Smoke Bomb
Breaks line of sight instantly, dropping an active fight back into stealth — the tool that lets a failed approach be retried instead of survived.
Overview
Smoke is the difference between a stealth run failing and a stealth run pausing.
Thrown into a fight, it blinds everyone inside the cloud and drops enemies out of alert, letting Jin disengage, reposition, or execute assassinations from inside the cover it creates. Few games let you re-enter stealth this cheaply, and it is a large part of why Ghost play feels distinct from samurai play rather than being a worse version of it.
It also has a purely offensive use: enemies inside the smoke can be assassinated in sequence, which turns an escape tool into a clearing tool.
The reset button. It is what turns a losing fight into a fresh stealth approach, and what saves Ryuzo in "The Tale of Ryuzo".
Tales that call for it
- Ghosts in The FogSide Tale (Norio Tale 3 of 9) — the walkthrough calls for it
- The Tale of RyuzoMain Tale — the walkthrough calls for it
Upgrading it
Weapons and tools are improved through the skill trees, spending Technique Points earned as your Legend rank rises. Legend itself comes from tales — main and Mythic Tales give the largest steps, side tales, liberated settlements and cleared encounters the smaller ones.
Sources
Strengths and weaknesses
Strengths
- Returns an alerted camp to a stealth state
- Enables chained assassinations from concealment
- Escapes fights that have gone badly without spending Resolve
- The only tool that ends a fight you are losing without killing anything.
Weaknesses
- Does no damage on its own
- Limited supply; overuse leaves nothing for a real emergency
- Also stuns, so it doubles as an opener rather than only an escape.
Best uses
- Recovering a blown infiltration
- Splitting a large group before engaging