Ninja Gaiden II/Chapter 3: Thunderclap of Catastrophe

"The graceful Alexei, one of the Four Greater Fiends, appears in the skies over New York, raining lightning upon the streets of the proud city. Ryu Hayabusa arrives in Manhattan in search of Elizébet, who escaped Hayabusa Village with the Demon Statue. The Fiends have already begun transforming New York into a Fiend Realm. Ryu's battle begins as the thunder and laughter of the Greater Fiend echo throughout the city."

Part 1: Streets
After the cutscene, look right to see a Muramasa's and slightly farther right for a chest (looks rather more like a metal cooler) containing an Herb of Spiritual Life. Use the shop to upgrade weapons or buy healing items. The two alleys close to the starting points house some bats that can be dispatched rather easily for some yellow essence. Head forward toward the center of the square and you will be attacked by some rather menacing purple fiends. Dash to avoid their energy ball attacks and avoid getting grabbed. They are mostly slow moving, so the Lunar Staff can be pretty devastating here.

After killing the purple fiends, head into the alley to the right of the hole in the street. Behind the cab is another chest containing Red Essence. Turn around and head down the alley opposite you, past the hole in the street. At the end of the alley, enter the door on the right. Examine the body in the doorway to receive a scroll containing the Art of the Wind Blades Ninpo. Turn left into the alley, where you will be attacked by several claw ninjas and fire archers. Take them out and turn right at the base of the stairs. Down this alley is a chest containing several Blue Essences. Return to the stairs and head up. You will be attacked by several fire archers, claw ninjas, and purple ninjas as you reach the catwalk. Continue up another flight to get the fifth Crystal Skull. Return to the catwalk and engage your foes. Fight your way to the end of the catwalk and up the stairs. Turn left at the top of the stairs and head down the hallway to reach a Dragon Statue. Save and heal.

Near the statue you should see a downed ladder on the floor and a ladder on the wall. Use a Flying Bird technique in the ladder shaft to reach the top, where you will promptly be attacked by purple ninjas and some flying fiends. Examine the body on the right for some arrows. Quickly head toward the building to the left of the ladder you took up to this level and use that as cover against the attacks of the flying fiends. Take them out with charged arrow shots and eventually they will stop respawning. Climb down the ladder ahead.

At the ledge, look right to see a chest on the ledge across from you. Do a wall run to reach it. It contains a ball of Yellow Essence. Head back across to the previous ledge and look down toward the left edge of the ledge to see another chest. Drop down and open it to receive a Grains of Spiritual Life. You will promptly be attacked by several zombie dogs. Kill them and head in the direction of the broken ladder on the ground. Do a Flying Bird technique in the ladder shaft to reach the ledge above. Climb back up the ladder to the ledge where you fought the flying fiends. Between the two ladders is a black cord that leads to the opposite ledge across the gap. Jump up and climb across the cord to the opposite ledge. At the opposite ledge, kill the ninjas and jump down toward the Dragon Statue. When you hit the floor, you will be attacked again. Kill the claw ninjas, save/heal, and head down the small alley to the left of the Dragon Statue. Open the chest at the end of the alley to receive an Herb of Spiritual Life. Return to the broken railing that you passed on your way to the chest and drop down.

Upon landing, you will be attacked by several claw ninjas. Dispatch them in the usual way and head toward the New York City Police Dept building. Head to the right of the building and down an alley to find a corpse in a small pit. Examine the corpse to receive a scroll called The Four Greater Fiends. Return to the Police Dept Building. To the left of the building and slightly behind it is a chest containing an Herb of Spiritual Life. Head down the alley behind the police station and left. You will be attacked by several more purple fiends. Continue into the open area ahead. This will trigger a cutscene.

Mini Boss Fight: Large Purple Fiend
After the cutscene you will be attacked by a large purple fiend and several of the standard purple fiends you have been fighting. Use the same tactics here as before. Honestly, if you have a fully upgraded Lunar Staff here, this battle is cake. When the fiends are dead, jump down the hole they came out of.

Part 2: Sewers
Always with the sewers. As soon as you land, use the Dragon Statue ahead to save and heal. Progress forward to tackle several purple fiends. Head right at the end of the path. At the dead end, examine the corpse for a Jewel of the Demon Seal, which will upgrade one of your Ninpo. I recommend saving this for now, but feel free to use it on whichever of your Ninpo now. Climb the ladder beside the body. At the top, turn around to see a chest on the ledge behind you. Do a wall run off the metal wall on your left to cross the chasm. Open the chest for several Red Ki Essences. Follow this ledge around the left corner and turn left at the break in the wall. Kick open the chest on the ledge below for a group of Blue Essences. Drop down to the floor below and kill the purple fiends. Head into the tunnel and drop into the water pit below. To your left you will see an opening. Swim to it, kill the bats that attack you and examine the corpse on the ground for a Notebook: Unrivaled Soaring. Climb up the first flight of stairs and then wall run across the first broken section. After landing, do a wall run off the wall to your left, jump at the corner and wall run again to reach the top. Open the chest ahead of you to obtain a Grains of Spiritual Life. Jump out and down the hole ahead to be back in front of the water pit.

At the pit, do a wall run and jump to grab the horizontal pole, then do a swinging leap to the next wall, wall run and jump again to reach the ledge. You will be attacked on the other side by several purple fiends. After they are dead, do another wall run to cross the next pit ahead. Drop down into the room ahead to take on several more purple fiends. Examine the corpse in the back corner of the room for some arrows. Head into the tunnel ahead. Be on your guard, as you will quickly be attacked by several purple fiends. Head left to find a corpse with a scroll detailing how to perform a Technique of the Invisible Path. Now that you know how to do this, turn right to see a long hallway, a fire archer, and a crystal skull. Take out the archer with an arrow and then perform the Invisible Path Technique to reach the skull.

Drop down from the pillar and into the water below. To the right of the pillar is a chest containing a Life of the Gods. Head around the pillar and water run to reach a step and an area where you can perform a Flying Bird to reach the area where you first ran across to the Skull. Head straight until you reach a Dragon Statue. Save and heal here and do a Flying Bird in the shaft beside it to reach the ledge above. Kill the fiends that attack you. Do a wall run off the right wall to reach the closest ledge. Jump up to grab the pipe above and climb until you are in front of the chest on the next ledge. Swing on the pipe and jump to reach the chest, which contains an Herb of Spiritual Life. Jump back onto the pipe and climb across to the next ledge. Drop down onto the ledge and do a double wall run to reach the next ledge.

When you reach this ledge, you will instantly be attacked by claw ninjas and fire archers. Kill the archers at the back wall and then wipe out the claw ninjas. Do a double wall run on the wall in front of the broken stairs where the archers had been to reach the ledge above, and a Muramasa's shop statue. By now, if you have been spending wisely you should have at least two weapons at level 3. Enter the door by the statue.

In the next room, kill the archers on the ledge across from you and drop down into the pit below. Take out any ninjas/fiends that follow you and climb the ladder. At the top of the ladder, examine the corpse for a new projectile weapon, the Incendiary Shuriken. Throw these at each of the spinning fan blades to destroy them. Head through the left set of blades. Kill the enemies in this room, then climb the ladder at the corner across from the spinning blades. Jump across the gap and examine the body for a Grains of Spiritual Life. Throw an Incendiary Shuriken at the fan in this room and then cross on the ledge above to reach another chest containing Grains of Spiritual Life. Head back into the main fan room and through the other fan that you destroyed. Kill the ninjas that appear when you cross into the room. Climb the ladder and destroy the next spinning fan in the room, revealing a passage to the next room. Wall run and swing on the pipe to jump through the hole between the blades. You will land in a pool of water.

Emerge from the pool and kill the bats that swarm around you. If you climb up on the metal structure in the room you will be able to see a pipe tunnel below the surface of the water. Dive down and through the tunnel. When you emerge on the other side, kill the ninjas and bats that appear and use the Dragon Statue to save and heal. Examine the corpse for some arrows. Use the subway car beside you to perform a Flying Bird Technique and kill the fire archers on the ledges above you. Do a double wall run on the wall to your right to reach the ledge above. Open the chest at the end of the ledge for some Red Ki Essences. Do a wall run on the left wall to reach the ledge and tunnel ahead. Once across, you will be attacked by two purple fiends. Kill them and head down the tunnel. As you continue down, several more fiends will attack you. At the end of the tunnel, the cavern opens up. Drop down and paint the walls with the fiends below. Continue down the tunnel and up the steplike ledges at the end of the path. Examine the corpse at the top for a Notebook on Invisible Path. Kill the archers on the ledges ahead and use the Muramasa statue if you wish. If you are low on healing items, you may want to stock up for the next fight. Follow the bridge ahead to the Dragon Statue. Save and heal. Crossing the bridge to the Dragon Statue, if you obtained the Rod of Trials earlier, you passed a blue glowing disk on the platform to your left where the Fire Archers were. Use the exposed brick wall to do a wall run to the platform. Hit RB to begin the test of Valor.

Test of Valor
Get ready to fight for your life. You will be teleported to a swampy arena where you will face about 100 enemies. The order is as it has been for previous battles. Take out the archers first if you can, followed by the purple ninjas, and then everyone else. Cameras will not be your friend, so try and get into one of the corners where the camera stays in a predictable spot, keep your guard up and let the enemies come to you. Kill off everyone to obtain a chest containing a Lives of the Thousand Gods. If you are damaged, DO NOT HEAL YET. You will be fully healed when you exit the portal. Run to the portal at the center of the arena and teleport back to the sewers. Once there, wall run back toward the Dragon Statue. Save here if you want to and then take the tunnel to your left. Drop down onto the train tracks and head right. Kill off the group of Claw Ninjas and Fire Archers that attack you. Use the fallen train car to do a wall run up to the open subway car door where the Fire Archers stood. Head left, through the train, and out the left door onto the tracks again. Here you will be attacked by several purple fiends as well as a few of the large purple bat fiends from earlier in the chapter. If you avoid the fireballs and try to herd the fiends into a large group, the Lunar Staff can be particularly devastating here as it renders them almost defenseless. After this fight is over it is time for a boss fight.

Boss: Flying Silver Demon
This boss is massive and intimidating, but not quite as difficult as he seems. Avoid him on the first pass and keep your distance as he will discharge electricity and damage you if you get close. Equip your Bow and wait for him to turn around at the far end of the room. When he comes toward you, land a charged shot directly in his face. This will knock off about 1/5 of his health. He will attack with blue energy balls and laughing spawn of himself. Use a Ninpo to make yourself temporarily invincible while these attacks hit. If you can, target his face with the ninpo for a large amount of damage. If he charges, dash out of the way. When you reduce him to about 1/8 of his health, he will fall over on his back and flop around in pain. Use this opportunity to move in for an Obliteration Technique. This will trigger a cutscene and end the chapter.