Level-specific info and tricks.
When I refer to "left" and "right" I mean from the perspective of the camera's default position upon loading the level.
Base Game Levels:
- Osaka Castle
- Nakasendo Road
- Imai Town
- Mount Tsuru
- Lord Yabu's Estate
- Hida Village
- Suganuma Village
- Kanazawa City
- Kage-sama's Camp
- Mount Tsuru (Prison)
- Matsuyama City
- Myogi Pass
- Sunpu Castle
DLC Levels:
Shadow Mode is disabled up until either you read the Shadow Mode hint OR you reach the cutscene where you meet Takuma (although for an unknown reason the latter doesn't always unlock it).
Mugen's first cutscene will trigger if the guards are distracted in any way, so using a rock works. If you hold SPACE to skip the cutscene, you'll have to watch Mugen do his attack animation, but if you double click to skip it fast enough he won't begin his animation and he can start running immediately.
Activating the cannon will kill the three guards in front of it if they're still standing there. The cannon cutscene will warp Hayato up to Mugen. Make sure to gather the shuriken if you've used it and plan to use it again before the cutscene starts so you don't have to run back for it.
Once Takuma's cutscene is triggered by getting one character to the gate, the other character will be warped to the gate.
You're meant to take the explosive barrel up to the roof of the gate and toss it down from there, but with a precise throw from a precise spot under the hanging wood mechanism you can throw it from the side of the gate and still have Takuma be able to shoot it.
The cutscene where you meet Yuki doesn't reset guard routes, so any time you've taken watching the first cutscene and getting past the first guards will contribute to guards' positions upon ending Yuki's cutscene.
There's a small time window where you can whistle both officers on the left side of the map to the boulder at the same time. It's possible to crush them both with the boulder, but it requires luck, so you may have to do some cleanup if you can only get one.
Only Hayato can trigger the final meetup. Yuki being there or not is inconsequential.
Mugen gets unlocked once Yuki touches the ground inside his courtyard. If Yuki teleports to the hook near him she'll trigger the cutscene and start the next section already on the roof.
Yuki and Mugen regrouping inside the compound and watching the subsequent cutscene is not necessary to complete the level.
Only Yuki can retrieve the document, either by pickpockting the official or picking it off of the ground after he's been knocked out. You can pickpocket the official's documents from the roof, and any roof works as long as the official is close enough, whether it be on his normal path or if he's lured in.
The first area's guards will always start in the same place unless you play almost the entire intro cutscene in which case they'll start in their final standing positions.
It's possible to take out the samurai guarding Takuma only using Aiko, but you can't progress the mission until you bring Mugen to Takuma. Mugen rescuing Takuma will warp Aiko there as well.
In Lord Yabu's Estate, Yabu won't come out of his room unless the courtyard gong rings. If you wait long enough, a civilian will ring the gong but it's a 2-3 minute-long cycle. You can also ring it yourself by CTRL clicking it or using Hayato's rock.
Yabu will also appear if you let the intro cutscene play out until he appears (or at least up to shortly beforehand). If you skip the cutscene before this, he won't appear at the same point in time.
If he's outside and there's an alert, he'll run back to his room.
There are many ways to kill Yabu. Pistols and shuriken won't work, but you can:
- stab him
- poison his tea
- snipe him from the island tower or from inside the compound
- grenade him
You can perform the door grenade glitch through Yabu's door. The positioning for this is pretty lenient, clicking pretty much anywhere on the stairs in front of the door Yabu emerges from seems to work.
Yabu's normal route takes him through the center of the courtyard, out of reach from any jump stabs. However, if he hears his dog barking he'll change his path to walk right by a building, in range of a jump stab.
If you knock out Yabu without anyone seeing you (e.g. with a well-planned jump knock out), his bodyguards will simply continue on their way without him. Even if he's killed in complete stealth, his death will trigger the group of red emergency guards to emerge. This won't be counted as an alert in the statistics screen.
This level strangely has several locations where you can perform a jump stab from the ground, which can be used for teleports.
When eavesdropping on Okkoto, sitting in a certain area in the corner of the buildings in front of Okkoto will cause him to bug out and do a little dance, and the eavesdrop bar will stay empty resulting in a soft lock.
If you're teleporting to the door next to him and want to avoid this, make sure to hug the doorframe right outside the edge of his full vision and you should be okay.
Kuma starts out deployed, so recall him at the start of the run if you plan to use him. This will save a lot of time compared to Kuma running across the map.
If the samurai guarding Mugen is lured away, he will come running back as soon as you release Mugen.
Recovering Mugen's gear is not necessary to complete the level.
The group of guards at the level exit will appear once one of your characters enters a certain area of the map after the villagers have been freed, most notably once they walk down the main ramp from the top level (where the villagers start) to the second level. There are also trigger zones around the ladders on the right side of the map, and also on the left side of the map meaning that all paths are covered (except for teleports). The exit guards spawn clustered in a ball, which is convenient if you've got Takuma waiting there with a grenade.
Killing the officers and rescuing the prisoners are optional.
Killing an officer triggers allied forces to kill all enemies within an area around them. Enemies lured into this area will also be killed.
You can throw a grenade through the castle's front gate if you click to the side of the watchtower in the main courtyard.
Only the large barrel in the castle courtyard can blow up the depot, the small ones near Okkoto's tent don't affect it.
Okkoto has the same defenses as a samurai, so anything that takes them down will take him down, including Mugen's pistol or an explosive barrel placed at his spawn location before he appears. Okkoto can't be lured though.
You end the level by carrying imposter Kage's body away from his mat. However, the direction you carry him affects how far you have to go before the cutscene triggers. Carrying him to the left is slightly faster than taking him right. Carrying him down is really slow, and carrying him up doesn't trigger the cutscene at all.
You can escape Hayato without Takuma shooting the ice if you hit the guard with a rock to make him open the cell door.
This can one of the tougher levels since you don't have weapons, but you can permanantly deal with enemies by throwing them off the numerous cliffs to make things a little easier.
If you lure away Aiko's guards, they will rush back to her as soon as you release her.
Mugen's cutscene is unskippable, but you can make the dialogue go faster by spamming click and ENTER. Once the screen widens, Mugen will wait for a player input before performing seppuku, otherwise he'll just sit there for ages.
If you cause an alert in Masaru's compound, Masaru will run into its main building then exit out the back door without his bodyguards.
Two other ways to isolate Masaru are to take out his masseuse or to heat up his bath water.
The drugged alcohol only works if the servant brings it to the guards, so taking out the servant prohibits that strategy.
Noboru is immune to cutscene progression, he will always start in the courtyard regardless of where you skip the cutscene.
Enemies won't enter the unlockable wells even if they see you enter, so they're safe spots.
If you use Aiko's powder on the guard named Itto Mogami Wagner in the firing line as Noboru is watching them fire their guns, he will turn and shoot Noboru.
Noboru will die to the same attacks as a normal guard. Noboru doesn't alert or attack if he sees you, he'll just stop and look at you if you teleport to him before using the well.
Set the audio language to Japanese. English audio adds an additional 10 second wait time after Noboru dies before the final cutscene starts.
Nothing particularly noteworthy.
The sleeping guard by Takuma's cage won't wake up if Takuma runs by him or even if kuma howls. He'll only wake up if you touch him.
The level ends when (1) all 5 crates are destroyed, and (2) Takuma is in the lifeboat. Your other characters' locations don't matter.
Either character can pick up the document from the samurai when he's killed or knocked out.
Letting the first mid-level cutscene (passing through the statue puzzle door) play out some will move your characters' starting position compared to skipping the cutscene immediately, giving you a bit of free distance traveled in IGT.
Teleporting to the complex entrance's floor spike trap's switch while holding CTRL to activate it can teleport you into the activating spikes, insta-killing yourself. To avoid this, teleport without holding CTRL, or you can also adjust the camera angle to a position where this doesn't happen.
Chiyo doesn't have any special defenses, anything that kills a normal enemy will take her out.
It's possible to snipe Chiyo with Takuma from a specific spot on the riverbank near the exit while she is approaching her shrine.
Using English audio saves around 40 seconds compared to Japanese audio for the Any% run of this level.
After talking to Hayato, you can see and teleport to the bowl at the hill-top shrine even before that part of the map is revealed with the correct camera positioning. This skips walking distance and some of Hayato's dialogue.