Survival Missions - High Scores, Strategies and Discussion.

[H.Smoke]

Yes Puregrunt I read your guide and watched some of your videos but I'm nowhere near that level so I can only keep some details to myself

I guess in a way, is just a matter of practice and getting used to each weapon and its waves (I have the habit of playing with a weapon for a while and change it so I'm always forgetting about the wave's order and stuff)

Also sometimes as I said I feel handicapped and with some weapons like the Talons overwhelmed because there're some waves that get really difficult to handle (the one with bipedal mechas and red gajas comes to mind). That's why I want to get good with the DS, because I think is a weapon that you can rely against most enemies. I think today I'll also try with the BotA (I didn't play with it or the Tonfas and Vflails yet)

I want to reach at least 3M with the Lunar too, but I find myself in a situation similar to the Talons (a lot of strategies that I used now are not that good because the essence)

Oh and regarding the green essence although I read your guide I still think that is kind of random sometimes. I have done combos of 20, 30 or 40 and got yellow essence and sometimes I do a couple of FS > ID with the Talons and got green
Usually with the DS and the Lunar I throw a lot of shurikens to make the combo count bigger so I have better chances of blue/green essence

[reim0027]

Oh and regarding the green essence although I read your guide I still think that is kind of random sometimes. I have done combos of 20, 30 or 40 and got yellow essence and sometimes I do a couple of FS > ID with the Talons and got green
Usually with the DS and the Lunar I throw a lot of shurikens to make the combo count bigger so I have better chances of blue/green essence

IIRC, combos of 20+ only yield yellow essence.

[Puregrunt]

Yellow essence will form under any condition. Any combo count can form yellow. Blue will never form above 20, neither will red. Green essence will form under 20, but has a very high rate above 20.

There is a factor of randomness, as it is programmed in intentionally to make it more sporadic. But it's minimal in comparison to the way the essence spawns like above.

[H.Smoke]

Yellow essence will form under any condition. Any combo count can form yellow. Blue will never form above 20, neither will red. Green essence will form under 20, but has a very high rate above 20.

There is a factor of randomness, as it is programmed in intentionally to make it more sporadic. But it's minimal in comparison to the way the essence spawns like above.

I didn't know this! I thought that combos of +20 = blue/green essence (most of the time). Now that shakes things a little for me

[reim0027]

Oops. Thanks for correcting me about the essence.

[H.Smoke]

I think I'll give up, at least for some time because is getting too stressful and I hate the random factor of the essence and that I've to rely heavily on it

Oh and about Genshin, I could never defeat him. I've been really close with the Scythe and the Lunar, but the damn minions (especially warlocks) always ruin everything. It's really unfair that you have to fight Genshin with like what, 3-4 sets of minions? Come on...

[Puregrunt]

I haven't got much else to say other than....i know how you feel. A rest is actually a pretty good idea. You can feel burnt out of you keep at it for too long. I think most would agree that Survival is the absolute toughest test of skill in NG2. It's freakin relentless and uber tough, even for the seasoned guys.


That said, i can say this....i have never felt a rush in any other Ninja Gaiden game that compares to Survival. Especially getting through the other rounds, Mentor and Master Ninja etc. It's a feel like no other. Even smashing Ultimate Ninja, Master Ninja and all Missions including Eternal Legend do not compare. At least for me they don't, and i've played all of em. I think when i first beat Fiend Genshin i was like, damn that was stupid hard....but what if i can make it a little further???? It's very addictive.


Perhaps some food for thought. Up your speed and hand/eye co-ordination and play aggressive, more than what you do now. Forget about essence and score and just practice getting through that first round over and over until it becomes second nature. I know it can be done, you just have to be very (extremely) persistent.





Oh, and about the minions with Genshin, i agree wholeheartedly, they suck. TN makes it as hard as possible. I also hate that there's a wave of of Tac Ninjas with bazookas that try to smother you with rockets to drain any health you might have managed to savor from the previous wave. Just in time to fight a Boss (and 12 minions). Just imagine how good YROGRVLNT was, he got over 20 million with the Talons

[H.Smoke]

I think I'll have a rest. I was playing with the BotA against the armored dogs and one of them did suicide on me and just right after the frames of Ryu's animation (when he wakes up) ended ANOTHER dog suicided on me. I defend this game to death but let's get real that's absolutely bullshit. Literally I couldn't do anything to stop it

Also the BotA feels really awkward more often than not, like, really slow. After playing with it for a couple of hours it starts to get really notorious. It's a lot better in RE

And yes, there're some really awesome players out there, you for example. I was really impressed with your videos. How you keep the karma burst at max and constantly chains UT... You make the acolyte run look really simple (and with every weapon)

[H.Smoke]

Okay sorry for the double post but I actually tried to practice the first round without worrying that much about the score and I got some good results. With the Lunar I can reliably reach Genshin and I've defeated him a couple of times (farthest I went is the fight after the mechas with the red gajas in Warrior)

Also I've been practicing with the BotA but the armored dogs are a game breaker for me. If I do well then I can usually go until Genshin or 1-2 waves before him, if I don't do so well then I either get killed there or in then next few waves

[Puregrunt]

But, you improved already! Very nice. It feels so good to get past Genshin. Keep it up

[reim0027]

Double posting eh? Keep it up and see what happens . . .

I keep telling myself to get into Survival. I would use the KG. My problem is RE. The KG is so damn good (except for the bosses) that the NG2 KG feels strange. It would take a lot of getting used to.

[H.Smoke]

I stopped with the BotA, sometimes I have fun, sometimes I don't. I started to practice with the weapons I have fun with (namely the Lunar, KG and Scythe). With the Scythe I can reach Genshin more often than not, but I can't defeat him! The damn warlocks are a completely pain! I've been really close, but they always get me, if not, Genshin kills me with a perfectly timed FS when I'm in the middle of killing a warlock (I usually go for the AXYYY combo against them because I'm too stubborn to use GT)

Such is the way of the ninja I guess

Edit: I forgot to mention: in the run when I got my most recent score with the scythe I've a really furious start. I just find that I ended the fight with Rasetsu with ~2,7M I think

Edit II: After a couple of days without playing I had a couple of good runs with the scythe and got killed against the 2nd Genshin in two occassions

I also tried to improve with the Lunar but now I get more blown out than before, I don't know what happened but is getting infuriating so I think I'll stop

I want to improve with the DS but I'm not playing that much lately so I don't know how far I'll get now in survival - Probably for the better because I'm starting to get burned out

[H.Smoke]

A bit sad that after some months away looks like no one else tried to get blown good at Survival

It is fun to read my previous posts and realize how much I was bitching, even if I still believe in some of the stuff I said. Anyway I stopped playing this mode like ~8-7 months ago, but I did progress a bit and after some time off I'm thinking about giving the thing another go soonish.

My scores:

Lunar: 5,126,080
Kusarigama: 3,413,200
BotA: 6,799,090
Scythe: 8,562,000
Tonfa: 5,088,640
Dragon Sword: 4,289,190

Claws and Flails scores are laughable so I won't even bother posting them. It especially pains me my shitty performance with the Talons since it is my 'go-to' weapon in the game and I absolutely suck with them in Survival.

Regarding the other weapons, I feel the DS score is weak and I think I can -and should- improve it as soon as I start playing again. Kusarigama's numbers aren't big deal but I never really tried to get good with it and I got my current score in one of my early sessions in which I did really good at the beginning and died like a little bitch somewhere before the 1st Genshin and never really looked back.

I also think I can get near the 9-10M mark with the BotA and the Scythe if I'm patient enough.

[Puregrunt]

It's tough man, a real grind. A test of ones patience and skill!

I haven't played it in ages. It is an old game now though, most stopped playing it for scores etc a while ago. That's not to say it's not worth playing again for a top score. If you think you're bitching, then just look back through all my old survival posts lol


If you want to be good at survival, i mean really good, then you need to put in the hours. Maybe to even devote all of your gaming time, if you want to destroy all your old scores. NG requires all of your attention if you want the elite scores and achievements. It feels like you're climbing Mt Everest. It's insanely tough. But when you reach the top, you will look back and say "it was worth it".


Keep going.

[H.Smoke]

Yea I know, at this point I'll just play more for recreation than anything else (I was REALLY into improving the scores when I started playing months ago) so I think I'll take it easier the next time I decide to give it a go. Aside from the DS score I'm not really anxious to improve the rest because I wanted to, at least, have most of the weapons around the 5M karma mark, which more or less I did. Difference between the DS and the other 3 weapons that I didn't get to ~5M is that I believe I can reach that score (or a bit more) with the sword, whereas I'm clueless with the Kusarigama, Flails and Claws

[Royta]

Oh dear.

[unwary]

we're getting popular now

[reim0027]

Goodbye bot.

[d_Nought]

Longtime lurker first time poster. Been playing this for a while and just finished beating the Acolyte round with every weapon

Currently sitting at:

Dragon Sword - 6.375 M, Warrior Mages/Zombies
Flails - 4.192 M, Warrior Giant Mech/Red Gajas
Tonfa - 12.28 M, Master Ninja Giant Mech/Red Gajas
Scythe - 5.077 M, Warrior Giant Mech/Mages
BotA - 6.053 M, Warrior Red Dragon/IS
Kusarigama - 8.276 M, Mentor IS/Gaja
Talons - 5.494 M, Warrior Mechspam
Lunar - 6.461 M, Warrior multirocket guys (...)

[Massaca]

Whoa, nice Tonfa score.
And welcome ^_^

[JTB123]

Great to see you on here dNought

[d_Nought]

Hmm, I do have that tonfa one on video but I sorta held off on doing anything with it because I thought I could do a fair bit better on the score. I actually deleted 8.3M Kusarigama without looking at the front page of this thread and realising it's my best score *relatively* speaking . Well, just gotta get it back.

Overall I would say that I'm getting really consistent at beating Acolyte Genshin with the Tonfa, one time I got 6 Acolyte clear playthroughs in a row with it. So I feel like I should keep grinding that. At the same time, I'm pissed that I deleted the Kusarigama vid, but I'm nowhere near as consistent with that at beating Genshin. On my last spree of Kusa grinding sessions it took me a solid 15 goes or so at Genshin to clear him and then I died to getting chain suicide grabbed by fiend Mages in Warrior

[JTB123]

I was just going to post in here DNought about the leaderboards and giving this thread a jolly good update. One that caught my eye is 3 hour 42 minute tonfa run, I would pay money to see that full run.

This makes me realise just how long ago all this was, also reminded me that if we are going to update the leaderboards to reflect the current top ten then the only bit of actual forum drama from the old site needs addressing here. I won't get into it now and I can only remember the broad strokes from it but it will mean that a certain players score is not counted in the top ten in this thread.

I got connection issues when trying to check the leaderboards when noting things down so will try again later or on stream tonight.

If you have any runs on video dNought then please post them Once I'm done updating the OP I will make it clear that for a run to be entered in the top ten it has to be on video in full. A decade ago it was understandable we would give people the benefit of the doubt or go by their first two rounds or ninja cinema. Times have simply changed and with the brutal difficulty of survival if someone posts a run that would qualify for top ten then it's vids or it didn't happen I'm afraid

[Massaca]

I still wonder about that sometimes. Cause I couldn't find any way it could be faked at the time.

[Farnham The Drunk]

I have a quick question about survival:
Is there a leaderboard for 'Kill Count' or is the Karma score the only thing that interests people?
I ask because i never cared about Karma and i feel like a very high kill count is equally impressive... when i look at survival i think about exactly that - surviving for as long as possible...