Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga Tips and Tricks

In the current version 1.01.1, there is a hidden speed faster than “turbo”, which happens if you press and hold down the ~ key.
It will save you an enormous amount of waiting when the AI is taking their actions.

Directly from in-game’s “Tutorial and Info” section

1. A unit with 5 horsebows and 3 archers will have light cavalry mobility. Similarly, a unit with 5 Cavalry and 4 infantry will have cavalry movement (which can make Hospitallers worth using over Templars in certain circumstances)

2. Dragons and Horses don’t mix. If they are together in a party, it will become infantry class (5 cavalry, 2 infantry, and dragon = infantry class)

3. Cannons will similarly make a unit instantly either slow or infantry class (depending on techs).

4. If your # of dragons = # of other unit types, it will be flying. However, if 1 of the other units is a cavalry, it will become infantry class (Dragons cannot make horses fly!).

5. “Light” Classification comes from the number of light units vs heavy units. For example, this Stefan squad is “Light cavalry” because Stefan + Blademaster + 2 Raiders + Hussar = 5 light units.

Affinity has 2 main effects:
1) Affects character stats
2) Affects hit and crit chance, depending on the weather of the turn (thus, cannot be controlled since weather is mostly random)The effect of affinities is shown in the image below, but what you need to know is this:
Front-line tanks (typically Sentinels, Valkyries, and Paladins): Earth
Magic-based units where HP is not an issue: Water or Dark
High Skill and Str: Lightning
Physical DPS: Dark or Fire
Squad Leader: Light

Finally, affinity stat changes are applied retroactively. For example, if you change from lightning to light affinity, you will see a big increase in your leadership stat, your STR and SKL will drop, etc.

In SoW, there are 4 main methods to earn gold. Using these methods can allow you purchase all the mercenaries and artifacts you come across in the bazaars and markets.

1. The thievery squad
The thievery squad should be your initiator in combat.
They earn gold based on the skill of the characters in the squad, and the amount of damage the unit deals.

Thus, the best classes to give thievery to would be the following:
Swordmaster, Scouts/Hussars, Horsebow/Raider, Lightning Wizards.

They should all be lightning class for maximum SKL (aka. maximum profit!)

Important characters that can benefit from thievery include:
Rakusha, Beatrix, Narima, General Ragavi

Named Mercenaries that can benefit include:
– Konrad the Cold (change to lightning class, has Arcane speed which gives SKL based upon MAG stat).
– Teriq the Wicked

An early-game (Chapter 8) thievery squad could be the following, with 3 thieves in the mid-line.

An late-game thievery squad would look like this (only 2 Valkyries don’t have thievery):

2. Surrenders
At the end of battle, every enemy unit that has surrendered will give you 1 tech point, and a large amount of gold.

To make a surrender succeed, you need to damage/destroy the enemy morale, with 100% chance of a successful surrender if they have “Shattered” Morale.

Thus, an effective tactic is to:
1. Attack with a party to reduce their morale.
2. Have a 2nd party (preferably with a leader with “Silver Tongue) do a “surrender attack”

Final tip:
To maximum surrenders, you should use a party with many melee units with the overpower trait (Deals morale damage based on STR). The melee units will generally target the same enemy, reducing the number of killed enemies and leaving more alive for the surrender.

3. Treasure Hunter
This is a leader perk. If your unit perform surrenders (or enemy army kills) has Treasure Hunter, you are more likely to have items drop. They can be artifacts, or the really profitable Arena tokens.

4. Arena Fights
Every arena fight gives gold, XP Codex, CP Codex, and some random items.
Thus, buy the tokens in the market whenever you see them! They can also drop as a reward item from combat during battles.

Here are sample rewards from each of the 4 arena
Bronze / Silver

Gold / Platinum

There are several key points to understanding how Leadership gain works.

The above leadership gain occurred when I stayed within the time limits of each battle, simply from clearing 5 Gaiden missions + numerous arena battles.

– Think of Leadership as having a “Hidden” LDR XP Bar.
– Combat and captures increase LDR XP.
– Mentorship: A squad leader will provide LDR XP to all units in his party, until they reach [The Leader’s LDR -10]. Mentorship only applies with combat.
– When a LDR XP bar is filled, the unit gets +1 LDR. Light affinity has a smaller LDR XP bar, while Dark has a higher one.

Loyalty (which affects unit capacity cost) functions the exact same way, except there are only 5 states: Mercenary, Uncommitted, Neutral, Committed, Loyal.

Thus, the best way to increase both leadership and loyalty is:
1. In bronze arena, set up a unit with the lowest threat rating, which will ensure it is the target of attacks.
2. Do you hurt the 2 archers on the map. They will constantly attack you every turn (note: the more attackers, the more XP is earned).
3. If you wish to grind, you can farm this for as many turn as you want to maximize your LDR stats.

You can also (indirectly) increase leadership via equipping 5 artifacts:
Elegant blade, Sergeant’s Uniform, Imperial Battle Armor, Imperial War Banner, and Ataraxia

Important:
1. Lindly (the MC) always gets some capture XP when allies perform captures, so he/she should not perform and captures.
2. IMO, the best units to perform captures are Diana, Stefan and Jules.