If you’ve spent any time roaming the snowy, war-torn valleys of Ghost of Yotei, you’ve probably run into groups of heavily armed imperial soldiers that make your starting bow and katana feel a little underpowered. Sure, close-quarters combat feels satisfying, but there are plenty of scenarios where a well-placed rifle shot will save you from a messy, overwhelming fight. Learning how to get guns in Ghost of Yotei opens up entirely new playstyles, from stealthy long-range ambushes to aggressive frontal assaults that clear out enemy outposts in minutes. I spent my first 10 hours ignoring guns entirely, thinking they broke the game’s samurai vibe, but once I unlocked my first pistol, I never went back to only using melee weapons.
Early-Game Guns You Can Unlock Within Your First 3 Hours
You don’t have to beat half the main story to get your first functional gun. The matchlock pistol, a slow but powerful single-shot sidearm, is available almost as soon as you leave the opening prologue area. Head to the small fishing village of Oribe on the southern coast, and you’ll find a side quest from an old smuggler who’s hiding from imperial troops. He’ll ask you to clear out a small bandit camp that stole his supply of weapons, and the reward is the pistol plus 20 rounds of ammo.
If you skip side quests entirely, you can also pick up dropped matchlock pistols from imperial captains you defeat in combat, but these will be broken 70% of the time and require repair before you can use them. You can’t use any gun you pick up off the ground immediately—you have to first get the gunsmithing perk from the skill tree, which only costs 1 skill point, so it’s worth grabbing as soon as you hit level 2.
- Complete the "Smuggler’s Cache" side quest in Oribe village for a free, fully repaired matchlock pistol
- Loot damaged matchlock pistols from imperial captains and repair them at any settlement workbench
- Purchase a basic blunderbuss from the Hokkaido city blacksmith once you reach level 5 and have 500 gold
How to Get Guns in Ghost of Yotei: Unlock Requirements for Rare and Legendary Models
Once you’re past the early game, you’ll start running into enemies with far more powerful guns, including flintlock rifles, double-barrel shotguns, and even rare modified sniper rifles that can take down an enemy from 300 meters away. These don’t drop randomly from regular enemies, so you’ll need to complete specific objectives to unlock them. If you’re looking for how to get guns in Ghost of Yotei that are more powerful than the early matchlock, focusing on main story missions and high-level side content is the fastest path.
The flintlock rifle, for example, is unlocked after you beat the main story mission "The Border Outpost" where you infiltrate an imperial weapons depot. You’ll find it in a locked safe in the commander’s office, and it comes with 50 high-caliber rounds that can punch through light armor. Legendary guns have unique perks that no other weapon in the game offers, so they’re worth chasing even if you’re mostly a melee player. For example, the "Wolf’s Breath" sniper rifle lets you slow down time for 3 seconds when you aim down sights, making it perfect for taking out multiple guards in an outpost without triggering an alarm. To get it, you need to clear all 12 of the game’s hunter’s challenge locations scattered across the northern mountains.
I spent 4 hours hunting for all of them, and it was easily worth the effort—this gun made the final two main story missions way less frustrating. You can also buy rare guns from the hidden black market dealer in the mountain pass west of Yotei peak, but he only appears at night, and he charges twice as much as regular blacksmiths for the same models. Never buy guns from the black market unless you’re flush with gold and don’t want to complete the associated quests—you’re almost always wasting resources if you do.
Critical Maintenance and Ammo Tips for Your Guns
Guns in Ghost of Yotei aren’t just fire-and-forget weapons. They break down over time, especially if you use them in heavy snow or rain, and ammo is surprisingly scarce if you don’t know how to farm it. First, always carry a repair kit with you if you plan to use a gun for a long mission. Repair kits only weigh 0.5 units, so they won’t take up much space in your inventory, and they can fix a completely broken gun in 10 seconds mid-fight.
Ammo can be crafted at any workbench using scrap metal and gunpowder, so make sure you loot every dead enemy and every supply crate you run across for those materials. Gunpowder is most commonly found in imperial supply camps, so if you’re running low, hit a small outpost that only has 4 or 5 guards—you’ll usually walk away with enough gunpowder for 20 to 30 rounds. You should also avoid using your highest-powered guns for small fights against regular bandits. Save your sniper rifle and shotgun ammo for heavy armored enemies, boss fights, or outpost assaults where you need to take down targets fast.
If you use your rare ammo on random low-level enemies, you’ll end up stuck without firepower when you actually need it. I learned that the hard way when I used all my sniper ammo on a group of random bandits, then ran into an armored imperial patrol 10 minutes later that I couldn’t take down without burning through half my healing items.
How to Fit Guns Into Any Playstyle Without Breaking Immersion
A lot of players avoid guns in Ghost of Yotei because they feel like they don’t fit the samurai fantasy the game is going for. But the game’s lore actually makes it clear that guns were just becoming common in this period of Japanese history, so using them is completely lore-friendly if you do it right. If you’re a stealth main, you don’t have to run around shooting every enemy you see. Use a suppressed pistol (you can unlock the suppressor attachment from the gunsmith at level 8) to take out isolated guards from a distance without alerting the rest of the camp. It’s way quieter than using a bow, and you don’t have to worry about missing and hitting a rock to trigger an alarm.
If you’re a pure melee player, keep a shotgun in your inventory for emergency situations where you get swarmed by 5 or 6 enemies at once. One shot will clear out most of the group, and you can finish off the rest with your katana. You don’t have to spec your entire skill tree around guns to use them effectively—even just putting 2 or 3 points into the gun skill tree will give you enough bonuses to make them useful, without taking points away from your melee or stealth skills.
I run a mostly stealth/melee build, and I only have 3 points in gun skills, but my suppressed pistol is my go-to tool for taking out guard tower snipers before I infiltrate an outpost. It makes every stealth run way smoother, and I never feel like I’m cheating the game’s intended experience. You can even adjust the difficulty settings to make guns less overpowered if you’re worried they’ll make the game too easy—lowering gun damage by 20% keeps them useful without making every fight feel trivial.
At the end of the day, Ghost of Yotei is all about playing the way you want, and guns are just another tool to make that happen. You don’t have to use them if you don’t want to, but knowing how to get guns in Ghost of Yotei gives you more options to tackle every fight and mission the way that feels most fun for you. I’d recommend trying out the early matchlock pistol first, even if you’re convinced you hate guns in samurai games. You might be surprised by how much it adds to your gameplay loop, without taking away from the tense, atmospheric combat the series is known for.