Ninja Gaiden 3 tips and boss battle guide

Day 8

Cliff

What a homely name for a crystalized mutant man with four arms. Slide dodge his projectile attacks and stand just outside of his attack range. Here, Cliff will likely employ a two- or five-hit combo chain. Dodge these, then get a few quick attacks in and back out. When his arms glow white, slide dodge away to avoid his unblockable attack. You’ll cut off his arms a bunch of times by the fight ends, but be prepared to dodge his AoE explosion attack, the blast radius of which is indicated by a glowing circle.

After he takes enough damage, Cliff will magically start flying around. Shoot him with an arrow and Ryu loses his bow. Now you have to fight off waves of crystal monsters while dodging laser attacks (don’t stand in glowing circles!). After killing enough monsters, Ryu can use an ultimate attack when his arm starts glowing red to bring Cliff back to the ground. If you manage to damage him enough before he flies back up into the air, a QTE will begin and you can end the fight.

Master Ninja notes: Again, same thing, just harder—be especially wary of the energy explosion attack.

Regent of the Mask

Son of a bi—AGAIN? This is the last time, we promise! As always, dodge, punish, win.

Master Ninja notes: C’mon.

Goddess

So…this is the final boss fight. Not exactly sure what this thing is, but it needs to die. After the QTE-fest, watch out for the orange circles that appear on the rooftop. This is where the boss will do an arm slam—and look at the size of those things! Getting hit by this is pretty bad. Hurry and kill the waves of enemies to build your Ninpo gauge, then unleash your magic to progress the fight into another QTE. Attack her arms, then her head.

Once your back on the rooftop, follow the same strategy as before. Sometimes after an arm slam, the Goddess’ arm will remain on the ground for a brief moment. Use this opportunity to attack it. Be wary of her sword slash attacks—slide underneath those to avoid death. Keep doing this while the boss destroys chunks of the roof. Finally, you’ll engage in one last QTE and end the fight.

Master Ninja notes: There’s not much to say aside from “don’t get hit.” One false move and you can expect to restart the battle.

Ryan Taljonick

Ryan was once the Executive Editor of GamesRadar, before moving into the world of games development. He worked as a Brand Manager at EA, and then at Bethesda Softworks, before moving to 2K. He briefly went back to EA and is now the Director of Global Marketing Strategy at 2K.