Tactics Ogre Reborn Guide | Basics of Recruitment

This guide will show the basics of recruiting in Tactics Ogre Reborn. There are a lot of different recruitment skills and many things to cover when it comes to recruiting, so you need to pay close attention to the details provided in this guide.

Understanding the Recruit Skill

Recruit Skill is essentially an action skill that you can use alongside your primary move for the turn. In order to recruit something, you must spend 25 MP.

This is a fantastic way to finish off a unit without actually having to fight them, with the added benefit that they will now become your permanent recruit. You can rename them and do whatever you want. There are, however, several little matters when it comes to this skill because it is not as simple as just going up and asking the person to join.

Key Considerations: Health and Loyalty

When you are going to recruit a unit, the most important things to consider are their HP bars and loyalty. Every unit on the field has a percentage of its health remaining. One thing that might confuse you, however, is their loyalty. If you mouse over the unit's name, it will tell you how they feel about their leadership. Keep in mind that this is basically them talking to their boss.

For example, a unit might speak openly if it expresses distaste for your decisions; this means they are essentially saying that they hate their boss, who is currently themselves. Take note that a high loyalty unit will generally have far lower recruit odds, whereas a low loyalty unit will generally have far better recruit odds.

Whether or not this happens depends entirely on context; if you are attacking a castle full of die-hard supporters of their cause, they are going to be a bit harder to talk over to your side. On the other hand, if you are dealing with randos just hanging out, they are probably going to be a bit more open to discussion.

Choosing the Right Recruit Skill

Next, you need to consider the type of recruiting skill that you are using. In many cases, you may simply be using the wrong one because these skills will actually apply in more than one situation. The most open option is Recruit. If you have any unit that can use Recruit, it is one of those mandatory skills you should have because it is very powerful.

If a unit is below half their health, Recruit can give you anywhere from a five to forty percent chance to completely eliminate them from the fight. This can be incredibly powerful because you not only take out an enemy unit but also bring them to your side. There are different recruitment skills for every type of racial class. For example, Subdue works on Monster units, Tame works on dragons, Recruit works on people, and interestingly enough, Recruit also works on zombie variants.

Recruiting Different Unit Types

The user interface tells you whether or not you can recruit somebody. If you mouse over any of the human characters with a Recruit option, you will see a blue circle indicating that they are open to dialogue. However, if you mouse over a monster or beast unit, they may not be recruitable even if they are of the right type.

For example, humanoid zombies are classed as both human and Umbra at the same time. In contrast, a ghost would exclusively be counted as a phantom. When you mouse over these units, you will see what they are primarily classified as. In order to recruit phantoms, you need a necromancer, but if you want to recruit all zombie types broadly, you can use a Lich who can recruit Umbra. Note that while recruiting zombies, they cannot change classes, and skeletons and ghosts cannot switch around what they are doing.

You need to consider additional factors. For instance, if you mouse over a unit and it says that it is the right type, but you do not see the little blue circle, it means that something is interfering. If a unit is charmed, terrified, silenced, petrified, or asleep, it will not be able to talk to you.

For example, if a unit has been hit with terror, you might find that they are not recruitable. In such cases, you can simply use Ease on them or surround them with your knights to wait for the debuff to pass before attempting to recruit again. This is one of the reasons why knights and rune fencers are typically the ones you want on your recruiting team.

Special Cases and Variants

You might notice that some units you would not normally consider recruitable later in the game have a recruit option available. For instance, your clerics might have a recruit Divine option. Although you rarely encounter hostile angels who are open to negotiations, when you do, you can gain free angel knights. Additionally, if you have any of the Vartans on your team, you might find that their skills allow you to recruit some fairies.

Be aware that one particular fairy type you may have an issue with is your rogues. In the PSP version, you could have rogue fairies, but in the Reborn version, there is a technical limitation. If you see a little red mark on an otherwise seemingly recruitable fairy, it likely indicates that they are a rogue and rogue fairies cannot be recruited, although all of their skills are available from other places.

Also, note that while some fairies, like the Galagistani fairies, will show up as gold, not all gold-colored variants are unrecruitable; however, most fancy-colored variants cannot be recruited. For example, if you encounter a hippogriff rather than a griffin or a red-colored griffin instead of a phoenix, these are unique variants of particular unit types and are non-recruitable.

Breaking the Level Cap

You can use new recruits to break the level cap of your units. Units might spawn at certain levels on some maps; for example, you could see one at level 28, and every once in a while, you'll see one at level 29. The unit's inability to train for higher levels indicates that the level limit has not been raised, which becomes apparent during recruitment. However, a new, higher-level unit will arise whenever you recruit a unit of the highest level.

For instance, you can get a level 31 by recruiting a unit at level 29 since a level 30 unit will spawn at that time. If you want to, you can keep going like this for a long time so you can reach the level cap. Gaining access to better gear, rather than just more levels, is what really makes a difference in the game; therefore, breaking the level limit is mostly about that.

Final notes

You now have a detailed guide on how to recruit units in Tactics Ogre Reborn. Enjoy recruiting your zombie terror knight or any other unit you desire, and have a great time mastering this intricate aspect of the game.


Also check our Tactics Ogre: Reborn Review