Sengoku Rance: First game maximum bonuses and triple digit points

Sengoku Rance: First game maximum bonuses and triple digit points
The aim of this guide is to help somebody on their first playthrough of a new copy of the game to get as many points as they can for spending on 2nd playthrough bonuses, as well as unlocking some powerful bonuses and items to spend those points on.

NOTE: this guide can also work perfectly fine for the most part if you are on your second game with only a few points, just adjust what you do slightly accordingly. I would recommend either picking Battle Permits, +3 national power, one or two useful items, or Elina for your small bonus.

The goals, in order of importance, are as follows: This guide will use names from the new (Mangagamer) translation and is roughly intended so that players both new and old can get into it. Go at it as intensely as your skill level will allow and as you want to. If you want to take this guide casually you can do so and will likely score somewhere around 100 points for your first game, or you can push yourself to the limit and perhaps even break the 150 points barrier, it is entirely up to you how seriously you wish to take this first run.
 * To unlock the Dokuganryu units 2nd game bonus.
 * To unlock every single possible 2nd game item that can be obtained in a first run.
 * To put the player in a good spot for unlocking more on their 2nd playthrough.
 * To get as many points as possible, for spending on those bonuses.
 * To do as many character clears and unlock as many CGs as reasonably possible.

This will not be strictly on rails and instead will start with some specific actions to take, before being broken up into sections outlining the goals to achieve around those points of the game.

This guide also assumes you will try to go for the roughly optimal (for this strategy) set of commanders by the end, as these are the ones that can both be character cleared and given end game points with the fewest extra actions and affection up items except for the last three, while still being somewhat useful. This list is in roughly the expected order you might end up recruiting them in.

Important commanders to recruit and keep: 1: Rance 2: Ranmaru 3: Suzume 4: Kyoko Kuge 5: Natori 6: Urza 7: Nozomi Okita 8: Magic 9: Kanami Kentou 10: Yuzumi Yuzuhara 11: Shigehiko Tanegashima 12: Maria 13: Leila 14: Ryouma Sakamoto 15: Gon 16: Kiku Kikkawa 17: Masamune Dokuganryu 18: Kentarou Ogawa 19: Souun Houjou 20: Genri xx: (Optional) Ikkyu

21: Kenshin Uesugi 22: Omachi 23: Kouhime

Important prisoners to keep safely in your prison until close to the end of the game: Ikkyu (If not recruited earlier) Isroku Yamamoto Tadatsugu Sakai Torako Yoshikage Asakura One or more younger female generic units with no passive skill, with an extra one for each commander you miss from either of the lists. If you're a new player missing a couple, hoard extra just to be sure.

Important commanders to recruit or keep around for a while, who you will be losing or dismissing along the way before the end: 1: Katsuie Shibata - (Until Ranmaru is character cleared and the Umeda Underground Mall dungeon is found and beaten) 2: Fuuka Tamagushi - (Until Orochi is beaten) 3: Rizna - (Until Magic joins) 4: Ran Nanjou - (To unlock a dungeon and possibly obtain Souun ) 5: Kazemaru Akashi - (Until Nogiku is captured. Character Clear him and then dismiss him once you have Nogiku if space is needed) 6: Nogiku - (Until their family bonus is unlocked) 7: Noir - (See Nogiku) 8: Orime - (See Nogiku) 9: Seigan - (Until Genri is recruited and (optional) he is character cleared) For any commander not listed anywhere above: do whatever you like with them but they will have to be dismissed eventually.

DO NOT: 1: Dismiss any of the commanders from the first list, or recruit any of the commanders prisoners from the second list until specified by the walkthrough. Doing so will likely cause you to lose points from either wasted turns or characters not being cleared, etc.

2: Let your prison fill up too much, or release prisoners in groups of anything other than multiples of 5. the capture rate for commanders drops if the prison has 20 or more commanders in it, and can drop to zero when over 25 prisoners. As for releasing prisoners, each group of 5 released gives a Happiness Pokkur and you'll want all the ones you can get, so release groups of 5 useless prisoners whenever you can.

3: Let anyone you're at war with take an entire province from you. It doesn't matter if they take all but the last part of it, but try to avoid them taking it completely.

4: Let anyone important die, try to avoid any of your own commanders dying at all if possible and reload if one of them is killed.

Remember to: 1: Be very careful never to pick anything other than "Ending Points" for the passive skill on any of the important commanders, it can only be selected for units who do not have any passive skill and cannot replace any existing passive! Additionally, with three exceptions that the guide will mention when they happen, always pick "Ending Points" as the first Power Up skill for any of the commanders from the Important commanders and important prisoners lists.

2: Use all your Happiness Pokkurs on Rance, use Speed Textbooks along with other books on him to get his stats up, to try and eventually get his speed up to 9 and his actions up to at least 4. Only use his Relationship bonus on a stat if it is exactly 6, only use the satisfaction bonus "Rance: Make All Troops Elite" if his four main stats are all at least 6 and pick up the "Rance: Rance Attack" satisfaction bonus when you get the chance, all of this will help you a lot in the long run.

3: Try to always bring Rance to the final battle for each territory, "fuck 300 girls" is one of the objectives for extra points and you can get a semi-random amount added to Rance's Sex Diary every time he is present for the final fight for a province, and one per female commander captured during any battle he is present for.

4: Try to always reset for +4 or at least +3 affection up items, you get randomly given one of the four types every time you win your 4th army battle so strongly consider resetting that battle if you don't get one. Additionally, the next territory you take for any province's non-final territory on any turn that ends with a 6 (turn 6, 16, 26, etc. Rolls over to the next turn if you don't take one) will give you one of the four stat textbooks randomly, this is the only reliable way in the game to get Speed Textbooks so try to always reset for one if possible. Recruiting a few troops for Rance seems to change the RNG for which textbook drops.

5: For any battle with commanders that can be captured, try to always capture one or two of them if possible. Without using the Mercy Charge attack, it is impossible to capture more than two commanders per battle. Mercy Charge can break this limit. You won't be able to capture commanders before turn 5 while following this guide.

6: Don't bother visiting the Item Shop in Ise until you have a minimum of 83 (or 106) Oni Bones in your inventory. Visiting the shop takes one action fan and the price increases with each purchase, so this lets you do all your shopping with only one trip.

7: Try to keep at least one war going most of the time until the late game. Usually this will be the Tenshi Sect being ignored in the background, but generally try to always keep progressing and start the next war as soon as the previous one has finished.

8: Fighting battles is good: free troops, affection points, and affection items every few battles. If you end the turn and the enemy doesn't attack consider reloading until they do, unless you don't have any units available of course.

9: If 'Assassinate' never seems to work for you in an important battle, the only way to reset the RNG for it is to reload the previous turn and progress back there.

Obtaining the 3rd action and the early turns
Turn 1: 1. (Owari) Dango Princess: Kouhime 2. (Owari) Talent Search: Invite Fuuka Tamagushi (Miko)

Turn 2: 1. (Ise) Hara Clan: Declare War - (Use Maeda Toshiie and Akechi Mitsuhide) ​2. (Ise) Invade territory 1 of Ise(just Rance and one other person should be enough) ​Reload until you get counterattacked when ending a turn to make it so you will get an affection up item next turn.

Turn 3: Auto H event with Sill, Satisfaction 0+5 = 5

Tip: If you want some extra grinding for efficiency you can do, try to let Rance get the happiness bonus for any battle he participates in. You can save a valuable affection up item if he reaches 7 affection by turn 26.

1. (Ise) Invade territory 2 of Ise 2. (Ise) Invade territory 3 of Ise Make sure to reset if you don't get a +4 or +3 affection up item. Save the game before ending the turn. If the Ashikaga Clan makes a demand of you, either reload and try again or pay them their protection money(you are unlikely to have units to defend with next turn if they attack) also ideally you'd also get counterattacked at Ise.

Turn 4: Recruit troops for Ranmaru to bring her up to 400 and troops for Katsuie until 500. Use Rance, Katsuie and Ranmaru in the front row, with Niwa(or Fuuka though the fight is harder with her) in the back row.

1. (Ise) Invade territory 4 of Ise - Conquered. Satisfaction 5+5 = 10 Recruit Shouji Hara using your remaining 3 commanders(select Forces or Items if Prison is still greyed out). 2. (Owari) Rance's Satisfaction Bonus - Summon Forces From a Foreign Nation (Zeth) Save & reset until the Ashikaga House demands money, refuse it to start a war. If they never demand money, you will have to reload your save from the end of turn 3 and redo turn 4.

Turn 5: If you see Ikkyu in battle, try hard to capture him. The next six turns are by far your best chance for this, if you fail it becomes much harder to do. Once captured, leave him in your prison until near the end of the game, or this guide says otherwise.

Tip: consider letting one unit from each of these two battles survive with 60%+ troops remaining, so they have enough units left for one more fight on their final turn. 1. (Viper Oil Field) Invade territory 1 of Viper Oil Field 2. (Viper Oil Field) Invade territory 2 of Viper Oil Field

Turn 6: Auto H event with Suzume, Satisfaction 10+5 = 15

If you're having trouble, recruit troops for Ranmaru until she has 450 total and 500 for Niwa. Don't forget to bring Rance, but save Toshie, Fuuka and Shouji for defense. 1. (Viper Oil Field) Invade territory 3 of Viper Oil Field - Conquered. Satisfaction 15+3 = 18 2. (Yamatai) Ask 3G about Saucy Rumors in Yamatai

Turn 7: Suzume joins

Tip: If Suzume gains two affection points from battle by turn 11, you can save one affection up item.

Make sure to knock out Isroku Yamamoto's unit in battle, she cannot be captured until you have seen her retreat cutscene. She prevents you using Rance against Ashikaga Clan at all until you have captured her. Once captured, leave her in your prison until near the end of the game until this guide tells you to recruit her. 1. (Kyo) Invade territory 1 of Kyo 2. (Yamatai) Sex With Mikos at the Miko Estate - H scene. Satisfaction 18+5 = 23

Turn 8: Try to make sure Isroku is captured before turn 10, so you can use Rance for the last fight. Also your last few chances to reliably get Ikkyu, if you haven't done so.

1. (Kyo) Invade territory 2 of Kyo 2. (Owari) Genius Kunoichi: Suzume

Turn 9: 1. (Yamatai) Sex With Mikos at the Miko Estate - Satisfaction 23+1 = 24 2. (Owari) Genius Kunoichi: Suzume - H scene. Satisfaction 24+5 = 29

Turn 10: Rizna joins

Use Ranmaru, Katsuie, Niwa and Fuuka. If you managed to capture Isroku before now, buy 20 to 50 troops for Rance and use him in this battle as well, if you couldn't capture her then use Suzume instead of Rance.

1. (Kyo) Invade territory 3 of Kyo - Conquered. Satisfaction 29+5 = 34 2. (Kyo) Talent Search: Invite Kyoko Kuge (Samurai) Kyoko is most likely going to be your best commander for capturing other commanders, Mercy Charge guarantees you will capture the unit it hits as long as you knock it out with any unit before the end of the battle.

Tip: consider keeping Choushin Ashikaga in your prison until after the 5th gourd has broken, at that point you can recruit him and steal the Imperial Ring by talking to him for one action, which is a very nice item if you want it.

Turn 11: If possible, try to capture Goemon during this war with the Miko union. He is very annoying to have as an opponent, and he would be useful to you in multiple ways. Keep him around until after Orochi if you get him. Use affection up items to get Suzume to 7/7 affection.

Use Mitsuhide, Maeda, Niwa, Hara and Suzume to declare war. 1. (Yamatai) Miko Union: Declare War 2 (Owari) Genius Kunoichi: Suzume - Power Up, Obtain skill 'Ending Points'.

Turn 12: 1. (Yamatai) Invade territory 1 of Yamatai 2. (Owari) Genius Kunoichi: Suzume - H scene. Satisfaction 34+5 = 39

Turn 13: Use Katsuie, Kyoko and Rizna. If Goemon is present, use Mercy Charge to capture him. If you're having difficulty, add in Rance and Fuuka as needed.

1. (Yamatai) Invade territory 2 of Yamatai 2. (Kyo) Search for Dungeon - Kachi-Kachi Cave (Use Suzume) If you have managed to capture Goemon, use Toshie, Mitsuhide, Niwa and Hara to recruit him. It is possible for Ranmaru alone to win the defence fight, but use everyone you have left.

Turn 14: Use Rance plus your best commanders for this fight.

1. (Yamatai) Invade territory 3 of Yamatai - Conquered. - Satisfaction 39+5 = 44 For Rance's Powerup, choose Level +2, or Samurai Attack 2. Recruit Natori with whoever you have left. 2. (Yamatai) Bring Sill to the Miko Estate - H scene. Satisfaction 44+5 = 49

Turn 15: Tip: In the dungeon, switch out Suzume before completing the second or third floors in order to prevent a cutscene playing that would skip your item drop for that floor.

Tip: Every dungeon has two non-Oni Bone items assigned to it at the start of the game. Assuming you are not in a miniquest to find other important items from a dungeon, you can reset your game to try and get both of them if you don't find them before the final floor. Additionally, the first floor can give a cutscene you should try to get for getting more satisfaction later from Sill, see here for additional details.

1. (Kyo) Kachi-Kachi Cave - reach final floor. Satisfaction 49+1 = 50 2. (Owari) Rance's Satisfaction Bonus - More Actions Per Turn

(Optional:) Recruit any one commander that isn't on the "important prisoners" list this turn to help you in the future. Himiko is probably the best option if you caught her, somebody with 6 Negotiation or more if you have the option, or a strong ninja if you didn't capture Goemon.

Turn 16: 1. (Mikawa) Tokugawa Clan: Declare War - (Toshiie, Mitsuhide, plus either archer) 2. (Mikawa) Invade territory 1 of Mikawa ​​​​3. (Owari) Devise Ryugu Castle Plan With Suzume

Turn 17: 1. (Kyo) Kachi-Kachi Cave: Explore Again - Satisfaction 50+5 = 55 Save Kyoko plus your stronger units for the defence. 2. (Mikawa) Invade territory 2 of Mikawa 3. (Owari) I Should Steal From Tenshiists Too

Tip: Until the Tokugawa are conquered or vassalized, their Tanuki commanders will now fight you in their army battles. It is highly recommended that you use Kyoko's Mercy charge on them and Natori's Miko Storm 2 to weaken them. Ieyasu himself cannot be captured, but other than him you should treat the rest of them as if they're Pokemon.

DISCLAIMER: If you want maximum points and don't care about bonuses, stop following the guide to the letter exactly here. If you do want all bonuses, carry on.

Turn 18: 1. (Owari) Rance's Satisfaction Bonus - Rance: Rance Attack 2. (Owari) Amnesiac Miko: Fuuka Tamagushi 3. (Owari) Amnesiac Miko: Fuuka Tamagushi - 55+5 = 60

Warning: The Tokugawa may attack you three times in a row tonight, plan ahead. The only important one to capture is Tadatsugu Sakai, leave him in prison if you get him.

Turn 19: 1. (Owari) Rance's Satisfaction Bonus - Summon Forces From a Foreign Nation (Zeth) 2. (Viper Oil Field) Treasure: Murasame - (Requires either Goemon or Himiko to oneshot, otherwise search for a dungeon in Ise instead and do this another time.) 3. (Owari) Amnesiac Miko: Fuuka Tamagushi

Consider hiring one of the Tanuki other than Tadatsugu Sakai, if you have spare national power.

Turn 20: 1. (Owari) Amnesiac Miko: Fuuka Tamagushi 2. (Yamatai) Miko of Death: Natori 3. (Owari) Owari's Fearsome Fighter: Ranmaru

Ignore the Hannies moving through Owari.

Deploy both Ranmaru and Katsuie together in the defensive battle.

Turn 21: 1. (Mikawa) Tokugawa Clan: Demand Surrender (Partial) 2. (Mikawa) Tokugawa Clan: Demand Surrender - If you had the 30 Negotiation, search for a Dungeon instead. 3. (Mikawa) Abuse Ieyasu Tokugawa

Turn 22: 1. (Kyo) Investigate Shinsengumi 2. (Mikawa) Steal Ieyasu Tokugawa's Family Treasure 3. (Tokaido) Imagawa Clan: Declare War

Turn 23:

Note: Hannies are immune to Rizna's magic.

1. (Tokaido) Invade territory 1 of Tokaido 2. (Tokaido) Invade territory 2 of Tokaido 3. (Tokaido) Hear About Hannies' Secret

Turn 24:

1. (Tokaido) *Secret Meeting With Yoshimoto Imagawa* - pick 'Let's Not' 2. (Tokaido) Invade territory 3 of Tokaido - Conquered. Satisfaction 60+5 = 65 3. (Mikawa) Shining Goddess: Princess Kaguya

Turn 25: Urza joins 1. (Owari) Rance's Satisfaction Bonus - Summon Forces From a Foreign Nation (Zeth) 2. (Maso) Declare War: Uesugi Clan 3. (Edo) Declare War: Houjou Clan

Tip: You can win two of the three defences fairly easily, simply use Rance alone to defend against Kenshin and if she was present you automatically win the battle. The Tenshi Sect can most likely be defended against with just Katsuie protecting Rizna. Houjou would most likely decimate the few units you have left, so ignore them.

Turn 26 start - Auto H event with Sill, Satisfaction 65+5 = 70

Romance of the Three Kingdoms (AKA the Uesugi / Houjou / Tenshiism war)
From this point onwards how quickly you progress is entirely up to you, but the faster you move and harder you push yourself to achieve these goals, the higher your final score will be in the end and the more points you will earn.

Tip: Consider using an affection up item on Rance to bring him up to 7 affection if he wasn't already there, at the start of turns 27, 28, 29 and 33 he will get a start of turn event involving Sill which either give him +1 affection, or a Power Up if he was already at 7 affection. If you use affection items on him each time, this can mean four powerups. The most important bonuses to choose are Speed +1 (If it was at exactly 6 from Speed Textbooks) and Level +2 to help with many difficult commander battles in this run.

For now, simply defend against Houjou and the Tenshi Sect, try to steal as many commanders as you can from them, beware of Ran once you get a cutscene showing her summoning Suzaku for the first time as she will obliterate you in battle. Once you get a cutscene with Souun telling her not to use it any more, try to capture her. The Tenshi sect riots can be fought off with almost any single unit on its own, so simply leave one unit available for fighting off the riot.

You big ongoing goal in the back of your mind should be to get 160 satisfaction. This guide will take you through most of it but keep this in mind and if you get close then feel free to rush for the last bit. Once you have it, obtain your 4th action per turn.

Try to get a Power Up on Urza and choose "Precision Shot" when you get the chance, it makes her one of the best commanders in the game. Your first goal should be to crush Uesugi as fast as possible, you want to take Maso as fast as you dare and then one territory of Sado which triggers a night attack and the usurping of the clan by Kenshin's uncle. Reject the offer of the man who offers you peace between Uesugi and Oda, and instead crush Sado in two turns maximum. Add Kenshin Uesugi and Ai Naoe to your roster.

Somewhere around this point, Magic will join you on turn 31. Call for reinforcements from Leazas and again as soon as the next one comes while also spending 1 action per turn working on Magic's character clear whenever you can. Magic is a decent commander with White Destruction Beam, feel free to pick the move up. If she gains 3 affection points from battles, you can save an affection up item from the last step.

Nozomi Okita should be available to recruit soon in Kyo after the start of turn event in the restaurant, hire her when you get a spare action and character clear her a little over time. Once you have beaten Uesugi, Torako will get hired by a random clan you are at war with eventually and you can see this in the ticker between turns. When somebody hires her, make sure to try and capture her. Leave her in your prison once captured.

The next goal is to bully Houjou for a bit, you don't not want to finish them off yet but you do want to weaken them a lot. The best way to do this is to take Saitama from them, which can be done in two turns. By this point the cutscene where Souun orders Ran not to use Suzaku any more should have played, so try to make sure you capture Ran from then on as soon as you can. Whenever she is captured leave her in your prison for now, Souun will get trapped in a dungeon at which point Daidouji Komatsu will also become capturable. Leave her in your prison for +5 sat after a while.

Without its strongest commanders Houjou is no longer any threat and it's time to cut the Tenshi Sect down to size without finishing them off. Simply take Naniwa in two turns and leave them with Mikan while continuing to steal all their commanders. If you have managed to capture Ran by this point, take Edo from the Houjou as well.

Now, spend a few turns licking your wounds, doing more character clears, calling for more reinforcements from Leazas, collecting items from searches on the world map (red battle events can sometimes also give one), unlocking dungeons, clearing important characters, etc but don't do dungeons. You are waiting for the Akashi clan to do a few cutscenes and the option to go to war with them to appear.

Letting the dominoes fall
To prevent Mouri from ruining your upcoming plans, declare war on both the Akashi and Tanegashima Clans on the same turn and take one territory from the Akashi Clan to trigger further events with them.

While the Akashi three scripted losses (for you) events are playing in the background, try to take over the Tanegashima Clan in two turns in you can. Recruit Yuzumi Yuzuhara and Shigehiko Tanegashima, Be slowly working on their character clears as you carry on. Beware: if Maria has joined you around now or before (she should have) then be careful while working on her character clear. Make sure you do not meet Maria's requirements for Kasumi and accidentally recruit her as she is being saved for the end. If Kasumi gets recruited, reload your save and don't do that again. Don't forget to call for the last Leazas reinforcement.

By now the event where the Akashi Clan's Kazemaru Akashi releases the 4th Nuhe into the wild to be free, the one named Hibachi, should have played or be close to playing. Do your best to take over some of their territory but don't conquer them until that cutscene event has happened. Once it has happened, finish conquering them and recruit Kazemaru Akashi to your commanders. Start working quickly on his character clear, you will need it very soon.

Check out Oshu and investigate the Dokuganryu Clan, after an investigation you can fight the Shogun and unlock the option to go to war with the Dokuganryu Clan. Start a war with them and chip away at Oshu's territory as fast as you dare, make certain to knock out each of Masamune's four wives in their introduction battles to capture them. Recruit Nogiku, Noir and Orime as soon as you get them to have an easier time.

NOTE: capturing the first wife Nogiku requires that you have completed at least the first 4 steps of Kazemaru Akashi's character clear so you had best hurry up with that.

Once you've completely taken over Oshu and have recruited three of the wives and Omachi has turned into a stone, declare war on the Mouri and just wait for 5 turns. While waiting and defending against attacks from several different sides, keep unlocking dungeons, collecting various items from the map, doing character clear events (Yuzumi Yuzuhara is the most important one to work on, followed by Shigehiko Tanegashima) and generally making yourself useful while you wait.

After about 5 turns of waiting, the Takuga Clan should declare war on you and the Mouri Clan should get bored and offer you an all-out battle. Take the offer for the all-out battle and win that to instantly gain control of Izumo, after which you should go and start taking Chuu-earth from Takuga. After Mouri's all-out battle, Kiku Kikkawa is now capturable in battle. Capture her the first chance you get and start working on her character clear in your free time.

Tip: If you have Kiku Kikkawa and the Guts Armor then give it to her and use Leaves Hiding on the first turn when defending, she can solo win any defensive battle where the odds are not heavily stacked against her by using this strategy!

Finally, take over Shikokalamity and conquer Takuga. Recruit both Ryouma Sakamoto and Gon, then slowly work on their character clears as you go back to beating up Mouri and take Redhelm from them. Mouri should now be left with only one territory which is Battleship Nagato, don't finish them off.

Turn 60 should be coming up sometime soon if things are going okay, make absolutely sure to do the funfair visits in Owari on turns 63, 67, 71 and 75 (with Kouhime if she's joined yet) as each one is worth an extra 3 points.

Cleaning up the chaff
A note about enforcing taxation : each time you enforce one, Rance adds a random number of girls to his sex diary between 1 and 6 and gains one of the stat textbooks (the order they come in is sequential, you don't have to reset for a specific one). Spend a few turns now doing taxations on anywhere that would give 5000 gold and make sure to reset until Rance gets at least 4 women added to his diary from each one, +5 and above is very rare. Once you have enough textbooks from this to get Rance's stats all up to 6, stop doing taxations for now and use satisfaction bonuses to give Rance all elite troops and consider also giving him one or both extra actions as well.

Time to get back to attacking the Dokuganryu Clan, you should have beaten all 4 wives and recruited 3 of them by now, so start taking Ezo as fast as you can. Once Ezo is down to the last territory, you should be able to beat the commander battle after the last army battle if you've been carefully following this guide and beefing Rance's level up along the way. If you're struggling, spend an action asking Masamune's wives what his weakness is and try to conquer them again until you can win both battles.

Make sure that you have two spaces in your commander list as Masamune will soon come to join you as a start of turn event. Once he joins, character clear him as soon as you possibly can with another open space in your commander list, as he will give you Omachi who is quite easily the single best commander in the entire game. Declare war on the Azai-Asakura clan, you will lose the first territory you take over to a scripted event with pandas but you can quickly and easily conquer them after that. Leave Yoshikage Asakura in your prison and don't recruit Hakkindasan yet.

Go ahead and finally crush the remains of the Tenshi sect, they've served their purpose at this point. Take over the first two territories of Kazusa 2000 from the Houjou so that all they have left is their final castle in Kazusa 2000. If you've not gotten the Tange Dog (Item #50) item yet, do the rumours for the human faced dog plus the search event in Houjou's old territory, give the Tange Dog to Omachi to make your life easier. About now it should be safe to recruit Ran if you managed to capture her earlier.

Now you have a choice to make: You need to beat Takeda very soon and you won't have the time to mess about with them, so you need to be able to beat their last fight quickly and it's a very hard one. If you've followed the guide to this point you should be completely capable of beating Takeda's last fight by using Omachi and your most elite force of commanders. If you suck however, then you can optionally recruit Ikkyu now who can cheese the fight for you, but it'll cause you some problems later.

Declare war on the Takeda and quickly take Kairapace. If you're near but not at 160 satisfaction by now, search for and conquer the Shell Heap dungeon for a whole bunch of Satisfaction to get your 4th action per turn as you should be close. The Tokugawa should have re-declared war on you, go ahead and quickly conquer them for good this time and capture Tadatsugu Sakai if you failed to do so the first time around, leave him in prison if you get him.

At this point the only wars you should still have are Mouri with only Battleship Nagato left, Takeda with only Shinano left, and Houjou with only the last territory of Kazusa 2000 left, and you should have all of your actions available for the turn.

Go ahead and finish crushing Takeda before they can ready their war machine. The 5th gourd will break and unavoidable events will happen, but make sure to have only one fan left before you do the "Search full force for Kouhime" mandatory story event as the remainder will be wasted after you do the event.

Once you have some breathing space from the plot events and can do things again, Conquer Houjou's last territory, then use your next two actions talking to Ran in order to unlock the dungeon in the Viper Oil Field. If you have a 4th fan, go ahead and clear the dungeon now to start Souun's recruitment. Declare war on Iga and crush them within two turns with Suzume as part of the team for the last fight, then go ahead and take all but the last part of Mouri's territory. Make sure to free up 4 spaces in your commander list (don't fire Goemon / your generic ninja if you still have them), with a 5th once Seigan joins you, as you have quite a few commanders who will be automatically joining you soon.

The grind for Orochi
You should now have a few turns to yourself to work on character clears, searching for dungeons , obtaining more second game items from the map and doing satisfaction bonuses for the three items that can only be obtained from there. The most important characters to work on their clear conditions are Seigan and any from the important commander list that have Sill listed as being required for their character clear.

Once Kentarou joins, have a quick look back at the important commanders list and make sure you have everyone from it or they are going to be joining soon. You should hopefully have Goemon or a generic Ninja still, and if not then use Orime for this. Get your chosen ninja to 7 affection and choose the passive skill "Dungeon Scouter" for their Power Up bonus.

When the Demon army appears, wipe out the last of Mouri and make certain you still have a few generic female commanders with no passive skill in your prison, with an extra one for each important prisoner you are missing. Remove any battle permits you have been using as you will lose the permits if anyone auto attacks the 4 African areas.

Work on Natori and Fuuka's character clears up until Natori opens Orochi's Cave in step 6 of her character clear, as well as Okita's character clear up to needing the Ero-Candle, while systematically knocking over one or two dungeons per turn. While this is going on, do all three of Kentarou's adventures (Maso, Yamato, Shikokalamity, +5 levels each) grab the Speed & Action Textbook 2s from Ezo and give them to Rance, character clear Seigan if you want 5 free levels on Rance and do both sets of Oni in Shikokalamity. Leave Road to Hades, Orochi's Cave and any one other dungeon alone.

Once you've done all that stuff your commanders should mostly be at their level caps now, except perhaps for Rance with a level in the 80s, Kentarou, Urza and Magic. Make sure you do Natori's optional purple event after opening Orochi's Cave. Do the Road to Hades dungeon in Izumo, you should be fine with all of this preparation and you'll get the Emperor's Sword from the 8th floor if you've done everything correctly. After the dungeon, give the sword to Kenshin and do the other leftover dungeon.

Once you're ready, save your game with all your commanders fresh and raring to go, and dive into Orochi's Cave. You get all of your action points fully restored after the 20th floor so don't worry about those, but you don't get your health restored. I strongly recommend you use a commander pattern of X X  X X X and leave the back row with one empty spot once you reach Orochi himself. Try to kill off the Orochi Girls first, but this may take a few attempts while you learn how the fight typically goes anyway. With these commanders and such high levels it hopefully shouldn't be too difficult for you.

With Orochi defeated, make sure to character clear anyone who needs Sill for their clears and make absolutely sure to talk to Kentarou when Miki goes missing. Make absolutely sure you've done every dungeon and picked up every item from the overworld map that can carry over to a second game, see the item list to make sure you have everything and go shopping in Ise for anything you're missing + the item that gives a unit +5000 troops (item #73) if you have enough Oni Bones.

Go ahead and take over Cairo now, when Gigai appears use Souun to kill him or if you don't have him for some reason then sacrifice any commander who isn't on the important list, so you can plan for next time to remove him. Once Cairo is taken over, also take exactly one territory of Morocco. Do NOT go further.

The final cleanup
Having reached this point, do Enforced Taxation if you're still not up to 300 girls in Rance's Sex Diary until you reach 300 and kick all of your commanders that are not on the "Important Commanders" list, which if you've done everything perfectly up until now should leave you on 23/30 commanders. If you recruited Ikkyu earlier then fire Kenshin as well. Recruit Isroku from your prison and do her purple events until she brings in her two subordinates: Yamaguchi Tamon (Isroku reinforcement) Inoue Shigeyoshi (Isroku reinforcement)

Be warned, they will only join you if you have 6 commander slots free.

Fire Isroku once you have them and talk to Maria to get Kasumi. This should leave you on 26/30 commanders. Recruit Torako, Yoshikage Asakura, Ikkyu and one generic female commander with no passive to fill up your roster. Use the "Relationship With All Commanders +3" satisfaction bonus as little as needed while getting everyone who doesn't have it (including Rance) "Ending Points" as their Power Up, proceeding with the character clear events for everyone until you need to use another satisfaction bonus, but IGNORE Omachi, Kenshin and Kouhime.

Repeat this while using affection up item for the harder clears like the generic commander and Kanami, but make sure to save two Teacups (+4) and two scrolls (+3), or just save the two teacups and hold off on using the last "Relationship With All Commanders +3" satisfaction as long as possible.

Once you're sorted there and almost all of your commanders have been cleared with Ending Points, take the rest of Morocco and fire both Kenshin and Omachi. Recruit Hakkindasan from Texas and Tadatsugu Sakai from your prison, then talk to both of them once. Give somebody the +5000 troops item and/or any +1000 troops items you got from the shops and spend all of your gold recruiting the cheapest troops until you've hit 30,000 troops total. Use your teacups / scrolls on Hakkindasan and Tadatsugu Sakai or your teacups and the last satisfaction bonus you were saving, do their character clears along with any you had left over.

Have a quick look over everything - you should have 28 characters cleared, 29 characters with "Ending Points" as their passive skill, 300 girls fucked, Orochi slain, 30,000 troops and the Youkai King defeated. You should also have every item from all the available dungeons as well as overworld items that can be transferred to a second game (look for the 2nd tag on the wiki's item page.), double check the list to make sure you're not missing anything. List of objectives.

Attack Tenma Bridge to Stop Stone Geezer, win the game.

Second game onwards
So you've done all of this and gotten lots of points and bonuses, what's next?

I would recommend making your next run one with the goal being to unlock the Takeda and Mouri house bonuses, along with any remaining second game items you're still missing. The Dokuganryuu house bonus is perfect for achieving all of this, I typically do this on a 1 star difficulty Isroku route run and try to also get a whole host of one-off character clears like Akihime and Yukihime done, but it's up to you which you choose and how you go about it.

With the Takeda and Mouri house bonuses in hand, you would be in perfect position for doing a 2 star Ran route playthrough, as those two houses without any other house bonus can easily let you get well over 200 points simply by following the same sort of general pattern as this guide takes you through.

Afterthoughts
There's plenty of ways to improve this guide or whatever else, but I say "hell no" to being the one to do it, I've spent enough time on it already. I'm pretty confident that the first 15 turns are effectively maxed out, but there's definitely room for improvement later especially if you can get the war with Togugawa started earlier so the Hannies make their trip earlier, and if you can take two territories earlier from them then they'll start using the Tankui commanders that much earlier. Various things like that for efficiency.

Anyone who wants to do the research and properly improve upon any part of this guide is welcome to do so. I'd also love to see pictures and hear stories of your playthrough over in /haniho/.