Getting Started
Upon first booting up Legends, you will start the tutorial. In this tutorial you’ll get a small explanation about the combat and some of the abilities. After you finish the tutorial, you’ll go to the lobby, or Haven of the Ghosts When choosing your class, keep in mind that each class will have access to a katana and ranged weapon by default, but there are class-specific secondary weapons & abilities to keep in mind:
| CLASS | SECONDARY | OTHER |
| Samurai | Odachi | Access to widest range of weapon types |
| Archer | Yari | Carry an additional ranged weapon |
| Mercenary | Dual Katanas | Variety of utility-focused abilities |
| Shinobi | Kusarigama | Suite of stealth-focused skills |
Choose a class then focus on leveling your gear and rank in order to participate in game modes. Unlike the single-player game, you will have certain abilities based on your class & a secondary weapon. This guide is in the hopes of helping you get started with frequently asked questions on those topics.
Summary
Classes: character you choose
There are four classes available: Samurai, Archer, Mercenary, Shinobi
Each class has access to unique techniques (Active and Passive)
Class type selection has no direct influence on games or matchmaking
Ki: character ‘effectiveness’ level (influenced by ‘Total Ki’)
Ki is the ‘effectiveness’ of a piece of gear
Increasing Ki is done by leveling up individual gear pieces OR finding new gear
Total Ki is the average of all gear equipped vs the number of gear slots
Ki can be ‘shared’ across classes (classes can use the same gear)
Rank: character ‘hours played’ level (time spent using class in-game)
Early game, rank influences what techniques are available for a class
Rank 24 will unlock all technique slots for a single class
Rank 25 for all classes will unlock an achievement
Rank is unique to each class (must rank up each class individually)
Classes
How Do I Choose A Class?
When you first get started, you have one of the toughest choices you’ll ever make, choosing a class. Luckily you have access to all the classes right away, so you can very easily test out all of them!
There are two ways to choose a class, the ‘classic’ way and the ‘meta’ way. The Classic way consists of maximizing the particular skills of the class in its traditional sense (ie a Samurai focuses only on melee, an Archer focuses on ranged, etc). The Meta way consists of looking at the end-game builds and building to those strategies. Regardless, each class can hold its own in terms of healing & killing in all modes, it mostly comes down to your playstyle preferences.
SAMURAI
The Samurai is the melee-centric of the four classes. He has an Ultimate that allows him to strike multiple targets in rapid succession and techniques that further augment his skill in melee combat. He wields a sword primarily and has access to all melee weapons.
MERCENARY
The Mercenary is a utility based class that uses whatever it can find such as throwing weapons from the floor and an ultimate that calls down thunderstrikes and disarms enemies. He has the ability to wield Dual Katana and Odachi.
SHINOBI
The Shinobi is the stealth-centric of the four classes. He has an Ultimate that allows him to pinpoint targets & teleport to each performing a powerful attack. He has techniques that further augment his skill in stealth combat and has the ability to wield the Kasurigama and Yari.
ARCHER
The Archer is the range-centric of the four classes. She has an Ultimate that allows her to achieve multiple headshots simultaneously. She has techniques that further augment her skill in ranged combat plus the ability to wield 2 ranged weapons and the Kasurigama.
KI
What is Ki Level?
Ki Level is what is going to dictate most of your gameplay progression. There is a secondary leveling mechanic, Rank, which will affect you early game (to unlock your class techniques), but has no effect on gameplay.
Ki is a combined level of all the gear you currently have equipped. There are 7 gear slots (that start with pieces of basic gear). As you complete missions, you will receive rewards at the end of randomly generated gear with random Properties & Perks.
Total Ki
Your Total Ki Level is the average of the different pieces of gear. An example would be if I were the Samurai. Now let’s say I’ve unlocked all my Passive tech (so I have 7 gear slots). If you had:
- 30 Ki Katana
- 28 Ki Dual Katanas
- 26 Ki Odachi
- 26 Ki Yari
- 20 Ki Bomb Pack
- 28 Ki Charm
- 30 Ki Kunai
Your Total Ki would be:
30 + 28 + 26 + 26 + 20+ 28 + 30 = 188 / 7 = 26 Ki
As you obtain more gear, you will see that each difficulty will become easier and easier. The most important thing to increase your Ki is to find gear with good Grade ratings for the Properties (Letter Grades) and then ‘increase Ki’ of that gear. Ideally aim to keep any Gear that is at least B / B or higher for the Grades. You will see a lot of gear drop with one or both properties as D or D-, these should be dismantled for resources unless you have no other better gear yet.
Example: you receive two new katanas as rewards at the end of a mission. One katana is A- / D ratings while the other s B+ / C+ ratings. Even though the A- gear will have slightly better ratings in that first property slot than the second katana, it will take you longer to level up the gear to max grade (S) because the second property slot (D) is so much lower than C+. So in this case, you would KEEP the B+ / C+ katana, and dismantle the A- / D katana.
What does Ki do?
Ki makes your outgoing attacks do more damage and incoming damage is reduced by a small portion. This is on a Total Ki change (ie Ki 100 vs Ki 110). It is likely this will change to a maximum of 120 Ki (or greater) in future updates.
End Game Ki
End-game, you are aiming to have all 110 Ki gear pieces with S / S gear ratings (for the maximum % bonuses).. You progress through each rarity and eventually when you reach purple (Epic) gear, you slowly make your way to 110 Ki. Keep in mind Legendary gear (of which you can equip 2) will have slightly higher %s when at maximum Grade (S). After this you start thinking about builds.
Rank
What is Rank?
Rank has very little bearing on Legends. Initially, it is a way for you to progress each Class and unlock your Techniques and Passives. Reaching Rank 24 will unlock every Technique available to a particular class. Reaching Rank 25 (with all classes) for the achievement, is a good way to say “Ok I have begun to understand the basics of each class”.
After passing Rank 25, it is mostly just a ‘bragging rights’ level as to how much you play a particular class and how much time you have put into Legends. In Ghost of Tsushima Legends there were many players with all Classes at Rank 100+ and some who have even gone to 200+ (or in the case of Azard, 999 as Samurai). How high can you go with Yotei Legends?
Progressing and picking the right difficulty
Yotei Legends has changed the way you pick your difficulty. No longer are you bound by Ki levels. You can now play the higher difficulties at lower Ki. But this isn’t as good as you think since this time around, Legends is a lot more difficult.
After you’ve completed 1 level on bronze difficulty, you can immediately play silver difficulty, after completing this you can go into gold right away and so on. But with Legends being a lot more difficult, this might not be the best to do right away. Harder difficulty with low Ki is a recipe for disaster. Try to play to a level that you’re comfortable with. If you notice that you’re struggling with the enemies, it’s oke to go to lower difficulties.