Ghost of Tsushima - The Heavenly Strike quest: How to find the white trees and unlock the Mythic skill
How to complete The Heavenly Strike Mythic Tale.
The Heavenly Strike is one of seven Mythic Tales in Ghost of Tsushima, tasking you with tracking down and defeating Yashuhira Koga in a duel.
Your reward for doing so is The Heavenly Strike ability, a pretty helpful additional attack that does loads of damage to staggered enemies, so with that in mind we've explained on this page how to find the white trees and how to beat Yashuhira Koga in all the detail you need.
On this page:
Once done, our Ghost of Tsushima Mythic Tales locations page can help with starting and finishing the other quests.
How to start The Heavenly Strike in Ghost of Tsushima
The Heavenly Strike is available early on in Act 1 of Ghost of Tsushima. You can find the musician Yamato ready to hand out The Heavenly Strike mythic tale at a crossroads in the Komatsu prefecture, in southern Izuhara.
Specifically it's just south of River Falls Bridge, east of Brown River Gorge.
The Heavenly Strike: How to find the white trees on the way to Shigenori's Rest in Ghost of Tsushima
Your first task is to find a weeping woman beneath a nearby bridge - follow the guiding wind to get there. It's north-west from the musician, not far at all.
After talking to her you'll need to follow some tracks, which more or less stay on the path so are easy to follow. They'll take you to a nearby Mongol camp - defeat the Mongols there.
Search the watchtower for some clues, and you'll spot this piece of artwork.
Your next destination is actually Plum Blossom Shrine.
Head west and a tad north from your location at that camp and look for the Torii gates and a woman who'll direct you to the top. There's some brief platforming but it's all very simple.
From the top, hop across the gap and follow the waypoint to a ledge, where you can look out to the west and see the white trees below.
Head through those trees and there are some more Mongols, who have a hostage - before to take them out before they attack the hostage themselves.
The hostage will give you directions to Shigenori's Rest, which is now a waypoint on your map, so follow it there!
Once you arrive: more Mongols! What a treat. You can take them out with stealth or go in blazing, your call, but make sure you keep some Resolve stocked up for what's about to come...
Looking for more help? Our Ghost of Tsushima walkthrough provides an overview of the critical path, including how to complete missions The Broken Blacksmith and Shadow of the Samurai. For those who've yet to begin, our Ghost Of Tsushima length page lets you know how much time you need to dedicating to finishing the game. For those looking for completing side-quests, we have lists of Ghost Of Tsushima Hot Spring, Ghost Of Tsushima Bamboo Strike and Ghost Of Tsushima Mythic Tales locations.
How to defeat Yashuhira Koga in Ghost of Tsushima's The Heavenly Strike
This one plays out like any other duel in Ghost of Tsushima, which means the usual tips apply - these might be intimidating early on but they're actually very learnable, so just stay calm and take as many tries as you need.
Here's our advice for winning duels:
- Stay in stone stance as you're facing a swordsman.
- Heal when you get the little boost in resolve, during those tense sword-clashing pauses.
- Keep sidestepping, as it's easy to land hits when you get around the side of your enemy.
- Attack when your enemy sheathes their sword - it's a free couple of hits, and if you don't they'll launch a very fast unblockable attack.
When Koga gets to low health, you'll notice some dialogue about how Jin is "learning" his moves. What this means is you're about to be able to use the Heavenly Strike attack, so just be prepared to follow a quick button prompt. It's Circle + Triangle together.
With that, Yashuhira Koga goes down, and the ability is yours! It's super useful against staggered enemies - especially brutes in the early game, before you unlock Moon Stance. A great combo is to throw a Kunai for a free stagger, and then immediately follow up with Heavenly Strike. Good job!
We've rounded up explainers on all seven of the game's Mythic Tales, so for more like this head to our Ghost of Tsushima Mythic Tale locations hub, where you can find the rest!
