Gladius

No speedrun has been done for this game.

Although they would probably be counted as separate runs, it is probably faster to choose Ursula's story rather than Valens, since the Berzerkers will be lower leveled and much easier and more predictable.

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.

General Gameplay Tips

• Most if not all opponents' levels are based off of your school's, which may suggest that keeping your school at a low level may ironically make the game easier.
• Battles are mostly against other schools, which have their own units. This gives each battle a predictable set of possible opponents, which will need to be gone over in a route of the game.
• Combo Attack 2 and 4 should be unlocked as soon as possible, which will make your units extremely powerful. Other innate abilities, like Indomitable Will are also useful. Affinity Attacks, status-effect attacks, etc. don't seem to be useful enough for a speedrun.
• Equipping an accessory that increases critical hit damage is useful, though one must watch out for enemies equipped with a critical defense accessory.
• There is usually a "best" set of equipment in each region. You are only restricted from equipping when the item is at a higher level than your school's rank. For amateur schools, you can only equip items level 5 or lower. For semi-pro the items must be level 10 or lower. At pro there are no level restrictions. Since for a speedrun, getting critical hits most if not all the time is necessary, your gladiators' accuracy levels can be disregarded, and you can just equip them with whatever weapon does the most damage in that region.
• After the first one or two regions are completed, money doesn't seem to be much of a hindrance.
• Equipping a secutor with the accessory that increases move-to-attack range will allow them to move to the flank of an enemy to do Surprise Attack. This is sold in the accessory shop in Imperia.
• Points Battles require a contradictory approach than normal battles. They are very easy to win since you will be doing much more critical hits than your opponents, along with playing smarter, so doing attacks that take a long time to perform will help the time go by. The timer only goes when performing the attack or when opponents are taking their turns. It does not go when you are choosing what to do. Attacks like Gungnir/Peltast Long Throws and other units' Running Attacks use one of the slowest meters in the game, and just allowing them to run all the way out take upwards of 15 seconds. An analysis of the length of each move will be useful for planning a speedrun.
• Rival Nations battles can be won by sending a powerful unit directly to the opponents statue. In Nordagh with Ursula's story, sending Urlan to do Combo Attack 2 will usually do the trick pretty easily.
• King of the Hill and Dominance battles are probably quicker to complete by killing all of your enemies rather than earning points by being on the hill or hotspots. They will likely require a different strategy than basic battles since the enemies will concentrate on the hill and hotspots.
• The awareness innate ability will protect you from secutors and bandits, so it's worth getting after unlocking Combo Attack 2 and 4.

These units seem to be useless for a speedrun:

• Mongrels - Extremely weak, despite having a high initiative. Secutors are a much better choice if lights need to be used.
• Beasts - There are strategies for using wolves or bears, but they are either rather slow, or require multiple of the same unit. Plains Cats may need more looking into though. Scarabs and Scorpions require completing a long, very difficult league and may cost too much time, especially being so late in the game.
• Mongrel Shaman - Weakest arcane class by far. Useless even in non-speedrun gameplay.
• Berzerkers - They are only powerful when you use Rage, but you then lose control of them, and while they usually make decent moves, it's too risky to be worth using in a speedrun. Without Rage, they are pitifully weak.
• Legionnaires - They aren't too bad of a unit, but your main heroes, along with Murmillos, are much better medium units.

These units are probably essential to speedrunning:

• Centurions - Very powerful, though they don't appear to have any combo attacks unlocked when you recruit them at a convenient time.
• Gungnirs/Peltasts - The Long Throws are extremely effective on everything except Undead Summoners/Legionnaires and Murmillos. Peltasts are probably better, since their long throws don't take up as many skill points to use. Plus, the shapeshifting abilities of Gungnirs aren't useful if everything goes your way, which should happen in a speedrun. But in Ursula's playthrough, Gungnirs are your only option for the beginning.

These units may be useful for a speedrun, but need more looking into:

• Secutors - Surprise Attack is brutal when done from the side or behind. But all their other attacks are relatively weak. Later in the game, many units start to get the Awareness innate ability, which protects against side and back attacks. An analysis of each class and when they acquire Awareness is worth looking into. Regardless, they still do massive damage early in the game at least.
• Archers - Eiji is very effective, but having multiple archers could be useful. One archer you can recruit in the Windward Steppes is several levels higher than your school, but can still be recruited.
• Minotaurs - They are extraordinarily powerful and useful in most battles, especially since they are immune to many of the light warriors' advantages. But to do the sidequest to unlock one, you have to complete Imperia Untamed and Mongrel Siege leagues in Cro Beska. This will give you enough cups to unlock the tournament, but it is much faster to do Quarrel in the Mawl since only one battle is necessary to complete the league. In addition, completing the sidequest may give you a useless Satyr rather than a Minotaur, so even if everything goes perfectly in the battle, restarts may still need to happen.

These units' usefulness in a speedrun are unknown:

• Channellers - They are very effective in numbers, but their usefulness comes from their ability to teleport across the battlefield, which may take longer than just using brute force with bigger units. This needs more looking into.
• Undead Summoner - You can unlock Taithleach by completing the Dead of Night league in Mordare. Completing this league may actually be the quickest for a speedrun, since The Wyrd league requires several nonhuman classes, and Circle of Elites Tier 2 requires Tier 1 to be complete in every other arena. But Taithleach may not help with speedrunning much, since his Skeleton summoning abilities aren't very powerful for a while, and he seems to slow down battles a lot. He does have the ability to curse opponents to death later in the game, and he can wield Death's Head Staff which can kill someone in one hit sometimes. His abilities could make him extremely useful in the later portions of the game, but he probably won't be useful for a good portion of the game, keeping him at a low level when his time comes to actually be useful. Though he is basically immortal in battles where your opponents are all ranged.
• Dervishes - They are completely immune to air affinity attacks, which could be useful for battles that are extremely difficult, but the author of this Knowledge Base entry simply hasn't played around with them much to know a lot about them.
• Summoners - Can be recruited in the Southern Expanse, but the author of this entry doesn't know much about their abilities.
• Murmillos - They are kind of hard to recruit, since they seem to usually be at a much lower level than your school. But their Throw Shield attacks, along with their good defense and ranged attack resistance makes them pretty effective.

Glitches?

• You can apparently get Munio's gear early by defeating an enemy in a certain battle in Ononhaar and picking up the chest he drops. This takes a long time and a lot of luck to get the opportunity, so it might not be practical in a speedrun despite being very useful once acquired.
• I've heard that you can recruit temporary units permanently by hiring them when you don't have enough money. This could be used to acquire Dervishes, Amazons, and other units early in the game when they would normally only let you temporarily recruit them.

Current Battle/League Route:

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

Fliuch

• Arena Certification
  • Final Exam (Urlan and Ursula)

Recruit Jeanne

• League of Redemption
  • Atonement 1 (Urlan, Ursula, and Jeanne)
  • Atonement 3 (Urlan and Jeanne)
• Contest of the Free Peoples
  • Vandal Battle (Urlan, Ursula, and Jeanne)
  • Freedom Fight 1 (Urlan, Ursula, and Jeanne)
  • King of the Hill (Urlan, Ursula, and Jeanne)

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 Ursula)
  • Basic Battle (Urlan and Ursula)

Vargen

• Ahead of the Pack
  • Series (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne)
• Milehigh Circuit
  • Thin Air 3 (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne)
  • Vandal Battle (Urlan, Ursula, Jeanne) Kill opponents, ignore barrels
  • Points Battle (Ursula and Jeanne)

This seems like a pretty logical route to take, but it would be excellent if Trial of the Elders in Vargen could be done without doing any unnecessary battles, but you need all your gladiators at level 3 in order to complete it, and Ursula and Jeanne are only level 2 at this point. So some extra battles may have to be done, or a different route must be taken.

Some things that need to be done:

• A 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.