If you’ve spent even a few hours roaming the snow-covered peaks and dense cedar forests of Hokkaido in Sucker Punch’s latest open-world title, you’ve almost certainly stumbled on a small, ornate stone structure tucked away off the main path. These shrines ghost of yotei hides across the map are far more than just decorative world-building details; they’re some of the most rewarding side content you can pursue, offering permanent stat boosts, rare crafting materials, and even unique cosmetic items for your character. I’ve spent nearly 40 hours tracking down every last one of these shrines, so I’ve put together all the tips and tricks you need to find and complete them without wasting hours stuck on frustrating puzzles or missing hidden locations.
What Makes Shrines in Ghost of Yotei Worth Tracking Down?
A lot of open-world side content feels like filler, but that’s not the case with these shrines. Most players agree that the shrines ghost of yotei includes are some of the most well-designed side content in any recent open-world game, since they never feel like repetitive filler. Every single shrine you complete gives you a permanent boost that makes the rest of your playthrough far easier, even on the hardest difficulty settings.
You don’t have to grind for hours to get these benefits either; most shrines only take 5 to 10 minutes to complete once you find their location. Permanent stamina increases are the most common reward, and they’re game-changing for anyone who loves climbing the game’s tall mountain peaks or sprinting away from large groups of enemy patrols. Some shrines also give you rare upgrade materials for your weapons and armor that you can’t find anywhere else in the open world, including special sharpening stones that increase your sword’s critical hit chance.
A handful of hidden shrines even unlock exclusive cosmetic items, like traditional Hokkaido face paint or unique bow string designs that let you customize your character’s look without spending any in-game currency. The only downside is that many shrines are tucked away in hard-to-reach spots, and some have puzzles that can trip up even experienced players if you don’t know what to look for.
How to Find Hidden Shrines Across the Map
You won’t find shrine locations marked on your default map, but there are plenty of small clues scattered across the world that point you in their direction if you pay attention. First, listen for the faint sound of wind chimes when you’re exploring off the main path; every shrine has a set of chimes hanging near its entrance, and you can hear them from 50 to 100 meters away even if the structure is hidden behind trees or rock formations. You can also look for small stone torches lined up along narrow, unmarked paths; these paths almost always lead directly to a shrine, even if they wind up steep mountain sides or through dense forest.
If you unlock the traveler’s intuition skill early in the game, you’ll get a small controller vibration whenever you’re within 200 meters of an uncompleted shrine, which makes tracking them down far faster. I also recommend upgrading your fox companion’s tracking skill as soon as possible; once maxed out, your fox will automatically lead you to the nearest uncompleted shrine whenever you’re free roaming, no extra work required.
One common mistake I see new players make is ignoring shrines that are located high up on mountain ledges; you don’t need to climb all the way up from the base most of the time. There’s almost always a hidden path or a series of climbable handholds on the back side of the mountain that cuts the climb time in half. Keep an eye out for these easy-to-miss clues that signal a shrine is nearby:
- Faint, distant wind chime audio that gets louder as you get closer to the shrine entrance
- Small, unlit stone torches lining narrow dirt paths that don’t appear on your main map
- Groups of wild foxes loitering near path entrances that will run toward the shrine when you approach
- Carved stone markers with shrine symbols painted in red paint on rock faces near trailheads
Common Shrine Puzzles and Simple Solutions
Unlike puzzle content in many other open-world titles, the puzzles tied to the shrines ghost of yotei features never feel overly complicated or unfair, as long as you take the time to look for clues in the surrounding area. Nearly every shrine has a small puzzle you need to solve before you can claim your reward, and none of them require any special items or high-level skills to complete if you know the trick.
The most common puzzle you’ll run into is the bell matching puzzle, where you have to ring three small bronze bells near the shrine in the correct order. The order is always marked somewhere nearby, usually carved into the stone base of the shrine or painted on the trunk of a nearby tree, so you don’t have to guess randomly. If you can’t find the order clue, just listen closely when you ring each bell; the correct order will play a soft, harmonic tone, while the wrong order will make a dull thud sound.
Another common puzzle is the offering puzzle, where you need to leave a specific item on the shrine’s offering plate to unlock it. Most of the time the required item is a common foraging good like wild berries or pine resin, which you can find growing within 100 meters of the shrine if you don’t already have it in your inventory. The hardest puzzle you’ll run into is the ice platform puzzle, which only appears in shrines located high up on Mount Yotei itself. These puzzles require you to jump across a series of floating ice platforms that disappear after a few seconds, but you don’t have to rush as much as you think. If you have the frost resistance armor perk unlocked, the platforms will stay frozen for twice as long, making the jump sequence almost trivial. If you don’t have that perk yet, just wait for a snowstorm to pass before you attempt the puzzle; the platforms stay solid longer in colder weather, which is a small detail most players never notice.
Tips for Completing All Shrines Efficiently
If you want to 100% all the shrines in the game without wasting hours backtracking across the map, there are a few simple tips I picked up during my playthrough that will save you a ton of time. First, don’t try to track down shrines until you’ve unlocked the fast travel points for each major region of the map. Shrines are scattered across every zone, and being able to fast travel between regions means you don’t have to spend 20 minutes riding your horse across the map just to reach one shrine.
Always complete shrines in the same region at the same time, instead of bouncing back and forth between different parts of the map; this cuts down on travel time significantly, and you’ll often stumble on other collectibles or side quests along the way. It’s also a good idea to keep at least 5 of each common foraging item in your inventory at all times, so you don’t have to stop and search for berries or pine resin every time you run into an offering puzzle.
Don’t be afraid to come back to a shrine later if you’re stuck on a puzzle. I spent 15 minutes trying to solve a bell puzzle early in my playthrough, only to come back 10 hours later and realize the order was carved on the back of a large rock I’d completely missed the first time. If you’re really stuck, you can also talk to the elder in the nearest village; most elders will give you a vague clue about the nearest shrine’s puzzle solution if you ask them about local landmarks.
At the end of the day, taking the time to track down and complete every one of the shrines ghost of yotei offers is one of the most rewarding things you can do in the game. You’ll get permanent upgrades that make combat and exploration far easier, find rare items you can’t get anywhere else, and get to see some of the most beautiful hidden spots the open world has to offer. You don’t have to rush to complete them all in your first playthrough either; take your time exploring, follow the clues when you find them, and you’ll finish all the shrines before you know it. Even if you’re only playing through the main story, stopping to complete a few shrines along the way will make your playthrough far smoother, and you won’t regret the extra time you spend searching for them.