If you’ve spent hours wandering Ghost of Yotei’s snow-dusted mountain paths and forgotten village ruins chasing 100% completion, you’ve likely hit a wall tracking down every hidden collectible. Hunting all puzzle box locations Ghost of Yotei offers is one of the most rewarding side activities in the game, even if the tiny, locked chests are easy to miss tucked behind rock ledges or inside abandoned storage huts. Each puzzle box holds rare rewards, from exclusive katana skins to crafting materials you can’t find anywhere else in the game. I spent three full playthroughs mapping every single one of these chests to skip the frustration of missing the last two boxes right before you wrap up the endgame content.
What Rewards You Get for Finding All Puzzle Box Locations Ghost of Yotei Hides
You don’t have to wait till you collect every last box to start earning valuable rewards, either. Each individual puzzle box gives you 500 XP, plus a random crafting material ranging from common iron ore to rare ghost silk used to upgrade high-tier armor. If you’re only hunting boxes for practical rewards, you’ll get the most useful unlocks after you collect 12 and 18 boxes respectively.
At 12 boxes, you unlock the exclusive Ronin outfit set, which gives you a 10% boost to stealth movement speed, perfect for players who prefer sneaking past enemy patrols instead of fighting head-on. At 18 boxes, you get rare upgrade materials for your ghost weapons that increase your stealth takedown damage by 15% permanently, even if you swap to different armor sets later.
Once you collect all 24 boxes, you unlock a full set of concept art unlocks for the game’s character and world design, plus a special glider skin that shows off your 100% collectible progress to other players in co-op mode. It’s not a game-changing reward, but it’s a fun flex for players who love showing off their completion progress.
Key Regions to Check for Hidden Puzzle Boxes
There are 24 total puzzle boxes scattered across the game’s four main open world regions, with each region holding a set number of boxes you can track via the in-game collectible menu. I’ve sorted each region by difficulty of access, so you can start hunting boxes as soon as you unlock a new area without wasting time on spots you can’t reach yet.
The Northern Snow Peaks hold 7 total boxes, most of which are tucked in hard-to-reach spots on mountain ledges or under frozen ice overhangs. The Western Fishing Villages hold 6 boxes, most hidden inside abandoned storage sheds or under rotting dock pilings. The Central Forest Valleys hold 5 boxes, most hidden under mossy fallen trees or behind small roadside shrines. The Southern Fortress Grounds hold the final 6 boxes, all located inside or around the game’s main enemy fortress area.
If you’re just starting your hunt, these are the most commonly missed hiding spots I found across all regions:
- Under frozen overhangs in the Northern Snow Peaks, accessible only after unlocking the double grapple upgrade
- Inside locked storage sheds in abandoned Western fishing villages, requiring a rusted key dropped by nearby bandit patrols
- Tucked behind fallen cedar trees in the Central Forest Valleys, hidden under thick moss that blends with the ground
- On upper watchtower ledges in the Southern Fortress Grounds, reachable by climbing over broken fortress wall sections
Always bring a rusted key with you when exploring Western villages, because you won’t be able to open half the storage sheds in the area without one. Rusted keys drop randomly from any bandit patrol in the Western region, so you can stock up after clearing one or two small bandit camps.
Use your ghost sense every 100 feet when searching forest areas, because the moss covering many of the forest boxes makes them almost impossible to spot with the naked eye. Your ghost sense will highlight the box even if it’s hidden under vegetation or behind rock formations.
How to Solve Every Puzzle Box Lock Without a Guide
Finding the box is only half the battle, because every puzzle box has a unique lock you have to solve before you can open it and claim your reward. There are three main lock types in the game, and each has a simple trick to solve it in less than 30 seconds if you know what to look for.
The most common lock type is the sliding tile puzzle, which asks you to rearrange 9 tiles to form a complete image of a local animal or shrine. The fastest way to solve these is to line up the top row first, then the middle row, then the bottom row, instead of moving tiles randomly to try to fit them together. If you mess up, you can reset the puzzle at any time without penalty.
The second most common lock type is the symbol match puzzle, which asks you to select three matching symbols in order to unlock the box. You don’t have to guess the symbols, either – they’re always carved into nearby trees, shrine gates, or rock formations within 20 feet of the box. Look for nearby environmental clues before touching the lock to cut solving time in half, so you don’t waste time guessing wrong combinations.
The rarest lock type is the gear turn puzzle, which asks you to turn a set of 4 gears in the correct order to unlock the box. The order is always determined by the number of teeth on each gear: you turn the gear with the least teeth first, then the next smallest, up to the largest gear. I used to spin these randomly till I realized the pattern, and it cut my solving time for these locks from 2 minutes to 10 seconds flat.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Hunting Puzzle Boxes
I made a ton of silly mistakes during my first playthrough when I was trying to hunt all the boxes, so I’ve rounded up the most common ones to help you skip the frustration I went through. These small adjustments will cut your total hunt time by at least a few hours.
The first and biggest mistake is starting your hunt before you unlock the double grapple upgrade. 8 of the 24 total boxes are on ledges you can only reach with the double grapple, so you’ll waste a ton of time trying to find alternate routes to spots you literally can’t access yet. Unlock the double grapple first, before you start hunting boxes, and you’ll save yourself a lot of headache.
The second mistake is sticking only to main quest paths. 90% of the puzzle boxes are located off small side paths that don’t show up on your main map, so if you only follow the marked quest routes, you’ll miss almost all of them. If you see a small, unmarked path leading up a mountain or into a cluster of trees, always follow it – there’s a 70% chance it leads to either a puzzle box or a small hidden side quest with extra rewards.
The third mistake is forgetting to check your collectible tracker regularly. The in-game menu shows exactly how many boxes you’ve collected in each region, so you don’t waste hours searching a region you already completed. I spent 2 full hours searching the Northern Snow Peaks for a missing box during my first playthrough, only to realize I already had all 7 boxes from that region and the missing one was in the Central Forest Valleys. Check your collectible tracker every time you pick up a new box to avoid wasted effort.
At the end of the day, tracking down these hidden chests is one of the most fun side activities the game offers, even if it takes a bit of patience to cross every last one off your list. Once you’ve found all puzzle box locations Ghost of Yotei has scattered across its world, you’ll have access to some of the coolest exclusive content in the game, plus the bragging rights of pulling off 100% completion. Don’t rush the process – some of my favorite moments in the game were the random encounters I had while wandering off the main path chasing a hidden box. If you get stuck on a particularly tricky lock or can’t find that last missing box, take a break and come back later, you’ll likely spot it right away when you return with fresh eyes.