Ninja Gaiden Black Eternal Legend FAQ by Yebyosh ( yebyosh_at_hotmail_._com ) Version 1.0 ( 23 March 2006 ) 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789 ( Please view with courier fonts ) History ------- v1.0 23 Mar 2006 Created this document Contents -------- 1. What is Eternal Legend? 2. Scoring System 3. Muramasa 4. The Arena 5. Recommended Equipment 6. Rundown a. Phase 1 b. Phase 2 c. Phase 3 d. Phase 4 e. Phase 5 7. Credits 1. What is Eternal Legend? -------------------------- Eternal Legend is the last set of missions in Ninja Gaiden Black's Mission Mode. It is unlocked after clearing 40 different missions in Mission Mode. Eternal Legend is actually Ninja Gaiden Black's version of the Second Hurricane Pack of the original Ninja Gaiden series. It was only available through X-Box Live ( XBL ). The series creator, Tomunobu Itagaki, himself has said that he wishes to share it with the 90% of Ninja Gaiden players who lack access to XBL, so here it is in Ninja Gaiden Black. Like all missions in Mission Mode, you can unlock 3 increasing difficulties upon completion of the easier levels. Increasing difficulty has the effect of increasing the aggression and defensiveness of the enemy AI, as well as their 'response' times. The damage levels are also tweaked so that you take greater damage and deal out lesser damage in the higher difficulties. Nevertheless, the foes and the time limits remain the same throughout the difficulties ( unlike Story Mode ). 2. Scoring System ----------------- Eternal Legend has its own scoring system. It is a modified version of Story Mode's in-game scoring system. How fast you clear a round of foes, how many you killed, and how many essence techniques you have executed, factor into the score. The timer is a countdown version like Story Mode, rather than Mission Mode. Unlike the other Mission Mode missions, ninpo, health, essence, and items are excluded from the scoring system. Essence techniques reward you points if you damage the enemies with them. Here we term ETs ( Essence Technique's ) for the basic first level essence technique where you absorb 1 yellow essence or charge up to the first blue flash. UTs ( Ultimate Technique's ) use 2 or more yellow essences, or 1 red or blue essence, or charging up to the second red / yellow flash. Unlike Story Mode, the points for essence techniques are still counted after the time has expired. You still are limited to scoring for a maximum of 50 essence techniques per encounter. For each encounter, you are awarded certain number of points as below. ETs = 2,000 UTs = 5,000 Combo = 10 per hit ( only for 2-hits or more ) Essence techniques and combo bonuses are tallied and added to your karma during the encounter. Time Bonus = 50,000 Kill Bonus = 5,000 per kill Boss Bonus = 100,000 per boss If you killed every foe within the time limit, besides getting the time bonus, you will gain the : Total Kill Bonus = [ 5000 * (Regular kills) + 100000 * (Boss Kills) ] * [ 1 + (Time Remaining) / (Encounter Time) ] If you fail to clear it within the time limit, besides losing the time bonus, you only get : Total Kill Bonus = [ 5000 * (Regular kills) + 100000 * (Boss Kills) ] Note : Nicchae and Ishtaros are considered as regular kills instead of bosses. The time bonus and total kill bonus are only added to your karma after the encounter is completed. After you have killed the final boss, Ishtaros, your score is then multiplied by the mission difficulty to derive your final score. Difficulty Multiplier ---------- ---------- Normal x1.0 Hard x1.5 Very Hard x2.0 Master Ninja x2.5 That is all there is to the final score. No end of chapter bonuses ( like in Story Mode ), nor any bonuses from health, elixirs remaining, ninpo remaining, and essence acquired ( like in other Mission Mode missions ). 3. Muramasa ----------- Muramasa is here in Eternal Legend as well. At the end of each phase, a save statue and a Muramasa statue are available to you to save and shop. Muramasa sells a larger variety of goods here. Elixir of Spiritual Life 1500 Elixir of the Devil Way 1500 Great Spirit Elixir 5000 Life of the Thousand Gods 5000 Spirit of the Devil 2000 Jewel of the Demon Seal 2000 Smoke Bomb 2000 Guillotine Throw 2000 The Art of the Inferno 3000 The Art of the Ice Storm 3000 The Art of the Inazuma 3000 Armlet of the Sun 2000 Armlet of the Moon 2000 Armlet of Benediction 2000 Armlet of Fortune 2000 Armlet of Celerity 2000 Armlet of Potency 2000 All weapon upgrades 5000 The shop only has 4 Life of the Thousand Gods and 4 Spirits of the Devil for the entire mission. There are 6 Jewels of the Demon Seal, enough to upgrade every ninpo to their maximum. Since all projectiles are unlimited, there is only 1 Smoke Bomb in stock. Buying it gives you unlimited smoke bombs to use. 4. The Arena ------------ In Phase 1, you fight up from the 1st room of the Core ( refer to chapter 15 Story Mode ) to the top of it. The rooms are circular with a central column. Two doors on opposite sides form the entrance and exit. Stairs circle around the outside, connecting the levels. At the top is a portal. From the boss fight of Phase 1 onwards, you will fight in the nether realms ( refer to any fights involving Nicchae or Ishtaros, Path of the Master Ninja 4, or Military Destruction 5 ). The arena here is oval in shape. Force barriers surround it. You can wall run on the barriers and can get up quite high. 5. Recommended Equipment ------------------------ I recommend only upgrading the Dabilahro. It fits this mission well - very damaging wall attacks and flaming whirlwind, fast and deadly Ashura Slash. You will get the True Dragon Sword and Dark Dragon Blade for free later, and they will form your mainstay weaponry then. As such, the rundown is in terms of the Dabilahro. If you wish to get an Armlet, then it depends on your playing style. Karma - Celerity. You need fast charge up if you want to get in quick ETs at the start of each encounter, or to charge up to UT status just from one essence. Casual - Sun. Helps you to kill foes in one stroke less most of the time. Avoid : Moon - The basis of defense in Ninja Gaiden is to avoid getting hit at all, so this armlet is an antithesis of the game's theme. The damage reduction is negligible. Benediction - Benediction only increases essence which are collected normally. If you like to use essences for essence technique, this armlet gives no benefit in any way. Fortune - The number of times a red essence spawns can be counted on your fingers. You mind as well buy the lottery if you want to play a game of chance. Potency - Unless you are a Vigoorian Flails fanatic, it would be a waste. Either get Inazuma or Inferno if you wish to buy a Ninpo. I recommend Inazuma since its reach can extend all over the arena. Its power at level 1 is enough to kill any minion, so you can save on needing to buy Jewels of the Demon Seal. Your inventory limits for consumables are : Elixir of Spiritual Life x4 Great Spirit Elixir x2 Elixir of the Devil Way x3 6. Rundown ---------- Symbology # per wave : Maximum number of foes at one time - : Foes * : Items found on the ground = : Contents of chests @ : Encounters giving no points a. Phase 1 I call this the feudal phase since it is just ninjas, magi and samurais. A pretty simple phase which can be completed with just the Dabilahro. You can practically heal up after every encounter ( except the last ) by killing the ravens on the staircases. Encounter 1 Time : 40 seconds # per wave : 3 - 6 White Ninjas (2) - 2 Black Ninjas (1) You will be fighting a bunch of ninjas here. It should be simple to get rid of them by any method. = Incendiary Shuriken At the entrance before the second level, there is a chest containing Incendiary Shurikens. You can kill the ravens on the staircase with shurikens to allow for an UT at the beginning of the next encounter. Just stand on the lower stairs and align yourself with the raven via manipulating the camera, jump straight up and toss the shurikens just as you drop from the apex of your jump. Quickly hold block and roll jump to the next encounter if successful. If you are unsuccessful and the ravens fly away, just enter and exit the first level again. Encounter 2 Time : 35 seconds # per wave : 3 - 3 Purple Ninjas * Windmill Shuriken The purple ninjas in Eternal Legend are much tougher than in the rest of Ninja Gaiden Black. Expect them to stand up to a Dabilahro UT. Upon finishing this encounter, the Windmill Shuriken becomes available on the floor near the exit. = Talisman of Rebirth You can get a Talisman of Rebirth near the entrance of the third level. Go to the right side of the door, do a Wind-path ( X + Y ), throw shurikens, then press Y ( you have to press the buttons quickly ). You may also have to experiment a bit to find the position to start your Wind-path. You should jump up to the level where the Story Mode's 50th scarab is. There you will find a chest containing the talisman. Alternatively, you can drop here from the platform outside the entrance of the fourth level. This is of course much simpler. @ 12 Bats Again you can kill the ravens before this floor for blue essences to UT, or you can just come straight in and charge up with Lunar or your favourite weapon. Collect all essences and charge up with Lunar to UT again. Ignore the surviving bats' bites during charging up, they are just stings and you can heal up with the ravens again. = The Art of the Fire Wheels A chest is near the entrance of the fourth level. It contains the basic defensive ninpo. Encounter 3 Time : 40 seconds # per wave : 3 - 3 Black Ninjas (1) - 2 Purple Ninjas (1) - 2 Magi (1) Just remember that if the mage is off camera before he starts casting, he will never throw his fireballs until he gets on camera. Use this to your advantage ( or use the central column to block ). = Strongbow = Elixir of Spiritual Life There are 2 chests on the top of the Core. The chest near the portal contains the Strongbow, the other contains an Elixir of Spiritual Life. = Bats A chest is up next to the entrance to the Holy Vigoor Emeperor ( in Story Mode ). It contains 5 waves of 6 bats. You can kill a raven before hand to unleash UTs on these bats if you wish. Otherwise just charge up to UT state and unleash. Collect all the resulting essences, then charge up ( ignore the bat bites ) and UT the next wave. Heal up using the strongbow on the ravens on the staircase. Remember you can respawn the ravens by going in and out of the earlier level. Entering the portal will bring you into the final encounter - the Boss. So steel yourselves. Encounter 4 Time : 60 seconds # per wave : 2 - 1 Horse Archer - Masakado * Warhammer * Life of the Thousand Gods Rachel's Warhammer is lying on the ground. You can pick it up any time. Knocking off the archer from his horse will generally spawn a blue essence from his steed. Use it to UT Masakado. Killing the grounded samurai will generally spawn a blue essence as well. Use it to UT Masakado again. As Masakado is riding off after ramming you, shoot him in the back with an arrow to knock him off his steed. Finish him off. A Life of the Thousand Gods will appear on the ground after you have killed him. After picking up the Life of the Thousand Gods, the save statue and Muramasa will appear. A button in the center of the arena will rise up as well. Knocking that button will activate Phase 2, so do your saving then shopping before going on. b. Phase 2 The military phase. This can be quite an irritating phase since they have a combination of shooters and in-your-face fistfighters, plus those deadly accurate shoot-as-you-land rocket launchers... Encounter 1 Time : 45 seconds # per wave : 4 - 6 White SATs (3) - 1 Purple SAT (1) - 1 Black SAT (1) You can start off by charging up to an ET on the nearest SAT here. The most dangerous foe however would be the purple SAT who will spam grenades at you. Try to get him as quick as possible to minimise the hurt. Use the essences to start chaining UT throughout this phase. Encounter 2 Time : 30 seconds # per wave : 4 - 5 Vigoorian Infantry (3) - 2 Vigoorian Heavy Infantry (2) Watch out, there is a Vigoorian Heavy Infantry in the first wave. Killing one foe will drop in the next Vigoorian Heavy Infantry. So it is wise to take out the first Vigoorian Heavy Infantry immediately or you will have much hassle on your hands. Encounter 3 Time : 20 seconds # per wave : 4 - 4 Vigoorian Heavy Infantry First off, make sure you are at one of the ends of the length of the arena. If there are unabsorbed essences at the end of the last encounter, then you can use them for UT here. If there was one yellow essence, you can charge up to UT with Armlet of Celerity. Dabilahro UTs make this encounter easier since its Ashura Slash can get rid of 2 or 3 of the Heavy Infantry at one go ( if you are standing at the other end of the arena ). If the survivors shoot together, roll jump and onlanding UT them. Encounter 4 Time : 45 seconds # per wave : 4 - 2 Blue MSATs (1) - 1 Black MSATs (1) - 3 Mechanised Vigoorian Infantry (1) - 3 Mechanised Vigoorian Heavy Infantry (1) Handle this encounter like you would with the second encounter. Go for the rocket launchers first. Since only one of each type of soldier is around at a time, you can cut down the number of foes in the arena by eliminating all of one type. You can wind-run, stun and on-landing charge to UT the last remaining type if you have Armlet of Celerity. You have to use the Guillotine throw to do the same for the rocker launchers though. Encounter 5 Time : 20 seconds # per wave : 4 - 4 Mechanised Vigoorian Heavy Infantry This encounter is practically the same as the 3rd encounter. Follow the same principles. Be glad that healing is the next thing to appear after this. = Great Spirit Elixir or 6 Blue Essences The chest will contain a Great Spirit Elixir if you still have space in your inventory for it. Otherwise, it will contain 6 blue essences. Pretty nifty for healing and to start off with an UT the next round eh? The chest will disappear a short while after you had opened it. Encounter 6 Time : 60 seconds # per wave : 3 - 8 White SATs (2) - Dynamo You can catch Dynamo with ET/UTs in the middle of his melee attack, or charging up his gun. He will block them if he is in his idle state or in gun blasting mode. Anyway, wall attacks are easy to do, and can hurt him and his minions. Alternatively, you can try to Flaming Whirlwind him after rolling away from a melee attack, but I feel this is more riskier. = APDSDS Cores = Explosive Arrows Unlimited Explosive arrows are nice. You can interrupt gallas and black imps from their attacks. The save statue and Muramasa appear after you have opened these two chests. c. Phase 3 The weaker fiend phase. This is like a precursor to phase 4. It is relatively easy. The only danger would be an error of misjudgement in the last boss fight and killed by only Yotunfrau's 2 swipes. Encounter 1 Time : 50 seconds # per wave : 3 - 3 Gallas You can charge up right at the start to unleash an ET. Jumping away and charging up can land you UTs but it is likely you will miss the time limit this way unless you catch 2 or 3 of them per UT. Flaming Hell Slashes and Flaming Whirlwinds do fine here. Encounter 2 Time : 75 seconds # per wave : 5 - 9 Brown Imps (3) - 3 Monk Fiends (1) - 1 Gallas Mobility is absolutely needed as you face the Monk Fiends' spells, imps who get in your face, as well as the gallas who would like to have you for lunch. Keep moving around as you fight, aiming for the monk fiends whenever possible. Of course if you are constantly jumping around and chaining Dabilahro UTs, this fight becomes simple. Encounter 3 Time : 45 seconds # per wave : 8 - 30 Pill Bugs (8) Seriously this is dead simple. If there are essences from the last encounter, you can simply chain UTs all the way through without breaking a sweat. Just avoid standing in the midst of them doing nothing. Encounter 4 Time : 75 seconds # per wave : 3 - 10 Brown Imps (2) - Hydracubus * Life of the Thousand Gods For the karma :- Wall jump to get rid of the brown imps. UT to get rid of the tentacles. If one drops off, use its essence to UT the other. If you have Armlet of Celerity, you can charge up at the head of the Hydracubus when it is safe - when it has stuck its tentacles forward, or waving them about. Riskier is continuing to charge even if it starts to swipe. This requires you to learn its swipe patterns. With Celerity, you can even collect essences to heal up and charge up from nothing. Irregardless, avoid hitting the Hydracubus when both its tentacles are gone. You want to farm the UT points off the tentacles. You can even try using Nunchakus or level 1 Warhammer. For the others :- Do the same except keep hitting the Hydracubus when its tentacles are gone. = Kitetsu Only for the aficionados of this weapon, I think. You are going to get the True Dragon Sword soon, so... Encounter 5 Time : 45 seconds # per wave : 5 - 2 Archer Ghul (1) - 4 Melee Ghuls (4) Just make getting rid of the archers your priority. Since they are near the walls, you can perform wall attacks. The Flaming Hell Slash also does well. If you are using Vigoorian Flail, equip Potency and do Ripping Thunders. Encounter 6 Time : 60 seconds # per wave : 6 - 12 Wasp Fiends (3) - 6 Pink Imps (2) - 1 Archer Ghul (1) - 1 Melee Ghul (1) You want to avoid staying in the same spot for too long. Those wasp fiends will stick their stingers in you real quick if you do so. So avoid long combos. Chaining UTs is the safest. On higher difficulties, you would want to get rid of the archer ghul first. = Great Spirit Elixir or 6 Blue Essences They allow you to heal up before the boss encounter. Super, right? Encounter 7 Time : 90 seconds # per wave : 3 - 10 Pink Imps (2) - Yotunfrau Yotunfrau's moves are very damaging but they are also very obvious. When he starts drawing back his arms, you know it is time to get out of there. Note that if he draws back one arm, you would want to go the other way. The arena is too small to allow for safe farming of Yotunfrau (though you can charge up for UTs as he pauses after his attacks ), so go for the quick kill. Wall attack to kill the imps and use their essences to UT Yotunfrau. = True Dragon Sword A great weapon to have for the last boss. = Ghost fish = Great Spirit Elixir or 6 Blue Essences Two chest appear and you have a choice. One will contain ghost fish, the other a Great Spirit Elixir or 6 blue essences ( if you have maximum Great Spirit Elixirs ). It is unlikely you can open both since they disappear quite quickly once one of them has been opened. So it is up to your luck. This lucky pick will occur quite a few times later. d. Phase 4 This is likely the toughest phase of the whole mission. Besides having highly mobile and damaging fiends as your opponents, they throw in some tough to kill heavy hitters, and two bosses who inflict great damage. Oh, there are those nice laser firing imps as well... Encounter 1 Time : 65 seconds # per wave : 4 - 9 Soldier Fiends (3) - 1 Zombie SAT Avoid charging up and instead go straight into the attack. Those soldier fiends have a nasty habit of coming straight at you for a grab. As long as you stay far from the Zombie SAT, you can ignore him. Again wall attacks will get rid of the soldier fiends, allowing you to chain UTs all the way throughout this battle. Likely at the end of this encounter, it will be down to you and the Zombie SAT. Go far away and charge up to UT him away. Encounter 2 Time : 60 seconds # per wave : 4 - 6 Armoured Imps (2) - 6 Bast Fiends (2) This will be a deadly fight. Unleash Inazuma if you feel things are getting too hot. Both of them can withstand an Ashura Slash as well. Get the UT chain going, and mix in wall attacks. Encounter 3 Time : 60 seconds # per wave : 3 - 6 Armoured Imps (2) - 2 Black Imps (1) Hopefully you bought some Elixirs of the Devil Way or encountered some red essences, so you can cast Inazuma to get out of tight spots. Black Imps can withstand 1 or 2 Ashura Slashes. If they are the only ones on the field at the moment, you can interrupt them with explosive arrows. Encounter 4 Time : 90 seconds # per wave : 5 - 12 Pill Bugs (3) - 4 Ogres (2) As long as you are delivering UTs from the end of the lengths of the arena, you will likely catch the bugs in them. If you miss, a wall attack should kill them ( better than staying on the ground and getting crunched by them ). As long as one ogre is in between you and the other, the latter will avoid coming closer, leaving you to a solo face off with the former. = Great Spirit Elixir or 6 Blue Essences Mighty decent of them to let you heal up after that last bruiser of a round. They could have put in that lucky dip here instead, you know... Encounter 5 Time : 100 seconds # per wave : 3 - 8 Purple Ninjas (2) - Doku = Dark Dragon Blade Go for the quick kill. It is more worth it this way ( health-wise and karma-wise ). Wall attacks with Dabilahro can get rid of the ninjas and damage Doku. If Doku throws his sword just as you land and prepare an on-landing essence technique, you can land ET/UTs on him. What is nice is that you get the Dark Dragon Blade in the chest after this encounter. = Great Spirit Elixir or 6 Blue Essences = Ghost Fish Fish which can nibble you to death or healing, your choice... Encounter 6 Time : 180 seconds # per wave : 4 - 111 Bast Fiends (3) - Marbus * Life of the Thousand Gods Depending on what you want, 1) Quick Kill Inazuma immediately, getting rid of the Basts. Keep Marbus from summoning more Basts by luring him into attack ( stand under him ), or interrupt his casting ( by attacking then ). If Marbus is going to stomp, roll away and Gleam of Heaven and Earth ( X,Hold-Y ) him. If he is going to dive bomb, roll away and Flaming Whirlwind, then Gleam of Heaven and Earth him. Remember to roll away after you have attacked. 2) Karma Karma Karma You want him to summon the Basts... all of them. Avoid hitting him until you have to trigger the next wave. Kill the Basts by whatever means you have. UT them for more points. If you have yet to max out your 50 UTs by the time you kill off 111 Basts, farm Marbus for points using the Nunchakus ( when he dive bombs, roll away and charge up with Celerity ). You earn your final Life of the Thousand Gods once you defeat Marbus. = Ghost Fish = Great Spirit Elixir or 6 Blue Essences Russian roulette again. e. Phase 5 There is less to worry over here in this long dead fiends phase. For one thing, money concerns are gone, this is the last stage. It should be easy compared to what you have gone through in Phases 3 and 4 ( provided you are familiar with the creatures involved ). Buy up as much elixirs as you can before entering this phase. Encounter 1 Time : 110 seconds # per wave : 1.5 - 4 Vigoorian Beserkers (1.5) Once you are used to handling Berserkers with Vigoorian Flails and Potency, Dark Dragon Blade, Dabilahro, or True Dragon Sword, this becomes an easy encounter. However I would recommend the Dark Dragon Blade since if you take too long in killing one Berserker, you would have to handle 2 ( which means playing around with the camera quite often ) in a small arena. Use their essences to UT the next berserker since if you have maximum Great Spirit Elixirs, the chest would contain blue essences. = Great Spirit Elixir or 6 Blue Essences If the chest has the essences, leave one to start off the next round with an UT. Encounter 2 Time : 120 seconds # per wave : 3 - 8 Armoured Imps (2) - Nicchae You can wall attack with the Dark Dragon Blade to get rid of the Imps ( or just Inazuma, use the ninpos! ). Just watch out for Nicchae's charge. It is simpler once she is alone. If she charges, block her and roll-jump into a wall attack, or you can use the True Dragon Sword to roll away from her charge, Haze Slash her down, then Gleaming Blade or Blade of Nirrti her. Flying Swallow is risky and has a low hit probability as the difficulty increases, so learn to do without it. @ 14 Bats Keep jumping around and throwing shurikens, that is all to it. Encounter 3 Time : 90 seconds # per wave : 1 - Ishtaros It is only Ishtaros and she is alone. Too simple, really. Change to True Dragon Sword and keep avoiding her moves. Dragon Tear her when you avoid her twirl and kick move, or her stomp and whip grab. If she jumps off to swing round the arena, start charging up Gleaming Blade and unleash immediately when you hear her yelp. ---The End--- 7. Credits ---------- - Thank you Team Ninja for making this great game, and letting the non-XBLers play EL. - Thank you, Kip and Sneh for making great videos of your EL run. - Thank you, Sneh and Weibull760 for the corrections and information. - Thank you, IberianWarrior for hosting many great videos of many great players, as well as the forum for discussion ( http://iberiansninjagaiden.com ). - Thank you, GameFAQs for hosting this FAQ. If you find any mistakes or wish to clarify some data, please contact me over email. Thank you.