The typical round of end-game drama will occur; a threat will be over-sold, visits from beyond the grave, more Yato-ex-machina, and eventually you’ll be put in the final battle. No saving before this fight; you start out in the middle of the map, with Garon, the Blight Dragon, to the north. You’re also surrounded by a host of the meanest foes you’ve had to face yet.

View Full-size

Map of the Endgame.

Surrounded is not a great tactical position, but that’s the hand you’ve been dealt this time around, so what to do? Well, first, some relevant details about the battlefield need to be discussed. To the north lies Garon, now a dragon. And not a little twerp of a dragon like the protagonist…he’s a biggie. Around him are four Dragon Veins, which blight around a corner of the map with Blight, healing him each turn, and damaging all other units on it. He’ll refrain from activating this for a few turns (due to Azura’s influence), giving you a little bit of time to clear out some hostiles. Also scattered around the map are numerous Sigils, which summon more foes. A comprehensive sweep of the map is therefore not advised, and won’t help you anyways since none of this will be saved.

The easiest way to break out of your starting predicament is to head southeast and dispatch a lone Hero. This will put you in range of a Bow Knight, but if you kept flying units out of range, he shouldn’t cause too much trouble. Kill those units, then start moving north , leading with a high Defense unit to draw out the Stoneborn and another Hero. A greater concentration of foes lurks further north, but again, they’re all physical damage units, so leading with defense and luring out target over two turns will keep things manageable. You will be pursued by some faster units, namely a Malig Knight, a Dark Knight and a Wyvern Lord, but if you guard your flanks you’ll be fine.

View Full-size

Behold King Garon, the Blight Dragon!

Clear the eastern half of the map, and you’ll see another reason why this route was taken; Garon’s first move (at the end of turn four or so) will be to activate the south-western most Dragon Vein, which blights that quarter of the map. This is of no consequence right now, and once the lesser foes have been put down, you’ll find yourself withing striking range of Garon. The melee units to the west will start to move towards you, including a two pairs of Heroes and Berserkers, two of which are on the southern end of the map. Dispatch the northern duo if the opportunity presents itself, but don’t waste too much time; enemies will start spawning soon, and Garon isn’t going to wait forever to hit another Dragon Vein.

Garon isn’t terribly aggressive, so lure his guardian General to you (beware his Brave Spear’s double attack!) then mass up within his range. Once done, rush him with high Defense units. He’s got even more Hit Points as a dragon, slightly lower Attack and range, and slightly better defenses, but all in all, a good round of rushing should be enough to put him down, especially if you only perform tag team attacks on him through adjacent pairing to boost your damage per attack. Similar to King Garon from before he halves damage from most standard weapons and will not take damage from offensive skills like Astra and Lethality.