Chapter 25’s ‘Defend Hakurei Castle’ task will be the toughest objective you have been given so far in The Alliance Alive HD Remastered. This guide will help you find a recruitable character to help, set up squads and defeat the daemon Grossa.
This guide contains 3 parts (as well as an off-topic tip):
- Recruitting a new playable character
- Setting up your squads
- Defeating Daemon Grossa
Recruit A New Playable Character
Before entering chapter 24’s Hakurei Castle battle, you have the opportunity to recruit Robbins. From the Snow Realm’s beach, use the ARK to travel to the left alongside the land edge (starts at East on the compass). You’ll eventually find another island (past the Frozen Sea Cave) with Penguin Cave. Find an entrance, look for Penguin Cave and talk to the penguins.
A mother penguin will ask you to look for someone. They can be found opposite the piece of land you’re currently on. Find the smaller island and be prepared to fight a water devil at the very end after a cutscene. Go back to Penguin Cave and Robbins will join your party.
Squad Setup
The party used for this guide to finish this chapter in The Alliance Alive HD Remastered:
- Squad 1: Robbins, Azura and Renzo.
- Squad 2: Barbarosa, Tiggy, Gene and Galil.
- Squad 3: Vivian, Ignace and Rachel
All characters who weren’t used often in this playthrough were trained from grinding to have their max HP grow a little above 200.
Robbins, once recruited, is strong on his own. He was paired up with the slightly weaker Azura and Renzo. Barbarosa was the heavy axe hitter. He should also have a decent shield with a counter art (it’s extremely useful for protection and additional enemy damage). Tiggy was decently strong already while Galil was trained to have his HP grow to 250 and gain powerful spear arts (Discord is one of them). Gene was the weakest so he was included in the 4 member squad. He has a healing skill so he would be useful at the back in the formation.
Vivian and Ignace were two of the strongest characters in this playthrough, so they were paired up with Rachel who can also hold her own.
Off-Topic: Hakurei Castle Tip
If your squads are capable, try to protect the people who are fighting the beastfolk/monsters or are in trouble. If you do it successfully, once you’ve cleared the whole battle, you’ll be able to go to the treasure rooms and obtain the treasures.
Boss fight: Grossa
Daemon general Grossa is the toughest battle you will experience.
Strategy to defeat Daemon Grossa
Squads 2 and 3 will likely get Ignition status when entering battle, therefore it’s recommended to keep the most powerful Ignition hitters in these squads. Ensure you have enough leftover SP for both normal Arts and Ignition-powered Arts. Grossa has a skill that can possibly defeat your entire party, therefore you should fire your Ignition art on the first turn to deal as much damage to Grossa as you can.
Shield users (and maybe even greatsword users) are effective too at counterattacking.
Weaken Grossa with the squad 1 members. When they have been wiped out, use Ignition to drastically weaken him and finish him off with the squad 3 members. Vivian and Ignace can hit him with a powerful Ignition art and if that doesn’t end the battle, they both have powerful spells to accomplish the task.
