Ezo is a large, magnificent region to explore in Ghost of Yōtei, teeming with wonder and danger alike. As a bounty hunter seeking to hunt her family’s killers, Atsu has her hands full trying to survive. Exploration can provide numerous advantages, whether it’s onsen to increase one’s max health or vendors for upgrading armor and certain weapons, but what should you keep in mind while pursuing the path of vengeance? Here are 15 useful tips and tricks.
Weapon Priority
When you first start, a handful of missions will be available, including picking up the dual swords from Mount Yōtei. You might think it’s impractical, but being able to deal with yari users from the get-go is ideal. Nothing is stopping you from deviating from this order, though, so explore with total freedom.
Avoid Aim Assist
Similar to Ghost of Tsushima, there’s an accessibility option to enable aim assist, where your shots with all ranged weapons will lock on to enemies. However, I would advise against using this at all. Not only will it prioritize body shots, dealing less damage in the process, but the process of dragging your aim for headshots or environmental objects is a severe pain.
Talk to NPCs for Side Activity Locations
Whether it’s clearing camps or walking through town, always talk to NPCs. Some of them have side quests, but others provide leads to other activities, from Bamboo Strikes to Wolf Dens. They’ll provide Map Fragments for the same, further bolstering Atsu’s awareness of Ezo, and you can always head to them later.
Classic Melee Combat (Camera)
If the standard combat camera isn’t doing it for you, head over to the Options menu and select the classic Ghost of Tsushima camera for Melee Combat. Based on my experience, it provides a wider view of the battlefield at any given time without trying to frame enemies against the edge like the standard camera. While you’re at it, enable Projectile Indicator from the Accessibility menu to always be made aware of incoming ranged attacks, which is essential against firearms.
Hardening Spirit
As with its predecessor, completing Bamboo Strikes will increase your maximum Spirit, allowing for more healing opportunities and special techniques. However, finishing enough of them will harden your Spirit, regenerating at least one segment when out of combat. This can be done an additional time, and considering how often you’ll be in and out of combat, especially in story missions, it’s a nice advantage to have.
Pursue Bounties
This may seem obvious, but always pursue bounties when given the chance. Not only will they provide some much-needed coin to finance all those essential weapon upgrades, but they also unlock tougher targets who can provide even better rewards. Besides, some of the stories and fights are pretty fun and unique.
Pick up Atsu’s Wanted Posters
Somewhat humorously, Atsu can acquire her own bounty posters through Ezo. These won’t reward you, but they instantly refill Spirit, so you can avoid constantly camping and walk into new battles without much hassle.
Always Camp
That being said, camping is always advised when you have some downtime. You might intentionally avoid it to restore Spirit, as the game will sometimes advise, but it’s worth doing as often as possible for a different reason: Perks. If you cook fish, a major Perk will become active for the day, while cooking mushrooms unlocks a minor Perk for the same duration. They’re randomly assigned, so you might not always get a major offensive or defensive Perk, but it’s still an advantage. If that wasn’t enough, an additional bonus Spirit is provided for a temporary amount of time.
Camping With the Wolf Pack
You’ll probably remember that members of the Wolf Pack, especially the vendors, will visit Atsu when she camps, but this isn’t always guaranteed to happen. As it turns out, you need to go into the Wolf Pack menu, select the individual in question, and then choose to camp from there. While it may seem impractical, it does ensure regular camping without any interruptions. Pay attention to the notifications on the left side of your screen as well, since
Acquire Armor of the Undying
Rumors about the Undying Samurai will undoubtedly reach Atsu’s ears, and that means embarking on a quest where you need to follow the wind direction of bells. If that sounds moderately annoying, well, it is, but the reward is well worth it. The Armor of the Undying returns health on successfully staggering an enemy with the right weapon, i.e. using the yari on dual sword and kusarigama users, the dual swords on yari users, etc. Its stats are also pretty good for duels, and the aesthetic is quite nice. Just be prepared for a fight.
Use (and Abuse) Loadouts
As soon as you unlock loadouts and have enough armor sets and Charms to make multiple builds, do it. With how build-crafting works, min-maxing in a particular playstyle, whether it’s a stealth build focused on the kusarigama and quick tools or a dueling build with the Armor of the Undying, is more important than ever. But perhaps more importantly, you can swap loadouts on the fly with no consequence. Play a build that rapidly annihilates enemies with arrows and then swap to a duelist build for close-quarters combat. It’s that easy.
The Wolf Among Us
The Wolf is an intriguing addition in Yōtei because of how hands-off it can be, at least initially. Having it appear at specific times or, better yet, hanging around when you want to fight, requires discovering and completing Wolf Den activities. Considering how powerful it can be (like occasionally providing a free revive), it’s worth pursuing. Of course, if you want an adventure that’s Atsu-focused, head into the settings and make it so that the Wolf doesn’t appear at all.
How to Win Most Standoffs
Having trouble with Standoffs? Enemies catching you off guard with their feints? Watch their feet. On most occasions, they’ll move their feet only when attacking for real. There are a few exceptions, but they’re few and far between, and notably different from foot movement during actual attacks. Just don’t try to fight in tall grass, and you’ll be fine.
Useful Skills to Unlock
Despite the linearity of progression, there’s a wealth of useful skills to unlock. Deflecting Strikes on the dual blades is a must since it allows for deflecting yari attacks with Heavy strikes, essentially trivialising them. You’ll also want Roll for more easily evading red attacks and extinguishing fires. Onryo’s Will is a must for how early you can get it because it provides a self-revive for three Spirit (which can be reduced to two).
