If you’re a stealth main in Ghost of Yotei, you’ve probably stumbled on the Onryo Armor set early in your playthrough, and wondered how to make it hit harder and last longer. I spent three full playthroughs testing every armor set in the game, and the Onryo set is easily top 3 for players who prefer silent takedowns and hit-and-run combat. If you're here to learn how to upgrade Onryo Armor in Ghost of Yotei to its max tier, you’re in the right place. I’ll walk you through every material you need, where to find rare drops, and how to unlock the hidden perk that most players miss even at max upgrade.
How to Upgrade Onryo Armor in Ghost of Yotei: Core Requirements for Each Tier
The Onryo Armor has 5 upgrade tiers, with perks that scale up significantly with each level. You can upgrade each piece (chest, legs, mask, gauntlets) individually at any blacksmith in the game, but you’ll get the full set bonus only when all four pieces are upgraded to the same tier. You don’t have to grind all materials at once, but it’s helpful to know what you’ll need ahead of time so you don’t waste resources on low-priority upgrades.
Below is the full list of materials you’ll need to upgrade the entire set to tier 5:
- 75 Iron Scraps: Dropped from enemy soldiers, found in loot chests across all map regions
- 22 Silk Weaves: Looted from noble estates, earned from completing village side quests
- 15 Onryo Spirit Essence: Dropped exclusively by vengeful spirit enemies in the northern mountain regions
- 3 Cursed Black Lacquer: Reward for clearing the three hidden haunted shrines in Yotei's forest zones
Tiers 1 through 3 only require Iron Scraps and Silk Weaves, so you can get the set to tier 3 fairly early in your playthrough, right after you complete the second main story mission. Tiers 4 and 5 require the rarer spirit essence and lacquer, which you won’t be able to farm until you unlock access to the northern mountain zones later in the story.
Where to Farm Rare Upgrade Materials Fast
The biggest roadblock for most players upgrading the Onryo set is finding the rare spirit essence and Cursed Black Lacquer, since they don’t drop from common enemies. I used to spend hours wandering the map looking for spirit essence before I found the frozen valley farm spot, so trust me when I say these tips will cut your grind time in half.
For Onryo Spirit Essence, head to the frozen valley directly north of the third main story mission waypoint. There are 4 vengeful spirit enemies that spawn there every 10 minutes, and they respawn automatically if you fast travel to the nearby shrine and come back. You don’t have to fight them head on—use stealth takedowns to one-shot them, they won’t alert other nearby spirits so you can farm the whole group in under a minute per run.
For Cursed Black Lacquer, you don’t have to fight any hard boss fights to get it. Each of the three hidden haunted shrines has a simple puzzle to solve, like lighting 4 incense burners in the correct order or matching the symbols on the shrine wall. Once you solve the puzzle, the lacquer is in a chest right next to the shrine, no combat required. You can find the locations of all three shrines by talking to the elder in the small village on the edge of the western forest.
If you’re short on Silk Weaves, the fastest farm is repeating the village supply run side quest in the southern farmlands. It takes 2 minutes per run, and it gives 2 Silk Weaves every time you complete it, plus extra Iron Scraps as a bonus.
Hidden Perks You Unlock at Each Upgrade Tier
One of the best parts of upgrading the Onryo Armor is the unique perks that unlock at each tier, many of which aren’t listed in the initial set description. These perks make it far more versatile than most other stealth armor sets in the game, even for players who occasionally get caught in open combat.
At tier 2, you unlock a +15% silent movement speed buff that lets you sneak past patrols far faster than you can with the base Shinobi armor set. At tier 3, takedowns restore 10% of your maximum health, which means you barely have to use healing items during long infiltration missions, as long as you stick to stealth kills. That perk alone makes it worth upgrading to tier 3 as early as possible.
Tier 4 adds a +30% damage buff against spirit enemies, which makes the endgame spirit boss fights way less frustrating. Most armor sets don’t have any spirit damage bonuses, so this is a huge advantage for players who are working through the main story’s later missions.
The tier 5 hidden perk is the real game-changer, and most players don’t even know it exists. If you stand still in shadow for 3 full seconds, you become completely invisible to all non-elite enemies until you move. That means you can wait out patrols right in front of them, or line up perfect takedowns without worrying about being spotted. The only downside to the set is that it has 20% less physical defense than heavy armor sets, so you will take more damage if you get caught in a large open fight.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Upgrading Onryo Armor
I messed up a lot of these steps on my first playthrough, so these tips will save you a ton of time and wasted resources. The first and biggest mistake is wasting your Cursed Black Lacquer on other armor sets first. The Onryo set is the only armor in the game that gives the tier 5 invisibility perk, so it’s worth saving all your lacquer for it instead of wasting it on lower tier sets you’ll stop using after 10 hours of play.
Second, don’t skip upgrading the armor’s mask component. A lot of players only upgrade the chest and leg pieces first, since those have obvious defense buffs, but the mask is what unlocks the full stealth bonus for the set. If you leave the mask at tier 1, you only get 50% of the set’s total perk value, even if all other pieces are at tier 5.
Third, don’t forget to collect and turn in the three Onryo lore scrolls before you upgrade to tier 5. The scrolls are hidden in the same haunted shrines where you get the Cursed Black Lacquer, and if you turn them in to the northern village elder before you do the final upgrade, you get an extra +10% damage boost to all takedowns that you can’t unlock any other way. I missed this step on my first playthrough, and I had to re-upgrade the entire set to get the bonus, so save yourself the hassle.
Upgrading the Onryo set takes a bit of grinding, but the payoff is well worth it for any player who leans into stealth play. Once you learn how to upgrade Onryo Armor in Ghost of Yotei to its max tier, you’ll be able to clear even the hardest infiltration missions without being spotted once, and take on endgame spirit bosses with way less hassle. If you’re still stuck on finding any of the materials, try revisiting areas you cleared early in the story—enemies respawn every time you complete a main mission, so you might find rare drops you missed the first time around.