Touken Ranbu – Battle

Building Teams

The teams you take to sortie doesn’t really matter unless a map requires a specific sword type. As long as you are leveling your swords for the maps they are on and making sure to raise their stats as well, you should be mostly fine. Not every battle is going to have a good outcome though. You will get to a point where a map will become hard and you will have to rearrange your teams to make it through. But, until then, make a team of your favorites! Or a team of all your lowest level so you have level them up.

This same goes for Survey, but NOT for PvP. You do want a team of your strongest if you want to win PvP.

Team Captain

Captain does get a bonus for being Captain and, if you have a sword that tires easily, placing him as Captain for a few rounds can help him get better at not tiring so easily. Other than that, Captain doesn’t really matter. I will move swords that are lacking in level to the Captain position to give them an extra exp boost.

Captain of Team One is your Attendant in Honmaru. If you wants someone to be your Attendant, place him on Team One as the Captain.

Maps and Battlefields

To select a map, click the picture. You will be shown four battlefields, the first of which will be unlocked. To unlock, the next map, you will need to defeat the boss on the red node on the last unlocked map. Each map also has a level cap that will prevent reams from gaining experience, receiving drops and/or resources if the current teams average level exceeds the level cap. Some battlefields may also require you to have a specific sword type on a team in order to battle on it.

When you start, you will automatically move to the first node and start the first set of moves. Once you will a battle node, you will then automatically move to the next node. If you reach a fork in the road, the game will roll a dice to decide which fork you will take. You do not get to choose on the default battlefields which way you will go, however some events do let you choose.

Special Battle Conditions

Most battles take place under clear, daytime conditons in an open battlefield. However, there are some Eras and Battlefields that will take place under special conditions that may effect your swords’ abilities to fight, disable horses, and/or reduce the range of Otachi and Naginata.

Night Battles

There is one Map that takes place completely at night and all swords that are not Tantou, Wakizashi, or Uchigatana suffer significant stat disadvantages. There is also a chance that both player and enemy teams can evade long-range attacks before the battle begins. It is advised to bring a mix of Tantou, Wakizashi, or Uchigatana that are at least level 40 to this map.

Indoor Battles

Due to the fact that these battles take place in a narrow space, any horses equipped will have their status boost disabled, Ootachi and Naginata cannot maneuver well and their ranges are reduced to short, and only musketeers can participate in the long-range attack before battle.

Castle Battles

Much like Indoor Battles, these take place in narrow spaces. Thus, all the same applies to them, except no troops are able to attack in the long-range attack before battle.

Rain Battles

Due to heavy rain conditions, musketeers will be unable to attack during the long-range attack before battle. Catapults and archers will still be able to attack.

Scouting and Battle Formations

Before you begin a battle, the team captain will scout for enemy tropes and their formation. The success of this depends on the teams Scouting stats overall. This stat can only be raised by doing fieldwork at Duties. When you first do this, you will be presented with a screen with six squares on it. You can also have the game auto pick the formation at any time by tapping the “Select Formation” at the top of the battle screen. These are the formations your team can take against the enemy.

If you are successful, you will see flags on two squares. The red flag is the best formation you can take. Your team will take less damage from the enemy, if they manage to attack you at all, and you have a higher change of doing a lot damage through any bonuses. The blue flag is the worst formation. Don’t pick it.

If the scouting is unsuccessful, you will still be presented with the squares even if you have auto selected. The squares this time will have no flags. You will have to pick a formation without knowing which is the best.

Battle

The first part will be long range attack. If any of your swords or the enemy have long range troops, they will attack first. If nobody has long range troops, this part will be skipped.

The second part is the swords attacking. Every active sword will have two turns to attack and attack order will depend on the mobility stat (another stat that can only be raised in Duties) of your swords and the enemy. The sword with the highest mobility will attack first and then the game will go to the next highest and then continue until every sword has had a turn attacking. Your swords may sometimes land a critical hit, which will deal bonus damage and will push the enemy back.

After both turns are done, if there are still active characters on both sides, the winner of the battle will be determined by the amount of damage the dealt and their remaining reinforcements. The battle can also immediately end of either side loses all of their team or the team is pushed off screen.

Awakening – Shinken Hissatsu

Double Attack

If you have at least one Uchigatana and one Wakizashi on your team, there is a chance they will trigger Double Attack during battle which you will see a cut-in screen followed by the attack. This can be done with any combination. The Wakizashi attacks first and will decimate the enemies troops, rendering them defenseless. Then, the Uchigatana will follow and attack the now defenseless enemy.

The probability of Double Attack being triggered is determined by your swords’ Killing Blow Stat.

Duels

If your team is pushed to the far left of edge of the screen during battle and both team captains are active, the game may initiate a 1-on-1 duel. You will see a cut-in followed by both leaders attacking each other. If your sword wins the duels, you will win the battle outright regardless of the teams remaining HP. You will also earn a special Rank S duel ranking.

Battle Results

After the battle, you will be show a summary of the battle.

Battle Rankings

These are determined based on how much damage your party takes once a battle is over.

• Rank S: All enemies and their troops are destroyed AND your sword team hasn’t taken any damage.
  • Note that, currently, because of the long-range attack phase, it’s impossible to get this rank from Maps 3-1 to 5-4.
• Duel Rank S: Win the one-on-one duel.
• Rank A: All enemies are destroyed and, at most, only one of your swords is destroyed. 
• Rank B: At least half of the enemy’s team destroyed and, at most, only two of your swords is destroyed.  
• Rank C: Less than three swords on your team is destroyed or if the total damage dealt to the enemy team is higher than the total damage the enemy dealt to you when half of the enemy’s team is destroyed.
• Lost: Your entire team was destroyed, or pushed back to the far left edge of the screen (with no 1-on-1 duel initiated), or you lose a one-on-one duel, or the enemy’s total health is higher than your party’s remaining health, or total damage dealt by the enemy was higher than the damage dealt to them.

You and the swords on that team will received Experience Points depending on your rank. There are also additional bonuses given out to the team leader and the MVP, the sword who did the most damage. (Note: MVP = Most Valuable Player)

Sword Drop

There is a chance that you may receive a sword drop after the EXP page. If you do, you will be presented with a cut-in that will alert you to this and, tapping on the screen will take you to a new screen where the sword will introduce himself. (You can receive swords you already own in the game. I will go over how to use these additional swords later.)

Rank Up

When swords reach a certain level, they can also Rank Up. This will also appear as a cut-in and you will be taken to a new screen where the sword will have a new message and receive a pink stamp indicating his Rank Up status.

Once you are out of this screen, you will see three boxes in the bottom giving you the option to Continue Forward, Recover Fatigue, or Return to Honmaru. If you return to the Honmaru without finishing the map, you will have to start over from the beginning. You may also be automatically returned to the Honmaru when you finish the map (reaching the boss or a dead end), or your leader is severely injured.

Justicars

Justicars are a group that are tasked with eliminating any foreign presences from the flow of time, regardless if the presence is trying to change history or preserve it.

These powerful enemies may appear once you have cleared the boss node of a battlefield ten times. You will know they have appeared when you clear the boss node and you see a cut-in with lighting. You will then see a black mark with a purple backdrop marked at the top right of the battlefield.

Traveling on a battlefield that now has Justicars means that there is a chance that every enemy node (with the exception of a boss) has a chance of spawning Justicars instead of normal enemies. This chance is random and there is even a possibility that you may not encounter any Justicars on a run.

There is a chance that Justicars may drop a special sword once you have defeated them. Also note that, once a map has been marked by Justicars, you cannot remove them.