Gladius (Update: Channelers are Broken)

superfly360

Edit history:

superfly360: 2015-01-10 02:53:43 pm

2013-07-04 01:47:49 pm

In Flames We Trust

This is one of my all time favorite games. It is very similar in gameplay to Final Fantasy Tactics, though a bit simplified I think. I haven't played Tactics much so I'm basing this mostly off of videos of it. It's a turn based gladiatorial combat game where you must win leagues and tournaments in numerous cities split into four regions. In addition to needing to complete the tournaments in each city, you must complete certain leagues in order to progress into the new region. In order to unlock the tournament for a city, you must earn a certain number of trophies/cups by completing leagues. Each league is completed by earning a required amount of tallies, earned by winning battles in the league. Explaining all the aspects of this game is a little complex so if you haven't actually played Gladius, your best bet at understanding it would be to watch videos.

Speedrunning this game will require planning out which battles to choose and which leagues to win, along with which units will be best for game completion. I will more than likely start the game with Ursula rather than Valens, since the Berserkers are annoying and hard to deal with at higher levels. My initial basic route for the Nordagh region, in terms of units, is to buy Jeanne the Gungner, and then beat the Trials of the Elders league in Vargen when Ursula is level 3 to unlock Iaar the Yeti. In my current playthrough, I decided to complete The Dead of Night league in Mordare, which gave me Taithleach the Undead Summoner. I don't know how useful he is for speedrunning yet, since he can't be used in many leagues and his Skeleton 1 summon isn't very powerful, and the units he summons can't be controlled by the player.

Unlocking skills after gaining levels must also be taken into account when speedrunning. When Urlan and Ursula level up for the first time, I unlock Combo Attack 2 for both, which makes them absurdly powerful for much of the beginning of Nordagh. I also like to unlock Riposte for Urlan, which is a counterattack whenever he blocks an opponents strike. Combo Attack 4 is also unlocked which again makes them incredibly powerful very early in the game. I don't think affinity attacks are useful in a speedrun, since it takes a lot of skill points to unlock the higher level ones, and you need a weapon of that specific affinity to be able to use it, which limits me in what weapons to use. I don't think attacks like Target Leg or Bungle Enemy are useful at all since they can't hit critical, are blocked often by enemies, and are weaker than combo attacks. I'm not sure about innate abilities either, some appear to be useful, such as ones that prevent confusion and fear, two of the most annoying status affects.

I'm fairly proficient at getting critical hits on most strikes, which is very important since critical hits can't be blocked. At higher levels, not getting a critical hit usually results in the attack being blocked, especially with light classes and wolves. This means the accuracy skill isn't very important, so I can feel free to equip powerful but heavy inaccurate weapons, as they will hit anyways.

In Nordagh, many of the battles award you prizes, some of which are useful for your gladiators. In Imperia, battles rarely award you with items, instead giving you money. So in Nordagh, it may not be necessary to buy certain items in the shops.

There are many little things that I know of that would help with speedrunning this game, so it may be a good idea for me to make a knowledge base entry or something so I can better organize my thoughts.

By the way, here's a video of Gladius:

Thread title:

This is one of my all time favorite games. It is very similar in gameplay to Final Fantasy Tactics, though a bit simplified I think. I haven't played Tactics much so I'm basing this mostly off of videos of it. It's a turn based gladiatorial combat game where you must win leagues and tournaments in numerous cities split into four regions. In addition to needing to complete the tournaments in each city, you must complete certain leagues in order to progress into the new region. In order to unlock the tournament for a city, you must earn a certain number of trophies/cups by completing leagues. Each league is completed by earning a required amount of tallies, earned by winning battles in the league. Explaining all the aspects of this game is a little complex so if you haven't actually played Gladius, your best bet at understanding it would be to watch videos.

Speedrunning this game will require planning out which battles to choose and which leagues to win, along with which units will be best for game completion. I will more than likely start the game with Ursula rather than Valens, since the Berserkers are annoying and hard to deal with at higher levels. My initial basic route for the Nordagh region, in terms of units, is to buy Jeanne the Gungner, and then beat the Trials of the Elders league in Vargen when Ursula is level 3 to unlock Iaar the Yeti. In my current playthrough, I decided to complete The Dead of Night league in Mordare, which gave me Taithleach the Undead Summoner. I don't know how useful he is for speedrunning yet, since he can't be used in many leagues and his Skeleton 1 summon isn't very powerful, and the units he summons can't be controlled by the player.

Unlocking skills after gaining levels must also be taken into account when speedrunning. When Urlan and Ursula level up for the first time, I unlock Combo Attack 2 for both, which makes them absurdly powerful for much of the beginning of Nordagh. I also like to unlock Riposte for Urlan, which is a counterattack whenever he blocks an opponents strike. Combo Attack 4 is also unlocked which again makes them incredibly powerful very early in the game. I don't think affinity attacks are useful in a speedrun, since it takes a lot of skill points to unlock the higher level ones, and you need a weapon of that specific affinity to be able to use it, which limits me in what weapons to use. I don't think attacks like Target Leg or Bungle Enemy are useful at all since they can't hit critical, are blocked often by enemies, and are weaker than combo attacks. I'm not sure about innate abilities either, some appear to be useful, such as ones that prevent confusion and fear, two of the most annoying status affects.

I'm fairly proficient at getting critical hits on most strikes, which is very important since critical hits can't be blocked. At higher levels, not getting a critical hit usually results in the attack being blocked, especially with light classes and wolves. This means the accuracy skill isn't very important, so I can feel free to equip powerful but heavy inaccurate weapons, as they will hit anyways.

In Nordagh, many of the battles award you prizes, some of which are useful for your gladiators. In Imperia, battles rarely award you with items, instead giving you money. So in Nordagh, it may not be necessary to buy certain items in the shops.

There are many little things that I know of that would help with speedrunning this game, so it may be a good idea for me to make a knowledge base entry or something so I can better organize my thoughts.

By the way, here's a video of Gladius: [spoiler]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwXPXKc0Tos[/spoiler]

PJ

2013-07-04 02:27:25 pm

Is PJ

This is a really neat game. I really enjoyed my time playing it, but I never finished it. I got frustrated because my school was full but I couldn't enter one tourney without like 3 female gladiators and I had none. I just stopped there. Haha. I'm looking forward to seeing some progress on this one!

superfly360

2013-07-04 10:00:38 pm

In Flames We Trust

Quote from PJ:

This is a really neat game. I really enjoyed my time playing it, but I never finished it. I got frustrated because my school was full but I couldn't enter one tourney without like 3 female gladiators and I had none. I just stopped there. Haha. I'm looking forward to seeing some progress on this one!

Yeah, even when not speedrunning you have to take into account that required league in Theater Antiquitus that only allows female gladiators. Haha this aspect of the game could've been designed better.

I managed to get to Imperia by day 12 or 13, which is pretty fast but likely improvable, since I wasn't planning a route. I just went through pretty quickly taking as few unnecessary battles as conceivable.

As for classes useful in a speedrun. Centurions are an obvious necessity, since they're ridiculously powerful, and can wield the executioners sword late in the game. I'm still not sure if the Undead Summoner is useful or not, and it seems that I'm using him more because he's cool than anything else. Even in normal, non-speedrun gameplay he doesn't really help much in battle. Though he can wield the Death's Head Staff which has a possibility of killing an enemy in one hit. Secutors are also worth looking into, since surprise attack can do massive damage when done from behind, and with backstab innate ability, a supreme critical accessory, and the harpe can cause even more damage. But later in the game if opponents start gaining the awareness innate ability secutors become useless and weak. I've always like Centurions more than Samnites, but I may need to look into Samnites in order to discover any useful unique abilities they have. Bandits I doubt will be very useful, but are worth looking into. Mongrels, Berzerkers, Legionnaires, and beasts I'm pretty sure are useless. There are useful strategies with wolves from what I've heard, but they require multiple wolves at higher levels. Bears can also rely on counter attacks and self-healing, but it is likely much slower than just playing with other more powerful units. Plains Cats are relatively powerful and have super high initiative, but I'm not sure if they're better than other obvious choices for classes like Centurions. I never played around much with Channellers, but I've heard they can be pretty powerful. But I think their usefulness comes from their ability to teleport around and steal affinity. Undead legionnaires would be cool but they require completing a side quest and The Dead of Night league, which may be too much to be worth it. I like Murmillos, but they have low initiative and are often at a pretty low level relative to your school in the recruitment office.

I want to unlock the minotaur by completing the sidequest in Cro Beska, but it would require beating two leagues, when only one of them is worth doing otherwise. The duel league in Cro Beska is easy and very quick if you have one of the required classes. The minotaur is very powerful but I'm not sure if it's worth going so far out of my way to get. Not to mention completing the quest will sometimes give you a useless Satyr, so the segment would likely have to be repeated a few times, even if everything goes perfect.

Speaking of which, if I complete this speedrun it will almost certainly be segmented. This game is way too long and unpredictable to do a single segment run haha.

I'm pretty sure your enemies levels are always based off of your gladiators' levels. I think it averages them out, so having lower level and higher level gladiators may make your enemies significantly weaker. So one possible strategy is to recruit a few cheap level 1 gladiators to make battles easier and shorter. In addition, higher level enemies obviously have better skills so playing quickly may ironically make the game easier. But again, this is all in theory so I still need to play around with the game.

I currently lack an effective way to record at the moment. I don't have a AV jack splitter to use with my capture card, and there is a delay if I just record and watch on my computer, and for a game that requires precise timing like Gladius this is impossible to work with. Not that it would matter if this wasn't an issue though, since my capture card records videos that take up an enormous amount of space. Like multiple gigabytes per minute. I'm not sure how normal this is, but I simply can not have that huge of videos on my computer. I think my capture card has stopped working though, so none of this really matters haha. If I commit to this speedrun I will have to look into better recording equipment.

[quote="PJ"]This is a really neat game.  I really enjoyed my time playing it, but I never finished it.  I got frustrated because my school was full but I couldn't enter one tourney without like 3 female gladiators and I had none.  I just stopped there.  Haha.  I'm looking forward to seeing some progress on this one![/quote]
Yeah, even when not speedrunning you have to take into account that required league in Theater Antiquitus that only allows female gladiators. Haha this aspect of the game could've been designed better.

I managed to get to Imperia by day 12 or 13, which is pretty fast but likely improvable, since I wasn't planning a route. I just went through pretty quickly taking as few unnecessary battles as conceivable.

As for classes useful in a speedrun. Centurions are an obvious necessity, since they're ridiculously powerful, and can wield the executioners sword late in the game. I'm still not sure if the Undead Summoner is useful or not, and it seems that I'm using him more because he's cool than anything else. Even in normal, non-speedrun gameplay he doesn't really help much in battle. Though he can wield the Death's Head Staff which has a possibility of killing an enemy in one hit. Secutors are also worth looking into, since surprise attack can do massive damage when done from behind, and with backstab innate ability, a supreme critical accessory, and the harpe can cause even more damage. But later in the game if opponents start gaining the awareness innate ability secutors become useless and weak. I've always like Centurions more than Samnites, but I may need to look into Samnites in order to discover any useful unique abilities they have. Bandits I doubt will be very useful, but are worth looking into. Mongrels, Berzerkers, Legionnaires, and beasts I'm pretty sure are useless. There are useful strategies with wolves from what I've heard, but they require multiple wolves at higher levels. Bears can also rely on counter attacks and self-healing, but it is likely much slower than just playing with other more powerful units. Plains Cats are relatively powerful and have super high initiative, but I'm not sure if they're better than other obvious choices for classes like Centurions. I never played around much with Channellers, but I've heard they can be pretty powerful. But I think their usefulness comes from their ability to teleport around and steal affinity. Undead legionnaires would be cool but they require completing a side quest and The Dead of Night league, which may be too much to be worth it. I like Murmillos, but they have low initiative and are often at a pretty low level relative to your school in the recruitment office.

I want to unlock the minotaur by completing the sidequest in Cro Beska, but it would require beating two leagues, when only one of them is worth doing otherwise. The duel league in Cro Beska is easy and very quick if you have one of the required classes. The minotaur is very powerful but I'm not sure if it's worth going so far out of my way to get. Not to mention completing the quest will sometimes give you a useless Satyr, so the segment would likely have to be repeated a few times, even if everything goes perfect.

Speaking of which, if I complete this speedrun it will almost certainly be segmented. This game is way too long and unpredictable to do a single segment run haha.

I'm pretty sure your enemies levels are always based off of your gladiators' levels. I think it averages them out, so having lower level and higher level gladiators may make your enemies significantly weaker. So one possible strategy is to recruit a few cheap level 1 gladiators to make battles easier and shorter. In addition, higher level enemies obviously have better skills so playing quickly may ironically make the game easier. But again, this is all in theory so I still need to play around with the game.

I currently lack an effective way to record at the moment. I don't have a AV jack splitter to use with my capture card, and there is a delay if I just record and watch on my computer, and for a game that requires precise timing like Gladius this is impossible to work with. Not that it would matter if this wasn't an issue though, since my capture card records videos that take up an enormous amount of space. Like multiple gigabytes per minute. I'm not sure how normal this is, but I simply can not have that huge of videos on my computer. I think my capture card has stopped working though, so none of this really matters haha. If I commit to this speedrun I will have to look into better recording equipment.

superfly360

2013-07-05 08:20:04 pm

In Flames We Trust

I created a knowledge base entry for Gladius: https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Gladius_%28Xbox,_Gamecube,_PS2%29

What I'm doing currently is just playing through the game to jog my memory of the game and get an idea of what to do in a speedrun. So it's sort of like a casual speedrun at this point. I'm currently about halfway through the Windward Steppes and it's around Day 27 I believe, which translates to about 10 hours of gameplay, according to the save file. If I complete this speedrun, it's going to be long as hell haha.

superfly360

2013-07-06 02:43:29 pm

In Flames We Trust

I've completed the first tournament in the Southern Expanse, and I'm discovering that speedrunning this region will be rather difficult. The leagues are almost entirely long series battles, meaning you can't end a segment until you complete the entire league. In addition, there are many Summoners and Channellers, both of which have Teleport which will really screw around with any strategies. The battles aren't actually difficult to win, but doing them quickly will require a ton of luck and careful planning. Ranged units seem to be a good option here.

You must complete an extra league in the first city in the Southern Expanse in order to advance to Caltha. This is because one of the required leagues requires you to complete a league which will give you enough cups to fight in the tournament.

There are several leagues and battles that will be troublesome in a speedrun, so it's worth analyzing them and putting them in the Knowledge Base.

What I'm finding is that Channellers, Summoners, and Berzerkers are tough to deal with in a speedrun, so avoiding them in battles is probably recommended, even if there's a possibility of a battle being won quicker with them.

I think there are guides on the internet about the leagues and battles in Gladius, though not from a speedrunning perspective, so I will look into those for any useful information.

After unlocking Combo Attacks 2 and 4, along with all innate abilities, I unlocked Combo Attacks 1 and 3 as it will save a second or two if I can use those to kill an enemy. Since I'm ignoring all Affinity Attacks, I still have a ton of Job Points for many of my melee gladiators, I'm going to look into attacks like Overhead Cleave and see if they have any use. Ursula's High Kick, for example, is basically useless for the most part since it can't hit critical and is often blocked, but it is a move-to-attack skill and if it can be used to kill an enemy when a normal strike cannot, it will be useful. There is a practice area in some regions that allows you to practice your attacks. Only one unit can be used at a time though, so working on multi-unit strategies won't help much. Also, the practice dummy is not affected by any status affects. So basically the practice area is only useful for improving chances at getting criticals and for determining how much damage each attack does.

I am pretty sure the amount of damage any attack does is not random at all. It takes into account the attacking units strength, class, and weapon, along with the opponents defense, class, and I think constitution. This means that a specific string of attacks could theoretically be planned for each battle. This could save time wasted on unnecessary attacks and unit movements, along with excessive Combo Attacks.

I've completed the first tournament in the Southern Expanse, and I'm discovering that speedrunning this region will be rather difficult. The leagues are almost entirely long series battles, meaning you can't end a segment until you complete the entire league. In addition, there are many Summoners and Channellers, both of which have Teleport which will really screw around with any strategies. The battles aren't actually difficult to win, but doing them quickly will require a ton of luck and careful planning. Ranged units seem to be a good option here.

You must complete an extra league in the first city in the Southern Expanse in order to advance to Caltha. This is because one of the required leagues requires you to complete a league which will give you enough cups to fight in the tournament.

There are several leagues and battles that will be troublesome in a speedrun, so it's worth analyzing them and putting them in the Knowledge Base.

What I'm finding is that Channellers, Summoners, and Berzerkers are tough to deal with in a speedrun, so avoiding them in battles is probably recommended, even if there's a possibility of a battle being won quicker with them.

I think there are guides on the internet about the leagues and battles in Gladius, though not from a speedrunning perspective, so I will look into those for any useful information.

After unlocking Combo Attacks 2 and 4, along with all innate abilities, I unlocked Combo Attacks 1 and 3 as it will save a second or two if I can use those to kill an enemy. Since I'm ignoring all Affinity Attacks, I still have a ton of Job Points for many of my melee gladiators, I'm going to look into attacks like Overhead Cleave and see if they have any use. Ursula's High Kick, for example, is basically useless for the most part since it can't hit critical and is often blocked, but it is a move-to-attack skill and if it can be used to kill an enemy when a normal strike cannot, it will be useful. There is a practice area in some regions that allows you to practice your attacks. Only one unit can be used at a time though, so working on multi-unit strategies won't help much. Also, the practice dummy is not affected by any status affects. So basically the practice area is only useful for improving chances at getting criticals and for determining how much damage each attack does.

I am pretty sure the amount of damage any attack does is not random at all. It takes into account the attacking units strength, class, and weapon, along with the opponents defense, class, and I think constitution. This means that a specific string of attacks could theoretically be planned for each battle. This could save time wasted on unnecessary attacks and unit movements, along with excessive Combo Attacks.

superfly360

2013-07-07 12:29:26 pm

In Flames We Trust

OK, so I've beaten the game through Ursula's story by about day 46, and this was without any planning or routing, and more than likely I wasted some time in places. This is a little more than 20 hours of gameplay, and I could probably take at least a few hours off of that. This is going to be one long ass speedrun hahaha.

What I'm going to do now is start actually planning a route of leagues and battles. Perhaps along the way I'll note any new strategies I come across for completing certain battles quickly beyond brute force. Also, I'm going to experiment with hiring a bunch of level one recruits while the rest of my school is higher leveled to see if it lowers your enemies levels. I don't know if their levels are based off of your schools average level or your highest level gladiator, or some kind of combination.

The last few battles in the game are rather long, though they are pretty easy if you equip some gladiators with the damage reduction accessory, which will make them take only 20-40 damage per hit from a level 14 enemy. I didn't equip Valens with one, and instead kept his supreme critical badge, which led to him dying in most of the final battles. Related to that, it seems that if a story-essential hero dies in one of the final battles, you don't get a gameover and you can still use them for the rest of the game. I've had Urlan, Valens, and Eiji die a few times and this was true for all of them. I don't know about your recruits, but I would assume they would be gone forever if they got killed.

One rather quick strategy I've noticed so far with the battles against the Cyclops King where you must defeat a summoned beast from each Affinity is to use Ursula, Eiji, a Centurion, and a Gungnir, each with different Affinities preferably. Assuming the beast doesn't have an resistance to the Affinity of your Gungnir or Eiji, it should die before it has a chance to attack you. The other two cyclops can be ignored in this battle; all you have to do is kill the giant Affinity beast.

OK, so I've beaten the game through Ursula's story by about day 46, and this was without any planning or routing, and more than likely I wasted some time in places. This is a little more than 20 hours of gameplay, and I could probably take at least a few hours off of that. This is going to be one long ass speedrun hahaha.

What I'm going to do now is start actually planning a route of leagues and battles. Perhaps along the way I'll note any new strategies I come across for completing certain battles quickly beyond brute force. Also, I'm going to experiment with hiring a bunch of level one recruits while the rest of my school is higher leveled to see if it lowers your enemies levels. I don't know if their levels are based off of your schools average level or your highest level gladiator, or some kind of combination.

The last few battles in the game are rather long, though they are pretty easy if you equip some gladiators with the damage reduction accessory, which will make them take only 20-40 damage per hit from a level 14 enemy. I didn't equip Valens with one, and instead kept his supreme critical badge, which led to him dying in most of the final battles. Related to that, it seems that if a story-essential hero dies in one of the final battles, you don't get a gameover and you can still use them for the rest of the game. I've had Urlan, Valens, and Eiji die a few times and this was true for all of them. I don't know about your recruits, but I would assume they would be gone forever if they got killed.

One rather quick strategy I've noticed so far with the battles against the Cyclops King where you must defeat a summoned beast from each Affinity is to use Ursula, Eiji, a Centurion, and a Gungnir, each with different Affinities preferably. Assuming the beast doesn't have an resistance to the Affinity of your Gungnir or Eiji, it should die before it has a chance to attack you. The other two cyclops can be ignored in this battle; all you have to do is kill the giant Affinity beast.

superfly360

2013-07-08 08:29:07 pm

In Flames We Trust

My initial route just had me recruit Jeanne (Gungnir) in Fliuch, but that made it difficult to level up since many battles couldn't be entered with only 3 low level gladiators. I decided to recruit Lowry in addition to Jeanne, both of which are Gungnirs and are recruited in Fliuch. Lowry is really cheap at 750 dinars and has a slightly more powerful weapon than Jeanne. Having 2 Gungnirs is really powerful in the beginning, especially when you equip them both with the Egchos, which can kill many units very quickly, if not in one hit. I'll update my route on the Knowledge Base at some point.

Speaking of the KB, thanks ‎KennyMan666 for creating subpages for my Knowledge Base entry for Gladius. It looks much better organized now. thumbsup

Riskbreaker Y

2013-07-08 10:28:03 pm

berserker status

Nice to see some activity for this!

As far as class selection goes, it definitely seems best to go for types that deal high physical damage and also ranged ones. Clearly you'll need a varied bunch to maximize match-up advantages though. Spell-casters seem counterproductive for a run considering their spell animations are pretty slow and they're mince meat once an enemy closes the distance (could be wrong though, I've only played through this once). Plus their main strength is attacking at a distance, which other ranged units can do better.

I definitely agree that unlocking Combos and Riposte is best whenever possible especially since there are accessories that reward landing critical hits with a damage boost and being able to counter-attack is obviously helpful. Also, I want to say Affinity Attacks are pretty useful since once your meter is depleted, you're reduced to single attacks until you build more meter for combos. They're nice to have when you need a killing blow and a regular melee attack isn't enough (although an enemy could be immune to said affinity). I'd take those before other special attacks like say Overhead Cleave since they take about as much meter as the stronger combos and are not as good especially if you're proficient at critical hits.

I've read about some ways to obtain a lot of money early on, but unless the method is quick, I don't see much use for farming of any sort as having enough funds for equipment was never a problem (during a regular playthrough though). But yea, Gungnirs early on (and for most of the game) are extremely useful fersure! Segmented is the way to go for now definitely at least until the route/strats become more concrete. Good luck with this, I'll see if I can give more feedback after a playthrough...

Nice to see some activity for this!

As far as class selection goes, it definitely seems best to go for types that deal high physical damage and also ranged ones.  Clearly you'll need a varied bunch to maximize match-up advantages though.  Spell-casters seem counterproductive for a run considering their spell animations are pretty slow and they're mince meat once an enemy closes the distance (could be wrong though, I've only played through this once).  Plus their main strength is attacking at a distance, which other ranged units can do better.

I definitely agree that unlocking Combos and Riposte is best whenever possible especially since there are accessories that reward landing critical hits with a damage boost and being able to counter-attack is obviously helpful.  Also, I want to say Affinity Attacks are pretty useful since once your meter is depleted, you're reduced to single attacks until you build more meter for combos.  They're nice to have when you need a killing blow and a regular melee attack isn't enough (although an enemy could be immune to said affinity).  I'd take those before other special attacks like say Overhead Cleave since they take about as much meter as the stronger combos and are not as good especially if you're proficient at critical hits.

I've read about some ways to obtain a lot of money early on, but unless the method is quick, I don't see much use for farming of any sort as having enough funds for equipment was never a problem (during a regular playthrough though).  But yea, Gungnirs early on (and for most of the game) are extremely useful fersure!  Segmented is the way to go for now definitely at least until the route/strats become more concrete.  Good luck with this, I'll see if I can give more feedback after a playthrough...

superfly360

2013-07-09 12:50:53 am

In Flames We Trust

Yeah I've rethought my stance on Affinities after I decided to use Air Affinity Attack 1 as Urlan against an Undead Legionnaire which did massive damage. I forgot that they're extremely useful against the undead when you don't have a heavy attacking them. I never used Affinity Attack 4 very much, but I'll check it's usefulness. It's nice to see that someone else is interested in a speedrun of Gladius!

As for arcane classes, there are a few leagues that would be much quicker to do than others, but require an arcane class. One of them can be completed with one battle effectively with just an Undead Summoner, but unless he is used frequently up till that point, he will be at a pretty low level. But overall, most of the arcane classes are either weak or slow it seems. Taithleach might have been more useful if Reaper was a ranged attack rather than melee (although he would then be hilariously overpowered). You will probably acquire Death's Head by the time you have enough skill points to get Reaper, so it's not worth getting.

I've done a few playthroughs of the first couple towns in Nordagh and I'm finding that a quick route to take is to leave Fliuch after completing the tutorial and recruiting (Beating the available league may also be a good idea, I don't know if it's necessary yet), complete the Circle Qualification in Roanor, and then go to Orin's Keep and beat the available two leagues and tournament. Go to the shop in Orin's Keep and sell a lot of your gear you've won so far (some is actually useful, I'll be specific later), including the Bandit accessory that gives critical defense, which gives you a lot of Dinars. You can now buy the best weapons in Nordagh for all your gladiators, which is simply the ones that do the most damage. You can also buy some helmets. I'm unsure if buying shields is justified, but they're mostly really cheap so it might not hurt.

I'm still not sure how I feel about Langston the Minotaur in Imperia. I kind of have to go out of my way to get him (and I might not get him on my first try), but he's stupidly powerful for the rest of the game, along with being immune to most status affects and any back or side effects.

I don't know if I'll ever use Gwazi in the Southern Expanse, unless he's required for certain battles. He has a very high initiative, but he's very weak even when well equipped. His Back Attack isn't as powerful as a Secutor's Surprise Attack. And even light units in general might not be very useful this late in the game, since pretty much every unit that can get Awareness will have it.

Although the Executioner's Sword is very powerful, I think I complete the game too fast to be able to acquire it haha. I've read that you pick it up from level 17 or so Centurions, but my gladiators were only around level 13 at Caltha in my last playthrough. It's a shame, because it's Death affect will have a very high chance of instantly killing an enemy with combo attacks.

Yeah I've rethought my stance on Affinities after I decided to use Air Affinity Attack 1 as Urlan against an Undead Legionnaire which did massive damage. I forgot that they're extremely useful against the undead when you don't have a heavy attacking them. I never used Affinity Attack 4 very much, but I'll check it's usefulness. It's nice to see that someone else is interested in a speedrun of Gladius!

As for arcane classes, there are a few leagues that would be much quicker to do than others, but require an arcane class. One of them can be completed with one battle effectively with just an Undead Summoner, but unless he is used frequently up till that point, he will be at a pretty low level. But overall, most of the arcane classes are either weak or slow it seems. Taithleach might have been more useful if Reaper was a ranged attack rather than melee (although he would then be hilariously overpowered). You will probably acquire Death's Head by the time you have enough skill points to get Reaper, so it's not worth getting.

I've done a few playthroughs of the first couple towns in Nordagh and I'm finding that a quick route to take is to leave Fliuch after completing the tutorial and recruiting (Beating the available league may also be a good idea, I don't know if it's necessary yet), complete the Circle Qualification in Roanor, and then go to Orin's Keep and beat the available two leagues and tournament. Go to the shop in Orin's Keep and sell a lot of your gear you've won so far (some is actually useful, I'll be specific later), including the Bandit accessory that gives critical defense, which gives you a lot of Dinars. You can now buy the best weapons in Nordagh for all your gladiators, which is simply the ones that do the most damage. You can also buy some helmets. I'm unsure if buying shields is justified, but they're mostly really cheap so it might not hurt.

I'm still not sure how I feel about Langston the Minotaur in Imperia. I kind of have to go out of my way to get him (and I might not get him on my first try), but he's stupidly powerful for the rest of the game, along with being immune to most status affects and any back or side effects.

I don't know if I'll ever use Gwazi in the Southern Expanse, unless he's required for certain battles. He has a very high initiative, but he's very weak even when well equipped. His Back Attack isn't as powerful as a Secutor's Surprise Attack. And even light units in general might not be very useful this late in the game, since pretty much every unit that can get Awareness will have it.

Although the Executioner's Sword is very powerful, I think I complete the game too fast to be able to acquire it haha. I've read that you pick it up from level 17 or so Centurions, but my gladiators were only around level 13 at Caltha in my last playthrough. It's a shame, because it's Death affect will have a very high chance of instantly killing an enemy with combo attacks.

superfly360

Edit history:

superfly360: 2013-07-10 08:08:55 pm

2013-07-10 02:28:40 pm

In Flames We Trust

I've almost planned out a decent route of Nordgah, and what I'm starting to notice is the variety of possible opponents in each battle. I will probably need to analyze which opponents are ideal for each battle. So far, it seems like Satyrs are always easy to kill, while Samnites (Shadow of Imperia school), Berserkers, wolves, bears, and Galdyrs should be avoided. They are either difficult to kill quickly, or really slow down the battle (especially the damn Berserkers, screw them and their BS Yowl skill Tongue

). Gungirs are easy to fight if you kill or at least severely injure them before they shapeshift into a bear. Barbarians can usually be killed with adequate speed with Iaar and maybe a Gungir.

Some level information I've discovered so far:
Undead Legionnaires and Summoners don't have Sickly Marrow at level 3, which is when the Dead of Night league is fought in my route.
Level 2 Gungnirs have Bear Form 1.
Level 2 or 3 Berserkers have Rage, but I don't think they have Yowl yet. I'm pretty sure level 2 Berserkers have Howl (or whichever one roots) but that's not much of a problem.
I'm pretty sure all Barbarions have Target Leg, which is annoying since it hits critical (somehow) very often.
Level 3 Undead Legionnaires have Fear of Death, which is a bullshit attack.
Murmillos don't have ranged attack resistance at least at level 1.

EDIT: Just read that apparently you can just quit out of the Caltha battles and continue the game as if you had won. If true, this would save quite a bit of time, even though Caltha is pretty easy.

I've almost planned out a decent route of Nordgah, and what I'm starting to notice is the variety of possible opponents in each battle. I will probably need to analyze which opponents are ideal for each battle. So far, it seems like Satyrs are always easy to kill, while Samnites (Shadow of Imperia school), Berserkers, wolves, bears, and Galdyrs should be avoided. They are either difficult to kill quickly, or really slow down the battle (especially the damn Berserkers, screw them and their BS Yowl skill :P ). Gungirs are easy to fight if you kill or at least severely injure them before they shapeshift into a bear. Barbarians can usually be killed with adequate speed with Iaar and maybe a Gungir.

Some level information I've discovered so far:
Undead Legionnaires and Summoners don't have Sickly Marrow at level 3, which is when the Dead of Night league is fought in my route.
Level 2 Gungnirs have Bear Form 1.
Level 2 or 3 Berserkers have Rage, but I don't think they have Yowl yet. I'm pretty sure level 2 Berserkers have Howl (or whichever one roots) but that's not much of a problem.
I'm pretty sure all Barbarions have Target Leg, which is annoying since it hits critical (somehow) very often.
Level 3 Undead Legionnaires have Fear of Death, which is a bullshit attack.
Murmillos don't have ranged attack resistance at least at level 1.

EDIT: Just read that apparently you can just quit out of the Caltha battles and continue the game as if you had won. If true, this would save quite a bit of time, even though Caltha is pretty easy.

superfly360

2013-07-11 03:11:07 pm

In Flames We Trust

I'm in Imperia right now, after completing the route I planned for Nordagh. In order to progress out of Belfort you must complete at least one league. Ideally, you would just go for Gloria of Imperia, since it's a required badge and gives you enough cups by itself to qualify you for the tournament. But you need 15% popularity to compete in the league, so battles in the other leagues need to be done. All the leagues available to you won't let you use your Gungnirs, so you'll be stuck with just Urlan, Ursula, and Iaar for these battles unless another gladiator is recruited. This probably isn't too much of an issue, since their are Centurions in the Belfort recruitment office, though the Centurions you recruit might not have any Combo Attacks. Since my route starts with Ursula and recruits Jeanne, you will only need one more female gladiator.

While I love Jeanne and Lowry, I need to check how much better Peltasts are than Gungnirs, and perhaps recruit two Peltasts to replace them. I also want to experiment with Samnites, since I usually only played with Centurions whenever I played Gladius.

What I'm finding by now is how effective Urlan's Riposte skill is against Centurions and Legionnaires. They use Combo Attacks more than any other class, and if they screw up, you get a counter attack for everything that didn't hit, including the ones that would have happened after they screwed up. With the defense +5 accessory for Urlan, this might make it even more useful.

For much of the beginning of the game, your gladiators dying is pretty unlikely, so equipping them with the best armor might only give them less turns. So I'm wondering if just taking armor off of some gladiators would make them much faster due to the increased initiative. Usually my gladiators don't ever get below half HP in Nordagh or Imperia for the most part, and it might even make them get less harm since they will have more turns and therefore can kill faster.

I tried to see if recruiting several level 1 gladiators would reduce your enemies levels, but it doesn't appear to do so. Enemies levels might be based on your highest level gladiators, or maybe what level the heroes (Ursula, Urlan, Valens, Eiji) are at.

I'm in Imperia right now, after completing the route I planned for Nordagh. In order to progress out of Belfort you must complete at least one league. Ideally, you would just go for Gloria of Imperia, since it's a required badge and gives you enough cups by itself to qualify you for the tournament. But you need 15% popularity to compete in the league, so battles in the other leagues need to be done. All the leagues available to you won't let you use your Gungnirs, so you'll be stuck with just Urlan, Ursula, and Iaar for these battles unless another gladiator is recruited. This probably isn't too much of an issue, since their are Centurions in the Belfort recruitment office, though the Centurions you recruit might not have any Combo Attacks. Since my route starts with Ursula and recruits Jeanne, you will only need one more female gladiator.

While I love Jeanne and Lowry, I need to check how much better Peltasts are than Gungnirs, and perhaps recruit two Peltasts to replace them. I also want to experiment with Samnites, since I usually only played with Centurions whenever I played Gladius.

What I'm finding by now is how effective Urlan's Riposte skill is against Centurions and Legionnaires. They use Combo Attacks more than any other class, and if they screw up, you get a counter attack for everything that didn't hit, including the ones that would have happened after they screwed up. With the defense +5 accessory for Urlan, this might make it even more useful.

For much of the beginning of the game, your gladiators dying is pretty unlikely, so equipping them with the best armor might only give them less turns. So I'm wondering if just taking armor off of some gladiators would make them much faster due to the increased initiative. Usually my gladiators don't ever get below half HP in Nordagh or Imperia for the most part, and it might even make them get less harm since they will have more turns and therefore can kill faster.

I tried to see if recruiting several level 1 gladiators would reduce your enemies levels, but it doesn't appear to do so. Enemies levels might be based on your highest level gladiators, or maybe what level the heroes (Ursula, Urlan, Valens, Eiji) are at.

Riskbreaker Y

2013-07-11 09:22:53 pm

berserker status

Samnites have pretty good range iirc so they're pretty useful when trying to close the distance. Their special attacks can also inflict nice damage on multiple enemies if they're positioned correctly (lined up, on your flank, behind you). They also have access to virtually the same equipment as Centurions but lack the stat boosting skills though. It seems natural to buy powerful weapons/accessories before shields/armor considering segmentation will give you that margin of error to survive battles and considering what you said about never being in real danger. Even if your teammates died, you only need 1 survivor to win a battle anyway (but that may screw with whatever plans you may have regarding leveling up, etc.).

superfly360

Edit history:

superfly360: 2013-07-13 12:19:55 pm

superfly360: 2013-07-12 12:42:03 pm

2013-07-12 12:41:06 pm

In Flames We Trust

Samnites also seem to have surprisingly decent initiative, though I'm not sure how relevant that is late in the game. I never really used the Centurions stat boosting skills much, but apparently the one that boosts attack damage is stackable, so doing it multiple times with other powerful gladiators could help. This actually might be a decent strategy when you have several Centurions. Samnites, like Centurions, don't start with Combo Attacks at least at level 5 recruiting, and you'll definitely be recruiting one by then. However, when equipped with the most powerful Centurion/Samnite weapon in Imperia (Xiphos I think?) even their normal strikes are pretty damaging.

One thing to keep in mind later in the game is the fact that you need 3 Fire Affinity gladiators to complete the Barn Burner league in the Southern Expanse. This league on it's own is frustrating since one battle is against Cyclopses who always do that Fear move, which is almost always successful. Valens and maybe a few other gladiators can become immune to fear, but most cannot.

The best equipment in the Windward Steppes is in Ononhaar, but you can't fight there until you complete all other towns, so you can just go there after completing the first town's tournament (or maybe before) and buy everything you need.

I'm finding that a Secutor is absolutely brutal in the beginning of the game against virtually every class except Minotaurs, due to their Surprise Attack and high initiative. It's basically their only use honestly. Also, it's recommended that you don't unlock Taunt, since it just slows down the battle and whatever use you get out of the crowd meters can be fulfilled by getting criticals all the time.

Manipulating your opponents into moving to certain places seems possible. This is most easily observed in the Nordagh Talisman (first real battle in the speedrun), where moving Urlan and Ursula to the two highest crates will always result in the opponents making the exact same move, allowing for the fastest possible set of turns to be completed easily (or at least, the fastest I've come across). Though for most battles there is likely more unpredictability.

EDIT: With Belfort right at the beginning of Imperia, I was contemplating what battles should be done to increase your popularity enough to compete in Gloria of Imperia. It turns out that in order to compete in Imperia Untamed in Cro Beska you need to beat Challenge of Lykos in Belfort, so you should do that league to build up popularity.

Samnites also seem to have surprisingly decent initiative, though I'm not sure how relevant that is late in the game. I never really used the Centurions stat boosting skills much, but apparently the one that boosts attack damage is stackable, so doing it multiple times with other powerful gladiators could help. This actually might be a decent strategy when you have several Centurions. Samnites, like Centurions, don't start with Combo Attacks at least at level 5 recruiting, and you'll definitely be recruiting one by then. However, when equipped with the most powerful Centurion/Samnite weapon in Imperia (Xiphos I think?) even their normal strikes are pretty damaging.

One thing to keep in mind later in the game is the fact that you need 3 Fire Affinity gladiators to complete the Barn Burner league in the Southern Expanse. This league on it's own is frustrating since one battle is against Cyclopses who always do that Fear move, which is almost always successful. Valens and maybe a few other gladiators can become immune to fear, but most cannot.

The best equipment in the Windward Steppes is in Ononhaar, but you can't fight there until you complete all other towns, so you can just go there after completing the first town's tournament (or maybe before) and buy everything you need.

I'm finding that a Secutor is absolutely brutal in the beginning of the game against virtually every class except Minotaurs, due to their Surprise Attack and high initiative. It's basically their only use honestly. Also, it's recommended that you don't unlock Taunt, since it just slows down the battle and whatever use you get out of the crowd meters can be fulfilled by getting criticals all the time.

Manipulating your opponents into moving to certain places seems possible. This is most easily observed in the Nordagh Talisman (first real battle in the speedrun), where moving Urlan and Ursula to the two highest crates will [i]always[/i] result in the opponents making the exact same move, allowing for the fastest possible set of turns to be completed easily (or at least, the fastest I've come across). Though for most battles there is likely more unpredictability.

EDIT: With Belfort right at the beginning of Imperia, I was contemplating what battles should be done to increase your popularity enough to compete in Gloria of Imperia. It turns out that in order to compete in Imperia Untamed in Cro Beska you need to beat Challenge of Lykos in Belfort, so you should do that league to build up popularity.

superfly360

2013-07-17 05:53:16 am

In Flames We Trust

I made it to the Windward Steppes with weapons bought from Caltha, and it's pretty amusing to see how much damage my gladiators do now. Ursula had like 100 for damage at level 8 or 9. The biggest surprise though, was my Secutor, when equipped with the Harpe and the critical damage + accessory. Her damage now rivals that of a powerful medium or heavy unit, and if the enemy doesn't have Awareness she can deal more than 500 damage from behind with Surprise Attack at level 8. This is enough to easily kill any reasonable opponent. Even when not attacking from behind, her criticals do ridiculous amounts of damage. Plus, she has a lot higher initiative than most opponents, especially when not equipped with armor. The only issue so far with the no-armor strategy is that when she kills an undead unit, the poison from Sickly Marrow drains her health pretty fast. Also, Urlan seems to lose health fast without armor.

It can be difficult to find a critical hit + accessory for Urlan and Ursula, so if one can't be found a damage reduction one will keep them very much alive even against Minotaurs and other heavies. The power + ones might be helpful, and the move-to-attack + ones could be useful in situations. But I don't think Ursula has even become half dead since I equipped her with the damage reduction accessory, especially when combined with Awareness. I don't think the defense + accessory is useful if I don't use armor since my defense will be so low that adding +5 to it won't help much if at all, even if Urlan has Riposte. Urlan's only real chance of using it (which is still quite useful) is when enemies screw up Combo Attacks.

The King of the Hill battles at the beginning of the Windward Steppes are possible to be won by killing all your enemies rather than just going for the hills. You need to beat Inflationary Egos Su for a required badge, so you should only do 2 battles in King of the Hill Ke at most to build up your popularity to unlock the required league. In Altahrun Ruins do the Affinity league and History of the Frontier, since the former unlocks the latter and the latter is required. There are a lot of long series battles in the Windward Steppes, but they're all pretty easy and seem to be rather predictable from my several playthroughs of this region over the years.

I made it to the Windward Steppes with weapons bought from Caltha, and it's pretty amusing to see how much damage my gladiators do now. Ursula had like 100 for damage at level 8 or 9. The biggest surprise though, was my Secutor, when equipped with the Harpe and the critical damage + accessory. Her damage now rivals that of a powerful medium or heavy unit, and if the enemy doesn't have Awareness she can deal more than 500 damage from behind with Surprise Attack at level 8. This is enough to easily kill any reasonable opponent. Even when not attacking from behind, her criticals do ridiculous amounts of damage. Plus, she has a lot higher initiative than most opponents, especially when not equipped with armor. The only issue so far with the no-armor strategy is that when she kills an undead unit, the poison from Sickly Marrow drains her health pretty fast. Also, Urlan seems to lose health fast without armor.

It can be difficult to find a critical hit + accessory for Urlan and Ursula, so if one can't be found a damage reduction one will keep them very much alive even against Minotaurs and other heavies. The power + ones might be helpful, and the move-to-attack + ones could be useful in situations. But I don't think Ursula has even become half dead since I equipped her with the damage reduction accessory, especially when combined with Awareness. I don't think the defense + accessory is useful if I don't use armor since my defense will be so low that adding +5 to it won't help much if at all, even if Urlan has Riposte. Urlan's only real chance of using it (which is still quite useful) is when enemies screw up Combo Attacks.

The King of the Hill battles at the beginning of the Windward Steppes are possible to be won by killing all your enemies rather than just going for the hills. You need to beat Inflationary Egos Su for a required badge, so you should only do 2 battles in King of the Hill Ke at most to build up your popularity to unlock the required league. In Altahrun Ruins do the Affinity league and History of the Frontier, since the former unlocks the latter and the latter is required. There are a lot of long series battles in the Windward Steppes, but they're all pretty easy and seem to be rather predictable from my several playthroughs of this region over the years.

Heidrage

2013-07-17 06:15:15 am

Willing to teach you the impossible

I am interested in seeing this. Just showing my support. I will be following this thread rather close.

superfly360

Edit history:

superfly360: 2013-07-18 01:44:39 pm

superfly360: 2013-07-17 07:20:07 pm

2013-07-17 03:02:04 pm

In Flames We Trust

Quote from Heidrage:

I am interested in seeing this. Just showing my support. I will be following this thread rather close.

Thanks, it's good to know there are people interested in seeing a run of this game. thumbsup

I'm still in the Windward Steppes, but I'm just making an update to say how useful Secutors are at the pro level when equipped with the Harpe. My Secutor just dealt 1000+ damage to a Plains Cat from behind with Surprise Attack and a small height advantage. I think that's the most powerful single strike I've ever gotten in Gladius, and the Secutor was only level 10.

I've also recruited Inkhu the Archer, who is level 14 despite most of my school being level 9 at the time I recruited him. I never thought about looking at bows in Caltha for the archers, but I don't remember there being any bows to buy there in my other playthroughs. There might be other useful units in the Windward Steppes to recruit, since many are at higher levels than your school.

I am now starting to face challenges with my armorless strategy, as Gungnir/Peltast long throws do a lot of damage to some units, including my Secutor. I still haven's had many die yet, but I have come close.

EDIT: Turns out you will need at least one Arcane class to beat the game. One league in Ononhaar is required, but in order to get enough tallies you must win a battle that only allows Arcane classes. There are relatively high level Channelers and Mongrel Shaman in the Windward Steppes, and permanently recruiting them won't be too expensive or time consuming. But this will still need to be taken into account in the speedrun.

EDIT 2: Also, the Ononhaar tournament is actually kinda hard without armor and with a school of gladiators with a wide range of levels. I'm wondering how significant a role Initiative plays in comparison to HP gained by wearing armor. Perhaps equipping the damage reduction accessory will protect me better than any armor would, but I would then be unable to equip the critical damage + accessory.

[quote="Heidrage"]I am interested in seeing this. Just showing my support. I will be following this thread rather close.[/quote]
Thanks, it's good to know there are people interested in seeing a run of this game. :thumbsup:

I'm still in the Windward Steppes, but I'm just making an update to say how useful Secutors are at the pro level when equipped with the Harpe. My Secutor just dealt 1000+ damage to a Plains Cat from behind with Surprise Attack and a small height advantage. I think that's the most powerful single strike I've ever gotten in Gladius, and the Secutor was only level 10.

I've also recruited Inkhu the Archer, who is level 14 despite most of my school being level 9 at the time I recruited him. I never thought about looking at bows in Caltha for the archers, but I don't remember there being any bows to buy there in my other playthroughs. There might be other useful units in the Windward Steppes to recruit, since many are at higher levels than your school.

I am now starting to face challenges with my armorless strategy, as Gungnir/Peltast long throws do a lot of damage to some units, including my Secutor. I still haven's had many die yet, but I have come close.

EDIT: Turns out you will need at least one Arcane class to beat the game. One league in Ononhaar is required, but in order to get enough tallies you must win a battle that only allows Arcane classes. There are relatively high level Channelers and Mongrel Shaman in the Windward Steppes, and permanently recruiting them won't be too expensive or time consuming. But this will still need to be taken into account in the speedrun.

EDIT 2: Also, the Ononhaar tournament is actually kinda hard without armor and with a school of gladiators with a wide range of levels. I'm wondering how significant a role Initiative plays in comparison to HP gained by wearing armor. Perhaps equipping the damage reduction accessory will protect me better than any armor would, but I would then be unable to equip the critical damage + accessory.

superfly360

2013-07-20 09:02:34 pm

In Flames We Trust

I'm in the Southern Expanse now, and I'm starting to have a bit of trouble with the enemies' level advantages. I tend to use my more powerful units, since I'm going for speed, who usually happen to be my high-level Archer, my heavies, my secutor, and Ursula who happens to be a pretty high level. It seems that the other schools' gladiators' levels are based off of your heroes' levels, rather than the rest of your school's levels. If true, then simply only using the heroes when absolutely necessary could save quite a bit of time, since your enemies will be greatly disadvantaged. This may give some use to Legionnaires, since they are the most readily available medium recruits outside of Nordagh, and medium units still have uses, especially against lights. Legionnaires can also unlock Awareness, which makes them last longer.

One possible issue with beating battles quickly is level 14-15 arcane classes. They often equip armor that gives them great frontal defense (I think it's Full Del but I can't remember), which means killing them from a distance will take forever even with a Gungnir or powerful Archer. They are still hopeless against a Secutor with Surprise Attack from the side or back, but they are still annoying.

Also, I may slow down on routing Gladius, since I seem to not be having as much fun as before. I don't want to get sick of this game before I even complete a speedrun. Plus, I have no experience with completing a speedrun, and very little with recording. With a run as incredibly long as one for this game would be, it might be a good idea to work on a more speedrun-friendly game for a little while. I'm definitely not giving up on this, and I'm not really even putting it on hiatus, but I won't be updating as much. I'll still reply to the topic if anyone posts here, and I check SDA often, so feel free to offer any advice or tricks you find. thumbsup

I'm in the Southern Expanse now, and I'm starting to have a bit of trouble with the enemies' level advantages. I tend to use my more powerful units, since I'm going for speed, who usually happen to be my high-level Archer, my heavies, my secutor, and Ursula who happens to be a pretty high level. It seems that the other schools' gladiators' levels are based off of your heroes' levels, rather than the rest of your school's levels. If true, then simply only using the heroes when absolutely necessary could save quite a bit of time, since your enemies will be greatly disadvantaged. This may give some use to Legionnaires, since they are the most readily available medium recruits outside of Nordagh, and medium units still have uses, especially against lights. Legionnaires can also unlock Awareness, which makes them last longer.

One possible issue with beating battles quickly is level 14-15 arcane classes. They often equip armor that gives them great frontal defense (I think it's Full Del but I can't remember), which means killing them from a distance will take forever even with a Gungnir or powerful Archer. They are still hopeless against a Secutor with Surprise Attack from the side or back, but they are still annoying.

Also, I may slow down on routing Gladius, since I seem to not be having as much fun as before. I don't want to get sick of this game before I even complete a speedrun. Plus, I have no experience with completing a speedrun, and very little with recording. With a run as incredibly long as one for this game would be, it might be a good idea to work on a more speedrun-friendly game for a little while. I'm definitely not giving up on this, and I'm not really even putting it on hiatus, but I won't be updating as much. I'll still reply to the topic if anyone posts here, and I check SDA often, so feel free to offer any advice or tricks you find. :thumbsup:

superfly360

2013-07-24 01:02:09 pm

In Flames We Trust

I believe one of the biggest priorities currently is to find out specifically what makes your opponents level up. I'm pretty sure it isn't simply the average of all your gladiators, since recruiting a bunch of level 1 units has no effect on your opponents levels. It also doesn't appear to be based on your highest level unit, since you can recruit units several levels above your school's level without affecting enemies' levels. I did some research, and from what little information I could find it is theorized that opponents' levels might be determined by your school's two highest level gladiators. What I have been testing for a little while is whether enemy school's levels are determined by the heroes' levels, which was not considered in the forum topic I found on the subject.

In the topic itself, there was a discussion about how to beat the game with the lowest possible leveled heroes, and a way to do this was to temporarily recruit gladiators slightly higher leveled than your school, which increases your school's level, allowing you to temporarily recruit even higher level units, and so on. The temp aspect is included because it is expensive to recruit permanently, though you could just sell their equipment and see if that balances out. But temp recruiting also keeps the units you use in battle from gaining any experience, at the cost of taking much longer and having no control (the thread wasn't really about speedrunning). So your heroes only get small amounts of experience from a battle, and since they'll be your only permanent units, your enemies' levels will stay low (or at least I think so, considering the users said they have done this, so I'm guessing enemy levels don't take into account temp recruits?). This is an interesting strategy, since your only equipment limitations are based on how many championships you have won, while your enemies have equipment based on their level. So, theoretically, your gladiators could be level one, but if you are at the pro level you can equip the best Caltha equipment while your enemies have level 1 equipment, and hilarity ensues.

I have not gotten far enough into the game to conclude the effects of heroes' levels on enemies' levels, to see if they have more weight than regular recruits. I am in Nordagh, and still have to beat a league and tournament in Mordare, along with the championship. Once I do some battles in Imperia, I should probably know for sure, since Urlan and Ursula (and perhaps Valens) will likely be significantly lower leveled than the rest of my school.

Not sure if I explained it yet, but my initial reason for testing the effects of heroes' levels was because I was using Ursula a lot, along with a few other powerful units, at the expense of most of my other units staying a few levels under my frequently used units. The opponents all seemed to stay around Ursula's level, despite owning a higher level Archer, and numerous other lower leveled units. However, Urlan and Valens were 2 levels lower, and Eiji was 1 level lower.

I believe one of the biggest priorities currently is to find out specifically what makes your opponents level up. I'm pretty sure it isn't simply the average of all your gladiators, since recruiting a bunch of level 1 units has no effect on your opponents levels. It also doesn't appear to be based on your highest level unit, since you can recruit units several levels above your school's level without affecting enemies' levels. I did some research, and from what little information I could find it is theorized that opponents' levels might be determined by your school's two highest level gladiators. What I have been testing for a little while is whether enemy school's levels are determined by the heroes' levels, which was not considered in the forum topic I found on the subject.

In the topic itself, there was a discussion about how to beat the game with the lowest possible leveled heroes, and a way to do this was to temporarily recruit gladiators slightly higher leveled than your school, which increases your school's level, allowing you to temporarily recruit even higher level units, and so on. The temp aspect is included because it is expensive to recruit permanently, though you could just sell their equipment and see if that balances out. But temp recruiting also keeps the units you use in battle from gaining any experience, at the cost of taking much longer and having no control (the thread wasn't really about speedrunning). So your heroes only get small amounts of experience from a battle, and since they'll be your only permanent units, your enemies' levels will stay low (or at least I think so, considering the users said they have done this, so I'm guessing enemy levels don't take into account temp recruits?). This is an interesting strategy, since your only equipment limitations are based on how many championships you have won, while your enemies have equipment based on their level. So, theoretically, your gladiators could be level one, but if you are at the pro level you can equip the best Caltha equipment while your enemies have level 1 equipment, and hilarity ensues.

I have not gotten far enough into the game to conclude the effects of heroes' levels on enemies' levels, to see if they have more weight than regular recruits. I am in Nordagh, and still have to beat a league and tournament in Mordare, along with the championship. Once I do some battles in Imperia, I should probably know for sure, since Urlan and Ursula (and perhaps Valens) will likely be significantly lower leveled than the rest of my school.

Not sure if I explained it yet, but my initial reason for testing the effects of heroes' levels was because I was using Ursula a lot, along with a few other powerful units, at the expense of most of my other units staying a few levels under my frequently used units. The opponents all seemed to stay around Ursula's level, despite owning a higher level Archer, and numerous other lower leveled units. However, Urlan and Valens were 2 levels lower, and Eiji was 1 level lower.

Heidrage

2013-07-24 01:22:15 pm

Willing to teach you the impossible

Just posting to say dont stop posting. Sorry I dont have anything to help with as i am still trying to get a copy for gamecube (got it for xbox but wont play on 360). This is good reading though.

superfly360

Edit history:

superfly360: 2013-07-25 01:06:05 pm

superfly360: 2013-07-25 01:05:27 pm

2013-07-25 12:38:00 pm

In Flames We Trust

Quote from Heidrage:

Just posting to say dont stop posting. Sorry I dont have anything to help with as i am still trying to get a copy for gamecube (got it for xbox but wont play on 360). This is good reading though.

Thanks, it's nice to know. If you haven't already, check out the knowledge base entry for Gladius I made. It's in one of the previous posts. I'll be updating this thread with any new information I come across. Though I'm playing a little more casually at this point, but that will change if I commit to a speedrun.

I'm starting to have doubts with my theory on enemy levels. I'm in Imperia now, with several level 4 non-hero gladiators, with Urlan and Ursula being level 3. My enemies are still around level 4, and I don't recall them being a level higher than the heroes in my other playthroughs where I actually used and leveled up Urlan and Ursula in Nordagh. I'm still going to play around more with this idea though, and wait until the heroes are 2-3 levels lower than the rest of my school before making any conclusions. It would be pretty awesome for the speedrun if this is how enemy levels work, because exploiting it would be rather simple.

Another possible idea I plan on trying out is permanently recruiting gladiators and then expelling them before they level up and hiring replacements. This is similar to the concept in my last post where temporary recruits were used throughout to keep enemies from leveling up. Using permanent recruits will give me control over the units, and I can just sell their equipment to make up for the cost for most units (especially heavies because of their armor). I am not sure how effective this is, as I have not played around with it at all, but I'll update the thread when I test the idea.

EDIT: Also, initiative progressively loses significance as you get farther in the game. Basically, if your initiative doubles another unit's initiative, you will receive about twice as many turns. But initiative rises at an identical rate for all classes, so not wearing armor will eventually not help very much. In other words, a gladiator with 20 initiative will have a much greater advantage over a unit with 10 initiative than a gladiator with 120 INI would have over a unit with 110 INI.

[quote="Heidrage"]Just posting to say dont stop posting. Sorry I dont have anything to help with as i am still trying to get a copy for gamecube (got it for xbox but wont play on 360). This is good reading though.[/quote]
Thanks, it's nice to know. If you haven't already, check out the knowledge base entry for Gladius I made. It's in one of the previous posts. I'll be updating this thread with any new information I come across. Though I'm playing a little more casually at this point, but that will change if I commit to a speedrun.

I'm starting to have doubts with my theory on enemy levels. I'm in Imperia now, with several level 4 non-hero gladiators, with Urlan and Ursula being level 3. My enemies are still around level 4, and I don't recall them being a level higher than the heroes in my other playthroughs where I actually used and leveled up Urlan and Ursula in Nordagh. I'm still going to play around more with this idea though, and wait until the heroes are 2-3 levels lower than the rest of my school before making any conclusions. It would be pretty awesome for the speedrun if this is how enemy levels work, because exploiting it would be rather simple.

Another possible idea I plan on trying out is permanently recruiting gladiators and then expelling them before they level up and hiring replacements. This is similar to the concept in my last post where temporary recruits were used throughout to keep enemies from leveling up. Using permanent recruits will give me control over the units, and I can just sell their equipment to make up for the cost for most units (especially heavies because of their armor). I am not sure how effective this is, as I have not played around with it at all, but I'll update the thread when I test the idea.

EDIT: Also, initiative progressively loses significance as you get farther in the game. Basically, if your initiative doubles another unit's initiative, you will receive about twice as many turns. But initiative rises at an identical rate for all classes, so not wearing armor will eventually not help very much. In other words, a gladiator with 20 initiative will have a much greater advantage over a unit with 10 initiative than a gladiator with 120 INI would have over a unit with 110 INI.

superfly360

2013-08-09 08:05:50 pm

In Flames We Trust

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I picked the game back up and continued my search for what determines enemy levels. In Imperia, my recruited Barbarian (not Urlan) and Yeti are level 5, while Urlan and Ursula are level 3. Everyone else in my school is level 4. Despite this, my enemies seem to still be based around level 5. This gives support to the theory that enemy levels are based on your 2 highest level gladiators. But then again, recruiting units 3-4 levels higher than your school's gladiators is possible in the Windward Steppes, and I haven't noticed the enemies levels suddenly jumping. But I have never recruited more than one unit in the Windward Steppes I believe, so maybe I'll test this theory by recruiting 2 high level units and observing what happens to enemy levels.

So here's the theories I've thought of and their evidence:

Average of all your school's gladiators
- Evidence for: Appears to be so when playing the game normally.
- Evidence against: Using only the most powerful units for each battle, rather than balancing your school's levels, will make your enemies have levels roughly equivalent to your highest leveled gladiators. Also, recruiting several level 1 gladiators late in the game has no effect on enemies.
- Verdict: Definitely incorrect

Average of heroes' levels:
- Evidence for: Ursula is powerful even late in the game, and using her often will make her a higher level than lesser used gladiators. The enemies seem to have kept up with her level in a playthrough.
- Evidence against: Not using the heroes at all, except when absolutely necessary, does not seem to effect enemy levels. Specifically, having your 3 heroes early in Imperia at level 3, with the rest of your school at 4-5, will not result in level 3 enemies.
- Verdict: Probably incorrect, but more testing may be worthwhile

Average of 2 highest level gladiators:
- Evidence for: Basically all of the evidence against the other theories supports this theory. In a recent playthrough, as soon as 2 of my units leveled up to 5, the enemies seemed to also level up to 5, despite the rest of my school being level 3-4. Also, recruiting a single unit in the Windward Steppes that is several levels higher than the rest of your school will not drastically change your enemies' levels.
- Evidence against: Not much so far, but I definitely still need to do more testing. One possible refutation could be that recruiting a higher level unit in the Windward Steppes doesn't seem to have any effect on enemy levels, rather than a moderate effect.

The avg. of 2 highest leveled units theory seems to be the most likely currently. I'll play around some more, and try to think of some exploits I could use.

One possible strategy could be expelling units after they reach a certain level, and hiring a replacement. I don't know if enemy level changes are permanent though. Also, I'm unsure if expelled gladiators keep their experience gained while with you, or if it resets back to the lowest amount at whatever level their at, like all other recruits (IE if a gladiator levels up to 2 at 500 experience, all recruitable level 2 units will have 500 experience when you recruit them. Maybe expelled ones will as well?). If it does reset, perhaps I could expel gladiators just before they level up, and rehire them, since they usually end up in the recruitment office in the nearest town.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I picked the game back up and continued my search for what determines enemy levels. In Imperia, my recruited Barbarian (not Urlan) and Yeti are level 5, while Urlan and Ursula are level 3. Everyone else in my school is level 4. Despite this, my enemies seem to still be based around level 5. This gives support to the theory that enemy levels are based on your 2 highest level gladiators. But then again, recruiting units 3-4 levels higher than your school's gladiators is possible in the Windward Steppes, and I haven't noticed the enemies levels suddenly jumping. But I have never recruited more than one unit in the Windward Steppes I believe, so maybe I'll test this theory by recruiting 2 high level units and observing what happens to enemy levels.

So here's the theories I've thought of and their evidence:

[b]Average of all your school's gladiators[/b]
- Evidence for: Appears to be so when playing the game normally.
- Evidence against: Using only the most powerful units for each battle, rather than balancing your school's levels, will make your enemies have levels roughly equivalent to your highest leveled gladiators. Also, recruiting several level 1 gladiators late in the game has no effect on enemies.
- Verdict: Definitely incorrect

[b]Average of heroes' levels:[/b]
- Evidence for: Ursula is powerful even late in the game, and using her often will make her a higher level than lesser used gladiators. The enemies seem to have kept up with her level in a playthrough.
- Evidence against: Not using the heroes at all, except when absolutely necessary, does not seem to effect enemy levels. Specifically, having your 3 heroes early in Imperia at level 3, with the rest of your school at 4-5, will not result in level 3 enemies.
- Verdict: Probably incorrect, but more testing may be worthwhile

[b]Average of 2 highest level gladiators:[/b]
- Evidence for: Basically all of the evidence against the other theories supports this theory. In a recent playthrough, as soon as 2 of my units leveled up to 5, the enemies seemed to also level up to 5, despite the rest of my school being level 3-4. Also, recruiting a single unit in the Windward Steppes that is several levels higher than the rest of your school will not drastically change your enemies' levels.
- Evidence against: Not much so far, but I definitely still need to do more testing. One possible refutation could be that recruiting a higher level unit in the Windward Steppes doesn't seem to have [i]any[/i] effect on enemy levels, rather than a moderate effect.

The avg. of 2 highest leveled units theory seems to be the most likely currently. I'll play around some more, and try to think of some exploits I could use.

One possible strategy could be expelling units after they reach a certain level, and hiring a replacement. I don't know if enemy level changes are permanent though. Also, I'm unsure if expelled gladiators keep their experience gained while with you, or if it resets back to the lowest amount at whatever level their at, like all other recruits (IE if a gladiator levels up to 2 at 500 experience, all recruitable level 2 units will have 500 experience when you recruit them. Maybe expelled ones will as well?). If it does reset, perhaps I could expel gladiators just before they level up, and rehire them, since they usually end up in the recruitment office in the nearest town.

superfly360

Edit history:

superfly360: 2013-08-10 02:07:11 am

2013-08-10 02:06:09 am

In Flames We Trust

I'm now pretty sure the 2 highest leveled units theory is rather accurate. I just expelled my 2 level 5 gladiators, with the rest of my school being 3-4, and the enemies levels suddenly dropped to levels 3-4. Expelling only one of the level 5 units just gave me a higher proportion of level 4 enemies than level 3 enemies, since it was averaging the level 4 & 5 gladiators' levels (I think at least). I'm still going to play around some more to make sure this is the correct theory. If it is, it's nice that I know what makes enemies level up, but it isn't quite as exploitable as the other theories if they were true. Recruiting a bunch of level 1 gladiators is useless, for example. I guess I could avoid using the heroes, and expel units when they level up pass the heroes, but that would prevent me from using optimal units at times, and I would be unable to control skill unlocks. Samnite and Centurion recruits don't unlock Combo Attacks on their own until much later than you would normally recruit them.

One thing I should probably determine is how experience is distributed. It could just be a set amount for each enemy you kill given to each gladiator, with less given to those who didn't fight. Or it could be given more to the individual gladiators who get kills. I'm pretty sure it's the former, but I will need to confirm it. It may be possible to exploit the experience gained and earn as little experience as possible, if doing so would reduce time (I need to remember that I'm going for speed, not just staying as low a level as possible).

EDIT: Sorry about the double post. I meant to edit the above post but accidentally clicked the quote button haha.

I'm now pretty sure the 2 highest leveled units theory is rather accurate. I just expelled my 2 level 5 gladiators, with the rest of my school being 3-4, and the enemies levels suddenly dropped to levels 3-4. Expelling only one of the level 5 units just gave me a higher proportion of level 4 enemies than level 3 enemies, since it was averaging the level 4 & 5 gladiators' levels (I think at least). I'm still going to play around some more to make sure this is the correct theory. If it is, it's nice that I know what makes enemies level up, but it isn't quite as exploitable as the other theories if they were true. Recruiting a bunch of level 1 gladiators is useless, for example. I guess I could avoid using the heroes, and expel units when they level up pass the heroes, but that would prevent me from using optimal units at times, and I would be unable to control skill unlocks. Samnite and Centurion recruits don't unlock Combo Attacks on their own until much later than you would normally recruit them.

One thing I should probably determine is how experience is distributed. It could just be a set amount for each enemy you kill given to each gladiator, with less given to those who didn't fight. Or it could be given more to the individual gladiators who get kills. I'm pretty sure it's the former, but I will need to confirm it. It may be possible to exploit the experience gained and earn as little experience as possible, if doing so would reduce time (I need to remember that I'm going for speed, not just staying as low a level as possible).

EDIT: Sorry about the double post. I meant to edit the above post but accidentally clicked the quote button haha.

superfly360

Edit history:

superfly360: 2014-01-28 11:02:50 pm

2014-01-27 10:53:27 pm

In Flames We Trust

I may start working on this game again haha.

Not much new info, but I have some ideas and strategies.

Since enemy levels are almost certainly based on your 2 highest gladiators' levels, it's probably best to keep your most useful gladiators at a pretty consistent level. IE it may be faster in the short run to use the same gladiators in every battle for a while, but your other gladiators will be at a great disadvantage later on due to the lower experience.

Monitoring the specific amounts of experience gained in each battle seems to be possible and therefore can be used to plan out leveling up. Leveling up for the most part just makes the enemies harder so there may be some tradeoffs with battles. For example, maybe one battle is faster than an alternate battle, but it awards more experience and therefore levels you up faster. Another strategy would be with King of the Hill and Dominance battles, since they can be won either by killing your enemies or scoring points on the hill/s. Maybe you could save a minute or 2 by just killing your enemies, but you will gain more experience as a result.

Points battles are easily exploitable, but I'm not sure if they are faster than normal battles if there are alternatives in a league. Perhaps a battle where you have to kill all your enemies would actually take longer than the timed points battles. This will probably have to be on a case-by-case basis.

Planning affinities seems to be useful, since some leagues require certain affinities (notably, the one in the Southern Expanse that requires 4 fire affinity gladiators). You can just switch your gladiator's weapons and/or armor to the proper affinity, but this wastes time if I could have planned their affinities from the beginning. Investing in at least one affinity attack for melee gladiators doesn't seem like a bad idea. Undead classes take a lot of damage from affinity attacks, and they have short animations (no swing meter). In addition to never being blocked, affinity attacks deal more damage than a normal strike and do not use any action points, so they can be used to finish off an enemy when a normal strike couldn't.

The vast majority of status-effect/special attacks besides combos and long throws/shots seem pretty useless for a speedrun. Brute force almost always works better and faster.

It would be wise to avoid redundant strikes and movement. I often find myself, when I'm playing casually, moving a gladiator to prepare to attack an enemy, only to kill it with another gladiator before the first one gets there. Simply passing would save time. Also, move-to-attack strikes may not always be necessary, if the damage from your next moves alone would kill the enemy. Related to this, unlocking Combo Attack 1 and 3 would be worth doing later in the game, to save a few seconds from redundant extra strikes in the combo attacks that would otherwise be unavoidable.

Apparently the Executioner's Sword can be found by searching the beach in Imperia, but it's apparently quite a bitch to find, and doing it in a speedrun might be mind-numbing for me. Still, it would be fantastic for the run if I was to find this at the semi-pro level. My Centurion would be unstoppable for pretty much the rest of the game.

Something I've noticed is that the recruitment office doesn't always have certain gladiators available. This will be a little annoying when trying to speedrun, but isn't too big of a deal.

This may already be assumed to those who have played Gladius, but Valens's and Ursula's story will probably be counted as 2 different runs. Their starting location, along with the gain (and loss) of characters in their stories make them require different routes and strategies. Ursula's would probably be a bit faster, due to the lower leveled Berzerkers and a few other factors.

EDIT: I just thought of a potential strategy for speedrunning this. I could try a route where I only use the main heroes when absolutely necessary (IE required for a battle), and fire my other gladiators when I get to the Windward Steppes. This will likely make the beginning half of the game slower than theoretically possible, but the long run savings in time would probably be worth it. This is because, as I've explained, enemy levels are based on your two highest leveled gladiators' levels. Firing your gladiators as they become higher leveled will reduce your enemies' levels.

Combined with another exploit, this seems like a very interesting strategy. The equipment (notably weapons) that enemies have is based almost entirely on their level. On the other hand, the equipment your gladiators equip is based solely on your school's rank. So it's possible to be fighting low leveled enemies with low level equipment while your gladiators, despite being low leveled as well, will have the best equipment in the game. You will, in theory at least, be able to much more quickly, easily, and efficiently kill your enemies.

It might even be a good idea to fire your higher leveled gladiators in Imperia, replacing them with new Imperial units. This will lower your enemies levels and you will still be able to use Imperia's best equipment.

There are potential drawbacks though. Leveling up non-hero gladiators in Nordagh will require more battles, since Urlan and Ursula will have experience from the first few battles in the game, along with several battles in Nordagh where they are required to compete. Leagues in Mordare, Sloan Forest, and Vargen require level 3 gladiators, so it is almost certain that extra battles will need to be fought to allow you to compete in those towns. Also, buying good equipment at an early equipment will be more expensive, since you will have more gladiators. Also, controlling which skills I unlock will be out of the picture outside of heroes, since I will be firing all my units after they level up a just a few times, and recruit new ones in their place.

Assuming all goes well with this strategy, the effects should be especially noticeable when I get to the Windward Steppes, since I will be able to equip Caltha's best equipment, while my enemies will be equipped with much lower level equipment. Not only will they have less powerful weapons and less abilities, they will have lower health due to their lower level and their weaker armor.

If I do this, I will have to plan ahead for which gladiators I recruit in the Windward Steppes, since I will have to buy their equipment in Caltha before I actually recruit them. Also, keeping track of required units, like arcane units and specific affinities, would be very wise.

I may start working on this game again haha.

Not much new info, but I have some ideas and strategies.

Since enemy levels are almost certainly based on your 2 highest gladiators' levels, it's probably best to keep your most useful gladiators at a pretty consistent level. IE it may be faster in the short run to use the same gladiators in every battle for a while, but your other gladiators will be at a great disadvantage later on due to the lower experience.

Monitoring the specific amounts of experience gained in each battle seems to be possible and therefore can be used to plan out leveling up. Leveling up for the most part just makes the enemies harder so there may be some tradeoffs with battles. For example, maybe one battle is faster than an alternate battle, but it awards more experience and therefore levels you up faster. Another strategy would be with King of the Hill and Dominance battles, since they can be won either by killing your enemies or scoring points on the hill/s. Maybe you could save a minute or 2 by just killing your enemies, but you will gain more experience as a result.

Points battles are easily exploitable, but I'm not sure if they are faster than normal battles if there are alternatives in a league. Perhaps a battle where you have to kill all your enemies would actually take longer than the timed points battles. This will probably have to be on a case-by-case basis.

Planning affinities seems to be useful, since some leagues require certain affinities (notably, the one in the Southern Expanse that requires 4 fire affinity gladiators). You can just switch your gladiator's weapons and/or armor to the proper affinity, but this wastes time if I could have planned their affinities from the beginning. Investing in at least one affinity attack for melee gladiators doesn't seem like a bad idea. Undead classes take a lot of damage from affinity attacks, and they have short animations (no swing meter). In addition to never being blocked, affinity attacks deal more damage than a normal strike and do not use any action points, so they can be used to finish off an enemy when a normal strike couldn't.

The vast majority of status-effect/special attacks besides combos and long throws/shots seem pretty useless for a speedrun. Brute force almost always works better and faster.

It would be wise to avoid redundant strikes and movement. I often find myself, when I'm playing casually, moving a gladiator to prepare to attack an enemy, only to kill it with another gladiator before the first one gets there. Simply passing would save time. Also, move-to-attack strikes may not always be necessary, if the damage from your next moves alone would kill the enemy. Related to this, unlocking Combo Attack 1 and 3 would be worth doing later in the game, to save a few seconds from redundant extra strikes in the combo attacks that would otherwise be unavoidable.

Apparently the Executioner's Sword can be found by searching the beach in Imperia, but it's apparently quite a bitch to find, and doing it in a speedrun might be mind-numbing for me. Still, it would be fantastic for the run if I was to find this at the semi-pro level. My Centurion would be unstoppable for pretty much the rest of the game.

Something I've noticed is that the recruitment office doesn't always have certain gladiators available. This will be a little annoying when trying to speedrun, but isn't too big of a deal.

This may already be assumed to those who have played Gladius, but Valens's and Ursula's story will probably be counted as 2 different runs. Their starting location, along with the gain (and loss) of characters in their stories make them require different routes and strategies. Ursula's would probably be a bit faster, due to the lower leveled Berzerkers and a few other factors.

EDIT: I just thought of a potential strategy for speedrunning this. I could try a route where I only use the main heroes when absolutely necessary (IE required for a battle), and fire my other gladiators when I get to the Windward Steppes. This will likely make the beginning half of the game slower than theoretically possible, but the long run savings in time would probably be worth it. This is because, as I've explained, enemy levels are based on your two highest leveled gladiators' levels. Firing your gladiators as they become higher leveled will reduce your enemies' levels.

Combined with another exploit, this seems like a very interesting strategy. The equipment (notably weapons) that enemies have is based almost entirely on their level. On the other hand, the equipment your gladiators equip is based solely on your school's rank. So it's possible to be fighting low leveled enemies with low level equipment while your gladiators, despite being low leveled as well, will have the best equipment in the game. You will, in theory at least, be able to much more quickly, easily, and efficiently kill your enemies.

It might even be a good idea to fire your higher leveled gladiators in Imperia, replacing them with new Imperial units. This will lower your enemies levels and you will still be able to use Imperia's best equipment.

There are potential drawbacks though. Leveling up non-hero gladiators in Nordagh will require more battles, since Urlan and Ursula will have experience from the first few battles in the game, along with several battles in Nordagh where they are required to compete. Leagues in Mordare, Sloan Forest, and Vargen require level 3 gladiators, so it is almost certain that extra battles will need to be fought to allow you to compete in those towns. Also, buying good equipment at an early equipment will be more expensive, since you will have more gladiators. Also, controlling which skills I unlock will be out of the picture outside of heroes, since I will be firing all my units after they level up a just a few times, and recruit new ones in their place.

Assuming all goes well with this strategy, the effects should be especially noticeable when I get to the Windward Steppes, since I will be able to equip Caltha's best equipment, while my enemies will be equipped with much lower level equipment. Not only will they have less powerful weapons and less abilities, they will have lower health due to their lower level and their weaker armor.

If I do this, I will have to plan ahead for which gladiators I recruit in the Windward Steppes, since I will have to buy their equipment in Caltha before I actually recruit them. Also, keeping track of required units, like arcane units and specific affinities, would be very wise.

superfly360

2014-01-30 08:49:10 pm

In Flames We Trust

I'm almost done with Nordagh using my strategy of only using non-hero units. Here are some things I've learned so far.

- The Dead of Night League isn't too hard if you have Iaar the Yeti and 2 Barbarians. The fourth unit can be a Gungnir, which won't be useful, but recruiting some other unit might help I guess. Having the damage reduction accessory will also help.

- The Trial of the Elders league in Vaargen is rather difficult using this strategy, since one battle requires you to use Ursula who is lower leveled than the other gladiators. She can still effectively take out at level 2 a level 4 Yeti, if she has the damage reduction accessory, and if her first move is Empower Self. This way she'll block a lot of attacks and take little damage when she does get hit. If a level 5 Yeti is your opponent, exit and try again. The other battles aren't too difficult, and you don't have to use your heroes.

- You will definitely have to do extra battles to level up your non-hero gladiators to level 3 in order to unlock a bunch of leagues. This can be done in one of the leagues in Fliuch, but more work will have to go into which battles will level you up quickly.

- One Vandal Battle in Vaargen only ends if you kill all your enemies or time runs out. Destroying all barrels will not end the battle. This is the only Vandal Battle I know of that does this. So just killing your enemies should be the goal here. I'm not sure if this battle will be necessary at all in a speedrun though.

- Equipping gladiators with damage reduction accessories seems like a good strategy since it will half damage received, which may remove the need for armor, especially if your gladiators have high level weapons and your enemies have low level weapons. Still, it may be better to equip accessories with better abilities (like supreme critical) and armor that offers even more bonuses. Initiative loses relevance as levels increase due to how it's designed.

- I plan on firing all my non-hero gladiators as soon as I get to Imperia, and hiring new ones in their place. What I could do to have enough money (if I happen to not have enough) to purchase both their equipment for Imperia's battles and the Caltha equipment is sell all of their equipment that has no use to me, and perhaps hire a few extra gladiators and sell their equipment; the armor alone for mediums and heavies is worth more than their recruitment cost is. One thing to keep in mind is that a gladiator must have a weapon equipped at all times, so I'd have to equip them with a cheaper weapon in order to sell their equipped weapon.

- After my school becomes pro after winning Imperia's championship, I can start using my heroes. I will have the best equipment in the game at this point (besides the stuff unlocked near the very end of the game). Although it still might be worth trying to continue the strategy and just fire the gladiators after they level up once or twice, and keep the enemies at a lower level for longer. This might end up taking more time than keeping them though, and I will not be able to use my heroes when it would save more time to do so. They will inherently be better than similar classes since I will have had much more control over their skills.

Any thoughts?

I'm almost done with Nordagh using my strategy of only using non-hero units. Here are some things I've learned so far.

- The Dead of Night League isn't too hard if you have Iaar the Yeti and 2 Barbarians. The fourth unit can be a Gungnir, which won't be useful, but recruiting some other unit might help I guess. Having the damage reduction accessory will also help.

- The Trial of the Elders league in Vaargen is rather difficult using this strategy, since one battle requires you to use Ursula who is lower leveled than the other gladiators. She can still effectively take out at level 2 a level 4 Yeti, if she has the damage reduction accessory, and if her first move is Empower Self. This way she'll block a lot of attacks and take little damage when she does get hit. If a level 5 Yeti is your opponent, exit and try again. The other battles aren't too difficult, and you don't have to use your heroes.

- You will definitely have to do extra battles to level up your non-hero gladiators to level 3 in order to unlock a bunch of leagues. This can be done in one of the leagues in Fliuch, but more work will have to go into which battles will level you up quickly.

- One Vandal Battle in Vaargen only ends if you kill all your enemies or time runs out. Destroying all barrels will not end the battle. This is the only Vandal Battle I know of that does this. So just killing your enemies should be the goal here. I'm not sure if this battle will be necessary at all in a speedrun though.

-  Equipping gladiators with damage reduction accessories seems like a good strategy since it will half damage received, which may remove the need for armor, especially if your gladiators have high level weapons and your enemies have low level weapons. Still, it may be better to equip accessories with better abilities (like supreme critical) and armor that offers even more bonuses. Initiative loses relevance as levels increase due to how it's designed.

- I plan on firing all my non-hero gladiators as soon as I get to Imperia, and hiring new ones in their place. What I could do to have enough money (if I happen to not have enough) to purchase both their equipment for Imperia's battles and the Caltha equipment is sell all of their equipment that has no use to me, and perhaps hire a few extra gladiators and sell their equipment; the armor alone for mediums and heavies is worth more than their recruitment cost is. One thing to keep in mind is that a gladiator must have a weapon equipped at all times, so I'd have to equip them with a cheaper weapon in order to sell their equipped weapon.

- After my school becomes pro after winning Imperia's championship, I can start using my heroes. I will have the best equipment in the game at this point (besides the stuff unlocked near the very end of the game). Although it still might be worth trying to continue the strategy and just fire the gladiators after they level up once or twice, and keep the enemies at a lower level for longer. This might end up taking more time than keeping them though, and I will not be able to use my heroes when it would save more time to do so. They will inherently be better than similar classes since I will have had much more control over their skills.

Any thoughts?

superfly360

2014-02-05 09:56:56 am

In Flames We Trust

I'm currently in Imperia, and am having a lot of trouble. You must expel your non-hero gladiators before moving to Imperia, or else the expel option will not be given to you. I arrived in Imperia when Urlan and Ursula were level 3, but all of the gladiators I can recruit in Belfort are level 2, with the exception of a level 3 Bandit. You must complete one league in Belfort before being aloud to leave. What I did is just recruit level 2 units and equip them with good equipment. This makes battles still winnable, despite occasionally fighting a higher level enemy or 2.

After beating the one league in Belfort, you are forced to go to Syrna. I can't remember if you have to beat a league here, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to beat the all-female required league while here. At this point in Imperia I was able to recruit level 3 gladiators in the recruitment office, so I unequipped and sold/reused my other gladiators equipment and expelled them, replacing them with newer level 3 gladiators. One big issue I reached at this point was when Urlan and Ursula leveled up to 4, again basically requiring me to expel my gladiators AGAIN as to avoid either very difficult or time consuming battles. After leaving Belfort, you are taken to Pirgos, which is where I'm currently at.

Some random issues in Imperia include not being able to buy equipment for some of your gladiators in some towns, but you can't move on until you complete a league in that town. Also, as I explained above, Urlan and Ursula level up to 4 after completing a few leagues in Imperia, even if you don't use them. The temporary solution to the first could be to buy some extra weapons in Nordagh for them, and then buy better ones when you can in Imperia. As for the second problem, perhaps doing some extra battles in Nordagh so Urlan and Ursula level up to 4 right before arriving in Imperia would allow recruitment of units that won't be underpowered compared to your enemies.

Another issue I'm having is the skills unlocked by recruited units. I've found none that have combo attacks, with the most powerful attack often being an inaccurate status-effect attack like Target Leg, which can't hit critical. Most of them don't even have Running Attack. Secutors are the only ones not affected by this very much, since they have Running Attack and Surprise Attack at least at level 2, which is fantastic. Recruited gladiators start with 0 Job Points, and obtain 10 Job Points with each level they achieve after being recruited. Combo Attack 2 requires 12 Job Points, meaning I'll have to level up recruited gladiators twice in order to unlock it. This takes a long time, especially considering I won't be completing battles nearly as quickly as I would had I been able to use Combo Attack 2. Perhaps unlocking Combo Attack 1 would save a lot of time, despite not being the most efficient use of Job Points in theory? After all, I'm going to expel them as soon as I get to the Windward Steppes, so in-the-long-run planning is irrelevant to recruits in Imperia.

Any thoughts?

I'm currently in Imperia, and am having a lot of trouble. You must expel your non-hero gladiators before moving to Imperia, or else the expel option will not be given to you. I arrived in Imperia when Urlan and Ursula were level 3, but all of the gladiators I can recruit in Belfort are level 2, with the exception of a level 3 Bandit. You must complete one league in Belfort before being aloud to leave. What I did is just recruit level 2 units and equip them with good equipment. This makes battles still winnable, despite occasionally fighting a higher level enemy or 2.

After beating the one league in Belfort, you are forced to go to Syrna. I can't remember if you have to beat a league here, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to beat the all-female required league while here. At this point in Imperia I was able to recruit level 3 gladiators in the recruitment office, so I unequipped and sold/reused my other gladiators equipment and expelled them, replacing them with newer level 3 gladiators. One big issue I reached at this point was when Urlan and Ursula leveled up to 4, again basically requiring me to expel my gladiators AGAIN as to avoid either very difficult or time consuming battles. After leaving Belfort, you are taken to Pirgos, which is where I'm currently at.

Some random issues in Imperia include not being able to buy equipment for some of your gladiators in some towns, but you can't move on until you complete a league in that town. Also, as I explained above, Urlan and Ursula level up to 4 after completing a few leagues in Imperia, even if you don't use them. The temporary solution to the first could be to buy some extra weapons in Nordagh for them, and then buy better ones when you can in Imperia. As for the second problem, perhaps doing some extra battles in Nordagh so Urlan and Ursula level up to 4 right before arriving in Imperia would allow recruitment of units that won't be underpowered compared to your enemies.

Another issue I'm having is the skills unlocked by recruited units. I've found none that have combo attacks, with the most powerful attack often being an inaccurate status-effect attack like Target Leg, which can't hit critical. Most of them don't even have Running Attack. Secutors are the only ones not affected by this very much, since they have Running Attack and Surprise Attack at least at level 2, which is fantastic. Recruited gladiators start with 0 Job Points, and obtain 10 Job Points with each level they achieve after being recruited. Combo Attack 2 requires 12 Job Points, meaning I'll have to level up recruited gladiators twice in order to unlock it. This takes a long time, especially considering I won't be completing battles nearly as quickly as I would had I been able to use Combo Attack 2. Perhaps unlocking Combo Attack 1 would save a lot of time, despite not being the most efficient use of Job Points in theory? After all, I'm going to expel them as soon as I get to the Windward Steppes, so in-the-long-run planning is irrelevant to recruits in Imperia.

Any thoughts?