Game Breaker / Ghost of Tsushima

Game Breakers in Ghost of Tsushima.

Story Mode

• The Wind Stance's Typhoon Kick can One-Hit KO standard-sized mooks by blasting them off a cliff, or knocking them down for a death blow. Suffice to say, strategic use of this ability can thin out numbers efficiently.
• Fully upgraded kunai will instantly break the guard of any enemy they hit, and will usually just outright kill lower ranking enemies. Multiple kunai can also be thrown at once, allowing the player to swiftly neutralize an entire Mongol squad if they're not worried about their kunai supply.
• Smoke bombs interrupt enemies and instantly put Jin back into stealth mode, allowing him to assassinate enemies even if they are already alerted. This becomes even more powerful if the player upgrades Jin's assassination speed and unlocks chain assassination so they can assassinate even more enemies in the short time the smoke bomb is active. For added benefits, the Charm of Amaterasu restores HP with each enemy kill, and both the final Smoke Bomb upgrade and the Charm of Unseen Respite heal you when you throw a Smoke Bomb. Toss in a few Resolve-restoring Charms as a treat. You can now be at death's door one second, surrounded, without any Resolve to your name; throw a bomb underfoot, and you'll come out of the smoke at full health and max Resolve with a circle of dead enemies at your feet (and perhaps even a replacement smoke bomb for your troubles).
• The Major Charm of Toxic Demise + Wind Chime, or Major Charm of Incineration + Black Powder Bomb combinations, which can clear out enemy camps or patrols in seconds if thrown carefully. Although they are limited by ammo, the former can take out two or three enemies at once if the player throws the bell just so it releases its poison vapor in close proximity of all of them at once, while the latter will annihilate a complete patrol in one hit with both the blast damage of the bomb, and the Fire status effect that takes hold afterwards. Even high-level patrols are not safe, since the Minor Charm of Enduring Affliction will extend status effects 50% longer, and also increase the damage from said effects by 50%. You can throw in the Kensei Armor, which increases Ghost weapon damage by 15% and then 30% when upgraded, and makes Ghost weapon victims prone to taking 50% more damage, but that's just pure overkill.
• Tadayori's mythical armor (which gives significant boosts to archery, such as increased Concentration) combined with the Major Charm of Izanagi (headshots have a 40% of restocking the arrow type you just used), two Minor Charms of Swift Return (25% chance of missed arrows being recoverable), and the Minor Charms of Fortune I and II (which, when combined, increase the chance of a "percentage effect" by 100%) can make Jin into the ultimate archer with a near-inexhaustible supply of arrows; get up on high ground and you can take your time sniping an entire encampment into oblivion without them ever figuring out what happened. Also, the Charm of Swift Return has a hidden bonus: headshots are also recoverable, and you can see the arrow sticking out of the enemy's head. If the Izanagi charm activated at the same time (a 80% chance if you have both Charms of Fortune) then you can fire one arrow and get back two.
• The minor Charms of Fortune I and II in general are quite powerful. The both of individually increase the chance of any "%" effect by 50%, making them twice as likely to occur when paired together. These effects tend to be among the most powerful in the game, such as the Ghost Armor's terrify effect (which has a natural 40% of chances when fully upgraded). This is especially powerful when paired with charms that have multiple copies. For instance, when used together with both of the aforementioned charms of Swift Return, Jin will have 100% of recoverable arrows!
• The Dance of Wrath mythic skill unleashes 3 powerful, unblockable attacks that can trivialize duels and, with enough bonus damage, kill 3 Mongol troops effortlessly, even on Lethal difficulty.
• Once you learn that the Straw Hats do not have any armor or helmet and only attack in close range, you can easily delete them with a single headshot with your bow while keeping your distance. Thus ignoring the insanely high health pool and avoiding their fast and damaging attacks.

Legends

• In Legends mode, you typically will only have access to one stance ^note The Master's Katana Legendary Weapon allows access to all stances, but it's more effective to use your single Legendary slot for something else, so the only one that is versatile enough for all enemy types is the Water Stance, specifically its charged Triangle attack, which deals a lot of damage very quickly, and reliably Staggers or interrupts enemies of all types. Most players will typically default to swords that have the Water Stance as a base and hopefully the Moon Stance as its second in order to deal with Brutes.
• Anything that deals fire damage, whether through your sword, bow, or tools, is essential for higher levels of Legend play, especially because the Oni and Tengu have really high health pools, and fire damage can eat through their health and stun them momentarily while giving you some breathing room.
  • Of particular note is the Samurai class, where you can upgrade the Dance of Wrath move from 3 strikes to 5, and get a skill that makes heavy attacks light the target and nearby enemies on fire. What makes this a Game Breaker is that the Dance of Wrath counts as a heavy attack: you can use it to flash-step through an entire wave of enemies and light every single one of them on fire, then turn around and mop up any survivors who haven't already burnt to death.
• The Hunter is a Difficult, but Awesome Magikarp Power character, as she has the highest damage potential, but her bow is really tricky to use, especially at high level play. But if you can learn the various maps layouts to find good vantage points, practice landing consistent headshots, and spec her equipment to deal increased damage, build Resolve, and recharge her ability, she can kill Gold-level bad guys like flies while casting her Ultimate more times than any other team member.
  • To make the Hunter even more powerful, equip her with the Skipping Stone Longbow. It's slower on the draw than the short bow, but if you connect with a headshot, the arrow ricochets to a nearby enemy. Apply this to your Ultimate, and you can hit up to NINE enemies in a single attack.
    • The Skipping Stone's power can be enhanced even further with the addition of a perk available from Rank 5, as well as a bit of RNG to get the right equipment bonuses. The Rank 5 Perk 'Pinpoint' gives all body shots a 50% chance to count as a headshot(i.e. you can shoot an Oni in the foot and have it count as a headshot). This extends beyond damage, and allows said shot to gain any bonuses a headshot would acquire (i.e. a Skipping Stone Hunter with Pinpoint can shoot an Oni in the toe and have it ricochet to another enemy), making strict accuracy less of an issue, as long as it hits. Finally, you add a combination of the 'Throwing Shot' bonus (Arrows fired at full draw throw the enemy on hit) on the Skipping Stone and 'Impactful Throws' (Throwing an enemy causes them to be knocked down for a short time and vulnerable to critical strikes) on your Charm. The result is a Longbow that (with sufficient draw time) can deal great burst damage and knock down two (non Oni/Tengu) enemies to their knees, allowing you to either run up and deliver a critical strike (which can be chained with the right timing), or simply take the time to draw back the bow and shoot the helpless enemy to keep them knocked down. Add 'Headshot Refund' to the Skipping Stone, and you may never need to grab a refill for an entire raid either, seeing as each 'headshot' will give you two arrows....
  • The Weightless Spirit seems to have a mediocre effect: Arrows don't descend. What this really means is that your arrows now constantly fly in a straight line, making it ridiculously easy to land headshots from great distances. Unlike the Skipping Stone Longbow, this is a half-bow, which has a much faster draw speed, and with the right perks, you can snipe at a really fast pace.
• The Ronin's special weapon allows him to equip bombs, which have a limited range compared to a bow, but explode in an AOE while stunning enemies, and you can spam them almost as fast as you can pull the trigger. The downside is that ammo is limited, so you have to check your fire rate (you can still retrieve some ammo off dead enemies). With the right perk, Assassins can equip bombs as well.

Iki Island Expansion

• The new Sarugami Armor, at the cost of the regular parry, improves the Perfect Parry and Perfect Dodge windows, their counterattacks, and all resolve gains. With a few upgrades and the right charms to further complement the armor's perks (such as Mizu-no-Kami and/or Mashira's protection, which further increase the Perfect Parry/Dodge windows), Jin can become pretty much untouchable to the point of trivializing duels and effortlessly outmatching entire Mongol camps.
• The major charm of Versatile Skills doubles the effects of any Minor charm if it's the only one of its category. This effectively makes it act as a second copy for a maximum of 4 different Minor charms with only half the space, which can lead to powerful combinations even with unique charms like Inari's Might and Silence (which respectively provide a great increase health, damage and resolve).
• With the release of three new powerful Archery charms, the aforementioned Tadayori build can be made even more broken:
  • The charm of Sugari's Sight allows Jin to fire three arrows at once and automatically lock onto his target's heads after a few seconds. Not only does it further help fill the Concentration gauge with the Tadayori armor's headshot perk, but by completing the Animal Sanctuary mini-games, the charm can be upgraded to decrease the lock-on delay.
  • The charm of Concentration makes Concentration last even longer, and it is also upgradeable by completing the Archery challenges.
  • The charm of Terrifying Aim has relatively high 30% of chances to terrify a nearby enemy upon a lethal headshot. When paired with Fortune and Versatile Skills, it reaches a whooping 120% chances!
• The charm of Fleet Foraging, which has 15% of chances of quickfire ammo recovery upon any melee kill, doesn't seem like much at first glance...until you realize that you can use either the charm of Versatile Skills or Fortune I/II to improve its chances to occur. What's more, assassinations and Way of The Flame count as melee kills, which makes it easy to spam and refill Smoke Bombs and Incendiary Oil.
• The charm of Perfect Landing makes you generate two Resolve whenever you do a landing roll from a fall that would have damaged you. You can exploit this by repeatedly jumping off any medium-height ledge to ensure you always have a full Resolve meter.