For Any% Runs:
Story Mode is the category you'll be submitting runs for.
To start off with the basics, when you start off the run, you have the ability to skip and and all cutscenes, the only drawback is that most cutscenes play whilst it is loading the next part of the game, and because of which will have a delay before enabling the player to skip. Skip cutscenes with A-Button / Start Button
Blue/Orange Scrolls with a Red outline on the map indicate where you are meant to go next, and are usually found in Blue Scrolls. Orange usually signifies a filler mission, hence the term 'Social Quest' as opposed to the Blue listed as 'Ninja Mission'. Sadly Red-outlined Social Quests aren't skippable, but the none-outlined ones are, so if you aren't doing the full game, it is recommended skipping them unless the game needs you to, or you want to. (NOTE, the minimap, while useful for telling you where to go next, it is VERY delayed in frames, so be weary of that!)
When talking to NPCs, text cycling is a pain due to the amount of dialogue needed to be skipped, and all with no way to skip-all. But you can use both A-Button/X-Button simultaneously to help skip dialogue faster.
When learning a new jutsu, the tutorial ui has some delays, so you can't just do fast input speed like normal. It is the joystick movement(s) specifically that has roughly a 0.5 delay in these tutorials, so after the inputs for the jutsu have been achieved, immediately releasing RT and holding RT again won't mess up cycle. You'll have to do a successful cycle on repeat for at least 3 times before the game allows you to move on, so don't think it messed up if you get it right. (There's a sound cue that plays to tell you it worked, so use that as reference it you're using audio) -
For jutsu inputs:
↑↑ + ←→ = Shadow Clone Jutsu (prepare for this after your first Ninja Race)
↓↓ + ←→ = Sexy Jutsu (prepare for this upon meeting Konohamaru at the bath house)
→← + ↑↑ = Chakra Concentration (prepare for this as you finish collecting herbs for Haku)
Unlike the tutorial, when in gameplay whether it's a battle or not, you should be weary of the Chakra Bar gauge you have, because if you don't have enough, even with the correct inputs for hand-signs, the jutsu will still fail without enough chakra in your meter. There is a value for both Chakra and Health, so if you're concerned about not having enough Chakra for a jutsu, it usually takes 100 from your Chakra. Unfortunately there are no values for Chakra or Health in battles, so you'll have to gauge whether you have over a quarter of Chakra while battling. That said, unless you're cancelling an opponents rage, I wouldn't recommend using jutsu in battle, since hand-to-hand combat is faster, at least until a jutsu can be upgraded to level 3 (which is more of a full game strategy than any%)
When in combat, at the start of the game, the best recommended moves to use are ↓+Y to launch your opponent into the air out of almost all states, then A+Y to slam your opponent to the ground. (NOTE, if you K.O. your opponent with ↓+Y and let them fall to the ground, nine times out of ten, they WILL get back up, realise they've got no health left, and then eventually fall back down to the ground, which loses a few seconds!) Both techniques deal a Medium amount of damage. Light damage is fast movement, but your opponent can block/dodge out of any and all moves. Heavy damage only occurs with combos that are listed as 'Killer Combos' on their final hit, but the trouble with these combos are that while they take the most health out of your opponent, they take a little longer to recover, compared to ↓+Y and A+Y making the opponent recover moderately fast, and to the equivalent of a Killer Combos damage while usually faster than the latter's speed/animation. Alternatively, spamming ↑+Y+Y can take the AI out fairly quickly depending on the RNG difficulty spike (for instance, using this on Sakura during the Genin Test will consistently work well since her AI behaviour doesn't have any RNG with difficulty spikes, and instead will allow the combo to work almost all the time, even in multiple/reset runs.) (It's also advised to not move naruto after K.O.ing an opponent, since movement, jumping etc WILL delay the victory.)
Collecting coins are for the most part unneeded, unless the story requires you to grab a few, or you want to upgrade scrolls for strategic purposes... This is a minor timesave, but if you are looking for any and all fast strategies for any category that isn't 100%, avoiding gold coins is a little timesave since collecting the first one brings up a prompt box that last a few seconds.
In the Kakashi Test, as you meet up with Sakura and Sasuke, you NEED to speak to the former to trigger Kakashi's timed, or 'late' appearance. It is also in this test where you learn how to use the Substitution, or Sub, which is a technique you can use to escape damage/enemy's combos with the tap of the B-Button, assuming you have enough Chakra gauge for a Sub. You want to try timing the B-Button as soon as you get hit. The longer you wait, the more damage you'll still receive, even with a successful Sub. The worst case scenario is you just didn't time it on time, absorbed the full impact of the hit/combo, and have to attempt to Sub in another hit.
As you progress with the story, after team 7 passes Kakashi's test, you can talk to him upon returning to the village and upgrade your combat, adding either more Combos or Inner Strength, all dependent on what you purchase with your Training Points. (NOTE, hitting A-Button to get into the the Training menu is VERY delayed, and thus you may need to hit A-Button a few times to quickly get in. But if you can, try to notice when the game freezes right before the menu loads, since A-Button will also buy combos and waste your Training Points if you're spamming through the whole thing.) It is strongly recommended purchasing ALL Inner Strength upgrades when you can. You can only upgrade per story ark, and for the main story, only upgrade three/four times if you're just doing any%. A highly recommended combo to purchase is the ↑+Y+Y+X combo. It's a great combo for performing a Killer Combo, one where you can interrupt the delay that'd normally take place if the opponent were to normally land. But because you can jump and either slam them to the ground, or even tap X once in the air to lightly send them to the ground for a quick K.O. it serves as a good means to bypass a Killer Combos delay, assuming the player can attack their opponent out of the jump state. Another recommended combo to get a little later into the story might be the A+X+X+Y combo. It is another Killer Combo, but because this one does kick your opponent to the ground, it WILL delay your opponent from getting up. It's because of this to why it's only recommended picking this one up when your boss opponents get the ability to rage (in the Chunin Exams). The combo will be useful for dealing more damage than the usual and fast A+Y combo, and because of which can K.O. your boss opponent, meanwhile, A+Y while fast, might not've K.O.'d them, which will make them recover and could immediately rage, extending the battle even further. It's also recommended learning all the battle moveset in your own time off runs, since it will help with learning the right and wrong times to perform the combos, jutsu, and rage, especially with the opponents you WILL encounter in your runs. But more than that, you'll not just be having ALOT of practice with all the as mentioned combos, but it'll also help with knowing each enemy's visual cues, animation delays, timing, etc. Kiba and Neji's 2-hit Killer Combo are a great example of this. The AI loves to use those combos for some reason, so knowing when that combo is coming through the animation, and knowing when to time a sub on the first hit is, while difficult, possible, and thus faster...sometimes MUCH faster if your opponent succeeds in triggering a jutsu after their Killer Combo. And knowing when and how exactly to block and sub (B-Button), dodge (INSERT D-PAD/JOYSTICK DIRECTION x2), all at the right times are very useful methods for getting through battles in a fast pace, while preserving health, and also a great place to start with learning your opponents moves.
If you are unsure where to go when there is nothing on the map to update your location, usually holding X provides you with context on what you're supposed to do next, but if this does not help, speaking to any happy villagers will point you in the direction you're needed next. (When doing regular runs, you'll get a feel for when/where to go when the game requires you to be somewhere the map isn't telling you to be)
In Tree Action Sequences, for The Land Of Waves, The Land Of Fire, and The Forest Of Death, they all have Tree Action Sequences respectively. They're all consistent with what movement is needed for the fastest/damageless route, but with that said, there's no easy way to explain the exact movement since they're all different, usually per tree, even if all still consistent. Obviously for traps like the Demon-Wind-Shuriken's, like combos, practice makes perfect with avoiding them, and knowing when to prepare for them. The only thing recommended avoiding at all cost is crashing into an obstacle, for if you're not at top speed in the higher branches, this can lead to battling an unnecessary bandit/enemy ninja. Sometimes, there will be a branch you can land on that doesn't have a reticle. If you're high up in the fast zone, messing up twice will send you back down to the lower/slower branches. With that all said, take note that branches that don't have a reticle will behave like you've badly timed a jump. In other words, if you've miss-timed a single jump in the high up branches, but then are headed to a branch with no reticle, you'll be going back down to the lower branches, which will lose a little bit of time.
When you get to boss battles, you have to be aware of these opponents: Zabuza, Haku, Orochimaru, Kiba, Neji, & Gaara. So, what is a boss battle? They're more difficult opponents to beat since their AI is spiked, and will even try to perform their own jutsu if you're a distance away from them. (An easy punch to their jutsu charge will cancel theirs, but they usually don't go for higher levelled jutsus, and thus will get into their jutsu's faster. If you're far away from your opponent, try and throw a Kunai with RB, if you're not too far away and your Kunai makes it to your opponent before the jutsus level 1, you can cancel their jutsu charge, but past level 1 and the charge shields them from all Kunai!) But more than all of that, defeating the boss will only trigger a midtro cutscene, to which afterward will trigger a Phase 2 of the same boss. And post Haku, they will have the ability to rage! So getting more heavy combos, or triggering your jutsu to prevent/interrupt their rage is certainly advised. That said, most people tend to prefer spamming jutsu to stay alive, which while it will get you through the game undefeated, unless you have level 3 shadow clones, it is most definitely faster to use combos to trim your opponents health bar down, not having to rewatch the same shadow clone animations/delays. On top of that, you can upgrade Inner Strength throughout the entire game more often than the shadow clones.
For Rage Mode, it's only recommended using it if you're very low on health, and/or your opponent has a lot of health left/is trying to trigger a jutsu. The latter is the most useful if you're a far distance away from your opponent and can't throw a Kunai in time to cancel their jutsu. The most health-consuming combo to use in rage, assuming your opponent isn't blocking/subbing it all the time, would be Y+Y+Y, something you have from the start of the game. It's a great and quick combo to quickly burn through the opponents health, especially since rage speeds your combos up.
Getting to the Tower Of Death, you might be surprised to learn that when it says 'Prepare yourself for the next phase of the Chunin exam!' in your Mission Update, you don't have to do anything at this point, as there is nothing to do to speed up the time you have to wait for the in-game cutscene to trigger. Because it's such a small section of the game that goes unexplored for this reason, it's unclear if there is something specific that can help speed this process up, even if a little. Something as small as panning the camera down to the floor could potentially be a few frames faster due to performance, though this is speculation.
Perhaps a little unnecessary to mention these two instances in the game, but before you learn to walk on water, after defeating the bandit that has Jiraiya's 'research tool', in the 'You have recovered the research tool! Now return it to Jiraiya!' Mission Update, unlike all the other Mission Updates where it restricts movements, for just this one quest you can actually move throughout the entire update! And similarly, in the filler to which you need to retrieve a Shovel for Jiraiya's friend, after beating the bandit, you can move for less than a second just before the Mission Update stops your movement. This also happens later in the same quest when you later have to retrieve the same NPC's Potatoes for both bandits you need to fight.
When getting to the Summoning Jutsu, Naruto does Shadow Clone Jutsu on himself, and the player is in control of where the opponent would usually be. If you let the AI progress with the jutsu, it will either GREAT! or PERFECT!! against you, and in both scenarios it plays a few seconds of the outro animation, which wastes about 9 seconds. To prevent this entirely, if you memorize as much as you can of the inputs that the AI puts in place for the sequence, and in time, QTE through the sequence to defend yourself, you can stop the AI from getting a GREAT! (which triggers the 9 sec animation) basically serving as a small, but worth-while timesave, especially in record runs.
Around this timethus, and close to the end of the game, you need to hold RT and input a consistent amount of joystick movement inputs for the summoning. These directional inputs are:
↓↓ + ←→ + ↑↑ + →← + ↓↑ + ↓↓ + ←→ + ↑↑ + →← + ↓↑
While it is just the five directional inputs x2, with enough practice and repetition, you can actually spin the joysticks in sync to do the first four directional inputs, till you get to the fifth, being ↓↑ different. But after that first cycle, you can simply do the exact same thing once more and get through the short sequence faster than it took to load into the area.
For the Shukaku chasing sequence, the air-bullet shockwaves have a delay to their hitbox, so be mindful of that if you're immediately turning after the gaps. And finally, for the Shukaku QTE sequence, the inputs are RNG based, so definitely prepare for that, as there is a short window of time there, and failing it means redoing the whole QTE sequence from the start!
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~ The only major skips you'll want to go for WR attempts are:
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WARP SKIP, so as it suggests, you'll want to skip using the Warps, specifically for the ones that don't require a Tree Action Sequence to get back to the Village.
So, for the Mission before Land of Waves, you'll want to skip all the Warps there, as it is actually faster. Normally, using the Warp would be faster, but for the Mission before Land of Waves specifically, it is slower using it, due to defeated Bandits reappearing. If you skip the Warps in this Mission, defeated Bandits won't reappear, thus making it faster to skip Warps. Doing this will also make them not respawn on your next mission when travelling to Land of Waves.
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VILLAGE MOVEMENT SKIPS, depending when you are in the story with what upgrades you have unlocked, you can use Double Jump/Sprint-Hop to access Grinding Rails early which speeds up general movement in Konoha.
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BANDIT SKIPS, because this is all in a speedrun, skipping as many avoidable battles is recommended. However even to an experienced player/runner of this game, some bandits feel almost pixel perfect to skip. With that said, here are a list of bandits that can be skipped:
The very first bandit that triggers during the Mission before Land of Waves. This one can only be skipped by using the Sprint-Hop from the far right hopping around the trigger, sticking like glue to the far right as possible (it's probably the most difficult, and not recommended if you haven't practiced.), but as mentioned, because you have to battle this bandit before Land of Waves (Before you have the Sprint unlocked.) currently there are no ways to skip this one with just the Double Jump at this point in the story.
The next bandit that can be skipped thankfully is more easier and consistent, this one only appears during your travels to Land of Waves, pretty much a little further from the previously mentioned bandit, where the house is. You can easily skip this by sticking to the far left with some jumps.
The next bandit is during the "Recon Mission" before you start the Chunin Exam. It's pretty much after Naruto says "Alright, let's get this guy!" when you break down a Shadow Clone Wooden Barrier, and before the Bandit Boss. Just stick to the far right and you'll easily get around without triggering it.
Next bandit is when you're in the Forrest of Death, pretty much after you get separated from Sakura and Sasuke. There's a camera sequence to show you where to go. DON'T follow this route, as there are bandits where the camera wants you to follow. Instead, take the right route where there are some spikes waiting for you, THAT is the route you want to take. With no detours you should be able to make it to the Tree Action Sequence without triggering a single bandit. (Be careful if you try jumping around the first set of spikes, as there is a bandit on the platform just above the spikes on the left platform.)
The final bandit(s) that can be skipped is during the Potato/Shovel Mission. Just a little before the Tree Action Sequence and Shadow Clone Wooden Barrier, there is a bandit that can easily be skipped by sticking to the far right with a careful jump. There are two other Bandits in this same Mission that can be skipped using Movement Skip, but if not, sticking to the far left for both will easily skip them.
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TALK SKIP, not very often, but more than once, you can talk to someone in your squad before a cutscene or story dialogue triggers. Doing so before either triggers, stores the ability to cancel out of talking to your squad member during the dialogue, which allows skipping some potentially long dialogue-cycling.
You can do this after you defeat the Bandit-Boss by quickly moving close enough to Sakura by talking to her before the Story Dialogue saying "So, i was wondering." kicks in.
Likewise in the same mission, before you meet up with your squad after collecting the treasure, you can quickly talk to Sasuke before the Bandit appears saying "Hey, look who's here!" kicks in.
And finally after defeating Kiba, after the Hokage and Mission Updates have finished, if you run up and talk to Kakashi, after the cutscene kicks in and you skip out of it, you can cancel out of this (and the previous 2) dialogue by pressing B-Button.
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MOVEMENT SKIP, for Story Mode this applies to the Potato/Shovel Mission, but can apply to anything in this area depending on the location you need to get to. After the Tree Action Sequence, and after the first bandit in this area (During the Potato/Shovel Mission), with some careful platforming on a rock a bit further and to the left, you can jump and land on the rail above, skipping the entire platforming and a couple of (easily skippable) bandits.
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WATER SKIP, with a very precise sprint-hop from a rock to the opposite shore, you can skip the segment which you learn to walk on water and have the 5 prong seal removed. When skipping this dialogue and cutscene, the only drawback is you're stuck for the rest of the run with the prong seal. So if you're a risky runner and are confident you won't get KO'd in the upcoming bosses, then definitely worth going for especially during record runs.
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NINJA RACE SKIP, unfortunately this only applies to the final ninja race for the story (not including The Broken Bond). But as soon as you start, if walk around in front of the NPC that wants you to do the race, you can actually skip the entire race without going through a single checkpoint, due to the final checkpoint already being loaded in, just invisible. This is probably the easiest skip and most recommended, as it skips about 1 minute 30 ish.
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For Popularity% Runs:
100% Village Popularity is the category you'll be submitting runs for.
For Lovelorn Villager locations: 
If you're doing ASG for either Popularity% or in Mini-Games, Lovelorn% then you aren't required to convert every Lovelorn Villager.
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For Coin Runs:
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Number of Ancient Coins in locations: Konoha = 388 (Konoha Breakable-Object Coins = 106 / Konoha Ancient Coins = 282 (56 Rail Coins)) Gate 1 = 17 FOD 1 = 13 FOD 2 = 14 FOD 3 = 9 TOD = 10 Gate 2 A1 = 15 LOW 1 = 17 LOW 2 = 19 (2 can fail if you haven't updated the game.) Gate 2 A2 = 17 Gate 3 = 7 WaterFall 1 = 23 WaterFall 2 = 23 (possible for a 24 because of a spawn glitch) For Visual Locations: ~
Number of Gold Coins in locations: Konoha = 37 Gate 1 = 7 FOD 1 = 8 FOD 2 = 9 FOD 3 = 5 TOD = 7 Gate 2 A1 = 4 LOW 1 = 5 LOW 2 = 4 Gate 2 A2 = 6 Gate 3 = 6 WaterFall 1 = 12 WaterFall 2 = 7 For Visual Locations: ~
For Map Locations:
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What you should have before you leave the Village to find other Gold/Ancient Coins:
This is a screenshot of everything being done in the village only, before now needing to venture out of the village for coins that weren’t collected intentionally during this speedrun, for keeping-track of reasons. It’s arguably a slower strategy, but it helps the player get used to the placement of all coins with this strat.
(As you progress through the story, there are 10 unavoidable Ancient Coins in Konoha needed to progress through the story. There are also 2 unavoidable Ancient Coins on Grinding Rails in The Land Of Waves needed to progress through the story.)
