Do the difficulty trophies stack?

[paulchaested]

In NGS, I remember that you can unlock harder difficulties by defeating Doku in the beginning of the game. Can anybody confirm if you can gun straight for Master Ninja difficulty and unlock the rest of the difficulty trophies or do we actually have to do multiple playthroughs?

[RadiantFlamberge]

I haven't finished Sigma 1 yet, though I've heard that its difficulty trophies will stack.

Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma is not like this though... I cleared Warrior and only got the Passed Warrior trophy, but no Passed Hero Play Style or Acolyte.

[Elegy]

I earned the trophies for mastering hard, very hard and master ninja all at the same time when I finished my master ninja run.  It is identical to the Vita version of NGS+ in that regard.

[natsu2233]

7 hours ago, Elegy said:

I earned the trophies for mastering hard, very hard and master ninja all at the same time when I finished my master ninja run.  It is identical to the Vita version of NGS+ in that regard.

Any tips for getting Master rank on Master Ninja difficulty?
And can I use the accessories that I unlocked on Master Ninja?
and Is it good to start Master Ninja now or after finishing mission mode and trials?
Thank you.
 

Edited June 20, 2021 by natsu2233

[Elegy]

9 hours ago, natsu2233 said:

Any tips for getting Master rank on Master Ninja difficulty?
And can I use the accessories that I unlocked on Master Ninja?
and Is it good to start Master Ninja now or after finishing mission mode and trials?
Thank you.
 

You can use costumes and armaments in Master Ninja difficulty.  Using Ryu's Grip of Murder costume from clearing Very Hard and Rachel's Biker costume from clearing Hard are both really useful.  You can also use the Azure Dragon Helm with Ryu that greatly raises his damage but decreases his defense, which comes from finishing Chapter 9 on hard or very hard I believe.  Combining that costume + azure dragon helm allowed me to kill Murai with 2 ETs on master ninja.  The damage increase is very considerable, but you will also take massive damage in return so you'll want to know the fights.
 

You can do trials before or after the master ninja run, its mostly just personal preference.  None of the unlocks from clearing trials are important.

I can give some general tips for mastering master ninja. Obviously, use the grip of murder costume and azure dragon helm as I just said.  You'll also want to keep your karma score indicator on your UI at all times by clicking L3.  Use ETs/UTs as often as possible while also trying to kill enemies quickly to make the individual fight timers.  Chapter 1 is the hardest to get master ninja rank on so you'll need to be making most of the fight timers.  Easiest way to do that is to leave some essence up from a prior area before entering a timed fight so that you can do an onlanding ET/UT and absorb the essence from the prior area instantly.  You can avoid absorbing essence by holding block when you are close to it. 

Don't skip or miss any fights with fight timers that show up on your karma indicator.  Don't waste time during chapters doing unnecessary things, refill your ninpo before the end of the chapter unless you're confident that you'll get master anyway and just want the free refill at the cost of some score.  Chain UTs in ninja ambushes for 5k points every time up to a max of 50 UTs.  Killing bosses quickly will get you a nice bonus most of the time as well so it helps to know quick ways to dispatch them.  For example, when Murai does a front flip to close distance with you you can do a forward T into an onlanding ET if you get essence from killing his minions.  Chapter 3 fat man can be killed quickly with 360T from dual swords as can the bone dragon in Chapter 7.  Gleaming blade with lvl 3 dragon sword/true dragon sword (360 hold T) will become your friend on most of the later fights if you're going for high speed kills as well.

 

You may want to skip the Zarkhan Arena and Great Bridge ninja ambushes on master ninja as multiple berserkers at once is incredibly annoying and tedious.  If you want to do that then I suggest saving the Peristyle Passage and the pill bug ninja ambush from Chapter 12 Aqueducts for Chapter 16 instead, which is what I did on my run.  Lastly, make a save at the beginning of every chapter and then a second save during the chapter so you can save often and redo fights if you feel like you did poorly and want a better score.  Be careful at the beginning of chapter 16 though.  There is a ninja ambush with those flying wasps in the same room as the first save point and if you load that save the timed challenge will be cancelled so you need to keep your final save from chapter 15 and don't overwrite it until after you pass that ninja ambush successfully in Chapter 16.  It is really easy to accidentally exit through the door during that fiend challenge in chapter 16 if you prefer to fight it up on the ledge like I do which would nullify all of the points from the challenge.

Edited June 20, 2021 by Elegy

[natsu2233]

1 hour ago, Elegy said:

You can use costumes and armaments in Master Ninja difficulty.  Using Ryu's Grip of Murder costume from clearing Very Hard and Rachel's Biker costume from clearing Hard are both really useful.  You can also use the Azure Dragon Helm with Ryu that greatly raises his damage but decreases his defense, which comes from finishing Chapter 9 on hard or very hard I believe.  Combining that costume + azure dragon helm allowed me to kill Murai with 2 ETs on master ninja.  The damage increase is very considerable, but you will also take massive damage in return so you'll want to know the fights.
 

You can do trials before or after the master ninja run, its mostly just personal preference.  None of the unlocks from clearing trials are important.

I can give some general tips for mastering master ninja. Obviously, use the grip of murder costume and azure dragon helm as I just said.  You'll also want to keep your karma score indicator on your UI at all times by clicking L3.  Use ETs/UTs as often as possible while also trying to kill enemies quickly to make the individual fight timers.  Chapter 1 is the hardest to get master ninja rank on so you'll need to be making most of the fight timers.  Easiest way to do that is to leave some essence up from a prior area before entering a timed fight so that you can do an onlanding ET/UT and absorb the essence from the prior area instantly.  You can avoid absorbing essence by holding block when you are close to it. 

Don't skip or miss any fights with fight timers that show up on your karma indicator.  Don't waste time during chapters doing unnecessary things, refill your ninpo before the end of the chapter unless you're confident that you'll get master anyway and just want the free refill at the cost of some score.  Chain UTs in ninja ambushes for 5k points every time up to a max of 50 UTs.  Killing bosses quickly will get you a nice bonus most of the time as well so it helps to know quick ways to dispatch them.  For example, when Murai does a front flip to close distance with you you can do a forward T into an onlanding ET if you get essence from killing his minions.  Chapter 3 fat man can be killed quickly with 360T from dual swords as can the bone dragon in Chapter 7.  Gleaming blade with lvl 3 dragon sword/true dragon sword (360 hold T) will become your friend on most of the later fights if you're going for high speed kills as well.

 

You may want to skip the Zarkhan Arena and Great Bridge ninja ambushes on master ninja as multiple berserkers at once is incredibly annoying and tedious.  If you want to do that then I suggest saving the Peristyle Passage and the pill bug ninja ambush from Chapter 12 Aqueducts for Chapter 16 instead, which is what I did on my run.  Lastly, make a save at the beginning of every chapter and then a second save during the chapter so you can save often and redo fights if you feel like you did poorly and want a better score.  Be careful at the beginning of chapter 16 though.  There is a ninja ambush with those flying wasps in the same room as the first save point and if you load that save the timed challenge will be cancelled so you need to keep your final save from chapter 15 and don't overwrite it until after you pass that ninja ambush successfully in Chapter 16.  It is really easy to accidentally exit through the door during that fiend challenge in chapter 16 if you prefer to fight it up on the ledge like I do which would nullify all of the points from the challenge.

Thank u soo much Elegy for the tips. I just reached chapter 18 on hard and gotta admit, it's going to be really hard on master ninja from what I can tell, but maybe as you said Ryu's Grip of Murder costume and Rachel's Biker and the Azure Dragon Helm will make a huge difference in term of damage, but my question is  if I did poorly in some of the timed fights, is it possible to get master rank by killing more enemies or there is no point in killing them without timer? 

[Elegy]

11 minutes ago, natsu2233 said:

if I did poorly in some of the timed fights, is it possible to get master rank by killing more enemies or there is no point in killing them without timer? 

 

You don't get any bonus karma points for ET/UTs or kills on fights that aren't timed.  The only reason to ever kill an enemy outside of a timed challenge is if you are trying to meet a chapter's total kill count bonus that is for some reason higher than the amount of enemies you get just doing all the timed fights, drag essence to another fight or if you want to farm essence to buy stuff at Muramasa's shop.  I don't recall it being necessary to farm on any chapters on master ninja, but I might have got some extra kills in Chapter 6.  Any other time I killed extra enemies it was just because I wanted to drag essence to another fight or farm some money.

[natsu2233]

3 minutes ago, Elegy said:

 

You don't get any bonus karma points for ET/UTs or kills on fights that aren't timed.  The only reason to ever kill an enemy outside of a timed challenge is if you are trying to meet a chapter's total kill count bonus that is for some reason higher than the amount of enemies you get just doing all the timed fights, drag essence to another fight or if you want to farm essence to buy stuff at Muramasa's shop.  I don't recall it being necessary to farm on any chapters on master ninja, but I might have got some extra kills in Chapter 6.  Any other time I killed extra enemies it was just because I wanted to drag essence to another fight or farm some money.

Is there a guide for how many kills you need and how much time for every chapter?