Hints and Tips

[Ancestral_Spirit]

I'm quite surprised a guide hasn't been written for this game on PSN profiles, but given that there is a guide on steam that is pretty damn thorough i'll post this here as well and then go through a few hints and tips that may help people in the long run 

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1331690317

 

Another handy dandy site to visit is the games wikia page. Lists plenty of the items, but also gives you a list of all the secondary quests, which makes for a lovely little checklist as you need to do all the secondary quests for a trophy.

 

https://ghostofatale.fandom.com/wiki/Ghost_of_a_Tale_Wikia

 

1. The blacksmith Rolo is essentially your guide and can point you in the right direction of whatever it is you need to find, given the right price. Money in this game, or Florins, is only used to pay Rolo for hints, maps and anything and everything else he can give you. So don't be afraid about spending your Florins. The only other character that you can spend your Florins with is Bellar Larr, playing the gambling game 'Highs, Lows and Seven's'. The amount you will need to use on him however is negligible.

 

2. This game is primarily a stealth and puzzle game. The stealth aspect can however be almost completely negated by one of the outfits you can unlock called the 'Guard'. With this outfit you can walk around among the rats like you're one of them, provided you have the full outfit. I would suggest getting this outfit as soon as possible. The Ranger outfit after reading its description makes it sound as though it does the same thing, only with greater movement speed. This is not the case. After bumping into a guard rat, he stopped me and told me to play heads or tails with him. I win, i carry on about my business, he wins i go to jail. So while the guards won't attack you, it's a 50/50 shot on whether or not you'll get teleported back to the beginning of the games jail cell.

 

3. An explosive substance called Brisance, is something rarely used in the game, but you'll need to get well acquainted with it by the end game. Brisance is a volatile substance found in big jars that you carry around slowly. As you do so, a bar will fill up, letting you know when it's on the verge of exploding. It can be detonated by either throwing objects at it from a distance (like sticks or bottles), or by standing next to it and lighting it with a candle. Just remember to run like the dickens after lighting it with the candle, and be sure to stand a distance away if you decide to throw objects at it instead.

 

4. Pick up EVERYTHING! You may not realise it, but there's a 99% chance that random piece of junk you just picked up is either used in a side quest or main quest at some point or other.

 

5. One of the best skills i found in the game was one learned from Gusto and Fatale called 'Red Mist'. By tapping R1, you will use up a portion of your stamina but anything you can interact with will light up in red. After that i'd say go for the stacking ability, which allows you to carry more than 5 of each item (sticks, bottles, candles and the like)

 

6. You will NEED all the outfits in order to complete all the sidequests, since plenty of characters will only trust you with certain information or items if you're wearing the right outfit.

 

7. The trophy 'Play All' for playing all the songs popped early for me, i never had to play all the songs in the game in order to get the trophy, i just had to learn them all. However if yours doesn't pop after learning a certain secret from Silas (i'm trying to keep this as spoiler free as possible), go to the commander and offer to play him all your songs, quite a few can also be played for Fatale.

 

8. I'm unsure if this is a case of a trophy popping early, or if the trophy description is misleading. The trophy 'A Name to a Face' says you have to discover the name of every possible character in Dwindling Heights. However according to my statistics page in game, i've only met 14/18 NPC's, and i am completely oblivious as to whom i could have missed seeing or speaking to. After having finished the game twice now, i can confirm that i missed no one, so who knows what's going on with that one  >.< 

 

9. You'll notice during some conversations there will be a small counter entitled 'Renown' with a number out of another number e.g. 200/200

This denotes the maximum amount of Renown (or exp) you can get by answering the conversation in the right way. The more you fail the lower the amount of renown you'll get for it. Always try and go for the maximum in any given conversation as the more you level up the higher your health and stamina goes. While it's not necessary for trophies, more health and especially stamina doesn't go amiss.

 

10. During the sidequest 'Fatale's Secret', you'll need to sing two songs. For the maximum amount of renown, sing 'The Maiden Wouldn't Sing' and 'The Gilded Warrior'.

 

11. The game works on a night and day cycle. Certain things will only be available during certain times of day. To check your time of day, hit the touchpad and look at the bottom right hand corner. To change the time of day either stand around and wait (not recommended), or you can sleep in a bed. This can only be done in the bed that Silas offers you initially, unless you have the aforementioned Guard outfit, in which case you can sleep in any bed provided you're wearing it.

 

12. The 'last boss' of the game is probably the worst and more out of left field parts of the game, and was by far the least enjoyable. Remember i mentioned that Brisance earlier? The final boss needs you to blow up 3 lots of the stuff in close proximity to a chest, whilst also being attacked by multiple enemies whilst on a time limit. The best method i found of doing this fight, was to walk the Brisance to the back of the chest, light it up with a candle to detonate it, and then run and jump away asap. Takes a few tries, but there is a barrel on The Shore that you can save in that is quite close by. Someone also recommended equipping the Thief outfit while doing this fight, as the enemies seemed to attack them less.

The Thief outfit does have a higher chance of you not being pursued by guards, so presumably this is also why it works on the enemies in the end game.

I can't confirm any of this, but it was the outfit i was wearing when i did the boss as well   

 

13. When it comes to the trophy to not be spotted by enemies, it appears as though this only accounts for the Rat Guards. I was spotted by spiders and still got the trophy, and the end game enemies are unavoidable to not be seen by. I cannot confirm this for the Leeches however as i was never spotted by any.

User @LukeTheGooner confirmed that they were spotted by Leeches and it did not negate the trophy  

 

14. For the trophy that requires you to not get hit by an enemy, i can confirm that being hurt by the poison mushrooms does not count as being hurt by an enemy. I would assume that being hit by the Leeches, Spiders, Rat Guards and the end game enemies are the only ones that count.

 

15. Regarding the trophy where you cannot consume items to regain stamina/health, i can confirm you can get food from Ouma Rezzia's kitchen. However i personally never specifically asked her for food, she forced me to eat as i tried to leave the conversation. However i am assuming, that the trophy is only negated if you eat something straight from your own inventory. 

 

16. To burn all of the Red Paw flags in the game, i would recommend first getting the Duinlan Gilded Armour. Using this it is possible to run, jump and not be seen by guards. Some of the flags are too high for you to reach to light with a candle. For these, you'll need to use pinecones. The area where 'The Master' locks you up, has an unlimited supply of them. 

 

17. Those loading screens that keep telling you to save often, listen to them! This game is very prone to crashing and sometimes at the worst possible moments. For example, mine crashed just as the credits were about to roll at the end of the game! The game autosaves frequently however, and you have slots for 3 manual saves yourself. You can only save your game in hiding spot, which fortunately are a-plenty.

 

18. It is entirely possible to do all the trophies in the game in one playthrough. However, the game won't take you too long to finish, and i'm one of those people that prefer to do a blind run of a game this short. The story is simple, but its background and lore is quite detailed. Just have fun with it!   

Edited January 20, 2022 by Ancestral_Spirit
Updating strategies while i play

[GoonerLukeThe]

On 18/05/2021 at 8:33 PM, Ancestral_Spirit said:

I cannot confirm this for the Leeches however as i was never spotted by any.

 

Just to let you know that I got spotted by a leech and it doesn't affect the trophy

 

great info btw

[Ancestral_Spirit]

On 1/17/2022 at 5:45 AM, LukeTheGooner said:

 

Just to let you know that I got spotted by a leech and it doesn't affect the trophy

 

great info btw

I'll add your info to the original post 

[Tenshi__ko]

nice work... thanks!!! i love the game, waiting for the second part with much desire!!

[Ancestral_Spirit]

On 2/7/2022 at 11:34 PM, Tenshi__ko said:

nice work... thanks!!! i love the game, waiting for the second part with much desire!!

 

Thank you! I tried to keep it as spoiler free as possible, so it didn't ruin the experience for people who just needed a little helping hand 

 

I'd love a second game as well! The guy that does the artwork for the game Jerome Jacinto is pretty active on twitter, he goes by sinto_j on twitter if you wanna follow him, and he still posts some Ghost of a Tale stuff on there from time to time.

[Alos88]

Some of the outfits felt really underutilized imo, the Thief outfit is only used once and I'm pretty sure the Ranger one isn't used at all (and the 50% chance of prison on getting seen isn't helpful at all when the Guard armor basically guarantees you'll never be seen)

[ArtisticGeek]

EDIT: After posting this I managed to get a work around to the problem and complete the game so I’ll just put what I did in case someone runs into the same problem one day.
 

“Hey I could use a bit of advice I seem to have the missing commander glitch and I’m not sure how to resolve this. The only places that have any advice for it are on the steam versions so I’m hoping anyone came across this and got through it and what did you do?”

 

So around the time when this glitched for me I was right before the cook mission so for me triggering that side mission along with getting the item to finish another quest of his seemed to trigger his model returning back to his office.

I don’t know if this is a guaranteed fix I just got lucky it worked for me after deleting and reinstalling the game didn’t seem to do the trick.

Edited May 26, 2022 by ArtisticGeek

[Guardian_owl]

Got everything in one go but messed up on Dodgy Mouse somewhere. It wasn't the final fight as I had a save from before it, completed a couple more times without getting hit and it didn't unlock. No guard detections and the only time I recall visibly losing HP that I kept the save is when I was briefly poisoned by a purple mushroom before I grabbed it. I reloaded a save every time I stepped on a bear trap as well as I think every time I was stabbed by bees.

 

I recall the red alert and panic noise playing for awhile after I killed the 2nd spider, but I didn't lose any HP so I thought I was fine. Spiders don't have a ranged attack do they? Replaying it now and this time I killed the first with a trap and smashed the other with bottles from far away, but there was still panic music for a bit after it was dead.

 

MY TIPS

If you find any clothing as you search the jail, put it on if if improves how hard it is to be seen or heard.

 

The first step I would recommend after you get out of the Jail is to acquire the Ranger Boots as that will greatly muffle your walking and sneaking to make it easier to get the Rat Guard armor pieces. After talking with the Blacksmith, wait for the guard patrolling the nearby stairs to leave the courtyard, then cross the courtyard to the left and enter the staircase going up. Walk past the hallway with the guard and enter the room with the wrecked ceiling. Push the wood block out to create a platform outside. Go out the window onto and climb up to the broken 3rd floor. Carefully walk around the edge and then look up to see the ladder. Toss a stick at the latch to drop it. Climb up the ladder to find the chest with the boots. Push the barrel so you can get back to the 3rd floor where you can drop down.

 

There are unlimited Candles and a Jug of Oil to refill your Lantern in the Jailer's Office near the Blacksmith (just inside the exit from the Jail).

Through the nearby large double doors is the barn, which has an unlimited supply of Sticks.

Pinecones (fire grenades) are limited for most of the game, but there is an area when you can get an unlimited restock after a certain late game story mission.

There doesn't appear to be an infinite source of Slime Jars (slick trap to trip guards) and there are very few of them. There isn't an infinite source of Bottles, though they are pretty plentiful so if you are filled up when you come across some, try to remember where they are next time you need to restock.

 

Order of Mouse skills I recommend is:

1.)Red Mist  - Highlights everything you can grab or interact with on the screen. There are some things higher up (like keys) that I would have missed without the highlighting

2.)The Stack - Doubles the amount of all consumable tools you can carry from 5 to 10. If you enter an area fully stocked up you should never run out even if you are somewhat careless.

3.)Strong Arm - Extra damage from throwing. Can kill a spider faster with pinecones or bottles, also allows you to neutralize a Bee Hive with 1 bottle instead of having to use pinecones to 1 shot them.

You can knock out those 3 quite easily and early as their first 3 quests only require going to the Jail and the Courtyard which you will have easy access to after you get the rat armor pieces.

After that it doesn't really matter, The Surge supposedly speeds up stamina regen, but I didn't notice a difference in other outfits. Also guard armor doesn't use stamina. The Long Drop faster recovery after falls, you probably shouldn't be falling a large distance anyway. Keen Ears by this point you won't be doing much sneaking as you'll have full rat armor or the Gold armor.

 

Order of Commander skills to buy is tricky.

Unlike the Mouse skills, these come in very slowly. You can do 1 early, but the other 3 you can't complete until near the end of the game, it is quite cruel. You can acquire the flexible gold armor faster than the fully upgraded rat guard armor. The 1st level of the armor upgrade is a bit faster, but not much.

So I recommend instead for your 1st skill Trap Seer which puts a noticeable, white HUD indicator above the spider traps.

There are traps hidden in the tall grass by the Far Tower and the indicator also displays on traps in the dark of the Catacombs and the Sewers. I found that much more useful than a very minor speed boost to the rat guard armor. Lvl 2 trap upgrade lets you reset the traps, but I don't know why you would as there are only 2 rooms in the game when that would be useful. There isn't a noticeable improvement in movement of the rat guard armor until you turn in 2 quests to get both levels of armor upgrade.

Edited May 23, 2023 by Guardian_owl