Last updated: 3 July 2026

Ghost of Yōtei Legends Co-op Guide Classes, Modes & Raid Tips

Ghost of Yōtei: Legends is a free co-op multiplayer mode released on March 10, 2026 as patch 1.5 for all Ghost of Yōtei owners. Separate from the main story, Legends offers four distinct classes, three launch game modes — Story (2-player), Incursion (4-player), and Survival (4-player) — and a Raid launched in April 2026 that requires a full team of four and features two of the final Yōtei Six members. This guide covers each class, how each mode works, progression tiers, and the co-op strategies that make the harder difficulties manageable.

01How to Access Ghost of Yōtei Legends

Legends is available to all Ghost of Yōtei owners as a free download included with patch 1.5. No additional purchase is required. However, playing Legends online requires an active PlayStation Plus subscription — the mode is online-only and does not have a solo or local co-op option.

Access Legends from the main menu of Ghost of Yōtei. The Legends menu is separate from the single-player story and does not interact with Atsu's progression, equipment, or save file. Your Legends characters are built entirely within the Legends mode using its own progression system.

Once in Legends, you are taken to the Legends Lobby — a shared waiting space that includes Zeni Hajiki (a coin-flipping minigame), Bamboo Strike leaderboards, and training zones where you can test your build before entering a mission.

02The Four Classes

Legends has four playable classes, each with a distinct primary weapon, tech tree, and tactical role. While weapons are not exclusively locked to classes — you can equip weapons from other classes at higher progression levels — each class's tech tree is designed around its primary weapon.

• Samurai (Ōdachi): The frontline damage and guard-break class. The Ōdachi's wide sweeping arcs deal heavy stagger and are effective against armoured enemies. The Samurai's tech tree includes defensive stances that reduce incoming damage and counter-abilities that deal bonus damage after blocking. Recommended for players who prefer a straightforward melee approach and can sustain pressure in the centre of enemy groups.
• Archer (Yari / Spear + Bow emphasis): A hybrid class with reach-focused spear attacks and enhanced ranged capabilities. The Archer's tech tree includes Concentration-style abilities that slow time during aiming, and crowd-control techniques such as launching enemies into the air with spear strikes. The Archer excels in mixed-range encounters and benefits from positioning at mid-range rather than point-blank.
• Mercenary (Dual Katana): A high-speed, high-mobility damage dealer built around multi-hit combos. Dual katana attacks hit faster but deal less damage per strike than the ōdachi or yari. The Mercenary's tech tree includes evasion-attack combos, dashing strikes, and finish-move techniques that execute low-health enemies. Best for players comfortable managing multiple enemies and maintaining aggressive positioning.
• Shinobi (Kusarigama): The stealth and utility class. The kusarigama's chain range provides surprising reach and the Shinobi's tech tree includes stealth-specific abilities, smoke bomb enhancements, and chain assassination unlocks similar to those in the single-player Onryo tree. The Shinobi is the most complex class to play effectively but provides the most tactical flexibility — flanking, assassination, and disengagement — of the four.

03Game Modes — Story, Incursion, Survival, and Raid

Legends offers four distinct modes, each designed for a different team size and challenge profile.

• Story (2 players): Narrative co-op missions presented through a storyteller's frame, each themed around one of four supernatural bosses inspired by the Yōtei Six (Spider, Oni, Kitsune, Snake). Story missions emphasise mechanics from the main game — stealth sections, standoffs, and boss encounters — and are designed to be completed in a single session of 20–40 minutes. These are the most accessible entry point for new Legends players.
• Incursion (4 players): Culmination missions in which a full four-player team fights through a boss's domain to face them directly. Incursions are longer and more demanding than Story missions, with multi-stage encounters and environmental hazards specific to each boss's realm. The primary mode for cooperative challenge outside of the Raid.
• Survival (4 players): Wave defense. Teams of four hold three rotating locations against escalating enemy waves. Each location periodically offers a dynamic blessing (summoning spirit allies, area buffs) or a curse (spawning shadow hunters, reduced healing). Survival is the most chaotic mode and rewards teams that communicate about which location to defend and when to rotate.
• Raid (4 players, April 2026): The hardest content in Legends. The Raid sends four players against the final two members of the Yōtei Six: the Dragon and Lord Saito. The developers noted that 'you cannot win without four players' — the Raid is designed with mechanics that require simultaneous actions from every team member. Completing the Raid requires coordination via voice communication and a shared understanding of each encounter's phase transitions.

04Difficulty Tiers — Bronze to Platinum

All Legends modes scale across four difficulty tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The tier system controls enemy HP, attack speed, damage output, and the variety of enemy types spawned.

• Bronze: Entry-level difficulty. Enemy variety is limited and encounters use the same mechanics as the main game. Appropriate for first playthroughs of each mode and for testing a new class build.
• Silver: Increases enemy HP and introduces more aggressive patrol patterns. Status effects from enemies (fire, poison) appear more frequently.
• Gold: Enemies deal significantly more damage, some unblockable attacks appear more often, and encounter compositions include elite enemies in larger groups.
• Platinum: Maximum difficulty. Designed for fully-upgraded teams with optimised builds. Enemy encounters are tuned to require class synergy — a team without a dedicated frontline (Samurai) and support (Shinobi) will struggle against Platinum Survival waves.

Higher difficulty tiers award more XP per mission, unlock faster character progression, and drop higher-quality gear. The game warns you if your current gear level is below the recommended level for a difficulty tier, but it allows you to attempt any tier regardless.

05Progression and Gear

Legends uses its own separate progression system distinct from the main game. Each class gains XP through missions, which unlocks technique points for the class's tech tree — upgrades that permanently improve that class's capabilities.

Gear drops at the end of missions (better gear drops on higher difficulties) and increases your gear score — a composite number that determines the effective power level of your character. Gear bonuses stack with tech tree unlocks, and high-tier gear can provide bonuses similar to charms from the main game.

Unlike the single-player game, Legends gear can be rerolled — spending resources to change a gear piece's secondary stat without losing the primary bonus. This allows gradual optimisation without relying on random drops alone.

The Raid requires a gear score above a minimum threshold to attempt at all. Progression from Story and Incursion missions on Silver and Gold difficulties is the most reliable path to Raid-ready gear levels.

06Tips for Co-op Success

• Assign roles before the mission starts. Legends works best when the team has a frontline (Samurai), a flanker/assassin (Shinobi), and ranged support (Archer). Two Mercenaries can work at lower difficulties but struggles to sustain through Platinum wave defense without a tanking presence.
• Use voice communication for the Raid. The Raid's mechanics require simultaneous actions — activating shrines together, coordinating stance-specific inputs — that are unreliable without real-time communication. Text chat is insufficient for multi-phase encounters.
• Learn each mode's blessing-or-curse events in Survival. When a curse event (shadow hunters, reduced healing) spawns, rotating all four players to a single location and holding it together until the curse expires is safer than splitting. Blessing events are worth contesting for the spirit-ally summons they provide.
• Don't ignore the Bamboo Strike leaderboards in the lobby. The Bamboo Strike minigame rewards top-performing players with bonus resources between missions. It is a low-effort source of upgrade materials for gear and charm upgrades.
• Upgrade your first class to Gold tier before branching. Each class has its own progression track. Splitting technique points and gear investment across multiple classes early delays progress on all of them. Reach a competent gear level on one primary class before experimenting with others.