Ghost of Tsushima Legends Samurai Class Guide & Techniques

Time Stamp: March 2, 2022 9:00 AM

With four playable classes at launch, Ghost of Tsushima: Legends allows you battle the Oni and their Mongol puppets using a variety of tactics and playstyles. Naturally, a lot of players will gravitate towards the Samurai.

This armour clad warrior is the closest Ghost of Tsushima: Legends has to a tank class, in the same way that the Ronin can be viewed as a medic or support class. As those who play MMOs and similar online games know, the tank’s primary purpose is to draw attention (or aggro) away from vulnerable/weaker team mates.

As such, the Samurai has the most defence focused techniques and abilities available. However, as with all classes in Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, he has the same global combat options available including melee, ranged, and stealth attacks.

In survival Samurai players should act as an anchor, holding down control points. Your job is to draw as much heat as you can, parrying blows and dodging special attacks while keeping your enemies at bay, whittling down their health. You should be playing for time, giving your fellow Ghosts time to clean up while also unleashing an occasional barrage of attacks yourself.

Ghost of Tsushima Legends Samurai Overview

Spirit Pull, your first class ability, will help you stay in fight by draining health from nearby enemies as you wait for a Ronin to come and support you. This can be swapped for Explosive Blade, substituting this safety net if you prefer to go on the offensive.

Hachiman’s Fury is perhaps the most fun ultimate power to use in Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, slicing and dicing three enemies for major damage. While it’s tempting to use this whenever you have three Resolve, it should be saved for emergencies as it can help take down high value targets such as Oni Brutes, Warlords, and Tengu.

Another powerful tool in your Samurai arsenal is Heavenly Strike. Gold and Nightmare tier missions will serve up shielded enemies who can be particularly tough to kill, demanding your time and attention. Heavenly Strikes can bite through their defences – you should also invest in a katana which has improved stagger damage and Water stance. This will open enemies up to be attacked by other players.

Samurai Techniques

Name Type Rank Required Description
Hachiman’s Fury Ultimate 0 Perform a series of lightning-fast strikes against a group of enemies
Spirit Pull Class Ability 1 While active, your Spirit Pull passively siphons health from a nearby enemy
Defender Perk | Slot 1 2 Increase base health by 25
Lightning Reflexes Perk | Slot 2 3 Parry incoming arrows while blocking
Heavenly Strike Perk | Slot 3 5 Perform an unblockable quick strike
Deep Strikes Perk | Slot 1 7 Increase Melee damage by 10%
Critical Defense Perk | Slot 2 9 Increased parry and dodge window when at low health
Explosive Blade Class Ability 10 Melee attacks deal damaging explosions upon impact
Hachiman’s Frenzy Perk | Slot 3 11 Hachiman’s Fury gains 2 extra strikes
Samurai Unleashed Perk | Slot 1 14 Decrease class ability cooldown by 15%
Resolve Increase Perk | Slot 2 16 Increase max Resolve by 1
Legendary Perk |Slot 3 18 Increases the number of Legendary items you can equip by 1

In the Samurai’s first perk slot you can assign one of three handy bonuses. We’d recommend taking Samurai Unleashed – the small health/melee damage bonuses aren’t as useful as reducing the cooldown on your class ability, especially as you become more reliant on Spirit Pull.

Perk two should be used to equip Resolve Increase. Being able to parry arrows sounds useful but you’ll quickly develop the reflexes needed to dodge all ranged attacks. Relying on this perk will make you less effective when swapping to other classes. Having one extra renown node gives you the extra stopping power needed to dole out Heavenly Strikes and Hachiman’s Fury.

Perk three is a bit trickier, especially if you’ve started to collect Legendary items in Ghost of Tsushima: Legends. We’d opt for Heavenly Strike in this case simply due to how useful it is in punching through armoured enemies. Hachiman’s Frenzy sounds better on paper though most enemy groups tend to have around three Oni, those bonus attacks being wasted on Mongol grunts.

Since the Rivals update, there are four new techniques available that require you to complete Item Mastery challenges:

  • Raging Flame – Heavy attacks with this burning blade can also ignite nearby enemies.
  • Legendary – Increase the number of Legendary Items you can equip by 1.
  • Healing Strike – Killing an enemy with a perfect parry counterattack restores 50 health.
  • Hachiman’s Rage – Hachiman’s Fury does 2 strikes for 300% damage each.

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