Living Legend¶

As always, the top trophy for a game will be the coveted platinum trophy, which requires you to get all of the other trophies in order to unlock it. Ghost of Tsushima isn’t a particularly difficult game and there are no difficulty trophies, so you are more than welcome to play it on Easy. That being said, Hard and the patch that added Lethal aren’t super challenging, if you want to bump it up a little bit. Overall, you’re probably looking at around 35-45 hours in order to achieve the platinum in this game.

You do have to complete all of the Side Tales, as well as some of the collectibles. The rest of the collectibles only need a certain amount and there is even one, the Sashimono Banners, that don’t require any collected at all. There are enemy outposts that you have to liberate and you will be required to do all of these. The miscellaneous trophies not involving a specific facet of the game will usually require something in order to achieve them, though.

 

Story-Related Trophies¶

The following table is a list of trophies you will automatically unlock as you complete the main story, thus, they are unmissable.

 

The Warrior Monk¶

Norio is a character that you will meet at the end of Act 1, with his first Side Tale being available during Act 2. He has a total of nine Tales to complete and once you complete all nine, then you will unlock this trophy. The following is a list of all nine Tales for Norio:

• The Last Warrior Monk
• Three Actions, Three Illusions
• Ghosts in the Fog
• The Birth of Suffering
• The Blood Sutra
• The Cause of Suffering
• The End of Suffering
• The Guardian of Tsushima
• This Threefold World

 

The Vengeful Warrior¶

Masako is a character you meet relatively early on and is forced upon you during a main story mission. In fact, that story mission is actually part one of her questline, with the others all being optional. She has a total of eight additional Tales to complete, which span across all three Acts. The following list contains all of the extra Tales for Masako:

• The Headman
• The Husband
• The Traitor
• The Fool
• The Family Man
• The Thief
• The Conspirator
• The Sister Betrayed

 

The Unbending Archer¶

Ishikawa is a character you meet relatively early on and is forced upon you during a main story mission. In fact, that story mission is actually part one of his questline, with the others all being optional. He has a total of eight additional Tales to complete, which span across all three Acts. The following list contains all of the extra Tales for Ishikawa:

• The Sensei and the Student
• The Past Never Passes
• The Way of the Bow
• Dreams of Conquest
• The Ghost and the Demon Sensei
• The Terror of Otsuna
• Friends in Passing
• Laid to Rest

 

The Headstrong Thief¶

Yuna is a character you meet very early in the game, but you don’t gain access to her Side Tales until the second act. There’s only four Tales for Yuna, which are as follows:

• The Tale of Yuna
• Silent Death
• The Black Wolf
• Message in Blood

 

Teller of Tales¶

Mythic Tales are optional sidequests in the game that usually reward you with new equipment or special abilities. They will be marked on your map with a blue diamond-shaped icon and always start from a musician named Yamato. There’s only seven of them in the game and they can be found in the open world as you progress in the main story. Here is a list of all Mythic Tales:

• The Legend of Tadayori
• The Curse of Uchitsune
• The Heavenly Strike
• The Six Blades of Kojiro
• The Unbreakable Gosaku
• The Spirit of Yarikawa’s Vengeance
• The Undying Flame

 

Helping Sword Hand¶

In addition to the various Side Tales for the important NPCs in the game, you will also find other, miscellaneous, Side Tales while exploring the game’s world. There is a total of 61 Side Tales in the game, which does include the ones for the various named NPCs, including those listed above. You can visit the following sections for all of the other Tales in the game:

• Kenji’s Tales
• Yuriko’s Tales
• Izuhara’s Tales
• Toyotama’s Tales
• Kamiagata’s Tales

 

Flash of Steel¶

Perfect Parry is a skill you have to learn from the Deflection branch and it’s one of the first skills you can purchase. To perform a Perfect Parry, you will need to press the L1 button right before an enemy’s attack hits you. You’ll know you’ve executed a Perfect Parry because there will be some slo-mo. Performing will allow you to execute a powerful counter attack in that time window, which does a lot of damage. For this trophy, you will have to kill the enemy with that counterattack.

 

Witness Protection¶

As you build up your legend (the leveling system), the Mongols will no doubt start getting scared of how notorious you have become. Sometimes, whenever you perform something like Chain Assassinations, other Mongols that witness it might get Terrified and run away. Other ways to terrify enemies are by shooting them with the Poison Darts from the Blowgun, as well as killing enemies while wearing the Ghost Armor. You know an enemy is terrified whenever they fall down, get up and start running away. To get this trophy, you have to shoot the terrified enemy while they are fleeing.

 

All in the Wrist¶

The Standoff mechanic is learned very early in the game and the maximum amount of enemies you can kill in a Standoff in five. However, you will need to do a couple of things in order to get that count that high. First and foremost, you have to purchase the Improved Standoff Streak under the Ghost tab for your techniques; this will cost you a total of three Technique Points. The other thing you need is the Sakai Clan Armor, which is obtained during the Ghosts from the Past story mission. Once you’ve obtained this, you have to maxed it out at any armorer, which will extend the Standoff killing streak by two more enemies, maxing it out at five.

With all of that out of the way, you now have to find five enemies, which can be a problem if you’ve done everything in the game already. If you still have some outposts left, those are a perfect place to try this, but note that Kamiagata can be a real challenge for the initial Standoff. That means you’re better off trying to find the five enemies in either Izuhara or Toyotama. If you’ve already done a Standoff that kills multiple enemies before, after the initial one, you just press the same button whenever the enemy gets close enough.

 

Open for Business¶

As you attack enemies during fights, pressing the Triangle button will perform a heavy attack that increases a bar over their heads. Once this bar is full, you will stagger the enemy, making them defenseless for a short period of time. Depending on the Stance you use, with each one being better against a certain enemy type, the stagger bar will fill much more quickly. You only need to stagger 50 enemies in order to unlock this trophy, which will likely happen naturally during the course of the game.

 

There Can Be Only One¶

Duels are one-on-one battles that are more cinematic in nature than normal fights, where you are limited to your katana and natural movements, as you can’t use Ghost tools in them. There’s a total of 25 duels in the game, with all of them tied to the various missions in the game.

• Six during the main story
• The Other Side of Honor
• Unfinished Business
• Two during Fit for the Khan
• The Conspirator
• Message in Blood
• A Thief of Innocence
• All, but one (The Unbreakable Gosaku doesn’t have one), of the Mythic Tales will have duels in them, with The Six Blades of Kojiro having six
• One from liberating a specific Mongol Territory (Ogawa Dojo

 

Have a Nice Fall¶

Killing an enemy with fall damage by knocking them off a ledge might seem both hard and easy, but it entirely depends on a few factors. Before anything, though, you will want to have unlocked the Wind Stance (kill 11 Mongol leaders to get it). Once you do that, purchase the first skill in that tree under Stances, which is the Strengthened Typhoon Kick. With that under your belt, you just need to begin a fight near a cliff or possibly find an archer on top of a tower. A good example of it, during Act 1, is when you’re doing The Tale of Ryuzo, as you might find some enemies right next to cliffs. Another good example, if you’ve done everything else in the game, is fast travel to Jogaku Lighthouse, as there seems to be an enemy there. Note that the enemy has to die from hitting the ground in order for the trophy to unlock.

 

Haunting Precision¶

During The Ghost of Yarikawa, you will unlock the Ghost Stance, which is a special one that unlocks under specific requirements. Whenever you sneak up on a Mongol leader and see the slaughter prompt, or kill seven enemies without getting hit, the meter in the bottom right will completely fill up. Pressing both L3 + R3 when this meter is full will trigger the Ghost Stance. In this mode, enemies (barring special enemies like bosses and duels) will be killed in one hit. Unfortunately, you can only get three kills in Ghost Stance before you have to fill the meter again.

 

The Ghost of Legend¶

Legend is basically a ranking system that measures Jin’s notoriety during the game. Whenever you kill a group of enemies, finish missions, or take over Mongol Territories, you will gain legend. There’s a total of 11 ranks in the game, including the one you begin the game with, The Broken Samurai. As you reach each rank, you will gain a small increase to your maximum health, plus some other bonuses here and there. The final rank is called The Ghost of Tsushima and if you do everything in the game, you should reach this on your way to the platinum trophy.

 

Quick Study¶

Stances are different fighting styles that you can unlock by killing Mongol leaders. In total, there’s four different stances and you begin the game with the Stone Stance. You can change stances by holding the R2 button, then pressing the corresponding face button. You need to kill three Mongol leaders to unlock Water Stance, eight more for Wind Stance and twelve after that for Moon Stance. During some of the Mongol Territories, you will notice an objective to observe a Mongol leader. Getting close enough, without being seen, and holding the R2 button when it’s shown will also contribute to unlocking stances.

You should have more than enough Mongol leaders in your sights to unlock all stances during normal gameplay. If you do the bonus objective of observing the leaders before killing them, then it’s possible to unlock all stances during Act 1.

 

Every Trick in the Book¶

One of the biggest things that Jin will acquire in the game are weapons that allow him to embrace the Ghost side of him. Upon increasing his legend rank for the first time, he will unlock the Kunai. The next three times you increase your rank, you will be able to choose which Ghost weapon you can unlock. You might think the trophy will unlock after choosing the fifth weapon, but there is one more to get. On the Ghost tab for Techniques, under Wind Chime, you will have to purchase the skill there, which will unlock Firecrackers. Upon unlocking the Kunai, Wind Chime, Firecrackers, Sticky Bombs, Smoke Bombs, and Black Powder Bombs, you will get the trophy.

 

The Perfect Storm¶

The sword will be your main weapon throughout the game and you can upgrade its damage via Swordsmiths across Tsushima. Upgrading your katana will require Supplies, which is the basic currency for the game, as well as Iron, Steel and Gold. Gold is only obtained via liberating the bigger Mongol outposts. Iron and Steel are more common materials, as you will find them whenever you raid outposts, as well as be awarded them for clearing some outposts.

 

A Charming Man¶

Charms are something you can equip on Jin that give him a variety of benefits, but he only starts the game with two slots. In order to unlock more slots, you will need to find Fox Dens, then have the fox lead you to an Inari Shrine. Pray at the shrine to contribute to the unlocking of more Charm slots. Since none of them are missable and there are more rewards from the Inari Shrines after the fact, it shouldn’t take too long to unlock all of the slots. Once the slots are open, all you have to do is put a Charm in each of them to unlock the trophy.

 

Gifted¶

As you progress through the story of the game, you will see a notification that a Gift has been unlocked. In order to collect these gifts, you will have to visit a Gift Altar. There are only so many locations for the Gift Altars, which are usually located at the bigger settlements. The first Gift Altar you can find is at the Golden Temple in Izuhara, but there are other locations in the later acts. It’s a good idea to pick up these gifts, as not only do you get some Masks and Headbands, but you will also receive materials.

 

Slay¶

Vanity Gear is basically cosmetic equipment for Jin and can be acquired in a variety of ways. One of the main ways is by finding Haiku and Pillars of Honor in the game’s world, as each one of those will reward you with a piece of vanity gear. Also, the Gift Altar will sometimes yield pieces of gear. Lastly, there are some pieces of gear that are just out there that need to be found. There’s a total of 59 pieces of Vanity Gear in the game and you only need 30 in order to unlock this trophy.

 

Light the Way¶

Lighthouses are exactly as they sound, but basically represent the hope of taking back Tsushima from the Mongols in the game. There’s only eight Lighthouses in the game, spread across all three regions and in order for the game to count it, you have to climb to the top and light it. The following links will take you to the Lighthouses in each regions:

• Izuhara Lighthouses
• Toyotama Lighthouses
• Kamiagata Lighthouses

 

Favor of the Kami¶

Shinto Shrines are places where you can pray and be rewarded with a Charm. The entrance to the shrines will always be marked with torii gates, but it’s not as simple as just walking up to the shrine. You will have to do some platforming/climbing in order to reach the shrine. There’s a total of 16 Shinto Shrines in the game, spread across all three regions. One of the best things to do is get close enough to have the icon marked on your map, then fast travel to it in order to find the beginning portion where you need to start climbing/platforming to the shrine.

• Izuhara Shrines
• Toyotama Shrines
• Kamiagata Shrines

 

Honor the Unseen¶

Hidden Altars are wooden signs that have a picture of a person bowing on them, and they can be found all throughout the game’s world. The biggest problem with these are that the Hidden Altars are like their name suggests, hidden. Some are easier to find than others, but none of them are marked on the map. Bow in front of one to have some sort of thing happen, usually like an abundance of an animal appearing out of nowhere or a bird landing in a specific spot. You only have to find 10 Hidden Altars in order to get the trophy, with there being more than enough in Izuhara, the first region.

• Izuhara Hidden Altars
• Toyotama Hidden Altars
• Kamiagata Hidden Altars

 

Lost and Found¶

Pillars of Honor are little stone monuments that have a sword kit on them, which are basically skins for your katana. There’s a total of 23 Pillars of Honor in the game and you only need to find a single one for this trophy. However, you should work on finding more than one to help contribute to Slay.

• Izuhara Pillars
• Toyotama Pillars
• Kamiagata Pillars

 

Monochrome Masters¶

One of the things you can do to customize Jin is dye his armors at the various Merchants in the game, with each dye requiring a specific number of flowers. In addition to those normal merchants, there are two special dye merchants, one for the color white and another for the color black. These two merchants are a little harder to find, as they are hidden in the game’s world, away from normal civilization. You need to buy a single thing from each of the two merchants for this trophy. The two locations for the dye merchants are as follows:

• White Dye Merchant
• Black Dye Merchant

 

Cooper Clan Cosplayer¶

There is a certain Playstation thief, who might also be a raccoon, that you can kind of cosplay as in Ghost of Tsushima. In order to dress up as this legendary thief, you will need to procure a couple of items. The first one is the Sly Tanuki Sword Kit in Kamiagata. The next item you need can be found at Jogaku Temple. Fast travel there and look for the tall building right outside of the main camp. At the top of this tall building will be the Crooked Kama Headband.

The next thing on this list will be the Gosaku’s Armor, which you get for completing The Unbreakable Gosaku. Once you have it, visit a normal Merchant and purchase the Ocean’s Guardian dye for it. The last item you need is a mask. Any mask will do in this situation, it seems, so there is no need to be picky. Once you have everything in place, simply equip all of it and the trophy will unlock.

 

Dirge of the Fallen Forge¶

In order to get this trophy, you need to advance in the main story until you complete A Reckoning in Blood, which is during the second Act. After that mission is over, you will visit a special place, which will now be marked on your map and fast travelled to, so you won’t have to worry. To get this trophy, you have to play a specific melody from your flute at this place, but you need to collect five Singing Crickets to unlock this melody. There are ten located in Izuhara, so it’s best to get them at the beginning of the game, with their locations as follows:

• Izuhara Crickets

 

A Moment in Time¶

Photo Mode is a feature in the game, where you can customize a lot of things in order to get a perfect shot of the game’s environments or even action. To enter Photo Mode, press right on the D-Pad, where you will see a bunch of options. To unlock this trophy, simply play around with some of the features.

 

Avid Reader¶

One of the collectibles in the game are Records, which basically are scrolls that have information pertaining to Mongols and other things on them. There is a total of 40 Records in the game, but you only need to collect 20 for this trophy. You will mostly find Records in Mongol outposts, as well as inside buildings in friendly settlements. You can always equip the Traveler’s Attire, as the controller will vibrate if you’re close enough, plus the lightning bug that appears, pointing you in the direction of the Record.

• Izuhara Records
• Toyotama Records
• Kamiagata Records

 

Know Your Enemy¶

One of the collectibles in the game are Mongol Artifacts, which basically are items that are either a part of their culture or that they’ve taken in their conquests. You will pretty much always find these at Mongol outposts, or around areas with Mongols. There’s a total of 50 Artifacts in the game, but you only need to find 20 to unlock the trophy. When you’re close enough, you can always equip the Traveler’s Attire, as the controller will vibrate if you’re close enough, plus the lightning bug that appears, pointing you in the direction of the Record.

• Izuhara Artifacts
• Toyotama Artifacts
• Kamiagata Artifacts

 

Body, Mind, and Spirit¶

In order to get this trophy, you will be required to complete all of the Hot Springs, Haiku, Inari Shrines (the Fox Dens) and Bamboo Strikes. That is a lot of stuff to do and while it’s better to do it during the main story, as three of the four will improve Jin in some way, you can also wait until after completing the main story, as nothing is missable. In fact, if you liberate every single outpost in the game, unlocking the Master Liberator trophy in the process, then all of the collectibles in the game will be marked on your map (undiscovered ones will be marked with a “?”).

• Bamboo Strikes in Izuhara, Toyotama, and Kamiagata
• Hot Springs in Izuhara, Toyotama, and Kamiagata
• Haiku in Izuhara, Toyotama, and Kamiagata
• Inari Shrines in Izuhara, Toyotama, and Kamiagata

 

Mongol Territories-Related¶

You will not only find Mongols out in the wild while exploring, but they have also set up camps in the world. Every outpost in the game will have objectives for you to complete in order to liberate them. In addition to the main objectives at each outpost, there will also be bonus objectives, which will give you extra legend upon clearing the outpost, should you complete them. Upon liberating an outpost, you will be able to use it as a fast travel point, plus looking at the map will clear an area around the fog surrounding the outpost. Some outposts are part of the main story, with others being objectives during some of the Side/Mythic Tales, but the majority of them are optional.

Once you reach Act 2, you will unlock Farmsteads, which are pretty much places the Mongols took over as it relates to the main story. Because of this, you will not be able to liberate the entirety of Izuhara until you reach Act 2, since six Farmsteads are located there. All of the other outposts in Act 2 and 3, besides the story-related ones, are accessible from the beginning of those chapters. You will have to liberate all outposts and farmsteads to get the related trophies.

• Izuhara Territories
• Toyotama Territories
• Kamiagata Territories