The Spider Lily General - Key Locations and Maze Solution

While exploring the southern edge of the Tokachi Range region, south of Shizunai Woods, you’ll come across a Mysterious Gate. Beyond here lies the Abandoned Tominaga Estate, the haunted demesne of the eponymous Spider Lily General, who gives his name to this quest. If you can brave the uncharacteristically spooky vibes of this quest and complete its puzzles you’ll walk away with the Spider Lily Armor, and this page will help you find the four keys you need and navigate the bamboo forest maze during the quest The Spider Lily General in Ghost of Tsushima.

Page Breakdown¶

Reach the Abandoned Tominaga Estate¶

Squeeze through the Mysterious Gate and you’ll be stopped by Ugetsu, who will tell you the backstory of the location to put you in the proper mood for the task at hand. After his story is over it’ll be night and you can proceed through the gate into the misty estate beyond. Go upstairs and examine a corpse when you come across it before reaching another gate, beyond which lies the Abandoned Tominaga Estate.

Four-Lock Gate¶

Continue following the trail forward past the gate and note a pagoda to the right and a smaller building to the left. Go up a small flight of stairs to the left and continue forward past and between the two buildings to reach a gate sealed by four locks, and each lock has a symbol on it: a pagoda, a maze, a gravestone and a cave. These are clues as to the locations of the keys you’ll need to find, which will consume your attention for much of this quest.

Pagoda Key Location¶

Might as well start with the easiest one, first. From the four-lock gate, turn around and look left to spot the pagoda. Head to the base of it and search the exterior to find a chest containing the key you seek. Pick it up and after a scene you’ll be free to keep searching for the other keys.

Maze Key Location¶

Now for the tricky one. From the Pagoda head past the smaller building nearby, following a trail until you find a bamboo forest maze to the left - a lantern should help you find the entrance. Enter and head forward down a linear albeit winding path until you come to a clearing where you’ll find a Bamboo Strike. Don’t get too excited, however, as there’s no bamboo stacked on it for you to cut just yet. More importantly there are five exits to this clearing (not counting the path you took to get here) - two to the left, two to the right and one past the bamboo strike. At the end of each path is a portal that’ll take you deeper into the maze if you pick the correct route (albeit with little fanfare) or, if you pick the wrong route, it’ll take you back to the beginning of the maze.

If you go down the wrong path too many times Atsu will muse to herself, eventually revealing the solution (it is a PlayStation game, after all - Atsu has a case of the Aloys.) The correct path off of each bamboo strike clearing will have red spider lilies growing somewhere near the entrance, and after you go through the portal at the end of the correct path you’ll invariably end up back at the bamboo strike clearing, save the bamboo strike will now have one, two or three stalks of bamboo, depending on how many times you’ve gone the right way. Once it has three stalks on it you can properly attempt the [Bamboo Strike] minigame. More importantly, the three-stalk bamboo strike will have the key you seek on it.

Cave Key Location¶

Exit the bamboo forest maze and follow the trail to the left until you reach the Southern Caverns. Outside a Saito Outlaw will talk to you, after which you can slide through the cleft to enter the cave. Inside the cave, follow the path ahead, then turn right, following discarded torches and looting chests until you find a high ledge wrapping around a chamber ahead. Follow it up and to the right then scale a climbable section of wall between two lanterns to emerge outside on high ground. Crawl through a tunnel ahead - a torch should light the way - pass through another section of cave beyond, climb a wall to return outside, cross a log, squeeze through a narrow cleft to reach a third cave section. Drop down two ledges as you follow the linear path ahead and you’ll find a section of cave with paintings on the wall. Examine the paintings to obtain the cave key.

Gravestone Key Location¶

Three down, one to go. Squeeze through another narrow opening in the rock, slide down a slope, drop down a ledge then follow the trail to the right back to - and past - the pagoda. Follow the trail ahead and it’ll lead through an area lined with spider lilies and stone lanterns, past which you’ll find some Saito outlaws busy searching for lucre. Defeat the graverobbers, continue up some stairs, a ladder and a cliff, then follow the path ahead until you find more graverobbers. Engage them and after a scene only Atsu will be left standing. General Tominaga can protect his own! Afterwards, loot the exhumed coffin to find the third key.

Defeat General Tominaga¶

Backtrack to the four-lock gate and, provided you have all the keys, open it. Beyond the gate you’ll find a boarded up house to the right and a gate beyond it, as well as a more intact building ahead where you can snatch some loot and enjoy a bit of a jumpscare. Examine the bloody bedding in the house ahead, then go through the gate to the right beyond which lies another gate. After the second gate, explore a cubby to the right to find an obstruction you can clear with your grapple, then squeeze through the narrow rock to confront General Tominaga.

This is a fairly standard boss duel, with General Tominaga having little in the way of novel attacks. He’ll start out with a katana but will switch to a kusarigama as the fight progresses. Parry his attacks and counter with normal strikes - he’ll lock swords and talk with you often enough that there’s little point in using heavy attacks and breaking his guard.

Defeat General Tominaga, head uphill and find his armor arrayed on a gravestone. Don’t think about the undeniably supernatural aspect of this quest - it was cool and picking up the Spider Lily Armor and Spider Lily Headband are worthy rewards. The quest will end after you grab the armor, and you can grapple down a tree stump nearby to get back to the pagoda.