=== 1. START HERE: how to get a flying start ===
This is the route I'd take if I was starting fresh. It's not the only way, but it gives you a solid foundation to build on while you hunt masters.
Step 1: Smash tatami and bamboo with the bokken
Go to Fight > Training and use the Tameshigiri Dojo. Switch the weapon to Bokken first. Free cut or Three heights, your choice. No day passes, nothing is at stake, so you can do it as long as you like. Aim for level 15 - 20 in High, Mid and Low stances.
Step 2: Bokken Gauntlet, aim for round 24 - 30
It's held by day. Keep fighting and when you're happy hit Walk Away & Collect. If you get knocked down you only keep half, so walk away while you're ahead. Rough payouts if you walk away:
- Round 10: about 305 gold, 115 stat points
- Round 20: about 910 gold, 330 stat points
- Round 24: about 1,216 gold, 428 stat points, 4 renown
- Round 30: about 1,815 gold, 645 stat points, 6 renown
Your best streak also unlocks the Gauntlet fighting styles (more on that in the Gauntlet guide).
Step 3: Open your own school
You need 3 renown and 300 gold. Create your own style, arts and blade, equip them all, then go back to training and raise your arts to mastery 15 - 30. Check the My Ryu guide for how it works.
Step 4: Spend smart
- Save your gold for Saturday. Dojo training is 30% off.
- Spend the stat points from the Gauntlet on your base stats.
- Base stats get boosted by masteries + gear on top.
Step 5: Hunt the masters
Every mission, tournament and Gauntlet run has a rolling chance to hear a rumour of a master. Fight them as much as you can. Only tatami and bamboo don't use up a day, so use those for long stretches when you want huge results.
From there, do whatever your heart desires.
=== 2. How a duel works (High, Mid, Low and your Ki) ===
Every fight is one on one. You stand in High, Mid or Low, and that's the height of your sword. Watch the lit bar beside your foe, it shows where their sword is. One clean hit hurts.
Buttons
- ATTACK strikes at your stance height. Costs 6 Ki.
- ART uses a learned technique. Costs more Ki, hits harder.
- GUARD (hold) blocks. It only works on attacks at the same height as your stance.
- Back away to dodge a swing.
The Ki bar
The blue/gold bar under your HP is your energy and stamina. The number in it tells you two things.
1. How much of your damage you'll actually do. The zones are:
- Above 90%: x1.1 damage (the bar goes gold)
- 76 - 90%: x1.0
- 51 - 75%: x0.85
- 26 - 50%: x0.5
- 25% or under: x0.25
2. While it's gold, you also have a 10% chance to crit (x1.5 damage). Some stances and bonuses add to this.
Swinging empties your Ki, and Ki fills back up over time. It fills slower while you're guarding. So don't mash. Wait for the gold, then swing.
Experience bonus
You also earn +25% mastery exp on everything when you attack in golden Ki. Each zone lower earns less, down to a quarter at the bottom. Button mashing barely teaches anything.
=== 3. Block, Parry, Counter and Evasion (they're all different!) ===
There's a big difference between these four, and each one trains its own mastery.
Parry
The bright white crescent that shows up for a split second. As the height of the attack changes to gold and an oval appears, tap guard to land a parry. A perfect parry staggers the enemy, gives you Ki back (14), and leaves them wide open. The window starts short and grows with your Senses stat, Parry and Agility mastery, some stances, and the weather.
Block
The dark grey crescent that appears once the parry window is gone. Hold guard and match the height. You can change stance while holding guard and still block on any stance. You take only a little chip damage, but each block costs you 16 Ki. If your Ki runs out, your guard breaks and you're staggered.
Counter
Attacking while they're attacking you. That same parry window can be treated as an attack first window. Hit them while they're winding up and you do extra damage (x1.3 base, more with Counter mastery and some stances).
Evasion
Step back before the blade touches you. If their swing falls short it whiffs, and it raises your evasion.
These all tie into agility, endurance, strength, block, counter, parry and evasion masteries, all of which boost you overall. Every action has a reaction in life, and my game teaches this to you.
=== 4. Masteries: what each one does and how to level it ===
Open Train > Mastery to see your combat numbers. Levels get harder to earn the higher you go, but they never stop growing.
Combat masteries
- High / Mid / Low Stance: attack or block in that stance. More damage and faster swings from it.
- Counter: hit an enemy mid-swing. Bigger counter damage.
- Parry: land perfect parries. Wider parry window.
- Block: block strikes. Blocks cost less Ki and chip damage shrinks.
- Evasion: step out of range so a swing whiffs. More move speed.
- Strength: land hits, counters and heavy arts. More attack power, health and counter damage.
- Endurance: spend Ki, block and take punishment. Bigger Ki pool, faster Ki regen, cheaper blocks.
- Agility: move, dodge and parry. More move speed, attack speed and parry window.
Gear mastery
Every sword, stance and art levels up with use too. Arts never stop growing. Bokken has its own mastery, which you only raise by using the bokken.
Tip: swing in golden Ki. It's +25% exp on all of it.
=== 5. Day, night, weather and the calendar ===
Day and night
- By day: bokken bouts. Wooden swords, nothing at risk.
- By night: real steel. Blood, stakes and pay.
- Every fight passes half a day. Hit Rest until dusk / dawn if you want to skip ahead.
- Tatami / bamboo training does not use up a day.
The week
- Saturday is Sale Day: dojo training costs 30% less.
- Sunday is Festival Day: Bokken Gauntlet gold +25%.
Weather changes every fight and it matters:
- Clear: parry window +8%
- Rain: parry window +10%, but Ki regen -12%, move -6%, and lunges slide further
- Snow: move -10%, attack speed -7%, but +8% health from winter padding. Stand still too long and the snow settles on you
- Fog: you can barely read your foe until they're close. Strikes +10% damage, parry window -8%
- Wind: the arrow on screen shows the direction. With the wind: move +12%, strikes +8%. Against it: -12% and -8%
Fog is a bit more common at night.
=== 6. Training your stats ===
Fight > Training, then Train > Stats. Dojo training never uses up a day.
The five stats
- Strength: sword damage
- Speed: move and attack speed
- Vitality: max health
- Focus: Ki pool and Ki regen
- Senses: parry and block timing window
Two ways to raise them
- Gold: each point costs a bit more than the last (about 3 gold plus a tenth of your current stat). Buy x1, x10 or x100. On Saturday it's 30% off, so save up.
- Stat points: earned from the Bokken Gauntlet. Spend them on whatever you need.
Schools (ryu)
Join a school and the points you train in its disciplines earn bonus points. Your rank goes up to 5 as you train and raises the bonus. One at a time. Leaving is free, and so is going back to one you've already paid for.
- Tetsuken-ryu (Strength, some Vitality): 200 gold
- Kaze no Michi (Speed, some Senses): 200 gold
- Yamabushi-ryu (Vitality, some Focus): 3 renown, 500 gold
- Mizu no Kokoro (Focus, some Senses): 3 renown, 500 gold
- Hayabusa-ryu (Senses, some Speed): 6 renown, 1,000 gold
- Tenka Itto-ryu (a bit of everything): 12 renown, 3,000 gold
=== 7. Missions, the Bokken Gauntlet and tournaments ===
Missions (Fight > Missions)
New ones arrive every morning. Contracts are real steel at night, bokken bouts are safe and by day. Better ones unlock as your renown goes up. HP carries between fights, with a little restored.
Bokken Gauntlet
Endless wooden-sword bouts, by day. Every 5th bout is an Arena Champion. After each win you choose Fight On or Walk Away & Collect. Fall in battle and you keep half.
Your best streak unlocks these styles, and they stay yours:
- Streak 3: Way of the Heron (wider parry window, faster Ki regen)
- Streak 6: Tiger Style (every strike hits harder)
- Streak 10: Willow Step (faster movement and swings)
- Streak 14: Mountain Stance (more health, blocked hits barely hurt)
- Streak 18: Crane Arts (arts cost less Ki and hit harder)
- Streak 24: Dragon Fury (counter hits are brutal)
Time Attack
Real steel, by night. Survive wave after wave of foes. You get 12 gold per foe beaten.
Tournaments
Each one needs some renown and your stance mastery (the average of High, Mid and Low).
- Village Bokken Cup: 5 rounds, bokken. Easy start.
- Dojo Open: 7 rounds, bokken.
- Governor's Tournament: 6 rounds, real steel. The final champion wears armour.
- Shogun's Tournament: 10 rounds, real steel. The Shogun gifts you a piece of armour for every win.
- Imperial Bokken Championship: 12 rounds, bokken.
- Emperor's Grand Tournament: 14 rounds, real steel. Needs 8 Shogun wins. The final four wear legendary armour, and the Emperor rewards champions with a second line of armour.
Bokken tournaments risk nothing. Real steel ones are far deadlier and pay well. Check the requirements on each card, it tells you exactly what you're missing.
=== 8. The Twenty Masters ===
Masters never advertise. Word of them reaches you after missions, tournaments and Gauntlet runs, with a rolling chance each time.
Rumour chances
- Missions: 5%, climbing to 20% as your renown rises
- Bokken tournaments: 10%
- Real steel tournaments: 20%
- Gauntlet: 5%, climbing to 20% as your streak gets towards 20
Each master teaches in five duels
1. Their stance
2. Their High art
3. Their Mid art
4. Their Low art
5. Their sword
The first four are friendly bokken bouts with nothing at stake. The last one is a real sword duel, and you put up a stake of gold. Lose it and the stake is gone. Win and you get it back plus a prize. Some masters only fight by day, some only at night. The card tells you which.
Requirements
They climb the further you go. Every master wants renown, stance mastery, days lived, victories and a stat. Later ones also want you to have beaten earlier masters and have Strength / Endurance / Agility mastery. Examples:
- Master 1: 2 renown, stance mastery 3, 6 victories, Strength 40, 50 gold stake
- Master 10: about 25 renown, stance mastery 26, 132 victories, Senses 535, about 1,580 gold stake
- Master 20: about 63 renown, stance mastery 52, 432 victories, Senses 1,600, about 8,900 gold stake
Don't panic about the big numbers, you grow into them. The card on each master lists exactly what you have and what you're missing.
=== 9. Your own school (My Ryu) ===
At 3 renown and 300 gold you can found your own school. Go to Train > My Ryu.
What you get to make
- A stance with your own footwork, sword angles and bonuses
- Arts blended from the visuals you've collected
- A blade: your own steel, guard, grip and edge
- All named with the Name Forge (see the Name Forge guide)
Ranking up
Your school goes up to rank 8. To rank up you need three things:
- School score: the levels of your own stance, blade and arts added together
- Renown
- Masters mastered
- Rank 2: school score 12, renown 10, 1 master mastered
- Rank 3: school score 40, renown 25, 3 masters mastered
- Rank 4: school score 90, renown 50, 6 masters mastered
- Rank 5: school score 170, renown 90, 10 masters mastered
- Rank 6: school score 290, renown 150, 14 masters mastered
- Rank 7: school score 460, renown 250, 18 masters mastered
- Rank 8: school score 700, renown 400, 20 masters mastered
Each rank unlocks more choices, more bonuses and stronger options. You start with 3 art slots, and the rest open up at rank 4.
=== 10. The Name Forge ===
Name your samurai, school, stance, arts and blade in a Japanese style without needing to know Japanese.
Look for the Name forge button next to any name. Pick English words and it builds a Japanese-style name with the romaji, the kanji, and a short meaning. About 575 words across 11 categories (nature, creatures, colour, feeling, people, things, body, action, places, time, quality). You can add an ending like -ryu (school), -ha, -kai, -do, -gumi. Search for a word or filter by category.
The meaning sticks with the name for the rest of your career. So "Kiri Ryu" is not just a name, it's the Mist Dragon School.
=== 11. Saving your game (please read this one) ===
Your progress saves in your browser. If you clear your browser data / cookies, it's gone.
Back it up
Go to the main menu and open Settings > Save data. From there you can:
- Download a save file
- Copy a save code
- Restore from a file or paste in a code
Do it every now and then, and always before clearing cookies. After a reset, import it and you're back where you left off. You control it entirely.
The game also keeps a backup copy in the browser and asks the browser to protect your save, but an export is the only thing that's truly safe.
=== 12. Controls ===
Touch (phone)
On-screen buttons: Back / Forward, High / Mid / Low, Guard, Art, Attack.
Keyboard
- A / D (or arrows): move
- 1 / 2 / 3: stance (W / S shifts stance up and down)
- J or Space: attack
- L: art
- K or G: guard
- Esc or P: pause
Controller
Plug it in or pair it and press a button. It's detected automatically. Remap everything under Settings > Controls.
Other settings worth knowing
- Difficulty: Easy, Medium or Hard. Harder gives more gold and mastery exp.
- Attack tell: turns the enemy's attack warning on and off.
- Blood: adjust how much you see.