Sengoku Rance:Walkthrough

Quick FAQ

 * I can't attack anyone!
 * You need to declare war on somebody before attacking (see Game mechanics). Sometimes story events make the others declare war on you first. You can declare war only after the second turn.


 * I got Game Over because Miki turned into the Demon King!
 * There are two points in the story where Miki will turn into the Demon King. The first time you need to find a dungeon located in Mikan (only available after she's going to turn into Demon King soon), and get to the 6th floor (but you might as well go all the way down for the level up while you are at it). The second time you need to search for her (green button) three times within a certain period of time. Note that the three searches will take 20, 25, and then 30 points of exploration.


 * A certain command requires too much exploration points! It's impossible!
 * If the command fails because you have insufficient points, the points you already put in will be deducted for next time, so even if something requires 80 exploration points, it can still be done (over many turns).


 * An army that looks like mine but with different color suddenly appeared and attacked me multiple times per turn. They are too strong!
 * The multiple attacks per turn for this army only happens once, don't worry.


 * Kentaro keep losing in a duel!
 * The issue here is Kentaro simply can't deal enough damage to the enemy in 4 attacks (even using special attack as the last attack). The trick is Kentaro's support skill, a full recovery food which when he eats recovers all his health (not important here) AND his moves.  This allows you to deal a total of 7 hits against the enemy, which is more than enough.  If you insist on trying to win in 4 attacks, give Kentaro the "attack luck" passive skill from relationship bonus and it'll work too.

Differences between various play throughs

 * Any game you started before having a cleared-game savefile is called a "First Game". After having cleared the game at least once (game over doesn't count) it's called a "Second Game".


 * When starting a Second Game you get to spend points buying various bonuses. The amount of points you get to spend is the maximum of the points from your previous cleared-games, plus 5 points per route you have cleared.


 * For Second Game, you also get to pick the game diffculty. "Standard" diffculty starts your game with 60 points (same diffculty as First Game), and increasing diffculty starts you off with more points.  Note this is the points you receive at the beginning of this new game, this isn't points you get to spend buying bonuses before starting this new game.


 * IF routes are only available in Second Game. In the First Game only the Real History route is available.

General stuff

 * When attacking or being attacked, Uesugi Kenshin will randomly appear to help the defending side. She has a passive skill that causes all of her enemies to have one less move available (min 1).


 * Ogawa Kentaro will temporarily join one of the houses you are actively fighting against at turn 20. He cannot be captured.  Once you defeat the house he joined, or after the Incident at Honnou Temple, he won't fight against you anymore.


 * The flow of the game consists of fighting the various houses of JAPAN, with the Incident at Honnou Temple somewhere inbetween, and finally a showdown with the Demon Army.

Incident at Honnou Temple
There are 8 seals on the demon Xavier, whose status you can check via the F5 menu. When a total of 5 seals have been broken (due to conquest or passage of time), the game enters the "Incident at Honnou Temple mode", beginning with the disappearance of Princess Aroma. During this mode, you are not allowed to attack any house (although you can defend, and troops with battle permits may still attack at will).

The player must find Princess Aroma asap, or face gameover. Once Princess Aroma has been rescued, the player must then make an assault on the Honnou Temple (although you can take as many turns as you want to prepare the assault).

The assault consists of 4 fights in a row. First is a troop battle vs the acolyte Seiryuu and some humans. Then is a timed captain battle against acolyte Byakko in human form. After the time is up Byakko transforms into his original form (and is fully healed) for a third captain fight. Finally the four fight is against demon Xavier directly. If the player lose the battle, the game will ask if you wish to continue or game over. Choosing continue will start you at the most recent battle, with all your captain at full health and full moves, but you lose 4 points. Xavier will also drop a several levels, making it easier to fight him.

After the assault, you will have 0 remaining moves for that turn, so plan ahead. Starting the next turn you can resume attacking other houses again.

Hara House

 * Basics
 * You can declare war on Hara as early as around turn 2. Even if you don't declare ware on the Hara House, they declare war on you some time after you are in war policy with the Ashikaga House. After winning some territories from them, some events will trigger which cause their troops to weaken.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Hara Shyouji - will be automatically captured when you completely take over the Hara House (can't be captured earlier).
 * Aki Hime - only in a second playthrough or later, a new option will appear after you completely take over Hara House. The top choice will have her join you while the bottom choice won't let her join - but trigger the same event as the first playthrough.

Ashikaga House

 * Basics
 * You can declare war on the Ashikaga House in turn 3. If not, in a random turn, the Ashikaga House will start to demand money from you (and each time in increasing amounts). If you refuse anytime you were asked (bottom choice), they will declare war on you. After Yamamoto 56 appears, the first battle Rance is in will be an automatic defeat (56 doesn't have to appear on the other side).


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Yamamoto 56 - After winning some battles against the Ashikaga House, Ashikaga will ask 56 for support. After 56's first defeat, she would be scolded by Ashikaga later - which you can capture her in future encounters. She can also be captured after you completely take over the Ashikaga Houses (even if events haven't introduced her yet).
 * Ikkyu - Can be captured anytime.
 * Ashikaga Supergod - Automatic capture after completely taking over the Ashikaga House.
 * Ashikaga Yoshiteru (足利義輝) - A generic-face captain who is level 45. Can be captured in battle.

Iga House

 * Basics
 * Will not declare war on the player until you defeated Tenshiism and had Seigan migrated to Iga's territories for a while.
 * A short while after war begin, there will be a command in Yamato to ask Suzume about info on Iga. Afterwards, a purple ??? event will be available which gives you 2000 gold (stolen from Iga) and makes the Iga army weaker.  When conquering the last castle, you need to include Suzume or Inukai will escape and later lead a revolt taking back Yamato.
 * Alternately, in Second Games, a green exploration command will appear (a bit after the ??? money event) which lets the Rance duel with Inukai + 3 dogs (and take over Iga directly if Rance wins). Rance needs to be at least level 50 and have at least 4 moves in order to win. You need at least one space in your captain roster and at least 3 spare nation power for the green command to show up, because the duel makes Inukai join you.
 * Noteworthy captains
 * Inukai - Can only be captured via the duel in Second Games.
 * The five Goninjais are capturable through regular battles.

Tokugawa House

 * Basics
 * They are allied with the Takeda House, and will declare war on you if you go on war with the Takeda House. In fact, even if you have made them into vassal, they will still revolt and fight you if you and Takeda starts fighting.  But otherwise, they won't declare war on the player.
 * Initially, they only use human troops. Once the player take over two areas of Mikawa, the Youkais will participate in battles. Note: if none of the Youkai were captured, they will all defend the last house together, which makes the battle very difficult. The battle becomes significantly easier when most of the Youkais are captured first. After winning the battle over the last house, there will be a captain fight against Tokugawa Ieyasu and two bodyguards.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Tokugawa Ieyasu - Can only be obtained in Second Games. To get him, you must capture Sakakibara Yasumasa and talk to him twice to learn Ieyasu's favorite dish is tempura. Then after taking over the last Tokugawa land, you will be offered a choice to fight him or to bring out tempura.  If you choose tempura, Ieyasu will let you win, and join you at the beginning of a later turn.
 * The 5 underling youkais (Honda Tadakatsu, Ii Naomasa, Sakai Tadatsugu, Hattori Hanzou, and Sakakibara Yasumasa) can be captured in battle directly. For the first four (all except Sakakibara) they can also be recruited by doing Ieyasu's events after Ieyasu has joined.
 * Princess Sen - will be released from the Mikawa dungeon after an automatic H-scene that appears when you completely take over Tokugawa territories (but only if you fought Ieyasu instead of offering him tempura). She can be recruited via a purple event in Migawa. (Her initial cost is 5 and you can't recruit her if you don't have enough nation power to accommodate her cost).  If you don't use her to fight for several turns, she will leave you (this can be avoided by acheiving her character clear).
 * There is another racoon dog youkai, a tactician, who doesn't belong to the Tokugawa House and doesn't seem to have any story significance.

Tenshiism

 * Basics
 * War breaks out with Tenshiism a short while after two seals are broken. This will happen even if you don't have territories adjacent to Tenshiism. When you are at war with them, there will be dissenters within each of your territories and they will begin to accumulate. in the command window, you can see the % of accumulation. And by selecting this option, you can suppress them (resets the % of dissenters to 0). If the % of dissenters go over 100%, at the end of the turn, there will be uprising. The first option is to fight them, where you send a captain to battle. The second option is to let the riot go on, which also resents the dissent level to 0% but lowers the nation power of the respective province by 1. Only one uprising will happen per turn if multiple provinces have over 100% dissent.
 * If Tenshiism has not been defeated after the first fight with Xavier, the player will be asked whether to cease fire with Tenshiism. Doing so will turn Tenshiism into your vassal.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Seigan - Autojoin a few turns after ally with Tenshiism. If you do not ally with Tenshiism and defeat them normally, will join at the beginning of a turn once you start fighting Nobunaga's demon army. He will not join you in the Ran IF route.
 * 言裏 - Autojoin a few turns after Seigan joins.
 * The "Three Good siblings" (三好Ａ吉、三好Ｂ子、三好Ｃ藏) will join Tenshiism after you win a few victories against Tenshiism. The siblings have all 5's in the combat stats, but each has a 7 in one of Exploration, Negeociation, and Construction respectively.  They can be directly captured in battle.

Asai Asakura House

 * Basics
 * A scene will occur where you meet Asakura Yoshikage. During this scene choosing the second option will cause them to declare war on you. After taking over one of their territories, you will be attacked by endless waves of pandas, and be forced to retreat and lose the territory. On the following turn, you can take over territories normally.
 * In Second Games, a few turns after defeating the Asai Asakura, Princess Snow will use her body to influence another house to go to war against the player. This can be prevented by recruiting her father Asakura Yoshikage, raising his relationship to Trust, and pick an exploration command in Texas before the first house fights you due to her influence.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Asakura Yoshikage - Automatically captured upon taking over Texas.
 * Hakkindasan - Do an event in Texas after taking over. The first choice will kill him, the second recruits him.
 * Princess Snow - Only available in Second Games. She joins you after the exploration command in Texas (which is also available shortly after the house  she influenced is defeated, until another event with her happens).

Miko Institute

 * Basics
 * Before you can declare war on them, you have to do 3 events at Yamatai. Afterwards, you can finally declare war.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Natori - Automatically captured upon taking over Yamatai. Very useful character with high stats and a spell that drains 1/3 of the life of all enemies.

Imagawa House

 * Basics
 * After some scenes, the Honeys will try to cross through your territories to get to Kyo. You will be given a choice to allow them to or not. If you do not, they will declare war on you. If you let them through, then after the player defeated the Tokugawa House the Honeys will declare war on the player (the declaration of war might come a little later if some Imagawa introduction events are still being processed). You can declare war on them after the first event that involve their appearance.  Some time after you are at war with them, there will be a purple option that appears in their territory. The purple event will appear twice and there will be two options inside the second event. In the first choice, you will continue to go on war; and when you completely take over their territories, you will have a H-scene with Imagawa Beanjam. The second choice is to completely take over their territory without further battles but you won't get the H-scene.
 * After the player has defeated a certain number of houses, the Takeda will conquer the Imagawa unless the player is already at war with one of them.

Uesugi House

 * Basics
 * After fighting the Uesugi house, whenever Rance and Uesugi Kenshin face each other on the battlefield, you get an automatic victory. After conquering an entire province from the Uesugi, they will have event nightraids to push you back from conquering the second province.  After a few turns, there will be a coup in the Uesugi House, with Kenshin's uncle taking over and offer to give you Kenshin in exchange for peace.  Choosing to accept, the second option, will make the Uesugi House your vassal, whereas slaying the messenger on the spot, the first option, allows you to conquer Uesugi House regularily.


 * Notable captains
 * Uesugi Kenshin - Will only join you if you slay the messenger and conquer the Uesugi House. Need to pick a purple ??? event to have her join you.
 * Naoe Ai - Will only join you after Kenshin has joined. Need to pick a purple ??? event to have her join you.
 * Torako and Katsuko - Can only be captured in battle after you conquered the Uesugi House and they get hired by other houses (unless you start the game with the Uesugi bonus, in which case you can capture them in battle even when they are with the Uesugi).

Takeda House

 * Basics
 * Will not declare war on player. However, if the player go to war against them, the Tokugawa will go to war against the player to help the Takeda.  If the player go to war against either Hojo or the Uesugi, then Takeda will quickly take out the other house (unless the player go to war against BOTH Hojo and Uesugi, or if the player is also currently fighting the Takeda.
 * Approximately three turns after war begin with the Takeda, its four generals will start participating in battles. Then on random turns, the Four Generals of the Takeda House will lead a consecutive blitz charge, attacking you four times in the same turn.  Their calvery units can hit the back row, and ther general has a passive skill that gives them all four buffs, making them a formidible foe.
 * A green exploration command to assassinate Takeda Shingen becomes available under the following conditions:
 * 1. The player has previously defeated Takeda House via brute force and let the game auto-save (can be either this play-through or an earlier play-through).
 * 2. In the current game you have successfully blocked all 4 consecutive attacks in a blitz.
 * 3. No other events is supressing events at the beginning of the turn (which introduces the availability of the command).
 * The Takeda House automaticall falls after the "assassination". You may also conquer Takeda the normal way (which is much easier if you can do it before the generals start to fight).


 * Notable captures
 * Sanada Dourin - Automatically captured when Takeda House falls. Cannot be captured in battle.
 * The other three generals can only be captured after the "assassination" event (they will become ronins and be hireable by the other houses).

Hojo House

 * Basics
 * Will be defeated by Takeda House if you go to war against the Uesugi House, unless you are already at war with either the Takeda or Hojo.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Hojo Soun - To get him, you must first capture Nanjo Ran. An event will occur where he goes missing. Then after recruiting Nanjo Ran, go to the bottom of the dungeon in Mamushi Oil Field. For secnod-play, this must be done after the 5th seal is broken, otherwise you enter Ran's IF route instead.
 * Nanjo Ran - Captured her in battle before completely defeating the Hojo House. She is only capturable after a few events dealing with her summoning powers.
 * Komatsu Daidoji - Automatically captured when you defeat Hojo House.

One Eyed House

 * Basics
 * To declare war on them, you must first do the ??? event in their territory. Then a new event battle should appear in Saitama. After doing this battle, you can declare war on them.
 * After taking over the last One Eye territory, there will be a duel between Rance and Masamune (with Sill supporting Rance if she is available). Masamune will heal himself to full health whenever he drops under 50%.  Rance can prevent Masamune using eyedrops by first recruiting Nogiku, Orime, and Nowaaru, as well as defeating Omachi's unit in battle (and trigger the event after battle), then pick a command in the One Eye territory to learn from the three girls how to fight Masamune.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * One Eyed Masamune - Will join you randomly after you defeat his house.
 * Omachi - Defeat her to get an event where she turns into a stone. Then after Masamune joines you, get Masamune up to Trust, and then an event should occur where she joins you.
 * Nogiku - Must be defeated in battle (you need to actually destroy her unit, rather than just winning the battle). Afterwards, she will be captured. Supposedly, you need to use Akashi Kazemaru (with the Hibachi powerup) during the battle to capture her (Kazemaru doesn't need to do anything in the fight, just need to be there).
 * Orime - Defeat her unit in battle and she will be captured.
 * Noir - Defear her unit in battle and she will be captured.

Tanegashima House

 * Basics
 * Will not declare war on player. Sometimes will be conquered by Mori House, especially when the player is fighting the Akashi House. Mori will not take over the Tanegashima if the player is currently fighting either one of them.
 * You may ask them to surrender (become a vassal) if you have captured Yuzuhara Yuzumi.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Yuzuhara Yuzumi - can be captured in battle. Will be automatically captured when Tanegashima House is defeated.
 * Tanegashima Shigehiko - automatically captured upon taking over Tamba.

Akashi House

 * Basics
 * After you take over one territory, an event will occur. After that, the first battle of each turn will be automatic defeats, for three defeats (but if you fight twice in the same turn, the second battle will be normal). The automatic defeats will take place whether you are attacking or defending.
 * If the player go to war against the Tanegashima House, the Mori House will move in and conquer the Akashi.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Akashi Kazemaru - After taking over, you will be given three choices. The first one kills him, the second captures him, and third is to just to make him wear a strange mustache. Afterwards, do the search option to find Hibachi (only available if you went through all 3 automatic defeats). Once you get Kazemaru up to Trust, an event will be available where Hibachi becomes his subcaptain. If you defeat Akashi House too quickly (before the third defeat), then you cannot get Hibachi as a subcaptain. However, the HCG you get for searching for Hibachi will be different.

Takuga

 * Basics
 * Will declar war on the player a while after the player has been fighting the Mori House.
 * If you have recruited Nozumi, then after an event between Sakamoto Ryouma and the Honeys, a purple ??? event will be available for you to fund Honey terror activities. If you choose to fund them, they will randomly take over Takuga-controlled areas for you (the amount of funding probably affects the frequency/probability of their activities).
 * If you fight them until their only remaining territory is Shikoku, you may pick a purple ??? event to close the great gate and shut them there forever (they will not be able to attack you, nor vice versa).


 * Notable captains
 * Sakamoto Ryouma - Automatically captured when Takuga is conquered.
 * The other three captains may be captured in battle, or automatically captured when Takuga is conquered.

Mori House

 * Basics
 * After a few fights, Mori will grow impatience and offer the player a challenge (??? event). By taking the challenge, the player will fight all the powerful captains of the Mori House together, the benefit is winning the fight allows the player to capture an entire province directly (instead of winning one area at a time).  The challange can be used until Mori has only 2 provinces left, or if Mori Motonari's curse is lifted.
 * To lift Mori's curse, first defeat the Takuga House and recruit Sakamoto Ryouma, then after an auto-event with her at the beginning of a turn, go through the dungeon in Izumo (don't need to finish the dungeon, just go through most of it). Then when it's Mori's turn, Mori Motonari's curse will be lifted and he will fight like a regular unit.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Mori Motonari - Will be captured upon defeating Mori House if his curse was lifted. If you get his relationship up to Trust, he will die... but his ghost will return to join you in his cursed form.
 * Mori Teru, Kikkawa Kiku, and Kobayakawa Chinu - All automatically captured when Mori House is defeated. They can be captured in regular battles only after you have fought in at least one challenge. Note that Chinu will always die the turn after the Demon Army appears.

The Demon Army

 * Basics
 * Ten turns after the Incident at Honno Temple, Xavier will appear in Africa and take over the Shimazu House, renaming it the Demon Army, and automatically capture Battleship Nagato. If there are remaining houses left, every few turns Xavier will directly kill of one of those houses, and converting them to Demon Army land (even if those houses aren't adjacent to any Demon Army territory).  The only houses that would be spared are the One Eye House and the Asai Asakura House.
 * Kobayakawa Chinu will die.
 * Nanjo Ran, if you have recruited her but have not proceeded with her dungeon events, will head to the dungeon on her own a while after the Demon Army emerges, never to be seen again.
 * After the player attacks the Demon Army land once, the Shimazu captains (the four brothers plus Akireda) will launch consecutive blitz attacks on the player. This will happen only once though, so don't worry if you cannot defend against them.
 * A while after taking over Battleship Nagato, the acolyte Seiryuu will have a duel with Ogawa Kentaro. After the battle, Kentaro is turned into a demon, and Miki has run off.  The player must perform 3 searches for Miki within a number of turns before she turns into the Demon King.  You may not attack enemies before locating Miki.  When Miki is found, the player will have 0 commands left for the rest of that turn.
 * After fighting the Demon Army for a while, the acolyte Suzaku will appear after battles, and you must send a captain to face his challenge. Hojo Soun is capable of directly killing Sukazu, whereas Ogawa Kentaro, after being turned into a demon (Suzaku may appear before Kentaro turns into a demon), will tie with Suzaku (but gain 3 levels in the process).  Sending anyone else will kill that captain.  After a first confrontation with Sukazu, a new purple ??? option will appear where Rance thinks of how to deal with Suzaku.  Afterwards when Suzaku appears again, picking Rance will lead to a captain fight between your captains and Suzaku, where you can kill him.
 * After conquering South Africa, or taking a few areas in Morocco, the Demon Army will try to sink JAPAN. The player need to make an attack on the enemy forces at Tenma Bridge to clear the game (this can be done even without defeating all the Demon Army on the map).


 * Notable captains
 * Agireda is capturable in battle.

General stuff

 * IF routes can only be done in Second Games. The requirements for entering the route must be completed before the Incident at Honno Temple.

Nanjo Ran route

 * To begin the Ran IF route, capture Nanjo Ran while fighting the Hojo House. Once you defeat the Hojo House, do an event there, which unlocks a dungeon Mamushi Oil Field. If you complete this dungeon before 5 seals are broken, you'll be on the Ran IF route.
 * Because the Demon Army does not appear in this route, this is the only route where Kobayakawa Chinu does not die.
 * On the Ran IF route, the Shimazu House will one by one absorbe the Mori House, Takuga, and Tanegashima House after several events, if the player hasn't conquered them. As a result, the Shimazu will acquire the special characters of those houses, and the southern part of JAPAN.
 * The Shimazu brothers will randomly cause one of your female captains to defect. Only females who can be fired and is not in Love relationship will defect.  Defected captains cannot be re-recruited even after you recapture them.  The following turn (or later, a beginning-of-the-turn event is required, and might be bumped back by main Ran route events), a green exploration command will become available in Shimazu territories, allowing you to kidnap Princess Black.  The turn after Princess Black is kidnapped, the Shimazu brothers will surrender themselves to you (make sure you have enough space in your prison), although the Shimazu House remains hostile under Agireda's leadership.  Take note that there is no upper limit to the number of defections that can occur.  You can only have one captain defect per turn that the event occurs.  One Princess Black is kidnapped, the defections will stop.  Agireda is not capturable in this route.
 * About twenty turns after starting the Ran IF route, there will be a new battle event in all of your territories marked off with stars. To finish the route, you must do this event at each location, and then go through a 7+ (12 floors in 1 star) floor dungeon in Saitama.
 * Finishing the IF route will unlock a new option in the lap bonuses which will allow you to start the game with Ran. Hojo House will be hostile to you from the first turn, and Hojo Soun will be missing already.

Yamamoto 56 route

 * To begin the 56 route, capture Yamamoto 56 while fighting Ashikaga House and H her before 5 seals are broken. When Princess Aroma disappears, instead of choosing the normal green exploration command, pick the new purple special command that looks similar.


 * Beware that once you enter 56's route, anything requiring Princess Aroma's presence (discovery of certain dungeons, character clears for some captains) will no longer be possible.


 * In the 56 route, remember to pick all special commands for 56 whenever possible. Or at least do it when you are getting mysterious game overs...


 * Unlike the real history route, the demon army cannot be defeated normally. If you conquer too many of their lands, they'll randomly take 2 provinces away from you so you won't be making any real progress.  Instead, proceed along 56's and Miki's plot, and when it's time Nobunaga will challenge you directly.

Uesugi Kenshin route

 * Preconditions for entering Kenshin route: Kenshin and Ai are vassals, Ashikaga and Uesugi clans have been destroyed, Kenshin relationship is Trust
 * When Kenshin and Rance are fighting together, an event is caused where Kenshin gives Rance riceballs
 * After some turns, an event happens where Nobunaga gets one of the 3 artifacts
 * After that, the new purple action in Sado (having a picnic with Kenshin) is taken
 * You'll start the emperor race afterwards. This involves kenshin only.  This race involves you getting 100 points.  You'll get a list of nine characters, who if you defeat, she will recieve 20 points each.  If she loses, you will get a game over.  If Kenshin wins an army battle, she will gain 1 point.  If she loses an army battle, she will face assassins and get 3 points.
 * After doing some events with Kenshin, her level will automatically go down to level 1.  A new option in the satisfaction command menu will allow you to bring her level up by 10 (so for example lvl 1 -> lvl1 1).  This can be done 4 times.
 * Everytime you talk to Kenshin, she will gain 2 levels.
 * After a set amount of time, Nobunga will cause neutral neighboring houses to go hostile to you. You can use a yellow command to delay the said event.
 * After recieving 100 points, Kenshin will get the emperor aura (see skills section). She can automatically vaassal a hostile area using her aura without using a command fan.
 * After conquering a Nobunga territory, you will get a scene where Xavier will go into the Orochi Temple in Yamatai. If you don't enter the temple in 5 turns, Orochi will awaken and you will recieve a game over.  Note that each turn Xavier will go deeper into the temple.