How to Use Summoned Animals in Shinobi Striker

To use a summoned animal in Shinobi Striker, pull one from Scroll Appraisal, equip it on your avatar at the Inn, then press right on the D-pad in battle: your ninja forms hand seals, slaps the ground and calls the animal. Hounds and sharks are ridden along the ground, hawks carry you through the air, and cats support you from your shoulder and by scattering buff scrolls. Below is how each family works as of November 2026, how they differ from summoning ninjutsu like Summoning: Toad, and when to call them in a match.

Our sources for this guide were the official NARUTO site's developer letters and Ninja Cats announcement, the game's Steam patch notes, the Shinobi Striker Fandom wiki's Summoned Animals and Controls pages, and Siliconera's 2024 coverage, all checked in November 2026.

How to Use a Summoned Animal, Step by Step

Summoned Animals arrived with Season 8. The official 2024 roadmap described them as a new system that, like ninjutsu, is equipped to your avatar, letting you bring animals trained as shinobi into battle to move around the map faster and gain an edge in fights. The wiki notes that patch 2.54 added the system and the first animals went live after maintenance on 27 June 2024.

1. Get an animal. Animals come from the Scroll Appraisal lineup at Tenten's Ninja Tools Shop. The official posts for the Ninja Cats and the Ninja Shark both announced them as additions to the scroll lineup, and the 10 September 2026 lineup update featured the Ninja Shark, Ninja Cats and Ninja Hawk together.
2. Equip it at the Inn. The wiki says summoned animals are selected via the Inn, where you also set your loadouts.
3. Summon it in battle. Press right on the D-pad. Your avatar performs hand seals and slaps the ground, and the animal appears on a glowing seal.
4. Control it. Steering depends on the animal; the sections below cover each family.

If you are unsure which button a summon uses on your platform, patch 2.71 added a Ninjutsu Control Guide that shows which command activates each jutsu icon, explicitly including summoned animals. It can be hidden later from Options, then Game Settings, then Display Settings. Our Shinobi Striker controls guide lists the rest of the default inputs for PlayStation, Xbox and PC.

Summoned Animals vs Summoning Ninjutsu

Two different systems share the word "summon", and mixing them up is behind many search questions. Summoned Animals are their own equipment slot, called with the D-pad, and mostly about mobility and support. Summoning ninjutsu, by contrast, are regular ninjutsu or secret techniques learned from masters: Summoning: Toad (Defense), Summoning: Slug (Heal), Summoning: Salamander (Ranged) and Summoning: Great Snake (Attack), along with bigger ones such as Summoning: Gedo Statue and Summoning Jutsu: Enra.

The ninjutsu summons fight on their own and use your ninjutsu buttons and cooldowns. Patch 2.54 shortened the cooldowns of the toad, slug, salamander and great snake and lowered each creature's health at the same time. Patch 2.71 then mitigated the drawbacks of Summoning: Gedo Statue. So if you want a giant toad fighting beside you, train a master; if you want to ride a hound across the map, pull a Summoned Animal. You can run both on one loadout.

Ninja Hounds: Fast Ground Mounts

The Ninja Hound was the first animal and is still the simplest. The wiki describes it as a large dog you ride: it charges forward, you steer it in any direction, and it can jump and run up walls. Enemies it runs into get knocked out of the way, but if an opponent's attack hits the hound, it disappears. Patch 2.55 in July 2024 increased its movement speed.

Hounds come in four kinds, and the variant matters more than the rarity letter suggests:

• General: Shikku (B rank), the basic mount.
• Attacker: Kage-homura (SS), Buka (S) and Touka (A). Deal more damage than any other hound.
• Healer: Hana-Kirin (SS), Kudzu (S) and Nanten (A). Restore the rider's health while mounted.
• Supplier: Samidare (SS), Dan-u (S) and Shigure (A). Reduce the rider's ninja tool cooldowns while mounted.

One rule from patch 2.55 matters in Flag Battles: the same patch that sped the hound up also made summoning it drop the banner. If you are carrying the enemy flag, do not call your hound to escape; you will drop the flag where you stand. Summon on the way to the flag, not on the way back, and test the other animals in a casual match before you rely on them while carrying it.

Ninja Hawks: Air Mobility and a Dive Attack

Ninja Hawks arrived in September 2024. Per the wiki, the hawk lifts you straight into the air, and you steer it with the right stick or camera for up to 7 seconds, or end the ride early with the Chakra Jump button. When the flight ends, the hawk spins toward where you are facing, or at a locked-on enemy, and deals damage. Like the hound, it vanishes if an enemy attack hits it.

The same three roles apply. Haryu (SS), Shuko (S) and Ryoro (A) are Attackers with more damage; Wako (SS), Rinko (S) and Keiko (A) are Healers that restore your health while you ride; Jinrai (SS), Seirai (S) and Hatsurai (A) are Suppliers that cut ninja tool cooldowns. Patch 2.70 in May 2026 reduced the tracking of the hawk's charge, so the closing dive is less reliable as a finisher than it was in 2025. Use the hawk to reach high ground, cross gaps and reposition onto objectives, and treat the hit at the end as a bonus. How mobility tools rank against each other after the 2026 changes is covered in our Shinobi Striker tier list for November 2026.

Ninja Cats and Ninja Sharks

The two newest families play very differently. The Ninja Cats, which joined the scroll lineup on 25 December 2025 (JST), are pure support. According to the official announcement, you get two cats: one hops onto your shoulder and throws shuriken at intervals, and the other opens scrolls around you. Picking up a cat scroll triggers a random effect, either one of four buffs unique to that cat type or one of four shared special effects:

• Hawk: a hawk grips your head for a while so you can jump higher and glide.
• Cheer: removes debuffs from nearby allies and grants close-range attack power and Super Armor.
• Ninja Tool Rack: refills allies' ninja tools, disappears after five uses, and explodes if hit by fire attacks, damaging only enemies.
• Balloon Bomb: a growing bomb over your head that you can pass to other players by touching them.

Anyone can pick the scrolls up, including enemies, so drop them where your team is. The SS cats are Minazuki (Attacker, leaning toward attack buffs), Umegae (Healer, recovery and defense) and Murasame (Supplier, cooldown reductions).

The Ninja Shark, announced in the 14th developer letter and featured in the scroll lineup on 10 September 2026, is the aggressive option. While riding it you do not flinch from most attacks, you damage targets you touch and recover health, and a jump with a direction makes you briefly invincible. Landing hits or dodging builds buff stocks, and cancelling the summon cashes them in: Attacker sharks give attack power, Supplier sharks reduce ninja tool cooldowns while moving and ninjutsu cooldowns on cancel, and Healer sharks recover health while moving and give defense on cancel. One oddity: the official posts call both the cats and the shark the "sixth" summoned animal, so do not rely on that numbering. A Ninja Tortoise also exists; patch 2.71 slowed its flight speed.

Picking an Animal and When to Summon

Match the animal to your type and your mode. Defense players holding a Base point get more from a Healer hound or shark that keeps them topped up. Ranged players who live on ninja tools get the most from Supplier variants. Attack players chasing kills can use an Attacker shark to dive in without flinching. In Flag and Barrier Battles, raw movement speed decides more than damage, which is where hounds and hawks shine.

Timing matters as much as choice. Summon at the start of a long rotation, when respawning far from the fight, or when you need to reach high ground fast. Avoid summoning in the middle of a crowded fight unless you are on a shark, because hounds and hawks disappear when hit. To find the variant you want, watch the scroll lineup announcements; our guide to the Shinobi Striker shop rotation lists every 2026 update. If you also want the Sharingan look on the same build, our walkthrough on getting Sharingan eyes in Shinobi Striker covers the eye techniques. New to the modes themselves? The existing Shinobi Striker game modes guide explains each objective.

Skipping the Scroll Hunt

Pulling the exact SS variant you want can take many Esoteric Scrolls. For PS4 and PS5 only, the store's Shinobi Striker modded save lists unlock all including DLC, all clothes, max scrolls, and infinite ultimate, ninjutsu and sub-weapons; it does not list summoned animals by name, so check the page before ordering if a particular animal is what you are after. The game is not included, and PlayStation orders need active PlayStation Plus on the same account being modified. There is no Xbox or PC version; everything else is on the Shinobi Striker store hub.

Frequently Asked Questions