If you’ve spent any time scrolling through social media feeds of open world game fans lately, you’ve almost certainly seen clips of Ghost of Yotei Online popping up on your timeline. The feudal Japan-set open world survival action RPG blends fast-paced samurai combat, supernatural lore, and shared world co-op that lets you team up with friends to take down mythical beasts and warring clan bosses. I’ve sunk over 80 hours into the game since its full launch, and I made almost every possible mistake during my first 10 hours of play, so I put together this guide to help you avoid the same frustrations I ran into.
Core Gameplay Loops You Need to Understand for Ghost of Yotei Online Success
Most new players jump straight into the main quest line without taking time to learn how the game’s three core loops work together, and that’s the fastest way to hit a difficulty wall before you even reach the first major story boss. You don’t have to stick to the main quest line first – in fact, spending your first 5 hours just wandering the southern region of the map will give you enough upgrades to make early story missions feel like a breeze. The three core loops are exploration, combat, and clan progression, and ignoring any one of them will make your playthrough far harder than it needs to be.
Exploration gives you access to hidden shrines that unlock permanent ability boosts, plus rare resources you can’t get anywhere else. Combat earns you honor points you can spend on new skills and gear upgrades. Clan progression unlocks exclusive co-op missions, shared resource banks, and rare crafting recipes that let you build legendary gear far earlier than you would playing solo. One thing a lot of new players don’t know about Ghost of Yotei Online is that resource respawn rates are tied to your in-game reputation with the nearest village, so if you complete side quests for a village, resources in the surrounding area will respawn twice as fast.
Combat Tips That Will Keep You Alive Even Against Mythical Enemies
The game’s combat system looks similar to other samurai action games at first glance, but it has a lot of hidden mechanics that the tutorial doesn’t explain very well. Perfect parries are far more useful than dodging for 90% of enemy types. A well-timed parry not only negates all incoming damage, but it also stuns most common enemies for an instant kill counterattack, and even works against most heavy attacks from boss enemies if you time it right. The parry window is 0.3 seconds long, which sounds short, but it becomes second nature after 2 or 3 hours of practice against common bandit enemies.
You also need to get in the habit of switching stances regularly instead of sticking to one stance for every fight. Water stance is designed for armored samurai enemies, fire stance works best for unarmored bandits, wind stance cuts through fast-moving beast enemies like wolves and wild boars, and moon stance reduces resistance to supernatural enemies like ghosts and rokurokubi. I used to only stick to fire stance for the first 20 hours of my playthrough, and I couldn’t figure out why I was taking so much damage against supernatural enemies until I swapped to moon stance, which cuts their magic damage resistance by 40% by default.
Essential Resource Gathering Rules to Avoid Wasting Your Time
Resource gathering is a big part of the game, but a lot of new players spend hours collecting every herb and iron ore they see, which is totally unnecessary if you know what to prioritize. I wasted almost 10 hours of my first playthrough running off the main path to collect common resources, only to realize I could buy 100 of each for less than 500 honor points from any village merchant. Follow these simple rules to cut down on grinding time:
- Prioritize ghost silk and jade ore above all common resources: These are used to upgrade your highest rarity weapons and armor, and they only spawn in hidden shrine areas and boss fight reward chests, so you can never have too many of them.
- Only pick common herbs and iron ore if they are directly on your path to a quest objective: Common resources can be bought from any village merchant for a tiny amount of honor points, so it’s never worth going out of your way to collect them.
- Don’t sell any unused crafting materials to merchants before checking your clan’s shared resource bank: Most clans will give you honor points or exclusive gear in exchange for donating rare materials, which gives you way better value than selling them for cash.
I used to sell all my extra ghost silk for quick cash when I first started playing, and I regretted it so much when I hit level 20 and needed 12 pieces of it to upgrade my legendary katana. I had to spend three full days farming shrine areas to get enough, when I could have just saved the pieces I already had if I’d known better. Make sure you upgrade your resource satchel as soon as possible – the default satchel only holds 20 of each common resource, which fills up in less than an hour of exploration.
Co-op Play Etiquette You Should Follow to Avoid Getting Kicked From Teams
Ghost of Yotei Online’s co-op missions are designed for teams of 2 to 4 players, so you don’t have to worry about playing with a huge group if you prefer smaller teams. But co-op has a set of unwritten rules that a lot of new players don’t know about, and breaking them will get you kicked from almost every team you join. First, don’t join a mission that’s 5 or more levels above your current level, even if the game lets you. You’ll die in one hit from every enemy, and you’ll drag the whole team down, wasting everyone’s time if the team fails the mission.
Always bring at least three group healing items to every co-op mission, even if you’re playing a damage-focused build. There’s nothing more frustrating than being on a team with a player who only brings healing for themselves and lets the rest of the team die during a boss fight. Also, don’t loot all the rare chests before your teammates get a chance to grab them. All chest rewards are instanced for each player now, but a lot of older players still remember when chests were shared, so waiting a few seconds before opening them is a common courtesy that will keep everyone on your side. If you’re new to co-op, it’s totally fine to say that in the team chat before the mission starts – most teams will be happy to walk you through mechanics and give you extra tips for the fight, as long as you’re honest about your experience level.
At the end of the day, Ghost of Yotei Online is meant to be fun, so don’t stress too much about following every tip perfectly if you’d rather wander around the map and look at the cherry blossoms or fight random bandit camps for fun. The tips above will just help you avoid the most common frustrations that new players run into, so you can spend less time grinding to fix mistakes and more time enjoying the game’s gorgeous world and satisfying combat. If you have your own favorite tips for new players, drop them in the comments below – I’m always looking for new tricks to try on my next playthrough.