Ghost of Tsushima Legends Is Getting Standalone Version, Updates Add New Rivals Mode, Gear Mastery, More

Ghost of Tsushima’s co-op multiplayer is being heavily updated alongside the release of Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut later this month. It sounds like Sucker Punch has been hard at work adding to and improving the experience.

But before we get into the updates, the bigger news here is that Legends is being released as a standalone game. Priced at £15.99 / $19.99 on the PlayStation Store, this standalone version of legends will allow players to jump into the co-op action without needing to own Ghost of Tsushima.

Now then, Legends itself is getting a new game mode called Rivals. It’s a two-on-two competitive mode — but you don’t fight the opposing team directly. Instead, defeating enemies nets you ‘magatama’, which can be used to unleash negative effects upon your opponents. The first team to beat all enemy waves is the winner.

Then there’s the new ‘Gear Mastery’ system. Basically, it gives endgame players something more to strive for, offering even more powerful equipment: “This is a new expansion of the progression systems and rewards for Legends. Players who’ve earned 110-level gear will now be able to bind it to a class and activate “Mastery Challenges.” This will allow a piece of gear’s Ki level to be upgraded to 120 and eventually unlock a second perk slot! As you activate Mastery Challenges, you can also unlock a new Ability and new Techniques for each class.”

And on top of all that, some welcome quality of life improvements are being implemented. For starters, survival mode has been rebalanced to allow for shorter sessions. A big deal, since a difficult survival run could last for around an hour or more. New survival nightmare challenges will be added as well, and new cosmetics will be made available for players who have completed Jin’s single-player campaign on New Game+ mode.

Sucker Punch is also promising “a new piece of content each week from September 10 through October 1, including an additional Rivals map, new Survival maps inspired by Iki Island and Iyo’s realm, and Trials of Iyo, a new harder-difficulty version of last year’s Raid that offers challenges in bite-sized chunks, and offers a new set of online leaderboards.” That’s a lot of stuff.

Oh, and finally, it doesn’t matter if you own Ghost of Tsushima or the Director’s Cut on PS5 or PS4. Everyone will be able to play with everyone once the Director’s Cut launches on the 20th August.