Ghost of Tsushima: How to Challenge Enemies to Standoffs & Win

As you play through Ghost of Tsushima, the game’s combat will continue to develop, opening up various different opportunities to attack, including making Jin more lethal with his katana blade. You’re able to start a fight and kill an enemy in one slice. So that you can get fights off to a quick start, here’s everything you need to know about how to challenge enemies to standoffs in Ghost of Tsushima and win.

Challenging enemies to a standoff is something you should try to do as often as you can because it gives you the chance to kill an enemy in one swing of your blade and start the fight on the front foot.

How to Challenge Enemies to Standoffs in Ghost of Tsushima

When Jin spots an enemy, a prompt will pop up on the screen asking you to press up on the d-pad to call them into a standoff. If you do that, you’ll have a short window in which to hold triangle.

That gets you ready to strike as you and the enemy stalk each other. Then, to attack, you simply need to let do of triangle at the right time.

How to Win

You shouldn’t just let go once the enemy is in range of Jin’s blade because they might dodge. Instead, it is best to wait until just before they’re about to strike you as you’ll be able to counter and defeat them.

Then, once you’ve either missed or killed them, the standoff will be over and the combat encounter will continue as normal, so be ready.

You’re able able to upgrade that standoff ability twice too. There are two upgrades in the Evolving Tactics section and they’re called Standoff Streak and Improved Standoff Streak.

When you successfully defeat the first enemy in the standoff, more opponents will rush in to try and attack you. With those perks unlocked and upgraded, you’ll have the chance to slash at them with square or triangle, killing them instantly before the encounter continues as normal once more.

That’s everything you need to know about how to challenge enemies to standoffs in Ghost of Tsushima and how to win. For more tips and tricks on the game, be sure to check out our wiki guide. Also, be sure to read our review for all our thoughts on the game.