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Considering the danger zones as their own content (just as RP and Events would be considered a content category), it feels like there has been some neglect to what the zone offers, which can be seen in the recent decline of activity, specifically varied activity in the danger zones. By design, the danger zone accounts for all different forms of PvP, however as the game has evolved and the players' understanding with it, it feels like there is only one way to play inside these zones effectively, which at the moment is to bring as many numbers as possible (or not go out at all if you don't need to) and camp map swaps (which is by far the most effective strategy for winning fights). Personally I've played Nin for ~8 months actively, and during that time, played all kinds of content in the DZ (Solo hunting buffed/unbuffed, outnumbered fights, village raids, PvE, and missions to name a few). The problem: Gameplay is frustrating as it rewards clumped high numbers and mapswap camping, leaving other forms of DZ content neglected Current danger zones have very little incentive (I want to emphasise this, as it is different from the point below and will expand on it later) to go into There is no punishment or sense or urgency to push danger zones (players can effectively wait as long as they like before heading out) I will expand on each of these points, and offer a glossary of suggestions. Please note, this is not a criticism of dangers zones, it is more of a forum to suggest improvements to bring life to them. Please keep discussions on topic and take an objective viewpoint rather than a personal one so we can get points across Problem 1: High numbers (Clumped) + Mapswap camping Part 1: High numbers (Clumped) High numbers on their own are not an issue, infact they bring a more interesting outlook on the game. The problem is when large numbers are clumped. There are many reasons for this, but the main one is the 60 second death timer. The timer feels way too long considering the DZ maps are so small. A player can run from Dark spiders to South Tigers (a very significant coverage of the whole danger zone) in under 60 seconds. This becomes even more of a problem while fighting groups as once you are outnumbered, it does not matter how many people you kill as your kills can be revived with relative ease. Focusing medics is a viable strategy, however the punishment for running high medics in groups has no drawback since all groups are encouraged to have as many numbers as possible. Proposed solution: Reduce respawn timer in Danger zones from 60 seconds to 30 seconds. Safezone timers can stay 60 seconds. Part 2: Mapswap camping Mapswap camping is by far the most efficient strategy to kill any sized groups. For clarity, mapswap camping is when you are waiting on the edge of a narrow map, ready to unload all your jutsus when the enemy swaps into the map. The reason this works is because the enemy coming in cannot react while they swap in and many jutsus have no AoE limit. This inherently is not a problem, as it means with proper flanking, you can also corner the people camping the mapswap, if pushed from the other side, as shown below: The problem develops when you consider how dangers zones are layed out - there is a presence of corridors. A corridor is a map where once you have passed it, you cannot get back into any map above or below it until you pass it again. These are absolutely terrible for the danger zones and what facilitate mapswap camping as a viable strategy. The diagram below shows how corridors work: Each square represents a map in the danger zone. The red squares indicate corridors, and as shown, once you are holding one of these corridors, you cannot be flanked, and can effectively mapswap camp indefinitely, which leads to frustration and a stalemate from both sides. Proposed solution: Remove all corridors from DZ with the introduction of new maps. This would not only allow for outplay opportunity with big factions flanking one another, it would also allow for smaller hunting parties to use creative use of maps to evade opponents and bigger groups. IMO this is the single biggest change DZ's currently NEED. The diagram below shows an example of how new maps can be introduced to remove corridors: The full list of narrow corridors (these are the ones especially viable to be camped): Tanzaku Valley Leaf Tigers Mini Bottom CF Dark bridge Mist Bears 3 Mist Bears 4 Mist Foxes Mist Dragonflies Bears 2 Bandit Caves Bounty House (mainland) KB North Coyotes South Coyotes Takumi Tigers Takumi danger zone Problem 2: Current danger zones have very little incentive to go into Outside of missions (which become basically irrelevant once a player hits max level), bounty and the pure enjoyment for fighting, there is no incentive for the average player to enter a danger zone. This one I think can be fixed relatively quickly by offering more ryo incentives of going into danger zones without the requirement of players being in there. Proposed solution 1: @Ichika has already made a great post about this, I will link it here Proposed solution 2: Introduce a new mob map (suggestion would be the map left of snow wolves, but any new map equidistant from villages can suffice) where a relatively easy mob to kill (compare difficulty to between bears and hosts level). This mob drops an item exclusively used to sell to the shop for ryo (between 20-40 ryo) and commonly drops it (same way as hosts drop DNA). This would encourage players to actively leave the safezones to get consistent ryo rewards, at a higher risk - I use the word consistent because drops like DNA are not consistent, they must be sold to another player to make money. Problem 3: There is no punishment or sense or urgency to push danger zones (players can effectively wait as long as they like before heading out) There is no urgency at all to push danger zones. Compare this with for example raid points located at GD entrances, there is a sense of urgency where you must push, or lose something as a village. This applies to absolutely nothing inside the DZ (except gaining ground so they are not mapswap camped by another village :rofl:). Proposed solution: Honestly, I'm not sure. I would suggest something like raidpoints, but I'd like the community help on this suggestion. Conclusion The points mentioned above are in order of priority. I want to emphasise that these changes are very important to keep danger zones as enjoyable content. Many players enjoy nin specifically for content in danger zones and it's pretty much a part of every players gameplay. I hope you can give feedback on this forum post objectively and that relevant people like Rory and Erox as well as the other admin team not only see this, but give feedback on their thoughts about this, as well as the rest of the community. This post took a lot of effort to create, so please give me the same respect by keeping discussions on topic.

TL;DR: Shirokata is very underwhelming for its level/STR requirement, and its unique effect is actually a nerf, read below why. This is coming from someone who has all the swords besides bone/blood, and I've tried each out for several days. 1. Shirokata is the worst compared to its sister swords. Dark Bandit Blade is literally same STR req and level req as Shirokata, but strictly better damage. Even Maramusa is better to use than Shirokata. Muramasa requires 10 less levels, and 20 less STR. And it actually gives the user +1 to STR. Muramasa's requirements are wayyy lower than Shirokata's, and its base damage is only lower than Shirokata's by... 3. By requiring 20 less STR, you pave way for more diverse builds with Maramusa. Shirokata doesn't live up to the 100 STR req. I don't think I need to prove how good Religious Katana is. The base damage is lower than the aforementioned 3 swords, but the attack speed more than makes up for it. So much so, that if 2 people held down Z against each other, Religious wielder would beat the Shirokata/Bandit/Muramasa wielder easily. It's gotten to the point where you just buy and keep Religious for all your levels, until your level/STR is high enough for Bone Sword/Blood Katana later on. The intermediate swords are bad, and Shirokata is the worst between them. Don't like words, and want raw numbers? (The higher the better) Damage of the sword per STR required: Religious Katana: 0.37 Muramasa: 0.375 Shirokata: 0.33 (lowest) Bandit blade: 0.35 Crystal Sword: 0.35 Blood Katana: 0.41 2. Its unique effect is negligible. The Wiki says 12% chakra per 40 seconds. Okay... 40 seconds is a long time but okay, it's at least something I guess. Except it only actually regens flat 10 chakra, not 12%. If it was 12% regen, and you had 300 chakra, you'd regen 36 chakra. A big difference. Even if it was 12%, 40 seconds is way too long for frequency. It should be 4% chakra per 10 seconds, so it's more vivid and applicable. 3. It's bugged; making the unique effect actually a nerf. 3.1 First bug, the passive Chakra Regen, every now and then, removes itself for no reason. Unequiping and re-equiping Shirokata enables the regen again, but it shouldn't turn off ever. No one wants to not have chakra regen. Just keep it on forever. 3.2 Second bug, when the regen happens, there's a pop-up text +10 that appears above your character when you get the chakra. Except... that pop up also weirdly appears when you're already full chakra, when it shouldn't. This exposes you if you're hiding behind a tree preparing an ambush, because the pop up appears over trees, objects, everything, giving away your position. The only reason I even walk around with this sword is because I like the visuals of it. 4. Suggestions on how to buff it. I always believe that balancing is about keeping in mind item identity over item standardization. (I'll prolly make a post about this later). Buffing Shirokata's damage or attack speed is not it, and would just make it like other swords. (Although, I do think a slight buff to attack speed is necessary) Each sword has its own identity, and Shirokata's, I guess, is the Chakra Regen passive. My suggestion is to do the following: - To make the regen 4% chakra every 10 seconds. That'd be 10 chakra if you had 250 total chakra (which is what WM users generally go). - To lower the STR req. STR req should be 85 at most. Currently, you're telling me this sword requires 100 STR, when, just with 10 more STR, you arrive at Bone/Blood, which are miles better? If Shirokata's damage is similar to Muramasa (33 vs 30), the STR req should be similar to Muramasa's (80), not 100. If you don't want to reduce its STR req, then buff its damage to match that of Blood Katana/Kyuketsuki (Crystal). If you like this post, do not give it reacts. Just upvote the post itself, so Rory can see.

I was hunting around trying to collect bounty and the main thing I notice is either, 1. It's a lowbie with no bounty, 2. It's 10+ people hunting together or 3. DZ is dead. So I had an idea, there can be a system implanted with this guy over here at the Land of Fire Bounty House. When you finish all your daily missions and talk to this guy right here he gives you 10 ryo, I think it would be nice if this guy right here gives you a Side Quest to complete which is to kill 10 ninjas and collect 500 bounty. Once you complete that quest, he gives you access to TP to a 1v1 sparring arena danger zone. Once he gives you access, there should be an NPC in every village which teleports you to the arena to fight. An NPC example can be someone like this right here, somewhere in your village The way it works is 1. You only get 3 fights a day to avoid people spamming it causing less activity in actual village raids/danger zone fights. 2. Each time you win you gain 10 rank points and each time you're defeated you lose 10 rank points, you can't go into the negative with the rank points and how the rank points work is, There's a leaderboard in every village which shows a list of who has the most rank points. (basically like how bounty book shows who has the most bounty, can look like this for example) Whoever is 1st place, 2nd place and 3rd place gets a rewarded. First place obviously gains the best reward, then 2nd place gets the 2nd best reward then 3rd gets the 3rd best reward etc etc. (The rewards can be things like event coupons where even people who were 10th place still get a coupon for participation, it doesn't have to be event coupons though it could be ryo, items, or even throw in a special rare item now and then like an event tourney would.) 3. You can't fight someone that has a much more higher rank point than you, EX: Someone has 0 rank points and another person has 100 rank points, you cannot fight them. The reason why you can't fight them because there's skill gap between the players and the players should not be able to pick on a weak player to get free points or else it would end up like this. If there's a queue that's filled with players with 100 rank points and one player with 0 rank points, if the player with 0 rank points doesn't meet anyone that has nearly the same amount of rank points he does (0-30) then he will end up fighting someone with a higher rank point, if the guy with 0 rank points wins then he gains 10 rank points, if he loses then he wasted one of his turns/doesn't lose points even if he had 10 points. If the guy with 100 rank points wins then he doesn't gain any points but he doesn't lose a turn, but if he's defeated then he loses 10 rank points but a turn is not wasted. If a fight like this happens then they can't fight twice to avoid farming for points. The whole point of the rank system is so that people can fight people on their skill level and the best of the best will be on top of the leaderboard obviously. The rank point system can more fights look like this, basically close unpredictable fights due to people fighting people on their skill level (or at least it helps make people fight people closer to their skill level) 4. Minimum level requirement is level 40 to join, there can be a separate one for lowbies (levels 20-40) but if they don't add a separate one I think level 40 is a good requirement to join. 5. The matchmaking can available for like 3 hours a day, Ex: 3am EST til 4am EST, 2pm EST til 3pm EST, 8pm EST til 9pm EST. The whole point of this is because if the matchmaking is on 24/7 then players most likely won't be matched up together as much, but if there's a certain time to do it then a crowd of players will probably be waiting until that timer starts so they can all join. 6. The way the Matchmaking works is once you talk the NPC, then the NPC teleports you to the arena where the fight will take place and you wait until a match has been found. While waiting you can see the other players who are waiting/fighting. This photo is an example. (This doesn't have to be the arena it's just an example) Once a match is found both players are teleported to arena with full chakra/hp and 10 second immunity for prep time (no they can't move around or start trapping up they are just stuck in one place facing each other with 10 second immunity like this) Org buffs are not allowed for obvious reasons, same with toad oils/chakra pills/summons. Basically the basic Nin tournament rules should apply to this right here as well. 7. Similar to the Best Dressed Ninja Contest where there's a winner every 15 days, The Leaderboard of the rank points can be reseted every month. The types of fights can be changed within the months as well, Ex: May 1v1s,June 2v2s,July 3v3s etc. Teams share the same rank points so if they find a new partner their rank points will be reseted. Ex: Ichika teams with Reality and win fights, they have 20 rank points, Ichika then starts a new team with Noboru but they start off with 0 points. I think the pros of this are: Fun event like the raid point feature that was added in the game not too long ago, Danger zone kills so if you got a bounty mission/waging war, you could do this event and maybe gain some bounty/kills, and it's competitive which makes players want to train hard to reach the top of the leaderboard. Shout out to @Sky @Haste @Scooby Doo for joining in on some of those screenshot examples.

Judging swords by their rarity? Weird take. So a sword can be poorly designed but have a poor rarity so it's okay? Weird, cause you'd never know Shiro's rarity is less than Bandit's or Religious's when it costs either the same or more than them to buy. Also, you're acting like the chakra regen passive is not negligible? You regen 10 chakra every 40 seconds. If you ever wanted to afk with no chakra, it'd take 17 minutes to get full chakra, and that's if you only had 250 chakra. Not to mention it's a nerf to your tactics when you're full chakra. If this sword is to have low damage in exchange for this passive, then make it a worthwhile passive. Bandit blade isn't a much better sword, and also deserves a slight buff, but Shirokata is in a worse state than Bandit. The 2 damage is more beneficial than the chakra regen. For proper balance, bandit blade could receive 1-2 extra base damage and Shiro's passive could be made reasonable.