============================================================== Ninja Gaiden XBOX Revision 7.0 Shockwave (shockwave_xpow@hotmail.com) Copyright 2004 by shockwave All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. None of this information can be reposted anywhere outside of gamefaqs without my express permission. ============================================================== ================================================== === TABLE OF CONTENTS ================================================== ================================================== I. INTRODUCTION II. BASICS A. Blocking B. Jumping C. Charged Attacks III. WEAPONS A. Common Attacks B. Dragon Sword C. Dabilahro D. Unlabored Flawlessness E. Kitetsu F. Vigoorian Flail III. OTHER ATTACKS A. Projectiles B. Ninpo IV. ENEMIES A. Ninja Types B. Samurai Types C. Vigoorian Types D. Dragon Types E. Imp Types F. Zombie Types G. Flyer Types H. Swimmer Types V. BOSSES A. Murai B. Mounted Horsemen C. Samurai Horseman VI. WALKTHROUGH TRICKS A. Save Points B. Infinite Money C. Fiend Challenges VII. CONCLUSIONS ================================================== === I. INTRODUCTION ================================================== ================================================== Ninja Gaiden is one of the tougher console games I've encountered. While it is easy to button mash and do o.k. initially, this strategy is not beneficial in the long run even on normal mode, and I found that the difficulty of enemies increased as fast as I was learning. For example, when I finally figured out how to block effectively, the enemies I encountered would shoot through that or throw me. Adding to this is the incredible wealth of moves, abilities, and weapons in Ninja Gaiden, and the corresponding lack of good information on how to use all of them. You only get one lesson in the beginning, from Murai, and the rest is up to you to figure out. This is both part of the charm and frustration of the game -- it's exciting to discover new moves on your own, but the less astute among us can go through the entire game without having learned some of the better strategies. Ninja Gaiden is definitely one of those games you can get into a conversation with friends about to share strategy. Hopefully this guide will shortcut some of those difficulties and prevent you from dying repeatedly, particularly in the beginning as I did even on normal difficulty. If you enjoy self-discovery, chances are that you wouldn't have come to this site in the first place, so I'm going to just reveal the entire breadth of knowledge that I have (however small that is) in hopes of benefitting you as much as possible. As a disclaimer, I certainly do not claim to know all the most effective techniques since I have not played this game exhaustively, so feel free to offer suggestions and I'll include them in the guide with whatever due credit you'd like to ask for. Hopefully this can become a repository for useful combat suggestions. This is for normal difficulty. ================================================== === II. Basics ================================================== ================================================== Here's first some useful techniques that every good Ninja should get familiar with. ****************************** A. Blocking ****************************** The first thing to learn about Ninja Gaiden is that blocking is good. With the exception of a few attacks (tank machine guns, explosive projectiles, etc.), Ryu will infallibly block any attack coming from any direction from any weapon. The largest threat from blocking is getting thrown since blocking does not stop throws. Learn early which enemies throw and which do not. Some enemies such as the "wolverines" have no ability to get through a block and you can tape down the block button while getting a sandwich and Ryu will be healthy when you get back. Others such as the black ninjas have only limited abilities by using projectile weapons. For enemies with throws, some throws hurt more than others. Fiends and bosses tend to munch on you, this usually results in severe damage. Other enemies such as "ninjas" will slit your throat or flip you, these cause relatively little damage. For the latter, it may be worth using a blocking strategy anyway and taking a bit of minor damage once in a while versus play aggressively and get hit by attacks that really hurt. While blocking, you can "reverse wind" to roll around. This is an incredibly useful move, it leaves you only vulnerable for a brief time during the end of the roll so for all practical purposes it is a safe way to move around. You can also interrupt your roll midway by jumping. This becomes very handy because there are certain boss attacks such as "Alma"'s pillar strikes and projectile attacks that are near impossible to dodge without using a roll-then-jump technique. More typically, though, you'll want to use an interrupted roll to setup a flying swallow attack a weapon that supports this (such as the dragon sword) on a nearby enemy. As I'll mention later, the X+A "wind run" attack, which jumps you towards the nearest target, plus Y "flying swallow" or "guillotine throw" (depending on distance) is one of the best ways to eliminate enemies safely. When facing enemies at range, it's fairly easy to put up your block, roll towards them, jump towards them in the middle of your roll, then use "flying swallow". This allows you to close distance quickly and safely. Rolling is also a good way to prevent yourself from being thrown. Most enemies, with the exception of bosses and "fiend officers", are not aggressive about coming up and throwing you, they'll only do when you've been stationary in a block. Some enemies such as the early "ninjas" attack using a sequence of hits, if you roll around or through them during this, then you can end up on their back side and unload on them before they even finish their attack. You can roll when hit to interrupt your block stun animation. This is useful for faster recovery from attacks that you block. Some enemies have strong enough attacks that they can make you reel from a block. Examples are the "horseman, pikeman" and "tank" machine gun. In general there's really nothing you can do about it, just be aware of it. For example, against the "tank", you'll want to try evading by rolling sometimes versus just standing there with your block button down. Against the "pikemen", this is no big deal since the attack that causes you to reel is their charge attack and they can't follow up while you're reeling anyway. ****************************** B. Jumping ****************************** Jumping is a very useful technique. Most enemies are not great at hitting you while you're in the air. This is a great way to avoid slow projectiles such as rockets. Whenever I'm fighting a hoarde of enemies that can throw, I'll try to spend as much time in the air as possible, only landing on the ground to execute quick attacks. Being in the air is somewhat akin to blocking -- it leaves you relatively safe from harm. One of the absolute best games in the move, which you'll have starting at the beginning of the game and which is available for all weapons, is double jump Y "diving cicada slash" move. Jump to a wall, then off of it for a "flying bird flip", then hit Y and Ryu will first elevate slightly, then bring his sword down for pretty good damage as well as splash, with fairly good recovery time. This is great for damaging crowds of enemies, and the recovery time is good enough such that you can get out of there before enemies can retaliate. This is for example the easiest way to beat Murai in the beginning: just keep launching off of walls using diving Y and jumping back to the wall after you hit him. Walls are your friends. When closing distance to projectile enemies such as rocket launchers, jump and run along the walls. If you're trying to get extra height, hit Y at the apex of your jump since Ryu elevates slightly during the "diving cicada" move. ****************************** C. Charged Attacks ****************************** Charged attacks require you to hold down Y. You can absorb up to 2 levels worth of charge to do an impressive essence or "ultimate" attack. Charged attacks do tons of damage and also yield more essence if they kill enemies. You should use them at all opportunities. The 2-charge "ultimate" attack does more damage and yields more essence than the 1-charge. Start practicing this on early enemies so that you're comfortable enough with the mechanics and knowing how to do this safely. Once you learn it, you'll be able to use it effectively through the game. I'll give some hints here. Essences do not get absorbed if you're blocking. Nor do they get absorbed naturally if you are far enough away from them. While doing 1-charge attacks is fine, usually the trick is to figure out how to absorb 2 charges for an ultimate since this is far superior in damage and returned essence. The easiest way is to kill two or more opponents at once. But there are ways to get two essences even if you can't manage this: Generally after I kill some enemies, I'll want the essences to float around so I can draw enough of them in for an ultimate charged attack. This means leaving down my block and rolling far enough away from them that they won't be attracted to them. When you charge, all essence anywhere gets sucked in very rapidly. Don't let the essences float around for too long or they'll dissipate, although they have a pretty large life so I wouldn't worry too much about this. However, pretty much everytime I kill an enemy, I'll jump or roll away so I'm out of range of the natural essence absorb range, then look for an opportunity to charge up for the next. Particularly look for opportunities to kill multiple essences with either ultimates, since all kills will yield extra essence. If you don't kill an enemy with an attack, though, there is no benefit, so don't waste this on enemies that may not die such as "zombies". For an ultimate attack, you need two yellow essences, or just a single blue or red. It does not matter what size these are. So if you kill a puny "bat" and get a small blue essence, then your next attack will be a full ultimate. Hence, generally don't bother using essence that you got from an ultimate attack for another, this doesn't give you much benefit since you're sacrificing a pretty large essence, unless you're able to kill multiple enemies with it. Instead, the pattern to use is: kill two enemies normally, use their essence to kill another, absorb that essence naturally, start over. Some enemies, such as "fiend officers", killed by ultimate attacks will yield two yellow essences, this can be a good setup for launching another ultimate attack. Again, I usually don't do this though unless I'm sure my ultimate attack will hit and kill multiple enemies, otherwise you're just exchanging one pair of big essences for another. Smaller fiends such as "bats" are good practice for essence. You can easily kill two bats using your shurikens, then charge up for an ultimate against the rest. This yields a considerable amount of gold for little effort and risk. And since "bats" always regenerate when you revisit an area, you can do this indefinitely to get lots of gold and health. Charged attacks always yield gold, so don't use them if you're low on health or ninpo and are hoping to get some appropriate essence to replenish. However, they yeild a ton of gold, around five times as much as if you killed the enemy normally, so it's often worth taking damage just to get an ultimate off since you can always use some of the gold rewarded to buy more elixers. Charged attacks leave you mostly invulnerable. The sword charged attacks can be interrupted if someone hits you with a projectile or what not while you're flashing towards them. If you actually connect, you'll continue throw an opponent and that portion is invulnerable, so this is useful against bosses such as the "horsemen" mini-bosses: wait until a horse is nearly open you, charge Y and you'll go right through it. This works whether you've absorbed essences or not. For some weapons' charged attacks such as Dabilahro's, Ryu will launch into the air and come down with his weapon. I find these to be superior because there is less chance of interruption. In other words, even if that "Fiend Officer" is lining up to blast you with a fireball, you can use Dabilahro's charged attack to hop over that and clobber him. Some weapons have multiple types of charged attacks. The Dragon Sword has a spin charged attack that is a bit harder to use but is effective in various situations such as when fighting bats or surrounded by many enemies. Charged attacks are auto-aiming. They will always target the nearest enemy, regardless of what direction you're facing. You can charge them up and then unleash them even when you can't see anything from your point of view. As long as something is nearby, Ryu will attempt to hit it. Charged attacks cannot be blocked. ================================================== === III. Weapons ================================================== ================================================== The nice part about learning moves and techniques is that you can practice almost all of them, with the exception of throws and essence attacks, without any enemies around. Pick a large room and play around with your techniques until you're comfortable executing them, then find an enemy and practice on it. When you pick up a weapon, or when you upgrade it, take a look at the moves list and see what's available, then practice until you're comfortable. I mainly use the Dragon Sword and Unlabored Flawlessness, so I'll focus on those. Weapon upgrades should generally be prioritized since they make a pretty substantial improvement. However, if you're not in need of using the particular weapon, you can hold off. For example, you can go through the whole game just using the Dragon Sword, there is never a situation where you absolutely need to equip another weapon nor one where it is even obviously beneficial to do so. So, you can leave your other weapons unupgraded, but definitely get your Dragon Sword upgrades as soon as they are available. ****************************** A. Common Attacks ****************************** (While blocking) Y or X, X : "Counter attacks techniques" This is a great, nearly foolproof way of attacking enemies while keeping yourself safe. If there's space between or after an attack that you blocked, Ryu will execute a fairly nice counter move. Sometimes you're not able to counter if there are multiple enemies attacking at once. No problem, just keep mashing Y or X until you get it off. Some weapons' counters leave you less exposed than others. For example, the heavy weapons tend to just do a single hard swing versus a combo that can get interrupted by nearby enemies. The "Unlabored Flawlessness" for example uses a simple one swing counter that does pretty massive damage. Note that while countering, you typically won't absorb nearby essence. This provides an easy way to rack up essence for your ultimate techniques: kill one enemy, then keep down block and counter another one to death, then you have two essences to use against a third enemy. If you're having trouble countering, try to hit the Y button right before the enemy connects with his attack. Don't just mash it frantically or Ryu will tend not to counter. Instead, you just need to practice hitting it at the right time. Experiment against enemies that don't throw such as "black ninjas" until you're comfortable with it. X, Y, X, X, X, Y : "Izuna Drop" This is a nice attack that ends with a throw that does area effect damage as well as good damage to the target. You can do this to any enemey that can be launched through X,Y. In the air, press X for three more slash attacks, then Y and Ryu will grab the target and pile drive it into the ground. You can't practice the throw part of this move without an enemy, but you can certainly practice the rest of it to get the timing down. For the Dragon Sword, I believe you can't actually get 3 slashes off in the air without a target, but this does work with the Unlabored Flawlessness and other weapons. There's little drawback to using this move, so I'd just do it at every opportunity. It does a lot of damage and will down your enemy so that if your enemy is for some reason not dead at the end, you can finish him off with "fiend sealer". Some enemies can hit you out of the air so be careful though when doing this around multiple enemies that have leaping attacks. However, in general, you are safer in the air than on the ground since fewer enemies can attack you in the air and those attacks tend to be inaccurate. So totally abuse "Izuna Drop", it is one of the safest combos to perform while in a crowd. "Izuna Drop" will does area effect damage when you land, knocking down and even killing weaker enemies in the same way as "diving cicada". Because of this, Ryu is relatively safe when he finishes the combo, just hold down block or roll away from counterattacks. "Izuna Drop" will also put you at head level with some of the larger enemies such as dragons and bosses so that you can hit them even while they're on the ground and even though you can't launch them into the air. Many large enemies don't have effective air attacks, so this leaves you relatively safe. (While jumping up) X, X, X, X : "Blade of Nirrti" (lvl2) This and its cousin, X X X Y, are basically the aerial equivalents of the Izuna drop where your target is already in the air. Most enemies don't spend much time in the air so this may seem of limited usefulness. The Unlabored Flawlessness can perform the full combo (without the throw at the end though) in the air even if there is no target. For the swords, you'll only do the first slash and then land if you didn't hit anything with it. Some enemies are tall enough that you can hit them with them with some or all of the attacks even when they're on the ground. You of course won't be able to throw them with the final Y if you are doing that version, but you can do pretty massive damage. I particularly like using this with the Unlabored Flawlessness against "dragons", "cyclops", and bosses. It's a far safer way to execute a combo because while you're in the air, nearby enemies can have trouble hitting you. (While jumping over enemy) Y : "Gullotine Throw" This grabs a target and flips it into the ground. You can often follow up by pressing Y next to the downed target for the "fiend sealer" move and kill it. I usually prefer "flying swallow" to this, so this only comes out accidentally on its own when I'm trying to "flying swallow." That said, it's not a bad move. (After flying bird flip) Y : "Diving Cicada Slash" As explained above, you can execute this after a jump or "flying bird flip", it is one of the best moves in the game since it does good damage, enemies rarely block it, and the recovery time is good enough that you can get outta there before something counter attacks you. I like using this particularly against big enemeis such as dragons, or whenever I'm fighting a swarm of enemies such as "beetles" or groups of "wolverines". This is also good for clearing out a shaft of bats: jump into the shaft, then hit Y to plunge down through it with your sword downward killing everything in your path. (While next to downed enemy) Y : "Fiend Sealer" This is a good finishing move for killing a downed enemy. I've seen enemies get up after this attack, although it's rare. The attack is fairly slow though and sometimes Ryu will do "azure dragon" (a normal attack when you press Y near a standing target) against another target. You can also hit downed enemies with normal attacks so sometimes that's a better option since it doesn't leave you so exposed. If you down multiple targets, you can often hit Y in quick succession to finish them each off. This attack doesn't always kill a target, particularly in very hard mode. However, it'll bring your target back down and you can "fiend sealer" him again until dead. (While blocking) Any Direction : "Reverse Wind" As mentioned above, this is a great way to dodge opponents' attacks, cut short your block stun after you block an attack, and generally move around while defending. Since rolling is about as fast as walking, and you can roll in any direction and in succession, there's often no good reason to be running around normally during combat when you could be rolling. Remember that you can jump out of a roll. (While jumping near enemy) A : "Wind Path" This lets you bounce off an enemy's head and keep going, using it like a spring. It doesn't do damage, but is useful for getting around enemies or for setting up attacks. For example, you can bounce off an enemy and then do "diving cicada slash" right back into it. (While on a wall) A : "Flying Bird Flip" This is a double jump maneuver that gets you more height. I'll often use this for setting up "diving cicada slash." X+A : "Wind Run" This jumps you towards the nearest enemy, or forwards as if you had just hit A if there is none nearby. You can differentiate this from a nomrmal jump because Ryu will make a noise while jumping. Great for setting up "flying swallow." ****************************** B. Dragon Sword ****************************** You can get through the whole game just using your Dragon Sword, it's a good weapon with a lot of powerful techniques and it only gets better as it upgrades through the game. Shiver writes that the True Dragon Sword (fully upgraded sword) does as much damage per strike as the Dabilahro so it's quite powerful even compared to heavy weapons. X, X, X : "Crimson Slash" This is a basic combo. Nothing much to speak of here, it's short enough that you can execute it often without getting interrupted by another enemy or against a target that doesn't flinch. X, X, Y : "Tiger Roar" This is a basic combo that I usually only do accidentally when I'm trying for the longer "Blade of the Dragon's Tail" (which starts off with these attacks) or the Izuna Drop (if I hit X twice accidentally). Because this combo is short, it's useful against enemies that don't flinch such as bosses and "dragons" because you can often block before they counter. X, X, Right X, Y : "Fiend's Bane Kick" An interesting looking combo that ends with 3 kicks. However, since the kicks never knock down the target unless it is killed, I shy away from using it because it is a long combo that ends you close to an opponent. I do use this against "Mounted Samurai", see the "Bosses" section for more information. Right X, X, Forward Y : (No name) Pushing right and hitting X gives a different attack than running right then hitting X. You can practice this against no target to get a feel for how to execute each type of attack. Since there is no indication of this in the moves list, it can initially be a bit confusing. This is either a pseudo combo or an unlisted combo. It is very useful though against mobile enemies such as "Mounted Horsemen" or enemies that are at low/medium range since the first attack is a half-roll towards your target. The second X does a slash through the target and continues your forward motion, the third can either be X, Y, or forward Y depending on whether you want a light slash, heavy slash, or "Thunderclap Kick" double forward kick. Again, the main benefit of this attack is that it has a lot of reach since you're moving forward during each attack. This is also great when you've rolled away from an enemy and want to immediately counterattack (e.g. you'll do this a lot against the Vigoorian Commando). X, Y, X, Y : (No name) For whatever reason, this combo is not listed in the techniques of the Dragon Sword when you start the game, so it has no name. This is a smaller version of the "Izuna Drop" that I almost exclusively use in early game before I have access to Izuna Drop. The Y launches the opponent into the air, this is followed by one slash in the air and then a plunge downward. This attack sends the enemy to the ground so if for some reason it's not dead, you can finish it off quickly using the "Fiend Sealer" Y attack. I use this all the time during level 1, the fact that half the hits are in the air makes this fairly safe to use even in crowds. Enemies tend not to be good about blocking attacks that come from the air, so this is a useful combo to execute in its entirety even if the enemy blocks the first X, Y hit. Just cut it short and do X, Y, Y, and usually the downward Y will hit them even on the hardest difficulty level. X, X, Y, Y, Y : "Blade of the Dragon's Tail" (lvl3) This is my favorite on-the-ground move. It does a series of slashes ending with one that hits enemies in all directions. The drawback is that this is a fairly long combo and can be interrupted by enemies nearby or by an enemy that does not flinch, and it may not knock down the opponent. I'll use this against isolated enemies, and against "dragons" as long as I see them start to flinch from the first blows (otherwise I'll abort and jump out of the way since they'll probably throw me out of it). X, Hold Y, Y : "Blade of the Twin Dragons" (lvl4) Another long chain that does a lot of damage. Press X for the first slash, then press and hold Y for a longer attack, release Y when that's done and press it again for a series of kicks and blows. A good attack but it takes a while to execute, I look at it more as a novelty particularly since it's not as easy to pull off. Hold Y : "Charged attack" Charged attacks will allow you to pass through enemies, even if you have 0 essence, so you can damage some bosses safely this way through certain attacks. However, charged attacks with zero essence are blockable. Still, they have pretty good range, automatically hone in on the closest enemy, and can damage multiple enemies. Charged attacks can also decapitate "zombies". You can get off a charged attack after jumping if you press Y right before you land. This does a very quick charge and is sometimes safeer than charging while on the ground. I'll often do this while coming down from a combo in the air. Circle, Hold Y : "Charged attack" These spin Ryu in a whirlwind, doing pretty massive damage to everything around particularly for the ultimate. You don't have to do the circle quickly, just rotate your controller counterclockwise one revolution then press (or press and hold for charged attack) Y. I save these for "beetles" and "bats" since those will often get to fairly close proximity or be above me such that a normal ultimate attack may miss them. This is sometimes fairly difficult to pull off in the heat of battle. X, Y, X, X, X, (delay), Y This isn't a true combo, but still is relatively useful to learn. As mentioned above, pressing Y right before you land gives a quick charge. Sometimes I'll pop one enemy into the air and start the Izuna drop, but not finish with the last Y, instead using it for the quick charge when I land. Since enemies tend to gather around while you're in the air, this becomes very effective for doing massive damage or for a quick ultimate. You can of course do this with just X, Y, X, (delay), Y if you want to cut the combo short or are in early game before you have the combo available. (While jumping towards enemy) Y : "Flying Swallow" (lvl2) This is one of the most useful moves in the game and against bosses. Once you have this available early in the game when you upgrade your sword to level 2, you will use it *all the time*. It makes some enemies, even including the final boss, trivially easy to kill. This is the reason to get your lvl2 upgrade as soon as possible, i.e. get it at the start of level 3. Ryu will shoot through an opponent, doing pretty good damage and ending on the other side at a fair distance. This move can be blocked although enemies infrequently do so. Once your weapon is at level 2, use this almost exclusively to take down enemies safely. The only drawback is that there is a recovery time where you're vulnerable from other enemies, so be careful about using this if your target is in front of other enemies. The other thing to watch for is that if you're not close enough to an enemy when you do this, then Ryu will execut the lame "Helmet Splitter" technique, which is a normal jumping Y where he thrusts his sword upward. This usually means that you'll get hit pretty hard when you come down since that attack is not going to hit your opponent. I mitigate this by using "flying swallow" in conjunction with the "reverse wind" and "wind run" techniques, as I mentioned above. First roll towards an enemy by moving towards him while blocking, then hit X+A to jump towards him, then hit Y to execute this attack. You're far more likely to be within range of an enemy that started in the distance than if you, say, just jumped towards the target without first rolling in his direction. (While jumping) Forward X : "Air Destruction Slash" This is a useful attack for hitting things in the air, and is absolutely critical when you're facing the "pirahnas" near end game. It has a pretty good area of effect, and the recovery time is decent such that you can continue keep performing it back to back. One of the nice features of this attack is that it pretty much hits everything around you, hence you're reasonably safe from enemies in the air while executing this. You're only exposed when you hit the ground and are recovering. ****************************** C. Dabilahro ****************************** This is a good heavy hitter weapon to use against certain opponents until you get Unlabored Flawlessness. The weapon both sounds impressive and does good damage, it has some nice ground combos that will kill even dragons in one sequence. As soon as you get this, upgrade it to level 3. Combos for heavy weapons take a while to start off and execute, so generally you'll want to start swinging this weapon after you block or roll out of an attack. Ryu has to first grab the weapon off his back before he starts the attacks, so you're most vulnerable when starting off any attack. For example, against dragons, I'll wait until I see them start to swipe, "reverse wind" to roll away from it, then immediately start a combo while the dragon is still finishing off its attack. If you press towards an enemy while starting a technique, Ryu will start off thrusting the sword in the direction of the enemy and closing the distance. This is one of the safer ways to execute combos, because you can start off at a relative safe range from an enemy and then do the combo into the enemy. Also, you don't need to do the full combo in order to be effective. If you're worried about getting hit while drawing your sword during the start of a combo, back off and do the combo. The first couple of swings will hit air but this will also move you towards your opponent and the other swings will connect. Generally these techniques have enough area effect that they'll hit multiple enemies if some are nearby even while you're targetting only one explicitly. And once the combo is started, the next attacks come out fairly quickly for most heavy weapons. If you kill one in the middle of a combo, Ryu will immediately finish the combo off on the next. X, X, X, X : "Destroyer of Armies" A basic attack, but why use this when there are better chains when the weapon is upgraded. X, X, X, X : "Flaming Hell Slash" Better than the above but the level3 attacks are superior in general unless you want a shorter combo. X, X, X, X, X : "Whirling Empire Blade" (Lvl 3) Better than the basic attack, but you might as well finish off with Y for the "Flaming Hell Slash". X, X, X, X, X, Y : "Flaming Hell Slash" (Lvl 3) A great technique that will finish off even most large enemies such as "dragons" if you get the whole thing off. I favor using this combo. ****************************** D. Unlabored Flawlessness ****************************** This is the max upgrade of the Wooden Sword, it is akin to the Dabilahro but more powerful and with more range. Upgrading all the way costs a lot of gold, but I find that it's worth it since you should be racking up gold at least near the end of the game anyway. More on getting gold later, but anyway this is a rather fun weapon to play around with. I won't go through the entire moves list because the strategy and execution of moves are similar as with the Dabilahro. Suffice to say, just about any combo you can execute with this weapon does good damage and has a massive area of effect. Starting off combos is the most difficult part but use the suggestions from Dabilahro. This weapon is not absolutely better than the Dragon Sword in all circumstances. I primarily use it for fun or when tackling large opponents such as when I'd ordinarily use Dabilharo. Heavy weapons in general can either be incredibly strong or incredibly frustrating. Once you're swinging, enemies tend to fall quickly and impressively. But if you're not careful, you can repeatedly get hit or interrupted when starting off your combos. One of the biggest drawbacks of heavy weapons is that you won't have your bread and butter "flying swallow" move available. That said, you can get fairly proficient with Dabilahro or Unlabored Flawlessness, it just takes a slightly different mindset and more care against enemies with projectiles and throws. ****************************** E. Kitetsu ****************************** This is similar to the Dragon Sword, has some more interesting moves, but drains life when equipped. You can use the Armlet of Tranquility to cancel out the life draining effects. Or later on as your health bar gets bigger, the life drain is not as noticeable so it becomes more worth using even without Tranquility. I haven't experimented around with this to a large extent but I'll share what I've learned. One interesting visual effect is that your sword actually turns into two for some combos, such that Ryu uses two swords and then merges them back into one. Very cool. X, X, Forward X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X : "Dead Soul Bind" This is your life sucking move. The forward X impales the weapon into your opponent, then hit X rapidly afterward to start sucking life. You're invulnerable during this move. This is a fairly decent way to regain health. Y : "Stab of Extinction" This throws your sword at a nearby opponent, it works the same way as the Windmill Shuriken in that your sword is still in your possession after use. It's a slow but fairly decent ranged attack. (While jumping towards enemy) Y : "Flying Swallow" Remember that you can do "flying swallow" with this weapon as well as the Dragon Sword, it's just as useful here. ****************************** F. Vigoorian Flail ****************************** The Flail and Nunchakus function similarly, with the flail being slightly slower but packing more power. Both do relatively little damage, but look impressive and can be used to setup large chains of combos. I never use the Nunchakus because the damage is not appreciable enough. The Flail is good in a variety of situations but never critical. It is particularly effective against small enemies since in those situations the damage output is not an important factor. For example, if for some reason you don't want to use the swords against "pirahnas", the Flail works decently well too on the ground. The Flail is also useful in the Vigoorian Emperor fight for smashing all those skulls that it sends at you. _____________________________ | "Trung" writes: If you do the regular XXXXXX combo, omit the last hit because it is pretty laggy and leaves you open, whereas if you just do the first 5, you have an advantage of speed and can still finish off anyway you want, usually with the XXY or XY combo. ______________________________| _____________________________ | "phayte" writes: I find that the nunchucks and flails are awesome at defeating the black spider ninjas. Every encounter with them (after some practice) they could not touch me for the simple fact that the flails hit all 3 or 4 of them so they had no time to attack me. If one happens to jump away then you jump away and they cannot do their jump attack(which always hit me). Then, when they are all together again start with the flail. When there are only 1 or 2 left and they start backing off a lot then hit them with the windmill shuriken. After some practice I got good at this method and I absolutely murder them. ______________________________| The only caution I have against black ninjas is that while you're attacking one with your flail, others will tend to stick incendiary shurikens on you. I personally find that the dragon sword is much more trustworthy. Against black ninjas, I don't like to let go of the block button for too long. "Shiver" writes that the Vigoorian Flail is great in missions 8 and 9 against Vigoorian marines, given that it does have a flying swallow and a good chaining combo using forward X. In general, I find that the nunchakus and flails work best against single human-sized enemies. You can just keep mashing the X button and they won't have an opportunity to get in an attack, regardless of whether they block the first hits. Other than that, I find that they don't do enough damage and leave you too exposed to enemies not being immediately hit by your attack. ================================================== === III. OTHER ATTACKS ================================================== ================================================== ****************************** A. Projectiles ****************************** Projectiles are fairly self explanatory. All are auto-aiming, some such as bows can be manually targetted and zoomed. I don't make heavy use of projectiles. In all cases where you'll have to use projectiles against bosses, there will be an unlimited stash nearby. Examples include level 2 in the horseman mini-boss arena, and later against the tank and helicopter mini-bosses. Some projectiles need to be aimed in order to be effective. For example, against "Alma" incarnation #2, if you just shoot at her then it'll hit an area that is protected. If you aim, you can do some damage, but this is hardly ever worth it unless you are using the explosive or core arrows. Normal shuriken ------------------------------ Does little or no damage to most enemies. Is marginally useful against some bosses if you don't want to waste other ammo. The best use is against bats, just jump and hit B a few times and the shurikens will kill them quickly. Windmill shuriken ------------------------------ Does decent damage, has mediocre range. Often worth shooting off when enemies first appear at range, or when jumping towards an enemy. Useful against bats and some bosses such as "Eels". Incendiary shuriken ------------------------------ Does pretty good damage, I neither favor these or not. These are sometimes useful against "zombies" on ledges if I can't hit them with the bow, because you can throw the incendiary shuriken while jumping whereas you can't shoot the bow while jumping. Normal arrows ------------------------------ Practically free, the only drawback is that you can only carry 15. Ryu has pretty good aim with these so they work well against most targets, particularly the various "horsemen" in level 2. Arrows are very useful against the "fire dragons" you'll find standing in the lava in the magma caverns. Those enemies are immoblie and can only attack with their breath, so you can safely stand away and pick them off with arrows. Explosive arrows ------------------------------ Like normal arrows but these do more damage and cost more. Very useful against most bosses. APFSDS cores ------------------------------ Even better than explosive arrows, these do significant damage but are also more expensive. I typically only use these against the mini-bosses where they are needed and can be replenished, such as "tanks" and "helicopters". Later on in the game, when you're fighting big bosses that stay at range and have lots of money racked up, you can use cores fairly indiscriminately. ****************************** B. Ninpo ****************************** Ninpo magic is very strong, and hence you only get a limited supply of it and the replenishment items are rather expensive. Ninpo is refilled after every level so I don't mind being liberal with my use of them. You'll get fewer bonus points at the end from exhausting ninpo but that's only a minor drawback. You'll get enough upgrades to max out all your Ninpos eventually through the game. I tend to stick with the Inferno and Inazuma. Here is my basic summary: 1) Don't use Fire Wheels unless it's the only Ninpo you have available. 2) Use Inferno against bosses and tough single enemies. 3) Use Ice Storm when surrounded by multiple tough enemies. 4) Use Inazuma when you need to hit many weak or medium enemies. 1. Types ------------------------------ Fire Wheels This is only useful until you get Inferno, i.e. you'll use it when it's the only thing available and then never touch it for the remainder of the game. Its duration is fairly short, and it can't be upgraded. Inferno This does fire damage to immediately surrounding enemies, then blasts one target with a large fireball for pretty massive damage. When you get this, you should start using it until you have Inazuma, then you should largely use Inazuma afterward except against bosses. Ice Storm I rarely use this Ninpo. Generally either Inferno or Inazuma are superior, and you should definitely upgrade those first. Once you have lvl 3 ice storm, though, it is not a bad option when you are surrounded by more powerful enemies. Inazuma doesn't seem to pack as much damage against enemies so tougher ones such as "cyclops" and the "dragons" will tend to survive a casting. However, ice storm does fairly appreciable damage. Inazuma This, like Inferno, does damage to immediately surrounding enemies while you're in the casting animation, then blasts all enemies on the screen for good damage. This typically will kill all enemies around you except for particularly tough ones such as the "Cyclops". So, Inazuma does damage against a lot of enemies, and Inferno is good for damaging single enemies. Hence, use Inferno against bosses. Note that Inferno can be dodged, so you don't want to be reckless about firing it off. Against bosses, wait until you're fairly close so that they get hit and stunned by the casting animation, then blasted by the fireball. This is particularly useful against the "Alma" incarnations. Using Ninpos also leaves you invulnerable during the entire casting time. Some enemy attacks and throws, particularly of bosses, are hard to dodge even if you see them coming. You can Ninpo your way through those instead. 2. Strategies ------------------------------ Ninpos are great ways to setup ultimate attacks since they'll kill multiple enemies. When fighting those swarms of regenerating "beetles", this is a great way t rack up gold. Unleash your Ninpo, hold down Y so that you immediately charge up essences, wait a second until you see or hear new "beetles" respawn, then unleash your ultimate and hopefully kill several with it. The "beetles" and "wolverines" in particular can sometimes release red essence so you have a good chance of replenishing your ki. When doing this, wait until you're surrounded by your enemies so that you kill as many as possible in the casting animation. Often when this happens, new ones will respawn just in time to get blasted by the actual attack. For example, with the "beetles", I can kill 2 of them while starting up Inazuma, then 2 will appear to take their place and get blasted by the actual lightning attack. Get familiar with which enemies drop red essence. This typically has nothing to do with how powerful the enemy is etc.; some weak enemies drop a lot of red essence, some strong enemies never do so. If you are full on ki and an enemy drops red, either absorb it for an ultimate attack (since it only takes 1 red essence to perform a lvl2 charged attack) or immediately cast a Ninpo. Otherwise if you absorb it, it's wasted. This is especially critical when fighting respawning enemies, you really want to use ki as much as you can manage to do so and keep your essence bar full because each Imazuma will likely kill many enemies. For example, "pirahnas" drop a LOT of red essence. You can get through all "pirahna" areas just by using jumping forward X with your Dragon Sword, but you can also take advantage of using your Ninpo whenever you see red essence drop. Often this creates a chain reaction -- one red essence appears, you Ninpo and kill 5 other "pirahnas" and one of them drops yet another red essence, etc. Of course, fighting "pirahnas" and other enemies such as "dragons" that drop red essence is also a great way to recharge your Ninpo. I rarely need to use any ki regeneration items because of this. ================================================== === IV. Enemies ================================================== ================================================== ****************************** A. Ninja Types ****************************** 1. Ninja, Brown ------------------------------ You'll encounter them in early game, and only have trouble with them because you're still learning the game. Practice blocking, rolling, and doing ultimates against them. Just about anything works, although X,Y,X,Y is one of the safer ways to handle them in crowds. Since they tend to stay near you and attack infrequently, "brown ninjas" are great fodder for ultimates. Even a linear level 1 charged Y attack can take out two or three heads at once and thus net you quite a bit of gold. Brown ninjas tend to use single or short attacks so you can often block their attack and then immediately let go of block and start your own combo. In harder difficulty levels, brown ninjas start to throw shurikens more frequently, these can interrupt your combos and stun you. 2. Ninja, White ------------------------------ They're stronger than "brown ninjas", but you can use the same techniques against them as with "brown ninjas". They tend to throw shurikens fairly frequently, which not only does damage but also interrupts your combos. They have a bit more life and thus can survive a single X,X,X or X,X,Y combo. I like doing the X,Y,X,Y on them, which is a stronger knock down attack. If they're still alive after that, hitting Y for "fiend sealer" on top of them will finish them off. "White ninjas" tend to use 4-hit combos. This gets slightly tricky for the unwary because the fourth hit is a delayed hopping attack. Don't let go of the block button too soon; i.e. wait until you see the "white ninja" finish its entire attack sequence. Since "white ninjas" often drop blue essence, and there are places where they respawn whenever you enter the room, they're good for replenishing health. Blue essence also charges for an ultimate attack, so you can use those to kill the "brown ninjas" that accompany the "white ninjas" for lots of gold. 3. Ninja, Black ------------------------------ These are much more powerful than the brown and white varieties, and can be extremely annoying. They throw incendiary shurikens, these will stick to you if you don't block and then blow up for significant damage. They also have fair blocking and melee attacks. All in all, they are quite an early game opponent. Fortunately, like other ninjas, they have no throw, so you can be patient and focus on blocking until you see an opening. Shurikens will be deflected by your sword, so just look for when you see one land near you and roll out of the way. Since rolls are near invulnerable to attack, you should rarely if ever take damage while doing this. And most shurikens won't land anywhere near you, so you don't have to worry about getting away from them before they explode. Unlike with many other enemies, I don't typically use jumping attacks against black ninjas, apart from an occasional "flying swallow". The problem is that during recovery time, you'll liable to get nailed by a shuriken. Instead, block and counter, and let down your guard to initiate a ground attack only once in a while when you see an opening. Just be patient. Against "black ninjas", I basically hold down block and mash the Y button to counter. ****************************** B. Samurai Types ****************************** Samurai ------------------------------ Stronger than "ninjas", but with the same sorts of attacks and weaknesses. Block, roll, use short combos or diving Y, you know the deal. When "samurai horsemen" fall off, they become normal "samurai". "Samurai" tend to attack with single slow attacks. They use chains less frequently. They are in this sense not much better than brown ninjas except that they have better blocking and take more hits to kill. Using X,Y,X,Y against them is useful since even if they block the X,Y launch, they will generally not block the last Y. Often if my target blocks the X,Y, I finish the combo. Instead, I'll end up doing X,Y,wait,Y for the instant charged attack upon landing. This works well because it'll often cut through multiple "samurai" and they don't tend to block it either. Of course, if there is essence floating around, this is a great safe way to safely use it. When I knock down a "samurai", generally there's no time to "fiend sealer" it with Y (and sometimes it won't die anyway esp. in very hard mode) since its buddies will be hacking away at you. Typically I'll just follow up with a X,X,Y or just a single X since the slash will hit it when it's on the ground. Or, I'll just start X,Y,X,Y against the next target. You can be patient with these guys because they don't throw. Regardless, you're fairly safe even in very hard mode just mashing X,Y,X,Y repeatedly. Samurai, Mage ------------------------------ These guys can be incredibly annoying. Whenever they can block an attack, they instead phase out and then appear behind you. Thus, be careful about starting a combo when they're ready for it, you'll often end up getting hit from behind while you whiff at empty air. At range, they'll attack with fireballs that can only be partially blocked. Fortunately they're worth a lot of essence, particularly if you manage to get off a lvl1 or lvl2 ultimate. I usually stick to using the jumping Y "diving cicada slash" since it is a single powerful attack and they often will not block it. When on the ground and closing distance, use block+move "reverse wind" rolls then jump as you come out of it. Unfortunately you won't have "flying swallow" yet so there's no easy way to close distance and attack quickly at the same time. Be careful of their ground attacks, they do a quick set of slashes that's heavily damaging. For avoiding fireball projectiles, roll or jump at the last instant as it's shooting the fireball. If you just jump or roll before the fireball is being launched, it'll still hit you. Blocking their fireballs isn't such a bad thing, you'll just take minor damage. The most annoying situation is when you're fighting normal "samurai" and a "mage samurai" is off in the distance repeatedly fireballing you. In this case, I'd roll and jump to get close to him, ignoring the regular "samurai". When I face the "Mounted Samurai" boss, I'll use these guys' essence to charge up ultimate attacks against the boss. Generally this involves me running to the end of the bridge where I can double jump off the walls, and repeatedly performing "diving cicada" until I kill a "mage". Then use his essence to either kill another "mage" or target the boss. "Mages" often drop blue essence, remember you only need one of those for an ultimate attack. "Mage Samurai" have far less health than regular "samurai". Even in very hard mode, it often takes a single arrow to kill one. A nice time to pick them off is when they start a fireball -- they're stationary and their fireball charge time is quite long so you can whip out your bow and use the auto-aim to shoot them safely. Since they often travel in packs with regular "samurai", you can sometimes kill them quickly then use their blue or red essence to ultimate one or more of the accompanying "samurai". Of course, it's more rewarding to do the opposite, but a bit harder to pull off since "samurai" drop yellow essence only. Samurai, Horsemen ------------------------------ There are a couple of types of these. One is archers, who run around in a circle and shoot arrows. The other is pikemen, who does melee attacks including a nasty throw move where they impale you and drag you around for considerable damage. When you face these in the horsemen arena, you'll have access to unlimited arrows. Just quickly fire off arrows, Ryu is fairly accurate even if you can't see your opponent at all. You can also use charged attacks to rip through the horses. Wait until a horse is about to run you over, then unleash your attack and you'll go clean through it to the other side. You can often get off a short ground combo off such as X,X,X or X,X,Y afterward since the horse will rear after you've hit it with the charged attack. The most confusing thing about this fight is the camera angles; it's difficult to see where your enemies are. Just stay in motion so you don't get impaled or run over. If you're accurate with your bow, you can manually aim for the riders and knock them off the horse since this is much faster than shooting or slashing the horse to death. See the "bosses" section on tips for beating these guys on harder difficulty levels. ****************************** C. Vigoorian Types ****************************** Vigoorian, White ------------------------------ These are the first opponents you'll meet that will throw you through a block, In addition, they carry pistols, which they'll use at long range. Use both the jumping Y "flying swallow" and jumping Y "diving cicada slash" to get rid of them. Once you have your windmill shuriken, this is also a good weapon to unleash when you first see them, it can do good damage and decapitate. Other than that, use basic combos, and roll while defending so you don't stay in the same place too long for them to slit your throat. The throw fortunately doesn't actually hurt that much. Usually "whites" are accompanied by a single "black". I typically kill the "whites" first and leave their essences behind so I can do an ultimate on the "black". In very hard difficulty level, whites will throw much more aggressively, and it does significant damage. You'll need to practice your counters until you have them down (i.e. press the counter button right as you block an attack). If you miss a few chances, then you'll probably get thrown right afterward. Also to prevent getting thrown, try rolling around or out of attacks. BTW: You are generally invulnerable to gunfire while performing a combo. Vigoorian, Black ------------------------------ These are slightly more powerful than the whites, they wear black uniforms and carry a shield. They have far better blocking capability so attempting combos when they're ready (i.e. facing you and not recovering from an attack or in the process of performing one) usually means you'll get countered at the end of your combo. The same techniques against whites works fine here, just don't do as many ground combos unless you have an opening. You can alternatively use the Nunchakus or Vigoorian Flail to take care of "blacks" once they are the only targets left. Just keep mashing the X button and the "black" won't have space to land a hit. In very hard difficulty level, the blacks block extremely well and take multiple Y "fiend sealer" attacks to kill once downed. Still use the same tactics against whites, although expect that for X,Y,X,Y you'll only hit them in the last downward Y. Vigoorian, Blue ------------------------------ These guys are dressed in blue and launch grenades at you for significant damage. Stay on the move and try to close the distance to them as quickly as possible, they generally come with other MSATs but are far more dangerous so take them out first. Since grenades don't explode on impact, you can just run, roll, or jump towards them until you're in range, then dispose of them like with other "Vigoorians". Your jumping "diving cicada" and "flying swallow" are of course useful here. Vigoorian, Marine ------------------------------ These have automatic weapons and a throw where they stab with a bayonet and then throw. The machine gun attacks can be blocked just like normal attacks, although they can really keep you pinned down. Use standard roll+jump+flying swallow, or wall running, to close distance just as with other enemies that favor using projectiles. Vigoorian, Rocket Launcher ------------------------------ These are the toughest "Vigoorians" you'll meet. They launch rockets with good accuracy, the rockets themselves do considerable damage and knock you back. When approaching them at range, I use wall running, or roll + jump + "flying swallow". Be very careful about the last because if you're not in range and attempt to "flying swallow", Ryu will jump straight up and hit nothing and get creamed by a rocket on his way down. Generally if you're in motion and not running directly towards the target, it won't be able to hit you with a rocket. Or jump occasoinally. Note that even at close range, they'll still blast you with a rocket, so doing a slow attack that lands you in the middle of these guys is not generally recommended. You'll even get hit when recovering from "flying swallow". I don't have a foolproof way of killing these guys. Staying in the air is as usual not a bad idea. Fortunately you don't encounter them often. Fiend Officer ------------------------------ These guys are tough, I put them in this section because they replace the Vigoorians later in the same areas. They have a projectile attack that does a lot of damage, they have good melee attacks, they will aggressively throw you, they block well so you cannot just "flying swallow" them to death. I have no consistent way of killing them without losing health. Just be careful not to be caught at range because once you're fireballed, they'll repeatedly fireball you and you will take massive damage in succession. Use rolls and jumps to close the distance, take advantage of flying attacks since they won't generally hit you out of those. You can also use Ninpo but they don't drop red essence and they're common enough in later game that you have to learn how to fight them the good old fashioned way eventually. Sometimes if I'm at a loss, I'll just block and roll and let them throw me occasionally. Their throws don't hurt nearly as much as their other attacks. However, blocking also sometimes triggers them to start fireballing, which hurts a lot more than anything else they can do to you. So weigh your options carefully. ****************************** D. Dragon Types ****************************** Dragon, Red ------------------------------ These guys are pretty scary when you first meet them. They look like red and black bipeds, a cross between a dragon and demon. They take a lot of damage, don't always flinch from attacks, and have a pretty vicious throw. As usual, "diving cicada" and "flying swallow" work well here. When they come in packs, try separating them so that you can focus on one at a time. If you do a ground combo, watch to see if the target flinches; if it doesn't, stop your attack and jump out of the way or you're liable to get countered. You can also use the "Izuna Drop" or its jumping version against them when using a heavy weapon such as Unlabored Flawleesness, this of course won't throw them but it'll put you in the air where it's harder for them to attack you back. If you're brave, or if you have one "dragon" isolated, you can also just hold down your block and roll out of the way of its attack, then counter. All dragons have pretty slow attacks so you can see them rearing up before they swing. Roll to either side, then unleash a full combo on them. Dragon, Ice or Flame ------------------------------ These are similar to "red dragons" except that in addition to normal attacks, they can also spew out a breath attack. The breath attack cannot be blocked, so just roll or jump out of the way. Flame dragons sometimes appear standing in lava and are stationary. They make great target practice for arrows in this case; around 5 normal arrows will kill them outright. Or, wait until they breathe, then run up to the edge where they're standing and smash them before they can breathe again. I like using heavier weapons against dragons. Dabilahro will normally kill a dragon outright using a standard full combo. ****************************** E. Imp Types ****************************** Imp, Brown ------------------------------ These should be pretty easy to kill by the time you get to them. They do not throw, but have a habit of disappearing into the ground where they're invulnerable and then popping up for a melee attack. The easiest way to kill imps is to hold down your block and counter. The heavier weapons work very well for countering, or you can just stab them when they're down with "Fiend Sealer" after your counter knocks them over if you're using the Dragon Sword. Brown imps are good practice for ultimate combos. They tend to just stay at a mid distance from you, then come in for a quick attack, so you can easily execute a charged attack at them while they're staring at you doing nothing. Imp, Pink ------------------------------ These are slightly stronger than their brown cousins, the techniques to kill them are the same however. Take out your Dabilahro, and press X or Y madly while blocking their attacks to counter. Or use charged Y attacks. Pink fiends are a thr eat because they come in hoardes and often interrupt your combos or even your counters. If you're using a counter that does a combo such as with the Dragon Sword, be careful not to counter if you're surrounded by a lot of fiends or you're liable to get hit out of it. Cyclops ------------------------------ These guys look like huge dark imps. They have good melee attacks, a nasty throw, and also a laser attack that cannot be blocked and does heavy damage. They are almost always accompanied by "imps". I generally try to close the distance and engage the "cyclops" immediately, doing the best I can to avoid damage from the other "imps". Staying at range and getting pounded by their laser attack is not good for your health. I use either the Dragon Sword or Unlabored Flawlessness here. The jumping Izuna Drop attacks work fine against the "cyclops" as well as they do on the "dragons" because both are large enough to get hit from the air. Be careful about using ultimates because they may not die from the attack. ****************************** F. Zombie Types ****************************** Zombie ------------------------------ These guys are slow and take massive punishment. They do not flinch at all, so you'll just have to time your combos so that you jump out of the way or block before they swing. Zombies with heads have a throw move where they'll tackle you. Use "flying swallow" or charged Y to decapitate them, this takes away that ability and will make them sometimes swing in the wrong direction although it doesn't kill them. "Zombies"' attacks are all blockable even though they look quite forceful. Generally I like to use heavier weapons. Doing ultimates is risky in terms of wasting essence because they may not die from the ultimate. Jumping attacks such as "diving cicada" are of course effective. Unfortunately, projectiles such as windmill shuriken do not work against them. If a "zombie" lands on you and starts eating you, mash your buttons repeatedly to throw it off. Zombie, Archer ------------------------------ These guys do pretty good damage with their bows. You can't decapitate them either. They have no throw move, so just get close and start hacking away. Usually they appear at the back of a group of zombies, they are the biggest threat so ignore the zombies and go after the archers first. Even blocked arrows cause you to reel pretty significantly, this can knock you off of platforms or cause you to flinch enough that you're open to the next attack. "Zombie archers" also don't tend to flinch very much while you're hitting them. In other words, they can still load an arrow and shoot you while you're attacking. ****************************** G. Flyer Types ****************************** Bats ------------------------------ "Bats" are trivially easy to kill, you can use either your windmill shuriken or normal shurikens to destroy them. Jump away from them and throw, Ryu will auto target them. Once you land and see the dead bats start to dissolve, hold down Y to charge up your ulimate. Bats are a great way to get gold and health regen. Blocking does not work against bats so try not to get stuck in the middle of them. When you see them, always start by jumping away. If you want to combat them directly, you can use jumping X with the Dragon Sword. Wasp ------------------------------ "Wasps" are good target practice for projectile weapons. They move fairly slowly and will occasionally charge for a single stinger attack. Since "wasps" come in hoardes, they are also great for Ninpo fodder, particularly since they have a fair chance of dropping red essence. Use the standard jumping attacks against "wasps", just be sure not to stay still and you'll be fine. When you see them at a distance, pull out your windmill shuriken and start throwing away. Ultimate attacks are of course great against them; when they're on level ground with you, they float low enough that you can generally hit them with an ultimate. Reaper ------------------------------ "Reapers" float in the air and have a variety of interesting moves. They'll teleport next to you and immediately attack, they have a variety of normal attacks, and they'll also do a slow charge attack that makes the ground under you glow and then does damage if you stay within the region. Any jumping attacks work well on "reapers". Once you hit them, they'll go down on the ground, and you can finish them off with a ground attack. Be really careful about their teleport move. As with "samurai mages", they'll attack as soon as they teleport in, so hold down your block when you see them disappear and get ready to counter. I favor using the Dragon Sword's jumping X,X,X,Y Izuna Drop" against "reapers". Of course, the Y won't throw them like it does with regular targets, but it'll still do significant damage. Pirahna ------------------------------ These are skeletal fish that hang out suspended in cooridors. They will drift around aimlessly, then suddenly fly towards you and latch on. Once one latches on, all his friends will come and start biting too until you throw them off. You do need to wiggle your controller actively because if you just stand there doing nothing, they'll knock you over and continue feeding. These enemies can be incredibly annoying because they'll suck life very quickly away. And areas infested with them usually have quite a few, so you'll have to continue to kill batches of them. Staying on the ground and doing combos is not a great way to go, usually when you're done with your combo then the "pirahnas" will all converge on you. Ninpo works very well because they have a great chance of dropping red essence. An easy rule is that whenever you're full on Ninpo and you see one of the pirahnas drop a red essence, immediately Ninpo and then grab that essence. You can try ultimate attacks on "pirahnas" both for quick killing -- particularly with the True Dragon Sword -- and lots of points. However, I don't generally recommend this -- by the time you meet them, you'll have a lot of excess cash anyway, and ultimate attacks leave you dangerously exposed while charging up. That said, "pirahnas" don't always attack you immediately even if you're right next to them. You can right next to a bunch, charge up an ultimate, and get it off if you're quick. They seem to have some random delay time such that they'll float around for a while then attack. The easiest way to kill "pirahnas" is by using one of your swords and doing jumping X. This attack hits everything around you and has a decent recovery time. Just keep jumping around hitting X and you'll kill dozens of them in no time. Once you master this, "pirahnas" become an easy way to regenerate life and ki, or to get gold. ****************************** H. Swimmer Types ****************************** Fish ------------------------------ Not much to say here. When you have the spear gun, killing these guys are incredibly simple since Ryu will auto aim and the gun does decent damage at decent rate of fire. If you need to fight them with your sword, either go along side them and hit X or Y, or wait until they charge you and hit them with the same. Generally, though, before you have your spear gun, you can just swim past these guys. Or, when you're on the surface such as when you first meet them, you can pull out your bow and pick them off with normal arrows. ================================================== === V. BOSSES ================================================== ================================================== There are undoubtedly many guides out there for defeating bosses, so I won't be giving as much attention to this section. I'll only be giving hints on defeating bosses on "very hard" mode. ****************************** A. Murai ****************************** I use the same techniques in very hard as in normal against "Murai". The first relatively safe way to kill him is to just use "diving cicada" repeatedly: Jump on the wall, "flying bird flip" off of it, then hit Y. He'll often block this, but it's not a big deal because the attack will push him away anyway so you'll be safe from his counter. I typically just roll out of the way afterward. Occasionally you'll get hit out of the air since his nunchaku have a pretty good range upward. To stop this from happening, just make sure you don't jump at a wall when he's very close to you. Time your Y so that you hit it when he's performing his combo. After the "flying bird flip", you'll be in the air for quite some time and can hit Y anytime during that. The key to getting this to work is to do your first jump as soon or right before he starts his 3-hit combo. He'll be finishing off his combo as you come down with "diving cicada" and you'll get your hit in. "Murai" will use a standard 3-hit combo when you're on the ground. This is predictable and easy to block, he'll do this combo once he gets within a certain range and as long as you're not very close, you won't even have to block any of the combo since his hits won't reach you. I've tried counterattacking or rolling into range during his combos, those seem not to work. However, if I do a simple X,X,Y or X,X,X combo, then I can recover in time to block afterward as long as he doens't throw me. This can lead to us indefinitely doing 3-hit combos against each other with neither person inflicting damage (until "Murai" decides to throw me). Sometimes after a 3-hit combo, "Murai" will do a very damaging charge attack. This is good news because that attack is easy to block and you can get in a counter afterward. Sometimes the attack will completely miss you, especially if you're rolling while he attacks, and he'll be completely open to a counter. But even if you do block it, you'll typically be able to get off some hits before he can recover. I generally just do X,X as a counter. You can add the third X or Y at the end but he'll always block that. If you're moving, you can perform the forward X,X,Y combo where the last two hits pass through him, this will sometimes hit him all three times. Sometimes "Murai" will do the charge attack repeatedly, particularly if you're both against a wall since his charge attack will get stopped by the wall. In other words, he'll sorta charge attack towards you but it won't go very far. This is great news since you can punish him after each attack. Staying against walls is good practice anyway since you'll want to use them for your "diving cicada", just don't get stuck in a corner. If so, roll out and hope that you don't get hit in the process. Don't bother with using Shurikens, he'll block those and send them back to you. You can try throwing them if he's finishing his charge attack and you're too far away to hit him, although typically I don't bother. In very hard mode, you have to take off more of "Murai"'s health before the fight stops. And the container in the room does not have an elixer in it. Even with all of that, you really should be able to get through this fight without using more than one elixer. Just stay away from him, use jump,jump,Y to whittle away his health, and punish him when he misses his charged attack. Elixers are expensive in very hard mode so you don't want to be using them frequently. Be sure that you're full on health before you get to him. A good health regeneration spot is in the room right before the save point with the trap door. Kill some "white ninjas" for blue essence and then leave the room and save once you're full. After you kill all the "white ninjas" in the room before "Murai", you can also backtrack to the save point since those don't respawn. ****************************** B. Mounted Horsemen ****************************** These are mini-bosses. You'll fight a bunch of "pikemen" and "archers" on horses in a large arena where you can replenish arrows from a body in the center. In very hard mode, I wouldn't bother with arrows; they'll usually get blocked, and I find that more often than not it causes trouble for me to try to whip out my bow versus concentrate on a single strategy. First, note that you can block all attacks. So be patient with this fight. You can even block the throw where the "pikeman" spears you then drags you around -- this isn't a real throw since it doesn't go through blocks, it just looks like one and is very damaging. Focus on taking out the "pikemen" first, they're less predictable and far more damaging than the "archers". Stand in the center of the arena, keep tapping your view recenter to face the nearest enemy, and wait until you see the "pikeman"'s horse rear up. You'll also hear the horse whinny during this. This means the "pikeman" is about to charge you. Hold down your Y for a charged "Haze Straight Slash" attack, then rip right through him as he gets to you. You'll probably have to practice the timing on this a bit; if you do this too late, you'll likely get speared for heavy damage. But once you have it down, it becomes trivially easy. When you slash through him, the horse will rear without attacking while you'll be behind the horse, and this gives you a good opportunity to unload a lot of punishment. I usually do the "Early Winter Rain" X,foward X,X,Y and get off all attacks including the kicks. Alternatively if you're too far away, you can do forward X,X,forward Y. Repeat this until he's dead. Another alternative I've been trying more recently is X,Y,X,Y after doing "Haze Straight Slash" against the "pikeman". The benefit of this is that the attacks may hit the rider. To knock off the "horsemen", you either have to kill the "horses" -- which have a lot of health -- or damage the riders -- which have much less health -- enough. For example, if you're good with the bow, you can even hit the riders while the "horses" are rearing after your attack. This is not really as easy as it sounds though. While you're focusing on the "pikeman", the "archer" is shooting arrows at you that can interrupt your charge attack. Fortunately those arrows aren't all that accurate, so you won't get hit most of the time even if you're standing still. When you see the "pikeman" rear up in preparation to charge you, start holding down your Y as late as possible but still early enough to get your charge up. This leaves you minimally exposed to the arrows. And if you do get hit by an arrow, immediately let go of your Y and start blocking else you'll get speared because you typically won't have time to charge your attack before getting hit. If you're near a "pikeman" and his horse is rearing but you haven't hit him, then that's part of an attack. I generally can get off X,X but then block immediately afterward because he'll swipe. Generally if a "pikeman" first attack of any sort if successful and he's at close range, he'll rear for a second or third attack. After you kill a few "pikemen", you'll deal with two "archers". These guys can get really annoying because combined together, they shoot very frequently. They always just run in a counter clockwise fashion while shooting arrows. It's tough to get a charged Y going because they're shooting so frequently, so sometimes I settle for just standing right in the path of the "horses" and hitting them with a ground combo. This will typically cause them to rear, but you're generally safe because the archer can't swipe at you. However, sometimes you'll get hit by the "horse" anyway. Alternatively, if the "archers" are somewhat overlapped or close together, you can pull out your Inferno Ninpo (you did buy that at Murasama's shop, right?) and fireball them both. This will hit the "horses" and knock the riders off. Make sure you're at close range, i.e. right in the path of the "horse" and when it's right about to reach you, so that the casting animation will hurt the "horse" and rider. You may consider this a waste of Ninpo but bear in mind that during the next boss battle, you'll be facing "samurai mages" and those often give red essence. Also, I personally feel that you can do without Ninpo in that boss battle anyway. If you don't want to waste your Ninpo, just do the double jump Y "diving cicada slash" repeatedly and hope that you hit the "horseman" as it's going by. Alternatively, you can just block and then slash at the "horse" as soon as it's run by you. These hits will cause the "horse" to rear, and you'll get more free hits in. Note that when you kill a "horse", it'll drop yellow essence. So will the rider after you kill him. So everytime you kill a "horseman", you'll have an opportunity to grab two essences for an ultimate attack. I wouldn't count on this though, I only try for ultimate attack when I'm charging against the "pikeman" anyway. Don't force this and don't worry if the essences disappear, they're not worth much anyway. The problem with doing your ultimate is that the "horses" won't stay stationary during your attack, i.e. they don't flinch, so they can sometimes move out of the way during the middle. Your ultimate will also only kill them if they're already fairly damaged, even if they stay in range during your whole attack. This battle takes a lot of patience. Make sure you have either your armlet of sun or moon (I don't have a preference over which) equipped, and that you've bought as many elixers as possible. You should definitely go back to the village entrance and save before you enter the arena. If you end up using too many elixers, start over, because you won't have an opportunity to get new ones before the next boss battle. Remember to block a lot and just take your time. ****************************** C. Samurai Horseman ****************************** This fight is easy compared to the previous one. Concentrate on killing the "mages" first, using standard techniques. I.E. Either run to the barn and do "diving cicada slash" repeatedly against the "mages", or block their attacks then counter with X,Y,X,Y. As before, the "mages" have little health and will typically die after one combo. You can ignore the "horseman" or just make sure you're only attacking the "mages" while the "horseman" is not nearby. Eventually the "mages" will stop respawning, then the "horseman" is a piece of cake. Just charge up Y while he's attacking the same way you did against the "pikemen" from before. You'll as usual go straight through him, then you can attack him from the rear. He uses his pike more aggressively, so just be patient to get your timing and blocking right. The "mages" typically drop red or blue essence. You shouldn't need to use Ninpo for this fight at all, so unless you're concerned about getting more bonus points for saving your ki, I'd just charge up with the red essence for an ultimate. Whether you do this against the "horseman" or a "mage" is up to you -- if you need more money such as to stock up for elixers in the next level, then do ultimates against the "mages". If you're low on health and need more blue essence, then target the "horseman". There are a lot of options here so you should primarily see this battle as a way to recharge either your ki, health, or money. Note of course that after this fight you'll end the level and recharge all your health and ki. I personaly prefer using ultimates against the "mages" unless I'm low on health, because I'll end up spending a lot of gold in the next level. During the next level, you'll have an opportunity to upgrade your sword (3000) and buy Izuna Drop (1000). Both make getting through that level (and succeeding ones) much easier, and it's much harder to get off ultimates against the enemies in that level than these wimpy "mages" here. You really should not have to use a single elixer for this battle. ================================================== === VI. WALKTHROUGH TRICKS ================================================== ================================================== Everything revolves around gold in this game. Gold buys you elixers, talismans of rebirth, and gives you upgrades that are instrumental for beating the game. There are several spots where enemies respawn, some near save points. You should use these as ways to up your gold supply, you can do so indefinitely if you get good at this. ****************************** A. Save Points ****************************** First, for save points. At some save points, if you load up the game then you'll immediately get attacked by enemies. Whenever this happens, I first defeat the enemies and then either restart if I lost too much, or save immediately. For the latter, this means that if I die and have to restart then I won't have lost the spoils of the initial battle. ****************************** B. Infinite Money ****************************** There is only one place in the game that I know where you can get health regenerated for free, this is on Pleasure Street near Han's Bar where you find the windmill shuriken in chapter 4. Going up to the XBox logo completely replenishes your health (how cheesy). Once you get good at wall jumping, you can get up there at a moment's notice to regen health whenever needed (simple tip -- if you're having trouble jumping to the top, hit Y at the apex of the last jump to do the "diving cicada slash", this gives you some extra height). There is also a save point near there, and an area of regenerating monesters. These will first be "ninjas" and later "fiend officers". That should set off a light bulb that this might be a good place to rack up gold. Fight once, regenerate, get the enemies to respawn, and fight again. An easy way to accomplish this is to wait until the door to Han's bar is available to pass through, then enter and leave as a quick way to respawn the enemies. So the sequence goes: fight those "fiend officers" or whatever's there, hop up to the X logo to regen your health, save if you'd like, enter Han's bar, then exit. Repeat and rinse. It goes without saying that you should equip your Armlet of Benediction here to up the amount of gold you get. As far as I can tell, the Armlet of Benediction gives an extra 20% gold from killed enemies. The "fiend officers" in particular will drop all types of essences, so you can once in a while zap them with lightning for a quick kill, then charge up for an ultimate to really rack in the gold. You'll find that you can get a few thousand gold for each session (almost enough to buy a great spirit elixer) if you kill at least one "fiend officer" with a lvl2 ultimate attack. ****************************** C. Fiend Challenges ****************************** There are several different points in the game where if you return to a room that you previously cleared, a type or couple of types of enemies will pop up seemingly ad nauseum. One notable area is the Arena after you fight "Doku", you'll face 60 "dragons", then in the next area you'll face 60 "wolverines". Killing all enemies will often net you a Life of the Thousand Gods or something similar. The trick is of course to stay alive, but remember that you can always use your Ninpo to eradicate a bunch of enemies, then switch over to your "Armlet of Fortune" to get your ki back, and repeat. These challenges are also a great way to practice your techniques or experiment with different weapons, they often occur close to save points. ================================================== === VII. CONCLUSIONS ================================================== ================================================== You can email me at shockwave_xpow@hotmail.com for questions and suggestions. Do not expect a fast response time. Also, do not ask me about walkthrough questions, there are plenty of good guides for those. If you'd like me to include a strategy, let me know how you'd like me to quote you and I'll put in something like: "shockwave_xpow adds: 'You can also...'" There is no guarantee that I'll quote you if you ask, and I may reject or edit samples that are not properly written. Overall I hope that you found this guide helpful. I wrote this because at the time of this writing, no other detailed combat guide existed. That does not mean that I assume I have some special insight into how to play this game, these are just my own findings.