- Walkthrough Table of Contents
Muhit Rahman lives off two things: gaming marathons and endless cups of tea. He writes guides, reviews, and occasionally forgets that real life doesn’t come with checkpoints. His favorite genres are Soulslike and Metroidvania, with Dark Souls III, Hollow Knight, and Dota 2 forever holding top spots on his all-time list.
Welcome to part 8 of our walkthrough for Shinobi: Art of Vengeance. This walkthrough will cover the stage, The Desert, and offer a guided experience through the level.
If you’re after all the collectibles in The Desert, check out this guide.
For more information about Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, check out their official website here.
Table of contents
Dunes
The chapter starts with Joe Musashi dropping down into a desert. Start heading right after the opening cutscene and dialogue.
Drop down to the lowest section of the desert to face a new type of enemy. Climb over the ledge behind it to face two more of the same enemy.
In the next section, you’ll spot an enemy ninja up ahead. However, if you wait a moment, you’ll see a red sandstorm resembling a skull sweep across the screen. If you get caught in it, you’ll die instantly and get sent back to an earlier location. This is the main hazard of this zone.
Wait for the sandstorm to pass before continuing forward. You’ll face a few more enemies as you move ahead.
Jump over the gap to the right and continue moving forward. You’ll hit a Shrine after sliding down past an Elite Squad encounter.
Crevasse
Use the walls on the right side to jump up to the top.
The Yokai Barrier on the right leads to a collectible. To progress, however, you’ll need to grab onto the climbable wall on the left.
Jump and dash across to reach the wall and climb up. Use the grapple point at the top to continue heading right.
Avoid the sandstorm and drop into another trench in the desert, where you’ll get ambushed by a group of enemies. Defeat them and keep moving forward.
Slide down the long slope to reach the next Shrine.
Lost Pillars
As you take a few steps past the Shrine, you’ll see a cloaked figure up ahead. This is the Beastmaster, the main boss of the zone. You’ll encounter him a few more times throughout the stage before the final battle.
The fight begins after a short dialogue. For this first encounter, you don’t need to worry too much. His moveset is simple, and you can keep attacking him until he goes down.
After defeating the boss, continue forward to reach a section with wooden spikes at the bottom.
Carefully time your jumps to avoid both the sandstorm and enemy projectiles as you make your way across.
The next Shrine is located just past this segment.
Cavern Entrance
You’ll see a passage heading up as you move forward from the Shrine. Wait for the sandstorm to pass by and then jump to the climbable wall.
Climb to the top to reach a ledge where you can safely wait for the storm to pass again.
Continue making your way up to find a grapple point. Use the grapple points to swing across until you land on solid ground.
As you take a few steps forward, a chase sequence will begin. Keep running to the right and stay ahead of the sandstorm.
The chase ends with you dropping down into a new area.
Ruins
The path on the right of the Shrine is blocked, so take the left path instead.
You’ll spot a crystal up ahead in front of a pink barrier. Hitting the crystal removes the pink barrier but creates a blue barrier behind you. Once the timer runs out, the barriers reset. This is a recurring puzzle that you’ll face throughout the rest of this zone.
After crossing the barrier, you’ll be ambushed by a group of enemies.
Defeat them and keep moving forward. Up ahead, you’ll see another pink barrier. Use the gold hooks to climb upward.
Clear out the enemies at the top and hit the crystal to open the barrier on the lower level. Drop down through the opening on the right and pass through before the timer runs out.
On the other side, you’ll encounter another enemy. Take it down and drop to the lower floor.
You’ll find a few chests to the right and a Shop that you can access by sliding under the wall.
Keep heading left and slide down three ramps to reach the next Shrine.
Astral City
Continue east from the Shrine to face a group of enemies.
Defeat them and move forward until you find another purple barrier blocking the way. Use the gold hooks to climb upward.
Keep fighting the enemies as you work your way to the top of the room.
You’ll eventually run into an ambush.
Just past the ambush, you’ll find the crystal that opens the barrier below. Activate it, then use the ziplines to quickly drop down and pass through the open path.
Slide down the ramp to reach another purple barrier. Climb up using the gold hooks again.
Follow the path around to the other side of the barrier. Break the Yokai Floor to reach the crystal that controls these doors. Doing this also unlocks a path to the right on the upper level.
Use the gold hooks to climb up.
At the top, head left and keep climbing as high as possible. You’ll see a set of blue platforms you can use to continue upward.
Break through another Yokai Floor at the top and drop down to the bottom level. If you’ve made it here before the timer expires, the path to the right will be open. Take it to reach the next Shrine.
Grand Gallery
After activating the Shrine, head right and drop down into a large room. You’re now heading into another round against the Beastmaster.
This time, the Beastmaster has a few more attacks up his sleeve. On top of that, he becomes invulnerable whenever crystals appear in the arena.
To break his shield, you need to wait until the boss uses a projectile attack that bounces between the crystals. After this happens, hit the active crystal to start a timer.
With the shield down, you can damage the Beastmaster until the timer runs out.
After defeating him, you’ll unlock the final Ningi ability, the Glider.
Jump and use the Glider to ride the air currents to the upper level.
Go right from the top to find a wooden see-saw. Hit the nearby crystal to spawn two platforms on the left.
Use the platforms to climb higher. At the next ledge, you’ll find a pushable yellow box. Push it off the edge so that it lands on the see-saw below.
This creates another air current that you can ride with the Glider to go up.
Complete the short platforming section to make it to the next Shrine.
Air Shaft
Glide up the air current to the left of the Shrine. Go right once you reach the top of the current.
Defeat the monsters in the area and keep moving until you reach a wooden see-saw.
Continue right, past the see-saw, and use the gold hooks to climb up. Jump to the platform above and cross over to the left side. Push the yellow box off the ledge, then jump back to the other side.
Use the gold hook here to reach an upper platform. Push the box down and return to the wooden see-saw.
Ride the new air current up, past the spikes, to reach another wooden see-saw.
Go left and climb up to find two more pushable boxes. Drop both of them down onto the see-saw.
To reach the third box, keep climbing to the top left corner of the room. Hit the crystal there to activate a set of platforms on the right side of the see-saw.
Use these new platforms to reach a grappling point. Follow the path to the other side of the third box and push it down.
Ride the next air current up and head right once you reach the top.
Defeat the enemies here and continue heading down the path to reach the next Shrine.
The Ascent
Continue running past the Shrine across the long bridge. You’ll face two more enemies here.
Take the air current after them to ascend.
This entire zone is basically a big parkour challenge. At the end of this climb, you’ll reach another Shrine.
Astral Runis
From the Shrine, go right to spot some gold hooks. Use them to climb up while watching out for enemy attacks.
Run up the wall in the next area.
Keep moving forward, defeating enemies until you reach another bridge. There’s an Elite Squads encounter here that you can clear if you want.
Past the encounter, you’ll find more gold hooks to climb. Continue heading upward, but make sure you don’t get caught by the sandstorm on your way.
At the end of the climb, use the grappling hook to reach the top, then drop down the other side.
Use the Glider to carefully descend through the air current. This leads into a tricky parkour section where you need to ride the currents while avoiding spikes on the sides.
Once you make it through, you’ll arrive at the next Shrine.
Chasm
There’s a Shop right next to the Shrine where you can pick up upgrades. When you’re ready, continue moving forward.
You’ll soon come to a large gap.
Don’t use the Glider here. Instead, jump, dash, and then jump again to grab the climbable wall on the right.
Climb to the top and keep moving forward.
Up ahead, you’ll be ambushed by a group of enemies. Defeat them all to clear the way.
This leads into another long parkour segment similar to the last one. Use your Glider to make your way across until you reach the next Shrine at the top.
Sand Temple
Head right from the Shrine to enter a large building.
Inside, you’ll find the Beastmaster waiting for the final confrontation. After some dialogue, the battle begins.
In this fight, the Beastmaster pulls out everything he has, but the mechanics remain mostly the same.
Wait for him to launch his projectile attack to activate a crystal. Strike the crystal quickly to bring down his shield, then attack the boss before the timer expires.
The biggest challenge here is how hard the Beastmaster hits. Dodge as many of his attacks as possible and punish him only when you have an opening.
Once you defeat him, you’ll unlock the Armor Breaker Amulet, and the stage will clear.
This concludes the walkthrough for The Desert stage in Shinobi: Art of Vengeance. For the other stages, be sure to check out our walkthrough hub for the game.
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Muhit Rahman lives off two things: gaming marathons and endless cups of tea. He writes guides, reviews, and occasionally forgets that real life doesn’t come with checkpoints. His favorite genres are Soulslike and Metroidvania, with Dark Souls III, Hollow Knight, and Dota 2 forever holding top spots on his all-time list.
