Shinobi Striker Developers' Letter #5 Is Here! Season 8 Begins!

It's time to determine the world's greatest ninja in the Ninja World League!
Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker is an online multiplayer game where you go head-to-head with other ninja in fast-paced, acrobatic battles to vie for the honor of being crowned the strongest of them all!!

Greetings to all you ninja out there!
This is the Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker Development Team.

We are so grateful to everyone who has been playing Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker.

This time, in our 5th Developers' Letter, we'll be sharing information on "Summoned Animals", the new system being added to the game with the Season 8 update, and we'll give you the rundown on the latest fighter to join the Ninja World League: "Kawaki (Karma Progression)!"

In order to protect the Seventh Hokage along with his adopted home of the Village Hidden in the Leaves from the threat posed by Boruto inheriting the power of the Otsutsuki, Kawaki unleashes his secretly restored Karma to attain his present form. With the power of the Karma, Kawaki gains preternatural strength and unleashes "Sukunahikona" and "Daikokuten"—abilities once wielded by Isshiki Otsutsuki—during his battle with Boruto.

He joins Shinobi Striker as an all-purpose attack type suitable for any scenario! Now for what you've been waiting for, an overview of Kawaki (Karma Progression)!

Kawaki (Karma Progression) uses "Daikokuten" to attack distant enemies and "Sukunahikona" to shrink himself in order to dodge and counter enemy attacks, making him an exceptional unit suited for aggressive combat once you've mastered how and when to use his abilities.

Leveraging the overwhelming power of his Karma, Kawaki (Karma Progression) can use the following Ninjutsu!

Ninjutsu 1 - Daikokuten: Shokatsu

This Ninjutsu launches a miniaturized stake at your target. After a foe is hit by the stake, they will also be targeted with a follow-up attack using a giant boulder.

Because the miniaturized stake is hard to see and moves at a rapid speed, this Ninjutsu excels at long-distance surprise attacks.
The giant boulder is an AOE attack, allowing you to catch out multiple foes at once and destroying their battle formation.

Of the existing Ninjutsu, this Ninjutsu's projectile speed and attack power are top-class! As mentioned earlier, you can pick off enemies from a distance with a surprise attack and follow-up from the giant boulder, or you can use it as a combo finisher to close out a fight!

Ninjutsu 2 - Sukunahikona: God Hunter

This Ninjutsu takes advantage of the "Sukunahikona" residing in Kawaki's left eye to shrink his body, allowing you to avoid attacks and follow up with a rush attack afterwards. Leaving the left stick alone or pushing it forward while using this Ninjutsu will allow you to dodge attacks in a manner similar to a substitution. You'll be invincible while in your shrunken form, allowing you to both avoid enemy attacks and fire off counterattacks of your own.

This rush attack has invincibility, so it's extremely useful compared to similar rush attacks. Plus, depending on how you choose to position yourself, you'll also be able to launch surprise attacks against enemies above or below you.

This Ninjutsu requires a bit of skill to fully master, but once you've done so you'll be able to fight your way out of any situation!

Secret Technique - Karma Progression

Unleash the evolved power of the Karma to greatly enhance your physical strength! You'll remain in the shrunken form granted by "Sukunahikona" for the duration of the Secret Technique, allowing you to nullify most long-range attacks apart from other Secret Techniques and Visual Jutsu. Plus, your Strong Attack will change to drop giant boulders as used in the "Daikokuten" Ninjutsu. Multiple Strong Attack inputs will also allow you to launch fireballs to make your foes flinch before following up with an attack from Scientific Ninja Tool arms.

This is a self-enhancing Secret Technique that excels in offense and defense. Defend against thrown Ninja Tools with "Sukunahikona" and get in close to deal damage, or chain your "Daikokuten" Strong Attacks for a punishing combo. The additional Strong Attack inputs carry enough strength to knock out your foes with one attack rotation! The fireballs are created pretty quickly, so try comboing them with other Ninjutsu or attack when your opponent least expects it to get the most value.

Kawaki (Karma Progression) will be available for use in the free update, so look forward to using him on the battlefield! By purchasing the Special Ninjutsu Training, your avatar will be able to use his Ninjutsu!

As we promised in the previous "Latest Roadmap Info" notice, "Summoned Animals" will make their debut in Season 8!

In this Developers' Letter, we'll be showing off the first animal to be added, the "Ninja Hound"!

Summon Ninja Hounds and ride them to quickly move around the battlefield! Enemies you run into while moving will suffer damage and be blown backwards. Not only are Ninja Hounds fast, they can also run along walls and jump, making it easier than ever to move around the map.
However you'll be stuck in place for a little while when calling the Ninja Hound, and the Ninja Hound will retreat if it's hit with an attack while running, making it hard to rely on them to escape a tricky situation. We recommend calling your Ninja Hound when your enemy lets their guard down, or when you aren't being focused on by your foes!
Ninja Masters also possess a special technique called "Body Activation" that is similar to Summoned Animals!

"Body Activation" can be used without an animation and upon activation, grants an increased movement speed effect, allowing the user to move rapidly around the map. While this technique doesn't have an animation when used, users who attack or are hit with an attack while using it will lose the effect. For this reason, we recommend using it while out of battle to capitalize on its effect.

In addition, "Summoned Animals'' will be added to the Scroll Appraisal lineup, giving you the chance to get a rare Ninja Hound! Summoned Animals from the Scroll Appraisal might also debut with various special effects!

Starting from this update, the new rarity SS+ items make their debut in the Scroll Appraisal! As we mentioned in the previous Developers' Letter, SS+ items are designed around the idea of being weapons even more unique than SS items. So we've been hard at work challenging ourselves to come up with new animations that properly reflect the source material.

Following that train of thought, while an SS+ item is equipped, your character will strike a brand-new pose when they're deploying on missions and when they win in Survival Exercises!

We'll also be unveiling 3 new SS items!

Attack Type Weapon: Claw Edge "Kurama"
A kunai styled after the Seventh Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki, and the Tailed Beast sealed within him, Kurama. When using Normal Attacks, the "Shadow Clone Jutsu" and "Rasengan" are included in your combos! When using Strong Attacks, you'll recreate "Kurama Link Mode" and lash out with Kurama's mighty claws!

Ranged Type Weapon: Inferno Sword "Flame Control"
A ninja blade styled after the legendary hero known as the "Supporting Shadow", Sasuke Uchiha. With this, you'll be able to recreate his many abilities including "Flame Control" and "Susano'o" along with their destructive potential!

Heal Type Weapon: Sealed Blade "Totsuka Blade"
A straight sword styled after the genius of the Uchiha clan, Itachi Uchiha. With this, you'll be able to recreate his many battle-oriented Ninjutsu including "Susano'o" and the "Bird Clone Jutsu". Make use of the Bird Clone to dart about the battlefield at high speeds!

As mentioned in the previous Developers' Letter, the theme for the new Special Ninjutsu is "Awakened Tailed Beast"!
We'll be focusing on the legendary Tailed Beasts, along with the Jinchuriki who host them.

First up to be released is the attack type Ninjutsu "Host Transformation: Two Tails"!

This Ninjutsu transforms the user into the Two Tails form and blows away surrounding enemies before raining down bomb blasts from above the target.

This Ninjutsu searches for an enemy from a far distance before rushing towards them. The bomb blasts that occur after the rush have a wide area of effect, allowing you to catch out multiple foes at once, making this Ninjutsu especially effective in team fights and Base Battles.
Plus, the flames that erupt when activating the Ninjutsu count as attacks, so you can open up with a Normal Attack combo before unleashing the Ninjutsu!
Chain together a combo of short-range attacks or use it to snipe out a foe, this Ninjutsu has a lot of utility, and how you use it is up to your playstyle!

This Ninjutsu is scheduled for release sometime after the next update.
For info on a release date, make sure to check in with the official X (formerly Twitter) account!
https://twitter.com/Narutovideogame

Here we'll be explaining our thought processes behind the balance adjustments we'll be making in the update. The two points we'll be focusing on are "Master Character Combo Adjustments" and "Balance Adjustments to Individual Ninjutsu". Like last time, it'll be a bit of a long explanation, so bear with us.

・Master Character Combo Adjustments
We have confirmed that certain character and weapon combinations have difficulties connecting in certain communication environments. In order to improve this issue, we'll be making adjustments to the Master Characters, especially the ones whose issues have been the most obvious. For the time being, we'll be focusing solely on Master Characters, but we'll also be running tests and conducting adjustments in multiple stages on weapons usable by Avatar shinobi in order to improve gameplay for all of our users.

・Balance Adjustments to Individual Ninjutsu
As an example of how we're buffing some Ninjutsu, let's take "Lightning Style Chakra Mode". Until now, "Lightning Style Chakra Mode" has solely been a low cost self-enhancement Secret Technique. However, in order to make it stand out from other Secret Techniques and similar effects, we've adjusted it so that the power of the user's Lightning Style Ninjutsu and Ninja Tools are greatly increased while "Lightning Style Chakra Mode" is active. The Ninjutsu that are affected by this change usable by Attack Types are "Lightning Blade", "Lightning Style: Lariat", "The Piercing One-Fingered Thrust of Hell", and "Lightning Style: Shadow Clone Jutsu", and the Ninja Tools affected are the Scientific Ninja Tool "Lightning Release Bullet" and the Scientific Ninja Tool "Purple Lightning". The power increase is close to 100%, making this a huge buff! With this change, "Lightning Style Chakra Mode", once regarded as one of the weaker attack abilities, should be able to carve out a space for itself thanks to its synergy with Lightning Style Ninjutsu. If you're reading this and thinking to yourself "I'm a Lightning Style user!", then I recommend you try out this Secret Technique.

Another adjustment we made was to Summoning Type Ninjutsu, such as "Summoning: Great Snake". We've greatly reduced the cooldown times and lowered the summoning beasts' HP a bit to balance it out. With this change, users won't have to worry about when to time the perfect use of a summoning, and will be granted more leeway in battle. Not only that, this change also tackles the issue where the summoning beast has too much HP for enemies to bother fighting, leading them to avoid the area altogether. Now, with the nerf to HP, users will have more of a choice in whether they want to engage or not.

Other changes include allowing users to use "C2 Dragon" in mid-air, expanding the radius of "Palm Sage Jutsu" and "Six Paths Chakra: Rebirth", and various other changes. Those other changes will be posted in a notice and included in the in-game patch notes on a later date, so make sure to check them out!

We plan to continue making additional changes to the types and Ninjutsu mentioned in this letter as we monitor the impact of these adjustments on the battle environment and user data.
We hope you continue to enjoy fighting in the Ninja World League!

Here we'll introduce some of the items that'll make their debut in the new Scroll Appraisal!
The newly added items are different from the current Scientific Ninja Tools, and are weapons styled after characters from the original series and cover art. We'll go over them right now, so check them out!

Attack Type Weapon: Fourth Raikage's Gauntlet

A new weapon styled after the Fourth Raikage, Ay, has arrived!
This weapon allows you to unleash a dynamic full-bodied combo, just like the Fourth Raikage! The Strong Attack that allows you to throw your enemy is especially memorable. Why not try it out with the newly buffed "Lightning Style Chakra Mode" to give yourself a taste of what it means to be the Raikage?

Ninja Tool: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu

A Jutsu that turns one shuriken into many thanks to the Shadow Clone Jutsu is here!
This Ninja Tool can be equipped by any type. After throwing the shuriken and activating the Shadow Clone Jutsu, there is a short delay before they attack their target. Because it deals multiple hits and follows its target for a long time, this Ninja Tool excels not only in attack but in defense and supporting other ninja as well!

Heal Type Weapon: Double Moon Sword: Fading Blossom

The Double Moon Sword featured in the cover art of chapter 98 of the original series arrives as a Heal Type Weapon!
Despite being a large weapon, the Normal Attack swing is pretty fast, allowing you to easily unleash multi-hit combos. The Strong Attack leaves fissures in the ground, making for an impressive sight!

Ranged Type Weapon: Tenten Scroll

A weapon styled after the scroll used by Tenten makes its debut!
You can launch countless weapons from the scroll. Every command input is for a long-range attack, so it would be wise to maintain your distance during battle. The Strong Attack launches multiple random Ninja Tools at once! Rare Ninja Tools are even more powerful than common ones! Use this weapon to see for yourself!

We have other new items scheduled for release with the update in addition to the ones mentioned above, so make sure to check the official X (formerly Twitter) account for more information!
https://twitter.com/Narutovideogame

Thank you for reading until the end!
The new season will begin with the update on 5/23 (JST) and Kawaki (Karma Progression) is set to release on 5/24 (JST), so please wait just a little while longer!
We hope you're looking forward to the new battles you'll experience in the next evolution of the Ninja World League with Season 8!

With that, we bid you farewell. Let us meet again in the next Developers' Letter!