Makai Kingdom Any% route

tips for random levels:
	move cursor away from Zetta to see how many points the current extend has
	if it has a high number go to menu -> character and check if there's someone with enough points to farm	if not move around looking for extends
	guys with Key will tell you where next extend is, but there's sometimes a second hidden group of extends.
	guys with no items with high points can be thrown near other high point guys with weapons, then use AoE to hit all of them for chain on all the points
	chaining with AoE gives bonuses to everyone affected by the AoE, even if the chain only started on one of the dudes.
	You can have a unit enter and exit various buildings in succession so that he can move for longer distances

	vehicle point glitch works on randomly generated vehicles
	abuse chain storage glitch it is very strong
	if you don't have a chain but there's lots of high-point items, it's faster to target Zetta with like 8 people then drop the buildings on the items.
	if I have to use 5 or more people on a chain and I have 2 or more random levels ahead of me go for 8 chain so that I have chain storage glitch for the next few levels, else minimize the chain.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Start timer same time as New Game

HELL NO to the tutorial (pressing circle auto-presses "hell no", no need to move down + press x)
Zetta's first fight - Zodiac whole group, showtime raiden, then either showtime again or attack. Use End Turns instead of Executes to save menus.
Attack is ~6 seconds faster but relies on damage ranges (deals from 5 to 8k damage) go for it if Raiden has <7k hp, definite no if >=8k, luck in between (or reset if you care)
Raiden's attacks -  Thunder drum: 3.24
(approx. times)	    Thunder ring: 6.92
		    Thunder dance: 7.86
		    Thunder beat: 7.36 (long range only?)
Thunder drum seems extremely rare. Usually uses Thunder beat turn 1 then Thunder dance. Seems to do thunder drum more often if both zetta and raiden move to the left side of the arena??
SKIP DEMO

character creation: The names I use for the units for the rest of the route are in ()
	Allied Symbol - warrior 3 points in atk (atkWarrior)
	move clockwise
	flower (to your right) - witch 3 points in int (witch) (can pick male mage too)
	rock - warrior 3 points in atk (defWarrior)
	5 healers (healers aka healer1 to healer5)
	palm tree above you - Merchant (merchant). Actually might want to use the other rock for the merchant and put points on attack for some backup plans later.
	adding stats - move down to the stat then upwards (less menu movements, even for INT). Obviously don't add stats to healers/thieves they don't need it.
	names - character names don't show up in non-instant text so anything goes. Immediately hit up and X to enter an empty name which assigns a random name.
	I added a section at the end of the route explaining why I make each one of the characters.

talk to zetta
shop
	dictionary + long sword - equip on witch/atkWarrior (note I've never actually tried buying different items here since day 1 of routing but I can't think of anything better)
talk to zetta SKIP DEMO
use makai gate

Need to make 2 hellcats and 3 thieves at around 2-3 so look out for any items (makai flowers (they look like rafflesias) the best for cats. dead trees good too, if the rocks in 1-2 have stars they are also great)
1-1 SKIP DEMO witch -> atkWarrior the ronin. If ronin is weak to witch's magic don't attack with the warrior cause she can solo him. I usually do it if the ronin is -30% weak, but it has worked for me when he's -10%. Don't think it ever worked at 0% or higher.
1-2 SKIP DEMO summon merchant and a healer. merchant throw zetta to border, healer grab flat rock (good backup for cats has 107% atk and if it has at least one star it's really good). summon healer on extend where rock is and grab it. If rock's not worth 200 points reset/focus on pumpkins. Use witch on whichever pumpkin is weakest to her magic while having enough points to clear level. Use atkWarrior + healers on the pumpkins if needed (but if you do it's starting to be a big time loss)
1-3 random
1-4 use merchant, healer, healer to throw zetta 3 times to the boss extension. If bad luck with extension shape you might need another healer. put atkWarrior+witch in tent to duke it out (atkWarrior can solo but need luck).
SKIP DEMO

Try to kill a cat in 2-1 or 2-2 (if no cats are worth any points then check for one weak to witch's magic and snipe him)
2-1 SKIP DEMO Semi-Random. Usually there's an extend worth a lot of points. the hut at the start is slow and hard to kill at this stage, don't go for it
2-2 SKIP DEMO pick a side, use doghouse to trigger first extend, merchant throw to second extend, grab points through items/chaining, if needed hide merchant in doghouse
Alternatively, use merchant to throw Zetta close to extend and 2 healers to trigger the next extends, so that you can drop both doghouse and shop on items for chain storage glitch. Downside is, you might not have any flowers/rocks/etc, and you'll have less units to work with for chains.

Around this area: Grab makai gate throw it next to shop. This saves travelling around the overworld.
				  Make 2 deathsabers with 3+ points on ATK with whatever item has best growth in attack (makai flowers/dead trees the best)
				  Make 2 more theives on any item at all
				  Grab a healer and throw her close to makai gate/shop. Might be smarter to just do that with hospital. Dunno how much exp she gets from overworld healing done in the run but probably not enough to be worth it.
				  Put everyone in buildings. Healers+merchant on shop and cats+warriors+witch on dog house
				  From now on if I say strongCat/weakCat it means one will likely have better stats than the other at that given time due to confinement item/levels

2-3 random
2-4 four way mimic level.
Fast, inconsistent strat:
In theory it's faster to just open one of the areas and there's a 200 point flower or so in there, but what usually happens is that there's 5 dudes worth 20 points each and it's awful. If you have to do this strategy, throw zetta right next to the side of one of the mimics, so that you can trigger 3 extends through buildings (doghouse reaches the second furthest side, shop+hospital on the closest two sides). Then look around for someone worth lots of points.

Slower, consistent strat:
Use menu to check weaknessess of all mimics
summon shop, use two healers to throw the 3 mimics weakest to witch magic together and heal them, then use 2 more healers to heal the three mimics too.
Use witch's magic on all of them. AoE is small but can hit all 3. If one has positive resist to witch magic have the atkWarrior target him after the witch.
One thing you can do is summon the doghouse on the extend closest to the mimic that you don't throw, check if there's anything with a high score there, and if not go for this slow strat.

2-5 random
2-6 use thief to throw zetta towards next extend. Make second thief stand on the hospital to get more distance on throw, and throw Zetta towards boss extend. Then hide thief in hospital. Summon doghouse+shop on the extend with the soldiers.
5 healers + atkWarrior on female soldier (she should be the only one worth more than 300 points). If she has less than 320 points you either need an extra person in the chain or grab one of the rocks.
Witch can OHKO one of the three if their resistance is about -70% or so to her magic. The two cats can sometimes kill the medic by himself if they were made from good items (damage range, also RNG on medic's equipment). All of this is unreliable though.
There might be faster ways to beat this level that do not rely on healers for chaining
SKIP DEMO

3-1 use hospital to open area with 200 points. Need at least 106 points to get 400 points through a 7-chain. Reset heavy. Remember to throw people with no weapons next to each other and target them with witch magic after a chain for extra points. SKIP DEMO
3-2 random

arrange items by def, equip def heavy stuff on warriors and merchant. Priority is atkWarrior>defWarrior>merchant>healers made from palm trees/rocks until you run out of +def items.
arrange items by type check if you have any decent weapons. Buy and/or equip 2 katanas (cats), best sword(for atkWarrior, defWarrior and merchant get random second best weapons in your inventory) and a mystery book (witch) (in this priority order until you run out of money) remember to sell anything you don't need. Any +int rings or +atk belts should be equipped on witch/cats
heal

3-3 throw from spawn to fortress (the +atk one) island with theif, summon doghouse and shop, put the 5 doghouse guys in the fortress and fill the rest with healers till it's full (2 more healers). Healers are for damage mitigation (slower but way safer strategy for this)
do 3-3 again so that 2 chars at level 9+ (meaning two different guys got killing blow on the fortress dude). On second attempt leave the first guy who reached level 9+ outside so he doesn't get the kill again (replace him with another healer for more damage mitigation).

heal
3-4 summon doghouse + shop
If the atkWarrior is level 9+:
	put atkWarrior, defWarrior, merchant and healer with highest def in super fortress.
		if you win, you win
		if you lost and killed 2-3 enemies, fill the fortress with the 2 cats+witch and healers till it's full. you should win
		if you lost and killed nobody/1 enemy, you probably lost but put the 2cats+witch and healers till it's full anyway.
if the levels went to the witch/cats only:
	either put 2 cats+witch+atkWarrior in and pray
	or do something like above strat, level 9+ cat/witch + atkWarrior+merchant+healer. Less reliable cause the main damage dealer isn't tanky.
more strategies that make 3-4 more consistent are always welcome. I'm starting to think getting atkWarrior to lvl9 is a necessity here.

3-5 - random
Repeat 3-4 till you can afford 2 silver katanas (and to get merchant to high enough level for silver katanas to show up in shop). You also want anything you didn't get before 3-3 (mystery book for witch namely). Equip all of these.
3-6 - Static (metal gear lex), invite thief + hospital(on the only step from the stairs that the hospital can reach), get on top of hospital throw zetta near next extend, hide thief in hospital. Summon second theif throw to near next extend, summon shop + doghouse on boss extend.
Get a healer out of shop and have her throw shop towards the laboratory.
healer + atkWarr + mage + strongCat on tank, merchant+weakCat on driver. Sometimes you need to swap the cats around (if the atkWarrior and mage are strong you should use the weakCat instead)
defWarr to dupe points on laboratory. if he can't reach have him enter the shop then get out near the lab.
As a precaution, throw some healers in with the defWarrior to ensure he doesn't die. Not necessary but..
This level is reset heavy and relies on damage ranges.
SKIP DEMO

4-1 - SKIP DEMO Semi-Random Ignore first area, go below and find points. There's a building nearby if you need to dupe points (leave someone behind?)
4-2 - Random
witch NEEDS mystery book or better here, get a healer out of hospital, also best spear possible on merchant if going for safe strat
4-3 - Static
	mechanic throw to corner, summon hospital and thief1 next to zetta, use thief1 to grab zetta and stand on the very corner of the extend. summon healer as far into the extend as possible.
	use theif to throw zetta to the very edge between the next big extend and the extend after that extend. mechanic and theif1 hide in shop, summon theif2 on third big extend, healer throws zetta to extend 3, theif2 throws to boss extend border
	zetta summon dog house + shop on boss area

	fast danger strat:
	pop healer out to throw doghouse near lighthouse, use said healer+strong cat+mage the tank, defWarrior+weak cat the male ronin, get atkWarrior to dupe on lighthouse.
	slow "consistent" strat:
	pop healer1 out to throw shop near lighthouse but close enough so that healer1 can get back inside shop. Take merchant out and attack vehicle.
	pop witch out, unequip book, throw doghouse between vehicle and lighthouse (closer to lighthouse), reequip book, attack vehicle.
	use a cat (preferably the weakest one) to attack vehicle, defWarrior+other cat on male ronin
	atkWarrior goes into lighthouse to dupe points, put all healers except healer1 inside with him to mitigate damage

	Note that this level is balls in this route and you should adapt between safe and fast strats depending on who's doing well on your team (e.g. if both your cats have a bunch of belts and/or were made from makai flowers you might not need the spear on the merchant; if you use the strongCat on the vehicle you probably need the atkWarrior for the ronin which means capturing the lighthouse is harder cause the defWarrior is weaker)
4-4 - Random
4-5 - Throw twice with thieves to skip ronin, bop the other dude with a couple of cats
4-6 - SKIP DEMO, summon a thief throw to border, summon doghouse on boss extension, shop on middle extension, hospital on back, put thief on hospital
	throw doghouse near boss using a healer. 3 healers + all 5 damage dealers to kill raiden.

note that if you have healers in hospital instead of shop and in the initial extension one of the trees is the key you can land shop on it and thief can throw zetta all the way to the border of the boss extend
	SKIP DEMO

5-1 - semi-random, remember buildings can be used for dupes
	SKIP DEMO
5-2 - random, seems to be a lot of points at start
	SKIP DEMO
5-3 - vehicle tower. summon hospital and shop, take a healer to stand on zetta throw shop on top of hospital. summon thief and doghouse.
Take witch, atkWarrior and strongCat out of doghouse. thief lifts doghouse, climbs to shop, throws it on tower. Take cat out, unequip katana, grab building throw it oob; use the guys at the bottom to kill the remaining enemy.
safer strat about 30 seconds slower: summon mechanic to throw zetta far away, wait a turn, look for vehicle with lots of points and kill it.
5-4 - horde of lvl 1s, get warrior out of doghouse before stage, summon him, hit zetta, put him back in doghouse after stage
	if for some reason need party heal, then don't take warrior out of doghouse, do level, heal everyone, put them all back in doghouse
5-5 - random
5-6 - summon hospital in next extension, summon a thief throw zetta near boss extension (hide thief in hospital later on if needed)
	summon doghouse on boss expansion, gang up on vampire with 1cat->3 healers->1cat or 4healers->1cat (use former if you think you don't have enough damage) you can use atkWarrior to help so he gets more weapon mastery
	SKIP DEMO

6-1 - SKIP DEMO semi-random
6-2 - random
	SKIP DEMO
6-3 - the LONG level. 2 thief throws towards boss area, summon doghouse + shop, healer throws doghouse closer to berserker, use all damage dealers except defWarrior to hit boss, give exp to whoever needs it most (cats or atkWarrior). Depending on how well the team is this guy can die to 2 cats alone so use the atkWarrior first for weapon mastery.
6-4 - summon thief + hospital throw from top of hospital and hide him in. Use another thief to throw zetta past the building and next to the vehicle behind it. Summon doghouse+shop use 2 healers + all damage dealers on last building.
Alt. strat: kill vehicle with 2 cats 5 healers and win cause of vehicle point glitch (about as fast but less points)
6-5 - random. Seems to have 600 points at start every time
From now on things start depending on how many healers got to level 20 till now. I've had them get to 20 with no grinding and had them get here at level 16 which is awful. I used to grind the healers to level 20 in 6-5 but it loses a lot of time. Turns out you can just buy new items to skip this grind but I barely experimented with it and having the healers underleveled might cause problems later.
6-6 - one thief throw then hide in hospital. gang up on boss. 5x bravehearts, 2cats+atkWarrior
Actually this is overkill.
No bravehearts = You need to do the shopping from before 7-4 now. Might not have enough money for all of it. Priority is warlord katanas>best possible sword for warrior>best book for witch (book might not be needed but it can save your life in random levels) also equip any belts/rings
1 braveheart = use 3 healers and 5 damage dealers. Braveheart needs to hit atkWarrior+the cats, maybe the other warrior too. Mage goes first cause no braveheart
2 bravehearts = 5 healers + 2 cats + atk warrior. The other healers just use espoir or so (no need to aim the braveheart but might as well aim in the general direction to avoid bad luck).
3+ bravehearts = same strat as above, probably should use 3 bravehearts for safety but the other two healers can do espoir/a braveheart that misses to save time with aiming spells
SKIP DEMO

Every level is random in this stupid chapter so save often unless you're going for a really good time
7-1 - SKIP DEMO semi-random. You can get your points off the building through a big chain or hunt around the random extends. it's random which one is faster
7-2 - SKIP DEMO. semi-random. has the tendency of having all extends with really low point totals.
7-3 - random.
Sort items by type and buy new weapons for everyone (especially warlord katanas). Equip belts and rings if any. If you did this shopping before 6-6 just buy whatever's missing. also belts/rings
7-4 - FOOTBALL. pick a side thief throw near border to extend, hide thrower in hospital. Multiple strats depending on point spread:
Tornado slash can only hit 2 out of 3 carrot men near building. If there's a pair worth ~211 points then gang up on them.
If not then use a max of 7 people on 1 or 2 carrot men then get as many people as you can on market to dupe points.
If the people inside building have all the points then kill the building instead.
7-5 - random.
7-6 - two options:
	-if the guys on the middle are worth enough you can get the vehicle + the two guys near it with a tornado slash, boost it wirh bravehearts.
	-chain on a building, should use about 5 healers and 2-3 damage dealers. This one should be the superior strat. I'm just not sure if there's a possibility the dudes in both buildings are worth very few points to screw this over.
	SKIP DEMO

8-1 - SKIP DEMO. find the group of flame dudes that are worth the most points and tornado slash. In case of issues dupe points with 2 warriors on the nearby buildings.
	If you don't have tornado slash the cats can sometimes solo a flame dude by themselves so use them and maybe healers for chains (do the math). Using only cats might even be faster?
8-2 - SKIP DEMO. mech ambush. find the pack with most points and tornado slash. Also check for trees or rock they occasionally have all the points (if that's the case remember chain storage glitch)
8-3 - random.
8-4 - THE BOX. summon doghouse across the gap, then 2 cats on the nearest 100 point dude.
8-5 - random
8-6 - SKIP DEMO. throw zetta in lone island. wait for alex to die.
	Alternatively put 2 thieves (1 a turn) next to alex to lure salome and skip some alex attacks (cause his target, the thief, dies to salome)
	If alex and salome start hopping on top of each other use one of your units to bait them otherwise you lose lots of time (and possibly get the bad ending?)
	If Salome has ice spells you can beat this in 2-3 turns cause alex is weak to ice. (2 turns is the fastest I got on this level)
	SKIP DEMO.

might run out of SP on this episode, especially around 9-9, might want to full heal somewhere if you're using the healers/tornado slash a lot and you don't have a lot of opportunities for chain storage glitch.
9-1 - SKIP DEMO. Tornado slash +braveheart the healers. If they have low points or you don't have tornado slash then target the vehicle/berserker worth most points
9-2 - 5 tents. Throw zetta near back of stage, 5 healers + 1 or 2 cats on tent. Should always have enough points in there.
	SKIP DEMO
9-3 - random
9-4 - lvl up every turn. 4+5 healers + 2 cats on eyeball building
	SKIP DEMO
9-5 - random
9-6 - Throw zetta towards ships then find the driver worth the most points. Vehicle point glitch works. Can have an extra unit target the place where the driver will be after vehicle dies so you get an extra ~200 points or so, if needed.
9-7 - random
9-8 - clock tower. kill the two guys outside with tornado slash. if not enough points then either use cat instead and dupe points on clock tower with warriors, or kill a building if all the points are inside.
9-9 - Eternal grind level. use grind strats. Put warrior between front healers, then just buff him and tornado slash. Use 4/5 healers, 4 if you feel confident
9-10- SKIP DEMO
	summon hospital and thief, thief stands on hospital, throw zetta as far as possible, put thief in hospital
	baal strats on salome. 5 healers 3 damage dealers. It's worth it to have the first healer throw hospital closer to salome so that other healers take less time aiming braveheart at salome. If you feel you got screwed over exp/items arrange items and equip stuff like belts on your cats before entering level
	DON'T MISS ANY BRAVEHEARTS

Time after bonus list is gone and screen fades to black

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
explanation on the units I use:
def warrior: Warriors have very high defense, which is extremely important to conquer buildings. This guy is used to soak up some damage in buildings and also to do some extra damage in certain levels.

atk warrior: He's also used for buildings. I also use him to deal single target damage early on to raise his sword weapon mastery. At sword level 1 he gets berserker, and at level 2 he gets tornado slash. These two skills have a pretty big AOE. Later on in the run, being able to rely on AOE instead of single target makes it easier to get the required points. His decent stats combined with braveheart allow him to just kill a bunch of enemies, get a bunch of xp and points, and easily clear levels later on. I use the Allied Symbol to make this guy because it boosts all stats and this guy needs the highest number of good stats (HP, ATK, DEF)

Both of the warriors are male because they have a higher base HP and ATK when compared to females (who have higher RES and some other useless stat)

hell cats: Hell cats have some of the highest ATK in the game and are extremely easy to get, unlike the slightly superior Ronins and much superior Berserkers. Using them along with braveheart allows me to kill all the extremely overleveled bosses. By the end sometimes they will have about as much ATK as the atkWarrior, but that's counting the fact that atkWarrior gets more EXP and was made from a really good item.

thieves: Thieves have very high movement and throw range. This allows me to get Zetta and/or buildings across huge maps easily. It might be possible to use another class for this roll, but due to the random maps, the increased movement/throw range can be the difference between winning and losing.

mechanic: You get one for free at the start of chapter 4. He does one throw in 4-3 and saves me having to create a 4th thief.

merchant: By levelling a merchant I get items in the shop sooner. This allows me to get silver katanas with little to no grind before 3-6, which is a required to beat that level in this route. It also ensures I get warlord katanas relatively early (before 6-6).

healers: Healers are really strong. They get no-damage spells at level 1 which means I can chain off items such as trees right off the bat. They get braveheart at level 20 which allows you to kill overleveled enemies. Sometimes I pop one out to throw the doghouse or so.

witch: She doesn't serve an actual, single purpose like the rest, and I'm guessing she might not even be needed, but she's important backup. She can
		Deal decent damage, even endgame (although almost useless after braveheart)
		Deal ranged damage AND large AOE damage which could save your life
		Has no-damage spells relatively early on, which can help with chains
	  I pick the witch over the mage because she's cute. There are no important differences in stats.
----
The best way to save time in this route would be by reducing the number of units created (e.g., might be possible to go through with only 4 healers or maybe even 3, and make the 2 thieves at the start of the game instead; maybe the witch or defWarrior could be replaced/removed; remove certain units and add more cats, etc.)

If you have any questions or doubts please PM me on twitch!! (same nickname as in this site)