Rance Quest:Playable Characters

Each skill has limited usage count, which is restored after each quest. For example, Rance Attack is initially restricted to one-time use per quest. Furthermore, there are four skill types:  offensive skills , that target the enemies for inflicting damage and/or various hindrances such as status problems and debuffs,  supportive skills , that are used on allies for recovery and buffs etc., and  passive skills  that are always active when equipped (or give 50% of the effect if learned but not equipped), and finally, there are "always active" skills that, once learned, are always in full effect without the need to equip it into a skill slot. Skills mentioned in bold are very important/rare skills, sometimes unique to that character.

Also, each character, like in previous Rance games, has level cap (except Rance himself), which may later be raised (very likely by H-ing in case of girls and specific events in case of men, just like in Rance 6).

Rance Quest divides various playable characters in 8 distinct classes. In this article, characters are sorted according to these classes.

NOTE: Each character's level stats are mentioned in the following format: Starting Level/Initial Level Cap. It may be noted that the maximum possible level of a character is 999 (for all characters).

NOTE: The Damage Multiplier/Bonus column represents two values: the multiplier applied to the character's attack stat for damage calculation and the absolute damage added to the calculated magnitude. So if multiplier is A and bonus is B, total damage output of the skill is ((ATK*A) + B) HP.

NOTE: Each character has his/her own no. of skill slots, i.e. the no. of total red/blue/yellow skills she can equip at any given time for any given quest, governed by the skill "実装スキル数". If just learned without any upgrades, it allows a character to equip 3 skills. For each star upgrade, the no. of available skill slots increase by 1, giving a max of 6 slots at 3-star 実装スキル数. Rance already begins with this skill upgraded to 3-star, thus having 6 slots from start.

Fighter (ファイター) [[File:Rance8Fighter.png]]
The backbone of your offensive force, fighters use melee weapons to assault the enemy and have weapon-based skills. A small no. of fighters might have limited magical skills but for the most part melee attack with weaponry is their forte. Furthermore, fighters in Rance Quest are quite versatile and with the right weapons can gain ranged attacks so that they can then be placed in both front and rear positions as needed.

Of course, the Almighty Serial Rapist of a protagonist in this game, Rance, is of the fighter class. Other examples include Uesugi Kenshin and Noir.

Rance / ランス
Level: 5/∞

How to get: Initial character.

The Best Fighter of The Game, more or less. No level cap, extra bunch of normal attacks, a pain bringer ranged AoE special attack, excellent accuracy and attack growth, also good HP growth. What you'd expect from a main character of an eroge... Oh wait, most eroge heroes tend to be the weakest of the lot these days. Thankfully Rance ain't one of them, and raising him well with top class equipment and consumables will be rewarding indeed. He also gains the highest ATK weapon in the game towards the end, making his attack strength a class apart from others.

His only con is that he can't get skill point/stat percentage boosts from Morurun like every other character can.

Initial skill slots: 6 (3-star)

Initial skills:

Other notable skills:

Cessna Benville / セスナ・ベンビール
Level: 1/18

How to get: After a while she can be recruited via quest #16 at the bar.

Generic fighter #1, literally. She'll be the first new fighter you'll acquire. Use her however you want, and decide if you want to use her special skill. Probably not worth much, but she's part of a 4P H-scene, for which she needs to be grinded up to level 35.

Initial skill slots: 3 (Not upgraded)

Initial skills:

Bernard Seramite / バーナード・セラミテ
Level: 1/25

How to get: Clear quest #96 without doing a single green event (go straight for the red exclamation mark event for a tough bossfight). Bernard will join at the end of the quest.

Not very useful at all, but has exceptionally high stun resistance (base is 80%).

Initial skill slots: 4 (1-star)

Alkanese Rize / アルカネーゼ・ライズ
Level: 1/60

How to get: Beat quest #60 (Lion Mind).

Has better HP growth, and for a hammer specialist, good accuracy. However her undeletable Berserk skill may sometimes be a hindrance for leveling her up. She also can't learn Efficient Action that most fighters can. Overall, significantly tougher than other run-of-the-mill fighters, yet not as good as the top tier ones like Rance, Kenshin and Arms.

Initial skill slots: 4 (1-star)

Initial skills:

Tomato Puree / トマト・ピューレ
Level: 1/37

How to get: Upon encountering a certain treasure chest in quest #61.

Her skills make her a specialist in item hunting, and her fully upgraded rope mastery makes her the best choice for capturing monster girls.

Not as proficient in combat as other fighters, she can only achieve mastery in hammers and spears, and after the initial learning, each upgrade of the masteries costs 4 SP (as opposed to the usual 3 SP).

Initial skill slots: 3 (Not upgraded)

Initial skills:

Other notable skills:

Uesugi Kenshin / 上杉謙信
Level: 1/70

How to get: Beat quest #40 (Mt. Hakkoda).

Arguably the best fighter after Rance himself, and perhaps the first choice to give your new powerful sword to. Awesome attack growth, speed that's second to only Tillday Shape (among fighters), pre-upgraded 2-star sword mastery, an unique skill that will fully heal her HP and give her attack/defense buffs, and a sword skill that can hit enemies (or guards that try to protect the target) upto 7 times, making her a phenomenal boss killer.

When put together with her, her two subordinates Torako and Katsuko can wreak havoc with an attack buff and full HP heal in every battle, making the Uesugi combination one of the deadliest in the game.

Initial skill slots: 5 (2-star)

Initial skills:

Other notable skills:

Uesugi Katsuko / 上杉 勝子
Level: 15/35

How to get: Beat quest #42.

She would have been rather generic... If only she didn't have two special skills that make her a force to reckon with: one that gives her 2x experience if put together with Torako (upto level 50), and one that gives her full HP recovery and an attack buff at the start of the battle if together with Kenshin, making her a part of one of the most devastating combinations in the game.

Initial skill slots: 5 (2-star)

Initial skills:

Tillday Sharp / チルディ・シャープ
Level: 1/44

How to obtain: Beat quest #50.

More or less the fastest among fighters. If that's not enough, she can gain a further +11 agility (!) in one of her quests which will make her speed second only to Yuzuhara Yuzumi in the entire game if not the fastest, and has a skill that gives her a chance to land an extra hit for every normal attack at the cost of 20% attack power. Pretty much the goddess of speed. Also, she takes 1 SP instead of the usual 2 for elemental resistances, and 1 instead of 4 for the initial speed raising skill (with her already overwhelming speed, taking this may really result in agility overkill).

On the flip side though, faster turns means running out of skills faster in general, and defense-wise she's a wee bit fragile. Still, one of the best fighters to have around, especially if you want to end fights quickly.

Skill Slots: 5 (2-star)

Initial skills:

Noir / ノワール
Level: 1/50

How to get: By getting to a certain green (!) event in quest #63. See Quests Walkthrough, quest #63.

Not bad, but by the time you get her your party should already be saturated with capable fighters. Her highlights are a Spider Web skill that debuffs the entire enemy party, and her attacks set enemy dodge rate to 0. She also has a skill that has a constant 75% chance of catching galmons regardless of HP.

She's physically sturdy but has terrible magic resistance.

Skill Slots: 4 (1-star)

Initial skills:

Other notable skills:

Yulang Mirage / ユラン・ミラージュ
Level: 1/27

How to get: After beating enough red mines which gave you a "strong enemy" warning (consists of human soldiers).

Semi-generic with a couple of unique skills that are better-than-ordinary-but-not-really-game-breaking. One hits a boss battle enemy for 2.5x but only works once per battle, the other, a weak mimicry of Rance Attack, hits the entire enemy party for 0.4x damage.

Initial skill slots: 3 (Not upgraded)

Initial skills: Other notable skills:

Wichita Skate / ウィチタ・スケート
Level: 10/35

How to get: After getting her scroll. See Character Join Conditions

Nothing much to say... She's a melee fighter who can also use basic magic and has a Flame Cutter attack that uses the power of her physical and magical attacks combined. One of the better candidates to give the Scartmegury to, a dagger which boosts both physical and magical attack.

Initial skill slots: 4 (1-star)

Initial skills:

Other notable skills:

Okita Nozomi / 沖田 のぞみ
Level: 25/59

How to get: After getting her scroll. See Character Join Conditions

A decent fighter, crippled only by the fact that she'll start every battle in a poisoned state. Her unique Iai Slash is a weaker but highly accurate version of Row Slash. If you want to use her, giving her a Hanny Zippo might improve her longevity.

Initial skill slots: 4 (1-star)

Initial skills:

Other notable skills:

Eleanor Ran / エレノア・ラン
Level: 15/30

How to get: After getting her scroll. See Character Join Conditions

Fighter that can also use basic magic, and a hypnosis spell that has a high chance to stun enemies. Another candidate for the Scartmegury, but having a dagger will prevent access to harder hitting melee skills.

Initial skill slots: 3 (Not upgraded)

Initial skills:

Rizna Lanfebit / リズナ・ランフビット
Level: 1/42

How to get: Must do her event in quest #135. See Quests Walkthrough.

Her speciality is that like haniwa, she is completely immune to magic but physically vulnerable (base P.DEF is halved compared to other fighters). Also comes with some unique combat skills.

Initial skill slots: 5 (2-star)

Initial skills:

Other notable skills:

Arms Arc / アームズ・アーク
Level: 1/47

How to get: Beat quest #93, then scout her using quest #16.

One of the last fighters you'll obtain, she has passive skills that lets her deal 3x damage to specific, powerful enemies. It may be noted that she can't learn Efficient Action (効率行動) like most other fighters can, so if possible make her attacks count (always try to hit a type she'd deal 3x damage against, like hannies). Using her in the right situations can make tough boss battles a walk in the park.

Initial skill slots: 4 (1-star)

Initial skills:

Other notable skills:

Guard (ガード) [[File:Rance8Guard.png]]
They, just like Foot Soldiers in Sengoku Rance, specialize at guarding other allies by taking damage in their place using the "ally guard" skill (and improvisations of it). They can use weapons to attack the enemy too but for the most part their speciality is tanking.

Guards are significantly improved over their Sengoku counterparts. They do not lose Guard percentage when attacking or doing nothing, and they only lose percent when their guard triggers, meaning that if an enemy attacks your Guard directly, it will not cause him to lose percentage (unless it's a particularly crippling blow taking away about 50% of the guard's Max HP). They also automatically gain defense buff upon using ally guard which persists throughout the battle.

As for offense, they can wield most weapons fighters can, but can only achieve mastery in swords and spears. And since usually they're not the powerhouse type, swords, which both reduce accuracy and are melee range only, are less preferable than spears which eventually grant them ranged attacks, allowing them to both defend and attack (often with high accuracy) from back row, freeing up a forward slot in the process which you can use to field that harder hitting fighter or sparter.

As crucial as their role is for defense, you only get a maximum of 5 guard characters by default, so each of them, whether good or lame, is invaluable to you - you'd do well to keep them alive at all costs. And if you feel the shortage is too much, you can always make custom guard characters to bolster your defenses.

Sachiko Centers / サチコ・センターズ
Level: 1/49

How to get: Initial character.

Your first and possibly best guard in the game. Her accessory slot is locked due to the cursed shield, but she still regenerates HP per turn (initially 5%, eventually becomes 15%), and with enough defense boosts, may become practically invincible in normal difficulty (World 1).

Initial skill slots: 4 (1-star)

Initial skills:

Other notable skills:

Rocky Bank / ロッキー・バンク
Level: 8/19

How to get: After beating quest #17 once, try it a second time. There will be a new green exclamation mark event to the left of the map. Trigger it, then complete the quest. Rocky will join you.

His level cap can be raised by +5 several times by triggering a green event near the southeast corner of second area (shop with no random encounters) of #64 and any other quest which gives you access to this area (such as #93) while he's at max level. '''WARNING: This will cause the quest to fail immediately so when you want to raise Rocky's level cap, deliberately head towards this point only. '''

Still probably the most generic of guards, but given how few of them you get (excluding custom characters), you'll want to make use of him.

Initial skill slots: 3 (not upgraded)

Initial skills:

Kouhime (Oda Kou) / 香姫 (織田 香)
Level: 25/40

How to get: Clear #41.

Due to her "underage" status, she receives a -20% penalty to all her stats and thus is weaker than other guards. However, she also doubles as a tactician with buffing capability, and can use a unique Poison Dango weapon that inflicts guaranteed poisoning on targets, which is of paramount importance in many difficult boss battles.

It's worth noting that the armor she comes with is extremely strong but also reduces speed by a whopping 15 points, so combined with her Poison Dango weapon (which is considered a spear and also decreases speed by 5) other characters will be taking 2-3 turns for every one of hers, so it should probably be removed unless you want to use her passives only.

Initial skill slots: 4 (1-star)

Skills:

Other notable skills:

Kaloria Cricket / カロリア・クリケット
Level: 10/42 (level may be lower pre-Magnum)

How to get: After doing quest #20, replay it once more.

Kaloria has a variety of unique skills at her disposal. She has a Flamethrower attack that deals physical fire damage, Needle Shower that can stun the entire enemy party, and a Harden skill that makes her extremely resistant for the rest of the battle, but she becomes unusable for the battle as well. It's upto you whether you'll build her to be offense oriented, stun oriented or just a solid tank who can deal a bit of damage. That she can use all 6 slots from the beginning also helps reduce SP expenditure and give her lots of skills.

Initial skill slots: 6 (3-star)

Initial skills: Other notable skills:

Mouri Teru / 毛利 てる
Level: 25/40

How to get: In quest #71, the left most green star in the leftmost region of the map triggers a conversation with Teru. Beating the quest afterwards lets you have her.

The scary elder Mouri sister carries all her traits from Sengoku Rance - she has a counter skill which is otherwise exclusive to sparters, and while her physical defense is respectable, her magic defense is abysmal. Unfortunately, the fact that counter will not trigger unless directly targeted (i.e. hits taken due to ally guard don't trigger counter) makes her much less useful than she could have been.

Again, she's one of only 5 guards (excluding customs) that you'll ever get, so try to make the best of her. Giving her a ring or a Crystal Armor, preferably with growth/growth R, will help negate her magic vulnerability.

Initial skill slots: 3 (not upgraded)

Skills:

Other notable skills:

Gunner (ガンナー) [[File:Rance8Gunner.png]]
Despite the name of this class, this doesn't just refer to those who use firearms but includes most characters specializing in ranged physical attacks such as archers (and, well, actual gunners). They can hit the back row of the enemy (but their single attacks often can't bypass ally guard).

One thing to note about gunners: when using matchlocks, the character's attack will skyrocket, but each normal attack can only be fired once per battle. This can be quite a big handicap, because even after using 1 of each equipped attacks, their turns will come up, only to be skipped over and over, wasting valuable turns. Bow skills don't work when equipping firearms, and vice versa. When using matchlocks, make sure to increase damage limit to maximum so the gunshots deal maximum possible damage.

Tulip (Maria's cannon) is the only firearm that can be fired repeatedly.

Aegis Kalar, Maria, Urza and Yuzuhara Yuzumi are prominent examples of this class.

Megadeth Moromy / メガデス・モロミー
Level: 1/18(??)

How to get: Becomes available at quest #16 at the bar after clearing a few dungeon quests, 3rd to come after Prima and Mahoko.

Initial skill slots: 3 (Not upgraded)

Skills:

Aegis Kalar / イージス・カラー
Level: 1/50(??)

How to get: Finish quest #50 カラーの森再び

Very useful, she comes with several passives that allow her to automatically deal Fire, Ice, or Lightning damage on regular attack if striking an enemy whose weakness you've deteremined with Weakness Search and another that removes buffs. She does come with several magic spells but it's best not to invest in them since her magic will never be very good. Also worth noting that she has a Kalar racial passive that gives her boosts in outdoor areas and debuffs when indoors.

Skill Slots: 5

Skills:

Athena 2.0 / あてな２号
Level: 1/1

Skill Slots: 3

Skills:

Urza Planeis / ウルザ・プラナアイス
Level: 30/75

How To Get: Bring any three of Magic, Kaloria, Karou, Rocky, Bernard, Prima, Cessna, and Megadeth to a マルグリットLabyrinth quest.

Skill Slots: 5

Skills:

Jima Bakasko / ジーマ・バカスコ
Level: 1/48

How to get: Finish quest #92 呪われたプリンセス

Her unremovable passive (攻撃特化型) which forces some hefty penalties on her in exchange for a small attack boost is awkward, but her other unique ability 怪力弓 lets her deal potentially insane damage that other characters will have difficulty matching. Unfortunately it costs 8-9 skill points to get any additional uses out of it.

Skill Slots: 5 (2-star)

Skills:

Yuzuhara Yuzumi / 柚原 柚美
Level: 1/38

How to get: Has a random chance of joining when you change areas and Kuma (see quest 121) is in your party.

Joins at lv 1 with no special skills except Firearm Mastery 2-star (which would normally cost 24 points!) but between the above skill and her starting weapon she'll have a massive attack score of around 1000 to start with and she's extremely fast as well.

On the downside, using a musket means she can only use each basic attack skill (1, 2, 3, and 4) once per battle. She needs to get to lv 15 ASAP so she can learn Weapon Attack 2 and be able to act at least twice per battle as otherwise all her turns after the first will go to waste. Muskets don't have any special attacks either and she'll probably want the passive to increase the damage limit of attacks as otherwise she'll have her potential damage output hampered heavily by the limits of the lower attacks. Very useful character early and mid-game, but there are only two muskets she can ever equip so other characters will eventually overtake her in attack power.

Skill Slots: 3

Skills:

Sorcerer (ソーサラー) [[File:Rance8Sorcerer.png]]
Mages specializing in high-damage offensive magic are of this class. They have strong magical attack but often low HP and defenses, so they need to be put in the rear and must be guarded properly, and compared to your other attackers they have relatively few offensive actions that must be rationed carefully. Furthermore, as fans of AliceSoft games will know, their magical attacks will not work on the haniwa at all, no matter how strong the attack is and how weak the hanny is.

Seemingly all Sorcerers have the Weakness Search skill, which can replace Standby. Aside from being useful for determining an enemy's weakness so Sorcerers can exploit it with their elemental magic, it's also necessary for the Sparta's Element Punch and Aegis's Elemental passives.

Mahoko P. Masai / マホコ・P・マサイ
Level: 1/25

How to get: Becomes available at quest #16 at the bar after clearing a few dungeon quests, 2nd in the "queue" after Prima.

Initial skill slots: 3 (Not upgraded)

Initial skills:

Kapalla Łódź / カパーラ・ウーチ
Level: 8/24(??)

How to get: Clear quest #89. Then you can recruit her at the bar via #16.

Note: Her initial skillset is thunder-specific in the initial versions of the game, but is changed to ice-specific in later versions. '''She can no longer learn thunder spells in Magnum. '''Not that it matters much, she's the crappiest sorcerer in the game anyway.

Initial skill slots: 3 (Not upgraded)

Initial skills:

Masou Shizuka / 魔想志津香
Level: 20/61(??)

How to get: In Malgreed Dungeon Floor 1 (quest #121), when entering the room 2nd from top and 2nd from right, make sure not to have Rance in your party. In the first open space, there'll be an event to the left. Trigger it while still NOT having Rance in your party. There will be an event with Shizuka, and after clearing the quest on that occassion, she'll join you.

Probably the first Sorcerer you'll want to use long-term. High level cap, ability to use the best late-game spells, and she starts with several spells already learned and 5 slots, giving her extra casts and helping her reach the higher-tier spells faster.

Initial skill slots: 5 (2-star)

Initial skills:

Other notable skills:

Magic The Gandhi / マジック・ザ・ガンジー
Level: 1/69

Initial skill slots: 4 (1-star)

Starts with Magic Barrier maxed, which always blocks any one attack directed at her if you feel it's worth a slot (if not it still has a half chance of activating at the start of battle). Otherwise comparable to Shizuka, though worse off in both initial spells and spell slots.

Skills:

Uesugi Torako / 上杉 虎子
Level: 15/35

How to get: Beat quest #42.

Torako's skillset is completely different from other Sorcerers, consisting of just a few all-targeting Shikigami spells (sadly, no Guard Shikigami). Unimpressive under normal circumstances, but like Katsuko she gains an attack buff if deployed with Kenshin and double EXP with Katsuko, making her extremely useful when used with her Uesugi brethren.

Skill Slots: ?

Skills:

Pastel Kalar / パステル・カラー
Level: 45/50(?

Skill Slots: ?

Skills:

Aten Gnu / (アテン・ヌー)
Level: 1/48

How to get: Clear quest #90 引きこもり魔女(Hikikomori witch).

A strong Darkness mage that you get very early, gimped by her 引きこもり skill which makes her randomly leave the party. One way to use her is a steroid at the start of quests - if you deploy with a team of weak characters and the intent to replace them as you make progress and run out of attacks, Aten will make that team much more reliable and when she leaves you'll probably have other characters you want to change too.

Skill Slots: 5

Skills:

Healer (ヒーラー) [[File:Rance8Healer.png]]
Those who specialize in healing magic and are the staple healers of the party. Aside from healing magic, they also have weaker attacks but are not good against most monsters in combat. However, healers tend to be good at combatting evil spirits (undead).

It may be noted that while Prima can heal allies (as seen in the Rance Quest test version), she doesn't use magic but uses medical treatment, and is not good at fighting undead either. Hence she does not belong to the healer class.

Crook Mofus and Sel Catchgolf belong to the healer class.

Frostvine / フロストバイン
Level: 15/20

How to get: See Tama's recruitment. After doing quest #82, buy "Mercenary Old Hag" at the shop, it's in the item/misc section (bottom). It costs 1000 as well, and upon buying it Frostvine will join you.

Fairly useless overall as her unremovable passive skill makes her incredibly frail, if anything you may want to swap her in on areas that have lots of ghosts or if you desperately need some healing and there's nobody better.

Initial skill slots: 4 (1-star)

Skills:

Crook Mofus / クルックー・モフス
Level: 20/50

Crook is an unusual character, though undoubtedly a useful one. In addition to the standard healer abilities she also has a couple skills from other classes, including limited treasure-opening and trap-nullifying as well as the Sparta's Shoulder Throw attack. With the latter in mind (some of the Healer-exclusive hammers are pretty powerful too) she works quite well as a frontliner, though you might want to also use a Guard since her HP isn't the best.

Skill Slots: 5

Skills:

Sel Catchgolf / セル・カーチゴルフ
Level: 1/44(??)

How to get: Scroll character. Get her scroll (from Malgreed B3F), equip it on a character and kill 5 girl monsters with that character in party. She can then be recruited via quest #16.

Not very good as she doesn't come with any additional skills or extra slots, but there aren't many decent Healers available early in the game so you may find a use for her anyways.

Initial skill slots: 3 (Not upgraded)

Skills:

Noa Hakobune / ノア・ハコブネ
Level: 1/33(??)

How to get: Has a chance of joining when changing maps if you have 5 or more defeated party members.

In addition to having several extra slots, she comes with an equippable ability that heals 10% of your party's HP every time she takes a turn (as long as she has the ability equipped and doesn't take a hit), allowing her to keep your party healthy without even having to cast a spell.

Initial skill slots: 5

Skills:

Maris Amaryllis (マリス・アマリリス)
Level: 40/67

How to get: Complete quest 202.

Possibly the best Healer in the game. She comes at a high level with a high cap, pre-Morurun'd, has high stats for her class, has a powerful unique spell that damages all enemies for half of their current HP, and has 6 initial slots to top it all off, which is great for a Healer.

Initial skill slots: 6

Skills:

Hikari Mi Blanc (ヒカリ・ミ・ブラン)
Level: 1/38

How to get: Complete quest 167 (unlocked by exchanging 10+ total Soul Shackles in quest 166).

Starts with a 5-use Weakness Search and 6 slots, but is otherwise rather unimpressive and you'll probably have better healers by the time you recruit her.

Initial skill slots: 6

Skills:

Ranger (レンジャー) [[File:Rance8Ranger.png]]
Guess they were named like that due to their scouting abilities... ? Anyway, rangers are extremely useful for disarming traps and safely opening treasure chests. They're not very tough or powerful and are limited to weak Daggers, but can be useful combat-wise in other ways (Shurikens for ranged attacks and stunning, Assassinate for killing instantly, and they can learn a passive ability to poison on attack in addition to learning the stun-boosting yellow skill cheaper than other classes) and they usually have superfast agility and dodge rate. In fact this class will mostly consist of ninja/thief characters. Characters like Suzume and Kentou Kanami belong to this class. It's also worth noting that having a Ranger in your party prevents surprise attacks, which can otherwise be devastating.

Special Pointer: Though Assassination does not work on bosses, it would work on some mid-bosses. From time to time, Bard will bring a fighter girl along to fight you. I have succeeded in "assassinating" her several times, making the fight VERY easy. This works even when she is at lv 35~38~x. Not sure if it works on other mid-bosses, try at your own risk!

Suzume / 鈴女
Level: 12/49(??)

How to get: Initial character, but doesn't participate in the 1st dungeon when you start the game for the first time (as you don't have any charisma at that time). After that she's available in the party organization screen and can be played even before being introduced in CITY.

Suzume is a great Ranger, starting with a lot of extra skills (2 uses of Assassinate, three extra Shurikens, two extra Weapon Attack 1's, and one level in Stealth Movement, Treasure Opening, and Trap Evasion) and five skill slots. Assassination in particular is probably the thing she's the best at, but she'll be useful any way you build her.

Initial skill slots: 5 (2-star)

Skills:

Kentou Kanami / 見当 かなみ
Level: ??/??(??)

Skill Slots: ?

Skills:

Karma Atranger / カーマ・アトランジャー
Level: ??/??(??)

Skill Slots: 4

How to get: Scroll character. Her scroll is found randomly in treasure chests.

Skills:

Crane / クレイン
Level: 15/38

How to get: Clear quest 54.

Crane is unsurprisingly designed for avoiding combat, with lots of points in passives for reducing encounter rate and increasing escape chance. Great for if you need want to get to the end of a quest as quickly as possible. In combat she's not quite as good, though her unique Puncher weapon does have very high stun rate and accuracy.

Initial skill Slots: 4 (1-star)

Calory Mate (キャロリ・メイト)
Level: 1/36

Skill Slots: 5

How to get: Lose to the boss in quest 192.

Low attack even by Ranger standards and can't learn Assassinate, but she comes with 20 (!) uses of Simple Treatment 2, and has a passive that doubles the amount it heals (lvl * 40 after the skill is factored in), allowing her to provide solid healing support in addition to the usual abilities of the Ranger class.

Skills:

Sparta (スパルタ) [[File:Rance8FistFighter.png]]
This class is for unarmed combatants or grapplers. They're melee-range and have a grab bag of abilties available, including debuffing, counterattacks, heavy damage to humanoids, and elemental damage. Their main issue is their equipment choices; their only weapon type is Gloves, which are much weaker than most other weapons, and they're limited to special light armor that doesn't provide much defense, though they do tend to have good HP.

Alexander / アレキサンダー
Level: 1/77

How to get: Keep doing quests (repeating is fine), eventually he'll be recruitable with quest #16 at the bar (the same way you recruit Prima, Mahoko etc.). Has monumental level cap, even exceeding that of the likes of Kenshin and Uruza!

Initial skill Slots: 3 (Not upgraded)

Skills:

Tama / タマ
Level: 15/22(??)

How to get: Buy Tama's Undergarment. Then go back to shop, there will be a conversation. Then buy Tama's Dress as well and trigger quest #82. After that, buy "Mercenary Tama". As soon as it's in your inventory, you should find Tama in your party screen. Each of the 3 items above cost 1000 gold.

Initial skill Slots: 4 (1-star)

Skills:

Kibako / キバ子
Level: 1/45(??)

Kibako's unique selling point is that she comes with all 5 of the Elemental Grappling passives and 4 uses of Elemental Punch pre-learned, so she can hit enemies with weaknesses hard if you've used Weakness Search on them at least once (and if not, Element Punch is no weaker than a normal attack). Otherwise she's a solid melee fighter, though hampered somewhat by the low attack power of Gloves.

Skill Slots: 4

Skills:

Kaoru Quincy Kagura (カオル・クインシー)
Level: 20/38

How to get: Has a chance of joining when changing areas in a quest that you've completed at least 4 times, and if Magic is in the party.

Starts with 6 uses of Shoulder Throw and two unique abilities; a white one that provides a defense buff to whoever is front and center at the start of battle, and a yellow one that gives her a 50% chance of surviving an otherwise-fatal blow.

Skill Slots: 5

Skills:

Civilian (シビリアン) [[File:Rance8Civilian.png]]
Basically, all characters that don't particularly fit into any one of the 7 classes mentioned above are in this class. The base Civilian skillset is rather useless and extremely limited in terms of equipment (though Civilians are the only class that can equip captured Gal Monsters), but they usually have unique equipment and/or skills of their own to make up for it, so a Civilian's actual role will vary greatly from one to the next.

Prima Hononoman / プリマ・ホノノマン
Level: 1/22(??)

How to get: First character to get recruited using quest #16. Comes equipped with Seirogan Box.

Your first character that can heal. Important very early in the game when you have no better options, but mostly useless past that point as actual Healers are both stronger and more versatile in terms of healing abilities available.

Initial skill slots: 3 (Not upgraded)

Initial skills:

Other notable skills:

Arlcoate Marius / アールコート・マリウス
Level: 1/43(??)

How to get: Buy Reddish Wing (赤っぽい羽) at the shop for 1500 gold. Usually doing 1 quest (ADV quests are fine too) after this enables you to recruit her at the bar (#16).


 * WARNING! In v1.000 there exists a bug in the game: Reddish Wing isn't repurchase-able but is required to be in your inventory in order to trigger her availability after you finish a quest. So if you buy it and then immediately sell it back/donate before Alcot joins, you lose the chance to recruit her for good. This is however fixed in v.1.100 update of the game, so the player is encouraged to apply the same. Otherwise, don't donate/sell the item until she joins.

Useful as a strategist that also gives you a high chance for a preemtive strike, but guard her well and keep her in back row, or else she might be toasted pretty quickly. Nice level cap for a civilian, though.

Initial skill slots: 3 (not upgraded)

MerimTser / メリム・ツェーレ
Level: 1/23

How to get: When in a dungeon, have 3 rigged (red) chests explode on you. Immediately there will be an event where Rance will find Merim. After you beat the quest on that occassion, Merim will autojoin.

While low on level cap, she's an excellent explorer that has most passive skills that a ninja would typically have AND lets you identify items for free! The catch: she also comes with a passive skill that'll cause enemies to almost always target her specifically whenever possible, and civilians ain't exactly good at being physically sturdy. So avoid putting her in the front, and guard her well against ranged targets.

Also comes equipped with Angel's Mirror (天使の鏡) that lets her use a heal-all 300 HP skill, 5 uses per quest and cannot be removed. The latest update for Magnum enhances it further.

Initial skill slots: 3 (Not upgraded)

Initial skills: Other notable skills:

Atago McCart / アタゴ・マカット
Level: 1/10(??)

How to get: Clear quest# 85. Need to find Lotion 1-3 first.

Initial skill slots: 3 (Not upgraded)

Initial skills:

Lia Parapara Leazas / リア・パラパラ・リーザス
Level: 20/20(??)

Her Thunder Dragon attack is quite powerful and as an additional bonus she has a passive that doubles Charisma earned from quests (albeit combat quests only) if you finish with her in the party. She starts out at her level cap though, so you'll need three of the weak Forbidden Talent items to get her up to Morurun range. As an additional downside her pet dragon Harumaki takes up her bottom equipment slot so she's not capable of using Gal Monsters.

Skill Slots: 5

Skills:

Copandon Dott / コパンドン・ドット
Level: ??/37

Copandon's Written Fortune is a unique physical attack that targets all enemies, always hits, and will randomly either do decent damage, massive damage, or zero damage. Not particularly useful as she has difficulty raising her attack power, though she also comes with a passive that doubles money after combat.

Skill Slots: 3

Skills: