Ghostwire: Tokyo Beginner’s Guide – 5 Top Tips and Tricks to Get You Started

by Mike Alexander / Game Guides, Tips & Tricks / 25 Oct 2023

Tango Gameworks‘ brand new horror fest, Ghostwire: Tokyo, is a game full of action and spirits. It eschews the standard gunplay of the survival horror genre in favor of many versatile spells based on natural elements. Each spell has a situation it is best suited for, and a target that is especially weak to it. These targets, however, are unlike any zombie or mutated monster you’ve seen in similar games. They are ghosts, spirits, yokai, and monsters from Japanese folklore that are all out to rip your head off, and it’s going to take expert use of your powers, strategy, and bravery to take them down and get out alive.

If you’re thinking about picking up Ghostwire: Tokyo, or if you have it already and need a few tips, I have several of those in this Ghostwire: Tokyo Beginner’s Guide. If you’re ready, put on your brave face and warm up your spell-casting hands, and let’s get started.

Use Charged Spells

Each spell you learn in Ghostwire: Tokyo will have varying levels of base power. How powerful it is will also usually determine the amount of spell ammo each one gets. But, if you hold down R2 instead of quick-tapping to cast, you will get an altered, more powerful version of that same spell. For instance, a charged windweave spell will cast two projectiles instead of one, waterweave will cast a wider horizontal attack, and the fireweave which will cast a high-damage grenade-style attack instead of a single fireball. Each spell can be upgraded to increase its power, and your charging ability can also be upgraded to reduce the time it takes to reach a full charge. As a bonus, the powered-up spells will use the same amount of ammo as a regular cast.

Learn The Perfect Block

Ghostwire: Tokyo has a couple defensive options for your combat encounters. There’s a block move tied to the L1 button, which will negate most of the incoming damage and allow you to quickly retaliate with your own spell attacks. There is also a “perfect block” maneuver that you can do if you tap L1 at the right time before an attack connects with you. This will negate all incoming damage and stun the attacker, making them take more damage when you retaliate. This is essentially a parry, and as with all parries, learning the timing on it will take some practice, but it’s definitely worth it. Additionally, using perfect block on enemy projectiles will send them hurtling back, damaging the originator.

Don’t Forget To Eat

You’ll find food scattered all throughout Tokyo as you explore the city. You can pick this food up to add it to your inventory, and you should eat it whenever you’re running low on health. This is the primary way to regain your health, and each time you eat something your maximum health stat will increase little by little. There are also spectral food items, which will also heal you and increase your health bar with the added benefit of providing some kind of limited-time stat buff.

Stop To Pray

Also scattered throughout the city are prayer statues. These effigies will provide the very helpful service of increasing your maximum spell ammo. Which spell they increase for will be determined by the pop of color against their stone construction. Often it’ll be a hat or a scarf that is either green, blue, or red to correspond with your wind, water, and fire attacks in that order. It may be worth seeking these statues out early in the game if you want to get a jump on your spell capacity, which will make some of the larger encounters more digestible. If you find yourself running out of ammo, You’ll sometimes regain some ammo from killing enemies, and you can refill spells by destroying the floating blue object throughout the environment.

Earn Extra Money

You’ll need money in Ghostwire: Tokyo to purchase supplies, and there are a few ways to gain it outside of mission rewards. First, you can complete orders for the nekomata at their various stalls. Each order will require you to do or obtain something from the city, and in return you will receive money and bonus items. Your earnings will be boosted if you complete multiple orders from any one nekomata. When you find dog food, get it! You can use your spectral vision to feed the stray dogs you find around the city, and they will dig up extra money and items for you in return. You can also pet them after for being so helpful!

Conclusion

There you go, yokai hunters! I hope these tips are useful to you as you progress through Ghostwire: Tokyo. As long as you aren’t afraid of horrifying nightmare creatures created by ancient Japanese folklore, you’ll be fine! Probably…

Mike Alexander

Mike has been playing video games since he was able to hold a controller, having been fascinated by Sonic 2 on his mom’s Sega Genesis. That fascination and passion for the art form has grown exponentially nearly 30 years later, and he doesn’t see that fading away anytime soon.
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