Key tips
- If you have five Singing Crickets and have unlocked "Lament of the Storm", swipe left on the touchpad after the ending cutscene for the "Dirge of the Fallen Forge" trophy.
OverviewSpoilers
Act 2 spends most of its length building an alliance. This is one of the chapters where the bill arrives.
A Reckoning in Blood sits in the closing stretch of Act 2, between the Yarikawa chapters and the act's finale. By this point Jin's methods have produced results that his uncle's would not have, and the consequences of that are no longer theoretical.
It leads into The Fate of Tsushima and From the Darkness, which together close the act.
In the game’s own framing: Preparations are complete for the battle to reclaim Castle Shimura and finish Khotun Khan. Jin goes to his uncle’s staging camp to see if they are ready.
What to bring
The stances are a counter-table, not a preference: each one is the answer to a specific enemy, and this tale fields the ones below.
- RequiredComplete "The Ghost of Yarikawa", "A Message in Fire" and "Ghosts from the Past"This tale does not appear until then.
- RecommendedStone StanceStone breaks swordsmen, who make up most of every Mongol group.
- RecommendedWater StanceWater is the only efficient answer to a raised shield.
- RecommendedMoon StanceMoon staggers Brutes; nothing else in the melee kit reliably does.
- RecommendedFirecrackersUsed here to split a guard pair before taking either.
Objectives
- Speak with Lord Shimura
- Find Yuna
- Speak with Yuna
- Leave the war camp
- Travel to Fort Koyasan
- Survey Fort Koyasan
- Enter the fort
- Reach the upper gate
- Break your bonds
- Recover your gear
- Defeat the Straw Hats
- Escape the inner courtyard
- Follow Yuna
- Defeat everything in the camp
Full walkthroughSpoilers
- 01Speak with Lord Shimura
At his camp, watching the recruits train.
- 02Find Yuna
Ahead, between two red banners, with Taka nearby.
- 03Speak with Yuna
Interact to continue.
- 04Leave the war camp
Out the front entrance, opposite the training ground.
- 05Travel to Fort Koyasan
Northeast. Ride or fast travel.
- 06Survey Fort Koyasan
Climb the hill to the right; one survey circle before a cutscene cuts in. Survey points are not decoration — each one you mark puts an objective or a hazard on your map, and skipping them means finding the same things the hard way.
- 07Enter the fort
Drop down and go left toward the front gate, staying low.
- 08Reach the upper gate
Right to the stables, assassinate the Mongol there, fight through the rest, firecrackers to split them, then open the gate. Take the ends of patrol routes first, where a body will not be walked into — a discovered corpse raises the alarm just as reliably as being seen. Throw the distraction away from your approach, not toward it: the point is to move the guard off the line you want to walk, not to bring him to you.
- 09Break your bonds
Tap to escape until the cutscene.
- 10Recover your gear
From the chest nearby.
- 11Defeat the Straw Hats
About eight of them. Standoffs in Sakai Clan Armor kill outright; Stone Stance for the swordsmen after. Stone Stance handles the swordsmen; its heavy attacks do extra stagger damage and break their guard. Open with the standoff. Hold until the enemy actually commits rather than pressing early, and each won standoff kills outright — against unarmoured ronin it can gut a group before the fight starts.
TipStone breaks swordsmen, who make up most of every Mongol group.
- 12Escape the inner courtyard
Head for the keep to trigger the cutscene.
- 13Follow Yuna
Back through the fort.
- 14Defeat everything in the camp
Around twenty — Straw Hats and yellow-armoured Mongols. Stone Stance on swordsmen, Wind and Moon on the shield and bazooka brutes, bombs and explosive barrels for the crowds. Switch to Moon Stance for the Brutes: they shrug off ordinary damage and Moon's heavy overheads are what actually stagger them. Their big swings are unblockable, so dodge rather than block and answer in the gap afterwards. Shield-bearers need Water Stance, and specifically its heavy attacks — light attacks chip uselessly at a raised shield. Stone Stance handles the swordsmen; its heavy attacks do extra stagger damage and break their guard.
TipStone breaks swordsmen, who make up most of every Mongol group.
Enemies in this tale, and how to fight them
Strengths
- Brutes — Moon Stance. Brutes soak an enormous amount of ordinary damage, and Moon's heavy overhead strikes are what actually stagger them. Their big swings are usually unblockable — red marker — so dodge those rather than trying to block, and answer in the window afterwards rather than trading. Some carry explosives. If you have Resolve banked, a Brute is the right place to spend it.
- Shield-bearers — Water Stance, and specifically its heavy attacks — that is what breaks a raised shield. Trying to chip through the front of a shield with light attacks wastes the fight. Stagger them first so the guard comes up and breaks, then go through the opening quickly before it closes.
- Swordsmen — Stone Stance, whose heavy attacks do extra stagger damage to sword-wielders and break their guard. Swordsmen are the backbone of nearly every Mongol group, so Stone is the stance you will spend the most time in. Parry timing matters more here than anywhere else: blue attacks can be parried, red ones cannot and have to be dodged.
- Straw Hats / ronin — Japanese swordsmen rather than Mongols, and they fight like it — faster and more technical than the invaders, with less armour. Stone Stance still applies. Standoffs work well against them, and against unarmoured ronin a won standoff often kills outright.
Rewards
- Major Legend IncreaseA large step toward the next Legend rank. Legend gates your Ghost Weapon unlocks and your health and Resolve upgrades, so main and Mythic Tales are the fastest way to raise it.
What this unlocks
Sources
- Ghost of Tsushima Walkthrough — PowerPyx
- Ghost of Tsushima Walkthrough — All Tales — PowerPyx
- Ghost of Tsushima: Act 2 — gamepressure.com