Ninja Gaiden (NES)/Act 6

This is the final act of the game. It includes the most difficult portions of any stages in the game and requires skill in defeating multiple bosses at the end.

6-1
This is a very easy level, mostly because it's straight-forward. No hard jumps or even hazards. However, this level doesn't mean that the act itself is easy.

Proceed left, obviously. Kill "The Green Gunman" (none of these names are official) but look out for a bat behind you, it might respawn. Slash at the candle for the small shuriken and be ready, because there's a "Green Gunman", a falcon, and a "Hunchback Special Needs Guy" who jumps around a lot. Kill the falcon first then immediately slash the "Hunchback Special Needs Guy". Make sure you jump when you kill him, and when you land kill gunman. Jump for a bat. Next, you'll see "Gray Ken" (from Street Fighter 2, he does that special move". Slash him or use the small shuriken. Your next opponent is a machine that shoots 1 fireball. Let's call him "Green Fire Spitter". Run against the wall until the fireball passes, let's call this the Hugging Wall strategy, then jump and slash, while proceeding left. Then, slash the candle for some Magic (energy for subweapon). Grab the 2 next candles quickly and kill "Green Fire Spitter", using the hugging wall strategy. Jump and wait for the next Monsterman to shoot. Jump and kill. Same for next Monsterman. Be ready for a falcon. Make the falcon either scrolls off the screen or duck, turn around, and kill, which is a good strategy for killing falcons. We'll call this the ducking Falcon strategy. Get the candles you missed and go left, while getting candles. Get the jumping tornado and immediately jump for the "Hunchback Special Needs Guy and use tornado. Use the hugging wall strategy for the axe-thrower. Keep on using the tornado, collecting all of the candles and killing enemies. Make sure you use the tornado and not the original slash! You will run out of Magic, but keep on jumping at a pace and collect a 10 piece Magic. Run immediately to enter Act 6-2, ignoring the falcon.

Alternate method
6-1 starts from where you killed Malth. Run to the left and just keep running as you slash through enemies. This is an easy section. Even if you take a lot of damage here it doesn't matter because once you get to the end you will be in 6-2.

Your first enemy is a strafing gunner, followed by a bat that follows from the right side. You can kill the gunner and out run the bat without having to jump.

Next comes a white crouching jumper, a grey spinning jumper, another strafing gunner, a white eagle, and then a fire breathing snake statue.

Then you will run into three spaced out fire breathing snake statues, then a white eagle.

You can pick up a couple different items from the lamps here, but hit them all until you get the spinning attack technique. Use that ability to clear the path through the axe thrower and the other enemies in your way. You shouldn't have to kill the eagles (just jump over them), though the spinning attack may kill them.

Head through the door to 6-2.

6-2
When you arrive at the door, you should have the Jumping Tornado from 6-1, so this beginning will be difficult. Proceed left, obviously. Kill the "Black Sword Guy" (we will call him that). Don't get the candle immediately, because a "Creepy Crawler" (the blue thing that goes across the screen) will come behind you unexpectedly. Once you see him, move back, towards the Creepy Crawler, so you have room for the "Cheap White Guy" (we will call him that because he has a gun). Kill Creepy Crawler and then kill Cheap White Guy. Watch out for "Throwing Axe Man", meaning watch out for the axes. This might get tricky with enemies respawning, so try to make your way out of it. Move your way up the walls where Throwing Axe Man is, so when you move up there, kill Throwing Axe Man. Get to the top of the left wall. Jump down and get both candles, which have a Windmill Shriuken, and Magic. Move left to find a candle and another Throwing Axe Man. Kill Throwing Axe Man first using the Hugging Wall strategy, and get the candle, if you want, it's only points. Get on top of the platform, move ALL the way left, and fall down, off the platform Throwing Axe Man was on, while moving left, so you can kill a bat. Get the candle containing a 10 Magic (very important). The Throwing Axe Man will respawn, so use the Hugging Wall Strategy again, but let the Creepy Crawler on top of a platform move along. Once you kill Throwing Axe Man, move to the green platform and you'll get a greeting from Creepy Crawler once again, respawning. Jump immediately towards the platform with Creepy Crawler on it, and just when you're about to land, slash. The Creepy Crawler will be killed, guaranteed. Kill Black Sword Guy and get on the platform. Now here's a tricky part. There's a Black Sword Guy on a little platform. There's 2 ways to kill him. 1. Windmill Shuriken. I don't recommend it because it wastes Magic, which is CRUCIAL in this stage. 2. Time the jump towards Black Sword Guy when he's moving left. 3. Immediately when you see him, jump on the platform. After you kill him, an "Orange Ninja Cheater" (which is what we will call him) will immediately appear. Jump and kill. Another one might appear, so quickly slash at the candle, containing Magic, and kill that Orange "Ninja" Cheater. Move a little left where you will most likely find 2 Orange "Ninja" Cheaters. Jump, moving left, and press slash 2 times, right after each other, thus getting the candle immediately, get the jumping tornado. Jump left immediately, using Jumping Tornado immediately, and move onto next platform. Stay on that platform for 1½ seconds! This is because a ninja star might hit you when you land if you jump immediately. After the 1½ seconds, jump and tornado left, killing 2 "Orange Ninja" Cheaters", and land. Do not slash at the candle; it is a windmill, which we do not need! You will see a Black Sword Guy stomping around a green platform. Wait for him to move left. Jump left and do not use the tornado. Land and attack. You do this because you do not want to waste Magic. Once you've killed him, get the candle near the ladder without using tornado. How do you do this you ask? Jump and press . Go up the ladder. This is a good time to relax, and a good time for me to tell you to not waste the Tornado. If you do lose it, get a Game Over. That's how much you need it. Go on the green platforms and land on the big gray-ish platform. You will see the Green Gunman. Use the tornado on him, while collecting the candle. The candle contains a 10 Magic. The next jump is tricky, because there's surprise bat waiting for you. It is OK to use the tornado on him, when you jump. Ignore the candles and move down. You will see a falcon, so use the Ducking Falcon Strategy. Again, ignore the candles; they just have points and subweapons. Move left and kill the Hunchback Special Needs Guy. You might want to go a little slow on him if you need. Move left and prepare for 2 Green Fire Spitters. Keep on moving non-stop when killing them. Down-slash like you did before Green Gunman, on the candle for Magic. Now here comes a tricky Throwing Axe Man. Make sure Throwing Axe Man is close to the right of the platform, and use the tornado immediately after you jump. Ignore the next candle. Move down and kill the Hunchback Special Needs guy, go slow if you want. Go up the ladder. You should have at least 20 Magic. It's OK if you have 5 Magic, but if you have 0, good luck. After moving up the huge ladder, get on top of the little green platform, and get on the very edge to kill a Black Sword Guy, without jumping. Now if you have 20 Magic, like you're supposed to, skip the next sentence, and the candles. If you have 5 Magic or 0, Down-Slash on the 2 candles to get Magic. Now this will be tricky because a bat might show up, along with a Green Ninja. '''Use tornado. Get on platform. Use tornado. Get on platform. Optional tornado. Get on ladder.''' This may take a couple tries, but you'll get it soon. OK get on green platforms, land on greyish platform and duck and slash for falcon. Get down and welcome a new enemy, Creepy Crawler 2. Slash him, ignore the falcon coming down. Let him hurt you, even, it doesn't matter. Kill everything else in sight besides the Stick Throwing Guy to the right. Climb up the walls and if you're really damaged, slash the candle to the left to replenish health, but watch out for the Green Ninja below, and a surprise Falcon. Get back on the wall and wait for the knights to move right. Kill them all and you're finished. It sounds hard on paper, but when you do it in game, it's a lot easier than you think. You will be amazed about how easy it is to save Magic and Tornado on Stage 6-2.

Alternate method
The tileset changes to a blue temple-like area. Run to the left and slash the baseball bat guy. Grab the first lamp as a blue runner appears on the right. Hop over it or kill it. Kill the knife thrower to the left. Climb the two columns, kill the guy who throws things, then jump off to the left and grab the highest lamp (Windmill star). Grab the next lamp containing a blue weapon power. Hop over the blue runner. Kill an orange knife thrower. Hop up onto the platform and kill the orange guy who throws things. Fall down to the left and get the lamp (orange weapon power). Either hop back up to the right and kill another orange guy throwing things or climb straight up the left platform. The blue runner will run to the right as you approach so either throw a star, time your slash to kill it (difficult), or climb up the wall below it and it will jump over your head.

Time your next jump, or walk off the ledge, as the baseball bat guy turns his back. Land on the platform and kill him. A bat may appear behind you: kill or dodge it. Edge to the left of this floating platform to view the next one. Another baseball bat guy will appear on the next platform. Throw a windmill star to the left and kill him. Jump across, but get ready for jetpack ninjas. Immediately jump up to the left and slash. If you're lucky you will kill the jetpack ninja, otherwise you will take a hit and land back on the platform. Hop up to the longer floating platform. Jump up to the left and slash twice to kill both jetpack ninjas. Make your way left. Grab the lamp (Jump and Slash technique) and fall down to the left to land on the last small floating platform. Jump to the left and at the peak of your jump use the jump and slash technique to kill the incoming Jetpack Ninjas. Edge to the left, wait for the baseball bat guy to turn his back, then jump across and land on the platform. Don't waste energy on him. Slash him. If you still have the jump and slash technique, go straight up the ladder. If you have the Windmill star, jump over to the left of the platform to land on the wall. Then jump back. During either jump slash the orb for a blue weapon power.

Second section
After climbing the ladder...

6-3
Start right this time. Kill the bat simply, no ducking needed. Kill the Gray Ken simply. So far, so easy. Slash at the low candle that contains Magic. Move right and go up the green walls and you'll find a Throwing Axe Man in your way. While you're going up the walls, kill him, don't go all the way up the walls, and also do the tornado. Now let's do some fancy sword-work. Jump, get the candle and slash again, getting Green Fire Spitter, a candle, and a bat. Ignore the candle below, which contains another Tornado. We actually don't need the Tornado, because we'll be jumping and slashing a lot, and we need magic. OK, move up the ladder and find your way up the next ladder. Climb up the ladder, all the way, jump off, and be ready for a Creepy Crawler 2. You can just jump and dodge him, but some people like the satisfaction of killing a Creepy Crawler 2. In your way, as you jump on a higher green platform, is a bat. Simply kill it and get the small Shuriken. Make sure the Creepy Crawler 2 doesn't respawn, which means "Don't move right", and if it does, kill it. Jump onto the higher platform and do the fancy sword-work you did when you killed those 3 things in the beginning of the stage, getting the 2 candles. It doesn't matter if you miss. A bat will be in your way so watch out for that. If you get hit by the bat, a Creepy Crawler 2 respawns. Kill it immediately. Now, here comes a so-satisfying move. If you move left, you will find a Silver Surfer, and 2 Creepy Crawler 2s drop down from the sky. How in the world will we survive? It's actually very simple. Here's what you do. Once you see the Silver Surfer, jump over his double-axe, but a very small jump, so the Creepy Crawler 2 won't hit you. Then jump onto the green platform cleanly. A Creepy Crawler 2 will climb on the wall but don't let him, duck and slash. A harmless "Jumping Green Ninja" will appear that can't hit you unless you jump. So don't. Do the fancy sword-work on the two candles, again. Jump on the green platform and be ready. A falcon will come from below, and a knight guards the next green platform. Once you land on the green platform, LAND on the next green platform and slash. Make sure you land, and slash. Then jump off and kill the falcon. This is really simple, I'm tellin' ya. Climb up the two walls and get the right candle for a windmill shuriken. Once you get it, land on the left greyish platform and kill Stickman with the windmill. Once the windmill comes back at you, jump, avoiding the windmill, onto the green platform. Once you come onto the green platform, duck, avoiding the windmill. Once it comes back, Jump onto the brownish floor, avoiding the windmill. Once it comes back, you'll be under the candle, ducking, avoiding the windmill. It should kill a green ninja and you should have some time to you. Make yourself move quickly up the two green walls. Get the candle, get off, and move up the two green walls. Get the candle, which contains a Fire Wheel, and the timer will end there. Get off the platform and kill the Knight. Get the optional candle. Kill another knight. Move your way up the two Green walls, while killing a guy. Get the candle. Drop down, killing stickman. Get the candle. Move under the green platform (not on top of it), duck, and kill a falcon. Jump straight up, onto the green platform. Jump forward and get a candle. Move up the ladder. If you have any lost energy, move on top of the green platforms and get the candle, that has a health replenisher, without summoning the Hunchback Special Needs guy. Drop down, and very carefully stay to the left of the far right green platform, the one the Hunchback Special Needs guy is on. Use the Fire Wheel that you have while you are to the left of the green platform, and immediately run to the hourglass that dropped from the candle. Move forward, get the next candle, move up the walls quickly, get both candles on the top, and the timer should stop about there. Drop down and you'll find a Throwing Axe Man. Kill him. Now go slow on this section, because there's a lot of enemies here. You'll find a Gray Ken. Kill him. Then you'll find a falcon. Kill him. Then you'll see a Hunchback Special Needs guy drop from the sky. When you see the special needs guy, run straight to the final boss room. And you're there. Voilà. Actually, that last ladder, and on, is probably the hardest part of the game, besides Jaquio.

Section 1
The tileset changes here to an orange-theme. Ryu starts to the left of two tall, columns topped with a hand with an eye in the palm. As you run to the right, you'll first meet a bat as you pass between the two hand columns. Just beyond that are two lamps, one within reach by jumping and one much higher up. A grey spinning jumper will appear. Run towards it and jump and slash. You should kill it just below the lamps. As the grey jumper dies a bat will spawn from the left side. Break the bottom lamp (blue weapon power) while you wait and kill it or start moving to the right.

As you approach the green column and then the large green rectangular block, wall jump up between them and jump on the block. Kill the axe thrower if he is on the edge, otherwise ignore him and jump up to the left green column. Jump out and grab the top lamp (fire attack).

Make your way back up to the top of the green block. Kill the axe thrower and move right. A bat and a fire breathing snake statue will be there. Run up and kill the statue and you should kill the bat at the same time. The lamp in the middle here is an orange weapon power (the other two are points).

Move to the right and jump onto the ladder and climb up to section 2.

Summary: bat, grey jumper, lamp, wall jump green platform, axe thrower, middle lamp, ladder.

Section 2
There are no enemies here. Jump to the left of the ladder, wall jump between the left wall and the broken hand column until you are on top of the broken column. Jump to the right onto the floating green platform, then jump up to the right onto the ladder and climb up to section 3.

Section 3
Climb all the way up the green ladder then jump the left. As you approach the first jump and running jumper will appear. Slash as you jump and you should kill it. Perform the same timing on the next jump to kill the bat and break the lamp at the same time (Shuriken). Then kill the bat by the two lamps (both are points). Get ready to jump down into a trap.

A white axe thrower will appear from the left side of the screen. As you approach it, two blue jumpers will appear, one from each side of the screen. Make your way to the left and out of the pit as soon as possible or you will get hit many times. The best way out is to run towards the white axe thrower, jump to avoid the first axe, land in front of it, then jump again to the left without touching him. You can easily get out with just taking a single hit. As you get out of the pit, run to the left edge. A green ninja will continue to drop down and jump to the left but if you stay to the right of the left edge, where the black crack in the floor is, you won't get hit.

Break both lamps (blue weapon power x2) and stand to the left of the crack until the ninja stops appearing. As you jump onto the first floating green platform, a silver eagle will appear from below. Stand on the right edge of the platform and prepare to take a hit. The eagle will hit you down to the green platform with the black crack you came from. Immediately jump back up and make the jump to the next platform where the white knight is and slash it as you land. Make the final jump to safety as the eagle is likely chasing you at full speed.

Alternatively, if you have the shuriken, jump onto the green platform and run to the left edge. Throw a shuriken to kill the white knight, then leap across. The blue jumper will fall behind you and the white eagle will catch up to you on the next platform. Continue onwards. Kill the eagle when you are safely on the ground.

The rest of this section revolves around white knights, sword throwers, another white eagle, stopping time vs. a falling ninja.

Section 4
Climb the ladder, hop left, then right. Get onto the floor and move right. You will see a crouched white jumper sitting on a column. This indicates an upcoming trap. Run past to the right and do not stop to grab the lamp. If you jump to get the lamp, you will get hit by one of the three falling jumpers. Immediately start climbing the wall.

When you get to the top, kill the two fire breathing snake statues. If you can't kill them immediately, your best bet is to hop over them, taking some damage, and fall down immediately.

Grab the lamp that is closest to the green block. It contains a fire technique. Continue to the right, avoiding lamps, and killing any enemies that pose a threat. Stop before you go through the door.

At this point, if you have 0 or 1 extra lives you should kill yourself. Once you go through this door you will have to face the final bosses. If you lose to any of them, you will start back at 6-1, so it is best to have a decent amount of HP and 2 extra lives to give you several chances of practicing against the bosses. However: if you defeat a boss, such as the Masked Devil, you will not have to re-face it again once you make it this far.

The Masked Devil
After the cutscene, you will face off against Ryu's mind controlled father, "The Masked Devil". Do not waste any weapon power during this fight.

The Masked Devil will start on the right side of the screen and walk slowly to the left. As it does so, the orb in the middle-right of the room will shoot fireballs diagonally downwards towards the Masked Devil. These fireballs will form a floating shield. Each fireball can be destroyed, but focusing on that does not help.

When you have control, jump up on the middle platform and slash the orb 1-3 times. Run to the left platform and jump as high as you can. Continue to climb the left wall to its highest point. Wait for the masked devil to reach the left wall. The orb will start shooting fireballs diagonally down to the left. Wait for the moment just after a fireball will shoot out, then jump down to the right. Slash towards the orb as you pass the diagonal trajectory to make sure you slash any fireball that comes out. Run past the orb so you don't get shot.

Run and hop over to the right platform. Jump up to the left and slash the orb a couple of times before the Masked Devil gets back to the right. Now climb the right wall. Again, wait for the Masked Devil to reach the wall and the orb to start shooting. Time your jump and get back to the left side. This is the place where you can attack the orb the most, so hit it over and over until it is dead or until you get overwhelmed by the Masked Devil.

After the orb is defeated, another cutscene takes place where Ryu's father regains consciousness and then Jaquio appears and shoots an energy projectile towards Ryu. Before he gets hit, Ryu's father steps in the way and dies.

Alternate method
Ryu's father is really easy if you know how to wall climb on just one wall. At the start of the brawl, get at least one or three hits on the circle. Then start wall climbing. Your father will follow you with the circle helping him get little circles that circle him. But when he's against a wall, the little circles stop appearing when they touch a wall, so the big circle keeps on giving Dad smaller circles infinitely. So get in the middle of the process and jump off the wall, onto the floor, get on a little pink platform, and start slashing. Get at least 5 hits. Do the same thing about 4 times and he's back. Then he gets killed.

Jaquio
To start the fight, make sure you're stocked up on Magic and have the Fire Wheel. If not, you're screwed. So how do you know if you should run away from the fireballs or get in the middle? Well, if you see the fireballs cross each other at the beginning of dropping, get in the middle. If not, run away. Take your time on hitting the Jaquio with the Fire Wheel, because you don't want to waste it. Once the Fire Wheel is gone, time to get on the platforms. When should you go on the platforms? Good question. Here are the qualifications.
 * 1) The Jaquio fires two fireballs while standing on the left of the screen.
 * 2) The Jaquio is moving right, after firing the fireballs.
 * 3) Only use the middle platform.
 * 4) Once on the platform, only slash if the Jaquio is to the right of you, and moving away.

So let me make that into a sentence. When the fireballs from the left have passed Ryu, and Jaquio is moving right, get on a platform immediately. Instead of moving towards you, he's going to be moving away, which is good. So you should basically follow him in the air and slash.

Alternative method
Jaquio is the biggest boss you have seen so far. He floats across the top of the screen, back and forth between the two walls. Each time he crosses from one side to the other, he fires out two fireballs, one from each hand. The fireballs will fly towards where Ryu is standing, so move out of the way. If Ryu is on a platform, the fireballs will curve around continue to chase Ryu, so slash them or hide near the floor while they fly off of the screen.

At the start, run to the right and jump on the platform, then jump on the right wall. The first projectiles should shoot past you through the floor. The second ones should shoot towards the right wall. As he and the projectiles head towards the right, jump off the wall to the left and slash him as you pass under the projectiles. Now cross to the left wall and repeat from that side. Repeat this run, jump/climb, jump, slash pattern until he is defeated.

Act 6-5
You will immediately begin the fight with the Demon Sculpture. In terms of difficulty, it is easier than Jacquio and with practice can be beaten without taking a hit. Go for the head first. Always hit it twice when you jump, or else you're going to get hit by the fireballs a lot. Make sure you stay really close to the head, or else fireballs will hit you. Don't even look at Ryu hitting the head, look at the fireballs. If there's one coming, immediately move. You cannot waste any energy, because when the head comes off, you've got a problem. Do the same thing with the tail, only you don't jump. Look at the fireballs, not the tail. It'll come off soon. Now for the heart. It's the same thing as the head. Look at the fireballs, not the heart. The great thing about this is section of the fight is that no matter how close you are to the Demon Sculpture, you won't get hit, so you can stay as close to the Demon Sculpture as you want. The heart will explode. There goes the Demon. You beat the game. Congratulations. You beat one of the hardest games on the planet.

Simplified method
At the start of this fight, move to the right while dodging the projectiles. Jump and attack the demon's head. After a couple of hits the head will fall off.

Now attack the demon's tail. After a couple of hits the tail will explode.

Now the demon's body is vulnerable. Jump and slash the orb to defeat the demon.