Ghostwire Tokyo: Best Skills for Early Gameplay

First-person horror game Ghostwire: Tokyo pits you as an elder brother saved from the brink of death by a spirit and on a mission to save his sister from the mysterious Hannya. To aid in your battles against the otherworldly enemies – “Visitors” – the game provides a wide array of skills broken into three separate categories: Abilities, Ethereal Weaving, and Equipment.

Below, you will find a list of the best skills to target in chapters one and two of the game. There are a few important notes to keep in mind. First, advancing most skills beyond the first or second level will not be possible until you obtain magatama to bridge the gap. Generally, you need three magatama to unlock the ability to purchase the next upgrade. Most skills will cost ten skill points for the early stages.

Second, as you are relegated to using only the Wind Ethereal Weaving attacks early in the game, no upgrades from that tree will be listed. However, if you want to invest in quickening the charged attack by 15 percent, it could come in handy.

Thirdly and lastly, while there is no set path to rounding out your character, the skills listed are those that seek to maximize your survivability rather than pure offensive firepower. Some offense will be built in, but not all skills will be focused purely on offense.

Skills will be listed in alphabetical order by Japanese name and its Anglicized spelling. As that is how they are listed in the game, the list will remain true to the game.

1. Fudo (Core Exposure – Duration Boost)

Fudo increases the time that cores are exposed. Increasing the core exposure time allows you to grab multiple cores at once, eliminating however many enemies’ cores you grabbed.

To expose cores, you need to damage Visitors with your Ethereal Attacks and melee strikes enough to burn away the flesh and expose the core. From there, if the line of sight is unobstructed, you should be prompted to pull the core(s) by holding L2. However, you can be attacked while pulling cores! Keep this in mind.

There are four trophies associated with core grabbing. The first, “Heartbreaker,” will pop after your first core grab. “Soul Breaker” pops for 50 cores pulled, “One Fell Swoop” for pulling out five cores simultaneously, and “Left Yourself Open” for defeating ten total visitors with core grabs after they’ve been exposed with an Exposure Talisman (later in the game).

Importantly, magatama is not needed to fully upgrade!

2. Inubashiri (Faster Sneaking)

Sneaking is the best way to get around without needing to engage in unnecessary battles. Quick Purges eliminate Visitors and saves you the possibility of suffering damage in an actual battle. However, you’ll notice that the sneaking speed is rather slow.

With Inubashiri, you can significantly increase your sneaking speed. The good news is that the increased speed does not increase the sound of your feet! The sound will still be muffled, allowing you to sneak right up behind your enemies. While you may only be able to nab the first upgrade until you nab some magatama, that 30 percent increase is a lot (the second boost is a 60 percent increase).

There are three trophies related to Quick Purges that can only occur while sneaking. “Silent Kill” pops for killing 200 enemies with Quick Purges, “Freeze, Scumbag” pops for defeating ten enemies with Quick Purges after using a Stun Talisman, and “A Shrubbery!” pops for defeating three enemies with Quick Purges while hiding in Thicket Talisman bushes.

3. Kukirihime (Core Grab – Speed Boost)

One of the sister skills to Fudo, Kukirihime increases the speed of grabbing cores from enemies. As Akito is vulnerable to attack while grabbing cores, it’s recommended to nab this early.

When paired together, Kukirihime and Fudo can make quick work of a swarm of enemies. Expose cores as fast as possible and with the added duration and speed, you should be able to pull a few at once to quickly whittle down the enemies.

Refer to Fudo’s entry for trophy-related information.

4. Omoigane – (Spectral Vision)

Unlocked partway into chapter two, Spectral Vision serves multiple purposes with its main one being your source of reconnaissance. Essentially, think of it like using Focus in Horizon.

Once you gain the ability, hitting Square will reveal Visitors, floating ether, and other notable objects within a certain radius. It also allows you to speak to pets!

When you’re first given the ability, it has a 30-meter radius. You can increase that two times for up to a 60-meter radius. Importantly, magatama is not needed to fully upgrade!

Spectral Vision is crucial so you don’t go into situations uninformed and become overwhelmed by your enemies. Being able to scope out and plan your attack is always a recommended tactic.

5. Tatenui (Perfect Block – Ether Generation)

As you battle using your Ethereal Weaving attacks, you will use up your green ether. Green ether is needed to perform these attacks, which are safer and more powerful than melee attacks. If you’re running low and have already nabbed the green ether floating around as objects, having Tatenui can be a quick way to gain some ether for your battle.

Perfect Blocking occurs when you hit Guard (L1) just as an attack is about to land. This also applies to projectile attacks. Perfect Blocking doesn’t hurt the enemy, but it staggers them and opens them up for attacks. Importantly, you do not take any damage from a Perfect Block!

You’ll know you landed a Perfect Block as a yellow aura flashes around your orange Guard circle. With Tatenui, landing a Perfect Block will generate green ether for you to consume. You can spam this until your ether bar fills. Luckily, the second upgrade – which generates more ether on Perfect Blocks – does not need magatama to upgrade!

“Master of Blocking” will pop once you’ve successfully landed 30 Perfect Blocks.

6. Wakumusubi (Core Grab – HP Restoration)

The last piece of the triumvirate of core grabbing skills, Wakumusubi will restore some health for each successfully grabbed core. A combo of Fudo, Kukirihime, and Wakumusubi will make you a fast and deadly reaper of souls (literally) as you play Ghostwire.

The beauty of Wakumusubi, of course, is that being able to restore your health through battle actions diminishes the need to use recovery items. Particularly early in the game, it may be better to stock up on the items to use at later times against more difficult enemies than the more common ones you’ll see in the first few chapters.

7. Yumitsukai (Quiver Boost)

The only skill listed that in the Equipment tree, Yumitsukai is important because it increases the quiver capacity of the bow you gain from KK at his hideout.

Once you gain the bow, you can begin to snipe enemies, though only a headshot is guaranteed to kill them in one shot. Still, most of the early enemies will only take two or three shots to the body before succumbing, which can be quicker than using Ethereal Attacks. However, capacity is limited!

Each of the three upgrades increases the capacity by a few arrows. There is also a subbranch that deals with the draw speed of the bow, but will need magatama to complete.

“Take a Bow” will trigger for killing 50 enemies with the bow. “Go For the Eyes” will trigger for killing 20 enemies with headshots. “Sniper” will trigger for nailing a headshot from a distance of at least 40 meters.

There you have it, Outsider Gaming’s list of best early skills to target in Ghostwire: Tokyo. The three-pronged combo of Fudo, Kukirihime, and Wakumusubi will make you a powerful enemy for the Visitors. What other skills will you unlock early?