Ghost of Yotei: Is There Focused Hearing?

In this article, we’ll explore whether you can use Focused Hearing in Ghost of Yotei, which was a major ability in the last game.

There are a wide range of stealth skills in Ghost of Yotei (Source: Sony Interactive Entertainment) — There is a wide range of stealth skills in Ghost of Yotei (Source: Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Unlike Ghost of Tsushima, there’s no Focused Hearing in Ghost of Yotei. Focused Hearing was an ability in the earlier game that allowed Jin to reveal nearby enemy positions. You could think of it as the series’ equivalent of Eagle Vision from the Assassin’s Creed games. However, Ghost of Yotei follows a completely different character named Atsu.

While she’s highly skilled in her own way, she doesn’t seem to have mastered the Focused Hearing ability. Let’s take a closer look at the lack of Focused Hearing in the game and how it can impact your stealth encounters.

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Gameplay Impact of Lack of Focused Hearing in Ghost of Yotei

Chances of detection are much higher here (Source: Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Focused Hearing was an ability that players used to maintain a stealthy approach in Ghost of Tsushima. While hiding, you could easily see how many enemies were nearby and their specific positions. However, Ghost of Yotei has completely scrapped this feature. Instead, players will need to rely on their own senses to study the environment and enemy movement patterns carefully. Failure to do so will lead to Atsu getting detected easily. The lack of Focused Hearing clearly makes stealth sections much more challenging.

Besides just the challenge, you’ll also have to take things a bit slower. Without a magical vision to help you out, you will need to spend more time studying how many guards are in the area and how they patrol. Thankfully, the game has plenty of cover for Atsu to hide, including tall grass, where she can hunker down and take her time before making a move.

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Alternate Stealth Skills To Unlock

Since you won’t be able to rely on Focused Hearing in Ghost of Yotei, we suggest unlocking alternate stealth skills as soon as you can. There are a plethora of these skills available. However, we feel the following are of the utmost importance if you want to stay undetected.

Killer’s Instinct

This is a skill under the Assassination tree. Unlocking it will enable a feature that lets you see whether nearby guards will notice Atsu assassinating one of their compatriots. Without the skill active, you have no way of knowing whether you’re going to get detected by a nearby enemy when you perform a stealthy takedown.

Killer’s Instinct will cause a red pulsing aura to appear around enemies who are in the line of sight of other guards in the area. If you perform an assassination on these red aura enemies, their companions will detect you. Wait for the guard to move and the red aura to disappear before attacking to remain undetected.

Chain Assassination

This is another stealth skill that will prove highly useful. It lets you chain multiple assassinations together, eliminating several enemies while maintaining stealth. So, if you see two enemies right in front of you, the ability allows you to take care of them both. Without this unlock, you would first have to distract one guard before attacking and taking down the other. Let’s be honest, that approach is far too messy and might get you detected easily.

Also Read: Ghost Of Yotei: 6 Things To Do First in Ezo