Black Dragon NinjasReport
English：Black Dragon Ninjas · Factions
The ninja gang of the Border Zone, led by a pair of outlaw lovers carrying 20,000 Cats on each head, living off protection money and the sacking of outposts.
The Black Dragon Ninjas are a ninja gang in the north-eastern corner of the Border Zone. They share both the same stretch of wasteland and the same business model as the Dust Bandits: charge settlers protection money, and send people to tear the place down if they do not pay[V1 0:01:26]. The difference is that the Dust Bandits are thugs in uniform, while the Black Dragons are killers in black.
The composition of the faction fits that business. They are described as a band of young ninjas who live by raiding outposts across the Border Zone, led by two commanders[V2 0:00:45].
The two leaders
The Black Dragon Ninjas are jointly led by two unique characters, both of whom live in the Tower of Ninjas.
Dimak is a female Shek and the only Shek in the entire faction — every other member is a Greenlander. She carries a Meitou-grade ninja blade and her personality is set to Maniacal. Her name derives from Dim Mak, the legendary "death touch" of Chinese martial arts, literally the pressing of arteries, referring to pressure-point striking techniques.
"Hehehe! Like a fly in a web! What goodies have we here?" — Dimak
Buzan is a male Scorchlander whose personality is set to Traitorous.
"I'll paint a heart with their blood, just for you, Makky." — Buzan
Both names are frequently misspelled or otherwise re-rendered when repeated in videos (for instance as Dmac and Bo-Zin)[V2 0:00:45], which is worth keeping in mind when cross-referencing sources.
The wanted notice
The two share a single wanted poster, which is quite unusual in the game:
WANTED: The Black Dragon Duo Charges include multiple counts of murder, robbery, assault, arson and kidnapping. A pair as purely black as their name, leaving bodies along the way. Both are extremely dangerous and attack on sight. Most recent sightings report them raiding caravans in the swamplands. Bounty: 20,000 Cats per head
The issuing authority is the Holy Nation.
The Tower of Ninjas and the extortion radius
The Tower of Ninjas sits in the north-east of the Border Zone and can be marked on the map by reading a Tech Hunter map. The tower's structure is all but identical to the thieves' tower of the Shinobi Thieves; four mounted crossbows on the roof are operated by Black Dragon Genin, and at least ten Genin are permanently stationed inside.
The moment a player steps into the tower's radius the entire faction turns hostile. They are, however, equally rude to everyone — including the Dust Bandits. Luring a Dust Bandit squad into the tower and letting the two sides maul each other is therefore a viable tactic.
The raid conditions are stated very precisely: the player's outpost must be within 4,500 metres of the Tower of Ninjas, and Dimak must still be alive. When those conditions hold, Black Dragon Genin will arrive in packs to loot; an outpost that does not pay protection money will be emptied wave after wave[V1 0:01:26][V3 0:15:04].
"Nice little dump you've got here... but the loot inside is nicer. Strip it!" — a Black Dragon Genin launching a raid
What a raid actually looks like
On the ladder of raid intensity the Black Dragons occupy the Border Zone's upper rungs: as a single base grows, its visitors escalate from Starving Bandits all the way to the Black Dragon Ninjas, and for a squad that has not yet trained up, a Black Dragon raid notification usually means the base cannot be held — hiring a batch of mercenaries in town to weather that one wave is a very common early solution[V4 0:07:40].
Their assaults have several concrete characteristics:
- They rely on numbers, not individuals. Genin pour into a settlement and scatter into the various buildings rummaging for loot; a guard fighting alone can be overwhelmed by sheer numbers even if that guard is a war dog[V5 0:00:33].
- They will use your own equipment against your people. After breaking in they do more than carry things off — they drag knocked-out defenders into the cages the base built for itself and lock them up[V6 0:01:06].
- The same base gets revisited. As long as the conditions still hold, the raids keep coming[V6 0:01:06].
They also have a very low-probability roaming squad in Stobe's Garden.
Two weaknesses of the Genin
Genin denotes the lowest, apprentice rank in the ninja hierarchy. The behavioural setup of the Black Dragon Genin produces two very specific openings:
- They prioritise food over killing. During a raid, Genin head for the food stores first, leaving the player to pick their own rations back off the corpses one item at a time afterwards. Turned around, this can be exploited: shut the door of the building holding your food cupboards and the Genin will all crowd against it battering the door — at which point sending in a character with a large, wide-swinging weapon lets one stroke sweep an entire row.
- They carry no bandages. Deal more than 20 cut damage and they will slowly bleed to death; combined with their low Toughness, a single crossbow bolt to a limb or vital area is often enough.
The deleted rivals
The game files once contained a faction called the White Eyebrow Clan, set as hostile to the Black Dragon Ninjas, which was removed before release. One reading holds that the two were originally planned as rival gangs at war with each other — a thread that never made it into the game, leaving the rest of the White Eyebrow Clan's design unknowable. Videos covering the Black Dragons can generally do no more than repeat that "they are said to be enemies of the mysterious White Eyebrow Clan", then admit that almost nothing about the latter can be found[V1 0:01:26][V3 0:15:04].
Real-world model
The Black Dragon Ninjas very likely allude to the real-world Black Dragon Fighting Society — a 1970s Chicago kung fu school famous for advertising Dim Mak techniques and notorious for its involvement in the so-called Chicago Dojo Wars. The school was founded by the self-styled Count Raphael Dante. That the faction's leader is named Dimak is the most direct link in the chain.
See also
- Dust Bandits — the Border Zone's other major gang
- Shinobi Thieves — the architectural template for the tower
- Factions
Video citations
- History of Kenshi: Minor Powers | Gangs and Bandit CrewsCivilizationEx
- Kenshi Colosseum: Dust Bandits VS Black Dragon NinjaHeroInHisHead
- History of Kenshi: Minor Powers | DocumentaryCivilizationEx
- Kenshi | MOVING DAY....AGAIN!! | Let's Play Kenshi Genesis (Ep. 4)HeroInHisHead
- Kenshi | TAKING THE FIGHT BACK TO THEM!! | Let's Play Kenshi Genesis (Ep. 5)HeroInHisHead
- Kenshi | GOLEMS ARISE!! | Let's Play Kenshi Genesis (Ep. 6)HeroInHisHead