Ghostwire: Tokyo — ABILITIES Skill Tree Overview

Ghostwire: Tokyo has a surprisingly large amount of skills to select from, and, at first, I was a bit intimidated by the sheer amount — especially with all of the weird-sounding names — but I eventually understood which were great and which weren't.

Originally, I was going to write the entire overview for all of the skills in the game, but the articles simply ended up being far too long. So, instead, I'll be writing about the ABILITIES, ETHEREAL WEAVING, and EQUIPMENT skill trees overviews separately. Throughout the article, I will mention all of the skills, what they're useful for, and whether you should prioritise them. I hope this article will help you figure out which ones you want and which ones you should skip.

ABILITIES

ABILITIES is the broadest of the skill trees, including 31 of the total 68 skills that are available in-game. This tree enhances all of the abilities Akito has thanks to KK (excluding the Ethereal Weaving).

Omoigane I–III

Spectral Vision

• I: Story Progression
• II: 10 SKILL POINTS
• III: 15 SKILL POINTS
• Total: 25 SKILL POINTS

First on the list is Omoigane, a skill that increases the range of Spectral Vision to 30m/40m/50m according to the level (I–III). This skill is most useful for exploration and completionists, as the increased range will allow you to see tanukis from a greater distance and find lost spirits with greater ease. 

As a completionist myself, I got this skill early on to be able to find everything as quickly as I could. Outside of completion, however, Omoigane feels rather useless, as the default range for Spectral Vision is good enough as is.

Amenokagami I–III

Glide

• I: Story Progression
• II: 10 SKILL POINTS
• Skill Lock: 3 MAGATAMA
• III: 15 SKILL POINTS
• Total: 25 SKILL POINTS and 3 MEGATAMA

Amenokagami gives the power to glide for longer. The first upgrade (the one unlocked through story progression) lets you glide for two seconds; this feels like enough throughout most of the playthrough. 

Generally speaking, if you ever need to go somewhere — such as for collectibles or story progression — there are other ways to get there; all Amenokagami II–III offer is the ease of travelling through the rooftops. Unless you like playing The Floor is Lava, Amenokagami III is definitely not worth it due to the 3 MAGATAMA cost. 

Amenotori I and Amenotori X

Grapple

• I: Story Progression
• MAGATAMA: 7
• X: 50 SKILL POINTS
• Total: 50 SKILL POINTS and 7 MEGATAMA

Amenotori offers the power to grapple onto tengu yōkai to get onto rooftops or high places you typically couldn't. Although the first of the two is free through story progression, Amenotori X costs a whopping 7 MAGATAMA and 50 SKILL POINTS to unlock, meaning that you'll need to invest more than a couple of levels and hard-earned MAGATAMA to get this one.

Amenotori X is handy because it allows you to summon tengu at any point, enabling new paths to traverse that weren't intended and new stealth options for your combat. That said, the excessive cost for both SKILL POINTS and MAGATAMA make Amenotori X unfeasible to get early, as there are vastly superior skills to acquire.

Susanoo I–III

Wire In

• I: Story Progression
• II: 10 SKILL POINTS
• Skill Lock: 3 MAGATAMA
• III: 15 SKILL POINTS
• Total: 25 SKILL POINTS and 3 MAGATAMA

For the longest time, I was confused why one of the skills in the ABILITIES skill tree refused to unlock. This is mostly because I spent a lot of time saving the lost spirits and exploring looking for the ever-elusive tanuki (I'll find all of you one day, you bastards). Due to this, I didn't unlock Wire In until way later on.

Well, try to avoid doing that. Wire In is a great skill to fight Visitors and an absolute must-have for large battles. As soon as you unlock it, make sure to pick up Susanoo II, as the increased Wire In duration is incredibly useful. In fact, if you have spare MAGATAMA and SKILL POINTS, unlock Susanoo III right away, this is the second-best skill in the ABILITIES tree, and you shouldn't hesitate to unlock it.

Inubashiri I–II

Faster Sneaking

• I: 10 SKILL POINTS
• Skill Lock: 3 MAGATAMA
• II: 15 SKILL POINTS
• Total: 25 SKILL POINTS and 3 MEGATAMA

Inubashiri offers increased sneaking speeds by 30% per level (up to 60%). This skill is useful for those that are more impatient about sneaking up behind the Visitors and are playing stealth playthroughs.

That said, Inubashiri is another trait that seems more useless than not, as walking behind the Visitors without sneaking has allowed me to do a Quick Purge on them without alerting the target nor any close by. Although Inubashiri definitely has its uses, such as easing stealth, if you're not bothered by failing every once in a while, neither of the two Inubashiris feel worth it.

Hakkei I–II

Ether Shakedown

• I: 10 SKILL POINTS
• II: 15 SKILL POINTS
• Total: 25 SKILL POINTS

Hakkei makes ether appear whenever you melee attack Visitors. I like to believe that Hakkei is more of a situational sort of attack, seeing that often in big fights, you are offered plenty of crystallized ether to break. That said, if the ether from crystallized ether isn't enough to get you through fights (or you dislike the limited ammo), Hakkei can be useful to acquire.

My personal quarrel with Hakkei is having to get in melee range, seeing as most of the Visitors are melee attackers and deal plenty of damage with one hit (often nearly one-shotting me on hard difficulty) and you still take chip damage despite blocking unless you perfect block, making Hakkei is a double-edged sword. Aside from that, Hakkei I offers a meagre one ether per melee strike, and it only offers wind!

Tatenui I–II

Perfect Block - Ether Generation

• I: 10 SKILL POINTS
• II: 15 SKILL POINTS
• Total: 25 SKILL POINTS

Tatenui, much like Hakkei, offers ether whenever you perform a perfect block. Also very much like Hakkei, it feels far too risky to perform and not very worth acquiring.

The reasoning for skipping Tatenui is that the ether gained from it feels negligible, and — worst of all — it only restores wind. If Tatenui offered other elements or more ether per perfect block, it would be a good skill to pick up. But you won't get anywhere with only three shots unless you're on easy difficulty, and even then, you'll probably not run out of ether.

Wakumusubi I–II

Core Grab - HP Restoration

• I: 10 SKILL POINTS
• II: 15 SKILL POINTS
• Total: 25 SKILL POINTS

Did you know that ripping apart enemy cores restores a bit of your HP? Me neither, but now we do! Wakumusubi increases how much HP is increased by 10. 10 what, I hear you ask? No idea. It's 10, take it or leave it.

Jokes aside, the game tells you that Wakumusubi restores 10/15 HP but doesn't really tell the player how much HP they have throughout the game. Judging by the video showcase of the skill, 10/15 HP is negligible, especially later on in the game. That said, the more enemies there are, the more cores you rip out, the more regeneration. Although there are plenty of better core-based skills in the ABILITIES tab, Wakumusubi is thus far the best skill we've looked at.

Fudo I–II

Core Exposure - Duration Boost

• I: 10 SKILL POINTS
• II: 15 SKILL POINTS
• Total: 25 SKILL POINTS

Fudo increases how long the core of the Visitors are exposed once you've stunned them by 1.75x/2.5x. A nifty skill for when you're getting overwhelmed and for grabbing multiple cores at once (another thing the game neglects to tell you).

Although Fudo is great for facing off against several enemies at once, the increased stun duration is only useful for when you're getting swarmed, and other skills that we haven't covered just yet — such as Kukurihime and Tajikara — are superior to Fudo. Get it if you want to go for a core exposure build mixed with Kukurihime to rip several cores out at once. Otherwise, skip it.

Kukurihime I–II

Core Grab - Speed Boost

• I: 10 SKILL POINTS
• Skill Lock: 3 MAGATAMA
• II: 15 SKILL POINTS
• Total: 25 SKILL POINTS and 3 MAGATAMA

Speak of the Devil, Kukurihime offers a faster core extraction speed by 1.5x/2x. This skill is very useful, and easily one of the best in the ABILITIES tab. Since core extraction works as an execution on enemies with their core exposed, being able to do this quickly ensures that you can dwindle enemy waves swiftly. 

The only reason I don't say Kukurihime is the best skill in the ABILITIES tab is due to the existence of Tajikara and Susanoo. Kukurihime paired with Fudo offers a great core-based build to grab multiple cores at the same time and extract them.

Ninigi I–II

Melee Core Grab - Speed Boost

• I: 10 SKILL POINTS
• Skill Lock: 3 MAGATAMA
• II: 15 SKILL POINTS
• Total: 25 SKILL POINTS and 3 MAGATAMA

Ninigi I–II offers a core extraction technique at melee range that extracts at faster speeds. Although the skill description says that Ninigi cannot be interrupted by other Visitors, that doesn't necessarily mean you can't be hit while it's being done, which — in hard or tatari difficulties — can be lethal.

Ninigi I–II would be a useful skill if not for the vulnerability that comes with it. Although Ninigi II offers 2.5x speed, the 3 MAGATAMA cost can be quite steep for an ability that often leads to getting hit. On easy or normal difficulties, Ninigi can be more useful as Visitors don't deal obscene amounts of damage; however, for hard and tatari difficulties — particularly the latter — I’d skip it early. 

Futsunushi I–II

Ground Attack Boost

• I: 10 SKILL POINTS
• II: 15 SKILL POINTS
• Total: 25 SKILL POINTS

Futsunashi increases the damage you deal to downed enemies, offering the capability to kill them before they get back up. Although a promising description, Futsunushi falls short when compared to Tajikara.

The 1.5x/2x damage boost that Futsunashi offers can be useful in comparison to Tajikara as it can be done from a distance, and killing downed enemies can be a great way to reduce how many Visitors are trying to kill you at any given point. Get Futsunushi I–II if you don't feel confident about using Tajikara, but if you can pull off Tajikara, Futsunushi is trivialised.

Tajikara I–II

Ground Core Grab

• I: 10 SKILL POINTS
• II: 15 SKILL POINTS
• Total: 25 SKILL POINTS

Tajikara, I'm sure everyone's tired of hearing this name by now. Essentially, Tajikara allows you to do a Quick Purge on downed enemies, which is a faster core extraction. Although you aren't immune while performing Tajikara (much like Ninigi), there's a very big difference as to why Tajikara is superior: enemies fall faster than their core gets exposed.

Often, it'll take a couple of shots to down an enemy, and continuing to shoot them while they're down will lead to a core-less kill. The reason I like avoiding kills without core extraction is for the extra ether and heal that you get from doing so. Tajikara not only offers a Quick Purge (so the speed of stealth kills) but the upgrade doubles that speed; Tajikara is a must buy, especially due to the lack of MAGATAMA cost.

Michikiri I–II

Spirit Absorption - Speed Boost

• I: 10 SKILL POINTS
• II: 15 SKILL POINTS
• Total: 25 SKILL POINTS

And from most useful to the least, we have reached Michikiri! Increasing the spirit absorption speed isn't necessarily the most useful in the bunch, as spirits cannot be absorbed mid-battle anyway when protecting containment cubes. The only purpose Michikiri serves is to speed up the farming of spirits by allowing you to do it faster, but there are far better abilities to spend your SKILL POINTS on. Even if absorbing at 3x speed is very tempting...

 

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That's it for the ABILITIES Skill Tree Overview! Did I not recommend a skill you love? Or maybe you're particularly upset because I bad mouthed Michikiri; let me know in the comments! I'm always happy to open a friendly discussion, even if anyone that justifies buying Michikiri is dead to me!