Sengoku Rance:Walkthrough

F.A.Q
For Frequently asked questions, SEE Sengoku Rance:FAQ

Differences between various play throughs

 * Any game you started before having a cleared-game savefile is called a "First Game". After having cleared the game at least once (game over doesn't count) it's called a "Second Game".


 * When starting a Second Game you get to spend points buying various bonuses. The amount of points you get to spend is the maximum of the points from your previous cleared-games, plus 5 points per route you have cleared.


 * For Second Game, you also get to pick the game difficulty. "Standard" difficulty starts your game with 60 points (same difficulty as First Game), and increasing difficulty starts you off with more points. Note this is the points you receive at the beginning of this new game, this isn't points you get to spend buying bonuses before starting this new game.


 * IF routes are only available in Second Game. In the First Game only the Real History route is available.

General stuff

 * When attacking or being attacked, Uesugi Kenshin will appear to help the defending side mostly when the attacker strikes the foreign fortress more than once. She has a passive skill that causes all of her enemies to have one less move available (min 1).


 * Ogawa Kentarou will temporarily join one of the houses you are actively fighting against at turn 20. He cannot be captured. Once you defeat the house he joined, or after the Incident at Honnou Temple, or after an event at turn 70, he won't fight against you anymore. On some routes he will auto join you after the incident at the Honnou Temple in a few turns. At some point you will see purple options for Kentarou to go on adventures in Iga, Cairo, Shikoku and Mazo, each adventure bumps kentarou up by 5 levels and is essential for winning the duel against Xavier. You must have conquered the area to gain access to the command.


 * The flow of the game consists of fighting the various houses of JAPAN, with the Incident at Honnou Temple somewhere in between, and finally a showdown with the Demon Army.


 * The first seal will be broken in turn 10. If you don't conquer the houses which hold the seals, Nobunaga's monkey (Toukichirou) will steal the seal and bring it to Nobunaga. These events happen at turn 30, 50, 70 and 90. The order will be Takeda, Mouri, Houjou and Uesugi. You can hasten these event in your second play through by feeding the monkey. Toukichirou will only steal Takeda's seal at turn 30 if there is only 1 seal broken by then. For example, breaking Iga seal before turn 30 will prevent Takeda's seal from being stolen at turn 30 (this event is delayed to 50 instead). The same rule applies to other seal (break 3 seal before turn 50, 4 before 70, and 5 before 90).

Incident at Honnou Temple Event
There are 8 seals on the Demon Xavier, whose status you can check via the F5 menu. When a total of 5 seals have been broken (due to conquest or passage of time), the game enters the "Incident at Honnou Temple mode", beginning with the disappearance of Kouhime. During this mode, you are not allowed to attack any house (although you can defend, and troops with battle permits may still attack at will).

'''Bug! '''In a first game, it is possible to delay entering the Honnouji Temple event until the sixth seal is broken. After the beginning-of-turn event in which the fourth seal is broken, the next beginning-of-turn event is Sill's 20th birthday celebration. This is a special event that is not available any other way, and has the highest priority possible. If the fifth seal is broken in the same turn, the beginning-of-turn event to break the fifth seal will be suppressed by the birthday event, and never to be seen again. This causes the Honnouji Temple event to occur when the sixth seal is broken instead. In System Info, it can be seen that five seals are broken. When the sixth seals are broken, the dialog still says it is the fifth seal.

In a 2nd+ game, if the fourth and fifth seal are broken in successive turns, the fifth seal broken event will be delayed by one turn due to the birthday celebration, instead of being suppressed completely. So this bug exist only on a first game. The best candidate for this is the Akashi house, by demanding it to surrender via a 30 point yellow command.

NOTE! There is one purple event and one green event.The green event will help you find Kouhime. The purple event (not available in a First Game) will not find Kouhime, instead Oda Nobunaga himself will tell you Kouhime was found dead. This causes the player to enter the Yamamoto Isoroku IF route instead.

The player must find Kouhime A.S.A.P (As Soon As Possible), or face GAME OVER. If you click the green event, Kouhime will be rescued by Rance and the player can assault on Honnou Temple anytime after the battle permits are done. (You can take as many turns as you want to prepare the assault).

When you are assaulting the temple, you will be given three choices. The first one will make you face a GAME OVER, while the second choice will continue with the assault (see below for details), and the third one returns you to the map (Warning: You lose 1 Command Fan in the process).

The assault consists of 4 fights in a row. First is a troop battle vs the acolyte Seiryuu and some humans. Next is a timed captain battle against acolyte Byakko in human form. After the time is up, or he is defeated, Byakko transforms into his original form (both him and his two bodyguards will appear fully healed) for a third captain fight.

Finally the fourth fight is against demon Xavier directly. All your captains will revive and recover their action points for this battle (but will not heal their HP). Take note that you can only harm Xavier (Demon Nobunaga) if Rance is taking part in the battle, any other attacks without him will be rendered ineffective. If the player lose the battle, the game will ask if you wish to continue or game over. Choosing continue will start you at the most recent battle, with all your captain at full health and full moves, but you lose 4 points. Xavier will also drop a several levels, making it easier to fight him.

After the assault, you will have 0 remaining moves for that turn, so plan ahead. Starting the next turn you can resume attacking other houses again for 5 turns before the Demon Army appears.

Oda House

 * Territories
 * 尾張 (Owari)


 * Basics
 * Visit the prison to unlock the chance of capturing enemy commanders.
 * After the first H-scene with Sill, a colorless event at the bottom of the list will be unlocked that gives +1 satisfaction. The girl is chosen in a fixed order from the harem (e.g. Suzume, Fuuka, Rizna, Aki [repeatable twice], ..., Sill [repeatable]); Natori is the most desirable because every H-scene is worth 8 smiling faces for Rance [instant affection bonus level up]. You must H the girl at least once before they would appear in the harem.
 * A battle with boars is unlocked every few turns. It gives 500 + 50 gold for every additional fight and is required to unlock one of the Six Great Treasures (see Sengoku Rance:Objectives.)
 * Near the end of the game, the purple event "Traveling carnival is here" will show up randomly. You can chose go with 3G, Suzume, Sill (if she is not frozen), Baba, and the heroine for that route (Kouhime for the True history route). It gives a +3 to the final score with every visit.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Shibata Katsuie - An above average foot soldier commander. The real advantage is getting him for free.
 * Ranmaru - An average bushi commander.
 * Tamagushi Fuuka - A miko commander who's required to unlock the Orochi dungeon (see Sengoku Rance:Objectives.). She is not recruitable after turn 20 (Not sure about this, as I can still recruit her at turn 28 in my game).
 * Gracia - Replaced Akechi Mitsuhide after using Satisfaction Bonus on him twice. Their names (before and after upgrade) are on the game progress report.
 * Maeda Keiji - Replaced Maeda Toshiie after using Satisfaction Bonus on him twice. Their names (before and after upgrade) are on the game progress report.
 * Niwa Nagahide - A relatively poor archer commander you get for free. However he starts with Defeated Warrior Hunt and large troop size. His name is on the game progress report.



Hara House

 * Territories
 * 伊勢 (Ise)


 * Basics
 * You can declare war on Hara as early as turn 2. If you don't declare war on the Hara House, they will declare war on you anyway some time after you are in war policy with the Ashikaga House.


 * Noteworthy captains:
 * Hara Shouji - will be automatically captured when you completely take over the Hara House (he cannot be captured earlier). If you raise his affection to normal, you will have the option of giving Aki to him if you decided not to recruit Aki and instead put her in the harem. Do so and raise his affection again, if Sill is still active, you will get the choice for a purple event where Hara tells you that he disciplined Aki by cutting off her tongue and breaking her limbs so she couldnt complain or escape, Rance will kill him and his unit will be taken over by his niece, Sanya (no combat bonus, affection reset back to Normal, but arguably easier to clear)
 * Akihime - she can only be recruited in a Second Game after completely taking over Hara House. The top choice will have her join you while the bottom choice won't let her join - but trigger the same event as the first playthrough. If you don't have enough national power to recruit her, then she'll be put into the harem automatically and you won't be able to recruit her afterwards (usually happens if you started with bonuses of other houses).
 * Gekkou - he is only available in version 1.04 after selecting the bonus character option at the beginning of a Second Game. He can be recruited by selecting a colorless event in Ise (Lightning during the day) after the beginning-of-turn cherry blossom viewing event. This event will disappear after Nobunaga breaks the first gourd, so he should be recruited as soon as possible. Gekkou's passive skill gives him a 100% chance to assassinate any non-commander unit that lost all its action points during a battle.
 * Saijou Mochikiyo - Hara's chief vassal. Dies by seppuku in the second Hara event a few turns after declaring war. However he can be captured in battle before this event, or after he gets recruited by another country. His level cap is random.
 * Settoku Houshi - Can be recruited in Ise with 6 Negotiation points. He has 8 Negotiation points, which make him quite useful when recruiting prisoners. His name is on the game progress report.



Ashikaga House

 * Territories
 * 京 (Kyo), まむし油田 (Mamushi Oil Field/Mamushi Yuden)


 * Basics
 * You can declare war on the Ashikaga House on Turn 3. If not, in a series of random turns, the Ashikaga House will start to demand money from you (and each time in increasing amounts). If you refuse any time you were asked (bottom choice), they will declare war on you (saving you an Action Fan use). After conquering any one territory from Ashikaga House, Ashikaga Choushin will ask Yamamoto Isoroku for support.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Yamamoto Isoroku - Once Ashikaga hires her, if Rance participates in a battle against said House, the battle is an automatic loss. After you win a battle she participated in, she will be scolded by Ashikaga Choushin, enabling you to capture her in future encounters. The next time you attack Ashikaga House will be an automatic loss if you wait until some turns after she got scolded. She will also be automatically captured after you completely take over the Ashikaga House (even if events during the Turns haven't introduced her yet).
 * Yamaguchi Tamon and Inoue Shigemi/Shigeyoshi - Once Ashikaga House is defeated, these two subordinates of Isoroku will join you after Isoroku's second ??? purple event is seen (must have at least 7 spare National Power and 6 empty slots in the roster beforehand). Their names are on the game progress report.
 * Ikkyuu - Can be captured in battle but won't be automatically captured when you completely take over the Ashikaga House. His special skill, Witty Comeback can be used to reverse the battle rating and make any losing battle a win. However, this skill can only be used thrice during the game, so it should be saved for extremely difficult battles.
 * Ashikaga Choushin - Automatically captured after completely taking over the Ashikaga House. Only worth recruiting for the Emperor's Ring and Akihime's character clear (and his own character clear for completion's sake). He has extremely low stats so he should be fired after these two are done.
 * Ashikaga Yoshiteru - A generic-faced captain who is level 45. Can be captured in battle. His name is on the game progress report.
 * Kuge Kyouko - After Kyo is conquered, she can be recruited with 15 Negotiation. She starts with Light Attack, a very useful skill for capturing other commanders. Her name is on the game progress report.
 * Kuge Kiyoko - After Kyo is conquered, she can be recruited with 15 Negotiation. She starts with Asset Tech, which can generate up to 2000 G income per turn when you have 50000 G. Her name is on the game progress report.
 * The "Mino Three" - Ganko Ittetsu (Tactician), Andou Kyuuri (Diviner) and Takuwan-sama (Bushi) -. If Mamushi Oil Field is conquered, they can be recruited with 3 Negotiation each.
 * Aburako Dousan - A monk-warrior that you can obtain after recruiting all her three subordinates (the Mino Three in Mamushi Oil Field) using Rance's satisfaction point. She has Convert Action 1 and four action points, and therefore she makes a great combo with any unit that loses all its action points in a single special attack (e.g. Ninja units). She also comes with quite a big troop size. Her name is on the game progress report. In total, she cost 5 fans to hire.



Iga House

 * Territories
 * 大和 (Yamato)


 * Basics
 * Will not declare war on the player until you defeated Tenshiism and had Seigan migrated to Iga's territories for a while. They seem much less likely to declare war if you're already at war with another country.
 * A short while after war begin, there will be a command in Yamato to ask Suzume about info on Iga. Afterwards, a purple ??? event will be available which gives you 2000 gold (stolen from Iga) and makes the Iga army weaker. When conquering the last castle, you need to include Suzume or Inukai will escape and later lead a revolt taking back Yamato (he does not always do this, there is likely another condition)
 * Alternately, in Second Games, a 35 Cost green exploration command will appear a few turns after war has begun. The green exploration command has Rance duel with Inukai + 3 dogs. Recommended level for Rance is 51+ and he needs a minimum of 4 action points, as Inukai is in the back row being shielded by 3 dogs. (You need to have 3 spare nation power for this command to appear)
 * NOTE: Winning the duel also takes over Iga, but it doesn't count as a province takeover, so you can still invade other provinces
 * NOTE: Conquering Iga in this way still leaves open the possibility that Iga will revolt at a later time. The condition for this might be for there to be less than 5 houses left on the map in total.
 * Alternately, also in Second Games, if you have Gekko, you can do a colorless event in Owari that has Gekko punish Inukai. Doing so will make Yamato come under your control. However, you will not be able to recruit Inukai and consequently be unable to obtain the Flat Spider Treasure, one of the six great treasures. (Also, Iga may revolt at a later time in this case)
 * Noteworthy captains
 * Inukai - Can only be captured via the duel in Second Games, if you don't see his event, it's because you need one empty space in your commanders' list. You also need 3 unused National Power.
 * The five Goninjais (Ninja 14, Ninja 16, Ninja 33, Ninja 55, Ninja 68) can be captured via regular battles.
 * Matsuo Bashou - Can be captured in battles but won't be automatically captured after taking over Yamato. His name is on the game progress report.



Tokugawa House

 * Territories
 * 三河 (Mikawa)


 * Basics
 * They are allied with the Takeda House, and will declare war on you if you go on war with the Takeda House. In fact, even if you have made them into vassal, they will still revolt and fight you if you and Takeda start fighting. But otherwise, they won't declare war on the player. They may also revolt when fighting the Demon Army in the Uesugi Kenshin route any route that Demon Army appears.
 * Initially, they only use human troops. Once the player take over two areas of Mikawa, the Youkais will participate in battles. Note: if none of the Youkai were captured, they will all defend the last house together, which makes the battle very difficult. The battle becomes significantly easier when most of the Youkai are captured first. After winning the battle over the last house, there will be a captain fight against Tokugawa Ieyasu and two bodyguards.
 * Another way to obtain Mikawa is to vassalize the country after you have declared war on it. By vassalizing the Tokugawa House, you will get the Blue Charm Holder (reduces received damage by 30%) once you have done 2 purple events in Mikawa. The third purple event will give you 1 satisfication point. If you have Ikkyu in your party, then 2 more purple events will show up in Mikawa. These last 2 events will kill off Tokugawa and make Mikawa come under your control. The upside to this method is that you can obtain Mikawa without a fight (turning Mikawa into a vassal requires 30 negotiation points) and you can also obtain the Blue Charm Holder (becomes a 2nd game item bonus once you have it in your possession first). The downside is that you will not get the H scene with Senhime and you will not be able to recruit either Senhime or Tokugawa.
 * Taking over this territory enables an event where Kaguyahime (Alien) requires three parts to repair her spaceship, which can be found randomly in dungeons. Completing this will allow you to H her and get the item Black Tri-Star Doctors (黒医三連星). Not completing this gives you the option to heal Rance to full health every visit, which may be better in some cases.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Tokugawa Ieyasu - Can only be obtained in Second Games. To get him, you must capture Sakakibara Yasumasa and talk to him twice to learn Ieyasu's favorite dish is tempura (Kouhime must be present and you must do this BEFORE clearing him). Then after taking over the last Tokugawa land, you will be offered a choice to fight him or to bring out tempura. If you choose tempura (the first, longer choice is the tempura), Ieyasu will give you Tokugawa without a fight and join you at the beginning of a later turn (it may take quite a while). Note that conquering Tokugawa in this manner will disable all Senhime appearances, including the initial Satisfaction bonus normally obtained when conquering Tokugawa.
 * The 5 underling youkais (Honda Tadakatsu, Ii Naomasa, Sakai Tadatsugu, Hattori Hanzou, and Sakakibara Yasumasa) can be captured in battle directly. The first four (all except Sakakibara) can also be recruited by doing Ieyasu's events after Ieyasu has joined. They may join other factions after Tokugawa falls and before Ieyasu joins you, but Ieyasu's events will automatically poach them back from those factions.
 * Senhime - will be released from the Mikawa dungeon after an automatic H-scene that appears when you completely take over Tokugawa territories (again, only if you fought Ieyasu instead of offering him tempura). She can be recruited via a purple event in Mikawa. (Her initial cost is 4 and you can't recruit her if you don't have enough nation power to accommodate her cost). If you don't use her to fight for several turns, she will leave you. Upon "Character Clear" she will not leave you anymore.



Tenshi Sect

 * Territories
 * なにわ (Naniwa), 蜜柑 (Mikan)


 * Basics
 * War breaks out with Tenshi sect a short while after two seals are broken. This will happen even if you don't have territories adjacent to Tenshi sect. When you are at war with them, there will be dissenters within each of your territories and they will begin to accumulate. in the command window, you can see the % of accumulation. And by selecting this option, you can suppress them (resets the % of dissenters to 0). If the % of dissenters go over 100%, at the end of the turn, there will be uprising. The first option is to fight them, where you send a captain to battle against one peasant unit of 1000 soldiers. The second option is to let the riot go on, which also resents the dissent level to 0% but lowers the nation power of the respective province by 1. Only one uprising will happen per turn if multiple provinces have over 100% dissent.
 * If Tenshi sect has not been defeated after the first fight with Xavier, the player will be asked whether to cease fire with Tenshi sect. Doing so will turn Tenshi sect into your vassal.
 * During the Tenshi war, your troops will desert, and the number will be quite noticeable in 5star mode.


 * Isoroku route: after Kouhime purple event, if Tenshi sect has not been conquered, you will be asked to make alliance with them. Say no and conquer them like normal. An event at the end with Genri, Seigan and the Triplets will ensure Tenshi surrender. No +5 Sat in this case, unfortunately.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Seigan - Autojoin a few turns after allying with Tenshiism. If you do not ally with Tenshi sect and defeat them normally, will join at the beginning of a turn once you start fighting Nobunaga's demon army. He will not join you in the Ran or Isoroku route. NOTE: Requires room in the commander list and 3 NP before he will join. Also, Seigan's join event is low priority, so it may be advisable to remove battle permits or stop attacking for a few turns to make sure he joins your army. If he doesn't join your army, he may join it way later in the game even after Sill has been frozen. (His event has Sill in the conversation)
 * Genri (言裏) - Autojoin a few turns after Seigan joins. NOTE: Also a low priority event.
 * The "Three Good siblings," or the Miyoshi Brothers, (Miyoshi A-kichi (三好Ａ吉)、Miyoshi B-ko (三好Ｂ子)、Miyoshi C-zou (三好Ｃ藏)) will join Tenshi sect after you win a few victories against Tenshi sect. They are the guys with white-painted faces and little black eyebrows, they have all 5's in the combat stats and each has a 7 in one of Exploration (A), Negotiation (B), and Construction (C) respectively. The siblings can be directly captured in battle.
 * Yodokun Gosai - Can be captured in battles. Her name is on the game progress report.
 * Honda Masanobu - a Tenshi tactician, who doesn't seem to have any story significance. He is considered an "important character" and has certain related immunities (Gekko's Assassination+), and it is believed he also cannot be captured unless his original faction has been conquered and he has been rehired by another house. His name is on the game progress report.

Asai Asakura House

 * Territories
 * テキサス (Texas)


 * Basics
 * A scene will occur where you meet Asakura Yoshikage. During this scene choosing the second option will cause them to declare war on you. It is possible that you won't even get the option to grab Yukihime's boobs, Rance will just grab them and that will start the war automatically. And even if you chose the first one, if you aren't in war with any country, there will be an event in which Asai-Asakura's subordinates will report that Rance grabbed the princess's boobs and that will start the war. This event won't happen before Tenshiism conflict.
 * After taking over one of their territories, you will be attacked by an endless wave of pandas, when you lose the waves will stop, and you will be forced to retreat and lose the territory. On the following turn, you can take over territories normally.
 * Some turns after declare war an earthquake hit Texas, weakening them. You can do a purple event on Texas for send poisoned "aid" and weaken their troops more.
 * In Second Games, a few turns after defeating the Asai Asakura, Yukihime will use her body to influence another house to go to war against the player. This can be prevented by recruiting her father Asakura Yoshikage, raising his relationship to Normal, and pick an exploration command in Texas before the first house fights you due to her influence. You must have at least 1 free national power, or the exploration command will not appear.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Asakura Yoshikage - Automatically captured upon taking over Texas.
 * Hakkin Dasan - To recruit him, do a purple event in Texas after taking it over. The first choice will kill him, the second will recruit him. Also the same turn you recruit him a red event called Panda Hunt will show up in Kazusa 2000. This is a commander fight against 3 Pandas with 350 HP. It adds 400 pandas to Hakkin Dasan's unit. From that point on it shows up every four turns adding 500 pandas each time.
 * Yukihime - Only available in Second Games. She joins you after the exploration command in Texas which can become available either by bringing Asakura Yoshikage to normal before she starts a war between you and a random house, or shortly after the house she influenced is defeated but before the event where she loses her mind; she'll not join you after this event. The player must have seen the earthquake event on Texas or the exploration event wil not be available



Miko Institute

 * Territories:
 * 邪馬台 (Yamatai)


 * Basics
 * Before you can declare war on them, you have to do 3 events at Yamatai. Afterwards, you can finally declare war.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Natori - Automatically captured upon taking over Yamatai. Very useful character with high stats and a spell that drains 30% of the life of all enemies.
 * Souma Hayate - Will join Miko Institute after 2 areas are conquered. Has a Commander Charge and high action points and stats. His maximum level is random. His name is on the game progress report.
 * Himiko - A monk with 6 actions, 7's in ATK/DEF/SPD/INT and 6/6/3 in Search/Neg/Const. She will be deployed after the story scenes which result from fighting a few battles with the Miko Institute, after which she can be captured at any time. Her maximum level is 40. Sadly she has Field Battle Expert, so if you keep her until the game ends, you will miss out on 2 points since she cannot have End-Game points. Her name is on the game progress report.
 * Goemon - A ninja with 7's in ATK/DEF/INT, 6 SPD, but has only 2 action points. He also has Assassination 2 and Battlefield Construction 3. Can be captured in battles. His maximum level is random. His name is on the game progress report.
 * Maya and Isuzu - Miko commanders who are subordinates of Natori. They can be captured after an event showing them asking Natori to let them participate in battles. They will never be killed in combat against you and have unique portraits but are otherwise insignificant. They have average stats.



Imagawa House

 * Territories
 * 東海道 (Toukaidou)


 * Basics
 * After several scenes, the Hanny Shinsengumi will try to cross through your territories to get to Kyo. You will be given a choice to allow them through or stop them. If you don't let them through, they will declare war on you. If you let them through, then after the player defeats the Tokugawa House (or just takes over the territory, if someone else owns it), the Hannies will declare war on the player (the declaration of war might come a little later if some Imagawa introduction events are still being processed). You can declare war on them after the first event that involves their appearance.
 * Once you've been at war with them for a while, a purple "Collect hannies' information" event will become available in Tokaidou (you'll know it's there when 3G tells you about Imagawa Anko). Selecting this makes the "Meet with the Hanny King in secret" event available. Trigger the scene and you will be presented with two choices. Choose to keep his secret (first choice) and once Imagawa is defeated, you'll get an H-scene with Imagawa Anko for 5 Satisfaction. The second choice lets you completely take over Imagawa territory with no further battles, but you won't get the H-scene. Warning: the events won't happen if Sill is already frozen.
 * After the player has defeated a certain number of houses, Takeda will conquer Imagawa unless the player is already at war with one of them.
 * Noteworthy Captains
 * Okita Nozomi To recruit her, you must let the Hannies pass through on their pilgrimage to Kyou. Complete 3 special purple events in Kyou and the option to recruit her will become available (also in Kyo). Also, if you declare war before King Imagawa reach Kyou, the purple events don't appear and you can't recruit Okita. If the recruit option doesn't appear, bring your national power up until it does. Sill is required for one of the events, so it must happen before she is frozen. Her stats are nothing too special, but she has a high level (useful for commander/dungeon battles) and has a base cost of 0 NP. She also has a couple of SAT bonuses you can trigger,



Uesugi House

 * Territories
 * 佐渡 (Sado), MAZO (MAZO)


 * Basics
 * Will declare war on the player if the player has conquered too many houses (approx. 8) .[There was a case around turn 90+ after Honnouji where, if not conquered by then, Uesugi will declare war. [I had 7 houses personally]. Will also declare war if you defeat Asai-Asakura House or Hojo House before fighting the Tenshi Sect.
 * Once you start fighting the Uesugi house, whenever Rance and Uesugi Kenshin face each other on the battlefield, you get an automatic victory. After conquering an entire province from Uesugi, they will have event night raids to push you back from conquering the second province (it is impossible to capture anything from Uesugi until the coup event takes place, as they will continue night raids). After a few turns, when you attack Uesugi House again (or after three consecutive night raids in the same turn) there will be a coup, with Kenshin's uncle taking over and offer to give you Kenshin in exchange for peace. Choosing to accept, the second option, will make the Uesugi House your vassal, whereas slaying the messenger on the spot, the first option, allows you to conquer Uesugi House regularily. The coup event will not trigger if rance has not met Kenshin yet and has not seen at least one night raid. If Kenshin's uncle is not defeated within a few turns after the coup event, Kenshin and Ai will be raped (CG) and lost forever.
 * A battle with boars is unlocked every few turns in Sado. It gives 500 + 100 gold for every additional fight and is required to unlock one of the Six Great Treasures (see Sengoku Rance:Objectives.) This one is superior to the one in Owari, as it offers 20 points per turn (a total of 60 are needed) versus the Owari event's 10.

NOTE Do not take too long to capture the house after slaying the messenger. After 5 turns, a rape Hscene with Uesugi Kenshin and Naoe Ai will appear and you will no longer be able to recruit either of them.
 * Notable captains
 * Uesugi Kenshin - Will only join you if you slay the messenger and conquer the Uesugi House. Need to pick a purple ??? event to have her join you.
 * Naoe Ai - Will only join you after Kenshin has joined. You can either wait for her to auto-join after a few turns or if you want her now; you need to pick a purple ??? event to have her join you.
 * NOTE!: If you pick the Uesugi house 2nd Game bonus, it is possible to get 2 copies of Naoe Ai! One from the 2nd Game bonus. The second copy can be acquired through a purple ??? event in Sado.


 * Torako and Katsuko - Can only be captured in battle after you conquered the Uesugi House and they get hired by other houses (unless you start the game with the Uesugi bonus, in which case you cannot capture them, as they will not join other countries after Uesugi is defeated). Their maximum levels are random. Their names are on the game progress report.
 * Irobu Eroko - Can be captured in battles. Her name is on the game progress report.



Takeda House

 * Territories
 * 信濃 (Shinano), 貝 (Shell/Kai)


 * Basics
 * Will not declare war on player unless and until the territory of Oda house has expanded significantly (this means Takeda eventually WILL declare war in non-Demon Army routes). This event can be delayed by a yellow exploration event in Takeda territory (which also shows the countdown until Takeda is ready to declare war on the player). Also, they will almost immediately declare war on you after the temple events of Yamamoto Isoroku route. If the player go to war against them, the Tokugawa will go to war against the player to help the Takeda. If the player go to war against either Hojo or the Uesugi, then Takeda will quickly take out the other house (unless the player go to war against BOTH Hojo and Uesugi, or if the player is also currently fighting the Takeda). The event of Takeda taking over Uesugi or Hojo house appears to happen only on the first playthrough.


 * Approximately three turns after war begin with the Takeda, its four generals will start participating in battles. Then on random turns, the Four Generals of the Takeda House will lead a consecutive blitz charge, attacking you four times in the same turn. As a note of warning, the Takeda will be 'collecting their forces' the turn before the blitz. Their cavalry units can hit the back row, and their general will have a passive skill that gives them all four buffs, making them a formidable foe.
 * A green exploration command to assassinate Takeda Shingen becomes available once both of the following conditions are met:
 * 1. The player has previously defeated Takeda House via brute force and let the game auto-save. This can have been done in an earlier play-through, but can also be done in the current one (by conquering via brute force and then loading a save file where Takeda still exists).
 * 2. In the current game you have successfully blocked all 4 consecutive attacks in a blitz, AND no other events is suppressing events at the beginning of the turn (which introduces the availability of the command, where Rance and Suzume discuss about Shingen). Clarification: the beginning of the turn event CAN occur on a different turn than the turn which you blocked all 4 consecutive attacks if there are other event suppressing this event. You only need to block ONE blitz, and it is possible for the event to occur after later blitz, which you do not need to block.
 * The Takeda House automatically falls after the "assassination". You may also conquer Takeda the normal way (which is much easier if you can do it before the generals start to fight). You only need to conquer Shinano and Shell in order to defeat the Takeda house, any additional territory that Takeda might have acquired will automatically come under your control once these two provinces are conquered.


 * If you choose to conquer Takeda normally, after winning the final battle, Baba Shouen, Yamagata Masakage and Kousaka Yoshikage will have a battle with Rance's army with squads of 50 each, which shouldn't be too difficult as long as Rance's army is at full strength (or increase his troops to 500+ if you haven't reached it yet) and Rance has at least 4 moves. So try not to use Rance in the last battle, because if you do, Rance will have to fight those three with whatever troops he has left from the previous battle, which can become dangerous if Baba Shouen uses his captain charge or Yamagata Masakage uses his charge-in to reduce Rance's moves.


 * Notable captures
 * Sanada Tourin - Automatically captured when Takeda House falls. Cannot be captured in battle.
 * The other three generals (Baba Shouen, Yamagata Masakage and Kousaka Yoshikage) can only be captured after the "assassination" event (they will become ronins and be hireable by the other houses).
 * Akiyama - Generic male cavalry unit with 6 action points, 6/6/7/6/5/5/5 in stats, Rear Guard Charge and Battle Rating Up 2. He can only be captured after Takeda has been defeated and he has been hired by another house.
 * Super Jockey - Generic male cavalry unit with 5/6/6/5/3/1/3 in stats and a random level cap (Highest seen is 63). Can be captured anytime.



Houjou House

 * Territories
 * 江戸 (Edo), 上総２０００ (Kazusa 2000), さいたま (Saitama), 死国 (Death Country/Shikoku)


 * NOTE!: Italicized territories signify an event-based change in that land's control - i.e. Shikoku is acquired by Takuga in its first event, and Saitama will sometimes be taken over by Takeda.


 * Basics
 * Will declare war on you if you conquer Takeda.
 * Will be defeated by Takeda House if you go to war against the Uesugi House, unless you are already at war with either the Takeda or Houjou (apparently this only happens in the first playthrough).
 * If you have a region adjacent to Houjou territory, there will eventually be an event where Houjou dispatches a diviner on Oda territory to deal with some ogres. After doing her job, she'll trip down and you'll have the option to just stare at her panties or rape her. Raping her will make Houjou automatically declare war on you (do note that you will not gain any satisfaction points for raping the diviner, and there will be no CG either).
 * Both Ran and Souun will die if you conquer Houjou without capturing Ran beforehand.
 * Souun will die if you conquer Houjou after capturing Ran BUT before Souun disappears (there is about 1 turn time window for this). Ran can no longer be recruited after that.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Houjou Souun - To get him, you must first capture Nanjou Ran. After this, an event will occur where he goes to seal an ogre in Mamushi Oil Fields. After recruiting Nanjou Ran and conquering the remaining Houjou areas, talk to her two times in Kazusa (purple events), then go to the bottom of the Oil Dungeon in Mamushi Oil Fields. It will take a few turns until Souun actually joins you. In a Second Game, this must be done after the 5th seal is broken, otherwise you will enter Ran's IF route, where Souun is not obtainable.
 * Nanjou Ran - Can only be captured after a few events dealing with her summoning powers (more specifically after she stops using Suzaku in battles), before conquering the Houjou House. She only survives in her own route.
 * Daidouji Komatsu - Automatically captured when defeating the Houjou House. Can be captured beforehand, but only after Souun goes missing and you get the event where she complains that the country sucks. Her passive skill (Fan Club) increases her troop size every turn, so she can be quite useful in lenghty playthroughs. In order to clear her character you need to have no Diviners in your commander list, so try to bring her to Love before getting Ran or Souun.
 * Tsukahara Bokuden - Can be captured in battles. His name is on the game progress report.
 * Houjou Masako - A unique faced diviner who becomes the temporary leader of Houjo if Souun goes missing. Will automatically be captured if Houjo is defeated while Souun has yet to disappear.



One Eyed House

 * Territories
 * エゾ (Ezo), 奥州 (Oushu)


 * Basics
 * To declare war on them, you must first do the '??? investigate the yokai empire' event in their territory. Then a new event battle should appear in Saitama. After doing this battle, you can declare war on them.
 * After taking over the last One Eye territory, there will be a duel between Rance and Masamune (with Sill supporting Rance if she is available). Masamune will heal himself to full health using eyedrops whenever he drops under 50%. To counter this, first recruit Nogiku, Orime, and Noir, as well as defeat Omachi's unit in battle (and trigger the event after battle), then pick a Purple Event in the One Eyed House territory to learn from the three girls how to fight Masamune. If this event is triggered, Masamune will still use eyedrops only once, but subsequently that move will be disabled by Rance and Masamune will no longer be able to heal. It is possible to defeat Masamune without recruiting his wives and triggering their event. It is also possible that he won't use his healing spell at all - this happens only if Rance is 60 level or above - that, however, might take a while to achieve.
 * If the Tokugawa House is still standing while you are fighting the house (Regardless of it's affiliation), at some point, One Eyed Masamune might take control of it.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Dokuganryuu Masamune - after you defeat his house, he may join in the next turn
 * In 1.04, he will not join if any of Nogiku, Orime, or Noir is cleared (originally he could join even if all three girls are cleared)


 * Omachi - Defeat her unit in battle and win the battle to get an event where she turns into a stone. Then after Masamune joines you, get Masamune up to Trust, and then an event should occur where she joins you. (Requires Kouhime.)
 * NOTE! (WORKS IN OLDER VERSIONS ONLY):If you pick the One eyed house 2nd Game bonus, it is possible to get 2 copies of Omachi! One from the 2nd Game bonus. The second copy can be acquired if you character clear masamune. This can be done by invading just one area of one eyed house territory and getting Masamune to trust. This is actually a glitch and is fixed in v1.04 of Sengoku Rance; in the latest version it's impossible to clear Masamune or get a second Omachi if you began with the One-Eyed bonus.
 * NOTE! Does not seem possible to trigger the event when she is defeated if her bodyguards (labeled footsoldiers) are with her, even if you defeat them. Try another turn if this happens to get her when they are not around.
 * Nogiku - Defeat her unit in battle, rather than just winning the battle. Afterwards, she will be captured.
 * Requirement! You have to recruit Akashi Kazemaru who MUST have Hibachi as his passive skill. A reason for this might lies in the Nogiku's H-cg. In which it shows that Nogiku is bounded by an iron chain which (coincidentally?) is identical to Hibachi's iron chain.
 * Orime - Defeat her unit in battle and she will be captured.
 * Noir - Defeat her unit in battle and she will be captured.
 * Moscow Fuyushougun - A foot soldier commander with very large stack size. Can be captured in battles, but his stack size will revert to 1000, and has high upkeep, making him quite useless. His name is on the game progress report.
 * Note that for most captains, fulfilling the above condtions does not guarantee 100% capture rate. Aside from the above conditions, the capturing chance (percentage success, same as percentage to capture normal defeated captains in battle) also apply, though it may not show in when the battle is over as 'captured'. So to capture each of the captains, you must fulfill the conditions and hope that you're lucky enough to capture them (fortunately, it is large enough). If you fail, you can simply re-load, or wait until the next chance. Captain skills that increase capture rate also helps.

Tanegashima House

 * Territories
 * 丹波 (Tamba)


 * Basics
 * Will not declare war on player. Sometimes will be conquered by Mori House, especially when the player is fighting the Akashi House. Mori will not take over the Tanegashima if the player is currently at war with the Tanegashima.
 * You may ask them to surrender (become a vassal) if you have captured Yuzuhara Yuzumi or if Xavier kills her in Kenshin route.
 * If you happen to be fighting Tenshi Sect (when they still have naniwa) or the Akashi House when facing Tanegashima, an event will happen and will show Tanegashima thinking about how they have weapons, but lack manpower to use them, and he will come up with and idea to sell those musket units cheaply to the other house so that they can fight you together. This also seems to occur when fighting other houses, such as the Asai-Asakura House . To make things worse, when you are one territory away from defeating Tanegashima, he will give even more musket units to that same country if you did not defeat it first.
 * In the first game, if the player goes to war against the Akashi House, the Mori House will move in and conquer the Tanegashima. This event sometimes happen in second games. You can prevent this by declaring war on both houses at the same time.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Yuzuhara Yuzumi - can be captured in battle. Will be automatically captured when Tanegashima House is defeated.
 * Tanegashima Shigehiko - automatically captured upon taking over Tamba.
 * Kikan Juutarou and Saika Mako - can be recruited in Tamba after recruiting Tanegashima Shigehiko.



Akashi House

 * Territories
 * 姫路 (Himeji)


 * Basics
 * After you take over one territory, an event will occur. After that, the first battle of each turn will be automatic defeats, for three defeats. It is possible to get the first two defeats on the same turn by attacking twice, or on different turns, but the third one must occur on a different turn than the first two (If you have Senhime, this is a good way to do the 3 losing battles required to "Character Clear" her, since you won't risk having her killed). The automatic defeats will take place whether you are attacking or defending. (It is actually possible to get all 3 defeats in the same turn, but you do not get the Hibachi scene the same way. This fourth scene must occur in a different turn. To get all 3 defeats in one turn, you must attack a total of 5 times in one turn.)
 * If the player goes to war against or has conquered the Tanegashima House and is not at war with Akashi, the Mori House will move in and conquer the Akashi. This will occur even if Mori has no territories adjacent to Akashi.
 * If you possess territory adjacent to Himeji for many (10+) turns but have not declared war, the Mori House may coerce Akashi into declaring war on you.


 * Noteworthy captains
 * Akashi Kazemaru - After taking over, you will be given three choices. The first one kills him, the second captures him, and third is to just to make him wear a strange mustache. When you capture him do the search option to find Hibachi (only available if you went through all 3 automatic defeats). Talk to him once for an event with Rance nude in his room. When you get Kazemaru up to 7 Trust, another event will be available where Hibachi becomes his subcaptain and Kazemaru buffs up (+2 to all stats). If you defeat Akashi House too quickly (before the event where Kazemaru release Hibachi), or Mouri takes over Akashi instead, then you cannot get Hibachi as a subcaptain. However, the HCG you get for searching for Hibachi will be different.
 * Kamiizumi Nobutsuna - Can be captured in battles. His name is on the game progress report.

Takuga

 * Territories
 * 死国 (Death Country/Shikoku), 中っ国 (Mid Earth/Nakakkuni)


 * Basics
 * Will declare war on the player a while after the player has been fighting the Mori House or Hojo House . This can be delayed by a yellow exploration command in Takuga territory (which also show the number of turns until Takuga is ready to declare war on Oda).
 * If you have recruited Nozomi, then after an event between Sakamoto Ryouma and the Hannys, a purple ??? event will be available for you to fund Hanny terror activities. If you choose to fund them, they will randomly take over Takuga-controlled areas for you (the amount of funding probably affects the frequency/probability of their activities).
 * If you fight them until their only remaining territory is Death Country, you may pick a purple ??? event and click on first choice to close the great gate and shut them there forever (they will not be able to attack you, and you won't get Sakamoto Ryouma and other captains which you are unable to capture.).
 * The purple event mentioned above won't appear if you didn't let them take over at least one Mori House territory and have already conquered at least one of their areas in Death Country.


 * Notable captains
 * Sakamoto Ryouma - Automatically captured when Takuga is conquered.
 * Gon, Kawanoe Yuzuru and Kawanoe Mine can be captured in battle, or automatically captured when Takuga is conquered. They are not recruitable unless Sakamoto Ryouma is in your army. Gon will leave your army after a few turns if Ryouma is no longer in your party.
 * Shoutoku Taishi - Can be captured in battles. His name is on the game progress report. He comes with a monstrous 9 atk and 5 action points, but has a miserable 0 def and int, and 4 speed. His level also caps at 45, so, along with having 5 action points, he can be a valuable asset for captain fights.



Mouri House

 * Territories
 * 出雲 (Izumo), 戦艦長門 (Battleship Nagato/Senkan Nagato), 赤ヘル (Red Helmet/Akaheru), 中っ国 (Mid Earth/Nakakkuni)

When it's Mouri's turn, Mouri Motonari's curse will be lifted and he will fight like a regular unit (which is actually bad news for you in army battles, unless you killed him so much that his HP has become very high). Note that in Yamamoto Isoroku's route, the event to unlock the Izumo dungeon will no longer appear some time after the Honnoji Temple incident (exact timing uncertain), so Mouri's curse is not liftable after then.
 * Basics
 * After defeating Mouri Motonari in battle at least once, he will grow impatient and offer the player a chance to fight in an all-out battle (??? event). By taking the challenge, the player will fight all the powerful captains of the Mouri House together. Winning the fight allows the player to capture an entire province directly instead of winning it one area at a time; losing will cause a Game Over. The challenge can be taken until Mouri has only one province left, or if Motonari's curse has been lifted. NOTE: Though you acquire the province you win a challenge in, it doesn't count as conquering it, so you can still invade other territories.
 * The first time you battle against Kobayakawa Chinu's unit, she will serve poisoned drinks to your army, which will lead to an automatic defeat! This event only happens once.
 * To lift Mouri Motonari's curse:
 * 1) Defeat the Takuga House and recruit Sakamoto Ryouma (DO NOT CHANGE HER GENDER).
 * 2) Search for the dungeon in Izumo.
 * 3) Select the event "Ask Ryouma about Motonari". The event should appear after the assassination attempt on Motonari. This event can appear later, so don't worry if it isn't available.
 * 4) Go through the dungeon in Izumo until you fight an enemy called Daidaara (だいだーら) on the 7th floor, after which you'll have an event (you can leave the dungeon after that if you wish).


 * Noteworthy captains:
 * Mouri Motonari - Will be captured upon defeating Mouri House if his curse was lifted. If you get his relationship up to Trust, he will die... but his ghost will return to join you in his cursed form. Mouri's basic attack is useful in some commander fights because it does 200 damage regardless of the enemy's defense. This is great against Xavier, where most other characters do less than 100 damage.
 * Mouri Teru, Kikkawa Kiku, and Kobayakawa Chinu - All automatically captured when Mouri House is defeated. They can be captured in regular battles only after you have fought in at least one challenge. Note that Chinu will always die the turn after the Demon Army appears. If you wish to H Kiku or clear her, she must be captured before the Mori House is defeated. Note that failing to H Kiku also denies you the 4P HCG (see: Character Clears).
 * Yamanaka Kojika - Must play in a slow pace to see her interactions and events with Ashikaga Choushin, Inukai (this one appears to be optional), Seigan (while Oda is at war with their respective Houses), and Oda House (where she wants to recruit Rance but gets kicked out instead). (The aforementioned events will not be triggered anymore after an event where she meets the Shinsengumi and encounters Mouri Motonari face-to-face.) Next, an event at Mid Earth and an event at Battleship Nagato (where she fights the Mori house by herself) must be triggered. All the events listed must happen while the Mori House has more than one province. When Mouri House has only one province left, an event about Kojika should appear automatically right away without taking turns; otherwise, it means that not all of her prerequisite events have been triggered. After defeating the Mouri House, her purple recruitment event should be available at Izumo.
 * Ahen Shounin - A mercenary miko commander with troop size over 4000. His defense stat is always 1, although the other stats are random. When you capture him, his troop size reverts to 1000. Worth your time to imprison him to deny his use to your opponents.
 * Murakami Suigun - A tactician commander with a special tan-skinned portrait (like some of the Shimazu girlfriend commanders, who you can't capture). She has 6 action points and 6 in Search, Negotiation, and Construction. Can be captured in battle. Unknown if she needs to have joined another house first.



The Demon Army / Shimazu House

 * Territories
 * カイロ (Cairo), モロッコ (Morocco), アマゾン (Amazon), 南アフリカ (South Africa)

NOTE! This only happens if you're on the True History, Yamamoto Isoroku IF, or Kenshin IF route.
 * Basics


 * 10 turns after the Incident at Honno Temple Event, Xavier will appear in Africa and take over the Shimazu House, renaming it the Demon Army.
 * Senkan Nagato will be automatically captured if you didn't conquer it. If you did, the Shimazu brothers will randomly launch consecutive blitz attacks on your nearby territories. Senkan Nagato will not be taken by Demon Army if Mori House is still standing and it is the only remaining Mori territory.
 * If there are other houses left, every few turns Xavier will directly kill of one of those houses and convert them into Demon Army land (even if they aren't adjacent to any Demon Army territory). The only houses that would be spared are the One Eyed House and the Asai Asakura House. Tanegashima House will also be spared if you turned them into your vassals. [Uncomfirmed, but possibly Tokugawa and Imagawa may be spared as well].
 * Kobayakawa Chinu will die the turn after the Demon Army appears.
 * Nanjo Ran, if you have recruited her but have not proceeded with her dungeon events, will head to the dungeon on her own a while after being recruited, never to be seen again. On some occasions, if you recruited her too early, this might even happen before the Honnou Temple incident, so recruit her a bit late if you want Houjou Souun. If you didn't recruit her at all and just kept her in the prison, at some point she'll simply die as Suzaku comes out of her.
 * After the player battles the Demon Army once, the Shimazu House captains (the four brothers plus Agireda) will launch consecutive blitz attacks on the player. This will happen only once, though, so don't worry if you cannot defend against them.
 * A while after taking over Battleship Nagato, Acolyte Seiryuu will have a duel with Kentarou. After the battle, Kentarou will turned into a demon, and Miki will run off. The player must perform three searches for Miki within the next few turns before she turns into the Demon King. You may not attack other houses before locating Miki. When Miki is found, the player will have 0 action fans left for the rest of that turn, so plan accordingly.
 * After finding Miki Sill will get frozen. In a few turns Rance will get irritated and you will lose satisfaction points. To prevent this you must do Frozen Sill purple event.
 * There's also another event concerning Miki, which is the lack of Hirami Lemons that are used to suppress her transformation into the Demon King. You must do a search in Mikan (??? event) to open up a dungeon, to which you must head into. You might as well just clear it to be sure you get what you needed.
 * After fighting the Demon Army for a while, the acolyte Suzaku will appear after battles, and you must send a captain to face his challenge. Hojo Souun is capable of directly killing Suzaku, whereas Kentarou, after being turned into a demon (Suzaku may appear before Kentarou turns into a demon, especially in the Isoroku route), will tie with Suzaku, gaining three levels in the process; sending anyone else will kill that captain (and sending Rance will lead to a Game Over). After the first confrontation with Suzaku, a new purple event will appear where Rance thinks of how to deal with Suzaku. Afterward, when Suzaku appears again, picking Kentarou will lead to increasing his level by three again (it is a repeatable event, so you can eventually get him to 99 this way), and picking Rance will lead to a captain fight between your captains and Suzaku, where you can kill him. If you happen to lose this fight it will not lead to a game over, but Rance will be forced to go on his promised "date". Rance will refuse to talk about it and become irritated, losing SAT.
 * In True History route, after fighting the Demon Army for a while, there will be an event for the four Shimazu brothers to plan an ambush on Rance, and disappear from regular battle until the ambush. After Rance takes part in a winning battle, the four brothers will attack the battle group Rance is currently in. Be sure to heal up before the end of battle until this happens. After the troop battle, there will be a captain fight. After the fight, the eldest Shimazu brother dies. This event will also cause military chaos and use up all remaining action fans. After this event, the Shimazu brothers die in regular battle after defeated. This event is necessary to character clear Agireda. The Suzaku fight seems to have a higher priority than this event. So it appears to be easier to trigger this event, if there is one attack during your turn, and have Kentarou fight Suzaku as the post battle event. Then have Rance on defense during the counter attack after the end-of-turn, since Suzaku can not fight you again.
 * The ambush event will reset the brother's number of troops to approriate amount for current progress and difficulty. If you fight them in 5star for too long, their troops might reach 9999. This is one way to reduce the difficulty of fighting them.
 * After taking one area in South Africa or two areas in Morocco, the Demon Army will try to sink JAPAN. The player needs to make an attack on the enemy forces at Tenma Bridge (located in Morocco) to clear the game (this can be done even without defeating all of the Demon Army on the map). If the player waits too long, it will be Game Over. This event can be delayed with an event in Morocco (can be used once each turn if all the houses are conquered). You can abuse it as often as you can and you will be given as much time as you wish to prepare your heroes for the last battle.
 * If you are doing really bad, so much that you reach turn 110 without winning or making significant progress, you'll get a scripted event that says the fighting has been going on for awhile, and all territory formerly belonging to Demon army will now be yours except for the original Shimazu houses (Bottom left 4 areas). Note that i cannot confirm this, but i had only captured central Japan by this time. (Hara, Ashikaga, Iga, Tenshiism). [Takeda, Houjo, Uesugi, Mouri, Akashi have originally been taken by Demon Army by this time]. This appears to be one of those events to help you out. I encountered this on the first playthrough. Countires unconquered by either you or the demon army remain after this event, you can go ahead and conquer htem but by this time, the focus should be the demon army. IMPORTANT! : Note that although they're cornered, if you have left any unconquered houses (Like how i had Takuga and Akashi houses left standing), they CAN still be conquered by the Demon army, effectively overturning your advantage easily.


 * Noteworthy Captains
 * Agireda - can be captured in battle in the True History and Isoroku IF routes, but she can only be character cleared in True History. In the True History and Isoroku routes, it is possible to increase her troops by 1000 for each of the 2 colorless events available after conquering Cairo and Amazon.
 * Ootomo Sourin - a Musket unit with the unique "Special Cannon" ability that can deal severe damage to all enemy units even from the back row! This ability uses all action points. He cannot be captured. He is only available to the player as a Shimazu House character in Free-for-All mode.
 * The four Shimazu brothers will surrender to you and be placed in the prison after you kidnap Kurohime in the Ran IF and Kill the Monkey routes.

General stuff

 * IF routes can only be done in Second Games. The requirements for entering the route must be completed before the Incident at Honno Temple (after the Incident at Honno Temple is triggered, the route is locked)
 * A trick, is to create a save game that makes you can go all routes in the game is to make sure Hojo clan being the 5th clan with the seal being eliminated. You will need to able to conduct three moves in a turn to that. Firstly, make sure you have other elements for the other routes ready -- capture Yamamoto, make Kenshin/Ai your captain, etc -- attack Hojo clan normally, capture Ran, and let Souun to disappear. Conquer Hojo till the last fortress. At the beginning of a new turn with three moves, you have the opportunity to 1) enter Kenshin route immediately, 2) attack the last Hojo fortress (1st move), talk to Ran (2nd move), and enter dungeon (3rd move) [after recruiting Ran, there are two purple events to be done before the dungeon in Mamushi Oil Field is unlocked. You have to do the first one in a previous turn, otherwise the fifth gourd will be stolen before you can enter the dungeon] > Ran route, 3) Anything else after defeating the last Hojo fortress (Yamamoto or history route -- with Souun possibly joining you as a captain after Ran dies in the dungeon).

Nanjo Ran route

 * NOTE! If you do not go to the Mamushi Oil Field dungeon after unlocking it, Nanjo Ran will leave your party after certain number of turns (around 20) and you will lose both her and Hojo Souun. (In 1star run, Ashikaga left standing, Hojo is the fourth eliminated, after that 4-5 turn Ran left for Oil Field)


 * To begin the Ran IF route, capture Nanjo Ran while fighting the Hojo House. While fighting the Hojo House a series of events between Nanjo Ran and Hojo Souun should start, after Hojo Souun tells Nanjo Ran about the true nature of Suzaku, she will eventually be encountered in a battle and can actually be captured. After capturing Nanjo Ran let Hojo Souun go to a dungeon in Mamushi Oil Field before defeating Hojo House. Once you defeat the Hojo House, do an event there, which unlocks a dungeon in Mamushi Oil Field. If you complete this dungeon before 5 seals are broken, you'll be on the Ran IF route. *Note that completing the dungeon will send Oda into military chaos so you'll have no action fans left for the rest of the turn.
 * Some time after rescueing Hojo Souun, you will get an event where Suzume and Chaos discovers that Xavier is hiding in the temple. If you have conquered the Tenshi Sect at this point (and captured Manmaru), an event in the following turn will give you a choice to release Manmaru or keep her. If you release her and go to the temple, you will wound Xavier(While Kentarou kills Rengoku) then Seigan and the triplets walks in and seals him. If you keep Manmaru, the spell will fail, and its game over as everyone dies (even if you level up and manage to win the battle, the cutscene is the exact same as if you lost) . Warning, if you capture Manmaru right before being forced into the fight with Xavier, it is possible that the event for releasing Manmaru does not happen before the fight with Xavier and is a Game Over. Leaving the Tenshi Sect around until the fight will make the fight happen as if you released Manmaru.
 * Because the Demon Army does not appear in this route, this is the only route where Kobayakawa Chinu does not die (the other exception being the Kill the Monkey route which is arguably not a true route).
 * On the Ran IF route, the Shimazu House will one by one absorb the Mori House, Takuga, and Tanegashima House after several events, if the player hasn't conquered them. As a result, the Shimazu will acquire the special characters of those houses, and the southern part of JAPAN. These events can be triggered faster when either Shimazu gets attacked or attacks. This does not happen if the events on the Shimazu house or the targeted house are not finished. This can also be stopped by either lifting Motonari's curse or capturing one of the three maids of the Mori House.
 * The Shimazu brothers will randomly cause one of your female captains to defect. Only females who can be fired and is not in Love relationship will defect (Patch 1.03 makes it sufficient to keep your female captains if they have at least Trust relationship). This appears to be a truly random event as you can reload to the previous turn and get a different result. Defected captains cannot be re-recruited even after you recapture them. The following turn (or later, a beginning-of-the-turn event is required, and might be bumped back by main Ran route events), a green exploration command will become available in Shimazu territories, allowing you to kidnap Kurohime. At least one defection must have occurred for this to happen. The turn after Kurohime is kidnapped, the Shimazu brothers will surrender themselves to you (make sure you have enough space in your prison), although the Shimazu House remains hostile under Agireda's leadership. Take note that there is no upper limit to the number of defections that can occur. You can only have one captain defect per turn that the event occurs. Sometime, female captains who are at trust can defect if the majority of your army is a trust. Once Kurohime is kidnapped, the defections will stop. Agireda is not capturable in this route. ( Tip : To prevent defection, you can leave your prison at 20/30 or more and capture one more commander. It will replace the defection by an useless event)
 * BUG! The above event (female officier defeciton) can be pushed back by non-unique events. In other words, it is possible to never trigger any defection. If you conquer Shimazu in this way, the game will still assume you have captured the brothers and they will disappear from the game. This seems to occur more often if you avoid getting in contact with the Shimazu for a long time (by not conquering Mori).
 * About twenty turns after starting the Ran IF route, there will be a new battle event in all of your territories marked off with stars to fight ogres(2 units of 1000 blue ogres each, 1 unit of 2000 red ogres). You should clear them as soon as you can, because at the beginning of each turn that at least one remains, you lose 1 Nation power. At random points owai will get attacked by ogres which are harder than the normal battles. To finish the route, you must do this event at each location, and then go through a 7+ (12 floors in 1 star+ difficulty) floor dungeon in Saitama, after clearing the last level you will fight a boss battle against sekimei, a level 80 ogre with 2.4k hp, extremely high speed and can hit all targets from the backrow. Fighting him may be a problem if the only high level characters you have are rance and sill(everyone else at levels 50 or below will do less than 100 hp to him) but his attack has very low dmg compare to Xavier(around 100-175 dmg). There is no time limit to fighting Sekimei, once Keikoku has entered the cave you have infinite time to prepare. *Note that all action fans get restored before the fight with Sekimei.
 * Finishing the IF route will unlock a new option in the lap bonuses which will allow you to start the game with Ran (and Daidoji Komatsu). Hojo House will be hostile to you from the first turn, and Hojo Souun will be missing already.
 * Note: the ending to this route changes depending on whether Ran has trust or love when you beat Sekimei.

Yamamoto Isoroku route

 * To enter the Isoroku route, recruit Yamamoto Isoroku and unlock her H scene before five seals are broken. When Kouhime disappears, instead of choosing the normal green exploration command, pick the new purple special command that looks similar.


 * You will not have to do the first few fights right after you pick the purple command. Instead, you will only have to fight 1 battle where you have to fight Xavier inside Nobunaga's body. You will have no command fans to use in the turn in which you fight Xavier.


 * The turn right after the fight against Xavier in the temple, Takeda and Mouri will immediately declare war on you if they're still standing.


 * Apparently Xavier doesn't directly kill off various houses in this route after the demon army appears except for Hojo house.


 * Beware that once you enter Isoroku's route, anything requiring Kouhime's presence (discovery of certain dungeons, character clears for some captains) will no longer be possible.
 * After the beginning-of-turn scene where Keikoku demands a tax hike (roughly 25-30 turns after entering Isoroku's route), your action fans will be reduced to 1. Your actions fans will only go back to full after you see the beginning-of-turn scene where Keikoku puts Rance to sleep again.


 * In the Isoroku route, remember to pick all special commands for Isoroku whenever possible. But you don't actually have to start doing this until the beginning-of-turn event where Keikoku breastfeeds in front of Rance.


 * In this route, Sill does not get frozen as a result for finding Miki; however, Yamamoto Isoroku will retire from battle after an event.


 * Unlike the real history route, the Demon Army cannot be defeated normally. If you conquer too many of their lands, they'll randomly take 1 or 2 provinces away from you so you won't be making any real progress. The territories won't go to Demon Army but will instead be returned to the original owner of the territory (even if its leader is with you), so you'll have to fight more than one house at once if this happens. Instead, proceed along Isoroku's and Miki's plot, and when it's time Nobunaga will challenge you directly. Take note though that you should attack some of Nobunaga's territory in order to advance the plot (at least Battleship Nagato), but not all of Nobunaga's areas.
 * The demon army will attack you multiple times every turn. Shikibu can attack you multiple times a turn as well, and Xavier has a very large amount of commanders. While it's quite tedious, it's possible to slowly dwindle down the demon army assuming the player has enough commanders to defend multiple attacks and scoring kills in most of them.
 * You can use the battle permits against the demon army without having them taken away.


 * In the first half of the final battle (the timed one), if you damage any enemies but fail to finish them, they'll continue in the second part with full health, and Xavier's own health will reset to 50%. So if you're not confident that you can completely kill an enemy before the turns in the first part end, don't bother attacking, just try to keep Rance/Kentarou alive for the final part of the battle. An enemy that you managed to kill completely in the first part won't show up in the last part of the battle.

Uesugi Kenshin route

 * Preconditions for entering:
 * Kenshin and Naoe Ai are in your army.
 * Ashikaga House and Uesugi House have been conquered.
 * Kenshin's affection is at Trust.
 * Kenshin and Rance have been deployed in battle together (You will see a scene where Kenshin gives Rance riceballs).
 * After some turns, an event happens where Xavier gets the Emperor Headband. This seems to happen around the time between 4th and 5th gourd is broken, and never before Turn 23.
 * After that, the new purple action "Have a picnic with Kenshin" will appear in Sado; choosing it will start the Kenshin IF route. All your action fans will be used up after this, so plan ahead. The turn after, Rance will fight Rengoku with Sill, and there will be a timed battle in which Kenshin fights Xavier.
 * You'll start the Emperor Race afterwards. This involves Kenshin only. This race involves Kenshin getting 100 points. You'll get a list of twelve characters, and Kenshin will receive 20 points for defeating each of them. If she loses a one-on-one duel, you will get a Game Over. If Kenshin wins an army battle, she will gain 1 point. If she loses an army battle, she will face assassins and get 3 points, so sending her alone to a losing fight can be to your advantage. She won't face any pursuers when her Level drops to Level 1. (There might be some level prerequisite.)
 * The twelve participants of the Emperor Race are: Dokuganryuu Masamune (Youkai Empire), Oda Nobunaga/Xavier (Demon Army), Okita Nozomi (recruitable in Kyo), Baba Shouen (Takeda), Gon (Takuga), Keikoku (independent), Yuzuhara Yuzumi (Tanegashima), Mouri Motonari (Mouri), Shimazu Kazuhisa (Shimazu/Demon Army), Uesugi Kenshin, Suzutani Musou (independent) and Kumano Gorou (independent).
 * Dokuganryuu Masamune, Okita Nozomi, Gon, and Yuzuhara Yuzumi can only be fought if they are in your army. Baba Shouen, Mouri Motonari, Shimazu Kazuhisa, Suzutani Musou, and Kumano Gorou can be fought regardless of recruitment.
 * In Second Games, if you chose a Bonus House at the start with a racer under your control (i.e., Takeda to get Baba Shouen or Mouri to get Mouri Motonari), the racer becomes unavailable to fight in the Emperor Race, except for Kenshin and Masamune.
 * Events can occur that will allow you to use a Search command to locate Suzutani Musou and Kumano Gorou. Kenshin can then proceed to duel them.
 * Xavier takes over the Shimazu house about 5 turns after the race starts.
 * NOTE!: Conquering the Mori House while Mori Motonari is still cursed will cause a GAME OVER (An event occurs where he crushes Uesugi Kenshin). He will be at Level 50 once his curse is lifted.
 * After doing a few events with Kenshin, her Level will automatically go down to Level 1. A new option in the Satisfaction Bonuses will allow you to bring her Level up by 10 (e.g., Level 1 -> Level 11). This can be done either up to four times, or until Kenshin exceeds Level 39. Once Kenshin's level goes down to 1, you will have the option to fight participants that are in your army (e.g., Masamune, Yuzumi).
 * Every time you talk to Kenshin, she will gain 2 Levels until she reaches Level 60 or 61. Once she becomes the Emperor, she will no longer gain levels through this method. It is possible to have Kenshin bugged so that she will gain 2 levels with no restriction, until she reaches her level cap. One possible method to do this is to have kenshin get to level 8 before using 4 sat bonuses on her to bring her level up to 48, and then just leveling her up by talking to her and with affection bonuses.
 * The event to decrease Kenshin's Level can be suppressed by having other events trigger instead. It appears to be relatively low-priority and it's possible to win the Emperor Race without dropping to Level 1. To do so, do not conquer the territories which house the participants. Instead, conquer territories like Naniwa and Saitama, which house two independent racers.
 * Recruiting Nozomi, defeating Tanegashima, Takuga, and two independent participants is probably the easiest and most direct route. If you have Nozomi recruited, plus Yuzumi, Ryouma, Gon in jail before the Emperor race starts, the Emperor Race can be ended in five turns after you entered it. If you are not fighting any house with race participants, the first two beginning-of-turn events after the race starts will be Suzume finding Suzutani Musou in Naniwa and Naoe Ai finding Kumano Gorou in Saitama. Then fight both of them in the same turn. Then recruit Gon and Yuzumi from jail. The next two turns will send Kenshin to level 1 and use Rance Satisfaction Bonuses to raise Kenshin to lvl 41. Kenshin can easily win the fight against the three racers at level 41 with Ryuuguu Sword Urashimaru.
 * After a set amount of time, Keikoku will cause neutral neighboring houses to declare war on you. Houses can be convinced to attack you within mere turns of each other, denying you enough time to finish one off. However, if you are at war with 3+ houses, she will wait until your enemies decrease.
 * Xavier also starts killing the participants randomly, even ones in your army and prison, so reload if he kills someone you'd like to stay alive. Even if you release a participant from your prison, they can still be killed by Xavier.
 * Xavier will not kill any more participants if there are only four remaining in the race: him, Keikoku, Kenshin, and one remaining participant for Kenshin to defeat.
 * Around 15 turns into the race, Xavier has a chance of killing a fake Keikoku (0 points) or a random samurai (+2 points; +5 points in 2-star difficulty). This has a random chance of happening every turn.
 * If Xavier manages to get 100 points, he will get the Emperor aura and will order the Japanese to kill Rance, resulting in a GAME OVER.
 * Once the race starts, you can't conquer the last Takeda stronghold until either Kenshin or Xavier defeat Baba (but defeating Takeda before the race starts makes it much easier). The option to fight Baba shows up only after the four Takeda generals have done their blitz attack, and Baba does far more damage than Kenshin; you need to be at Level 62 with the Protection Paper equipped to stand a decent chance of winning, and sometimes you will lose because Baba can get two turns in a row. If you equipped an item that cannot be removed, such as the Emperor Sword, then get her stats to 9-8-*-8 (stats are in order) and you will barely win at Level 60. Another option is to use the 2nd game bonuses to buy either the Guts Armor (which will greatly reduce the damage Kenshin will receive) or the Ryuuguu Sword Urashimaru that adds 100 damage.
 * Before winning the race, the Demon Army cannot be conquered. If you manage to conquer ex-Shimazu territories, the Demon Army will randomly take back provinces from you in an event.
 * After receiving 100 points, Kenshin will get the Power of the Emperor skill (see skills section). She can automatically vassal a hostile area. (She cannot vassalize the Demon Army, as they're not from Japan.)
 * Once Kenshin becomes the emperor, if you conquer a Demon Army province, the entire Demon Army will be conquered (so you can recruit a few extra units for the final battle and/or clear them for points beforehand, if you feel like it), and you will get a scene where Xavier will go into the Orochi Temple in Yamatai. If you don't enter the temple in 5 turns, Orochi will awaken and you will receive a GAME OVER. Note that each turn, Xavier will go deeper into the temple. Depending on how deep he's gone, you will encounter him after passing floor 8/10/15/18/20 of the Orochi Dungeon. All commanders' actions (but not HP) will be restored when the fight starts. Ogawa Kentarou will not join you on this path, so make sure you have a Diviner ready to shield Rance repeatedly during the fight. Xavier is also with his monkey during the fight, whose attacks remove 1 action from your characters, so having a monk like Seigan helps with restoring flags to your main DPS force.
 * WARNING : It is possible to end up in a situation where you are stuck with insufficient points to win by eliminating contenders. This will happen if you dismiss participants before the race starts (confirmed with Yuzuru and Okita), which causes them to be disqualified, as well as picking a lot of house bonuses to disqualify them. When left with four remaining contenders and Kenshin has less than 80 points, Kenshin will defeat the last contender (Xavier/Keikoku do not count), and then Keikoku will poison Kenshin and kill her, becoming the emperor and causing a game over. Your only option at this point is to gain points via winning or losing battles with Kenshin till you have at least 80 points so that you will get 100 points immediately after defeating the last contender.

Kill the Monkey route

 * This is recognized by the game as a route when you save progress, but it isn't quite a true route; there isn't an actual story attached to it. It's more of a Sandbox Mode than anything else.
 * In order to open the route, choose the option "Can Kill Toukichirou" in the Family Bonus section. It costs 10 points.
 * Beginning turn 7, the "Kill Toukichirou" option will appear in Owari. This will last until the event when the first gourd breaks, which can vary depending on your actions in the game.
 * All events related to Xavier will no longer appear. There is no storyline for the most part, except for the Shimazu House; their actions are the same as in the Ran route. However, in this route, Suzaku appears if you visit the Oil Dungeon when looking for Hojo Souun. So this particular plotline follows the True History route rather than the Ran route. However, as Souun cannot fight Suzaku for revenge, you will not be able to clear him.
 * Ogawa Kentarou also doesnt appear and join in this route.
 * Kobayakawa Chinu does not die in this route either, so you can use and clear her. Sill, Kouhime, and any other characters who would disappear in various other routes will all remain intact in this route. Kouhime will not join you as a footsoldier unit (or Shibata Katsuie for +1000 troops)... When Nobunaga is alive and well, he would never allow that!
 * The Shimazu brothers will randomly cause one of your female captains to defect. Only females who can be fired and is not in Love relationship will defect. This is a random event based on your army specifications: you can reload to the previous turn and you will get a different result (or no defection at all) if there is even a slight change to your commanders (such as dismissing a single troop). Defected captains cannot be re-recruited even after you recapture them. Certain higher-priority events can prevent a defection by displacing the defection announcement event at the beginning of a turn.
 * The route ends when you defeat every country on the map and end your turn.
 * The main purpose of this route is for getting points and watching obscure events relatively uninterrupted, since you're not restricted by story-related events as in other routes. It's also a good route to use for getting the Takeda bonus.

Demon King route
NOTE! You will lose the game no matter how you try


 * This is the route you are on if you fail to get the Hirami Lemons or find Miki after her disappearance in time. She becomes the Demon King and wages war on Japan. A series of beginning-of-turn events will show Kentarou joining her (as all dark lords must obey the Demon King) and Miki receiving a series of letters from Hornet and Kayblis, the leaders of the two dark lord factions who were looking for her. You are basically told to restart the game because it is impossible to win.
 * All Demon Army units start with all 4 buffs, and they will get a large number of troops/commanders every turn (so it will never run out). All unit sizes are dramatically increased. Kentarou and Xavier have 8000 troops in their units, Keikoku has 4000, and Miki is a special unit like cursed Motonari (with a HP bar instead of unit value) that is nigh-invulnerable to everything but instant-death attacks and has a bomb attack that deals a fixed 9000 damage to a single unit (guard shikigami can still block it).
 * Battle permits still function normally, so you can stalemate the Demon Army infinitely if you have the gold needed to keep them functioning, so avoid losing them (In [True Story] Route, if you have any unit attacking a Demon Army territory using Battle permit, you have them all confiscated) by returning them to the item menu, and equip them again once you enter [Demon King] Route.
 * Castle battles in the original 4 Shimazu territories will function normally (they always have the same units defending, just with different unit sizes), so Miki will never defend a castle. During these battles, the defending units will not have any boosts.
 * It is still possible to "win". Use Battle Permits to take all non-castle territories, and don't bother defending any attacks by Miki. Miki sometimes does not attack in a turn, so you can go ahead and beat the normal attacking armies, then grab the castle next turn. On the last province, you can use Covert Action to prevent the Demon Army from attacking at all and secure a free route to the castle via Battle Permits before attacking normally next turn. When you conquer all Demon Army territories, you will get an event where Rance confronts Miki and Kentarou and Kentarou accuses Rance of cheating. Rance tries to attack Miki but the duo disappear, Rance complains he's too tired afterward, and then the game ends with the bad end's "Game Over" screen. You do not get any points for clearing the Demon King route as it is not a real route.
 * Closing the gate on House Takuga will prevent you from completing the route if House Takuga was taken over by Xavier before the Demon King appears.