Ninja Gaiden Black - Segmented Master Ninja Speedrun Thoughts

Let's just get to the whistle tickling details shall we. Mainly just ironing out strategies to see how far this could be pushed in theory. I am not going all out for this; insert "that's for the next guy" sound clip from mine and Al's commentary.

I got the urge to really breakdown a proper route for MN and much like Normal I thought a good place to start would be to break up the run into segments and see how much of it can be applied to single segment. 

If you're reading this then there is a very good chance you know the current twitch and youtube situation so this is just good old text from here. As of right now I have no plans to stream or make videos for any of this. That said, I do have all the raw footage of this first run, so you never know. Right now though, I cannot be arsed :) 

Chapter 1

The kills here need some rethinking, there is a lot of essence available and it's very consistent to get to Murai with at least 10k. This will heavily alter the pattern for chapters 2 and 3 as well so getting a more efficient pattern on the ninja fights is crucial.

The final fight before Murai is unfortunately a massive gamble. The ninja spawns can cost you so much time and if you get one or two tanky ninjas then you have to spend a lot of extra time finishing them off. I think going for essence here is ideal as if you lose time you might at least get some more money heading into chapter 2.

Murai really depends on how IS happy his minions are. If they don't throw many or get into their zoning mode you can finish off Murai very fast with the Lunar. DS is an option but you have to change weapons, single out ninjas and they have to drop yellows. Just one blue negates this really so I feel the Lunar is the way to go here. 

Chapter 2

Funny but chapter 2 really hinges on chapter 1's essence. I tried to go for the 2 EODW and the arrow shot to drag an extra red but how inconsistent that approach is leads me to rethink the approach for chapter 1. If you can get just a a little bit more essence you can buy 3 EODW and just ninpo the entire horseman encounter. Annoyingly though this doesn't actually save that much time compared to getting the red essence drag tactic off perfectly, but it is way more reliable. 

Go for UT kills on the first and fourth samurai fight, minimum you're going to want at least 3 UT essence out of this, again depending on how well chapter 1 went. If you get the full 5 it means you can do the first fight of chapter 3 faster. 

Masakado is very simple, ninpo him off his horse and hope a mage teleports near him so the fireball hits him as well. Chain UT and/or arrows once he gets up depending on mage patterns and that's pretty much it.

Chapter 3 

I would say once this chapter is wrapped up the run actually starts. You absolutely need to have 5K essence for the level 2 dragon sword here, ideally you'll have enough for counter attacks too but they aren't essential. 

If you have around 3K essence from chapter 2 then you can just >Y into >Y and ET/UT your way through the first fight. Tanky enemies are a problem here and if you are light on money you can get 2100 from the 3 white commandos and then combo kill the final captain. Will cost you time but still means the run is worth carrying on with. 

The rest of the chapter is pretty straight forward, ET your way through the remaining fights and make sure you can hit >Y into OL>Y consistently for the crank room fight. Any bonus blues from white commandos in the bridge room can be used to get bonus UT'd essence for chaining which will only help you. 

One thing to keep in mind is that in chapter 4 you'll want enough money for the level 2 Lunar and 1 EODW. The EODW isn't mandatory but will help in the Hydra fight.

Dynamo falls very quickly to the chucks, I'd recommend keeping inferno equipped as fire wheels isn't all that useful on Dynamo due to the damage the chucks deal and inferno will stop his ground pound. You'll also be using inferno in chapter 4 and chapter 5 so it saves having to switch it out in the menu. 

Chapter 4

The wild card here is enemies surviving stuff they normally don't, mainly >Y into fiend sealers. The first fight can be very annoying if you get the slow spawns, meaning the grenadiers and captains alternate their sides. If they stay to the same one then you should be able to get a good pattern of ET's through them into either FS or a follow up ET. The inferno opener can be used here or at the fight near Murumasa, I've not tested which is faster but I don't feel like the latter fight really needs it due how close together all the enemies spawn. 

From here it's just a quick trip to Murumasa for the level 2 Lunar, drop off your first scarab for the free smoke bombs and buy the EODW if you have the money. Do not forget to grab the SOTD as well.

You don't need to worry about too much about essence in this chapter, but collect as much as you can and try to kill one or two of the last enemies in the fights with a UT if possible. 

Chapter 5

This chapter is why you want those smoke bombs from chapter 4, odds are you will be running low near the end and the first scarab pick up is literally right in front of you. Go straight for the key for the drawbridge gate, in my run I went the way I was used as I hadn't tested dropping down which is approximately four seconds faster. However if a ninja does make it through you'll lose more than four seconds having to despawn them.

Use one inferno to start off the fight near the monastery door, you just need to wait briefly so it takes out all 3. Lunar UT should kill the rest of them and then you can finish off the final ninja and collect all the UT'd essence. 

The last two ninpos can be used on the fiends but I find letting the first one charge you, turning the camera to include the one behind Ryu at the start and then staggering the first one with a combo gets you a double hit on the inferno more often than not. Then you can UT stagger the third fiend and you never know, a cheeky red might drop from one of the fiends which will make the third die even quicker. 

The reason I wanted the extra EDOW is for Hydracubus, having firewheels virtually guarantees you will get a 2 tentacle cycle whereas not having it means you have to land the Lunar UT's straight away and land in-air X and XY inbetween your UTs and after the second one. The slider imps can make this very tricky or just flat out not possible. 

Chapter 6

Keep inferno equipped for the deity room fight and make sure you kill the clone with a UT. As long as you don't mess up the positioning the double ET into ET and then Lunar UT is very consistent. You could actually get by with just ETing him but that extra 20k doesn't take that long to get and could literally save your run in chapters 10 and 14 so for now I think it's worth it. Time for the next guy and all.

Grab potency, the scarab, IS and the stone piece and then it's onto the deity room. This room is very pattern dependent on getting a fast clear. The monks have a lot of health but the cats don't and Lunar UT's will take out both them and ninjas so use your infernos on the monks and if they drop reds use inferno again, if it's blue go for a UT on the cats or ninjas and repeat for the following 3 waves. Don't worry about hanging around to collect money here, as soon as the final enemy is dead head straight for the door. 

On the way down to the zombies grab the scarab on the ledge and near the save statue. You can save here or before the zombie gauntlet, I have an idea for a faster way to get out of the corridor of death but need to check if it's actually possible during the cutscene. 

Now it's zombie gauntlet time and this one can be tough, zombies tanking flail UTs can seriously slow you down so it might even be better to use inferno on them in the grail room. The wasps are not too bad and I like the consistency of DS ET's, the hitbox can also be altered after the initial activation so make sure you take advantage of this.  

Again money isn't a focus here but if you do manage to take out more than two and keep your combo going collect any extra you can. Save at least one to chain for the ascent on the platform. If you have inferno here you can use it cut it short. Make sure you wait to UT the zombies that fall out though, on MN a Flail UT will not kill them if they're grounded and you might as well get the essence to safeguard the IS restock you'll need in chapter 7. Which I completely forgot to do on this run but whatever Trevor :) 

Don't get shot off by the archers, save and then Bone Dragon. Flails and potency are the best way here, the bone dragon is very, very good at wasting time changing feet if he wants to be. Due to this I found staggering two reps of XY, and then XYY when he starts shooting his bones at you. This should take out the rear feet in one cycle as long as the wasps don't cause you to whiff. If you have any ninpo here then use it for inferno for this front left foot as he will normally always go for the swipe and if you time it right you can take off a huge chunk of health with inferno. 

Chapter 7

Grab the LoTTG and head for Murumasa. Here you should have more than enough essence for the AOTS, level 3 DS, IS refill, full restock of EODW and the wooden sword. You can buy the WS later in chapter 9, it's not a huge deal either way. I did buy a GDE here but I don't think that is necessary. I was also going for 20 scarabs for the free EODW and GDE it would give you in chapter 14 but again I don't think you really need that. I'm not sure any scarabs past the first one really are at this point. The EOSL and GSE for free does mean more money for ninpo late game which is extremely important. Chapter 15 hinges on having all the ninpo you can hold. 

Hydra gauntlet is fairly simple, make sure you equip AOTS so you can finish off the archers in one IS and a GB. Using ninpo on Hydra is pretty useless as you'll be getting a two removal cycle even with GB so save your ninpo for Alma.

Put in all the LoTTG up until this point and the JOTDS above and then save. Now it's onto Alma, the first fight before her was annoying and I think using one inferno here might be better. You can kill all 3 cats with the right spawn and then remaining ninjas will die easily enough. Save an essence for the GB opener on Alma.

Now Alma is a real run ender on MN, other than how easily you can straight up die here, if she doesn't play ball on inferno knockdowns you're going to lose a lot of time. I highly recommend getting comfortable with staggers on her, those few extra hits really do rack up if you're landing them 3 or 4 times. Once she's down and out equip IS and the Lunar and then save for chapter 8. 

Chapter 8

This is a one and done chapter, meaning I don't feel it's viable to save at all. This chapter consists primarily of movement as the only forced fights are very consistent. I was down on IS here so had to swap to the bow for the first fight, try to get the UT'd essence from the soldiers. You might even be able to keep a full combo if you have enough IS which would mean more essence for later. I don't think that's essential though.

Once the gate fight is out of the way it's Sonic time to get the Dabi, be sure to duck into Murumasa to upgrade the Lunar, you shouldn't really need anything else from this shop visit. Then go grab your Dabi, equip the bow and head to the military gate. You could refill arrows at Murumasa if you forgot to refill them for free before Hydra in chapter 7.

Sometimes the turret duders will be cheeky and take a lot of arrows which is why you want a full stock. You'll likely end up with enough arrows to make the helicopter retreat but you want to refill first so that you don't have to move around when the laser copters show up. They can get stuck on the turrets and waste time. You should have enough time to shoot the rocket if he shoots early, if not you can roll and then kill him but this does take a little longer. 

Chapter 9

This chapter has quite a lot of room for improvement. Distance seems to be what makes the turret guys some times take four arrows, grab the explosive arrows and head into the warehouse. Now with this being segmented you could go for the quicker shortcut but I didn't want to bother with it as I still need a better approach for the turn table fight. The arrow opener is great but only if you get consistent one hit kills on the first two which is extremely rare. This will cause the rocket guys to spawn to Ryu's left and they cannot shoot over the bars so you can pick them off very quickly with arrows. This fight definitely needs some fine tuning. 

Tanks are pretty straight forward, the best pattern is for both of them to turn towards the APFSDS chest so you don't have to worry about the cannon blasts. As long as you don't miss then the helicopter is very consistent, the blind fire doesn't always connect so you may be down one shot.

Radio tower is jolly good fun, sometimes you'll get naded immediately and sometimes they will wait until the 8th disc is destroyed. On an ideal run you'd want to go for no nades but I'll leave that for now.

The rest of the chapter is simple enough your movement just has to be cripsy, make sure to collect the essence from the final 3 rocket guys you kill. I killed the ghost fish here to refill my health for the radio tower but in hindsight there is more than enough GSE to just use one instead. 

Once you trigger chapter 10 just kill the bats and save.

Chapter 10

Due to me burning 20k earlier in the game I had to burn some time here throwing some shurikens in the pill bugs to get the 77k essence I needed. This definitely added some time but otherwise this chapter is pretty simple.

It's low health UF city from here on out for the rest of the game really, the Dabi clone can be tricky but usually you can bait him to attack so you can land a wall attack after the UT and then get to the save statue before paz zuu. The UF absolutely shreds the worms and you can check any karma run for those methods, I have a feeling they are pretty well known now though. 

Paz Zuu can be a massive troll so you definitely want a pattern where he doesn't swap ends of the arena.

Chapter 11

Swap to the dabi and UT the first fish in the same way you would on a karma run. I grab the scarab on this run then the medallion. If you need another GSE then there is one next to the save statue. Then you can UT the second fish, this 28k might not be necessary for segmented looking back as you won't really be burning items but for now it's very little time for how much essence you get. 

The rest of this chapter is very simple, I used the ghost fish before the medallion segment to refill my health. I also got every pill bug my inferno which is very lucky. From here it's dive of death until Doku. This will take nearly all your health but the save before Doku means you can go for a perfect kill on him. 

Inferno his minions either back to back UTs or ETs will be enough. ETs are actually faster but very unlikely as the ninjas will most probably drop blues. 

Chapter 12

This chapter is another very simple one, it's just the three bosses and movement is key. I did pick up scarabs on this run but I don't think they are necessary so they could be skipped. Killing the UF clone with an ET would more than make up for this in terms or essence. 

There's really not much else to say about this chapter, UF the hell out of bosses and just make sure you don't fall into the lava after Smaugan :) 

Chapter 13

This chapter is also fairly simple. Your movement out of the aqua duct needs to be on point. Let the bats at the manhole cover take your health down for the UF and light up ninpo to instantly take them out. You'll want low health for the Flail clone. There is also the talisman that you get for killing the ogres, that's definitely a single segment back up strategy incase you lose a talisman before. 

Delay your roll towards the wall and your wall attack should floor the clone and then fiend sealer him and it's goodbye. Then put in a GSE for the heal before AA, depending on items and essence the ghost fish in the chests could be used for the free heal. Put the JOTDS into inazuma while you're in the item screen. 

AA will do AA things, segmented runs do make this fight a lot less stressful. Level 2 inazuma will take out the minions and knock down AA. The money is a double connect ET into GB into rotate Y knockdown. The perfect run would require back to back knockdowns and single minion kills which would be very unlikely.

For the purple zombie and bugs make use of inazuma and UTs where you can. Try and collect as much essence as you can here. The final murumasa shop will be pricey and you need virtually max items across the board.

Chapter 14

Movement really is everything in chis chapter, it's about the only where time save is possible upon looking back on the chapter. The bats are great for getting low health for the clone, it might be better to skip the save before the ghost fish assault course but that means a very long segment of very precise movement and one mistake is GG's.

You should have enough money here to refill everything you need. Max out all ninpo items and heavy arrows. You only need one talisman for the remainder of the game so don't worry about not having money for two. On a segmented run this shouldn't really be a problem anyway.

Spirit Doku is a massive pain in the whistle, in the end I decided to let the fish after Doku get my health low for chapter 15. You can do this on your way to the core but it's extremely inconsistent due to the spawn patterns on the first two fights of chapter 15. 

Chapter 15

The main event in a lot of ways, this chapter has the most fights by far of any in the run and the longest gauntlets. The core ascension is one and the Marbus run is another. It's low health UF all day here. This means you have to be very careful on Nicchae and Ishtaros. 

The Marbus run is precisely the reason you want a full stock of ninpo going into this. If you manage to get any red drops from the fish prior I'd say it's definitely worth picking them up as long as they won't mess with your UT chain.

I had celerity on for the first floor due to charge time being guaranteed say for two patterns. You can keep AOTS on and still get a very fast clear here but this room is the wild card of the core. If you get really bad spawns on the crab imps they are going to waste a lot of time getting to you. TDS ET's might even be better once the laser crab is out of the picture but again it depends on spawns and you definitely want the UF for the remainder of the core. 

Floors 2 and 3 are pretty simple, AOTS will make your UTs more likely to OHKO the ogres and will kill the laser crabs. Inferno is a good back up here but try not to use it as you want 3 ninpos for fire wheels for each ghost fish stairway. Cheeky berserkers can cost you a lot of time but it's just one of those things.

Floor 4 can be cleared extremely fast if you get good spawns, target the ogres with your UTs and there's a good chance the crab imps will be collateral damage which just leaves the berserkers. UF them in the normal way and it's off to Marbus. You won't need a fourth fire wheels for this stairway as you don't need to set up a chain with these fish. 

The Marbus gauntlet is where your ninpo will pay out. You should go in with a full stock which at minimum should you give you what you need for the first 3 waves. The low health UF kills Marbus faster than the inazuma loop on MN so you don't need one for him.

Ninpo the first wave of imps entirely, ideally you want at least one red drop so you can do this without having to burn any devil elixirs. Nicchae will require at least 4 to take out the imps which makes killing her no damage much easier, you need to keep your health low throughout this segment for Marbus. 

Ninpo the second wave of imps, you don't have to wait for them to dissolve like in the first fight and again any red drops here is gravy :) Then it's Ishtaros no damage which really isn't that difficult if you know her attacks and don't over extend. I got a very fast Ishtaros on this run but burning a talisman and having a bad Marbus will cost you far more time overall so be patient here. 

Once you get to Marbus immediately start charging a UT, best case scenario is he hovers right over you and summons an imp. Your UT will hit him and kill the imp setting up another ET, if he hovers again your ET will still connect and kill the second imp. You want this pattern back to back really to get a perfect Marbus, you can burn a talisman here but it's better to do it on Emperor 1. Once Marbus is done head back and save.

Emperors are actually pretty simple, only slightly tricky bit is letting the lasers hit you twice while doing regular GBs. This is because the armour will stop you getting knocked off the platform but triggers the talisman and then the second gets your health low enough so you can jump in the lava for Emp2 and get down to low health almost immediately. 

For Emp2 it's business as usual, may as well keep AOTS equipped as it does make a difference on the low health UF UT. Shoot until skulls get close to you then light up fire wheels and wait a second, then cancel it and relight it, charge UF UT and hit the big skull with it. From here a few more arrows will do the trick. Best case he jumps right next to you and you can use the UF on him but it's not a massive time save either way.

Chapter 16

Home stretch. Fiend Murai plays out much like a karma run would, you want the absolute fastest kill possible. You definitely want a talisman here on a single segment but you don't need one if you're saving. His torpedo is pretty much a must for the opener, my fiend Murai kill was pretty spectacular at 15 seconds and without any items or menus so that will take some beating. Like a lot of bosses it depends on the pattern but under 25 is pretty feasible no matter what you get.

Final Thoughts:

There is a lot of time to be saved on this run. I can't give a theoretical max right now but I'd say there is at least a couple of minutes on encounters and maybe as much as a minute for movement. Truly perfect movement is something you can work out if you know how and doing that for the entire run would make a huge difference. Just little things like accidental wall clings or hard landings really add up over the course of the whole game. 

Encounters wise there isn't a whole lot I'm not happy with, Dabi and UF clone could have been better with more attempts but once you get the UF it's pretty easy due to the cross over with karma run strategies. 

The biggest time save I think is less scarabs, you might only really need one if you set out from the get go with that as your route and essence. I had essence to burn more than once on this run which means that is time wasted getting it. I dare say 01:45:xx IGT is doable on a really tight run, how close anyone would get to that would require some more digging which I am not ruling out but as I said, I'm not going over board with this right now.

This run definitely scratched the karma run itch without being anywhere as difficult, some chapters literally being two fights is pretty awesome in that regard.

Anyway, that's it for this one folks. If anyone has a crack at this let me know how it goes. 

Thanks for reading in 2021!

JTB.