NG2 4-2

Ninja Gaiden II: Act 4, Stage 2
4-2 is a very long and difficult stage, consisting of 3 rooms and a boss fight. This is the only stage with the Waterfall stage hazard, making platforming a little more challenging. In any%, the goal is to obtain a Windmill Shuriken and reach the end of the stage with at least 60 ninpo.

Waterfalls
Many of the surfaces in this stage have currents of water flowing on them. On floors, the water current can travel to the left or right, acting as a conveyor belt and slowing or speeding up Ryu's movement. Naturally, to travel as fast as possible, walk along with the current to get a speed boost, or if the current is flowing against your direction, jump as much as possible so that you retain your maximum velocity while in the air.

On walls, the downward-flowing current of a Waterfall makes normal Wall Climbing quite slow. This means that Slash Climbing is more important on this stage than in any other, since Waterfalls can be scaled significantly faster this way.

There's a slight bug on Waterfalls that aren't running down a wall, like at the top of Booster Falls. You can walk through the falling water as if nothing was there, but it can act like a wall if you Boost Grab it from below the ground. Acting fast enough, you can climb to the top row quickly this way. This explanation is probably confusing, so please refer to the video for a demonstration.

Room 1
The first room is straightforward: Use an Invincible Fire Wheel to traverse the second half of the room, and pick up the Orange Ninpo near the end. As described in the section above, make sure you traverse the water currents as quickly as possible by riding them or jumping across opposing currents.

Room 2 (Booster Falls)
You must perform two Damage Boosts to clear this room.

First, you must boost up to the middle platform. From the ground on the right side, jump to the small platform on the left. Jump and move to the left a little bit, and the move right in mid-air back to the platform. This should cause a Bird to spawn. The idea is to use the Bird to boost up to the middle row. You can either boost to the left platform grabbing the side of the small waterfall and climb up, or boost on top of the platform to the right - the former is a bit trickier to time and you have to quickly wall-climb up, but it is faster.

Second, you must boost up to the top platform. This can be done by jumping into the Runner Guy that appears at the top left running towards the right. As described in the Waterfalls section above, if you hit the Runner Guy while overlapping the Waterfall pouring in from he top of the screen, you'll grab an invisible wall, allowing you to climb up (which you can do by jumping off to the right - counterintuitive, I know, but it works). If you miss this boost, you can travel to the left and jump onto the next platform, and then boost off of the last Runner Guy to the top row at the expense of a few seconds.

Both of these boosts are difficult to learn; it is highly recommend to use an emulator and make a savestate at the beginning of this room to get the timing down. Also, an optimal Ladder Grab at the end of this room can be difficult since it is a very long drop, but optimizing it can save good time.

Note: If you didn't grab either Scroll from Stage 4-1, there is a final backup Scroll at the end of the room.

Room 3 (Sewer)
This room is huge - luckily, you'll be invincible for most of it. Dying in this part of the stage sucks, because there is only one backup Shadow Clone, and it's far out of the way.

Ride the long water current and use an Invincible Fire Wheel. When climbing up the small platforms, there are Item Orbs containing a Health Vial and an Orange Ninpo if needed, but they are not necessary if your Act 4 has been good thus far. Boost off of the Flame, scale the next wall, and then scale the next Waterfall with careful Slash Climbing. At the top, use an Invincible Fire Wheel once you get to the water current that travels in your direction; Proceed to the end of the stage, collecting any Ninpo if you have less than 60. Break the final Item Orb to obtain a Windmill Shuriken for the boss fight.

any%
Immediately jump once to bring out your first shadow, and then keep jumping in place while firing Windmill Shurikens twice per jump. The boss should perish after 4 total jumps.

Note: Using Art of the Fire Wheel for the boss fight instead of Windmill Shuriken is debatably just as fast; However, the set up is slightly more involved, and you may have spare Ninpo after defeating the boss, losing you time during the countdown.

low%/pacifist
TODO