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How to win a Duel

A Duel is your ninja against one other ninja, best of three rounds. It plays like Fight, but your opponent thinks. Here is what decides most duels, and how to come out on top.

The rules in one minute

• Best of three. Win two rounds and the match is yours. Both of you start every round on full health.
• Tap your opponent to strike. Where you tap picks the blow: the head for a high kick that lifts them, the body for punches and kicks that chain into a combo, the legs for a sweep that knocks them down.
• Press and hold on yourself to guard. The guard stays up for as long as your finger does.
• Draw a line to dash. He follows the line in a flash. Each dash uses one ink drop, and the drops come back on their own.
• The round button is your ultimate. It fills as you fight. When it glows, let it go.

Everything you have bought in the Shop comes with you: your moves, your ultimate, your fighter upgrades, and the way you dressed your ninja. Your opponent brings theirs.

Guarding: what it stops and what it doesn't

A held guard stops almost everything: punches, kicks, high kicks, even sweeps. Each blocked blow still costs you a sliver of health, but far less than a hit. Two things get through:

• The elbow. It is made to smash a raised guard. If your opponent has learned it, tapping you while you guard throws it automatically.
• Ultimates. Nothing blocks them. Only a dash gets you out of the way.

And a guard does not last forever. The third blow you block in a row breaks it and leaves you dazed for a moment, open to anything. So guard to take the sting out of a combo, then let go and answer back, before that third blow lands.

The counter: the biggest hit in the game

When your opponent winds up a blow, there is a short moment before it lands. Hit them in that moment and yours lands first, for more than twice the damage. In a duel this is the swing that wins rounds. Watch for the wind-up, especially on slow, heavy moves like the spin kick and the high kick, and tap them straight away. The Sharp eye upgrade in the Shop makes that moment wider.

Dashing: your escape and your opener

He can't be hit during a dash, which makes it your answer to two dangerous moments:

• An ultimate coming at you. You can't guard it, so dash away from it, or straight through and behind them.
• A broken guard. If you feel a combo trapping you, a dash gets you out before the next blow.

Draw upward and he leaps instead. From a leap you can come down on them with a stomp or a knee drop. Keep at least one ink drop in reserve for escapes: an empty ink bar is the moment a good player goes for their ultimate.

Landing your ultimate

The meter fills when you hit, and a little when you are hit or block. Since nothing blocks an ultimate, the only way out is a dash, so the best moment to use it is right after your opponent has dashed and their ink is low, or while they are dazed or getting up. Each ultimate plays differently one on one:

• Tornado kick and Spinning blade: quick and reliable, good finishers for a round.
• Ground slam: throws them into the air, setting up a follow-up while they fall.
• Shuriken Rain: a leap, then exploding stars. Hard to escape once it starts.
• Whirlwind: pulls them in and kicks them up, unless they dash first.
• Shadow Clone: for a few seconds a shadow copy fights on their other side. It's two against one; press the attack.

Upgrades that matter most in a duel

Duels are short, so a few upgrades count for more here than in Fight:

• Toughness: more health. In a duel it counts up to three levels, 160 health instead of 100.
• Dash drops: a fourth ink drop, one more escape.
• Sharp eye: easier counters.
• Fury: your ultimate comes round sooner.

Nothing evens players out: a ninja with more upgrades and moves really is stronger. That is what the coins are for.

Bots and the queue

Under Fight a bot you can pick Easy, Medium or Hard. Easy reacts slowly, rarely guards and only knows the basic moves: a good place to learn the guard and the counter. Medium uses your own moves, a beat slower than you. Hard is quick, guards often and uses everything you know.

Find an opponent looks for another player. If nobody turns up within about fifteen seconds, a bot steps in so you are not left waiting, but you stay in the queue: a pill at the top says Still searching for a player, and if someone arrives, the bot fight ends and the real duel starts.

Playing a friend

Tap Invite a friend and you get a four-letter code and a link. Send the link; when your friend opens it, the game joins your duel by itself. Or they can type the code under Have a code from a friend?. On CrazyGames the invite uses CrazyGames' own invite links.

Your duel wins show on the Stats screen. Win five for the Duelist badge and the Blood moon outfit. See the Duel page for where you can play.