Sengoku Rance - IF Routes Walkthrough

IF routes are available only in Second Game. All requirements for entering an IF route must be completed before the Honnoji Temple Incident is triggered. Once the Incident at Honnoji Temple has been triggered, the route is locked.

Preparing a Save for Non-Monkeyslayer IF Routes

You can create a save that allows access to any non-Monkeyslayer route by arranging for the conquest of the Houjou family to break the fifth gourd. You need at least 3 Action Fans to set this up.

Before reaching that point, complete all of the following:

Conquer Ashikaga.
Capture Isoroku Yamamoto and see her H-scene.
Conquer or vassal a second gourd-owning Clan after Turn 22.
Recruit Kenshin and Ai.
Raise Kenshin to Trust and see the event about her riceballs that occurs when she is deployed in a battle with Rance while at Trust.
See the event where Xavier is given the Imperial Headband.
Recruit Ran and speak to her once. This requires Souun’s disappearance.
Conquer Houjou until only their final territory remains, so the Clan can be conquered in one battle.

At the beginning of a new turn with three moves available, you can then choose between several routes:

Enter the Kenshin route immediately.
Attack the last Houjou territory with the first move, talk to Ran with the second move, and enter the Petroleum Pit with the third move. This puts you on the Ran route.
After defeating the Houjou Clan, choose another option to enter Isoroku or Official History. Souun may join you as a commander if you take Ran to the Petroleum Pit.

Ran Nanjou Route

Entering the Route

To begin the Ran IF route, follow the requirements for recruiting Souun Houjou from the Houjou Clan section, provided that you are not in a First Game, have not already entered another route, and have not already broken five gourds.

After completing the event, you lose all of your Action Fans for the rest of the turn.

Shortly after entering the route, Mouri will conquer Tanegashima if Tanegashima is neither at war with Oda nor conquered or vassaled.

Remnants of either the Iga or Hara Clans may appear during the route and retake land that originally belonged to them.

If you reach the Azai-Asakura end-of-turn section while at war with fewer than three Clans, Azai-Asakura will declare war. The Akashi Clan has a similar mechanic, but it also requires the Mouri Clan to still exist and either to be at war with Oda or to have never been at war with Oda.

Honnoji, Manmaru, and Xavier

Not long after entering the route, an event occurs in which Suzume and Chaos discover that a Fiend is in Honnoji.

If you have conquered Tenshiism by this point, an event on the following turn gives you the choice to release or keep Manmaru. Keeping Manmaru eventually leads to a Game Over.

If you conquer Tenshiism immediately before being forced into the fight with Xavier, the event that allows you to release Manmaru may not occur before the fight. This makes the game unwinnable.

You will then fight Xavier and Toukichirou in a timed battle. Xavier is the same as he is at this point in Official History, while Toukichirou is unchanged.

When the timer expires:

If Manmaru is no longer in your possession, Xavier is sealed.
If you still have Manmaru, you always receive a Game Over, even if Xavier is defeated.

After this event, Oda enters Political Chaos and loses any remaining Action Fans.

Progress After Xavier Is Sealed

Once Xavier is sealed, the Ran route becomes largely passive. As long as you control Saitama, you do not need to conquer additional territory.

With a few exceptions, you can allow your Operation Permits to protect your territory and end turns until the game forces you to act.

Ran’s character clear events have time limits.

Closing the Holes to Hell

Approximately 20 turns after entering the route, a new red battle command called Close hole to hell becomes available in up to 10 of your provinces.

Each hole-closing battle contains:

2 units of 1,000 Blue Onis
1 unit of 2,000 Red Oni

Red Onis are stronger than Blue Onis, but both behave basically like Samurai units.

To close a hole, simply win the battle.

Onmyoujis appear to deal four times their normal magical damage to Onis.

There is no penalty for losing other than consuming an Action Fan. As with some other event battles, commanders cannot be killed, including Rance.

Preparing for battle in the province containing a hole provides no benefit during the hole-closing battle.

The holes are not generated randomly. The game checks your owned provinces in the order shown on the map, starting at number 1, and creates holes in each eligible province until either there are no eligible provinces left or 10 holes have been created. Vassaled provinces cannot receive holes.

At the beginning of every turn while at least one hole remains, one random province containing a hole is selected. Its NP is reduced by 1 if its NP is greater than 1.

At the beginning of every turn divisible by 4 while at least one hole remains, a start-of-turn event may occur in which Owari is attacked by Onis.

Oni Attacks on Owari

These battles contain:

1 Red Oni in the front row
2 Blue Onis in the front row
1 Red Oni in the back row

The initial troop counts are:

Red Oni: 2,000
Blue Oni: 1,000

Before each battle, their troop counts are multiplied by 1.2 times the number of these battles that have occurred so far, including the current battle.

Preparing for these battles provides no benefit, and commanders cannot die in them.

Losing any of these battles causes a Game Over.

Saitama Dungeon and Sekimei

After all hole-closing events have been completed, a start-of-turn event unlocks a 12-floor dungeon in Saitama. You must clear this dungeon to reach the endgame.

After clearing the final floor, you fight Sekimei.

Sekimei has:

Level 80
2,310 HP
Extremely high Speed
A standard attack that can hit the back row

His attacks deal comparatively little damage compared with Xavier. You have unlimited time to prepare because nothing forces you to enter the dungeon, and Sekimei is not a Fiend, so Rance does not need to survive.

Sekimei is accompanied by:

3 level 30 Red Onis with 320 HP each
2 level 25 Blue Onis with 275 HP each

Before the battle:

All commanders have their moves restored.
Defeated commanders are revived with 1 HP.
Commanders are not healed.

As usual, losing sends you to the Alice Mansion. You can retry with the enemy’s level reduced, to a minimum of 20, while all of your units are fully healed and have all moves restored.

Defeating Sekimei completes the Ran route.

Consequences of Xavier Being Sealed

Because Xavier is sealed, the Monster Army does not appear. This has several major consequences.

Chinu and Kentarou

Chinu Kobayakawa does not receive the event that kills her.

Kentarou never joins, so events involving him and Miki do not occur.

Shimazu and Southern Nippon

Because Xavier does not conquer the Shimazu Clan, they survive and eventually declare war on you. They cannot be vassaled.

The Shimazu Clan will then absorb:

Mouri
Takuga
Tanegashima

Through these events, Shimazu gains the unique characters from those Clans and most of the land in southern Nippon.

Except for Takuga’s four unique commanders and Motonari Mouri, the commanders Shimazu gains through these events can be captured by the player.

These commanders are not copied from their original armies. They are deleted and recreated from scratch.

As a result, Motonari Mouri’s HP is reset. His HP increases normally if he is annihilated, but he loses some of the special healing rules he had in his original Clan. He therefore will not be healed to his new maximum HP. After being annihilated, he will typically be redeployed with current HP equal to 1 plus 20% of his new maximum HP.

Because these are Shimazu events, they are likely to trigger sooner if you regularly battle the Shimazu Clan.

The merging events do not occur if:

The events of the Shimazu Clan or the targeted Clan have not been completed.
The targeted Clan has already been conquered.
Motonari’s curse has been lifted.
One of Motonari’s daughters has been captured.

Shimazu Defections

At the start of every turn while you are at war with Shimazu, the Shimazu brothers can randomly cause one of your female commanders to defect.

A commander can defect only if:

She is female.
She can be fired.
Her relationship with you is Scorn or Normal.

Commanders at Trust or Love cannot defect.

When the conditions are met, the game selects a random commander from your roster. Every commander has an equal chance of being selected. If the selected commander meets the defection requirements, she defects. Otherwise, no defection occurs that turn.

The required conditions are:

You have seen the event where Suzume tells Rance that the Shimazu brothers are going after his women.
You have not seen the event where all four Shimazu brothers read Kurohime’s letter and leave the Shimazu Clan.
The Shimazu Clan has fewer than 60 commanders.
The Shimazu Clan and Oda are at war.

The selection is not completely independent of previous random events. The game uses a global variable that can change whenever a random commander is selected, such as when an unscripted battle determines enemy commanders, or when an instant-kill attempt is made.

Consequently, you can change the outcome of a defection attempt by changing how many battles you engage in during the previous turn or by changing how often you use instant-kill moves.

Defected commanders cannot be recruited again, even after being recaptured. According to the game’s code, they should not even be capturable or killable.

The prerequisite event in which Suzume tells Rance about the Shimazu brothers can occur only at the start of a turn divisible by 4. This can therefore be used to delay the first possible defection.

Other start-of-turn events can take priority over the defection event. The Onis attacking Owari is one example.

Kurohime and the Shimazu Brothers

After the first defection, usually on the following turn, a Search command becomes available in Shimazu provinces. This allows you to kidnap Kurohime for 50 Search.

The timing can be delayed if other Ran route start-of-turn events take priority.

The turn after Kurohime is kidnapped, the Shimazu brothers surrender to you if there is enough room in your prison.

The Shimazu Clan remains hostile under Agireda’s leadership.

After Kurohime is kidnapped:

Defections stop.
A repeatable +2 SAT event called Fiend's Daughter: Kurohime becomes available in all four of Shimazu’s original provinces.

When the Shimazu Clan is conquered, two different events are possible.

If all four Shimazu brothers have been recruited, you receive an event that only gives a CG.

If you have not recruited all four, you receive nothing.

Important commanders possessed by Shimazu when the Clan is conquered are deleted.

There is no special event for conquering Shimazu without capturing the brothers. The game checks only whether all four brothers have been recruited.

Ran Route Second Game Bonus

Completing the IF route unlocks The Houjou Clan bonus in the Second Game Bonuses.

This bonus allows you to begin the game with:

Ran Nanjou
Komatsu Daidouji

Houjou starts at war with you from the first turn. Souun Houjou is already missing, and Houjou starts stronger than usual, although three of its most dangerous commanders are absent.

The ending of the Ran route changes depending on whether Ran is at Trust or Love when Sekimei is defeated.

Isoroku Yamamoto Route

Conditions for Entering

To enter the Isoroku route:

Recruit Isoroku Yamamoto.
See her H-scene.
Use the Searched for Kou but... command.
Do all of this before entering another route.

These requirements do not have to be completed before Kou goes missing. You can still H Isoroku while Kou is missing and retain access to the route.

However, Isoroku’s second event involving Kou cannot be completed after Kou goes missing, so that event must be completed before Kou disappears.

Once you enter the Isoroku route, anything that requires Kouhime to be present is no longer possible. This includes discovering certain dungeons and some character clears.

The Isoroku route contains many start-of-turn events. This can interfere with characters who join through start-of-turn events, such as Souun Houjou.

Early Route Events

If Tanegashima is neither at war with Oda nor conquered or vassaled, Mouri will conquer Tanegashima shortly after the route begins.

Remnants of Iga or Hara may appear and retake their former territories.

If you reach the Azai-Asakura end-of-turn section while at war with fewer than three Clans, Azai-Asakura declares war.

Akashi has a similar mechanic, but it also requires Mouri to still exist and either to be at war with Oda or never to have been at war with Oda.

At the start of the turn after entering the route, you fight Fiend Nobunaga. The battle is the same as in Official History, except that:

You fight only the commander battle against Nobunaga.
You do not fight his Apostles.
Kentarou is available for use.
There is a glitch where Kentarou does not become available if you have 30 commanders.

After this fight, you have no Action Fans remaining for that turn.

Wars After Entering the Route

The turn after the fight against Xavier, Takeda declares war if the Clan is still standing.

Mouri declares war not long afterward. Mouri will conquer Tanegashima first if possible.

Mouri also causes Akashi to declare war if Akashi has not been vassaled.

The exact timing depends on whether Takeda is still standing and whether Mouri was already at war with you before entering the route. At the earliest, Mouri can declare war at the end of the turn in which you enter the route, before the Xavier fight.

If Takeda is still standing, whether vassaled or not, its declaration of war causes Tokugawa to declare war soon afterward.

Mouri’s declaration of war causes Takuga to be introduced and declare war, assuming you have not already conquered the relevant provinces.

At worst, you can therefore share borders with and be at war with four Clans simultaneously. Unlike Official History, Xavier does not eliminate these Clans for you.

Monster Army Differences

The Monster Army is broadly similar to Official History, but several important differences apply.

Xavier still conquers Shimazu and Houjou, but does not conquer other Clans. He still takes Battleship Nagato from Mouri.

The Monster Army cannot be defeated normally in this route.

If it has three or fewer provinces and you conquer one of its provinces, it immediately takes two random Oda provinces in two consecutive events. This also adds five generic units to the Monster Army.

The Monster Army cannot take Shikokalamity. It can take Owari only if Owari is your last province, which causes a Game Over.

Operation Permits can be used against the Monster Army without being confiscated, and permit users do not lose battles while acting independently.

The Shimazu brothers do not attempt to assassinate Rance. They therefore cannot be killed, which makes Agireda’s character clear impossible.

The Monster Army does not attempt to sink Nippon. Consequently:

Taking Morocco does not unlock the endgame.
Apostle Madou never fights you in an army battle.
You do not fight Apostle Madou when attempting to lift the Soul Binder’s curse.

Kentarou and Miki

Kentarou’s events are mostly similar to Official History, but the event in which Miki is found works differently.

The Isoroku route cannot be completed until Miki is found.

Miki does not go missing until Isoroku has announced her pregnancy.

Sill is not frozen. Instead, Isoroku stops participating in battles, and the game treats this as though she had died.

Keikoku and the Action Fan Countdown

After several start-of-turn events in which Rance gains small amounts of SAT, Keikoku is introduced.

Approximately 25 to 30 turns after entering the route, Keikoku demands a tax increase, reducing your Action Fans to 1.

After this event, you must trigger the event where Suzume reads Isoroku’s mind. This is a purple command for Isoroku and may produce turns in which you have all of your Action Fans.

If you do not trigger this event, Rance dies at the start of a turn after you have gone through four turns with only one Action Fan each.

The final warning is an event in which Keikoku breastfeeds.

The event where Isoroku congratulates Rance on the baby has priority over the event where Suzume reads her mind. If you have been relying on autosaves and avoided talking to Isoroku to prevent the baby event from triggering, you can make the game unwinnable by leaving the game with no alternative to triggering the baby event.

After the fourth turn with only one Action Fan, if Suzume has read Isoroku’s mind, Keikoku flees Oda in a start-of-turn event.

This reduces you to zero Action Fans for that turn.

A second start-of-turn event then occurs in which 3G says that Keikoku has not been captured and gives you four options:

The final option causes a Game Over.
Choosing Isoroku advances the plot.
The other options accomplish nothing.

After this event, winning an army battle against the Monster Army causes Keikoku to join them.

Operation Permits usually do not trigger this event. Other post-battle events, including events involving Rance and the Generals, can also block it. In some cases, it may simply be a Xavier’s turn event.

Keikoku commands an extremely powerful Red Monster unit. All units with her receive all four buffs at 30% strength, similar to the Archfiend route.

Keikoku cannot be captured or killed, but has unique battle dialogue with Rance and Isoroku.

Isoroku’s Pregnancy and the Endgame

Once Rance decides to impregnate Isoroku, the pregnancy event can occur either as a purple command for Isoroku or as a start-of-turn event.

Soon afterward, usually within a couple of turns, Isoroku announces her pregnancy in a start-of-turn event.

After the pregnancy is announced, the only remaining requirement for the endgame is finding Miki after she goes missing.

As in Official History, Battleship Nagato must be conquered for this event to occur. Apart from the differences described above, the event proceeds as it does in Official History.

You do not need to advance farther than Battleship Nagato.

You do not even need to conquer the Mouri Clan to reach it. If you accept Mouri’s invitation to battle, you can conquer Izumo and attack Battleship Nagato from there.

This can be difficult because you may have to simultaneously withstand attacks from the Monster Army, Mouri, Takuga, and Akashi while holding Izumo and Battleship Nagato.

Once Miki has gone missing, there is no need to continue holding these territories. Apart from avoiding a Game Over from losing Owari, there is little reason to continue fighting.

Final Battle

Provided that Isoroku has announced her pregnancy, Xavier will soon complain to Madou after Miki is found that killing Rance would be better than continuing their current tactics.

Xavier then attacks directly, triggering the final boss fight.

The final battle is a two-part commander battle against:

Xavier, level 98
Apostle Madou, untransformed, level 40
Toukichirou, level 30

Xavier and Toukichirou are the same as in Official History.

Madou is also the same as in Official History, but his healing ability can target Xavier. This happens very rarely.

Losing sends you to the Alice Mansion, as with the Official History final boss.

First Half

The first half is timed.

If you damage an enemy without killing it before the first half ends, that enemy returns in the second half with full HP.

Xavier’s HP is reset to 50% regardless of what happens in the first half.

If you are not confident that you can completely kill an enemy before the timer expires, it is better not to attack that enemy. Instead, focus on keeping Rance and Kentarou alive for the second half.

Any enemy completely killed during the first half will not appear during the final half, except Xavier.

Second Half

When the first-half timer expires:

Xavier’s HP is set to 50% of maximum.
All other surviving enemies are healed to full HP.
Buffs are not carried over.
Defense Shikigamis and similar effects are not carried over.
Actions already used remain used.
HP lost by your units remains lost.

The second half is otherwise an untimed continuation of the first.

Winning the battle completes the Isoroku route.

Kenshin Uesugi Route

Conditions for Entering

You must meet all of the following conditions:

Kenshin and Ai Naoe are in your army.
The Ashikaga Clan has been conquered.
You have seen the event about Kenshin’s riceballs that occurs when she is deployed in a battle with Rance while at Trust.
You have conquered some or all of Sado.
You have not entered another route.
Kouhime is not missing.

After seeing the riceball event, conquering Ashikaga, and seeing Apostle Shikibu’s first appearance, a start-of-turn event in which Xavier receives the Imperial Headband becomes available.

Because Apostle Shikibu’s appearance is required, this can happen only on Turn 22 or later.

Earliest Possible Headband Event

For optimization, seeing the Imperial Headband event on Turn 22 requires avoiding the start-of-turn event that normally breaks the third gourd by causing that event to occur elsewhere during your turn.

This requires vassaling a gourd-owning Clan after Tenshiism declares war but before the third gourd is broken normally.

You also need to have broken the second gourd as an end-of-turn event, which almost certainly means vassaling Akashi very early.

In both cases, Ashikaga must have been conquered before Turn 8.

Without these conditions, the earliest possible timing is Turn 24.

Entering the Route

Once you have seen the headband event, have both Kenshin and Ai, have not entered another route, and Kouhime is not missing, the purple command A picnic with Kenshin becomes available in Sado.

Choosing it starts the Kenshin IF route and consumes all remaining actions for the turn.

On the following turn:

Rance fights Apostle Rengoku with Sill.
Kenshin fights Xavier in an unwinnable timed battle.
You lose all remaining actions for that turn.

Apostle Rengoku differs from his Official History version. In this route he is:

Level 40
Untransformed
850 HP

Because the Xavier fight cannot be won, it is best to spend all of Kenshin’s moves on her strong attack at the beginning of the battle.

Emperor Race

After the Xavier fight, the route centers on the Emperor Race.

The basic rules are:

Kenshin or Xavier wins upon reaching at least 100 points.
If Xavier reaches 100 points first, you receive a Game Over.
The race has 12 participants.
Kenshin or Xavier gains 20 points for defeating a participant.
Kenshin’s moves are restored before each duel, but her HP is not.
Losing a duel with Kenshin causes an immediate Game Over. You cannot use the Alice Mansion after losing a duel.
Winning an army battle with Kenshin above level 20 gives her 1 point.
Losing an army battle with Kenshin above level 20 gives her 3 points.

The army-battle point events are post-battle events and can be blocked by other events. For example, events following a Clan conquest, such as H-ing Yukihime, take priority.

The victory event for winning an army battle is almost the lowest-priority post-victory event in the game. Even post-battle affection item drops can block it.

The defeat event is rarely blocked because losing battles seldom trigger events. The notable exceptions are Senhime’s two defeat scenes.

Losing battles can therefore be useful if you need points quickly. For example, using the Tange Dog to repeatedly send Kenshin into losing battles can allow you to win the race without performing duels.

Using this method together with duels can cause the race to end unusually quickly, resulting in events occurring in an illogical order. For example, Xavier may attempt to duel Kazuhisa Shimazu after the race has already been won, or Kenshin may catch mumps after becoming Empress.

Kenshin’s Equipment and Preparation

Because the route involves many one-on-one battles with Kenshin, avoid giving her an unequippable item unless you are intentionally exploiting the Tange Dog.

Useful equipment options include:

Protection God Paper
Gutsy Armor
Ryuuguu Blade Urashimaru

It is also advisable to:

Leave some SAT Bonuses unused for when Kenshin loses levels.
Keep some Happiness Pokkur and/or Relationship items available.
Consider increasing Kenshin’s Speed.
Consider replacing her passive skill with Attack Luck or Speed Luck.

Speed Luck appears to be stronger than Attack Luck when Kenshin does not run out of moves, but its effectiveness depends heavily on both the skill’s randomness and the game’s turn-order randomness. Attack Luck is more consistent.

There are several very fast ways to progress through the Emperor Race.

Kenshin’s Level Loss and Recovery

Kenshin’s second purple event in this route reduces her level to 1. This is the mumps event and can occur even if she is already the Empress.

Because it is a character event rather than a plot event, it can occur as a start-of-turn event. However, it is delayed by plot events such as:

The event after Kenshin reaches 20 points.
The event after she reaches 40 points.
The event after she reaches 60 points.
The event after she reaches 80 points.
The eight events that introduce racers, which are usually triggered by being at war with their Clan.

The level loss unlocks a new Satisfaction Bonus.

This bonus increases Kenshin’s level by 10 and can be repeated until her level exceeds 39.

Like other level increases, it does not restore current HP.

For maximum value, use the bonus four times without first increasing her level by more than 8 through other means.

Using the bonus immediately after Kenshin loses her levels skips the +1 level event described below and allows you to focus on:

The H-scene.
The event where she cuts down a tree, which provides no useful level increase.
The +2 level events.

After the level-loss event, if Kenshin is not yet the Empress and you do not have the Protection God Paper, talking to her gives you the item.

If Kenshin is below level 5 and the Protection God Paper event cannot trigger, for example because you already saw it, talking to her increases her level by 1. This happens only once and can occur even if she is already the Empress.

If Kenshin is above level 10 and the previous events have been seen or avoided, talking to her H’s her for 5 SAT. This happens once.

If Kenshin is the Empress and the previous events have been seen or avoided, talking to her H’s her for 5 SAT. This also happens once.

After all of the above events have been seen or avoided, every subsequent conversation with Kenshin gives her 2 levels.

This continues until she becomes the Empress or until she is both above level 59 and not more than 10 levels below Rance.

Emperor Race Participants

The 12 participants are:

Participant	Affiliation
Masamune Dokuganryu	Dokuganryu
Nobunaga Oda	Monster Army
Nozomi Okita	Recruitable in Kyo
Shouen Baba	Takeda
Gon	Takuga
Keikoku	Independent
Yuzumi Yuzuhara	Tanegashima
Motonari Mouri	Mouri
Kazuhisa Shimazu	Monster Army
Kenshin Uesugi	Oda
Musou Suzuya	Independent
Gorou Kumano	Independent

Until Kenshin’s level is reduced to 1, she cannot fight participants who are in your army.

When fighting an army member, the opposing unit is recreated from scratch, leveled to its current level, and fully healed.

Equipment and textbooks you gave the actual unit are not used in the duel, but level increases are retained.

Damage Kenshin deals during these duels does not carry over to the actual unit.

Motonari Mouri is a special case. His uncursed form normally inherits HP from his cursed form, but the version used for Kenshin’s duel has either 450 or 458 total HP depending only on his level.

Disqualifying Racers

A racer can be disqualified from the Emperor Race, preventing Kenshin from dueling them.

Taking a Clan Bonus that gives you a racer disqualifies that racer. Examples include:

Takeda’s Clan Bonus, which gives Shouen Baba.
Mouri’s Clan Bonus, which gives Motonari Mouri.

Kenshin and Masamune are exceptions.

There is also a Clan Bonus glitch. If you select a Clan Bonus and then deselect it before starting the game, the corresponding racer is disqualified.

Additional exceptions include:

Masamune is not disqualified if recruited before route entry.
Shouen Baba is not disqualified until the event that makes him appear in battles with Takeda has been seen. However, this event is required before Kenshin can duel him, so this distinction is useful only for Xavier.
Baba is not disqualified if Takeda Shingen was assassinated before route entry.
Motonari is not disqualified if captured before route entry.
Kenshin is always exempt.

Participants released from your prison, killed, or dismissed from your army are also disqualified.

Motonari is disqualified if he is in Ghost form.

New disqualifications may take one turn to be recognized unless you visit the prison menu or otherwise cause the game to update its flags.

For practical purposes, being defeated by Kenshin or Xavier can also be treated as equivalent to disqualification.

If Kenshin has fewer than 100 points and no duelable racers remain, Keikoku kills her in a very high-priority event during Xavier’s turn, causing a Game Over.

If many racers are disqualified, use the army-battle point mechanics to ensure Kenshin can still reach 100 points.

Racer Event Priority

Many participants require a start-of-turn event discussing them before Kenshin can duel them.

The highest-priority relevant start-of-turn events are:

Kenshin fights Xavier at the beginning of the route.
Kouhime becomes Nobunaga’s substitute.
3G announces that the Monster Army has appeared.
Kenshin cuts down a tree. This requires her to have previously lost her levels and then exceed level 29. Unlike similar events, it does not increase her level.
The events triggered at 20, 40, 60, and 80 race points.

Nozomi, Gon, and Yuzumi

Nozomi Okita, Gon, and Yuzumi Yuzuhara can be fought only if they are in your army.

If you are at war with their respective Clans and they remain in the race:

Gon has a start-of-turn event where Kenshin and Rance discuss him.
Yuzumi has a start-of-turn event where Kenshin and Rance discuss her.

Neither event is required for anything else.

Gon’s event is the third-highest-priority start-of-turn event involving a racer. It requires Gon to still be in Takuga’s army.

Yuzumi’s event is the fourth-highest-priority racer discussion event. It requires the event where Shigehiko Tanegashima asks her to participate in army battles.

Masamune Dokuganryu

Masamune can be fought regardless of whether he has been recruited.

If he remains in the race and is not in your army, conquering the Dokuganryu Clan triggers Kenshin’s duel with him in place of the normal Clan-conquest boss battle.

Being at war with Dokuganryu while Masamune remains in the race unlocks a start-of-turn event in which Kenshin and Rance discuss him.

This event is not required for anything and is the highest-priority start-of-turn event involving discussion of a racer.

Masamune does not use his eyedrops against Kenshin.

He cannot be recruited if defeated by Kenshin.

Dueling Masamune while he is in your army does not grant the +10 race score for defeating the youkai king. Defeating him in his castle does grant it.

If you have taken the Dokuganryu Clan Bonus, conquering the Clan does not trigger the duel. You must instead duel Masamune like any other racer in your army.

Motonari Mouri

If Motonari is not in your army, conquering Mouri while he remains in the race triggers Kenshin’s duel with him instead of the normal boss battle.

If Teru Mouri remains in Mouri’s army, Motonari is still cursed, and he remains in the race, being at war with Mouri unlocks a start-of-turn event in which Rance and Kenshin view him.

This is the fifth-highest-priority start-of-turn event involving discussion of a racer and is not required for anything.

Conquering Mouri while Motonari remains cursed causes a Game Over.

If his curse has been lifted, Motonari fights Kenshin without bodyguards at level 50 with 450 HP.

Winning this battle has the normal consequences of defeating Motonari. For example, it allows you to capture Mouri, H Kojika, and clear Kiku.

Shouen Baba

If Takeda is still standing, Kenshin cannot fight Shouen Baba until after the Takeda blitz has occurred.

Specifically, you must see the start-of-turn event where Kenshin and Ai discuss how to begin a fight with him.

That event requires the event at the end of a Takeda blitz in which you did not win every battle. In that event, 3G complains about the damage caused by the attacks.

The Kenshin and Ai discussion is the second-highest-priority start-of-turn event involving discussion of a racer and requires Baba to remain in the race.

If you win a blitz, the required 3G event does not occur. However, if you have not seen it before, you can cause it to occur by losing the next blitz.

If a blitz is skipped because Takeda has nowhere to attack, the 3G event does not trigger.

The game normally prevents you from conquering Takeda while Shouen remains in the race.

Attempting to attack the final territory of Shinano or Kairapace when the other province is controlled by Oda or an Oda vassal triggers an event that prevents the attack and refunds the Action Fan.

Takeda can still be conquered by:

Assassinating Shingen Takeda.
Conquering all Takeda provinces while someone other than Oda or an Oda vassal controls Shinano or Kairapace.

Conquering Takeda through battle causes Rance to kill Shouen, preventing Kenshin from dueling him.

If Takeda has already fallen, Kenshin can duel Shouen only if you recruited him.

Once Shouen is recruited, the earlier requirements, including the 3G blitz event, no longer apply. The only restrictions are that Shouen must remain in the race and Kenshin must already have lost her levels.

The Baba fight is extremely difficult. He deals considerably more damage than Kenshin, can sometimes move twice, and has all four buffs.

Even with good equipment, Kenshin will likely need to be at least level 60 to win. Without good equipment, she may need to be close to her level cap, and reloading may be necessary.

Because of the difficulty and the inconvenience of taking Takeda’s blitz attacks, it is recommended to conquer Takeda before entering the route or avoid going to war with them.

Kazuhisa Shimazu

Kenshin cannot fight Kazuhisa until you have seen the start-of-turn event revealing his location.

This is the sixth-highest-priority start-of-turn event involving discussion of a racer.

It requires:

Kazuhisa to remain in the race.
The event where he flees the Monster Army to have already occurred.
Oda or an Oda vassal to control Chuu-earth.

After seeing the location event, Kazuhisa can be fought in Izumo if Oda or an Oda vassal controls some or all of Izumo.

You also need:

At least one free space in your roster.
At least 1 free NP.

Kazuhisa cannot be recruited in this route.

Musou Suzuya and Gorou Kumano

You cannot fight Musou Suzuya or Gorou Kumano until their respective start-of-turn location events have occurred.

After the events, you can use a 15 Search command to fight:

Musou Suzuya in Naniwa.
Gorou Kumano in Saitama.

Oda or an Oda vassal must control the relevant province.

Musou’s location event requires Kenshin to be above level 29.

Gorou’s requires Kenshin to be at least level 39.

Neither event can trigger if the corresponding racer has already left the race.

Both events have lower priority than the six other racer discussion events. Those six events generally require being at war with the corresponding racer’s Clan.

Musou’s event has higher priority than Gorou’s.

Musou’s event is the seventh-highest-priority racer discussion event, while Gorou’s is the eighth and lowest.

Because these two events are relatively low priority, you can unlock these duels more quickly by avoiding wars with many Clans that have racers and avoiding the event where Kenshin loses her levels.

Xavier and Keikoku

Neither Xavier nor Keikoku can be fought in a way that awards Kenshin race points.

Once the Emperor Race has been completed, Kenshin can no longer duel racers.

Xavier’s Racer Killings

After the event where Xavier mentions that Kurohime changed her name, an extremely high-priority Xavier end-of-turn event becomes available in which Kazuhisa Shimazu flees the Monster Army.

This event permanently removes the four Shimazu brothers and Agireda from the Monster Army and makes Agireda difficult to recruit.

If Kazuhisa’s escape occurs before the Shimazu brothers’ five consecutive attacks, those attacks never occur.

Delaying the escape until after the attacks requires approximately five turns of carefully avoiding interaction with the Monster Army.

To see the event discussing Kurohime’s name change, you must first see:

The event where Apostle Madou talks to the Shimazu brothers.
The event where Apostle Madou joins the Monster Army.

Madou joining the Monster Army is the Monster Army’s first end-of-turn event after the army forms.

Both the Madou conversation and the Kurohime name event can be triggered as post-battle events, allowing you to accelerate Kazuhisa’s escape by taking Monster Army territory.

However, doing this guarantees that the Shimazu brothers’ attacks will occur.

Once Xavier begins killing racers, he makes another attempt exactly six turns after each attempt.

Kazuhisa’s escape resets this six-turn counter and always occurs before Xavier can attempt to kill another racer.

For each killing attempt, Xavier randomly selects one racer from this list, with an equal 1 in 7 chance for each:

Masamune Dokuganryu
Nozomi Okita
Shouen Baba
Gon
Yuzumi Yuzuhara
Motonari Mouri
Kazuhisa Shimazu

Xavier can select racers who are already disqualified, dead, or otherwise unavailable, but he cannot kill a disqualified racer.

Specific restrictions include:

Xavier can kill Masamune only if Dokuganryu still exists and you have not taken its Clan Bonus.
Xavier can duel Shouen if Baba is not disqualified, but does not always kill him.
Xavier cannot kill Motonari while Motonari is in your prison.
Xavier can kill Musou only if he randomly selects a racer he cannot kill, such as a disqualified racer.
Xavier can kill Gorou only if he randomly selects a racer he cannot kill and Musou is no longer in the race.
Xavier cannot kill Keikoku.
Xavier can repeatedly trigger an event attempting to kill Keikoku, but only when both Musou and Gorou are no longer in the race and Xavier randomly selects a racer he cannot kill.
Xavier cannot kill Kenshin.

A separate repeatable Keikoku-killing attempt exists on the same six-turn cycle as the other racer fights, but it is delayed by three turns and does not affect the normal racer-killing cycle.

If Xavier kills a racer you want to keep alive, reloading can change his random selection.

Monster Army Events During the Race

Once most Monster Army events have occurred, a counter begins increasing whenever:

A territory in a Monster Army province is taken, including through Operation Permits.
The Monster Army has a turn with no end-of-turn event.

The counter starts at zero and increases by 1 under these conditions.

When it reaches 2, an NPC Samurai dies and the counter resets to zero.

This event can repeat.

Killing this Samurai gives Xavier:

2 points normally.
3 points after Turn 80.
5 points after Turn 100.

Some repeatable events, such as Xavier attempting to kill Keikoku, take priority over this counter.

Because the Monster Army takes about five turns to form after entering the Kenshin route, Xavier cannot begin killing racers until both the Madou and Kazuhisa events have occurred, and Kazuhisa’s escape resets the racer-killing timer, Kenshin effectively has at least a 13-turn head start in the Emperor Race.

Monster Army Conquest Before the Race Ends

The Monster Army cannot be conquered normally before Kenshin wins the Emperor Race.

If it has three or fewer provinces and you conquer one of them, the Monster Army immediately takes two random Oda provinces in two consecutive events and gains five new generic units.

It cannot take Shikokalamity.

It can take Owari only if Owari is your final province, which causes a Game Over.

Because the Monster Army cannot normally be conquered before the race ends, and because triggering its events accelerates both Xavier’s racer-killing progression and the NPC Samurai deaths, it is advisable to avoid conquering territories in Monster Army provinces during the race.

Consider removing your Operation Permits if necessary to avoid unwanted post-battle events.

Soul Binder

An event that normally serves as a prerequisite for the Soul Binder to appear does not trigger in the Kenshin route. Another event is used instead.

As a result, Leila’s unit is not at risk in this route.

The Soul Binder’s curse cannot be lifted in the Kenshin route.

Xavier’s Clan Conquests

Xavier conquers Clans differently in the Kenshin route.

Shimazu

Xavier conquers Shimazu approximately five turns after the Emperor Race begins.

This requires both:

The end-of-turn event introducing Keikoku in this route.
The end-of-turn event where Xavier runs through a forest with Apostle Shikibu.

Both events become available only after entering the Kenshin route.

The theoretical minimum number of turns for the Monster Army to appear after route entry is 3, but Clan introductions, especially Shimazu’s, delay these events.

The event where Pluepet collects what he is owed by Kojika Yamanaka can also take priority over the Keikoku and Apostle Shikibu events. Its conditions are described in the Mouri section, and entering a route makes those conditions likely to be met.

Dokuganryu

When Xavier kills Masamune as part of the race, Xavier causes the Dokuganryu Clan to declare war on you, possibly due to a glitch.

Masamune’s wives are also killed.

Takuga

When Xavier kills Gon as part of the race, he conquers Takuga unless you have already conquered it.

If Takuga has not yet been introduced, the game behaves as though Gon were in your prison. It kills a nonexistent version of Gon, leaving the nonexistent Takuga Clan unaffected.

Mouri

When Xavier kills Motonari Mouri as part of the race, he conquers Mouri unless you have already done so.

Takeda

Xavier does not conquer Takeda when he duels Shouen Baba.

If Baba is still in Takeda, Kurohime saves his life, but his unit’s current troop count is reduced to 1 and Takeda’s blitz attacks permanently stop.

If Baba is not in Takeda, such as when he is unaffiliated, in your army, in prison, or recruited by another Clan, Xavier kills him without any other consequences.

Tanegashima

Xavier does not conquer Tanegashima when he kills Yuzumi Yuzuhara.

Imagawa

Xavier does not conquer Imagawa when he kills Nozomi Okita.

Nozomi’s death causes the Shinsengumi to behave as though they have been expelled from Kyo. This can lead to events for other Clans, but those events unlock nothing.

Houjou in the Kenshin Route

Houjou behaves differently in this route.

Houjou does not surrender to Oda.
Ran dies only if she goes to the Petroleum Pit or if you conquer Houjou without capturing her.
Apostle Gigai never joins Xavier, even if Ran dies.

Operation Permits

Operation Permits work as they do in the Isoroku route rather than Official History.

They never fail and are never confiscated.

Kentarou and Miki

Kentarou does not join in this route.

Consequently:

Miki’s events do not occur.
Apostle Shikibu cannot die.
There is another reason to avoid unnecessary battles with the Monster Army.

Keikoku’s War Declarations

After the Monster Army appears, Keikoku can force another Clan to declare war on you.

This occurs as an end-of-turn event when:

The current turn is even.
Fewer than three Clans are at war with you.
Kenshin is not yet the Empress.

The selected Clan must not be conquered, vassaled, or already at war with you.

Keikoku’s selection is not random. She checks Clans in this order:

Azai-Asakura
Takeda
Mouri
Houjou
Tokugawa
Iga
Akashi
Takuga
Miko Union

This event also skips some introduction events for the selected Clan.

Because Takeda is high on the list and difficult to conquer during the race, consider conquering Takeda before entering the route or deliberately maintaining three simultaneous wars.

It is also convenient to conquer the Miko Union before entering the route.

One simple approach is to ignore Azai-Asakura before route entry and conquer the Miko Union instead. This also provides a useful border with Uesugi.

Becoming Empress

After Kenshin wins the Emperor Race, she receives the Empress's Majesty passive skill.

This replaces the normal vassal options and allows Kenshin to unconditionally vassal any hostile Clan except the Monster Army.

This special vassaling has relatively few consequences.

Normally impossible-to-vassal Clans do not provide their unique reinforcements or events, while normally vassalable Clans behave normally.

Exceptions include:

Tokugawa’s betrayal of Oda does not occur.
Normal post-vassal events that remove Clan heads do not occur, except Tokugawa’s.
Vassaling Tenshiism does not cause Seigan to join.

Conquering the Monster Army

After Kenshin becomes Empress, conquering any Monster Army province immediately conquers the entire Monster Army.

Soon afterward, Xavier goes into the Orochi’s Pit in Yamatai.

If you do not conquer a Monster Army province after Kenshin becomes Empress, you effectively have unlimited time to prepare for the final battle.

Orochi’s Pit unlocks automatically, but you cannot enter it until the Miko Union has been defeated.

A quick way to defeat the Miko Union is to declare war on them and immediately have Kenshin demand their surrender.

If the ability to declare war on the Miko Union has not yet been unlocked, this can take time. Conquering the Miko Union before entering the route avoids this problem.

Orochi’s Pit and the Final Battle

At the end of each turn, an event shows Xavier’s depth in the dungeon.

The depths are:

After the event showing Xavier’s final depth, you will encounter him and begin the final boss battle after clearing the floor where his last event occurred.

If you see the event showing Xavier on floor 18 and then end your turn, you receive a Game Over.

The final battle is a commander battle against Xavier and Toukichirou.

Xavier has:

Level 100
2,050 HP
No bodyguard

Everything else is the same as in Official History.

At the start of the battle:

All commanders have their moves restored.
Their HP is not restored.
You can reselect your commanders.

Kentarou does not join you in this route, so Rance cannot be risked in the final battle.

Ashigarus and multiple Defense Shikigamis are vital.

Winning the battle completes the Kenshin route.

Monkeyslayer Route

Entering the Route

Before starting the game, select Enable Killing Toukichirou in the Second Game Bonus menu.

Beginning on Turn 7, the Kill Toukichirou option becomes available in Owari.

Selecting it enters the Monkeyslayer route.

The option remains available until the first gourd breaks.

Route Properties

The Monkeyslayer route is recognized as a route when saving progress, but it is not a conventional story route.

It functions more like a Sandbox Mode. There is no dedicated story attached to it.

Its main uses are:

Obtaining points.
Viewing obscure events without being interrupted by the normal storyline.
Obtaining Clan Bonuses.

Clearing the Monkeyslayer route gives no bonus points.

All Xavier-related events stop occurring.

However, Suzaku still appears if you visit the Petroleum Pit while searching for Souun Houjou. This part follows Official History rather than the Ran route.

Souun cannot fight Suzaku for revenge, so Suzaku cannot be cleared.

Character and Clan Differences

Kentarou Ogawa does not appear or join.

Chinu Kobayakawa does not die, so she can be used and cleared.

Sill, Kouhime, and other characters who disappear in other routes remain available.

Kouhime does not join as an Ashigaru unit and does not provide Katsuie Shibata’s +1,000 troops.

Shimazu Defections

The Shimazu brothers behave similarly to the Ran route, with several differences.

They do not absorb other Clans.

Female commanders at Trust can also defect. Only female commanders at Love are completely protected.

Apart from the single event required to initiate the first defection, there are no start-of-turn events in this route that take priority over a female commander’s defection to Shimazu.

Toshihisa Shimazu does not appear in battles and is not included in the commander count shown on Shimazu’s end-of-turn screen.

There is a bug involving the commander count.

If Shimazu’s end-of-turn screen shows 59 commanders, female commanders cannot actually defect.

The defection events can still occur, however. This means Kurohime can be kidnapped without any real defections having taken place.

After kidnapping Kurohime, the Ran route’s repeatable Fiend's Daughter: Kurohime +2 SAT event is unavailable.

Unusual Event Timing

Because the Monkeyslayer route does not follow the normal plot progression, events associated with different Clans can occur at unusual times or fail to occur.

For example, if you simply pay off Ashikaga and remain in Owari without attacking or declaring war for 200 turns, Takeda will never be introduced.

Even though Takeda’s countdown to war begins on Turn 72, Takeda will neither declare war nor conquer Saitama until the Clan has actually been introduced.

The unusual event structure can also produce strange occurrences and possible glitches. There have been unconfirmed reports of players recruiting Ran Nanjou and Souun Houjou simultaneously.

Some events that normally depend only on the turn count may not occur.

For example:

The event in which a Hanny gives you the Popularity Staff does not occur.
The event that gives you Operation Permits does not occur.

Completing the Monkeyslayer Route

The route ends after every country on the map has been defeated and you end your turn.

The route allows effectively unlimited time if you want it.

You can repeatedly pay off Ashikaga and remain peacefully in Owari, allowing you to use SAT Bonuses to strengthen your starting army.

This can greatly reduce the route’s difficulty.

If you remain in Owari and never declare war yourself, Azai-Asakura is the only Clan that will declare war on you before you declare war on anyone else.

However, using this type of exploit can cause a chain of difficult events when other Clans are eventually introduced, including Takeda conquering Saitama and declarations of war from Mouri, Takeda, Tokugawa, and later Uesugi.

Archfiend Route

Route Status

Entering the Archfiend route makes the game unwinnable.

A Game Over is guaranteed.

You enter this route if you fail to obtain the Hirami Lemons for Miki or fail to find Miki after she disappears.

The game tells you to restart because the route cannot be won.

The closest equivalent to winning is conquering every province controlled by the Monster Army. Doing so triggers the final Game Over sequence.

The Archfiend route gives no points for clearing it because it is not considered a real route.

Important Limitation

If you closed the gate on Takuga and Xavier subsequently conquered Takuga before Miki took over the Monster Army, you cannot even reach the closest possible version of a victory.

The closed gate makes the final province impossible to conquer.

Miki and the Monster Army

When all Monster Army provinces have been conquered, an event occurs in which Rance confronts Miki and Kentarou.

Kentarou accuses Rance of cheating.

Rance attempts to attack Miki, but Miki and Kentarou disappear.

Rance then complains that he is too tired, and the game ends with the Game Over screen.

The credits do not play because the Archfiend route is not a real route.

Miki appears in army battles.

Her special unit:

Fights alone.
Uses an HP bar instead of a troop count.
Uses only an extremely powerful physical attack.
Targets one unit in any row.
Kills 9,000 troops per use.

Because the attack is physical:

Defense Shikigami can block it.
Guarding Ashigarus can halve the damage.

Miki appears to be completely immune to damage, including damage from Rance.

Fiend Nobunaga also appears in army battles.

His unit can be annihilated even though it is commanded by a Fiend. However, his unit is marked as important.

Kentarou’s Unit

During an end-of-turn event, Kentarou’s unit is deleted and recreated in Miki’s army.

The recreated unit has:

8,000 Monster troops.
No changes that were previously made to the unit.

Nikkou is removed from Kentarou, allowing another commander in your army to use it.

Kentarou’s skills and stats return to their default values.

His battle portrait loses the red glow associated with his Fiend form in your army.

Miki makes Kentarou a Fiend if he was not already one, but this does not change his gameplay properties.

For example, Kentarou receives the army-battle property preventing his troop count from falling below 1 only if he was already a Fiend when he was taken.

If Kentarou was already a Fiend when taken, his unit cannot be annihilated by any means, including Rance’s attacks.

Kentarou’s unit is always marked as important.

Hidden Monster Army Buff

Many Monster Army units have an invisible fifth skill that causes every unit on their side of the battle to begin with all four buffs at 30% power.

The skill is possessed by:

Miki
Keikoku
Five special units with a Monster General portrait and approximately 8,000 troops that join the Monster Army when Miki takes over, provided there is room.

Technically, this skill does not buff the owner’s allies specifically. It buffs every unit on the non-player side of the battle.

Therefore, obtaining a unit with this skill through cheating does not provide a benefit.

Castle battles in the original four Shimazu provinces remain unchanged from Official History. Miki does not appear in these battles, and the enemy units do not start with all four buffs.

The Monster Army gains large numbers of troops and commanders every turn, making its numbers effectively infinite.

Operation Permits

If you entered the Archfiend route from Official History and still have Operation Permits, they are never confiscated.

They function effectively as they do in the Isoroku route.

Monster Army Event Differences

Most Monster Army events are coded specifically for the three normal routes, so many of them do not occur in the Archfiend route.

For example:

The Soul Binder’s curse appears to be impossible to lift.
Xavier does not conquer territories.
The Shimazu brothers do not launch their blitz.
Kouhime does not confiscate Operation Permits.
Apostle Gigai does not challenge Rance.

The Shimazu brothers’ ambush can still occur if it was already planned during Official History.

As a result, Agireda can still be character cleared and the Shimazu brothers can still fight their special post-ambush battles.

Strategies for Surviving the Archfiend Route

Although the route cannot truly be completed, you can attempt to conquer all Monster Army provinces before the forced Game Over.

Income and Territory

The Monster Army kills large numbers of troops in battle, while Operation Permits create additional costs.

Surviving therefore requires very high income.

The best preparation is to conquer most of the map before entering the Archfiend route and take as many Satisfaction Bonuses that reduce troop replenishment costs as possible.

There is also an advantage to keeping some Clans alive even after taking most of their territory.

The Monster Army normally acts last during the end-of-turn phase.

If more than two battles have been lost by the player during that end-of-turn phase, the Oda Clan will generally not be attacked again during that phase.

There are some exceptions, including:

Shimazu brothers’ consecutive attacks.
Apostle Shikibu’s attacks on Cairo.

Therefore, deliberately allowing other Clans to attack and lose two battles can often prevent the Monster Army from attacking during the same phase.

Skills such as Merchant and Money Management may help, but they are not required.

Scouting

A large number of good Scouts is important.

In the Archfiend route, scout before every battle.

Without enough good Scouts, you may unknowingly enter a battle containing Miki. This can cause enormous troop losses and may also result in commanders being lost.

If you lack good Scouts, consider using a SAT Bonus on the Warzone Correspondent item.

Commander Roster

You should have access to many of the strongest commanders in the game before entering the route.

A weak roster can make you completely dependent on the Monster Army failing to attack.

Winning without Operation Permits is particularly difficult without a strong commander roster.

Weak commanders also make castle battles substantially harder.

Reducing Monster Army Strength

Before entering the route, consider minimizing the number of times you have fought the Monster Army.

This maximizes the number of former Shimazu commanders still possessed by the Monster Army and therefore increases the probability that you will encounter those commanders instead of the significantly stronger Monster units.

Using Operation Permits

If you still have Operation Permits:

Use them to take every territory that you can.
Defend only against battles that appear winnable, usually battles in which Miki does not appear.
When possible, attack the final territory of a province with your strongest troops.
Repeat this process until all Monster Army provinces have been conquered.

Covert Action can be useful, especially in provinces where the Monster Army has no choice but to defend.

Initial Time Advance

If you do not have Operation Permits, you need another way to both acquire and defend territory.

The simplest method is the Initial Time Advance exploit.

The basic principle is based on two mechanics:

No battle starts with more than 25 turns available.
Each commander with Initial Time Advance, or the Yomi Clock, reduces the battle’s duration by 5 turns.

If five commanders with Initial Time Advance are present in the same battle, the battle ends immediately.

In most battles, where neither side has Instant Advantage or another ability that changes the starting Advantage, the defending side wins when the battle ends immediately.

This makes five Initial Time Advance commanders an extremely reliable way to win defensive battles in which Miki appears.

It is recommended to have more than five commanders with Initial Time Advance because the Soul Binder can disable up to two of them per turn.

In practice, acquiring as many Initial Time Advance commanders as possible provides the fastest and most reliable way to win defensive battles.

Speed and Initial Time Advance

If possible, give Initial Time Advance to your fastest units.

If you cannot deploy five commanders with Initial Time Advance, fast commanders may still allow you to win with fewer than five.

The reason is that fast units are likely to act during the first few turns. This can allow the battle to end before you lose enough Advantage to be defeated.

The following can also help:

Defend All Shikigami
Instant Advantage
Speed buffs

The Relationship With All Commanders +3 SAT Bonus is particularly useful for obtaining commanders with Initial Time Advance.

Guaranteed Defensive Team

A defensive team can be constructed that will never lose when defending a castle.

The required setup is:

4 commanders with Initial Time Advance.
2 commanders with Instant Advantage.
One of these commanders must have the Yomi Clock.

With this setup, even if all six enemy commanders have Instant Advantage, your Instant Advantage combined with the castle’s Advantage boost cancels the enemy’s Instant Advantage.

The battle then ends immediately with Advantage at 50/50.

The defender wins a 50/50 draw, making the defense a guaranteed victory.

Fighting Miki Directly

Another, less reliable method is to fight battles in which Miki appears.

Useful abilities include:

Defend All Shikigami
Kenshin’s Goddess of War's Majesty
Urza’s Precision Shot

These can reduce the damage Miki deals while you attempt to win the battle normally.

Miki has very high Speed. Units using Defend All Shikigami therefore need to be fast enough to act before Miki.

Otherwise, Miki may annihilate them or another important unit before they can move.

Oily Girl Dousan is required if you want to reuse Defend All Shikigami or Urza’s Precision Shot.

General Offensive and Defensive Strategy

Maintain a strong group of commanders for both offense and defense.

If necessary, dedicate most of your roster to Initial Time Advance.

This allows you to establish a defensive force that almost never loses while using your strongest offensive commanders to win one or two offensive battles per turn.

If an offensive battle is lost, you can retry on the following turn.

This approach can eventually allow you to conquer all required territory.

The main danger is losing your strongest offensive commanders.

If important offensive units are annihilated, the route can become much harder.

If you have the Immoral Immortal Charm, equip it to your most valuable offensive unit.

Because the route provides effectively unlimited time, you can also accumulate enough money to raise the troop counts of offensive units and reduce the risk of annihilation.

Recovering From a Bad Situation

If all of your strong offensive commanders die, the remaining option is to use the unlimited time available to upgrade your surviving commanders as much as possible until they are strong enough to win offensive battles.

This is extremely time-consuming and may take longer than simply reloading a save from before the situation deteriorated.

It can also fail because some of the strongest units, such as Natori and Omachi, cannot be replaced.

At this late stage, your options for replacing lost commanders are limited.

If you lose all of your strong commanders, accepting defeat is generally the practical choice.