By: Pollock974 IM: Pollock974 Email: Pollock974@yahoo.com Version 2.0 Authorized Sites Neoseeker.com GameFAQs.com BattleRealms.cc ***************************************************************************** TOC: Table of Contents ***************************************************************************** TOC: Table of Contents VER: Version History INT: Introduction TNT: Tips N Tricks DRW: Dragon Walkthrough DRU: Dragon Units DRH: Dragon Heros DRB: Dragon Buildings SEW: Serpent Walkthrough SEU: Serpent Units SEH: Serpent Heros SEB: Serpent Buildings CRD: Credits ***************************************************************************** INT: Introduction ***************************************************************************** This FAQ is recommended for those that know their way around the game somewhat. Beginners may get confused. This FAQ is spoiler free, there are no story details, just strategies on how to beat the missions, and some misc info. You can skip to a certain section by hitting ctrl F and search for the letters listed in the table of contents (INT: to skip straight to the intro, etc.). I know its ugly, but I'm working on content right now, I might pretty it up a little later. I guess the same goes as for any FAQ, use this wherever you want, but let me know where it will be posted and leave it unchanged. Other than that I don't care what you do with it as of right now. If you have anything to contribute send me an email and I might add it. I don't try to tell you everything to do on this, if you like a certain BG, unit or upgrade get it. This FAQ was written completely 100% by me, and since no one has wanted to help yet I doubt any contributions will be added. I might add some Wolf and Lotus info later, but I'm gonna take a break first. ***************************************************************************** TNT: Tips N Tricks ***************************************************************************** -Start off with a lot of peasants gathering to finance building costs without hurting unit production. Usually 4-5 on rice and 2-4 on water depending on how far away it is. As you get a good stockpile transform them into units. -Don't be afraid to snatch some peasants to get a certain amount of resources up. If you got 5 on rice and your short 100 water for a bathhouse, grab 3 or 4 to get it quickly. -Always have at least 1 peasant on each resource. It's easy to forget if you take them off and you won't find out until it's too late -Keep up the attack, don't let them control the war. Yin and Yang is very important and you wont get it by staying holed up. Usually as long as your attacking an enemy base your base won't get attacked. -Always use Kenji's Battle Gear (BG from now on) it can turn the tide on a battle. -Geisha are your most important asset, get them asap if you can. Keep an eye on them, if they're being attacked run up to some friendly units so they will attack her attackers. Don't ever attack with geisha with low stamina. -Use the Stand Ground wisely (N on your keyboard). Let them get close then press S (it will take them off of Stand Ground). They will usually chop the lead units to pieces. It can also keep your forces organized and ready to meet the real attack. The CPU likes to send probing attacks and feints, if your troops are scattered all over the place they will get slaughtered by the real attack. -Wait until the CPU throws a big attack at you then counterattack. Know where your going so you aren't running around until they can build forces back up. -A couple samurai or ronin and a hero or two with a geisha guarding them are adequate base defense. They can beat back any small to medium raids, just don't let the geisha get killed. -Watch your back. The CPU likes to circle your base and attack from behind. Set up watch towers so you wont get taken by surprise. -Assign a small guard to a different group number than your main force. If the CPU attacks from several sides at once send them where they're needed most. -Don't stay holed up in your base. If you give the CPU time to build up you will eventually have to fend off an endless train of attacks. -You can usually wipe out one base from the get go. Send your starting units to stop their production by taking out the peasants first. -Use raiders or the archers fire arrows to disable a town quick. Just run around setting fire to all the peasant huts and pretty soon your enemy will be helpless. -Make sure you get all the peasants and huts first. If you see one running around, automatically assume there's a hut somewhere and find it. If you miss any they will rebuild in no time. Watch how quick peasants are coming out. If they're coming out every 5-8 seconds it's probably the last one. -Make melee units attack lone watchtowers. If they're right up against it they cant be hurt. If they're in pairs have some cannoneers on the far side away from the second tower with a geisha guarding them. If theres not enough room just split up the main atackers and rush them both. -When you are attacking a base don't make all your units attack one building. Just move them to the center the base, preferably by the peasant huts, and they will automatically split up and attack several buildings. Whenever an enemy comes up or a peasant pops out they will automatically attack him. -Make geisha guard different people. If your forces get split up attacking a base you have a better chance of a geisha being near someone who needs them. ***************************************************************************** DRW: Dragon Walkthrough ***************************************************************************** Mission 1: Just kill all the raiders. When the controls pop up use Kenji's BG to kill them quickly. Mission 2-1 (Left Path): Send your starting units (the fighting ones not the peasants) to the top of the stage. Make sure you ctrl click so they wont fight anybody on the way. While they're on their way, build a peasant hut and a dojo. Put 3 peasants getting rice and 2 water. Pause right outside the base so Kenji can build his stamina back up. When its full run into the base. Only use Kenji's BG on melee units, kill the crossbowmen normally. As your spearmen come out (put the peasant huts rally point on the dojo) send them up with a ctrl click too. Let your units do their thing, don't give them commands, when a peasant comes out they'll automatically kill him. When you got both peasant huts down you should have about 6-8 spearmen. Now just go kill the keep. Mission 2-2 (Right Path): Just rush the top right rice field with your starting units (ctrl click). When you see the building wait a sec to recover stamina. When your full, tap on the building a couple of times and some enemies will come running. Kill them and continue to the rice field. When you see the watchtower let Otomo beat on it a sec and make Kenji stand still to recover stamina. When it comes down some enemies will come running, kill them. While your doing all this you should build a dojo as fast as possible and keep a steady stream of spearmen. As soon as the first one comes up send him to Kenji, he will probably be hurting for some help pretty bad right now. If he is hurting just make him stand still and he'll slowly recover health, just make sure no enemies are around. Now just hunt down any strays to beat the mission. Mission 3-1 (After 2-1): Just like 2-2. Rush the spot where Shinja is (top right by the rice field) with your sarting units. When you see the building tap on it a couple of times and some enemies will come running. Kill them and continue to the rice field. When you see Shinja in the watchtower let Otomo beat on it a sec and make Kenji stand still to recover stamina. When he comes down kill him. Mission 3-2 (After 2-2): Just like 2-1. Walk your starting units right into the north base using Kenji's BG on anybody you come across. Pause right outside and build Kenji's stamina. Kill everyone and put your dojo's rally point right to the north base, that way the spearmen will go straight to the fight. When the keep goes down Shinja runs out, kill him and you won. Mission 4-1 (Left Path): Send your peasants to the lower right patch of rice and build your base there. Send your units to the top left rice patch, ctrl click so they won't fight anything on the way. Make sure you save the archer chick, she is right above you. An attack will come and wipe out your starting position, so make some spearmen fast because your new base is where they will come next. After you defend your base join your two groups and destroy everything. Your new archer can hit watchtowers without them hitting her, so I would make good use of it. Mission 4-2 (Center Path): Send your units along the road, but pause before crossing the river to recover stamina. After you cross and kill the lotus keep going toward the top and around to the right. When Garrin comes out you will be able to see the wolf camp on the bottom right. Bring everyone there and kill everybody, pausing first to recover stamina. As usual keep pumping out spearmen and send them to the battle. Mission 4-3 (Right Path): Send the starting units to the top left, let them kill some buildings until you have a couple of spearmen. Send the spearmen with the others and hunt down the warlock, you only need about 4 or 5, but keep making them anyway to replace casualties. Mission 5: Put Kenji, another hero, and a dragon warrior in one group with a geisha guarding them. Put them on the top, and make everybody else a group on the bottom with a geisha guarding them. Just fend off the attacks, there's nothing real special about this one. Use Kenji's BG and don't waste it on someone about to die. Just use one per enemy he faces. If you got the archer chick, its alot eaiser. If you chose the right path in mission 4 this is gonna be a pain in the ass, you are really lacking in manpower. First of all put Kenji on group 1 and Otomo on group 2 and both guarded by a geisha. Send Kenji towards the top but a little to the right and Otomo to the bottom right by the water. Kenji should fight Greyback when he comes, and Otomo will hold up about 3 or 4 of them. Space your people out and take out the heavy hitters first. Try to make sure theres only 1 person on each enemy. It would kill them faster, but you need to take their attention from the building. Put your archers right in front of the building, they can kill 1 or 2 people before they get close and keep the fat dude near them somewhat because they will eventually try to kill them. Keep an eye on Kenji and Otomo, they will eventually kill everybody and just be standing there. Make them go aroung cleaning house and make Kenji use his BG on multiple people to weaken them up. Kenji and Otomo wont need their geisha anymore so use them to grab someone's attention. If all your geisha die one more will pop outta the building. Just cross your fingers and think fast and you'll do it. Mission 6 is different depending on what you chose for mission 4. Mission 6-1 (Left or Center on Mission 4): Just like 4-3. Run all your units up the road toward the north. There's a Lotus base right above the rice fields where your gonna make your base. Send your starting units to the Lotus base right above you and get them a geisha asap. Work your way to the right killing everything that stands in your way, and send about 4 or 5 spearmen to the small pond on the bottom of the map. It might take more to actually destroy it, but that will keep the peasants in check. Mission 6-2 (Right on Mission 4): Just like 4-1. Send the everybody but Kenji and the cannoneer to the top left, ctrl click so they wont fight anything on the way. Make a base as usual, but only build a dojo and bathhouse to begin with. An attack will come from the north, but you can hold it off with Kenji and the cannoneer, make sure you use his BG. Your starting units will cut off their supply, and when you have about 5 or 6 spearmen send everyone at your base north. Their other supply is there. After you take that out join your two groups and work your way down to the river crossing, killing every building on the way. Now theres only 3 towers left, take them out. Mission 7: This one is not too difficult. Send your starting units toward the upper right rice field, killing a Lotus attack party on the way. Make sure you kill them because they could attack your base. Get a geisha to your attackers asap. Let her heal them then return to the base. Build up your spearmen and keep them at the base along with Shinja and the geisha guarding them. A Wolf attack is about to come so make sure your prepared. Start upgrading your spearmen to samurai, you will have plenty of time while your attackers kill the Lotus. When you finish all the Lotus peasant huts there should be one more at the upper left corner, pick off all the peasants running to rebuild as you make your way to it, all you have to do is kill all the peasants and huts. Get everybody back to the base because in about 5 min there's gonna be an attack coming they are gonna come in at the top river crossing first so meet them halfway. After you finish with them go to the bottom right across the river. Send some units on a suicide run ahead of your main force, I used 7 dragon warriors and they tore them up. Only a couple will survive but that was only to butter them up, even if they all get killed they will be very weak for your main force. Continue on to the base after that last battle. Take out all the peasant huts first as usual, there's a hut hidden on the middle right by the pond. Mission 8-1 (Left Path): This one is hard. Send all your units to the top left. Make a hut in the middle of all the rice and put your archers right above it. Don't worry about the top hut yet, your archers are there to discourage them from getting your rice and they will eventually tear it down. Make a hut by the pond and put a hero down there to protect your peasants. Have another hero work on the hut right below the rice patch. Eventually people will go after your archers so keep an eye on them and send someone up there to help when they do. Make a dojo asap and pump out spearmen. Whenever you have the resources make a bathhouse and get a geisha or 2 and a target range. Make 2 more archers to help protect your rice. Whenever you got a good bit of spearmen keep a hero up there too. Make an Alchemist Hut and set up the rally points to make Samurai. When you got all the buildings around you cleared out take all your forces except for your rice guards and move them toward the right, killing everything on the way. Keep the Samurai joining with your main force as they come out and start moving groups of spearmen back to get upgraded. Don't take too many at once, keep enough to have a sizeable force. When you have the whole top of the map cleared you should have about 13-15 Samurai with 2 geisha guarding them. Grab everybody and go down the right side of the map. Save before you do this because theres a whole bunch of enemies down here. Make them stand ground and send out a scout to draw the enemy back to your main force. When they're engaged hit S to make them go at it. You should slaughter them, but if you get slaughtered don't worry, just build up about 10 more Samurai and go back. After you kill everything just run around destroying any building left. Mission 8-2 (Center Path): I forgot this one and I really don't feel like going back and doing it. First send all your units to the woods to the north to save the plant lady. You gotta destroy 3 mines and a cairn. The mines are along the mountains to the east and the cairn is at the northeast corner of the map. Watch out because theres a couple of heros running around. I'll put some more after I finish the Serpent. Mission 8-3 (Right Path): This ones hard too, but if you get set up good its no problem. The beginning is the hard part if you can survive the first attacks its no problem after that. First of all send all the units to the base at the northwest corner and wipe them out. Pass up the first set of rice and water and set up your base where the Lotus's is. As soon as the fighters are gone set up a hut to start resource gathering. When some room is cleared out build a dojo. Put about 3 people on water and 5 on rice so you can get the buildings quick. If you gotta, put some extras on water so you can get some geisha. Just keep pumping out spearmen with about 6-8 archers and 3 geisha. There will be a couple of big attacks coming so save when you got a good set up so you dont have to start over if you get overrun. The key to winning is to watch the geisha, if one is getting attacked move her around a little until someone intercepts her attacker. After a real big attack take your surviving spearmen (unless you got a lot then take about 8) and Otomo, your archers (with fire arrows) and 3 geisha (the more the merrier) and make an attack party. If you got any spearmen left make them into samurai, but only about 3 if there's any more take them with you. This party isn't that important, if they get wiped out don't worry. Put all your rally points so it will automatically make samurai with Yin Blade and make the shrine's rally point right at the entrance to your valley. Go to the bottom middle rice field and wipe it out. Just kill all the guards and set fire to everything then move on. Go to the next closest rice patch killing everything on the way. When you get to the top one of the Lotus generals will come after you. Kill him and all his boys then set fire to the peasant huts and make sure they burn down. Send all the units away except for your archers. Keep them there burning things down. Now when I did this a whole bunch of enemies came and wiped my archers out. You can keep all your units there and try to beat them, but the loss of archers isn't that bad. Even if your maxed out on units you can beat the rest without them. Just try to set everything on fire and make sure there's no peasants left, if there is you will have to do everything over again in about 5 minutes. Now while your doing all of this you should be building your base up. It takes careful placing but you can fit everything you need in that valley with 8 huts. Don't worry about watchtowers, if anybody comes you will know because they will start fighting. Now take all the forces you got except for about 3 samurai. Leave them at the base to slow any attackers down. You should have alot of samurai, a couple of archers, 3 or 4 geisha and all your heros. Go to the rice field at the top of the map killing everything on the way like usual. When you get there a general (the warping dude) will pop out. This is very important, you could get wiped out. Don't take your geisha into the town yet, when the general comes out a bunch of blade dudes pop out too and they will wipe out your geisha and possibly everybody else. When they are engaged run the geisha up there to heal everyone. You have pretty much beat it now, just run your archers around killing all the peasant huts and let everybody else work on the other buildings. There's one peasant hut at the top most left corner down a little path, it's easy to miss. Mission 9: This one is too easy. Just ctrl click and run to the bottom right corner, you will pass some units running the other way. Fight them if you want, but you don't gotta. When you get to the bottom of the mountain a cutscene will happen. After that kill everybody that comes at you. When they're all dead send a spearmen to the top of the mountain with a ctrl click so he wont fight anybody on the way. If he gets crushed send another. When one reaches the trees on the top you will beat it. Mission 10: Another easy one. Send one archer to the rice patch on the right, where the peasant ran off too and the rest towards the top left corner. Pause a little ways away so Kenji can regain stamina. When it's full run in and have your dragon warriors attack the watchtower and Kenji killing all the units. Start setting fire to the peasant huts with the fat boy and keep the archers with him to kill any strays. Back at the base all you have to do is put all the peasants gathering so you can get a bathhouse. When you have enough make everybody help build it except for one on each resource. Train 2 geisha and send them to the battlefield and heal everybody. Now you can build a Dojo to help with the destruction. When you start an alright sized fire with the fat boy move on to another building. Make sure you get all the peasant huts first though. Mission 11: This one can be hard. Send all your units to the bottom left corner rice patch. Wait there while fat boy catches up and build a peasant hut and alchemist shop. Put the geisha on Kenji's horse. When fat boy is there and recovered stamina, make a run for the top left rice patch. Ctrl click so they will run straight to the peasant huts. Make the peasant huts rally point at the alchemist shop so you can concentrate on the battle. As the chemists come out send them north to help kill peasant huts. When you got about 4 chemists make a shooting range and a dojo and start pumping out units. Get a total of about 4 archers and 4 chemists and the rest spearmen. Your geisha has to survive and there will be a couple attacks against her so keep her alive. Keep Kenji by her to kill anybody and run her around if someone starts attacking her. You have to watch Kenji sometimes he will just keep shooting something and let the geisha get killed. There is a lot of peasants running around and you gotta get them all. Don't worry about the watch tower by the river, just bring the fat boy along the top to set fire to all the huts and the archers and the chemists to kill all the peasants. Your geisha should stay by them to heal anybody. Make Kenji run around killing any stray peasants and looking for any peasant huts. I played this 2 times a sec ago and both times there was a new hut on the bottom left of the base. By the time you kill all the peasants and huts you should have some reinforcements at the base. You have to disable the Lotus quick or Shinja's men will come and wipe you out. When you finished with the Lotus regroup at the base. Shinja has already had enough time to make an attack party, so get ready for it. Upgrade your men, the chemists to cannoneers and the fighters to kabuki, dragon warriors, or samurai, whatever you can get in. You can make a bathhouse and train a couple of geisha, but you don't have to, I was able to beat it with just the one you start with. When the attack comes and you destroy it, run to the top right and whoop Shinja's base. After its destroyed just go to the top of the base and work your way west and you will eventually come to the keep. Destroy it and the watchtowers and Shinja will come out, kill him and you win. Mission 12-1 (Left Path): This is where you will enlist the Ninja. Its pretty easy. Take all the starting units and run them to the center left of the map, killing anybody along the way. Make the fat boy run separate from everyone else, it will take you forever if you don't. You will see the Soul Flame when you get there. Put your archer to the left and a little below it to keep him outta harm. If anybodys health drops to the yellow just press O to make them stand by the archer until it gets back to green. Don't give any more commands so when any ninja come up your warriors will automatically kill them. Eventually the soul flame will go down. Mission 12-2 (Right Path): This is where you enlist the Monks. Run your archers up to the monastery and everyone else to the rice field on the bottom right. Build a peasant hut then a target range. Train 3 more archers to go to the monastery with the other 2 to defend. Build a bathhouse next then a dojo. When the bathhouse is up train a geisha to put with the archers. As you get Yang with your archers use them for the archer upgrades. Start training Dragon Warriors and when you have the resources build an Alchemist Hut and a Fireworks Factory. Set up your rally points so that you make dragon warriors with Fire Blade. When you got about 8-10 Dragon Warriors train 2 more geisha. Have them guard the Dragon Warriors and move out to the top left rice patch. Walk to conserve stamina. Don't worry about the ninja you pass, if you don't bother them they wont bother you. You will come across a watchtower, destroy it and continue. When you get to the base kill everybody and switch on your Flame Blade and destroy everything. Mission 13: This one is rough. The beginning is the hardest part. Speed is everything so build quick and don't let any peasants just sit there. Save when you think you have done good so far and use multiple saves in case you haven't. You really have to use the stand ground command if you want to do it this way. Send your forces to the left enemy base. Theres a little valley leading to it, wait there to recover enough stamina to make a run past the watchtowers to the first set of peasant huts. Have fat boy set fire to the huts while Kenji guards the path deeper into the base. There will be some enemies coming and they will tear up your archers. Keep your archers back a little and when Kenji engages the bad guys make them help him out. If they start shooting the bad guys before Kenji starts fighting them 1 or 2 will break off and whoop them. You don't have to have the archers, but they help. As for your base, you need a geisha asap, so make your first peasant hut and put everybody on water after its built. Put the first one that pops out on water too and the second on rice. When the thirds pops out you should have enough to build the bathhouse, take 1 from the water and have him help build it. As more pop out have them on rice. When your bathhouse is done you should have 3 on rice and 3 on water. Make one of the builders become a geisha and use the rest to bring the total on rice to 5, as soon as the geisha is done get the spider silk upgrade. When you get enough build a dojo put every spare man on it so it will get done quicker. When its finished start training spearmen and build a target range when you have the resources. Any peasants just sitting around waiting to build should be put to work on rice or water until you have the resources to build. When you get the target range start training Dragon Warriors and build an Alchemist Hut and a Fireworks Factory. Set up your rally points to make Dragon Warriors with Fire Blade. Make sure you always have at least 4 on rice and 3 on water. After you get all these buildings built and your peasant production slows down a little you can take 1 off of each and train them. Also get 2 geisha to protect your DWs. This will take you until the first base is destroyed to finish, so make sure you don't forget about it while your fighting. As soon as the first geisha is done send her to Kenji's group and work your way through the base burning everything as you come across it. If your geisha dies you might as well load, just make a wall in front of her with the archers and Kenji so anybody has to fight them first. Theres a path going deeper into the base set up Kenji and the archers there so they can kill any peasants running around. Keep fat boy moving along setting fire to the buildings, watch him because he will start fighting peasants and you don't want that. When all the buildings are burnt at the second set make the geisha guard fat boy and move him along the bottom of the screen until he can attack the first watchtower. Move the archers just outta range of the watchtowers and make Kenji run around killing enemies and peasants. Just kill the two buildings first then the peasant huts, theres one peasant hut further north than the others. When you get them all destroyed, set up for battle with your geisha out of harms way. There is about to be an attack coming. You should have a small army of Dragon Warriors by now, move them to the entrance of the base (where you paused to rest the first time), theres gonna be a really big attack coming. After you kill everybody with Kenji's team move them down to the DW's let fat boy burn down the watchtowers on the way, make the geisha guard him so he doesn't get killed. When the attack comes make sure your geisha survive or everybody will get slaughtered. After the majority of the enemies are down make Kenji run around killing any survivors. Don't move yet because theres gonna be a couple of more small attacks. Work your war right killing anyone you come across. Follow the line of enemies to the next base. It has minimal defense. Either burn everything or just the peasant huts, it doesn't matter. After your finished there move on to the next base killing everything as usual. Grab all the warriors at your base and just destroy everything. You should have enough troops by now to not having any problem finishing it. Mission 14: This one can be hard but its easier than the last one. Run everybody down to the rice patch killing the watchtower along the way. I would make the cannoneers and the fat boy run on ahead because they will get hurt by the tower. When the tower is gone regroup at the base and work your way right across the river killing everything on the way. Back at the base build a hut and then a bathhouse and get your attackers a healer. Just build a dojo and target range and start pumping out Dragon Warriors. After you clear out the bottom of the island next to your base regroup across the river from the base. Grab all the DWs at the base and work your way up the island, killing everything along the way. Go to the top of the map and work your way right taking out all the watchtowers. It helps if you know what the Lotus heros look like so you can make Kenji attack them. If you lose all your geisha or start running low on warriors pause for a sec and make some more or get the ones from the base. When you got about 10-12 DWs and 2 geisha look to the right along the river. Run your troops to the right most crossing. Ctrl click so they wont fight anything. Zymeth will show up, just make everybody attack him. When he goes down you will see a cutscene. After the scene run Kenji back to the base making sure he doesn't stop to fight. You can forget about your Dragon Warriors, they're doomed. Don't use any Yang, how much you have makes a significant difference in how much damage Kenji does, with about 6 you will be able to kill anything with 2 or 3 hits. Just sit around killing everything that shows its face. You can run Kenji around killing to gain some extra Yang. Eventually the boss will show up, kill him and you beat the game. ***************************************************************************** DRU: Dragon Units ***************************************************************************** Peasant- The backbone of your town. Not good fighters, but can take out enemies in large groups. Not much else to say about them. Shrine- None Fireworks- None Spearmen- Basic footsoldiers, useful in large numbers. They are good fighters with the upgrades, but they become outclassed in the later stages. Alright damage but can be killed quickly by upper class units. Shrine- Stun Strike, stuns an opponent. Can turn the tables on any battle. Very effective. Fireworks- Whirling Spear, hurts everybody nearby. Not as good as Stun Strike, it didn't seem like it helped much at all. Archers- The backbone of your army. Nothing beats a shitload of archers. Make sure your main forces are backed up by at least 8 archers at all times. They do decent damage upgraded and have the longest range upgraded. Definitely an asset, Fire Arrows can make them even more useful. Dont let them fight hand to hand. Shrine- Zen Arrow, lets you see whats around where your arrow lands. Useless, if I'm wondering whats there I will go look. Has pretty good range, so I guess its good for scouting purposes. Fireworks- Fire Arrows, sets fire to buildings. Very useful in destroying buildings, but will make your archers barely hurt enemies. Chemist- They do minimal damage against troops, but good damage against buildings. Pretty good defense. If you use Mandrake Spores they will start doing acceptable damage, but you have to be close to them. Theres far better troops, I would just stay away. Shrine- Mandrake Spores, enfeebles nearby enemies. Turn their defense down I guess. A little thing comes around them like Shinja's BG. Can actually make them do some damage. Fireworks- Starburst Rocket, gives them some powerful rockets. The rockets do area of effect and fire damage, but they still don't do much damage against troops. They can only hold 3, but 8 chemists can take out a hut with 1 round of shots. Geisha- Your lifeforce, protect them at all costs. They can be the difference between victory and defeat. Decent health, low attack power. Make sure you have a couple of them at all times. Shrine- Sacrifice, kills the geisha and heals everyone around. You should protect the geisha at all costs, so why would you kill them yourself? Fireworks- Fire Shield, makes a shield of fire around the geisha hurting anybody attacking them. Your geisha shouldn't be anywhere near any enemies, but if it protects them from damage then it would be useful (I don't think it does). Dragon Warriors- Made by training in the Dojo and the target range. Good units, especially against Lotus magic users. Weak against blades and can get tore up by them pretty quick. Good defense and Damage. Fire Sword makes them good base attackers. Shrine- Chi Shield, makes a shield around the warrior protecting them from damage. Useful if you have archer backup. Fireworks- Flame Blade, gives them a sword of fire. Very useful in destroying buildings, but reduces damage done to enemies. Kabuki Warriors- Made by training in the Dojo and Alchemist Hut. OK defense, not the greatest in the world. Low attack. The only thing they're good for is their BG. Can be good in very large numbers. Shrine- Stardust, makes enemy archers ineffective. You have to target a certain enemy, it doesn't effect an area. I dont see how this could be effective. Fireworks- Flash Powder, blinds enemies making them stand still. Use this with some samurai backup and you will slaughter them. You can only hold 3 though. Sumo Cannoneers- Good against buildings. Train a couple to take out buildings quickly. Low defense but high attack. Slow rate of fire. Shrine- Indirect Fire, increases the cannoneers range but reduces their line of sight. Useful to cut down their numbers before they get to you. The range isn't too much farther than upgraded archers though. Fireworks- Shrapnel Keg, gives them 1 very powerful keg that does area of effect damage. If you have a lot of cannoneers it will severely hurt an attacking force. Samurai- The strongest unit. Can tear up anybody. These should be your primary melee units. They have bows so they can get a couple of cheap shots in before going all out if used properly. Great defense and high attack. Weak against magic so make sure they have some geisha if facing the Lotus. Shrine- Yang Blade, gains more Yang with each stroke, damage also increases with more Yang. I usually give this to all my Samurai, more damage=less deaths. Fireworks- Dragon Skin, makes them immune to all missile weapons. Not as good as Yang Blade. ***************************************************************************** DRH: Dragon Heros ***************************************************************************** Kenji- Your most useful unit. Whith his BG he can cut the enemy down quickly. Very high attack and defense. Not weak against anything that I've noticed. Start out with him. Otomo- Second most useful. His BG can boost the attack of all nearby units, very useful. Same as kenji pretty much, but with slower attack speed. You get him after the first mission. Shinja- A good fighter. He is useful at base defense or in your attack party. His BG will reduce the amount of damage nearby enemies can cause. You get him after the third mission. Arah- Very powerful archer, with a very high range. probably the third most useful, and the most powerful. She can usually cut down enemies before they can even get into your regular archers range. She sucks at melee combat. Can also take chunks outta buildings health. Her BG lets you shoot an arrow and see whats around it. Not too useful unless you know the enemy is there and want to know their size. Get her by taking the left route to Swans Pool. Garrin- A good fighter like all the heros. Theres nothing real special about him except for his BG. He can summon a horse from anywhere on the map. If theres none left he will take one out of the enemies stable. The whole enemy base will be visible where the horse goes to get out. Get him by taking the center route to Swans Pool Kazan (AKA Fat Boy)- I dont really like him. His attacks dont seem that powerful and he is super slow. Keep him at the base for extra defense or send him to clear out a peasantless base. You get him at the Swans Pool. Gaihla- Not very useful. Her BG will heal everybody around her but thats what you have geisha for. She sucks at fighting and seems to get cut down rather quickly when vastly outnumbered. I think I read somewhere that she helps rice grow with her idle animation. Get her on the center route on mission 8. Tao- Very good fighter. He hits the quickest out of all the heros. He is a good addition to an attack party. His BG reflects a portion of the damage caused against him back at his attackers. You get him by choosing to enlist the ninja instead of the monks. With him you can hold an additional 2 monks or ninja. Ninja- Weak fighters but very useful. Their BG cloaks them and I dont believe it uses stamina, but if they run around and lose all their stamina they will become visible. Very useful as scouts, just set them up at the entrances to your base or the enemys base to know when they're coming. Monks- I didnt find any use for them. I guess they could help out with base defense. They have high attack but low defense. The only reason to get them is to play their level, it was one of the most enjoyable missions. ***************************************************************************** DRB: Dragon Buildings ***************************************************************************** WATCHTOWER Gives you a longer sight and if there's a melee unit in it you can use the charge which will stun everybody around. It will also give archers a longer range. PEASANT HUT Very important, without one your screwed. The more you have the faster peasants will pop out. The FAQ on the official website says 6 is the maximum, but I build about 8-10 just in case. DOJO Important building because its one of the training grounds. Trains peasants into Spearmen, Archers into Dragon Warriors, Chemists into Kabuki Warriors and Powder Keg Cannoneers into Samurai. Dragons Strength- Increases Spearmen damage, very important to make spearmen useful. Costs 2 Yang. Dragons Heart- Increases Spearmen health, lets them live longer. Get this if you use Spearmen. Costs 1 Yang. Dragons Fire- Increases Dragon Warrior, Kabuki Warrior and Samurai health. You will most likely have one of them in your attack party, so it's important too. Costs 3 Yang. TARGET RANGE Important building because its one of the training grounds. Trains Peasants into archers, Spearmen into Dragon Warriors, Chemists into Powder Keg Cannoneers, and kabuki Warriors into Samurai. Zen Accuracy- Makes your Archers hit harder, so very important. Costs 2 Yang. Arrow Craftmanship- Gives your Archers better range. Very useful. Costs 2 Yang. Calisthenics- Gives the fat boys more health. Don't waste your points. Your fat boys shouldn't even be in combat. Costs 2 Yang. ALCHEMISTS HUT Important building because its one of the training grounds. Trains peasants into Chemists, Spearmen into Kabuki Warriors, Archers into Powder Keg Cannoneers, and Dragon Warriors into Samurai. Phosphorous Powder- Makes chemist do area of effect damage, it will hurt everything around where their rockets blow. Also makes them more effective against buildings. Good if you use them, but you can do without. Costs 2 Yang. Tempered Steel- Makes your Dragon Warriors, Kabuki Warriors, and Samurai hit harder. Very important and useful, especially with Samurai. Costs 4 Yang. Pressurized Kegs- Cannoneers will hit harder. Good for tearing down buildings, other than that don't bother. Costs 2 Yang. BATHHOUSE Important building because its one of the training grounds. Makes geisha, your most important combat units. Get one asap because a few geisha can mean the difference between life and death, literally. Art of Massage- Your soldiers will love this one, makes more skilled at their craft. Reduces the stamina cost of healing. Useful but not super important. Costs 2 Yang. Meditation- Increases everyone's natural healing rate. Useful if your like me and make anyone hurt badly stand still if there's no geisha around. Costs 4 Yang. Spider Silk- Boosts geisha defense against blades. Lets them live longer. Only costs 1 Yang so why not. STABLES Its where you put the horses. Horses can be useful by 1) Keeping your geisha alive longer, and making them faster. 2) Giving your archers a longer range and making them faster. Everyone will hit a tad bit harder from horses and will be harder to kill. Horses don't have much life though, and will fall quickly taking some life of its rider. I wouldn't recommend them in close combat. You also cant use BG while on a horse. Animal Bonding- Horses will live longer. Worth it in the long run, but costs 3 Yang. Only get it if you have it to spare or are using a lot of horses. Horseshoes- Boosts the horses stamina. Good if you have them running all over the place, but they already have a good bit. Costs 1 Yang. Stirrups- You cant get knocked off the horse unless it dies. Good if you use a lot of horses in combat. Costs 2 Yang. TOWN SQUARE Gives you a lot higher max for rice and water, costs a lot though. Only build when your maxed out or need a Keep. KEEP This is where you get your heros if they die or don't start out with you. Build it when you got the resources to spare. Also boosts rice and water max. SHRINE This is where you get BG. Most units BG are very useful so get this quickly. FIREWORKS FACTORY The other place where you get BG. Mostly fire related so get it before you go to destroy a base. DRAGON MONUMENT This is where you supposedly summon the Dragon, but he didn't really help me much. All it does is a super powerful attack once at the cost of 4 Samurai and 3 Yang points. I don't believe its worth it but if you can cast it anywhere and if it damages buildings, it could most of the enemy in a base before you even get there. I'll go a little more research into this. WELL Build one of these if you can't make a hut close to a water source. With one peasant on it you can more than keep up with demand. ***************************************************************************** *** SEW: Serpent Walkthrough ***************************************************************************** *** Mission 1: Just kill the peasants Mission 2-1 (Left Path): Send everybody up to the top of the stage, ctrl click so they wont fight anything on the way. While theyre on the way build a peasant hut. I just found this out but you can make rally points before the building is even up, put the huts rally point on the water. Make everyone pause so Kenji can get his stamina up. Now this is the hard part. When you run in there will be 3 Dragon Warriors on horses, make Kenji use his BG on all 3 to dismount them, if you don't do it quick they will tear up your units. Just bring all the survivors by the peasant huts and let them entertain themselves while you train some reinforcements. If Kenji's health is getting low just press O and make him stand there to regain some. When you destroy the Keep you will win. Mission 2-2 (Right Path): Send your starting units to the top right rice patch. Kill the wolves on the way or they will kill your reinforcements. Pause before you get there to recover stamina. Kill everybody then the watchtower then all the buildings. Train some reinforcements and when you have about 4 send them to the bottom right corner, theres some good guys there so you gotta kill them. After you kill them theres another group of good guys around the center of the map. There was also another archer to the left of the last group. Kill them all then go help Kenji kill the buildings if he isn't through yet. Mission 3-1 (After 2-1): This is too easy. Just run all your troops to the rice patch on the top right, pausing first like always. When Kenji's stamina is all the way up just move in killing everybody. When Shinja's watchtower is destroyed kill him and you won. When I did this some troops came in on me, but all I had to do was make everybody attack Shinja I was able to defeat him before I got whooped. You don't even have to build a base. I beat it while my first Swordsman was on his way. Mission 3-2 (After 2-2): Walk all your units right into the middle of the base, using Kenji's BG to dismount the DWs. Build a hut then a tavern and train some reinforcements. Set the taverns rally point to right into the enemy's base. Kill everything and you won. Mission 4-1 (Left Path): This one is pretty easy. Start off by sending all the units to the top left and your peasants to the far left on the south bank of the river. You need to get some swordsmen reinforcements quick so build fast. Don't forget to turn the hut where you begin at off when you have another. Just destroy everything on the top left and when your through send all your troops back to base, theres about to be an attack on it. If it comes before your done just send at least 1 peasant off somewhere to rebuild if you have to. When you defeat the attack send everything you got to the center of the map, that's where the main base is. You shouldn't have any problems just watch out for the towers, when you kill everything there should be a watchtower to the right of your base, you should have passed it to begin with, just destroy that and you won. Mission 4-2 (Center Path): Run left from where you begin. You will fight quite a few wolves, just kill them all. When you get to the second bend in the road you will meet Vetkin, hes a Hero and will be with you from now on. He will also give you a town. Don't let Shinja have that horse, make one of your peasants grab it for a pack horse and have him go get some rice. As the peasants pop out just make them stick together until the farmer with the horse drops his load. As soon as he does have about 4 of them make a hut by the rice. Put 2 gathering along with the one with the horse and make the rest go build a couple of taverns. Start training Swordsmen and keep them at your base. Now its up to you when to do this, you can wait till you have an army or just do it right off the bat. I did it as soon as I built my first tavern but its your call. Just move along the road and when you cross you will get into a brawl with a couple of Wolf punks. Kick their asses and just return to base. In a minute Garrin will come out. Just stay at the base and he will come to you. Use Kenji's BG on him to dismount him and kill him. Now just move everyone up to the first village and destroy everything. It might take a little while because peasants just keep popping out. After the village is destroyed continue on towards the top and around the right destroying Garrin's house on the way. Just kill all the buildings and send about 5 swordsmen back towards the beginning to take out that first watchtower and look for any stray huts. When you destroy everything you will win. Mission 4-3 (Right Path): This one isn't too hard. Send all your units to the lake at the middle right part of the map, ctrl click so they wont fight anything. Build a hut and a tavern while your fighters clear everything out. Start training Swordsmen and after everything is gone run down to the little outpost you passed on your way here. Kill everything here and grab any troops at your base. Go to the pond at the bottom, there will be a good many people there waiting on you. Kill them all then the hut and go back to your base. When you regroup at the base grab all your units and work your way right killing all the buildings you pass. Eventually they will all be gone and you will win. Mission 5: This is a joke compared to the Dragon mission. First get everybody their BG at the thieves guild and run up the road. Position Kenji and Shinja at the top and everybody else at the bottom. Keep the crossbowmen in their own group so you can run around hitting everybody with weakness bolt. Make sure you get the Master Warlocks and the Hero dude quick because they can do some damage to the building. Its pretty easy, the buildings health won't even get into the yellow. Mission 6 is different depending on what you chose for Mission 4 Mission 6-1 (From 4-1): Run all your units to the top left rice patch with a ctrl click. When they get there let them take out the hut while you build your base. You can either build a Tavern or a Sharpshooters Guild it doesn't matter. When you have the resources build a bathhouse and train a geisha. If you want you can build whatever you didn't build first and start training bandits. When you got the hut down send your forces to the right killing everything on the way. Run a couple of scouts around to find all the huts and take them out first. The main base is on the far right, don't let anyone go there alone because there is a Master Warlock there and he will tear them up. Just kill all the buildings and when you have all of them down send all your forces to the pond at the bottom. There will be a large army of peasants there, just slaughter them. Leave a couple of units there to kill the hut and run everybody else to the small base you passed to begin with. There will be a medium sized army there waiting for you, but you should have plenty of troops by now. Just take it out and run around killing any buildings you might have missed. Mission 6-2 (From 4-2 or 4-3): Start a base right above you and run all your starting units north. Build a tavern and start training reinforcements. Take out the base right above you and move out to the east. Pause at the end of the valley to recover stamina. When everyone is full run to the middle of the map killing everything on the way. I didn't do it but it would probably be smart to stay away from the tower until you have everything else down, or you could just rush them off the bat. I lost all my troops but 1 crossbowman and my heros to it. When you have everything there down run everyone but Kenji and a geisha to the top left, that's where the rest of the huts are at. If you don't have a geisha just train one and run her and Kenji to the bottom left. You will meet Budo, the coolest hero in the game besides the Lord Serpent. He will ask for a geisha just make her run to him and he will join you. After the top left huts are cleared out you should see 3 towers where your reinforcements ran to join the fight. Gather everyone at the river crossing and rush the 2 across the river. If you have any troops at the base make them take out the tower right to the left. That should be the last 3 buildings, but if you don't win just run around looking for any more. Mission 7: This is an easy one. Send all your units to the top rice patch and your peasants to the first patch you cross. Build a hut as close to the water as you can, then build a tavern. The base to the north shouldn't be any problem. They had only 2 units when I played. Completely destroy that base and when you have the resources build an Alchemist Hut and a shooting guild. Make a couple of raiders and set up your rally points to automatically make ronin. You can also make a bathhouse, it wont hurt. As soon as you clear the north base move east killing anybody on the way. When you come to the next base don't let your troops split up. Find their army, wipe it out and then clear it out. It might take you a little while but screen the whole area, theres a whole bunch of peasants running around and you gotta get them. Leave a swordsman by the rice patch so if any peasants are left he will automatically get them. Watch him because if he gets into a battle theres still a hut somewhere up there and you gotta find it. Run back to base, there might have been an attack on it but the ronin you have been training should beat it down. Grab the ronin and make all the swordsmen you have run to the Wolf base on the lower right. Make your main force wait right outside the base while the swordsmen draw out their army. Slaughter them all then clear that one out too. On the right edge of the map there is a couple of huts by the pond, don't forget them. For some reason this map seems to have a million peasants running all over the place. Just take your ronin in groups of 3 and hunt them all down. Mission 8-1 (Left Path): There is two ways you can beat this. If you haven't noticed yet I like to hit them hard and quick, that's the hard way. I'll put the easy way first. Go to the rice patch on the right to begin with, killing the two enemies on the way. Send your troops up the right edge of the map, they will eventually come to some buildings, tap on the buildings until the enemies come and kill them. When you have 1 Yin run back to base. For your base build a hut by the water and one by the rice. Put 3 peasants on rice and 1 on water and build a tavern. Train about 6 swordsmen for defense. Get the Drunken Revelry upgrade and build a Bathhouse, Sharpshooters Guild, Alchemist Hut, and a Thieves Guild. Set up the rally points to make Ronin with Blood Bond. Start upgrading your swordsmen to Ronin too. When you have 8-10 Ronin blood bond them to Kenji and put a geisha by him. Now your Ronin will be just about indestructible. Just run them around killing everything. You can also get a geisha or two to go with your Ronin if you want. Just work your way north then west killing everything. Now the hard way is hard at first, you will probably have to restart a couple of times. The difference is you don't run back when you have the Yin, just keep up the attack. Position Kenji by the top building so he can kill any peasants trying to train and the bandit by the bottom one so he can do the same. Put the crossbowmen in the middle. Whenever Kenji kills a peasant make him rest to recover stamina. You have to hit O to put him on passive mode, but make sure to take him back off of it so he kills peasants. You have to get a tavern asap and get them some backup quick. Pretty soon there will be some troops coming down from the north. If you have at least 1 swordsman you can win, I did it 3 times trying to get them a geisha first but I got killed every time, even with the geisha. Its hard but possible. When you kill all the dudes just start on the buildings but make sure you still kill all the peasants that come to train. By the time you have the buildings down you should have a small army of swordsmen. Get the Fortified Ale upgrade if you haven't and build a Sharpshooters Guild and an Alchemist Hut. Set your rally points to make Ronin. Have your troops work their way west killing everything on the way. They will eventually come to a hero, Longtooth I think. Make sure Kenji gets on him so he doesn't hurt too many swordsmen. Now when I did this a whole bunch of troops came from the south and caught me by surprise and wiped me out. You can either run back to base, get into a good battle formation, or get the Ronin from your base. Either one would probably work. If they do wipe you out don't worry. They killed everybody, even Kenji and I still won. If you don't beat them get your Ronin ready for an attack on the base, when they kill everybody take all of them straight northwest towards the center of the map. You will probably have to kill some more troops but they will make short work of them. Kill the Keep in the center and some chick will join you. Just keep killing everything and getting reinforcements from the base when they pop out. Leave about 5-6 ronin at the base because there will be a couple of attacks. Mission 8-2 (Center Path): This area can be rough, especially at the beginning. Set up your base on the hill to the right, its a lot more defensible than the left. Build all the training buildings and a thieves guild. You might want to also build a stables so you can build a well, you will have to water the rice fields to keep up with demand. Start training blood bonded ronins and bond them to Kenji. Keep a geisha guarding Kenji, and two for your attack party. Keep Kenji deep into the base so he doesn't start fighting. Now you will be constantly attacked and probably close to having all your forces wiped out once or twice. Just keep rebuilding and training and save often. When you have 8 ronin with 2 geisha guarding them go find some bad guys. You can either wait for an attack and counter or you can try to intercept the attack party. Just save before you go and if you go the wrong way load the game. All you have to do is take out the 3 mines and the cairn. The cairn is at the upper right corner and the mines along the mountains to the east. Just run your ronins around and kill them all. Mission 8-3 (Right Path): Run all your troops to the top right corner. Don't bring your peasants in yet, make your fighters run ahead to clear out the enemy. When all the troops are gone run your peasants down and start building a city. You want to get a tavern asap so you can train some swordsmen to help level the town. Just keep training and keep destroying. When everything is destroyed position all your troops at the entrance of your town to defend. There will be a couple of attacks, but you should be able to defeat them. If you lose any geisha make a bathhouse to replace them first, but build all the training buildings and a thieves guild. Start training blood bond ronins and about 4 raiders when you have a good defense (about 6 ronins). Make them bond to Kenji and set him a little into the base with a geisha guarding him. When you have 8 ronin put them into a group with 2 geisha guarding them and move out towards the bottom left corner. You may want to wait until you have 4 more ronin for defense before leaving. Clear out the town on the bottom left. When you get to the top of the hill you will fight one of the Lotus generals, just take him out. When your finished there work your way right to the beach and north along it, you will eventually come to Zymeth, kill him and all his buildings and continue on north. By this time you could get all the ronin from the base, this is the last base and there shouldn't be any more attack parties. When you reach the northeast corner go left and eventually you will come to another general fight. Kill him and all his boys an he will join you. His name is Koril. There are buildings scattered all over the place so hunt them all down and you win. Mission 9: This one is easy and the rewards are very good. Just make your units run to the bottom right. You can kill everything if you want, it doesn't matter. When you get to the path up into the hills just make everybody run up it, going north at both the intersections. When you reach the top by the trees you will see a cutscene and get a very useful ally. Mission 10: This mission is to familiarize you with the necro. You will see he is very powerful, but you are seriously undermanned and you will have to rely on his powers to make some troops. Summon some Spirit Warriors with his BG before you go anywhere then go to the rice patch to the east. Keep your raider out of harms way, he will make taking buildings down a lot easier. When you kill all the buildings get ready for an attack, there will be a pretty large force coming. Send all your zombies away so your geisha doesn't use all their stamina healing them. Just send them northwest as some scouts. If any Spirit Warriors die summon some more. Just wait there for the attack, let them come to you. You will have to make the necro attack, he wont do it on his own. When you whoop everybody send all the zombies south and make your way to the road. Go up the road and you will come to a town. Don't let your raider go anywhere near the towers, just keep him back until all the threats are gone and let him start burning buildings when its safe. Eventually you will destroy all the buildings and win. Mission 11: This one is pretty damn hard. If you don't know the map, build slow, or get a good base you will either get slowly killed or just slap ass overrun. The real secret to this mission is a good base. You can be sure that damn traitor will have a good base, so we will just take his. Run all your troops to the bottom left corner. You will eventually come to his base. As soon as or a little after you get there Shinja and Necro will show up. Get them to the battle asap. There will be constant attacks by all factions, the Wolf and the Dragon, the first time I did this it wasn't too hard, but this time I hung on by a nuthair. Put 2 peasants on rice and 1 on water and have the rest go straight to the tavern, it will make things a lot easier. Keep the swordsmen coming to the battle. When you get both the towers down run all your peasants down there and build a hut, a bathhouse, and a new tavern. Start making swordsmen and one geisha and start clearing everything out. When you take down the Keep ole bitchass will come out, make sure you fight him with a hero. Build a Sharpshooters Guild, Alchemist Hut and a Thieves guild and start training ronin with blood bond. Bond them to Kenji and keep a geisha by him. Put him in the middle of the rice patch and on stand ground so he doesn't run off. Start upgrading your swordsmen and when you have about 10 ronin make 2 geisha to guard them. Make an attack party of 8 ronin with 2 geisha guarding them and go down to the bottom left. There will probably be a small army in the trees, kill them and all the buildings around and keep going right killing everything. Search the whole lower half of the map to make sure you have them completely cleared out. Now back at your base you should have been bonding the ronin as they come out. You should have about 8- 10 more. Grab all the units from your base except Kenji and attack the base at the northwest. At the same time make your attack party attack the base at the northeast. Your second party should get finished before the first, just make them go help tear down the other base. Mission 12-1 (Left Path): This is where you enlist the Ninja, it's a little harder than the monks but not too much so. You have a choice, to protect the Soul Flame, or to destroy it. Since I like to indulge my treacherous nature I always destroy it. Any time I try to protect it my troops always start getting attacked by the friendly ninja. I don't know if my crossbowmen have an itchy trigger finger, or if they're as treacherous as me, but they always kill my protectors. If you want to destroy it your starting units are sufficient enough as long as you kill off the Ninja around it first. But either way start building a base. After you destroy it, if you do, send everyone back to the base. Put 4 peasants on rice and 1 on water. You might want to get 2 peasants to water the rice, because it doesn't grow fast enough. Build a tavern and start producing some defenders. I kept harassing the Wolf base to the north, but it was really a waste of men, you need better troops if you want to take it. Build the rest of the training buildings when you have the resources and try to get some geisha quick. Start training blood bond ronin as usual, and when you have 8 with a geisha attack the north base. As usual keep Kenji at the base with a geish protector. Also either wait until they attack your base, or try to find their attack party and wipe it out, they will probably have one on the way. If you haven't got the Art of Love upgrade Kenji will probably die, but you should still be able to take the base. When you kill all the huts and peasants you will win. Mission 12-2 (Right Path): This is where you enlist the monks, it is ridiculously easy. Just make all your forces run to the northeast corner where the little white dot is. The monks wont even attack your forces. You will eventually come to the monastery, just tear it down and you won. It would be pretty hard to lose this mission. Mission 13: This one is pretty hard, the Wolf like to rush more than me. First grab Kenji and all his friends and run back to the rest of the troops. Start building your base, I would build a tavern then a stable so you can build a well. Just keep building up your base and start training the usual, BB Ronin. When you have 8 Roni for an attack party and at least 4 (I used 7) for base defense start training either Raiders or Musketeers. Raiders will take buildings down quicker, but Musketeers will help take enemies down while still doing good damage to buildings. Have 1 geisha to guard Kenji when you bond everyone to him and 2 for your attack party and 1 for your base defenders. Get the Musketeers whichever BG you like the most. You can also build a Necro's Throne if you want. When you reach about 30 troops you may want to build a couple of extra huts to speed up production. When your all prepared move your attackers to the top left. Set up your rally points back to Ronin with BG to replace any casualties. You will probably fight some enemies on the way. Go through the little valley to where the Towers are. Kill everything. If you have your Musketeers with you move them straight to the huts, try to keep them from the Towers, they will hurt them bad. Let them work on the peasants and huts while your Ronin clear everything out. After you get that done move your troops down the little path deeper into the base. You might wanna pause on the path and send a couple of Ronin down that little side path to clear all the buildings down there. When your finished just rush the next section of the base. Make your Musketeers run straight to the rice patch to kill the peasants, wait a sec first so all the towers will get Ronin as their targets and not your Musketeers. When that section is cleared run all your Ronin deeper into the base. Leave your Musketeers there because they will only get killed. Somewhere in this little process there will be a decent sized army attack you from behind. Just keep a watch and when you see some troops coming up make all your Ronin meet them. When you have this base all cleared out its time for the next. Move your attack party to the north of the map (right in the middle). You probably have a bunch of extra Ronin at your base, you can grab a couple of them to make things go quicker. Move into the base killing everything. As you get deeper into the base you might want to get a couple of Ronin to go down the side paths and clear out all of the Towers. When that base is gone move all your troops (even the base defenders) to the northeast base. If they happen to have an attack party out and they kill your base while you are away don't worry, you have plenty of troops to finish it. If you don't like losing your base, you can always send some troops to kill them. Gather everyone at the entrance to the northeast base and when they're all together rush it. You shouldn't have any problem, if you don't win after all the buildings are destroyed send scouts all over the map until you find whats left standing. Mission 14: This one is quite hard, but if you know where the ideal location for a base is it makes it extremely easy. Send all your troops to the bottom right rice patch. Kill this base and build your own. Have the Cannoneer destroy the huts. After the huts are gone just position all your troops at the entrance while the Cannoneer destroys all the buildings. Start building your training buildings and train the troops (BB Ronin). Get a couple of geisha too. Now you have a choice. You can bond them to Kenji like you've been doing, or bond them to the Necro. The Necro has more life, but Kenji hasn't ever died on me but once, even with 20 Ronin bonded to him. When you have 8 Ronin with 2 geisha set them across the stream so when they fight all the other troops wont come running. Just let them fend off any attacks while you build up your forces. When you have 8 Ronin you have a choice. You can go kill Greyback and trigger the end game battle, or kill everything on the map. You will need to build a good base defense if you want to kill everything. Just go to all the rice patches to see if theres a base there. If you want to just end it Greyback can be found by the smallest rice patch on the map. Just ctrl click and go there and when he shows his face smash it. When he dies a certain someone will show up. Just kill a bunch of the little dudes and he will eventually attack your base. Kill him and you beat the game. You might have to run around a little and kill some of the Wolf bases, I think they keep killing all the little dudes before they got to me. ***************************************************************************** SEU: Serpent Units ***************************************************************************** Peasant- The backbone of your town. Not good fighters, but can take out enemies in large groups. Not much else to say about them. Thieves Guild- None Metal Shop- None Swordsman- Good to build a base defense at the beginning, but will get tore up by some units. Pump out as many as you can to begin with, but upgrade them when you get the chance. Good attack with the upgrades, but poor defense. Thieves Guild- Mugging, Steals the BG of all nearby enemies. Can be a real annoying if your playing against the Serpent, but if your playing with the Serpent against the CPU it isn't as good. They don't use BG enough to make it a good investment. Metal Shop- Glass Sword, Instantly kills any non hero enemy. Good to cut down their numbers quick, but hurts the user. Crossbowman- Not as good as archers, they have a shorter range but do just as much damage. Good attack and defense makes them good units to have. Thieves Guild- Weakness Bolts, reduces the defense of anybody shot with it. Very good BG. If you have a lot of crossbowmen this can help you tear them up very quickly. Metal Shop- Phosphorous Bolts, Like archers zen arrows they let you see around where it lands. About the same range as an upgraded archer, but doesn't drain stamina. You could set up a perimeter around your base with them but you can only have 9 active at once. Musketeer- Your primary long range unit. Great attack against units and buildings, but kinda low defense. A good addition to your base defense. Thieves Guild- Sniper Scope, Increases the range and damage of shots but they have to stand still. Pretty good especially if you use them for base defense. Metal Shop- Blast Shop, Makes your shots explosive and area of effect. Seems like it reduces damage against units but increases damage against buildings. Fan Geisha- Not as good as regular geisha. It seems they use more stamina to heal, and also move a lot slower. Your troops will usually leave them way behind when moving long distances and they usually use all their stamina trying to catch up. I guess better attack and defense makes up for their slowness, but not to me. Thieves Guild- Dark Pact, Robs nearby allies of some health while boosting their attack. I don't know how much the boost helps, but doesn't take that much health. Takes a pretty good bit of stamina from the geisha though. Metal Shop- Razor Fans, gives health to nearby allies with each hit, but drains stamina with each hit. Your geisha shouldn't be fighting so this isn't that good. Bandit- If you don't use Ronin this will be the core of your army. Good attack and defense makes them good fighters. They also have a missile attack which only makes them better. Thieves Guild- Stealth, makes you invisible but continually drains stamina. As long as you stand still it wont drain, but when you walk it drains at a pretty good rate. Useful for spying. Metal Shop- Paralysis Darts, Paralyzes an enemy. Pretty good if you have a lot of them, can stop an army in its tracks while you slaughter them. Raider- My favorite unit. Theres some kind of beauty in running up, setting fire to a building, and getting the hell outta there before your caught. They can reduce a town to ashes in a matter of minutes. Poor attack against units but alright defense. It takes a couple of torches to get a building burning good, so use them in groups of 4 or 5 at least. Thieves Guild- Brush Fire, Burns all the rice in a pretty good circle, can also be used to burn trees. Its like cutting the rice down all at once, it will grow back. I don't think this would be too effective except for clearing trees. Metal Shop- Caltrops, Drops little spiky things behind you while you walk. Can be used for some fun hit and run tactics. Doesn't do too much damage though. It will constantly drop them behind you when they're active. Cannoneer- Good for building breakers, but doesn't do much damage to units. Good defense too. Thieves Guild- Smoke Bombs, I don't know if it blinds them making them stand still, or weakens them like the game says. When I tried it they sure didn't stand still. Metal Shop- Mines, Lays a mine. Does good damage in an area when someone runs over it. Use them along with caltrops to set a deadly trap. Ronin- Some badass units. Great attack and defense makes them very good units. Weak against fire and explosions so keep some geisha with them if that's what your fighting. Thieves Guild- Blood Bond, Bonds you to a unit reflecting most of the damage taken to them. The ultimate BG, can make your Ronin nearly invincible. If you have a lot of Ronin bonded to a hero they will annihilate any force, usually without any losses at all. Bring a couple of geisha along just in case though. Metal Shop- Yin Blade, Gains more Yin with each stroke, damage also increases with more Yin. Pretty good BG, but you will probably use BB most of the time. Spirit Warrior- Summoned by the Necro. They are decent warriors, good attack but bad defense. The good thing about them is the Necro can just keep summoning them. Zombie- Good fighters, but very very very slow. Good attackers, but low defense. They will constantly lose health, so if you try to send them a long way off they will probably die before they get there. They can also make your geisha use up all their stamina, I would get them far away from the geisha when the battle is over. ***************************************************************************** SEH: Serpent Heros ***************************************************************************** Kenji- Your best unit. His BG can severly hurt enemies, especially heros. Has good attack and defense, gets better as the game progresses. You start out with him. Otomo- A good unit. His BG can up the attack of all nearby units. Can significantly reduce casualties. Has good attack and defense. Get him after the first mission. Shinja- An alright unit, I don't really like him. I always see him just standing around and that costs me troops. His BG lowers the attack of nearby enemies. Seems like he has better attack and defense than Otomo. Get him after the third mission. Vetkin- A sissy. He is very fast but has lower attack and defense than the other heros. His BG can take the stamina of all nearby enemies, probably useful if you can keep him alive. Get him by taking the center route to Swans Pool. Budo- The coolest hero in the game. I don't know how good he is in battle because I always have him harassing my peasants. His BG has got to be the funniest thing in the game besides the Wolf peasants smacking the horses. Make him crack his whip and watch the peasants run. They know whats up. Get him in mission 6-2. Utara- She is one bad babe. Her Song of Sorrow BG will quickly drain the life of all nearby enemies, and I mean quick. She has good attack and defense to boot. Definitely one of the best heros. Get her in mission 8-1. Koril- Cool little dude. His BG teleports him anywhere on the map. Pretty good attack and defense. One of the better Heros. He is kinda slow though. Get him in mission 8-3. Necromancer- One bad dude. Any enemies that die around him will automatically turn into Zombies, but it costs stamina. Before you know it you will have doubled your army. His BG can summon spirit warriors who are also good additions to a party. Ninja- Weak fighters but very useful. Their BG cloaks them and I dont belive it uses stamina, but if they run around and lose all their stamina they will become visible. Very useful as scouts, just set them up at the entrances to your base or the enemys base to know when they're coming. Get them in mission 12. Monk- I didnt find any use for them. I guess they could help out with base defense. They have high attack but low defense. The only reason to get them is to play their level, it was one of the most enjoyable missions. Get them in mission 12. ***************************************************************************** SEB: Serpent Buildings ***************************************************************************** WATCHTOWER Gives you a longer sight and if there's a melee unit in it you can use the charge which will blind everybody around. It will also give missiles a longer range. PEASANT HUT Very important, without one your screwed. The more you have the faster peasants will pop out. The FAQ on the official website says 6 is the maximum, but I build about 8-10 just in case. TAVERN Important building because its one of the training grounds. Trains peasants into Swordsmen, Crossbowmen into Bandits, Musketeers into Raiders, and Cannoneers into Ronin. Fortified Ale- Gives Swordsmen more health. The costs outweigh the usefulness. Unless you have some Yang to spare, or are Swordsmen heavy, I would stay away. Costs 3 Yang. Drunken Revelry- Makes Swordsmen do more damage. This is probably gonna be the first upgrade you get most of the time. Costs 1 Yang. Darts- Gives Raiders longer range. Lets you get a couple of more shots at buildings before the troops get there. A good upgrade. Costs 2 Yang. SHARPSHOOTERS GUILD Important building because its one of the training grounds. Trains peasants into Crossbowmen, Swordsmen into Bandits, Musketeers into Cannoneers, and Raiders into Ronin. Poisoned Weapons- Coats Bandits and Crossbowmens weapons with poison. Makes them do more damage, a poisoned enemy will gradually lose health. Most of the time you will kill them before this has much effect. Costs 4 Yang. Cannon Sights- Gives Cannoneers a longer range. Good if you use them. Costs Yang. Costs 2 Yang. Steel Cannonballs- Makes Cannoneers do more damage. Same as above. Costs 3 Yang. ALCHEMIST HUT Important building because its one of the training grounds. Trains peasants into Musketeers, Swordsmen into Raiders, Crossbowmen into Cannoneers, and Bandits into Ronin. Magnesium Torches- Makes Raiders torches do more damage. Lets you take buildings down quicker, which is always good. Costs 1 Yang. Vital Points- Makes crossbowmen do more damage. Makes a noticeable difference so I would get this. Costs Yang. Costs 2 Yang. Reinforced Plating- Musketeers and Ronin will take less damage from blunt and piercing weapons. If you use them and are fighting the Wolf you need this. Costs 2 Yang. BATHHOUSE Important building because its one of the training grounds. Makes fan geisha, your most important combat units. Get one asap because a few geisha can mean the difference between life and death, literally. Art of Love- Geisha use less stamina to heal. This should be one of the first upgrades you get. Costs 2 Yang. Flexibility- Gives geisha more health. Definitely a good investment. Costs 1 Yang. Pressure Points- Makes geisha do more damage. Geisha are already decent fighters, give them this and they will be able to protect themselves even better. Costs 2 Yang. STABLES Its where you put the horses. Horses can be useful by 1) Keeping your geisha alive longer, and making them faster. 2) Giving your archers a longer range and making them faster. Everyone will hit a tad bit harder from horses and will be harder to kill. Horses don't have much life though, and will fall quickly taking some life of its rider. I wouldn't recommend them in close combat. You also cant use BG while on a horse. Whips and Spurs- Gives horses more stamina. Useful if you run them all over the place. Costs 1 Yang. Hobbling- Lets peasants capture horses on the first try. Can reduce the time it takes to get a full stable. Costs 1 Yang. Glue Factory- Makes the horses trample attack use less stamina. Not too useful, unless you use horses in combat. Costs 2 Yang. THEIVES GUILD Where you get BG, very useful. METAL SHOP The other BG place. KEEP This is where you get your heros if they die or don't start out with you. Build it when you got the resources to spare. Also boosts rice and water max. TOWN SQUARE Gives you a lot higher max for rice and water, costs a lot though. Only build when your maxed out or need a Keep. NECROMANCER'S THRONE Summon the almighty Necro. Costs 4 Ronin, but its worth it. Definitely get this when you have the resources. ***************************************************************************** Credits ***************************************************************************** GameFAQs- For the greatest site in the world. Liquid- For making the best RTS there is. UbiSoft- For doing whatever they did to make this game possible. ***************************************************************************** VER: Version History ***************************************************************************** -7/16/2002, Version .5, just started today got a lot done though. -7/17/2002, Version 1.0, about to contribute this, hope you like it. -7/18/2002, Version 1.5, just finished the Dragon walkthrough about to start on the Serpent. -7/19/2002, Version 1.75, got most of the Serpent walkthrough done. -7/20/2002, Version 1.99, just about finished. I will try to finish everything tomorrow. -7/21/2002, Version 2.0, DONE, it was an exhausting 6 days, but I've finished both walkthroughs and all sections.