As an obsessive Gotham Knights enthusiast with a penchant for finesse-focused playstyles, unlocking the elusive Shinobi suits has been my white whale since launch night. I immediately fell in love with the Shinobi aesthetics from the first teaser images – the flowing scraps of fabric, the ninja-esque masks, the mix of leather and light armor. And the specialized combat bonuses granted by the Shinobi sets perfectly complement my preference for utilizing precision and strategy to outmatch enemies.
So when I heard through the grapevine that the Shinobi blueprints had stingingly low drop rates locked behind late game milestones, I rolled up my sleeves and resolved to let nothing stop me from acquiring these incredible outfits. Over 150 hours later, the tale of my Shinobi blueprint hunt has taken me through equal parts thrill and frustration. Join me as I recount my journey and share hard-won knowledge for slaying the RNG beast guarding these gorgeous ninja garbs.
An Auspicious Start Quickly Wilts
The trail began promisingly enough. I had meticulously combed through all available pre-release footage and interviews seeking any crumbs the developers may have dropped about the Shinobi acquisition process. From a Game Informer rapid-fire interview, I gleaned that the Shinobi suit pieces would start appearing once all four Knights had reached an average case file rank of about 10. Good to know – no need to waste time grinding too early.
So I made sure not to dawdle too long on distracting open world activities in those starting hours. The moment I saw my Knights hit that threshold, I began farming hard. Plowing through story chapters, taking on villain crime scenes, completing challenge objectives – if there was a reward attached, I was laser-focused.
Initially believing the rumours of "incredibly rare" Shinobi drops were exaggerated, I fully expected at least one exciting ninja item notification after the first lengthy grind session. But as the hours wore on with my crafting inventory growing fat with everything except suited scraps, creeping doubt took hold…
Stalking Shadowy Leads
With my early optimism fading, I realized more substantive measures were needed to discover the true secrets of the Shinobi. Scouring gaming forums and Gotham Knights Discord channels, I began aggregating anecdotal accounts from fellow Shinobi devotees who had managed to snag these mythical outfits.
Cross-referencing their stories, a few thought-provoking patterns emerged:
- The most lucrative Shinobi farming zones seemed to center around The Cauldron and the Financial District districts later in the game, indicating possible level-gating.
- Challenges, crimes, and story missions had relatively equal Shinobi potential, with no clearly superior option.
- Nearly all successes came alongside resource crafting stockpiles in excess of 400+ of multiple material types, implying costs could be exorbitant.
Armed with these clues, I tailored my approach. The Cauldron became my grinding spot of choice as its gloomy supernatural ambience seemed fittingly ninja-esque. I alternated evenly between all mission types to maximize my chances. And I started conservatively stockpiling crafting resources, selling or breaking down anything non-essential to build my reserves.
While the taunting trickle of useless loot persisted for a time, adopting these strategies finally yielded the first elusive Shinobi piece – a Red Hood lower body blueprint – while busting a weapons smuggling gig! With a restored sense of hope, my hunt gained momentum anew.
Batman‘s Hidden Hoards
Shortly after the drought-breaking Red Hood pants print, comment threads tipped me off to another potentially invaluable Shinobi source – Batman‘s secret caches. Previously, I had mostly ignored these hidden loot bunkers after cracking open a couple early game caches rewarded mostly consumables and common suit pieces.
But according to growing community buzz, the endgame secret caches guarded more valuable hoards. These max level 5 caches could reportedly contain guaranteed rare Gotham Knight suit rewards – including mythic complete Shinobi suits! My curiosity piqued, I set to work locating and clearing out every level 5 cache tagged on my map.
This guided grind proved massively fruitful, yielding two complete Shinobi suits (Robin and Nightwing) and two matching blueprints (still no luck finishing my Red Hood fit though). The satisfaction of finally decking out some Knights in full Shinobi splendor energized me to keep pursuing my final scattered pieces.
Reforging Broken RNG
Now entering the fourth straight week of focusing daily grinding solely around Shinobi hunting, both motivation and loot optimism had started waning again as I struggled to collect my last few pieces. Until I caught wind of a potential shortcut for reshaping the stingy RNG…
Veteran ARPG players know that many games‘ random loot systems can be "manipulated" using save scumming techniques. By backing up your local save data before the loot drop occurs, reloading if you don‘t like the drop, and repeating – you can reroll over and over until satisfied.
From various remarks and forum posts, I pieced together that Gotham Knights allowed for similar exploits. Namely, you could reuse limited crafting materials – including valuable mod chips – this way. Here was an avenue to target farm for missing Shinobi loot!
I immediately backed up my save files and began carefully tallying my most rare crafting stocks. I decided to focus on reforging equipment mods, as these had previously yielded random Shinobi suit rewards. Over the next couple days, through copious save-scumming and dozens of mod chip infusions, that last elusive Red Hood Shinobi blueprint materialized!
With all sets finally fully unlocked, I guiltlessly adorned my entire Gotham Knights crew head to toe in matching Shinobi glory. My epic Shinobi quest had come to an immensely gratifying conclusion.
Final Musings from the Master Shinobi
As I reflect back on my long journey traversing Gotham‘s criminal underworld in search of its most coveted Tailored suits, a few pieces of hard-won wisdom stick out:
Patience and dedication are mandatory. Unlocking even one Shinobi set can easily take 60+ hours played based on current droprates. With occasional bouts of bad RNG, grinding fatigue is inevitable. Pace yourself for the long haul.
Optimize your approach, but stay versatile. No single activity eclipses the rest for Shinobi potential – blend different mission types, study "lucky" districts, and track resource costs. But don‘t become too fixed on any one strategy. Randomness alwaysplays a role.
Exploit crafting and loot systems where possible. It‘s up to each player‘s personal preference whether to leverage things like save scumming for gear. But the statistical truth remains that certain technical exploits can vastly improve the Shinobi hunt.
Wearing my gleaming Japanese-inspired armors into Gotham‘s dark alleys, I now feel an elevated kinship with Batman and his clandestine war on injustice. And though at times the grinding journey wore my will thin, making tangible progress toward a clear goal kept me engaged through the long nights.
To all my fellow fashionistos and collectors – stay strong in your hunt for these incredible cosmetics. May fortune favor your drops, and your patience remain unbroken until you at last stand triumphant in hand-tailored Shinobi silks. For Gotham!
