Shinobi Art of Vengeance: Mad Train collectibles guide

Shinobi Art of Vengeance’s Mad Train might be the easiest stage in the game, but don’t let that fool you. It can still be too much for Joe Musashi, should you get overconfident. However, you should have the Sword Dive skill from the Submarine Base, which will let you 100% this map without any issue. Unlike other stages, this one doesn’t have a boss fight, either.

It does, however, have a mini-boss that’s going to look very familiar to Shinobi Art of Vengeance players, and that’s the ArachnoTank. That’s right, it comes back for round 2! If you remember how you dealt with it the first time, this won’t be much different. If you’re struggling to find things in the Mad Train, here’s everything you need to know.

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How to unlock all important collectibles in Shinobi Art of Vengeance’s Mad Train stage

• 3 Elite Squads
• 1 Secret
• 5 Oboro Relics
• 1 Ankou Rift

Runaway Mad Train, or whatever Soul Asylum sang about in 1993 (Image via SEGA)

Unlike most Shinobi Art of Vengeance stages, the Mad Train is incredibly linear. So, I’ll be posting things in the order in which they appear on the train stage. Normally for example, I put the Oboro Relics in the order in which they appear in your map UI. To make things easier, I’ll just put everything in order, as this is not a stage you need to backtrack on.

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Elite Squad locations in Shinobi Art of Vengeance’s Mad Train

The three Elite Squads aren't hard to find, but they can be quite challenging (Image via SEGA)

The Elite Squad locations in Shinobi Art of Vengeance’s Mad Train stage are incredibly easy to spot. In fact, I don’t think you can miss any of them. You can choose not to do them, and that’s perfectly fine. However, success nets you the Fortune Hoarder Amulet, which gives you gold every time you hit an enemy, as long as you’re over 25 Hits in a combo.

• Elite Squad #1: Can’t be missed. Shows up in the main part of the stage, after you first encounter a Sniper.
• Elite Squad #2: Can’t be missed. Shows up after the large car with two Sword Dive barriers. Use the explosive boxes to your advantage against the enemies.
• Elite Squad #3: After the Armored Cars Save Point, take the first right to go inside the train car.

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Secret locations and other useful unlocks

There’s really only one Secret to unlock in the Mad Train of Shinobi Art of Vengeance. It’s not too hard to find, but if you’re just running across rooftops and not exploring the train cars, you will absolutely miss it. That said, since it’s a Max Health Boost, it’s a must-have.

You'll have to battle a few waves of enemies to get the Health Boost (Image via SEGA)

• Max Health Boost: At the end of the Convoy section, you’ll find a Shop that you can Sword Dive down into. It has two levers to open the gates on both sides. Take the right side and jump into the next cart. You’ll have to beat up a few waves of enemies, but will then be rewarded with the Max Health Boost.

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Oboro Relic locations in Shinobi Art of Vengeance’s Mad Train

Anytime you see a yokai barrier, break it! (Image via SEGA)

As long as you take the time to explore every train car that you can get into, you won't miss a single Oboro Relic in Shinobi Art of Vengeance's Mad Train. The only one that might be hard to get is #5. That's only because it's right after the first aircraft chase, and you might just keep running right past it.

• Oboro Relic #1: After the first Save Point (Aircraft Carrier), clear the next few cars, until you reach the gauntlet of enemies. Sword Dive through the green barrier you see next and claim the Relic.
• Oboro Relic #2: After beating the Arachno Tank, you’ll jump onto a train that has turrets that shoot at you. Get to the end of this tank and Sword Dive down into it through the barrier. The Relic is at the far left of the cart.
• Oboro Relic #3: After the second Relic, you’ll see a small train car with a turret, followed by a very long car with several turrets on top. At the end of the long turret, drop down and go inside from the right side. Work your way towards the left, dealing with exploding bots and TNT crates, to find the relic.
• Oboro Relic #4: After leaving the train car with Relic #3, head right (blow up the TNT boxes in the way), and defeat the enemies inside. The Treasure Box hides the relic as usual.
• Oboro Relic #5: During the first aircraft chase, you’ll find a train car with several turrets, and a pair of archers standing next to each other. Get past these, and drop down and enter the car on the right side.

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Ankou Rift location in the Mad Train stage

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You’ll encounter the Ankou Rift of the Mad Train stage in Shinobi Art of Vengeance pretty quickly. Once you reach the Convoy Save Point, head left into the huge train car you just jumped off of. Inside, you’ll find the Ankou Rift.

This is truly one of the harder Ankou Rifts in the game though. You’re perpetually falling towards the ground and need to navigate your way from falling platform to falling platform. It has white walls to scale, and flamethrowers to avoid. Thankfully, dying doesn’t make you start over; you fall from the top of the screen where you died, and take damage.

This can set you into a loop where you die over and over again; it does feel very unfair in that regard. Once you’ve made it to the “top”, you’ll return to the start, where you can claim the Dark Katana fragment.

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Shinobi Art of Vengeance is the latest action platformer from SEGA, and will release on August 29, 2025, on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One. You can learn more about the game from our in-depth review.