How-To Guide: Ninja

CAUTION!
This article is only a guide. Information expressed in a guide is usually more opinion than fact and should be taken as such. Guides are written by players, based upon their experiences, successes and mistakes, and are meant to aid other players. However, there may be differing opinions than those expressed in a guide.
Strategies and information in guides may not work for everyone.

The Ninja[edit]

Ninja is the only job that can equip single-handed Katana, Shuriken throwing weapons, and use Ninjutsu spells. The Ninja is also considered a remarkable tank; all because of its Utsusemi line of Ninjutsu. Often, Ninjas are forced to lose touch with its otherwise great damage-dealing, enfeebling, and pulling prowess mostly because it’s the only job (other than Paladin) that can effectively ’tank’. Strangely, if people would continue using Shurikens, it would help with keeping enmity for tanking, and cost quite a bit less for their effect than using the Elemental Wheel. Ninja is a fun job. Play it how you like it. Though chances are very, very high you’ll be chosen for tanking. Breaking our your "Trusts" is a great choice if you don’t want to tank in a party! Ninja is a flexible job, able to perform various roles in parties whether tanking or not.
Please note: This is only a guide. Please add anything if it is needed, and take away anything that is either untrue or not needed.

Job-Race Combinations[edit]

Race is the last thing you should worry about when picking a job. Anything said here is exaggerated. A single piece of gear can often make up for a race's negligible lack in a stat. Every race also gets "Race Specific Equipment", or "RSE", that will boost a race's stats to equal, or possibly even surpass other races.

Hume[edit]

  • Ninja is a job that requires a lot of balance between both evasion and enmity, at least for tanking. For dealing damage, strength, dexterity, and agility are all great stats to have. Hume definitely doesn’t disappoint the job-class Ninja, as it has these three stats, as well as vitality and HP for taking hits, and intelligence for its enfeebles and Elemental Wheel.

Elvaan[edit]

  • The higher-end of damage per hit for Ninja, and definitely the one to keep the most hate if nothing but direct hits are counted. Ailment and damaging Ninjutsu are hindered by low intelligence, accuracy is hindered by low dexterity, and evasion/ranged accuracy are hindered by low agility. On the other hand, Elvaan’s naturally highest strength does for the most part make up for these few low stats, as it brings home the highest enmity as I said. And more often than not, keeping hate is a Ninja’s biggest problem. If low evasion bothers you, there’s a ton of stuff out there for those who want to tank.

Tarutaru[edit]

  • An all-round solid job-race combination. Tarutaru enjoy relatively high agility, so evasion and keeping shadows up shouldn’t be a problem, not to mention high shuriken accuracy if you use them to keep hate. Which is a good thing to consider seeing as how Tarutaru lack high strength. Low vitality and HP mean that if the Tarutaru loses his or her shadows, they’re out of luck. High intelligence means proper ailment-inducing Ninjutsu, and a slightly more powerful Elemental Wheel.

Mithra[edit]

  • Mithra provide Ninja with the highest both dexterity and agility in the game, allowing for accurate and precise both attacks and ranged attacks, as well as great evasion. Average HP means relatively high survivability, and average intelligence means better Ninjutsu. Mithra also possess an average strength attribute for dealing damage per hit. The only true downside to a Mithra Ninja is her low vitality, meaning if her shadows go down, she’d better get them back up pronto.

Galka[edit]

  • With the highest HP and vitality in the game, and a moderate agility to boot, Galka prove great Ninja tanks to any party. They even have high strength and relatively high dexterity for dealing hits and keeping hate. Their somewhat low intelligence makes it slightly more difficult to choose the route of pure Ninjutsu, but luckily their two lowest stats, MP and charisma, play no role in the job as a whole.

Equipment Choices[edit]

Weapon[edit]

  • Ninja is the only job in the game that can equip Katana. It also has an A- in the skill, so that will be your primary weapon for the vast majority of the game. By Lv.10 you will have the ability to wield two single-handed weapons at one time. Use your standard Katana until Lv.10, but when you can first Dual Wield, equip a Sword in your offhand. This will provide you with the powerful Blade: Retsu from Katana, plus all the damage of a sword. You’ll want to continue this until about Lv.25 or so, then switch to dual Katana. Since there aren’t an enormous number of Katana to choose from, look toward purchasing the ones with better stat enhancements and damage per second. Otherwise, pick the ones with higher damage per hit. Later in the game, a Ninja may choose to equip daggers or other somewhat odd weapons. That’s okay too, just make sure you have high enough skill to use them. The best thing about Dual Wield is, no matter what, you’ll always have at least one good weapon, even if the second one’s just for stat enhancements. As for ranged weapons, most Ninjas either leave it blank, or fill it will a stat-boosting weapon. Ninja has A- in Throwing, people! Lv.15 gives you access to the Rogetsurin chakram weapon that drops from one of two notorious monsters in Konschtat Highlands. It’s quite good, with an agility buff, and never runs out. An alternative arises when you hit Lv.18 and are capable of first equipping actual shurikens. Shurikens are unbelievably powerful in both damage per hit and over time. Also, they’re not as expensive as they look. You get much more damage out of them for slightly more money than other things you could pick. If you have your blacksmithing skill relatively high, you can make your own Shurikens for cheap. The Lv.18 Shurikens overpower the most powerful Lv.50 weapons, and the Lv.28 Shurikens overpower the Excalibur! (…In terms of base damage over base delay.)

Armor[edit]

  • Ninja has the privilege to equip a wide variety of different pieces of armor in the game. Depending on how you want to play, you can choose your own combinations. Purchasing evasion and enmity-type gear is good for tanks, and attack and range-type gear for damage-dealers. You’re given access to Harness, Leather, Far-Eastern gear, and even Chainmail. What you think you need to enhance yourself as a tank or damage-dealer is solely up to you.

Advanced Job Quest Walkthrough[edit]

Korroloka Tunnel
Sea Serpent Grotto
Norg
  • Talk to Kaede in Port Bastok at (J-5) (northernmost house) for a cutscene that includes her father Ensetsu, who is in the other room.
  • Next talk to Kagetora in Warehouse 2.
  • Go back and talk to Ensetsu who will ask you for a favor.
  • Go to the Korroloka Tunnel (K/L-8) Map 5 to find a ??? that spawns three Korroloka Leeches.
    • There are Thread Leeches nearby that link with the Korroloka Leeches.
    • It is helpful to clear the area of the leeches before checking the ??? to avoid links.
  • Kill the Korroloka Leeches and click on the ??? to get some Key ItemStrangely Shaped Coral
    • If you receive the message "You see nothing out of the ordinary," simply wait for the leeches' bodies to vanish. Then you can get the coral by checking the ???. Not everyone has this issue.
    • If more than one party member needs this fight, only one person needs to pop the three leeches. After the last leech fades away, have a different party member who needs the item click the ???, then have the player who spawned the leeches click it afterwards. Otherwise the player who did not spawn the leeches will be unable to obtain the Key ItemStrangely Shaped Coral.
  • Talk to Ensetsu in Port Bastok, who tells you to take the coral to Norg.
  • Go to Norg, which can be found within Sea Serpent Grotto. You need the Key ItemAirship pass for Kazham to reach Norg.
  • Talk to Ryoma on the docks in Norg at (H-8) to receive a Key ItemSealed Dagger.
  • Return the dagger to Ensetsu for a cutscene that finishes the quest.

Notes[edit]

  • The Korroloka Leeches immediately attack the player who examines the ???. If this player is low-leveled, he may die from this. It is a good idea to have that player use Sneak (item/spell/ability) to prevent this, or have another player use an AoE attack to quickly attract the leeches' attention.
  • If the player who examines the ??? dies, even if all the Korroloka Leeches are killed before they are raised, they can still obtain the Strangely Shaped Coral by checking the ???.
  • It is not necessary to kill all three leeches. If you hold one leech without aggroing or linking the other two, you can wait for the two passive leeches to despawn. Then, you can kill the leech you were holding and receive credit for the fight. The game only checks that the last remaining leech is defeated. Note that spawning the leeches and letting all three despawn does not allow you to get the key item.
  • Leeches have ~950 HP each.

Leveling[edit]

Soloing 1 to 10[edit]

  • Ninja’s weapons, or at least the Lv.1 Kunai, are really fast and are quite fun to use. Equipping high defense gear is favoured, and probably a support job like Warrior for dealing extra damage. You get your first weapon skill at Lv.3; Blade: Rin. It sucks. You generally get more damage out of normal hits. An alternative to the norm is to equip hand-to-hand weapons and sub Monk. The difference in skill level is negligible at this level, and the weapon skill Combo is great. Be careful using this route, though, because your Katana skill is going to fall far behind unless you skill it up after you are done. No other jobs have skill in Katana, so you can’t skill-up early or as another job later. Make habit of grabbing Signet before you go outside. Not only will it make soloing a lot easier through defense and evasion bonuses, but it will also allow you to rest HP without losing TP, and will also earn you conquest points with which to spend on items.

The Sahagin’s Stash[edit]

  • If you’re going to level Ninja, whether you tank or not, you’re going to literally need the Ninjutsu spell called Utsusemi: Ichi. Here’s a walkthrough for that quest. First thing’s first, you need fame in Norg. It’s the biggest pain in the butt, I know, but it must be done. Go to the Yagudo stronghold near Windurst called Giddeus. Kill the Yagudo in there and collect their “Yagudo Bead Necklaces”. Take in a number of them at a time, take them to the Cat Burglar and trade her four at a time. You’ll end-up needing to trade approximately 220 of them. Alternatively, either mine, kill worms for, or purchase Zinc Ore at Auction Houses and hand them over to Talib (Port Bastok) in Shady Business. Once you have sufficient fame in Norg, you can begin. First off, you go to Norg. Talk to Laisrean at H-7. Acquire a Silver Beastcoin, bring some form of warp, and have some form of sneak with you. You will need a lot of sneak, trust me. Silent Oils or the spell itself-- either way. Escape may be more ideal than Warp, but either way, it’s a lot faster than going all the way back through the hard way. Next, head outside of Norg and head through the unmarked stone door in the caves ahead. Head east after you go through the door, and then follow the right wall. You will find yourself heading south and going down a number of steps. Note that you will not be able to go backwards at this point. Now, heading south, follow the left wall. You will generally be going south, but occasionally east or south-east. Once you hit the coordinate L-13 on your map, start following the right wall again. You will find a door. Examine it. It will say pretty much nothing. That is okay! Examine it about five more times until it says there are silver shavings around the engravement. Trade your Silver Beastcoin to the door. It will let you pass through. From here, hug the right wall like it was family. You do NOT want to fall down the cliff to the left. You do, however, want to fall down to the right once you hit H-8. Drop down, then continue following the right wall. Head through the door, then touch the ??? to receive both a cutscene and a key item. Now either warp, escape, or run back (to run back, head out of the door, drop down the cliff to the right, then just follow the right wall pretty much the whole way back. Talk to Laisrean again to receive your scroll. Congratulations! Now, don’t forget to bring your scroll with you, as you’re definitely going to need it once you hit Lv.12.

Valkurm 10-20[edit]

  • Your journey to Valkurm starts much unlike most jobs. You’re deemed actually quite useless until about Lv.12, and as such, you’ll probably have to make a party or two or solo in an alternate area just to be able to use your scroll of Utsusemi: Ichi. Once you get that spell, you’ll be immediately branded a tank. In order to tank as a Ninja, you have to have really good timing and knowledge of how the game overall works. Allow me to give you a brief overview of how it works. Before a fight starts, use Utsusemi. This will give you three shadows- each of which takes a hit for you. This spell has a four second casting time and a thirty second recasting time. When your party pulls, Provoke to take hate. It won’t be too long before you lose your second of three shadows. Keep count! Once the second one goes down, pull up the spell and start casting. The enemy should take down your third and final shadow as you get Utsusemi up, giving you an additional three hits. After your second shadow is dropped again, hit a macro that lets your party’s secondary tank know that your Utsusemi is down and that he needs to use Provoke. Once you can get Utsusemi up again, re-Provoke and take hate again. This is the basic strategy for all Ninja tanks between Lv.12 and Lv.36. At Lv.15 you get the Elemental Wheel. I suggest using it right away to try and re-cap your Ninjutsu skill. Utsusemi alone will not cap your skill. Anyway, the biggest benefit to Ninja in these levels is the fact that you have Tonko, which is a very, very cheap way to invisible yourself to pass Goblins and stuff. There’s a Lv.15 Katana called the Gassan that’s really good. You can get it by killing sheep on Vomp Hill in South Gustaberg and getting the blood that they drop. Take it to Dangruf Wadi and trade it to a ??? that appears in random positions throughout the map. Kill the NM named Chocoboleech (he’s high level, be careful). Once you hit Lv.18 you can start using Shurikens. I suggest using them if you have throwing skill capped and aren’t strapped for cash. If your skill isn’t capped yet, try and cap it with a thrown-returns weapon some other time.

Mid-Levels 20-40[edit]

  • Assuming you don’t have your Ninjutsu skill capped by now, it’s really easy to go out to Qufim Island and spam it on the Worms. As long as you have Utsusemi up, the only way they can touch you is if they use Stonega. Stonega has a long casting time, so as long as you’re paying attention, you can easily step out of the way. Remember, their casting range is longer than your’s, so you’ll have to step back quite a bit. I neglected to mention enfeebling Ninjutsu; you actually get your first one at Lv.19, a Blind, at Lv.23, a Slow, at Lv.27, a Poison, and at Lv.30, a Paralyze. These spells are quite useful. However, with a long casting time, you may only be able to get a few off per fight. Also, since you consume tools with each use, it might be quite expensive. These spells share the element as their normal White/Black Magic counterparts, so don’t waste ones on monsters that have a high resistance to a specific element (such as Dokumori (Poison) on a Crab). Lv.34 is your second tier of Tonko (it doesn’t have any better effect, it just has a shorter cast time). But at Lv.37 is when your whole strategy will change. You get your second tier Utsusemi. It’s a fast-casting, four-shadow buff that truly makes your parties a lot better. You still can’t hold hate for beans, but you can tank without the need of someone else to help you Provoke. Still, you should always team-up with a Thief so he or she can Trick Attack a load of hate onto you. One thing to keep in mind is that Utsusemi: Ichi won’t overlap Ni. So if you find yourself casting Ichi with Ni still in effect, you may have to turn it off. Once you get Ni (very expensive, have to beat a BCNM to get it other than the auction house), you’ll want to cast it at the end of fights, then save Ichi for later. When Ni goes down, cast Ichi. When that goes down, cast Ni again. Hopefully if you have enough evasion, you can out-last it and can cast Ichi again. If you have really good evasion, just use Ni. Remember at Lv.28 you can use the next level Shurikens! If you’ve used them this far, continue using them; you won’t regret it. Especially with a Ranger support job.

Your AF Weapon[edit]

  • As a Ninja, you naturally get two weapons. One is fast, but weak, the other is hard-hitting, but slow. Their stat boosts also complement each other so there’s one dexterity and one strength. However, they’re quite weak in general. Personally, I suggest off-handing one to the Ohaguro. Once you get one level higher and can equip Bokuto or its higher quality version, equip those in both hands. Therefore the weapons are only useful for a single level.
  • Your first step is to go to Norg and speak with Ryoma (H-8). Now, go to Port Bastok and enter Warehouse #2. Talk to Kagetora, who sends you to see Ensetsu at I-5. At this point, get a high’ish-level friend, and then head to Eastern Altepa Desert, in the little nook at H-5. Kill the spider to prevent any links, then prepare to fight. Touch the ??? when you're ready. You will fight two notorious monster spiders. These are both approximately Lv.42, cannot be slept, and cannot be charmed. They have a fairly large amount of HP, and have an attack effect of poison that hurts you for 20 HP per tic. Once you've defeated them both, touch the ??? again to receive a key item. Bring the item to Ryoma in Norg to complete your quest and acquire your two weapons. Congratulations!

Mid-High Levels 40-60[edit]

  • You should like Lv.40. Here’s where you can start using your second tier (Ni) Elemental Wheel. With a nice 1.5 second casting time, but 45 second recast, you don’t just spam them. They are open for 10 seconds for you to cast the next (in terms of resistance-down), so cast every 5 or so seconds. This will hopefully generate a lot more hate than before (and make up for not using Shurikens unless you actually spent the money on them). Lv.40 is when White Mage gets Haste, and Lv.48 is when Red Mage gets Haste. Demand this spell. Out of all jobs in the party, you are the only one who truly needs this spell. The 15% Haste the spell gives reduces Ichi's recast time to 25.5 seconds (from 30), and Ni's recast time to 38 seconds (from 45). That's a very noticeable difference, and you should never party without it active at almost all times. But I digress. At Lv.44, you get your second-tier Blind, and 48, second-tier Slow. These both stick better and have a better effect, so I suggest using them at the start of the fight. Provoke, Hojo, Kurayami, Elemental Wheel. In these levels is where you get your AF and the oh-so-sweet Scorpion Harness. It’s also where you beat the limit-breaking quests so you can go higher in levels, starting at Lv.50 and going all the way to 70.

Your Artifact Armor[edit]

  • It's amazing. All five pieces have at least a few uses. Your first pieces are acquired at Lv.52, and they're your leg pieces. They provide you with a small HP boost, and an enormous ranged accuracy boost for those of you who use Shurikens (or at the very least, Chakrams). At night time (18:00-06:00) in-game, they also provide you with a wicked +10 to evasion. Next up are your Lv.54 footwear pieces. These are also amazing. Providing you with another small HP buff, some +4 agility, and at night time, a 25% boost to movement speed. Believe me, that movement speed is noticeable, and is quite nice to have around for both pulling, kiting, or just running around. Lv.56 AF head is next. It's often the least-used piece due to the Emperor Hairpin's usefulness. However, it does provide the wearer with HP, resist-versus-ice, and a small +5 boost to Ninjutsu skill. If anything, I suggest macroing your Ninja Hatsuburi in for your Elemental Wheel and enfeebles to prevent resists. Lv.58 is when you get your body piece. It's shadowed by the Scorpion Harness, but still has its uses. Namely the Dual Wield enhancement which gives your weapons an extra +5% attack speed to your already 25% by that level. This enhances your melee attack damage over time by a marginal amount. It also gives vitality (an un-needed stat compared to evasion and agility), plus a Blaze Spikes effect if all else fails. Blaze Spikes simply deals damage to anything that attacks you physically. Finally your above-awesome gloves for Lv.60. Last certainly is best in the case of Ninja artifact equipment. Providing the wearer with +3 dexterity, +20 (that's right, TWENTY) ranged attack, and Throwing skill +5. No, it's not at all useful to anyone skipping out on Shurikens, but for all those using the all-powerful throwing stars, these gloves are just absolutely amazing.

High Levels 60-75[edit]

  • Now that you have your full artifact armor, all your Ninjutsu spells, and all the cool stuff out of the way, you don't have much to look forward to other than merit parties at Lv.75. It's all pretty much smooth-sailing from here on in. Continue to perform the similar Utsusemi: Ichi and Ni strategies you have been. By now you can start building some Haste%+ equipment for your spells. Continue to harass Mages for Haste (I'm kidding, obviously, but if they don't give it to you, you should politely ask for it).

End-Game[edit]

  • (Please add any additional info about Dynamis, Limbus, Salvage, merit parties, etc.)
  • Endgame Guide for Ninja Gear - A respectable guide showing the more useful pieces of equipment for Ninja by level 75.

Support Jobs[edit]

Warrior[edit]

  • Since Warrior has Provoke, and Ninja is deemed a tank now, it seems suiting to have this as your main support job... and that's pretty much completely correct. It also makes a decent support job choice if you decide to be a damage-dealer, providing you with more strength and dexterity, as well as a ton of awesome traits and abilities. Warrior provides you with Provoke as I said, as well as a number of other great abilities. Berserk, acquired at Lv.30, will allow you to deal more damage with its +25% attack. The -25% defense it gives you won't be any big deal, since defense isn't really a boon to Ninja anyway. Defender, on the other hand, is quite useless. Your damage taken is already getting quite mitigated, so having more defense isn't going to help much, and the attack-down just means less enmity and overall damage. Once Lv.50 rolls around, you get Double Attack, which, unlike Dual Wield, will give you normal TP and extra hits. Lv.70 means Warcry, which means further damage as well as more enmity. When you use Warcry, try to go in the middle of the party and get everyone. The more people it hits, the more the monster wants to tear your skull out and beat you to death with it... which is a good thing.

Dancer[edit]

  • The alternative to Warrior support job, and sacrificing certain elements for others. Subbing Dancer means you can use your TP for more useful things than watered-down weapon skills. It can be used to heal anyone if you lose hate (or yourself to keep hate), and to give certain buffs and whatnot. It also provides you with a weakened Provoke ability once you hit Lv.40. I certainly wouldn't suggest this sub against Colibri or other TP-destroying monsters, but for some situations, it can be better than Warrior. Where this combination really shines is when soloing. Since Ninja is already a very survivable job, subbing Dancer for Accuracy Bonus, Evasion Bonus, and plenty of other hardcore abilities can help you out-last virtually any monster in the game. The only problem is, it doesn’t provide as much damage as other support jobs, so notorious monsters that Rage (become unbeatably powerful) after a set period of time should be avoided using this combo. The best us is Healing Waltze to remove Silence or Para and Haste Samba.

Ranger[edit]

  • The prime money-jettisoning support job, yet probably one of the best. Even if you're tanking, you won't even need Provoke with a consistent bombardment of Shurikens with high accuracy and damage. Ranger as a support job provides up to +22 melee and ranged accuracy through job traits, which is a significant amount. Another possible reason for this sub would be to use guns or Archery and doling out huge damage through Sidewinder or Slug Shot. I would one hundred percent suggest you sub this as a Shuriken-doling damage-dealer. Otherwise, stick with Warrior, or Dancer, or... Thief, I guess.

Thief[edit]

  • Turning Ninja into what it once was, Thief gives Sneak Attack, Trick Attack, and a busload of evasion. Essentially making Ninja an “assassin”. With this support job, you can easily stand at the sidelines, firing shuriken after shuriken, or hit after hit with your Katana, then SATA-weapon skill. Providing you're obviously not the tank, this can be quite good. Where this sub truly shines is in its soloing capabilities. Engage battles with Sneak Attack, then beat things to death. Steal and Mug giving you the occasional item/money, as well as Flee and Treasure Hunter. One of the best things about this sub is all of its Evasion Bonus traits. Proving to be one of the best job/sub combos in the game for avoiding hits.

Black Mage[edit]

  • Another twist on the damage-dealer, is the one that uses its Elemental Wheel over any other form of attack. With a large boost to intelligence plus “Magic Attack Bonus” give your Ni Elemental Wheel some large damage numbers. In mid-high levels, you can even buy Elemental Staves to increase damage even more, at the complete loss of TP and physical damage. You can stack up quite a bit of Magic Attack Bonus equipment and even a lot of Ninjutsu Skill and Magic Accuracy equipment to make this even more potent. This is an unbelievably potent combo when you hit level 75 and purchase your San Elemental Wheel.

Red Mage[edit]

  • A twist on the twist job (Black Mage), providing less overall damage through spells, and giving more speed on the spells. Fast Cast reduces casting and recasting time of all spells, including Ninjutsu. Even if you choose not to use your spells, you can even use the Enspells like Enthunder to increase your damage over time. Since Ninja attacks super-fast, this just increases overall damage by quite a large amount. You can also throw up additional spells into the mix to add to your survivability such as Aquaveil to prevent spell interrupts and Stoneskin to absorb a hit or so worth of damage.

Scholar[edit]

  • No, Ninja is not a mage, and no there is no Art that works with Ninjutsu. However, it does change up the whole Black Mage or Red Mage thing with Light and Dark Arts. The intelligence boost is almost as much as Black Mage itself. The sacrifice of Magic Attack Bonus is made-up by the addition of the Arts, which allows you to fire-off any spell with “B” status. Unfortunately, Scholar doesn’t get a lot of spells to call its own. It is true, though, that Scholar does have Protects, Shells, Cures, Drain, Aspir, and a large number of elemental ‘nukes’.

Ninja as a Support Job[edit]

  • Ninja is seen as the universally “ultimate” support job. Ninja actually does work quite well as a support job. Tonko is a great alternative to wasting money on Prism Powders, and Monomi for Silent Oils. Also, Ninja has the spell Utsusemi which really helps for soloing, mitigating damage, and survivability as almost any job in the game. It also gives Dual Wield. However, aside from that, there truly isn’t any major point to subbing Ninja. Extra survivability is about the only real point to it. Dual Wield is quite pointless unless you’re using two incredibly awesome stat-boosting weapons, and Utsusemi is only really useful if you’re playing a job that can’t handle a lot of damage. Jobs that are completely expected to sub this are Warrior Lv.30+, Thief Lv.30+, Ranger Lv.24+, Bard Lv.39+, Dancer Lv.30+, Monk end-game, and Red Mage end-game. These are the jobs EXPECTED to sub Ninja. It doesn’t mean they’re the only jobs that ever sub it, and they’re sure not only capable of subbing Ninja, but that’s what parties generally want. Parties also seem to want Blue Mage to sub Ninja, but unless the situation is begging for it, the lack of bonuses this sub provides are highly outweighed by the bonuses it does provide.

Overview of Job Abilities, Traits, and Spells[edit]

Your Two-Hour Ability[edit]

  • Mijin Gakure is your two-hour ability. It basically makes you self-destruct. BOOM! You sacrifice every last one of your remaining HP and fall to the ground, while dealing a significant amount of damage to the target. It’s truly a last resort ability. No, it won’t make you lose experience points, so don’t worry about it. Many Ninja use this as a free form of warp, but generally it’s a precaution to bad party situations. Despite what a lot of people think, Mijin Gakure is non-elemental. It is also based on your current HP. Damage dealt is considered magical, so can never miss but is subject to resists. When it’s used to finish off a monster, the Ninja won’t get experience points, as unconsciousness is determined first. One final note. When used to home point after leaving a party, make sure you disband before you use the ability. Otherwise, anyone in the party who is resting or sitting down will get attacked. And with no tank remaining in the party, that doesn’t work out very well. Due to a recent update Mijin Gakure no longer leaves you in a weakened state if you are raised or reraise after using it, however you will raise back to 50% of your max HP.

Job Abilities[edit]

  • Yonin-you get this ability on lvl 40 and it increases enmity and enhances "Ninja Tool Expertise" effect, but impairs accuracy. Improves evasion and reduced enemy's Critical Hit Rate when in front of target. it shares a timer with Innin and is good for helping you tank
  • Innin- you get this ability on lv 40 and it reduces enmity and impairs evasion. Grants a bonus to accuracy, critical hit rate, and ninjutsu damage when striking target from behind. Mostly good for DD Ninjas
  • Sange can only be acquired through merits. What it does is activates a sort of “Barrage” ability that fires off ammo of your ranged attacks equal to how many shadows you have remaining. Using it with Ni freshly cast, then a ranged attack, will consume all four shadows and fire off four of your Shurikens, dealing a ton of damage. The ability lasts either one minute or one ranged attack, whichever comes first. It begins on a fifteen-minute counter and can be reduced to five with full merits.
  • Futae- you get this on lvl 77. Allows you to use additional ninja tools for added effects

Job Traits[edit]

  • Monster Radar is a trait I neglected to discuss about the other jobs that get it. However, Ninja's Monster Radar is the biggest out of all other jobs, so here's a brief discussion on it. What Monster Radar does is... well, you know that radar thing you get at the bottom, left-hand corner of your screen, displaying you, your party members', and any NPC's current location within a general vicinity of you? Monster Radar also displays monsters on it. And since it's always there, and its slightly extended range is exclusive to Ninja, it's great for pulling, as any job even subbing Ninja.
  • Stealth is a Lv.5 job trait that lower your aggro radius toward sound-based monsters. It is always active, and very useful.
  • Dual Wield is a Ninja-exclusive job trait that allows you to use two single-handed weapons, equipping the second weapon in the "sub" slot instead of shields. Since Ninja has no use for shields or two-handed weapons (and grips), they make by far the most use of this job trait out of any job. People use Ninja as a support job entirely for Utsusemi and this trait. Using two weapons will add your delays together and attack simultaneously, one after the other. Each tier of this trait will lower the overall delay by a certain percent, and at the same time, lower TP gain per hit. So in general, you get the same TP for slightly added damage. Though subbing Ninja will only allow for the first two tiers, Ninja can get up to a fourth tier, allowing for a total delay reduction of 30% by Lv.65. The first tier is 10% at Lv.10.
  • Resist Bind is also learned at Lv.10. It will give you the chance to resist Bind effects, but it doesn't kick in to do that very often. It does, however, always greatly lower the duration of this effect, allowing you to escape monsters, especially those pesky worms in Qufim or the Goblin Tinkerers in Valkurm. This trait really helps for pulling. You get four tiers of this trait, each one helping resist just a little better.
  • Subtle Blow is a very potent Ninja trait that is also shared with Monks. What it does is lowers TP gain by monsters when you connect hits with them. Since most of the TP monsters gain is by you and your allies landing blows on them, performing the same hits with a bit more finesse will lessen the TP gain monsters get from your own. Though Ninja doesn't get its first tier of this trait until Lv.15, it gets an exclusive fifth one by Lv.75, allowing for a total of 25% Subtle Blow. Meaning that if you hit the monster and give him 10% TP normally, you'd only give it 7.5%. Not a huge difference, but it will add up over time.
  • Ninja Tool Expertise is a great merit choice for Ninjas who find themselves always strapped for cash. What it does is occasionally allows you to cast a Ninjutsu spell without the use of tools! Each time this trait is merited, a 5% activation rate is added to it, up to a total of 25%. That means that out of twenty spells, five of them won’t use tools! But of course, fully-meriting this trait means that you don’t have enough upgrades left to get one of each of the San Elemental Wheel, so if you merit this fully, chances are you’ll just want to merit Sange fully.

Ninjutsu Spells[edit]

  • Tonko is your first Ninjutsu earned at Lv.9. It’s a great spell, especially for its level, and it allows you to turn yourself invisible for a short period of time, completely eliminating any sight-aggressive monsters. Each use will consume one Shinobi-Tabi Ninja tool. There is a second tier of this spell acquired at Lv.34 that has a shorter casting time and a longer duration. Instead of only the 3-minute duration Ichi has, Ni has a 5-minute duration.
  • Utsusemi is your second Ninjutsu spell, and will almost guaranteed be one of your most-used ones. The first tier is acquired at Lv.12, which will give you three free single-target hits. Any area-effect attack that hits you will immediately strip all shadows and likely hit you underneath. The second tier, Ni, at Lv.37, gives you four shadows, and the same rules apply. Each individual hit will consume one shadow. Meaning if a Goblin Rush hits you, you have a chance to lose anywhere between 1-3 shadows. Unlike the White Magic spell “Blink”, it will always work. If you don’t evade the hit, you will consume a shadow. This is why most Ninja use a lot of evasion gear. If a monster fires a ranged attack at you, your shadow will always block it, even if it would normally miss. Utsusemi will also block single-target spells and the majority of monster abilities.
  • Ichi Elemental Wheel is acquired at Lv.15. These spells include Katon, Hyoton, Huton, Doton, Raiton, and Suiton (Fire, Ice, Wind, Earth, Lightning, and Water respectively). They also lower a monster’s resistance to the element prior to its placement on the wheel. Meaning if you cast Doton (earth), it will lower its resistance to wind. With this notion, one can easily see where this is going: next, you would cast Huton (wind), which would lower resistance to ice, then you cast Hyoton (ice). The resistance down of all of these is a whopping 30 for 8 seconds. Mind you, these spells all take 4 seconds to cast, and their damage is quite low. The Ichi Elemental Wheel is pretty lame and should be used mostly for skilling up. These spells all consume different tools. Starting from Katon, they are Uchitake, Tsuara, Kawahori-Ogi, Makibishi, Hirashin, and Mizu-Deppo respective to the order at the start.
  • Kurayami is Lv.19 and consumes Sairui-Ran tools. It’s a single-target Blind effect. Great for any situation, but especially for the Ninja tank, who has to avoid as many hits as possible. This coupled with Hojo and Jubaku can greatly lower your Utsusemi consumption. Like Blind, it is dark-elemental, so don’t waste your Sairui-Ran on monsters like bats and Kindred. You get a second-tier Kurayami at Lv.44, having a better effect and a much shorter casting time.
  • Monomi is a Lv.25 Sneak spell, complementing Tonko to allow the Ninja to roam around undetected by any monsters except True Sound/Sight ones. Monomi only has one tier, but that doesn't matter anyway. Remember, to re-cast Sneak, you have to turn it off manually. Monomi will also remove Tonko when cast, so be careful.
  • Hojo is a single-target Slow effect earned at Lv.23, and having a second tier at Lv.48. As stated just above, Hojo works great with Kurayami and Jubaku to prevent as many hits over time as possible. This Ninjutsu consumes the Kaginawa tool.
  • Dokumori is one of only two Ninjutsu spells that has only one tier. It’s a Poison effect and generally the least useful one to use. But Poison is always nice to have, especially if you have the time to cast it. It’s learned at Lv.27. This Ninjutsu consumes Kodoku tools to use.
  • Jubaku is the second of two Ninjutsu spells that only has one tier. This one tier is learned finally at Lv.30. What it does is Paralyzes the victim, interrupting some attacks and spells. It works great with Kurayami and Hojo to prevent a few attacks. However, if you decide to use Blade: Retsu, this spell isn’t going to be super useful since that weapon skill inflicts that ailment anyway. You consume Jusatsu tools to use Jubaku.
  • Ni Elemental Wheel is learned at Lv.40 and is a lot better than the Ichi wheel. It has a short cast time of only 1.5 seconds (like all Ni spells) and a recast of 45 seconds. This incredibly long recast time is the only downside. However, since you have 10 seconds of elemental resistance down effect, you can wait a few seconds in between casts to ensure a consistent wheel. Using a large amount of Haste equipment can allow you to spin the wheel faster. Haste coupled with Fuma (or Sarutobi) Kyahan will lower the recast to about 37 seconds, allowing you to cast them almost one after the other.
  • San Elemental Wheel is a completely meritable set of spells. All six of them are individually merited. So if you want to have a brand-new Wheel, by all means merit all six. If you just want a couple of them to be fully-powered, only merit one or two. Remember, you can only merit ten group 2 merits, so if you want to improve any of those spells, you'll only be able to fully-upgrade one and you'd have to entirely forget about Sange or Ninja Tool Mastery altogether. The San spells have whole one-minute recast timers, meaning you really have to time it right (unless you have a nice Haste build). They take 2.5 seconds to cast, and their effects last 12 seconds.

See Also[edit]

The How-To Guides are user created guides editable by anyone. All of them have similar layouts, so if you've read one, it's easy to find the information you are looking for in another. And if you are a newcomer to this game, the Beginner guide may teach you a few things you didn't already know.

This article uses material from the "How-To_Guide:_Ninja" article on FFXIclopedia and is licensed under the CC-BY-SA License.