The Shinobi Class in Soul Knight Prequel is a combination of the Thief & Animancer (paid class) in the game. It’s hands down one of the strongest if not the most broken class in the game – with most of the players in the leaderboard playing the said class (reaching 1000+ Floor).
If you’re interested in playing the class and don’t know where to start, or just want to understand the Shinobi better, I got you covered. In this guide, I’ll show you everything you’ll need to know on how to effectively use the Shinobi class.
Best Shinobi Build Guide & End Game
Equipment & Item Set
First, let’s take a look at the best standard equipment that you can take in the Shinobi class. Compared to other classes, where you take all the best legendary equipment you can get, the Shinobi doesn’t really care what rarity your equipment may be (can be blue or green even).
The Shinobi (Animancer) heavily relies on minions. And you’ll want to equip yourself with fatebounds that empower this mechanic. Also, here’s a guide on the fastest way to get Minion power.
- The only legendary accessory being the Jade Necklace offering Field Marshal as a sole minion buffing stat, it’s not reliable.
- Unfortunately, due to the first two fatebound locks on Boss weapons, maximizing Animancer’s minions is challenging, and obtaining blues is comparatively easier.
What matters is that you’re able to get the Bonded Summons fatebound, which you can only farm from the Esoteria (best area since you get more DEX and STR gear there) and Halcyon Cemetery.
After getting that, you must then aim for Hyperfocus and Field Marshal which will crack up you damage and utility even more. I will explain this on the “Fatebound Items & Bonuses” section below.
As for the best weapon for the Shinobi, you can use either (if not both) of the two:
- Black Archknight’s Colossal Zweihander – The best one (end game) option imo.
- Slimy Soaker – Shock damage (Will help you reach 1 Billion damage, I’ll discuss this one below as well)
NOTE: There’s no need to copy the stats and fatebound of the weapons, I believe there are better ones outside the Charged Core (You’ll need this to reach 1 Billion damage as well)
Fatebound Items & Bonuses
This is a unique case where the summoned minions are essentially a scaled-down version of Animancer (up to 80% of your stats). With maxed-out Field Marshal, you can summon four minions.
Combining this with Shadowclone of Shinobi (5 temporary minions with 30% of your stats), you achieve a constant 280% damage buff.
Considering all buffs, including minion power, weapon damages, and Animancer’s own ability buffs, the overall damage boost for Shinobi reaches a whopping 430%.
- Field Marshal: Increases the number of summoned minions.
- Bonded Summons: Grants your summons your weapon traits. For example, a weapon with backlash will cause your minions to also trigger backlash.
- Hyperfocus: Provides additional stats for locked mana. Given that Animancer can lock their entire mana until half their own health, Hyperfocus delivers optimal benefits.
Stat Spread
As for the spread of stats, the players in the leaderboards all have varying stat spreads – feel free to copy any of them. But basically, you should be prioritizing Full STR and bonus to DEX.
Skill Set
I wouldn’t really get into much detail into the most ideal skill set for the Shinobi – but here’s a spreadsheet/image that you can refer below.
Basically, you’ll want to max out the most broken skills of the Shinobi which are the clones (Shadowclone Jutsu: Twin & Throng) and everything else to make the mechanic stronger and better.
Also, you wouldn’t want to invest too much of the abilities in the Thief section (just the necessary passives/aura) – but rather more on the Animancer Class (after all, you’ve paid for that).
How To Reach 1 Billion Damage
Now that you have your Shinobi ready for battle, you’ll want to know how to take it to the next level, and by next level, I mean dealing a crazy 1 Billion damage. Don’t believe me? Watch.
Okay, so basically, you’ll channel your inner Stormblade (it’s actually funny how you can deal more shock damage than the Stormblade itself) and use Shock damage to reach the highest DPS you can:
- Slimy Soaker – Mentioned above as well. You can farm it from the Slime King boss. Basically, you’ll be using this to beat the DPS cap from the Black Knight Sword.
- Shock Juice – You can get this from the Bacchus’ Alchemy Atelier, by combining Eggplant, Pea and Banana. This will give you 20% bonus Shock damage.
- Twilight Dragon – You also have the option to take Yanyan, but basically, you’d want to get that juicy Shock damage buff (like Dragonbreath)!
- Bonded Summons – I’ve mentioned this above, but in case you skipped to the good part, here’s a recap.
- To sum it up, this Fatebound will copy your Weapon’s Fatebounds to your Minions/Clones (like Backlash) and turn it to 3/3 for them (Even when it’s just 1/3 for you. Yeah, it’s straight-up broken).
- As much Lightning & Minion Damage Bonus as you can – Which you can get from Weapons, Necklaces and Rings (besides from the Innate buffs, of course)
Boons of The Valkyrie & Trick/s For 1 Billion Damage
Thor’s Demesne + Tactical Swoop – Will give you the Galvanized Armor effect. Lots of Thunder damage, which synergizes with the build.
- Here’s the trick for this one: Buff > Dash for Galvanize > Clones x2 > Repeat. What this does will provide the Galvanize Armor effect for your 4 clones indefinitely – Will only disappear if they die or resummoned.
Thor’s Demesne + Dominion Aura – But it doesn’t stop there. Since the 4 clones have Galvanized Armor, you can put the Thor’s Demesne on a toggle skill for reducing the shock resistance of the enemies.
- Turn off and on the toggle skill if it didn’t work.
Lastly, you can use 3 buffing weapons to infinitely make your summons stronger. Also, it’s better to not use the Goblin/Pirate Weapon, so the clones do not dash far away from the target/s.
- Your buff state extends to your summons.
- Clones copy 80% of your stats, including buffs (though I’m uncertain if it’s a bug or a feature).
- By buffing yourself and using clones, we ensure they inherit infinite buffs. The 5 clones only copy 30% of your stats, which is not a significant concern.
And that’s how you can use the Shinobi as effectively as possible in Soul Knight Prequel. Do you have a build you’d like to share as well? If you have questions or concerns, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.
Up next, if you’re interested in checking out all classes in Soul Knight Prequel & their best builds, make sure to check out our dedicated complete guide for those as well!
