Shogun

A far eastern general who dictates tactics, but also takes a direct approach with its two swords.

—In-Game Description, Etrian Odyssey III

The Shogun is a support and offensive class introduced in Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City. They fight in deadly combat with two swords and issue commands to their allies. They are unlocked by siding with Armoroad.

Shogun are very fast and have outstanding physical attack power. Their main weapon, the Katana, does strong damage. Due to the combination of low TEC and VIT, the sacrifice of a piece of armor for a second weapon, and the restriction to Clothing armor, defenses are practically non-existent, despite their average HP. TP is somewhat limited.

Compared to the classes of other Etrian Odyssey games, the Shogun shares some similarities with the Ronin. They both wield katanas, abandon defenses in favor of speed and offense, and utilize stance-like mechanics. However, while the Ronin is solitary and self-sufficient, the Shogun relies on and supports their allies.

• EO3
• EON

Profile

The Shogun is unique among classes in that it is the only class that can wield two weapons simultaneously, forgoing an armor slot for a second weapon. As long as the the Shogun learns their class skill, Second Sword, they can dual-wield any combination of weapon, given the appropriate weapon mastery, as well as use skills involving those weapons. This expands their in-battle options as they can use a wide variety of weapon skills without needing to change their loadout. They can also support their allies by conferring buffs or commanding the team to strike or counter-attack.

• Strengths: Dual-wielding lets them use a mixture of weapon skills in the midst of battle. Also comes with a variety of buffs if you're using them as support. Fantastic Strength and Agility optimizes their physical damage.
• Weaknesses: Terrible defenses, especially when dual-wielding. Conferred buffs come with accompanying downsides. Potential team-killing liability. Available only after siding with Kujura.

Stat Progression

Does not include any stat bonuses from skills, equipment, Books, or Retirement.

Main article: Shogun/Stats#EO3

Level	HP	TP	STR	TEC	VIT	AGI	LUC
1	40	21	8	5	3	9	6
35	196	89	32	25	22	34	21
70	357	159	58	46	41	60	37
99	457	203	73	59	53	76	47

Skills

Skills are listed in the same order used in the game and do not necessarily unlock one after another. See the "Requires" column to see how to unlock a skill. If that cell has dashes in it, no other skill is needed to unlock it. Skills are normally maxed at level 10, but there are some exceptions where the level cap is 5 or even 1.

The HD remake renames several skills to match the Nexus translations.

Skill	Description	Type	Requires	Extra
Second Sword	Shogun skill for dual-wielding that rises in power with each level.	Class	-----	Secondary weapon doesn't affect your attack skills, barring ATK forges.
Katana Mastery	Prerequisite for katana skills. Katana damage increases.	Mastery	-----
Endure	May leave you with 1 HP after a fatal attack once per battle.	Passive	-----	Max Lv5
Bloody Lance	Your attack power increases each time you deal a final blow.	Passive	Endure Lv3	Accumulated bonus doesn't use a buff slot, and expires on death.
Morale Boost	When you are revived, all allies recover HP.	Passive	-----
Kaishaku (Execution)	May terminate enemies and allies that fall below a certain HP.	Passive	Morale Boost Lv1 Endure Lv1	Max Lv5. Bypasses most bosses' instakill resistance. Cannot instakill self.
Hilt Strike	Katana: A strike attack that uses the hilt. May stun.	Katana	Katana Mastery Lv1	Lv6 also increases action speed.
Myoujou (Morning Star)	Katana: Slash attack on all enemies randomly. Stronger in sunlight.		Katana Mastery Lv5	Lv6 increases max hits.
Magatoki (Twilight Hour)	Katana: Slash attack on all enemies randomly. Stronger in moonlight.
5-Ring Sword	Katana: Random slash damage at all enemies. Doubled with two swords.		Katana Mastery Lv10 Daifuhensha Lv3	Lv5 and 9 increase max hits.
Unified Spirit	Concentrate for three turns to nullify bind effects.	Support	Endure Lv3	Max Lv5
Daifuhensha (Great Warrior)	Increases attack and defense, but draws enemy attacks for 3 turns.	Support	Endure Lv5
Fore Honor	Designate an attacker for 3 turns. The row* gets ATK up, DEF down.	Support	Morale Boost Lv3	Also boosts elemental attack and greatly increases turn speed.
Rear Dignity	Designate a defender for 3 turns. The row* gets DEF up, ATK down.	Support		Also greatly decreases turn speed.
Ambush Stance	Attacks against the designated row will be countered.	Counter	Fore Honor Lv3 Rear Dignity Lv3	Each counter by each ally is affected by their equipped weapons' forges.
Warrior Might	Sacrifice defense to perform follow up damage to most ally attacks.	Special	Unified Spirit Lv3 Bloody Lance Lv3	Each chase is affected by your primary weapon's forges.
Fusillade	Order all allies equipped with guns or crossbows to fire.	Assault	Morale Boost Lv5	Each attack by each ally is affected by their equipped weapons' forges.
Blitz Command	Order all allies to attack with their equipped weapons.		Fusillade Lv3
Retreat	Attempt to run with all you can muster for that turn.	Escape	-----	Max Lv5

*Fore Honor and Rear Dignity are single-target buffs, despite their description.

Skill Breakdown

The Shogun's signature Class skill is Second Sword, which allows them to wield another weapon in their second equip slot, at the cost of less capacity for armor or accessories. This gives them the capacity to use other weapon-dependent skills from their subclass without needing to swap weapons between battles. Skill damage calculates off the Shogun's ATK stat, which is determined by their primary weapon and their STR; this means that a Shogun can wield a strong katana in main hand and a weak secondary weapon in the off-hand but still get good damage off the secondary weapon skills. The only case where the second weapon's strength becomes relevant is through normal attacks, as Second Sword lets them unleash a normal attack with both weapons in sequence, the second weapon's attributes (and the Second Sword modifier) applying to the second strike.

Shogun have only a few Katana skills, but each one has interesting features. Hilt Strike gives a Katana user some utility with strike damage and a stun. Myoujou and Magatoki are unusual skills that deal greater damage in the day and night, respectively. 5-Ring Sword requires you to dual wield (and use at least one katana) to reach full maximum potential, but it's a perk only available to a Shogun main; Myoujou and Magatoki have fewer maximum hits but less variance and don't require dual-wielding.

Death skills are a set of 4 passives that revolve around preventing death or causing it. Endure is a staple that lets a Shogun withstand a mortal blow, though its trigger rate caps at 80% and isn't a perfect safety net. Morale Boost heals the party (including the Shogun themselves) whenever the Shogun is revived, but shouldn't be relied on and should only be taken for the skills it unlocks. Bloody Lance gives a lasting boost to damage whenever the Shogun scores a kill, which is great for the few boss fights that call in reinforcements.

Kaishaku is a unique passive that instantly kills anyone falling under a certain HP, ally or enemy; this skill only triggers when other allies or enemies are targeted by attacks and doesn't care if they took damage or not, so a Gladiator using Berserker Vow to bring their own HP to low levels won't get unceremoniously killed, but the Shogun can kill off a low-health ally who just got defended by a Hoplite's blocking skills (or kill off the Hoplite themselves if Bodyguard was used). Kaishaku does trigger Bloody Lance if you can design your team around getting killed repeatedly, and it also bypasses most boss instakill resistance (barring one) and can dramatically shorten fights.

On the supportive side, they have a few single-target buffs with tradeoffs. Daifuhensha gives the Shogun an attack and defense boost at the cost of increasing their aggro, while Unified Spirit gives them temporary bind immunity. Fore Honor raises a unit's damage and turn speed at the cost of their defenses, while Rear Dignity raises a unit's defenses at the cost of damage output and turn speed. Careful timing and use of these buffs can deliver outstanding results, especially where turn speed modification is concerned.

The command skills temporarily alter characters' behavior by forcing the rest of the party, potentially the Shoguns themselves, to attack. Attacks issued through these skills can use effects from weapon forges on the primary weapon, but any party member with their arms bound will not attack this way. Blitz Command has everyone autoattack a single target, but is expensive. Fusillade is cheaper but restricts itself to anyone wielding Guns or Crossbows. Ambush Stance counterattacks for less damage than a Monk's Counter and Retaliate, but triggers on any attack and checks if an enemy attacked anyone in the target row. Attacks triggered by these skills will not trigger any Chase skills.

Warrior Might is an anomaly of a skill, as it's more of a "chaser" like a Buccaneer's. However, it will always chase any attack made by your party, with no upper limit on number of chases per turn. There are strategies built around making the most of Warrior Might to tear a boss to shreds.

Subclassing

Subclass for Shogun

Second Sword allows a Shogun to wield two weapons of any combination taken from subclass masteries, and use any skills requiring those weapons. Only the primary weapon's ATK score will affect your skill strength; you can use a weak secondary weapon for the sole purpose of enabling weapon skills without taking any loss to damage output.

• Buccaneer: A Shogun/Buccaneer aims to use Swashbuckling. It stacks neatly with Second Sword, and you get up to eight or nine attacks in a single turn. This is a great way to abuse Warrior Might on another Shogun, and trigger forged weapon effects. Limit Boost will allow you to use limit skills every 3-4 turns, or even the very next turn if you get 8 attacks in. If you find your Shogun exclusively using their normal attacks for Limit generation, you can seat them in the back row for safety and dual-wield guns.
• Gladiator: A Gladiator sub allows Shogun to deal massive damage with the use of Berserker Vow and Charge. 5-Ring Sword will be dealing large burst damage to bosses. Just be sure to keep a Hoplite with Bodyguard around as using Berserker Vow will bring the Shogun's HP to dangerously low levels.
• Ninja: Invest in Senpuku and/or Kumogakure to upgrade their evasion to mitigate the Shogun's low defenses. If you wield a katana in main hand but a knife in the off-hand, you can still use the Ninja Knife skills with the good ATK modifiers from the Shogun's weapon and STR, though their mediocre TEC and LUC impairs the disable infliction. If you Bunshin a lot and get the clones killed by Kaishaku, you can also build up a lot of Bloody Lance stacks (provided the one stacking Bloody Lances doesn't get insta-killed in turn).
• Hoplite: Take a point in Shield Mastery so that you can use shields to shore up their defenses. If you're using Daifuhensha a lot, invest in Parry and Magic Parry to get a chance at random blocks to offset the aggro-draw effect of that buff.
• Sovereign: There is a bug that has a curious interaction with Negotiation or Inspire. If you use this skill and target a dead party member(s), the dispel attempt on the dead party member will fail, but will trigger Bloody Lance. With Inspire, if your row is all dead party members, it will trigger three Bloody Lance stacks! With enough time you can reach the Bloody Lance cap of +500% damage (13 stacks if Bloody Lance is maxed) which is otherwise not feasible in most battles. At that point, even the Abyssal God will crumble!

Shogun as Subclass

Without Second Sword you lose out on dual-wielding, which is the main draw of the Shogun subclass. 5-Ring Sword, in particular, becomes a skill you don't want to take on a Shogun subclass since you can never reach its full potential there. Still, Endure is always a useful passive to let your party get away from a lethal strike.

• Gladiator: The best candidate for a Warrior Might focus. Gladiator's high Strength and damage-increasing class skill allows them to deal a lot of damage off Warrior Might chases. A Gladiator/Shogun backed by two Shogun/Buccaneer with Swashbuckling and Second Sword will proc a lot of high-damage chases! Bear in mind that, in the HD remaster, Charge only affects the first Warrior Might chase, while in the DS version, Charge does not affect Warrior Might at all.
• Prince/ss: When you have free turns, use Blitz Command to force out more attacks with the party you've just buffed, or get Ambush Stance when you know a certain line is going to get hit. Fore Honor is also a buff version of Knighthood that lets a party member strike with increased action speed for a few turns.
• Hoplite: Instead of Provoke, you can invest in Daifuhensha, which offers both a draw rate boost and an attack and defense boost, and use Ambush Stance to capitalize off the aggro buff. You also get access to Katanas for moments that you want to go on the offensive, but mind that the Hoplite's middling Strength means they won't be putting out impressive numbers.
• Wildling: Use Blitz Command to force everyone, including your animal companion, to attack an enemy; this is one way you can get proactive Tiger damage. You can also give them access to the Hachiyou katana that bestows a whopping +8 LUC to help with ailments landing.

External Links

• Game data reference

Profile

The Shogun return in this game, largely unchanged from their main role. They have, however, inherited stray skills from other classes that slightly change their combat and support abilities. To differentiate from the faster and fragile Ronin in the same game, the Shogun has a more rounded stat spread, giving them slightly improved defenses than their previous iteration. With this, a Shogun can be built either purely for combat, for support, or a mixture of the two.

• Strengths: Flexible support/combat hybrid. Powerful single-target buffs. Can dramatically shorten fights.
• Weaknesses: High equipment costs. Difficult to handle for the inexperienced.
• Force Boost - Unified Effort: Raises the entire party's MAX HP and damage for 3 turns.
• Force Break - Decoy Party: Negates the first attack dealt to each party member this turn.

Stat Progression

Main article: Shogun/Stats#EON

Level	HP	TP	STR	INT	VIT	WIS	AGI	LUC
1	55	44	16	14	15	15	15	11
30	104	89	35	31	32	33	32	24
70	208	183	75	66	69	70	68	52
99	308	274	113	100	104	106	103	79
130	445	398	165	146	152	155	150	116

Skills

Skill	Description	Type	Requires	Extra
Unified Effort	For 3 turns, increases MAX HP and all ATK for the entire party.	Force Boost	--
Decoy Party	For this turn, all allies can negate enemy attacks once.	Force Break
NOVICE
Second Sword	Increase physical DEF when two weapons are equipped.	Support	None	Sub-weapon slot unlocked.
Echoing Slash	Attacks 1 enemy at start of turn. After target acts, hits again with sub-weapon.	Katana	Second Sword Lv2
Front Command	When target ally is attacked, front line counterattacks with equipped weapons.	Attack	None	Target ally may also attack if on frontline.
Bolt Slash	Melee cut/volt attack to 1 enemy.	Katana	None
Avidya Sight	All ATK increases at night, or when the user is blind.	Support	None
Great Warrior	For 3 turns, increases draw rate and physical ATK for one ally.	Buff	None
Taunt Assassins	For a set number of steps, raises encounter rate and EXP gained.	Field	Great Warrior Lv2
Morale Boost	When user is revived during battle, all allies recover HP.	Heal	None
Take	Increases material yield from taking in the labyrinth.	Gather	None
VETERAN
Twin Swallows	Attacks 1 enemy with equipped weapon. If user has two weapons, attacks twice.	Katana	Echoing Slash Lv3
Endure Command	When user is attacked, all other allies counterattack with equipped weapons.	Attack	Attack Command Lv2
Blitz Command	On user's turn, all other allies attack a target enemy with equipped weapons.		Endure Command Lv2
Morning Star	Melee cut attack to 1 enemy line. Stronger in sunlight.	Katana	Bolt Slash Lv3
Twilight Hour	Melee cut attack to 1 enemy. Stronger in moonlight.	Katana	Avidya Sight Lv2
Bloody Lance	User's attack power increases after dealing a lethal blow. Can stack.	Support	Twilight Hour Lv2	Stacks lost on KO.
Reincarnation	After being knocked out, may resurrect at end of turn.	Support	None
Peerless Demon	The more hits the user makes during a turn, the greater the damage dealt.	Support	None	Lv5 and 10 increases attack boost.
Seppuku	User is KO'd to restore party HP, including chance to revive fallen allies.	Heal	None
MASTER
5-Ring Sword	2-4 attacks to all enemies at random. With two weapons, hits double and alternate between main and subweapon.	Katana	Twin Swallows Lv4	Lv5 and 10 increases number of attacks.
Shot Command	When target line is attacked, gun/bow users counterattack w/equipped weapons.	Attack	Blitz Command Lv3	Target line allies may also attack if using bow/gun
Warrior Might	When allies attack this turn, follows up with equipped weapon. Costs HP per hit.	Attack	Shot Command Lv2	Can die from HP loss.
Curse Strike	Melee bash attack to 1 enemy. May curse and bind arms.	Katana	Bloody Lance Lv2	Lv5 and 10 increase infliction rate.
Execution	May KO enemies and allies who fall below a certain HP threshold.	Attack	Curse Strike Lv3
Swift Justice	For 3 turns, raises 1 ally's physical ATK & act speed at the cost of physical DEF.	Buff	Reincarnation Lv2

Skill Breakdown

While the Shogun carry a similar role from The Drowned City, they have some key differences and more minor ones. Firstly, they trade some speed for better defenses. Between a nearly flat stat progression and new effect on Second Sword, they perform nearly as well defensively as any typical frontliner, despite wielding two weapons. Secondly, they borrow a few skills from Masurao that lend them more utility: Echoing Slash (Swallow Soar), Reincarnation (replacing Endure), Peerless Demon, and Bolt Slash. Echoing Slash and Twin Swallows (and 5-Ring Sword) make up for the loss of Second Sword's previous effect: they are affected by weapon attributes exactly like normal attacks (note: Elemental Arms) and have low TP costs. It's worth noting that all Command bonus attacks use the attributes of the primary weapon. Thirdly, their Command skills are shuffled around quite a bit, with a reworked Daifuhensha, more favor for counterattacks, but lost Rear Dignity to Imperials. Warrior Might still retains its limitless follow-up potential, but this time costs a static amount of HP per follow-up, which can kill the Shogun. Their new Force Boost Unified Effort (remember Unified Spirit?) helps mitigate that cost, while providing bonus health to the team to help them counterattack and possibly get struck with Execution. Fourthly, Morale Boost doesn't level quite as high, but has new synergy with Reincarnation, Seppuku, and Warrior Might. Finally, Shogun now have Taunt Assassins, which we saw previously in Harbinger's Soul Gather.

Subclassing

Subclasses for Shogun

• Ronin: The aggressive Shogun will no doubt enjoy the attack boost from Upper Stance. They also have no qualms using Upward Slash to reset it every now and then. Speed Up, Duel, and Phys ATK Up are DPS staples, and Air Blade lets the Shogun be functional in the back line for a player concerned for their safety.
• Medic: The Shogun dies a lot. So it's natural that Final Gift links into the synergy between Morale Boost and Reincarnation. Use it to keep the party in shape when he bites the dust.
• Highlander: The new trade-off given to Warrior Might triggers Bloodlust with potent regularity. Highlander's penchant for squandering the party's HP helps trigger Execution on allies. However, while such a build naturally brings about the potent attack buffs from Bloody Lance, it also brings about the natural conclusion of having a very dead party all the time. Shogun often get the last hit, letting them reap the benefits of Turning Tide.
• Nightseeker: With the instakill component of Execution, you can build stacks on both Foul Mastery and Bloody Lance for only one death. With those two and Follow Trace, you can deal a calamitous amount of damage should the circumstances align, especially with Peerless Demon and Avidya Sight on top. Shadow Cloak can also help with survival, and Speed Up returns a little of Shogun's former speed.

Shogun as Subclass

Shogun have some of the best single-target offensive buffs in the form of Great Warrior and Swift Justice, and these skills are no slouch at half their max level. Classes benefiting most from a Shogun sub are offensive support classes and those that deal multiple hits per turn.

• Highlanders take Warrior Might to the next level. Not only does their Force Boost largely negate the HP cost, Bloodlust triggers even more often than for a mainclass Shogun. Also take Peerless Demon to multiply on Bloodlust attacks and Bloody Lance.
• Sovereigns have some of the best synergy with the Shogun's aforementioned buffs, and they'll no doubt be a valuable asset for a party using one. A backrow Sovereign can also make use of the Shogun's Command skills to make the most of the party they've buffed, and this also works wonders with their Elemental Arms.
• The aggressive Nightseeker uses the Shogun's passive buffs to aid their functionality. Second Sword mitigates their fragility while dual wielding, and Peerless Demon boosts multi-hit skills such as their own Swift Edge.
• Pugilists mainly take Peerless Demon to amplify the damage of their multi-hit attacks like Lash Out and Resonance Blow. Those who want to take their offense to the next level can have them equip a katana as a main weapon to compensate for the low Fist stats. Second Sword will help in compensating for the defense penalty from not using another piece of armor.

Gallery

Trivia

• The Shogun class appears to be based on the NPC, Kujura, from Etrian Odyssey III.
• Strangely, you can equip a shield on a Shogun even if you are dual-wielding.
• It is possible to dual-wield Bows when having a Shogun subclassed as an Arbalist.
• The blue-haired female Shogun's hair and eye color greatly resemble one of the female Ronin.
• When altering the color of the avatars, 2 of the 4 characters change a lot, the female with black hair altering with a blonde haired girl with a happy face and the old man having purple smoke coming out of his eye.
• The Shogun Class portraits all appear to be wearing some form of medium armor, even though actual Shoguns can only equip clothes.
• The Shogun Class has many references to the Japanese duelist Miyamoto Musashi:
  • Their role as tactician can be seen as reference Musashi's writings on strategy.
  • The Second Sword Skill is a reference to Musashi's school of swordsmanship, Niten Ichi-ryu.
  • The name of one of their skills, 5-Ring Sword, directly references Musashi's last book, The Scroll of the 5 Rings.