(Updated 8/22/2021) Ghost of Tsushima’s charm system is beautiful in it’s simplicity; You’re allowed 2 major charms and 4 minor ones once you’ve fully unlocked all the slots for them. Synergizing them with your armor, ghost tools and preferred weapon can turn you from an average assassin to a supreme dealer of death. Let’s outline the best stealth (and stealth-beneficial) charms in Ghost of Tsushima. If you need help finding them, check out the Ghost of Tsushima Fandom Wiki.
The best major charms for stealth
- Incineration: Enemies struck by Black Powder Bombs catch on fire and deal Burn damage to nearby foes. If you’re focusing on combining fire effects and terror (more on that below), Incineration can be a fantastic boon.
- Ikazuchi-no-Kami: Perks and abilities that Terrify are 25% more likely to occur. Terror is a fantastic effect, and this charm delivers in spades. Combine this with the Fortune minor charms and you’ll eliminate many of your foes without even having to attack them (bonus: Check out my Ghost of Tsushima stealth terror build, which relies on this).
- Toxic Demise: Wind chimes release poison vapors that kill enemies who pick them up. Wind chimes are incredibly prolific, and if you want to avoid combat entirely, this is one of many ways you can do it. Though the description says “enemies who pick them up”, it also works on dogs (saving you the hassle of having to take them out in combat).
- Hidden Blades: Throw two additional Kunai. Kunai can be incredibly powerful in a Ghost weapons focused build, so don’t neglect this charm!
- Nekoma’s Hunt: Even without maxing it out by playing Flute Hero for the kitties, this charm is perfect for the ghosts out there who want to stealthily eliminate as many foes as possible. It allows you to throw a kunai at a distant target as part of a chain assassination, meaning you can take out up to 4 people in one chain! Note that you must have kunai in your inventory in order to do this. Fully maxed you can throw a single kunai at someone up to 25m during your chain assassination.
The best minor charms for stealth
- Advantage: Ghost Weapons deal 20% more damage. This is absolutely crucial for a ghost weapon focused build, and most importantly, you can get 2 of these, boosting damage by 40%.
- Fire Doctrine: Burning an enemy has a 15% chance to Terrify nearby enemies. Combined with Incineration, Ikazuchi-no-Kami and Fortune charms provides a different way to rely on terror without making use of Ghost Armor (especially useful if you’re going for a Ghost weapons build utilizing the Kensei armor).
- Silence: Reduces enemy detection speed by 15% and increases Resolve gains by a Massive amount. This is just a nice filler charm for stealth players of all types. If you’ve got a free charm slot, grab it!
- Fortune I & Fortune II: Effects with a % chance to occur are 50% more likely to occur. If you’re going for a terror-focused style of play, you absolutely need both of these, as your chance to terrify enemies goes up significantly!
Looking for the best archer-related charms? We’ll cover that next week!