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Like Melisandre, Monica is a Unicorn Overlord recruit who might be a little challenging. This is because getting her quest to trigger right away takes a bit of extra overworld investigation and the battle itself has a twist to it.
How do I recruit Monica in Unicorn Overlord?
I purposely mentioned Melisandre, because you’ll head directly east from where you recruited her in Cornia to find Monica. Just past Saint le Riche Town, you’ll see someone you can talk to. It is a generic knight named Hans. Some thieves approached him and kidnapped his cleric companion Laika. Monica will swoop in and attack the thieves. Alain and Clive will then disguise themselves, since she is with Zenoira, with Alain calling himself Alec.
Now, from there you’ll see an overworld segment. You’ll be able to talk to Monica and Hans there. Now, if you want to continue this and actually get a chance to recruit Monica, you need to speak to Hans again. He’ll tell you the bandits crossed the bridge to the south and headed into the forest. When he does, Vanillaware actually has the camera pan to show you where you should go. There is no city or camp, and there’s still no “battle” icon on the field. However, walk south into the forest.
When you do, you’ll be ambushed by about three Bandit Scouts while on the way to the designated spot. They’re at about level 6, so you should be fine with your allies at this point. If you had unit formations that could save Scarlett, these folks will be no problem.
Getting to the spot Hans highlighted will allow you to trigger a brief battle with a Bandit Axebearer. Defeat that group, and you’ll save Laika. Go back up to Hans and Monica and talk with them. After reuniting the two, Monica will reveal she knew who she was, note who Clive is, and challenge the Liberation Army. When you talk to her in the overworld after this conversation, the icon to start “The Unyielding Shield” side mission will finally appear where Monica was standing.
How do I beat “The Unyielding Shield” in Unicorn Overlord?
So ahead of the match, it warns you the enemies are at level 12 and you’ll face Radiant Knights. A handful of spots you can garrison units at will appear. Many of the enemy units will only have a single person person in it. This is 100% a trap. Lex will also comment on this, warning you to prepare basically before anything really happens.
I recommend first deploying one unit led by a cavalry character like Clive, Josef, or Adel and one unit led by Fran on the field. Send Fran to the northern most spot to garrison cross the river, and send the paladin or knight character west. The plan here is you want to fight these initial enemies and take over all of the town, fort, and bridge spots, then when you finishing garrisoning at each one, summon one of your other units there to hold the spot. Keep one person at your base as well. Since you already know a number of knights will be present, a unit with an anti-cavalry skill like Alain is handy. I also noticed Fran is really great at dealing with knights as a gryphon knight, so make sure she is deployed too.
This is because once you basically conquer each place you can take, Monica will summon in about three to four units near each one and a ballista surrounded by barricades. Yes, it was a trap. Now, so long as your units are all at around level 10-12 each, you should be okay. Initially, stick to the spots you took and hold steady there while all of Monica’s new forces assault you. If you have a group with Mordon or Kitra in it, they are good at taking out the barricades near the ballista so you can use it against the new swarms of enemies.
Once you break through, send your paladin or knight character’s unit toward Monica herself. (I used a unit with Clive in it, so I could see the custom conversation in battle between the two of them.)
The battle won, you’ll get the chance to recruit Monica or leave her to remain caring for the land. I recommend recruiting her, because it never hurts to have another character who is on horseback and she has Rapport conversations with Clive. You also get a White Knight’s Shield with the Lifeshare ability for winning.
Unicorn Overlord is available for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X.
