Red and Antea’s journey is a long one through New Eden, but how long is Banishers exactly?
By Ford James on February 16, 2024 at 3:17PM PST
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden isn’t one of those open-world RPGs where you can spend 100+ hours in and then some. Rather, it’s a fairly lengthy game demanding a lot of backtracking if you intend to explore everything it offers. The game’s structure bears a resemblance to the 2018 God of War reboot, acting more like a Metroidvania.
The core storyline is divided into four acts, termed Chronicles, each comprising several quests. Then there are the optional Haunting Cases, a questline where Red and Antea must accuse a living settler, or banish or ascend a ghost. This article provides comprehensive details on the length of Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, all the main quests, and the workings of Haunting Cases.
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If you only tackle the main story and ignore most of the side content in Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, you can expect your playthrough to take around 25-30 hours. This includes the prologue when you first arrive at New Eden Town, all the way through to trudging back through New Eden and making your way back to the meetinghouse to face off against The Nightmare again.
However, if you plan to complete everything, you can expect to add at least 10-15 hours of extra playtime on, as there are lots of Haunting Cases to solve, alongside collectibles such as cursed chests, nests, void breaches, and altars to find. Of course, if you play on the harder difficulties, bosses will also be much tougher so your mileage may vary in how quickly you can get past these roadblocks.
Here are all of the Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden main story missions in order of how they appear in-game:
Beginning with The Flesh is Weak when you encounter Jacob Lynde in his hovel in the forest–for which we have a specific guide on if you should blame Jacob, or banish or ascend Ben–there are myriad Haunting Cases you can discover throughout New Eden. These are all side quests that involve a living settler being haunted by a ghost of their past, who is still tied to this world through a possession of theirs. But there’s always more to it than that.
Typically, either the living settler or the ghost–or in lots of cases, both of them–has done wrong. Red and Antea must investigate, speaking to both the living and the dead to unravel the mystery. At the end of each Haunting Case, it’s up to you to decide whether to blame and ultimately murder the living settler for what has happened, or you can blame the ghost, which banishes them and the living person can carry on without being haunted any longer. Or, the third option is to let the ghost ascend, if you think neither of them deserves the blame.
You essentially get to roleplay as judge, jury, and executioner. However, as explained in our guide on the ascend or resurrection oath choice, the decision you made here should lead your thinking at the end of every Haunting Case. If you want to resurrect Antea, you must blame as many living settlers as possible. This means completing each and every Haunting Case in the game (you should also do this if you want to unlock all of the best skills) before returning to Antea’s body at the meetinghouse. However, if you want to let Antea ascend, you should either banish or ascend a ghost at the end of every Haunting Case.
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