Ghost of Tsushima: Best techniques and upgrades

Ghost of Tsushima has a few different skill trees that you can utilize depending on which play style you prefer. Though you're able to unlock every skill in the game once you've fully "leveled up" and earned every skill point, it's best to unlock some skills before others. Once you factor in armor upgrades that you can purchase as well, it becomes a game of knowing which upgrades and techniques are more beneficial to you.

Samurai techniques

• Perfect Parry: Parrying at the last possible second performs a deadly counter-attack and earns Resolve. Can be upgraded to deflect arrows, recover health, and terrify enemies.
• Roll: Allows you to roll across the ground and avoid attacks, useful for enemies that have a long striking distance or swinging attacks. Also extinguishes burning if you are on fire.
• Perfect Dodge: Dodging at the last possible moment performs a deadly counterattack. Can be used when attacks cannot be parried.
• Shoulder Charge: Charging into an enemy while sprinting knocks them back. Useful to get the upper hand early in a fight.

Ghost techniques

• Standoff: Challenge enemies to a one-on-one showdown. If timed correctly, will perform an instant kill. Can be upgraded to kill three enemies and grants extra Resolve on success.
• Assassination: Kill unaware enemies with a quiet stealth attack. Can be upgraded to assassinate three enemies in succession undetected.
• Recover health: Regain a moderate amount of health at the cost of Resolve. Can be upgraded to spare your life, but you're only revived with a sliver of health.
• Shoji Assassination: Assassinate an enemy behind a shoji door.
• Stealth Hearing: Upgrade in the Focused Hearing tree. Allows you to move faster while using Focused Hearing. Enemies will glow red through walls and other objects.
• Ghost Stance: By slaughtering enemy leaders or killing seven enemies without taking damage, you can enter Ghost Stance. This allows you to kill up to three enemies with deadly strikes, without fail. However, it does not auto-kill bosses.

Mythic techniques

• Heavenly Strike: An unblockable attack that inflicts extra damage against staggered enemies. Gained after completing the Mythic Tale "The Heavenly Strike."
• Dance of Wrath: Unleashes three consecutive unblockable attacks that inflict high damage. Kills may terrify nearby enemies. This is especially useful during boss battles. Gained after completing the Mythic Tale "The Spirit of Yarikawa's Vengeance."

Armor upgrades

• Ghost Armor: Perfect for those who prefer to play stealthily. When fully upgraded: reduces enemy detection speed by 40%, reduces the number of kills needed to enter the Ghost Stance by 2, and kills have a 30% chance to terrify nearby enemies.
• Mongol Commander's Armor: Perfect for heavy combat. When fully upgraded, it grants a major increase to health, reduces all damage by a major amount, and disguises you while out of combat, massively reducing Mongol detection speed.

What did you upgrade?

What did you upgrade during your Ghost of Tsushima playthrough? Did we get something wrong above? Sound off in the comments below. If you're still on the fence about Ghost of Tsushima, you can also check out our review.