Sengoku Rance:Walkthrough

F.A.Q
For Frequently asked questions, SEE Sengoku Rance:FAQ

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 Kentarou 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. And will auto join you in a few turns. At some point you will see purple options for Kentarou to go on adventures in Iga, Cairo, Shikoku and Mazo, each adventure bumps kentarou up by 5 levels and is essential for winning the duel against Xavier. You must have conquered the area to gain access to the command.


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


 * The first seal will be broken in turn 10. If you don't conquered the houses which hold the seals, Nobunaga's monkey (Toukichirou) will steal the seal and bring it to Nobunaga. These events happen at turn 30, 50, 70 and 90. The order will be Takeda, Mouri, Houjou and Uesugi. You can hasten these event in your second play through by feeding the monkey. Toukichirou will only steal Takeda's seal at turn 30 if there is only 1 seal broken by then. For example, breaking Iga seal before turn 30 will prevent Takeda's seal from being steal at turn 30 (not sure if this event is delayed to 50 instead). The same rule applies to other seal (break 3 seal before turn 50, 4 before 70, and 5 before 90).

Incident at Honnou Temple Event
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).

NOTE! There is one purple event and one green event.The green event will help you find Princess Aroma. The purple event (not available in a First Game) will not find Princess Aroma, instead Oda Nobunaga himself will tell you Princess Aroma was found dead. This causes the player to enter the Yamamoto 56 IF route instead.

The player must find Princess Aroma A.S.A.P (As Soon As Possible), or face GAME OVER. If you click the green event, Princess Aroma will be rescued by Rance and the player can assault on Honnou Temple anytime after the battle permits are done. (You can take as many turns as you want to prepare the assault).

When you are assaulting the temple, you will be given three choices. The first one will make you face a GAME OVER, while the second choice will continue with the assault (see below for details), and the third one returns you to the map (Warning: You lose 1 Command Fan in the process).

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 fourth fight is against demon Xavier directly (take note that you can only harm Xavier (Demon Nobunaga) after Rance attacks him directly, any other attacks before that will be rendered ineffective). 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 for 10 turns before the Demon Army appears.

Oda House

 * Territories
 * 尾張 (Owari)


 * Basics
 * Visit the prison to unlock the chance of capturing enemy commanders.
 * After the first H-scene with Sill, a colorless event at the bottom of the list will be unlocked that gives +1 satisfaction. The girl is chosen in a fixed order from the harem (e.g. Suzume, Fuuka, Rizna, Aki [repeatable twice], ..., Sill [repeatable]); Natori is the most desirable because every H-scene is worth 8 smiling faces for Rance [instant affection bonus level up]. You must H the girl at least once before they would appear in the harem.
 * A battle with boars is unlocked every few turns. It gives 500 + 50 gold for every additional fight and is required to unlock one of the Six Great Treasures (see Sengoku Rance:Objectives.)
 * Near the end of the game, the purple event "Traveling carnival is here" will show up randomly. You can chose go with 3G, Suzume, Sill (if she is not frozen), Baba, and the heroine for that route (Kouhime for the True history route). It gives a +3 to the final score with every visit.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Shibata Katsuie - An above average foot soldier's commander. The real advantage is getting him for free.
 * Ranmaru - An average warrior's commander.
 * Tamagushi Fuuka - A miko's commander who's required to unlock the Orochi dungeon (see Sengoku Rance:Objectives.)
 * Gracia - Replaced Akechi Mitsuhide after using Satisfaction Bonus on him twice.
 * Maeda Keiji - Replaced Maeda Toshiie after using Satisfaction Bonus on him twice.



Hara House

 * Territories
 * 伊勢 (Ise)


 * Basics
 * You can declare war on Hara as early as around turn 2. Even if you don't declare war 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 Shouji - will be automatically captured when you completely take over the Hara House (can't be captured earlier). If you raise his affection to normal, you will have the option of giving Aki to him if you decided not to recruit Aki and instead put her in the harem. Do so and raise his affection again, you will get the choice for a purple event where Hara tells you that he disciplined Aki by cutting off her tongue and breaking her limbs so she couldnt complain or escape, Rance will kill him and his unit will be taken over by his niece, Sanya (no combat bonus, affection reset back to Normal, but arguably easier to clear)
 * Princess Aki - 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. If you don't have enough national power to recruit her, then she'll be put into the harem automatically and you won't be able to recruit her afterwards (usually happens if you started with bonuses of other houses).
 * Gekko - only available in version 1.04 and you must select the bonus character option in the second game bonus. You must search him before the Nobunaga gets possessed. You must select a # event in Ise on turn 8 to have him join your army.
 * Settoku Houshi - Can be recruited with 6 Negotiation.
 * Saijou Mochikiyo - Hara's chief vassal. Dies by seppuku in the second Hara event shortly after declaring war, but can be captured in battle before this event or after Hara is defeated when he gets recruited by another country. Has the highest level cap (60) amongst Yin-Yang masters in the entire game.
 * NOTE: Some time after the incident where we expose Xavier, Hara remnant revolt and reestablish in Ise. This event doesn't seem to have connection with Shouji or Aki. Nothing more of note associates with this event.



Ashikaga House

 * Territories
 * 京 (Kyo), まむし油田 (Mamushi Oil Field/Mamushi Yuden)


 * Basics
 * You can declare war on the Ashikaga House on Turn 3. If not, in a series of random turns, the Ashikaga House will start to demand money from you (and each time in increasing amounts). If you refuse any time you were asked (bottom choice), they will declare war on you (saving you an Action Fan use). After conquering any one territory from Ashikaga House, Ashikaga Choushin will ask Yamamoto Isoroku for support.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Yamamoto Isoroku - Once Ashikaga hires her, if Rance participates in a battle against said House, the battle is an automatic loss. After you win a battle she participated in, she will be scolded by Ashikaga Choushin, enabling you to capture her in future encounters. The next time you attack Ashikaga House will be an automatic loss if you wait until some turns after she got scolded. She will also be automatically captured after you completely take over the Ashikaga House (even if events during the Turns haven't introduced her yet).
 * Yamaguchi Tamon and Inoue Shigemi/Shigeyoshi - Once Ashikaga House is defeated, these two subordinates of Isoroku will join you after Isoroku's second ??? purple event is seen (must have at least 7 spare National Power beforehand).
 * Ikkyuu - Can be captured in battle but won't be automatically captured when you completely take over the Ashikaga House.
 * Ashikaga Choushin - Automatically captured after completely taking over the Ashikaga House. Only worth recruiting for the Emperor's Ring and Princess Aki's character clear (and his own character clear for completion's sake), he should be fired after these two are done.
 * Ashikaga Yoshiteru - A generic-faced captain who is level 45. Can be captured in battle.
 * Kuge Kyouko - A warrior that may join Ashikaga after a given amount of time. If Kyo is conquered beforehand, she can be recruited with 15 Negotiation.
 * Kuge Kiyoko - A footsoldier that may join Ashikaga after a given amount of time. If Kyo is conquered beforehand, she can be recruited with 15 Negotiation.
 * The "Mino Three" - Ganko Ittetsu (Tactician), Andou Kyuuri (Diviner) and Takuwan-sama (Bushi), these three captains may join Ashikaga after a given amount of time. If Mamushi Oil Field is conquered beforehand, they can be recruited with 3 Negotiation each.
 * Aburako Dousan - A monk-warrior that you can recruit after recruiting all her three subordinates- the Mino Three in Mamushi Oil Field- using Rance's satisfaction point.
 * The info about Ashikaga may hire Kuge sisters and/or Mino Three is highly suspected. If you ever meet that, please state more clearly the condition for those happy events to take place. I have left Ashikaga House hostile for a long time (until five gourds are broken), and there's no such thing happened.



Iga House

 * Territories
 * 大和 (Yamato)


 * 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 (he does not always do this, there is likely another condition)
 * Alternately, in Second Games, a 35 Cost green exploration command will appear a few turns after war has begun. The green exploration command has Rance duel with Inukai + 3 dogs. Recommended level for Rance is 51+ and he needs a minimum of 4 action points, as Inukai is in the back row being shielded by 3 dogs.
 * NOTE: Winning the duel also takes over Iga, but it doesn't count as a province takeover, so you can still invade other provinces)
 * Alternately, also in Second Games, if you have Gekko, you can do a colorless event in Owari that has Gekko punish Inukai. Doing so will make Yamato come under your control. However, you will not be able to recruit Inukai and consequently be unable to obtain the Flat Spider Treasure, one of the six great treasures.
 * Noteworthy captains
 * Inukai - Can only be captured via the duel in Second Games, if you don't see his event, it's because you need one empty space in your commanders' list.
 * The five Goninjais (Ninja 14, Ninja 16, Ninja 33, Ninja 55, Ninja 68) can be captured via regular battles.
 * Matsuo Bashou - Can be captured in battles but won't be automatically captured after taking over Yamato.



Tokugawa House

 * Territories
 * 三河 (Mikawa)


 * 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 Youkai are captured first. After winning the battle over the last house, there will be a captain fight against Tokugawa Ieyasu and two bodyguards.
 * Another way to obtain Mikawa is to vassalize the country after you have declared war on it. By vassalizing the Tokugawa House, you will get the Blue Charm Holder (reduces received damage by 30%) once you have done 2 purple events in Mikawa. The third purple event will give you 1 satisfication point. If you have Ikkyu in your party, then 2 more purple events will show up in Mikawa. These last 2 events will kill off Tokugawa and make Mikawa come under your control. The upside to this method is that you can obtain Mikawa without a fight (turning Mikawa into a vassal requires 30 negotiation points) and you can also obtain the Blue Charm Holder (becomes a 2nd game item bonus once you have it in your possession first). The downside is that you will not get the H scene with Princess Sen and you will not be able to recruit either Princess Sen or Tokugawa.
 * Taking over this territory enables an event where Princess Kaguya (Alien) requires three parts to repair her spaceship, which can be found randomly in dungeons. Completing this will allow you to H her and get the item Black Tri-Star Doctors (黒医三連星).


 * 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 (Kouhime must be present and you must do this BEFORE clearing him). 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 (the first, longer choice is the tempura), Ieyasu will give you Tokugawa without a fight and join you at the beginning of a later turn (it may take quite a while). Note that conquering Tokugawa in this manner will disable all Princess Sen appearances, including the initial Satisfaction bonus normally obtained when conquering Tokugawa.
 * The 5 underling youkais (Honda Tadakatsu, Ii Naomasa, Sakai Tadatsugu, Hattori Hanzou, and Sakakibara Yasumasa) can be captured in battle directly. The first four (all except Sakakibara) can also be recruited by doing Ieyasu's events after Ieyasu has joined. They may join other factions after Tokugawa falls and before Ieyasu joins you, but Ieyasu's events will automatically poach them back from those factions.
 * Princess Sen - will be released from the Mikawa dungeon after an automatic H-scene that appears when you completely take over Tokugawa territories (again, only if you fought Ieyasu instead of offering him tempura). She can be recruited via a purple event in Mikawa. (Her initial cost is 4 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.



Tenshi Sect

 * Territories
 * なにわ (Naniwa), 蜜柑 (Mikan)


 * Basics
 * War breaks out with Tenshi sect a short while after two seals are broken. This will happen even if you don't have territories adjacent to Tenshi sect. 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 Tenshi sect has not been defeated after the first fight with Xavier, the player will be asked whether to cease fire with Tenshi sect. Doing so will turn Tenshi sect into your vassal.


 * Isoroku route: after Kouhime purple event, if Tenshi sect has not been conquered, you will be asked to make alliance with them. Say no and conquer them like normal. An event at the end with Genri, Seigan and the Triplets will ensure Tenshi surrender. No +5 Sat in this case, unfortunately.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Seigan - Autojoin a few turns after allying with Tenshiism. If you do not ally with Tenshi sect 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 or Isoroku route. NOTE: Requires room in the commander list and 3 NP before he will join. Also, Seigan's join event is low priority, so it may be advisable to remove battle permits or stop attacking for a few turns to make sure he joins your army.
 * Genri (言裏) - Autojoin a few turns after Seigan joins. NOTE: Also a low priority event.
 * The "Three Good siblings," or the Miyoshi Brothers, (Miyoshi A-kichi (三好Ａ吉)、Miyoshi B-ko (三好Ｂ子)、Miyoshi C-zou (三好Ｃ藏)) will join Tenshi sect after you win a few victories against Tenshi sect. They are the guys with white-painted faces and little black eyebrows, they have all 5's in the combat stats and each has a 7 in one of Exploration (A), Negotiation (B), and Construction (C) respectively. The siblings can be directly captured in battle.
 * Yodokun Gosai - Can be captured in battles.
 * Honda Masanobu - a Tenshi tactician, who doesn't seem to have any story significance. He is considered an "important character" and has certain related immunities (Gekko's Assassination+), and it is believed he also cannot be captured unless his original faction has been conquered and he has been rehired by another house.

Asai Asakura House

 * Territories
 * テキサス (Texas)


 * 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. It is possible that you won't even get the option to grab Yukihime's boobs, Rance will just grab them and that will start the war automatically. And even if you chose the first one, Asai-Asakura's subordinates will report some turns later that Rance grabbed the princess's boobs and that will start the war, though I've never seen that event happening before the end of Iga & Tenshiism conflicts.
 * 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.
 * Some turns after declare war an earthquake hit Texas, weakening them. You can do a purple event on Texas for send poisoned "aid" and weaken their troops more.
 * 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 Normal, 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 - For recruit do a violet event in Texas after taking over. The first choice will kill him, the second recruits him. Also the same turn you recruit him a red event called Panda Hunt show up in Kazusa 2000, is a commanders fight against 3 Pandas with 350 HP. It ad 400 pandas to Hakim Dassan unit. It show up a second time after 4 turns ading 500 pandas and a third time after 8 turns ading another 500 pandas.
 * Princess Yuki - Only available in Second Games. She joins you after the exploration command in Texas. which can become available either by bringing Asakura Yoshikage to normal before she starts a war between you and a random house, or shortly after the house she influenced is defeated but before the event where she loses her mind; she'll not join you after this event.



Miko Institute

 * Territories:
 * 邪馬台 (Yamatai)


 * 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 30% of the life of all enemies.
 * Souma Hayate - Will join Miko Institute after 2 areas are conquered. Has a Commander Charge and high action points and stats. However, his maximum level is only 29.
 * Himiko - A monk with 7's in ATK/DEF/SPD/INT and can be captured anytime. Her maximum level is 40.
 * Goemon - A ninja with 7's in ATK/DEF/INT, 6 SPD, but has only 2 action points. Can be captured in battles. His maximum level is only 28.



Imagawa House

 * Territories
 * 東海道 (Toukaidou)


 * 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 defeats the Tokugawa House (or just takes over the territory, if someone else owns it), the Hannies 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 (you can notice through 3G's report about Imagawa Anko). 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 Anko. 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.
 * Noteworthy Captains
 * Okita Nozomi To recruit her, you must let the honeys pass through on their pilgrimage to Kyo. Complete 3 special purple events in Kyo and the option to recruit her will become availadble (also in Kyo). Also if you declare war before King Imagawa reach Kyo the purple events dont appear and you cant recruit Okita. If the recruit option doesn't appear, bring your national power up until it does.



Uesugi House

 * Territories
 * 佐渡 (Sado), MAZO (MAZO)


 * Basics
 * Will declare war on the player if the player has conquered too many houses (approx. 8) . Will also declare war if you defeat Asai Asakura House or Hojo House before fighting Tenshiism.
 * 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(it is impossible to capture anything from Kenshin till the coup event, as they will continue night raids). After a few turns, when you attack Uesugi House again, (or after three consecutive nightrides in the same turn) there will be a coup, 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. The coup event will not trigger if rance has not met kenshin yet and has not seen at least one night raid. If Kenshin's uncle is not defeated within a few turns after the coup event, Kenshin and Ai will be raped (CG) and lost forever.

NOTE Do not take too long to capture the house after slaying the messenger. After 5 turns, a H rape scene with both Uesugi Kenshin and Naoe Ai is shown, and you will not be able to get them.
 * 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.
 * NOTE!: If you pick the Uesugi house 2nd Game bonus, it is possible to get 2 copies of Naoe Ai! One from the 2nd Game bonus. The second copy can be acquired through a purple ??? event in Sado Recruit: Naoe Ai. It must require Uesugi Kenshin so don't fire her yet.


 * 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 cannot capture them, as they will not join other countries after Uesugi is defeated).
 * Irobu Eroko - Can be captured in battles.



Takeda House

 * Territories
 * 信濃 (Shinano), 貝 (Shell/Kai)


 * Basics
 * Will not declare war on player unless and until the territory of Oda house has expanded significantly (this means Takeda eventually WILL declare war in non-Demon Army routes). This event can be delayed by a yellow exploration event in Takeda territory (which also shows the countdown until Takeda is ready to declare war on the player). Also, they will almost immediately declare war on you after the temple events of Yamamoto 56 route. 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). The event of Takeda taking over Uesugi or Hojo house appears to happen only on the first playthrough.


 * 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. As a note of warning, the Takeda will be 'collecting their forces' the turn before the blitz. 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 once both of the following conditions are met:
 * 1. The player has previously defeated Takeda House via brute force and let the game auto-save. This can have been done in an earlier play-through, but can also be done in the current one (by conquering via brute force and then loading a save file where Takeda still exists).
 * 2. In the current game you have successfully blocked all 4 consecutive attacks in a blitz, AND no other events is suppressing events at the beginning of the turn (which introduces the availability of the command, where Rance and Suzume discuss about Shingen). Clarification: the beginning of the turn event CAN occur on a different turn than the turn which you blocked all 4 consecutive attacks if there are other event suppressing this event. You only need to block ONE blitz, and it is possible for the event to occur after later blitz, which you do not need to block.
 * The Takeda House automatically 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). You only need to conquer Shinano and Shell in order to defeat the Takeda house, any additional territory that Takeda might have acquired will automatically come under your control once these two provinces are conquered.


 * If you choose to conquer Takeda normally, after winning the final battle, Baba Shouen, Yamagata Masakage and Kousaka Yoshikage will have a battle with Rance's army with squads of 50 each, which shouldn't be too difficult as long as Rance's army is at full strength and Rance has at least 4 moves. So try not to use Rance in the last battle, because if you do, Rance will have to fight those three with whatever troops he has left from the previous battle, which can become dangerous if Baba Shouen uses his captain charge or Yamagata Masakage uses his charge-in to reduce Rance's moves (that, and pray that Kousaka Yoshikage doesn't succeed with his assassination 2 if he tries that)!


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



Hojo House

 * Territories - NOTE!: Italicized territories signify an event-based change in that land's control - i.e. Death Country is acquired by Takuga when it first appears, and Saitama will sometimes be taken over by Takeda from Hojo.
 * 江戸 (Edo), 上総２０００ (Kazusa 2000), さいたま (Saitama), 死国 (Death Country/Shikoku)


 * 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 (apparently this only happens in the first playthrough). Will declare war on you if you conquer Takeda.


 * 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 Oil Caves dungeon in Mamushi Oil Field(must see 2 Nanjo Ran purple event for the dungeon to open). For second-play, this must be done after the 5th seal is broken, otherwise you're entering Ran's IF route. Not obtainable in the Nanjo Ran route.
 * 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. Dies in all routes that has the demon army.
 * Daidoji Komatsu - Automatically captured when you defeat Hojo House. Can be captured before hand, but only if certain events are cleared (after Souun goes missing and you get the event where she complains the country sucks)
 * Tsukahara Bokuden - Can be captured in battles.



One Eyed House

 * Territories
 * エゾ (Ezo), 奥州 (Oushuu)


 * 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 using eyedrops whenever he drops under 50%. To counter this, first recruit Nogiku, Orime, and Noir, as well as defeat Omachi's unit in battle (and trigger the event after battle), then pick a Purple Event in the One Eyed House territory to learn from the three girls how to fight Masamune. If this event is triggered, Masamune will still use eyedrops only once, but subsequently that move will be disabled by Rance and Masamune will no longer be able to heal. It is possible to defeat Masamune without recruiting his wives and triggering their event.
 * If the Tokugawa House is still standing while you are fighting the house (Regardless of it's affiliation), at some point, One Eyed Masamune might take control of it.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Dokuganryuu Masamune - Will join you randomly after you defeat his house
 * In 1.04, he will not join if any of Nogiku, Orime, or Noir is cleared (originally he could join even if all three girls are cleared)
 * Omachi - Defeat her unit in battle 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.
 * NOTE! (WORKS IN OLDER VERSIONS ONLY):If you pick the One eyed house 2nd Game bonus, it is possible to get 2 copies of Omachi! One from the 2nd Game bonus. The second copy can be acquired if you character clear masamune. This can be done by invading just one area of one eyed house territory and getting Masamune to trust. This is actually a glitch and is fixed in v1.04 of Sengoku Rance; in the latest version it's impossible to clear Masamune or get a second Omachi if you began with the One-Eyed bonus.
 * Nogiku - Defeat her unit in battle, rather than just winning the battle. Afterwards, she will be captured.
 * Requirement! You have to recruit Akashi Kazemaru who MUST have Hibachi as his passive skill. A reason for this might lies in the Nogiku's H-cg. In which it shows that Nogiku is bounded by an iron chain which (coincidentally?) is identical to Hibachi's iron chain.
 * Orime - Defeat her unit in battle and she will be captured. Requires a ninja (Suzume is enough).
 * Noir - Defeat her unit in battle and she will be captured.
 * Moscow Fuyushougun - Can be captured in battles.
 * Note that for most captains, fulfilling the above condtions does not guarantee 100% capture rate. Aside from the above conditions, the capturing chance (percentage success, same as percentage to capture normal defeated captains in battle) also apply, though it may not show in when the battle is over as 'captured'. So to capture each of the captains, you must fulfill the conditions and hope that you're lucky enough to capture them (fortunately, it is large enough). If you fail, you can simply re-load, or wait until the next chance. Captain skills that increase capture rate also helps.

Tanegashima House

 * Territories
 * 丹波 (Tamba)


 * 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.
 * Kikan Juutarou and Saika Mako - can be recruited in Tamba after recruiting Tanegashima Shigehiko.



Akashi House

 * Territories
 * 姫路 (Himeji)


 * 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 (only occurs in first game).


 * 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). Talk to him once for an event with Rance nude in his room. When you get Kazemaru up to 7 Trust, another event will be available where Hibachi becomes his subcaptain and Kazemaru buffs up (+2 to all stats). If you defeat Akashi House too quickly (before the event where Kazemaru release Hibachi), then you cannot get Hibachi as a subcaptain. However, the HCG you get for searching for Hibachi will be different.
 * Kamiizumi Nobutsuna - Can be captured in battles.

Takuga

 * Territories
 * 死国 (Death Country/Shikoku), 中っ国 (Mid Earth/Nakakkuni)


 * Basics
 * Will declare war on the player a while after the player has been fighting the Mori House or the Hojo House. This can be delayed by a yellow exploration command in Takuga territory (which also show the number of turns until Takuga is ready to declare war on Oda).
 * If you have recruited Nozomi, 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 Death Country, you may pick a purple ??? event and click on first choice to close the great gate and shut them there forever (they will not be able to attack you, and you won't get Sakamoto Ryouma and other captains which you are unable to capture.).
 * The purple event mentioned above won't appear if you didn't let them take over at least one Mori House territory. (there is also another condition)


 * Notable captains
 * Sakamoto Ryouma - Automatically captured when Takuga is conquered.
 * Gon, Kawanoe Yuzuru and Kawanoe Mine can be captured in battle, or automatically captured when Takuga is conquered. They are not recruitable unless Sakamoto Ryouma is in your army.
 * Shoutoku Taishi - Can be captured in battles.



Mouri House

 * Territories
 * 出雲 (Izumo), 戦艦長門 (Battleship Nagato/Senkan Nagato), 赤ヘル (Red Helmet/Akaheru), 中っ国 (Mid Earth/Nakakkuni)


 * Basics
 * After defeating Mouri Motonari in battle at least once, he will grow impatient and offer the player a chance to fight in an all-out battle (??? event). By taking the challenge, the player will fight all the powerful captains of the Mouri House together. Winning the fight allows the player to capture an entire province directly instead of winning one area at a time; losing will cause a Game Over. The challenge can be used until Mouri has only one province left, or if Mouri Motonari's curse has been lifted.
 * NOTE: Though you acquire the province you win a challenge in, it doesn't count as conquering it, so you can still invade other territories.
 * The first time you battle against Kobayakawa Chinu's unit, she will serve poisoned drinks to your army, leaving you with an automatic defeat! Thankfully, this event only happens once.
 * To lift Mouri's curse, first defeat the Takuga House and recruit Sakamoto Ryouma, then search for the dungeon in Izumo. After a purple event with her in Izumo, go through the dungeon in Izumo until you fight an enemy called Daidaara (だいだーら) on the 7th floor, after which you'll have an event (you can leave the dungeon after that if you wish). When it's Mouri's turn, Mouri Motonari's curse will be lifted and he will fight like a regular unit (which is actually bad news for you in army battles, unless you killed him so much that his HP has become very high). Note that in Yamamoto Isoroku's route, the event to unlock the Izumo dungeon will no longer appear sometime after the Honnoji Temple incident (exact timing uncertain), so Mouri's curse is not liftable after then.
 * To lift Mouri's curse, first defeat the Takuga House and recruit Sakamoto Ryouma, then search for the dungeon in Izumo. After a purple event with her in Izumo, go through the dungeon in Izumo until you fight an enemy called Daidaara (だいだーら) on the 7th floor, after which you'll have an event (you can leave the dungeon after that if you wish). When it's Mouri's turn, Mouri Motonari's curse will be lifted and he will fight like a regular unit (which is actually bad news for you in army battles, unless you killed him so much that his HP has become very high). Note that in Yamamoto Isoroku's route, the event to unlock the Izumo dungeon will no longer appear sometime after the Honnoji Temple incident (exact timing uncertain), so Mouri's curse is not liftable after then.


 * Noteworthy captains:
 * Mouri Motonari - Will be captured upon defeating Mouri 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.
 * Mouri Teru, Kikkawa Kiku, and Kobayakawa Chinu - All automatically captured when Mouri 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.
 * Yamanaka Kojika - Must play in a slow pace to see her interactions and events with Ashikaga Choushin, Inukai, Seigan (while Oda is at war with their respective Houses), Oda House (where she wants to recruit Rance but gets kicked out instead), the event at Mid Earth and the event at Battleship Nagato (where she fights the Mori house by herself). The previous events must happen while the Mori House has more than one territory then after conquering Mori houses with only territory left another, a event about Kojika should appear automatically right away without taking turns otherwise it means that not all the events for her recruit has been compeleted. After defeating the Mouri House an her purple recuitment event would we available at Izumo.
 * Ahen Shounin: a mercenary battle miko unit with 4000+ number. stat 26156222. A pity that when you capture him his troop revert to 1000. Very much worth your time to imprison him to deny his use to your opponents.



The Demon Army / Shimazu House

 * Territories
 * カイロ (Cairo), モロッコ (Morocco), アマゾン (Amazon), 南アフリカ (South Africa)

NOTE! This only happens if you're on the True History, Yamamoto Isoroku IF, or Kenshin IF route.
 * Basics


 * 10 turns after the Incident at Honno Temple Event, Xavier will appear in Africa and take over the Shimazu House, renaming it the Demon Army.
 * Battleship Nagato will be automatically captured if you didn't conquer it. If you did, the Shimazu House brothers will randomly launch consecutive blitz attacks on your nearby territories. Battleship Nagato will not be taken by Demon Army if Mori House is still standing and it is the only remaining Mori territory.
 * If there are other houses left, every few Turns Xavier will directly kill of one of those houses and convert them into Demon Army land (even if they aren't adjacent to any Demon Army territory). The only houses that would be spared are the One Eyed House and the Asai Asakura House. Tanegashima House will also be spared if you turned them into your vassals.
 * 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 being recruited, never to be seen again. On some occasions, if you recruited her too early, this might even happen before the Honnou Temple incident, so recruit her a bit late if you want Houjyou Souun. If you didn't recruit her at all and just kept her in the prison, at some point she'll simply die as Suzaku comes out of her.
 * After the player battles the Demon Army once, the Shimazu House captains (the four brothers plus Agireda) 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 Kentarou. After the battle, Kentarou will turned into a demon, and Miki will 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, so plan accordingly.
 * There's also another event concerning Miki, which is the lack of Hirami Lemons that are used to suppress her transformation into the Demon King. You must do a search in Mikan (??? event) to open up a dungeon, to which you must head into. You might as well just clear it to be sure you get what you needed.
 * 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 Suzaku, whereas Kentarou, after being turned into a demon (Suzaku may appear before Kentaro turns into a demon, especially in the Yamamoto 56 route), will tie with Suzaku (but gain 3 levels in the process); sending anyone else will kill that captain (and sending Rance will lead to a Game Over). After the first confrontation with Suzaku, a new purple ??? option will appear where Rance thinks of how to deal with Suzaku. Afterward, when Suzaku appears again, picking Kentarou will lead to increasing his level by 3 again (it is repeatable event, so you can eventually get 99), and 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 needs to make an attack on the enemy forces at Tenma Bridge (located in Morocco) to clear the game (this can be done even without defeating all of the Demon Army on the map). If the player waits too long, it will be Game Over. This event can be delayed with a event in Morocco (can be used once each turn if all the houses are conquered).


 * Noteworthy Captains
 * Agireda can be captured in battle in the True History and Isoroku IF routes, but she can only be character cleared in the True History.
 * Ootomo Sourin- a Rifle Unit with the unique "Special Cannon" ability that can deal severe damage to all enemy units- even from the back row! He can be captured and used only in Free for All mode.


 * The four Shimazu brothers will surrender to you and be placed in the prison after you kidnap Princess Black in the Ran IF and "Kill the Monkey" routes.

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 (after the Incident at Honno Temple is triggered, the route locked)
 * A trick is to create a save game that makes you can go all routes in the game is to make sure Hojo clan being the 5th clan with the seal being eliminated. You will need to able to conduct three moves in a turn to that. Firstly, make sure you have other elements for the other routes ready -- capture Yamamoto, make Kenshin/Ai your captain, etc -- attack Hojo clan normaly, capture Ran, and let Soun to disappear. Conquer Hojo till the last fortress. At the beginning of a new turn with three moves, you have the oppurtunity to 1) enter Kenshin route immediately, 2) attack the last Hojo fortress (1st move), talk to Ran (2nd move), and enter dungeon (3rd move) > Ran route, 3) Anything else after defeating the last Hojo fortress (Yamamoto or history route -- with Soun possibly joining you as a captain after Ran dies in the dungeon).

Nanjo Ran route

 * NOTE! If you do not go to the Mamushi Oil Field dungeon after unlocking it, Nanjo Ran will leave your party after certain number of turns (around 20) and you will lose both her and Hojo Soun. (In 1star run, Ashikaga left standing, Hojo is the fourth eliminated, after that 4-5 turn Ran left for Oil Field)


 * To begin the Ran IF route, capture Nanjo Ran while fighting the Hojo House. Let Hojo Soun go to a dungeon in Mamushi Oil Field before defeating Hojo House. Once you defeat the Hojo House, do an event there, which unlocks a dungeon in Mamushi Oil Field. If you complete this dungeon before 5 seals are broken, you'll be on the Ran IF route.
 * Some time after rescueing Hojo Soun, you will get an event where Suzume and Chaos discovers that Xavier is hiding in the temple. If you have conquered the Tenshi Sect at this point (and captured Manmaru), an event in the following turn will give you a choice to release Manmaru or keep her. If you release her and go to the temple, you will wound Xavier(While Kentarou kills Rengoku) then Xavier and the triplets walks in and seals him. If you keep Manmaru, the spell will fail, and its game over as everyone dies. Warning, if you capture Manmaru right before being forced into the fight with Xavier, it is possible that the event for releasing Manmaru does not happen before the fight with Xavier and is a Game Over. Leaving the Tenshi Sect around until the fight will make the fight happen as if you released Manmaru.
 * Because the Demon Army does not appear in this route, this is the only route where Kobayakawa Chinu does not die (the other exception being the Kill the Monkey route which is arguably not a true route).
 * On the Ran IF route, the Shimazu House will one by one absorb 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. These events can be triggered faster when either Shimazu gets attacked or attacks. This does not happen if the events on the Shimazu house or the targeted house are not finished.
 * 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 (Patch 1.03 makes it sufficient to keep your female captains if they have at least Trust relationship). This appears to be a truly random event as you can reload to the previous turn and get a different result. 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 fight ogres(2 units of 1000 blue ogres each, 1 unit of 2000 red ogres). You should clear them as soon as you can, because at the beginning of each turn that at least one remains, you lose 1 Nation power. At random points owai will get attacked by ogres which are harder than the normal battles. To finish the route, you must do this event at each location, and then go through a 7+ (12 floors in 1 star+ difficulty) floor dungeon in Saitama, after clearing the last level you will fight a boss battle against sekimei, a level 80 ogre with 2.4k hp, extremely high speed and can hit all targets from the backrow. Fighting him may be a problem if the only high level characters you have are rance and sill(everyone else at levels 50 or below will do less than 100 hp to him). There is no time limit to fighting Sekimei, once Keikoku has entered the cave you have infinite time to prepare.
 * 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 Isoroku route

 * To enter the Isoroku route, recruit Yamamoto Isoroku and unlock her H scene before five seals are broken. When Kouhime disappears, instead of choosing the normal green exploration command, pick the new purple special command that looks similar.


 * You will not have to have the first few fights right after you pick the purple command. Instead, you will only have to fight 1 battle where you only have to fight Xavier inside Nobunaga's body. You will have no war fans to use in the turn in which you fight Xavier.


 * The turn right after the fight against Xavier in the temple, Takeda will immediately declare war on you if they're still standing.


 * Apparently Xavier doesn't directly kill off various houses in this route after the demon army appears.


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


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


 * In this route, Sill does not get frozen as a result for finding Miki; however, Yamamoto Isoroku will retire from battle after an event.


 * Unlike the real history route, the demon army cannot be defeated normally. If you conquer too many of their lands, they'll randomly take 1 or 2 provinces away from you so you won't be making any real progress. The territories won't go to Demon Army but will instead be returned to the original owner of the territory (even if its leader is with you), so you'll have to fight more than one house at once if this happens. Instead, proceed along Isoroku's and Miki's plot, and when it's time Nobunaga will challenge you directly. Take note though that you should attack some of Nobunaga's territory in order to advance the plot (at least Battleship Nagato), but not all of Nobunaga's areas.
 * The demon army will attack you multiple times every turn. Shikibu can attack you multiple times a turn as well, and Xavier has infinite commanders(he will keep gaining new ones every turn). This is different from the true history route where you can bleed the demon army dry.


 * In the first half of the final battle (the timed one), if you damage any enemies but fail to finish them, they'll continue in the second part with full health, and Xavier's own health will reset to 50%. So if you're not confident that you can completely kill an enemy before the turns in the first part end, don't bother attacking, just try to keep Rance/Kentarou alive for the final part of the battle. An enemy that you managed to kill completely in the first part won't show up in the last part of the battle.

Uesugi Kenshin route

 * Preconditions for entering Kenshin route: Kenshin and Naoe Ai are in your army, Ashikaga House and Uesugi House clans have been destroyed, Kenshin affection is Trust, Kenshin and Rance have been deployed in battle together (You will see a scene where Kenshin gives Rance riceballs.)
 * After some turns, an event happens where Xavier gets one of the 3 Emperor Items. This never happens before turn 24. Around the time between 4th and 5th gourd is broken.
 * After that, the new purple action in Sado (having a picnic with Kenshin) will appear; choosing it will start the Kenshin IF route. Also, your war fans will all be used up after this, so use them before doing this event. The turn after, Rance will fight Rengoku with Sill, and there will be a timed battle in which Kenshin fights Xavier.
 * You'll start the emperor race afterwards. This involves Kenshin only. This race involves you getting 100 points. You'll get a list of twelve characters, who if you defeat, she will receive 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.
 * The twelve participants of the Emperor Race are: Dokuhanryuu Masamune (Youkai Empire), Oda Nobunaga/Xavier (Demon Army), Okita Nozomi (recruitable in Kyo), Baba Shouen (Takeda), Gon (Takuga), Yuzuhara Yuzumi (Tanegashima), Mori Motonari (Mori), Shimazu Kazuhisa (Shimazu/Demon Army), Uesagi Kenshin, Keikoku (independant), Suzutani Musou (independant) and Kumano Goro (independant).
 * Events can occur that will allow you to use a Search command to locate Independants such as Suzutani Musou and Kumano Goro. Kenshin can then proceed to duel them.
 * Xavier takes over the Shimazu house about 5 turns after the race starts.
 * NOTE!: Conquering the Mori House while Mori Motonari is still cursed will cause a "GAME OVER" (An event occurs where he crushes Uesugi Kenshin). He will be at level 50 once his curse is lifted.
 * After doing a few 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 -&gt; lvl 11.) This can be done either up to four times, or until Kenshin exceeds level 40. Once Kenshin's level goes down to 1, you will have the option to fight participants that are in your army (e.g. Masamune, Yuzumi.)
 * Every time you talk to Kenshin, she will gain 2 levels until reach level 60 or 61.
 * The event to decrease Kenshin's level can be suppressed by having other events trigger instead. It appears to be relatively low priority and its possible to win the Emperor Race without dropping to level 1. To do so, do not conquer the territories which house the participants. Instead conquer territories like Naniwa and Saitama which are adjacent to their territories and which may house independant racers. Defeating Tanegashima, Takuga, Mori and two independant participants is probably the easiest and most direct route.
 * After a set amount of time, Keikoku will cause neutral neighboring houses to go hostile to you. You can use a yellow command to delay the said event. Xavier also starts killing the participants randomly, so reload if he kills someone you'd like to stay alive. Xavier has a chance of killing a fake Keikoku or a random samurai(+2 points). This seems to start happening around 15 turns after the race starts.
 * Once the race start you can't conquer the last Takeda stronghold until Kenshin or Xavier defeat Baba. The option to fight Baba shows up only after the four Takeda generals have done their blitz attack, and Baba does far more damage than Kenshin, you need to be at level 62 with the guardian paper equipped to stand a decent chance of winning, and sometimes you will lose because Baba will get 2 turns in a row.If you equipped a item that cannot be remove (exemple: emperor sword) then get her stat to 9-8-8-8(stats are in order) and you will barely win at level 60. Another option is to use second game bonuses to buy the Guts armor which would greatly reduce the damage Kenshin will receive or to do the Kachikachi Dungeon twice to obtain the sword there that adds +100 damage.
 * In second games if you chose a Bonus House for start with a racer under your control (ex. Takeda to get Baba Shouen), the racer become unavailable for fight in the Emperor's race. the only exeption is Kenshin.
 * After receiving 100 points, Kenshin will get the emperor aura (see skills section). She can automatically vassal a hostile area. (She cannot use her aura on the demon army however, as they're not from Japan.).
 * Before winning the race, the Demon Army is not defeatable. If you manage to conquer ex-Shimazu territories, the Demon Army will randomly take back provinces from you in an event.
 * Xavier will not kill any more participants if there are only four remaining in the race (Xavier, Keikoku, Kenshin and one remaining participant for Kenshin to defeat.)
 * Participants in your army and prison can still be killed by Xavier. If you release a particiapnt from your prison, they will still be killed in prison by Xavier.
 * Once Kenshin becomes the emperor, if you conquer a Demon Army territory, the entire Demon Army territory will fall under your control (so you can recruit a few extra units for the final battle and/or clear them for points, if you feel like it), and 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 receive a game over. Note that each turn Xavier will go deeper into the temple. Depending on how deep he's gone, you will encounter him after passing floor 5/10/15/20 of the Yamatai Dungeon.

Kill the Monkey route

 * This is recognized by the game as a route when you save progress, but it isn't quite a true route; there isn't an actual story attached to it. It's more of a Sandbox Mode than anything else.
 * In order to open the route, choose the option "Can Kill Toukichirou" in the Family Bonus section. It costs 10 points.
 * Beginning turn 7, the "Kill Toukichirou" option will appear in Owari. This will last until the event when the first gourd breaks, which can vary depending on your actions in the game.
 * All events related to Xavier will no longer appear. There is no storyline for the most part, except for the Shimazu House; their actions are the same as in the Ran route. However, in this route, Suzaku appears if you visit the Oil Dungeon when looking for Hojo Soun. So this particular plotline follows the True History route rather than the Ran route. However, as Soun cannot fight Suzaku for revenge, you will not be able to clear him.
 * Kobayakawa Chinu does not die in this route either, so you can use and clear her. Sill, Kouhime, and any other characters who would disappear in various other routes will all remain intact in this route.
 * 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 (Patch 1.03 makes it sufficient to keep your female captains if they have at least Trust relationship). This appears to be a truly random event as you can reload to the previous turn and get a different result. Defected captains cannot be re-recruited even after you recapture them. Certain higher-priority events can prevent a defection by displacing the defection announcement event at the beginning of a turn.
 * The route ends when you defeat every country on the map and end your turn.
 * The main purpose of this route is for getting points and watching obscure events relatively uninterrupted, since you're not restricted by story-related events as in other routes. It's also a good route to use for getting the Takeda bonus.

Demon King route
NOTE! You are to lose the game no matter how you try


 * This is the route you are on if you fail to get the Hirami Lemons or find Miki after her disappearance in time. She becomes the Demon King and wages war on Japan. A series of beginning-of-turn events will show Kentarou joining her (as all demons must obey the Demon King) and Rance receiving a series of letters from Hornet and Kaybliss, the leaders of the two demon factions who were looking for her. You are basically told to restart the game because it is impossible to win.
 * All Demon Army units start with all 4 buffs, and they will get a large number of troops/commanders every turn (so it will never run out). All unit sizes are dramatically increased. Kentarou and Xavier have 8000 troops in their units, Keikoku has 4000, and Miki is a 247 HP unit (like cursed Mouri) that is nigh-invulnerable to everything but instant-death attacks and has a nuke attack that instantly kills anything it hits regardless of size or stats (but guard shikigami can still block it).
 * Battle permits still function normally, so you can stalemate the Demon Army infinitely if you have the gold needed to keep them functioning
 * Castle battles in the original 4 Shimazu territories will function normally (they always have the same units defending, just with different unit sizes), so Miki will never defend a castle. During these battles, the defending units will not have any boosts.
 * It is still possible to "win". Use Battle Permits to take all non-castle territories, and don't bother defending any attacks by Miki. Miki sometimes does not attack in a turn, so you can go ahead and beat the normal attacking armies, then grab the castle next turn. On the last province, you can use Covert Action to prevent the Demon Army from attacking at all and secure a free route to the castle via Battle Permits before attacking normally next turn. When you conquer all Demon Army territories, you will get an event where Rance confronts Miki and Kentarou and Kentarou accuses Rance of cheating. Rance tries to attack Miki but the duo disappear, Rance complains he's too tired afterward, and then the game ends with the bad end's "Game Over" screen. You do not get any points for clearing the Demon King route as it is not a real route.