What is ryo in naruto?

The Ryō (両) is the currency used in the Naruto world. It is based on an old Japanese gold coin that was used in Japan before the Meiji period.

N.B. Since there isn’t as much detail about all the villages as there is about Konoha, this post will be pretty Konoha-centric.

From now on, I’ll only use dollars in order to better visualize this problem—but remember, the point still stands whether I use dollars or yen or ryo because we are given an actual exchange rate for the ryo.

Since genins (read: normal genins, not Naruto and Sasuke) only go on D-rank and C-rank missions, we can try and come up with the least gross annual income for a genin—that is, the smallest amount of money that the laziest genin procrastinator can make. Assuming that weekends work the same way in the Narutoverse, this gives us 261 business days in a year. Take away 11 days for holidays (I know I’m taking this straight out of my ass, but bear with me) and we’re left with 250 business days. Now, let’s suppose that a genin does nothing but the easiest D-rank missions and only does 1 D-rank mission in a day (although we’ve actually seen characters do multiple D-rank missions in a day, but let’s just go with the absolute minimum), and we’ll get the following number for their annual income: 125,000 dollars! That’s right, a genin can make 125,000 dollars a year and live off of nothing but D-rank missions where all he does is find pets and mow gardens. If you throw in a few more higher-paying D-rank missions and a few C-rank missions in there, the annual income can go well above 150,000 dollars. Now, you might say “but only 9 people become genin each year, so they’re just the rich 0.1%,” but you’d be wrong, because here is when things become truly absurd: every D-rank mission that any genin ever does can actually be finished by any able-bodied person, even if they aren’t ninjas. Manual labor? Finding pets? Weeding gardens? Every one of these pays a minimum of 500 dollars, and can be done by anyone. This leads me to 4 possibly logical conclusions, which, ordered from the least logical to the most logical, are:

a. People who aren’t genin (or aren’t even ninjas for that matter) are allowed to do D-rank missions, which would then mean that everyone in Konoha has at least an annual income of 125,000 dollars, which makes no sense whatsoever.

b. The law restricts people who aren’t ninjas to do any physical work. Because, if you think about it, what can be simpler than finding lost cats and weeding gardens (again, each of which pay a minimum of 500 dollars)?

c. Non-ninja people can do these simple jobs, but they are paid way less, which would then lead to the conclusion that Konoha is an oppressive society that practically treats non-ninjas like slaves.

d. Kishimoto had no clue what he was doing when he said that 1 ryo equals 10 yen.

As you can see, this entire absurdity rests upon the idea that 1 ryo is equal to 10 Japanese yen. If it were modified a little bit (e.g. if 1 ryo was instead equal to, say, 1 Japanese yen; or, even better, if the ryo didn’t have any real-world equivalency), then this problem would cease to exist. But the exchange rate is canon, and the absurdity remains true.

The Ryo is the coin used as a currency in the canon world of Naruto. It is based upon an old Japanese coin from before the Meiji period and was later replaced by the yen. The official exchange rate is a ryo for every ten yen. If you are an American, ten ryo is about one dollar.

What can you buy with ryo in the Naruto world? Asuma Sarutobi had a price on his head that was 35,000,000 ryo, so it is safe to assume that ryo is not hyper inflated. Mission compensation in Konoha is as follows: 5,000 ryo for a D-Rank mission to 1,000,000 ryo for an S-Rank mission. If a D-Rank mission is a glorified errand, and considering the exchange rate, that mission is worth about $620. Shinobi seemed to be paid very well, but when you consider the fact that D-Rank missions are really just training, it is not an appropriate estimation of the worth of ryo. However, the compensation is probably to account for supplies – shinobi use a lot of weapons and traveling goods, and that compensation probably is a supplement, rather than a real income. C-Rank missions, which can be fairly serious, such as serving the function of a bodyguard, have a compensation range of 30,000 to 100,000 ryo. That means the minimum a shinobi could make is about $3,730 for a standard shinobi job.

That seems pretty reasonable if you are putting your life on the line and are educated in a specialized field. Some of that would probably go to supplies and preparation for the mission as well. But we should see what the average shinobi would make to better understand how much a shinobi is worth, as a single mission is not an overall picture. For this I will use a recent and young chunin so as to have an easily divisible number to better understand their annual income and to have a reasonably independent individual without a specialized job as an example. I choose Shikamaru!

Shikamaru has a total of 8 D-rank missions, which as we have already covered are really more like training, but enough to have probably covered supplies and provide a nice financial account in preparation for harder missions. He also has 3 C-Rank missions, 9 B-rank missions, and 19 A-rank missions. To total it all up, I’ll be using the minimum for each category.

8 D-Ranks x 5,000 ryo = 40,000 ryo

3 C-Ranks x 30,000 ryo = 90,000 ryo

9 B-Ranks x 80,000 ryo = 720,000 ryo

19 A-ranks x 150,000 ryo = 2,850,000 ryo

Total: 3,700,000 ryo or $460,257

Now we are going to divide this by the years Shikamaru has been a shinobi, which is three. He is likely to have earned more later in his career, but I believe the numbers will be close enough for our purposes. This comes out to:

1,233,330 ryo a year or $153,400.

His total mission count is 39, and divided by three, that is thirteen missions a year or one a month. Judging by that number not all are simple quick missions to save some housewife’s cat. I think part of the reason for low mission numbers is preparation, cost to supply the mission, and the travel required. Not every mission is going to take place in Konoha, and some are very far away. But even so, after all the costs for the mission are cleared, shinobi are still going to be making a lot of money.

That is important when you think about it critically. I get the sense that Fire country also gives money to village, and it is likely that the shinobi are overpaid in order to ensure loyalty to both the Daimyo and Konoha. They probably have to pay taxes though in addition to personal supplies, and Shikmaru is likely going to be paying clan tithes as well, so his income could look to be about $90,000 when all is said and done. Not a small number at all, but not excessive for the level of shinobi he is, because he needs to not only be compensated for a job, but to ensure his loyalty as well. Shikamaru and other shinobi probably live very comfortably, and are probably upper middle-class, so as to give them appropriate purchasing power for the risks that have undertaken.

Their purchasing power is going to be beyond what a civilian can command. Because Kishimoto gave us an exchange rate, we do not need to take into consideration hyper inflation, or that the world of the canon has less technology. What we can assume however, is that the purchasing power of a shinobi is immense when paired with the inflation rate.

But you do need to consider the fact that Japan is not the United States, so Kishimoto’s sense of worth for the yen reflects the island’s cost of living. A meal at an average restaurant can cost about 1,000 yen (or $12). That means that Shikamaru has the purchasing power of about 1,065 restaurant meals a month (out of the $153,400 of his pay before taxes).   The average income in Japan is $34,000 before taxes, and I will extend that to the average civilian in the Naruto world. That means they have the purchasing power of about 236 restaurant meals a month. Shikamaru’s salary could feed eleven people three restaurant meals per day. The average civilian could feed only feed 2 people three restaurant meals per day.

With all this considered, you need to remember that Fire and Konoha are powerhouses in the Naruto world, and the ryo and cost of living will not be the same throughout. even in Fire some areas may be more economically disadvantaged as well. It is entirely like that what Konoha shinobi are paid is the average or above average of the five most powerful shinobi countries. It is unlikely any of the five would defect to another country because of money, but if they were it would be to another of the five countries, and the person in question is unlikely to be an average shinobi since the village taking the defector is unlikely to raise the average for a shinobi with typical abilities.

I hope this article serves you well!

The fighting game genre is pretty well known for its use in some sort of in-game currency to unlock things and Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is no different. The money in the game is known as Ryo, and there are multiple ways to earn it throughout the game.

Ryo is given as rewards during the game throughout the different game modes, but with needing a lot of it to help unlock the nearly 60 costumes in the game, getting it quickly is very important. First of all, upon starting the game, the first thing you are going to want to do is play the game’s Story Mode. Not only will it allow you to unlock the characters, but also will allow you to purchase the one costume that is a mystery, upon unlocking Hanabi.

Playing through story mode, without even doing the side missions, should provide you with a ton of Ryo. In my first playthrough with no side missions, I had over 850,000 Ryo upon finishing. However, this won’t be quite enough to get anywhere near everything you can purchase in the game, so without replaying story, there are a few other options.

You can of course play the game’s Adventure Mode, which adds exploration into the mix, allowing you to find Ryo around the map in different places. This is a case of killing two birds with one stone, as you can play through this mode as well while getting the Ryo and even Ninja Treasures as well. However, this one is definitely the most time consuming with lesser rewards, so I would avoid it if you’ve already completed it and are just looking to earn some fast Ryo.

Those are the basic ways to get Ryo, but there is another way that you can earn it as well that is about the quickest method, which is even easier if you have two controllers. If you do, go to Free Battle and choose a 1P vs 2P match. if you don’t have a second controller, you can do it against the computer, but just know they’ll be moving and making it a little more difficult, though still not too hard. Then set it to be a single match and then 1 round.

Click “Settings Complete” and on the next screen press the touchpad on PS4, or the corresponding button on other platforms to bring up “Battle Settings.” Don’t worry about the time, as that won’t be a factor at all. Set the handicap all the way to the right and confirm your settings.

Now at the character select screen again, pick whichever fighter you want. Just know that you want one that has a very quick Secret Technique that is still strong to where you can take the opponent out in one hit. You can obviously experiment with this one until you find the sweet spot.

And simply by winning the match in only about 30 seconds, you will earn somewhere between 15,000 to upwards of 20,000 Ryo at a time. This adds up very quickly and is by far the most efficient way to get Ryo. Story mode has it add up by the end, but you’ll be facing much harder battles. This will allow you to buy a lot of things in the in-game store, but make sure not to forget that there’s something else you need for costumes as well, which we will cover next.

- This article was updated on April 17th, 2017