Ghost of Tsushima is a sprawling samurai epic about the quest of war survivor Jin Sakai fending off Mongolian invaders against insurmountable odds. It was quickly catapulted to a smashing success, breaking all sorts of sales records, all while we were still reeling from the controversy surrounding The Last of Us 2.

With the release of its multiplayer offering entitled “Legends”, Ghost of Tsushima adds tremendous value to its package, offering gameplay that’s worth its retail price and much more. It might get too intimidating to jump into, but here are some sure fire tips to help you level up and get you prepared to tackle the newly opened Raid.

Disclaimer – This isn’t a guide for the raid, but rather a guide for you to get ready to hop into the raid.

Start Off Masterless

The assassin class is the most popular class, and rightfully so. Their DPS is unmatched and they look cool with their kitsune mask and murderous intent. For the sake of this guide, humor me a bit and let’s start you off with a Ronin. It’s a support class, and a great class that will contribute to the team just by their Ultimate alone. Breath of Izanami is a powerful ultimate that resurrects fallen teammates no matter where they are on the map.

Why did I start you as a Ronin? Because we’re going to skip the story missions altogether and go to Bronze Survival mode. Personally, I find the story missions boring and once you’ve completed them, they’re a chore to repeat. Also you get to only partner up with one other person and trust me, that person doesn’t want to carry you the whole three chapters.

Survival mode brings four players into four different maps and my favorite is Blood In The Snow. It is small in size and it’s easier to traverse compared to Defense of Aoi Village and Shores of Vengeance. If you’re like me who’s not blessed by the Gamer Kami, you’re gonna suck for a while and you don’t want to let your team down. At least you can revive them and they will appreciate you for it because there are just way too many assassins in this game right now.

Take this time to learn the mechanics and your play style. If you’ve completed the main campaign, you’ll notice that you only have one stance and every class has a strength and weakness. You’re not the perfect landowner Jin Sakai, and your teammates don’t care if you have a platinum. They just care that you’re not dead weight. So level up to Character Rank 5 so you can bind Soothing Breath on your Breath of Izanami. That way you can heal your teammates with your ultimate without waiting for them to die. If you have to choose between a stance, choose Moon Stance, because as the game progresses, most endgame enemies are Brute types.

Optional: Use A Samurai to Solo The Story Missions

So you really want that bronze trophy of completing the story missions? I suggest using a Samurai to Solo them. Samurais are self-sufficient warriors that can heal themselves with their Special, have a basic ultimate that targets creeps in your path, and an all-around hardy tank that can get you far. Once you hit Rank 6, unlock the Samurai class. Complete the Bronze Story missions and don’t look back; unless you really want those Kappa masks.

Get To Gold As Fast As You Can

Your next step is to push your Ronin to Rank 10 so you can unlock the Healing Incense special. Now you don’t have to waste an Ultimate to heal teammates nearby. By this time your Ki is probably 35, so step up from Bronze to Silver. The purpose of this is to quickly boost your character to Gold (75 Ki Level).

A Ronin can support most classes (including other Ronin) and staying on Silver will be a short ride if you played your cards right. You can even try to be fancy by adding Fire Breath to your Ultimate replacing Soothing Breath. That way your offensive contributions are now heightened.

This time learn how to spend your Survival offerings on Gifts to better support your team. Spirit animals like multiple dogs or a spirit bear are a great buy during boss fights. If you didn’t earn 500, aim for the 400 regeneration gift. Your party will thank you during those tough rounds.

You’ll probably nab a Legendary item because the RNG works in mysterious ways. Don’t disassemble this gear item the way you have done with your Basic, Uncommon, and Rare loot. Save them for later and don’t start modifying your gear until Ki Level 105, Honor doesn’t come cheap.

Get to Character Rank 20

You’ve hit 75 Ki Level, and trust me you’ll get there quick with how the Matchmaking works. Jump to Gold Survival and don’t be intimidated of “Any Ghost Death Will Fail The Mission” parameter. You can still be knocked out, but you now have a 40 second window to be revived. It’s reason #38 why I suggested you start with Ronin; your team needs you now more than ever!

Push your character to Character Rank 20 and don’t settle for any loot that’s not Epic. When you hit Ki Level 105, and trust me if you’ve been following this guide to the letter, it’ll be fast. Upgrade your gear including your Legendary for the bling.

Make sure you have some Burning quality attached to your ghost weapons. Dirt Throw and Healing Gourd have been great for me in my experience. Smoke Bombs work best if you want to switch to an Assassin later. With that, you can actually hold your own on Gold Survival without too much piggy backing. By the time you hit Ki Level 105, Gold Survival becomes a tad easier just like when you graduated from Bronze and Silver Survival.

Also, be sure to choose Quick Play. As you can easily join a session in progress during matchmaking where you can come into play as late as wave 21/25 and still reap all the benefits of that session as though you’ve been there from the start. I’ve gotten some cool cosmetic rewards by doing this without the effort, so it’s worth it, plus you earn Quick Play bonuses that’ll net you extra Honor, which is currency to re-roll your gear. Karma definitely works, some douchebag disconnected and now the Matchmaking Kami brought you and this party together. They’ll also thank the RNG Deities that a Ronin has come to save the day.

Switch to Another Class

You’ve been waiting for this. Now that you have some amazing gear and by this time, you have the skill and muscle memory to tackle Gold Survival with other players, switch to your DPS character of choice if you haven’t already. Now that you’ve gotten good and have the gear to show for it, do some damage!

If choosing a Hunter, it’ll take until Character Rank 11 so you can have Eye of Uchitsune target two more enemies with your Ultimate for better board clearing. The same strategy works with a Samurai to get Hachiman’s Frenzy, which is the melee Ultimate equivalent of the Eye of Uchitsune. As a Samurai player, I find that this is the meta compared to Heavenly Strike. I don’t recommend equipping two Legendary equipment as I feel that the meta involves you adding onto your Ultimate to elevate it further.

However, if you really want to play as Ronin, you can continue to play this way because they have some pretty cool class benefits like the use of Concussion Bombs. While there is an option that it could be equipped on Assassins as well, they’re the primary class for this type of weapon and since I can’t use a bow worth a damn, it has been my favorite ranged weapon.

Now that you’re not playing a Ronin, you’ll totally wish you had one in your team.

The Grind To Ki Level 110

If you want to be really Raid Ready, Ki Level 105 isn’t going to cut it. Here’s the Catch-22, you need Ki level 110 to be Raid Ready, but there’s no way you can just pick up 110 Ki Level loot as they’re locked behind Raid and Nightmare Challenges. That is where the conundrum lies, how do we get 110 Ki level gear?

Nightmare Survival is what the name implies. Every enemy faced is not your regular chump, they’re all Oni-class madness. From special Oni among the ranks of Tengu to Sukhbatter, it’s not a joke on how tough the enemies strike. It’s like fighting all 25 waves on a Boss Round. However, since the max loot given on Gold is 105 Ki Level and you have to actually clear a Nightmare Story or a Nightmare Survival to claim a 110 Ki level gear. There is no half-assing it and dying halfway to claim some booty or experience. You die, you get nothing.

So you can go that route of hoping that your teammates will carry you through the slog or you could go about it the grind way, which would be going through Gold Survival and earning enough Honor to upgrade your choice gear to 110 Ki Level. That’s at a minimum of 2500 Honor because that would include your Melee, Ranged, Charm, and both Ghost Weapons. It could get more costly if you want to customize it for all four of your characters. To keep it nice and fresh, grind them all up to Rank 20, you get a shiny silver trophy for it.

Make Some Friends Along The Way

You probably have paid your dues and countless players have you to thank for saving their ass and getting some loot along the way. Some of them would even remember you and add you on PSN to be part of their squad. This is good because there is no Matchmaking on the Raid. Hit up those old teammates and join those Raid and Nightmare missions with your squad. Then you’re on your way to claiming those Heroic Cosmetic Items to show off.

If you think you could solo a Raid, you can. However, it’s only to take photos for the ‘Gram. Sure you could take on all the creeps and Oni by yourself that guard the gate impeding your progress. To open the gate, however, you need three warm bodies to step on those damn switches. Unless you’re Naruto and can Kage Bunshin your way in, it’s impossible. So enjoy those Unlimited Raid Continues because it’s one big waste of time by yourself.

While I’m not a big multiplayer fan, I really enjoyed Legends even more than the base game. It might seem repetitive but the loot and how you collaborate with your team makes it worth it. I haven’t encountered any rude players save for that one team that kept asking me to disconnect because my Rank 2 Hunter was useless. I didn’t because they can’t kick me out nor can they let me die else they lose out on the loot. I eventually jumped to Rank 7 and got a Legendary katana in the process. (Now that I think about it, I was the rude player)

Trust me though, build goodwill with your Ronin and the Karma Kami will reward you ten-fold.