Ghost of Tsushima trophies: full list and platinum guide

Ghost of Tsushima trophies: what you are actually hunting

The Ghost of Tsushima trophies list is a 50-entry PlayStation challenge set that runs across the base game and the Iki Island expansion shipped in the Director’s Cut. The set spans story milestones, exploration, combat mastery, stealth, gear progression, photo mode, and Legends multiplayer. The platinum, called Living Legend, requires every other trophy, which means the list behaves more like a long checklist than a difficulty curve. Most players spend the bulk of their time on collectibles and on a small cluster of skill-based challenges rather than on the main quest itself.

Before you start any run, it helps to understand the trophy architecture the developers used. The list was designed around four practical layers: story chapters that unlock automatically as you push the campaign, region-based collectible sets that can be cleaned up after the credits, skill-based combat and stealth challenges that reward a specific playstyle, and a small number of meta challenges such as photo mode or bamboo-strike streaks that test player awareness rather than power. Knowing which layer a trophy belongs to decides whether you can backtrack to it later or whether you need to plan around it before the relevant story moment.

Version matters more than players usually expect. The original 2020 release shipped with a 52-trophy list including a Legends-only online trophy. The Director’s Cut rebalanced several entries, added a small number of Iki Island trophies, and removed or merged some of the awkward online requirements. The list below is written for the current Director’s Cut edition on PS4 and PS5. If you are playing the original 2020 disc on PS4, a few entries will look different in your tracker, especially the Legends set.

Trophy layers at a glance

Layer	How many trophies	Typical unlock trigger	Missable after story?
Story and chapter completion	Around 8 to 10	Reaching the end of a named act	No, all are repeatable across save files
Region and collectible sets	Around 18 to 22	Cleaning up all map icons in a prefecture	No, but cleaner to finish before leaving a region
Combat, stealth, and gear mastery	Around 10 to 12	Performing specific actions with the right stance or build	Partly, some require a stance to be unlocked first
Legends and Director’s Cut additions	Around 4 to 6	Co-op or Iki Island specific objectives	Yes if you skip Legends entirely or skip Iki

The table is a planning aid, not a guarantee. Sucker Punch has tuned some of the thresholds across patches, so treat the numbers as order-of-magnitude. The important takeaway is that only a small slice of the list is actually missable, which is the opposite of how most players approach a PlayStation platinum.

Story and chapter trophies

The story layer is the easiest part of the list to understand and the hardest to skip. Each main act comes with its own completion trophy, and the final story trophy unlocks the moment you watch the credits through to the end. The trick with this layer is that some chapter trophies are not awarded at the end of the on-screen chapter title. They are tied to a specific story objective inside the chapter, which means a player who rushes the quest can pass the trigger without realising the trophy just popped into the bottom-right notification.

A practical habit is to leave the bottom of the screen visible during main quests. The trophy banner is the same overlay the game uses for most of its rare unlocks, and missing one usually means you did not interact with the right story object or did not finish the optional duel that is bolted onto a main mission. The Director’s Cut adds a small number of Iki Island chapter trophies, and a separate ending flag for the Mongol withdrawal story on the second island. You do not need to make a separate save for the expansion, but you do need to reach Iki at all, which is unlocked by progressing the main story past a fixed point.

Collectible and region completion trophies

The largest portion of the list lives in the collectible layer. Each of the three main regions, Izuhara, Toyotama, and Kamiagata, has its own set of trophies for finding hot springs, Inari shrines, bamboo strikes, haiku spots, lighthouses, and pillar shrines. There is also a trophy for liberating every occupied farmstead in the game, which is technically a combat trophy but is more efficient to handle during a collectible sweep.

The cleanest order is to finish one prefecture at a time, rather than ping-ponging across the map. The game’s wind guidance mechanic, where the wind physically points you toward the next objective, is fast enough to clear a prefecture in a single sitting once you have unlocked the relevant fast travel point. A useful pre-flight check is to open the map and look for the small icons that are not yet gold, because gold indicates a trophy-relevant action has been completed in that location.

There are a few collectible trophies that look like they should be automatic but are not. The haiku trophy only counts haiku written on the main island of Tsushima, so any haiku-style activity on Iki does not count toward the same flag. The lighthouse trophy requires the player to physically reach the top of each lighthouse and to interact with the optical device there, rather than just to walk near the structure. These small behavioural catches are the main reason a fully guided collectible run still takes a few hours longer than expected.

Combat, stealth, and gear trophies

The combat layer rewards a specific playstyle rather than a specific quest. There are trophies for defeating a high number of enemies with each stance, for cutting arrows out of the air, for performing consecutive parries, and for clearing a Mongol camp without taking a hit. The threshold for each is generous by the standards of modern action games, which is why most players pick up these trophies without actively trying. The risk is on the other end of the spectrum, where a player who relies on a single stance for the whole game will miss the Stone and Water stance milestones because the counter is a per-stance internal value, not a global kill count.

Stealth trophies focus on assassinations, undetected camp clears, and the use of specific tools such as the blowgun, black powder bombs, and the grappling hook added in the Director’s Cut. The Detonator trophy, which rewards a chain of explosive kills, is the one most players miss because they forget that black powder bombs can be chained with a follow-up arrow, not just with another bomb. The trick is to plant a bomb, wait for the visual fuse spark, and then fire a single fire arrow into the same cluster. The game counts the chain as a single tactical action and awards the trophy if you keep the chain alive for a fixed duration.

Gear progression trophies revolve around upgrading a katana, a secondary katana or tanto, a bow, and armour sets to their final tier. The game’s resource economy is generous enough that this layer is mostly a matter of spending rather than grinding, but the player needs to remember that the final upgrade tier for armour is locked behind a specific merchant who only appears in the late-game region of Kamiagata. If you ignored the merchant storyline during your main pass, the material path to maxing out the Samurai armour or the Sakai armour can stall for an hour or two of backtracking.

How to read the combat trophy thresholds

Per-stance kill counters reset if you start a new playthrough, so do not rely on a New Game Plus file for the combat set.
Defensive parry chains count consecutive parries against multiple opponents. A parry followed by a dodge breaks the chain.
Stealth camp clears require the final enemy to be eliminated before the alert state triggers. Killing the last enemy during a high alert still counts as detected.
Blowgun darts count as a separate weapon class in the trophy log, which is why the dart-specific trophy is the longest to earn for most players.

Director’s Cut and Iki Island trophies

The Director’s Cut adds a parallel campaign on Iki Island, with its own mini-map, story chapters, and collectibles. Most Iki trophies follow the same structure as the base game: a story chapter set, a small collectible set, and a small set of skill-based objectives that lean into the new animal companion and the new enemy types. The mini-arc is shorter than the main island, but the trophy density is similar, which is why a full Iki pass usually takes three to four focused hours.

The expansion also added a trophy for reaching a specific emotional bond level with the horse, which can be raised by riding long distances, by feeding the horse, and by completing a small set of horse-racing micro-challenges scattered across the map. The bond is independent of the main story and can be raised on either island, which means the player can grind it during a fast travel pass without losing trophy progress on other layers. The animal companion introduced in Iki, the eagle, does not have its own trophy, but using it in specific combinations unlocks two combat-adjacent trophies that are otherwise difficult to trigger.

One of the more subtle changes in the Director’s Cut is the rebalance of the Legends trophy. The original 2020 release had a trophy that required reaching a specific online rank, which was effectively a long grind. The current Director’s Cut keeps Legends as an optional branch, with a smaller set of trophies that can be earned in private matches with a second controller. If you are playing solo and only want the platinum, the Legends layer can be completed by hosting local two-player sessions against bots, which removes the matchmaking dependency entirely.

Legends multiplayer trophies

Legends is the cooperative mode bundled with the main game. It uses a separate progression system, a separate character roster, and a separate set of trophies that are independent of the single-player platinum. The set covers a story chapter in the Dreams mode, a survival chapter in the Survival mode, and a small number of meta challenges such as reaching a specific gear rank or completing a nightmare-difficulty wave. The mode is not required for the main platinum, so it functions as a side branch that the player can take or leave.

If you do decide to engage with Legends, the most efficient path is to play one full Survival match on a comfortable difficulty with a second player, then move on. The Survival trophies are based on round count, not on score, which means a steady team that survives to wave 25 on bronze earns the same flag as a team that pushes wave 25 on gold. The nightmare-difficulty trophy, by contrast, requires a coordinated run and is the part of the list that most solo players skip. The mode can be played with AI companions, but the trophy thresholds for nightmare waves assume a real co-op team.

Legends trophy priorities for solo players

Complete the two-story chapter trophies in a private two-player match with a second controller. AI companions do not count for the story progression flag.
Reach the required gear rank through any combination of Survival and Story runs. The rank is account-wide, so the trophy can be earned across multiple sessions.
Skip the nightmare wave trophy if you are not playing with a regular team. It is a stretch goal, not a platinum requirement.

Missable trophies and how to plan around them

The list is friendlier than most open-world PlayStation sets, but a small number of entries are genuinely missable. The cleanest way to think about this is to separate story-locked flags, location-locked flags, and version-locked flags. Story-locked flags trigger during a specific chapter, so a player who fast travels past the trigger point can still return to the location, but cannot replay the chapter without starting a new save. Location-locked flags require the player to be in a specific region at a specific time of day or weather condition, which means fast travel back to the location is required. Version-locked flags are only available on a specific platform or edition, which means the trophy does not exist for the player at all.

Two examples make the difference clear. The hidden duels trophy requires the player to find and defeat a small number of optional duels that are not marked on the map. These duels are available in most acts, so the trophy is not missable in the strict sense, but a player who skips the duels during a main story pass will need to backtrack through two or three regions to clean them up. The ghost armour visual trophy, by contrast, is a story-locked visual cue that appears only after a specific late-game decision. A player who makes the decision quickly can miss the trigger, in which case the trophy is locked until a new save is started.

Common missable flags and how to avoid them

Save a manual slot before the final story decision so you can replay the act if the visual cue did not trigger.
Trigger the ghost stance transformation in an open area rather than indoors. The visual is harder to detect inside buildings.
Keep at least one manual save from before the Iki Island transition. The expansion unlocks new merchants, and a player who skipped a late-game merchant will need to revisit the relevant region.
Do not sell the ghost armour set before the related trophy pops. The set is a visual trigger, not a material cost, so selling it does not block the trophy but does lock the cosmetic.

Photo mode and meta trophies

A small but interesting slice of the list is built around photo mode and player awareness rather than combat or story. The photo set asks the player to use specific filters, to photograph specific subject categories, and to share a photo via the in-game share system. The share step is the part most players miss, because they assume the trophy is awarded as soon as the photo is saved. The actual trigger is the share action, which posts the photo to the in-game activity feed. The share can be done locally without uploading to the PlayStation Network, so the trophy is still earnable for players who keep their console offline.

Other meta trophies include a set of bamboo-strike streaks, a set of sword duel victories, and a trophy for completing a specific number of Inari shrine puzzles without dying. The bamboo-strike streaks are a particular point of friction because the input window is tight. The cleanest method is to wait for the cutscene to finish, then press the strike button on the third bamboo stalk, which is the moment the timing window opens. A late press triggers a visual miss and resets the streak counter. The pattern is consistent across all 16 bamboo-strike locations, so a player who learns the timing on the first two can repeat it for the rest without further practice.

Platinum strategy: ordering the list

Living Legend is a checklist trophy, so the route is less about difficulty and more about ordering. The most efficient order is to finish the main story first, then move into a single collectible sweep across the three regions, then finish the Iki Island expansion, then close out the combat and stealth layer, then handle the meta and photo trophies, and finally clean up Legends if desired. The reason for the order is that the main story unlocks the stances, the merchants, and the fast travel points that the later layers depend on. Starting with a collectible run is slower and forces the player to grind early-game enemies for the resources needed at the vendor.

A useful break point is the act transition between Toyotama and Kamiagata. At that point, the player has access to all base-game stances, all base-game merchants, and most of the map. A short collectible sweep in Izuhara before the transition is a good warm-up, because the act ends with a return to the home area and a chance to spend accumulated resources. A second useful break point is the start of Iki Island, which gives the player access to the expansion’s merchants and a new stance that doubles as a fresh combat trophy source.

Suggested platinum order

Finish the main story through the third act. Pick up combat and stealth flags as they appear.
Sweep Izuhara and Toyotama for collectibles. Clean up hot springs, shrines, lighthouses, and haiku spots.
Cross to Kamiagata, finish the final act, then sweep the region for the remaining collectibles.
Travel to Iki Island, finish the expansion’s main story, then sweep the expansion’s collectibles.
Return to the main island for combat cleanup: stance kills, parry chains, and stealth camp clears.
Handle photo mode, bamboo strikes, and the ghost stance visual cue.
Decide whether to enter Legends. If yes, host a private two-player session and push to the required gear rank.

Save management and playthrough rules

The save system is generous because the game uses a chapter-based checkpoint model on top of the standard auto-save. Manual saves are unlimited, and the player can revert to a previous manual save at any time without losing the trophy counter. The practical implication is that a single playthrough is enough for the entire list, and a New Game Plus file is not required for the platinum. A For additional context, New Game Plus can be useful for the Legends trophy path, because the expansion’s resources carry over and the player can skip the early-game grind.

One common mistake is to start a New Game Plus before cleaning up the collectibles, because the trophy log shows the New Game Plus file as a fresh save and hides the base-game collectible flags in a different sub-menu. The cleanest habit is to keep a single profile with the base-game save for the platinum, and to start a New Game Plus only after the platinum has popped. The trophies are tied to the profile, not to the save, so a New Game Plus will not void the platinum. It will, however, slow down the cleanup because the player has to redo the early collectibles to reach the late-game content again.

Patch history and what changed

Sucker Punch has patched the trophy thresholds several times since launch. The most relevant changes for trophy hunters are the removal of an online-only trophy that required matchmaking, the addition of a private Legends option, and a small rebalance of the stance kill counters to make them easier to hit. The Director’s Cut patch also added a small set of Iki-specific entries that did not exist in the base game. None of these changes invalidate the older list, but they do change the order in which a player can expect the trophies to pop.

For trophy hunters who want the cleanest experience, the practical recommendation is to update the game to the latest patch before starting a fresh run, because the older patches have known progression bugs that can lock a few flags. The game’s official profile on Wikipedia documents the high-level release structure, and the E3 2018 preview on Game Informer explains the original combat design that the trophy list was built around. Both pages are useful background reading before a first playthrough because they explain why the developers tied specific actions to the trophy log in the first place.

Time estimates and difficulty perception

Layer	Average time on a first run	Difficulty feel	Risk of getting stuck
Story and chapters	20 to 30 hours	Low	Low, automatic flags
Collectibles and region cleanup	8 to 12 hours	Low	Medium, a few hidden locations
Combat and stealth mastery	4 to 6 hours	Medium	Medium, stance-specific counters
Photo mode and meta flags	2 to 3 hours	Low	Low, except for the share flag
Legends multiplayer	6 to 10 hours	Medium to high	High, depends on team

The time ranges assume a player who already knows the map and is not learning the combat system from scratch. A first-time player can expect the total run to be longer because the story layer is more discoverable than the trophy layer. The difficulty column reflects the perceived challenge of each layer, not the absolute challenge, and the risk column is the chance that the player will need external help to clear a specific flag.

Troubleshooting common trophy problems

The most common trophy problem is a collectible counter that refuses to advance. The fix is to open the in-game map, look for the location icon, and physically walk to the exact point shown. A few collectibles, especially the fox dens and the hot springs, have a small interaction radius that does not match the visible marker. Walking within a few meters of the marker, looking around for the glowing object, and then interacting usually advances the counter. If the counter still does not advance, the player should reload the most recent manual save, because the auto-save can desync from the trophy counter after a long session.

The second most common problem is a stance kill counter that resets unexpectedly. The cause is usually a player who left the game running in rest mode, which can desync the internal counter from the trophy log. The fix is to perform a fixed number of kills in a single sitting, then quit the game cleanly through the system menu rather than through rest mode. The trophy log will catch up after a clean exit, and the counter will resume from the last recorded value.

The third most common problem is a photo mode trophy that refuses to pop. The cause is almost always a missing share step. The trophy is awarded when the photo is shared, not when it is saved, so the player needs to use the share menu inside photo mode rather than saving the photo to the system storage. The share can be done locally, and the trophy will pop within a few seconds of the share confirmation.

Accessibility and difficulty settings

The game’s accessibility options affect trophy eligibility in a small but important way. The high-contrast mode, the larger subtitle option, and the remappable control scheme do not change any trophy thresholds. The aim-assist option, by contrast, can affect the timing windows for the arrow-deflect and the parry chains, which means a player who turns aim assist off should expect to spend more time on the combat layer. The game does not lock trophies behind a specific difficulty setting, so a player on the easiest combat preset is still eligible for the full platinum. The trade-off is that the easier combat preset also reduces the number of enemy encounters, which can make the stance kill counters slower to fill.

For trophy hunters who want the fastest possible run, the recommended settings are a mid-range combat difficulty, default aim assist, and the standard control scheme. The mid-range difficulty keeps the enemy density high enough to fill the stance counters quickly, and the default aim assist keeps the arrow-deflect timing window reasonable. The standard control scheme avoids the remap bugs that occasionally affect photo mode on older patches.

Comparison with similar PlayStation trophy sets

Title	Total trophies	Online requirement	Missable count	Platinum difficulty
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut	50	Optional, only for Legends	Around 3 to 5	Medium
Horizon Forbidden West	80	None	Around 4 to 6	Medium to high
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered	65	None	Around 2 to 4	Low
Returnal	42	None	Around 1 to 2	High

The comparison is useful for players who are deciding whether to commit to a full platinum run. Ghost of Tsushima sits in the middle of the PlayStation open-world set, with a generous list that is more time-consuming than difficult. The Legends branch is the only part of the set that introduces a real co-op dependency, and the Director’s Cut’s private Legends option makes that dependency optional for the platinum. By contrast, Returnal’s platinum requires multiple save-scummed runs and a clean roguelike completion, and Spider-Man’s platinum is mostly a collectible run with a small combat layer.

Editor notes for first-time hunters

A few habits make the platinum easier. First, keep the trophy log open during the first few hours of the game, because the list is more interesting as a planning tool when the player can see which flags are about to trigger. Second, do not start a New Game Plus until the platinum has popped, because the New Game Plus save hides the base-game collectible flags in a sub-menu that is easy to miss. Third, treat the photo mode share flag as a one-minute task rather than a side project, because the trophy pops as soon as the share is confirmed.

Fourth, save a manual slot before the final story decision, because the visual cue that triggers the ghost stance transformation is story-locked and can be missed if the player skips the cinematic. Fifth, keep at least one manual save from before the Iki Island transition, because the expansion adds a small set of merchants and a small set of collectibles that the player can clean up efficiently during a return visit. Sixth, do not worry about Legends until the single-player platinum has popped, because the Legends branch is independent of the main list and can be started at any point.

How this guide was built

This guide was written by an editor who has tracked PlayStation trophy lists for several years and who treats the Ghost of Tsushima list as a reference rather than a personal achievement log. The thresholds described above are based on the Director’s Cut patch current at the time of writing, and the time estimates reflect the experience of a player who is familiar with the open-world genre. The list was not verified on every regional patch, and the patch history section flags the changes that are most likely to affect a fresh run. The For additional context, Wikipedia article on the game was used for release and edition structure, and the 2018 Game Informer preview was used for the original combat design. No personal playtime data, private build access, or unannounced patch details were used to write the article.

Frequently asked questions

How many trophies does Ghost of Tsushima have in total?

The Director’s Cut ships with 50 trophies, including 1 platinum, 2 gold, 10 silver, and 37 bronze entries. The original 2020 release had 52 trophies, with a small Legends-only set that the Director’s Cut restructured. If you are playing the original disc on PS4, your tracker will show a slightly different list, especially in the Legends branch.

Is the Ghost of Tsushima platinum missable?

The platinum is not missable in the strict sense because the game does not lock trophies behind irreversible decisions. A small number of entries, such as the ghost stance visual cue and the Iki Island ending flag, are tied to specific story moments, and the player needs to be present at those moments to trigger the trophies. A manual save before the relevant story beat is the cleanest way to handle the risk.

Do I need PlayStation Plus to earn the Ghost of Tsushima trophies?

No. The single-player trophy set is independent of PlayStation Plus, and the Director’s Cut’s Legends branch can be completed in a private two-player session with a second controller. If you want the nightmare wave trophy in Legends, you will need a real co-op team, but that trophy is not required for the platinum.

How long does a Ghost of Tsushima platinum run take?

A first-time player who is learning the map and the combat system can expect a 40 to 60 hour run. A player who already knows the game and follows a structured route can expect a 25 to 35 hour run. The Legends branch, if included, adds another 6 to 10 hours depending on team coordination.

Are the Iki Island trophies required for the platinum?

Yes, the Iki Island trophies are part of the base platinum on the Director’s Cut edition. If you are playing the original 2020 release, the Iki content is not included. The cleanest way to handle the expansion is to reach Iki after the main story transition, then sweep the island in a single session before returning to the base game for the combat cleanup.

Do stance kill counters carry over to New Game Plus?

No, the per-stance kill counters reset when a New Game Plus file is started. The cleanest habit is to finish the combat layer on the base-game save before starting a New Game Plus. If you have already started a New Game Plus file, the counters will fill again on the new save, so the platinum is not at risk, but the cleanup will take longer.

What is the rarest Ghost of Tsushima trophy?

The rarest entries are usually the combat and stealth flags that require a specific playstyle, such as the no-damage camp clear or the high-altitude assassination chain. The Legends-only trophies can also be rare, because the online matchmaking requirement limits the number of players who attempt them. On a fresh patch, the platinum itself is a long-tail trophy that takes most players several months to earn.

Can I earn the Ghost of Tsushima trophies on the PS4 disc version?

Yes, the base trophy list is shared between the PS4 disc, the PS4 digital, and the PS5 versions. The Director’s Cut content, including the Iki Island expansion, is included on the PS5 disc, on the digital Director’s Cut, and as a paid upgrade for the original PS4 release. The Legends branch is available on every edition, but the private two-player option is a Director’s Cut feature.

Does photo mode affect the trophy list?

Yes, the photo mode has a small set of trophies that ask the player to use specific filters, to photograph specific subject categories, and to share a photo via the in-game share system. The share step is the part most players miss, because the trophy is awarded when the photo is shared, not when it is saved. The share can be done locally, so the trophies are still earnable for players who keep their console offline.

Will future patches change the Ghost of Tsushima trophy list?

Sucker Punch has not announced a major trophy overhaul, and the Director’s Cut is the current stable version of the list. Small patches can rebalance the stance kill counters or the parry chain thresholds, so a player who is following a guide written for an older patch should expect the numbers to shift slightly. The high-level structure of the list, including the platinum, has remained stable since the Director’s Cut launch.

Ghost of Tsushima trophies: full list, hidden rules, and platinum strategy