This starter guide provides essential tips for players beginning their journey in Ghost of Tsushima. Whether you are struggling with combat or overwhelmed by the open world, these strategies cover the optimal gear, combat techniques, and exploration routes for the first region of the game.
Gear & Charms
Finding the right equipment early will make surviving Izuhara much easier.
- Traveler's Attire: Highly recommended early on for its unmatched utility in clearing the fog of war from the map and tracking collectibles.
- Charm of Inari: An essential major charm that significantly boosts your resource gathering (supplies, predator hides, bamboo, yew wood).
- Charm of Okuninushi: This major charm provides passive health regeneration while out of combat, saving your precious resolve for battles instead of healing.
- Charm of Mizu-no-Kami: A must-have defensive charm that permanently improves your parry and dodge windows, making combat much more forgiving.
Combat Tips
Mastering Jin's swordplay requires patience and timing.
- Deflection vs. Evasion: The game emphasizes mastering both Deflection (parrying) and Evasion (dodging). While parrying is strong and allows for lethal counterattacks, you must remember that certain unblockable attacks (indicated by a red glint) require dodging.
- Water Stance: This should be your top investment for stance unlocks. It is incredibly effective against shielded enemies, which are a major nuisance early on, and it has one of the highest DPS potentials in the game.
Essential Skills
Spend your early Technique Points on utility and awareness.
- Safe Landing: Highly recommended as a priority unlock. It allows you to survive falls from moderate heights, which saves time when traversing the vertical landscapes of Tsushima.
- Far Hearing: Crucial for tactical awareness. It extends the range of your focused hearing, making it much easier to locate camp leaders and plan stealth routes.
Exploration
- Save Your Points: It is strongly advised against spending Technique Points on the exploration skill trees. You will naturally find points of interest by simply paying attention to the environment, following the Golden Bird, or following foxes. Save your points for combat!
Mission Order
The order in which you tackle early missions dictates how quickly you unlock vital equipment.
- Ryuzo's Chain: Prioritize Ryuzo's questline to unlock the Ronin Attire, which boosts melee damage and stealth.
- Lady Masako's Chain: Complete her early quests to obtain the Samurai Clan Armor, the best defensive set for the early game.
- The Blacksmith Chain: Completing Yuna's missions involving her brother Taka is essential, as it rewards you with the Grappling Hook, opening up new areas of the map.
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