In Ghostwire Tokyo, Akito is possessed by the soul of KK and with it his ability to combat the supernatural. He also inherits equipment vital to bringing back the lost souls scattered around Shibuya back to the living world.
Akito naturally acquires these powers as the game progresses. The equipment, on the other hand, is slowly introduced via vendors and by cleansing shrines.
Upgrading these abilities, ethereal weaving, and equipment requires Skill Points. With some requiring additional Magatama to unlock the next tier. Skill points are acquired by leveling up. You can also get 20 Skill Points when collecting KK’s investigation Files.
What are Ghost Abilities in Ghostwire Tokyo?
Ghost Abilities gives the players the advantage they need in combat, some of the Ghost Abilities help the players traverse through Ghostwire Tokyo’s open-world. There are
There are many dangers that come from the Ghost World brought about by negative emotions and ill intent. As a result, they are often hostile towards the living and particularly Akito.
Outside of combat, these abilities are helpful for getting the jump on enemies or just getting around the city. While in combat, they improve your effectiveness in dealing with multiple threats.
All Ghost Abilities in Ghostwire Tokyo
Spectral Vision
Spectral Vision can reveal hidden traces of physic energy left behind on objects, allowing you to track people and other things of interest.
Other purposes include:
- Locate points of interest, Visitors, torii gates, spirits, yokai, etc.
- Uncover weak points on large Visitors, as well as corruption cores and barrier stones.
- Track down key items, consumables, relics, and KK’s investigation notes.
- Talk to animals.
When activating Spectral Vision, you’ll hear a bell chime if there’s something special like a Jizo statue, offering box, or omikuji nearby.
How to use Spectral Vision
To use Spectral Vision, press (Square) to initiate the scan. The power radiates outward, and much like sonar, it reveals the outlines closest to you until it reaches its limits.
Spectral Vision upgrades
There are two additional levels to Spectral Vision. Both of them extend the range of the scan.
- Spectral Vision – Level 1: 40 meters range boost
- Spectral Vision – Level 2: 50 meters range boost
Grappling
You move through the air by making use of your grapple and glide abilities.
You may not grapple with just anything. You can only grapple onto Tengu flying around the city. With an upgrade, you can summon a Tengu and grapple there for a one-time jump.
How to Grapple
To grapple, hold (L2), aim at a tengu, and then press (X) to grapple. A ghostly wire will then extend and by using that, the player will rapidly pull them into the air.
Grapple Upgrade
There is only one level to the grapple’s upgrade, and it is a pricey one. But upgrading it is more than worth it since it will allow you to summon a Tengu for you to grapple onto.
Gliding
Gliding allows Akito to suspend himself mid-air for a short period of this. This is especially when trying to jump the gaps between buildings.
How to Glide
To glide, hold (X) While high up in midair to glide for a short time. You’ll start to descend if you release (X). You’ll slowly descend at first but rapidly fall after a couple of seconds.
Gliding Upgrades
There are two additional levels for the glide ability. Both of which extend float duration:
- Gliding – Level 1: 3 seconds duration boost.
- Gliding – Level 2: 5 seconds duration boost.
Hand Seals
Bypassing barriers and other obstacles will sometimes require the use of hand seals. Commonly seen on afflicted spirits, these barriers need to be removed first before you can save the trapped spirits.
How to use Hand Seals
To initiate hand seals, use the (right analog stick) or the (touchpad) to form the different signs as directed onscreen. Once the sign has been formed, press (L2) and (R2) to complete the seal.
Cleansing Torii Gates
Corrupt torii gates are the source of the fog that hurts Akito and blocks your progression. The only way to ‘clear the air’ is to cleanse torii gates. After cleansing a torii gate, the fog in the surrounding area will be cleared.
How to Cleanse Torii Gates
To cleanse torii gates, hold (L2) until the action is complete.
Strike Attack
Strike attacks allow you to hit foes without expending SP. They can also be used to break open chunks of crystalized ether.
How to Strike Attack
Pressing (R3) will launch a strike attack.
Strike Attack Upgrades
Strike attack has one upgrade called Ether Shakedown. This causes ether to appear when hitting enemies with strike attacks. An upgraded version of this move nearly doubles the ether drop amount.
Quick Purge
This will take down most enemies instantly and heavily damage those that survive the attack.
How to Use Quick Purge
When behind an unaware enemy, press (L2) to hit them with a powerful Quick Purge.
Extracting Cores
Bringing down a Visitor’s outer defenses will expose their inner core.
How to extract cores
When the core is exposed, press (L2) to extract it. This will instantly vanquish the Visitor.
Core Extraction Upgrades
There are four upgrades when it comes to extracting cores
- Core Grab – HP Restoration
- Grabbing cores recovers a small amount of HP.
- Core Exposure – Duration Boost
- Extends the time cores are exposed and enemies vulnerable.
- Melee Core Grab
- Allows you to quickly grab cores within melee range.
- Ground Core Grab
- Allows you to grab the core of downed enemies.
All these upgrades have a second tier to them.
Wire In
There will be times when you are going to be overwhelmed by Visitors and all that fighting will put a strain on your SP reserves. It’s a good thing then that there is a power that can give you a fighting chance when you need it most. Called Wire in, this ability gives you an opening to damage enemies and potentially crawl yourself out of sticky situations.
Wiring in will completely restore SP for Ethereal Weaving, it will also unleash a powerful shockwave around Akito, which will blast smaller foes away and stun stronger ones.
While wired in, the resonance gauge will gradually drain, and Akito will be returned to his normal state when it runs out. But during that time, it becomes easier to expose Visitor cores with attacks.
Resonance increases after successfully extracting enemy cores or using Quick Purge while not wired in.
How to Wire In
To wire in, press (L3) and (R3) simultaneously when Akito’s resonance with KK is at maximum. ‘Wire In’ status can also be canceled by the same input.
How to Build up Resonance for Wire In
Raise your resonance gauge by extracting cores from enemies or by using Quick Purge. Once it is full, you can use the ‘Wire In’ ability.
Wire in upgrades
There are two levels to Wire in, both of them extend the time you remain wired in.
Ghost Resources in Ghostwire Tokyo
Ether and Crytalized Ether
You will come across crystalized ether that can be destroyed with Ethereal Weaving or with Strike Attacks. Doing so will shatter the deposit and release a shower of ether.
Absorbing ether restores SP, the energy used to perform Ethereal Weaving attacks. Ether comes in three elements: wind, water, and fire. Each will restore the corresponding type of SP.
Defeating Visitors will also procure ether.
Faraway ether won’t be absorbed automatically, but you can still pull it towards by pressing (L2).
Yellow Ether Crystals
As you explore Shibuya, you may occasionally come across shining yellow ether crystals. They will award you with valuable meika when shattered, so be sure to take advantage of them.
Red Ether Crystals
As you explore Shibuya, you may occasionally come across shining red ether crystals. They will explore when shattered and can be used to your advantage to damage Visitors within their blast radius.
Red ether crystals will also release red ether when destroyed, restoring SP for Fire Weaving.
Magatama
In addition to ordinary spirits, you can also absorb yokai, which will reward you with magatama. Magatama are used on the Skills Menu to unlock sections of the skill tree and open up new skills to learn.
Shrine Buffs
Omikuji Effects
At shrines, you can draw paper fortunes known as “omikuji”. These fortunes can be good or bad and will affect you accordingly for a short period of time.
Potential effects, ordered from luckiest to unluckiest:
- Daikichi: For a limited time, XP rewards for defeating Visitors will be tripled, and enemies will be unable to harm you.
- Kichi: For a limited time, damage inflicted by Visitors will be halved.
- Chukichi: For a limited time, your HP will not decrease beyond critical level (excluding for damage).
- Suekichi: The wind carries the faint strains of the Tokyo Bon Dance.
- Kyo: Visitors spring forth nearby.
- Daikyo: Your HP is immediately reduced to 1.
Offerings
When you make an offering of meika, you’ll be rewarded in proportion to the amount that you donate.
Once you’ve confirmed the amount of meika you wish to offer, you’ll then choose a prayer to complete the process.
When offering 500 meika, you get to choose whether to reveal the locations of relics, Jizo statues, or Tanuki hiding spots. One thing to remember though, you can’t just spam the offerings to know all the locations. The offering also goes into cooldown once you’ve made a wish.
One final note, offerings only reveal the location of things within the shrine area. It will not reveal things outside of that area.
Alternatively, you can make an offering to have Health and SP. When wishing for health, the shrine will spawn Spectral Food. Wishing for SP will spawn in additional Ether for SP.
Ghostwire Tokyo – Best Abilities
The best abilities in Ghostwire Tokyo are those that afford you the greatest amount of freedom to move around the city without having to go through every Visitor you encounter.
With that in mind, you’ll want to invest in Grapple upgrade early. It’s a bit pricey as it requires a lot of Magamata to unlock but it’s more than worth. The upgrade itself allows you to summon a Tengu for you to grapple onto. This is huge as it removes much of the struggle that comes with the game’s vertically. Many of the game’s lost spirits are hanging around rooftops and this simple move can save you lots of time and effort. Also, the move allows you to quickly get out of trouble when need be, or even avoid Visitors all together.
Just keep in mind the limits to the angle and range of the ability. Additionally, the grapple applies to most building tops and some walls. It won’t activate with just any high surfaces.
The second best ablity is the glide ability but specifically the upgraded version. Buildings across major streets in Ghostwire Tokyo are often split far apart. Needless to say, if you can glide towards your intended target there’s no need to spend time performing parkour to get there.
And finally, the third best ability you’ll want to invest in after grappling and gliding is the Spectral Vision ability. 30 meters is the default range and though it may initially serve you well, if you can upgrade it to 50 meters, you can see things all the way down on ground level from high buildings and vise versa.
And that’s all there is to all things spirit related and Equipment. I hope this guide has at least informed you of a few things about them.
To learn more about Ghostwire Tokyo and its gameplay, check out Bethesda Softworks’ Official Gameplay Deep Dive.
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