Ninjitsu

Ninjitsu, the skill of the Assassin. If this is your goal the first thing you will need is the Book of Ninjitsu, this can be bought from a scribe in the Rokuon Cultural Center in Zento or the Ninjitsu instructor in the New Haven Dojo. This individual will also, for a fee, train your initial points in the skill, his companions will train the other skills you will need to become a fully skilled assassin. The ‘must have’ supplemental skills are hiding and stealth.

You will need to make a choice as to the rest of your intended skill set; Fencing is the weapon skill offered by the dojo inhabitants, but you could instead choose swordsmanship, macefighting, wrestling or even magery. Tactics is also offered, but you may instead choose to train poisoning. You should take their gain quests to gain skill to 50, you may only take one quest at a time.

The Book of Ninjitsu
Icon	Spell	Mana	Skill	Description
	Animal Form	0	10	Allows you to transform into an animal, gaining special bonuses. If you are running while casting this spell, you will automatically transform into your last selected animal type. Only two forms are available at 0 skill, others become available as your skill grows, however for training purposes only the casting of the spell counts, not the form you choose. You cannot gain skill from choosing higher forms. Animal Form Menu Skill Animal Special Abilities 0 Rabbit or Rat Grants a 20 point bonus to the stealth skill. 40 Cat or Dog Increases regeneration rate. The increase is based on your Ninjitsu skill. 50 Giant Serpent Inflicts low level poison whenever you strike your opponent with a non-ranged weapon. Bullfrog Inflicts poison when your enemy damages you at short range. 70 Ostard or Llama Increases movement speed. 85 Wolf or Bake-Kitsune Increases movement speed and grants a bonus to both your hit chance and maximum hit points. 100 Unicorn Increases movement speed and grants immunity to low level poisons. Ki-Rin Increases movement speed and regenerates stamina quickly.
	Mirror Image	10	20	Creates a mirror image of yourself that may absorb damage when you are standing within 4 steps of it. A mirror image consumes a follower slot and will disappear in 30 to 60 seconds.
	Focus Attack	10	30	Increases both your damage and the percentage chance for ‘hit’ properties on your weapon for one attack
	Backstab	30	40	An attack from stealth with a damage bonus based on your Ninjitsu and the distance you have tracked your target.
	Shadowjump	15	50	Allows you to teleport while maintaining stealth, but only if you succeed in a stealth check at your destination.
	Surprise Attack	20	60	An attack from stealth that inflicts a defense penalty on your opponent for a short duration. You cannot re-enter stealth for 5 seconds after a surprise attack.
	Ki Attack	25	80	An attack that does greater damage based on how far you travel to your opponent from the location where you initiated the Ki Attack. You must reach your target in under 2 seconds.
	Death Strike	30	85	After receiving a Death Strike, if the opponent moves more than five steps, or three seconds elapses, they will suffer direct damage determined by the attacker’s Ninjitsu, the average of the target’s Hiding/Stealth and the number of tiles the target was tracked for. Damage in pvp capped at 50%

In addition to the abilities found in the book of ninjitsu, there are a variety of weapon specials which require ninjitsu (or bushido) skills instead of tactics. Poisoning too is substituted for tactics on certain weapons. Detailed descriptions of these moves can be found on the Special Moves page.

Also part of the ninja’s arsenal:

• Smoke bombs and egg bombs – A Ninja strikes and fades away, disappearing in a puff of smoke. Smoke bombs and egg bombs are essentially the same thing; smoke bombs are made by alchemists using eggs and ginseng while egg bombs are made by cooks using eggs and flour. They can only be used by characters with 50 or higher Ninjitsu skill.
• Shuriken and ninja belts – Shuriken are held within a ninja belt which must be equipped, also you must have a free hand to throw one. A blacksmith makes 2 charge shuriken, but by loading them into a belt and then removing them these can be combined into 10 charge items. Double click the belt and click the resulting cursor on your target, shuriken are affective at a range of 3 – 9 tiles and can be poisoned. Darkglow poison is sometimes used on these because of its increased affectiveness at a distance.
• Fukiya & Darts – These blow-pipe weapons work at a lesser distance than shuriken, 1 – 4 tiles. The fukiya is made by a carpenter, the darts by a bowyer. These too can be poisoned.

Talisman of the Fey

Additional animal forms are possible with 4 special talismans claimed from Heritage Tokens. When wearing such a talisman the animal form it represents is added to the menu when the spell is cast.

Training

Your training regimen beyond the 50 skill from the new player quests will depend to a degree on what supplementary skills you have chosen. Most guides recommend the following:

• 50 – 60 Cast Mirror Images, attacking them to allow re-casting without waiting for them to dispel.
• 60 – 70 Focus Attack. Gains are by difficulty of casting, not difficulty of opponent. If you are training a weapons skill choose an opponent you will gain both skills against, as illustrated on the ‘melee fighter‘ page. if you chose magery instead of a weapon skill consider acquiring a mage weapon and a less difficult opponent.
• 70 – 85 Shadow Jump
• 85 – 120 Death Strike ( or 85 – 110 Ki Attack, then Death Strike)

If healing is a problem use dog or cat form when not attempting to cast, seek out armor which has the hit point regeneration property and/or carry a stock of Greater Heal potions. If you have poisoning choose a weapon that has the ‘infectious strike’ special move, coat your weapon with parasitic poison and intersperse your ninjitsu training spell with special move strikes when your weapon and poisoning skills are high enough.