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SaGa Scarlet Grace: Ambitions - 100% Platinum Walkthrough (Text)


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UPDATE (April 15, 2022)

There are a number of discrepancies that multiple players found between their experience playing the game and what this particular route suggests. This game has a variety of conditional lock/unlock flags for so many scenarios, it is difficult to keep track. Generally, if your concern is with completing the item collection quest or missing some characters in the first playthrough (Balmaint), check through the additional posts in this thread. The characters that may be locked in the Balmaint guide below are recruitable in subsequent runs, so this should not cost you your opportunity to get the Platinum Trophy in the minimum five playthroughs. Caveat emptor! Read all of Bucket's posts!

 

INTRODUCTION

This walkthrough is a supplement to the Trophy Guide and Road Map and will take you step by step through each character playthrough, as well as a required second playthrough with Urpina, making for a total of five playthroughs.

 

Through each playthrough, keep an eye out for the Purple Bold Text. Each time you see this, it means you've recruited one of the 79 characters. Keeping track of character recruitment is one of the most challenging things about pursuing the Platinum, and missing even one character in any one playthrough may mean a 6th run is required -- though I have built in one significant back-up with Balmaint and Taria for the Antonius / Armored Maiden / Lord Stabiae sequence.

Edited by pgann
Warning players to read the full thread before embarking on Platinum attempt
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Step 1: Off with his head! (Balmaint)

 

When starting a new game, you will be asked whether to take a personality quiz ("let the comets decide") or directly choose a character. Taking the quiz can help you create a character with beneficial custom stats (see the PC Datamine for more details), but you should be fine just selecting the character for yourself. Choose Balmaint. You will also be asked whether or not you have seen the events of the four characters before. All this determines is whether or not certain subquests are available, and they are not nearly as spoiler-y as the game menu suggests. So, please, do check "yes" for all four characters.

 

Regarding the marking "yes," take note of the trophies in the Trophy Guide for recruiting Mondo, Arthur, Kahn, and Elisabeth. Because Arthur is already with you, you cannot complete his quest. But throughout the game, as you see these characters appear on-screen, be sure to complete their interactions. As you do, you will earn the following trophies:

 

(B)(H) Protecting House Julanius

(B)(H) Marriage, Schmarriage

(B)(H) Genghis Kahn

 

(As you get these characters, mark them on your sheet! If you miss them during this playthrough, be sure to get them in subsequent playthroughs!)

 

If you are using the character tracking sheet (and you should), do not mark Balmaint or Arthur yet. They must be recruited separately. However, you can feel free to mark Isaac, Clover, Patricia, and Robert. Do not mark Marion yet, as she is actually recruitable outside of Balmaint's opening and may be needed for the trophy (have not confirmed).

 

As you continue through the game, you are going to recruit many characters, so feel free to move out three of those generic characters. However, it is imperative that you keep Arthur with you at all times. This guarantees a hidden "trust" level is built, which is important for keeping the world map open at time of endgame. Additionally, we are going to have Arthur learn all 20 incantations (follow Trophy Guide for (B) ...We're Going Home). Change staves to force new incantations learned as you go, and utilize the Arch Witch in North Market (Azhuacan) to increase incantation skill levels whenever possible.

 

If the prologue text didn't make it abundantly clear to you, Balmaint's story will involve confronting Sigfrei a total of seven times. In his first confrontation, he will find Sigfrei playing a character named Paul Heijin (who, incidentally, is a recruitable character for everyone except Balmaint). Follow the story in Maurehua, helping protect the tower and add materials to it. When approaching Kilik and learning that the south is cut off, you will meet the character Strumiknen. He will challenge you to battle, and you will have two dialogue options: one is to ask if he wants a taste of your blade, the other is to state that your axe is for executions. The latter is a bad choice. Go with "taste of the blade" to defeat him but not murder the guy, and he will offer to join your team. Mark Strumiknen on your character sheet and continue.

 

At the end of the Maurehua sequence, after the execution of "Sigfrei" in Maurehua, fiends will rush the tower. You can choose to protect it or let the fiends have it. Let the fiends have it! By doing so you will seamlessly earn:

 

(B)(H) Shoddy Construction

 

For the next Sigfrei-sighting, you are instructed to head to Termina. You can begin one of the two common chapters now, but we are going to wait until later. First, go through Owtie Arbor to Maurehua, only to return to Owtie Arbor back into Kei. When you return from this side, you are able to recruit Colleen. Mark Colleen on your character sheet!

 

Since you can go back and forth safely from Kei to Maurehua, you can knock out the "iron stomach" trophy by eating five wild strawberries in Provincia Kei. See the Trophy Guide on specifics, or just look closely: two stalks face one direction, one is horizontally mirrored. That unique one is the strawberry! After eating five...

 

(B)(H) Iron Stomach

 

Now then, back to Maurehua, through Cindrea, and on to Termina. Before doing the main quest, we are going to detour for what is known as the witch hut quest. This quest can be done with all characters, but there are two possible outcomes. This time around, we are going to defeat the witch. To start, approach the ravens in the southeast portion of Termina, and you will rescue a young woman. She has you stay the night at her estate. After this event, you'll notice a fisherman has appeared at the southeast coast of the lake. Speak with him between each step in the next chain of events. Return to the Raven Manor, and the woman there will tell you about magical urns that bring fortune. Leave. Examine the graveyard. Speak to the fisherman (as usual). Go to the steaming purple stone to get the shard of rock you need to break the urns (a battle ensues). Break both urns. You can ignore the black wolves appearing around the manor. Then go into Raven Manor, and feel free to tell the witch you don't believe her lies! Fight her, then go to the fisherman one more time, and he will tell you his backstory and offer to join you. Mark Erreich on your character sheet.

 

To complete the quest in this area, ask about Sigfrei in all locations on the map (including the north and south gate), and in-between you will have to fight four or five battles as fiery crests appear along the mountainside. Eventually, a sea creature will be summoned. You can defeat the creature as-is, or fight the people lighting the fires again to weaken the creature and then fight it, or you can actually ditch the entire thing and say it's not your problem. Given this is your first playthrough and you need the elemental ore, let's go ahead and fight this thing.

 

For the next section, we will be heading to Marchiam Numadica, which is southwest of Kei through Marchiam Yaxart. Yaxart is the pilgrimage province, and also home to fellow protagonist Leonard, who will we be recruiting later, though we cannot do it quite yet (this is due to a finicky issue with Imhokiel's pilgrimage site also being the gate to Numadica). However, we can recruit Giselle now. While in Yaxart, go to the town of Twai, which serves as Uzume's shrine. Enter it a second time to hear more about Uzume, and then a marker will appear south of Forbidden Point. Go to it and check it out, and it will reveal the True Uzume Shrine. Now return to Twai and choose to "Converse," and Giselle will join you.

 

In Numadica, before completing the Sigfrei portion, utilize the Trophy Guide for the Elemental Weapon of Terra. This is the easiest of the five elemental weapons to get in the game, and at this early stage, this weapon will be a boon in your quests, regardless of what weapon type appears.

 

(B)(H) Scorched Earth

 

Clearing Numadica is fairly linear: help excavate all of the objects in the southern portion of the region, fighting battles as you go. Eventually, Urbs Aurea is revealed, you fight more battles, Sigfrei gets what's coming to him, and then apparently, so does all of humanity.

 

The next Sigfrei sighting is in Hibernia. To avoid accidentally triggering one of the "common" chapters too early, take the path from Kei to Cindrea, to Gradion, to Hibernia. For now, ignore anything else that may catch your eye, even that baby in Gradion. Once you reach Hibernia, start in the Grove of Silence, where you meet Elysed. She offers to join your party. In all other scenarios, you must choose between Elysed or the Elemental Weapon of Natura, but Balmaint is allowed to have both! So, feel free to say yes to Elysed, and mark her on your character sheet. Now, visit each of the three towns around the outskirts (Ceobrahn, Fomoire, etc). Next, go to the three mines, starting with Unda (water) and then the other two, fighting battles along the way. Finally, return to the Grove of Silence for a boss fight. As the fight ends, you will receive the Elemental Weapon of Natura and take care of Sigfrei yet again.

 

(B)(H) Nature vs. Nurture

 

Now there are no more rumors, and the game will expect you to complete a "common chapter" scenario. For chapter 2 with Balmaint, you can take Earth Serpent or Scarlet Shards quest. We will be doing Scarlet Shards. Before we start, though, let's go back to Yaxart and complete all of the "regular" pilgrimages without clearing all of the hidden pilgrimages. To be sure you don't mess up, simply choose not to search the light that appears after climbing Rowsui Tower (True Marigan Shrine is there), and feel free to pursue everything else. Once you have done this, return to Diemazu and you will be able to recruit Leonard there. Mark him!

Edited by pgann
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To begin our common Scarlet Shards chapter, we are going to start in Marchiam Normi. You will meet Sasha, who tells you of the Scarlet Shards that must be destroyed. By using the Pendant in your inventory (first option on main menu), you can find out whether or not a province has a Scarlet Shard. Normi's shard is easy to find: follow the marker to the cave, fight a battle, talk to the Westdorf villager, find a frozen body to the north, and when given the choice to return the shard to the villagers or immediately destroy it, just immediately destroy it.

 

Before leaving Normi, we can knock a few things off our list. First, utilize the Trophy Guide for the elemental weapon of Unda to force ice blocks to appear in the north sea, eventually obtaining a map, then fighting three hard battles in three caves and talking to three cute little snowmen (Sim - Ula - Crum). After talking to these three, you will obtain the Elemental Weapon of Unda! Three down, two to go.

 

(B)(H) Wet Behind the Ears

 

After clearing this quest, if you go to Ostdorf there should be a "Converse" option, and the townsperson there (Kenji) will join you. Mark him on your character sheet! Fun fact about Kenji: given his penchant for all things music, the character is almost certainly patterned after SaGa series composer Kenji Ito.

 

To continue the Scarlet Shards quest with Balmaint, you have a lot of choices. There are nine provinces in total which have Scarlet Shards, but Balmaint's chapter will end after destroying four of them. Thus, we want to be judicious about where we go and how we unlock various provinces. For that reason, your next stop should be Jusitania. You can reach it through Hibernia (unless Hibernia is locked), in which case go through Tveak in Rhonicum (requires some battles). We are ignoring Bicyniro intentionally for now.

 

In Jusitania, your pendant points you to the mine in the east. Clear the fight in the waterfall (which creates permanent free passage between the sides of the river), then head to the mine. Before the battles begin, a bandit princess named Ogniana offers to join sides to prevent less savory parties from obtaining the shard. Join with her, and mark her off your list! Following the battles in the mines, you chase the Knights of Spira back to Spira Tower. Fight, win, destroy shard. Note the "Eye of Balor" is a side quest. Sasha will warn you that you can't face its awesome power, and if you're not highly leveled, you indeed cannot: this is one of those "fixed stat" battles (like Scarlet Fiends), it does not scale down to where you currently are. So unless you have been grinding like crazy, you probably cannot fight it now. There is no trophy associated with Eye of Balor, and the reward for completing it is nothing special, so feel free to skip it.

 

For your last two shards, you have plenty of options. If you attempt to enter Azhuacan, Sasha will say you're not ready and will recommend a province to check out. Follow her advice to knock out the last two Scarlet Shards, and then it's time to continue your quest.

 

Now then, back to the hunt for Sigfrei ... Arthur will direct your attention to Provincia Rhonicum, which is south of Gradion. Head there, and at this point you have to choose between going south or east. However, you can actually unlock both provinces with a bit of trickery, which we will now do. So, for now, head to the town of Nekwa and forward to Marchiam Bicyniro.

 

Bicyniro is a strange place where rumors become true, so long as you choose to believe them. The one rumor that you must choose not to believe is that someone is trying to summon fiends in a town (which town that is appears to be random, but if you believe it, you'll cause Sigfrei to appear and you'll also destroy a town). Instead, check out other rumors. One rumor that you definitely want to pick up is in Anchiano about a fabled creature known as the Tatzelwurm! This rumor only occurs for characters during a Sigfrei chapter, so this is a freebie for Balmaint. Hear the rumor, believe it, and follow the guide below for that trophy, and you get:

 

(B)(H) To Catch the Prey

 

So, without locking in your belief that monsters are being summoned to a town (by Sigfrei), you are free to return to Rhonicum, then head through Castle Parm toward Provincia Cerenaif. As you go through Parm, Chiago Lisboa offers to join you. Check!

 

Immediately you come across an Evil Spirit that's chasing someone. Save that someone, and now the Evil Spirit that is somehow also Sigfrei will force you to make a vow. Your vow options are not to kill, not to steal, or not to "change." After you make the vow, each time you break it, Balmaint's Max LP goes down by 1. One way to end this entire scenario is to just keep breaking your vow until you reach 1 LP max, then you fight Evil Spirit / Sigfrei and your Max LP is restored.

 

Alternatively, there is a quest you can complete that does not require you losing all your LP to face off against Sigfrei. Should you wish it, choose the vow "I shall not change." By this it means that you won't change your mind, or side with differing factions. To clear the quest now, you will be following the Sea Mushrooms. First, in Cingular, investigate what's happening with the mushrooms and then head to the Water Mill to get more information, and the mushrooms disappear. The next set of mushrooms, near Nipelo, will disappear with investigation based on information that Chiago gives you in a cutscene. Unfortunately, your investigations end at this point. At the next two sets of Sea Mushrooms, you are forced to do battle as people are dumb enough to try to burn these poisonous things at the stalk. Finally, in Zegna, you will have three more battles to face in the three Cemeteries. After this, you challenge the Evil Spirit directly and clear the Cerenaif scenario.

 

For Sigfrei sighting number six, we are heating to the Northeast Boundary. Reach it by going through Cindrea, Termina, and Thracini. While in Thracini, feel free to complete the volcano eruption event and subsequent acquisition of the Elemental Weapon of Ignis (it's fairly simple, use the Trophy Guide if you need details):

 

(B)(H) The Floor Is Lava

(B)(H) Fire and Brimstone

 

Then, using the bridge to the northeast, head to the Northeast Boundary. There are brigands on this bridge that you can appease or fight. If you appease them, you have to keep going through that dialogue every time you cross the bridge, so ... yeah, just defeat them and head into the great expanse that is the Northeast Boundary! We have lots to do here, so pay attention!

 

You will be greeted by Sigfrei at the outpost. What is he up to? His intentions here seem ... innocent? Honest? In any case, before heading to Finemundi and the mines, go southeast to the Village of No Presence. You'll be entering and exiting multiple times to talk. It is here that the events for the R&D trophy are explained. For this first playthrough, we will ignore it entirely. Next, the townsperson will tell you about the hidden Adamas shrine. We'll get to that. Return to the town one more time and you'll meet Tissisaaq, the most easily recruited character and a very useful spear-wielder. Add her to the team, and check her off the list. Now, head to Finemundi and start development. To begin, open two mines at each of the five elemental sources, for a total of ten mines. Now pause the mining. Go south to the spot where the hidden Adamas shrine should be, then fight a battle at the cave to reveal the shrine. Now, go north to the fisherman and talk to him multiple times. If he asks you to pray, go ahead and pray and you'll get a fish, which you can offer up at the Adamas shrine (shortens number of battles necessary to recover materials from your mine shafts!). Talk to him again about fishing, and if he asks you to fish shallow or deep, say deep, and he'll fish up a key that you'll be using later. Now, go to each of the elemental sources and fight battles until the mines that were empty fill up with materials that you are no doubt hurting for in your need to upgrade equipment. Afterwards, re-enter the development mode and build a third mine at each source for a total of 15 mines. At this point, the spiritual energy is fully drained, and if you check any of the mine shafts, you'll discover they are overrun with fiends and you will have to fight fiends. After doing this just once (though you are free to do it as many times as you want), return to the Outpost to have it out with Sigfrei one more time.

 

That makes for six Sigfrei reincarnations dealt with. Before number seven appears, you are forced do another common chapter. For your chapter 3, you will be doing Earth Serpent.

Edited by pgann
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Head to Marchiam Megdasse. The screen will rumble and a giant hole will appear near the town of Kaikow. Congratulations, you have begun the Earth Serpent quest! Approach the hole, fight the bad guys, and learn the awful truth about this Earth Serpent. Now that you know you need the Emperor's Saw, head directly to Azhuacan. You should be able to take the ferry from Kei to Azhuacan, or you can go through Cindrea to Gradion and then from Testika to Azhuacan. It is your choice to fight the Earth Serpent in other situations as he appears, but when you reach Azhuacan, you will want to immediately interact with the imperial troops on the southeast side to help defeat the Serpent, and you will have the opportunity to befriend and recruit Maximius Julanius, head of the House of Swords and father of fellow protagonist Urpina. Mark him on your character sheet!

 

With the Emperor's Saw, you should be able to defeat the Earth Serpent for good, but you don't want to do this right away. There is one important task to complete yet while in the Earth Serpent scenario, and that is to witness the death of a protagonist and an elderly woman. To do this, we are going to take the long route 'round to Thracini. From Azhuacan, head to Gradion, then Rhonicum, where the Earth Serpent's golems have laid waste to the region. Check Silmium and you'll learn that the followers of Savnok have kidnapped Urpina! Maximius will leave you at this point (but fortunately, the recruitment still counts), and Antonius will join you (mark!). Follow the kidnappers through Cerenaif, then to the town of Zegna to enter Mare Ilfee. In New Wise, follow the kidnappers to Old Wise and then Sugar Castle Lighthouse. In the Lighthouse, you will have a choice to fight to save Urpina or let her die. Choose to let her die. Then, sail from New Wise to Edinport, and go west into Thracini. When you arrive, the earth serpent will be out and earth golem soldiers will be surrounding Elhuacan. Take down the earth golems, and when you enter Elhuacan you will learn you were too late...

 

(B)(H) A Second Fall

 

Before taking down the Earth Serpent, go to the town of Stabiae and Converse with Lord Stabiae, and he will offer to join. He's not particularly worthwhile, but he is a rare recruit as he will only join you if the Grand Dowager Empress dies. So get him, and mark him off your list! Afterwards, go to Gradion and if the abandoned baby is there, pick it up and give it to the priest in Testika. Then, in the space where the baby had been, you can examine the area to find a suspiciously Urpina-like character who is silent, but offers to join you. Mark the elusive Armored Maiden off your list! After this, use the Emperor's Saw to finish off the Earth Serpent where you first met him, in Megdasse, and the chapter should end. If it doesn't, try finishing it off in Rhonicum, Azhuacan, or Thracini. Chapter end screen will come with pretty artwork, and you will return to Kei.

 

Now we are able to enter the final battle. However, before we do, there are some things we will want to accomplish. We will be sweeping up as many characters as we can, and completing one of the side quests that nets us a trophy.

 

Let's start with that side quest. You may have already noticed, and you may have already started: the "Collector's Nests" that appear in certain provinces (Maurehua has one, this is the one closest to Kei). You have a total of 30 items to find, and as long as you have access to all provinces (which you will so long as you kept Arthur in your party), you can complete this. You will actually complete this side quest every single playthrough because of the Ancient Tomes and Fine Rings that come from the process, as well as the Eternity Staff. We need these to work towards our tech and incantation completion (technically there are enough to get all the rare weapons, but the collector's nest each playthrough is a simple guarantee). So, follow the Trophy Guide, wander the world to get all 30 items, and enjoy:

 

(B)(H) Wait. HOW Many?

 

With enough rare materials, as well as Commemorative Medals (which you can trade for at various towns) and the Ancient Tome and Fine Ring, you can pick up some exclusive weaponry to learn special techs. With the Eternity Staff you got from this quest, have Arthur learn both Shattered Dreams and Cruncher. Congratulations, you have learned all three weapon skills for Staff: consider it done! With your Fine Ring, head to Hadasht in Cindrea to pick up the Joyeuse and learn the unique tech "Eulogy." With your Ancient Tome, go to the North Market in Azhuacan and trade for the Flameblade to learn Rosario Impale. If these weapons aren't appearing in the trade mode, it means you don't have any Commemorative Medals left, or you are lacking the Tome or Ring to trade. Make sure to have one of each to complete these trades!

 

While in Azhuacan, your party should now be sufficiently leveled to clear the three-part Arena. If at first you don't succeed, try again, because the parties you're placed up against are randomized, and you may do better with some parties than others. With this complete:

 

(B)(H) To the Victor Go the Spoils

 

Note that if you are short on Dragon Scales, you can re-do the arena battle to your heart's content, and with each success you will get some dragon scales guaranteed, so this is a nice place to farm them.

 

Still in Azhuacan, head to the southwest side to the Black Market and start chatting with Sabit. You almost certainly have some weapons he will comment on. For Balmaint, all you need to recruit Sabit is the Estoc (a technical-type shortsword upgraded from Fleuret and Rapier), the Katana (earned in Collector's Nest quest), and the Twister. If you do not have this last weapon, head to Mare Ilfee and complete the region's unique quest, which involves finding coal of various types and putting them in different lighthouses. It does not matter if you "balance" the energy or leave them imbalanced (the latter causes a monster to spawn, which you can then defeat). Once you've cleared lit all lighthouses, go to Diemazu Shrine. Keep checking it, as a bunch of rewards will have piled up, the last of which is the Twister. With these in place, Sabit will offer to join you. Mark him on your character sheet! And, because he is a special character, you'll also get a trophy for recruiting him!

 

(B)(H) Armaments for All!

 

Next, take the long trek back up to the Northeast Boundary. Go into development mode and remove 8 of the 15 mines, leaving 7 up (at least one at each elemental source). Replace the fish if possible. Now, you need to work through the glacier to the north. Unfortunately, you will not be able to recruit the imperial librarian (Luna) in this round, but we will get her later. Talk to her once, leave the region, re-enter, and there should be bloody tracks. From here on out, just follow the Trophy Guide for the Elemental Weapon of Aes, and say hello to one more trophy!

 

(B)(H) Heavy Metal

 

Feeling strong yet? I hope so, because we have some challenging battles for the next two events. First, head to Yaxart and finish the Hidden Pilgrimage Shrines. The one we need in particular right now is the True Macha Shrine, unlocked by taking Forbidden Point flames to the unlit lantern/altar in the southwest section. In doing this sequence, you should get a cut scene with Camelia, which is a prerequisite to our next task. For now, though, you will be facing off against the Celestial Macha. Win the fight and you will receive:

 

(B)(H) A New Mage Rises

Edited by pgann
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Having had an interaction with Camelia, and having *not* recruited Orville in Southeast Boundary, head to the SE Boundary and enter Birdman Village. You should get a cut scene with Camelia. She is on the hunt for something big. Now, head to the Hole of Chaos. If all has gone well (and you never recruited Kreisa, Orville, or the Arch Witch), you will face a special event. Use the Trophy Guide to ensure all goes well to earn this trophy:

 

(B)(H) Good Fortune, Witch Hunters!

 

Camelia, now revealing her true name, joins you. Mark Tsubaki off of your character sheet!

 

Okay, now we are going to round up some additional characters. Do not bother with the Rhonicum Doppelganger quest unless you feel like it, as you will need to do it again with another character to get the full benefit from it. However, do make sure to head to Marchiam Ria and "Converse" in the town of Muros to recruit Chichi (she and Kreisa are mutually exclusive, so this is a good chance to get her).

 

More characters to pick up: the teachers, Griffin and Arch Witch. Griffin is wandering across the world, and you've probably bumped into him at Village Squares (he is almost always at Finemundi in Northeast Boundary if you haven't seen him yet). He will randomly choose a weapon skill to train one of your characters in. After training enough times, he will join you. Mark him off when that occurs. The same is true for Arch Witch, whom you can now safely recruit with Tsubaki in your team. Just keep learning from her, and once she has given a lesson in each of the five elements as well as at least one staff lesson, she will join you. This is a great opportunity to level up Arthur in all magic types to help in learning all 20 incantations!

 

Next up is a lengthy side quest in your home province of Kei. You probably saw it before, that Wishing Tree with the arrow in it, it makes a sound effect every time you pass it. Now is the time to complete the Wishing Tree side quest. it is lengthy, but it is also linear and self-explanatory. Once it is all done, return to the town of Nangoon and "Converse" twice. After the second conversation, the woman who adores the nobleman will join you. Her name is Julia. Check!

 

Now, return to Cerenaif. You've already completed the Sea Mushroom sequence, but there is more. The forces of Zegna and the forces of Parm are at odds. There is a side quest to complete here: first, go to the Zegna standing army and fulfill their request to get weapons from a nearby castle. Then talk to the Parm spy, who asks you to destroy those same supplies, and do that. Next, Zegna will be looking for ignis ore, and a white dog will appear and sniff out such a place. Find it, tell Zegna about it, then talk to the Parm spy. Again, he is looking for sabotage. He asks you to find two ingredients: one in the Spring Cave, another in the Haunted Castle. Then the dog acts again ... talk to the dog, and you will rescue a man from the Water Mill. Afterwards, go to the Water Mill and he will mix the ingredients. Give those to the Parm spy, and he uses the improvised explosive to destroy the ignis mine shaft, which is bad news for Zegna. Deliver the bad news, and suddenly you'll see an NPC appear near the Central Cemetery. Talk to him and he will speak of a treasure in the labyrinth, with the cryptic advice to "not follow the black dog." A black dog will appear on the map near the labyrinth. Talk to the black dog, and he'll run inside. Go into the labyrinth, and whichever way the dog turns, you choose to turn the opposite direction. After each turn there is a battle. After three or four turns, you'll fight a boss and get a treasure chest. Take that treasure chest back to the Zegna standing army, and you'll receive an accessory as a reward. Finally, head to Zegna and "Converse," and the head of the Zegna army, named Lamar, will join you. Check, check, double-check!

 

Return to the Southeast Boundary and follow the Trophy Guide for "On Wings of Wax" below to recruit the character Orville and receive this trophy:

 

(B)(H) On Wings of Wax

 

There are a handful of other characters you could recruit at this point, but they are well out of the way and will be easier to pick up with other protagonists. At this point, there is one important thing you must do before continuing forward. Take a look at your list of Formations. Because the Formations learned to not carry across your first playthrough, you may never get some of these again. To play it safe, win one battle with every formation you currently have. The unique formations you have access to at this point are Rising Power (Arthur), Crooked Cross (Balmaint), Triple Threat (Tsubaki), Double Trouble (Elisabeth), Petalstorm (Elysed), Speculation (Kahn), Whirlwind (Leonard), Trickster (Maximius), Phoenix Dance (Mondo), Together We Stand (Sabit), Dragon's Rage (Strumiknen), and Final Frontier (Tissisaaq). Among these, the ones that you really might not get in the next four playthroughs are Strumiknen, Maximius, and Tsubaki. So at the very least, use their formations now!

 

Also, before heading to the end, make sure you've learned and used all 20 incantations so you earn:

 

(B) ...We're Going Home

 

And now, the time has come. You may be thinking, what about those Scarlet Fiends? Just like Formations, defeat of Scarlet Fiends will not carry over on your first playthrough, so it's really not worth your time. At this point, you have legitimately cleared everything worth doing in the first playthrough. So, head to Azhuacan, then under Azhuacan (using temples or the Imperial Library), defeat at least one dragon to get through (you can kill all five, as well as any trapped spirituals, to help level up). Enter the center beam of light, and then it's time to enter Ei-Hanum. When you enter, Sigfrei will ask you if you will defeat the gods, ignore the gods, or pray to the gods. Praying saves you some fights, but may lead to a weakened form of the Firebringer. Ideally, you want the Firebringer in his base form so that you get a trophy out of it. Should all go well, you'll beat the game for the very first time and get:

 

(S) Conviction

(B)(H) Quenching Flames

 

(Should you not get Quenching Flames this time around, don't worry, you will have additional opportunities. It should be pretty much unavoidable in the next playthrough, in fact...)

Edited by pgann
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Step 2: Pretty-boy protagonists hunting Scarlet Fiends (Leonard)

 

Two "Advance" notes: (1) in your last playthrough, you cleared the three "partner" quests available. In this playthrough, you can recruit Arthur by interacting with him as he appears from one province to the next. This will not be discussed in detail, just be sure to keep focused for this, and you can mark Arthur on your character sheet and earn this trophy:

 

(B)(H) Behind the Scenes

 

(2) Since you will be entering all 20 provinces and not destroying any towns, this is a great chance to get the Sellsword trophy, which requires completing all of the Guild Missions at towns in a single playthrough. Just send your unused characters as you find them at each town, and you ought to get it. This trophy is listed as complete near the bottom of Step 2.

 

Load the clear game data from your Balmaint victory, and for your next game, select Leonard. After watching the prologue, you will begin what is certainly the strangest of the four adventures. As you may have pieced together, Leonard's entire quest will be collecting the Scarlet Shards. However, unlike the other protagonists, Leonard won't have Sasha by his side. Thus, instead of destroying them, he is collecting them with the intent to drown them in Ei-Hanum... even though he has no idea what or where Ei-Hanum is. The chapter system simply doesn't exist with this playthrough, though Leonard will cross paths with the Serpent, the Phoenix, and even Sigfrei (briefly) in his adventure.

 

Because some important data starts carrying over at this point, especially Scarlet Fiends, please know that we will be taking Leonard to max level (999 HP, level 50 weapon skills, etc) to help clear things out. Leonard's scenario can typically be cleared at breakneck speed, but to ensure we pave the way for a smooth ride for Taria and Urpina (and guarantee a 5-run platinum), we will be fighting Scarlet Fiends in both forms throughout this playthrough. Prepare yourself.

 

Mark your starting characters off your character sheet: Casper, Cecilia, Gabriel, Guinevere, and Jerome. The game leads you to Rowsui Tower, only to be rejected and sent to Megdasse. In Megdasse, a check with your Scarlet Shard reveals one in Megdasse. Additionally, the Earth Serpent appears near Kaikow (you may need to use the observation tower for the serpent to come out from the hole). Megdasse has these four "glyph" monsters that come to life through special requirements, and when they are all done, a fifth one appears. Clearing all five will allow us to recruit two rare characters, and unlock the Scarlet Fiend "Chupacabra," whom we unfortunately can only face once this time around (second appearance will come in a future playthrough).

 

The first two glyphs we'll complete are accessible to all characters regardless of chapter/scenario. First is the dragon, half-covered by a lake near Highsha village. Go into town to ask about it, then examine the locked gate which dams the water. You'll dive in, fight a monster, get the key, unlock the door, and then fight the dragon itself (actually a Drake type). One glyph down, four to go. Next, go to Nyu and talk to the villagers and they'll tell you of the Grusonii, who sprouts once every one thousand years. Apparently, it's been a thousand years. Go into each of the three nearby caves to get dewdrops, then return them to the plant. The plant will release spores, and then butterflies will swarm you. Examine the Glyph and it will become colored in and you fight Grusonii. Two down, three to go.

 

Next up, head to Kaikow and talk to the villagers about how the blood of a great beast must be used to fill in the color. Of course, that's what the Earth Serpent is for. Fight the Earth Serpent, then examine the glyph and fight the Beast King as well. Three down, two to go. Now, given that the Scarlet Shard pointed you to the spot where the secret fifth glyph is, you may be wondering what's going on. At the Walomir Headquarters, you will speak to none other than King Adill himself, who admits that he has a Scarlet Shard, but will only give it to you if you help to stop a tornado floating around. Agree to help, and he will join you (mark Adill on your sheet!). Fight the Tornado and win, and the glyph will be colored in. A second check on the glyph reveals the beast itself, whom you must also fight. With this complete, the fifth Glyph colors in completely and you can fight the hidden beast Aranea. Take it out, and with that, you have access to those two rare characters. First is Nolan. Remember that tree with the black apples? Notice that they have now turned red. Pick the apples now that they are red and feed them to the sheep outside Walomir. They will become big awesome sheep (if you had fed them black apples, they turn into monsters). The shepherd, Nolan, then offers to join you. Mark him! Now, head to Kaikow and "Converse" to meet a young girl named Hagar. She is a powerful archer but she only has 1 LP. Her origins and role in the story remain a mystery, but she is clearly tied to the glyphs somehow. In any case, mark her on your character sheet!

 

Note that clearing all five glyphs is the prerequisite to unlocking the Scarlet Fiend, but depending on your level, it may not appear yet. Even if it does appear, we are going to wait until later in the game to attempt the fight against the dreaded Chupacabra. Moving on, head through Bullio Gate to Provincia Kei!

 

In Kei, the Earth Serpent pops up right away, but you can ignore this for now. Head to Castle Kohan first to meet Sigfrei, just before his demise (which you saw in Balmaint's prologue). Next, head straight for Nangoon and talk to Balmaint to have him join you. Again, even though he's a protagonist, he needs to be recruited for the trophy, so now you can mark him on your character sheet. Before leaving Kei, walk towards the arch and the Phoenix will arrive. What's this? The Phoenix, Earth Serpent, and Sigfrei in the same province? Yeah, Leonard's route is crazy. Anyway, Examine the Arch, follow the plot to the abandoned workshop/hut, and you will rescue Marion, who joins your party. This is a strange recruit, since she is a generic character that was part of Balmaint's initial party, and is the only character to cross over to the other parties. Mark her on your sheet in any case. Next, head back to Castle Kohan and one of the gangsters you just defeated, Rico, also offers to join you. One more for the character sheet!

 

Next up, head to Maurehua by going through Owtie Arbor. Remember that prayer tower being built by Paul Heijin, who was secretly Sigfrei? Apparently he isn't actually Sigfrei in all paths other than Balmaint's. He actually seems like a nice guy! After asking him about Ei-Hanum, he will talk to you about the Prayer Tower. Do as you did with Balmaint, providing resources and protecting the tower from monsters when they appear. Once the tower is complete, check the tower one more time and Paul will offer to join you. One more for the character sheet! Before you go, jump in the Hot Spring to recover LP. This is the prerequisite to spawn this region's Scarlet Fiend (though it might not appear if your level is too low ... don't worry, it will appear whenever you walk by once your level is high enough!).

 

From Maurehua, head north through the gorge (which requires some battling) to reach Marchiam Normi. There is a very unique sequence for the Scarlet Shard here. Use your Scarlet Shard and play through the scenario in its entirety. Before you leave, complete the work to get the Unda Elemental Weapon again, as this will unlock the Scarlet Fiend in this region. Now, utilize the Yomitana Gate on the eastern side of the region to enter Thracini.

 

Note: consider Thracini a dead-end. The game will not allow you to enter the Northeast Boundary yet. And if you try to enter Mare Ilfee, you will activate a glitch (or lock, or something) ... basically, it's really bad, it will ruin the run, do not under any circumstances try to enter Mare Ilfee at this point.

 

While in Thracini, head to Elhuacan and Victoria, the Grand Empress Dowager, will join your party. She is a Leonard-exclusive character and will only join you if you speak with her before going to Azhuacan. So, congratulations on the rare find, and add Victoria to your character sheet!

 

While the Earth Serpent appears here, it's your choice whether to defeat or not. Considering you will need to become very strong, you may want to go ahead and defeat it here. Now, go through Josgad Stable to Provincia Termina. Before approaching the burning crest, ask about Ei-Hanum at a total of seven places: Taria's Workshop, Schut, Josgad, Moorhead, Knymm Castle, North Gate, and South Gate. After asking around, return to Taria's Workshop and Taria will join you. Mark her on your character sheet!

 

While in Termina, there are Phoenix and Earth Serpent events available, as well as clearing the burning crests. None of these are mandatory, but again, because you will need a high-powered party, you should go ahead and do these events for now. When you're ready to go, use Knymm Castle to enter Provincia Cindrea.

 

Here in Cindrea, the Earth Serpent will show up with golems ready to bring down the dam. Confront the Earth Serpent first, letting the golems have their way. After the battle ... well, you get a trophy out of it?

 

(B)(H) The Movable Object

Edited by pennysticks
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For the next step, you may need to exit and re-enter the province. The goal here is to restore the destroyed town of Saqqara. You may need to fight off crabs or approach the "True Saqqara" city first. Ultimately, when the time is right, you will be able to work with a black dog (if you feed him some meat on the map) to sniff out the right materials to rebuild Saqqara. After the town is rebuilt, you'll find the dog, now cleaned-off and bright white, near a Hot Spring. Use this Hot Spring. This spawns the Scarlet Fiend for this zone, which is very important. We will fight it later.

 

Go through Sanhigh (not Yumen) into Provincia Gradion. You will detect a Scarlet Shard here. We are going to follow a very specific path to recruit the character Francis. First, pick up the abandoned baby near Testika. Next, go to West Bicornia to take on a battle and then hear the story of the baby's parents (this is missable if you go to Yumen first!). Next, defeat the enemies around the Forest Hut and enter it. When you enter, Francis will be there. Talk to him, and then go to Yumen. You will return the baby and receive a Scarlet shard. Now, back to the Mysterious Forest Hut, and Francis will join you. One more off the list!

 

Next, it is time to go to Azhuacan. Enter through the boat at Testika. You'll see the Earth Serpent once again, and if you defeat it here, you will be rewarded with an Emperor's Salve, which is a very rare item you can use once from the menu to restore LP! You'll also witness the Phoenix land on Imhokiel Temple. You can complete a battle there should you wish. The goal in this area, though, is to enter the Imperial Library (northwest part of town) for one of two important cut scenes. For Leonard, while he does not have a chapter system, his story arc is generally broken into three parts, and the cut scene at the Imperial Library is the transition from part 1 to part 2. During part 2, we can recruit some important characters that have a limited window around them, that we could miss if we reach part 3 (Northeast Boundary) too quickly.

 

From Azhuacan, go from Gradion to Hibernia. There is a Scarlet Shard here, as well as an Earth Serpent. Complete the Scarlet Shard scenario, your choice if you want to recruit Elysed or take the Natura Elemental Weapon. After completing this, exit to Gradion and back into Hibernia, and a hut will appear in the southwest. Follow the information in the Supplemental character recruitment guide to complete the Nemain subquest and recruit Nemain. This will also cause the Hibernia Scarlet Fiend to appear.

 

Before heading to Jusitania, return to Gradion. A new quest should appear with the baby quest complete, involving a man holding tight to an urn. Follow this quest line to its conclusion and you will spawn the Gradion Scarlet Fiend, Voynich Alpha & Beta. We will save this fight for later!

 

From Gradion, back to Hibernia, and now into Jusitania. There is a Scarlet Shard here: complete the Scarlet Shard quest, recruiting Ogniana if you wish. While here, you can also do a Phoenix event. After clearing these events, exit and re-enter the region to find a lady who wants you to help smuggle items. Help her with this a total of three times (exit and re-enter between each attempt), and then bandits will find her hideout and then storm Nanim. Fomoire will get involved, Nanim will be destroyed, and then Nanim will be rebuilt in the old abandoned town south of Astel Convent. With the town rebuilt, the Jusitania Scarlet Fiend will spawn east of the abandoned mine (where you first sought out the Scarlet Shard). Finally, using Tveak Tower, head into Rhonicum. Check the hole to the Northeast and the Serpent will emerge alongside many earth golems. Ignore them and run straight to Silmium. You will fight a series of three battles, and then Urpina will join you. Note: this makes it impossible for you to re-enter Silmium, which is relevant for the R&D subquest. Fortunately, we have many more playthroughs before we're done, and we need to recruit Urpina, so that's just how it will have to be. Mark Urpina on your sheet, then head to Cerenaif through Castle Parm (Chiago will automatically join).

 

In Cerenaif, use the Scarlet Shard to track the Scarlet Shard. This plays out similar to how it did with Balmaint, and you can even recruit Lamar again. However, you can fully choose to skip the Evil Spirit side quest, and we recommend you do exactly that, because if you have the Evil Spirit with you when pursuing the Scarlet Shard, you will miss out on a Leonard-exclusive character. Anyway, continue the quest through the sea mushrooms, always investigating, and stay close to the shore (using Nipelo instead of the Water Mill) when investigating the second set of mushrooms. Additional details on how to recruit Keegan are in the Supplemental character recruitment guide. Once completed, you'll have another Scarlet Shard and one more character on your sheet. Congratulations! Before you head to the next province, pick up the Evil Spirit and complete the Zegna/Parm sequence to spawn the Cerenaif Scarlet Fiend.

 

Now, go to Nipelo and set sail for Marchiam Ria. Go to each town to hear different stories about Ei-Hanum. However, do not speak to the NPC in Muros twice, or she will go from non-playable to playable (this is Chichi, and we are avoiding her so we can recruit Kreisa later). If you want to pick up Griffin, he is waiting for Leonard at the Abandoned Village. There is a Phoenix event at the Cocoon. Also, if you didn't fight a total of five single-round battles, be sure to do so, as this is the spawning condition for the Scarlet Fiend. Once you've finished up here, sail back to Cerenaif, go to Zegna, and sail to Mare Ilfee.

 

As you enter Mare Ilfee, you will see the Phoenix appear. Follow the Phoenix and complete the associated battles, and Lewis Darling will join you. With Lewis on your team, you should now be able to sail freely around Mare Ilfee. So, before moving to another province, light all of the lighthouses to complete the area, then return to New Wise to recruit the character Angle. That's two characters to check off! In addition, lighting all the lighthouses (and fighting the monster from Charybdis if you created an unbalanced pattern) will spawn the Scarlet Fiend for this region. Once you've done all of these things, go to Edinport and into Thracini. We've come full circle!

 

In Thracini, defeat the enemies in the waters around the dam (not the sacred creature, just the other monsters), then open the dam doors in order to free the creature. This is the spawning condition for Thracini's Scarlet Fiend. If you wish, you can also set off the volcano and pick up the Ignis Elemental Weapon.

 

Before heading to the Northeast Boundary, take a quick diversion to Termina to complete the Witch Event. Refer to Balmaint's guide for the details, with the difference this time being to simply ignore the fisherman and, when the witch asks if you believe her, tell you believe her twice. With this, she decides not to attack you, and instead joins you. Welcome Kreisa to the crew! By completing this event, you also unleash the Scarlet Fiend for this region.

 

Return to Thracini, fight the two battles to cross the bridge, and enter the Northeast Boundary. Head straight to the hut where the imperial librarian is waiting and speak with her, then come back and find a monster has cleared the entire glacier. Fight that monster, and you will have actually rescued her ... from herself. And with this, you have recruited Luna. One more, many to go! When you break the glacier, the Scarlet Fiend should spawn, and by now you should be of a high enough level that you see it. Defeat its first form now; we'll attempt the second form later. Unlocking the second form will require getting the Aes Elemental Weapon, which we are not going to do right now.

 

Instead, head to the Spirit Lake for a cut scene. You will have options to answer questions about what you plan to do with the Scarlet Shards in this moment. These answers can have an effect on the story ending and dialogue with the Firebringer, but has no bearing on the trophy guide, so I will not speak to what you ought to say. Once you have done this cut scene, you have entered what is loosely "chapter 3" for Leonard. While you're still in the Northeast Boundary, stop by the Village of No Presence to begin R&D development. Again, you don't have access to Silmium's items, but you can start trading items as you go from town to town because this progress will save across all future playthroughs. Additionally, if you have not been so far, feel free to start getting your Collector's Nest items so you can pick up an Ancient Tome and a Fine Ring. (semi-related: make sure you use Elisabeth's Frying Pan to learn Rock Splitter if you haven't yet!)

Edited by pennysticks
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With Northeast Boundary completed, you can go to Azhuacan and finish the game. However, the event we just completed also created new events for Leonard in Yaxart and Numadica. We also have yet to visit Bicyniro and the Southeast Boundary. Let's start by going to Bicyniro. You can find a Scarlet Shard here by listening to the rumors and believing them all. One rumor can cause Pescara to disappear, but another rumor will restore Pescara in another part of the region! Additionally, in Pescara, there is a rumor eventually provided where you are told about a cave with the final boss! Clear that cave, which has a big dragon that is (of course) not the final boss, and you will spawn the Scarlet Fiend for Bicyniro. Before heading to Southeast Boundary, go back to Rhonicum and complete the Doppelganger quest (follow the fake you around until you eventually confront it at a cave in the secluded part of the region). This unlocks the Scarlet Fiend, and also allows you to recruit Lady (in the town of Lug, if you chose not to reject her) and Ignatius (the boatswain that took you across the small river -- talk to him twice after clearing the Doppelganger quest). Typically you could also recruit Muiredach, the mayor of Nekwa, but he is locked out because you recruited Keegan. We will get him in a future playthrough.

 

Now then, to the Southeast Boundary. When you enter, you see the Phoenix fly to the Corner Isle. How do you reach it? Go down to the peninsula and examine, and you'll realize you'll need some plan to get there. If you talk to the Arch Witch at the Hole of Chaos, she'll agree to take you there if you give her a Scarlet Shard. Refuse her offer. Now what? Ask around Birdman Village, and then Caprese, and you will find out that you can get there by boat, with a group of pirates! Take the boat, and they'll sail through the maelstrom separating Bicyniro and SE Boundary. Once you've arrived, you can reach the Corner Isle and clear this very important part of the Phoenix quest line. More important, however, access to the boat is the one and only thing you need to spawn the Scarlet Fiend here, "The Confounder," located west of the Blue Hole.

 

Back to Yaxart, enter the old clinic for a cut scene with the doctor and see how Sasha is doing. Now you are free to really explore Yaxart and Numadica. In Yaxart, complete the pilgrimage shrine and hidden pilgrimage shrine tours in their entirety. Once you have, the Scarlet Fiend will appear south of the Forbidden Point.

 

As you're wandering around Yaxart, you will see a total of six earth golems. Defeat them all, and the Earth Serpent will arise at the True Marigan Shrine. Face it, and continue the events in this region, and you will face off against the Celestial Marigan himself. Win, and this trophy is yours!

 

(B)(H) A New Warrior Rises

 

Now, head to Numadica. Complete the Scarlet Shard event here, talking to Selhaan in Ashina about the situation multiple times throughout the investigation. Save before entering Urbs Aurea, and make sure you fight back the encroaching monster as best as you can to prevent it from destroying Belike (if it destroys Belike, Selhaan won't join you). Once you complete the quest and Selhaan finally hands over the Scarlet Shard, he will offer to join you, and also reveals his true name: Hongswan. Add him to your list! This is your last character recruit with Leonard. Before you leave, complete the short quest to get the Terra Elemental Weapon, which spawns the Scarlet Fiend.

 

At this point you're almost done. Except, you're not done at all. Check your current stats: how far do you have to go to reach 999 HP with your main party? How close are you to weapon level 50, and how many Rank III skills do you have? Do you have 5 roles available yet, and are they any good? I ask because at this point, you are going to need to fight 35 Scarlet Fiends. That's right: you will fight all 20 in their first form, and 15 in their second form. If we could do all 40, we would, but for whatever reason the developer saw fit to make it so five of the Scarlet Fiends (Cindrea, Maurehua, Megdasse, Normi, Yaxart) will not respawn in their Celesta form in the same playthrough. What you may not realize now, but you will in the next few playthroughs, is that all characters other than Leonard cannot easily access all 20 Scarlet Fiends in a single playthrough. Megdasse and Cindrea are especially specific, and because they have to be re-spawned in another run, either Taria or Urpina will have to take care of their Celesta forms.

 

Now, at this point, your Leonard party should be set to defeat the 20 Scarlet Fiends in their first form, which will get you all 20 Inferna Quintstones, which also nets you this trophy:

 

(B)(H) Scarlet Ambitions

 

If you followed the guide closely, you should have created the spawning conditions for all 20 Scarlet Fiends (see supplemental guide). Azhuacan and Kei have no spawning conditions, and the guide has given you the steps to spawn all the others. Once you have defeated the first 20, know that you are going to face some very painful fights for the next 15. But it is imperative that you clear them here and now with an overpowered Leonard party. If you need help, check the Trophy Guide for the True Firebringer final fight. There are details on very useful roles you can learn. The fire-specific one isn't too helpful for the fiends, but Barrier and Mentalist might just do the trick. Strategies are also covered in the supplemental guide. A handful of the respawns are unique: (1) Earthweller won't divide, he is just one big fight; (2) The Weakest One won't hop around the map, he'll just be in one spot near Belike; (3) the Wanderer of the Seas in Mare Ilfee will have "wandered" from Mermaid Rock to the secluded bit of water north of Diemazu Tower; (4) NE Boundary's Forest Dweller initially spawns by destroying the glacier wall, but the Celesta form will not appear until you have completed the Aes Elemental Weapon quest. Best of luck, and clear those 15 Scarlet Fiends. If you are using the supplemental guide, be sure to mark the ones you've completed. Again, there will be 5 Celesta Quintstones you'll be missing, and we will get them in future runs.

 

Two finals check before going to the final battle: (1) any unique techs worth learning? Answer: yes. Use your Ancient Tome and Fine Ring to pick up unique endgame weapons. Last time, we picked up longsword and shortsword, and we already have club and staff covered. Today, let's get the Crescent Bow in Walomir (Megdasse) using the Ancient Tome and learn Plasma Shot. Let's also use our Fine Ring to pick up the Hawkblade (Axe) in Lug (Rhonicum) and learn Unbridled Frenzy (easily one of the best techs in the game). (2) remember at the beginning of step 2, that we said we would pursue the trophy for clearing all guild missions in a single playthrough? Make sure you do that before you go to the final boss!

 

(B)(H) Sellsword

 

Now then, head to Azhuacan, do the usual clearing of the sewer area, answer questions in the center however you like, and take down the Firebringer. With this victory, you earn:

 

(S) Journey

Edited by pgann
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Step 3: Stepmother knows best (Urpina)

 

For our third run, we're going with Urpina. Load your clear game data from Leonard, select Urpina, and you'll see the new game + options appear. Anything that's default set to "No," be sure to switch to "Yes," and continue onwards!

 

Mark your character sheet with your default party members: Beatrice, Jamto, Nessa, Solon, and Zigor. I recommend not getting too attached to them. If you used any of the common characters, recruiting them with all of those techs and rank-ups in place will be helpful. Consider that in the future, you may want to add Leonard, Elisabeth, Ogniana, Elysed, Tissisaaq, or Lewis to your party.

 

As an overview, know that this is the first of two runs for Urpina. For this run, we will do chapter 1 Earth Serpent (this is default and cannot be changed), chapter 2 Sigfrei, and chapter 3 Scarlet Shards. We will be keeping Antonius alive; this split in the plot creates a rift in which characters can be recruited, and is the reason why Urpina must be played through twice.

 

While we're in chapter 1, most of the common scenarios specific to each region are not functioning. To that end, we recommend going through chapter 1 swiftly, of course appreciating the time in the story. First, you are asked to patrol the area. Check out all the towns and the Iyjag Bog. Afterwards, a big hole appears up north, near Fort Kathrin. Surprise! It's the Earth Serpent. Fight it, follow directions through this linear section of gameplay, and eventually you will have the opportunity to venture out to Jusitania or Bicyniro. We are going to intentionally avoid Bicyniro until chapter 2. So for now, fight the enemies through the dark forest and into Tveak Tower, and cross over to Jusitania. The first thing you'll see is Astel Convent. Enter Astel Convent and attempt Astel's trial. Should you succeed, enter the convent a second time and the priestess Mirane will join you. Add her to your sheet! You can also go to the town of Grumon and recruit Ogniana, no questions asked. Now, attempt to go to Hibernia through Fomoire, and Lord Fomoire will block you. Ogniana has a plan to get you past with an underground path. This will involve battles, but it is the fastest way to go, so go for it. After breaking through, you'll find soldiers surrounding the Sacred Grove, home to House Gwynese, from the three surrounding towns. Talk to a group of your choosing and push through, forcing a battle. Afterwards, the Earth Serpent will rear its ugly head. Take on the ugly thing, and when you're done, head east to Gradion.

 

You're close to Azhuacan, but nothing is easy for Urpina. When she approaches Testika, they block her from entering. But you'll see a fisherman appear along the cost when you come out. He'll agree to take you for imperial coin (which you apparently have unlimited amounts of, it's just a story point). Agree, and when night falls, the guy has the nerve to ask for even more. Save before you go over, because the battles ahead can be challenging and you cannot return to level up if you are stuck here. When you're ready, head to Azhuacan. Head over to the army, and you will face a series of battles. After winning, everyone clears out, and you'll find Elysed standing in Azhuacan. To recruit her, keep telling her you want her to join even if it's a selfish request, and after enough pleading she joins. She is a necessary character for someone we'll be recruiting at the end of this run, so be sure to get her! Now ... and this is an easy miss ... when you leave Azhuacan, you do not want to use the standard pier that goes from Azhuacan to Testika. You can do this, but if you do, you miss a recruit. Instead, go up to the South Market and get on the boat you first arrived on. When you get back to Gradion, there's a dialogue option that lets you choose whether or not to let the guy join. Forgive him, and all is well. Add Yohman, an Urpina-exclusive character, to your list of recruits.

 

Add Elysed to your combat party. Make her a mainstay, she is a great healer. You also need her to build a hidden "trust" stat with Elysed for the endgame scenario, so just keep her in the party to level at all times.

 

From Gradion, return to Rhonicum, and you'll witness followers of Savnok kidnapping Antonius. Follow through Parm into Cerenaif. Ignore the Evil Spirit, and even ignore the captors for now. Instead of going direct to Zegna, go to Nipelo instead and board a boat to Marchiam Ria. Mondo will mention that this is where Antonius learned his dual-wield technique. You're going there to learn the same thing. It will make you stronger, and more importantly, you'll get a trophy out of it. To learn the skill, start by going to every town in the region and asking about it. In Vigo, you'll be asked why you want to learn (your answer determines nothing). After this, head to the Abandoned Village near Muros. Save before entering. After three times entering, Griffin will challenge you. If you win, he joins you. He also tells you where to go. Head to the Cocoon north of Arousa, and re-enter after one event. When Urpina returns, she is ready to dual-wield those longswords!

 

(B)(H) Double Trouble

 

Now, let's get back on track. Return to Cerenaif ("Converse" in any town near the sea in Ria and you can return). Head to Zegna. The captain of your ship says her navigator has gone missing. Agree to go find the navigator, who is apparently lost in the Labyrinth. Enter the Labyrinth, and take whatever turns you like. After four battles, you will find the navigator and head out to enter Mare Ilfee.

 

You'll land in New Wise. Right away, you can recruit Lewis Darling at New Wise. Next, head to Old Wise. After a battle, the followers of Savnok urge you to destroy the Emperor's Saw. Refuse to do so. Chase the followers of Savnok another step to Sugar Castle Lighthouse. After one battle, Antonius will ask you to kill him. This is the important distinction! Choose "I can't do it," and he will live! He will still be possessed by Savnok and you will have to fight him, but he's still alive. After defeating him, once again you have the choice to kill or refuse. Of course, refuse, so that he stays alive.

 

After these battles, return to New Wise and head to Edinport. At Edinport, visit and "Converse" twice to recruit Socrates (he and Nolan are mutually exclusive, which is why we hadn't recruited him until now). Add Socrates to your character sheet! Additionally, you can return to New Wise via boat now and Angle will join your party as well (though you should have recruited her earlier, this is a second chance!). Now, from Edinport, head west to Thracini. We are nearing the end of Chapter 1! Go fight the earth golems surrounding Elhuacan. As a reward for your help, the Dowager offers you help. Should you choose help, Kahn joins you (bypassing his long-form "events" system). Now, go through Josgad Stable into Provincia Termina. Witness conversation events at Schut, North Gate, South Gate, Schut again, Taria (standing outside her workshop), and then the boat next to Schut. Once you cross the boat, you are in a locked-in situation (like Azhuacan), though there is "Wam i Mine" with an infinite spawn of Easy-level enemies if you need to level up. Once you cross, interact with Irene and Adill at Knymm Castle, and then the Savnok Crests will begin to appear. Fight a total of four battles, and then return to Knymm Castle. At this point, Roh Sung will offer to join you. Roh Sung is an Urpina-exclusive character that only joins if Antonius is alive. So, rejoice! And add him to your sheet!

 

When you enter Cindrea, you will find the Earth Serpent one final time. This time, the fight will finish off the Earth Serpent for good, and you will be treated a beautiful hand-drawn image to represent the end of chapter 1 and the transition to chapter 2.

 

For Chapter 2, we are going to do the Sigfrei scenario. The Sigfrei scenario will start if you go to Bicyniro or Cerenaif; however, going to Bicyniro first creates a special form of the Bicyniro scenario that blocks us from doing something we need to do to recruit a rare character. Therefore, begin by heading to Cerenaif. Now, for Balmaint, Sigfrei was the Evil Spirit. Not this time! For this scenario, we will be clearing out the sea mushrooms again. Start at Cingular, do the investigation route; go to Nipelo, investigate again; now, a third set of sea mushrooms appears. When you attempt to investigate here, you are directed towards Imhokiel Temple. You can "fight the believers" or run. Choose to run (does not particularly matter). After a series of events, head to Zegna for a battle. Depending on how the story plays out, you may also have to go to Parm for a final battle, or it may end at Zegna. You will get event clear rewards when you have cleared the Sigfrei scenario for Cerenaif. Once you are done, head to Nipelo and take a boat to Ria!

 

In Ria, start by going to the Cocoon. You can either battle, or protect the town. Either way, there is a demon of the sea roaming around now, and you can either take care of it or watch the towns go down in flames. If you lose four towns, the scenario ends and Sigfrei got his way. Just defeat the monsters and you'll pass with flying colors. Two Sigfreis down!

 

Now, let's backtrack through Rhonicum and south to Bicyniro. As soon as you enter Bicyniro, head to Caprese to hear the rumor about the people turned to stone. Believe the rumor, examine the statues, and continue toward the mysterious hut. You will meet Aslana Melek. We can't recruit her yet, but meeting her here and now is a prerequisite to recruiting her. You'll also get a silly cut scene involving a rather "chiseled" look for Mondo.

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If you missed the Tatzelwurm trophy during Balmaint's run, you can reattempt it here by checking the first rumor in Anchiano. You will be pointed to a red X in Noono Forest, and if you believe, you can follow and catch the Tatzelwurm. Mondo seems particularly excited about this prospect. Now, get out of the town and forget about finding Sigfrei here, as completing his event here can have devastating consequences for later.

 

However, before we continue, we are going to make a pit stop in Rhonicum. The Doppelganger event should now be available. Between each segment, you have to exit and re-enter Rhonicum. Once you have reached the segment's conclusion, you can recruit three characters: Lady (assuming you forgave her) is in Lug, the boatswain Ignatius, and the mayor of Nekwa, Muiredach. The earlier two were recruited by Leonard, but Muiredach is new, so add him to the list!

 

Next, we make for Megdasse. Before interacting with Sigfrei, clear the Grusonii and Drake glyphs, just like you did with Leonard. Stay away from Walomir and the bird glyph. Instead, make for Kaikow and the beast glyph and Sigfrei will challenge you to battle. Choosing not to battle is the "wise" choice, and battling Sigfrei is giving in to what he wants. However, it is also how we fill in the Beast King glyph, which we need for a Scarlet Fiend battle later. So, we will end this part of the Sigfrei scenario by pummeling him into the ground. Two more Sigfrei scenes to go!

 

For our next Sigfrei encounter, head to Maurehua. Be sure to soak in the Hot Spring to spawn the Scarlet Fiend (and recover LP). Again, you may not see the fiend yet, you have to have weapon levels around 30-33 for them to begin to appear on screen, but we will fight them later. To clear the Sigfrei scenario here, you will be repeating much of what Balmaint did in building the tower. Depending on how you handle your options, you can recruit Paul and Strumiknen. The scenario ends once the tower is complete, at which point you can either protect it or let it crumble. In this case, we recommend protecting it so that you can recruit Paul and thwart Sigfrei's schemes.

 

For the final Sigfrei encounter, head to Normi. Before beginning the encounter, complete the Unda Elemental Weapon events yet again, so that we may summon the Scarlet Fiend here. Afterwards, just go back and forth between Ostdorf and Westdorf in conversation. One person will claim there are monsters, others will claim they are spirituals that ought to be protected. Choose a side by defeating monsters on one side or the other. Either way, it's confusing, and Sigfrei is happy about that. Now, return to Azhuacan and speak with the republic soldiers and then enter the Marigan Temple for two more battles. At the end, pretty artwork, and a return to Rhonicum to begin chapter 3.

 

As chapter 3 opens, because you saved Antonius at the beginning of the game, Antonius will make the case to the family that he ought to join you on your quest. This gives both parents the idea to come with you as well, but they force you to pick one. Because you already recruited Maximius and Antonius in the Balmaint run, and because Hilda (stepmother) is exclusive to Urpina's route, you simply must choose your stepmother! The whole reason we routed this third run was for her (and Roh Sung, technically). Add Hilda to the list! Now, to get chapter 3's Scarlet Shards going, head to Gradion, where you will be met by Sasha "The Traveling Woman" to help find and destroy Scarlet Shards. Though you only need to find a handful (4 or 5) for her to agree to go to Azhuacan, we are going to find every last shard during this chapter. This is the only way to recruit her, and it is also a good opportunity to grind some levels before fighting four Celesta-level Scarlet Fiends!

 

To begin, start in Gradion with the baby. If you already placed it for adoption, the priest in Testika will give you some hints. If this is your first time working with the Gradion abandoned baby, you will ask around about the baby and the Scarlet Shard all across the province. In this scenario, if you wanted to recruit Francis (especially if you missed him before), go to at least two locations and ask about the Scarlet Shard, then go to the Mysterious Forest Hut and ask Francis about the Scarlet Shard, and he will join you. Note that if you had the baby adopted prior to the Scarlet Shard scenario, Francis cannot be recruited. In any case, you will eventually make way to the Adamas Tower, where you get tipped off that the Scarlet Shard is in one of the mines. Go into any one of the mines, and you will find it there first try. If the baby is still with you, your formation will go into a special "protect the baby!" mode. After the battle, Sasha destroys the shard, and you are free to continue on your way.

 

Next stop: Bicyniro. When you use the Ibex Ring to detect the shard, you'll see shards flying every which way. Where is it? Where is the truth? Well, this is the land of rumors, so it's going to be complicated. But for starters, let's head over to Aslana Melek's Studio, shall we? You ask about the shards, and she's not sure where they are, but suddenly Aslana is willing to come help you. Great! Mark this ridiculously rare character off your character list, and let's keep going! Listen to more rumors around the town. Eventually you'll hear a rumor that something suspicious is happening. It will be a big red X, similar to the one where Sigfrei was in chapter 2. It's important to believe this rumor, otherwise you'll miss the Scarlet Shard and the ability to recruit Sasha. Get the shard, let Sasha do her thing, and next head west to Jusitania. This event plays out almost identically to Balmaint's version, so do the same thing here, take on the Eye of Balor if you feel up for a challenge (it's totally optional), and then you're done here. Note that if you try to go into Hibernia now, the way is blocked. This is for a very special reason, and we'll be coming back.

 

For Scarlet Shard #4, head to Cerenaif and use the Ring. It points you to the Hot Spring Cave north of Cingular, as it did for Leonard. However, with the Sea Mushroom path already completed during Sigfrei scenario, you should be sent in the direction of the Water Mill, then to the Haunted Castle, then the Dog, and finally, the Western Cemetery. Clear the battles as you go, get the shard, and then say goodbye to it as Sasha's Blackworm does its job.

 

Now, take the path from Cerenaif, to Ilfee, to Thracini, and finally to Northeast Boundary. Here we will be skipping the entire mining sequence and heading straight north, as the Ibex Ring shows you. Start at the hut near the glacier, where the imperial librarian (Luna) states that she can only help you if she can borrow Mondo. Mondo has to be pulled out of the active party if you have him in. Now leave the region, re-enter it, and return to the hut. The bloody tracks are there and the glacier is down. After one battle, you recover Mondo (though he will only have 1 LP!), and you will give Luna a piece of your mind. Thankfully, though, you now have access to the Frozen Ship, where the Scarlet Shard was glimmering. Head there, fight two battles, and Sasha knocks out yet another shard!

 

Scarlet Shard #6 is next-door at Marchiam Normi. Exit to Thracini, and if the Yomitana Gate isn't letting you cross (the game seems to have a bug about when you can or can't cross here), go around to Termina and then through Moorhead. Use the Ring, find the shard (same as Balmaint's version), and you're done. Moving on!

 

Next, we are heading to Marchiam Megdasse. How we handle this is very important. Enter the region and use your Ring, and inspect the area where the hidden fifth glyph is. Then, talk to the townspeople, eventually reaching Walomir Headquarters. Here you will be speaking with Adill. With Antonius alive, he shouldn't be offering to join your party, but if at any point he does, refuse him (his presence makes it impossible to properly complete the Hibernia scenario). However, rather than just saying you will "follow the way of the empire" (battling Adill and taking the shard), you should agree to battle the tornado atop the bird glyph. Once you complete this, Adill will give you the shard which you then destroy. However, the fifth glyph should color in at this point and you should examine it. This may or may not require a fight with Aranea, but what it will do is spawn the Celesta version of the Scarlet Fiend, Chupacabra. We'll come back for that fight later.

 

Now, head south to Marchiam Yaxart. No shards here, but we are going to do a quick run through all of the Pilgrimage Shrines, including the Hidden Pilgrimage Shrines. If you want to recruit Leonard, remember to go to all of the regular shrines first and then meet with him in Rowsui. After visiting all regular and hidden shrines, you will spawn the Celesta version of the Scarlet Fiend in Yaxart.

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Take one more move south to Numadica, and use your ring to find your 8th Scarlet Shard. When you first arrive, go to Belike twice, and you will meet a doctor named Nasir. He is unique to Urpina's route, and this is your one chance to get him. So ... yeah, do that, and mark him on your list. After that, follow this scenario as you did with Leonard, talking with Selhaan and excavating your way to Urbs Aurea. After the protracted battle with the big red blob, he'll hand over the shard for you to destroy. He will also opt to join you if you didn't let Belike get destroyed.

 

You have destroyed 8 Scarlet Shards. The only one remaining for you to find (save for a special one I will not name, but you can probably guess it based on how Leonard detected Scarlet Shards...) is the one in Hibernia. At this point, Hibernia will be open to you. Enter, use your ring, and then head to Teach na Macha for the first battle. Now, go around to each of the three surrounding towns, talking to someone in each town, but always decline their offer to conspire with them to gain the Scarlet Shard. Only after doing this will Lord Gwynese work with you to have the Scarlet Shards assembled at the Sacred Grove. You will know you've done this right if he is offering to teach you special skills. After retrieving the three shard fragments from the three cities of Hibernia, return to the Sacred Grove. The game will force you to take Elysed out of your party (you *have* been using her this whole time, right?), and then she will rush into the Grove to save her father. At this point you have the option to let her go or two chase after her. Chase after her, win the fight, and if everything goes right you will sacrifice your Ibex Ring and Elysed will be resurrected. At this point ... not just 9, but 10 Scarlet Shards have been destroyed. This is extremely important, and you have done well!

 

Now, we're not going to fight the Firebringer just yet. But we are going to go right up to that point. Head to Azhuacan, work your way through the sewers, come up at the center ... save your game just in case ... and then enter the Central Temple. If you did everything exactly according to plan, the typical dialogue here with Sasha will change. She will tell you she doesn't think you have a chance against the Firebringer because your Ibex Ring was its own Scarlet Shard that brought you power, but you destroyed it to keep Elysed alive. You challenge Sasha in turn, calling her selfish for manipulating you as a pawn to fight the Firebringer, and goading her on, asking if she had planned to just stay on the sidelines. At this point, Sasha admits that with her presence, you would stand a chance, and she joins you!! Congratulations, you just recruited the most absurd character in the game. She is absurdly powerful with her magic, but she comes so late in the game, it's hard to make good use of her. In any case, now that she joins you, she asks if you will continue on or wait. Obviously, wait! We have more to do.

 

Before you end this run, here are the things you need to do. First, clear the Collector's Nest once again for the Ancient Tome and Fine Ring. This time, use the Fine Ring to get the Bovine Slayer in Stahl (Yaxart), and learn the unique skill Headwind Rush from it. Use the Ancient Tome to get the Supra Harpoon at Josgad Stable, and learn the skill Divine Lancer. If you have followed the guide to this point, you have now learned all of the unique skills from weapons that you purchase with the Ancient Tomes and Fine Rings. The other set of "unique" skills come from upgrading weapons in certain paths to a skill that you do not learn at all, but is inextricably linked to having the weapon equipped (example: "Deathshot" on the bow Mortuus). Use each one once to count toward your tech list. This can be done now or going forward.

 

Next, make sure you're stopping at each of the 16 R&D development towns to trade. In the Trophy Guide, I cite Kei and Normi as being two important regions to develop lots of raw materials. Before this run is over, you should be making refined goods from Thracini, Termina, Rhonicum, and Jusitania. You should also be nabbing those "Famous Goods" in most of the towns. Remember that all progress and inventory for this mini-game carries forward, so you can always continue where you left off.

 

Finally, before you face the Firebringer, you must take on four more Celesta Scarlet Fiends. I know, it's horrible. You're going to need absurdly high-leveled parties for three of the five runs (Leonard, Urpina, and Urpina again). It's this or add a sixth run to do Leonard twice, people. This is as optimized as it gets. So start bulking up your party, and get ready to take on the Scarlet Fiends of Yaxart (Burned Dancer), Normi (Skadi), Maurehua (Hot Springs Rana), and Megdasse (Chupacabra). The "Maestro of Flames" role, which your Urpina party will need for the True Firebringer in the fifth run anyway, will be of used against the Burned Dancer, so you may want to learn that role alongside the absolutely necessary Barrier and Mentalist roles.

 

Once you've defeated those fiends, head for Azhuacan and face the Firebringer a third time. When you are done, save your clear data, and bask in the glow of your magical trophy!

 

(S) Maturity

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Step 4: Let's do the pottery warp again (Taria)

 

Good news, friends. Taria's playthrough will be relatively light and easy. As you play through Taria, consider that after this playthrough, all equipment, leftover crafting materials, smith rank ... basically, everything except HP and weapon/magic levels ... will be passed forward. Be intentional about upgrading and hoarding, as it will all be of great benefit to Urpina in her finale run.

 

Also, be sure to mark Taria's mandatory recruits off your character sheet: Compass, House, Queen, Snail, and Tomato.

 

Taria's mandatory chapter 1 run is the Phoenix chapter. Her Phoenix chapter varies from the other characters, so let it take you where it takes you. Eventually, it will take you to Bicyniro and then to the Southeast Boundary. As we experienced with Leonard, you cannot get to the Phoenix's destination without a boat. Head back to Caprese, and you will meet Kumi and her merry band of pirates. You will try to sail through, but the maelstrom will not let you pass. Kumi tells you it's because you need the favor of the gods. She decides to join you. Congrats, only four more characters left to recruit!

 

Following the Phoenix Feather, you will track north and west all the way to Kei, where you will find half of a sacred relic (this is where you can recruit Marion and Rico, which we already did with Leonard). Follow the feather's visions even further and you will reach Yaxart, and in a cave near the Tejedura shrine you will find the other half of the sacred relic. Now, you believe, you have the blessing necessary to sail through that maelstrom. Head back to Caprese (Bicyniro) and give it another go. Huzzah! You make it through in one piece, and you're free to sail down to the egg, clear the battle, and see lovely artwork designating the end of chapter 1. Now you return to your workshop in Termina.

 

For chapter 2, we will be doing the Scarlet Shards again, to recruit Sasha ... sort of. You see, Sasha is apparently possessing the body of a human. So the Sasha that Urpina recruited? That's not who we're getting in this run, even though they look identical. The voice acting is different between them. Noticeably different. Anyway, to start this chapter, run north to Marchiam Normi to meet Sasha and begin the Scarlet Shards chapter. To complete this chapter, you only need to destroy 4 of the Scarlet Shards. Which ones you choose to destroy does not matter one bit. The descriptions in Step 3 (Urpina's route) apply 100% for Taria, save for the Hibernia scenario. So just destroy 4 Shards, and because you did this in chapter 2 instead of chapter 3, you will get a dialogue at the end of the chapter allowing you to bring Sasha's human form along with you. Say yes, and welcome Aleksandra to the crew! And once again, enjoy that awesome artwork as we transition to chapter 3.

 

In chapter 3, we will run the Earth Serpent chapter. If you missed the Antonius / Armored Maiden / Lord Stabiae path in the Balmaint run, fret not, because you can do it all right here. To do so, start chapter 3 by heading straight to Rhonicum. To avoid flags for any other chapters, go from Termina, to Cindrea, to Gradion, then Rhonicum. From there, follow the guide in Step 1 (Balmaint) for the Earth Serpent and you will pick up all of the characters and get the associated trophies. As an added bonus, by saving the Earth Serpent for chapter 3, you will be forced to confront Marigan during the final battles, so if you missed that trophy during Leonard's run, you can get it here. Backup strats, that's what Taria is all about!

 

And, well, that's it. Use this run to push heavy on collecting materials and recruit any characters you may come across. You're going to need all the items you can get for the fifth and final run. Defeat the Firebringer with Taria now and you will earn:

 

(G) Four People, Four Paths

(S) Revelation

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Step 5: The royal family, part deux (Urpina again)

 

When you load the clear data, you will see lots of new options of things to carry over. Remember to say "yes" to everything, as some items seem to default back to "no" for some reason. Then start your game and get ready to rock and roll.

 

Auto-equip your opening team with all that endgame equipment you have from Taria's run. Also, take note of the known techs, incantations, and ranks from your previous Urpina playthrough.

 

At this point, follow the walkthrough from Step 3 all the way up to Sugar Castle Lighthouse in Mare Ilfee. This time, instead of saying that you can't let Antonius die ... well, let him. It's sad. Then this happens:

 

(B)(H) Always in Our Thoughts

 

Finish out the first chapter by killing the Earth Serpent in Thracini. Yes, chapter 1 ends much earlier than before with Antonius dead and gone. Artwork transition, chapter 2.

 

For chapter 2, we will be doing the Scarlet Shards scenario, just because it's short. Begin the chapter by heading north to Gradion. When you get there, begin by completing the Gradion baby scenario and getting the Scarlet Shard. Once the shard is destroyed and the baby is adopted, return to the space where the baby had been, and just like it was with the armored maiden, and unmarked "you can explore this" text box appears. Check it out, and you will meet the Black-Robed Figure. Huh, I wonder who that could be? In any case, have him join you, and mark him on your sheet. Two characters to go!

 

Before getting any more shards, stop by Cindrea while you're nearby and speak to the fisherman fishing by lake at Imhokiel Dam. He says he sees a legendary beast, but ... it's just regular fiends. Beat those fiends up, and them move out. This is a prerequisite for recruiting the fisherman, whose name is Raphael. After this, go destroy 4 more shards, it really does not matter where. The only thing that matters is that you do not allow any towns to be destroyed (so be careful with Belike and all the towns in Bicyniro!). As you go, remember to keep plugging away at the R&D development work. Once 5 shards are destroyed, head to Azhuacan for an event with the Holy Republic. The soldiers demand you hand over the Ibex Ring. If you do, the chapter ends. If you don't, you fight a battle and the chapter ends. May as well fight the battle. I like my ring! Enjoy the art, and welcome to chapter 3.

 

For chapter 3, this is important: we have to choose the Phoenix chapter. To do this, go directly from Rhonicum to Jusitania. If you have never done this before in this playthrough, you may have to clear a bunch of fiends on the way. It's a one-time thing, you'll be alright! When you arrive in Jusitania, you'll witness the dying Phoenix land. Approach it and fight it, a battle similar to the first battle in Taria's scenario. Now you will receive the Phoenix Feather, which you will use to track the Phoenix all across the world! Clear each event as you go, but when you reach Cindrea, make a backup save file, because the events here determine everything.

 

After using the Phoenix feather and witnessing the Phoenix land on Imhokiel Dam, go to Hadasht and talk with Irene (who happens to be your aunt). Next, approach the dam and talk to the two armies fighting. Then, examine the dam itself. A battle will occur, followed by a major event: the collapse of the dam. Yes, this is the second time it has occurred, but this time there are some important differences. Immediately after the dam collapses, return to Hadasht and talk to Irene again, and she will join you. One more to go! If the fisherman from earlier is standing by the dried-up lake, go talk to him now. If he's not here now, exit to Gradion and return to Cindrea and he will be there. Talk to him and he will lament about not having anything to fish for, so instead he, Raphael, will join you. That's every character, congratulations!

 

(S) Can Never Have Too Many Friends

 

Before going any further, take time to rebuild Saqqara using the same method described in Leonard's playthrough (Step 2). After the white dog shows you the hot springs and you use it, you will have met the requirements to spawn the final Scarlet Fiend. Remember that you can't actually see it until you are averaging a weapon level of 30-33. But once you're there, Karkinos will be waiting for you...

 

As you continue clearing the Phoenix chapter, start changing your formations and winning battles in different formations. The last unique formation you got was Ereklaos Guard from Irene, which you will almost certainly be using in the final battle against the True Firebringer. Once you've won a battle in every formation, you get...

 

(B) Tactics SaGa

 

Additionally, as you wind around provinces with the Phoenix, continue your R&D development transactions. Hopefully you are nearing completion for every town other than the start/end town (Village of No Presence in Northeast Boundary). If not, you may want to set aside a couple of hours to just work on that exclusively. Additionally, continue to unlock techs, using the supplemental guide to track what you may yet be missing. At this point, if you haven't already gotten it, you're probably only missing a handful of techs. Seek them out intentionally and earn:

 

(B) Pack It Up...

 

Once you've finished the Phoenix chapter and you're ready to go to the Azhuacan underground area, you probably aren't yet ready to take on Celesta-level Karkinos, let alone the True Firebringer. As you level, consider looking at the Trophy Guide to make sure you are working toward an ideal party with the roles, techs, and equipment you need to survive that epic battle. Some fine endgame places to farm include Marchiam Megdasse's easy fire cave (north of Walomir) and easy water cave (part of Grusonii trio), the easy/normal/hard Unda monsters that never end in Marchiam Normi, the Natura jungles in Southeast Boundary, and for challenging battles to increase rank-up to Rank III for certain skills, just fight in the Arena at Azhuacan! I do not recommend farming the mines in Hibernia or Gradion, because they require button-mashing through lots of dialogue.

 

As you level, take time to move around the world map to vary your scenery, and work on more R&D materials. Be sure to check Village Squares often for free weapon skill-ups, and stop by Arch Witch in Azhuacan to get magic skill-ups (until she joins you, at which point the free lessons end).

 

Eventually, you will need to buckle down and put all of your focus into R&D, specifically into making one of each building in The Village of No Presence, and then saving up tons of material to run repeats on one building to unlock the Famous Goods there. I recommend working on the first building, the City Hall, which takes basic materials such as Brick and Granite to make. Save up 20+ of each of the three materials, then save and then build them one at a time. If you aren't at or near gold after building 20, load and try again. Getting those famous goods is just as random as sparking new techs, so it's worth trying multiple times before going out and getting more raw materials. Once you are finished, though...

 

(B)(H) R&D

 

That's one less headache!

 

Now, a few more headaches. First, let's deal with Karkinos. He is tough, like all the Celesta-level Scarlet Fiends, but he's still no True Firebringer. So if you have a decent party with max HP and max skill levels, go ahead and stun-lock this crab to oblivion. When you do, you'll get your final Quintstone, earning you this trophy:

 

(B)(H) Scarlet Fever

 

Next up is my least favorite trophy in the game. We saved it for the fifth run so that you'd have a second set of equipment to work with. At this point, head to Marchiam Numadica and methodically track every town you've been to, even on paper if you must, and make a check mark every time you successfully complete a trade at a town. Most towns are a very simple joke: trade some Ignis materials for some Unda materials, done. Give me a doublet and I'll give you back some raw materials. Cool. However, many of the smaller towns (like Ashina in Numadica) only have one thing to trade, and the cost to trade it is a bunch of rare items. Accessories are hard to come by; some only have one or two available to you per playthrough. So you want to make sure you are careful as you go. However, if you did not wastefully trade during playthrough four or five, you'll have plenty to get through this. Use the Trophy Guide to help keep yourself on track with things like the Wisteria bow in Cerenaif, and once you have traded items at one of each town, you will get this trophy:

 

(B)(H) Trading Partners

 

And that leaves the big bad boss. I have given plenty of preparation throughout, and there is plenty more in the Trophy Guide, including personal testimony of facing off against this monster. To initiate the battle properly, wait until you've reached Ei-Hanum (after the elevator sequence, in the dark room with the one shining light). Make a separate save there. Then go into your inventory and select the 20 Celesta Quintstones (make sure it's Celesta, not Inferna!) and use them. You'll get a warning that what you're about to do is foolishness -- do it anyway! This unlocks the True Firebringer fight. Win said fight, and this will happen...

 

(S)(H) Trial by Fire

(P) Perfectionbringer

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  • 1 month later...

I was unable to head to province Jusitania through Hibernia (Sasha prevented accessing Jusitania through Castle Fomoire) and through Rhonicum (Sasha prevented accessing Rhonicum through Fort Kathrin in Gradion) during Balmaint's part 2. Sasha wants me to do either Gradion (that is where she wanted to go in the story) or Numadica. I will attempt to do one of these (or both) later to see if Jusitania will open up afterwards.

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Huh. I figured she'd block Hibernia, but my own memory doesn't recall her blocking Rhonicum. Try Gradion first and see if she lets you go after that.

 

If it doesn't work, I'll edit the guide. The whole purpose of going to Jusitania was to recruit Ogniana, another solid axe wielder. She's a good asset to keep leveling throughout each playthrough. But if my route is incorrect, I'll edit the guide and note her first available recruitment with another character. It would be fine to finish the Scarlet shards quest by visiting other provinces with Balmaint.

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Huh. I figured she'd block Hibernia, but my own memory doesn't recall her blocking Rhonicum. Try Gradion first and see if she lets you go after that.

 

If it doesn't work, I'll edit the guide. The whole purpose of going to Jusitania was to recruit Ogniana, another solid axe wielder. She's a good asset to keep leveling throughout each playthrough. But if my route is incorrect, I'll edit the guide and note her first available recruitment with another character. It would be fine to finish the Scarlet shards quest by visiting other provinces with Balmaint.

 

Did Gradion, but was unable to still go to Rhonicum or Jusitania, so I went and did the Numadica recruitment of Hongswan instead to end the quest.

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Hey, thank you so much for the update. I think I'm going to wait to update the Balmaint portion of the walk through until you have finished your play through, in case you run into any other snags. Regarding Jusitania and Ogniana, you may still have opportunity to recruit her before the end of the run. The recruitment conditions will look different since you won't be in The Scarlet shards scenario, but it should still be possible. if you could let me know about this as you go through as well, I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much!

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Hey, thank you so much for the update. I think I'm going to wait to update the Balmaint portion of the walk through until you have finished your play through, in case you run into any other snags. Regarding Jusitania and Ogniana, you may still have opportunity to recruit her before the end of the run. The recruitment conditions will look different since you won't be in The Scarlet shards scenario, but it should still be possible. if you could let me know about this as you go through as well, I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much!

 

I'll definitely let you know. I'm checking for access to the province every chance I get :)

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Unfortunately Ogniana was not obtainable for the remainder of my Balmaint playthrough (Jusitania did become accessible though right before the final boss). There's a GameFaqs guide which suggests it's because the Shards was incorrectly timed and the Phoenix was not picked as the last common quest.

 

I'm also unable to complete the 30 procured items quest, as the Mermaid Tear is inaccessible due to Balmaint losing boat access during and after the kidnap route (coding mistake, I guess). There's a GFaqs topic about that issue, so that means no Eternity Staff for this first run (Tome and Ring are earned in the earlier fetch steps). It also means no Twister for recruiting Sabit either.

 

EDIT:

Julia is also not obtainable in this playthrough. According a guide on GFaqs there are Wishing Tree steps that need to be done during specific common quests for each main character or the quest can't be completed in a way that gets you Julia.

Edited by Bucket
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  • 3 weeks later...

Completed Balmaint and Leonard so far. Other things that were different for those runs:

 

* Various "instantly appears" sections actually required visits to towns or other actions to be done first (such as Earth Serpent in Megdasse for Balmaint), but they were not missable actions in general

* Arthur/Elisabeth/Mondo/Kahn can all be instantly recruited if certain characters are in your party (Balmaint for Arthur, Leonard for Elisabeth, Urpina for Mondo, and Victoria for Kahn)

* I had all bonuses after first playthrough already (except the smithy and materials). Possibly because I chose the option to say all character stories were previously completed? Formations, etc all carried over to Leonard. Even Scarlet Fiends that spawned carried over (the only exception was Ria's SF, which did not spawn automatically).

* Did not get Quenching Flames despite saying I'd fight the gods (it did unlock on Leonard's run after drowning the shards)

* Adill was not recruitable with Leonard in the manner described (he requires an Arthur sidequest in Megdasse during part 3, I recruited Arthur before then as recruiting Balmaint will cause Arthur to auto-join when talked to). I will attempt to get him during the Taria run as that seems like nearly a guaranteed recruit for Adill

* Leonard did not dive in the water for a key in Megdasse (the option was not available), the monster simply emerged from the water at some point to fight on land near the settlement

* I recruited Julia at the beginning of Leonard's playthrough as he can finish it off on the first return visit to Kei (leave and re-enter) after doing the Marion recruitment. The Earth Serpent part of the quest has to be done (fighting in the well)

* Thracini's Scarlet Fiend could not be spawned until after the Spirit Lake had been visited (the third sluice gate could not be opened, it would only work as a shortcut to Normi)

* Likewise, the Luna recruitment sequence was not available until the Spirit Lake part had been finished

* Throwing all the shards in the Spirit Lake got me an Emperor Salve (second on that playthrough)

* I skipped R&D at this point personally as the material rewards are lost for future playthroughs if already done on one run (I chose not to carry these over from Balmaint's run as well). I will likely do them on the Urpina run as you suggest, however

* The final boss rumour seemed to require not believing the "fiends, maps, and items fall from the sky" rumour from Pescara, as that just kept repeating until I chose to not believe in it - this finally triggered the final boss rumour

* For recruiting Lady, I chose the "run" option and then returned to her location again to agree to marry her (then recruited her after the quest in Lug). On Balmaint's run, saying "take her in" seemed to make her unavailable for further interaction?

* I didn't have any interactions in the Birdman Village that would have aided in getting to the Corner Isle, only Caprese had interactions

* Might be worth mentioning how to beat the Phoenix as it's pretty unique?

* Leonard doesn't have to fight the Catastrophe monster if he chooses to close the lid (it'll be a different boss fight in Urbs Aurea instead)

* Thracini's Celesta Fiend was not available on the same playthrough, making it six that require a new playthrough

 

This game really is flag hell xD Everything else was pretty much correct though.

 

Starting Urpina's first run next. Any idea for a good place to try and get Tukuz's Swiftness? I was unable to get it from multiple fights even with the boosting role, Speed- on my entire party, Speed+ on the slowest enemies, Mobility reducing armour and accessories on everyone (and all Mobility+/Initial Position+ roles turned off), and while not killing any enemies for 20 turns (at which point I start dying without healing being able to keep up).

 

EDIT: Ended up getting Tukuz's Swiftness during the string of battles in Azhuacan during Urpina's first playthrough (all my characters were acting before the enemy and only two enemies remained, so I'm guessing the role is the only reason it triggered xD)

Edited by Bucket
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I was unable to head to province Jusitania through Hibernia (Sasha prevented accessing Jusitania through Castle Fomoire) and through Rhonicum (Sasha prevented accessing Rhonicum through Fort Kathrin in Gradion) during Balmaint's part 2. Sasha wants me to do either Gradion (that is where she wanted to go in the story) or Numadica. I will attempt to do one of these (or both) later to see if Jusitania will open up afterwards.

 

I came to ask the same question.

 

If it was only to recruit Ogniana, that's fine. I played through a first playthrough with Urpina a few months ago and recruited her there.

 

Thank you so much for making a guide. Playing that blind Urpina run was something else.

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Oh man, do I have a lot of updates to write up. Thank you so much Bucket and others!

 

One quick thing...

 

* The final boss rumour seemed to require not believing the "fiends, maps, and items fall from the sky" rumour from Pescara, as that just kept repeating until I chose to not believe in it - this finally triggered the final boss rumour

 

So ... not believing any rumors will skip you to the next rumor available in a town. But the Pescara "items fall from sky" rumor is NOT infinite. I think you have to run it about 12 times before it exhausts itself ... there are a certain number of battles, maps, and items to collect, and once you've done them all, the rumor automatically switches to final boss rumor.

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Oh man, do I have a lot of updates to write up. Thank you so much Bucket and others!

 

One quick thing...

 

 

 

So ... not believing any rumors will skip you to the next rumor available in a town. But the Pescara "items fall from sky" rumor is NOT infinite. I think you have to run it about 12 times before it exhausts itself ... there are a certain number of battles, maps, and items to collect, and once you've done them all, the rumor automatically switches to final boss rumor.

 

Thanks, I went through it only until its first loop (the repeat fight), didn't want to keep trying past that xD Anything useful gained from continuing it to its end?

 

Here's the Urpina specific notes after I cleared her run:

* For the dual-wielding section, you need to free a faerie to complete it and do a second round of all towns to learn about the faeries themselves. The Cocoon scene will not trigger until this stuff has been done

* In the Thracini section, you need to journey to Northeast Boundary after helping Victoria. In there, you have to visit all the spiritual locations and complete a little event in each (mostly it's fighting) to get the materials for a new Emperor's Saw (it is automatically destroyed after you rescue Antonius). Return to Victoria in Thracini after getting all the materials. Only after doing that can you cross over to Termina from Josgad Stable.

* In Bicyniro, I did not get the Mondo scene at Aslana's studio, I got an off-screen Urpina "don't come here, Mondo, I'm wearing nothing!" dialogue instead. I wonder what determines which scene plays out :)?

* In Megdasse, if you have an Arthur appearance at Bullio Gate post-Sigfrei fight and then clear the sidequest for him (visit the towns first, then visit the cave Adill is in), you get to recruit Adill WITHOUT having him screw up the rest of the Urpina walkthrough for the Hibernia section. Now I won't have to rely on recruiting him in Taria's run.

* I was unable to recruit Paul in Maurehua (doesn't really matter as he was already obtained during the Leonard run per your walkthrough) as he always turned out to be Sigfrei for me xD Not sure what order you should do the things in to ensure he is just Paul, but regardless, Sigfrei was annoyed that I destroyed the tower and pleased if I saved it. So I chose to let it be destroyed.

* I was able to skip the Sigfrei-related fights in Normi by just returning to Westdorf (after talking there first, then in Ostdorf) and revealing the identity of Sigfrei there.

* Remember to place the Jusitania Scarlet Shard instructions here in the Jusitania section after editing the Balmaint Ogniana section :)

* No edit of the walkthrough necessary for this, but Urpina had an interesting Numadica run. She takes more interactions to excavate anything and gets free materials and accessories for doing so.

* Decided to skip R&D once again. The materials gained will be more useful to get in Taria's run since that way they transfer over to the final run. Personal preference :)

* Remember to add a part about re-doing the Thracini Scarlet Fiend requirements on this run to spawn the Celesta there. I was never able to trigger it on the Leonard run and its name and description here seem to confirm it's another "on the next playthrough" Celesta. That makes it five Celestas for Urpina's first run.

* "Maestro of Flames" and "Mentalist" do nothing for the Burned Dancer Celesta. Tested it out and the damage is the same with them on or off, so the AoE it uses is non-elemental. Speaking of the damage, highly recommend several Attack- debuffs on him, the AoE does insane damage without them xD

* The Scarlet Fiend/Celesta spreadsheet could also use some editing for some strategies (or offering alternatives) as the Erekleos Guard formation isn't available until the final run, yet many of them suggest using it :)

 

That's all for Urpina's run, working on Taria now (I don't expect to have many if even any corrections for it). It's really impressive you managed to write up this walkthrough, I'm only at 255 hours of playtime and keep forgetting how some things go if I don't look them up again xD

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