_______ __ __ ________ __ ___ \ \ |__| ____ |__|____ / _____/_____ |__| __| _/____ ____ / | \| |/ \ | \__ \ / \ ___\__ \ | |/ __ |/ __ \ / \ / | \ | | \ | |/ __ \_ \ \_\ \/ __ \| / /_/ \ ___/| | \ \____|__ /__|___| /\__| (____ / \______ (____ /__\____ |\___ >___| / \/ \/\______| \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ ____________________________________________________________________________ |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | Author: A I e x | | Began: September 21st, 2005 | | Completed: September 30th, 2005 | |____________________________________________________________________________| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ____________________________________________________________________________ |~\/~~~~~~~\/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\/~~~~~~~\/~| | || CT.TS || Table of Contents || CT.TS || | |_||_______||____________________________________________________||_______||_| |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | - Table of Contents.....................CT.TS | | - Controls..............................CN.TR | | - Walkthrough...........................01.00 | | - The Way of the Ninja........01.01 | | - The Hyabusa Ninja Village...01.02 | | - Skies of Vengeance..........01.03 | | - Imperial City Infiltration..01.04 | | - The City of Fiends..........01.05 | | - The Monastery...............01.06 | | - Hidden Underground..........01.07 | | - Tairon Under Alert..........01.08 | | - The Military Supply Base....01.09 | | - The Aquaduct................01.10 | | - The Path to Zarkhan.........01.11 | | - The Caverns.................01.12 | | - The Fiendish Awakening......01.13 | | - Vengeful Spirit.............01.14 | | - The Core....................01.15 | | - The Dark Dragon Blade.......01.16 | | - Sixty Fiends Challenges...............02.00 | | - Chapter Six.................02.01 | | - Chapter Seven...............02.02 | | - Chapter Ten.................02.03 | | - Chapter Ten.................02.04 | | - Chapter Twelve..............02.05 | | - Chapter Twelve..............02.06 | | - Chapter Thirteen............02.07 | | - Chapter Fifteen.............02.08 | | - Enemy & Boss Guide....................04.00 | | - Chapter 01 Boss.............04.MU | | - Chapter 02 Boss.............04.MS | | - Chapter 03 Boss.............04.DY | | - Chapter 05 Boss.............04.HY | | - Chapter 06 Boss.............04.BD | | - Chapter 07 Boss.............04.AL | | - Chapter 10 Boss.............04.GU | | - Chapter 11 Boss.............04.DO | | - Chapter 12 Boss.............04.SG | | - Chapter 13 Boss.............04.AK | | - Chapter 14 Boss.............04.GH | | - Chapter 15 Boss.............04.FF | | - Chapter 15 Boss.............04.SF | | - Chapter 16 Boss.............04.FB | | - Bat.........................04.BA | | - Black Spider Ninja..........04.BS | | - Brown Ninja.................04.BN | | - Claw Demon..................04.CL | | - Ghost Fish..................04.GF | | - Golem.......................04.GL | | - Grenade Soldier.............04.GD | | - Grey Soldier................04.GR | | - Horseback Archer............04.HA | | - Horseback Spearman..........04.HS | | - Magician....................04.MG | | - Ogre........................04.OG | | - Red Lizard..................04.RL | | - Red Ninja...................04.RN | | - Samurai.....................04.SM | | - Stinger Bug.................04.ST | | - Super Claw Demon............04.SU | | - White Ninja.................04.WN | | - White Soldier...............04.WH | | - Windmill Ninja..............04.WI | | - Zombie......................04.ZO | | - Item Checklists.......................05.00 | | - Chapter 1...................05.01 | | - Chapter 2...................05.02 | | - Chapter 3...................05.03 | | - Chapter 4...................05.04 | | - Chapter 5...................05.05 | | - Chapter 6...................05.06 | | - Chapter 7...................05.07 | | - Chapter 8...................05.08 | | - Chapter 9...................05.09 | | - Chapter 10..................05.10 | | - Chapter 11..................05.11 | | - Chapter 12..................05.12 | | - Chapter 13..................05.13 | | - Chapter 14..................05.14 | | - Chapter 15..................05.15 | | - Chapter 16..................05.16 | | - Weapon Techniques.....................06.00 | | - Dragon Sword................06.01 | | - Nunchuku....................06.02 | | - Vigoorian Flail.............06.03 | | - War Hammer..................06.04 | | - Dabilahro...................06.05 | | - Spear Gun...................06.06 | | - Unlabored FLawlessness......06.07 | | - Kitetsu.....................06.08 | | - Dark Dragon Blade...........06.09 | | - Lunar.......................06.10 | | - Collectables Checklists...............07.00 | | - Lives of the Thousand Gods..07.01 | | - Life of the Gods............07.02 | | - Golden Scarab...............07.03 | | - Jewel of the Demon Seal.....07.04 | | - Spirit of the Devil.........07.05 | | - Golden Scarab Rewards.................08.00 | | - Item List.............................09.00 | | - Legal.................................LE.AL | |____________________________________________________________________________| |~\/~~~~~~~\/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\/~~~~~~~\/~| | || 01.00 || Walkthrough || 01.00 || | |_||_______||____________________________________________________||_______||_| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +--------------------------------- CONTROLS ------------------------ CN.TR --+ +--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+ | X | Attack | |--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------| | Y | Special Attack | |--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------| | B | Projectile Weapon | |--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------| | A | Jump | |--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------| | Y + B | Ninpo | |--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------| | X + A | Wind Run | |--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------| | L | Guard | |--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------| | R | Centre Camera | |--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------| | Black | Display Map | |--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------| | White | Karma Window On/Off | |--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------| | Start | Bring up the menu | +--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+ ______) (, / / ) / +-- (_/ HE WAY OF THE NINJA [CHAPTER 1] ---------------------------- 01.01 --+ You now take control of Ryu Hyabusa, one of the awesomest most ninja-badass killing machines you will ever meet. You cantake a moment to familiarize yourself with his ninja abilities, but this will happen gradually anyway as you proceed through the game. Begin by interacting with the body of the ninja you just killed, by pressing the X button. This will get you an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Now make your way up the hill ahead of you, the ramp on your left. Jump up over the small ledges you pass by and soon enough some kind of flower-knife will be thrown you way. It's a mere single jump to get over the gap ahead of you, now simply walk up to the wall beside you and press the X button to examine the object which was thrown. The scroll explains you to in a lengthy fashion, that you have the ability to run up walls, and it's going to become a practical tool in just a second. Ahead of you there is a vertical wall. Jump straight at the wall and keep holding the A button to run up it and grab onto the ledge. Shimmy to the right by pressing the analog stick in that direction and then press the A button and climb up. Another scroll is thrown at the wall beside you, read it and the scroll explains that you can look around at your surroundings using the right analog stick. This will help in a moment as there is a not-so-obvious ledge above you. Before that however take a look on your right, there is a small box at your feet. Examine it with the X button to kick it open and acquire an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Opposite the chest, you can run up this wall and grab the ledge above. Climb to this higher area and proceed up the tree to the left, where you will be ambushed by two simple ninjas in brown clothing. Thee will be the first enemies you defeat, and certainly not the last. Their attacks are weak, and infrequent, basically they sit there and wait to die. This of course doesn't mean they aren't dangerous in the slightest, but still you should have any trouble defeating them. Simply angle the left analog stick in their direction and tap the X button to attack. Between attacks hold the L button to block anything they may try to do, the enemies should be defeated in a matter of seconds. A new scroll will appear on the wall, this one informs you that there is more than just one way to run on a wall. The gap ahead of you is quite large, stand back and run beside the wall, when you are about to go over the edge, jump and hold the A button while beside the wall to run along it horizontally, this should be enough to get you to the other side. Open the chest here on your left to acquire a GREAT SPIRIT ELIXIR. Now jump across the next gap and Ryu will grab hold of the tree branch sticking out, and spin around it. When you're ready, tap the A button again to swing off the branch to the other side. Examine the scroll which appears beside you to learn about the wall kick. Run up the wall on the left vertically and then before you reach your peak, tap the A button to jump in the other direction and land on the ledge above. Continue down the hall. Two more brown ninjas appear, at this point in the game simply tapping the X button should be more than enough to get you past them. Doing so will usually have Ryu end with a kick, this kick can hit both of them simultaneously so it helps out. Be careful as you make your way forward, before you reach the urns a third ninja will pop out of the hall on your left. Smash the urns and you should net some yellow essence. To your left is a dead end. Remember that wall jump you did a moment ago? Well you can keep doing that over and over if the wall is high enough, run up the wall and jump once, then again to get out. Welcome to the Ninja Fortress, two more brown ninjas are going to run out from here, by now you've already become accustomed to dealing with them. You can feel free to smash the torches for some more yellow essence if you wish. Follow the hallway up and then to the right where you will come across a door. This door leads int oa room with three of the default ninja enemies attacking you. The enclosed space will make blocking that much more appealing here. Let me give you a couple of other tips. Since according t othe control scheme, the attack button and interact button are one and the same, people have a habit of opening doors, treasure chests etc while in the middle of fights. Something like a chest should interfere too much but I still recommend you try to stay as close to the middle of the room as much as possible, unless of course your fighting style requires you to run wildly along walls, in which case please feel free. Once the enemies are dispatched, smash all the remaining urns for more yellow essence and then open the chest on the right to get the MAP OF THE NINJA FORTRESS. The door leading out of this room is actually a secret wall, on the upper left side of the entrance. Upon entering this next room, the gate drops down and from that you can really tell something is afoot. There are ninjas everywhere in here, countless ninjas, and each time you defeat one more appear! Fortunately no more than three can appear at one time, and they do eventually stop. Be sure to make good use of the block button (the L button) while fighting in here to maintain your health, and try combinations of the A button and Y button with your attacks to end up with powerful combos, there still aren't really that many you can perform at this point in the game. Head through the door which unlocks after all the enemies are defeated. Make a right and defeat the three ninjas here. After doing so turn around and approach the suit of samurai armour at the end of the hall. You're free to examine it but there is nothing you can do with it right now. Instead what you simply want to do is examine the shelf on the left, and the wall opposite the armour to get an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE, and another ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Turn around and run all the way to the end of the hall, go through the white double doors here. Another bunch of brown ninjas attack Ryu in this room, by now if you're an inexperienced player your health is likely waning. When all the enemies are defeated open the treasure chest at the side of the room to get the LIVES OF THE THOUSAND GODS [001]. This special item is used in the menu and designed to increase Ryu's maximum health a little bit, you had might as well go use it right now. After doing do feel free to use a normal healing item if you need it, always keep track of your health, I can't predict when you're going to be hurt and when you aren't. Return to the game and take a look at the wall scroll behind the sword rack, chop it once to reveal a hidden door out of this room. Head through this path and prepare yourself for battle once again. It's time to be introduced to a new type of enemy, the white ninja. His power is far greater than that of the brown ninja and he is far more aggressive. I will note of course that fighting the enemies in this area is totally optional, but often the white ninjas drop health essence, so if you can manage to defeat them without taking too much damage yourself, then you're probably in pretty good shape. When they are defeated notice that up the small steps, there is a slightly off coloured panel in the ground. Stand on it and you'll drop through the floor in a secret area below, the Underground Storehouse. This whole area is populated by bats, which when given the chance will really syphon the ealth out of you. Don't give them that chance, forget the sword they can be eliminated easily simply by throwing your Shurikens. Be sure to wait near the corpses because they almost always drop health essence. After the bats are taken care of, check behind where you fell to find a number of urns, when they are smashed it reveals a chest behind them containing a GREAT SPIRIT ELIXIR. Proceed up the hall and stop in front of the torches, examine the chest to the left of them to get FANGS OF THE SAMURAI, the use for this item will become clear to you very soon. Break the torches down and follow the path out to the edge, and then up the ledge on your right. Examine the scroll which is thrown in front of you and then jump up the grab the ledge. This outer walkway leads you back around (past a couple of the brown ninjas again) into a small room with a hole in the floor. Before doing anything, open the chest beside you to acquire the TALISMAN OF REBIRTH, a special item which will bring you back to life with full health when you are defeated, not something you want to pass up. After you get it, drop down the hole in the middle of this room and turn around. Head through the door on the northeast side leading south (according to your map). This will take you back to the hall with that suit of samurai armour. Approach it and interact with it to place the Fangs of the Samurai in the mouth. The hand opens and Ryu acquires the KEY OF COURAGE which you will be needing soon. Backtrack through this hall to the room where you just came from, and from there go through the hidden door into the room with the white ninjas and trap door in the floor. Once again you can feel free to fight all the enemies but you do not need to, jump over the trap door and slash the wall scroll, there is another hidden door here. Head through it and take a look between the door and the stairs. This is a save point, if you think you are doing well then you will want to save. If you are doing poorly then perhaps not. Saving records the exact state of your character, meaning that if you have wasted all your health potions already, loading your game won't get them back, it would be easier to simply start the mission over again. Either way, save the game and head up. At the top of the stairs on the walkway you will be confronted for the first time by two white ninjas simultaneously. Take extreme caution when battling them, but note still there are far more difficult challenges to come. Examine the scroll which is thrown ahead of you, it describes the rolling ability, you may already have figured out which is performed with the L button and analog stick. At the end of the walkway, use the Key of Courage on the large door which opens up the way toward the Inner Sanctum, and to a dangerous fight. Immediately when you enter the room yo uare ambushed by three of the white ninjas at once, this makes for a difficult fight. Try to position yourself if possible so that you don't have all three of them coming as you at once, which means standing perhaps near the opposite door, or on the stairs or something. When one enemy is defeated, before you collect the yellow essence, if you hold the Y button you can absorb the essence into yourself and release a very powerful attack that might help out very much here. Although you don't actually collect the essence you absorb, the resulting yellow essence that comes out of the enemy you defeat is increased. When you think that you are adequately prepared, then it is time to proceed to the boss battle. ____________________________________________________________________________ |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | +-- M U R A I --+ | |____________________________________________________________________________| |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | Prepare yourself for one of the most difficult first bosses in the history | | of video games. Murai is a nunchaku wielding death machine, and he's only | | supposed to be testing your ability! There are literally over a dozen | | things to keep in mind during this battle, so listen up, I'll try to cover | | everything that I can. First of all we'll begin by running to the | | opposite side of the room, there is an urn there you can break and inside | | the urn is an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. It will come in handy for this | | battle. Now you're going to have to approach him, you don't want to try | | fighting him from a distance by throwing Shurikens, he'll just use his | | nunchakus and deflect them back at you, hurting you instead of him. | | | | Approach the boss and prepare for battle, blocking is extremely important | | during this fight. The boss' basic attack is just swinging his nunchakus | | around, an attack which you can block quite easily. His next favourite | | attack happens to be a kind of charge up attack, it has good range and | | while it's true that you can block it, it actually throws you off balance | | temporarily, so be careful when he uses it. Next, Murai has a normal kick | | attack, nothing special there. Here are the ones you have to watch out | | for. First of all, the block button is not going to act as your | | "invincibility button" for this fight, quite the contrary. In fact you | | are not going to want to block at all when he is close to you, instead | | hold the block button and tap the analog stick away to roll. The reason | | for this is that when you are standing directly beside the boss and | | blocking, he will do a grab attack where he knocks you down and lands a | | really powerful kick to your body. Only block from a distance. | | | | Attacking the boss isn't a means to avoid damage either, not only is he | | fast enough to attack between your attacks (the reason why you have to | | block between attacks), he is also capable of grabbing your arm in the | | middle of a combination and knocking you to the ground like a throw. This | | is frustrating, but it basically just means that using the normal | | combination over and over isn't going to be very effective. Secondly, | | while attacking every once in awhile the swords will clash and you will | | get into a little stand still where you have to tap the button as fast as | | you can to knock the boss back. This gives you an advantage since his | | defense is temporarily lax, however if he wins then you yourself will be | | temporarily off balance. Just be sure not to lose, they aren't too hard. | | | | Now that all the other stuff is out of the way, let's look at attacking | | the boss himself. Like I said before, the default combo isn't very | | effective, not only because he grabs you but also because he blocks every | | hit in the combo virtually every time; meaning of seven attacks, you | | usually only hit him without about one of them. Most of the other kinds | | of combinations you will try out will likely be pretty inneffective too. | | | | The most widely accepted and used tactic for defeating this boss is the | | downward strike from the air, called the Helmet Splitter in the technique | | menu. Basically it consists of your jumping up into the air and pressing | | Y to do either a downward stab or a downward slash. While this is | | effective there is an even better way to do it. When pressing the Y | | button after jumping off of a wall, the attack is even more powerful. | | Lure the boss close to a wall and run up it, then come down with a Helmet | | Splitter for massive, unblockable damage. Don't try running back up the | | wall immediately or you will be hit, instead wait for him to do the charge | | attack which leaves him off balance for a moment, at which point that is | | the best time to try it again. Of course the boss is perfectly beatable | | with normal combinations and skillful blocking, but for those who find him | | to be the most difficult enemy ever, and there are some who do, at least | | this will give you a chance to defeat him, and progress on with the game. | |____________________________________________________________________________| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______) (, / / ) / +-- (_/ HE HYABUSA NINJA VILLAGE [CHAPTER 2] ----------------------- 01.02 --+ As this level begins you appear in the same room where you just fought the boss battle, Muria is happy to give you a few pointers on how to fight and utilize a couple of techniques, but I've already covered them so there shouldn't be anything new to learn. Basically what you're trying to do now at this point is simply get back to the very beginning of the game. Remember how at the very start you went up the sloping ramp and climbed toward the Ninja Fortress, well this time follow the ground level path around and it will take you to a door which was locked before. The door is no longer locked so you can proceed through it. Here you will find THE ART OF FIRE WHEELS scroll. This is your first Ninpo magic spell, go to the menu and select this scroll, now when you return to the game you can press the Y and B buttons simultaneously to use the ninja magic. Below your health bar that is where you can see how much ninja magic you can use. Refill this with items and such. Behind where you found the scorll there is a kind of elevator, stand on this and press the X button to make it drop down. When you reach the bottom there is a secret treasure chest behind you which contains an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Make a right when you come out of the cave and stay close to the wall on your left, jump beside it and run along the wall to get across the gap. On the other side there is a very conspicuous chest which contains a SMOKE BOMB. This is a special weapon you can equip as a projectile, you don't have an infinite number of them. If you're playing the original then this chest will contain an Elixir of the Devil Way, which refills your ninja magic. Continue forward and you will encounter some new enemies, the samurais. They have a habit of blocking much more than previous enemies you have faced, but you'll find they aren't too much more aggressive. You have to take on three of them at once here. After they have been defeated, then continue to make your way down the linear path. At the end you will begin sliding down the slope, just before you hit the water press the jump button to grab onto a tree limb above. You can swing from tree limb to tree limb and eventually land on the other side. If you happen to fall into the water accidentally (or on purpose) then note the following controls. Press and hold the A button to dive underwater, move about with the analog stick. Up on the analog stick means you will go up and vice verse, it's not inverted. When you reach the other side tap up on the analog to climb out of the water. Here you will face not only two more samurai but a new enemy as well. The magician has the ability to attack and cast magic as well. He can also teleport which makes him especially dangerous. He will cast magic from a distance, a ball of energy he fires at you, and then teleports up close to attack with his sais. While fighting other enemies, if you see him charging magic in the background get ready to roll out of the way while blocking, sometimes he teleports right into a combo you are doing, which always helps, but most of the time you'll just have to wait for him to appear and attack, then attack him yourself. Just a little bit forward there is a ladder leading up to the top of a tower. Here you will find a chest with a MAP OF THE HYABUSA VILLAGE inside it. Drop down and follow the path forward. When you arrive at the broken bridge, jump into the water and swim to the southeast platform. Here you will find a flower scroll on the wall that tells you how to run on water. Turn around and run into the water, the second your foot touches it keep tapping the A button to run along it. If you move straight across you should be able to run all the way to a ledge on the other side which you cannot reach otherwise. Here you will find a chest containing LIFE OF THE GODS [001]. This is a special item, different from the one you got the first time. You need to collect nine of these before Ryu's health total can be increased. Go to the menu and use it, one of the Japanese characters at the top will light up each time you use one, when all nine light up, your health maximum increases. Cross back over to the other side where you found the scroll and run vertically up the wall here. At the top take a look on your left for a chest which contains an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Now go back over and use the statue in order to save your game. Now ascend up the stairs. Make an immediate left in your village and go around behind the house here, there is a corpse on the ground and when you interact with it, you get an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Head back to where you entered the village and go straight down the path this time. You'll be attacked by quite a few samurais here, the camera in the middle of the path can get a little awkward, so you might want to run down to the bottom and face them there. Once all of the enemies have been eliminated, take a look in front of the house at the bottom of the hill and you should see some weird stone object on the ground. Examine it to get the STATUE HEAD. Head back up to the top of the hill again and place the head on the decapitated statue near the entrance, this will get you another LIFE OF THE GODS [002]. Near the bottom of the hill on your left is where you have to go, note a very low rooftop onto which you can jump, but wait a moment. For those, at this point who are playing Ninja Gaiden Black, you will find inside the golden urn a new weapon called the LUNAR. This is a long staff which you can spin around quite spectacularly a-la Kilik from Soul Calibur or perhaps to a lesser extent, Donatello from Ninja Turtles. Either way your goal is to jump up from here onto the roof and go thorugh the window. If you are playing Ninja Gaiden Black then there is a scene here where Ryu obtains the BOW. If not, then all you have to do is drop down the hole and examine the Bow on the ground beside the door to acquire it. After dropping down into the place below, turn around and exmaine the statue of the old man. This turns out to be one of the game's numerous shops where you can spend your yellow essence like money. I would recommend you purchase The Art of Inferno for sure, since new magic is always good. Beyond that it's basically spend at your discretion, there's no harm in saving up as much as you like for later. When facing the exit door, on the shelf to the left you can find both an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE and an ELIXIR OF THE DEVIL WAY. Upon leaving this room you will be attacked by not only a few samurai, but a number of magicians as well. If you're playing Hurricane Pack or Ninja Gaiden Black, this may be a good chance to try out your Lunar, but I find the Dragon Sword seems much more effective most of the time. When all the enemies are defeated, examine the corpse beside the house on the left side to find some ARROWS, there are an infinite supply of arrows in this guy's body so stock up. Note that there are some kinds of targets over the fence. What you will want to do is run as far away from these targets as you can and equip the Bow. Hold the B button and move the left analog stick to aim. If you can get a perfect bullseye on the left one, then it will start spawning blue essence, a perfect bullseye on the upper right one nets you yellow essence and a perfect bullseye on the lower right one gets you red essence. They are just small but with an infinite supply of arrows nearby, you are free to do this as long as you like. When you're ready, head in the opposite direction from the targets and make a right when you reach the wall. Here the wall will crumble down behind you and you'll be trapped. Two hosrse riding enemies appear, one with a spear and one with a bow, both of them are really going to get on your nerves. The one with the bow will be firing at you from a distance the whole time and the one with the spear will be constantly charging. Always be blocking the spear attack because when it connects, there's a good chance the spear guy will drag you all the way around the field for quite a bit of damage. There is a corpse here with an infinite supply of arrows, I think ideally the best best is to try and hide and use the Bow to fire arrows and knock the enemies off the horses. Personally I'm an awful shot, so I like the more offensive approach. Chase after those damn horses, run and jump and do the X button attack in mid air to knock them off and then kill them before they can even get up. There are about two or three of each type to defeat, shouldn't be too bad. After they are dead, the fire goes out on the other pile of wreckage, jump over that one. Here you will find a save point and beside it, a dead ninja holding a GREAT SPIRIT ELIXIR in his hand. There is an optional area if you go left, it takes you up to the Graveyard. It's optional because there is absolutely nothing for you to do there at the moment, your real destination lies to the right of the save point. Taking this bridge will lead you to the boss battle. Before you go there make sure you've saved, and also make sure that you have a full complement of arrows. When you're ready, then proceed. ____________________________________________________________________________ |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | +-- H O R S E M A N --+ | |____________________________________________________________________________| |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | The enemy you must face here is just a much more difficult form of an | | enemy you have faced already. He's a spearman riding around on a horse, | | except he cannot be knocked off, his attacks are much more powerful and he | | has a lot more health. Also you must deal with the fact that there are | | many respawning magicians that move around the field two at a time. There | | are a couple of different ways to fight this boss, both of them effective. | | | | The slower but more difficult way is as follows. Forget the magicians for | | the most part, you'll only want to kill them if they get in your way. The | | Bow is the weapon of choice here, it does good damage against this boss. | | Stand in a corner and wait for the boss to attack, block it and then when | | he runs away, whip out the Bow and aim it toward him then fire. The | | reason you have to aim instead of just tapping the B button is because you | | will most likely end up auto-targeting one of the magicians instead of the | | boss otherwise. The magicians can be killed in a single hit by the Bow, | | so if you're aiming at the boss and see a magician casting a spell, feel | | free to pick him off. Another benefit of taking them out is that they | | usually drop blue essence, and every once in awhile they drop red or | | yellow essence. If they drop red essence then you can use the Art of | | Inferno for a strong magic projectile attack. If they drop yellow essence | | then you can try the charge up Y button attack, it's quite powerful. | | | | The other way takes slightly longer, but is also relatively safe. It | | relies on the fact that the magicians do not respawn forever, there are | | somewhere between ten and fifteen of them, but no more than that. For | | this reason you are going to want to take out every single one of them. | | Given that they drop blue essence, it only reinforces the statement that | | this way is slightly less difficult. Once all of them are dead, then you | | are free to tap the B button quickly and fire auto aimed arrows at the | | boss, regardless of whether you are actually looking or not. They are | | strong enough so that fifteen will be able to take him down no problem. | | | | Finally you will want to note that the boss' attacks are quite powerful, | | and regardless of which method you choose you will always want to be | | careful to be blocking all the time. Magicians will not use magic while | | they are off camera, but the boss has no qualms about appear for a charge | | attack even from off camera so always be ready. Magic projectiles cannot | | be blocked so be ready to roll at any time as well. If all else fails and | | you run out of arrows, magic and sword attacks work well on the boss, it's | | just a bit more difficult because the closer you are the more likely you | | are to get spear'D or possibly horse kick'd in the process. | |____________________________________________________________________________| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With the boss dead there is a glowing item on the ground, interact with it to pick up the TECHNIQUE SCROLL: COUNTER ATTACK. This will allow you to counterattack by pressing the X or Y buttons while blocking enemy attacks. After you have picked it up, examine the door to trigger a cutscene. ______________________________________________________________________________ __ (__/ ) / ) / +-- (_/ KIES OF VENGEANCE [CHAPTER 3] ------------------------------ 01.03 --+ Right at the beginning of this level there is a save point beside you to use. On the table next to the save point be sure to pick up the ELIXIR OF THE DEVIL WAY. Leave this room and head straight across the hall into the next room, there on the table is an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Leave this room and make a left, then another left into the first room you pass here. There should bea trasure chest on the ground beside the bed in this room, open it up to acquire the AIRSHIP MAP. The instant you try to walk away, suddenly two enemies will break in through the glass. Both of them are new enemies, so let's take a look at how they fight. The white soldier is more common and has less health, the grey soldier has better defense and fights slightly better. The white solder however is the one you have to watch out for, unlike the grey soldier he has the ability to use a throw move where he grabs you through your block and attacks, never block when right beside a white soldier. The grey one also has a throw where he knees you in the face, but seems to do it less often. Either way you should be careful when blocking near both of them will defend with his shield quite often but if you jump and attack downward, that should be reasonably effective. When both enemies are dead, leave the room. All you will find in the room across from you is another one of those flower scroll tips, no big deal. LEave this room and go up the hall, there is one more door on your right, there you will find an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE on the table. Leave this room, turn right and make your way to the end of the hall where a few enemies appear. Same idea as before, grey soldiers and white soldiers to eliminate. Be careful because they are equipped with projectile weapons as well, so it's a good idea to always be blocking even when they are off screen. When all of them are dead there is a shining object on the ground, this is the WING KEY and it's used to open the door in front of you. In this room you will see staircases on your left and on your right. Jump down the stairs on your left to find another of Muramasa's shops at the bottom. Forget everything else, what you really want to do is upgrade the Dragon Sword to the second level here, that is the most important thing. It will not only increase it's power but unlock some brand new attacks as well. Once you have done this turn around and climb back up the stairs again. At the top head over to the opposite side of the room and run down the other stairs. Both doors at the bottom happen to be locked, but there is a save point there which you can use if you need to save your game again. Note something I neglected to mention before, check the shop after you upgrade your sword and a new item appears in the inventory, the Technique Scroll: Izuna Drop, so you'll definietely want to pick that up. Climb the stairs again and face the direction opposite the way you came in, there should be a large set of double doors which you cannot pass through. Go left of these doors and head through the door there to wind up in the kitchen. Open the box at your feet, inside is a LIFE OF THE GODS [003]. Leave this room and go over to the right side of the double doors this time, it will lead you through a room to the Crew Compartment where a number of enemies attack you. This room is small, so the close quartered fighting might seem a bit difficult, but it's a great chance to use your charge up Y button attack, do so after killing an enemy to absor the essence and let loose. There's nothing really to be found in this room so once the enemies are defeated, head thorugh the door on the left. Make a left in this hall and interact with the door here to unlock it from this side. Turn around and go back through to the hall again. Proceed through the door on the left, opposite the one coming from the crew quarters. This takes you into the into a nice office-like room. Laid out on the desk is some form of memo, most likely worth reading. Beside it is the more important MAP OF TAIRON rolled up, you'll definietely want to pick that up. Before leaving this room there is one more thing to do, check the windowsill behind the desk and you should come across a glowing object. Pick it up to acquire your first GOLDEN SCARAB [001]. This is one of many special collectables that you can exchange with Muramasa the shopkeeper in order to get some great stuff. When you're ready to go, step into the elevator located on the side of this room and press the button to descend. There's not much to do here so make your way around this part and take the next elevator going down. At the bottom you will encounter a number of normal white soldiers, you can take them on one at a time fairly easily. Once all the soldiers are eliminated, a grey soldier is going to come down on the elevator. As usual he's a bit more difficult, but not by much, Your reward for defeating all of these enemies is the ID CARD, a special item which will get you through most of the locked doors now. Before going back up the elevator again, enter the room beside the elevator and kick open the chest to acquire another LIFE OF THE GODS [004]. Leave this small room and take the elevator back up again to the floor above you, where you came from originally. This time take a few steps and head through the door on your left, it can be opened now that you have the ID Card. Inside this roo mare a couple of white soldiers, be careful because there really isn't any indication that they are coming after you. Follow this hallway to the dragon statue where you have been before. Save your game and then keep going in the same direction, through the opposite door. Cross the walkway and enter the large cargo hold. Near the large door at the back there is a crank, turn it three times and you'll be ambushed by a number of white soldiers. Dispose of them easily, feel free to break the nearby crates and use the essence to power up your sword attacks. After doing this, turn the crank a few more times and the door will be down. Before going any further make sure to equip the Bow, if you need Arrows, an infinite supply can be found in the tub back near the entrance to this room. When you're ready, go back to the large door you just opened. Above you on your right is a long wire you can grab onto, but wait a moment. Stand at the edge and face across to the other side, hold B to pull out the Bow and move the analog stick to aim. Take aim and fire at the two white soldiers who appear on the other side, you will definitely want to defeat them before you go any further or they will shoot you off mid-way across. Jump up and you'll automatically grab the wire. You can shimmy across using the analog stick and when you reach the end, press down and the A button to drop. As you run down the walkway be prepared to take on a gey soldier when you come around the corner. I recommend extreme caution in this battle, believe it or not the first thing which happened to me was have him grab me, knee me in the face, and launch me over the railing. Instant game over, you don't want that. Kick his ass any way that you can and take a look at the door. It's locked still unfortunately. Follow the walkway to the end and open the chest to get an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Turn around again and look at the window on your right, now very ninja proof. Jump and slash to break the glass, then jump through it. Feel free to go nuts in this room with your sword, destroy all of the machinery, that's your primary goal here. Doing so will unlock virtually every single door on the entire ship. Now head back the way you came, across the wire once again and through the cargo hold to the save point. After saving your game, go up the stairs and make your way back all the way to the beginning again. Go thorugh the door at the other end of the hall this time and it will lead into a room with many crates. Your goal here is to get to the back of the room, it isn't going to be too difficult to do. Simply run and jump over crates, running up walls and grabbing edges where appropriate. At the back of the room you will find a chest containing THE TALISMAN OF REBIRTH, a chest containing ELIXIR OF THE DEVIL WAY and in between both chests, a GOLDEN SCARAB [002]. At this point you basically want to turn around and go straight in the other direction, through the living area, through the part after that wit hthe two staircases, through the next hall and you will reach a staircase leading to a couple of easy-to-kill white soldiers. Make a 180 degee turn on your left and run up the wall here to reach the upper area above the stairs where you came up. There are two white soldiers and a grey soldier to kill here before you can proceed, watch out for the obstacles in the middle, they may impede some of you combos. Before you go any further you'll want to turn around and jump on top of the box behind you. From there you can run up the wall and do the wall kick to land on a super secret upper walkway. All that you find up here is a GOLDEN SCARAB [003] but I'd say that's a pretty worthwhile reward. Drop down again and continue along the path, you should pass on your right, a chest with a GREAT SPIRIT ELIXIR in it. Run across to the platform on the right and jump to the platform on the left, if you fall you'll simply have to try again. There are a few soldiers on the other side, nothing too dangerous here. Jump up onto the crate and from there, run up the wall and jump backward onto the walkway above. Once again there are two more soldiers to kill here. Head forward until you reach the ladder, don't climb up it but instead run up the wall on either the left or the right of it, and wall jump up until you land in a secret hallway. At the end of this hallway, pull the lever and drop back down to the bottom of the stairs again. Once again don't climb the ladder, turn around and run to the end of the catwalk where you will find a Dragon Statue. Note that you will only find this statue if you are playing Ninja Gaiden Black, it does not appear in the original game. I gues you're free to backtrack and find the other most recent statue if you wish. Either way save your game here and then, only then, should you turn around and ascend the ladder to the boss. ____________________________________________________________________________ |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | +-- D Y N A M O --+ | |____________________________________________________________________________| |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | Prepare yourself for a battle against some kind of super human hybrid | | robot monster thing. He's got just about every attack you would expect | | something of this size to have, from a powerful robo-punch, to a machine | | gun laser cannon. Defeating him however shouldn't be as difficult as you | | might expect if you've got the right tactics, and perhaps a few extra | | healing potions on hand. We'll begin with the boss' attacks. | | | | He only really has three basic attacks, and a fourth that he uses | | extremely rarely. The first is the most common, he begins to charge up | | his laser cannon and then fires a number of laser bursts in your | | direction. If you are moving perpendicular to him the whole time then | | this attack cannot hit you under virtually any circumstance, mostly it | | seems to hit Ryu when he is changing direction or moving to attack the | | boss. Secondly, when you get close the boss wil use his other attack, a | | very powerful elbow-wrist drop on your head. This attack can be blocked | | (unlike the laser blast) but leaves you disoriented for a moment, and | | vulnerable to the boss' third attack he likes to use right after. | | | | The third attack is a grab and throw attack. After using his punch, if | | you block the attack and don't move right away he will grab hold of you | | and put the alser cannon right to your chest for massive damage. Do not | | let this happen under any circumstance. Fianlly we have the additional | | rare attack he hardly ever uses. He jumps into the air and creates a | | protective barrier around himself, this barrier disappears momentarily so | | there is really no reason to worry much about it too much at all. | | | | When it comes to attacking the boss, personally I find that the best | | attack by far (I don't know the name), is the attack which requires the | | Dragon Sword to be upgraded to level two. The attack where yu run at the | | boss and jump, and while you're flying through the air you press the Y | | button. Ryu executes a very fast and very powerful slash through the | | boss' body and comes out the other side with plenty of time to move out of | | the way. The problems come when the boss blocks this attack, he has a | | habit of punching your immediately so always be ready to block. In order | | to connect with this attack you absolutely must hit him head on, if you're | | on even a slight angle the boss will block the attack and retaliate. | | | | This strategy should be enough to get you through the fight, provided you | | are skillful enough to use it. Some other strategies that work well are | | of course the Inferno fireball magic spell, the running double X button | | slash (requires Dragon Sword level 2) and to be honest, the good old | | fashioned normal ground based combo. Sure this leaves you open and | | vulnerable to almost every one of his attacks, the the damage is quite | | high if you connect, and it makes for a great offensive last resort. | |____________________________________________________________________________| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ______________________________________________________________________________ _____ (, / / ___/__ +-- (__ / MPERIAL CITY INFILTRATION ----------------------------- 01.04 --+ Save your game here, using the Dragon Statue directly beside you and then jump over the edge down onto the street. Jump down and face off against the three white soldiers that are waiting for you down below. It's a pretty linear path on your way down through the city, when you see a scroll thrown in front of you, read it and learn about Han's Bar. Make an immediate left when you enter the Twin Serpents Plaza and go thorugh the gate to find a chest containing a GREAT SPIRIT ELIXIR. The path leading to the right just takes you to a locked gate, so follow the centre path down the road to encounter some enemies. Just another bunch of three white soldiers, the thin alley gives you a great opportunity to run up the wall and use the jumping Y button attack which should pretty much eliminate them in a single hit. Once the enemies have been taken care of, approach the gate and open it up. Check immediately to your left where you will find a dead ninja, on his body is the TECHNIQUE SCROLL: GUILLOTINE THROW. Approach the opposite side of this area to spawn a number of enemies, including one equipped with a grenade launcher. This sounds like it would be a perfect time for you to try out that new Guillotine Throw, jump toward a nearby enemy and tap X and A at the same time while in the air to perform the throw, it should kill most easy enemies like this instantly. Check the upper part of this area to find a ninja with Arrows in his back, you can refill your supply as much as you like here. Now head through the gate with the orange orb on it. Immediately when you enter the next area you'll be attacked by three white soldiers, don't let them catch you off guard. Follow the path straight ahead and around the corner to the right, there you will find the STONE TABLET [TOP] on the ground. Turn around and go back, surprise surprise, some more enemies have appeared while you were gone. Decapitate your foes and take the path to the right, going down the stairs this time. At the bottom of the stairs make a right and run along the path until you find a flower scroll directly in front of you. Read it and them whip out your Bow, there are two enemies across from you in this area you need to kill using the Bow, do that now. Once you've done that head to the stairs leading down and note the blue pipe running along above the stairs. Run vertically up the wall here and Ryu should grab it when you do. Now you can shimmy along to the left and drop down on the platform. Jump once again and this time, grab hold of the wire that runs across the top of the square. It will take you over to the other side where you can find a chest with LIVES OF THE THOUSAND GODS [002]. After acquiring this item, a couple new white soldiers will appear on the platform across from you, quickly dispatch them with your Bow once again. Return to where you first read the flower scroll and run off the edge right there, since there is a blue rail running along the side you will cartwheel and grab hold of it. Make your way to the right and then when you reach the end hold up on the analog stick and press A to climb up. Inside this chest is a LIFE OF THE GODS [005]. Now drop down and follow the road to an enormous gate with two yellow orbs on it. Open this gate and proceed forward. What you want to do here is go straight, and then when you reach a wall the path forks, take the right fork and examine the body of the dead ninja to acquire the NUNCHAKU, a brand new weapon. Head back to where you first entered this area and now take the first fork leading right. Just past a small cutscene where it shows you the door of a building, some gates will close and some enemies will approach from behind. You've got a couple of white soldiers, at least one grey soldier and a guy with a grenade launcher. Either way it should be too difficult for you at this point, remember the power of the Guillotine Throw. With the enemies defeated then you need to turn around and go back to that door it focused on, enter Muramasa's Shop. There are a couple of things to do here. If you're playing Ninja Gaiden Black, then you are free to upgrade the Lunar to the next level, it looks far cooler when you do. Also don't forget to pick up the Technique Scroll: Izuna Drop if you haven't already, as well as the Guide Map to the Capital of Vigoor (it's extremely cheap). Now leave the shop and make a right, then an immediate left through the small blue edged door and up the stairs. On the way up the stairs you'll encounter a couple of normal enemies, they shouldn't be too hard to defeat, the upgraded Lunar works exceptionally well here. Once you reach the top, prepare yourself for some new enemies. The black spider ninjas are extremely dangerous, much moreso than any other type of enemy you have faced so far. Not only are they extremely fast and flippy with their swords, they drop inconspicuous grenades or even go so far as to attach them to your body. The explosions from these weapons cannot be blocked by any conventional blocking technique, so it would be a good idea simply to keep dodging. Kill them the same way you would kill any other enemy and be on your way. Through the door at the end here, inside the chest is a SPIRIT OF THE DEVILS [001]. This is a special item which increases your maximum ninpo magic slots, meaning you can now cast two magic spells without replenishing (once you actually use the item that is.) Head back to the street now. Make a left from the shop this time and pull the lever to the right of the door to unlock it, then proceed thorugh. When you enter this area, another Kunai scroll will be thrown. Read it to learn more about those damn spider ninjas, not much more however mind you. To the left of where you came in your should see a glowing aura in the water fountain, examine it to get another GOLDEN SCARAB [004]. Turn around and return to the previous area, now enter Muramasa's shop. Speak to Muramasa and choose the "talk" option. He will tell you that in exchange for those Golden Scarabs, he is happy to give you special items. At this point you should have about four of them, so pawn them all off to get a LIFE OF THE GODS [006]. Leave the shop and go left. Back in this are again what you want to do is make a right this time, at the first fork. Ignore the cracked wall on your left, at the moment there is nothing that you can do about it. When you come to a short alleyway, note the platform up above. Run up the wall opposite it and jump backward to land on the platform here. In this room you have to fight back three Black Spider Ninjas, but your reward for doing so is the treasure chest in the corner. No special item awaits you in there, just a stash of many orbs of all colours, quite worthwhile for the minimum of trouble you went through for it. Head back once again to the entrance of this whole area, you can unlock the gate from this side by the way to get out. Instead of taking the right path this time, keep an eye on the left side for a small staircase leading up. Head up the stairs and go around the path to the left, you'll have to fight off a couple of Black Spider Ninjas along the way. After defeating the two enemies, note the very small alley where one of them came out of. What you want to do is run up the wall and jump from wall to wall to reach the rooftop above. Jump across to the next platform from here, then to reach the one after that you're going to have to do a horizontal wall run to make it. This leads you through a door to the body of a ninja, examine his body and read SUKE'S DIARY he seems to have in his hand, it's full of ninja secrets. After this be sure to pick up the GOLDEN SCARAB [005] as well from the ground in front of you. At this point I would recommend you turn around and go back to Muramasa's Shop. In exchange for the fifth Golden Scarab he will give you THE AMULET OF POTENCY. This item (when equipped) will mean that your throw attacks and your kick attacks do more damage than normal, perhaps it might not be too helpful, but every bit counts especially in a game like this one. Return back up to where you found the dead ninja and where you found the most recent Golden Scarab. Continue further and after a mere few steps you will come across a chest which contains a GREAT DEVIL ELIXIR. To your right you will find another lever, pull this lever and then drop down. The large door is now unlocked so you are free to head through it. Follow the path until you reach Han's Bar and then watch the scene when you arrive there. It seems you are not allowed to attend this party which is unfortunate, but no matter, there are always other ways. What you want to do is make a right and read the Kunai scroll which gets thrown directly in front of your face. After reading it, continue along the path to the Dragon Statue and use it to save the game. Turn around and head back to the fork, when you do you should see a Kunai scroll thrown again the wall here. Read the scroll and then note the alley beside it. Run down to the end of the alley to find GOLDEN SCARAB [006]. After you have found it, return to where you found the Kunai scroll and look closely. See those blue lines above it? Remember that blue means secret? Stand back and run horizontally along the wall on these lines, jump before you fall and run along the next set of blue lines, jump from these to the third set of blue lines and from those to the ledge at the end. On the final jump I would recommend you add an additional X button attack just to get that bit of extra height you need. Here is where you will find the WINDMILL SHURIKEN as well as some kind of X pedestal which refills your health back to the max. Backtrack to the previous area and enter Muramasa's Shop. There is now some kind of promotional deal going on where you get a ticket to the party with every purchase. For this reason all you need to do is open the shop menu, buy anything and leave and it will get you HAN'S BAR PARTY TICKET. With this item it's obviously time to return to Han's Bar. On your way back you'll be attacked by three dangerous Black Spider Ninjas, dispose of them as you see fit and then approach the bar. When you do a cutscene will trigger. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______) (, / / ) / +-- (_/ HE CITY OF FIENDS [CHAPTER 5] ------------------------------ 01.05 --+ Right at the beginning of this level you start beside a chest, kick it open to acquire the LILY KEY. We'll put that to good use later. Be sure to use the Dragon Statue on the other side of this rooftop, once you've saved your game then read the Kunai Scroll which landed right at the start. Now beside the trap door there is a low ledge, jump over the side and when you land, open the chest beside you to get an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Go through the door now, ignore the ladder on your left (it just takes you back up thorugh that trap door) and begin down the stairs. There are a couple of white soldiers and a grey soldier to take out in this stairwell. At the bottom you'll find another chest on your left, this one containing an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE as well. Continue down the hall, defeating all of the soldiers which appear and attack you as you go along. At the end of the hall is another staircase which leads down uneventfully. You can feel free to examine the arcade machine at the bottom, however there is no game in it. Don't worry, you'll be able to get in some classic Ninja Gaiden goodness at a later time. Check the bar on the other side to find an ELIXIR OF THE DEVIL WAY sitting there on the counter. There's also a MAP OF DWORKU to be found on the other end of the bar. The exit to the bar is located opposite where you found the map, when you get outside you'll have to take on five or six of those white soldiers, and a grey soldier as well. Keep killing them and they'll keep dropping into battle. Fortunately it really doesn't make any difference how well or how poorly you perform in this fight for one reason. After they are defeated, run along the wall horizontally on those two blue lines again and jump back and forth to reach the area with the giant X. This statue still refills your health back up to full like it did before, so be sure to take advantage of it. Drop back down and go in the other direction, toward the Dragon Statue and save your game there. Now you're ready to leave this area, head for the exit gate. When you leave this area, go straight ahead toward the door with the two yellow orbs on it, and go thorugh that door as well. Be careful of enemies using firearms from up above. Before going up any staircases, on your right you will find a door with a Lily emblem on it. Use your Lily Key to unlock this door and head forward. There are three normal soldiers to take out in this alley, nothing you haven't seen a hundred times before. The alley itself leads to a dead end, but you should come across a Kunai Scroll which will give you a helpful hint. What you need to do is move to the area just before the alley curves left and face the end. Run foward and jump to run horizontally along the wall on your right, before you reach the other wall, jump and run horizontally along that wall, then jump again to get over the fence and land beside a treasure chest. Inside this chest you will find an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Continue down the road to encounter some Black Spider Ninjas, they are extremely dangerous so be sure to always stay moving like usual, or you'll end up being raped by the explosives. The path from this point is quite linear, it will take you past a gate which you cannot open and eventually to a large door with red orb shapes in it. Pull the switch beside this gate to open it up, now you are free to return to Muramasa's Shop if you like, this acts as a shortcut. When you're done looking around, return here. Use the Dragon Statue which just happens to be right beside the lever. After doing so you'll want to start ascending the stairs opposite the statue on the other side. The path takes you up and out to the drawbridge square, where you are challenge by a couple of normal soldiers. Turn around and face the direction you came from, but look a little bit to the right, there you will see a door with a blue orb in the middle of it, this is the door you want to take. It leads to a long alley where a number of soldiers, including one with a grenade launcher, are waiting for you up at the top. Dispatch them as quickly and as painlessly as you possibly can. About half way up this alley, on your left, keep an eye out for a treasure chest. Inside this chest is the KEY OF PEGASUS, an important item which you are going to need quite soon. Turn around and face the oppsote direction, it's a drop off here but there's something else. Take a look to the left of the drop to see a shiny golden object. What you need to do is jump and wall run horizontally on the right wall, then transfer to the next wall and wall run directly into that little area. Drop and pick up the GOLDEN SCARAB [007]. Now drop down from here to the Moat Road and follow it up toward the tunnel again, you'll have to take on the three Black Spider Ninjas a second time (or you could just try to run past them I guess.) When you reach the gate on your left, use the Key of Pegasus to open it up. Inside here you will find a lever, and this lever controls the drawbridge. Pull the lever to lower the drawbridge down, and then run to the end of the path and use the Dragon Statue to save your game once again. Climb up the stairs opposite the statue to reach the drawbridge area again, the enemies have most likely respawned so you'll have to deal with that inconvenience. Now that the bridge is down, feel free to cross it and make your way left to where you'll be attacked by another three dangerous Black Spider Ninjas. As usual take your weapon of choice and cut them a few new orifaces, personally I like the Lunar to use against these guys but if you don't like it, or you're playing the original Ninja Gaiden, then the Dragon Sword will work just fine. After they have been killed, be sure to use the Dragon Statue in the little alcove there. Interestingly enough, directly besude the statue on the right is another GOLDEN SCARAB [008]. Stand facing the Dragon Statue just outside of it a bit, the path you want to take is the path on the right. As you make your way down the road, stick beside the left wall. Soon enough you will pass a small little area where there is another GOLDEN SCARAB [009] sitting on the ground. A mere few steps further than that on your left again you'll come across an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE inside a treasure chest. The linear road from here leads you to the Monastery Plaza, there you will be forced to take on a few normal soldiers at once, including one equipped with a grenade launcher. For such a large battlefield, and for being locked in the enemies don't really put up much of a fight. After you have won the battle, locate the gate to the monastery. It is the large set of double doors which cannot be opened from this side. If you want you can turn around and go up the stairs in the opposite direction to reach the save point again, but you'll have to fight three Black Spider Ninjas in order to do so. Either way your true destination is left of the doors. Watch out for the Black Spider Ninjas which seem to come out of nowhere. Use the walls here to your advantage and defeat them with all sorts of ninja wall running and dash attacks. Once they have been defeated you are going to want to go down the nearby alley and open the chest to acquire a GREAT SPIRIT ELIXIR. Continue down the road and take out the next set of three Black Spider Ninjas, hopefully this isn't taxing your health too much because this part can get quite difficult. When you reach the end of the path at the Monastery Inner Clearing, you'll have to face off against a number of white soldiers, but it makes no difference how many you kill as this battle is timed. After about thrity seconds or so a scene will interrupt. You are now fighting one hell of a dangerous miniboss battle, three of those red lizard monster enemies that Rachel killed during the cutscene in the last level. They have numerous attacks they can perform. Firstly they like to charge at you head first and knock you out of the way, they also have a nasty claw attack they'll use when you're right in front of them, fortunately this is blockable. Never come up on them from behind, they huge tail sticking out of their ass isn't for show, it will swipe at lightning speed and knock you away from them, you must always fight from the front here. The fire breath attack doesn't seem too dangerous, I find that when they do it you can easily avoid it by rolling up to them and blocking when close. Finally the one you really have to watch out for is when they lift their head high into the air, and come down onto you by chomping your head and flinging you away, this is a throw so it's unblockable. As for attacking the beasts, normal combos work great, but you will want to do everything you can to fight them only one at a time. After doing a combo often the beast will go back for a head-eat attack, so get the hell out of the way if you see any indication of this happening. They really don't have that much health considering their size, and each time one of them is killed it drops a large portion of blue essence, so don't waste any items if you know one of them is about to be killed. When you win this little "mini" battle as I call it, there's a scene and then the real boss. ____________________________________________________________________________ |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | +-- T E N T A C L E M O N S T E R --+ | |____________________________________________________________________________| |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | What you have here in front of you is one hell of a nasty looking tentacle | | monster thing, at first you could be forgiven for having no clue | | whatsoever how to begin fighting something of this size. Especially given | | that when you run up and attack it, your blade only bounces off. Worry | | not, for you are actually about to take on one of the easiest bosses you | | have faced so far, one which can be defeated easily if you know how. | | | | Taking a look at the boss' attacks there actually isn't much to look at. | | He was two tentacles coming out of his sides which seem to kind of flail | | around randomly. Their range isn't all that impressive so you can always | | avoid being hit by moving to the outer part of the arena. When you do get | | close however, the tentacles will try to swipe at you. You can attempt to | | jump out of the way, but simply running should be enough to avoid their | | attacks for the most part. Now and then the boss will spin its core | | around along with the tentacles, nothing too dangerous. The actual damage | | taken when you get hit by them is mediocre at best. Besides that he has a | | grab attack that he uses extremely rarely, it is likely that you will | | never even see it used at all. After taking damage sometimes the boss | | likes to expel large balls of acid or something out of his top, but these | | can be avoided simply my moving to get away from where they are going to | | land, most of the time you are given enough opportunity to move. | | | | Attacking the boss should also prove relatively easy, the target you are | | aiming for is not the core but rather where the tentacles connect to the | | core. Jump directly at them and press the Y button to perform the Flying | | Swallow attack, do this over and over again, immediately when you land | | each time to avoid having the tecntacles come around and hit you while | | you're on the ground nearby. After about three hits the tentacle will | | fall off and drop a small blue essence, feel free to pick this up and | | restore your health a little. Do the same thing next on the other | | tentacle. Now after doing this, the eyes on the boss will open and you | | are free to go in for some massive damage. Just about anything works fine | | here, his health really starts to deplete when you attack now, but the | | most effective thing to do is hold the Y button and absorb that second | | blue essence the other tentacle drops, then go in for a huge combo. | | | | This will repeat again and again until you finally eliminate the boss, | | most likely the third time you eliminate both of the tentacles. | |____________________________________________________________________________| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______) (, / / ) / +-- (_/ HE MONASTERY [CHAPTER 6] ----------------------------------- 01.06 --+ From where you start in this level what you want to do is turn around and open the two chests to get a GREAT SPIRIT ELIXIR and a LIFE OF THE GODS 007]. After collecting both of the items, turn around and begin making your way up the stairs here. At the top of the stairs you will find an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Collect this item and then enter the next hall, make sure the original Shurikens are equipped when you do. Begin throwing them around wildly to take out all of the bats in this area. Hhad to the other side and drop down into this area, there is a statue which will take you to Muramasa's Shop once again, but there is nothing new here for you to get. Leave this room and when you get outside, you'll be attacked by a brand new type of enemy. Fortunately this type of enemy does not actually have any throw attacks, so while blocking you are literally invincible. Use this to your advantage and defeat them using mostly counterattacks, with perhaps a few other defensive moves just to keep things mixed up. Once they are dead, turn around and open the chest you probably passed by which has an ELIXIR OF THE DEVIL WAY inside of it. Also be sure to examine the body of the ninja lying on the ground, his corpse is holding onto a MAP OF THE MONASTERY. There's an additional Dragon Statue over here on this side already. After saving the game what you want to do is go up the stairs and examine the large double doors, these are the ones which were locked in the last chapter, now you can open them yourself. Turn around and go back through, head through the large double doors at the bottom of the stairs this time. When you arrive in the Altar Hall, go up either the ramp on the left side or the right side. At the top, check between the two ramps to find a chest containing ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Afer acquiring this, approach the main altar for battle. You'll find yourself facing off against two brand new enemies, the floating scythe demons appear from their statue-like state and attack from the air. They have the ability to teleport and cut you with their sickle so it's important to always keep moving. My personal attack of choice for defeating these monsters is the Flying Swallow, jumping at them and pressing the Y button. Soon enough you'll be join by at least seven or eight of those simple claw demons as well, it's going to become a real party in this room. Always keep an eye on your defenses and eliminate those scythe demons as quickly as possible so you can focus a more defensive posture to get the claw demons, Just a few steps up and to the left of the first chest you got up here, is another which contains an Elixir of the Devil Way. Directly opposite this chest is a thin door leading into the next hallway, this is the door you want to take. It leads into the archives, and you won't have much time to check out the reading material because you'll immediately be attacked by virtually the same party you just fought, except this time it will be in a more enclosed area. Kill all of the enemies here and then ascend up the stairs. Since the gate should have opened after all the enemies were defeated, you can now feel free to smash the display cases with your sword and collect the many items you find inside which include an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE, the STONE TABLET [RIGHT], the INCENDIARY SHURIKEN and another GOLDEN SCARAB [010]. Also you may have noticed a number of conspicuous blue books around this area, you'll want to go and collect all five of them which include THE HISTORY OF VIGOOR I, THE HISTORY OF VIGOOR II, THE HISTORY OF VIGOOR III, THE HISTORY OF VIGOOR IV and THE EMPEROR, LORD OF ALL CREATION. Each of them can be read whenever you wish in the archives section of your menu. Afer collecting those go back up to where you found all the other items in the display cases. Equip the Incendiary Shurikens you acquired recently but don't start throwing them, keep in mind you only have a limited supply. Walk along the walkway here to the opposite end of the room on the second level and stand directly in the corner, if you do this the camera should reposition itself so that you are able to see a golden object on the ledge up above. All you have to do here is run up the wall on the right and backflip off of it to land right beside the GOLDEN SCARAB [011]. After collecting this, walk around to he other side where you will find a cracked wall. As I said you should have the Incendiary Shurikens equipped, so throw one at the wall and blast open the cracked area. In here before you can reach the door, you have to fight off a couple of the scythe demons and claw demons, the angled play field and close quartered combat kind of give you a disadvantage, which is why you should try to use the walls, as well as the floor. After going through the door you will realize that you are actually above the Altar Hall. Make an immediate right and look directly ahead. Slightly below you, along the top of a thin stone walkway there is a lone chest at the end. Jump down onto this walkway and open the chest to get a GREAT SPIRIT ELIXIR. Go back to where you jumped straight off and jump to the right this time. Open the chest you find here and collect the ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Make your way back to the door where you came from the room with the cracked wall, and go around the path to the other side. This side is exactly equivalent to the other side, so jump down onto the thin walkway and open the chest to get a GREAT DEVIL ELIXIR, and then jump left from the platform behind you to find a GOLDEN SCARAB [012]. Turn around and jump back onto the platform, then finally go through the door beside you. Enter this room and check the left side, beside the desk there is a shining statue. Examine it to acquire the RAPTOR, DEITY OF SENTIMENT. Examine the diary you can find on the desk, it says in highlighted print that it was written on the 27th day of the 12th month, and ends with the phrase "left, right, right, left." Games that involve badass ninja killing aren't there to really twist your brain like perhaps a Silent Hill game might, however this puzzle certainly gets the job done. Across on the other side of the room is a safe with a four digit combination and the ability to move left or right. The combination is of course taken from those dates, 27th and 12th, or 2712, and the direction to turn from the final phrase. Examine the safe and move left until you reach the number two, then move right past the 7 until you reach the 1, then go left again until you hit the number two and the safe will open, netting you the BOOK OF THE EONS but another not-so-pleasant surprise. Upon opening the safe it sets off some kind of trap which causes enemies to spawn and fill the room. It's the same two types of enemies you've been facing so far in this level, so take out this collection of more-of-the-sames and be on your way through the door that you entered the room from. If you're prepared for a challenge and have a number of healing potions, then you should make your way back to the Archives, there's a challenge awaiting. This is called the Sixty Fiends Challenge, and for anyone just tuning in you can find it between chapter six and seven by entering the Archives in the Monastery after acquiring the Book of the Eons from the safe. Just as the name implies this challenge entials having Ryu take on a total of sisty fiends in one room. This is just an approximation, but I would say there are approximately twenty of the scythe demons and forty of the claw demons. It's not randomized so if you happen to kill all of one type of demon, you will only fight the other type for the rest of the battle. Knowing this might help out because they have a habit of working well together. Here's how it works. In the Archives, scythe demons and claw demons will just keep on appearing and attacking, and you have to kill them all. The weapon of choice here at least in my opinion is the Dragon Sword, I used the Lunar for awhile and while it worked, switching to the Dragon Sword seemed to make life easier. The reason I say the enemies work well together, is for the following reason: while blocking you can defend against every single attack from the claw demons, and that applies almost as equally to the scythe demon, but together it does not. When struck by the scythe demon, you are temporarily knocked off balance so the claw demons can actually hit you after the scythe demon attacks. The scythe demon also has an unblockable magic circle attack, but that's another story and it's easy to dodge. I would recommend focusing heavily on the scythe demons if possible. They are harder to kill but they will almost always drop large blue essence, and it's important to keep your health up. The easiest way to kill them I find is the Blade of Nirrti attack. Strike them with the X button, then hit Y to jump in the air, trike three more times with X while in the air and ends with X for the Blade of Nirrti. The only other thing which I would address is that you stay the hell away from the door at all times, as I mention in the first chapter, Ryu has a habit of just doing through doors in the middle of a fight if you get too close, and it would be a shame for that to happen on enemy number fifty-nine. Upon eventually defeating all sixty of these enemies, an impressive feat, you are rewarded with a treasure chest on the level above. It contains a SPIRIT OF THE DEVILS [002] which will increase your total magic Ninpo meter from two slots to three slots, something which should help you out quite a bit in the long run, so indeed it was worth it, if not for that then for all the yellow essence you have collected. That's all there is to this particular challenge. Leave the Archives and return to the Altar Hall. Before you go any further I would recommend you backtrack and head for Muramasa's Shop. Give him all the Gold Scarabs you have and if it totals more than ten (it should total twelve by now) then he will give you a LIVES OF THE THOUSAND GODS [003] in return. On your way back be sure to stop and save the game at the Dragon Statue. Now enter the Altar Hall and eliminate the few enemies again. Approach the altar and press the X button to place the Book of the Eons on the altar. Behind the altar a secret hole appears with a ladder going down, step up to it and interact with it in order to descend. Take off the Incendiary Shurikens when you land and put on the nromal ones. Take a few steps forward and start throwing like mad to eliminate all the bats. You'll find GOLDEN SCARAB [013] on the ground here right in front of you. Also be sure to examine the ninja corpse for an unlimited supply of INCENDIARY SHURIKENS. Finally be sure to open the chest to get the MAP OF THE UNDERGROUND CEMETERY and then once you've done that, approach the Dragon Statue and choose to save your game. Now what ou need to do is go through the gate, equip the Incendiary Shurikens and be ready. Break the cracked wall and go through, prepare for a boulder chase. The camera changes to be in front of you so move toward the camera. At any point if the boulder hits you, you can just try again so don't worry. Run straight down and here is a list of what you will encounter. I - Jump over the first set of spikes with a single normal jump II - Jump over the second set by running along the wall on the left III - Dodge the third and fourth spike traps by staying on the right side IV - Dodge the pillars by going left then right and then left again V - Dodge the next spike pit by staying left and jumping once VI - Dodge the next small one by sticking to the right side VII - Dodge the next one by jumping normally in the small depression VIII - Dodge the last big one by running along the left side wall You'll end up in a room, in true ninja fashion, swinging head over heals on some kind of extended wire. Flip across and open the chest to get a GREAT SPIRIT ELIXIR. Save your game at the Dragon Statue beside the chest and then begin making your way down gradually. If you try and jump to the bottom, you will be killed. On the way down eventually you will reach a bunch of those claw demons, just kill them as you usually do without too much complication. Proceed through the gate at the edge of the ledge before it abruptly ends. Enter the room carefully, don't jump down to the bottom. Jump to the first ledge in the middle and you should be able to see a treasure chest across on the other side. Jump left and run horizontally along the wall to reach it, inside the chest is a LIFE OF THE GODS [008]. Drop down the the bottom and head to the thin little corner (the southwest corner according to your map.) From here you can wall jump up in this thin little area and you'll land in a little alcove with a GOLDEN SCARAB [014]. From here you can jump out in the opposite direction and grab the ledge on the next platform. If you need to get back out of this room, turn around and face the direction of the Gold Scarab (south), jump and run up the wall, then backflip off to reach the top of the room again. Your real destination lies at the bottom, take the west exit and drop down the stairs, save at the Dragon Statue at the bottom. Make your way down gradually again to the bottom, taking out all the bats along the way with your normal Shurikens. At the bottom you'll have to face a number of the claw demons, no matter, once they are dead then take the only path leading out of here. Along the way you should see a GOLD SCARAB [015] on the lower part of the cave wall on your right, be sure to pick it up. Have your normal Shurikens ready because there are a ton of bats in this room to take care of. After doing this, drop down the ladder to find a whole bunch more and then open the chest at the end of the path to get an ELIXIR OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Stand in the middle of this room and examien the button, now press the jump button and then the Y button in mid-air to slam down on top of it and get the elevator moving. Just so you don't get bored while it descends, a few claw demons are going to drop down to keep you company. At the bottom when the elevator stops, go thorugh the door and check on your right. There should be a treasure chest here which contains the VIGOORIAN FLAIL, and band new weapon for you to kick serious ass with. head to the end of this hall as well and go thorugh the door to trigger a scene. Afer a few seconds you'll have to face some of the easiest enemies you've ever faced. Simply jump around the room like a crazy ninja using the Flying Swallow technique and you can't possibly lose. It's what happens after you eventually defeat these enemies that becomes so difficult, a cutscene follows the battle. Time to take on an army of zombies, each quipped with a different kind of weapon. Most of them are relatively the same, but the fact that the archers are equipped with long range capabilities means they should because your primary target. Once the both of them have been dispatched it's a matter of taking care of the rest of the zombies. Personally I like to use just normal combos, as well as the technique where you run up a wall, backflip and come down with a Y button attack. Also I find that the magic spell, Art of Fire Wheels is especially effective against these particular enemies, you can get combos upward of 100 hits or more if you use the spell effectively here. After all of the zombies have been taken care of, pick up the HOLY GRAIL from the wall in this room and then leave. There are more zombies here that you can kill if you wish to do so, your destination is that large elevator again. Take the elevator up, if it stops in the middle just kill zombies until you can hit the bottom again. At the top, follow the path to reach the large room with all the chains again. You have to make your way up the outer path but it can get extremely difficult and frustrating. The archer zombies will hit you and knock you all the way back down to the bottom, that is if you haven't already fallen off yourself. The best thing you can do is try to kill them from a distance, and Incendiary Shurikens are really the only good way to do that. If you have enough you can try that, otherwise the next best thing would be wait for them to fire, dodge and jump to the platform to begin a combination. Either way once you get to the top, be sure to save the game. Make your way up to the room again with that huge bone dragon zombie skeleton and when you arrive, take a few steps left and place the Holy Grail into the altar beside you. Only do this when you are ready for a boss fight. ____________________________________________________________________________ |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | +-- D R A G O N Z O M B I E --+ | |____________________________________________________________________________| |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | The Dragon Zombie is most certainly the biggest boss you've fought so far, | | and with immense size often comes immense difficulty. This is partially | | the case here, he's sure going to take a bit more work to drop than that | | weird kraken thing you fought in the previous level. Still, keep a couple | | of health potions in your inventory, and you'll get through this fight. | | | | This boss has quite a few different and unique attacks, fortunately you | | don't have to worry too much about predicting which one he's going to do | | since he can't use them randomly in a sense. Basically here's how it | | works, the boss is always going to have one limb, either an arm or a leg | | on the platform directly in front of you. Depending on which one he has | | there he will use different attacks. We'll begin however with his | | universal attack. Regardless of which limb is in front of you, the boss | | has the ability to shake the screen a bit and then launch two bone | | fragments in your direction one after another. This attack will likely be | | the one which does the most damage through the entire battle, so you | | should get used to either blocking or dodging it. I don't say this | | because the attack is particularaly powerful, quite the opposite in fact, | | but the boss does is so often that it'll likely hit you more than a few | | times. It's possible to block this attack, it knocks you off balance but | | the second bone fragment should make contact just as you regain your | | balance, it's close but you can usually block both. If you're right at | | the edge, then they may hit fast enough so you can't block the second, but | | from a distance you'll be okay. Personally I think it's easier most of | | the time to just try and dodge them. The attack is so frequent that if | | you're always blocking them, you'll end up blocking the whole battle. | | | | Next we have the more powerful attacks, starting with the arms. If one of | | his front limbs is in front of you then the boss is capable of performing | | a horizontal swipe with his claw, either jump over this or jump backward | | out of the way, don't try to block it. If one of the back legs is in | | front of you, then the attack will instead be a vertical stomp. It's | | extremely powerful, but much easier to dodge. Still impossible to block. | | That covers the normal attacks, and finally we have the boss' two | | transition attacks. I call them transition attacks because the boss only | | uses them when changing the positions of his limbs. They are attacks from | | the head and the tail. Basically if he is switching from his front right | | arm, to front left arm, the head will pass you in the process, same goes | | for back legs and the tail. If he switches from front arm, to back leg | | then you won't have to worry about because there aren't any damaging | | appendices on the sides of his body that you have to worry about. | | | | As the Dragon Zombie turns and his head passes you, he might randomly | | decide to pull the head back (this is your warning) and lunge toward the | | camera and try to grab you in his mouth. He lunges so far forward that | | for a second his head actually covers the entire screen, it's quite | | frightening. If you get caught in the mouth then you will be victim to | | the boss' most powerful attack (and throw) so it's unblockable. Dodging | | it is easy, simply run to the side, I find it easiest to just run to the | | right. When he switches between his back legs, every single time the tail | | will swipe past you in the process. Don't try to block it, simply jump | | over it like a jumprope. Everyonce in awhile he'll switch, then switch | | back immediately, so the tail will swipe left, then right again. | | | | Now that we've covered the boss' many attacks, we can examine just how to | | actually defeat him. As you may have guessed, attacking the body is | | pretty much out of the question so we need to look at other avenues. The | | answer is of course the limbs, when you run up to either the arm or the | | leg planted in front of you and begin attacking, the boss will take | | damage. Not too complicated, but it becomes difficult especially when | | you're trying to dodge those flying bone fragments. Stick with combos | | that involve jumping so that perhaps even while attacking, you'll | | inevitably still end up dodging sometimes. Each limb makes up 25% of the | | boss' total health, so you can win the battle by attacking a single one. | | When it's taken enough damage a limb will shed the outer bone layer and he | | will never put that limb in front of you again. Basically you just have | | to defeat all four limbs and deplete his health, and the battle is over. | |____________________________________________________________________________| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ______________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___) (, / / /---/ ) / / +-- (_/ (__ IDDEN UNDERGROUND [CHAPTER 7}------------------------- 01.07 --+ That shiny object on the ground you see right when this chapter begins is another LIVES OF THE THOUSAND GODS [004], be sure to pick that one up. What you want to do now is go through the gate and follow the path down to that save point again, the one which served as the final save point before the boss in the previous chapter. Run down the path but don't jump to the very bottom, instead make your way back to the room where you found the Holy Grail. If you like, it's time to take on the next Sixty Fiend Challenge room. This particular one as previously mentioned, is found by returning to the room where you acquired the Holy Grail, you can head right down there at the beginning of chapter seven, however it's not limited to that time, in fact unlike the first one you can return here almost anytime. Basically what you have to fight are sixty of those zombie enemies, and as you know their health total is quite high so this one is going to take quite a bit longer than the first one. I'll sahre some of my wisdom that will hopefully help you out. Of course these enemies may be strong and powerful, but they are also very slow. You can really use this to your advantage here, but not at the beginning because of those damn archers. Fortunately, similar to the first challenge, there are certain amounts of each type of enemy, meaning that when you kill all of one type, including archers, they will not appear again. What you want to do at the start is basically focus only on the archers, there are going to be about fifteen or so of them to kill, but once they are out of the way it will make the whole fight significantly easier. Next you will want to exploit the enemies' slow movement to help you win the fight. To do this I recommend you rely heavily on the charge up attack. Just position yourself somewhere away from the enemy group and hold the Y button. Charge up your sword once, then wait until it powers up a second time and let loose the super sword combination. This will kill any enemy you hit instantly and possible others which are close by. There are two things to take into consideration when doing this: first of all it's slow, but safe, so you can almost guarantee a win if you're willing to do this the entire battle. You can really speed things up if you are willing to absorb the essence which comes out of the enemies, but you will be sacrificing quite a bit of spendable yellow essence, it's up to you. Lastly, when you use this super attack, blue essence will never be dropped, only yellow, so if your health is waning you might want to opt for a few normal kills in hopes of getting some blue essence. Your reward for finishing this challenge is another LIVES OF THE THOUSAND GODS [005]. Head all the way back to the first Dragon Statue of the chapter and be sure to save your game after doing something like that. Now that it's out of the way, all you need to do is jump down the middle of this area to the bottom where the Dragon Zombie's corpse landed. At the bottom you will notice there a bunch of small indented ledges along the wall, go around them until you find one which has a GOLDEN SCARAB [016] sitting on top of it. Now there is only a single door leading out. In this hall you have to fight four zombie archers simultaneously, it's quite annoying and extremely frustrating, but no matter. Give them all you have with whatever weapon suits your fancy. Coming up on the next room it's a very important visit to Muramasa's shop. Not only does he have all sorts of stuff to do, but you've likely got quite a bit of yellow essence after that fiend challenge. Here's what to do, first of all and most important of all be sure to upgrade the Dragon Sword to its maximum level. Second of all, you will also want to give him all of the Golden Scarabs you have right now, it should be enoguh to net you another SPIRIT OF THE DEVILS [004]. Lastly you will want to upgrade the Vigoorian Flail as well as the Wooden Sword I guess with whatever else you have. By the end it will have cost over 100,000 yellow essence to max out the Wooden Sword, but at level seven it becomes one of the strongest swords in the game. With that out of the way, continue across through this next room and you'll come to a Dragon Statue, before using it open the treasure chest nearby and get the MAP OF THE HIDDEN UNDERGROUND. Now when you try to cross the bridge nin the next room, some zombies will appear and take it out from underneath you. When you land at the bottom, eliminate all of the zombies as well as the claw enemies which appear soon after. Notice the door with the two orbs in the middle of it, well the door you want to go thorugh is the one with the blue plate on it, on the opposite side of the room as the double orb door. When you get in here, quickly eliminate the archer zombie and then equip the Bow, possibly for the first time in quite awhile. Take advantage of the arrow filled corpse and then take aim at the two zombie archers way on the other side of the room. Note that arrows will pass through those swinging spike things no problem, so all you have to do is aim. When looking in first person while shooting an arrow, you can zoom in with the R trigger. After killing both of them, which each take about four or five hits, then collect enough arrows from the corpse once again so that your supply is full. Drop down over the edge and turn around, there's a treasure chest here with a GREAT SPIRIT ELIXIR inside of it. Jump back up to the door again and whip out the Bow. Aim up in the opposite direction as the door and you'll see a glowing object, fire an arrow at this object and a magic blue path will appear leading you to the other side of the room. Cross this path while being careful of course, to avoid the moving spike traps. You can't accidentally fall off this path unless you jump, unfortunately you do have to jump whenever there's a gap in the path. Here's a neat tip, if you aim up with the Bow at where the spike traps connect to the roof, you can shoot the coloured panel and slow them down temporarily. Don't rely on this too much because the path will disappear. At the end you have to run horizontally across the wall to make it over the gap. When you get to the other side, press the button and one of the barries blocking that large door will disappear. Drop down over the edge here and turn around. Look behind the left pillar to get a GOLDEN SCARAB [017]. Now head back to the previous room where you were before. This time go thorugh the other door, take out the Bow and fire enough arrows to kill all three of the zombie archers in this room. Open the treasure chest beside you which contains a GREAT SPIRIT ELIXIR and then drop over the edge below and open the other chest to find an ELIXIR OF THE DEVIL WAY. Now go back to the beginning and get ready to run across the walkway. When you reach the third swinging spike trap, it is absolutely essential that you shoot the top of it to slow it down in order to get across, if you don't do this then it's almost impossible, at least not without taking damage. When you reach the other side press the X button to press in the red pupil and unlock the door entirely. Turn around and once again return to the previous room. When you're ready then go thorugh the doors and prepare for battle. THis miniboss was originally a boss of course, it's that weird tentacle monster thing, but now you've got a few new tricks, a lot more health, and a few more Ki to really shake things up. Your weapon of choice here no question is going to be the upgraded Vigoorian Flail. Here's what do do, jump at the tentacles and press the Y button as if you were going to do the Flying Swallow attack with the Dragon Sword, this is almost enough to eliminate the tentacles in a single hit. Once they are taken out, cast a Fire Wheels magic, run up to the boss and go absolutely crazy, the monster won't know what hit it. Your victory is almost garanteed this way, once the monster is dead be sure to collect the LIVES OF THE THOUSAND GODS [006]. Leave the room now. Run over to the opposite side, furthest from this door. A little piece of the wall has extended outward and you can wall kick your way up in between it. When you reach the top be sure to open the chest beside you to get the LIFE OF THE GODS [009] and directly across from it, another GOLDEN SCARAB [018]. With this Life of the Gods, if you've been collecting them all, you can finally upgrade your maximum health, and it's about damn time. Drop down below again and wall kick up in the equivalent space beside the double orb doors where you fought the miniboss. At the top here there's an item on the throne, examine it to acquire the JEWEL OF THE DEMON SEAL [001]. This special item is designed to increase the level of Ninpo magic. The only spell you have at this point which can be upgraded is the Art of the Inferno, so use it on that. Equip your Bow and move to the top of the stairs. Aim down and eliminate the two zombie archers at the bottom. With them out of the way, proceed down the stairs and fight off all of the other zombies waiting there for you. There is a corpse of a ninja in the corner, be sure to examine it to get THE ART OF THE ICE STORM. Equip the normal Shurikens again and head down the stairs to the bottom where you'll find some bats to take out. Now this is kind of a puzzle room, you cannot touch the floor in this room of the object you are trying to examine will rise into the air out of your reach. If this happens for whatever reason, then from the door leading into the door, go right and step on the button to lower it back down. What you have to do is make a left when you get into the room, and run across the wall horizontally, when you land you'll land on a platform which descend down. From here you can walk to the large coffin without actually touching the floor. Examine it to acquire the WOLF, DEITY OF WISDOM and then again to get the SKULL KEY. Once again there are dozens of bats waiting for you outside of this room, be prepared to hurl Shurikens. When you make your way far enough down the hall, a scene will trigger over which you have no control. After this you will find yourself floating in the water. What you want to do first is spin around and keep tapping the R button to look in each direction. Eventually you should see a golden object at the bottom, hold A to swim under and keep tapping it while holding down on the analog stick to find a GOLDEN SCARAB [019]. Swim down through the underwater tunnel beside where you found the scarab. Eventually it will lead you to a platform, and beside that platform is a Dragon Statue. Before you opt to save the game, you should note that one of the game's most difficult boss fights is coming up, and there's no shop you can access. This is often where players find themselves unable to win, and with no way of acquiring more items they must start a new file in an attempt to do better. Don't make the same mistake, if you are unsure then simply save on another slot. Swim back through the tunnel and when you reach the open area again, note the elevator under the water. Swim down to it from the side that faces most of the cavern and press X to open the doors, swim inside and it will close automatically, taking you up. Do you remember how to fight crazy, flippy ninjas? I hope so because they are ready to seriously hand you your ass the instant you make it up to the top. Once you are able to defeat the three of them, go over to the safe and examine it a second time. There is a new combination on it now, the solution is right to 1, then left until you hit 4, right until you hit 1, and left until you hit 0. Inside you'll find another LIFE OF THE GODS [010]. If you're the kind of person who likes to go out of their way to maybe save a little time, then I would recommend you go back and save your game again right now. It's not a huge deal, but there's a good chance you'll be retying the battle again numerous times, and there's something to be said for not having to defeat the Black Spider Ninajs, and open the safe again. When you're ready to take on the boss, then exit this room and jump down to the Altar Hall. Approach the altar to trigger a scene. ____________________________________________________________________________ |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | +-- A L M A --+ | |____________________________________________________________________________| |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | This is definietely going to be the most difficult boss since Murai, and | | if you had more trouble on some other boss than him, then it's going to be | | harder than whatever boss that was. I'm not trying to give off the | | impression that she's some kind of uber-unbeatable boss, but it will | | probably take you at least a couple of tries depending on how many health | | potions you use, just to get your head around the battle despite | | everything that I tell you now. We begin as usual with the boss' attacks: | | | | Alma has so many attacks it's hard to know where to start, but you need to | | know how to avoid them all so we'll work based on frequency and distance. | | When you are a reasonable distance away from here, there are two similar | | attacks she will almost always do. The first is somewhat difficult to | | avoid because it kind of tricks you. What she does is create a purple | | aura on her hand and then swing her arm at you as if she's throwing | | something, but in reality there is nothing to dodge there. What she is | | actually doing is using some kind of telekenetic energy to launch on of | | the stone pillars beside her in your direction for massive damage. This | | can be dodged easily but like I said, you need to know when to dodge. She | | doesn't throw it when she swings her arm, she swings her arm and then it | | gets throw, so delay for a second or so before you jump out of the way. | | The second similar attack is when she creates a bunch of purple orbs that | | swirl around her, in this case all four of them are going to fire in your | | direction one after another, these can be dodged eaisly simply by running | | to the left or right, as long as you're moving you won't be hit by them. | | | | Other than that there is one other attack she can do from a distance, she | | will swoop out of the air and launch herself in your direction, not only | | is this easy to dodge but it's actually better not to try and dodge it. | | Instead while she is doing this, go for a Flying Swallow attack and it | | can't miss, it won't knock her down, but it's free damage if you're quick. | | | | There are still many other moves in the arsenel of this boss, a large | | portion of them only occur when she is in close proximity to you. When | | floating in the air Alma has a habit of using a powerful ground pound | | attack where she comes down in you feet first with the weight of her | | entire body, dodge this attack with a roll whenever you can. The boss' | | most powerful attack also occurs when she gets close. You'll see a beam | | of purple energy begin to cover her vertically, if she moves over top of | | you while this energy is in place, you will automatically gravitate toward | | her and be caught in her grasp for an unblockable throw combintion which | | ends with you being kicked to the floor. Even on the normal difficulty, | | this can take anywhere between one third and a whopping on half of your | | total health away, avoid it at all costs, just run or jump out of the way. | | | | Lastly the boss can also temporarily drop out of the air and walk around | | on the ground. She will do this periodically and move calmly around the | | room. She is still capable of using the four purple orb projectile attack | | while on the ground, but that's nothing compared to the other attack | | combintion she uses, somewhat similar to the air combination, except she | | will simply attack with no purple beam warning, and it does almost as much | | damage. This could arguably be her most "dangerous" attack, so always | | remember to keep your distance from the boss when she's on the ground. | | | | As you can see, the recurring themefor this battle seems to be keeping | | your distance, and that will not change when you learn the best way to | | actually fight the boss. The Flying Swallow technique using the Dragon | | Sword is by far the most effective way to fight the battle, it allows you | | to keep your distance until the last second and then attack, which should | | launch you a good distance behind her to a safe place. After doing it | | though you will almost always want to jump out of the way in any | | direction, because when it misses she has a habit of trying to counter | | with a foot stomp attack. The thing is, this attack will actually only | | hit about one in four tries, perhaps less on the higher difficulties. She | | is quite good at dodging it, but when it actually does hit her, it knocks | | her out of the air onto the ground where she is culnerable to any attack. | | Run up to her and press X, Y, and then pound the X button when you get | | into the air to perform a Blade of Nirrti attack which will really dent | | her total health, she can barely survive three of these so you'll be in a | | good position if you can manage to do it. Besides this you will want to | | note as I mentioned before, you can hit her while she is swooping, and you | | can hit her when she's walking around instead of floating, but neither | | will knock her down and leave her vulnerable. When going for the big | | damage, you must hit her with a Flying Swallow while she's in the air. | |____________________________________________________________________________| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______) (, / / ) / +-- (_/ AIRON UNDER ALERT [CHAPTER 8] ------------------------------ 01.08 --+ Start this chapter by examining the Kunai Scroll which gets thrown into the wall beside you. Turn around and head back into the monastery. On the left side of the Altar Hall, lying on the ground you will find Rachel's WAR HAMMER. This is a brand new weapon, very slow but very powerful. Return to the Dragon Statue at the beginning and ascend up the stairs beside it. When you get out here into this area, it's time to take on some new enemies. They are equipped with machine guns, so blocking will play a key role in fighting these enemies. Fortunately their health is quite low, so one or two Flying Swallow attacks are more than enough to take off their heads. Take the stairs up once again and kill the Vigoorian Troops on the way back, feel free to use that Dragon Statue in the small alcove you may remember from one of the earlier chapters. Eventually if you keep following the path you'll come to the drawbridge again, beside the gate there is a lever, pull this lever to lower the drawbridge back down again. When you get across to the other side you'll be faced with a couple of new challenges. The enemies here are not only equipped with machine guns, but have to fight back against rocket troops as well. On top of this, both of those large military vehicles are equipped with an unmanned machine gun on top, so the only way you can really hit those is with projectile weapons. The Windmill Shuriken I find works the best since it doesn't consume ammo, run up the side of the vehicle and jump, then throw it a couple times. When you're ready to proceed forward, take the door with the blue orb in the middle of it. Be extremely careful here, as you try to make your way up the alley, there are going to be rockets flying in your direction, run along the walls near the beginning but avoid that practice in the middle since the walls end for a moment, and you risk falling down. When the troops are defeated, equip the War Hammer and run to the end of the path. Use the hammer to smash the cracked wall here. Inside the chest you will find some more SMOKE BOMB items if you're playing Ninja Gaiden Black, or a Great Spirit Elixir if you're playing the original Ninja Gaiden. Head through the gate at the end. Make a right in this alley and go up the stairs. Make another right at the top and then on your left will be a door with a skull on it. Use the SKULL KEY to unlock this door and through it you will find GOLDEN SCARAB [020] as well as a chest containing a GREAT SPIRIT ELIXIR, or perhaps an Elixir of Spiritual Life if you aren't playing Ninja Gaiden Black. Lastly there is also a statue that takes you to Muramasa's shop in this little area, make sure that you take advantage of that. If you have 20 Scarabs now, at least in Ninja Gaiden Black, then speak to Muramasa and you'll receive the DABILAHRO. A huge freakin' Buster Sword made for really choppin' stuff up. You should also be able to upgrade the Lunar and the War Hammer to the next levels here. While still in this little area behind the skull door, head to where you see kind of a ledge up above, run up the wall beside it and jump to that ledge. Jump from the ledge to the wall again and then backflip to the even higher ledge. Follow the linear path until you reach a window, beside the window hanging on the wall is the STRONGBOW, collect it by replacing it with the normal Bow. That's the third new weapon you've acquired this chapter already, pretty sweet. Head back to where you jumped up into this area, but don't drop down over the ledge. Look to your left and you'll see a golden object. Jump diagonally toward it and run horizontally along the wall to reach the GOLDEN SCARAB [021]. Now what you want to do is drop down and leave this little area. Go left and then when you reach the large open area, note the two gun turrets beside the large gate which are firing at you. Kill the enemies controlling them using the Strongbow, if you happen to run out of arrows you can get more from the nearby ninja corpse. Defeating both of them triggers... A sort of miniboss fight, without any of the actual fighting. The entire battle can be won, without you being hit once, by simply holding the L trigger to block the whole time. All you will basically to is deflect machine gun fire for about a minute, and the helicopter will fly away. If you're anything like me you'll begin to hear some neat rhythm with the blocking sound and the music, but perhaps not. The point is, when the helicopter flies off, there doesn't seem to be much to do. Approach the gate beside the ninja with all the arrows stuck in him, and a rocket will fly toward you. Turn around and use the Strongbow to kill the soldier up in the window, the same window to the room where you originally acquired the Strongbow. You need to go back up there right now, something is amiss! Head for that window, stand in it and aim your Strongbow. You should be able to see a blue-ish coloured panel through the window. Aim at it and fire, the first will not hit because the window is in the way, but the second will hit and the large gate opens. Make your way down to it, pick up some arrows off the corpose of the ninja again and proceed through. Kind of nice to have a short mission now and then. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______) (, / / ) / +-- (_/ HE MILITARY SUPPLY BASE [CHAPTER 9] ------------------------ 01.09 --+ You start this mission beside another Dragon Statue, so be sure to save your game, and then proceed down the highway. At the end there is a lone door, so head through it. Three more Vigoorian Machine Gun Soldiers attack you out here, make short work of them with the power of the Dragon Sword, or perhaps the upgraded Lunar, or anything else. When you reach the end of the tunnel, equip the Strongbow and fire up at the soldier manning the turret which is shooting at you. After doing that assuming yo uare still standing directly at the end of the tunnel, take a look to your left to find GOLDEN SCARAB [022]. This next part can be quite difficult, so prepare yourself. First what you are going to want to do is take out all of the turrets from afar if you can, but that's not all. You're going to have at least one rocket soldier firing at you from across the other side of the map, so take him out as well if you