As you adventure and fight your way through the Japanese countryside in Rise of the Ronin, you'll come across friendly encampments where you can take a load off. This presents a great opportunity to adjust your gear and upgrade your character in the corresponding menus, but you should also take a trip to a longhouse if one is present.

Longhouses are your home, and serve a variety of purposes within the game. Not only do they give you the opportunity to alter your character to your liking, but they also serve as social hubs, allowing you to forge stronger bonds with the supporting cast, among other activities.

What Are Longhouses?

Upon entering a longhouse, you'll be greeted with a menu containing a handful of options for what you can do there. They are as follows.

Housekeeping

In the housekeeping menu, you'll be able to customize the look of your longhouse. You do this by decorating the interior with souvenirs and accoutrements. While these obviously hold aesthetic value, they also provide buffs to your character, making the items you choose to display a fun minigame in and of itself.

You'll be able to access your storage, withdrawing any items you may need while putting away those you don't. Pilgrim dogs are available too, allowing you to send them away with various amounts of currency in the hopes of them bringing valuable resources back.

Relax

The Relax menu gives you the ability to advance time in the game world, with the option to rest until morning, noon, or night. However, it lets you do a few other things as well.

Blade Repair will allow you to pick a different Blade Sharpening Origin, refunding you all your acquired skill points and letting you completely respec your character. You're also given the option to alter your appearance if you'd like to make any changes since you began the campaign.

Perhaps most importantly, this submenu is home to the game's Redesign feature. When you enter the Redesign menu, you'll be able to change the appearance of each piece of your gear while keeping the stats of what you have currently equipped.

Talk

The Talk menu is all about facilitating bonds with your supporting cast. When you select it, you'll be shown which characters are currently visiting, and you may select who you wish to speak to. Then, you can ask them questions about themselves and shower them with gifts to increase the bond between the two of you.

Cooperate

The Cooperate menu is your way of interfacing with the game's multiplayer features. You'll have the choice of joining another person's game or recruiting them to yours.

Testament Of The Soul

After progressing deep into the campaign, you'll be given the opportunity to access the Testament of the Soul. This menu allows you to go back in time and replay story missions, letting you make different choices to explore other directions the plot could have gone.