Ghost of Yotei Puzzle Box Locations and All Solutions

All 12 Nine Tails' puzzle boxes in Ghost of Yotei are in Teshio Ridge, the snowy northern region: one is held by a dead enemy in Sakura Woods, four sit on Kitsune Altars, and seven wait in front of the Altar of Reflection in Yotei Six camps, four of which are hidden hideouts behind fox statue puzzles. Collecting and opening all 12 unlocks the Trickster Fox trophy, and the twelfth box, always called the Epic Box, rewards the War Cry Mask. Below are every location, how to reach the hidden hideouts and the slide solution for each box.

We checked every location, solution and reward against PowerPyx's Nine Tails puzzle box guide, its Kitsune walkthrough and its full tale list, plus Game8's charm database in November 2026.

How Nine Tails Puzzle Boxes Work

Puzzle boxes become relevant once The Kitsune main tale takes you north. PowerPyx's walkthrough lists the first of the 12 boxes among that tale's rewards, and Teshio Ridge itself opens during it. After that, every box is somewhere in the same region, so a single trip north with a clear route can clear the whole set.

The most confusing thing about the boxes is their names. They are named by the order you pick them up, not by where they are. Your first box is always the Interesting Box and your second is always the Peculiar Box, followed by Fascinating, Curious, Intricate, Manageable, Perplexing, Devious, Challenging, Surprising, Elaborate and finally Epic. That is why guides list locations by area and solutions by name, and why people searching for the "Epic Box location" are really looking for whichever box they happen to collect last.

• Open boxes from the pause menu under Inventory, then Puzzle Boxes.
• Each solution is a series of slides on the box's faces, always ending with the top panel.
• Nothing is missable: every box can still be collected in free roam after the story.
• Seven boxes require clearing a Yotei Six camp first, so bring a combat loadout.

The Five Easy Boxes: Sakura Woods and the Kitsune Altars

Start with the five boxes that do not require clearing a camp. The first is also the easiest to miss. In Sakura Woods, go to the spot on the map where the letter "r" of "Sakura" is printed; the box lies on the ground under a wooden structure, held by a dead enemy. PowerPyx calls it the best hidden of the 12 and says that if you are missing one at the end, it is probably this one, because it is neither on an altar nor in a camp.

The other four sit on Kitsune Altars, which are marked on the map once you get close:

1. Sentinel Forest: the altar between Sentinel Forest and Sakura Woods, slightly southeast of Sentinel Forest Camp.
2. Shipwreck Shoal: ride the easternmost road along the shoreline and look west; the altar is below the rocky walls in the snow, halfway between Sarufutsu River and Shipwreck Shoal on the map.
3. Sarobetsu Forest: directly above the "su" in "Sarobetsu" on the map.
4. Teshio Coast: the box sits in plain sight on the front of the altar.

Because box names follow pickup order, doing these five first means your first five solutions will always be the Interesting, Peculiar, Fascinating, Curious and Intricate boxes, which are also the simplest puzzles. That makes it a good warm up before the harder ones.

The Three Open Yotei Six Camps

Three boxes sit in Yotei Six camps you can see on the map. In each case the box is in front of the camp's Altar of Reflection, and clearing the camp spawns you right in front of it, so you do not need to search afterward.

• Crossroads Trading Post: clear the camp and the box appears at the altar.
• Deserted Village: clear the enemies, then pick up the box in front of the altar.
• Soya Port: free the prisoner in the middle of the camp (marked with a red icon) and clear the camp with his help before collecting the box.

These camps also count toward your Yotei Six camp total and give you an Altar of Reflection each, so they are worth doing for the skill points even if you do not care about the trophy. Our quest list shows which Teshio Ridge tales overlap with this route, so you can combine trips.

The Four Hidden Hideouts and Their Fox Puzzles

The last four boxes are in hidden camps that do not appear as normal camps on the map. Each is reached through a named shrine or cave, and each has a fox statue or fox lantern puzzle guarding the entrance.

Snow Drift Springs Hideout. Go to Snow Drift Springs Shrine in Crimson Forest. Take a torch from the braziers at the locked door. Facing the door, light the leftmost fox in the left row (sitting upright with a stick in its mouth) and the rightmost fox in the right row. Climb the rock wall opposite the door and light the middle, seated fox by the third brazier. Inside, clear the camp to trigger a settler rescue, then solve one more torch puzzle upstairs: light the leftmost fox facing forward and the second from the right, crouching with its tail up. Climb the ladder and cross the rope to the altar.

Snow's Blight Hideout. At Snow's Blight Shrine in northwest Teshio Ridge, clear the enemies and free the hostage. Light the two braziers that have a lit lantern above them, then turn the fox statues on the right to match the stone foxes carved in the wall. Carry the two small fox statues that unlock to the locked door, and a crawlspace opens to the right. Clear the camp, defeat the leader and climb to the altar. This also completes the Nameless Killer bounty.

Nakajima Ice Cave Hideout. At Nakajima Ice Cave, northwest of Sarobetsu Lake, turn both entrance foxes to face away from the door to open a crawlspace. Inside, jump and use the grappling hook mid-air to reach the rope, turn the next fox twice to raise ropes and interact once with the following fox to drop a ladder. After clearing the camp, turn the left fox in the back right corner once and the right fox three times so they face each other, then cross the rope to the altar.

Cape Inari Hideout. At Cape Inari Shrine on the northernmost edge of the map, light the two fox lanterns marked with a trident icon: one through the gap right of the gate, one through the gap on the left. Avoid lanterns marked with an exclamation point, which hurt you. Go under the opened door, light two more trident foxes to release a rope, climb the snowy handholds to the camp, then light foxes at the broken bridge and the far cliff to cross to the altar.

Solutions for Boxes One to Six

These solutions follow the order you collect the boxes, as listed by PowerPyx. Each step names the face of the box you are looking at.

1. Interesting Box: front, slide the black stripe left; front, slide the front panel down; top, slide the top panel down. Reward: Charm of the Wary Opponent.
2. Peculiar Box: front, slide both black stripes down; top, slide the top panel down. Reward: 750 coins.
3. Fascinating Box: front, stripe right, panel down, stripe left, panel down; then the top panel down. Reward: 7 Iron Sand.
4. Curious Box: slide the black stripes down on all four sides, then the top panel down. Reward: 1,500 coins.
5. Intricate Box: front, top left sideways stripe left and bottom right sideways stripe right; slide both vertical stripes down; then the top panel down. Reward: 8 Shinobi Steel.
6. Manageable Box: front, panel down, stripe left, panel down, stripe right (it stops in the middle), panel down, stripe right again so it sticks out the right side, panel down; then the top panel. Reward: Charm of Drunken Adversary.

The two charm rewards are minor but handy. The Charm of the Wary Opponent lets you focus on an enemy who has started to detect you, and the Charm of Drunken Adversary gives standoff kills a chance to carry sake. Our best charms guide explains where they fit in a loadout.

Solutions for Boxes Seven to Twelve, Including the Epic Box

1. Perplexing Box: front, left stripe left, right stripe right and vertical stripe down; right side, stripe right and vertical down; left side, stripe left and vertical down; the back has nothing; then the top panel. Reward: 1,500 coins.
2. Devious Box: front, top left stripe left and top right stripe right; both middle stripes down until they stick; bottom left stripe left and bottom right stripe right; both middle stripes down again; then the top. Reward: 10 Iron Sand.
3. Challenging Box: front stripe left; right side stripe left and middle stripe down; front bottom stripe down; right side stripe back to touch the middle stripe; front stripe right; left side stripe right and middle stripe down; then the top. Reward: 8 Shinobi Steel.
4. Surprising Box: front panel down, stripe right, panel up until it sticks, stripe right again, panel down; then the top. Reward: 2,000 coins.
5. Elaborate Box: work the left vertical stripe down in three stages by alternating the top left and bottom left stripes, then slide the right vertical stripe down until both match; then the top. Reward: 10 Iron Sand.
6. Epic Box: back, top half of the stripe up and bottom half down, then stripe left; left side stripe left; front, left half left, middle stripe down, left half back right; left side stripe right; back stripe right; right side stripe right; front stripe right and middle down; then the top. Reward: War Cry Mask.

If a box will not move, the usual cause is a stripe that is one step out of position. Reset the face you just worked on and repeat the sequence slowly; the boxes never require a move on a face that the solution does not mention. For the trophy side of this hunt, our trophy guide places Trickster Fox in the wider platinum route, and our Yotei Six guide explains the Kitsune storyline that leads you north in the first place.

If You Would Rather Skip the Northern Sweep

The puzzle boxes themselves pay out coins, Iron Sand and Shinobi Steel, which is exactly the kind of material grind that slows down upgrades. If you want the materials and gear without the trip, the store's Ghost of Yotei modded save lists money, metal, textiles and Shinobi Steel at 9,999,999, all 12 armor sets, all weapons and all skills, plus 72 charms and 74 masks. New Game is marked as completed so you can start New Game Plus at any time, and the page says this does not affect trophies, so Trickster Fox still has to be earned by opening the boxes yourself.

It works on PlayStation 5 only and the game itself is not included. Other options, including the Story Mode save and the platinum trophy service, are on the Ghost of Yotei hub.

Frequently Asked Questions