You've Been Playing Ghost Of Tsushima All Wrong.

From taking breaks to compose haiku to following foxes across the game's beautiful titular island, Ghost of Tsushima can be relaxing, but it can also be brutal if you're not prepared. Grab that katana, because we're gonna teach you the way of the samurai.

Ghost of Tsushima is one of the rare games that makes the touchpad of the PlayStation DualShock 4 controller actually pretty useful. If you swipe left, you can take out and start playing your flute, which allows you to change the weather, and is also just kinda pretty to listen to.

If you swipe right, you can clean and put away your sword in a cool animation that was initially seen in gameplay trailers for Ghost of Tsushima. While this little trick doesn't seem to have any gameplay implications, it makes you look pretty badass.

If you swipe up, you'll summon the Guiding Wind, which will lead you where you need to go. You can use it to find a marked location and to get collectibles. If you swipe down, you'll bow, which is kind of a "show of respect" mechanic, but it also lets you unlock the "Honor the Unseen" trophy if you do it in front of hidden altars.

Whenever you come across one of the hundreds of Japanese corpses scattered throughout the land, you can make Jin bow to the body and he'll say some reverent, departing statement. Jury's still out on which directional swipe will let you tackle bovine NPCs away from bonfires.

It's for your own good, Bessie! If you want to survive Ghost of Tsushima, you're going to need as much Resolve as possible. You use Resolve for health recovery and for special skills. And one way you can increase your Resolve bar permanently is to find the 16 Bamboo Strikes located all over the map.

Searching these out basically provides you with a quick and fun mini-game that puts your reaction speeds to the test, with the result that you can use your Resolve to heal faster and pull off special moves. First, you have to find them. You'll notice Bamboo Strikes are marked with a white banner on the map.

Winning the extra Resolve requires you to play a short mini-game to strike down the bamboo stalks. You'll be presented with a combination of action buttons, and then you have to press them rapidly within the time allotted. Once you've done this three times with increasingly larger and more frustrating combinations, you'll get your reward.

As you travel through the world, you'll see golden birds flying above you. While it may not be immediately obvious to you what they're for, you're definitely going to want to follow them. It's all part of the Ghost of Tsushima's built-in method for getting you where you should go.

Watch out for these yellow songbirds, and if you can't hear them, you might want to activate your Focused Hearing ability to pick them up more easily. Basically, the birds take you to the nearest point of interest. This could be an enemy camp, a haiku location, a side quest, or just a really pretty landscape.

Whatever it is, you'll find something to do there and it will be worth your time. Plus, they represent a sweet bit of foreshadowing. Remember this scene from the beginning of the game? "You're not alone, Jin. Your father is the wind at your back. Your mother, the birds in the trees…" Among the places of interest the golden birds may lead you to in Ghost of Tsushima, the haiku locations allow you to sit down, enjoy the beauty of the scenery, and compose poetry.

It's not particularly groundbreaking poetry, as you're basically given three pre-written lines to put together and their meaning doesn't get terribly profound. "A hidden respite. Gently cleansing, stand refreshed. Prepared to change course." Still, this little activity can net you some rewards, such as headbands you can use to change and customize Jin's appearance, whether your haiku is good or not.

Additionally, it gives you a moment's respite to recharge a bit if your last battle was overly tough. Now, that doesn't mean you'll get any extra healing or anything, but you will be able to more fully immerse yourself within this atmospheric world, which is worth slowing down the pace a touch.

At the beginning of Ghost of Tsushima, you'll have a single combat stance to utilize. However, as you progress through the game and defeat Mongol leaders, you'll start to unlock other stance options. Since you've already grown accustomed to the original stance, you may not initially think to use the stances you eventually earn, but you should start practicing them immediately.

It makes a big difference in the game, especially once you start upgrading them and using complimentary armor. Don't just stick with one stance during the course of a battle. You should alternate between them all, and you should be changing it up as you go on the offense to take down your opponents, who appear to like traveling and attacking in groups.

Y'see, each individual enemy requires a different stance to achieve the best results: Stone for Swordsmen, Water for Shields, Wind for Spears and Polearms, and Moon for Brutes. When you use these combat stances against their corresponding enemy type, you can definitely deal some major stagger damage that'll make it much easier for you to get in a life-ending combo.

Once you injure an opponent in battle, you may see one of your nearby enemies start to crawl away from you. If you're tempted to show mercy and let any stragglers go, don't. When you're prompted to "End Suffering," do it. And no, this isn't a morality thing, it's a gameplay thing.

You'll get an extra Resolve boost from ending their lives instead of letting them go. Grisly, huh? This is something you were briefly taught during the tutorial as a piece of text exhorting you to "kill enemies," although you may not have taken it to mean all your enemies, all the time.

Each time you defeat someone, you'll receive one charge. You may receive up to three charges for a each kill during standoffs. Since you definitely want as much Resolve as you can get, this is a good way to recharge. Squelch your squeamishness about those brutal, gory kills and execute those who oppose you.