The fifth and last cycle of GrimGrimoire OnceMore is here, and it is time to put everything we have learned to the test. Every battle will have you tangling with the very toughest creatures each school of magic has to throw at you. These are some of the most densely packed stages in the game, and they often require you to play pretty actively and scrap with your opponents on the regular.

Related: GrimGrimoire OnceMore: Unit Counter GuideA lot of these battles have their difficulty front-loaded. You will have to really fight for your life in the early going. At this stage in the game, a poor strategy will sink you. You need to have a thoughtful approach, or you will face certain destruction. Thankfully, we can give you the inside track with some of the best strategies for approaching these stages.

Fifth Day 1: Love To Destruction

We are going to start by securing the base. This means getting some Obelisks down, and upgrading our Skullmages and Unicorns. Thankfully, we start with both unit types, so part of our work is already done. Use those Unicorns to kill the Skullmages Opalneria sends your way, and use your Skullmages to kill the Phantoms she sends after you.

When you place your Obelisks, put them in the center of your base. Since you are already upgrading your Skullmages anyway, your Obelisks will be upgraded as a matter of course.

Now, you need to get to the other crystals on the stage. The crystal to your right is defended by an army of Homunculi. The second you try to push into that area, you will be swarmed by Alchemy units. However, the crystal on the northwest end of the map is unoccupied, and it can be easily claimed but throwing some Ghosts into Charon's ship and ferrying them along the left side of the map (the enemy won't even see you do it if you stick as close to the wall as possible). Establish a Hades Gate up here, and summon Phantoms and Obelisks to help guard this new colony. You may want to ferry some Unicorns up here as well.

Meanwhile, you are going to put down a Titania Rune and start upgrading it. Once you have fully upgraded the Titania Rune—and you have no less than two Morning Stars out—you can start to pester the Alchemy units to your right. Attack them, then instantly retreat back to your base to heal. Steadily, you will gain ground without losing any troops.

It is a good idea to use a flying unit to bait out a number of troops, and then blast them with your Mana Burst Grand Magic spell. Or, if you like, you can hold onto it and use it as insurance, just in case enemy units swarm one of your bases.

Now, work your Morning Stars up above the base, and take out the Necromancy units sitting between your north and south bases. Once your Morning Star units are in full production, you should be able to easily finish off the rest of the units on this map.

Start by taking the Alchemy units to the right, claim their crystal for the mission bonus, then push all your units to the northeast corner. At this point, you will just need to clear out a few remaining Ghosts and Charons.

Fifth Day 2: Innocence

Firstly, Gammel is directly to the left of you. He is well-equipped with a hefty hoard of Unicorns and Fairies. And worse yet, he is building up a supply of Morning Stars. Oh, and above him? Well, Advocat is hatching Dragons. It is a real problem. However, it is a problem with a solution. There are a number of things that need to be done. Thankfully, you are given plenty of time to do so.

• Obviously, we're going to start with our gathering units taking the two crystals and getting us that sweet, sweet Mana.
• We need to upgrade the Homunculi Rune so that we can have Psychic Storm at our disposal, also, we need more of these guys (at least three more).
• We need to place down a Titania Rune and fully level it up.
• We need to fully level up the Obelisk Rune and start placing Obelisks along the length of the base. While we're at it, we'll also make some more Skullmages.
• We need to level up the Phantom's Rune, and we need to get at least 10 Phantoms protecting the right side of the base.

The Obelisk building Ghosts are super important. You want to have at least one Ghost dedicated to building Obelisks. When you push to the left, have your Ghosts build Obelisks along the area you claim.

Okay, as a recap, the Skullmages and the Phantoms guard the rightmost crystal. There should be at least three Obelisks on that side to heal Phantoms. Line the Homunculi along the center of your base, spacing them out by a few character lengths. You start with two Golems; position them under the Elves. This should be enough to hold the scraps that try to hassle you.

It is extremely important that when you use the Psychic Storm you not do it with every unit at once. You want to use them separately, so you don't waste multiple usages.

Once you get two Morning Stars, you want to start to push to the left. However, there are a bunch of Unicorns over here as well, so you need to make sure that your Morning Stars are being supported by your Homunculi. Use well-placed Psychic Storms to protect the Morning Stars once they have been frozen. As you push, and make headway, more of your Morning Stars will arrive. Keep piling on the pressure and pushing ahead.

Those Unicorns can be an absolute nightmare, so consider using your Mana Burst Grand Magic spell.

Be warned, when you get to the leftmost section of the map, you will encounter Gammels' Titania Rune. He will have built up his own army of Morning Stars. This is when you want to retreat back to your base, where there are a ton of Obelisks, and let them follow you to their deaths.

You will, at this point, have a very healthy army, with a considerable supply of Morning Stars. Take a party of four Morning Stars around and clear out the rest of the stage Rune by Rune, enemy by enemy. If you get banged up, just send them back to the base to heal.

Fifth Day 3: Prince And The Witch

This time you are truly given a grand gift. You are handed Morning Star units to begin the battle. However, your area for building a base is pretty small. The runes above you are Margarita's Runes. They are all sorcery-based. You can destroy her monsters, but you can't destroy those Runes. So, you are going to have to deal with a steady stream of Dragon attacks.

You need to build your base up extremely tightly. Move an inch in any direction and the enemy units will pounce. What we need to do is first get those imps farming Mana. Straight from the beginning, max out the Titania Rune so that your Morning Stars are at their full power. Then, build a Haunted Gate and get a Ghost building Obelisks. You want at least three in the center of your base. Make sure to level up the Obelisk's Rune as well. Finally, throw some points into leveling up your Demons.

Once you have your Obelisks down and upgraded. Work on getting more Morning Stars on the board. The first half of this battle is going to consist of you fending off all the units that nip at you from every angle. There is an unoccupied crystal to your left. You will want to get that crystal sooner or later. Once you have an extra Morning Star, have her secure the left side (with some additional Obelisks to back her up) and have your Ghosts start farming that crystal.

Once you have two crystals, your ability to produce units will improve immensely, and you can start to develop Morning Star Units to push outward and attack. Below you there are Necromancy units. This includes Charons and Ghosts. You will want to be careful when attacking, as they can deal heavy damage to your Morning Stars. It isn't actually a terrible idea to send some Demons down here to clear them out, if that is, you have your base secured.

If you are looking for a place to use your Grand Magic, using the Mana Burst spell while fighting the Necromancy units below your base is a great palace to do so.

You can then start taking out the Alchemy units on your right. Just remember, if your Morning Star units start to near the half-health mark, retreat to the base for some quick healing. All this time, you will be producing more Morning Star units, reinforcing the positions you have already taken, and adding more units to your attacking party.

The tough part about this battle is surviving the first half. Once you have worked through that, your offense will start to snowball, and you will be able to start cleaning the arena up.

Fifth Day 4: Leaving The Nest

Well, this mission is here to ruin our day. No Glamour means no Morning Stars, which are obviously the best units in the game. This means we will have to compensate. So, we are going to embrace the next best thing: Chimera. The Chimera is fast, it is strong, and it will be able to carry your team. We are going to build our whole army around them. This is necessary as they do have the pretty substantial weakness of not being able to hit Astral units. And, naturally, this stage has more than a few of those.

We can get around the Charon's limitation by investing in Homunculi, placing down Guardians, and producing Phantoms. Build some Obelisks for your Phantoms so that they can have a steady source of healing. Beyond them, you start with Demons, and while they aren't typically great at fighting Phantoms, if you fully level them up, their Black Curse effect really helps improve their ability to fight Astral units. Beyond that, they are just super tough. They are going to be extremely helpful in holding off units early on.

Place Guardians all around the perimeter of your base. This will be your final defense against invading Phantoms. Level up the Guardian's Rune and start placing them down alongside Obelisks.

So, the strategy is to build a Chimera Rune and fully level it up, level up the Demon's Rune, level up the Guardian's Rune, create Phantoms, and build Obelisks. Your Demons, Phantoms, and Guardians will all help hold off the enemies. As they hold them off, you are going to start producing Chimera. The more the merrier.

Once you have three Chimera on the board, start pushing into the lower regions and attacking enemy units and Runes with two of them (leave one back at the base to help defend). Ideally, you should have a Homunculus nearby so that you can turn Astral units into Substance units. If you see a Dragon, get their attention and then retreat to your base, when they arrive, put them to sleep with a Grimalkin, and then murder them with your Chimera. Similarly, there is a Chimera in the top right of this arena. Do the same thing with them.

Whenever your Chimera are injured, eat one of your gathering minions to heal. Then, head back down and perform another hit-and-run. Using this method, you will clear this mission long before those thirty minutes are up. Being proactive is super helpful here, as with every Rune you destroy, you minimize the amount of troops that can be sent after you. Moreover, you can take over their crystals, ramping up your Mana production!

Fifth Day 5: The Secret Room

The optional mission for this stage only requires you to set down the Rune associated with each grimoire. There is no obligation to use any of the creatures in that grimoire. So, do this near the end of the level, when your Mana is maxed out.

The final stage is less of a challenge and more of a playground. You are given an absurd amount of resources. Never be afraid to spend your Mana during this stage. Splash out frequently and without hesitation.

The arena here has to be ten times as large as any that came before it. You start with an astonishing 5000 Mana, and there are crystals to gather Mana from located all around the map. You also have a unit capacity of 90. The only real challenge, then, is to complete this level without losing troops. And with such an incredible scale, it is hard to track where everyone is at any given time. However, we have devised the perfect method for creating order where there is none.

The strategy is simple... start by placing down three Morning Star Runes, a Ghost Rune, an Obelisk Rune, and a Charon Rune. Once you do, immediately max them all out, summon five Ghosts, two Charons, and four Morning Stars (with the two Titania Runes that aren't leveling the Rune up). Start building your Obelisks the second you get a Ghost.

While you won't be using any of the units, summon a Wicca Rune so that you can level it up and get a buff for all your Glamour which, of course, means more HP for Morning Star units.

By the time the enemy starts to launch attacks, you will have Morning Stars ready to do battle, and they will be backed up by Obelisks. Keep Summoning Morning Stars until you have seven of them. Now, have two Morning Stars protect the left side of your base, have two protect the bottom of your base, and take the remaining three and push into the right side, clearing everything as they go. Once you clear the right side, do the same with the left.

Have two Morning Star units on the left, three in the middle, and two on the right. Move these three groups separately. This will help prevent Fairies and Charons from sneaking around your attacking units and hitting your base. Just move these three groups down level by level.

Now, remember those Charons? Well, you are going to move two down, just above your Morning Star units. That way you will be able to minimize the fog of war effect. You are also going to have them bring the Obelisks down with them. Place those Obelisks in the area where the Morning Stars are currently battling enemies. As the Morning Stars push downward, you are going to move the Obelisks with them.

At some point, your Obelisks are going to start running low on MP. Build new ones to help support the old ones. If you don't have enough unit slots, refund the Obelisks that are low on MP.

Once you get far enough away from the starting base, start building a new version of the Runes you left up at the top of the screen. When they are built, refund the old ones (as well as all your units positioned up top). There are so many crystals everywhere that you won't need to worry about how wasteful that is.

Near the bottom of the screen, you will encounter a Giant Dragon. This guy is WAY stronger than your typical Dragon. However, it has the typical Dragon weakness: the Grimalkin can still put it to sleep. Just summon a Grimalkin once you get to the halfway point of the map, kite the Dragon straight to your Grimalkin, put it to sleep, and swarm it with all your Morning Star units. Approach this Dragon thoughtfully and you will be able to down it without running into any serious issues. Once the Dragon is dead, separate your Morning Stars back into three groups, and continue to push downward, removing the remaining troops and Runes as you go.

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