Too Kyo Games and Media.Vision released The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- on 24 April 2025 for Switch and PC, with Kazutaka Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi writing and Aniplex publishing. Takumi Sumino is pulled out of the Tokyo Residential Complex into a school ringed by fire, where fifteen students form the Special Defense Unit and hold the building for 100 days against School Invaders. Story days alternate with grid based battles, and the choices you make across those days fork the run into 21 routes and just over 100 endings.
Starting The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- can feel overwhelming. This guide tells you exactly what to focus on during your first hours so you don't waste time on things that don't matter yet. For the full progression path, see our walkthrough.
What Kind of Game Is This?
The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- is a strategy game built around Shared AP pool with rollover and Voltage meter capped at 300 percent. The core loop involves mastering these systems to progress through increasingly challenging content.
What to expect: Time investment in learning mechanics, experimentation, and gradual mastery. The game rewards patience and knowledge.
Choosing Your First Build
| Build | Beginner Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Takumi Sumino | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Hiruko Shizuhara | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Karua Kashimiya | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Darumi Amemiya | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Eito Aotsuki | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
Our recommendation: Start with Hiruko Shizuhara. It offers the most forgiving experience while teaching core mechanics.
Avoid Eito Aotsuki as your first pick. It requires deep knowledge of game systems to use effectively. Once you're ready, check our classes guide for all options.
First Session Step-by-Step
Step 1: Learn Shared AP pool with rollover
Each player phase gives the whole squad one pool of attack points rather than one action each, and the player team always moves first. Moving and attacking are a single action, so a unit walks its movement range and swings at the end of it. Any AP left unspent carries into the next turn, which makes a deliberately quiet turn a real opening rather than a wasted one.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how Shared AP pool with rollover works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to School area
The central exploration zone and the first one unlocked, containing more Battle Point tiles than any other area. Its resource mix is balanced rather than specialised, which makes it the default early stop.
Clear the main content here before moving on. Everything teaches fundamentals you'll need later. See our maps guide for all locations.
Step 3: Get Your First Upgrade
Look for Special Move: it's the most accessible early upgrade. The Voltage funded attack every student carries, generally splitting between wide clears and single target punches. Because Voltage caps at 300 percent within a battle, holding one back through an entire wave usually wastes more than it saves.
Step 4: Understand Voltage meter capped at 300 percent
Landing attacks builds Voltage, which carries between waves of the same battle but holds at a maximum of 300 percent. Anything generated above that cap is discarded, so spending at 300 is always better than saving for a moment that may not come. Voltage pays for Special Moves, for Boost Hemoanima and for Move Again.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to Desert area
North of the school and dominated by Machine tiles. Getting in requires a level 2 Fire Extinguisher, so it opens once you have put a first upgrade into that tool rather than into anything else.
Essential Mechanics Explained
Shared AP pool with rollover
Each player phase gives the whole squad one pool of attack points rather than one action each, and the player team always moves first. Moving and attacking are a single action, so a unit walks its movement range and swings at the end of it. Any AP left unspent carries into the next turn, which makes a deliberately quiet turn a real opening rather than a wasted one.
Voltage meter capped at 300 percent
Landing attacks builds Voltage, which carries between waves of the same battle but holds at a maximum of 300 percent. Anything generated above that cap is discarded, so spending at 300 is always better than saving for a moment that may not come. Voltage pays for Special Moves, for Boost Hemoanima and for Move Again.
Hemoanima Special Moves
Hemoanima is the blood drawn power the students fight with, and Takumi Sumino's takes the form of a katana with wide horizontal and vertical sweeps plus one armour piercing strike, on a movement range of roughly five to six tiles. Special Moves spend Voltage to either clear a cluster or punch through a single hard target. Boost Hemoanima spends Voltage on a buff instead, such as raising attack.
School shield defense objective
Most battles are lost by letting the academy's shield or a protected generator fall rather than by losing students. Invaders path toward the objective every enemy phase, so holding lanes usually beats chasing kills. Takumi's power allows a battle to be restarted outright, which is the intended response to a shield that dropped further than you meant it to.
Exploration tiles and Fire Extinguisher levels
Between story days you send students across five exploration areas built from resource tiles. The School sits in the centre with the most Battle Point tiles, the Desert to the north yields Machine, the Forest to the east yields Plant, the Underground to the south yields Mineral and the Coast to the west yields Textile. Desert and Forest need a level 2 Fire Extinguisher, and Underground and Coast need level 3.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Treating the battles as a kill count
The Invaders are pathing toward an objective, so a turn spent clearing a distant cluster while a lane stays open loses shield health for nothing.
2. Hoarding Voltage past the 300 percent cap
Every attack landed at the cap is wasted generation, and the meter carries between waves anyway so there is no reason to save it.
3. Spending the entire AP pool every turn out of habit
Rollover means an underspent turn is an investment, and the strongest openings in the game start with a turn that looks passive.
4. Ignoring the Fire Extinguisher upgrade path
Players who pour everything into combat gear find themselves locked out of the Mineral and Textile areas exactly when the recipes start demanding both.
5. Trying to reach every ending in one continuous save
The game runs 21 separate routes, and reloading from a much earlier point is the intended way to reach the branches you skipped.
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand Shared AP pool with rollover and Voltage meter capped at 300 percent
- Choose Hiruko Shizuhara as starting build
- Clear School area main content
- Acquire Special Move or equivalent upgrade
- Reach Desert area
- AP is a squad resource, not a per unit one. Ending a turn with points left over is a legitimate strategy because the leftovers roll forward, and a banked turn followed by a five action turn beats two average turns almost every time.
- Voltage stops accumulating at 300 percent inside a battle. If the meter is sitting at the cap and you are saving for a better moment, you are throwing away everything the next three attacks generate.
Tips for New Players
- AP is a squad resource, not a per unit one. Ending a turn with points left over is a legitimate strategy because the leftovers roll forward, and a banked turn followed by a five action turn beats two average turns almost every time.
- Voltage stops accumulating at 300 percent inside a battle. If the meter is sitting at the cap and you are saving for a better moment, you are throwing away everything the next three attacks generate.
- Movement and attacking are one action, so plan the walk and the swing together. A unit that moves into range and cannot reach anything has spent AP for nothing, which is the most common early misplay.
- The failure condition is usually the academy shield, not your students. Count how many enemy phases the nearest Invader needs to reach the objective and defend that number of turns rather than trying to clear the map.
- Takumi's ability to restart a battle exists to be used. If the shield takes heavy damage in wave one, restarting immediately costs less real time than grinding out a win you will regret three waves later.
- Enemy Commanders are humanoid Invaders with abilities that shape the wave behind them. Identify which one is present before spending Voltage, because killing the commander early can defuse a wave that would otherwise need three Special Moves.
- Fatigue and status ailments cut effectiveness noticeably. Move Again clears fatigue as well as granting an action, which makes it a cheap repair rather than a luxury spend.
- Upgrade the Fire Extinguisher deliberately. Level 2 opens the Desert and Forest and level 3 opens the Underground and Coast, so the tool gates two thirds of the resource economy behind two upgrades.
- Free time between story days feeds both bonds and materials, and the two compete for the same days. Decide early whether a given stretch of the hundred days is a resource run or a relationship run rather than splitting every day.
- The branching is structural, not cosmetic. With 21 routes and just over 100 endings, a first playthrough is meant to end somewhere specific rather than everywhere, so save before major choices instead of trying to see it all in one pass.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many endings does The Hundred Line have?
Just over 100 endings spread across 21 distinct routes. A single playthrough of the hundred days reaches one of them, and the structure expects you to replay from branch points rather than to find them all in one run.
Is this a Danganronpa game?
No, though Kazutaka Kodaka wrote both and Kotaro Uchikoshi of the Zero Escape series co-wrote this one. The Hundred Line mixes visual novel story days with grid based tactical battles rather than trials and investigations.
What is Hemoanima?
The blood drawn power the students of the Special Defense Unit use to fight the School Invaders. Takumi Sumino's manifests as a katana, and Boost Hemoanima is the action that spends Voltage on buffs instead of attacks.
Do students die permanently in battle?
The battles are structured around defending the academy's shield rather than around permanent squad loss, and Takumi's power lets you restart a fight outright. Treat a badly damaged shield as the signal to restart.
Which platforms is it on?
Nintendo Switch and Windows, released simultaneously on 24 April 2025. Too Kyo Games and Media.Vision developed it and Aniplex published it.
More The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- Guides
- The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- Overview
- The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- Best Builds
- The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- Tier List
- The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- Walkthrough
- The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- Tips & Tricks
- The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- Weapons Guide
- The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- Combat Guide
- The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- Boss Guide
- The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- Maps & Locations
- The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- Crafting Guide
- The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- Classes & Characters
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