Sengoku Rance offers diverse routes, faction interactions, character events, and choices that significantly impact the game’s endings. Players often find themselves navigating locked routes behind specific events or needing to reach certain affection levels for characters to fully engage with their stories.
This guide delves into the essential story routes, their requirements, faction events, character recruitment methods, affection dynamics, and critical decisions you’ll face while playing.
Affection and Event Terms
Throughout your playthrough, you’ll come across these terms:
- Normal → Trust → Love: The three affection levels.
- Max affection event: Triggered when a character’s affection is maxed out.
- Select event: Occurs when you choose a character without specific requirements.
- Clear: Indicates a character has reached their full storyline.
- H-scene / CG: Denotes adult-themed events and corresponding art.
Main Story Routes
Canon Route
Your first playthrough always starts with the Canon route, leading you through the game’s introduction.
The story unfolds in two halves, with a pivotal transition occurring once 5 sealing gourds break. Be ready for numerous shifts in the narrative after this point.
Be cautious when pursuing Kouhime; searching for her will drop your action points to zero.
The Three Boss Battles
You’ll face three critical bosses:
- A large-scale army battle.
- Byakko in a solo duel that features a transformation, so you fight it on two occasions.
- A showdown with the Demon (魔人).
Byakko will charge up before launching its area attack; have Rizna use magic immunity to counter it effectively.
Demon Takes Control of Shimazu
Eventually, the Demon will seize control of Shimazu after several turns.
Watch out, because Shimazu can decimate factions nearby, even those that have already capitulated to you. Don’t let your guard down!
This is soon followed by the soul binding infection event, where affected soldiers can decrease your maximum troop count during attacks. Defend wisely when this takes effect.
How to Stop Gikai
After the scenario mentioned earlier, be prepared for Gikai to show up during your attacks.
Gikai will incinerate one of your deployed characters with every attack. If you send Rance, it’ll trigger a game over.
The trigger for Gikai’s attack isn’t fully documented and can target even characters holding a lucky cat.
Characters that were deployed beforehand are the only targets. Using expendable characters can help absorb these attacks effectively.
To stop Gikai, ensure to complete the region event:
Think of a plan against Gikai.
Once you clear that, deploy Rance into battle, and all characters can then engage Gikai together.
Izumo, Cairo, and the Apostles
Upon capturing Izumo , you’ll automatically secure surrounding regions up to Cairo .
Hold off on attacking Cairo immediately; doing so will provoke the Demon army to counterattack repeatedly due to their apostles’ unlimited troop supply.
Wait for an apostle to engage in a duel with Kentarou.
During this duel, Shikibu must fight Kentarou, who needs to be adequately leveled for victory.
Prior to this, it’s wise to take Kentarou into the dungeon or trigger his travel around region event.
Finding Miki
Later, you need to explore specific locations to track down Miki .
The necessary exploration levels are:
- 20
- 25
- 30
Saving Sill
Eventually, you’ll encounter Sill frozen in ice.
Prevent Demon King Miki from using her powers to free Sill, or you will face a game over.
Shimazu Brothers
When you attack the Demon, the four Shimazu brothers will perform a surprise assault.
Your attacking squad needs to battle their forces, followed by a duel. After the duel, your action points will drop to 0.
Later on, subsequent attacks against the Demon army will lead to the death of remaining Shimazu brothers in story battles.
Madou and Genbu
Once you take South Africa , you’ll engage in two RPG battles:
- Madou
- Genbu
Defeat both to remove the curse, but your action points will return to 0 afterwards.
Battle of Tenmabashi
Once every region held by the Demon army is captured, the Battle of Tenmabashi initiates.
You’ll engage in:
- A boss team battle.
- A vanguard army battle.
Rance and Kentarou are essential to deploy in the team for the boss battle.
Demon King Nobunaga launches a simultaneous attack on all units. Be aware this doesn’t affect invincible Rizna.
If both Rance and Kentarou fall, Nobunaga’s damage will reduce to 0. It’s advisable to bring a miko healer for this confrontation.
Route Branches
After you finish the Canon route, new routes become available:
- Isoroku Route
- Ran Route
- Kenshin Route
A Demon King Route emerges as a Bad End alternative.
Canon and Isoroku Route Requirement
In either the Canon or Isoroku route, explore the Underground Mikan Farm to find the Taiwan lemon .
If this step is overlooked, expect the Demon King route to trigger after a few turns.
Kenshin Route Requirement
After 4 sealing gourds break , but before the fifth, activate the Uesugi event.
This Uesugi event will trigger the Uesugi Route label.
The Amaterasu (Hachimaki) arrival event will follow next.
Ran Route Requirement
Complete the following before the fifth sealing gourd shatters:
- Finish all of Ran’s events.
- Clear the oil hole.
Doing this will initiate the Ran route.
Isoroku Route Requirement
After the fifth gourd breaks, prepare for Kouhime’s kidnapping .
It’s essential to search for her, or the game concludes after a certain number of turns.
Make your decision:
Search for Kouhime with full effort → Canon route.
I searched for Kouhime, but… → Isoroku route.
The second choice is only available from the second playthrough onward and demands that you witness the H event with Yamamoto.
The entire context of Kouhime’s kidnapping, alongside the locks on the Kenshin and Ran routes, transitions the narrative into the latter half of the game.
Upon completing a route, you can begin anew with the faction’s characters unlocked, although their individual event requirements remain hidden initially, and how affection works with them is still uncertain.
Isoroku Route
The Isoroku route kicks off once every faction, except for Shimazu and Dokugan-ryuu , has either surrendered or fallen.
While similar to Canon, this route introduces a variety of automatic events connected to Keikoku.
The necessary route events are triggered automatically as you progress.
Kenshin Route
The Emperor Contest involving Kenshin signifies the start of this route.
An event will decrease Kenshin to Level 1.
Following this, each interaction will boost her by +2 levels. The level progression halts after 40, so consider alternative training methods for further advancement.
Until you defeat Baba, capturing Takeda is off-limits.
After a number of turns, a Takeda region event will allow a duel with Baba.
Following this, there’s another duel event with Kazuhisa in Izumo.
Contest entrants who are already part of your team can participate directly.
Contestants not in your squad will eventually fall to Xavier after several turns.
If Xavier reaches 100 points first, it triggers a game over.
Conversely, if Kenshin achieves 100 points first, she becomes Emperor and her skill War God’s Majesty upgrades to Emperor’s Majesty, causing enemies to lose 2 action points upon her deployment.
Following this, region events can compel every faction but the Demon Army to surrender.
If you manage to seize even one Demon Army region, the entirety of the Demon Army will fall.
Afterward, Xavier seeks Orochi, thus revealing the Yamatai dungeon.
Neglecting to act for 5 turns post this point will result in the game ending.
Ran Route
The Ran route progresses automatically.
Make your way to Nobunaga.
Be cautious: if the Tenshi sect has met its end, selecting Do not return the Manmaru will conclude the game. This option is unavailable if the Tenshi sect still stands.
Following this, an event will seal Nobunaga.
On the next turn, Shimazu will declare war.
A series of hell holes will emerge across multiple regions. Closing all hell hole events is vital to access the Saitama dungeon.
Complete the dungeon to reach the finale.
Your ending CG will depend on Ran’s affection level. While the exact requirements remain uncertain, achieving full affection with Ran could lead to an alternate ending.
Demon King Route
The Demon King route is classified as a Bad End .
Oda Clan
After a conversation with Kouhime , you can initiate a talent search.
The talent search may yield Tamazushi Fuuka, a unique story character rather than just another generic unit.
Sill
Utilize the Select event . The dungeon will reveal two story H-scenes. After capturing Houjou’s Saitama , another event is triggered. A visit to the Miko Institution will also activate a Sill-related event. Ultimately, she departs during the Canon route.
- Use the Select event.
- The dungeon contains two story H-scenes.
- After taking Houjou’s Saitama, another event occurs.
- Visiting the Miko Institution also triggers a Sill event.
- She eventually leaves during the Canon route.
