it’s absolutely essential that you constantly swap between your weapons and adapt to the situation. While the game will tell you this at some point, it essentially has a kind of rock-paper-scissors situation, where certain weapons are better against others. Katanas are good against enemies with other Katanas, Dual Katanas are good against Yari and other polearms, Yari are good against Kusarigami, and Kusarigami get the advantage over shields, and Odachi are useful against large enemies.

As soon as you start swapping between weapons more, you’ll realize these advantages are actually incredibly important, and combat will get drastically easier. Unlocking more skills will make the weapon differences even more pronounced, too.

Unlock Every Weapon as Soon as Possible

Building on the last tip, one of your main focuses in Yotei should be unlocking every single weapon as soon as possible — meaning the Dual Katanas, Yari, Odachi, and Kusarigami. The one catch here is that certain weapons can’t be unlocked until “later” in the story, but there is some wiggle room.

If you follow the story just enough to unlock access to each open world area of the game, you can simply do the weapon quest and leave — coming back later for the story whenever you want. So to make combat more interesting, we’d highly recommend simply unlocking each area as soon as you possibly can, before getting too invested in the story.

Make Sure to Go Back Home

Early on in Ghost of Yotei, Atsu will go back to her childhood home, and you’ll be able to see a few scenes to help flesh out the story. But don’t think that’s the only time you should come back, as you should be doing so throughout the story, for two reasons.

The first is that you can use your father’s forge to upgrade each weapon’s damage and strength, as long as you have the materials. But apart from that, as you progress through the story, you’ll unlock new memories at the home, with Atsu’s father, mother, and brother.

This is one of the best ways the game fleshes out the overall narrative and historical context behind the events that set Atsu’s path to revenge. So make sure to take a stroll through memory lane every once in a while

Talk to Every NPC You Can

The various inns and villages you visit in Yotei are bustling locations filled with life, and people going about their day. And you might not realize at first that talking to random NPCs is the primary way of discovering the game’s sidequests. You can find important NPCs to talk to at nearly every major inn or rest stop, random camps on the road, major landmarks, and more. The rule of thumb, basically, is if someone looks like you can talk to them, you should.

Yotei doesn’t guide you to most of its side content, so you’ll need to discover most of it on your own by talking to people.

Camp For Valuable Buffs

When you jump on your horse, you can hold down left on the D-pad to make camp anywhere in the world. And while you can use this to play your Shamisen and change the time of day, the best use of camp is actually making meals.

As you explore, you can pick up mushrooms, fish, and other bits of food. And those just sit in your inventory until you camp and cook them, which in turn provides Atsu with temporary buffs — from boosting your defense to increasing your spirit regeneration. Each time you camp typically lets you choose from one of two different buffs, and it’s worth doing every now and again.

Make Sure to Buy Maps

Isaburo the Cartographer is a character you’ll meet as soon as you clear the inn in the Yotei Grasslands, and he’ll subsequently show up in every region of the game. He’s also the very first place you should spend your hard-earned coin, buying every single map he has.

His maps will show the location of new Altars of Reflection, hot springs, or bamboo strikes — all of which are vital for increasing Atsu’s stats. The Altars of Reflection are particularly important as each one gives you a skill point, so get those maps and get them early.

Make Sure to Help Taro the Scavenger

Taro the Scavenger is a vital NPC who can be surprisingly easy to miss at the beginning of the game. As soon as you’ve liberated the Shadow Inn, in the Yotei Grasslands, Taro can be found just to the north, digging around a toppled cart. He’s unfortunately surrounded by Ronin, so fight them off and Taro will basically become your own personal merchant.

You can purchase Charms from him, as well as vital crafting materials — and even better is that he’ll show up at every single enemy base you liberate from then on. It’s a good idea to immediately pick up his Charm of Last Chance, as it’ll help Atsu get back up when she falls in battle.

The Armor of the Undying Can Give You an Early Boost

The Armor of the Undying is one of the best pieces of armor you can get early on in Yotei, and it’s surprisingly easy to get. The big bonus this armor gives you is boosting your attack when you’re “weapon aligned,” which means, as we talked about earlier, when you’re using the weapon that has the advantage against the one an enemy is using.

This armor set is found in the Ishikari Plain, which is the second area you get to if you’re pursuing the Oni questline. Just follow the story and you’ll get there quickly.

From there, you need to find a storyteller named Ugetsu. You can prompt this quest by hearing NPCs talk about it, or simply find Ugetsu yourself. He’s straight to the North of Nakagoya Spring, and will tell you a story about the Undying Samurai.

From here, you need to find four different wind chimes attached to trees, and you have a chime to help you do this. When on your horse, swipe up on the touchpad to start the Guiding Wind, and use the chime to find the direction it makes the loudest noise. Simply follow that four times, and you’ll get to duel a Samurai, then be awarded the armor after beating him. Of course, also make sure to upgrade it at the forge.

Consider Investing in Standoffs or Assassination Skills

There are a lot of skills to choose from in Ghost of Yotei, and it can be hard to know where to invest first. But typically, a good idea is to either completely fill out the Assassination or Standoff (under “Attacks”) tree. Either one, or both, of these can help you take out multiple enemies before you have to get into the thick of combat — it just depends on the way you want to play.

If you enjoy a stealthy approach, invest in Assassination, which will help you quickly pick off unsuspecting enemies. But if you want to rush in like a bull, invest in Standoffs and take out multiple enemies at once when battles start.

Ghost of Yotei is available on PS5.