Ghost of Tsushima Best Armor - All Armor Dyes and Sets

Liberate you home with the aid of the best armor in Ghost of Tsushima!

Guide by James Billcliffe Guides Editor

Updated on Aug. 20, 2021

A samurai’s armor is a work of art - intricately decorated, but with violent function at its heart. And now with the release of Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut on PS5, you can appriciate it in all its resplendent glory.

You’ll come across a variety of armor sets throughout your time with Ghost of Tsushima, but each one works best in different situations. Once you've picked your favourite set, you'll also be able to customise it with various armor dyes found at merchants across the land.

Light clothing with an emphasis on mobility works a treat as Jin embraces his darker impulses as the stealthy Ghost, but offers little protection when it’s time to really throw down in a fight.

Here are all of Ghost of Tsushima’s best armor sets for each play style, as well as where to lay your hands on them.

Be advised, many of the best armor sets in Ghost of Tsushima are rewards for quests, while some unlock relatively late in the story. This comes as a spoiler warning for rewards from quests and later-game story unlocks.

With that said, the armor set listed here that unlocks latest in the game has been extensively shown in trailers, and is literally on the box art for Ghost of Tsushima.

Ghost of Tsushima Best Armor Sets
All other Armor Sets
Ghost of Tsushima Armor Dyes
Where to find the White Dye Merchant and Black Dye Merchant

Ghost of Tsushima Best Armor Sets for each play style

Best Armor for explorers and completionists - Traveller’s Attire

Right off Komoda Beach, when you make it to a Survivor Camp and speak to a merchant, you’ll get a fresh set of threads - the Traveller’s Attire.

In the story, changing out of your broken armor helps to take the heat off Jin by making him less of an obvious target to the Mongol Invaders.

However, it also has the unique ability to track down the copious collectibles throughout the island of Tsushima. This is the only armor set which lets you point the guiding wind at hidden items.

While it’s not that useful during combat, you’ll probably find yourself wearing this at the end of the game to scoop up everything you’ve missed. Or you could quickly don it when you enter a new area to scoot around and grab everything as you play.

Best Armor for Mixed Characters - Ronin Attire

You can really easily get one of Ghost of Tsushima’s best armor sets straight away in Act 1 by heading to the west of the island to help out your old friend Ryuzo.

While the Ronin Attire doesn’t have the damage reduction capabilities of Clan Adachi’s Samurai armor, it makes up for this by blending a wide range of skills into one set - so you’re not switching around all the time and can concentrate on just having fun with the game.

The decent buff to melee damage is always useful, and the stealth orientated abilities are quite powerful and the only ones you’ll find on armour for most of the game.

If you like to approach encounters stealthily, but don’t want to be caught short when the story forces you into a violent situation, the Ronin Attire is the way to go.

Best Armor for Melee Characters - Sakai Clan Armour

There are two great choices for melee characters from the start of Act 2.

The first is a story unlock, in the northwest of the second area: Jin’s Sakai Clan Armour. This powerful set works well for players who want to wade into fights without messing around with stealth.

Firstly because it greatly increases your ability to deal and receive damage, but also because when fully upgraded it allows you to take out a maximum of 5 enemies with Ghost of Tsushima’s showpiece Standoff mechanic.

Second is Gosaku’s Armour, which you’re rewarded with at the end of The Unbreakable Gosaku Mythic Tale.

We have a full page on where to find and complete all of the Mythic Tales, but you start it just outside of Akashima when you reach that prefecture at the beginning of Act 2.

While the Clan Armour has powerful passive buffs, Gosaku’s Armour is better if you want a bit more of an active challenge in your playstyle.

Essentially, it powers up your stances so you can stagger enemies more easily and finish them off in style. And once you’ve done that, it tops up your health for good measure.

If you enjoy playing the melee meta-game (or don’t and want it to be over quicker), then Gosaku’s Armour rewards you for quickly altering your stance to match your opponent, while also keeping you healthy.

Or if you fancy using something brand new, the Sarugami armor from Iki Island can be very powerful in the hands of experienced players - but use it with caution.

Best Armour for Stealth Characters - Ghost Armour

Next up, towards the end of Act 2 and the beginning of Act 3, you finally unlock the Ghost Armour - the set on the box art for the game and that’s been shown off in trailers and presentations of Ghost of Tsushima.

The Ghost Armour functions almost as the stealth equivalent of the Sakai Clan Amour, letting you go undetected until you can pick off any stragglers without reply.

When fully upgraded, its reduction to enemy detection speed means if you crouch, you can pretty much walk right under people’s noses without attracting their ire. While the % chance to Terrify enemies really thins out large groups of enemies, so you’re unlikely to be overwhelmed even without support for your melee abilities.

Reducing the number of kills you need to enter the powerful Ghost Stance is a boon too, letting you unleash one of the game's coolest mechanics more often.

You can supplement that weakness with charms anyway - and we have a page on where to get all of the best charms in Ghost of Tsushima, here.

All other Armour sets

While the above are our picks for the strongest, there are plently more choices of clothing in Ghost of Tsushima.

There are a couple of memes in there, but you could definitely find a use for a couple of them. Not to mention that they all look great.

Samurai Clan Armour

This makes sense as an early armour set, but is quickly outclassed by others.

I tend to prefer proactive healing from the Charm of Amaterasu and Goskau armour over using resolve. While it's special ability that triggers when you take damage gets progressively worse as the game goes on, not only as you get better at the combat system, but as you get more tools to block incoming attacks without getting hit.

You unlock the Samurai Clan Armour in an early mission with Lady Masako Adachi.

Tadayori Armour

This archery-buffing armour set is great if you want to shoot with the best of 'em, but I feel like Jin's ranged attacks are strong enough anyway that you're better off getting help elsewhere. That is one heck of a hat though.

Collect it from the Legend of Tadayori Mythic Tale - which we have a page on, here.

Kensei Armour

While it's a lot of work to get the Kensei Armour - and it looks great - I felt like it was quite situational, and there were very few enemies in the game which needed debuffing.

There's no doubt that you can pull off some flashy combos by powering up your Ghost Weapons and giving yourself a steady stream of Resolve to spam special moves, but it relies heavily on the limited ammo you can find.

Get the Kensei Armour set from the Six Blades of Sojiro Mythic Tale.

Mongol Commander's Armour

You can complete a Tale of Tsushima to receive this unique armour set when you reach Jogaku Temple in Act 3 of the game. While it comes fully upgraded with some decent buffs, it's outclassed by other fully upgraded melee sets.

While waltzing into a Mongol encampment using your disguise is a great way to get off the first blow, it's more of a novelty.

Fundoshi

Speaking of novelty, bask in the glory of the Fundoshi - your reward for finding every Hot Spring in Tsushima.

It's definitely a joke, but its silent running ability means you can go full Leroy Jenkins into any unsuspecting band of enemies left wandering the island once you've cleaned up.

I feel the Tengai secret hat vanity item really sets off the look.

Ghost of Tsushima Armor Dyes list

While the practicalities of each armor set are important, nothing beats a really cool-looking set of threads.

Here's a gallery of each and every armor dye in Ghost of Tsushima. You unlock more and more as you progress through the game. The first batch are found at survivor camps and towns in the Act 1 area. You can then grab more from merchants in Act 2. Finally, you can buy all previous armor dyes, plus 3 more for the Ronin Attire from the merchant at Jogaku Temple in Act 3.

From Act 1 you have access to the White Dye Merchant, before being able to visit the Black Dye Merchant in Act 2 for some unique colourways. We'll show you where to find them below.

Click or tap to expand the image:

Traveller's Attire Armor Dyes:

Samurai Clan Armor Dyes:

Ronin Attire Armor Dyes:

Tadayori's Armor Dyes:

Gosaku's Armor Dyes:

Sakai Clan Armor Dyes:

Kensei Armor Dyes:

Ghost Armor Dyes:

Where to find the White Dye Merchant and Black Dye Merchant in Ghost of Tsushima

If you want to don an outfit of pure white like death himself, visit the White Dye Merchant in the northwest of the Act 1 area. He's found between where it says "Wanderer's Pass" and "Kashine Hills" on the map.

His shop is high up on the hill.

To find the Black Dye Merchant, head to Kawamata Village on the east coast of the Act 2 area. The shop is just to the southeast of Kawamata, southwest of Urashima's Village.