Ninja

They hide in shadows and use the art of ninpo, the advanced practice of which can create duplicates.

—In-Game Description, Etrian Odyssey III

The Ninja is a versatile agility-based class from Etrian Odyssey III. It focuses on low-cost special abilities for enemy disruption, evasion, and attack. The Ninja has a special appearance in Etrian Mystery Dungeon.

It is the fastest class in the game. Ninja have some status affliction and support skills, but their main asset is speed and evasion. They will nearly always strike first and hit accurately. They have the lowest HP and VIT of any class in the game and can only wear Clothing armor.  A Ninja's main weapon is a Knife.  They can equip Katanas, but have no special skills for them.

Gameplay and Skill Breakdown

Ninja can take on many different roles depending on what special abilities they choose. Their power is not obvious at first, since Ninja have very weak base offense and defense, but their skills turn their incredible speed into significant forces of enemy disruption, ally support, evasion, and attack.

Ninja are most naturally suited in a support role. Without any evasion skills, Ninja are greatly vulnerable to dying, and should generally stay in the back row, where their class skill Keburi No Sue (smokescreen) grants them a unique advantage. It removes the melee range penalty, and subtracts a maximum of 9 TP from all their skill costs, including those from subclasses. Bunshin, one the Ninja's most iconic skills, forms a complete duplicate of the caster in an empty party space - enabling faster action rates - at the cost of dividing the caster's HP and TP between the clones. The new clone gets its own chance to activate Nikudan, even if the original ran out of uses (same with Endure and Ascetic Rewards). Ninja can fill more empty party spaces with illusionary Kagerou shadows to distract the enemies' attention. Ninja have skills like Fukubari blowgun darts and Izuna that inflict powerful status ailments, and can spread them throughout the whole enemy group with Suikyou.

Ninja have extremely potent evasion capabilities. Almost every attack in the game can be dodged, allowing Ninja to face down even the strongest enemies alone or nullify major quantities of damage for the team. Maxing out Senpuku and Kumogakure adds up to about 110% dodge chance, and Karuwaza makes all of those dodges restore up 20 TP each. Their evasion can be further boosted by Wind Tactic and by afflicting enemies with Blind, but remember that Leg Bind and several status ailments will render Ninja unable to dodge anything.

Even though Knives are weak weapons, Ninja's Knife Skills boost damage slightly more than the skills for other weapon types. Katanas give Ninja much better autoattack damage, but Knives make Ninja more versatile offensively. Tagen Battou will deal the most damage a Ninja can possibly deliver, but it requires a specific skill choice and playstyle to be most effective. For every active Bunshin clone (not Kagerou shadow!), Tagen Battou's damage will double, so that every ally you take out of your party increases your ability to one-shot the enemy team. This strong attack is only practical with high-level evasion skills, since using Bunshin and Kumogakure so many times often leaves clones with 1 HP.

Ninja are generally unorthodox fighters and supporters, needing free space to deal damage or allies to use their low-cost skills with.

Subclass Options

Since Keburi No Sue makes every subclass's skills more spammable and flexible, there is really no "wrong" subclass to give a Ninja.  That said, there are a few that compliment a Ninja's natural capabilities particularly well.

Ninja also has very broad utility as a subclass.  The evasion is a great boon for most frontliners.  If it isn't already used, Kagerou and Bunshin fill in the 6th party slot.  For characters focused on status ailments, Suikyou is very potent, and Kubikiri applies to every autoattack.

Monk: Ninja synergize well with Monks, and their combination capitalizes on the strengths of both.  Besides feeding TP off its own shadows and clones, each new clone gets its own use of both Nikudan and Ascetic Rewards.  If used as the team's healer, definitely have Resurrect and decent evasion to survive as the last resort from defeat.

Shogun: The support and command skills are cheaper to use, but the main idea here is building Bloody Lance on one Shogun with Kaishaku, which kills Bunshin clones that activate Endure.

Hoplite: With this subclass, a Ninja with high evasion is better able to protect allies.  Bodyguard, Overwatch, and Switch Stab are most helpful.  Unknown which of Provoke and Otori has the better draw rate.

Gladiator: Berzerker Vow and Charge boost burst damage, making a Tagen Battou build significantly more powerful.

Zodiac: Keburi No Sue's utility has already been mentioned, but this subclass gets special recognition for its party-wide TP cost deletion potential.  Ninja also deal decent damage with the Zodiac's spells.

Arbalist: The blinding from Smoke Grenade lets Ninja relax on their evasion skills.  The Crossbow is also a great weapon that grants access to Snipe, which synergizes with Suikyou.

Buccaneer: Ninja have high AGI, so Pincushion has good damage potential.  Swashbuckling helps Kubikiri activate more often.

Base Stats

Does not include any stat bonuses from skills, equipment, Books, or Retirement.

LV	1
HP	28
TP	24
STR	7
TEC	9
VIT	4
AGI	10
LUC	8

Skill Tree

Knife Mastery

Lvl. 1 --> Kagenui

Lvl. 3 + Kagenui Lvl. 3 --> Izuna

Lvl. 5 --> Takanoha

Kagerou

Lvl. 1 --> Otori

Lvl. 3 --> Bunshin

Bunshin

Lvl. 1 + Otori Lvl. 3 --> Nikudan

Nikudan

Lvl. 3 + Knife Mastery Lvl. 10 --> Tagen Battou

Senpuku

Lvl. 1 --> Sarutobi

Lvl. 5 --> Kumogakure

Sarutobi

Lvl. 3 + Kumogakure Lvl. 3 --> Karuwaza

Fukubari

Lvl. 1 --> Suikyou

Lvl. 3 --> Makibishi

Suikyou

Lvl., 3 + Makibishi Lvl. 5 --> Kubikiri

Keburi no Sue

Tonsou Jutsu

Skills

Keburi No Sue | Class Skill - Ninja skill that reduces TP used. No attack penalty from back row.
Knife Mastery | Passive Skill - Prerequisite for knife skills that raises knife damage dealt.  Requirements: None
Senpuku | Passive Skill - Increases the ninja's evasion.  Requirements: None
Karuwaza | Passive Skill - Recover TP after successfully evading attacks.  Requirements: Sarutobi LV 3, Kumogakure LV 3
Kubikiri | Passive Skill - Normal attacks may be fatal blows.  Requirements: Suikyou LV 3, Makibishi LV 5
Nikudan | Passive Skill - Once per battle, launch a fire attack upon being KO'ed.  Requirements: Otori LV 3, Bunshin LV 1
Kagenui | Knife Skill - Knife: Slash attack causing leg bind by stitching their shadow.  Requirements: Knife Mastery LV 1
Izuna | Knife Skill - Knife: Slash attack to one enemy. May cause petrification.  Requirements: Knife Mastery LV 3, Kagenui LV 3
Takanoha | Knife Skill - Knife: Slash damage to random enemies several times over.  Requirements: Knife Mastery LV 5
Tagen Battou | Knife Skill - Knife: Team up with your shadow for random slashes. Shadow will fade.  Requirements: Knife Mastery LV 10, Nikudan LV 3
Fukubari | Ninjutsu Skill - Piercing attack that may inflict sleep on three enemies. Requirements: None
Suikyou | Special Skill - May spread a status ailment from one enemy to all other enemies.  Requirements: Fukubari LV 1
Makibishi | Counter Skill - Counters attacks to the target row with a slash that may poison.  Requirements: Fukubari LV 3
Kagerou | Special Skill - Create a shadow of yourself in an empty slot to draw attacks.  Requirements: None
Otori | Support Skill - Makes monsters target one ally for three turns.  Requirements: Kagerou LV 1
Bunshin | Special Skill - Use half your HP and TP to create a copy of yourself in the party.  Requirements: Kagerou LV 3
Sarutobi | Support Skill - High probability to nullify enemy physical attacks for this turn.  Requirements: Senpuku LV 1
Kumogakure | Support Skill - Sacrifice HP for a significant evasion boost for three turns.  Requirements: Senpuku LV 5
Tonsou Jutsu | Escape Skill - Run from battle to the last used staircase or Submagnetic Pole.  Requirements: None

Gallery

Trivia

• Ninja uniquely have all of their skill names retaining Japanese Romaji language. Some Shogun skills also have this trait.
• The brown-haired female Ninja greatly resembles one of the Ronin.