As more players discover the incredibly well-done Legends mode in Ghost of Tsushima, regular waves of rookies and amateurs look to stand alongside veterans of both the single-player campaign and the cooperative multiplayer. However, this is not the kind of game where one good player can carry an entire team.
Victory requires a team effort, so even a great player with good intentions, without the right strategies, will end up being the doom of the team. Don’t worry, everyone starts somewhere, but it’s wise to take a step back and a deep breath, then look at any mistakes that happened and rectify them before queuing up the next round.
Taking Damage
The steepest challenge players have when transitioning from the campaign to the multiplayer is to master avoidance. Taking damage in the original version of the game is not incredibly painful since lost health is easily recouped with a flick of the blade.
Not so in the Legends mode. There is a healing item with a cooldown and one class that can occasionally heal, but even Samurai who understand their class should be able to gain enemy attention without taking hits.
Too Conservative With Consumables
Even the best Assassins in the game can get caught doing too little damage in important moments by holding on to a grenade or caltrops and saving them for the final encounter. It’s fine to hold on to one or two, but these items are meant to be used.
Teams frequently run out of gas right when they reach the final battle. That’s no good. It’s better to have no consumables but be full on health than the other way around. Remember that items saved are items wasted.
Forgetting Their Roles
All classes in the game can do a little bit of everything, but usually, there is one area in which each one excels. A highly-skilled Ronin won’t grab enemy attention and heal himself because he understands that tanking and DPS are secondary objectives to team healing for him.
This goes for everyone. A Samurai trying to get into stealth might have a heart of gold in wanting to do a lethal backstab, but that will leave enemies open to attack the group. Knowing the job of the selected class is vital to success.
Forgetting How The Fights Work
When going through the game, players will get a chance to see the same fight multiple times. Make it a priority to learn what works and what doesn’t work against the various bosses and encounters.
Hunters that master their craft know which targets are weak to explosions, poison, and other status effects. But they also know when arrows are ineffective until a certain barrier has been removed, so they aren’t emptying a quiver into a target shrugging off the damage.
Ignoring The Situation
The Legends mode is a lot more complex than “kill all of the bad guys before they kill you.” Enemies will sometimes be targeting villages, relics, or other targets. It’s not uncommon for a heroic player to get stuck killing an endlessly respawning wave of enemies in one area and leaving the rest of the team to do the heavy lifting.
Paying attention to where other players are and placing the character in the correct location is going to do more than any legendary item. Even pro players make mistakes, but this is one that they have to figure out in order to progress.
Playing Harder Modes Too Early
Pro players are not born, they are made. They don’t just hop into the hardest difficulty setting at level one and hope for the best. They take it slow and complete the missions on the easiest mode, then move up when their gear is better.
Imagine trying to beat a survival mission with only two or three mission’s worth of gear. It’s not likely and, if somehow victory is achieved, the team will resent that person and not want to play with them again.
No Communication
Understandably, not everyone is glued to a headset. Most people’s experience with the game is that very few players actually use verbal methods to speak to teammates. But the community has learned to see each other’s body language and react based on that.
Healing Drums will heal players in an area, so make sure to wait until all players who need healing are in the area first. Also, don’t start fights when the Hunter is still looting bodies, those extra arrows will mean volumes to the entire team in the long run. It’s just part of learning about the four classes and common courtesy.
Giving Up
Learning experiences are common but nonetheless embarrassing in multiplayer video games. It’s hard to die and then feel the criticism of teammates that have to go out of their way to save the downed player.
Brush it off. Everyone starts somewhere. Ultimately, the Ghost of Tsushima online community knows what rookies are going through and will help if they can. They’d rather have a teammate who is struggling to learn than one that throws in the towel.
Use Gear For The Rating
The rating system works as a gateway to make sure that players can approximate their readiness for a certain situation before jumping in. But it’s only an estimate; it’s not a rule and it’s certainly not the most accurate indicator.
For example, a trinket might substantially increase rating, but only be useful in a certain situation or it might not fit the class at all (i.e. a Smoke Bomb on a Samurai). In this case, use the lower-tiered gear that makes sense for the class. Don’t worry, better gear will come with patience and time.
Ignore Bonus Objectives
Bonus objectives are sometimes mistaken for tasks that help with experience, but then cast aside after getting to the highest level. This is exactly the opposite; these quests go from kind of important when leveling to vitally important at the top level.
At maximum rank, these objectives give better gear. Too many players finish the grind and are somehow undergeared as they regularly take on missions. Luck is not the only factor in getting good gear, use some skill and maximize the odds of Rare+ gear with the bonus objectives.
NEXT: 10 Unanswered Questions We Still Have After Playing Ghost Of Tsushima
