Uploaded September 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In which it's unfortunately impossible by any stretch of the imagination to perform an A Rank Full Clear, even with savescumming. Also in which a lot of research was put in order to figure out where in the world all the enemies are and how to reliably proc Valkyria. Also in which 330 is one of our new favorite numbers.
To explain: Alicia's Valkyria potential has been changed substantially from the vanilla mod. It now grants invincibility (the Invincible potential of Engineers has been replaced, so this is the only method of having an infantry unit with invincibility) and +100% to vsPers, vsArmor, and Accuracy (maybe less for Accuracy, but her targeting circle becomes a dot regardless) when her health hits the single digits. It's supposed to have a 100% proc rate if the activation condition is met (and the potential text has enough time to flash up on the screen before she dies), which is normally difficult to plan for when the interception fire damage is in the twenties and thirties. Also, Double Movement has been replaced with Second Wind, which refills AP after using Ragnaid (so you must not be at full health to use this).
In an amazing coincidence, Alicia's max HP at Level 17 (where Scouts learn their fourth battle potential) and her exact set of Potentials make her able to proc Valkyria both before and after using Ragnaid if attacked by only Shocktroopers in this stage; and have a chance of shooting down the Ace (who I could swear had a 95% Evasion rate in the vanilla game and a 100% Evasion rate in this one). (Looking back, it may have been better to proc Valkyria and throw grenades at the Ace on Turn 4 and Turn 5, then aim at his feet to finish the job if necessary. Would be more reliable than hoping for Undodgeable Shot to proc.)
There was a bit of adlibbing in this run, mostly starting from when I chose to use Hector to take down the Medium Tank near B4 instead of using Welkin with Power of Love proc'd. I realized having a Lancer walk over the anti-personnel mines on the same CP on which the tank was destroyed would be more efficient and safer than my original plan to have Alicia pass the mines: sneak around the side so that I only trip the northwestern-most mine, and throw a grenade close enough to have the blast push me to the north without taking damage from the mine. (You can tell I wasn't entirely sure what was going to happen in this stage, considering I had deployed Emile to take care of the Sniper near A3 but the Sniper ended up moving before I got a chance to dispatch him.) Things probably could have been better optimized and less luck-dependent -- for example, deploying another Engineer, instead of Emile, to clear the Anti-Tank landmines on the B1-C1 connecting stretch would have saved one use of the Edelweiss. But I'm glad RNG decided not to screw me over on this attempt, because I would not have been happy trying to full-clear this stage more than I have to.
I'm almost positive five turns is the fastest in which you can full-clear this stage (at the very least somewhat reliably so) -- fast enough for an A rank in the vanilla game, so I find that to be a satisfying turn count.
For those who want to see an A rank run of this stage (far less interesting, in my opinion), see the link below:
youtube.com/watch?v=dpphAgiQ7Y4
In which it's unfortunately impossible by any stretch of the imagination to perform an A Rank Full Clear, even with savescumming. Also in which a lot of research was put in order to figure out where in the world all the enemies are and how to reliably proc Valkyria. Also in which 330 is one of our new favorite numbers.
To explain: Alicia's Valkyria potential has been changed substantially from the vanilla mod. It now grants invincibility (the Invincible potential of Engineers has been replaced, so this is the only method of having an infantry unit with invincibility) and +100% to vsPers, vsArmor, and Accuracy (maybe less for Accuracy, but her targeting circle becomes a dot regardless) when her health hits the single digits. It's supposed to have a 100% proc rate if the activation condition is met (and the potential text has enough time to flash up on the screen before she dies), which is normally difficult to plan for when the interception fire damage is in the twenties and thirties. Also, Double Movement has been replaced with Second Wind, which refills AP after using Ragnaid (so you must not be at full health to use this).
In an amazing coincidence, Alicia's max HP at Level 17 (where Scouts learn their fourth battle potential) and her exact set of Potentials make her able to proc Valkyria both before and after using Ragnaid if attacked by only Shocktroopers in this stage; and have a chance of shooting down the Ace (who I could swear had a 95% Evasion rate in the vanilla game and a 100% Evasion rate in this one). (Looking back, it may have been better to proc Valkyria and throw grenades at the Ace on Turn 4 and Turn 5, then aim at his feet to finish the job if necessary. Would be more reliable than hoping for Undodgeable Shot to proc.)
There was a bit of adlibbing in this run, mostly starting from when I chose to use Hector to take down the Medium Tank near B4 instead of using Welkin with Power of Love proc'd. I realized having a Lancer walk over the anti-personnel mines on the same CP on which the tank was destroyed would be more efficient and safer than my original plan to have Alicia pass the mines: sneak around the side so that I only trip the northwestern-most mine, and throw a grenade close enough to have the blast push me to the north without taking damage from the mine. (You can tell I wasn't entirely sure what was going to happen in this stage, considering I had deployed Emile to take care of the Sniper near A3 but the Sniper ended up moving before I got a chance to dispatch him.) Things probably could have been better optimized and less luck-dependent -- for example, deploying another Engineer, instead of Emile, to clear the Anti-Tank landmines on the B1-C1 connecting stretch would have saved one use of the Edelweiss. But I'm glad RNG decided not to screw me over on this attempt, because I would not have been happy trying to full-clear this stage more than I have to.
I'm almost positive five turns is the fastest in which you can full-clear this stage (at the very least somewhat reliably so) -- fast enough for an A rank in the vanilla game, so I find that to be a satisfying turn count.
For those who want to see an A rank run of this stage (far less interesting, in my opinion), see the link below:
youtube.com/watch?v=dpphAgiQ7Y4
![Valkyria Chronicles - Barious Desert Expert Skirmish [1 Turn]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jxh-yMtbRn0/mqdefault.jpg "Valkyria Chronicles - Barious Desert Expert Skirmish [1 Turn]
Alternate clickbait title: This level takes over 10 real-time days to beat in one turn!
The excessive length comes from waiting until tanks explode from other enemy interception fire. The worst offender is the easternmost Tank Destroyer (the one that removes the first two Tank Destroyers and the Scout) given the awkward angle from the shooting Tank Destroyer to the targets radiator, it takes roughly ~5-7 minutes to deal 1 HP of damage!
The first two tank destroyers are done in parallel and are a bit quicker 1min/HP and ~2.5min/HP. The last one goes at a much faster clip, at ~15 HP/min. With 1900 HP per tank, you end up breaching 240 hours of idle time to move things along.
(These values are a bit rougher than they could be because I unfortunately lost runs with actual clock timings, so I sped the tank explosion waiting when redoing the runs.)
Other noteworthy tidbits:
# Engineer/Demolition Man potential
Blowing up the Shock on Action 1 *greatly* simplifies Actions 3 and 4. If that Shock is kept alive, he will go North toward the middle of the map/the Engineer, so wed have to have a unit ready to intercept.
Achieving that would involve:
1. having the Engineer make a detour during Action 3 to just *barely* defeat the Scout hidden by the rocks with 4 body-shots before lining things up to have first the Anti-Tank Cannon and then the Tank Destroyer explode from the top Tank Destroyer interception. (There isnt enough AP to extend the detour enough to allow for the Engineer to go for a headshot, so itd have to connect at least 4 body shots out of 7 a less than 5% chance for all eligible Engineers.)
2. Wavy would have to blow up the Tank Destroyer from the natural rock wall formation (theres barely a spot to line up a small section of the radiator) and then head back down to be ready to intercept the Shock, with enough HP to survive a flamethrower hit. This would also involve a 4/7 shot success rate, which is again a less than 5% chance for Wavy.
...All that said, it is *very* convenient that the grenade blast radius is enough to hit the Shock on Turn 1, and that Claudia has both Demolition Man and Invincible (the boost from Demolition Man is needed to actually defeat the Shock).
# Clipping/Team Attacks
The other important trick here is abusing team attacks and clipping through objects. When initiating team attacks against tanks, supporting units will aim for the radiator if they have line of sight. Conveniently, the radius for initiating the team attack is large enough so that the supporting unit can be behind a tank destroyer while the initiating unit can clip through the tank while still having the cursor stay on the tank (open white crosshairs usually indicates that the clipping is successful). This is used to set up the two two-tanks-with-one-action team attacks with Alicia and Aika.
Some other fun details that made this viable:
- There are exactly three Scouts that have Double Movement and Resist Crossfire, and we end up needing exactly three. The former is needed to position units, and the latter is needed to stay alive through the interception fire of the middle Scout and various tanks.
- Alicias Valkyria potential increases anti-armor damage enough to be able to manage the two-tank explosion with a carefully lined up shot, and to make the last team-attack a *bit* more feasible.
- Alicias Mysterious Body makes it possible to be able to get into position for said team-attack while being able to step off the mine and get into position for the enemy phase.
Action-by-action breakdown in the below pastebin link (Im still not entirely sure about the enemy AI targeting note or whether its (also) a distance thing that makes the enemy Sniper attack Alicia instead of Aika, but hey :p):
https://pastebin.com/a0W87Pw9
Satisfying to put this all together to make a (pretty ridiculous) 1-turn strategy!
(Technical notes: This is the PC version running 1280x720 windowed at 60 FPS (60 Hz monitor; framerate at refresh rate), VSync off. [Evasion seems to sometimes get really wacky/buggy if the game isnt run at 1280x720, hence the lower resolution.])")
