Operation darkness game save

Another problem, which Valkyria Chronicles rather elegantly solved, is balanced levelling for characters. Sega opted to grant universal EXP after mission completion which could be spent on character classes at the training camp — meaning, for example, every sniper could be levelled up as a whole.

With Operation Darkness you have to level each of the 11 main characters individually by using them. This is a terrible system for casual strategy players who rely on strong characters, since it leaves weaker ones like Herbert under-levelled and unused.

There is a concession though, in that simply attacking with a character will grant EXP, regardless of if they kill the enemy. The advice here is be smart when managing characters: if a strong and a weaker character both have a turn coming up, have the strong guy loot bodies or something, while the weaker one pulls off the kill shot and the big EXP. Admittedly with battles lasting around 45 minutes each, and some towards the end topping the one hour mark, it would be nice to have a sleep function — perhaps a temporary save that deletes itself after you load it, similar to how Shenmue did it.

Further niggles include the music, which is generic, tuneless and utterly forgettable. Please ignore this and just enjoy the game at your own pace — rushing for a fictional medal will only ruin the experience.

Keep in mind this text was not translated by Atlus, so will differ from the US release. In conjunction with Atlus an official guide was released. It contains detailed maps, information tables, tips and walkthroughs. The best thing about it though is an examination of literary influences at the back, and an interview with the developer, Success, and localizer, Atlus. All credit for this goes to DoubleJump Books.

The questions were asked by readers on the DoubleJump forums , and the HardcoreGamer forums the magazine, which is unrelated to our own site. The answers are below. Q: Shinogu — How the heck did the premise for this game come to fruition? It must have been nigh impossible to pitch even the concept to the bosses! The first draft of the game development plan was completed around April of From there we went through a couple of twists and turns to get a GO for the project, and our development team was organized in March Compared to other companies, SUCCESS has relatively more flexibility when it comes to approving projects, and there is a tendency for more unique projects in getting the final GO.

Answer: Ken Ogura As mentioned in the previous question, back in the game was planned to be for the PlayStation2. However, right around that time, Microsoft presented us with details on their new Xbox system, and that changed the whole story.

Around the same time, there were rumors about Sony and Nintendo PS3 and Wii planning their next-gen consoles, so taking that into account, we predicted that by the time we would be finished with the development of this game, all three major consoles would be out on the market.

We thought that putting the game on the PlayStation2 would be somewhat harder to market, so we shifted our strategy and aimed for a next-gen console. So now it came down to choosing which of the three next-gen platforms to go with.

Microsoft had failed with the original Xbox, but we assumed they would do better with the new platform. Xbox has strong networking features, full support, and a good development environment. For the reasons above, we chose to go with the Xbox When you take the North American market into account, number IV becomes a major factor. The previous Xbox console did not get good reception in Japan, but with a very attractive game lineup coming to the Xbox , I was speculating that the Xbox would sell about one million units during the time span of the December launch through the second quarter of That forecast was based on previous hardware lifetime sales data from various Japanese consoles, but the outcome fell far shorter than expectations.

Q: Noccy — Given that Adolf Hitler himself rarely makes an appearance in games set during WWII, what made you decide to include him as a character in your game? Answer: Ken Ogura There are a number of games based on WWII, and I believe this is because the Nazis were a clear villain and therefore easier to incorporate as a game idea. However, although most of these games use the Nazis as the villain, their leader often does not make an appearance. He is a prominent war criminal of the 20th century, but to make it a taboo or act as if he never existed seems unnecessary.

What we did was not in any way to idealize him, but to introduce the historical fact that Hitler was one of the leaders that drew the world into war. In the process, we judged that mixing some level of fiction with history would not be a problem. There is a thrill factor in these sorts of fiction novels that introduce the suspense of using real historical people. One of the aims for using Hitler was to incorporate this suspense into the game. The first game was to be WWII, the second game the proxy war between East and West during the s to s Cold War era, and the third game to be the modern day war against terrorism.

The gist is that after the introduction of a clear and dominant evil, and to continue on to show the absence of the clear villain and the chaos that flows after it, it was necessary to place Hitler in Operation Darkness as a symbol of the true evil. Some arguments state that Hitler had some connections with the Thule Society and had been searching for the Spear of Longinus.

These facts probably gave inspiration to writers of future generations as a topic of interest. Q: Riverking — What do you think is the hardest part of making a next-gen game, for smaller developers?

Answer: Ken Ogura The main concern is the inflation of development costs. Especially with next-gen consoles, the number of people involved with the project increases, and it takes longer to develop. So the overall development cost becomes the biggest problem. To handle this problem, developers must create a new business model to somehow streamline development and reduce excess costs. Otherwise, smaller developers will eventually be driven out of competition. Q: snowstorm52 — What was the reason behind creating the story, characters, and world that this game takes place in?

Then, we researched various resources on the history of the war and battle logs, and then we weaved together real events with fiction. And in this process, I a created the main character and his antagonist, b show their inner struggles, c introduced a narrator-type character, the leader of the Wolf Pack, d created additional friendlies, e wrote plot turning points, and f addressed issues of death and sacrifice. I believe this is closer to how Hollywood script writers construct their plots.

Answer: Ken Ogura Due to cost and development time, about twenty stages, characters, and weapons had to be cut. Also, in our original plan, the main story campaign was to incorporate Co-op, which would then seamlessly span across single player and Co-op missions and then merge into a wide frontline offensive that would run concurrently. The idea was great, but again, it had to be cut due to cost, time, and technical difficulties. Cost, time, and technical difficulties are the direct reasons for this, but it was also my error in judgement.

If I have a chance at creating a sequel, I would definitely like to address this. Q: lobitoh — Since the game is based on strategy, I figured it out that most weapons are from world wars.

The battle plans in the walkthrough are designed to be tolerant to variation. You need only to execute the general intent quickly rather than take the time to make costly time-consuming specific moves.

A key feature of the character menu is the fact that there is no penalty to a pickup. You can pick up, attack, and move or move, pick up, and attack. If you can end your move near a corpse, do so. This will allow you to pick up spoils of battle without spending valuable time and kill points in the resupply shelf. Moreover, the items on the battlefield often are of higher quality than those available for sale in the shop. This is very important because you do not want to prolong missions by not being familiar with the physical game controls.

The more difficult missions rely on the character menu item called Cover. Cover with a capital C is different from cover with a lowercase c. The former is a combat technique the latter is hiding behind a barrier of some sort. Cover Move is valuable but it is also complex. It allows characters to traverse the battlefield far more rapidly than their normal moves permit them.

It can also enable them to perform sophisticated event-driven defensive maneuvers. This walkthrough will not employ it because of its complexity. A goal of the walkthrough is to create battle plans that can be executed promptly and purposefully.

The cost of using Cover Move is that the technique requires some thought. Although this walkthrough does not require use of Cover Move, for those who are interested in learning some of the more sophisticated aspects of the game, it is described and illustrated in a couple of places.

However, the overall goal of the walkthrough is to provide players with a simplified instruction set so they can acquire all achievements in a pragmatic manner. Cover Ambush and Cover Attack, in contrast, can be used quickly and effectively. Characters in Cover Ambush will wait until an enemy within the range of their weapons embarks upon its turn. At that time, they will attack the enemy with their weapon before the enemy executes its action.

If characters Cover Ambush a very active area, they will unleash numerous attacks during their turn. The down side is each attack will have only one third the impact of a normal attack.

The up side is that characters in Cover Ambush have extended range to their weapons. As with Cover Ambush, characters in Cover Attack reap the benefit of extended range to their weapons.

When an ally attacks an enemy within the extended range of the weapon, the character in Cover Attack will pile on with a full force attack on the enemy. The Cover Attack is triggered by any allied attack on an enemy within range of a character in Cover Attack. It is particularly effective when a Cover Ambush is triggered. Although the Cover Ambush is a weak attack, if it is in range of a character in Cover Attack, it will activate a full force Cover Attack on the character.

Cover Ambush and Cover Attack can be used with any weapon. We will use rifles and sniper rifles predominantly for Cover Ambush roles. For Cover Attack roles, we will be far more diversified and employ anything from rifles to fists.

The triggering attack does not have to be effective. It can completely miss the target and will still trigger a Cover Attack. This feature allows otherwise weak characters to be placed in Cover Ambush where they deliver ineffectual attacks. Nevertheless, the ineffectual attacks trigger numerous deadly attacks from characters in Cover Attack.

This tactic can multiply the lethality of your force and allow it to defeat enemy forces of vastly superior power. You do not have to study this technique here. It will be elaborated upon when employed. After you defeat Vlado, have Van H destroy the V2 rocket. Carmilla and the mid-boss vampire are not a priority.

If there are tanks that threaten to roll over your forces, deal with them first. When you go after Carmilla, use the same tactics you used against Vlado. She has a Black Crystal so she will heal completely if you give her a chance to use it. Mop up the rest of the forces but not before you pick up the Valhalla Report carried by a Magier in the top left.

Luck accounts for the variation in time. Detailed discussion: By mission 15, you should have a good feel for the game and we can start to employ some sophisticated techniques. One technique is alternating between map view and turn view by pressing the Y button.

In mission 15, there are three bosses that we would like to defeat. They each require multiple attacks before they go down. They each have one healing item.

Because we have limited bazooka rounds, we would like to deny them the opportunity to heal. To do this, we check the turn sequence and make sure that we can deliver about four bazooka rounds before the enemy has a turn that it can use to heal. If you do not defeat Vlado, there are no negative consequences. However, if you can defeat all three bosses, you are well on your way to mastering the techniques that will serve you well in the most difficult missions.

The next mission, mission 16, is a much more straightforward mission. So, you can go all out in terms of resources. Whether or not you want to be ambitious and go after all bosses is up to you. You might want to consider making a save file and try playing it a few times. The computer will respond differently each time. The best option for you is if Vlado moves to a position about three quarters down the screen and centered. More frequently, he will be in a tight triangle formation with the other two bosses above the bottom tank about two thirds down the screen.

Important: As you start, note a group of three Schutzes behind the V2 and to your left. One of the three will move down. The left hand Schutze remaining in position for the time being is carrying a Panzerfaust 60 and a Panzerfaust There will be a lot of activity but keep track of this Schutze. If he moves, a yellow arrow will appear at his position. Keep track of it so you can target him when Van H needs the Panzerfausts.

Your forces start in a tight mass in the bottom left hand corner. Van H, Herbert, and Cordelia will move before any enemy aggressive action. After that, the tanks will move and shoot. You are outside their effective range but because your mass of forces presents such a large target, expect the rounds to connect.

Gallant is less likely and the two recruits usually escape unscathed. The blasts not only inflict damage but they also knock back the players. If the recruits are hit, it is best to reload the last save and start over. The three bosses will move early and will each fire a Panzerfaust. Carmilla will almost always target Van H and will connect about half the time.

Vlado will usually target Cordelia and will connect as often as not. The third vampire boss will fire and usually not hit anything but occasionally will hit Van H. During the next sequence of moves, the fast-acting Van H will have another turn. A bunch of Magiers that start in the top left corner will move down and form a tight rank in front of Van H. Almost invariably, though, one will remain behind. Being in range, Van H will be targeted and usually but not always suffer a status ailment.

When Jack has his turn, have him move straight up the screen and target as many Magiers in that tight rank as he can. This is not a high probability hit. If Jack was not knocked back by a round the probability percentage will most likely be in the mids. It helps somewhat to thin out the Magiers but not by much. The second wave is triggered once the tenth enemy is defeated. A successful hit will accelerate the appearance of the second wave considerably and twelve vampires will appear before you defeat Vlado.

If Jack misses, you should be able to defeat Vlado before the appearance of the second wave but your forces will have to endure much more harassment from the Magiers. While all this is going on, place Edward immediately and without moving him into Cover Attack.

Move Cynthia up the left side of the screen and have her shoot at the Magier that gives her the highest percentage. Whether she hits or not, Edward in Cover Attack will pile on. We would have done that immediately except that she is almost always in a disadvantageous position where she will end up shooting allies.

Two of the tanks probably ended up in an L too close for comfort. When you move Lewis and Frank, have them move in the direction of the closest tank and attack it with a bazooka. Cordelia, very likely, will have a second turn before Frank and Lewis have their first so her attack on the tank might be the first. It is important to note there might be variations in the sequence but they should not have a significant effect on the desired outcome. In spite of the light weight they carry, the two recruits have a long wait before their turn.

Set them both to Cover Ambush without moving them. They will immediately have an effect. If Jack connected with his bazooka round taking out a combination of five Magiers and Schutzes, it will not be long before the tenth enemy is defeated triggering the second wave. Have her attack him with her sword resulting in a one hit kill.

On her ensuing turn, she will see that he was carrying a Panzerfaust and a very lethal Geballte Ladung. This is like a grenade on steroids.

The second wave consists of two groups of six vampires each. One is on the far right and the other is in the top left corner. This is very fortuitous. The Magier is also carrying healing items that should be picked up because Van H has almost certainly used at least one.

With the Geballte Ladung, Van H can target all six vampires and destroy them in a single attack. After she does so, have her move in range of the V2 rocket. On her next turn, have her shoot it. The down side is that the Panzerfaust in her hands will not destroy the V2. This is in contrast to the normal bazooka wielders that can destroy it with one less powerful bazooka round. However, her lack of power is not a disadvantage here because we are not yet ready to finish the destruction of the V2.

While Van H wages her one woman army crusade against the V2, the rest of your forces should be taking down Vlado. The following discusses the general concept. There will be a lot of variation because of the randomness of enemy action.

The werewolves will take a lot of punishment. To some extent this is good because we want them to auto-restore using the Blood Plasma that will also replenish MS. The MS replenishment will allow them to stay in werewolf form longer which will allow them to absorb more punishment.

They can be separated by one square. We will move Herbert to the right as far as possible to help in that regard. Vlado will end up in one of quite a few places. However, they all tend to be in an area about two thirds to three quarters down the screen and centered or just right of center.

The further down he is and the closer to the center the more advantageous it is to you. If he is further up and more to the right, it will be more difficult to target him as effectively but still quite doable. If Jack misses his bazooka round targeting the Magiers, operations against Vlado will be much easier although things will be more difficult on the left hand of the screen.

If Jack hits with the bazooka round, we will have to anticipate the appearance of six vampires to the right. There might be a small window of opportunity for someone to take them out with a bazooka round while they are massed but this is good fortune that we cannot plan for.

More likely, they will target the two werewolves with attack after attack. However, this is why we moved Herbert to where he could heal them and why we moved the two werewolves in close enough proximity to one another so they could both be healed simultaneously.

As vicious as the vampire attacks look, the werewolves are resilient enough to take them especially with Herbert to recharge their health bar. He can recharge the werewolves health faster than the vampires can deplete it. The good news is that the vampires soon move into range of the snipers. By this time, we should have been able to set Cynthia to Cover Attack, so the vampires will quickly fall to dual Cover Ambush and dual Cover Attack threats.

Toggle between map view and turn sequence view by pressing the Y button. Get your forces are in position—Frank, Lewis, Keith, and Gallant should have Vlado in range of their bazookas and Cordelia should have him in range of her MS attack. Now, wait for an opening when you can execute all their attacks without an intervening turn from Vlado.

Keith and Gallant firing their Panzerfaust s in werewolf form will do most of the damage. It should be noted that, in most instances, Vlado will be in range of the snipers and that every attack will precipitate a Cover Attack response.

The bullets do not do much damage but they are cumulative and it is not uncommon for the coup de grace to come from a sniper.

The good news is that the bazooka wielders have now had the Precision Skill equipped for some time. As active as Keith and Gallant have been, they have either reached a three or four skill level. This means there is a significant possibility that one or both of them will land a critical hit. We have set things up with no anticipation of any critical hits. There are still two tanks who are very aggressive and have a tendency to try to roll over your characters. They are the biggest danger. The first order of business is to destroy the V2.

As soon as that happens, Vlado reappears briefly and says a couple of lines. If you elected to destroy the V2 before defeating Vlado, Vlado says those same lines and then departs.

There is a small chance the second wave has still not appeared. If this is the case, try to ambush their spawn points at the upper left and middle right of the screen. This is a lot of ifs. It is more likely the second wave has already appeared. Even if it has not, you might not be positioned to ambush either spawn point much less both of them.

However, the hallmark of success is to be able to seize opportunities as they present themselves so I point this out as a possible fortuitous occurrence.

You may have noticed that Jack has been absent from our discussions ever since he targeted the Magiers. Jack is our Jack of all trades. If he failed to connect, he will absorb the retaliation for his failure. The ensuing status ailments will take him out of commission for a while so he will not be available to attack Vlado. He might even be defeated. If that happens, we will resurrect him with Herbert when he gets a breather. If, on the other hand, Jack is successful against the Magiers, and remains an effective player, he should prioritize the top left corner and attempt to ambush the vampires when they spawn in the second wave.

That is, of course, if Van H did not beat him to the punch in the event of a fortunate congruence of circumstances. Jack is our backup to Van H. If something should go wrong in her attempt to destroy the V2, Jack, with his speed and great range, can quickly get into position to take it out. He only needs one bazooka round to destroy it. In the most fortunate set of circumstances, Jack will have succeeded against the Magiers, Van H will have ambushed the top left corner second wave vampires, and Jack will still be an effective fighter.

In that instance, he can quickly move to the right and join in operations against Vlado and the other bosses. Nevertheless, we are more concerned about being unlucky rather than being lucky and Jack helps to give us options. The bottom line is the enemy, no matter how lucky, cannot impede every single facet of the battle plan. Enemy success in one area means another area is still effective to execute its role.

Much of the success of the battle plan depends on the snipers. After the initial tank rounds, the snipers are far enough back that they can operate untouched. Even if an unlucky strike gets through, the snipers are dispersed enough so that the remaining three will carry on until the fourth can reengage.

The bottom line is that, while the heavy hitters are taking care of the V2, the bosses, the tanks, and the armored vehicle; the snipers are slowly but surely taking care of the Magiers, the Schultzes, and the vampires. The effectiveness of the snipers allows the remaining forces to conduct a deliberate and effective campaign against their targets. Some characters might have to forage for healing items if they took too much of a beating while others can immediately decide to tackle the highest priority.

If the tanks are not in threatening locations, Carmilla should be the next boss on the target list. More likely, you will not want the distractions of the tanks that can roll over characters thereby killing them without the option of auto-restoring. The tanks are very robust and need two to three bazooka rounds to be brought down. Keith and Gallant can destroy a tank with two rounds whereas Frank, Lewis, or Jack will need three rounds.

When you are ready to take on Cordelia, take stock of the turn sequence and try to defeat her in one sequence. The bosses can be defeated with blades and are quite vulnerable to them. The tanks are only vulnerable to rockets, MS attacks, and mines that we have not been using. Make sure that you do not defeat the last enemy before you find the Valhalla Report carried by one of the Magiers who started in the top left corner.

Also, if any non-mission critical characters were defeated, make sure that Herbert resurrects them before concluding the mission. All characters play vital roles including recruits. They will make completing upcoming missions easier. Moreover, even though you can complete the game and get all achievements after suffering the demise of a character, you incur a bad ending.

Our goal is to get all achievements and the good ending. As stated earlier, target time is between 45 and 60 minutes. There are quite a lot of variations you have to respond to and they will affect the completion time.

If you have become proficient in quickly issuing commands, this mission should be cleared in under an hour even with the worst luck. It is best to stick to an overall game plan and execute as quickly as possible in accordance with that game plan. If the battle plan is sound, it can readily absorb some miscues without detriment to either successful mission completion or meeting the target time.

On the other hand, if you are not going for the Victoria Cross achievement and are not under any time constraints, by all means study everything you can peruse. Finally, as is our custom, save the game at the earliest opportunity after completion and take a quick peak at mission Time permitting; we will take a short break from the main missions.

There are some valuable skills we can acquire by doing a number of quick Armed Recon missions. Time checkpoint—20 hours: If you recall, our goal was to start mission 24 with not more than 29 hours on the gameplay clock.

This equates to finishing mission 15 with about 21 hours on the clock. If you have been keeping fairly close to the target times and allowing for some run-overs, you should be under the 20 hour mark.

If this is the case, you have an hour of slack that you can use to pick up some added skills by doing some optional Armed Recon missions. Note that these missions are optional to the Victoria Cross achievement and that they are required for other achievements. So, if we do not do them at this point of our playthrough, we will have to do them later on. If you are on a speed run for the Victoria Cross Achievement, only complete these missions if your gameplay time is less than 20 hours.

If it is not, skip this segment and go directly to mission The impact is you will not be able to equip the Blade Master, Assassin, and Marksman skills; however, time is the most important consideration. Armed Recon Missions 5 through 7 and optional Our tactics in this walkthrough rely heavily on snipers, bazookas, and blades.

This is not the only way to play the game—there are approaches that emphasize other weapons or MS attacks—however, our tactics are serving us well in terms of reducing the complexity of our battle plans.

There are some specialized skills we would like to pick up—Blade Master and Assassin for sword and bayonet attacks and Marksman for our snipers. These three attacks are available in Armed Recon Missions 5 through 7. The Armed Recon missions appear on the campaign map as green dots in contrast to the main missions that are red dots. Armed Recon missions 5 through 7 will show up as France 02 through France Although the Armed Recon missions adjust to the level of the party and become more difficult as you level up, you have been outpacing the extent to which the early Armed Recon missions become more difficult.

You can realistically set a target time of minutes for each of these missions. As a result, if you are at or below the 20 hour gameplay mark, you can afford to take a side trip and quickly complete these three Armed Recon missions. Save your valuable ammo reloads, rocket reloads, and healing items. The supply shop does not restock after an Armed Recon missions.

If you use the best stuff not only will you be using Kill Points that we want to save to buy Black Crystals for mission 27, but you will be depleting the inventory of valuable items that we want to use in the missions to come. Accordingly, use MGA03 rockets 03, medical kits 02, etc. These missions are very easy compared to your level and you will not need the high quality stuff. Armed Recon missions 5 and 6 feature soldiers and tanks.

They are tailor made for our tactics of a sniper network and bazookas. The tanks are initially outside their effective range to hit you but they may get lucky. If so, just reload the save and try again. Clearing mission 5 gets you the Blade Master skill.

The Blade Master skill raises attacks when using a sword or bayonet. We want to stack the deck as much as possible in their favor. Clearing mission 6 gets you the Assassin skill. The Assassin skill provides random one slash kills when using a sword or bayonet. Equip it on Van H and Jack. These skills become much more effective when they are leveled up to four stars. We would like them to be at the four-star level by the time we begin missions 23 or They level up through use once they are equipped.

Since we completed Armed Recon mission 4 earlier, completing Armed Recon missions 5 and 6 gives us an achievement. Note that we could have done these missions much earlier.

However, had we done them after mission 7, for example, they would have taken us much longer because of our party level. Moreover, we would not have had immediate use for the skills. Armed Recon mission 7 is a little more complex than the preceding two. A good approach is to give Herbert a bazooka and a two rocket reload and have him go to the very bottom left corner while Frank, similarly equipped goes to a point next to the left side of the screen about halfway up from the bottom. Once at their positions, they would wait in ambush.

You may even find that you do not need it and that moving and shooting is the best option. There are three tanks, one armored car, and ten soldiers in the first wave so the remaining seven party members will be busy you start with a party of nine.

Completing Armed Recon mission 7 gives you the Marksman skill. Equip it on all your snipers including Lewis. This skill provides random one shot kills when using a gun. Once a sniper 4-stars it, it will be invaluable as even weak recruits will randomly kill opponents that they would ordinarily just scratch.

Moreover, each of these random kills is a huge boost to experience as the sniper gets credit for a large HP kill. Snipers in Cover Ambush equipped with this skill, especially at the three and four star level, are no longer just spotters but lethal combatants in their own right.

After saving, check your time. If you are below the mark, consider doing an additional optional Armed Recon mission. Armed Recon mission 8, Netherlands 01 is a more involved but not necessarily more difficult mission considering your skill levels.

You take 13 members in your party so you have the necessary personnel resources. Wave 1 consists of 2 tanks and 8 soldiers. Wave 2 consists of 2 tanks and 21 Totenkopfs. Against most of the Totenkopfs, a rifle will barely register. However, infrequently, a rifle shot will one-shot kill a Totenkopf.

When that happens, the sniper will jump several levels with one shot. Nevertheless, this mission is time consuming and will take between minutes. The reward is the Endurance skill that increases defense against gunshots. However, it is not as good a skill as the preceding three and is not essential to our overall success. Note: Only take on Armed Recon mission 8 if you have plenty of time. There is one more Armed Recon mission that we would like to do right after we complete mission Mission 16 is a nice respite.

There are no supernatural enemies or bosses. There are, however, five waves that include quite a few soldiers, an armored vehicle, and four tanks. The main challenge is to search the many Schutze bodies to find the Valhalla report. Herbert and Cordelia are great with a couple of grenades and a bayonet each. Jack should have a couple of grenades and a blade the Muramasa if you opted to give it to him or just a bayonet if you opted to give the Muramasa to Van H or someone else.

The werewolves and Frank should have a bazooka each and a couple of rocket reloads. After mission 14, the supply shop has had M6A3 Rocket 03 reloads. However, stock is limited so stick with the M6A3 Rocket 02 reloads for this mission. You take thirteen personnel so use recruit snipers to complete your party.

Valhalla report 04 of It is not directly linked to an achievement but assists you greatly in completing the game and unlocking the more difficult achievements. Tip: If you finish Mission 16 without obtaining the PTRS anti-armor sniping rifle, consider replaying the mission in order to obtain it. This weapon is a game changer and will make a world of difference in the final five missions.

This is easy compared to mission Again, time consuming searches could add ten minutes to the time you need to complete this mission. Your reward for clearing missions fourteen through 16 is an achievement:. Use Lewis as a sniper.

If you have a Panzerfaust 30 or 60, give it to Jack, otherwise give him a bazooka without reloads that he will discard upon firing. Frank and the two werewolves will have bazookas. Again, stick with the two rocket reloads and save the three rocket reloads for more demanding missions. Valhalla report 05 of You earn the sharpshooter skill upon completion of mission Equip it on the snipers including Lewis at the earliest opportunity. You have an eleven member party.

Use Lewis as a sniper equipping him with a sniper rifle and the mandatory bayonet. Cynthia will carry only the PTRS. Valhalla report 06 of It takes a while to set up. However, searching the Panzer Demons usually does not add time insofar as it is done while the remainder of the party is dealing with the second wave.

You have a twelve member party. Unequip the Marksman skill from Edward. If you had the time and did Armed Recon Mission 8, replace it with the Endurance skill. Cynthia should still carry the PTRS. The other snipers, including Lewis should be equipped as normal.

Valhalla report 07 of Tip: Max is a must have. Note: Edward must injure Max and Max must not be killed for the precondition to trigger. This is not difficult. Reequip the Marksman skill on Edward. Valhalla report 08 of We want to acquire both Dragon Slayers because they are deadly weapons especially against a very powerful enemy we will encounter later, the Drache.

Dragon Slayers do quadruple damage against Draches and make a formidable task a lot easier. This is the final defeat of the vampire mid-boss. He will not resurrect. You learn the defensive skill Aegis upon completion of mission Aegis randomly negates all damage of an attack. Its activation rate increases at the four star level to a point where it is quite valuable. You may also equip it on the snipers but they have more valuable skills to fill up their slots. Aegis is much more valuable than Endurance.

So, if you had the time to pick up Endurance and now have to choose between the two, pick Aegis. Replace it with the Aegis skill for this mission. Jack should have one of the legendary swords. Valhalla report 09 of Searching for the Valhalla report is likely to add significant time to this mission.

It often is found on a vampire body remote from the main action. Careful handling of the Panzer Demons around Max also adds time. However, if we have successfully obtained Max we would prefer not to replay the mission unless we substantially exceeded the target time. The importance of obtaining Max outweighs the extra minutes we might spend on this mission.

Beginning with mission 23, Max will be the most lethal force on the battle field. Clock management for those doing a Victoria Cross achievement speed run : Check your time.

If you are at or below the AR 13 can comfortably be done in half an hour. Our goal is to start mission 24 at or before the 29 hour mark. That gives us six hours to complete the final four missions that have a target time of less than four hours. The extra two hours allows us to accommodate and contingencies that might arise. We have allowed two hours for missions 22 and Each of them have a target time of 45 minutes and there may be delays relating to searches or bad luck.

Our backwards planning timeline is as follows:. The final mission solution is hard wired to be done in less than an hour so you could move the target time to the 34 hour mark.

I only recommend the Assuming that you are either not doing a speed run or are under the Equip your party with medium quantity ammo reloads and healing items. They are in plentiful supply and we want to save the high quality stuff for the main missions. You have a thirteen member party. The first wave starts out with seven tanks, nine Magiers, and a soldier. There are four additional tanks that will show up in a second wave. All enemies start out far from your initial position.

This is ideal for snipers. Since you have the time, move every sniper but Max once. The Magiers will come towards you and will come into sniper range before they can launch MS attacks. Max has longer range and is less accurate than the snipers but he will start picking off the Magiers as the snipers fire on them. Completion of this mission gives you Find Weakness. Equip it on all the snipers. For Max, replace Marksman with Find Weakness. Bosses are immune to Marksman.

For the other snipers replace Sharpshooter with Find Weakness and keep Marksman. Sharpshooter increases accuracy. Since, a miss triggers the same Cover Attack a hit would, accuracy is less valuable than the increased damage Find Weakness adds to a hit. After all, the snipers are already very accurate with their sniper rifles. Marksman is quite valuable because the low power of a regular sniper attack rarely kills so the random instant kills are quite appreciated. Also double check to ensure that you equipped him with auto-restore along with the other skills discussed above.

This is the last relatively straightforward mission. Beginning with mission 23, missions will get far more complex and involved. Accordingly, the walkthrough will provide much more detailed guidance than we have for missions like this where successful completion should be well within your comfort zone. Also, if Herbert is not yet at level 32, equip him also with a bazooka and a two round reload. The next mission will help him level up. Keep Cordelia with just a bayonet and a couple of grenades.

In addition to Cynthia, the other snipers, including Lewis should be equipped as normal. As with mission 21, Jack should have one of the legendary swords. Valhalla report 10 of However, we do want to take the time and search the Magiers for this one.

The Valhalla report was probably easy and the Dragon Slayer probably took a little more time. Nevertheless, the enemies are bunched up and easy to take out. If they try dispersing, the snipers get them.