Ronin

"Foreign masters of the art of bushido. They see death as part of life, and so neglect defense in favor of offense."

—Ronin description, Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight

Virtuous warriors, prepared to fight to the death to protect their comrades by crushing their opponents to the ground before they have a chance to retaliate.

The Ronin are masters of the Katana who abide by the virtuous bushido code. They believe that life and death coincide like the sides of a leaf, and therefore live by striking down the foe with overwhelming power and speed before it has the chance to retaliate, rather than needlessly weathering its attacks. Ronin adapt to new battle situations by adjusting their stance, which bolsters their combat attributes and enables techniques such as imbuing their blade with the wrath of the elements. Using these skills, Ronin bypass the strong points of enemies to attack with the most effective approach.

Compared to the classes of other Etrian Odyssey games, the Ronin shares some similarities with the Shogun. They both wield katanas, abandon defenses in favor of speed and offense, and utilize stance-like mechanics. However, while the Ronin is solitary and self-sufficient, the Shogun relies on and supports their allies. A wandering masterless samurai, to an army commander samurai.

• EO
• EOU
• EO2
• EO2U
• EON

Profile

These foreign swordsmen ground their combat capabilities upon 3 stances that each focus on a different aspect of battle: Overhead to overpower with attacks, Seigan to resist damage, and Iai to strike before the enemy. Ronin must spend a turn taking a stance, that shows up as a buff mutually exclusive to the others. Each stance buff gives attribute boosts and unlocks 3 unique active skills themed on the aspect they embody. One of those skills is an elemental property strike: Overhead does fire, Seigan does volt, and Iai does ice. They also have Ibuki to heal themselves.

• Strengths: Powerful physical attacks that can have elemental properties, and stances help them adapt to changing situations.
• Weaknesses: Mediocre defense and an awful max TP pool. Stances taking an entire turn to activate slows down their damage output. Not accessible until mid-game, and getting them up to speed will take effort.

To Unlock

Once you've reached B11F of the labyrinth, head northwest, towards square A3. You'll find Ren in a single-room dead end. Speak with her, confer your motives for exploring the labyrinth, and she will hand you the Old Scroll which unlocks the Ronin class.

Stat Progression

Main article: Ronin/Stats#EO1

Level	HP	TP	STR	TEC	VIT	AGI	LUC
1	25	4	10	6	6	7	8
30	190	45	43	27	27	31	35
50	332	73	65	42	42	48	54
70	479	101	82	53	53	60	68

Skills

Skill	Description	Type	Prerequisite
HP up	Increase maximum HP.	Stat Increase	Available at Start
TP up	Increase maximum TP.	Stat Increase	Available at Start
ATK up	Increase physical damage.	Stat Increase	Available at Start
Katanas	Increase katana damage.	Stat Increase	Available at Start
Sight	Increase attack damage at night or when blinded.	Passive	ATK Up Lv.3
Crit up	Increase chances of critical strikes.	Passive	ATK Up Lv.5
Ibuki	Heal HP by taking a deep breath.	Healing Skill	HP Up Lv.3
Kesagiri	Katana skill of stepping forward while slicing.	Offensive Katana Skill	Katanas Lv.1
Overhead	Temporary overhead stance that increases attack and defense.	Stance Skill	Katanas Lv.3
Zamba	Strong katana slice from the Overhead stance.	Offensive Katana Skill	Katanas Lv.5 Overhead Lv.1
Midareba	Repeated katana slashes from the Overhead stance		Katanas Lv.7 Overhead Lv.3
Orochi	Execute an fire katana strike from the Overhead stance.		Katanas Lv.10 Overhead Lv.5
Seigan	Temporary Seigan stance that increases attack and defense.	Stance Skill	Katanas Lv.3
Mikiri	Deflect an enemy attack with a katana from the Seigan stance.	Defensive Katana Skill.	Katanas Lv.5 Seigan Lv.1
Koteushi	Immobilize an enemy's arms with a katana from the Seigan stance.	Binding Katana Skill	Katanas Lv.7 Seigan Lv.3
Raizuki	Execute an volt katana stike from the Seigan stance.	Offensive Katana Skill	Katanas Lv.10 Seigan Lv.5
Iai	Temporary Iai katana stance that increases speed.	Stance Skill	Katanas Lv.3
Kubiuchi	Chance of an instant katana kill from the Iai stance.	Offensive Katana Skill	Katanas Lv.5 Iai Lv.1
Gatotsu	Extremely powerful, lightning-quick katana stab.		Katanas Lv.7 Iai Lv.3
Hyosetsu	Execute an ice katana strike from the Iai stance.		Katanas Lv.10 Iai Lv.5
Mine	Mine for materials at item points.	Gather	Available at Start

External Links

• Skill Simulator

Profile

Faithful to the original game, Ronin must spend a turn taking a stance to unlock related skills, and the buff that occupies a slot grants almost the same boosts, but they have additional options. They can spend another turn on Peerless Stance to gain access to them all and a boost on par with all 3 stances combined for 3 turns. Their old basic attack skill Slantwise Cut now allows access to all regular stance skills on the following turn. Their regular stance skills have a handful of modifications, especially that each of the elemental strikes can hit multiple enemies. Ronin can gain the chance to win battles against weaker enemies the instant they start.

• Strengths: Excellent speed and evasion, unmatched physical attack power that can have elemental properties, and stances help them adapt to changing situations.
• Weaknesses: Mediocre defense. Stances taking an entire turn to activate slows down their damage output, but they can use attacks from Grimoire Stones. Poor Luck and Technique growth hinders instant kills and arm binds. Skills are too exclusive to be used effectively on Grimoire Stones.

Stat Progression

Main article: Ronin/Stats#EOU

Level	HP	TP	STR	TEC	VIT	AGI	LUC
1	27	15	10	6	6	8	5
30	114	70	27	15	16	24	11
70	289	164	54	31	32	49	22
99	456	246	74	43	45	69	30

Skills

Skill	Description	Type	Prerequisite
Katana Mastery	Enables Katana skills and increases damage dealt with katanas.	Mastery	Available at Start
Slantwise Cut	Melee cut attack to 1 enemy, enables stance-requiring skills afterward.	Katana	Katana Mastery Lv1
Perfect Chaser	Follow all allies' normal attacks this turn with another attack.	Katana	Slantwise Cut Lv7
Upper Stance	An overhead stance that raises physical attack for 3 turns.	Stance	Katana Mastery Lv5
Clear Stance	A stance that raises physical defense for 3 turns.
Drawing Stance	A stance that raises speed/accuracy/evasion for 3 turns.
Horse Slash	Strong melee cut attack to 1 enemy.	Katana Upper	Upper Stance Lv1
Flame Grater	Melee cut + fire attack to 1 line.		Horse Slash Lv3
Swallow Strike	Multiple melee cut attacks to 1 enemy.		Upper Stance Lv.5
Razor Dodge	Automatically dodge enemy attacks this turn.	Katana Clear	Clear Stance Lv1
Lightning Stab	Melee line-piercing stab + volt attack to 1 enemy.		Razor Dodge Lv3
Arm Strike	Melee cut attack to 1 enemy, may bind arms.		Clear Stance Lv5
Beheading Cut	Melee cut attack to 1 enemy, may instantly kill.	Katana Drawing	Drawing Stance Lv1
Frigid Slash	Ranged cut + ice attack to all enemies.		Beheading Cut Lv3
Charging Slash	Melee stab attack to 1 enemy.		Drawing Stance Lv5
Peerless Stance	A stance that gives an all-round boost and enables all stance-requiring skills for 3 turns. Requires one of the other 3 stances to be active, cannot be extended by repeated use.	Stance	Katana Mastery Lv10
ATK Up	Raises physical attack.	Stat Up	Available from Start
Crit Up	Raises critical rate.	Passive	ATK Up Lv5
Severing Slash	Occasionally kills all enemies instantly at the start of a battle.	Passive	Crit Up Lv5
HP Up	Raises maximum HP.	Stat Up	Available at Start
Breath	Restores HP to user and adjacent allies.	Healing	HP Up Lv3
TP Up	Raises maximum TP.	Stat Up	Available at Start
Indomitable Cry	May induce fear in all enemies.	Battle	TP Up Lv3
Mine	Allows the user to find more resources while mining.	Gather	Available at Start

Grimoire Stones

Skills to generate and pass:

• Severing Slash: Hand it to classes with much higher Technique/Luck stats and mow down random encounters without needing to lift a finger.
• Crit Up: Best given to classes with builds focused on augmenting normal attacks.

Skills best used on a Ronin

• Double Strike, High Caliber (Gunner): When taking stances consumes too much time, make the most of your normal attacks by landing incredibly powerful crits.
• DEF Up, Aegis (Protector): Ronin are fragile. Offsetting this fragility and giving the ability to resist death saves on items and TP used to revive them.
• Endorphins (Survivalist): Razor Dodge counts as evasion, so in addition to Drawing Stance Ronin have the opportunity to sustain themselves.

External Links

• Skill Simulator

Profile

Compared to the game before it, the stances of these Ronin are no longer active buffing skills, but passive masteries to unlock related active attack skills. They no longer get flexible stat boosts from stances, but have access to attack skills at all times, including new access to bash damage. The new skills Dead Law, Shiraha, and Clarity replicate the benefits formerly given by stances. They can no longer heal themselves.

• Strengths: Unmatched physical attack power, excellent speed and evasion, and easy access to all damage properties.
• Weaknesses: Mediocre defense. Relatively poor TP pool, making them frequently exhaust TP they need for attack skills.
• Force skill - Issen: With this blindingly fast sword skill, the Ronin moves as if time has stopped to deliver potentially lethal strikes to the entire enemy party.

Stat Progression

Main article: Ronin/Stats#EO2

Level	HP	TP	STR	TEC	VIT	AGI	LUC
1	39	19	8	4	4	5	6
30	204	60	39	15	18	28	14
70	483	116	72	36	39	57	30
99	686	236	89	53	57	76	48

Skills

Skill	Description	Type	Prerequisite
HP Up	Increases maximum HP.	Stat Increase	Available at Start
TP Up	Increases maximum TP.
STR Up	Increases strength.
TEC Up	Increases technique.
VIT Up	Increases vitality.
AGI Up	Increases agility.
LUC Up	Increases luck.
Esc Up	Increase chances of successfully escaping from battle.	Stat Increase	Available at Start
Shiraha	Potentially nullifies any attack directed at the user.	Passive	AGI Up Lv.8 LUC Up Lv.8
Overhead	Needed to learn Overhead stance skills.	Mastery Skill	Available at Start
Seigan	Needed to learn Seigan stance skills.
Iai	Needed to learn Iai stance skills.
Clarity	Evasion rate increases as the Ronin loses HP.	Passive	STR Up Lv.5
Sayageki	Bash an enemy with the katana's sheath.	Offensive Katana Skill	Available at Start
Zamba	Strong katana slash over the head.	Offensive Katana Skill	Overhead Lv.1
Midareba	Repeated katana slashes against a single enemy in the Overhead stance.		Overhead Lv.10 Dead Law Lv.5
Orochi	A fiery, overhead katana slash directed at a single enemy.		Overhead Lv.5
Kienzan	Fiery, overhead katana slashes directed at all enemies.		Overhead Lv.7 Orochi Lv.5
Koteuchi	Piercing katana attack in the Seigan stance that may bind an enemy's arms.	Binding Katana Skill	Seigan Lv.1
Getsuei	Straight katana stab in the Seigan stance.	Offensive Katana Skill	Seigan Lv.3 Koteuchi Lv.5
Raizuki	Volt-charged katana stab in the Seigan stance against a single enemy.		Seigan Lv.5
Minakata	Volt-charged katana stabs in the Seigan stance against all enemies.		Seigan Lv.7 Raizuki Lv.5
Kubiuchi	Katana slash in the Iai stance that may result in an instant kill.	Offensive Katana Skill	Iai Lv.1
Nukeuchi	Powerful katana stab in the Iai stance.		Iai Lv.3 Kubiuchi Lv.5
Hyosetsu	Icy katana slash in the Iai stance against a single enemy.		Iai Lv.5
Hosoyuki	Icy katana slash in the Iai stance against all enemies.		Iai Lv.7 Hyosetsu Lv.5
Dead Law	Abandon defense in order to increase offense.	Enhancement Skill	STR Up Lv.1
Mine	Mine for minerals at item points.	Gather	Available at Start

External Links

• Class Guide

Profile

The Fafnir Knight makes liberal changes to classes, and Ronin is no exception. Their stances evolved back into temporary buffs that alter their available skills, but taking a page from the first Untold's Slantwise Cut, the job of establishing the stances falls to 3 associated basic attack skills. Only Peerless Stance works like a standard buff skill. This means they continuously attack while flowing between stances. Not only that, stances no longer consume a buff slot, and at level 10 and beyond can activate at the start of battle. They still feature the same elemental properties as before, but each stance is also full of one of the 3 physical properties: Upper does cut, Clear does stab, and Drawing does bash. Clear and Drawing Stances each receive a new ultimate attack to match Swallow Strike, and Ronin can execute all three at once using Peerless Combo.

• Strengths: Unmatched physical attack power, excellent speed and evasion, and access to all damage properties. Stances help them adapt to changing situations.
• Weaknesses: Mediocre defenses and HP/TP pools. Low Luck hinders instant kill and arm bind. Investing in Peerless Combo is skill point intensive, and Stance-based skills are too exclusive to be used effectively on Grimoire Stones.
• Force Boost - Immovable: For 3 turns, stance counter does not decrease, and TP costs of stance-related attacks are halved.
• Force Break - Issen: Melee cut attack to all enemies, with high chance of instant kill that increases with lower target health. Unusable if the Ronin's arms are bound.

Stat Progression

Main article: Ronin/Stats#EO2U

Level	HP	TP	STR	TEC	VIT	AGI	LUC
1	27	18	10	6	6	9	4
30	114	107	25	16	16	23	13
70	289	255	50	32	32	47	27
99	456	340	70	45	46	66	38

Skills

Skill	Description	Type	Prerequisite	Extra
Katana Mastery	Enables Katana skills and increases damage dealt with katanas.	Mastery	Available at Start
Upper Stance	Raises ATK bonus during Upper Stance. May activate at start of battle when mastered.	Stance	Katana Mastery Lv1
Clear Stance	Raises DEF bonus during Clear Stance. May activate at start of battle when mastered.
Drawing Stance	Raises speed/accuracy/evasion bonus during Drawing Stance. May activate at start of battle when mastered.
Upward Slash	Melee cut attack to 1 enemy, then take Upper Stance for 2 turns.	Katana	Upper Stance Lv1
Horse Slash	Strong melee cut attack to 1 enemy.	Katana Upper	Upper Stance Lv3
Flame Grater	Fire + cut attack to a line of enemies.		Horse Slash Lv3
Swallow Strike	Multiple melee cut attacks to 1 enemy.		Upper Stance Lv5	Lv5 and 10 increase accuracy and number of hits.
Charging Thrust	Melee stab attack to 1 enemy, then take Clear Stance for 2 turns.	Katana	Clear Stance Lv1
Arm Strike	Stab attack to 1 enemy, may bind arms.	Katana Clear	Clear Stance Lv3
Lightning Stab	Line-piercing stab + volt attack.		Arm Strike Lv3
Moon Shadow	Melee stab attack to 1 enemy, activates quickly.		Clear Stance Lv5
Sheath Strike	Melee bash attack to 1 enemy, then take Drawing Stance for 2 turns.	Katana	Drawing Stance Lv1
Beheading Cut	Melee cut attack to 1 enemy, may instantly kill.	Katana Drawing	Drawing Stance Lv3
Frigid Slash	Ranged cut + ice attack to all enemies.		Beheading Cut Lv3
Ground Strike	Ranged bash attack to 1 enemy. Slow to activate.		Drawing Stance Lv5
Peerless Stance	A stance that gives an all-around boost to all stats and enables all stance skills for 3 turns. Requires one of the other three stances. Cannot be extended.	Stance	Swallow Strike Lv1 Moon Shadow Lv1 Ground Strike Lv1
Peerless Combo	Uses Swallow Strike, Moon Shadow, and Ground Strike in quick succession, then ends Peerless Stance. Strengthens along with its individual moves.	Katana	Peerless Stance Lv3	Stance is not terminated if Force Boost is active.
Post-Initiative	Raises evasion and damage dealt next turn.	Charge	Katana Mastery Lv5	Lv5 and 10 increase evasion.
Perfect Chaser	Perform a follow-up attack on an enemy hit by a normal attack this turn.	Katana	Katana Mastery Lv10	Lv5 and 10 reduce chase penalty and increase max chases.
Phys ATK Up	Increases physical ATK.	Stat Up	Available at Start
Pre-Initiative	Increases accuracy and damage to enemies that haven't moved yet.	Passive	Phys ATK Up Lv8
HP Up	Increases max HP.	Stat Up	Available at Start
TP Up	Increases max TP.	Stat Up	Available at Start
Mine	Allows the user to find more resources while mining.	Gather	Available at Start

Grimoire Stones

Skills to generate and pass:

• Pre-Initiative: A good passive for the faster party members.

Skills best used on a Ronin:

• Fencer, Double Attack (Landsknecht): Ronin will find themselves using their normal attack often to save on TP during random encounters.
• Force Charge, Force Mastery (Fafnir): When used in conjunction with Peerless Combo, the force gain is enough to access Force Boost almost immediately after.
• Elemental Sabres (Fafnir): Cheap access to elemental damage without spending time assuming stances.
• Speed Up: Synergizes with Pre-Initiative to give the Ronin a bigger damage bonus on faster targets. Raised evasion can be a life-saver, and the accuracy buff helps with skills that have problems with missed hits.
• Aegis (Protector): Ronin are fragile. Giving the ability to resist death saves on items and TP used to revive them.

External Links

• Skill Simulator

Profile

The Ronin of Etria and High Lagaard have answered the call to Maginia, further refining their techniques passed down across the previous games, also incorporating those of their Masurao counterparts in Arcadia. Following Untold 2, each of the 3 stances is again started and extended by an associated attack skill, but they also immediately assume their best stance right away in battle. All attack skills are available in any stance, and many of them are available without any stance at all, but all of them inflict a guaranteed critical hit only if in the correct stance. Ronin must alternate their strongest attacks with weaker attacks throughout battle. The Force Boost gains most of the effects of Peerless Stance from the remakes instead of halving TP costs.

• Strengths: Unmatched physical attack power, excellent speed and evasion, and easy access to all damage properties. Stances help them adapt to changing situations.
• Weaknesses: Meager defenses. Low Luck hinders ailment/bind skills unless backed up by Clear Stance. Requires many skill points to get powerful, and Stance-related katana skills too exclusive to use properly as a subclass.
• Force Boost - Musou: For 3 turns, stance counter does not decrease, stances cannot be cancelled, and the Ronin experiences the effects of all three stances at once.
• Force Break - Issen: Melee cut attack to all enemies, with high chance of instant kill that increases with lower target health. Unusable if the Ronin's arms are bound.

Stat Progression

Main article: Ronin/Stats#EON

Level	HP	TP	STR	INT	VIT	WIS	AGI	LUC
1	52	42	20	9	10	13	18	12
30	98	85	44	20	22	28	39	26
70	195	175	93	44	47	60	84	56
99	289	262	142	67	70	90	127	85
130	416	381	207	99	103	132	185	124

Skills

The Ronin now automatically assumes their highest-leveled Stance at the start of battle if they are wielding a Katana. If two or more Stance skills are tied for highest, the Ronin will choose one randomly. This will not happen during blindsides, however.

Skills prefaced with Stance: can only be used during any Stance.

Skill	Description	Type	Requires	Extra
Musou	For 3 turns, user gains all Stance effects, even when they would normally be lost.	Force Boost	--
Issen	Powerful ranged cut to all enemies. May instakill. Instakill rate increases on enemies at low HP.	Force Break
NOVICE
Upper Stance	User takes Upper Stance, increasing all ATK.	Stance	None	Lv4 and 8 increase initial Stance duration.
Clear Stance	User takes Clear Stance, increasing all DEF and bind/ailment success rate of Ronin skills.
Swift Stance	User takes Swift Stance, increasing hit rate/evasion/act speed.
Upward Slash	Melee cut attack to 1 enemy. User takes Upper Stance for 3 turns after activation.	Katana	Upper Stance Lv1	Crits in their respective Stance. Lv4 increases Stance extension.
Charging Thrust	Melee stab attack to 1 enemy. User takes Clear Stance for 3 turns after activation.		Clear Stance Lv1
Sheath Strike	Melee bash attack to 1 enemy. User takes Swift Stance for 3 turns after activation.		Swift Stance Lv1
Air Blade	Ranged cut attack to 1 enemy.	Katana	None	Crits in any Stance.
Arm Strike	Melee stab attack to 1 enemy. May bind the enemy's arms.			Crits in any Stance. Lv4 and 8 increase arm bind chance.
Mine	Increases material yield from mining in the labyrinth.	Gather	None
Breath	Restores HP to user and adjacent allies.	Heal	None
VETERAN
Helm Splitter	Stance: Low hit rate cut to 1 enemy. Ignores resistances. Afterwards, lose 2 turns of Stance time.	Katana	Upward Slash Lv1	Crits in Upper Stance.
Flame Grater	Fire/cut attack to 1 enemy.		Helm Splitter Lv3
Haze Slash	Stance: Melee cut to 1 enemy. May put to sleep. Afterwards, lose 2 turns of Stance time.	Katana	Charging Thrust Lv1	Crits in Clear Stance. Lv5 and 10 increase sleep chance.
Lightning Stab	Volt/stab attack to 1 enemy.		Haze Slash Lv3	Crits in Clear Stance.
Horizontal Slash	Stance: Melee cut attack to 1 enemy line. Afterwards, lose 2 turns of Stance time.	Katana	Sheath Strike Lv1	Crits in Swift Stance.
Frigid Slash	Ice/cut attack to 1 enemy.		Horizontal Slice Lv3
Duel	Increased damage when attacking the same target as the previous turn.	Passive	Air Blade Lv2 Arm Strike Lv2
Phys ATK Up	Increases physical attack.	Stat Up	None
MASTER
Swallow Strike	Stance: 2 cuts to 1 enemy. Afterwards, Stance is lost; cannot use skills next turn.	Katana	Flame Grater Lv3	Crits in Upper Stance. Lv6 reduces power but increases number of hits.
Stone Thrust	Stance: Stab to 1 enemy. May petrify. Afterwards, Stance is lost; cannot use skills next turn.	Katana	Lightning Stab Lv3	Crits in Clear Stance.
Petal Scatter	Stance: Ranged cut to all enemies. Afterwards, Stance is lost; cannot use skills next turn.	Katana	Frigid Slash Lv3	Crits in Swift Stance.
Full Proficiency	Strengthens the effect of Stances.	Passive	None
Rouse Spirits	If turn ends while in a Stance, user recovers TP.		Full Proficiency Lv2
Speed Up	Increases hit rate, evasion, and act speed.	Stat Up	None

Class Breakdown

The Ronin have been through a journey. In the beginning, they were pretty simple. They dodgy melee glass cannons needing a setup turn. They are full of orderly triads: strike/parry/dash, overhead/seigan/iai, upper/middle/lower, fire/volt/ice, and even within each stance branch were 3 attack skills. You might appreciate the swordsmanship terms if you know what they mean and look like in real life. For example, iai is about quick reaction in situations when the sword is sheathed, like getting jumped on the street. The seigan stance holds the katana with both hands in front with the tip pointed toward the target's eyes, great for thrusting and parrying. The second game let go of stances to emphasize more dodge, more glass, more cannon.

In between were two other styles of Japanese swordfighters: Shogun and Bushi. They are both their own thing, but Rouse Spirits is somewhat like Bushi's major feature of endlessly sustaining their own TP by autoattacking.

The Millennium Girl was mostly faithful to the original design, but kicked things up a notch with a few new skills and a big change to Kesagiri, or Slantwise Cut, so it would allow all stance skills on the following turn. This meant you could constantly alternate between Slantwise and another attack, entirely passing over stances except as prerequisites, if you wanted to never take a break from launching attacks. The Fafnir Knight took that idea and ran it hard, recruiting Sayageki into a trio of attack skills that are the sole means of extending stance buffs: Upward Slash, Charging Thrust, and Sheath Strike. These also represent all 3 physical properties. This is also when stances were taken out of buff slots, so attacks, stances, and buffs from other characters flow together harmoniously.

From Beyond the Myth came Blade Master Masurao, which introduced a couple important concepts, not to mention directly imported skills. These Katana users could deal critical hit damage with attack skills, and certain of those skills led into combination attacks across multiple turns, particularly Haze Slash and Helm Splitter.

All this culminates in Nexus, where if you peer into the depths, Ronin actually gets a bit dizzying. They truly blend everything together in a web of compromises. Let's start with conveniences. Regardless of the level, Ronin always autocast their stance with the highest level at the start of battle. Even so, the freedom of choice in The Fafnir Knight was apparently not enough, because now only 6 of their 14 attack skills (15 if you count Issen) cannot be used without a stance active. Those skills have a reason for needing a stance active, which will become apparent later, but even these can be used while any stance is active. However, all attack skills are guaranteed to critically hit (+50% damage) when performed in the correct stance. This can be thought of as a -33% penalty when performed in the wrong stance.

Whether it's in Upper Stance, Clear Stance, or Swift Stance, crits are a big deal. You should try to score them as often as possible, but that can only be done while a stance is active. Needing to use a starting attack to begin, switch between, or extend stances creates a rhythm to Ronin's damage output not so different from the original buff skills. The starting autocast helps get the crits rolling, but if you want to use an attack from a different stance, not only will you have to suffer a critless turn, but the damage modifiers on the starting attacks are the lowest out of all Ronin's skills. Then the damage output will jump, especially if you lay into the same target to get Duel's bonus, because of guaranteed crits and Ronin's complete array of physical and elemental properties with which to exploit weaknesses. That complete array, by the way, is part of the 8 attack skills that can always be accessed even without a stance.

Arm Strike and Air Blade are the outliers that will crit in any stance. Use them to maintain steady damage per turn. In previous games, Arm Strike was one of the middle stance attacks, but is actually still most effective in Clear Stance since it gets extra binding chance. Clear Stance's new boost to ailments and binds is a little surprising since the middle stance is typically the most defensive, but it still kind of is since the ones Ronin can inflict, arm bind, sleep, and petrification, are mostly defensive effects. Since Beheading Cut is absent from the lower stance (only Issen can instantly kill), all of Ronin's skills that can inflict ailments or binds count Clear Stance as the correct stance. It seems that Clear Stance only affects the infliction chances of Ronin skills.

The skills that require a stance are Ronin's most powerful attacks, but they consume turns of the stance. The first set consumes 2 extra turns of stance time, while the even stronger "ultimate" second set abolishes the stance entirely and forces you to wait a whole turn before starting up a stance all over again. Etrian Odyssey as a whole is not big on cooldowns, but consuming stance time ensures these skills cannot be consecutively spammed for long. To keep using them, you must alternate with starting attacks. Stylistically, periodic bursts give a feeling of punchy impact, or they may be thought of as taking multiple turns to perform. The stance requirement doesn't care whether you have 1 or 9 turns left to the stance. The efficient approach would be to wait until the last turn, but for the first set, you will still have the stance on the next turn if it had 4 or more turns left (1 per turn and 2 consumed). If these attacks finish off the last turn of battle, you won't need to concern yourself over their limitations.

You also avoid the drawbacks if you activate the Force Boost. Musou preserves the stance timer, canceling out the consumption, but the ultimate attacks still prohibit the use of skills on the following turn, effectively consuming a turn of Musou. Musou also grants the effect previously given by Peerless Stance, instead of halving TP costs, and does not require an active stance. It counts as the correct stance for every skill, so Full Proficiency combines with every stance, Rouse Spirits restores TP, and all stance attack skills are available and crit. This allows you do to deal full damage when using skills of different stances consecutively. You may want to do this when switching between targets with differing resistances, getting a critical hit when switching to a different stance, or executing a combination of attacks. Helm Splitter is best used on targets that cannot be missed, meaning those with leg bind or are blind, asleep, confused, or petrified. Take note of Haze Slash and Stone Thrust that inflict sleep and petrification, and Helm Splitter ignores the petrification's cut resistance. This makes a combo. You may also want to whip out Horizontal Slice or Petal Scatter when there are a lot of enemies. That is usually the case at the start of random battles. To give Musou power to work with, you should get at least level 1 in every stance.

This all results in an almost artistic dance as enemies are defeated and opportunities arise in battle. Once you get Rouse Spirits, if you responsibly manage stance timing you'll never have to autoattack again, barring the lockout after the ultimates. Don't forget to take a Breath while on your downtime exploring or passing time in battle.

Subclassing

In Etrian Odyssey Nexus, Ronin can gain the ability to subclass like the rest of the adventurers.

Subclasses for Ronin

There are only a few subclasses useful to a Ronin. The skill tree is very self-sufficient and will happily gobble up every skill point. Despite also being a sword, a katana doesn't count as a typical sword for the many sword-users in the game, so Ronin's dedication to it makes it difficult to use many other attack skills without sacrificing a slot better spent on armor. However, one doesn't need to take or max out every skill, and passives help regardless of weapon.

• Highlanders are commonly picked for their passives. Phys ATK Up, HP Up, and Phys DEF Up all are welcome to the Ronin to make them hit harder and take hits better on the frontline. Bloody Offense is an astounding damage buff, and Blood Fortune is great for party support. Access to shields exchanges some of the Ronin's speed for greater durability.
• Ninja is ideal for an elusive samurai with high levels in Swift Stance. Take Concealment and Reflexes, but keep in mind Ninpo: Flight and Smoke take time away from attacks. Throw Mystic Calm in with Rouse Spirits to promote rampant skill use, enough even for Ninpo: Double.
• Shogun gives Ronin a few Katana skills independent from Stances. Morning Star is great for line damage without losing stance time from Horizontal Slice, and Bolt Slash hits harder than Lighting Stab when not in Clear Stance. No other skills are great for them, and Ronin have too much to lose and not enough to gain by wielding two Katanas.
• Landsknecht's Proficiency and Initiative turn Ronins' substantial speed into valuable boosts for themselves and the party, but Vanguard is largely unnecessary due to said speed, and also carries its defense penalty to the already fragile Ronin. Single Devotion amplifies Ronin's primarily physical attacks. Phys DEF Up, Status DEF Up and access to shields help mitigate the Ronin's fragility, though shields weigh them down.

Ronin as Subclass

Ronin offer good damage-boosting passives in the form of Phys ATK Up, Speed Up, and Duel, and for even more damage there's Upper Stance and Upward Slash to maintain it. Be wary that Stances require a Katana to even use, generally consuming an equipment slot as a subweapon.

• Ninja are not particularly bothered about giving up knives, unless they want to manage Doubles with Drawing Slice. Speed Up and Swift Stance improve passive evasion, and their already great ailment/bind success makes Clear Stance and Arm Strike worth a mere 3 skill point investment.
• Shogun already equip Katanas by default, so have an easy time using Ronin skills, to the point where they could just ignore Second Sword. The attack skills and bonus stats of every Stance are helpful to Shogun, though their unimpressive Luck holds back Clear Stance.
• Nightseekers are no strangers to dual wielding, and the use of a Katana will greatly raise their ATK for better damage numbers. Stone Thrust provides the missing petrification ailment.
• Imperials are unable to access Stances due to their Drive Blade restricting subweapons, but the passives Duel and Speed Up enhance their combo cycles and help deliver Drive attacks more accurately.

External Links

• Skill Simulator

Gallery

Female ronin sketch.

Male ronin sketch.

A party of a Ronin, Dark Hunter, Medic, Hexer and Troubadour battling what appears to be the Wyrm.

Featured in Sekaiju no Omocha Bako's cover.

Ronin Skill Tree

Yesterday, I reached the town of Etria, and I've already registered my name at the Guild. Class: Ronin. Specialties: Slashing, hara-kiri. So... Why haven't I heard from any interested guild owners? That one-eyed, bearded loser isn't slacking on the job, is he...?

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	ブシドー	Bushido
English	Ronin Samurai (DS Europe)
French	Ronin Samouraï (DS Europe)
German	? Samurai (DS Europe)
Spanish	? Samurái (DS Europe)
Italian	? Samurai (DS Europe)
Chinese (Simplified)	武士
Chinese (Traditional)	武士
Korean	무사