Kenzan any% easy route (9/2021)

# General information

- Make sure you do the HDD Install (bottom option on the main menu) before doing any runs, it saves a TON of time on loads
- Text is auto-skipped by holding R1+X
- Despite being a Japanese game, select is X and not O. (Probably depends on system language)
- Single sword seems to be the way to go for 99% of fighting.
- Be careful when using the money sword, even if your attacks are blocked or countered it will still cost you
- With clean gameplay, you can usually get away with 1 random encounter. Any more and you'll run out of money

# Important location names

- Tsuruya = the big building in the north
- Tatsuya = kiryu's house
- Kouetsu Mansion = where Florist lives, with the ninjas
- Yoshioka Dojo = west of kouetsu mansion, where you do the ch6 boss

# Prologue

- Bottom option twice to the guy in your house
- Dodge the man standing outside your house
- Talk to the clerk in the close marked store
- Talk to the clerk in the second marked store (tengu mask building, same side of the road)
- Talk to the clerk at Ebisu Pawn (the far store in the top right*
- Pick up the locker key at the shrine, go south and open the locker
- Cross the street, talk to the marked lady, then go to the southwest corner for the tutorial
- Tutorial 1: light attacks, grab attacks, weapon attacks (use the basin and the large stick), build heat, do heat actions
- Return home for Tutorial 2: kill the 3 gourd enemies and take their gourds, block, R1 walk around, dodge rolls
- Talk to the guy outside your house to continue

# Chapter 1

- Tutorial 3: Take out and put away your sword 5 times, light attacks, strong attacks (sq+tri), blocking, kicking (circle w/ sword out), charging (sq+tri, HOLD TRIANGLE after sliding past the wooden post)
- Marume 1: Break his guard with a kick then combo him. Get rid of his yellow HP and he gets much more aggressive, then lose on purpose.
- Go outside to Marume's house
- Majima 1: full combos
- Setpiece: All the intial enemies & the guys in the room are required, as are the guys in the second room
- After the second room, go left and get the nameless katana. equip it and continue on to finish the setpiece

# Chapter 2

- Go outside, walk down the stairs, return and talk to Majima
- Maruma 2: This fight sucks
- Dual sword tutorial: block 10 times, then attack 10 times **Do not hold R1 or the attacks probably won't count**

# Chapter 3

- Bridge fight: You'll probably hit more enemies simultaneously if you stay on the bridge
- Go inside the farmhouse and talk to the lady
- Assassins: light attacks all day
- Bounty hunters: kicks. Deal with the archers and the main guy first?

# Chapter 4

- Rainy fight: goooo
- Grab the clothes before leaving the house
- Hook left behind the house and jump off the ledge to go north to the city. **Do not do this if an encounter has spawned nearby**
- 2nd option to the guy in MEB, then return to your guide, then talk to the guy outside MEB and follow him north to Tsuruya
- Tsuruya guy: kicks

# Chapter 5

- Ignore the first waypoint, go to the Tsuruya back door
- Return home, tsuruya backdoor again, then go home (disregard the revelations tutor guy) and leave out the secret hatch (bottom option always)
- Talk to marked guy blocking the gate. Walk back, 2nd to last option then last option to the info guy
- Go to the southern of the 2 center streets (the crowded market street) and walk to the center of that for a fight
- Go to the shogi place (top right corner of this area), top option to the guy sitting in the far corner and hand him your second item (it's a piece of paper)
- Win the fight outside and top option to the marked guy guarding the gate to pass
- Go to Kouetsu mansion, then start walking to Majima's cave
- top option to the lady throwing water substory by the blacksmith to get 10k mon
- Get stopped by the blacksmith. Dequip your greatsword slot (2nd menu option, 3rd weapon in the list) and equip the greatsword he gives you (2nd menu option, the now-empty third slot)
- Greatsword tutorial: Block 5 shots with L1. Do not finish your combos (only swing twice) so enemies don't get knocked down.
- Proceed to Majima's cave
- Pick up all the items dropped by enemies in the first room, one of them is a silver plate (this sells for 10k)
- break chains and barriers with the greatsword, otherwise move emptyhanded so you can run faster
- After dropping down from the bridge, take the left path. Keep left and get the club (dont equip yet)
- Proceed to Majima
- Majima 2: do a full combo whenever he's in the process of standing up to hopefully keep him stunlocked (he will guard some stuff but you break it). His attacks are all blockable
- Return to Kouetsu mansion

# Chapter 6

- Sell the silver plate at ebisu pawn for 10k, then go to the Tsuruya back door and return home
- Taxi SE (down 1 option) and enter the marked house. Talk to the guy in the back for training
- Taxi north (mash x) and to Kouetsu mansion. Bottom option twice to soup guy when he tells you about the police
- After Kouetsu mansion take the Yoshioka Dojo taxi SW (down 1 option)
- Talk to sword grandpa at the nearby intersection, top option twice (this substory unlocks another one later)
- Walk south to the riverside tea shop, buy the dango (green balls), taxi back to yoshioka dojo (left two options) and give the danjo to florist
- 2nd option to florist to do his ninja training, then bottom option twice to leave
- Do the substory with the crowd outside Kouetsu mansion to get the money sword (it's yellow, has 77 attack). **Equip the money sword and the club now**
- Go to yoshioka dojo
- First fight: Use kicks to break his guard between combos
- Second fight: just attack

# Chapter 7

- Itou: First phase just attack, second and third phase he will block stuff. Stand back so he dodges in place, then punish the dodge with full combos.
- Tsuruya back door, then Kouetsu mansion, then Tsuruya front door, then back home (some irrelevant things will happen along the way)
- Go to Tsuruya, take this route to avoid the police: https://clips.twitch.tv/NaiveDeafCodCharlietheUnicorn-sYhEKhmxIZjc7VvA
- Burning building setpiece: Ignore the first enemies and take the stairs
- Fight the enemies in the two rooms on this floor, ignore the stash room pointed to in the cutscene and take the stairs
- The route on the third floor can be a bit janky, check a vod
- Armored guy, keep to the right of the pole right in front of you to avoid QTEs. Break armor with the greatsword then finish him with the single sword
- Ninjas: They're ninjas

# Chapter 8

- Talk to the servant at Kamenoya (by the entrance to the Tsuruya back door area)
- Go to Kouetsu mansion, then back to Kamenoya, then home
- Taxi to the river tea house (left one option) and go south to Houzoin
- Talk to the bald guy blocking the door then the old man on the left
- Old man: fight him
- Pass the bald guy, top option to glasses guy, SKIP THE MELONS (select, left, X, left, X), top option again
- bottom option to desk guy to enter the tournament
- Every tournament fight: Full combos stucklock

# Chapter 9

- Go home, exit out the front door and step forward for a cutscene
- Yoshioka Dojo (taxi, left 2 options), Tsuruya front door, go home
- Bottom option to the trap door at home to sleep, then taxi to yoshioka dojo and head west through the farm (note: you can walk off the path in the fields to avoid encounters)
- Field boss: full combo stunlock
- Field setpiece: Follow this map, ignoring all enemies: https://i.ibb.co/cLMdfq3/kenzan-ch9.png
- Note that the last room enemies can't be ignored. Two enemies in here are "stunlock guys" who will do the sword unsheathing attack, it's quite annoying. Always prioritize them.
- Walk across the entire map, take the east exit at the riverside tea shop to go to where the boss is. **BEWARE the encounter on the bridge, it always spawns**
- Boss: Try to keep him on the elevated platform. If you get lucky you can skip all QTEs but he will typically at least summon his minions.

# Chapter 10

- Buy a dango at the yoshioka dojo tea house (bottom item)
- Bottom option to skip playing dice, then do a fight
- **Hold right out of the fight after dice, there is almost always a random encounter standing right next to you and it is hard to avoid**
- Bottom option twice at the theater
- Buy whatever you want at the restaurant
- Bottom option at the shogi parlor, then quit shogi immediately, do the fight outside
- If you run out of money, it will probably happen right here.
- Take the rich guy to the main gate, go through your house to meet him on the other side, go to Tsuruya front door
- The rich guy will now give you 40,000 mon
- Go to Kiyomizu temple (taxi SE and walk south on the forest path)
- Kiyomizu setpiece: Fight all the enemies in the initial area, stand by the stone wall and wait to get a bomb for it
- Ignore all the enemies on the path leading behind the temple, just destroy the barriers with the club
- After destroying the last barrier, backtrack a bit to the hut with the bombs. Get a bomb, then bring that to the back room and blow up the stone wall to skip the back room fight
- Run up the stairs, take the flaming ball to the face (it does no damage), keep going
- Majima 3: Don't let him stand close to the giant urns. If he gets on top of one, run far from it so he gets off it.

# Chapter 11

- Taxi SE, take the forest path to kiyomizu temple, leave out the marked door to go to Yagyu Village
- Pupils: Deal with the high HP guy first, then take the armor off the armor guy who spawns and deal with him, then clean up (this fight sucks)
- Marume 3: full combo stunlock. If you get knocked down and he starts charging / glowing red, let him do his attacks to burn the heat off

# Chapter 12

- Bottom option at Tsuruya front door, then taxi SE and go to the blacksmith to get the best weapon
- Equip the new sword (it has 101 attack) and return home
- Go to Kouetsu mansion, top option to florist
- Yoshioka dojo taxi > riverside tea shop (left one option) and bottom option to the boat guy to start in the finale
- Kojiro: full combo stunlock. He can charge up like Marume did last chapter
- Soldiers: Ignore the armored guys until there are a bunch of them, then break all their armor at once with the club
- First boss (club guy): start with the dual swords so he doesn't get away, then swap to single sword after one combo. This guy hits hard
- Grab the item at the top of the stairs (it's a heat restorative)
- Look at the stone wall on the left path, then go to the end of the right path for the bomb
- Right after dropping down after the stone wall, step backwards for another heat restorative
- Second boss (armor guy): Club light attacks to break his armor, then swap to normal sword. He has no armor bar but once he starts staggering his armor is broken
- Break the next wall for the third boss
- Third boss (sumo guy): Grab the wooden cart nearby, drink a heat item, do the cart heat action. Do this twice (the cart doesn't break)
- Next room: Keep the camera pointed towards the back of the room so enemies don't spawn back there
- Fourth boss (polevault guy): spam light attacks, do not finish your combo or he will probably pole vault away
- break the chain in the next room with the club, keep going
- Fifth boss (dojo guy): full combo stunlock works
- Break another chain, keep going, kill the ninjas in the next room before advancing
- Final boss: full combo stunlock, easy fight. Time stops as soon as the cutscene of him falling backwards off the cliff begins

Kenzan Level Data + Weapon Strength Calculation

https://docs.google.com/document/d/16gqQBPV5UCYPVEYOVZ2BkWEcSKL1bdhqwZU_26T-f90/

Name	Author
Kenzan any% easy route (9/2021)	tapioca 2 years ago
Kenzan Level Data + Weapon Strength Calculation	PlayingLikeAss 4 months ago