NG1 Game Mechanics

General Mechanics and Parameters
See also:
 * Ryu has 16 HP, as do all bosses.
 * All of Ryu's attacks will deal 1 damage, with some special cases: See Items
 * Ryu's HP is automatically refilled after any cutscene. This includes in between all acts, as well as after stage 4-1 , 5-3 (just before the boss fight), and in 6-3 between each final boss form on the first attempt.
 * Ryu loses his subweapon and all ninpo in between acts.
 * Ryu runs at 1.5 pixels per frame (60 fps)
 * After jumping, moving in the opposite direction in mid-air is much slower, at only about 0.5 pixels per frame.
 * Ninja Gaiden
 * Ninjutsu
 * Items

Wall Climbing
Main article: Wall Climbing

May also be referred to as "wall-jumping". Being able to quickly climb walls is a staple skill in speed running Ninja Gaiden. While clung to a wall, hold A and tap in the opposite direction of the wall to jump off. Note that you must NOT be pressing up or down when attempting jumping off of a wall - only left or right. To climb up a single wall, you must move back towards the wall in mid-air after jumping off of it to cling to it again. Repeat this motion to scale a wall.

Ninja Gaiden provides some ladders that let you climb up a single wall without having to jump back and forth. Even wihle climbing a ladder, wall jumping up it as much as possible will still save time. This is not recommended for new players, since messing up can easily lose time or result in death.

Wall climbing can be very difficult for new players, and usually requires a lot of training to get good at the D-Pad motion to do it quickly. Remember that you never have to let go of the jump button when scaling a wall.

There are a number of glitches and tricks associated with wall climbing:
 * When climbing a ladder into a new room, repeated wall jumping may clip you through the wall, resulting in accidental death or transitioning to the previous room below.  This only seems to occur in certain ladder sections.
 * After reaching the top of a wall (possibly at the top of the screen), you can usually clip through the other side by continuing to wall climb.
 * You can grab most ladders/walls from the opposite side, since most walls do not have collision detection inside the wall.  When jumping through the wall, just reverse direction the moment you pass it to grab the wall.

Clipping

 * Some walls can be grabbed onto without pressing in the opposite direction.  This is usually referred to as clipping. This seems to happen in two situations:


 * You are approaching the wall from the opposite direction at the top of the screen.  Continue to hold down A and the initial direction you're travelling, and you'll instantly wall jump and not slow down.  This is an extended wall-jump, and is an easy, useful trick in stage 1-1.
 * You can grab any ladder from the opposite side at any y-position without changing directions, provided that you are at a certain height during a jump.  This is a ladder clip, and can be performed easily in the first room of stage 4-3, and difficultly performed on the ladders in the second room of stage 2-2 and the first room of stage 6-2.

Damage Boosting
Main article: Damage Boost

While in the air or on the ground, taking damage will knock Ryu back at a slightly slower horizontal speed (1.0px/frame) than walking speed. The direction Ryu gets boosted in depends on which side of the colliding object's hitbox Ryu is on. If Ryu hits an enemy on the left side, he'll get boosted to the left, and vice versa on the right. Additionally, taking damage will set Ryu's y-velocity to a fixed value, so both Ryu's current x-velocity and y-velocity do not affect the speed or direction of a damage boost. In fact, taking damage will knock Ryu slightly into the air, allowing you to reach higher platforms with a damage boost that are normally inaccessable with one jump.

If Ryu takes damage while hanging from a wall, he will not get boosted back; however, taking damage from the same object twice while still hanging from a wall will knock him off of the wall.

Also note that after taking damage, Ryu is invulnerable for a short period of time: 30 frames or so after Ryu lands back on the ground (or grabs a wall) after taking damage.

Slash Jumping
Main article: Slash Jumping

When slashing while standing on the ground, Ryu is forced to stop moving briefly (~20 frames). However, slashing in mid-air can be done while moving, so the majority of attacks should be made in mid-air to avoid slowdown. By pressing A and B in quick succession (immediately slashing after jumping), you can kill most ground-based enemies without stopping. Being able to consistently and accurately slash jump is an indisposable skill for Ninja Gaiden speedrunning.

Landing Slash
In addition to the Slash Jump, you can also slash just before landing from a jump to kill an enemy without stopping. You will often have to employ both techniques to improve the time for a stage, such as in passing the first 3 enemies of stage 1-1 without stopping. Additionally, landing from a jump resets the cooldown of your slashing, allowing you to immediately slash again once on the ground with no delay - this is a form of Slash-Canceling (see below), however, this may be rarely taken advantage of.

Slash-Canceling
Arguably the most difficult technique to master in Ninja Gaiden. You can bypass a slash's cooldown and rapidly slash in mid-air by repeating the following sequence of input: Hold Down, Press B, Release Down. With proper mashing technique, one can perform up to 6 or 7 attacks per jump with slash-canceling, quickly killing bosses like Jacquio, the Demon Statue , or .