Gladius/Ursula

Everything from here on is based on a playthrough of Ursula's story

• When Ursula and Urlan level up for the first time, unlock Combo Attack 2. This will make them very powerful for much of Nordagh.
• Recruiting Jeanne the Gungnir in Fliuch is recommended as your school's first recruit.
• As soon as Ursula gets to level 3, go to Vargen and complete the Trial of the Elders league. The last battle in this league will be much easier than if it was done at a later level. This will unlock Iaar the Yeti. He's very powerful at this point since he's the only heavy unit you can recruit in Nordagh.
• Kingdom Open in Orin's Keep must be completed in order to complete enough leagues in Roanor.
• It is recommended (or maybe even necessary) to complete Circle of Elites Qualifier in Roanor, as it opens up the Circle of Elites Tier 1 leagues in other towns.

Current Battle/League Route:

• This is basically a rough draft. Some aspects, especially which units to choose for each battle, definitely need more work.

Nordagh

Fliuch

• Arena Certification
  • Final Exam (Urlan and Ursula)

Recruit Jeanne and Lowry

Visit The Stopover and leave after talking (you can't afford much yet)

Roanor

• Circle of Elites Qualifier
  • Points Battle (Urlan and Jeanne)
  • King of the Hill (Urlan and Lowry)
  • Basic Battle (Urlan and Ursula)

Orin

• Kingdom Open
  • Clash of Kings (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne, and Lowry)
  • Dominance (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne, and Lowry)
  • Rival Nations (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne, and Lowry)
• League of Northern Pride
  • Contest of Honor 2 (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne, and Lowry)
  • Rival Nations (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne, and Lowry)
  • Contest of Honor 3 (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne, and Lowry)
  • The Sack of Belfort (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne, and Lowry)
• Orin's Keep Tournament
  • Orin Tournament (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne, and Lowry)

Sell useless equipment, and buy best equipment (Specifics will be put here later; some of the best equipment you acquire from winning previous battles)

Roanor

• The Duel
  • Duel 1 (Ursula)
  • Duel 4 (Urlan) Starting on the rock will give you a height advantage, which is helpful but may not be necessary.
• Roanor Tournament
  • Roanor Tournament (Jeanne and Lowry)

Fliuch

• League of Redemption
  • Atonement 1 (Ursula, Lowry, and Jeanne)
  • Atonement 3 (Ursula and Jeanne)
• Contest of the Free Peoples
  • Vandal Battle (Ursula, Lowry, and Jeanne)
  • Freedom Fight 1 (Ursula, Lowry, and Jeanne)
  • King of the Hill (Ursula, Lowry, and Jeanne)
• Circle of Elites Tier 1
  • Points Battle (Ursula and Jeanne)
  • Basic Battle (Ursula, Jeanne, and Lowry)
  • Rival Nations (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne, and Lowry)
• Fliuch Tournament
  • Freedom Tourney (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne, and Lowry)

Vargen

• Ahead of the Pack
  • Series (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne) Leave after winning second battle
• Hordes of the North
  • Series (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne, and Lowry) Leave after winning second battle
• Trial of the Elders
  • Basic Trial (Urlan, Ursula, and Jeanne)
  • Strict Trial (Ursula and Jeanne)
  • Adverse Trial (Ursula) Keep backing out and then reentering battle until your opponent is level 3

Recruit Iaar, and equip him with either Bone Club or Dabus (same damage, but different Affinities)

• Vargen Tournament
  • Masters of Ice (Ursula, Iaar, Jeanne, and Lowry)

Mordare

• Test of the Tribes
  • Sacred Battle [1] (Ursula, Jeanne, and Lowry)
  • Sacred Battle [2] (Ursula and Jeanne)
  • Sacred Battle [3] (Urlan and Lowry)
• Circle of Elites Tier 1
  • Points Battle (Iaar, Jeanne, and Lowry)
  • Basic Battle (Iaar, Ursula, and Lowry)
  • Rival Nations (Iaar, Urlan, Jeanne, and Lowry)
• The Dead of Night This must be done at nighttime, so this can be fought before/after some of the other leagues if necessary
  • Series (Iaar, Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne) Jeanne will be pretty useless except for her Exploding Javelins.
• Dragonheart Open
  • Wyrmbelly Brawl 1 (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne, and Iaar)
  • Vandal Battle (Jeanne, Lowry, and Iaar)
  • Dragon's Fury (Jeanne, Lowry, and Iaar)
• Mordare's Den Tournament
  • Heart of the Dragon (Iaar, Jeanne, and Lowry)

Sloan Forest

• Dreas Open League
  • Sylvan Skirmish (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne, and Lowry)
  • King of the Hill (Ursula, Jeanne, Iaar) Lots of variables in this battle, which units you choose is variable. Also, you will probably actually have to go for the hill.
  • Points Battle (Jeanne and Lowry)
• Fight the Bear
  • Bear Battle 3 (Ursula and Jeanne)
• To the Wolves
  • Wolf Battle 3 (Ursula, Urlan, and Jeanne)
• Sloan Forest Tournament
  • Forest Kings (Ursula, Urlan, and Jeanne) Try to get 3 Satyrs. If everything goes right, you can kill them all in your Gladiators first turns.

Orin

• Nordagh Regional Championship
  • Championship (Ursula, Jeanne, Lowry)

This seems to work well so far. Recruiting 2 Gungnirs works great in Nordagh. It also allows for entry into more battles than if you just recruited one, and only had 3 gladiators. This lets you build up more experience and obtain level 3 for three gladiators, letting you complete Trial of the Elders and unlock Iaar. The specifics for each battle need to be worked out, along with which units are best for them both specific to each battle and in the long run.

Imperia

Route not planned yet.

• In Belfort, you must complete a league in order to leave. Ideally, you would go for Best of Belfort since it's a required badge and gives you enough cups for the tournament, but you need 15% popularity. More work needs to go into battles that increase popularity fast. Once a league is completed, you will be forced to leave Belfort, so you will need to come back to beat the tournament.
• Samnites and Centurions are obviously good choices for recruits, but they don't have any Combo Attacks at least at level 5. They still do decent damage, but it will take a while for them to actually be very useful.
• Unlocking the Minotaur in Cro Beska is certainly a good idea in non-speedrun gameplay, but whether or not it would save time in a speedrun is not known. You have to go quite a bit out of your way to unlock him, including beating the league to receive the quest and waiting 7 days after being assigned the quest. Still, he is incredibly powerful, but it's unknown if the time he saves throughout the rest of the game will make up for the time spent unlocking him.
• Recruiting a Secutor is a good idea, since they do massive damage with Surprise Attack from behind. Their usefulness slowly diminishes as time goes on since opponents will start acquiring Awareness, but they will still speed up the game in the beginning.
• It is possible that you can buy equipment from Caltha and wait until you travel to the Windward Steppes to equip it, which will give you some of the most powerful equipment in the game quickly. However, Caltha might not have all the good equipment available this early, so this needs to be checked.

Some things that need to be done:

• A complete route of battles and leagues.
• An analysis of which classes can unlock Awareness and at what level the AI unlocks it.
• A route that incorporates buying the best equipment from shops. (Not all shops in a region contain the best equipment)
• Specific strategies for some of the more complex/unpredictable battles (Ex: Orus's tournament, battles with multiple teams, Berzerkers, etc.)
• More information on which units are best for speedrunning.
• Data on specific attacks and how much damage they do, along with how it compares to specific classes stats.