The Banner Saga 2

This is going to, without a doubt, give Master Tactician a run for it's money as the hardest achievement in the game. Thankfully, you're able to create a backup save (of sorts).

Backup Save

If you're playing on your Home Xbox it is possible to create a backup save to help you with the "No Reloads" criteria.

Xbox creates two different types of saves for this game - a local save that is on your console, and a cloud save stored on their servers. Every time that you play online these saves are synced.

If you're on your Home Xbox you will be able to play Survival Mode offline. If you fail a battle, or lose a key character, you can go into My Games and Apps and delete the local save data from your console. Now, if you reconnect online and boot up Banner Saga it will grab your save from the cloud and download it to your console. Now simply go offline and try again.

After progressing a few battles offline, or after a particularly tough battle, you'll want to update your cloud save. To do this just go online and boot up Banner Saga without deleting your local save. It's worth noting that the cloud save won't immediately update - I've noticed some people state it takes around 15 minutes. However, I was able to force it to update by booting the game up to the Survival Mode screen, force closing the game through the dashboard, logging my profile out, logging back in, and booting the game back up. After this I'd close it once more and return to playing offline.

I wouldn't recommend trying to create a new backup save after every fight, or playing perfectly every fight. It can take more time and effort to save someone (especially in the early run) than you'd use just replacing them.

Once I was in the final battle (Wave 40) I fought until only one enemy remained and I had a full team (no way of losing). At this point I paused the game, went online from the dashboard, and returned to the game to finish the battle. The achievements still popped.

Extra Reknown

Every 5 battles gives you a chance to fight an additional wave for additional reknown. I don't recommend doing this - it's too easy to lose troops this way.

There is a much easier alternative to gaining extra reknown.

Viking Funerals!

When someone dies in Survival Mode you can have a funeral for them to recieve some reknown. Also, you can either retrieve their equipped item, or send them off to a funeral with the item. Sending them with the item equals more reknown.

I recommend hiring a few expendable characters at the onset that you have no intention of leveling and using. Tanky characters work best. Equip them with an item and use them to divert enemy attention from your main troops. Then, let them die if the opportunity presents itself.

As an example - hiring a new unit costs 5 reknown. Sending a dead Rank 3 unit, with a Rank 3 item, to a funeral recovers 14 reknown. This is a net gain of 9 reknown.

This doesn't sound like much, but if you're able to send 10 or so lambs to the slaughter this can help you get key characters to Rank 10 much quicker in the run, and allow for more Rank 10's by the end of the run.

If you don't do any extra battles, and don't sacrifice some fighters, you'll likely only have 3 Rank 10 characters and a few Rank 8 characters at the end.

An added tip from Schaafy in the comments . . .

Gameplay Tips

The following characters are my favorite characters for Survival Mode, but a lot of them depend on acquiring specific items to increase their usefulness.

• Alette - Overwatch coupled with a knockback item is simply too good. If you receive a knockback item such as Stravh's Bond level her to Rank 10 immediately. You will need to be R10 to fully develop the Overwatch skill (+2 STR damage), and invest extra points in the Lucky Strike talent until it hits Level 3. This will effectively cause Alette to knockback enemy enemy she hits during Overwatch mode as long as she does 3 STR damage or more. As an added bonus (and the main reason for it's use) knocking enemies back during their turn also cancels their turn. Alette can effectively shut down an entire team with this skill. Lucky Strike helps her hit high armor enemies. She is still useful without a knockback item - I give her a +break item until that point and she acts as my main breaker.

• Canary - Canary is a ranged character with great mobility, but absolutely phenomenal stats. Her strength caps at 16, which means she hits like a Varl, but with a ranged weapon. She really, really shines if you get her Hagn's Fall, which not only increases her armor, but increases her range by 2. This allows her to be a mobile, long range sniper. This couples very well with Rooks Mark Prey skill.

• Eirik - Eirik isn't a great character, but he gets the Call Bear skill at R6 which allows him to summon Spinegrinder to the battlefield each battle (even if Spinegrinder dies he can be summoned next battle). Spinegrinder is a great tank, and was my main tank throughout my play through. Keep replenishing his armor with a mender and he has serious lasting power. Eirik can also act as a Willpower battery for his teammates throughout the battle. I like to give him a +Willpower per turn item, and funnel all Horn willpower through him. For every 1 willpower he grants to an ally via his Rally skill - that ally gets 2 willpower. He can also be a decent breaker if the enemy gets close. I actually got him to Rank 10 because he gets enough skillpoints to get 1 of each talent category - I gave him Clasp of Kyn which brought all his talents to R4. He triggered bonuses left and right and it was very amusing to watch!

• Eyvind - You don't have many choices for a Mender, but Eyvind is my favorite. A well placed Lightning strike can devastate enemy ranks, and later is Troll Stone ability helps out massively in the tighter maps. He can actually stop enemies from progressing by placing Troll Stones in bottlenecks allowing your ranged units to pepper their armor and strength before they engage. His main job was keeping Spinegrinder and the other tanks alive, though. A +willpower item is my preferred item.

• Krumr - He has decent stats, but I didn't use him in the campaign very mucha s I wasn't impressed by Forge Ahead. In Survival Mode, though, the turn order mechanics work different and Forge Ahead really shines. He can call forward Eyvind to get an extra Mend off, or Lightning Strike at an opportune moment - or call Rook forward for a Mark Prey when everyone is aligned right. Also, he gets Tempest at Rank 6. Tempest, couple with his high strength, does great damage and helps soften up the enemy strength so the tanks can tank better. I like to give him the Hope of Gods item and use him as a tank with Spinegrinder.

• Rook - His Mark Prey skill is highly situational, but amazing when used in the right circumstances. It allows all characters in range to attack his target. Towards the end of the run you'll be encountering large dredge that regularly have both 20+ armor and 20+ strength (I even had some at 30+ strength in a Stonesinger battle). Once hit from these guys can wreck your team, but if you spend your allies turns peppering his armor, then allow Rook to use Mark Prey you can wipe them out in a turn. Rook actually killed Eyeless with this skill in all 3 battles, and got Bellower to trigger his 1HP proc. I gave him a +break item to help with all of the armor hard mode presents.

There are numerous other characters that shine, though, and I'm sure you can beat the mode with many different setups. Other favorites of mine are Mogr, Iver, Bolverk, Egil, Folka and Zefr. Discuss who you used, and why, in the comments!

If you're struggling with a fight, try altering turn order.

Battle List

All credit for this list goes to Aleonymous at the Steam forums. He compiled a list of the enemies that appear in each battle that was very helpful for my run.