Ghost of Yotei weapons: what Sucker Punch has confirmed and what it means for combat
Ghost of Yotei weapons define almost every decision a player makes on the open road across Ezo. Sucker Punch Productions built the sequel on a three-year gap from Ghost of Tsushima, and the most visible shift in the new game is the loadout system: instead of a single sword stance rotation, Atsu carries two weapon groups at once, and each group can mix melee and ranged tools. That change turns weapon choice from a cosmetic preference into a build decision that affects stance, reach, combo flow, stealth, and boss damage.
This article is written for players who want a working map of the arsenal before launch. It draws on Sucker Punch’s official previews, the studio’s DigiPen production interview, and the publicly released gameplay from PlayStation’s State of Play. It is not a full database, because Sucker Punch has not released every weapon or every variant. Where a detail is uncertain, the article says so. Where a detail is confirmed, the article ties it back to the source so you can verify the claim yourself.
You will find a category-by-category breakdown of melee and ranged ghost of yotei weapons, an explanation of how the dual-loadout system works in practice, a comparison table for stance and reach, and a focused FAQ at the end.
The confirmed ghost of yotei weapons list at a glance
Sucker Punch has shown seven weapon families for Atsu in pre-launch coverage, spread across two loadout slots. The first slot is the “primary” group, and the second slot is the “secondary” group. Each slot can hold one melee weapon plus a paired ranged option, and you can swap between the two slots with a single button. The table below summarizes the families that have been demonstrated, what category they fall into, and the combat role they appear to fill. The exact names and damage numbers below are drawn from official Sucker Punch gameplay and developer commentary; finer numbers such as per-hit damage have not been published and are intentionally left out.
| Weapon family | Category | Combat role | Pairing note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Katana (standard) | Primary melee | Balanced stance with fluid combos, standard reach | Pairs with long bow or matchlock |
| Dual katanas | Primary melee | Faster stance, lower per-hit damage, strong against groups | Often paired with kusarigama in off slot |
| Odachi | Primary melee | Heavy stance, wide sweeps, slow recovery | Paired with shorter range for spacing |
| Kusarigama | Secondary melee | Chain-and-sickle mid-range, strong versus shields | Paired with katana for reach mix |
| Yari | Secondary melee | Spear reach, good against mounted foes and wolves | Paired with bow for open-field control |
| Long bow | Ranged | Mid-range precision, silent kills, hunter utility | Slots into any primary or secondary |
| Tanegashima (matchlock) | Ranged | Heavy single-shot damage, loud, slow reload | Best paired with fast melee for close follow-up |
You can change the contents of each slot at any workbench, but you cannot carry all seven families at once. The decision is which two melee weapons to combine, and which ranged tool each of them will share a slot with. That decision shapes how Atsu feels, which encounters you will want to seek out, and which you will want to avoid.
How the dual loadout system changes combat
In Ghost of Tsushima, Jin Sakai was a single-katana protagonist. The most common build choice was which second stance to unlock, but the weapon itself was fixed. Ghost of Yotei removes that constraint. Atsu picks up weapons as she travels, can keep several in her pack, and swaps the active pair on the fly. From Sucker Punch’s own previews, the system has three consequences that matter for combat.
First, stance becomes a property of a weapon, not a property of the character. A dual-katana user does not have a “water stance,” they have a different set of parry windows and combo strings than a heavy-odachi user. That makes weapon choice a stance choice, and stance choice is the largest single source of damage in any given fight.
Second, ranged weapons are now an integrated part of the loadout instead of a side tool. A bow and a matchlock live in the same slot as your melee weapon, so the slot decision also decides whether you bring a silent ranged option or a loud one. Silent options help in stealth and bounty hunts, loud options help in open combat and against armoured targets.
Third, the swap between the two loadout slots is fast enough to use mid-fight. Sucker Punch has demonstrated a moment in which Atsu opens with a long-bow volley from a hilltop, drops into a camp, swaps to dual katanas, clears three enemies, swaps to a kusarigama to pull a shield off a captain, and finishes the encounter with a single matchlock shot. That sequence is not a flashy trailer beat, it is a regular combat loop in the finished game.
Primary melee: katana, dual katanas, and odachi
The three confirmed primary melee weapons form a triangle of speed, reach, and weight. Sucker Punch has been deliberate about giving each one a distinct rhythm in the hand, and the differences show up in the first few seconds of a fight.
The standard katana is the closest analogue to Ghost of Tsushima’s combat and the most forgiving of the three. Its stance supports a flowing mix of light and heavy attacks, has the cleanest parry timing, and is the weapon the developers used in the majority of the gameplay demos. New players who want the smoothest route through the campaign can stay in this stance and still see the full moveset. The katana’s animations lean on Iaijutsu-style draws, so each heavy attack commits to a single arc and returns to a neutral guard without a long recovery. That makes the standard katana the easiest weapon to learn and the hardest to play at a high level, because the stance rewards reading the enemy rather than committing to a plan.
The dual katanas are faster, hit more often, and trade raw per-hit damage for stagger pressure. Sucker Punch has shown the stance working best against groups of lightly armoured soldiers. Each swing is a short, fast arc, and the stance’s signature move is a spinning slash that catches multiple targets in a single combo. The trade-off is reach. Dual katanas have the shortest melee range of any of the primary options, and against a single heavy opponent with a polearm or an odachi-class weapon, the player has to manage spacing carefully to avoid trading hits. Dual katanas also drain more resolve per combo because the per-hit stagger is lower, so a player who runs out of resolve mid-fight will feel the cost of the stance.
The odachi is the heavy end of the triangle. It has the longest reach of any melee weapon that can sit in the primary slot, the heaviest single hit, and the slowest recovery on a whiff. The stance rewards commitment: heavy attacks can break guard outright, and the wide sweeps catch multiple targets in a single arc. It is the weapon the developers have used most often against duels, large enemies, and arena bosses, and it is the option a player reaches for when the plan is to end the fight in a small number of powerful hits rather than a long sequence of safe ones. The odachi’s downside is its stamina cost: a missed heavy attack leaves a long recovery, and a player who is used to the faster katana will need to retrain the timing of dodges and parries to avoid being caught at the end of a swing.
| Primary melee | Speed | Reach | Per-hit damage | Best target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Katana | Medium | Medium | Medium | Mixed groups, duels, story fights |
| Dual katanas | Fast | Short | Low per hit, high total | Light groups, wolves, humanoid bandits |
| Odachi | Slow | Long | High | Heavies, duelists, arena bosses |
All three primary melee options accept the same ranged pairing slots, so the second decision is which ranged tool to bind to the primary weapon. The cleanest mental model is: pick the ranged tool by the encounter type you expect, then pick the primary melee by the in-fight rhythm you want.
Secondary melee: kusarigama and yari
The two confirmed secondary melee weapons are reach-and-control tools, and both come with a built-in trade against the primary slot. The slot system forces a player to give up something to take one of them, so it is worth thinking about what the rest of the loadout looks like before committing.
The kusarigama is a chain with a sickle at one end and a weight at the other. In Sucker Punch’s demos, the weapon reads as a mid-range control option. The chain can pull shields out of position and can interrupt a wind-up from a captain-class enemy, which makes it the cleanest answer to heavily armoured foes that absorb light katana strikes. The cost is the same as the dual katanas: reach is shorter than a spear and the timing windows for the chain pull are narrow. The developers have shown the kusarigama working best as a setup tool, opening a heavy for a primary weapon follow-up rather than as a stand-alone killer. A second trade is the chain’s wind-up: each pull animation locks Atsu into a fixed arc for a fraction of a second, and an enemy that sidesteps will leave the player open. The kusarigama is a position-creator, not a panic button.
The yari is a spear, and its role is reach and spacing. Sucker Punch has used the yari most often against mounted enemies and against wolves, which is a useful signal about where the team expects the player to use it. A yari user controls distance, denies charges, and can punish a wolf or rider that commits to a closing lunge. The trade is that the yari’s combos are simpler than a katana’s, so a player who picks the yari as the primary slot will rely on the loadout swap to bring the combo depth back in. The yari also has the longest recovery in the game on a missed thrust, because the weapon has to be drawn back from full extension, and a player who is used to the standard katana’s short recovery will need to relearn the dodge timing against a counter-attacking enemy.
Choosing one of these as the secondary slot means giving up the other. Sucker Punch has not confirmed whether the yari and the kusarigama can both sit in a single loadout, and based on the previews it is safer to plan around picking one per loadout. In practice that means a player has to choose between shield control and reach control, because the slot system will not let a player bring both at once.
- Pick the kusarigama when the route includes a high density of shield-bearing enemies and captains.
- Pick the yari when the route includes open-field combat, wolf packs, or mounted patrols.
- Use the secondary slot to cover the weakness of the primary slot rather than to double up on the same role.
- Treat the secondary slot as a setup tool for the primary slot, not as a second main weapon.
Ranged ghost of yotei weapons: long bow and matchlock
Sucker Punch has shown two ranged options. Both fit into either loadout slot, and both have clearly different roles. The choice between them is closer to a play-style decision than the melee choice, because the ranged tool is the one that decides whether a fight starts in stealth or in the open.
The long bow is the silent ranged option. Sucker Punch’s gameplay has used it for tagging enemies before a stealth approach, for breaking line-of-sight from watchtowers, and for picking off archers and wolf pack leaders from a distance. The bow is also the cleanest answer to a bounty target that needs to be tracked before the fight, because it can fire without alerting a camp and it works in the same range band as the predator-style side content the developers have previewed. The bow’s nock animation can be done on the move, which means a player can keep pace with a moving patrol while still landing a headshot, and the bow’s draw can be held for a short window to time a shot. The trade is per-shot damage: even with a headshot bonus, a bow will not one-shot a captain, so the bow is a setup tool rather than a finisher.
The tanegashima matchlock is the loud ranged option. It has a long reload, a single shot before the reload window, and the loudest firing sound in the game. Sucker Punch has used the matchlock for one-shot kills on captains and for opening duels. Because the shot is loud, it also pulls nearby enemies toward the player, so the matchlock is best treated as a setup for a melee follow-up rather than as a tool for staying hidden. The matchlock’s reload also requires a planted stance, so firing it in the middle of a running fight is not possible; the player has to commit to a stationary position for the duration of the reload.
| Ranged | Noise | Reload | Per-shot damage | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long bow | Silent | Fast, nockable on the move | Medium, headshot bonus | Stealth, predator contracts, sniping archers |
| Tanegashima matchlock | Loud | Slow, requires a planted stance | Very high, can one-shot captains | Opening duels, removing heavies, loud assaults |
A useful mental model is to bind the long bow to the stealth-oriented loadout and the matchlock to the open-combat loadout. The slot you bind the bow to is the slot you use when you want to start a fight on your own terms; the slot you bind the matchlock to is the slot you use when you are ready to commit to the brawl.
How stance, reach, and parry windows work in practice
Sucker Punch has been careful in its previews to show that each weapon’s stance changes three things at once: the parry window, the recovery time after a heavy attack, and the reach of a standard combo string. The single most common failure players will run into is reading the recovery time of one weapon as if it belonged to another. An For additional context, odachi’s heavy attack opens a longer window for a counter than a dual-katana’s heavy attack, and a player who is used to one will mistime the other if they do not retrain the rhythm.
Reach is the second thing that changes between stances, and the easiest to internalise. The yari has the longest reach in the game, the odachi is close behind, the standard katana is the middle, the kusarigama is a step shorter than a katana because the chain has to be paid out, and the dual katanas are the shortest. Reach matters most in two situations: closing a distance against a mounted enemy and denying a charge from a wolf pack. In both, the longer the reach, the safer the opening. Reach also matters against the captain-class enemies that Sucker Punch has used in the demos, because a captain’s wind-up animation is long enough to interrupt only with a weapon that can reach them from a safe distance.
Parry windows are the hardest to internalise because they do not scale linearly with reach. A heavier weapon has a more generous parry window at the cost of a longer commitment on a failed parry, while a faster weapon has a tighter window but recovers more cleanly when the parry succeeds. That structure is the design reason behind the dual-loadout system: if every weapon parried the same way, there would be no reason to swap. The same pattern shows up in the post-parry punish: a heavy weapon’s punish is a single high-damage counter, while a fast weapon’s punish is a short combo that trades raw damage for a faster return to neutral guard.
What Sucker Punch has confirmed about upgrades and progression
Sucker Punch has not published a full upgrade tree. From the previews and from the production interview with Maria Bourg, three things are confirmed. First, weapons gain new moves through use rather than through a single linear upgrade quest. The system resembles the technique points in Ghost of Tsushima, but the previewed interface groups upgrades by weapon family rather than by stance, so each weapon has its own small progression track. Second, the workbench is the only place where the contents of a loadout slot can be changed, which means fast travel or on-foot travel back to a workbench is part of the loop. Workbenches are placed at settlements and at certain camps, and Sucker Punch has shown that they double as a save point and a fast-travel anchor. Third, weapon cosmetics exist, and they are independent of weapon performance, so a player can change the look of an odachi without changing its damage profile.
The interview is also the most direct source on the design intent. As producer Maria Bourg has explained in a public profile of the project, the team built the dual-loadout system to widen the space of valid builds and to let players express a personal style in the same way that Ghost of Tsushima let players pick a charm set. The full interview covers the team’s reasoning in more detail, including how the open-world structure of Ezo shaped the decision to let players swap weapons on the fly rather than locking the choice behind a quest. The encyclopedia entry on the game itself also describes the broader project context, including the choice to set the game in 1603 and the shift from Tsushima’s fixed stance rotation to Yotei’s weapon-based stances.
What has not been confirmed about ghost of yotei weapons
Three things are commonly repeated by pre-release coverage and have not been confirmed by Sucker Punch. First, the existence of a naginata as a separate weapon family. Some early hands-on previews mentioned a polearm, but the developers have only named the yari, and the in-game weapon model that has been shown in previews is a yari rather than the curved-blade naginata. Second, the exact damage numbers for each weapon. The closest confirmed number is the matchlock’s ability to one-shot a captain, and even that is context-dependent: a headshot with the matchlock will one-shot most captains, but a body shot on an armoured captain will not. Third, the total number of named weapons in the final game. Sucker Punch has shown seven families, but the studio has not said whether more will appear later, and the open-world structure leaves room for hidden or event-gated weapons.
It is also worth saying that Ghost of Yotei is an open-world game, and the developers have left the door open for late-game weapons. The safest working assumption is that the seven families above are the base, and additional weapons will arrive as side-content rewards. Sucker Punch has not yet published a roadmap for post-launch weapons, so the most useful plan is to treat the seven families as the confirmed base and to wait for an official announcement before planning a build around a weapon that has not been shown.
Choosing a loadout for a new playthrough
For a first run, the simplest and most forgiving loadout is a standard katana in the primary slot paired with a long bow, and a kusarigama in the secondary slot paired with the matchlock. That gives Atsu a quiet option for stealth, a heavy option for duels, a control option for shields, and a one-shot ranged finisher. It also leaves both loadout slots covering distinct roles, which is the design intent of the system. The katana covers the medium range, the kusarigama covers the shield-bearing captain, the bow covers the approach, and the matchlock covers the duel opener.
For a second run, the more interesting choice is to lean into one weakness. A player who has not enjoyed stealth can bind a matchlock to the primary slot and an odachi to the secondary, which makes every encounter an open fight. The matchlock’s loud shot is no longer a problem because the player is already committed to combat, and the odachi’s heavy hits are the cleanest answer to the captain-class enemies that the matchlock cannot one-shot reliably. A player who has not enjoyed open combat can bind a long bow to the primary slot and dual katanas to the secondary, which keeps the play loop on the perimeter. The bow tags the priority targets, the dual katanas clean up the rest, and the swap is fast enough to recover if a target closes the distance.
For a third run, the strongest option is the yari plus long bow combination in the primary slot and the odachi plus matchlock in the secondary. This is the most demanding loadout to learn, because the yari and the odachi have the most different rhythms in the game, but it is also the most flexible in boss fights, because the player can switch between the longest reach and the heaviest hit on demand. The yari keeps the boss at a safe distance while the player learns the attack pattern, and the odachi is the answer once a window opens for a committed heavy swing. The matchlock in the secondary slot covers the moments when the boss is armoured and the yari’s thrust is not enough to stagger.
A fourth option, often overlooked, is the all-stealth loadout. Bind the long bow to the primary slot and the kusarigama to the secondary, with no matchlock at all. This is the cleanest approach for players who want to clear every camp without ever being seen, because the bow can tag the priority targets from a distance and the kusarigama can pull a shield off a captain without alerting the rest of the camp. The trade is that the player has no loud option, so any mistake is punished by a full alert.
How loadouts interact with Ezo’s regions and activities
The seven weapon families are not equally useful in every region of Ezo. The southern coastal regions, which Sucker Punch has previewed in the most detail, have a high density of bandit camps and a low density of wolf packs, so the kusarigama and the long bow see the most use there. The northern interior, which the studio has shown less of, has more open fields and a higher density of mounted patrols, so the yari and the matchlock become more valuable. The mountain regions, which the studio has previewed in vertical traversal demos, have a high density of duels and arena fights, so the odachi and the standard katana see the most use there.
Activity type also shapes the loadout choice. Predator-style bounty contracts, which Sucker Punch has shown in previews, reward a long bow primary and a kusarigama secondary because the targets are usually tracked from a distance and finished in close combat. Duel contracts, which the studio has also previewed, reward an odachi primary and a long bow secondary because the duel opens at range and ends in close combat. Open-field combat, which the studio has shown in the State of Play footage, rewards a yari primary and a matchlock secondary because the long reach of the yari keeps the player safe from charges and the matchlock’s one-shot potential removes the priority target before the melee brawl starts.
Frequently asked questions
How many weapons are in Ghost of Yotei?
Sucker Punch has confirmed seven weapon families across melee and ranged: katana, dual katanas, odachi, kusarigama, yari, long bow, and matchlock. The studio has not said whether additional weapons will appear in side content or post-launch updates, so the working list for launch is the seven above.
Can you carry every weapon at once in Ghost of Yotei?
No. Atsu carries two loadout slots, and each slot holds one melee weapon plus one paired ranged option. You can change the contents of a slot at a workbench, but you cannot have every weapon equipped at the same time. The workbench is the only place where the contents of a slot can be changed.
Is there a single best weapon in Ghost of Yotei?
There is no confirmed best weapon. Each family has a different role. The odachi has the highest single-hit damage, the dual katanas have the highest damage over time against groups, the yari has the longest reach, the kusarigama has the strongest shield control, the long bow is the cleanest stealth tool, and the matchlock has the highest single-shot burst. Choosing the best one is a function of the encounter, not a property of the weapon itself.
Do weapons break or degrade in Ghost of Yotei?
Sucker Punch has not announced a durability system for weapons. The previews have not shown any weapon breaking, and the production team has not described a maintenance loop tied to weapon condition. Damage, reach, and stance are the design axes the developers have chosen to emphasise.
Can you dual wield the same weapon in both slots?
Sucker Punch has not demonstrated this. The previews show one weapon family per slot, with a paired ranged tool. Putting the same melee family in both slots would defeat the design intent of having two different stances ready, and the developers have not hinted that it is possible.
Where do you find new weapons in Ghost of Yotei?
New weapons are found through exploration, duels, and side content. Sucker Punch has not published a complete weapon-location list, and the developers have said that the open-world structure means some weapons will be tied to specific activities rather than to a single main-quest line. Workbenches are also where the contents of a loadout slot are changed, so the player will spend time at workbenches as part of the loop.
Do weapons change the story or the ending?
Sucker Punch has not said that weapon choice alters the story. The dual-loadout system is a combat system, not a branching-narrative system, and the developer’s framing has been that weapon choice expresses play style rather than choice of fate. The story follows Atsu across Ezo in 1603, and the weapon choice is a tool for the journey rather than a fork in it.
Will Ghost of Yotei weapons carry over to New Game Plus?
Sucker Punch has not confirmed the New Game Plus structure. The studio has not said whether weapons and loadouts carry over, whether they reset, or whether the slot system changes in a second playthrough. The most useful working assumption is to wait for an official statement from the studio rather than to plan a build around a feature that has not been announced.
Are there hidden ghost of yotei weapons not in the previews?
The seven families above are the only ones shown in the official previews as of the production team’s public communications. Sucker Punch has not said there are hidden weapons, but the open-world structure of the game leaves room for a discovery loop. The most useful plan is to treat the seven families as a confirmed base and to expect that more will be documented after launch by the studio or by players.
Where can I read more about the design of ghost of yotei weapons?
The most useful public source is the production interview at DigiPen’s showcase, in which producer Maria Bourg describes how the dual-loadout system shaped the combat design. The encyclopedia entry on the game itself is also a useful reference for the broader project context. Both are linked earlier in this article.