If you’re starting your Ghost of Yōtei adventure, you’ve got a wide world ahead of you. Sony’s samurai epic drops you into a sprawling field densely populated with things to do. There are quests upon quest to discover, tons of side activities, hidden trinkets, and more hidden throughout Ezo. Like any open world game, it can be a lot to take in at first. These Ghost of Yōtei beginners tips will help you navigate a busy world and equip you with everything you need early on.
Don’t stress out about the map!
When you first open Ghost of Yōtei’s map, you might have a heart attack. You’re shown an enormous continent that looks dauntingly huge. Don’t worry: You don’t actually explore most of that space. You’ll only be moving through a handful of interconnected biomes within the map, only occasionally venturing out into the grayed out portions to tackle a platforming challenge or side mission. The map is still bigger than Tsushima’s and just as jam-packed with things to do than it seems, but don’t freak out!
Look out for hot springs and bamboo strikes
There are several open-world activities to find once you’re let loose in Ezo, but there are two that should prioritize finding early. Taking a dip in a hot spring will increase your health, and you’ll need all of it you can get in duels. Bamboo strikes are essential too, as completing these button-pressing minigames will give you more resolve points that can be spent to unleash special attacks in battle.
Learn to read the environment
Like its predecessor, Ghost of Tsushima, Yōtei’s approach to open-world navigation is a little more natural than other games. Rather than leaning on UI or quest markers, the environment tells you where you need to go. If a golden bird starts flying near you, you should follow it to find a world activity. You can see how to go to your next marked quest by following the direction of the wind. If you see steam rising from a distance, that means there’s a hot spring nearby. Pay close attention to the world early on and internalize those visual tells to experience the world more fluidly.
Talk to every NPC you can
If you’re the kind of person who usually skips seemingly optional NPC conversations, you’ll want to get out of that habit fast. Talking to strangers is paramount in Ghost of Yōtei, as it’s how you’ll discover side missions, activity locations, and more. Crucially, you can also find leads that open up main story quests, as you’re on the hunt for information early on. If you see a random guy hanging out in a field, say hi to him. Just don’t be surprised when he ambushes you.
The cartographer is your best friend
Each major village has some key vendors that you’ll get friendly with, but the wandering cartographer is someone you’ll really want to know. This NPC will sell you maps that reveal the location of open-world activities like bamboo strikes. When you buy one, you’ll have to find exactly where it is by comparing the details on your paper scrap to what’s on your map. You can only buy a few at a time, but as soon as you clear one, you can immediately head back to the cartographer to get another. If you love getting every single upgrade as quickly as possible, focus on clearing out his maps anytime you enter a new area.
Do your weapon quests as early as you can
One difference between Tsushima and Yōtei is that Atsu doesn’t have sword stances like Jin. Instead, she gets different weapons that she can switch between. While visually very different, this does function similarly to stances in that each weapon is strong against a certain type of enemy. Because of that, you’ll want to get all your weapons early, even if it means jumping around. Whenever you enter a new region, you’ll get a weapon quest alongside the area’s main story quest. Do those quests first. Otherwise, you’ll wind up fighting through tougher enemy encounters early on since you don’t have the best tools for the job.
Quest cards tell you what rewards to expect
Rather than laying quests out as lines in a menu, Yōtei represents them through a card system on the map screen. You can scroll through different kinds of quests and track them on the fly, which is handy once you understand how it all works. Not sure what’s worth tackling right away though? Pay close attention to the bottom of each card. That will tell you what type of reward you’ll get, whether it’s something significant like a new throwable or a charm.
Fill out your standoff or stealth skill trees as soon as you can
Atsu doesn’t just have access to one big skill tree, but several that let you specialize in different weapons and playstyles. You’ll get everything eventually, but I recommend focusing on either upgrading your standoff or stealth assassination powers first depending on how you want to play. The former will let you kill up to four enemies total (though you’ll need to unlock a certain weapon and rescue wolves to fully get there), while the latter will let you chain together more stealth kills. When executed right, both will help you thin out big crowds of enemies before a brawl begins.
Camping isn’t just for restoring your health
If you hold down the left D-pad button in an open field, you’ll be able to set up camp. Here, you can restore your health and resolve, as well as change the time of day. If you’re the kind of person who tends to skip a feature like that, don’t! While camping, you’ll also get visited by wandering vendors who will sell you additional charms, costume pieces, weapon skins, and more. You can tell when someone is going to visit by looking at the Wolf Pack tab on the menu and looking through characters that have a word bubble above them.
Shamisen songs can give you handy perks
This one is easy to forget. By swiping left on the DualSense touchpad, Atsu can pull out a shamisen and play any songs that she has learned. At first, it seems like a cute, but useless feature, but it becomes very helpful later on. You’ll eventually find songs that can help you find hard collectibles. Crucially, you can also get a song that will lead you to wolf dens, which will help you upgrade your wolf companion’s powers.
Let your photo mode skills fly free
Ghost of Yōtei doesn’t tell you exactly where to go or what to do, in favor of a more natural form of game exploration, and that’s part of its brilliance — but sometimes you just want a clearer sense of things. When using photo mode, you can zoom out to a truly staggering level, giving you not just the lay of the land but also revealing information about enemy locations, platforming segments, potential hiding spots, and other key information.
Also it’s just gorgeous. I mean, seriously, look at this:
Damn.