Kunoichi

Kunoichi (くのいち) is a character introduced in Samurai Warriors. She is the fictional female ninja bodyguard of Yukimura Sanada. Her age is listed as 15 years old. She's symbolized by the characters "kill" (殺) and "bury" (葬).

Samurai Warriors
In Samurai Warriors, Kunoichi is Yukimura's bodyguard. She appears as laid back and over dramatic at times. One thing she is serious about is Yukimura (all meanings), she tries to help him wherever she can. Whenever she appears as an enemy it is generally to mess with the player rather than an real role, but when she does have a role it is normally next to Yukimura as his sub general, or occasionally a saboteur who you have to stop. Kunoichi also makes a rare appearance during the Suguroku game in Samurai Warriors 2. She steals the player's gold and takes it for herself.

One screen shot has people speculating Kunoichi is in Samurai Warriors 3. The picture shows a female in red pants and a short shirt, which sounds very much like Kunoichi. These pictures are shadowed out so it is impossible to say much beyond the silhouette, pants and a small part of the shirt. Some fans speculate she will be replaced with Chiyome Mochizuki, who trained fellow "kunoichi" for the Takeda.

On the website resume of G.K.Bowes, who does the English voice for Kunoichi, she is listed as voicing Kunoichi in Samurai Warriors 3, giving strong credence to a return of the character.

Warriors Orochi
In Warriors Orochi Kunoichi appears in one battle at Wan Castle, where she is helping the peasants escape, and agrees to help Wu with the condition that Hanzo says she the better ninja, which he doesn't. She also appears to help Nene's ninja army in Wei's story.

In Warriors Orochi 2 Kunoichi is a spy for Wei. She is a default character. She scouts out the enemy for Cao Cao before the battle generally. Against Lu Bu, Cao Cao orders her to the front line which she complies "...as long as you don't get all dictatorial on me and order me to take Lu Bu's head". She is important for the first few battles but she appears less and less as the story progresses.

Development
Kunoichi was developed to be the quickest character for Samurai Warriors. Her outfit, preppy speech patterns, and fighting style were made to reflect this concept. Her fighting style was made to deliberately contrast Hanzō's. She is roughly based on the popular rumor of Yukimura employing Takeda ninja for his troops. These maidens allegedly disguised themselves as shrine priestess and were noticed by Shingen for their deceptive nature. The general goal for her visual design was to create a ninja-like design that has never been seen before. While her first outfit represents her cute and playful nature, her second costume was designed to be "more ninja-like".

Interaction in games
As she is fictional, the characters she encounters refer to her indirectly, rather than giving her a proper name. Among the various things she's called are Vixen and Yukimaru's "You".
 * Hanzō Hattori is basically Kunoichi's rival in Samurai Warriors. She tries to outdo him, but he simply sees her as an amateur, and often reprimands her. When he does, she makes fun of him, saying, "You're awfully preachy for the silent types". As Hanzo's target is often Yukimura, Kunoichi and him often fight against each other in almost all of her battles.


 * Masamune Date doesn't like Kunoichi, as she often doesn't take him seriously. He disdainfully calls her "Vixen".


 * Kunoichi often catches Goemon Ishikawa looting castles. She normally yells quietly for him to go away as he isn't a very quiet robber, but normally they are caught anyway. When she first runs into him in Azuchi Castle she goes by her sob story, which he buys and starts crying. Later he offers to have as her apprentice, which she rejects, but jokingly in his story pretends to be a fan.


 * Shingen Takeda normally jokes with and teases Kunoichi, as he does most of his troops and enemies. Like Yukimura, she refers to him like a boss. An example conversation:
 * Shingen: "Only you can help Yukimura, if you know what I mean."
 * Kunoichi: "I don't think I want to know"
 * Shingen: "Come on, let an old man have his fun"


 * Kunoichi easily fools Mitsuhide Akechi with her sob story and has him start to doubt Nobunaga Oda, via his sense of justice and right.


 * Kunoichi appears in Ina's Musou mode as a friend and rival. She thinks that Ina and herself are similar in that they both fight for the thrill of it, not for other reasons. Ina tries to reject this, if she does, she does become friends with Kunoichi and let's her hold her baby, if she doesn't reject the idea, she kills Kunoichi (along with Yukimura, Keiji Maeda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, and Magoichi Saika) in the Siege of Osaka. Kunoichi's last comment is "I'm so lucky... to sleep in your arms."


 * Kunoichi is almost always seen with Yukimura, in battle as his sub-general. While nothing is directly said (other than by other characters hinting like Goemon, Shingen Takeda and Okuni) of how close they are, it is a subject left to interpretation. She is almost always with him, and Yukimura is one the few people she'll be willing to help, at least seriously. This is shown in Hanzo's story mode, as she says, "I'm really serious about helping Yukimura this time, honestly". She often refers to him as boss and Lord Yukimura. In his last upper path battle, she follows him during his charge to which he responds, "Why do you insist on following me?". Which she responds to the effect, "Things would be really dull without you Lord Yukimura", which is a line she uses on more than one occasion, though to different characters normally.

Voice Actors

 * G.K. Bowes - Samurai Warriors and Warriors Orochi series (English)
 * Yūko Nagashima - Samurai Warriors and Warriors Orochi series (Japanese)

Quotes

 * "Let's play nice" (Intro line in Samurai Warriors 1: XL)
 * "Nothing personal, but my boss needs your head" ( Fifth stage in lower path in Samurai Warriors 1)
 * Yoshimoto "I wish there were no wars, then we could play Kemari all the time"
 * Kunoichi " Yeah, and I could sleep all day, wait what am I saying!?"(Samurai Warriors 1:XL, Yoshimoto's last upper stage)
 * Hanzo "Assist me"
 * Kunoichi "Okay, but only if you admit I'm the better ninja. Heh heh heh."

Ground Moveset

 * undefined,(undefined,undefined): Kunoichi charges up and then runs around slashing as she runs.
 * ,undefined,(undefined,undefined): Kunoichi slashes opponent in air and jumps up after them spinning with blades in hand, and as they fall she throws an explosive at them
 * ,,undefined,(undefined,undefined): Kunoichi does a forward kick, then spins at an angle with knives and jumps behind opponent and releases a blast correlating with element, if no element she releases a stream of projectiles in one direction
 * ,,,undefined,(undefined,undefined): dashes forward slashing about 4-6 times then throws weapons like a boomerang.
 * ,,,: Three slashes from Knives and then a series a kick which Kunoichi turns around after each one and a final spinning kick
 * Spins forward with weapon out stretched.
 * , : Like all nimble, ninja type characters, she can double jump.
 * , undefined:

Horse Moveset

 * undefined: The horse stomps the ground making a small shockwave, if dashing the horse jumps a fairly long distance doing the same on landing.
 * ,undefined: A rather powerful strike to the right
 * ,,undefined: Throws a smokebomb at the ground
 * ,,,undefined: Throws blades in front of the horse making a X shaped projectile path
 * ,,,: Kunoichi leans to the right and does a series of very quick slashes.
 * Musou, if held during musou she does her chain at higher speeds.

Samurai Warriors
Kuniochi is a very fast character in all ways. She is one the fastest runners, rolls far, and has the highest natural jumps, and her pre-existing double jump adds on to this. Her running speed make her Ideal for Castle Stages as she can zip through Floors, roll through any trap and jump into special ninja paths to make life easier. On the field ninja paths are again useful, and her speed is such that a horse is optional, as though she can't run as fast as Matsukaze, she comes close with high leveled Tenku Shoes.

As for her fighting strengths, again the word speed applies. She is annoying to fight against because she can pull off an attack before a lot of characters can even begin their swings, when using her make note of this. Her moveset is useful for the situation. Her undefinedundefinedundefined is used for killing generals, her undefinedundefinedundefined kills crowds if your element is either Fire, Lighting, or Ice, and arguably most multi-useful attack is undefinedundefinedundefined as it hit crowds, and damages generals and it is useful for taking on multiple generals at once.

Kunoichi, although horses are optional for her, is a great horsemen. Her string comes out fast and combos generals enough to be deadly, and for crowds her undefined and undefined kill crowds quite nicely, the former has more range, but the latter more power.

As far as ranged combat, Kunoichi isn't quite the best. She doesn't do horrible at it however, her main drawback is her lack of power, so she has to use multiple shots (Which means unless your knocking them off a horse don't use on fleeing foes), but her forte in ranged combat is her reload speed which is among the fastest, like her enemy Hanzo, and the ranged expert Magoichi.

Weapon Suggestion
These are some Suggested Weapons for her, playstyle however differs among players, so some might not work for you that are listed, and some that aren't listed may work miracles for you

Some suggested stats for weapons for her are Weapon: Flame or Ice- Flame greatly improves her combos as they are multiple hit and keeps foes in the air, on top of this it gives huge range and area to her ,,undefined,(undefined,undefined)'s explosion. Ice glues an enemy to the ground allowing more damage and easier combos
 * Attack range- Kunoichi's reach is rather low this helps improve it.
 * Attack- Kunoichi's attack isn't the highest so this helps her kill easier.
 * Speed- Kunoichi's speed is one the highest so this takes advantage of that and improves it further if augmented with Tenku Shoes she can run as fast a horse easily

Things not suggested:
 * Lightning or Dark: Lightning screws up her combo's especially undefinedundefinedundefined. Dark changes her explosion to a thin projectile without much area, and it's effect is almost negligible.
 * Hare Greaves- her jump is high enough to reach any ledge she needs to, and she is already augmented by double jump.

Warriors Orochi
Kunoichi's R1 makes her invincible to attacks for a short (But lethal) time, it stays for approximately the time it takes to do 2 1/2 combos. Not only is she invincible her attack increases tremendously. In Warriors Orochi it is about 2 times damage with Proficiency max, but in Warriors Orochi 2 it is about 3+ times stronger with proficiency max. In both games she is about the same, but there are two differences in her moveset. In the first game her third charge attacks ending has a larger area than in the second game(It is the similar to the original attack if you had an ice weapon in Samurai Wariors). In the Second her kick attacks do noticeably more damage.

Her last charge attack is a multipurpose attack. It shreds generals and crowds alike, unlike Samurai Warriors your element activates 3 times as opposed to 1. Her third charge is good for crowds due to the explosion at the end (more so in Warriors Orochi 1 than 2 as the blast radius is toned down), and if you lack flash it can be used as a way to get past general's guard as she jumps behind them. Her second charge can be used as a general killer as it hits multiple times on a single target.

Weapon Suggestion
Suggested weapons for her playstyle differ among players, so that ones that are listed might not work for you and some that aren't may work miracles for you.

Highly Recommended:
 * Flash- breaks guard of enemy so they don't block you
 * Slay-instant kill on peons and added damage to generals
 * Might-More damage to any one charges does X1.4 damage coupled with the below it is X2 to generals
 * Brave- As Kunoichi's special makes you invincible she will often be used to kill generals, so it is good to kill them fast.

Recommended: Not Recommended:
 * Rage- Kunoichi is one of the few characters who can fully utilize Rage, as when you hit low life You can become invincible and the bonuses means massive damage. This is risky because if they hit you again before your special activates on higher difficulties your dead.
 * Absorb- Kunoichi is generally reliant on her special so absorb help her gather musou. Some people don't like Absorb because of how little it gathers.
 * Multi- Adds a little damage and bonus effects to Kunoichi's strikes.
 * Ice- When frozen enemies take more damage, and can't attack you.
 * Drain- unless coupled with Rage, which this is counter productive to it Kunoichi's life shouldn't get low due to her Invincibility, and if she is hurt a lot you should switch out as it recovers life faster.
 * Bolt- While adds damage it screws up combos so she can't do er full damage.
 * Flame-Kunoichi should be doing enough damage that this doesn't have time to activate

6th Weapon
Kunoichi's 6th weapon is found on her last upper stage, Siege of Osaka-Summer, if you have Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends. To get it you have to play on Chaos (Or Hard if you are "Lucky". This can be noted if in the character selection screen, the cursor is green on her. One character randomly gets it every time you turn on the game) or if you purchase the bonus lowering the requirement). To get it, complete the stage, hitting every mission with no one dying. It is recommended that you use the War Drums item and Matsukaze saddle.

5th Weapon
To get Kunoichi's fifth weapon, go to her fourth stage, "Defense of Ueda Castle", after you finish her Musou mode on either path. Get to the fifth level of the castle without killing anyone (including foot soldiers) in 3'45 minutes. The stats are not to good so it might be a good idea to have a high leveled fourth.

4th Weapon
An easy way to get a good 4th weapon(if you do not own or use Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends this stage is redone) is to set the setting on Chaos mode, equip Lantern and Kappa Amulet and do the same stage as above. It is a good stage because you do not have to kill anyone, Hanzo can kill Yukimura; in fact, it is a good idea to let him as he will all to happily kill you with ease on Chaos. You find weapons on the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th floors. This trick is good for items too which you can do at the same time which are on the 1-3rd floors. If you need healing, health is on the 4th and 5th floor.

Trivia

 * In the Japanese script, Kunoichi playfully punctuates the line "お.や.ま.だ～！"　(Oyamada~!). For Japanese fans, this is considered to be an inside reference to Zhang Liao's nickname with fans.