Shinobi Art of Vengeance’s final boss of the main story is Lord Ruse, who has stolen the Grim Reaper’s scythe to make himself all-powerful. A two-phase boss, you get no heals in between, so you have to come prepared. Thankfully, if you’re bested, the trip back to the boss is incredibly short. You’re going to want to have all the upgrades possible, so make sure to get the various Health Boosts, such as in Lantern Festival and other stages, as well as the Dark Katana.
A boss with quite a few tricks up his sleeve, Lord Ruse is a suitable final boss for Shinobi Art of Vengeance. He’s challenging, but once you get down what he’s doing, you can start performing incredible juggles and taking advantage of his weaknesses. Here are some tips to best this muscular, energy-throwing foe.
Tips to beat Lord Ruse in Shinobi Art of Vengeance
Before going into the fight with Lord Ruse in Shinobi Art of Vengeance, I recommend completing all the Ankou Rifts. There is one in the first 10 stages of the game, and each one has a fragment of the Dark Katana. It increases your damage output, so it’s practically a necessity for this fight and the optional boss. I also recommend the Vampire and Rage Regenerator amulets.
https://youtu.be/NOKuCGhcaU4?si=_vtNFAbgw3FJnusN
(Fight begins at 24:01)
There are no healing orbs in this Shinobi Art of Vengeance boss fight, so the only healing you will get is from Vampire and from the Water Ninpo, which I also highly recommend. Rage Regenerator charges your Rage Gauge with every successful attack, while Vampire gives you life back from Katana attacks.
1) Phase 1
Lord Ruse has a variety of very frustrating attacks in the Phase 1 fight of Shinobi Art of Vengeance. He can pull them off in quick succession, so knowing the tells is key. You’re likely going to take lots of damage in the first few attempts. All of his attacks except one are purple, so they must be avoided. Here’s what he has to use against you:
With the right timing on a dive kick/heavy attack follow-up, you can start juggling right after this attack (Image via SEGA)
- Dive Bomb: Dive bomb attack from the top of the screen, lots of purple fire splash damage.
- Scythe Strike: Ruse teleports into the air and delivers an attack in front of him with a decently wide arc.
- Energy bombardment: Shoots 4-6 energy orbs at your current position.
- Counter: Ruse holds up a purple energy barrier for several seconds. Don’t hit this.
- Huge Orb: Fires a slow-moving orb that will return across the screen after a few seconds. If he teleports and winds up on the other side of the screen, the orb disappears when it hits him again.
- Rain of Souls: Purple aura surrounds Ruse, and red columns dot the screen. Flaming skulls drop at these points.
The trick to beating Lord Ruse is knowing when to counter-hit him and go for combos/ juggles in Shinobi Art of Vengeance. He doesn’t chain together attacks quite as fast as the optional boss, but he can definitely be a threat. There’s no real pattern to any of it; you just have to react swiftly.
However, there is something worth knowing: You can knock Lord Ruse out of most of his attacks. Now it’s harder when he’s throwing energy orbs, but if you can get close enough with a dive kick/heavy combo, you can hit him with a few heavies and potentially knock him out of it.
Interrupting/stopping Lord Ruse’s attacks can lead to solid damage (Image via SEGA)
However, the best time to counter and start attacking is when he does the Dive Bomb. It will take practice, but if you time the dive kick right as the flames are going away, you can start a combo, juggle him, and get a second dive kick combo in.
Being able to heavy attack, roll/dash forward, short hop into dive kick, and things like that will help whittle Lord Ruse’s health down during this Shinobi boss fight. The better you are at your combos, the faster the fight will go. You can’t juggle him forever because he will teleport out of it.
You can make Energy Bombardment easier to manage by jumping/double jumping to change where the orbs are. This will allow you to jump over them just a bit easier. You can get behind him for the Huge Orb as well, to keep up the damage. Just take your time, counter-hit after his attacks, and learn to avoid what he dishes out. You want as much health and rage going into phase 2.
2) Phase 2 (Lord Ruse absorbs Scythe)
For the final part of the Shinobi Art of Vengeance boss fight, Lord Ruse absorbs the Grim Reaper’s Scythe and takes on a brand-new form. That means new attacks, and ones that are much harder to avoid. There’s no healing between this, so you want to start this fight with as much health as possible. Having Water Ninpo is also a real blessing, as it’s almost a full heal, depending on how much health you have.
Stay mobile and avoid those line lasers! (Image via SEGA)
- Line Lasers: Based on where you’re standing, Lord Ruse will fire full-screen vertical/horizontal beams of light. The red column shows where it will be.
- Scythe Wave: After a brief purple aura, fires a tall scythe wave. Can be double-jumped/air-dashed over.
- Diagonal Rain of Souls: Like Rain of Souls, but in a series of diagonal lines across the screen.
- Cloyster: Turns into a large, spiked crustacean and chases you around the screen.
- Power-Up: Around 50-60% HP, he surrounds himself with a huge column of light. Seems like it’s a general powerup.
Unlike the first phase, Lord Ruse cannot be stunned or juggled in this part of the final Shinobi boss fight. You just have to get a few hits in and roll/dash out of the way. Perhaps the most annoying attack is the Line Lasers.
They track where you are and prepare an attack in that location. For example, if you duck under one, immediately move with a dash/roll to avoid the next one. These will usually come in groups of three. After he gets to about 50% HP, diagonal lasers will become more common.
The diagonal lasers have clear spots you can crouch in (Image via SEGA)
You can get behind him for the Scythe Wave for a few extra hits, and the Diagonal Rain of Souls is easy to evade. Crouch in place out of the way. The Cloyster is pretty annoying too. If you have kunai, you can deal damage with these while running away.
The hardest part of this Shinobi fight is stopping your attacks and getting out of the way of The Next Harmful Thing. After you deplete his health, you’ll need to get ready for a short cutscene. Then, immediately hit your execute, and the fight will be over. Claim your final Lab Key, and then enjoy the ending! If you have all six, you can head to the ENE Laboratory and fight the optional superboss.
Shinobi Art of Vengeance is the latest action platformer from SEGA, and will release on August 29, 2025, on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One. You can learn more about the game from our in-depth review.
