I want to be upfront about something: I did not set out to speedrun Super Ninja Adventure. It started because I kept accidentally clearing sections faster than I expected, and I got curious about whether those moments were reproducible. Turns out, almost all of them were. What started as idle curiosity became an obsession with shaving down my completion time run after run.
This article is for players who've beaten the game at least once and want to go back through it with speed as the primary objective. I'm going to cover movement tech, route optimisations, enemy engagement decisions, and boss strategies specifically optimised for fast clears. If you haven't finished the game yet, the level guide and boss tips articles are better starting points.
Ready? Let's make your ninja move.
Understanding Movement Tech
Before optimising your route, you need to understand how the movement system works at a mechanical level — because there are a few behaviours that feel like bugs but are actually features you can exploit.
Momentum Carry
When you jump while at full sprint, your horizontal speed carries into the air and stays consistent throughout the jump arc. This means a jump taken at max speed covers significantly more horizontal distance than a jump from a standing start. The difference is large enough that several gaps in the game can only be crossed comfortably at sprint speed — and in a speedrun, you're always at sprint speed.
The speedrun implication: never slow down before a jump unless the game physically requires you to. Trust your momentum. Most players instinctively brake before jumps — unlearn this immediately.
Attack Slide
This one took me a while to spot. When you perform a sword slash while sprinting, the attack animation doesn't halt your forward momentum — it actually preserves about 70% of your sprint speed through the full swing. This means attacking while running is nearly free movement. You're not slowing down to attack; you're attacking while moving.
Apply this to normal enemies: don't stop to fight them. Run through their space, slash on the way past, and keep going. You'll eliminate most standard enemies without breaking stride.
💡 Tech Tip: The Attack Slide also applies to the double-jump — you can slash immediately after the second jump with almost no arc interruption. This is the basis for the mid-air enemy skips detailed below.
Ledge Clip
If you jump into the underside of a platform at a specific angle — specifically, very close to its left edge while moving right — the game briefly resolves your position as "on top of" that platform rather than bouncing you back down. The timing is tight (you need to be within about three pixels of the left corner) but consistent once you have the muscle memory.
There are three places in the game where this clip saves meaningful time: one in the Forest section, one early in the Rooftop, and one in the Fortress. I'll cover each when we get to the route section.
Route Optimisation — Section by Section
Rookie Patrol
In a normal playthrough this section feels short. In a speedrun it still feels short, but there are two common time losses to eliminate:
- Gem collection detours. In a speedrun, skip all gems. None of them are worth the route deviation. The health they provide is irrelevant if you're not getting hit, and you won't be getting hit if you've practised.
- Enemy fights. Every standard enemy in this section can be outrun or bypassed with the Attack Slide. The only ones you need to engage are the two blocking narrow corridor sections. Slash on the move; don't stop.
Target time for Rookie Patrol: under 45 seconds. If you're taking longer than a minute, you're stopping unnecessarily somewhere.
Forest Ambush
This section has the most time-save potential in the whole game because most players treat it cautiously — moving platforms, ranged enemies, and hidden hazards make people slow down. In a speedrun you exploit the momentum carry to cross moving platforms in fewer touchdowns than normal.
The key skip: on the third set of moving platforms, there's an upper-left ledge that appears impassable from below. It isn't. Use the Ledge Clip at the left edge of the second platform in that group to pop up onto a higher route that bypasses twelve enemies and two hazard corridors entirely. This single clip saves approximately 40 seconds on a clean run.
Ranged enemies in this section: the safe approach is still to bait and punish, but the speedrun approach is to sprint directly at them, jump over their first shot (the shot comes out faster than the follow-up, so the first is usually safe to dodge with a well-timed jump), and slash during the landing. If you're confident in the timing, this is faster than the bait strategy by about three seconds per enemy.
💡 Forest Tip: There are two ranged enemies placed back-to-back near the section exit. Treat them as a pair — jump the first shot from the left enemy, slash him, immediately keep sprinting right, jump the first shot from the right enemy, slash him. Done in under five seconds if you don't break rhythm.
Rooftop Sprint
The wind-push mechanic that feels annoying during a normal playthrough is actually a speedrun asset. It pushes you right — the direction you're supposed to be going. Let it compound your sprint speed rather than fighting it.
The upper route I mentioned in the level guide article is mandatory in a speedrun. It bypasses all but two enemies and has no hazards. The Ledge Clip for this section is at the second rooftop platform cluster — clip the left edge of the tall central block to reach the upper path without the intended jump sequence.
The mini-boss Guard at the end cannot be skipped, but can be beaten faster. Land the first hit in the half-second before he completes his opening charge animation — you can get a free hit in before the fight "officially" starts. Then play two-hits-per-cycle. Optimal Guard time is under 90 seconds.
Fortress Siege
The Fortress has the fewest skips because the level design is more linear, but movement tech matters even more here because the hazards are dense. Key points:
- Vertical platforms: Treat elevator platforms as launch pads. Jump from them at the peak of their ascent to carry extra vertical height into your next jump.
- Enemy pairs: Sprint between paired enemies and slash both in the same forward motion. The hitbox on the slash is wider than it looks — you can catch two enemies standing side by side with one swing.
- Pre-boss corridor: There are four enemies in the final corridor before the Commander. All four can be cleared with two Attack Slide passes — slash two going right, slash two coming back on a brief backtrack, then proceed. Alternatively, use the upper ledge in this corridor (Ledge Clip on the left side of the second support pillar) to bypass all four entirely.
Boss Strategies for Speed
Rooftop Guard — Speed Kill
Two hits per charge cycle, position yourself centrally, jump his charge from early so you land closer to him and reduce chase time after. Optimal: 3 minutes. Acceptable: 4 minutes.
Shadow Warlord — Speed Kill
The clone phase is the biggest time-waster. You cannot damage him during it, so use that time to reposition to his right side and prepare for the post-clone attack. Target one clean hit per attack cycle, two when you're confident on the Ground Pound recovery. Optimal: 4 minutes. Acceptable: 6 minutes.
Fortress Commander — Speed Kill
Phase 1: three hits per charge (close the gap fast). Phase 2: two hits per cycle, prioritise reading the tell over attacking. Phase 3: two hits per cycle, do not be greedy. Skip the health gem — the time it takes to collect it is longer than the time saved by not dying if you're playing properly. Optimal: 6 minutes. Acceptable: 9 minutes.
Practice Structure That Actually Works
When I was trying to improve my speedrun time, the most effective thing I did was isolate sections and practice them individually rather than always doing full runs. Full runs feel productive but take a long time and give you a lot of bad reps mixed with good ones. Section practice gives you more repetitions of the specific moments that are costing you time.
- Spend one session just on the Forest Ledge Clip until it's consistent
- Spend one session on the Rooftop upper route until you can clear it without stopping
- Spend one session on each boss fight, targeting a specific time threshold
- Then do full runs and watch where your actual time losses are versus where you expected them to be — they're often different
The thing about speedrunning Super Ninja Adventure specifically is that the movement feels good when it's working. There's a flow state you hit when the momentum carry is clicking, the Attack Slides are landing cleanly, and the platform transitions feel effortless. Chasing that feeling is, honestly, half the reason to keep coming back.
Good luck with your runs. May your clips be consistent and your bosses have short phases.
Go Set a Personal Best
The techniques are in your head. Time to get them into your hands.
🎮 Play Now