Help me approach this game in the least boring way possible

[Junkhead]

It's been aaaaages since I've played FE4, and there's sort of a reason for that...maps were insanely huge, and that was a big turn off for me. However, I've given it a chance, back in the day. Same, now. It's a pretty unique FE game in it's own right, albeit times it does get a little too confusing (managing resources and it's awkward RNG system, at the top of my head). also, like, I know all the basic stuff, like the fact you need Pursuit to double (and Continue, sort of) and the fact horses are a must, Sigurd & Levin plow and very basic stuff like that.

stuff:

Is arden usable in any way. and I'm talking more than just taking hits an- yeah, pretty much.

I heard alec sucks or something, but the fact that he has a horse & being able to consistently double says otherwise

Lastly, I heard Dew has a ton of potential. Why was that, again (you know, besides having "good" growths").

Edited October 19, 2016 by Soul~!

[TheEnd]

Arden can get the Pursuit Ring. That's it.

Pretty much everyone who has Pursuit can "consistently double" in this game. Alec's growths and limited weapon ranks hold him back, and his Nihil is irrelevant in 1st gen.

Good growths, his promoted class has A sword and Pursuit, I guess. He's also a somewhat decent father, though only Patty, Leen and Ayra's kids can inherit his Sol.

[Parrhesia]

Alec (and Noish, and Midir, and Beowulf) aren't great units, but it's FE4. They're quick and capable enough support cavalry who can help pick off daves in the big formation fights that are the meat and potatoes of the game. Really, Arden's just about the only unit who doesn't really find any utility in the game, and even then it's probably possible to make him work.

Chapter 2 is the wall of the game, it's shithouse. Make it through Chapter 2 and you'll clear the game.

Edited October 19, 2016 by Parrhesia

[sirmola]

Is arden usable in any way. and I'm talking more than just taking hits an- yeah, pretty much.

I heard alec sucks or something, but the fact that he has a horse & being able to consistently double says otherwise

Lastly, I heard Dew has a ton of potential. Why was that, again (you know, besides having "good" growths").

Alec makes a really good dad for anyone who does not otherwise get pursuit. (especialy lachesis) Otherwise, he is less useful latter. (paladins don't get any a ranks on promotion without holy blood.)

The main potential of your thiefs is the fact that having steal on combat capable units is really usefull for money management. (much more useful than having steal on a really weak thief). Brigid/Dew and aria/dew are both really usefull pairings

Arden becomes slightly useful on promotion due to the "general" class, but he not a usefull dad because lex does the same thing, but better, and is much easier to use in gen 1. (for example, arden pases down vantage, but lex passes down vantage and elite)

[Lantairu]

Arden is incredibly useful for intentionally losing arena fights for when you need to burn some RN's.

Alec is useful for recruiting Ayra as his Nihil makes her unable to use Astra against her, in addition to him not being able to kill her.

Maybe Alec is useful for something else, but Arden isn't, other than taking hits and getting the pursuit ring.

[Excellen Browning]

@sirmola male paladins get B lances. Not that it gives them much because they're probably not getting the hero lance, but there it is.

[Valkama]

Alec has strength problems but he gains good magic on promotion and giving him the magic ring allows him to do good damage with magic swords. Arden isn't really good. I suppose he can be used on some maps Like chapter 2 and 3 but generally there is someone around to do it better. Dew can be a decent combat unit after he promotes but his real use is stealing money to give to other people.

[Junkhead]

So, yeah, this game is actually pretty fucking fun.

Any tips for levelling Dew and Ethlyn quickly.

Also, are 30% growths supposed to be good in this game. I pretty much take that for granted.

[Excellen Browning]

30% growths are pretty good in the first generation.

You can level up Ethlyn fairly quickly by spamming return staff, Dew will have to solo a bunch of enemies off somewhere while your other units are doing more important things.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Ethlin isn't hard to train when she has got the light sword. It's a very powerful 1-2 range sword. However it won't help her much in the arena though since the enemies have melee weapons. However she's still good enough against generics.

Also for Dew... Idk... "Give abusing" maybe...

He's so awful in combat, so he can only gain exp. by stealing and giving.

The arena with him is always an experience for itself.

Edited October 26, 2016 by Ayama Wirdo

[Rend Keaven]

Chapter 3 is probably the best chapter for Dew to grind in, around 30% of the enemies are axe users and a bunch of pirates that cannot hit Dew come charging in when you have one more castle to conquer. He also gets the Wind Sword if you have him visit the same tower Claude goes to visit.

[Junkhead]

30% growths are pretty good in the first generation.

Thought so. These FE growth trends... Makes you feel grateful, doesn't it? :3

stuff:

[spoiler=Soul weighs in on FE4, """""""""first"""""""" impressions]

as of the Ch.2 base

Sigurd: Nothing fancy in terms of stats and growths, but he reaaaaallly gets the job the done, and I knew this.

Alec: Horse, Swords and Pursuit. How can this even go wrong?

Noish: Chip damage with solid duraility, WT* & Canto help out more than it should.

Pursuit Ring: arden (aka fuck this guy)

Lex Luthor: I haven't been paying too much attention to him, but he seems very textbook effecient, much like Sigurd. Brave axe, Paragon on a fucking horse.

Azel: uuuhhhhh, I've always found him super underrated. I mean, he 1RKO's right off the bat (which is something, despite shitty durability). It's either that, or he's seriously overlooked, next to Lewyn. I mean, you can always buy lighter tomes later on.

Cuan: I've always liked this guy. He may not 1RKO (without adept), but he hits like a truck and his durability has only helped.

Fin: The only real non-Cavalier Cavalier you really need.

Ethlin: I can see why she was rated pretty high on the tier list... she heals.......... on top of a horse. Regardless, I try to feed her as much kills as I can (as well as staff Exp). She's doing pretty well. She has both, Speed & Skill rings, which really help with criticals.

Midayle/or whatever: Didn't really use him, but the fact that he doubles with decent damage (3HKO's)...on a horse, should be enough to call him good (you know, despite Bows). I'll give him a chance, one day.

Adean: uhhhh, she heals. Her hair is also very 80's -like, which I can appreciate, somehow.

Dew: It's always fun, 40HKO'ing your sword-uses away, isn't it? Stealing shit is actually surprisingly useful here, so he has that going for him. Having a blast training him.

Ayra: I was about not to use her, but I really have no fucking reason not to. She murders stuff. It's silly. She even took a Knight down with only 1 HP at the arena. The only reason she's not (supposed to be) broken is because she lacks a horse.

What If Ayra Had Bows: We already have a Jamka.

Diadora: Besides the Silence staff, she's kind of terrible. Like, I try to make use of her ginormous atk-power by slapping a Mag Ring into her. Looks like she'll 1HKO. lol (and yes, I know she gets abducted in Ch.3 or something)

Edited October 27, 2016 by Soul~!

[Flee Fleet!]

Yup, Diadora is pretty bad, despite having a strong tome with her.

And hey, if you want to train your healers till promotion quicker, just let your units get themselves kicked in the arena so your healers can heal them. Best way for Lachesis to level up, since she's pretty weak.

[Parrhesia]

Again, I'll stress that guys like Midir/Alec/Noish/Beo are never going to be spectacular, but the nature of FE4 means that having a B-list of mediocre cavalry is always useful. Growths are bad so it's not like the EXP needs to be shepherded to any greater cause - a normal playthrough IIRC will see most of your units promoted anyway. Jamke is insanely good.

[Cyas]

Ethlyn should just spam staves, she can also do well in the Arena with Prayer Sword manipulations.

As another user said, Dew can fight the Pirates that attack Madino in chapter 3 after you've taken the second castle for some EXP. South-west of Madino is a village that gives everybody who visits it a permanent boost to Str and Def so Dew can make use of that too. There are some Civilians in Chapter 4, everybody who talks to them gets 100 EXP. The last boss of chapter 3 drops a Power ring. Dew can easily buy that since Bargain allows him to acquire whatever items he wants without permanently investing money (He can sell items at the same price he bought them). He can make use of magical swords since stealing works at range. He might also be able to dodge tanks chapter 4's mages with the Light Sword.

He can do decently well in the Arena if you rig crits with a +50 Kill Slim Sword but getting that in the first place is tedious and you need to use a small trick to get it early anyway.

[Junkhead]

I think it's safe to say I wasn't very wise approaching this game all those years back. I definitely feel wiser. and as such, it went by a lot more smoothly. Hell, I'm playing on a celphone, so I'm also not absuing the fast-forward thingy I'm sure we all do/did (which makes you more impatient, ironically). Chapters like 1 & 2 seem to last forever, but in turn, I feel more involved in a game than I have in a while...it's actually really fun, and it feels very "FE-like" (FE14 still feels like alien territory, lol).

[Tetragrammaton]

The best thing I love about FE4 is that you can fight the enemies in their formation group, they are well disciplined.

[Junkhead]

I don't think I've noticed that.

I also forgot how stupid Levin is. This guy shows up to completely outclass Azel. Like, in a really, really sad way. For starters, his durability is nowhere as bad. He's dodgy as shit, has pretty much the best offense in Gen 1...even if he's lacking Pursuit (which I completely forgot he did, since he seems to always double...). Wind magic is ridiculous. It's like swords...with constant, hard-hitting 2-range.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

The weapon balance in FE4 is pretty awful as weird to let you know.

Fire, thunder and wind have the same accuracy and might... only their weight is different.

As for physical weapons: The only difference between iron and steel weapon is, that the steel weapon has more might. All the other stats are the same. Also slim weapons have more might than iron weapons for another reason I don't know.

As for Azel: If you can buy a thunder tome in the item shop, then do it immediately! It weighs less than fire and will reduce his AS penalty.

Same goes for steel weapons. They shall replace iron weapons.

Deidre is horrible in the arena because of her hilarious negative speed but she's a great chipper at least.

Edited October 28, 2016 by Ayama Wirdo

[Junkhead]

Yeah, that's what I did. Got Thunder for him.

and I already knew the rest, which is why I think alec should be pretty solid, considering he has swords and a horse...(not to go agaisnt what Furetchen said).

[bottlegnomes]

One thing I definitely want to say that hasn't been brought up yet is Midir can be pretty sweet if you give him Jamke's killer bow. He can use any number of good bows with his A rank and he really doesn't need a particularly great weapon to kill things. Midir on the other hand goes from fine enough to great with the killer bow since it's all-around an amazing weapon. I would definitely recommend doing it ASAP since his usefulness will skyrocket and you get access to a silver bow as early as chapter two IIRC.

What differentiates Alec, who's basically Midir with swords is that the weapons that would make Alec go from fine to definitely good are much more contested. Prior to promotion, that amounts to the hero/brave sword which Sigurd greatly appreciates since he goes from amazing to GOD, with Ayra who starts with it, Holyn, and Noish also potentially wanting it. Post-promo, he can get the hero lance, but Finn starts with that and there's little incentive to switch it to anyone sans Fury when Finn bounces for the remainder of gen 1.

Nothing else in particular comes to mind unless you want pairing suggestions.

Edited October 29, 2016 by bottlegnomes

[OliKad]

I actually have a bit of a soft spot for Alec and Azel, even if it means getting against almost everyone on Serenes Forest. I mean, Azel has great Magic and Speed, the only Skill that is truly necessary (Pursuit) and can get on a horse after promotion, which fixes his movement problems. I think he really is great if you are patient on training him. Maybe even better than Lewyn without Holsety. :)

As for Alec, he's mounted (which is a big plus), also has pursuit, can make a decent father with his unique Nihil Skill and has decent enough stats to be competent for the whole first generation. Plus, he does become a Paladin after promotion, which is one of my favorite FE classes, period. Sure, many other units can do better than him, but he is very serviceable and actually good in my opinion, unlike Noish and Arden (ugh...)

I'm glad that you appreciate more this game than you did all those years back. It kinda warms my heart. :3