Ghost of Tsushima’s co-op multiplayer and New Game Plus modes now have a release date

Ghost of Tsushima’s free online cooperative multiplayer mode will be released on October 16.

Announced in August and titled Legends, the co-op mode will be released as part of the game’s version 1.1 update, which will also introduce a New Game Plus mode for the single-player campaign.

Legends is a separate mode that doesn’t follow protagonist Jin, but instead focuses on four warriors who have been built up as legends in stories told by the people of Tsushima, game designer Darren Bridges previously told The PlayStation Blog.

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Players will be able to partner up with friends or via online matchmaking and play Legends in groups of 2-4 players. Each player can choose from one of four different character classes: the Samurai, Hunter, Ronin, or Assassin. Each class has unique advantages and abilities that will be revealed later.

“Ghost of Tsushima’s single-player campaign focuses on an open world and exploring the natural beauty of the island, but Legends is haunting and fantastical, with locations and enemies inspired by Japanese folk tales and mythology and an emphasis on cooperative combat and action,” Bridges said.

Two players will be able to play a series of co-op Story missions that escalate in difficulty, he said, building on the foundation of combat from the single-player campaign but with “new magical twists that often require careful synchronization with your partner.”

With four players, players will be able to take on wave-based Survival missions, fighting new, tougher opponents such as the Oni enemies with supernatural abilities.

Finally, a four-player Raid will arrive shortly after the launch of Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, sending players to “an entirely new realm to challenge a brutal, terrifying enemy.”

For players who have completed the game’s campaign, the New Game Plus mode will begin from the release to the open world after Jin’s first battle with the Khan. Players will retain all the Techniques, Gear, and Vanity items they picked up in a previous playthrough.

The game’s default difficulty will be increased but can still be customised. New Game Plus will give players a new horse and feature fresh Charms, additional weapon upgrades, a new type of flower and new Trophies.

Bridges provided more details on the game’s version 1.1 update in a new PlayStation Blog post on Monday.

Released in July, Ghost of Tsushima broke PlayStation’s first-party PS4 launch record for an original IP, with more than 2.4 million copies sold globally in its first three days of availability.

In VGC’s Ghost of Tsushima review, our critic said the “Kurosawa homage forges its own identity, but is weighed down by the genre’s more perfunctory tropes”.