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Ronin



Hail, glorious Nippon, Ronin are the absolute king of physical damage, able to deal incredible damage with their hanzo steel, can buff themselves in plenty of ways by changing stances and even deal elemental damage. Sounds great, right? Well, no, this class has a lot of problems, mainly because you unlock them midway through the game where your Landy has already established themselves as a very dependable attacker. It becomes a very hard sell to drop everything you're doing to train up a level 1 Ronin so you can use one, but their Stances are just poorly implemented, you can't use many skills unless you spend a turn to set one up and it'll only last for a few turns.

So the only stance that's used is the one that can dish out a lot of damage quickly, otherwise it's a struggle to recommend this over your Landy. They're great against bosses and FOEs, but by the time you set up your buffs and apply your Bravants... oh, the battle's over. Also aside from ONE skill, Ronin are single target attackers. All of this just adds up to a pretty mediocre labyrinth goer, but a very potent boss killer. Well, it only slightly outdamages an Axe Landy, so is it really worth it??? Probably not.



There we go, the highest STR in the game, uh, tied with Protector, but Ronin can make the most use of it. But it does come at a slight cost of their other stats, as they have mediocre VIT and HP, low LUC (meh) and then awful TEC and TP, the last one being the biggest shame, since Ronin really like spamming their stances and skills all battle long, so they need to be topped up. A Protector is a Ronin's best friend.

HP Up
Unlocks: Ibuki (LV3)
Passive.


Since the Ronin has pretty low HP and TP and then won't be using all that many SP in skills, you might as well max these ones out. Also it'll keep your Ronin mostly alive in the endgame, but it does make them really boring at that point, but oh well. Since Ibuki is bad, don't feel like you need to rush this.

TP Up
Passive.


Unfortunately getting the short straw in TP means this skill is a must? Ahah, but did you work out the maths! Because at max level this only increases TP by 30, which is... two extra Midarebas! Ah, that's not too great, so maybe this skill is worth it, maybe not? Well, what else are we gonna spend our SP on, I'll probably max it out cause... 2 extra Midarebas, why not.

ATK Up
Unlocks: Sight (LV3), Crit Up (LV5)
Passive.


Man if only the Ronin got the Medic ATK Up. Still, with the highest STR in the game, this is definitely something you want to make a Ronin pretty mental. Since its unlocks are also pretty bad, you can up this whenever you fancy, but it should be maxed sooner rather than later, as a way to augment all your shiny new Katana skills. Speaking of...

Katanas
Unlocks: Kesagiri (LV1)
Overhead (LV3), Zamba (LV5), Midareba (LV7), Orochi (LV10)
Seigan (LV3), Mikiri (LV5), Koteushi (LV7), Raizuki (LV10)
Iai (LV3), Kubiuchi (LV5), Gatotsu (LV7), Hyosetsu (LV10)
Passive.


Alright, well this is a pretty simple class, huh. Ronin don't get very exciting until you reach level 3 for Katanas to learn the Stance skills, which then let you use the remaining three skills in the Stance tree. It's not the best idea to dabble in all three, instead stick to one and then buff up your Ronin with passives. Because 2/3rds of the skillset can be ignored, you'll have plenty of spare SP to go elsewhere. And yeah, you'll probably max this out, since you might as well. It helps it's a nice boost as well.

Sight
Prerequisites: ATK Up LV3
Increases damage between 7pm and 7am (maybe), or when afflicted with Blind or Head Bind. Passive.


And here you thought this was gonna be the shitty Field move, instead it's something you can actually make use of if you decide to play the entire game at night. It's actually feasible since despite having a time system, it's as impactful as the calender system, so it has barely any bearing on gameplay. But of course it's never that simple, there's four parts of the day, Dawn, Day, Dusk and Night, though we're not sure if Sight only works during Night, or when those periods specifically are, or if EO1 even uses that specific system and just isn't 12 hours Day 12 hours Night.

In any case, it's still a nice boost to stack on, cause that's what Ronin's all about. But of course, despite being boosted while blinded, it uh... doesn't change the fact your accuracy is awful, so it's not something to rely on at all. You might think a Head Bind would be better, but no, your accuracy is still reduced by that, but only by 30%! Still not worth thinking about. If you enjoy the dark and like using Dusk Balls, this is something to consider, I guess.

Crit Up
Prerequisites: ATK Up LV5
Passive.


Does this affect your skills? No? Then it's trash. It's only useful if you equipped your Ronin with a sword by mistake since EVERY skill needs a katana and can only use regular attacks. Even then, the added chance is pathetic and you will not put 10 points into this damn thing!

Ibuki
Prerequisites: HP Up LV3
Heals the user's HP by a certain amount. Uses the Head.


Oh now this is a great skill! I'm being sarcastic, your Ronin has a million other things to do. They do not need to heal themselves for PITIFUL amounts when you have items, or a Medic or even, ugh, a Protector. Just no.

Kesagiri
Prerequisites: Katanas LV1
A single target Katana strike that requires no stance to use. Katana skill with Cut damage. Uses the Legs.


Finally we get a skill and uh, yep, it's one to pass. Don't even bother putting SP into it, just use your normal attack until you get better skills later on, it won't take that long. It's very unremarkable and will never be used, since you'll just stance into a different, better attacking move anyway. It's also dreadfully slow, which is unfortunately a feature of katana skills. Sigh.

Overhead
Prerequisites: Katanas LV3
Unlocks: Zamba (LV1), Midareba (LV3), Orochi (LV5)
Increases damage done and reduces damage taken for 5 turns. Buff skill. Doesn't use a body part.
BUG: Boost has no effect on Stance skills.


Here's the first Stance skill. And the last. Even with the Boost bug, this is a great buff to apply to your Ronin since it's a really nice attack increase to add onto your other attack increases, it has the best skills in its set and it reduces damage by a nice amount. Even better, since damage reduction skills reduce the enemy's ATK before its subtracted by your DEF, it makes this skill much better at keeping your Ronin alive than you'd think. So while it's not as big a damage reduction as the next stance skill, it's still pretty good and it gives your Ronin ANOTHER ATK boost. Uh, yeah, this is clearly the best one.

Zamba
Prerequisites: Katanas LV5, Overhead LV1
A single target Katana strike that requires the Overhead stance active. Katana skill with Cut damage. Uses the Arms.


This is like Kesagiri except stronger, so never use that skill. However, the next skill in the Overhead tree is better than this one, so you should skip this skill too! Yeah I know your Ronin still doesn't have any attacks, just give it a minute, he's doing fine, probably. You're grinding him up to the 3rd stratum anyway, so who cares? This skill is super basic and slow so it's also really boring and let's talk about the really fun skill instead!!!

Midareba
Prerequisites: Katanas LV7, Overhead LV3
A single target Katana strike that hits 2 times, or 3 times at level 10 and requires the Overhead stance active. Katana skill with Cut damage. Uses the Arms.


Oh baby now this is why Ronin are useful, best skill they have no problem. Imagine if your Survivalist's Multihit came off this STR and had a bunch of buffs behind it to raise it to ridiculous levels. This skill absolutely shreds FOEs and Bosses, but might be a bit overkill for random enemies. Still, it is such a joy spamming this skill all day and there isn't a similar skill in the other stance trees, making Overhead the best one by a mile. Unfortunately, it is slow and it'll chew through TP very quickly, giving you only 3-6 uses from full depending on where you are in the game. But man, it is totally worth it and why the Ronin, despite the game trying its best, doesn't completely suck.

Orochi/Raizuki/Hyosetsu
Prerequisites: Katanas LV10, Overhead LV5/Seigan LV5/Iai LV5
A single target Katana strike that requires the Overhead/Seigan/Iai stance active. Katana skill with Cut + Fire/Volt/Ice damage. Uses the Arms.


Ah now these composite skills are very interesting, since it's not an attack that's just split 50/50 between physical and elemental, it's like attacking twice with one attack, which the Ronin seems to like doing. So not only is the regular Cut damage dealt to the enemy, but the elemental damage is also added on and works especially well if the enemy is weak to it. While the element does rely on the Ronin's awful TEC for some additional damage, it's not a lot as STR is also used more often in the various formulas at work, so it's just a little bonus. When you're not spamming Midareba, Orochi is a relatively cheap skill to use if you want to save on TP. It's not really worth levelling it up much, since even a resisted Midareba will do more damage than an effective Fire slash.

It makes the Ronin incredibly slow so they'll more than likely go last, but it's still a good idea to grab, as Fire is a good element to use against regular enemies when Midareba is too much. Raizuki is the strongest Seigan skill, which says a lot about that stance tree, but Volt is the most applicable element, so it's worth learning. Hyosetsu is in the worst stance tree, making it a very weak attack since it won't have an additional attack buff from a stance and Ice isn't the most common weakness, so it's harder to recommend, but it actually has a 100% speed modifier, making it a fast skill and getting off a strong attack that hits weakness first is always nice. If you want your tri element damage, stick to an Alchemist, since you'll want to focus on one stance tree.

Seigan
Prerequisites: Katanas LV3
Unlocks: Mikiri (LV1), Koteushi (LV3), Raizuki (LV5)
Increases damage done and reduces damage taken for 5 turns. Buff skill. Doesn't use a body part.
BUG: Boost has no effect on Stance skills, level 10 reduces ATK increase.


The second stance is very similar to Overhead except 10% less damage and 10% more damage reduction, which as mentioned is actually really good, so this stance makes your Ronin a lot tankier. But it's just a poor man's Overhead and the skills aren't nearly as good, especially since level 10 is bugged and decreases the ATK boost, it's not a typo. Well it might be a code typo, but this what everyone else has it listed as. And since it's bugged in another way, you'll never get it temporarily higher. There's never any reason to max a stance skill, but you can keep it at level 9, 2% extra damage reduction probably won't matter r-right? Still, at least it's not the worse stance.

Mikiri
Prerequisites: Katanas LV5, Seigan LV1
Nullifies all attacks towards the user for one turn and requires the Seigan stance active. Buff skill. Uses the Arms.


Now this is a weird skill. For one turn, your Ronin is immortal, which sounds pretty great, but they can't parry, which is pretty bad. But it lets you survive a deadly attack and stay healthy, that's pretty good, but if the rest of the party die your Ronin is probably completely screwed, that's pretty bad. But it always works and you can just put one point into it, that's pretty good, but it requires the Seigan stance up which reduces damage anyway so it's not helpful if you have other stances up, that's pretty bad. Also your Ronin should really be attacking, but this skill does have its uses, so hey, maybe go for it.

Koteushi
Prerequisites: Katanas LV7, Seigan LV3
A single target katana strike that attempts to inflict Arm Bind and requires the Seigan stance active. Katana skill with Cut damage. Uses the Arms.


THIS is the skill that replaces Midareba? Oh wow. It's a standard Katana skill, except it can inflict Arm Bind. It has similar rates to a DH using Cuffs but with the various ATK boosts, it means it'll do a lot of damage and has a chance of making the enemy 30% physically weaker too, so your Ronin becomes very survivable when combined with the stance. But your DH can bind stuff just fine without your Ronin, unless you want to fully bind something. Still, your time will be better spent using Raizuki instead, as it does the same damage, but also has an additional elemental attack that's really good against most enemies.

Iai
Prerequisities: Katanas LV3
Unlocks: Kubuichi (LV1), Gatotsu (LV3), Hyosetsu (LV5)
Increases AGI for 5 turns. Buff skill. Doesn't use a body part.
BUG: Boost has no effect on Stance skills.


...that's it? Just an AGI boost? REALLY? That's a shame compared to the other two stances, but hey, at least you might potentially outspeed something. Or not, and this stance does LITERALLY NOTHING. Still, the various Iai skills are also pretty fast, so you'll be able to actually go first in some cases, a miracle. They'll also be missing their added sting with no additional attack buff, but hey, if you feel like breaking the mold and want to make the game harder, then this is the skill for you! It's still really bad though, like it needs something else as that is not an impressive AGI boost anyway, so you'll still get outsped in a fair few cases, especially towards the endgame. It's a really rough stance to choose, since the other two choices are so much better.

Kubuichi
Prerequisites: Katanas LV5, Iai LV1
An all target Katana strike that attempts to inflict Instant Death and requires the Iai stance active. Katana skill with Cut damage. Uses the Arms.


The first skill for Iai is pretty neat, being the only real skill to have Instant Death, as Climax is a bit... specific, so it makes this skill more consistent? I guess? It's also notable as it's the ONLY skill to hit multiple enemies, so it rolls multiple chances a turn, which is pretty good. It's satisfying to outspeed a line of foes and just delete a couple of them. I assume, I've never touched this stance tree, but it's easy to see how it would be useful. Thankfully only one enemy has a Conditional for Instant Death, so in that instance your Ronin has a time to shine! But if it doesn't go off, then it's just a fast standard hit. Meh.

Gatotsu
Prerequisites: Katanas LV7, Iai LV3
A single target Katana strike that requires the Iai stance active. Katana skill with Cut damage. Uses the Arms.


Also a pretty neat skill, but mainly because it does a lot of damage and is fast. That's about it, you can very easily leave it at level 1 and enjoy a somewhat strong hit, but maxing it out is probably the way to go if you want this tree to be at all useful. I guess it makes up for the lack of attack boosts in the stance. Maybe? There's just nothing to it that Midareba doesn't do better, aside from speed, but to be fair you could say that about basically every katana skill. So while you do have the option and it would make for a fine addition to the party, you should only use the Overhead stance, honestly. If I didn't already mention that enough.

Phew, that was a long one, MINE if I end it here?