Here on this chapter you will be able to choose who you can bring into battle. You have or should have 16 units by now, but you can choose only 10. I would tell you to drop Marcus and Merlinus, since they're not as useful as your other units right now. Just pick your other units based on preference. But Chad is a must for this chapter.

There's also a shop in the item preparation menu, it only sells Iron weapons and low ranked tomes so it's not too useful, but it's handy for now. Make sure your characters have fresh weapons, if you think you're not going to use a certain character for the rest of the game, then it won't hurt to trade his weapons to somebody else.

This a map with a lot of doors, in some of the doors there are chests, in some there are enemies. But first, you have to take care of the opposition in the main hall.

Send a small party up the left corridor, a party up the right corridor and one straight down the middle. Pay close attention to the enemies in the corridor before you make your choice. For example, I sent my axe user up straight because there were mostly Lance users and Mages there.

The corridors shouldn't take too long and before long, the enemies should be wiped out, then, send Chad and a small party to the rooms, make sure Roy is there as well.

Make sure, a thief that comes as a reinforcement, but has a portrait doesn't take the treasure, her name is Cath and even if you talk to her, she won't join you, you have to talk to her at least 3 more times to get her to join you and she's not worth it, I personally don't want to go through the hastle of protecting my stuff everytime she joins and rushing Roy down to talk to her, so I killed her'..anyway. Do what you want.

The chest rooms are:
The upper left room: 1 chest
The room below that: Sue
The room below that: 2 chests
Bottom right corridor room: 2 chests.
Middle right corridor room: 3 chests.

For the boss, just gang up on him with Roy and some other people, don't use Magic but raw physical power will do the trick. Then seize the throne.

Here you can select 3 more units than last chapter, you're going to be facing a deadly enemy in the Dragon Knights so I would tell you to use those extra places for Dorothy, Sue and another axe user or Bors. Make sure Lugh is there as well. You'll have to buy Sue a bow, and replace Dorothy's Steel Bow with an Iron Bow, you should have plenty of money if you got all the chests.



The stadium looking building is an arena, you can fight there for money or experience, generally I view excess arena using as a dirty trick but that's just my personal opinion. Use at your own risk.

There are also several open doored houses, which give you rewards just like villages if you visit them.

So first send some units to get the two right by you. Send the rest of your party up, using the forests as cover.

On your 2nd turn, Zealot and Treck come out of a house, Get Roy there before Zealot tries to attack anything and gets himself killed....

On your 3rd turn, Noah comes out, close to the arena, don't rush to him, he can survive for a couple of turns, just make sure you dont' die and concentrate on your opposition.

So have Roy talk to Zealot and have Zealot talk to Treck and then Noah to recruit them all.

The two clerics at the top are free kills, so after you get through the dogfight of Wyvern Riders (Dragon Knights) and Cavaliers at middle clearing you have a pretty free run to the top before the reinforcements arrive.

So get Chad to open the door have your units like Zealot and Thany save the houses and beat the boss (same old armor Knight routine, magic, Hammer/Rapier) and seize the throne.

If the reinforcments come you should be reasonably set so you can hold them off for a turn easily.

The throne reinforcements might be a problem, but not as long as you have a reasonable amount of units up top.

There are armories and vendors so check out what they sell, buy some for future use and end the chapter.

Alright, you should know by now who you want to use and who you want to leave and should have refreshed everybody's weapons and sold anything that could leave your finances in comfort.

Now the first thing you should do after setting out is look at Lilina, she's captured with no weapons. An archer is outside her room shooting at her...what do you do? Simply look at the archers movement, there will always be a spot he can't reach. Just move her to that spot, but don't forget.
Lilina's box:

The soldiers up front should be easy and not even the mage or Knight would be a worry, however past the first hurdle is a Knight with a Horseslayer, you'll want to not send a cavalier near him.

Eventually Lilina's archer will go off, so you're done with that problem.

Just keep pressing forwards.

When you get far enough, Barth, Oujay and Wendy appear, they're already under your control. Just have them bust open the crack in the wall and you're good.

Oujay comes with an Armorslayer, that's going to be useful against Armored Knights and Generals (like the boss)

Oujay's group is pretty weak, especially Wendy right now (Armor Knight eh?), so get to them before enemies overwhelm them.

There are two chest rooms, you should move through them quickly with two theieves.

Plan your attack down into the treasure rooms, don't just go rushing in. Also, Cath will show up again, get Roy to talk to her before she takes all your treasure.

There's another generic enemy thief with Cath, it's perfectly fine to kill him.

Reinforcements will come and come heavily so don't spare any units coming down.

If some of the thieves get the treasure, you can at least steal the items back, with your own thieves. Make sure to take their lockpicks as well.

The boss can't be defeated easily with Magic, you'll have to use things like the hammer or Armorslayer. Use somebody like Dieck with the Armorslayer.

There are no new characters in this chapter.

If you are at Ch.9 after Ch.8 and not Ch.8x don't worry it's not the end of the world. But a good part of the game is cut off from you if you miss even one Gaiden chapter (and you don't get very powerful weapons either) so it's best to get them.

Each Gaiden chapter or sidequest has a special theme, this one is Fire. (Fitting as you get the Durandal or Blazing Sword after you beat it) The fire is in the form of little tiles like those I've bordered.



They take off 10HP everytime you land on them. So be careful, but it's worth the loss if you can make a decisive move forward.

The enemies to the left of you will just keep pressing so take them out first, then you're free to advance.

Really once you're at the top of the map the resistence fades quickly. Just watch out for a mercenary with a killing edge on the pathway to the boss. Other than that, you're good.

You can get to the boss easily and to beat him throw everything you have at him, ranged and up close. Always get the triangle on him. Once he goes down simply seize the throne and you have your first S ranked weapon! (A unit cannot use these until he has promoted and gained an S rank in the desired weapon type, so just use your weapons often and you'll get there.)

Make sure Noah and Sue are in your party this chapter because they have to recruit Fir and Shin respectively.

This is a fog of war map so your vision is limited, a thief or two is highly reccomended.

Also there are three villages this map, but the two northern ones are very important, you can go two separate routes and get either Lalum or Elphin (a dancer or bard) they're pretty much the same but if you go the left village route you get Echidna (a hero) and if you go the right you get Bartre (a Warrior) they're both equal but the other character you get, Gonzales is far better in the left village route than the right, so I suggest you go the left. I'll cover both routes of course.

Left village in the screen capture is the Lalum route, the right one is the Elphin route.



But before you start thinking about that think about this chapter. First go down and beat the pirates south of your starting position. Make sure you use Chad/Asthore effectively as they can see very far in fog of war maps, giving you a sight bonus which is very handy so you don't get ambushed and can see Fir or Shin from a distance.

Once you get to the middle of the map I suggest splitting your group, one party going to the southern village, one party to the northern. Both Fir and Shin are in the North though so keep that in mind.

The boss is a Berzerker with a Critical bonus and is VERY dangerous get a good sword user up there or attack him from a distance to negate the effect of a death blow.

There are a couple of reinforcements, but by the time they arrive it would be too late. And if they're a bother just sit on the forts.