So here is a few things you should know before getting started:

There is 2 types of boxes in the game you can destroy to obtain items, shuriken boxes (yellow) and special weapon boxes (silver) Always, ALWAYS take any shuriken box that is in your path because you can never have too many (literally). They are incredibly useful for dispatching one hit enemies that have an annoying rhythm (like red ninjas, bats, monkeys, eyes, etc)

There is no limit for how many shuriken you can collect, however if you die your shurikens go back to 5. Each box gives you 3 more shurikens so you SHOULD spend the pause between sections collecting shurikens and maybe a special weapon if you don't have a good one.

You can also use the transition times to plant mines if you have them (usually on the spawns at the top of the level so they are out of the way but not in front of the door so you don't accidentally spawn kill yourself since the invincibility time is pretty short). Example:














Every level has 5 segments, each segment has a timer, if you finish all the enemies before the clock goes below 30 seconds and losing no lives you get a time bonus and an S rank (plus one extra life!) the secret is to get so good at the segments that you keep accumulating extra lives for the harder stages and the boss.

If you lose a life during the segment your rank will go down to A if you finish before the 30 second mark (still get an extra life, but that will just cover the one you lost) B if you lose two lives that segment (no extra life) and so on.

Think strategically, if the clock already passed the 30 seconds mark you wont get an S or A rank (no extra life) and if few enemies remain its better to calmly eliminate the rest and collect items for the next round instead of hurrying up and losing a life.

Time is usually not an issue, however, if it reaches zero that is an automatic game over so never let it get too close to zero even if you are just leaving one enemy on screen just to collect ammo/weapons for the next segment.

Basically the key of making it in this game, pay close attention.

The secret is, you can do a jumping up-slash from below a platform from almost all platforms in the game and it will reach the enemies above it (the only exception is the really thick platform at the bottom of level 2)

This is incredibly useful to dispatch enemies quicker, specially armored blue ninjas, since one slash from below ends them.

Level one is great for practicing it, so check it out and practice how to do it timely there, this will be greatly useful for levels 3 and 4,

Here:

Here is how best face each type of enemy in the game:

Green ninjas: Steady paced and easy to dispatch, only use shurikens if you must get a different enemy immediately.

Red Ninjas: it will increase its speed when you are in its line of sight, shuriken the bastard if a heavier enemy requires your attention.

Blue ninjas: Armored, you will need to hit it with your third slash (critical) to dispatch them from the front (or use an explosive weapon). Instead you should preferably do a down-slash over his head OR a shuriken/slash from his back to 1-hit kill them.

Summo: Takes two hit to kill from the front, so calculate your slashes, you can also down-slash them from the head or back slash with a critical (a dash hit) to 1 hit them.

Bats: Annoying, but with a predictable pattern, often is better to wait for them to position themselves in front of you than to jump slash unless you are perfectly aligned to the bat from the bottom otherwise chances are you will miss the swing and get hit instead.
Protip: You can use up and the shuriken button to shoot shurikens upwards to quickly dispatch them if you are missing a few and the clock is ticking.

Bugs/caterpillars: Immune to shuriken (but not to the uzi pistol or explosives) they crawl walls and drop from the roofs over you if you are close enough, best way to dispatch them is frontally, if they come from a roof, wait in place and do an up slash when they are over your head and about to drop on you. Alternatively you can run past them, they will drop from the roof and now you can go back and slash them in the floor.

Monkeys: Their random jumps make them a headache, if you can spare the shuriken, use them to either kill them or force them to jump earlier. Use many shurikens if a mob of them is coming your way, because they each will jump at different times and hit you. Remember to always have a good number of shurikens with you specially on levels with these.

Purple ninjas: Only appears in level 4, they are basically a green ninja that can jump to the upper platforms like a monkey, predictable and easy to dispatch.

Floating eyes/Beholder: Only appears in level 4, they will rush at you if in their line of sight, if a big number is coming your way better spend some shurikens or a special weapon like the uzi, otherwise slash them from their blind side or upfront when coming at you, don't try to jump them, they will follow you if they are rushing you and will hit you.

Steel UFOs: Better deal with them with slashes, if destroyed with shurikens/special weapons (even explosives and mines) they will shoot a bullet in all eight directions, if you must use projectiles to kill them be sure you get out of the direct line to them so you don't get hit.








Rocket man: Annoying hitbox and movement, use shurikens or a well measured slash, avoid doing jump slashes unless you are well positioned as you might miss and get hit.

Here is a list of the special weapons and their uses:

Magic: Best one, I recommend not breaking anymore Silver boxes once you got it so it does not switch you. It can help clear a lot of enemies in one giant cross-shaped blast, great also against the boss.

Uzi: Really useful for cleaning up a line of annoying enemies (like bats and monkeys), won't work against armored blue ninjas from the front so be sure to never use it against a horde with a blue ninja at the front or it will shield the damage.

Shotgun: Short range but covers a wide angle, ideal for dispatching annoying bats or monkeys so they cant avoid the shot.


Grenade launcher: Good against heavy enemies, automatically shots long distance unlike bombs, can blast blue ninjas, make sure you mind the rebound against walls though.


Rocket launcher: Follows the nearest target, good damage, great against armored/big enemies, just don't shoot it at an enemy near you or you will both die.




Bombs/Molotovs: Can be useful but are risky, if you hold down the special weapon button (Y in an X-box controller) it will be thrown further depending on how long you hold, instead of exploding right in front of you! I honestly don't really recommend using these except for the boss since you can end up blowing yourself and the timing is not so easy to nail down for a precise throw. The molotov is specially dangerous if you throw it too close as it sends a fire shockwave.

Mines: Useful, but its better to hold on to them until the segment pause happens so you can plant them on the enemy spawn points (I recommend the ones at the highest part of the screen so you don't end up stepping accidentally in them). Keep in mind that if you are unlucky, your re-spawn point could be exactly over a mine and you will have just a moment to react, so try to avoid putting them exactly at the center of the spawn doors.

Kunai: Meh, basically 3 shurikens shoot at the same time. One goes straight forward, another upwards diagonally and one downwards diagonally.




Pistol: Meh, it can clear a few enemies in a straight line, a penetrating shuriken.



Log teleport: Basically a waste of space with almost no use, it teleports you randomly in the stage and gives you a few invincibility frames. Change for any other weapon when you have a chance.

Here are a few recommendations of where to position yourself in each stage for better results based on my experience.


Bottom level center is where you should live except for when the segment change happens, then you should reload shurikens or place mines, do upslashes to enemies spawning above and keep an eye on the 2 doors at the bottom specially since those are the only ones at risk from spawning an enemy that might kill you by surprise.


Do the first 2 segments moving as you want, in segment 3, the middle platform is the best for catching and killing the bats easier and faster. Segments 4 and 5 are better done at the bottom center, play close attention to red ninjas and dispatch them fast, they are riskier than the sumo enemies, use shuriken if needed, time your slashes so you get a critical (3rd hit) on the blue ninjas coming at you from the front or better yet, shuriken them in the back when they come down.


Best place to be in general is at the bottom center doing a double jump up-slash to kill any enemy that steps into the middle platform (blue ninjas and monkeys specially), also, remove the exploding barrels when you have a chance, they are more harm than good. In the first segment, focus the red ninjas and leave most of the bugs for the end, make sure you don't position yourself below a bug on the roof that could land on you. In the monkey segments take as many as you can from the ones that land in the center platform, if one spawns on the side doors at the bottom a shuriken usually can do the work or make it easier for you to slash them after they jump to dodge it.



Elevators are your enemies, they cause accidental deaths often, if you are using the middle platform, move the elevator to the bottom one and viceversa.

For the first 2 segments you want to be on the middle platform, first segment is real easy if you just stand to the right of the only spawning door (the one with a shield above it) and keep slashing (check the image)

For segments 3 and 4 you want to stay at the bottom and use shurikens on any monkey or beholder/floating eye that spawns that gets close, you can also eliminate them from below using double jump + up-slash. Dispatching the bats after all monkeys have died, use the middle platform. The final segment is better done in the middle platform focusing mostly on the bats and leaving the beholders for the end using a jumping up-slash for the ones above and shurikens/special weapons for the ones at the bottom.




Again bottom platform center, in segment 1 focus on the red ninjas and leave the UFOs for the end after all red ninjas are dead, try not to use projectiles as they will explode and shoot a bullet in 8 directions. The second segment there will be monkeys and red ninjas, they take priority, use shurikens carefully to dispatch as many monkeys as possible and make sure you don't accidentally hit an UFO with them. In the segments with blue ninjas they need to be focused and dispatched as they are sighted, remember to use jump up-slash any of them landing in the platform above you, after that dispatch the rocket-men with shurikens and the UFOs with slashes preferably.

A royal pain in the butt, you will need at least 12-20 lives to defeat him for the first time.

The best way to face him is to position yourself on the platforms to the right or left and avoid the ground unless you are making a quick run for shurikens or special weapons.




You need to destroy its 4 samurai heads before being able to damage the core to defeat it.

He can attack in different ways:

1) Two waves of 8 pellet shots, each at different positions, if you are in one of the side platforms they are easy to dodge, you either jump or crouch, or you can jump to the wall and stay a bit above.
I believe they wont reach the corners below the platforms but you should avoid the ground as much as possible

2) Bombing. The boss has 2 green orifices that can drop a bomb when perpendicular to the ground, causing a fire shockwave that travels the whole bottom floor (which can be jumped), if you are running to get shurikens/weapons from the floor, pay attention NOT TO BE ON THE FLOOR when one of the green orifices is aligned perpendicularly to the floor or the boss will likely drop a bomb and kill you.


3) Wall energy ball. These come also from the green holes on the boss and start from the middle of the roof. They will follow the wall until they are slashed/bombed or destroyed by the boss bomb attack, make sure to prioritize getting rid of them as they can cost you quite a few lives and they can accumulate in the stage. The mines only use in this battle is as a "shield" get rid automatically of them. If you get mines, plant them in the left or right corner of the stage (below the platforms) so when the energy ball passes, it explodes with the mine. If you are in one of the side platforms, leave a small distance between you and where the ball is coming from (one body of distance) so you can slash it and eliminate it without getting hit.


4) Each head you take off leaves a red orifice in the boss that shoots a charged energy balls, they all shoot at the same time and show a green aura "charging the shot" before shooting, pay attention to the timing so you can dodge if needed






Wait in one of the two side platforms and use all your shurikens/ special weapons to attack a head before considering running to the bottom platform for more.

Use ALL your shurikens after reviving before trying to get more ammo so it does not get wasted if you die trying to get more.

Slashing is NOT recommended, you are at risk of being hit if you miscalculate the distance, and the boss shoots pellets at a regular interval.

Make sure you make your run after the boss has used his pellet shots if possible, also pay attention to the green gaps and try to go for ammo when they are not aligned to the floor so the boss cannot bomb you.

Magic is by far the best special weapon, you can do massive damage to 2 of its heads at the same time and to the core once you reveal it.

The uzi/shotgun/rocket launcher/grenade launcher are also great at damaging the boss.

Pistol/kunai should be used as if they were shurikens.

As said before, mines are only useful to destroy the wall climbing energy balls automatically, plant them at the left or right corner below the platform and pay attention not to step on them yourself. Keep in mind you can spawn in one of the two doors at the bottom, so make sure you don't put the mines to close to the door or you might spawn kill yourself if you are not quick enough.

If you get bombs/molotovs, hold down the special weapon button a bit so the bomb goes far enough to hit one of the heads or the core (once its activated).

When all 4 samurai heads are taken off you have to focus on getting the core, it will flash red more and more frequently the closer it is to dying.

Always keep track of the timing at which the 4 red orifices shoot the green energy balls to predict when is safe to move for ammo or when you need to dodge. This is now the highest danger in the stage.

Also keep paying attention to the green orifices for bombings and the wall crawling energy balls its not recommended to shoot at the boss when directly bellow him, since it will likely kill you with one of its projectiles.

Sometimes the ground bomb the boss drops breaks the crates, this is useful to check if its worth the risk going for the special weapon or wait for another crate.

Good Luck!

That is pretty much it.

If you got any info you think would be useful to add let me know in the comments!