Ninja Gaiden II/Chapter 7: The Flying Fortress Daedalus

"The fanged fortress of the wolf-beast toppled, Ryu and Sonia leave his twisted arena behind, taking to the skies in search of Elizébet. Ever northward, she is carried on the wings of darkness, borne through the skies by the flying fortress Daedalus. She must be stopped, but the army of Genshin, sworn enemy of the Hayabusa clan, stands between Ryu and his quarry."

Part One: Landing the Fortress
The action begins immediately at the start of this chapter. You will be fired upon by six turrets. Take cover behind one of the blast shield and use your Fiend's Bane Bow with charged shots to take them out. The turrets on either side will respawn until you take out the central guns mounted on the building ahead. Open the chest beside the rightmost blast shield for a full stock of arrows. Continue ahead for a brief cutscene.

After the cutscene you will be attacked by several Walking Turrets. Fall back behind one of the blast shields and take them out with arrows to avoid being cut down by their seemingly unending hails of bullets. After they are dispatched, head inside the hangar ahead. Use the Muramasa statue ahead, presumably to power up that new Eclipse Scythe to full shredding capacity. Head to the door and open it. An alarm will sound and you will be attacked by some Cyber Ninjas. Kill them and head down the right hallway to the end to find a chest containing Red Ki Essences. Turn around and head right and right again into the opposite hallway, where some additional Cyber Ninjas await you. Save and heal at the Dragon Statue ahead and backtrack to the door in this hallway to exit.

In this room, kill the Cyber Ninjas and open the chest in the left corner for an Herb of Spiritual Life and the chest near the door for a Devil Way Mushroom. Exit the room through the door on the right. In the hallway, kill several more Cyber Ninjas. I recommend the Falcon's Talons for these close quarters. Head down the walkway, left, past the doors, and left again. At the dead end, open the chest to obtain a Life of the Gods. Backtrack to the doors and enter. Some Walking Turrets will attack you within. You may want to back away and take shots at them with charged arrows. Head inside the room and activate the switch at the far end to lower the platform. At the bottom, you will be attacked by several Cyber Ninjas and a Mecha Fiend. The Mecha Fiend is pretty tough, and when it eventually does fall, it will explode. Back away/block when he does this to avoid taking a large amount of damage. Head past the Mecha Fiend containers to the door and exit the room.

Inside the control room ahead, attack the Cyber Ninjas and destroy all of the consoles within. Inside the leftmost floor console is a Crystal Skull (#16). Use the Dragon Statue to save/heal. Head back into the Mecha Fiend hangar. Once inside, you will be attacked by two more Mecha Fiends. Kill them off and head through the door. Within, kill off the Cyber Ninjas and head left around the missile battery. Beside the railing here is a chest containing a Life of the Gods. Head around the battery and through the door. In the hallway beyond, kill off the two Cyber Ninjas. There are laser wires ahead, so you cannot progress further down the hallway. Open the door on the right and enter. Kill off the four Cyber Ninjas here and proceed across the skyway to the next door. Enter here and you will be inside a control room with Cyber Ninjas standing at consoles. Exploit the moment of surprise to dash at them. Open the two chests on the left hand side of the room for an Herb of Spiritual Life and some arrows. Take out the consoles in this room and then hit the glass reactor tubes with your arrows. This will overload the reactor. Head back across the skyway, taking out the two Cyber Ninjas armed with Rocket Launchers using your arrows. Head right and open the door that was previously blocked off by laser wires.

Inside, you will be attacked by several Cyber Ninjas, some wielding Rocket Launchers. Take out the Rocket Cyber Ninjas first and then hit the rest. Through the door on the left of the entrance to this room is a Muramasa Statue and a Dragon Statue. Shop, save/heal and exit this room. Head left and then down the hall for another encounter with Cyber Ninjas and Rocket Cyber Ninjas. Kill them off in the same fashion as before and head through the far left door. Inside, examine the dead ninja on the far bunk for Yogenta's Notebook. Exit via the elevator to your left. When the elevator stops, kill the Cyber Ninjas in this control room and then take out the panels here to obtain a few Yellow Essences. Climb the ladder to the left of the elevator door to exit the room. In the room at the top of the ladder, search the two chests for an Herb of Spiritual Life and a Lives of the Thousand Gods. Exit via the door. Kill the Cyber Ninjas and Rocket Cyber Ninjas here. Ignore the switch for now. Open the door on the right to unveil an Art of the Piercing Void Ninpo. Save/Heal at the Dragon Statue in the main room and then open the door on the left to unveil the Fifth Test of Valor.

Test of Valor Five
This Test consists of Cyber Ninjas, Rocket Cyber Ninjas and Mecha Fiends. Luckily the Eclipse Scythe will make this battle go a lot more smoothly. Take out the Rocket Cyber Ninjas quickly and use the Ninpo of your choice to protect you if you get cornered. After taking out everyone here, two chests will appear. The chest on the right contains Ghost Fish and the one on the left contains a Jewel of the Demon Seal to power up one of your Ninpo. Exit via the portal to be refreshed and renewed. Once back on the ship, head to the Dragon Statue to save/heal if you don't want to do that over again.

Part Two: The Burning Fortress
Hit the switch to the left of the Dragon Statue to open a shaft to the decks below. Drop in. In the room below, examine the corpses for a fill up on Incendiary Shuriken and a now weapon, the Tonfa. Open the chests for some Grains of Spiritual Life and a full stock of arrows. Exit the door beside the corpse that contained the Incendiary Shurikens. Kill off the Rocket Cyber Ninjas and Cyber Ninjas in this room, which you may recognize from earlier. Head right of the door where you came in and look right to see a Crystal Skull (#17) in a pile of demolished wall. Head to the door on the opposite side of the room. Open it to trigger a fight with two Mecha Fiends. Take them out and use the Muramasa Statue in this room to power up your new Tonfas to full strength. Use the switch by the mobile platform in the center of the room to lower it.

In the lower hangar, you will be attacked by several Walking Turrets. Use the pillars for cover and fire charged arrows at them. If you run out, the chest beside one of the pillars contains more arrows. Exit through the only unlocked door in the room. Drop back into cover and take out the turrets here. Drop down onto the wing and head across to the opposite door. Use the Dragon Statue here to save/heal and head through the other door. Head left and search the body here for a Devil Way Mushroom. Continue down the hall. Kill the Cyber Ninjas and Rocket Cyber Ninjas here and enter the door to the reactor room. Kill the Cyber Ninjas here quickly, as you are being timed. Head across the skyway for a cutscene.

After the cutscene, enter the door. Kill the Rocket Cyber Ninjas and Cyber Ninjas here and open the chest for an Herb of Spiritual Life. Exit the door in this room. A cutscene will trigger. After the cutscene, cross the skyway. Enter the reactor room and kill off the Cyber Ninjas and Rocket Cyber Ninjas here. Exit the door here and enter a hallway packed with Cyber Ninjas. Open the chest to the left of the door at the end of the hallway for an Herb of Spiritual Life. Continue through the door. There is a Muramasa Statue here and another door. Exit the door and take out the turrets over the wing with charged arrow shots from cover. Cross the wing and use the Dragon Statue here to save/heal. Enter the door to trigger a cutscene. An old friend has returned.

Boss: Genshin
This is basically a repeat of the previous battle with Genshin, except now you have some additional company in the form of Explosives Ninjas. This makes the battle absolutely, controller-lobbingly ridiculous. I had my best luck with the Dragon Sword. Just wear Genshin down with attacks and dodge his combos as you will still take damage from blocking him. Beyond that, as before, some of his attacks will break your block. Use Ninpo to keep the Explosives Ninjas at bay long enough to pin Genshin down and lay a combo or two on him. When he is defeated you will see a cutscene. After this, we have yet another boss battle.

Boss: Armadillo
You probably heard something about Armadillos over the PA system on the ship. Well, here it is. Fundamentally he is a rather easy, but there is a catch. The easy part is to avoid his roll attacks and meteor attacks by jumping/dashing. Get close enough to hit him in the face with a few Incendiary Shurikens. About 5-6 landed directly on his head should knock him down. These will also cancel his breath and meteor attacks. When he rears back and immolates, walking around constantly firing off meteors attacks, dash around and land another 1-2 Incendiary Shuriken attacks on his face. He will fall. Run up to his head and hit Y to finish him. Now here comes the catch. Hold down block immediately after. He will explode and you will die if you don't block. Watch the cutscene that follows to finish out the chapter.