Mythic Tales

Discover all Mythic Tales in Ghost of Tsushima. Learn where to find musicians, unlock powerful abilities like Heavenly Strike, and obtain legendary armor sets such as Tadayori's and Gosaku's.

Throughout your time liberating Tsushima, you’ll come across various different quests. As well as the story quests, there are also tales for each supporting character (Yuna, Masako, and so on), one off NPC missions to flesh out the world, and seven Mythical tales. These quests are given to you by various musicians around the island, and these special side missions see you unlock either a Mythical ability or a special piece of armour. They often end in boss battles too.

Act 1

There are three missions available to complete in Act 1, which unlock gradually as you complete central Story quests. Jin’s first few quests after the Prologue are mostly tutorialising; teaching you how the combat works, and offering a few Technique points to start building him up. Don’t go straight for the Mythic tales, then – explore a little bit before you get down to these specific quests. By the same token, don’t leave them too long – especially The Heavenly Strike, as that unlocks one of the most useful abilities in the game.

The Legend of Tadayori

Where: South of Rusting Bend River – beneath the ‘Bend’ on the map

What: Tadayori's Armour – Great for archery

Speak to Yamoto near Rusting Bend River, then follow the wind to a grove with violets. Climb up this grove and onto a mountain, where you’ll receive a painting with the location of your next objective. The wind will not help here, but luckily you can see where you need to go from your vantage point on the mountain. You won’t be able to make out the flowers in the painting from this distance, but if you walk around the mountain, you’ll see bright orange trees in the distance: this is where you need to head.

Once there, go through the trees and you'll see more flowers. Circle around and look for a crack in the wall. Slip through here and investigate the altar, which will initiate a boss battle with Kaeda. She’s fairly straightforward and shouldn't give you too much trouble.

During the fight, Kaeda will realise you aren’t a bandit in samurai armour, but are actually a samurai, and will direct you to Azamo Bay. Follow the wind to a mountain top, where you’ll see a familiar musician waiting for you. Turns out he’d been guarding the armour all along, and this whole escapade was just a test. Before you can collect the armour, though, you’ll need to take out some Mongols.

Some will run at Yamoto with flashing red skulls over their heads; these aim to kill him and must be taken out quickly. The archers won’t go for Yamoto, but they will overload you, draining your health and making it difficult to take out the runners. Deal with these from a distance via bow or projectile, and try to stay close to Yamoto. Running at them gung-ho leaves him overexposed. Once you’ve put enough of them down, the armour is yours.

The Curse of Uchitsune

Where: Hiyoshi Springs

What: Longbow

This is the second painting-driven Mythic tale and is initiated by speaking to Yamoto at Hiyoshi Springs. He’ll direct you to a huge stretch of land along the nearby coast to comb for blue flowers, but luckily their location is right in the middle of this area, and they’re easy to find.

These flowers lead you towards a cliff, and if you look around you’ll find a crack you can squeeze through. Make your way through the tomb you find yourself in to find a painting which directs you to more blue flowers, this time on a small peninsula.

As you exit the cave, someone in a Tengu Demon mask will fire a warning shot at you and warn you to abandon your quest. Of course, you're not going to listen to them. The peninsula can be found near the top of the map’s search area, with a path of blue flowers leading you safely down the coast. Inside the peninsula’s tomb, you’ll find another painting, and you will exit to another Tengu Demon warning.

This final search area, again, has a large area circled on the map, but the trail of flowers starts just to the left of the centre. Follow the flowers take you up the hill and through some rock formations to find the Longbow on the altar. Take it, fight a Tengu Demon, and the bow is yours to keep.

The Heavenly Strike

Where: River Falls Bridge

What: Heavenly Strike move

The Heavenly Strike is only available once you’ve completed a few missions in Act 1. Check back after you’ve met Masako for the first time. Don’t leave it too long though – Heavenly Strike is a great, relatively easy attack which helps with quickly damaging bosses and carving through enemy camps.

Speak to Yamoto then follow the wind to a nearby woman weeping under a bridge. She’ll direct you to a weak Mongol camp with a hostage; kill the Mongols and speak to said hostage to get directions to ‘a white leafed tree’, which means heading to the Plum Blossom Shrine. This is supposed to serve as your introduction to how Shrines work in the game, with some basic jumping and climbing platforming sections required to reach the top.

From here, you’ll head to a grove of white trees - easily visible from the Shrine - and will be tasked with clearing out yet more Mongols. After this, the final hostage will give you directions to Shigenori's Rest. There’s a little bit of scrambling over obstacles and squeezing through rocks, but it’s not exactly hidden away. This brings you to your final group of Mongols to slay.

At this point you’ll fight the boss Yasuhira Koga; make sure to dodge his own Heavenly Strikes, then defeat him and learn his power.

Act 2

There are a further three Mythic tales in Act 2, two of them being spread out and offering armour, whilst a third (much more linear) quest offers a very useful power. Act 2 is probably the busiest act in the story, but you should definitely make time for The Spirit Of Yarikawa’s Vengeance, at the very least.

The Unbreakable Gosaku

Where: Akashima Village

What: Gosaku’s Armour - Increases health, stagger and healing

In Akashima Village, Yamoto tells you of the six keys to Gosaku’s armour; these are all currently hidden in farmsteads across Tsushima, which become highlighted on the map once this quest is accepted. Finding them is relatively straight forward, and collecting each one is a pretty similar experience, too.

Each farmstead has between two to four hostages, and going in loud puts them at risk. You’ll know a hostage is in danger when a black shield flashes above their head, and a red skull appears above the Mongol trying to kill them. At this point, your cover will already be blown, so take out the Mongol causing the threat immediately and focus on protecting the h