Steel Knight

The **Order of Steel Knights** are the elite fighting force of House Steel. Trained in both physical arts and magic and clad in heavy armour that makes them highly resilient to damage, they are the foremost warriors in all of Andaron.

They are led by  Galahad, Commander of the Steel Knights.

## Gameplay

Steel Knights appear infrequently during the storyline of *Andaron Saga*, but the presence will always be keenly felt, often being significantly stronger opponents than the player's current units.

In many respects, Steel Knights are very much akin to other armoured classes - they have incredible endurance with high HP, defence and resistance values, making them difficult for many characters to even scratch early on. In addition, they all boast the Nullify skill, making them immune to effective weapons which would otherwise be a way to bypass these defences. In earlier chapters where they appear, unless significant grinding has been done, they are more or less invulnerable when attacked - and doing so is ill-advised, as they also boast high offensive stats with a massive weapon pool, allowing them to retaliate for heavy damage. Their speed is their main weakness - while not as bad as most generic enemies, they are on the slower end for promoted units and are easy for most characters to double, so they can be dismantled by brute-force with extremely strong attacks if necessary.

Their reliance on Nullify to weather assaults does make them prime targets for users of Nihil which will negate it, and indeed arguably the best Steel Knight killer in the game, Albert, does possess this skill, with a powerful Prf weapon  Nightbringer to take advantage of it. The other two potential wielders of Nihil, Thea and Isabelle, can also use it to make quick work of Steel Knights with their high speed. Isabelle in particular appreciates Nihil as it gives her a significant edge if she opts to partake in the duel with Galahad in Ch. 30.

## Locations

In most of their appearances, Steel Knights spawn in a row across a hallway and will never move from their positions, though they will attack and counter-attack if an enemy strays into their range. In these cases they generally act like walls - normally there is no choice but to go around them, but with sufficient firepower they can be defeated to create a shorter path to the exit. Steel Knights that are aggressive tend to be of a lower level with lower defensive stats, making them easier to defeat.

### Storming the Castle

Three Knights (or five if the Secret Event triggers) are mobile and will become aggressive when approached, but the rest will remain at their stations and block the entrances to the throne room. Uniquely for this level, stationary Steel Knights will never voluntarily attack Baudimon or Mortimer, giving these characters an advantage when it comes to positioning in close proximity to them, though they will still counter-attack them if attacked first. Notably, this protection does *not* apply to Isabelle later in the game, despite also being of House Steel.

### Prison Break

The second phase of this level sees Steel Knights fulfilling much the same role, blocking the escape of the player group in large numbers. This time, the player almost has no choice but to engage the stationary ones, but the effort is made much easier by the recruitment of Albert who is capable of one-rounding most of them at base. More Steel Knights that attack when in range stand in the corridors, as well as a group of Steel Knights accompanying the marauding Galahad who serves as the chapter's anti-turtling boss.

### Dire Pursuit

Significantly more Steel Knights are aggressive on this map, but at this much later stage of the game the player's army will be much stronger and capable of pushing through them regardless of Nullify, especially with the assistance of Regalia of which they will have access to all or most of them by that point. Alternatively, if Isabelle challenges and wins the duel, she instead sees a promotion to a Steel Knight herself, easily becoming the strongest character in the game thanks to its stellar class caps and access to anima magic.

A handful of Steel Knights also make an appearance in the non-canon Andaron Saga IF, showing up as reinforcements that spawn from behind each group of player units for a few turns. Similar to Ch. 30, these Steel Knights are rarely of much consequence due to the power wielded by the player's army by that point in the game.

## Trivia

* The Steel Knight sprites are those of a reskinned General with the addition of a Baron-like cape. They were drawn by Leo\_link, Nuramon and Iscaneus with additional contributions from Sax Marine.