Ninja gaiden 2 general discussion.

Against White Ninjas, best to go ham. At range they aren't too agressive, so try and focus fire them down. You can also go for delimbs and then ignore them once a limb is removed, as they become a non-threat at range (just a shuriken here and there). Don't ignore wall-X with the DS, it has a big AoE and high delimb%. Fantastic tool.

Did a Tonfa-only run. Overall, still my favourite weapon. Best UT in the game, HJ makes it fluid and mobile, and good damage output as well. I learned that the 360Y has i-frames, which makes it great not just for the damage, but stuff like avoiding grabs. The only downsides are the lack of aerial game compared to the Kusa and Scythe, and the wall attacks not being great.

The worst bosses were Liz, Zed 2 and Dagra Dai. Liz can thankfully get knocked down so I can loop her. Zed is a coin toss with the stupid arena and if he decides to play nice. Dagra? The Tonfa's lack of reach means you literally can't do anything while he's high up in the air. Still, I had a lot of fun. Definitely plan to do more single-weapon runs in the near future.

Tonfa is fantastic, haven't done a full solo run with it in base NGII (only sigma). For Eli you can use >Y hit confirmed into >YY (so >Y pause >YY hj) which is decent damage if you don't want to go the loop route. For Dagra Dai there's actually a setup with the tonfa's during his lightning. I think it's with the running Y move canceled into another that can give you just enough i.frames to keep the pressure up while not taking damage. I recall ShowR using that strat a bit.

Zed, fuck Zed. The more I play that game the more I despise him with every bone of my body.

How'd you do the waterdragon? Just arrows?

>Haven't done a Tonfa run

I see. How many single-weapon runs have you done? This is actually my first one. I'm taking my time with them, to learn the game as much as possible (not just doing them for the sake of achievements).

>Liz

That's what I did initially, but the fight was taking forever since she's dodge happy. I know you can guard reset loop her, but I'm not good at it (worth practicing though). So far, I know you can loop her with the Flails, Tonfa and Lunar when she's down (other Greater Fiends too). I'm sure there are loops with other weapons, I just need to experiment more.

>Dagra strat

Really? Music to my ears. Is there a video for this strat? I assume HJ gives a decent amount of i-frames for his lightning. ShowR is one hell of a player.

>Zed

The first fight isn't bad, I killed him pretty quickly. The second fight though? Terrible environment. The worst part is if he decides to stay in the air for 2 minutes, summon Gajas, you kill the Gaja spawn and he summons them again. Annoying. Also, I have no idea how dodge his fireballs up close. I usually FS to cancel his fireballs, but this is a bit unsafe as he can grab you OL (even with HJ sometimes). The XX>Y string is really good against him, because it does decent damage and it interrupts his summoning.

>Water Dragon

I fought him on the water. It's way more fun that way (though your fingers might get a bit tired from doing Calm Water Break constantly). The string I used is XYY, it's not as good as the Talons but it did the job.

Regarding the other bosses, Alexei and Volf were easy. The double Armadillo was terrible too, though you can at least finish them quickly. The Drunken Skelly was quite annoying with his shitboxes, but when he's down XYXXXX does good damage. I tried to fight the Worm normally by spamming FS and then cancelling it with HJ, was close to finishing him when he decided to hyperarmour and grabbed me. Didn't have the patience to do it again so I just Bow UT him.

Anyway, here are the best strings for the Tonfa:

>YY
-360Y (slower startup compared to the Duals' 360Y, but more active i-frames in the middle of the move, great against groups)
-HJ Y (high decap rate)
-FS (can cancel with HJ into Y, pretty much a guaranteed decap, also works well with running Y, can also loop many enemies)
Garland drop (XX>XY, or XY after HJ, can loop enemies with this)
XX>Y (a little unsafe in regular encounters, but a good string for bosses. The >Y part of the string is actually the heavy counter of the Tonfa. Interrupts Zed's summoning)
YY (the full string is YYY, but the last one can't be cancelled with HJ. YY has a decent delimb rate and can be cancelled with HJ)

> single runs
In NGII not a lot yet. Dragon Sword (fresh), Claws, Dual Katana and still got a save midway through the Kusa one but then the kid hit the shelves haha. I am in no rush. In NGS2 I did them all multiple times.

> dagra strat
There is a video, but you know what he's like. Random vid compilations haha, it's somewhere in there. Come to think of it it might have been NGS2 footage instead of NGII.

> zed
Yeah his first fight is less random to me. The second can just go bad in so many ways outside of your control. He can stay in the air forever. He can literally constantly summon helpers. A misplaced dodge sees you jump in the lava, one bad knockdown sends you swimming - it's a nightmare.

For the fireballs I tend to dodge left and then swallow into shuriken/bow for added airtime. You can sort of get him in a lucky loop with claws (XX>XYYY) for huge damage. And there's a wacky stunlock method with waterwalk attacks but good luck getting that consistently. Scythe seems the safest as you can option-select the jumpY. Either you swallow, or you Y. If he goes for the fly move both options will force him to block instead.

> moves
Hella unsafe but I always loved X>Y(hold) Y (at least I think that's the input). Looks so fucking sick.

>Duals

Either this or the Flails will be next my run. Such a sick weapon (can be said about every single weapon tbh).

>Strat might be from NGS2

It's been ages since I've played it, but his lightning is easier to dodge in Sigma 2, correct? I could be wrong.

>Dodge left, FS into shuriken

Noted, I'll try this next time.

>Talons' XX>XYYY and Scythe loop

Yup, I'm aware of them. Found out the Scythe loop from Farnham, it's slower than the Talons but a bit more consistent I'd say. Too bad I couldn't use them, since it's a single-weapon run.

> A cool but unsafe move is X>Y(hold) Y

That is indeed cool. My favourite impractical string is >XXXXX which ends in a stylish kick with a high decap rate. I always use it against the last enemy standing. On that note, >X also has i-frames.

> dagra dai lightning
Can't recall, I think it's the same.

> BotA
Both it and the Claws were pretty rough for me. I try to avoid UTs and abuse on those runs to really learn the weapon. The BotA is great but it's easy to fall in the 360Y trap. It's definitely the hardest weapon to use imo with how many moves it has with different delimb properties. Claws had a lot of startup on a lot of moves and lacked AoE for me outside of 360Y and that wall move. Kusa is great so far, grand weapon and I really appreciate they put something like that in.

Definitelly recommend doing the single weapon runs for sure. Also in the Mission Mode (no chievement, but for fun).

>Avoid UT spam

As you should be. I did the same with my run, and it was always tempting to use UTs because the Tonfa UT is just ridiculous. It helps that the hold Y or OL Y has i-frames, so even if you can't get an ET charge, you're still safe. Very useful in the Rasetsu gauntlet.

>Duals

Yeah it's a little difficult to use because it doesn't have moves that can quickly delimb. Still, the upside is the mobility and having arguably the best i-frame move in the game. >XYY is also good, and cancels into an OT.

>Talons

Same thing. Without spamming >Y and FS into ID, it is a little difficult to use. I'm not that familiar with the weapon, but XXX hold Y and YY>YY are great moves because of the i-frames. Pretty much a guaranteed kill against Mages too, since >Y delimbs legs, and that doesn't work against them because they're floating. The wall attacks are also good, same with running X. >XXXX can loop some bosses and is very mobile.

>Kusa

Another weapon I'm not familiar with, outside of Demon Cutter grabs. I do know 360YYY absolutely destroys big bosses like the Blind Giant and the Drunken Skelly. Running Y is also great for decaps.

>MM

While not as good as NGB's MM, they're still solid. One annoying thing though is the loading times. It takes fucking forever to even play one mission.

Guys It Just happened to me the funniest bug that I've ever seen in this game: ch12 double armadillo bossfight, I killed the first armadillo, but It remains..."alive"(?), but invisible and invincible (Its health was empty), but It was able to hurt me (It grabbed me also), and even on the other armadillo my IS seemed to not explode anymore...It was so strange and unexpected that for the surprise I was killed before being able to take a video. Has this thing happened to someone else?

>Armadillo glitch

Amusing. It has never happened to me, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did happen. The game has all kinds of funny glitches due to the jank.

2 questions:
1. If you do a regular knockback with attack(IE: not gullipotine throw) does it delimb them if they hit a wall still or no?

2. Best way to group enemies? Seems like it’d be very handy in this game due to multiple factors on MN.