Rance IX - The Helman Revolution -

On Chapter 4 now, Stuck on the level where you only have Hubert and Patton...Time to grind...>_>

I used a red orb on Hubert and barely won (they were both on OMG PLEASE DON'T DIE mode).

Overall, having a pretty fun time with the game.

I'll happily take that warning and level them up sufficiently before Chapter 4, =P.

So all those black stars for level ups give a bonus (something like +1 skill or for Rance decreased meter consumption) if you get all the corresponding stars of the rank (all 2*, 4*, 6*, etc) for the character. Really wish I read that before I threw like 11 pts into shizuka's attacks (not that you know, I mind too much).

Edit:
I finished the main route. Frak that golden shield, you apparently have to kill it twice. The first time is just a generic kill where the party finds out that only Patton is able to kill it (and no, you can't just have Patton kill it the first time). The second time, Patton MUST deliver the killing blow.

Fortunately:
A) I never bothered to upgrade armor (aside from Rance and Russian's for their crappy single quest where if either them falls below 50% hp, you lose) and had a metric ton of money and cheap armor ups (mind you I still nearly went broke), so all my guys had around 100% armor. Safety isn't a huge issue when damage is around 1-5.
B) I killed the ice dragon, so I had the hat of awesome that gives one character +1 range (don't give it to a range character for this, you need every extra fighter you can get since there's only room for 1 melee range character).
C) I remembered that mages deal fixed damage - res. So it helps with calculating.

Btw, all your gear grind levels don't reset or anything in NG+. So if your grind tries was 27, it will still be and charged at 27. You get to keep everything sans love levels though and the other modes double and quadruple whatever you get(so stuff sells for 2x more for example, hang onto your vendor trash if you absolutely don't need to pawn it off).

So far the game is pretty straightforward what with Rance doing as he pleases and I'm loving the asymmetry of some levels, there was one level where the map kept moving forward every turn and that was pretty fun.

I'm currently playing it in a way where I force myself to restart the mission if I lose one person, it's a pretty fun and I've learned quite a bit from doing so.

So apparently armor durability reduces after each use, and you pay more each time in the armor shop to repair it (and maybe upgrade it?) so it's probably a good idea just to upgrade armor only when you need it or when your armor rating is too awful to ignore.

Can you explain those black star thingy more thoroughly, Sarior?

Someone made a pastebin for the bonuses and stuff:
http://pastebin.com/GQBPcZvD

Basically, whenever you upgrade a stat, every 2 upgrades will get you a black star. When you complete all the black stars within a column (collect every 2 black star for example) you get a bonus (refer to the pastebin for the specifics).

ex:

That link is godly, literally solves a majority of stat related problems I have in the game. Major rep to you and azraeth for not leaving us plebs in the dark.

Oh crud I thought you meant every two upgrades in a stat you get a bonus, so I ended up maxing damage and health on Rance. Hur der. Luckily I never went beyond 8 stars.

Well the only thing I'm still in a grey area for is what you lose when a character falls in battle. I think it reduces the amount of PP (or some kind of reward) earned but I've noticed that it stops occurring with some deaths. Also the red orbs provide a buff I'm sure but I'm still unclear as to what it's actual effect is. If you can clarify I would appreciate it.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I prioritize getting 8 stars on attack first thing on every character (and mroe if I need more smacking power, you can see the 14 points on my Rance). It's almost always the cheapest stat and, since you get +1 damage for each (assuming you're hitting a target with 0% armor), it's really useful.



I think when a character dies you lose some PP rewards for the fight. I don't know though, I stopped caring.

Red orbs provide the character it's used on with a double XP bonus and +50% tenacity (the 5th stat) for the map. Tenacity is a check whenever the character dies, if it passes they still remain with 1 hp, but their tenacity decreases with each death wearing down their ability to laugh off death.

Senhime and Patton usually goes to 5 times before actually dying in my battles. Heck, there's one quest with Senhime that really relies on that.

Currently at Chapter 10, and god I can't figure out how to play Pigu right, she's just way too weak and get one shotted most of the time.

I know what you mean: no item slots, terrifying stats and melee range. And yet she saved me not once but twice (she was useless every other time, so don't misunderstand me). Those two times got me to realize how to play her. She's not a character, she's a tar pit that's made of 8 components.

Here's what happened on those two occasions. I forgot it was a two map scenario and overextended my front end, so naturally my second stringers... yeah. And that's when her power came into play. I stalled like no tomorrow and let her clone herself into eight. Then by that time I used each of them to plug holes in my defense as my guys started getting tired down. The enemy simply couldn't chew through so much meat by the time Milacle/Maria finished nuking them (Milacle isn't one of my usual second stringers, it just happened that map I felt three nukers was excessive. I was forced to bench Maria on the second occassion). I usually had around 1-3 left when the dust cleared each time. She actually got some kills off too, surprisingly.

Long story short, I keep her on reserve and use her ability to plug up holes. As for any offensive role, well she wastes the enemy's dodge so one of my better guys can get a hit in.

Well I let four red orbs go to rot in storage for nothing then, overestimated their value and tried to stay four capped at all times. If it doubles xp given, it would probably be a good idea to save several red orbs for new game+ assuming xp gain is higher there. Especially since gold orbs become scarcer in new game+.

I'm now stuck here, so how did you clear that level in chapter 11?

And how do you beat the map where it scrolls forward once at a time? I remember someone mentioning about needing to trap monsters so that they can get squashed - well - by the map scrolling, but I thought that was how you LOSE.

Then again, I didn't actually bother reading the victory condition since I was too damn tired so...

Well, that was the condition to get the Yellow Monkey Sphere. To bea it you simply just need to kill the Ikaman at the end of the stage.

Keep taunting the turtles.
Ranged enemies sucks in general.
-You can't see how far they can attack
-the AI is programed to prioritize attacking the closest spell user in your team.
-Magic users GAHHHH, without Pitten it's a nightmare.

So, if you can't taunt them throughout the level, say goodbye to Shizuka/Milacle/other weaker characters in your team.

You can see a unit's range by counting the amount of squares they can move (moving them as forward as possible) and then looking at their range stat, probably not worth the time considering the small size of the maps. Ranged killers. Cheapest solution is just to kill them with Kanami, at 120-150% evasion with 25hp she'll be able dance around helman elite without caring but she can only kill one every turn. Another is sending Rance to the back using the pig arm, but that's a finite resource and rance is probably better off smacking around something bigger. Best solution is Shizuka using her special gauge very high damage and keeps her safe.

Magic user aggro is slightly different, they will target the unit with the lowest magic resistance in their range however they will target vulnerable (low base HP) if they can. I've seen enemies completely ignore Shizuka, Kanami(with magic res items) and otherwise so that they can hit Patton who has 0 base magic resistance.



Let any enemy besides the red pixelated ones hit the purple line. If three pixelated monsters run past you lose.

If you want to do it yourself don't read this


I really suggest clicking on the pastebin that Sariour linked (http://pastebin.com/GQBPcZvD) and referring to it whenever you are confused it helps soooo much having special item details, yellow star upgrades, and map clearing conditions. Although it doesn't have a character bio on the blue mage shota for whatever reason, but I don't use him at all so meh.

But I'm still right that we "Can't See" their possible range of attacks, this is a problem when they have AoE attacks. Like the one fight with the Crab. Who would've guessed that his water attack can reach everything in front of it, even when I placed 2 of my characters on the opposite edge of the map in front of it.

Honestly those number when they doesn't have any actual visual cues is just confusing.

I actually have no idea if red orbs transfer or not. I blew them all on the final stage. I think I had like a gold orb left and it didn't transfer, I'm going to say that red orbs probably do not transfer. Also you can get like double gold orbs off some maps, so they're not as scarce as I thought, but I'm not too far into the NG+ (been playing La DEA actually).



I can't tell if you mean how to end the stage or how to not get killed soo....

I heard the condition is that Rance can't take too much damage, I've generally observed that the cut off is 50% hp. Okay, my key to success is threat removal. Make sure Rance can kill the floating pyramid things in one shot and can generally move anywhere he wants, they do magic damage. Rance hates magic damage, they will destroy him.

Throw two armor upgrades on him and he can tank the drill worms and other floating cubes fine. They're no threat, but KILL THE LASER CUBES FIRST! Heal as needed.

Oh and Rance must touch the wall on the right side or something at the end of the stage. It took me like 5 turns to figure this out.

The Crab's range isn't everything in front of it, it's six squares in front. Squares affected by an AoE effect will briefly light up yellow.

I agree though. Not having a constant or obvious visual range indicator like Fire Emblem, Disgaea or otherwise is a crutch in this game, but it's not too crippling seeing as how most maps are so small and with high range values + movement it's usually better to assume that a ranged enemy will hit something important. Hopefully I'm wrong and there's an option for it in the settings.

So, after reading that part

Left side from the top　（And assigned nickname)
-Dark Lord Ithere (Rance 3)/Prism Darkness
-No clue　（Can't read his name either)　/Ancient Shadow
-Rolex Gadras (New, Rance 9) /Sin Sword Ogre
-Ragnarokarc Super Gandhi (Rance 6) /King Justice
-Sanada Tourin (Rance 7) /Forest Dragon
-Pittan Ciao (New, Rance 9) /Perfect Golden

Right Side
-Rance /Chaos Master
-Arios Theoman (Kichikuou Rance, he's mostly mentioned in passing in the original canon) /Judgementor
-Houjou Souun (Rance 7) /Best Answer
-Patton Misnarge (Rance 6)/Steel Heart
-Oda Nobunaga (Rance 7) /Thousand Strike
-Lark (Rance 3) /Providence

Who's under Ithere, can't read his name... >_>