Valkyria Chronicles Guide: How to Win

Alicia and Rosie Are Your Go-To’s

Without a doubt, Rosie and Alicia are the two best characters in Valkyria Chronicles for a number of reasons. Both grant extra command points. Both get the best potentials in the game. And both end up being able to do absurd amounts of damage. It goes without saying that these two characters are definitely your heroes. Whole missions can be won almost entirely by them.

The Damage Boost Order Is Your New Best Friend

Lancers have their uses – is what I’d like to say, but I found myself not using them very often. Shocktroopers absorb interception fire far better, and the Damage Boost order makes them anti-armor gods. Slap this baby on a shocktrooper (or even a scout), maneuver behind a tank, and hit the blue with an attack. Guaranteed boom. And the order lasts all turn, making it possible to take out larger boss tanks with this tactic swiftly and surely.

Take Your Time On Chapter 7

The Battle of Barious is brutal. Especially if you shun lancers and engineers. This is one of the missions where having these bad boys on the field is vital to survival. Timing also plays a huge part, as destroying the tank is at first only possible after it fires its main gun. And it only fires its main gun every so often. Valkyria Chronicles sure likes big tanks with big guns, don’t it…

Here’s a nifty trick: the radiators that make it vulnerable when destroyed disappear until the next gun discharge after you take one out. So get your lancers to reduce all of their health to the point where one more hit will do it. Then finish off one, and from then on a single hit will be enough to take out the rest. Once this is done, have your engineers refill your lancers as they knock out the tank in one or two turns.

But sometimes Selvaria just murders everyone, so don’t get too mad if this doesn’t work.

Valkyria Chronicles Favors the Swift

Valkyria Chronicles is entirely based on speed. If you’re looking to get that A rank, you need to haul ass to the goal of a mission. Timed missions or event-based missions like the Battle of Barious (Chapter 7) make this less of a possibility, but others should be aces in the hole.

There are two important factors in a mission: completing it as quickly as possible, and taking out the Ace. Aces grant ridiculously good rewards. One drops a flamethrower that far exceeds anything you can buy for quite some time. Others drop excellent rifles and machine guns. Stopping to pick them off along the way is well worth dropping from an A to an B rank.

Don’t Forget the Joy of Grenades

Grenades aren’t just awesome because of their explosions. They have a number of incredible tactical advantages over filling Imperials with hot lead. Here are a few of the best:

– Use grenades to blast soldiers out of a camp. Run in, grab the flag. #dropgrenadewalkoff

– Use grenades against Aces. If you aim it right i.e. not directly at the target, their dodge doesn’t trigger and you can get an easy hit.

– Use grenades anytime you don’t want to provoke a counterattack. Grenades have a wonderful ability to cancel an enemy’s ability to shoot back, so don’t hesitate when the HP gets low.

Don’t Start With a Full Deployment

Valkyria Chronicles is a tactics game that favors the swift over the slow, and the flexible over the stiff. It is almost never a good idea to max out the deployment forces at the start. Don’t do what this map shows and drop too many troops at the start. Save for defense-oriented missions, keep slots open. It’s a fantastic idea to advance from the starting position with a few troops, take a camp, and drop another fresh soldier in. Halfway up the map with full movement? Done and done.

Be Creative with the Edelweiss’ Smoke Bombs

Big tanks are kind of a thing in Valkyria Chronicles. Hell, the main character gets his job practically because he brought his own. But at two CP, moving the lumbering thing can be costly without the right idea in mind.

Later in the game, the ability to fire smoke rounds is introduced. These rounds completely obliterate enemy interception fire, giving the perfect cover on the go. This tactic is absolutely mandatory in certain missions. Get used to using it when necessary.

Skirmish 7 – Windmill Plaza. Grind It

If you like taking your time on missions, fear not. Skirmish 7 is for you! Based on Chapter 22, this is a mission that can be completed in one turn by moving 2 or 3 times. Seriously. You can then replay this over and over again for XP and cash. Want to get all the upgrades? Play this a few times. Super easy, super quick, super rewarding.

Don’t Underestimate Engineers and Snipers

While not as excellent as scouts or shocktroopers, engineers and snipers have incredible uses. If you need a pesky trooper picked off, a sniper is your gal (or guy, but Marina is easily the best sniper). Engineers also take out mines and have three grenades, making them great base raiders for clearing out occupants.

Know Who Your Aces Are

Valkyria Chronicles did not create all its characters equally. Since Alicia and Rosie aren’t always enough, keep in mind the top troops from each class. Keep away from troops with many negative potentials, grab the good ones. And as classes level up, keep an eye out for those that develop the “Ultimate” potentials. Potentials like “Ultimate Accuracy,” “Undodgeable Shot” and “Double Attack” are game breakers. Combined with the order Awaken Potential (learn it from the graveyard dude AS SOON AS IT APPEARS), you can have Rosie walk up to bosses and annihilate them without any chance of dodging.