Ghost of Tsushima: How to Increase Resolve

As we went over in our combat fundamentals guide, resolve is a key component to the basic play loop in Ghost of Tsushima. Resolve is your healing engine, and it’s also the meter that powers certain special techniques. You need to kill enemies and perform skills such as perfect parry to build resolve, so it’s a performance-based cycle that keeps Jin Sakai alive and well. But when you start Ghost of Tsushima, you don’t exactly have a ton of resolve available. Luckily there are a few opportunities to increase your resolve, and it’s represented by Sakai performing Bamboo Strike events.

How to Increase Resolve in Ghost of Tsushima

Jin Sakai is one of the last remaining members of his family, therefore one of the few surviving practitioners of the Sakai sword fighting style. Bamboo Strikes are chances for Jin to hone his skills, and in some cases show off his family’s unique fighting arts. You’ll find your first Bamboo Strike quite early on, in the same location as an early story event. Jin is asked to demonstrate the Sakai style, and that triggers a new minigame in which the player has to efficiently slice through growing bundles of bamboo. If you complete the minigame, you get a permanent increase in resolve.

Related: Ghost of Tsushima Combat Basics – The Fundamentals of Attack and Defense

To perform the Bamboo Strike, Jin has to use his Sakai sword style to cut through lines of 3, 5, and 7 bamboo shoots. This is done by performing a line of button prompts, with a small twist. The prompts disappear once you start pressing the buttons, and each sequence builds off the previous in a Simon-like pattern. So it’s a test of speed, memory, and accuracy. If you’re too slow you’ll fail, but you don’t have to rush through each sequence; you can take a breather and study the pattern before you start tapping.

The best way to find the different Bamboo Shoot events, and there are several of them as you might expect, is to purchase the relevant Exploration technique. If you get the Wind of Resolve technique and set it as your target on the map screen, the Guiding Wind will take you to each Bamboo Strike. If you’re just getting started, you can find the Exploration techniques in the Samurai menu, along with the Deflection, Evasion, and Mythic techniques.

At Prima Games we’re continuing to explore Ghost of Tsushima, and our how to increase resolve guide is neither the first, nor the last. As a matter of fact you can take a look at the links listed below to find more of our Ghost of Tsushima guide coverage.

Ghost of Tsushima: Observe Leaders for Extra Stance Points

How to Sheath Your Sword in Ghost of Tsushima

How Many Acts Are in Ghost of Tsushima?

How do you feel about the Bamboo Strike minigames in Ghost of Tsushima? Are they fun, or more or less fun compared to the other upgrade events? Let us know what you think and join the conversation over on our Twitter and Facebook pages.