You'll know when you've been awarded a score bonus when you see a plus and some numbers show up on screen, and fly over to your score total in the upper left. If you're playing the game for the first time, the first bonus you will most likely achieve is Undetected (+200). When going for score bonuses, make sure these numbers appear, otherwise, you may have done something wrong! Pay attention especially when hiding bodies in horizontal vents, as this can be slightly buggy at times.

When getting score bonuses off of the various enemies you'll find throughout the game, you can only get each bonus once per enemy. You can only get a score bonus for distracting the same enemy one time, and you can only hide his body once. However, environmental distractions are separate from ninja tool distractions. This is something most ninja often miss, so don't forget it!

Don't panic! Mistakes happen, and you can always pause the game and restart from a checkpoint. When restarting from a checkpoint, everything you've done after reaching that checkpoint will be reset. No need to restart the entire level! If you find yourself doing this a lot, take your time a little more. Don't get frustrated. You have unlimited tries, and there is no penalty for taking it slower.

For the purposes of this guide, I'm going to separate the score bonuses into three types. The ones you get off of enemies, the ones you get from the missions themselves, and the ones you get after.

There are a lot of score bonuses you can get from the enemies. An "optimized" run will involve going back and forth from equipment caches and switching tools to get all of them from every guard possible. I don't recommend playing like this, as it's not very fun. If you just want to have fun and get a high score while you're at it, pick a loadout that suits you best and go for it. If you just want the Descendent of Iga achievement, skip to that section for a second. I'll wait.

Now that you've been assured, here are the enemy bonuses:

>Undetected (+200): You've remained hidden right under that guard's nose! To get this bonus, you can hide behind an object and let a patrolling guard walk right by you, or you can speed right past him without being seen, using the grappling hook, Mark of Serenity, or a tight jump with the Parachute Cloth. You have to be close, but not within the line of sight, otherwise the guard will trigger an alert. Try doing it from behind. When lacking a hiding spot, remember that you can rely on the simple Cardboard Box.

>Guard Distracted (+150): Break a light, ring a gong, or otherwise make some noise, and make sure the guards hear it. Throwing darts right at them will get their attention, but it won't count for this. Remember, this is different from...

>Item Distracted (+150): Use a noise maker, or a distraction flare. This will give you another bonus, even if you've used an environmental distraction. Don't forget that this exists!

>Guard Disabled (+250): Disable a guard by using caltrops, upgraded smoke bombs, or a very specific environmental hazard--electricity. The first elite guard and Kelly can be disabled this way.

>Body Hidden (+250): Hide the body using a dumpster, or a closed door, or a vent. Be careful when using wall vents, and make sure you get the bonus. You can also use ravenous insects.

>Guard Terrorized (+300): This is a fun one, and one of the best ways to get a great score. To terrorize a guard, throw a body right in front of him (carefully, if you're not using Path of Nightmares), let him witness a ninja tool kill, or have him find a hanging body from a grappling point. Or, you can simply use terror darts, but remember that upgraded terror darts are time-limited. Elite guards do not get terrorized, so be careful around them.

>Friendly Fire (+600): When a guard becomes terrorized, he will fire randomly when provoked. If he shoots one of his own while in this state, you will get this bonus, so make sure your fancier kills get plenty of witnesses. Remember, terrorized guards will not sound alarms!

>Oblivious (+400): To get this one, a guard has to walk right by a spot where you've hidden a body. Vents don't count for this one, you'll have to use a dumpster or a closed door.

>Slippery Slope (+400): Knock a guard off a cliff to his death. You can do this without a sword!

>Common Stealth Kill (+400): Most stealth kills give you a +400 bonus. For exceptions, see...

>Fancy Stealth Kill (+600): These are Prowling Spider (kill from a wall vent--make sure you get that Body Hidden bonus!) and Hangman's Hymn (kill from a grappling point--you must purchase this skill). Remember to use the result of a hanging stealth kill to terrorize guards. This is especially easy to do if you hang from a lamppost. Failing that, throw a dart at guards below.

>Stealth Kill Elite Guard (+800): Stealth killing a disabled elite doubles the score bonus.

>Hound's Slumber (+200): If the dog is alerted to your presence, you will only get a +200 bonus for this, instead of the standard +400. Use Bat's Prey to take a guard dog by surprise.

>Imperfect Kill (+200): You missed the correct button combination, and made a lot of noise. To avoid this, you can use Path of the Hunter, or, well, get better. Remember, you probably have more time to react to the button prompts than you think you do. Study them carefully!

>Peasant's Death (+200): You knocked a guard off his feet and shanked him like some unruly gang pawn. Shame on you! You are a ninja. You should be more careful to not get spotted.

>Ninja Tool Kill (+600): Use a spike mine, ravenous insects, or an upgraded terror dart. Upgraded terror darts will cause a guard to commit suicide, and that counts toward this score bonus.

>Object Kill (+600): Drop a chandelier on a guard. Guards seeing this will be terrorized.

>Indirect Kill (+600): Either you used their traps against them, or they're just stupid and went and offed themselves for you. Either way, enjoy your score bonus!

There are further bonuses you can get by interacting with the environment, rather than enemies.

>Door Released (+200): In the first level, you will need to hit these.

>Power Disabled (+200): Break all of the circuit boxes. This will always be helpful to you. Breaking one may attract attention, but it will never outright sound an alarm or otherwise hinder you.

>Lock Picked (+250): Remember to pick all locks, even if you don't need to in order to get where you're going. If you're exploring the entire level, you will probably get them all, but pay attention.

>Spike Mines (+500): You get a +500 score bonus the first time you ever pick up spike mines. Once spike mines are unlocked, it doesn't exist anymore for some reason. Just a fun fact.

>Ninja Rescued (+500): In the first level, rescue every ninja to get this score bonus for each one. You should definitely get this one. I mean, you wouldn't forget about us, right? ...Right?

>Artifact Recovered (+500): The artifacts are like secrets. Find them, and you get a score bonus. If anyone knows where ALL of the artifacts are, sharing that information would be very helpful. Creating a guide would be the best option, of course, but we'll take what we can get.

>Scroll Recovered (+1000): Finding the hidden scrolls will award you this score bonus. Even if you've collected a scroll before, you can get it again for the score bonus.

For details, check out this guide:

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=132236266

>Key Stolen (+1000): When collecting the two keys in level 9 (the one where you assassinate Karajan) be sure to STEAL the keys from the guards BEFORE killing them, to achieve this bonus. Picking the key up from the ground will NOT grant you this score bonus.

>Objective Completed (+?000): For completing various mission objectives, you will sometimes get a score bonus, usually a four-digit number. When you get a new objective, make sure to head to that spot on the map, and avoid skipping major checkpoints (the ones marked with ravens).

If you're playing a pure stealth run, the bulk of your bonuses will be here!

>Undetected/Distracted (+400): For each guard that you didn't kill, you will get a +400 bonus to make up for the stealth kill you didn't execute on them. Of course, if you could have killed them in a more spectacular way, this bonus won't help you much on leaderboards. Again, though, if you're only going for Descendent of Iga, you can get three stars in each level this way.

>No Alarms Raised (+3000): You should try to get this no matter how you play, as it's a major bonus, compounded even further by the lack of penalties from getting spotted. If you only get spotted once, that's still a -3800 penalty! Think about it.

>No Enemies Killed (+5000/6500/8000): If you go for terror and slaughter, you forfeit this bonus, so make sure you're getting your money's worth, otherwise, a pure stealth run would be better for you. Indirect Kills will still count against you (thanks to Jim the Inventor for this clarification). This bonus is worth a different amount of points depending on the level you're playing:

Level 1: +5000
Level 2: +5000
Level 3: +8000
Level 4: +5000
Level 5: +5000
Level 6: +6500
Level 7: +5000
Level 8: +8000
Level 9: +5000
Level 10: +6500
Level 11: +5000
Level 12: +8000

You've raised an alarm and been penalized for being un-ninja-like. This can happen in two ways:

>Body Found (-800): Don't leave a trail! Hide all of your corpses carefully. At least make sure that any surviving witnesses are terrorized, as they won't sound alarms no matter what.

>Detected (-800): You've been identified, and are now exposed. Guards are after you. Hide!

REMINDER: If either of these things happen, you forfeit No Alarms Raised (+3000)!

You have three main tools: Paths, Distraction Items, and Attack Items.

Here is a quick and dirty demonstration of all of the equipment in the game (SE not included):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWFTbSo7hzo

For the rest of you who want more in-depth explanation, have access to the Special Edition equipment, or just like reading text, these next few sections are for you!

New Paths can be unlocked by completing Seals.

>Path of the Mark: Grants Mark of Serenity at the expense of your distraction slot. Mark of Serenity is a teleport that can be used to get Undetected bonuses, and generally avoid enemies in hilarious ways. There is a cooldown period, however, so keep an eye on it.

>Path of Might: Gives extra health at the expense of your Focus ability. Stealth kills will also recover your life. I've yet to find a use for this, except as a self-imposed challenge.

>Path of the Hunter: Grants two attack items and makes all stealth kills automatically succeed. Checkpoints will not replenish your items--however, equipment caches will. Keep that in mind.

>Path of Silence: Grants two distraction items and ensures that running makes no noise. However, you will not have a sword when using this Path. Useful for pure stealth runs. This will not prevent you from completing your two mandatory kills, Corporal Kelly and Karajan.

>Path of Nightmares: Disables the distraction slot, but causes enemies to become terrorized when witnessing stealth kills, or finding a body of any kind. This negates all possibility of being penalized for leaving a trail of corpses in your wake as you advance. Very useful, very fun. Keep in mind that some enemies, including Elites and Stalkers, are unphased by dead bodies.

>Noise Maker: Well, it makes noise. The upgraded ones stick to walls and can be detonated whenever you like. The normal ones will detonate immediately upon hitting anything.

>Smoke Bombs: The upgraded smoke bombs will disable guards. However, using smoke bombs to avoid lasers is only mandatory once, on your first playthrough of the game.

>Distraction Flare: A visual distraction, it can be effective from farther away, assuming the guards are looking the right way. This also disables guards with night vision goggles.

>Cardboard Box: A mobile hiding spot, useful for getting those Undetected bonuses. The upgraded box will also let you perform a stealth kill from inside, which also hides the body inside the box.

>Spike Mine: When a guard walks over this, they will perish. It will also stun elite guards. Any guards witnessing a kill from this will become terrorized, so place it at the front of a patrol for effective results. The upgraded spike mines will make no noise when thrown. Otherwise, a guard who sees this trap will shoot it to destroy it.

>Hisomu Terror Dart: Any guard pinned with these will immediately become terrorized. The upgraded darts will cause a guard to shoot himself after a short time. Any guards witnessing a suicide will become terrorized as well. Dogs and elite guards will attack randomly when hit with these, while stalkers just become immobile. All of them will also suicide, though.

>Caltrops: You throw three of these at once, and any guard who steps on them will become disabled, allowing you to take them all out with Bloody Whisper, same as upgraded smoke bombs.

>Ravenous Insects: A personal favorite, these will draw a lot of attention to your target of choice, and terrorize any guards who witness this. The body will be immediately hidden as well--after all, there is no body left! You can hide a dead body too, but this is pretty wasteful.

>Path of Wisdom: A non-lethal takedown ability. Unfortunately, it does not grant the +250 Guard Disabled bonus, nor can you use any kind of "special kill" equivalent of this, such as Prowling Spider or Emperor's Abyss. However, Dosan does this kind of "tackle," giving it a longer range than your standard kill. Dosan can also carry more items, but he has no Farsight ability, and Focus will not stop time. Keep in mind that guards disabled in this way can be revived by any other patrolling guard. They will not, however, sound an alarm when finding a sleeping guard, despite using the same voice clips, such as "He got someone!" and "Man down!" You can also hide the bodies of guards disabled in this way for +250, and the guards can still die from traps, ninja tools, or falls.

>Dusk Moths: Disable guards, or cover up lights without drawing attention. You can also do this for spotlights, which you previously could not dispatch in any way.

>Fungal Spores: Kill and infect an enemy, then when the corpse contacts a guard, they become infected and die as well. You cannot infect a previously dead body, and each infection carries over only once, but it can infect multiple targets at once if you are really precise. The spores also make a sort of hissing noise that will attract attention and let you know that the body is infected. It's worth noting that guards with gas masks are NOT immune to the spores, contrary to what you may expect.

Most of the time, when playing through a mission, you will encounter flags where you can change your loadout and restock on items (even bypassing Path of the Hunter's "downside" of not restoring items at checkpoints). Here are the notable exceptions:

Levels 1 and 2 do not have them, since you normally only have 1 item of equipment and 1 path on your first run. Level 11 also does not have any, since you are locked to using Path of the Mark.

While not exceptions per se, levels 5 and 7 only have one equipment cache, and a point of no return. From there on, you're locked to one loadout. In level 5, it comes shortly after the cutscene with Kelly, and in level 7, it's immediately after the equipment cache, right before the final room.

The Special Edition level contains equipment caches after your first playthrough.

While I may not endorse the following methods, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't cover them.

Be warned: While it doesn't happen often, suspiciously large scores have been deleted before.

Use these tricks at your own risk.

>A BLADE AT HIS NECK: INFINITE SCORE GLITCH

By using the Mark of Serenity bug to skip the door to Karajan's room, you can kill him as many times as you like, for a hefty +800 score bonus each time. Karajan only dies if he is knocked over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A2FS4c_XcM

>OVERKILL BONUS

It is possible to obtain multiple score bonuses per kill. Here's a clip of the glitch in action. Skip to 15:00 and you'll see him get Friendly Fire and Silent Assassin on the same guard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIl1r7lwPGc&t=15m0s

No matter what your style of play is--pure stealth, terror, or otherwise--due to the way the scoring system balances out in the post-mission bonuses, it is always possible to obtain three stars in every level, as long as you're good at doing what you decide to do during the missions. It is not necessary to tediously farm for points off every guard in order to obtain this achievement. If you don't care about topping the leaderboards (and that's okay!), don't worry too much about the tedious work involved in "optimizing" a run through a level--achieving three stars is pretty easy. Don't sweat!

I don't claim to be perfect. If there's something I missed, be it a score bonus I didn't find, an additional piece of information you'd like to see on here, or a typo that really itches--feel free to tell me in the comments below! I will be glad to receive constructive criticism and credit your additions.

TRAY
XReadBioX
Jim the Inventor
mrbenz
bootski
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