In Ghost of Tsushima you must find 10 Hidden Altar Locations for the Honor the Unseen trophy. This guide shows the Hidden Altars you need to earn the trophy.
What makes Hidden Altars unique from other Collectibles is that they are not marked on the map by question marks “?”. The game doesn’t even tell you that they exist, let alone where to locate them.
The Hidden Altars for the Honor of the Unseen trophy have a “bowing-down sign” in front of them. It looks like this:
Once you are at such a sign, you must wipe down on the Touchpad 
. This will make you bow down. When done correctly, it should trigger an effect in the world, such as insects flying around you, lightning striking the ground, birds appearing, fish jumping in the water etc.
The Hidden Altars don’t necessarily look like “Altars”, either. They can be literally anything – a pile of rocks, a tree, or boat bridge with the sign on it. They are found at fixed positions in the open world and will be available at all times. None of the Hidden Altars are missable! You can still find them after the story in free-roam.
There are definitely more to find but you only need 10 for the purpose of the “Honor the Unseen” trophy. They don’t unlock anything other than the trophy and don’t even count as proper Collectibles on the in-game tracker. Some even count as Hidden Altars without having the “bowing-down sign”, e.g. several graves of story characters. As long as it triggers an environmental effect, it should count towards the trophy. To make sure they count 100%, only the definitive confirmed ones with a sign will be listed here.
To make sure it counted, you must have seen the environmental effect. If in doubt, bow at the Altars a few times in a row until you’ve triggered the effect.
Region 1: Izuhara – Hidden Altars
Hidden Altar #1 – Effect: Purple leaves appear around you
Hidden Altar #2 – Effect: A bird appears and sits on the altar
Hidden Altar #3 – Effect: Fish jumping in river
Hidden Altar #4 – Effect: Fireflies appear around you
Hidden Altar #5 – Effect: Insects fly around you
Region 2: Toyotama – Hidden Altars
Hidden Altar #6 – Effect: Fish jumping in river
Hidden Altar #7 – Effect: Red Dragonflies appear
Hidden Altar #8 – Effect: Fish jumping in water
Hidden Altar #9 – Effect: Fish jumping in water
Hidden Altar #10 – Effect: Fish jumping in water
Bonus Hidden Altars
Hidden Altar #11 – Effect: Blue butterflies flying around you
Hidden Altar #12 – Effect: A white-blue-red bird appears on the left side of the altar sign on a rock
That’s all the Hidden Altars you need for the Honor the Unseen trophy in Ghost of Tsushima.
For all other Collectible Types, check out the full Ghost of Tsushima Collectible Guide.
There is also an additional Hidden Altar in Region One – Hiyoshi, located on the right side of the path as you begin the journey to the Mending Rock Shrine. The Altar looks a stone frog and it is situated in a crevice within the cliffs to the right of the path. If done correctly, it will cause dozens of frogs to appear, jumping all around Jin.
I can confirm this 🙂
+1, this was my first one, and still remains such a great surprise ;)
Another Hidden Altar is in the first region, left of Kaneda Castle in Kaneda Inlet. There is a Pillar of honor and if you bow in front of it a bunch of crabs will crawl out of the sand.
I can confirm this one.
Hidden Altar four’s effect is butterflies and fives is fireflies. Maybe it’s’ effect is different if it’s day or night.
When you look at the video, for me #4 was fireflies and #5 butterflies. They were both during daytime. They look quite similar, though (glowing insects).
Thank you for the detailed and well described guide for this game! Awesome!
Three easy ones in the first region that you will come across while going for 100% completion. The Pillar at Kaneda Inlet has one of these signs, crabs will come to the surface. The Shrine at Isonade Coast has two more right as you start the descent. Both will produce frogs. I’m not sure that both of these count but they are distinct signs and alters, even if they produce the same result.
Sorry, looks like these may have been mentioned but the location names may help find them easier.
There is also an unmarked altar of a Buddha that has a blue and white bird land on it at the north end of ‘Old Kanzawa Marsh’ in Toyotama if you are heading northwest through the marsh toward ‘Numanaka Inn’ you cant miss it, its on the road by a crossing.
Thanks very much for the locations; I’ve been going mad in this game bowing at everything! ?
There are two others on the path to Cloud Ridge Shrine (both are frogs) in Toyotama on the northeast coast (north of Urashima’s Village) and are literally on the path and unmissable.
I don’t know if it counts toward the trophy, but bowing at Taka’s grave produces the “hidden altar” blue butterfly effect.
Can confirm. I got the trophy bowing in the grave
Bowing at the Loyal Friend’s Grave is another hidden one where red ash will surround you.
Non sign hidden altar i came across 2. The guanyin Buddha statue at golden temple and graves of masako’s children.
There is also another one located on the beach above Castle Kaneda. I swam around the backside and came to a beach with a sign. It spawns a bunch of crabs when you bow.
Once you bow in front your buried horse you will see burning ashes surround you for 3 seconds