A Mad Pursuit is the next mission in the male tale The Oni in Ghost of Yotei, which unlocks once you have completed The Road to Ishikari Plain and entered the region. Atsu is now in Ishikari Plain, one step closer to her target the Oni, and ready to head to Ishikari Market to find more leads on how to reach this Yotei Six member. This is a complete walkthrough on how to complete A Mad Pursuit in Ghost of Yotei by defeating the Mad Goro raider.
- Quest Region: Ishikari Plain
- Objective: Track down and capture the Oni Raider, Mad Goro.
- Rewards: Progress in The Oni main tale, major loot, and new Oni Raider enemy types unlocked.
How to Start A Mad Pursuit in Ghost of Yotei
Before moving forward to the market, use Spyglass and scan three faraway locations:
- Yari Master island to the west
- Ishikrai Market in the northwest
- Ishikari Castle on the mountaintop, way ahead of the market
Once done with area scanning, you can either visit the Master to unlock the Yari spear or directly head to Ishikari Market. It’s not mandatory, but you should get Yari once you are in Ishikari because it’s a great weapon against the kusarigama that Oni Raiders wield throughout this region. If you have a plan to unlock the spear first, read our complete The Way of the Yari walkthrough.
Now let’s focus on our main task for which we are here, and that’s to ride to the market northwest of Matsumae Camp. Ishikari Market is located east of Howling Cove and west of Ishikari Fork, see the exact location from the above image. You can fast travel to Cove and then ride to the market following the wind direction.
Outside the market entrance, there is a bounty poster on the left with a title “Bow to no one” and the message reads:
Clan Matsumae does not care about us. They only play nice so our resources don’t go to repair the Oni’s damn castle. We came here to be beyond the reach of any lord. Samurai raiders… they’re all the same.
On the entrance’s right, there is a “Malevolent Hunter” Bounty you can pick to hunt down a woman and get a 2,500 Coins reward. This place is bustled with a crowd like a merchant on the gate’s left (to dye armor or buy hats, masks, ammo, or resources), Ran the Bower on the right (where you can upgrade or buy bows/arrows), and a woman also on the right from the gate who tells Fox Den location. You can interact with different NPCs to get side quests, some info, and earn currency and items. You can further go through the top and ground floors of buildings to collect as much loot as you can.
To start A Mad Pursuit, check the Bounty Board on the right of the main street with Kojiro standing near it and read the notice for “The Traitorous Raider” Mad Goro.
Collect the bounty page to trigger a cutscene in which three Oni Raiders try to get some information on Mad Goro from a Sake House Barman. Atsu in her usual style, interprets them, then you have to kill the raiders, and three more appear after them. These raiders are different than the ones you fought earlier:
- Bomb throwers who light their bombs with lanterns, take them down first.
- Spear raiders who attach fireworks to their weapons. Dodge when you see the red flash; the flames linger on the ground.
Once done with them, talk to the arrogant barman at the bar’s entrance to try to get some details on Goro. You will be presented with the two choices, and you can pick any:
- The same could be said of me.
- And yet you protect him.
I picked the second option, he swore on his child that he don’t know anything about Mad Goro, otherwise he would have already told Raiders about it. For gratitude to save his life, he’ll offer a drink to Atsu and tell her to leave. After this conversation, A Mad Pursuit mission officially begins.
How to Find Mad Goro
A cutscene plays where Atsu is sitting at a table in the bar. Use the R key to eavesdrop on the two NPCs to hear their conversation standing in front near the pillar. Next, eavesdrop on the two men sitting at the front table who talk about Yari Master Sensei Takahashi for his bravery against the Oni Raiders.
Then hear the conversation of two men sitting at the table to the bar’s left, who finally spill some beans on the thief raider, but not enough to lead you to him.
Before they talk further, their conversation is interrupted by a samurai’s arrival, and he is none other than Jubei, looking for Atsu, and found her here. Atsu tells his brother that the Oni has put a bounty on one of his own theft raiders named Mad Goro, who stole a prized musket.
Lord Kitamori’s arrival stopped Atsu from getting leads on Goro, but he has his own way to have them talk. He will order the waitress to send them a good quality sake, then they will mention the Iwami Village, which is your next destination.
More Oni raiders arrive in the market who are after Jubei. But with him on your side, the fight is manageable. Take down the close-range enemies with the Katana and kill the distance raiders by shooting arrows. Once all are defeated, follow Jubei down the path outside the market to get to his horse. Atsu wants him to leave, but he wants to tag along to help her in the Mad Goro hunt. Here come two more choices to pick one:
- You have a new family.
- I’m not the little girl you remember.
No matter what you choose, Jubei will follow you to the village.
Head to Iwami Village to Ask About Goro
Ride north across the Ishikari River bridge, follow the wind, and take the left path to reach Iwami Village. There’s a Raiders message for Atsu outside the village on a page stuck on a tree.
Go inside the village, where a cutscene triggers in which Atsu and Jubei have a conversation with a settler, and she asks him about Goro. The settler then tells them about a thunder noise he heard near Bear Rock down the path on the left, which Jubei mentions is gunfire.
Investigate Mad Goro’s Camp
Ride to the path in the wind direction to reach Bear Rock, where you will find two Oni Raiders’ bodies on the ground. Jump off the horse and follow Jubei to the left from the bodies to enter Goro’s camp.
His belongings are placed on right beside the cliffs you need to investigate to get his clues, where you will find a smashed Raiders’ Mask, which Atsu mentions smells very bad.
Next, go to where Jubei is crouched and examine the charred remains that became the target of the bomb fire.
When they are busy with investigation, a rider’s group of Ronin bounty hunters enters the scene. Jubei first tries to talk to them calmly, but they only listen to steel. This encounter introduces standoff feints — some enemies will fake lunges to bait your attack. Hold your heavy stance and release only after they fully commit.
Once the last Ronin is left alive, Atsu integrates him to get some leads, who then tells them about their investigations of floating Oni Raider bodies along the river and that they were killed with musket.
Follow Jubei to the horses, ride the path ahead, and then to the right through the Ishikari River to find Raiders’ bodies. Now follow the trail along the river’s left, choose any choice when asked during the ride, and you’ll come across Oni Raiders near the waterfall. The Duo will hop off the horse and crouch to hide to look at the Oni Raiders camp situation.
Open Spyglass when the game prompts, and scan the far left area where you spot some Raiders around corpses. Atsu bets with Jubei for 20 mon for every single kill, but he says 10, and then the choice appears:
- What happened to your sympathy?
- Fine. I don’t want to leave you broke.
Choose the first option to increase the bet to 15 mon and then begin your stealth killing action.
How to Defeat the Oni Raiders Sneakily
So our sneaky assassination challenge starts here, and mon is on bet which we have to win for Atsu. To get the first Oni Raider down (whom you can see in the image above standing at front near the cliff’s edge), cross the narrow bridge, move while crouching through the grass to silently get close to him from behind, and press a specific key to assassinate him.
The second Raider you see in the above image is standing near the horse across the water. Jump into the water from where you killed the first enemy, move through the grass, and kill him calmly so the other two Raiders across on the other side don’t even know what happened.
Now go back to the ledge where we killed the first bad guy and cross to the other end through the fallen tree bridge. Move through the grass and take the third Raider down who’s looking towards the wooden bridge.
Sneakily cross the bridge with crouch, and jump onto the left rock ledge to assassinate the fourth Raider standing on the edge, looking in the opposite direction.
Move through the rope to get to the ceiling’s top and use Chain Assassinate (you better have it unlocked till now) to kill both Raiders at once. If you don’t have the skill, use the sake jar to distract one enemy, kill the one who stands there, and then take down the other who went searching for the jar’s noise. So far, you have taken six down, and the last two are left.
These remaining two Oni Raiders are on top of the left cliff where you killed the above enemies, standing beside the corpses you examined with the Spyglass. Sneakily get close to the first Raider until you get the assassinate prompt, then first shoot the far enemy with an arrow and quickly kill the closer one with a dagger or sword before he can even have a chance to attack you.
Congratulations! You have killed all the enemies without alerting a single living soul and earned 120 mon from Jubei. Right after the fight, Jubei arrives there, and now you have to examine the corpses, which reveal that they were shot down from the other nearby cliff. Use Spyglass when prompted to scan the higher cliff where Atsu sees some smoke, and suddenly Mad Goro appears from below and shoots at her, triggering a cutscene.
How to Capture Mad Goro Alive
Atsu asks Jubei to distract Goro with his arrows while she tries to get close to him. Controls come to your hand, move on the tree, and then use the grapple point at the tree to jump to the other end. Reach the climbable wall and climb to the top using rock handholds.
When you get to the higher cliff, Goro instantly runs on the horse and throws fire bombs at you. Now it’s a little long chasing game on horse until you reach Goro’s home. He throws fire bombs at you throughout the chase, so be careful and avoid them.
The shots start coming again at Atsu and Jubei right when they enter the house, but you won’t be able to spot Goro at first. He is on a higher cliff at some distance.
Stick to the right side and keep moving behind the rock covers until you get closer to the rock cliff where he stands, and all this while, Jubei will distract him with arrow shots. You will come across a cliff path moving up; follow it and climb a couple of small ledges to reach Mad Goro.
Fight Mad Goro
Mad Goro opens the fight same like the Oni Raider Ambusher by clashing his twin sickles and setting them to fire. Once the blades catch fire, every hit can burn you, so block or parry, and if you catch a flame, roll immediately to put it out.
Goro’s first phase sticks mostly to fast scythe combos. Watch for him to raise both kama as they flash blue; that’s when he performs a four-hit string. The first strike needs a perfect parry or a clean sidestep otherwise, the rest will stagger you. Keep your guard steady, punish right after the fourth swing, and back off if he starts another ignite animation.
After taking enough damage, he swaps tactics and draws a katana and torch. This second stance is slow but heavy. The torch swings create fire damage on contact, and the burn effect stacks fast. You’ll notice he occasionally feints a forward step before attacking — don’t bite on it. Wait for the full motion before you counter.
When Goro lights his torch again, move in a circle instead of backing up to stay close for a parry window without walking into the fire trails. Between combos, Jubei fires support arrows from a distance. Goro blocks most of them, but an occasional hit will stagger him long enough for a few free strikes.
In the last stretch, he’ll mix up his patterns when he switches weapons mid-combo or delays his final swing. Stay patient and rely on parries over dodges; the timing gap before his final hit is longer than it looks. A well-timed counterattack after his overextended spin will break his guard and trigger the finishing sequence.
Once Mad Goro is defeated, a cutscene triggers in which Atsu wants to take him to his master for the bounty but he mutters something about Oni Raiders’ secrets and Matsumae Clan. Hearing that, Jubei now has his own plan and wants to take him for questioning. Atsu gives his brother 24 hours to interrogate Goro to get whatever info he can before she takes him as a bounty.
A Mad Pursuit mission ends here, you now have to head to Ishikari Market to meet Jubei. The next mission in The Oni tale is Belly of the Beast.
