Speedrun Strategies for Super Ninja Adventure

I never intended to become obsessed with speedrunning Super Ninja Adventure. I finished it normally, thought "that was great," and went back the next day just to see how fast I could clear World 1. Four weeks later I had a full any% route documented, a list of frame-perfect tricks that save seconds in specific levels, and a completely unhealthy interest in the game's engine quirks. No regrets. Here's everything I've figured out.

This isn't a beginner's guide — if you want that, check out the mechanics breakdown first. This is for people who've finished the game and want to know how far the rabbit hole goes.

The Philosophy of Super Ninja Adventure Speedrunning

Unlike a lot of platformers, Super Ninja Adventure isn't primarily about skipping content. The level design is tight enough that most shortcuts require more setup time than they save. Instead, the time gains in this game come from movement optimization — doing what you're already doing, but faster and with less wasted motion. That means eliminating: unnecessary ground contact, unnecessary full-stop landings, unnecessary attacks, and death resets (obviously).

The ideal speedrun of any level looks like one continuous movement chain from start to exit. You're always in the air or at full sprint speed, every enemy engagement is either instant-killed or completely bypassed, and every platform transition is a flowing arc rather than a stop-and-jump.

Core Time-Save Techniques

The Running Slash Launch

If you slash a grounded enemy while sprinting, your ninja gets a brief forward momentum boost from the kill animation. This isn't huge — maybe 0.3 seconds per instance — but it stacks up. Route it so that mandatory enemy kills happen in the direction of travel, and always kill while moving rather than stopping to attack.

The Slide-Jump Arc Extension

A slide-into-jump gives you a lower, faster arc than a standard jump. On flat runs to distant platforms, this is strictly faster than a normal jump because you cover the same horizontal distance with less apex height — meaning less time spent in the air. Switch all your horizontal traversal jumps to slide-jumps once you've got the input down.

Corner Boosts

When you wall-jump off a corner — specifically the outside corner of a platform edge rather than a proper wall — you get about 15% more horizontal velocity than a standard wall-jump. This is probably a physics quirk rather than an intentional mechanic. Either way, it's consistent and it's faster. Look for levels with overhanging platform edges and experiment with corner-boosting off them.

Enemy Bounce Chains

Aerial-slashing an enemy gives you a small upward kick. With correct positioning, you can chain these kicks across multiple enemies to cross gaps that no single jump could cover. The current World 2 route saves about 12 seconds by chaining four aerial slashes across a section that otherwise requires a detour through a lower route.

Boss Phase Skips

Each boss has a health threshold where they trigger a phase transition — a brief invincibility window with a cutscene-like animation. If you can burst the boss's health below the threshold before that animation triggers, the phase transition is cancelled and you skip directly to the next phase. This requires dealing several hits in rapid succession, which means the dash-cancel slash combo (from the mechanics article) is essential for boss speedrunning.

World-by-World Time Saves

World 1 — Bamboo Cliffs (Target: Under 4 minutes)

The big win here is 1-5's upper route. Most players don't find it on a normal playthrough, but it cuts about 45 seconds versus the lower path. Jump to the right off the second guard's head to access it. Beyond that, focus on slide-jump arcs through the flat sections and kill the lantern guards with a running slash rather than stopping to fight them.

World 2 — Storm Fortress (Target: Under 5:30)

The rain traction effect matters here for speedrunning — your ninja slides slightly further than on dry ground, which you can use to your advantage by initiating slide-jumps earlier than usual for longer arcs. The enemy chain in 2-6 is the main time save: four aerial slashes across the gap saves the lower route detour. Requires clean inputs — practice this section in isolation before trying to use it in a full run.

World 3 — Shadow Temples (Target: Under 7 minutes)

Counter-intuitively, the darkness doesn't really slow down a good run — once you've memorized the layouts, visibility is irrelevant. The time saves here come from 3-6's secret room skip and the audio-cue dodge system. If you know the shuffle sound means an attack is coming in exactly 0.4 seconds, you can dash-through it without breaking stride rather than stopping defensively.

Boss Speedrun Notes

Iron Guard Captain (World 1 Boss)

Phase skip is achievable. You need to land three rapid hits in phase one before he raises his shield. Use running slash → dash → aerial slash for the burst. If you nail it, you skip directly to phase three. Phase three: slide under every shield throw and punish immediately — don't wait for his recovery animation to finish, the attack window opens earlier than it looks.

Thunder Monk (World 2 Boss)

The phase skip here is situational. His teleport spots are fixed but the order is random. If he teleports to the center spot early in phase one, you can hit all four fixed spots before he finishes his teleport chain, triggering an early phase transition. This requires memorizing all four spots and having your charged slash ready. When it works it saves about 20 seconds. When it doesn't, just run the standard pattern — don't chase the skip at the cost of execution errors.

Shadow Serpent (World 3 Boss)

No phase skip available here — the coil animation is hardcoded. The time save is maximizing damage during each coil window. You have time for four slashes per coil if you're positioned correctly at the start of each one. Most players manage two or three. Four slashes per coil means you can finish the fight in two coil phases rather than three, saving roughly 30 seconds.

Common Mistakes That Cost Time

These are the habits that most casually-fast players have that a speedrunner doesn't:

• Full-stop landing after jumps. Let momentum carry you into the next input. A brief crouch absorbs fall damage but doesn't kill your speed — use it instead of stopping.
• Fighting optional enemies. Every enemy kill that isn't required by the level design or a specific time-save chain is wasted time. Learn which enemies you have to deal with.
• Waiting for boss animations to complete. Most attack recovery windows open earlier than the animation suggests. Trust the timing rather than your eyes.
• Using full-charge slashes outside of specific contexts. The charge time costs more than the extra damage saves in most situations. Reserve it for the Thunder Monk meditation window and the storm fortress torch mechanic.
• Jumping from a full stop. A running jump covers roughly twice the horizontal distance of a standing jump. If you're jumping, you should almost always be running first.

Building a Consistent Run

The difference between a fast run and a good speedrun isn't maximum execution — it's consistency. A route full of risky tricks that fails 80% of the time will never produce a personal best. For beginners to speedrunning this game, I'd recommend a "safe route" philosophy: only include tricks you can execute at 90%+ reliability, and use safer alternatives for everything else. A clean safe run will beat a sloppy trick-heavy run every time.

Once you've built a reliable safe run, add tricks one at a time as you get comfortable with them. The enemy chain in World 2-6 is worth learning first — it's the biggest single time save and, once practiced, becomes very consistent. The boss phase skips are worth learning last since they're the most situational.

Speedrunning Super Ninja Adventure has given me a completely different appreciation for how carefully the levels are designed. Every trick and shortcut I've found feels like the developers knew it was there. The game rewards the extra time investment, and once you've got a smooth run flowing, it's one of the most satisfying experiences the game offers. Good luck finding your personal best.