Sengoku Rance:Dungeons

In checklist order
Unlisted:
 * Orochi's Cave 大蛇の穴 Unlock: Tamagushi Fuuka & Natori or Kenshin Route
 * Tomb of Sekimei セキメイの墓 Unlock: Ran Route

How Dungeons Work
There are 19 dungeons in the game, but 1 is a plot dungeon with no level up bonus, and 2 of them require Kentarou who does not join in the Ran, Kenshin or Kill the monkey routes. 2 more (Orochi and the Road to Hades) are very long dungeons typically only used to see unique events and CGs.

There are also 2 level ups from the ogre hunts in Shikoku (Takuga). This gives you a max of 18 level ups via dungeons in routes where Kentarou joins and 16 in routes where Kentarou does not join. Rance will also gain 2 extra level ups each from the SM Dungeon and Satomi Empire. The optimal level for Rance before Honnouji is therefore 77 in routes where Kentarou joins or 79 in routes where Kentarou does not join (assuming you are saving the dungeon level up bonus for later).

Every dungeon consists of a number of levels, or stages that will each present a fight.

Dungeon fights
Some important things to keep in mind in dungeon (or other solo) fights are that:
 * There is no time limit or battle rating.
 * If all your commanders in play run out of actions, you will lose the fight
 * You can (except in some specific solo duels outside of dungeons) swap out your characters for new ones from your roster. Characters will automatically swap out when they die, but not when they run out of actions

Clearing floors
If you complete at least one floor of a dungeon successfully and leave, you will come back one floor deeper. This is regardless of how many floors you have completed the previous time round. Since you also get 1 item (mostly an ogre bone) every time you complete a floor, you can complete all floors up till the second last floor, then leave and come back again. However, this is extremely time consuming.

For example, if you enter a six-level dungeon, and clear any number of floors (except the final boss floor) and exist, you will start at level 2 when you return. If you enter the dungeon again, starting on level 2 and clear any number of floors (except the final floor), you will then have to start on level 3 on a future return.

However, if you clear the final floor, you will lose access to all previous floors, and start on the final floor in all future runs.

The inaccessible floors will reset to starting on the first floor (or a checkpoint floor if that dungeon has one) if you lose on the final floor.

Farming Dungeons
Since you get a random item (usually Ogre Bones for the item shop) every time you clear a level, the most efficient method to farm a dungeon is to clear all levels except the last in one action, exit, and do it again next turn, repeating the procedure until you're able to start at the last level.

You will also get one random affection boosting item/healing item/motivation paper every time you exit a dungeon (on top of the medicine sake/seirogan that you get for the first few incomplete runs through that dungeon).

The very best (but potentially the most tedious) method of farming ogre bones requires you to intentionally fail the last floor of a dungeon by dying/running out of action points. When you leave a dungeon this way, you will not clear any floor levels permanently (ie. if you clear the first 4 floors but die on the 5th, you will not get to start on the 2nd floor next time as you did not manually choose the exit the dungeon). This method ensures that you will never exhaust the dungeons down to the boss floor like the previously suggested method of farming ogre bones. However, be advised that there are 4 dangers of doing it this way:

1) No bonus item when you retreat from the dungeon involuntarily

Suggestion: If you're farming SenriQ Cups or Kanou Scrolls you would actually be better off doing one floor of a dungeon, exiting manually, and then restarting if you don't get it. There's nothing more agonizing then going down 10+ floors of a tough dungeon (because you wanted to farm the maximum number of ogre bones as well in the same action) only to find out you got a JAWS screen/Expert's drum/Seirogan for the 10th time in a row.

2) Taking forever to lose on the bottom floor

Suggestion: During most commander-only battles the game will allow you to cycle in your entire commander roster until everyone is either dead or out of action points (those who have less than full action points or 0HP from a previous dungeon crawl will not be switched in). Try to make sure you exhaust a lot of actions points/characters on the way down or you'll have to "stand by" for awhile on the last floor.

3) Limited runs per turn

Suggestion: You'll most likely run out of action points and/or HP for a second run on the same turn. Wait until the next turn and perform other actions in the meantime.

4) Not enough commanders to defend invasions afterwards

Suggestion: Any commander that dies while dungeon crawling is disabled from taking further action for the rest of the turn (name will be marked off). Do your best to exhaust your action points rather than your HP on the bottom floor.

Longest dungeons: Tokugawa Buried Treasure (13 floors), Yomotsu Hirasaka aka Road to Hades (18 floors) or Orochi's Dungeon (20 + 1 floors).

Clearing a dungeon
Clearing the last level gives you a one-time level up for all commanders and a treasure, which is usually pre-determined from start of game from a random pool of items. If you already have it, the game will randomly give you another treasure. See Items for details. The random treasure is set from the moment the game is started so it will differ from game to game and reloading saves will not work.

If you have all the default treasures (this can happen with second game bonuses), you will mostly gain stat book 2s or a healing item. All your commanders in your roster at the time will also gain +1 level.

Since only the commanders you have in your roster when you complete a dungeon get +1 level, you may wish to complete it after you have assembled your "end game team" to level them up as much as possible (typically, this is after Kentarou joins in some routes).

Events with Sill
Dungeons also open up new screens and new CGs, usually between Rance and Sill, making them a good source of SAT.

Damage formulae (solo battles)
Physical Damage Formula (Commander Battle) Magical Damage Formula (Commander battle) Effective Level Difference for Damage Formula (Commander Battle) Class Attack for Damage Formula (Commander Battle) Attack Modifier for Damage Formula (Commander Battle)
 * Damage (Without Item Modifier and Buffs) = Class Attack * Effective Level Difference * Attack Modifier
 * If the Attacker has an ATK buff, this is multiplied by 1.3
 * If the Defender has a DEF buff, this is multiplied by 0.7
 * Damage (Without Item Modifier and Buffs) = 7 * Effective Level Difference * Attack Modifier
 * If the Attacker has an INT buff, this is multiplied by 1.3
 * If the Defender has a INT buff, this is multiplied by 0.7
 * Effective Level Difference = Attacker's Level - (Defender's Level/2)
 * 5 is the minimum cap for Effective Level Difference.
 * When Effective Level Difference exceeds 30, the Effective Level Difference becomes: Effective Level Difference/2 + 15
 * Cannoneer 11
 * Demon/Musketeer 10
 * Diviner/Magician 7
 * Warrior/Calvary/Footsoldier/Monster 6
 * Ninja/Tactician/Animal 5
 * Monk/Archer 4
 * Miko 3
 * Punch 50%
 * Strong Punch 75%
 * Normal Attack 100%
 * Strong Attack/S Crossgun 150%
 * Rance Attack/Kentarou-kun Slash/Tokugawa Ieyasu Special Attack 200%

Battle tactics (solo battles)
Any tactician will give 4 starting buffs in dungeons. These are reset at each floor.

The number of buffs a tactician gives allies when using Battle Strategy 1 (you can't get 2 or 3 in solo battles), is still based on troop count / 300 + 2, like in troop battles.

Although buffs have a fixed strength (30% for damage modifications, -4 delay for next turn speed), they appear to still have a % based on the tactician's level. It is unclear if this has any effect...

Diviners and ogres
Diviners do extra damage to ogres (enough that they will almost always instant kill it), which are present in the ogre hunts, the battle against Seitaii Shogun, and the final floors of Heijoukyou (Iga), Hell City (Edo) and Sekimei's Tomb (Saitama, Nanjou Ran route only). The damage bonus does not appear to apply to Sekimei.

Dungeon scout
Dungeons can generate monsters in 2 methods:
 * 1) By using random selections from the Type groupings (see Monster Data section below)
 * 2) By specifically selecting unique monsters

The dungeon scout skill will only work against randomly generated monsters (the first method). It will always remove the last monster (counting from top to bottom front row to back row).

Example: If there are 2 monsters, 1 at the top of the front row, 1 at the bottom of the front row, the 'last one' to be generated is the one at the bottom of the front row. If one of your characters who enters the floor (does not work if the commander with the skill is not assigned to the battle at start), then the last one will be removed.

Dungeon scout never affects boss floors or floors with set monsters, and it will never remove more than 1 monster.

Sill's healing
Sill's S-Healing, when used on Rance, can also give him an action so that he can act again. Combine with Rance's S Rance Attack for best effect. A similar technique can be used with the move Convert Action, which all Monks have in Dungeons.

Monster data

 * Usually monsters' health equals 9* level + 50. There may be exceptions with special boss monsters.

Type F Monsters

 * Samera ~ Lee
 * Himmler
 * Super Hanny

Type E Monsters

 * Kurome
 * Vevetar
 * Jabara
 * Thumbpress Master
 * Pinky

Type D Monsters

 * Akame
 * Nyo~
 * Squidman Lord / King Squid Man
 * MagBall

Type C Monsters

 * Con Turtle
 * Uppi
 * Zombie
 * Yankee

Type B Monsters

 * Rommel
 * Bambara
 * Freedom
 * Hanny (also in Type A)

Type A Monsters

 * Hanny (also in Type B)
 * Mageman
 * Squidman

Miso Katsu Dungeon 味噌カツ迷宮

 * Location: Owari (尾張)
 * Floors: 6
 * Requires: Kouhime to discover
 * Bonus Loot: None

Kachikachi Cave カチカチ洞窟

 * Location: Kyo (京)
 * Floors: 4
 * Requires: Suzume to discover
 * Bonus Loot: SAT and a side quest. The first completion of the dungeon will give +1 SAT and a normal final dungeon drop and completing the dungeon as part of the side quest will give +5 SAT and the Ryuuguu Sword Urashimaru. If you already have the Ryuuguu Sword Urashimaru, you will get an Attack Textbook 2 instead.


 * }

Heijoukyo 平城京

 * Location: Yamato (大和)
 * Floors: 6
 * Requires: Kouhime to discover
 * Bonus Loot: None


 * }

Pearl Dungeon 真珠迷宮

 * Location: Ise (伊勢)
 * Floors: 7
 * Requires: Kouhime to discover and Sill for bonus loot.
 * Bonus Loot: 20 Pearls (useless) on first clear and Giant Pearl (see Objectives) on second. Both require Sill.


 * }

Tokugawa Buried Treasure 徳川埋蔵金

 * Location: Mikawa (三河)
 * Floors: 13
 * Requires: Ranmaru to discover
 * Bonus Loot: Golden Ball (useless). Requires Senhime.


 * }

Bikini Watching ビキニ鑑賞

 * Location: Battleship Nagato / Senkan Nagato (戦艦長門)
 * Floors: 12
 * Requires: Ogawa Kentarou to discover
 * Bonus Loot: None
 * Note: Kill the neouron hanny before his second turn or all of your active commanders will be wiped out. You can also use ninjas to delay neouron's attack.

Tanba Mine Mountain 丹波鉱山

 * Location: Tamba (丹波)
 * Floors: 9
 * Requires: Maria to discover
 * Bonus Loot: None

Umeda Underground City 梅田地下街

 * Location: Naniwa (なにわ)
 * Floors: 8
 * Requires: Shibata Katsuie to discover
 * Bonus Loot: None, but the dungeon has an increased chance of dropping the Coil, Iron Pipe, Tape, Ero Candle, Hallucination of Death Medicine, and Sex Medicine.

Satomi Empire 里見帝国

 * Location: Kazusa 2000 (上総２０００)
 * Floors: 8
 * Requires: N/A
 * Bonus Loot: 2 Extra level ups for Rance
 * Monster setup: (for me - 0 star game/first game, with dungeon skill) Every level has a Freedom (Level 10, hp 140) and a Doggie (Level 12/22/32/42/52/62/72/82 respectively). Confirmed same at 5 star.
 * Note: The 8 dogs are based on Tale of Eight Dogs (Nansō Satomi Hakkenden).

Oil Cave 石油穴

 * Location: Mamushi Oil Field (まむし油田)
 * Floors: 7
 * Requires: Nanjou Ran to discover (talk to her twice for two purple events. The Houjou House must be conquered for the second purple event)
 * Bonus Loot:
 * Beating the sixth floor will trigger an event that will either give entry in to the Ran route or the ability to recruit Houjou Souun. See Walkthrough for details.
 * Three SenriQ cups for clearing the dungeon. Note that the event that triggers when you beat the sixth floor kicks you out of the dungeon and is therefore not a clear of it.

Tiger Cave 虎の穴

 * Location: Himeji (姫路)
 * Floors: 5
 * Requires: Kanami to discover
 * Bonus Loot: Three Kanou scrolls for clearing the dungeon.
 * Note: other name Tora no Ana. Many players of this game may recognize Tora no Ana as the name of a chain of stores that sell anime- and game-related merchandise. This is likely part of an AliceSoft tradition/running gag of naming locations in their games after real places in the company's headquarters of Osaka.

Hellish City 魔界都市

 * Location: Edo (江戸)
 * Floors: 5
 * Requires: Nanjou Ran to discover
 * Bonus Loot: None


 * }

Sado Gold Mountain 佐渡金山

 * Location: Sado (佐渡)
 * Floors: 10
 * Requires: Uesugi Kenshin & Naoe Ai to discover
 * Bonus Loot: 5000 Gold (Dungeon Clear)


 * }

Red Wall Dungeon 赤壁迷宮

 * Location: Red Helmet / Akaheru (赤ヘル)
 * Floors: 6
 * Requires: N/A
 * Bonus Loot: Needed for Gon's character clear.

Shell Tomb 貝塚

 * Location: Shell / Kai (貝)
 * Floors: 5
 * Requires:
 * Sill to discover
 * Sill for the +5 SAT on floors B2, B3, and B4
 * Sill to check off the dungeon on completion.
 * Bonus Loot: A total of 15 SAT.


 * }

Study Dungeon お勉強穴

 * Location: Texas (テキサス)
 * Floors: 8
 * Requires: Sill to discover
 * Bonus Loot: Sill's Healing increases by 5 at end of dungeon
 * Does not give a normal final drop upon clearing the dungeon


 * }

Underground Mikan Farm 地下蜜柑農園

 * Location: Mikan (蜜柑)
 * Floors: 10
 * Requires: Ogawa Kentarou and sufficient progression in either the True or Isoroku routes. See Walkthrough. There needs to be a shortage of Hirami Lemons
 * Bonus Loot: None, but the Hirami Lemons are found when floor 6 is beaten.


 * }

SM Dungeon ＳＭ迷宮

 * Location: MAZO (ＭＡＺＯ)
 * Floors: 10
 * Requires: Okita Nozomi to discover
 * Bonus Loot: 2 Extra Level-ups for Rance in addition to the regular dungeon level up bonus. It makes no difference whether Okita is in the final party.
 * Boss Info: The Boss is a Mazone, a female alien from the old (late 70's) anime series Space Pirate Captain Harlock. This one however is garbed in bondage gear and nailed into the ground by her hair, quite immobilized.
 * This boss has a self-heal that heals for just over 300 HP. This move also has a percentage chance of failing (around 75% in my experience).
 * Your main strategy should be: attack non-stop until she's dead. Simple? It should be. The only way you can lose is if you're tagging along pure weaklings and she just keeps getting them lucky heals.

! rowspan=3| B10/(ＳＭ迷宮) Boss Battle ! Right ! Mid Female Monster|| 1350 HP|| ! Left
 * colspan=17|
 * Bondage'd Teal-haired
 * Lv 65
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }

Road to Hades 黄泉平坂

 * Location: Izumo (出雲)
 * Floors: 18 (18th level - 7777 HP Boss battle)
 * Unlike Sekimei and Orochi, the boss battle is part of the dungeon crawl. This means you do not get action fans restored before the battle.
 * The boss always uses the same attack, which hits the entire party.
 * Requires: Kouhime and Sill to discover.
 * Bonus Loot:
 * Mouri Motonari's curse is lifted if you kill Daidara after an event with Sakamoto Ryouma. See Walkthrough.
 * Emperor Sword after beating the 8th floor.
 * Before this will drop, you must have seen the purple event where Natori tells Rance about the sword. This is only available after the 5th step of Natori's character clear and become unavailable if you have seen the event that plays when you reach the bottom floor of Orochi's Cave.
 * Not available in the Kenshin route.
 * This only drops once per playthrough.
 * You will still be able to get the sword to drop if you have already beaten the 8th floor before satisfying the conditions that allow the sword to drop. Enter the dungeon again and beat another floor, even the final one.
 * Despite what Natori says, the sword has no special effect on Orochi.
 * CG #102 after clearing the dungeon.

! rowspan=3| B18 ! Right ! Mid 7777 HP|| 7777 HP|| 7777 HP|| 7777 HP|| ! Left
 * colspan=17|
 * Freedom ||
 * Gunagan ||
 * Lv 55
 * Lv 55
 * Lv 55
 * Lv 55
 * Freedom ||
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }

Orochi's Cave 大蛇の穴

 * Location: Yamatai (邪馬台)
 * Floors: 20 + 1 (Normally a boss battle with Orochi, but will be with Xavier in the Kenshin route)
 * Does not give a normal final drop upon clearing the dungeon or doing anything with Orochi
 * Requires:
 * Tamagushi Fuuka and Natori to unlock. See Character clears for instructions.
 * Alternatively, it is unlocked towards the end of the Kenshin route. See Walkthough for all of the details on this version of the dungeon.
 * Bonus Loot: None, unless you count the rewards for the optional Orochi fight or from finishing the Kenshin route.


 * Boss Info: Orochi
 * Choosing not to fight Orochi will kill Tamagushi Fuuka and send you back to the map. Presumably this will permanently render Orochi unfightable.
 * Game Over if you lose.
 * Before the battle, all action fans are restored but wounded characters are not healed
 * Orochi's Minions are extremely annoying on their own. They have a fire attack and a single target healing spell that they can cast on themselves, other minions or the Orochi itself.
 * None of Orochi's attacks are magic, but his minions' attacks apparently are. If they happen to focus on her, Rizna's immunity can prevent significant damage.
 * Demon Kentarou is not invincible as long as Orochi is still alive.

Orochi's skills and damage
Orochi has a devastating AoE attack called Grand Earthquake that will only ever be used once per fight. To counter this, you should put out your weakest units first, letting them act as human shields for your main characters. There is no apparent relationship between when Orochi uses this move and the strength of the commanders that you field. It appears that Orochi has a 40% chance of using this skill on any given move.

Grand Earthquake's damage ratio is set to 2000%, so it will kill most characters. However, it is technically possible to survive. It is considered physical damage, so effects like a DEF buff will give 30% damage reduction and footsoldier's guards will give 50%. Items like the Blue Seal Case should also be effective, as are Guard Shikigamis or the Protection Paper item. The exact formula for the skill is:


 * 7 * max(5, min((50-defender level/2), 30 + ((50-defender level/2) - 30) / 2) * 2000
 * Multiply that number by 0.7 if your commander has a DEF buff
 * Apply item effects, such as multiplying by 0.7 if your commander has the Blue Seal Case or subtracting 100 damage if they have the Guts Armor, etc
 * Half the damage if your unit is guarding.

His normal attack, Orochi Beam, has a similar base damage, but with a different multiplier and is penetrating instead of AoE. You might want to consider putting a gap in your back row, so that Orochi will sometimes only hit exactly one commander. The damage formula is:
 * 7 * max(5, min((50-defender level/2), 30 + ((50-defender level/2) 30) / 2) * 400
 * This is affected by all the same modifiers as the above move
 * However, if your commander would not be killed by this move, and is above level 40, then this attack's damage will be adjusted by a completely different formula, overriding the previous damage:
 * 3/4 of your commander's Max HP + a random number between 1 and 1/4 of your commander's max HP. This damage cannot be modified by buffs or items or guarding.
 * Note that if the damage from the first formula was nullified completely, such as by using a Guard Shikigami, then the second formula will not be used.

Strategies against Orochi
Unit choice tips: Item distribution tips: Speed tips: Other tips:
 * Boost Diviner speed for faster Guard Shikigami.
 * Tacticians are free buffs if they start the fight.
 * Monks help (Convert Action).
 * Orime needs to be on the front row (she has a sword, not a shuriken).
 * You can't use Fuuka.
 * Orochi will one-shot anyone level 40 or less. We don't know if Guts Armor helps. Put it on someone high level but not great at taking damage.
 * Protection Paper's holder must start the fight for it to work.
 * Put the Ryuuguu Sword and Oiuchi Fang on units with many actions. It is bonus damage on each move.
 * Mysterious Marasame, Poison Dagger, etc are percentage boosts; They go on high level characters (e.g. Kenshin/Masamune/Orime).
 * Mouri's Punch ignores items?
 * Use Worker Bee.
 * Use the Strange Quick Bug.
 * Ninjas with 7 speed, Muskets with 8, and Cavalry with 9 can instantly act upon swap-in and instantly move again after swapping a unit, allowing them to infinitely hunt for whoever you need.
 * These fast units will lose this cheat after they've been targeted by a Monk's Convert Action because that move's side effect is equivalent to reducing a unit's speed stat by 3 for the remainder of the battle.
 * With enough fast units you can get lots of moves in before Orochi's. If such a fast unit switches somebody else in for another such unit, the new unit gets a turn before the one who switched them in (but the switcher still loses no time from doing the switch), so you can keep switching between them and using all their moves up before Orochi gets any moves.
 * Actions but not HP are healed before the Orochi fight. Exploit this with Miko/Sill healing.
 * YouTube demonstrations of similar tactics: https://youtu.be/ztuvYGvZE_k and https://youtu.be/kB0GAnOEI8I
 * Be aware of how the fight works.

! rowspan=3| (Orochi) Boss Battle ! Right ! Mid 9999 HP || 9999 HP || 9999 HP || 9999 HP || ! Left
 * colspan=17|
 * Orochi Minion || Orochi Minion
 * Orochi || Orochi Minion
 * Lv 50
 * Lv 50
 * Lv 50
 * Lv 50
 * Orochi Minion || Orochi Minion
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }

Tomb of Sekimei セキメイの墓

 * Location: Saitama (さいたま)
 * Floors: 7+1 (Normal Difficulty) 12+1 (1 Star+) Boss battle with Sekimei)
 * Requires: Enter and proceed in Nanjo Ran's Route
 * Does not give a normal final drop upon clearing the dungeon
 * Bonus Loot: Win the Boss Battle and you've beaten Nanjo Ran's Route! The Loot is the unlocking of the Houjou Family 2nd game bonus.
 * Boss Info: Sekimei is a huge adorning Golden spiked armor.
 * Before the battle, all action fans are restored. Wounded characters are not healed, however.
 * His size grants him extensive reach, making all his attacks long range
 * His single attack will remove one random buff from his target
 * While his HP is low (compared to the other Bosses) and his attack power is only average, all his other stats are way over the top. With his defense and intelligence, you'll find your units dealing half of what they normally do, and with his speed, he might have 2-3 turns before all but your fastest units get theirs.

! rowspan=3| セキメイ(Sekimei) Boss Battle ! Right ! Mid ! Left
 * colspan=17|
 * Red Ogre || Blue Ogre
 * Red Ogre || Sekimei
 * || Lv 80 2310 HP
 * || Lv 80 2310 HP
 * || Lv 80 2310 HP
 * || Lv 80 2310 HP
 * Red Ogre || Blue Ogre
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }