FE9 Warp LTC

[Krad]

What if the Warp staff was actually in FE9?

Well, that's what this series of videos is trying to answer. Since there's no way to know where the staff would've been placen in the game for sure (probably the desert though), I decided to have Rhys have it in his inventory when he joins in Chapter 2. That way, I can show it being used for the entire game.

Since Rhys starts with only a D rank in staves (Warp is A), and he doesn't participate in Chapter 3, the first map we can warpskip is Chapter 4.

It's worth noting that this isn't a continuous playthrough, instead of a bunch of ILs to show off as much as I can of the Warp strats.

Here's the playlist of the challenge.

And the individual chapters:

Chapter 4 in 1 turn

Chapter 6 in 2 turns

Chapter 7 in 2 turns

Chapter 9 in 2 turns

Chapter 10 in 1 turn

Chapter 11 in 2 turns

Chapter 12 in 1 turn

Chapter 14 in 1 turn

Chapter 15 in 1 turn

Chapter 16 in 2 turns

Chapter 17-1 in 1 turn

Chapter 17-2 in 1 turn

Chapter 17-4 in 1 turn

Chapter 18 in 1 turn

Chapter 19 in 1 turn

Chapter 20 in 1 turn

Chapter 21 in 1 turn

Chapter 22 in 1 turn

Chapter 23 in ? turns (postponed)

Chapter 24 in 1 turn

Chapter 25 in 1 turn

Chapter 26 in 1 turn

Chapter 27-1 in 1 turn

Chapter 27-2 in 1 turn

Chapter 28 in 1 turn

Endgame in 1 turn

Edited August 30, 2016 by Krad

[ruadath]

Sounds fun! Will be following

[Espinosa]

Great to have you back

[Krad]

Sounds fun! Will be following

Great to have you back

Thanks, I like being able to make these videos again.

Also, I had some extra free time today, so I got Chapter 7 done.

Chapter 7 in 2 turns

it's worth noting that this clear actually beats the map without triggering Gatrie, Shinon, and the reinforcements that come with them. I also found out during testing that the reinforcements are not only triggered by stepping inside an area (like WoD shows), but also by making the Archer in the northwest room move.

Edited July 29, 2016 by Krad

[ruadath]

it's worth noting that this clear actually beats the map without triggering Gatrie, Shinon, and the reinforcements that come with them. I also found out during testing that the reinforcements are not only triggered by stepping inside an area (like WoD shows), but also by making the Archer in the northwest room move.

You should check for us if this has any impact on Gatrie/Shinon's recruitment later. I doubt it will, but maybe there is a possibility?

[Espinosa]

In chapter 6, can't you have Soren promote and get sufficient staff rank prior to the map so that he can take the staff from Rhys and warp Ike for a seize on turn 1?

edit: also, where is Balmer?

Edited July 30, 2016 by Espinosa

[Krad]

You should check for us if this has any impact on Gatrie/Shinon's recruitment later. I doubt it will, but maybe there is a possibility?

I don't think it will either, since they appear just fine in the cutscene after the chapter. I'll test it eventually though just to be sure.

In chapter 6, can't you have Soren promote and get sufficient staff rank prior to the map so that he can take the staff from Rhys and warp Ike for a seize on turn 1?

edit: also, where is Balmer?

Sages have a B rank cap for Staves, and Warp is an A rank staff. The only people who can use Warp due to this are Rhys, Mist and Elincia.

Balmer doesn't get to spawn since I only step into the area that makes him appear on turn 2, and the remaining enemies get killed before he can spawn in turn 3. This also means Gatrie and Shinon don't show up either.

[Krad]

Double post, double chapters.

Chapter 9 in 2 turns

Chapter 10 in 1 turn

We finally have a second Warper, so things should get more interesting from now on.

[Krad]

Two new chapters.

Chapter 11 in 2 turns

Chapter 12 in 1 turn

C12 features what may end up being my favorite use of warp in the run. Many thanks to the IS employee(s) who decided to add that little bit of extra scenery to the map, allowing the 1 turn to actually be possible.

For anyone who's interested, here's my research on C11, and why I don't think the 1 turn is possible:

[spoiler=Chapter 11 info]

Using this image of the left side of the map as reference:

[spoiler=Map]

At this point, we have 2 warp users (Rhys: 6 move, 14 warp range; Mist: 8 move, 13 warp range). Sages can't use Warp since they are capped at B staves (Warp is A). We don't have the Rescue staff or any long-range magic yet.

The arrive tile is 28 spaces away from the best possible starting points (the places with Marcia and Mia in the pic). Due to the wall that surrounds the boss area, and the multiple enemies creating a sort of wall, the only characters who can arrive are Marcia (due to flying), or a 6+ move character warped directly into the boss "room". The best possible spot to warp this character to would be the red circle in the map.

Marcia, after being pushed 3 tiles by both Lethe and Mordecai (Brom could shove her if we had 2 Statue Frags, but sadly we only have 1 at this point in the game) and warped by Rhys (the best warper, has 1 more warp range than Mist), is still 2 tiles short of reaching the arrive square, though this gives her just enough room to kill the armor knight with a Javelin.

With the arrive spot open, we need to get another unit there. To be warped to the red circle, a unit must be standing in the yellow circle (as shown in the 2 turn video above), and Mist must be standing in the spot with an M on it. Assumming Mist starts in the other best possible spot (where Mia is), she needs to be able to move 10 tiles to reach that spot, but her movement is only 8, and we don't have anyone else who can shove her.

In addition to this, to get the warped unit to the yellot spot, from the next best possible spot (where Lethe is on the map) would require 13 shoves, and we can't bring that many units to the map. The limit is 13, and Marcia/Rhys/Mist/Lethe/Mordecai/Warpee already use 6 slots.

Since Chapter 13 can't be done in less than 7 turns, and that ammount is already very easy to get without having Warp, the next video will be Chapter 14.

[Krad]

Triple fun.

Chapter 14 in 1 turn

Chapter 15 in 1 turn

Chapter 16 in 2 turns

Like C11 before, here's some info on why C16 didn't work as a 1 turn clear.

[spoiler=Chapter 16 info]

Using this map as reference:

Reminder: At this point, we have 2 warpers (Mist: 13 range, 8 movement; Rhys: 14 range, 6 movement). Sages can't Warp due to having a B-rank cap for Staves. We don't have access to the Rescue staff, Reyson or long-range magic yet (we get our first tome this chapter).

As you can see from the map, there's two options of clearing the map:

1.- Kill the boss and one of the Mages or Sniper surrounding him to open a path, then warp Ike to seize.

2.- Kill the boss, warp Ike to the empty spot just under the boss (the top blue circle), then seize.

Rolf is the best bosskiller here, since he can attack him from a convenient spot using a Longbow. The route he'd take is shown in the picture. For that to work, he needs to be either Shoved twice or to use the Boots, then be warped by Mist.

None of the two options mentioned before can be done, sadly. The problem with the first solution is that it'd require three warps (two units to kill enemies, plus a third one for Ike), yet we can only warp 2 times in a single turn at this point in the game.

The second solution can't be done due to a lack of staff range. For Ike to reach the top blue circle, the "easiest" place to warp him from is the bottom blue circle. However, if Rhys tries to warp Ike from there, he'll be 1 tile short, reaching only to the spot where the Sniper is. The spot is sadly 15 tiles away, while Rhys can only warp 14 tiles at a time.

Edited August 1, 2016 by Krad

[Krad]

The Chapter 17 special.

Chapter 17-1 in 1 turn

Chapter 17-2 in 1 turn

Chapter 17-4 in 1 turn

[Krad]

Reyson! isn't needed for c19

Chapter 18 in 1 turn

Chapter 19 in 1 turn

C18's definitely the most interesting chapter of the run so far. There's a lot of stuff going on as I need to get units in pretty much every area of the map, and luckily there's only 3 enemies who don't move when an unit's in range (the two siege-tome sages + warrior).

[Krad]

Chapter 20 in 1 turn

Chapter 21 in 1 turn

ez

[Krad]

Chapter 22 in 1 turn

Chapter 23 in ? turns

Chapter 24 in 1 turn

After a lot of experimentation with C23, I'm not confident enough to say whether the 1 turn is actually possible or not (I'm leaning towards no though). Because of that, I decided to skip C23 for now so as to not get stuck for too long here. I'll get back to it before doing Endgame.

[Krad]

It's finally here.

There's a lot to cover about this chapter, so if you're interested you can read about it inside this spoiler.

[spoiler=Chapter 25 info]Let's start off by mentioning a few important resources:
- Ike: Savior skill
- Haar: Hand Axe forge with +9 crit and the Adept skill
- Tanith: Sonic Sword
- Tormod: Boots
- Lethe: Smite (remnant of an older strat, Mordecai with the Demi Band would've worked just as well)
- Boyd: Knight Ring

Ike needs the Savior skill to be able to rescue Reyson without suffering stat drops (otherwise the Cat would've attacked him and not died in return). Haar's the one taking care of the boss, so he gets Adept plus the +crit forge to increase the chances of killing him in 1 round (10% chance to crit, 28% chance to Adept). Tanith ORKO's with the Sonic Sword so she's not targetted by him.
Tormod needs the Boots to be able to reach a certain spot, from which he's safe from falling rocks and is in range of all the enemies at the right side of the map.
Boyd uses the Knight Ring to canto back into the "main column" after shoving Reyson.

Why does Reyson need shoving? To explain this, I need to explain the gimmick of C25. This chapter has a very annoying mechanic in that some enmies can push some rocks from the top of the stage, that will follow some predetermined paths and hit every unit in their way for 10 damage, regardless of defense.
The paths that the rocks follow can be seen in the next picture:

http://i.imgur.com/CYizOwB.png

Since an enemy pushing a rock means that they won't attack during enemy phase, we must move around the highlighted areas to prevent them from throwing rocks. It should be simple, right?
It's not, as there's multiple ways of triggering enemies to push rocks aside from just standing in their path. I'll focus on the three that fucked me over the most in making this strat:
1.- Enemies in the path of the rocks: In the picture linked above, you can see some enemies spawn already in the paths the rocks will take. This is enough of an incentive for an enemy to push a rock, but not always. A good example of this can be seen with Marcia in the video. The Swordmaster she kills is very important, as him being alive is enough to trigger the enemies just north of him to push their rocks. By killing him, they decide to not push their rocks, even though more enemies are still in their paths ... most of the time (see point 3).
2.- A unit was in a path at some point during the turn: This is the reason Reyson needs to be shoved. An earlier strat involved Reyson refreshing Rhys from the east, then getting Savior'd by Ike, so as to not make the Warrior east of the boss push his rock. Yet that Warrior still pushed the rock every single time. After some testing (refreshing from the west and noticing now the western Warrior was pushing the rock), I realized that ending your turn in the path of a rock, even if you're "removed" from it later, is enough to make the rocks move. Reyson is then shoved in the actual clear so as to refresh Rhys from the north, avoiding the paths of the rocks. Luckily, cantoing out of a rock path works fine (as shown by Mist and Boyd).
3.- Because fuck you: Yes, enemies can decide to push rocks on what seems to be arbitrary reasons. I can't really go into much details here as I don't understand it much myself, but a good example of this also comes from Marcia's actions. If, after killing the Swordmaster, she remains in that spot, the northern enemies will push their rocks. However, if she cantos one space to the right, like she does in the video, the enemies won't push. It's quite annoying.

As a small extra "fuck you" from the game, one of the top Warriors can sometime spawn with enough HP/RES to not be ORKO'd by Tanith.

[ruadath]

Great job with the last clear! It's really insane how annoying enemy AI mainpulation can be.

[Krad]

Featuring a total of 13 shoves in a single turn (15 if you count Smites as two).

Edited August 24, 2016 by Krad

[Krad]

Chapter 27 double special.

27-1

27-2

[Krad]

A lesson on why you shouldn't leave Seize spots unguarded.

[Krad]

The exciting conclusion.

As mentioned in the description, Ike has som very special stats for this clear:

Chapter 23 will come eventually, I hope. Should be less than 5 years (the time it took me to add Chapter 7 to the previous challenge).

[Dark Holy Elf]

Nice work on this!

I understand the bad durability (so that Ike activates Resolve after one hit), but why the bad speed? Just to increase the chances that Bryce hits you?

I'm also curious if this could be replicated on Hard Mode. It might depend on when Berserk Ashnard acts compared to other enemies, since you still have the enemy phase for him to suicide on Ike (after missing), at least if he'll act the enemy phase after he appears (I don't recall).

[Krad]

I understand the bad durability (so that Ike activates Resolve after one hit), but why the bad speed? Just to increase the chances that Bryce hits you?

It's a mix of increasing the chances of Bryce hitting Ike, plus Ike not doubling (or getting doubled by) Bryce to reduce the length of the video by a few seconds. 15 speed maximizes both of those objectives.

As far as HM, it should work, since I know that Ashnard does move and attack during Turn 1 Enemy Phase. The main difference here would be that Ike would probably have his full 28 speed as to allow him to double Berserk Ashnard with Resolve (he 4HKOs so he needs a crit + a regular hit), and also to reduce the chances of Ashnard killing Ike on their round of combat.

Edited August 31, 2016 by Krad

[Krad]

Hey.

It's time to tackle the Trial Maps. I've already done some preliminary planning on the other maps (currently 1 tile short of the 1 turn clea of TM4 with the Warp Staff), so I'll try to record the other maps in the coming days.

For this map in particular, the biggest threat in this map are the Swordmaster, since they can have up to 28 speed, meaning pretty much nobody will double them. Lethe and Naesala can, but in exchange they can't 2HKO the Warriors, so they had to stay away from them. Ashnard can't double, but OHKOs them instead. Everyone else gets Brave weapons.