Sengoku Rance:DARKNESSHERO RANCE

Basic Questions
Q: What is this?

DARKNESSHERO RANCE is a mod created by the /vg/ user toufu guy that inserts Kichikuou Rance into Sengoku Rance. The main idea is to be able to play the FFA (Free for All) mode of the latter game using all the factions from The Continent, instead of restricting it only to JAPAN. The hacking and editing of the mod has been all the work of toufu, who has also polished some segments of the gameplay in order to improve the experience, but he also received help from other anons to make graphics for the mod such as national flags of the factions or sprites for characters that didn't have one.

The mod is on an early alpha state with many things still pending to be worked on, so expect to run into weird occurrences like sprites randomly changing into a different character, random lines of dialogue, etc.

Q: What's with the title?

It's a meme originated from the official cover box of Rance 5D where Alicesoft itself, notorious for its poor use of english, described Rance as a "darknesshero kichiku warrior".

Q: Where can I get it?

Here: https://mega.nz/#F!VloWzD6B!trEkYLMKASDXIYsGdLa8jw

Take into account that it is regularly updated, as the mod itself is still a work in progress.

Q: How do I install and start it?

The file comes with a readme file with instructions over how to install it, so follow those in order to get it running. Once you open the game select new game and the option of Free For All. You can technically play the story mode as well but it would be a broken down mess with all the modified files and nothing of it has been edited in the slightest in the mod, as it was designed to be played with FFA.

'''Q: I remember trying to play FFA before and the game would freeze before starting. I don't want to deal with that!'''

Toufu actually fixed that bug and the mode never freezes now. It had something to do with entering in an endless loop upon generating character names for generics I think.

'''Q: I've only played Sengoku Rance. Who are these characters and places?'''

Sengoku Rance, also known as Rance VII, comes from a series with a fully established verse and setting. They all come from other games of the series so you won't recognize any of them if Sengoku is the only game you've played. You can still enjoy the mod for a refreshing Sengoku Rance experience with new factions though.

Q: Why is Satella so strong?

Toufu Guy has openly declared her to be his waifu, so she's naturally the strongest.

Global Tips and Advices
Aside from the changed factions the gameplay is essentially the same as it was in Sengoku Rance's Free for All mode. If you've never played it, it is a special mode free from any story events that allows you to play as any faction to conquer JAPAN (or in this mode, the world) while being at war with everyone. For a more detailed explanation of the changes between the normal game and FFA check here.

While every faction plays differently, there are some general tips that can prove useful for just about anyone:
 * Use Neutral Action: Neutral action allows you to remain at peace with a country for several turns. This is extremely important to use since due to the new layout of the map some provinces border with 4, 5 or more factions and it's impossible to defend from all of them, let alone advance in your conquest, if you don't make neutral pacts with some of them.
 * Use barriers: Barriers can be built on provinces with an action turn and using a few characters. They're extremely useful, since they can randomly block attacks entirely, so it's important to build them, especially on territories that border with multiple factions.
 * Improve your Economy: One of the most important aspects to succeed in FFA is to establish a solid source of income. Early on, build nothing but shopping districts. They give a base +200 GOLD, which easily outscales free markets 3% raise. You will be starving for money early on so it's important to raise your funds as much as possible. Increasing national power (especially on territories with a low economy) also helps. Later on once you get many territories you can improve them to give 1000 GOLD per turn (each), and that's the point where money will stop being an issue.
 * Don't go straight for the offense: Many make the mistake of immediately rushing to conquer as soon as starting. You should not do this. Instead dedicate a bit of time building shopping districts, barriers, etc. This is especially important if you're playing with smaller factions like Shangri-La or one of the free cities.
 * Don't attack the demon factions: Initially, the Hornet Faction and the Kayblis Faction will be at war with each other and won't invade human territories until either has achieved victory over the other. After that, neutralize with whoever won and don't mess with them until you've unified the human realm.
 * Capture enemy units: Try to regularly use commanders with "Defeated Warrior Hunt" or "Sticky Ground" in order to capture any potentially useful commander. Unique characters like Rance, Shizuka or Rick can only be captured after their main faction has been defeated and they have joined another faction.

Other Changes
Some other minor things were changed as well in order to improve the overall experience.
 * While in FFA units would not increase in size from winning battles, they do now just like in the normal game.
 * The animation for all-attacks like "Lightning" has been simplified. While before it would individually show the animation on every single commander it hits, it now shows it only once and applies the damage immediately.
 * Tweaked damage formula for solo units (mainly demons). Their health now functions the same as a unit size, meaning that they deal more damage the higher it is.
 * Demons can be wounded by anyone without requiring Rance or Kentarou to be present, as it would render everyone useless. They're still incredibly strong due to high stats and not requiring armies to replenish though.
 * Many abilities have had name changes, like "monk charge" to "sparta punch" or "miko dance" to "healing".
 * Fixed some bugs from the original game.

Kingdom of Leazas

 * Territories
 * Maunes
 * Leazas Castle
 * Wes


 * Basics
 * Leazas is a very solid option, with a varied and fairly strong array of units, on top of having quite a lot of them. It has warriors, foot soldiers, tacticians, a miko, a mage, a ninja and even a knight. Rick and Barres are probably your strongest units. Lia and Maris are pretty bad but they have great negotiation stats. Kanami is a great scout that will succeed in almost every battle, and you probably wouldn't use her in battle anyway.
 * They also start with a pretty high national power compared to the smaller factions.
 * Its major drawback is that borders with a lot factions: Rance's thieves, Helman, Shangri-La, Zeth, Ice, Red and the Rebel Army. Maunes in particular borders with most of them, so build barriers there asap.
 * Your first conquering target should be the rebels, followed by the free cities. Upon reaching Nippon/JAPAN it might be wise to set a neutral pact with them, since they're really tough, but go for it if you're confident that you can deal with demon Nobunaga and TOSH. Otherwise conquer the AL Church and then the northern land with Helman and Rance's thieves.
 * Commanders

Leazas Rebel Army

 * Territories
 * Oku
 * Oaks


 * Basics
 * The Rebel Army is not a particularly strong faction. It has a pretty low NP, its units besides Ex aren't anything special and it starts with two territories. However, much like Leazas, it has a good variety of units, and it's starting point is pretty good, bordering only with Leazas and two free cities.
 * Start with the free cities, neutral pact with JAPAN and then conquer Leazas. After that, its conquering route is pretty much the same as the kingdom's.
 * Commanders

Free City: The O

 * Territories
 * The O


 * Basics
 * Definitely one of the weakest factions. Only one territory with only two castles, low national power and not that many units. It's positioning is not horrible but pretty bad too, as it borders with three free cities (all stronger than The O) and the Rebel Army.
 * It's strongest points are the fact that Shinoda is a pretty damn good tactician with Battle Strategy 3 and Initial Battle Rating and the Hanna Hero is quite strong as well. Sayori also has extremely high negotiation and construction skills for some reason, but that's about it.
 * Overall one of the factions to pick if you want a challenging run. Initially focus entirely on building barriers and increasing national power. Establishing a neutral pact with the rebel army could be a good idea. Once you feel somewhat safe, start with Portugal and immediately neutralize JAPAN. Don't aim for any of the bigger targets until you have all the free cities. Your first strong target should be either the Rebel Army or the AL Church.


 * Commanders

Free City: Red

 * Territories
 * Red


 * Basics
 * One of the free cities, so it's one of the weaker factions, though not as weak as you'd think. It has low national power and one territory with only 2 castles. Fortunately Punisher Mito, along with Kaku-san and Suke-san, is here to help! They're all really strong, especially Gandhi himself, though notice that he has to be used on the front row despite being a mage (unless you're only planning on using WDB). Sel is also quite good as a healer and Crane has all sorts of ninja-like techniques like assassination 2.
 * Overall it's one of the free cities so it has a slow start and is a weak country, but it's got some really good units. Probably the second best of the free cities after Custom. Much like with the other free cities, start by bulding barriers and begin with the weaker factions like The O, Portugal, Ice. Red is perfectly capable of taking on the AL Church too, just be careful with Mi Lordring and make sure to cancel Am's witty comeback with the ninjas.


 * Commanders

Free City: Ice

 * Territories
 * Ice


 * Basics
 * Rance's home city, though he is not around since he's leading his band of theives in Helman. Ice's army consists mostly of warriors. Most of its units are not very strong so it is not a particularly impressive line-up but it's definitely better than The O and Portugal. Arms is probably the strongest character Ice has to offer, though Noah is also a very good healer with Healing 3.
 * It borders with two free cities, Leazas and the ALists. Neutral pact with Leazas asap and build a barrier. Conquering the AL Church early on is not a bad option, since it's only one territory that only borders with Ice you won't border other factions by conquering it, but they're not an easy battle.
 * Athena is a quirky character. She's an archer that starts with a single action point and 0s in all stats so she's garbage initially. However, when deployed on a winning battle, she learns from her allies and randomly raises one of her stats depending. If you deploy her with many strong allies she can gradually grow into a powerhouse.
 * Like all the free cities, it has a low national power and with only two castles you have to be very careful with defending it early on. Don't attack until you get a couple of barriers. Using Noah to heal up your units on easy battles is a good way to save some money.


 * Commanders

Free City: Custom

 * Territories
 * Custom


 * Basics
 * Custom is without a doubt the strongest of the free cities. It has unique tulip units, ranged commanders with canons as weapons, with damage comparable to the muskets but with range and multiple action turns. They do have the drawback of being really expensive to replenish and recruit though.
 * Beyond the tulips, its forces are very well-rounded. It has many mages like Shizuka and Eleanor, and multiple frontliners. Milli has a passive that works the same as Daidouji Komatsu's popularity, which automatically increases her troop size every turn, allowing her to have a very large army with enough time. It also has Mars, who's really shit in terms of stats but has an infested attack that decreases the maximum troop size of the enemy it hits, much like the Soul Binder's infected units.
 * Custom is really strong, comparable with the major countries, but it's still just a single city initially so make sure to build barriers so that you can expand safely. The start can be pretty tough but once you get rolling, winning with Custom is not very hard.


 * Commanders

Free City: Portugal

 * Territories
 * Portugal


 * Basics
 * Portugal starts with 50K of Gold, so that's a great help early on when you really starve of money with anyone else. Aside from that, it's pretty mediocre overall. It has some solid units but nothing paritcularly impressive. Sanakia is a knight with some decent stats so she's probably your best unit with Portugal, at least initially.
 * Pitten is a great anti-mages foot-soldier with a hardcoded 75% resistance to all magic attacks. Unfortunately you don't really encounter many mages early on and he's pretty meh beyond that.
 * The Copri sisters are mikos with a passive that gives an attack buff to the male commanders on the field, which is pretty good.
 * Like all the free cities, it starts with one territory and only two castles so make sure to build barriers before conquering. Make sure to form a neutral pact with JAPAN or you will be having a hard time.


 * Commanders

AL Church

 * Territories
 * AL Church


 * Basics
 * The standard religion on the continent. The AL Church doesn't have many troops or territories, infact it only starts with one with 2 castles like the free cities do. However, it's starting position is very good, since it only borders with Ice, and its couple of unique units are really strong.
 * Gurwin is a knight with pretty high stats. His skillset is not very varied but he hits hard and can take hits better than any other AList, so he's really good. Mi Lordring is incredibly strong too, though his starting troop count is pretty low.
 * Naturally, the AL also has a good number of healers. Crook in particular is top tier as that.
 * They also have the pure lady that is Am Isuel, a diviner with high stats and 9 in negotiation. She has the witty comeback skill, which reverses the battle rating bar, effectively granting victory in battles that should be crushing defeats.
 * The AL Church has low national power for some reason so dedicating one or two turns to improve it a bit on your first territory is not a bad idea. Don't build barriers there though, it's kinda pointless since only one faction can attack you from there and the ALists are strong enough to defend that.


 * Commanders

Nippon

 * Territories
 * Okinawa
 * Kyoto


 * Basics


 * Commanders

Helman Empire

 * Territories
 * Archgrad
 * Siberia
 * Sudori 13
 * Lang Bau
 * Rolengrad


 * Basics
 * Helman is one of the easiest factions thanks to having a great assortment of strong commanders and different unit types. Most of them are very strong offensively, but some are lacking defensive stats. Another important thing to point is your lack of conventional foot soldiers.
 * Minerva is amazing overall and Rolex is another great warrior with "Rolex Slash", a skill requiring prepation and dealing 1,5x damage to entire row. His low DEF should probably be increased with books or affection bonuses.
 * Lelyukov is a tactician with 8 INT, "Battle Strategy (3)" and "Initial Battle Rating", making him valuable when sieging castles, but his "Warrior Attack 2" prevents from attacking from the back row (which you mostly shouldn't be doing anyway).
 * Convert has a "Witty comeback", but isn't much useful otherwise.
 * Freya has "Assassinate 2", "Battleground construction 3" and good stats, which makes her a very all-around unit. Increasing her ATK transforms her into a swift ranged powerhouse.
 * Maha has 7 INT and "Black Fire", but 2 DEF, so it's unadvisable to use him if the enemy has a high chance to target him.
 * Your foot soldiers are peculiar. Sepia has "Battleground construction 2" that replaces her guard skill. Tami has "All guard" but low INT, making him a bad protector.
 * Unfortunately, some of Helman's units are laughably weak. Ruberan and Nero have low ATK, requiring investment to make them usable in fights, Katyusha and Saulnia are even worse just by being archers. Aristoles is a weak warrior with tactician skills, who, consequently, doesn't grant any pre-battle buffs, which just makes him a worse tactician.
 * Io has "Persuade" a weak melee attack that reduces target's max troop size and increases Io's for the same amount. Unfortunately, this amount is often negligible and her stats are pretty low.
 * Your first targets should probably be Thieves and Patton Army. Fighting Leazas won't be as easy because they also have a diverse array of units. Attacking Hornet Faction is possible, but even with Helman's great units, your troop numbers are too low to fight demons effectively. It also just isn't profitable, so neutraling Hornet and preying on the weak is mostly a better choice. Remember that when you have 10 or more provinces, it is possible to upgrade buildings, so it should be your priority.


 * Commanders

Rance's Thieves Band

 * Territories
 * Golak


 * Basics


 * Commanders

Helman Revolutionary Army

 * Territories
 * Laborie


 * Basics


 * Commanders

Shangri-La

 * Territories
 * Shangri-LA


 * Basics


 * Commanders

Pencilcow

 * Territories
 * Pencilcow


 * Basics
 * The territory of the Kalar race. Some Kalar units have the "Kalar Curse" passive, which debuffs enemies that killed their unit.
 * The Kalar's most notable units are Aegis and Pastel. Aegis is a very strong archer commander with high stats and Pastel is a diviner that can use shikigami and all-guard shikigami. She also has a special move of her own called "Man-Killing Curse", an attack similar to Chinu's poisoning that deals damage to all enemies. It also deals bonus damage against male commanders.
 * Kalars also start with a few generic kalar units that serve as foot soldiers and warriors. Not all of them have the Kalar Curse passive though.
 * Much like the free cities, Pencilcow only has one territory but with three castles fortunately. It borders with three nations, Shangri-La, Zeth and the Helman Revolutionaries, of which only Zeth can be somewhat threatening. Naturally since it's your only territory you want to protect it as much as possible so build barriers and play slowly at first. I wouldn't recommend conquering Shangri-La since you would be opening yourself to both Leazas and Helman. Instead, it's better to conquer Zeth. Try to exploit their lack of frontal units to destroy their mages. Pastel's all-guard skikigami can be very useful against their mages.


 * Commanders

Kingdom of Zeth

 * Territories
 * Sabasaba
 * Partyoran
 * Ragnarokarc


 * Basics
 * Zeth is one of the bigger countries, so naturally it's quite strong. It's filled with powerful mages units, three territories and a high national power. However it has one fatal drawback, it has almost no front-row units, having only 2 warriors. As powerful as the mages are, with Zeth it is extremely important to capture many units like monks, foot-soldiers and warriors that can protect your mages. After assembling a solid frontline, expanding the might of the magic nation becomes pretty easy.
 * Among the mages the strongest units are most definitely Ragarl and Kabachahn. They both have Lightning and Large Lightning and are somewhat similar to Omachi, with Kabachahn even having Battle Strategy 2 as well.
 * Nagi and Papaya have Black Fire, a magic attack that hits all-units. When both are deployed it can be a pretty deadly combo as well, though ideally you would want to protect them from archers by placing a foot-soldier in the back-row if you have them, since the damage of Black Fire is severely handi-capped if the troop count gets lowered.
 * Annis has a special skill of her own called "Annis Beam". It takes preparation and upon casting it Annis randomly selects multiple targets to strike with her magic. It deals a lot of damage but it can also targets allies as well, she might either win an unwinnable battle or completely ruin one in your favour, so use it with caution. Ideally, you'd want to gamble with this attack in battles where Annis has as little as possible and there's many opponents in the enemy line, as it increases the chances of Annis hitting her enemies.
 * Conquer Pentagon first. They should be pretty easy since most of their units are peasants. Foot Rot, Kinggeorge and Urza are the only ones that you should be careful fighting against, especially Urza since her Accurate Shots can completely decimate you as it drains your actions.


 * Commanders

Pentagon

 * Territories
 * Italia
 * Marc


 * Basics


 * Commanders

Hornet Faction

 * Territories
 * Archfiend's Castle
 * Hornet's Castle


 * Basics


 * Commanders

Kayblis Faction

 * Territories
 * Kesselring's Castle
 * Camilla's Castle
 * Kayblis's Castle


 * Basics


 * Commanders

Archfiend Rance (Secret Faction)
''(Available since version 1.04)
 * Territories
 * N/A


 * Basics


 * Commanders