How to get stronger characters in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Blazing

Naruto is a fine guy to have on your side in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Blazing. It's his game and his franchise after all.

Still, the three- or four-star Naruto you have leading your team early on isn't necessarily going to cut it. Or at least, he'll need to rank up and be stronger to conquer the enemies you'll face later on.

So that leaves you with a couple of choices. Either make Naruto and the friends (and foes, in some cases) you find more powerful, or simply find some characters that are tougher.

Better yet, do both. We can help you, as we dive into how to get stronger characters in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Blazing.

Option 1: Making the characters you own stronger

You can't be surprised. The journey to making oneself a more capable combatant is a staple of many anime/manga series, and Naruto Shippuden is about ninjas to boot, so ... yeah. There are two techniques you'll need to know here: Enhance and Awaken. Both can be accessed by tapping on the 'Teams' icon in the game's main navigation bar.

To Enhance a character, you simply sacrifice other characters or items to pour XP into it, as in other mobile games too numerous to mention. Just tap 'Enhance,' then tap on the character you want to level up. You can select up to 10 other characters and items at a time, though the more you use, the more Ryo the process will cost.

For best results, you'll want to use enhancement material from the same element as your intended target. You'll also find that some items specifically give you a chance at raising the health and attack value of your character in exchange for granting less XP. Finally, you don't want to use scrolls to Enhance, because you'll need them for Awakening.

The Awaken process bumps a character up to the next tier of rarity, greatly boosting all of his or her stats and capabilities in the process. But you'll need a few things. For starters, the character needs to be at max level. Then you'll need the proper type and number of scrolls, along with a lot of Ryo.

I tend to think of the path to Awakening in reverse. I don't worry about it much until I acquire a fair number of scrolls, and then I'll consider who can use them and put all of my resources into Enhancing that character to max level.

Option 2: Acquiring more powerful characters

This is the easier road in some ways, though it requires patience and luck, plus you'll still need the above knowledge once you have a five-star character in your possession.

If you tap the 'Summon' icon, you'll wind up in the store where you can use Friend Points or Ninja Pearls to get more characters. The former will yield you mostly lower rarity characters, who are useful mostly for Enhancing the ones you really want to use. Mobile games are rough that way on the common folk.

What you want to do is save enough Ninja Pearls to use the multi-summon, which could take as many as 50 or fewer if there are special deals going on. This gets you 10 new characters, all three stars or above, and is your easiest road to a five-star if you are fortunate.

It's worth noting that in other Bandai Namco games, you can also earn higher rarity characters by successfully completing certain event levels. This game hasn't been out long enough to give specific examples, but keep an eye on the Emergency Mission section and the news when you log in to find opportunities.