Single Pair Lunatic+ Run (Plus Other Restrictions)

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Rules

-Lunatic+ Classic

-No DLC

-No Wireless Menu

-No Renown

-Start using only Avatar/Chrom paired up where Chrom may only fight as support and cannot take event tiles ASAP

-No skirmishes (not that it matters)

-I have no problem letting characters die once it becomes a Chrom/Avatar duo. However, for early maps where I have other characters helping out to even get the run started, they are not allowed to die

-Because it took so many chapters to start the run proper, also no life drain abilities or items whatsoever (including Lifetaker)

This run is a bit of an experiment, because I speculated that trying to run one super pair would be tougher than a full squad or medium team of elites thanks to Counter and, to a lesser extent, Luna+ and Hawkeye. And with just one pair, a bow strategy would be almost entirely out of the question.

I’m starting this thread a bit late into my run because I wanted to make sure I could get past chapter 6 first, although I got a bit carried away with my momentum after that. >.>

Oh and while I’ll be listing barracks stuff, it’ll just be the interesting events, since irrelevant character shipping will just waste time and space.

+Def/-Luk female Avatar, Premonition stuff, yadda, yadda. Oh, and note that if I don’t list someone, they either haven’t changed since last listing or are still at base.

-Prologue-

Barring some stupidly insane luck (where if it worked out, I’d be sad that I missed me chance at winning the lottery several times), an Avatar/Chrom duo would end very quickly here. I used Interceptor's strategy for feeding most of the enemies to Avatar. That is, Fred to the face the closest Myrm, Chrom distracts the other Myrm, while I work on feeding the Barbs to Avatar. Then feed her the Myrm and kite the Mage paired with Chrom and getting Lissa to heal. The water trick is really too good, as it allowed me to feed the rest of the map to her too.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar Tactician 7 24 10 8 8 8 4 10 9 Swd E/Tom D

Lissa Cleric 2 18 1 5 5 5 9 3 5 Stf E

E-tiles: WEXP, Glass Axe

-Chapter 1-

Made an attempt at just Avatar/Chrom here. They got owned in the face due to lack of healing. Had to use Fred (paired to Avatar) and Lissa. It was basically tank and kite north, east, then south, while feeding Avatar EXP again. Sully and Virion were generally liabilities that made things harder, but rules are rules and I kept them alive. Fred was generally being a pain and not dual attacking at all.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar Tact 10.87 26 11 9 10 9 4 12 9 Swd D/Tom C

Lissa Cleric 3.04 19 2 5 6 5 10 4 5 Stf E

E-tiles: WEXP x2

-Chapter 2-

A lot like chapter 1. Got a C support with Fred and Chrom going in. Again, tried a duo and failed miserably. The Spd boost allowed for some nice offense, but losing Fred's +5 Def just ended in pain. If Avatar had procced Def on almost every level up, I could maybe see the duo starting here (again, astronomically low odds of that, though). Maybe. I used the Elixir twice here after charging straight into the enemy at the start. The first wave was basically a game of "pray for enough Fred dual attacks" and hoping for a miss or two (in addition to hoping for the not-proccing Def). The second wave I kited, but three enemies were toting Luna+, which was a gigantic pain the entire map. I was running critically low on healing items by the end of this.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar Tact 15.04 29 14 13 12 13 5 13 12 Swd C/Tom C

E-tile: Shockstick

-Chapter 3-

A lot like chapter 2. Same pain trying the duoing. Avatar was starting to do okay, but would never have survived the entire map without healing from Lissa. Ended up bringing Sully, but she wasn't useful. Sumia, on the other hand, got a round of combat in against an Archer where Chrom got a kill. Counter was worse than Luna+, as per usual. Succeeded on a run where on the right side, only the Archer had Counter. Up top, a Fighter, Archer and Raimi had Counter. Kited the top, then wasted Raimi at range with Avatar's tomes.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar Tact L19.44 33 16 16 13 15 7 16 13 Swd C/Tom B

Lissa Cleric 6.42 21 4 6 6 6 10 5 6 Stf D

E-tiles: WEXP, Gaius' Confect

Some thoughts: theoretically, the duo could actually start with the prologue and propagate, but it would have to be done by someone with the most insane of the insane luck. There would be a ridiculous amount of resetting (even by Lunatic+ standards) for stat gains and enemy abilities (and crits and unlikely dual guards and dodges in prologue). I decided not to be resetting for the next two decades.

-Chapter 4-

Okay, now that I can buy items, the run can begin proper. Bought some Vulneraries, a few tonics and some spare tomes.

The map was just a gigantic slugfest where I tried to keep my distance and minimize the amount of attacking enemies on me at once. Avatar doubled everything and one-rounded most stuff. With only vulneraries to heal, things got a bit tight at times (was down to 7 HP at one point), especially since Marth had Luna+. Luckily, between Gauis' Confect and Chrom B support, Avatar could double Marth, so that ended rather quickly.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar Tact 20.00 34 17 17 14 16 8 17 13 Swd C/Tom A

Chrom Lord 2.14 21 7 2 9 8 5 7 1 Swd D

E-tile: WEXP

'Racks: Glass Sword, Roy's Blade, Vaike's ego

Anna Shop Purchases: Concoction, Second Seal

Reclass: Avatar to Tactician for a level reset (gave consideration to Dark Mage, but didn't want to give up Killing Edge usage)

Paralogue 1

Part of this was resetting until the Counter density was distributed such that I was only facing one or two at a time. Donny died a horrible death on the first turn because there's literally no safe spaces for him. Other than that, just worked my way to the boss killing stuff. Got some pretty bad levels, but I can afford to let those slide now.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar Tact 7.37 39 20 18 17 17 11 19 13 Swd C/Tom A

Chrom Lord 3.14 22 8 2 10 9 6 7 1 Swd D

E-tiles: 2x WEXP

-Chapter 5-

Resetting until Counter was dispersed enough again. Had Maribelle and Ricken dump their gear in convoy before they inevitably met their doom. Yes, Interceptor, I am as cold-hearted as Marth. After that, I ran circles around the big lower cliff, picking off the Counter guys one by one. I had to use so many vulneraries to do that, though.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar Tact 13.99 43 22 19 21 22 15 24 13 Swd B/Tom A

Chrom Lord 4.14 23 9 2 10 10 6 7 1 Swd C

E-tiles: WEXP, EXP

Anna Shop Purchases: Master Seal

-Paralogue 2-

Promoted to Grandmaster, then got the party started. Pushed north toward Anna, taking advantage of the Barbarians' single-mindedness to pick off Counter guys while they were headed for the village. Then I just ran circles around the river kiting the remaining Counter guys to death.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar GM 4.21 49 26 22 25 24 17 27 17 Swd B/Tom A

Chrom Lord 5.30 24 10 2 11 10 7 8 1 Swd C

E-tiles: 2x Relationship+

-Chapter 6-

Got support to S. I wasn't really sure how I was going to do this one with just one pair and suicidal Marth. As it turned out, throwing Avatar in the middle beside Marth was pretty much the way to go. This attracted all the Thieves (well, everything in general, which was a bit gross with Counter... lots of resets here). Once they were dead, I could camp the left side for the rest of the map. Ignis helped a lot in allowing me to take on Counter enemies (one-shotting them) without needing to heal in between.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar GM 7.19 50 27 23 27 26 19 29 18 Swd B/Tom A

Chrom Lord 6.40 24 11 2 12 10 8 8 1 Swd B

E-tiles: Things were too nuts for me to grab either.

'Racks: Chrom's birthday netting a Skl/Spd boost and Katarina's Bolt as the item, Reeking Box

-Chapter 7-

Elwind, plus Magic Tonic allowed Avatar to one-shot most Wyvs. Which is good, because quite a few of them came with Counter. Strangely, the ground forces were mostly devoid of Counter, though. No matter where I positioned Cordelia, she just ended up being sandwiched by the jerk Wyvs my Avatar couldn't pursue. So I made like Marth and left her to rot. Because of my ability to one-shot Wyvs, I was basically just sitting in the middle of enemy hordes letting them suicide on Avatar.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar GM 9.87 50 28 25 27 28 20 30 19 Swd B/Tom A

Chrom Lord 6.91 24 11 2 12 10 8 8 1 Swd B

E-tile: Glass Lance

-Paralogue 3-

It's almost physically impossible to save a villager here with just one pair. I played things out perfectly (I don’t I could have massacred the enemy any faster) and even got a lucky miss on the central villager from the Short Spear Knight. One more lucky miss would've done it, but I'm not resetting for that. I basically ran down the path trying to Thunder crit or Ignis everything so I could clear the way for the villagers without caring if there was Counter. After they all died, I just kited stuff around to isolate Counter enemies and grabbed the loot.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar GM 12.52 51 30 27 28 31 21 32 20 Swd B/Tom A

Chrom Lord 7.94 25 12 2 12 10 8 8 1 Swd A

E-tiles: WEXP, Glass Axe

Anna Shop Note: I really could have used a Second Seal here, but she spawned with a Master Seal instead

-Chapter 8-

Yay, I actually managed to save someone! I charged Avatar right into the middle with Thunder and just barely allowed Nowi and Gregor to get away (they were one tile out of range of a Dark Mage when I finally cleared out the last of the bum rushing enemies). Once I saved them, most of the map was dead, so it was pretty easy clean-up. Class changed to Dark Flier at 14 Grandmaster.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar DFlier 1.36 51 28 27 30 35 23 31 24 Lan E/Tom A

Chrom Lord 8.94 26 12 2 12 10 9 9 1 Swd A

E-tile: Relationship+ (useless), Kris' Confect

Anna Shop Purchase: Elixir

-Chapter 9-

Just about screwed up my good run on this. I cancelled too many times and backed out of the convoy when I meant to go grab an item for healing. This resulted in me needing a crit or Ignis to not die to Counter (luckily, I got it). Somehow managed to keep both Tharja and Libra alive too. I basically just charged straight south, then went east. Had to equip Elwind to minimize risk against Counter Wyvs (although Aegis+ force me to take some damage anyway :/).

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar DFlier 4.92 54 30 29 32 38 23 33 26 Lan E/Tom A

Chrom Lord 10.34 27 13 2 13 11 11 9 2 Swd A

E-tile: Relationship+, EXP

-Paralogue 4-

It's pretty much impossible to save Anna without a Rescue Staff, so I let her die. So much for my streak of saving people. Anyway, started on the right side, charged up, Door Keyed that first door and used it as a funnel. Once the Thief got close to the chest, I flew up and killed him. I dunno what I'm really going to do with the Arms Scroll, though. After that, I played 'ring around the middle ruins' with the remaining Counter enemies.

E-tile: WEXP, Relationship+

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar DFlier 9.00 58 32 31 36 *42 27 *36 27 Lan E/Tom A

Chrom Lord 11.93 28 13 3 15 12 12 9 2 Swd A

E-tiles: Relationship+, WEXP

-Chapter 10-

Well, this map was out for blood. 75% of it had Counter and there were even a few Luna+/Hawkeye comboes. Too bad for them the terrain allowed me to dart up and down the cliffs completely decimating their army. In the process I managed to snag the Seraph Robe, Wyrmslayer and Master Seal Thieves. Because of my having to play defensively, I got stuck taking on all the Wyv reinforcements. Oh, well, Chrom seemed to enjoy stabbing them in the face with Falchion.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar DFlier 14.05 63 33 32 37 *42 29 *36 28 Lan E/Tom A

Chrom Lord 12.92 28 13 3 15 12 13 10 2 Swd A

E-tiles: Eliwood's Blade, Towering Bow

'Racks: Chrom Str/Spd boost

Anna Shop Note: Could use a Second Seal, but she doesn't seem to want to sell it.

-Chapter 11-

Lots of Counter here too. Thankfully, I could easily get to 15 by going after the mage side first. With Galeforce in hand, I could pick Gangrel's army apart piece by piece. So I basically flew around whittling down the Counter enemies until the ball of Counter-spam was more manageable. The rest of the enemies stood no chance.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar DFlier 19.79 65 *35 33 40 *42 31 *46 30 Lan D/Tom A

Chrom Lord 15.10 31 15 3 18 13 15 11 2 Swd A

E-tiles: EXP, WEXP

Anna Shop Purchase: Second Seal (got this, then realized I actually want to stay a flier for the next few chapters)

-Chapter 12-

Like the Plegians, Valm decided their master strategy should be Counter spam, except with a lot of high mobility units. However, despite being a naval nation, they somehow forgot to account for the fact that their enemies might, oh, I don't know, fly out over the sea? So I quickly worked my way up the right side to get access to the water beside the boat. From there, they could only sit there with their thumbs up their butts while I dismantled them. Cherche even managed to survive by scooting over there and cowering for the entire fight.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar DFlier 5.41 66 *35 34 *41 *42 35 *36 32 Lan D/Tom A

Chrom Lord 17.25 33 16 3 19 14 17 13 2 Swd A

E-tile: EXP (in my excitement, I forgot to grab the second event tile... oops)

I think it’s pretty clear just how powerful Veteran, especially when coupled with Galeforce, is. The setup should have no issue taking on mid-game, although the late game enemy stats are liable to make Galeforce more unreliable and I have concerns about those route maps. Tiki’s paralogue will also been entirely unwinnable with just one pair.

EDIT: Apologies for massive editing. Accidentally submitted instead of previewing.

EDIT2: Logs continued:

Chapter 13

Used the Seraph Robe I forgot to use several chapters ago. Well, I tried to save Henry (I was so close too... just one tile short, although he would also have been fine if the Warriors didn’t have Pass), but the Longbow enemies just made the area have too few safe places. I guess I could have easily rushed the boss, but then I'd miss out on stuff and EXP, especially for Chrom. So cold-hearted Marth mode it was. Thanks to my trying to save Henry, the whole affair was basically a big brawl in the centre while Henry ran around trying not to die. There was a Sniper with Hawkeye, which was really annoying, but other than that, it was a matter of kiting the Counter guys again.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar DFlier 11.53 77 *35 39 *41 *42 38 *36 35 Lan D/Tom A

Chrom GLord 19.52 35 17 3 21 15 18 14 3 Swd A

E-tiles: 2x WEXP

'Racks: Tree Branch

Chapter 14

Promoted Chrom to Great Lord before starting. This was super easy with just a flying pair. Avatar just hung out above the sea, picking off their Pegs and taking cheap shots at their ground units whenever she wasn’t showing those scrub flyers how things are done. Once the flyers were mostly neutralized, I fought around the central boat, then pushed them back and finished things off. Galeforce to dance around Counter as usual.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar DFlier 16.93 *80 *35 *41 *41 *42 40 *36 36 Lan C/Tom A

Chrom GLord 2.48 41 22 4 23 18 19 17 6 Swd A/Lan D

E-tiles: 2x WEXP

Anna Shop Purchase: Killing Edge because why not?

Chapter 15

Class changed Avatar to Hero and used the Arms Scroll. My priority was to Galeforce my way up to the top to secure Say'ri, especially since both Knights had Hawkeye. Once she was safe, I just left her sitting there, though (pff at wasting a turn recruiting her... there was killing to be done!). I worked my way back to the boss, but left him alive. Killed everyone else, then moved back to the beach. Picked up all the junk one turn at a time, which took a while. The enemy was surprisingly light on Counter troops overall. Avatar hit level 5 here, but since she had 5 abilities already, I was able to toss Sol away to prevent it from seeing use.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar Hero 5.46 *80 40 *29 *46 *42 42 41 32 Swd A/Axe C

Chrom GLord 4.34 43 22 4 25 18 20 17 7 Swd A/Lan D

E-tiles: Glass Bow, Eirika's Blade

'Racks: Cartharsis

Chapter 16

This got a little dicey because there were so many enemies and at least half of them with Counter. I could kite around the gaps, but they were just small enough for ground units to try to pincer me. I ended up having to take a few Counter enemies on in direct melee. I brought out the Killer Axe in hopes of crit-gibs, but I didn't get any, so I had to heal with Elixirs. Cervantes was packing both Aegis+ and Pavise+, so to crack that turtle, I broke out the Hammer and Armourslayer. Effective Weapon Science > Mustache Science.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar Hero 11.72 *80 *41 *29 *46 *42 *44 *44 *34 Swd+Axe A

Chrom GLord 6.76 45 23 4 26 19 22 19 7 Swd A/Lan C

E-tile: WEXP, EXP

Chapter 17

I had one goal here, which was to rush the upper left, nab the Boots, then get out and kite around the lower-middle. That didn't work out at all. I ended up getting cornered in the treasure room and the closest stairs kept spawning suicide Counter Heroes, which was stupidly annoying. Burned a couple Elixir uses to get out of this one. Non-Luna+ physical enemies couldn't even damage Avatar, though (seriously, the +4 max Def from Def asset is insanely good), so that was nice.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar Hero 18.93 *80 *41 *29 *46 *42 *44 *44 *38 Swd+Axe A

Chrom GLord 9.17 46 24 4 28 22 25 19 9 Swd A/Lan B

E-tiles: 2x Relationship+

Anna Shop Purchase: Beast Killer

Chapter 18

Second Sealed Avatar to Paladin. Well, this map was massively frontloaded with Counter enemies, although the rear had several Luna+/Hawkeye enemies to compensate for its lack of. Yen'fay himself had Counter and Aegis+. I basically tried to rush the Energy Drop chest, but moved far too slowly. Got bogged down in the Counter enemies, so I was killing one unit, then advancing, unequipping and healing if necessary. Progressing one tile at a time was not going to get me that chest. Eventually I got annoyed and just hung out on a safe tile until the enemies were mostly burned to death (apparently the hazard damage can’t reduce them to less than 1 HP), then requipped my weapon when I no longer needed to fear Counter.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar Pal 6.97 *80 *41 *29 *40 *40 *44 *46 *41 Swd+Lan A

Chrom GLord 10.87 47 24 4 29 23 26 20 9 Swd A/Lan B

E-tile: EXP

Chapter 19

I started using HP Tonics here to give me a slightly larger buffer against Counter. This map was looooooong. I tried to push on Walhart right off, but he had Luna+, as well as Aegis+ and Pavise+, making a quick kill very unlikely. Around 3/4 of the enemies had Counter and as a result my rather generous healing item stock was nearly depleted by the end (I used something like 2 Vulneraries, 5 Concoctions and 1.33 Elixirs). I also managed to go through a ton of effective weapons from the Noble Rapier to two Beast Killers, an Armourslayer and most of a Wyrmslayer. I also burned about 6.5 Javelins to get those hits in. Once things were a bit quieter and I had Aegis on Avatar's skill list, I changed her to Dark Knight. Katarina's Bolt made Walhart so much less tedious. Managed to one-round him thanks to a double Ignis proc, one of which was a 64 point crit.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar DKnt 1.60 *80 *37 *40 *40 37 *44 45 *40 Swd+Tom A

Chrom GLord 16.16 52 27 6 34 25 31 23 11 Swd+Lan A

E-tiles: 2x EXP

Chapter 20

Wanted to class change Chrom to Paladin, but I was out of Second Seals and a Berserker jerk was camping the tree shop. I also completely forgot to buy new healing items, so I had a meager supply of Elixirs. As if saying "Wait, don't reset or back out!", the game spawned a very minimal (like 1/4 of the enemies) amount of Counter. With the help of Pure Water and Def and Res Tonics, Avatar was basically invincible (have I mentioned Def asset is totally OP? :P). Warriors were the only non-Luna+, non-Walhart things strong enough to hurt her and she had Axe Breaker, so... yeah. At the end I accidentally aggroed a War Monk healer who had run forward to heal a General (I thought he'd just go back up), which aggroed Walhart. However, Walhart had traded his Luna+ for Vantage+ and his sword for an axe, which had a near-zero hit rate on Avatar. I basically ignored him while I grabbed the Spirit Dust and the event tiles. Sadly, lack of Locktouch meant I couldn't get the Second Seal (no Door Key). Walhart killed himself on Avatar while she was treasure hunting.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar DKnt 9.23 *80 *37 *40 *40 39 *44 45 *40 Swd+Tom A

Chrom GLord 19.08 55 28 6 35 27 33 24 11 Swd+Lan A

E-tiles: 2x WEXP

Anna Shop Purchases: Discount Silver Lance, Energy Drop (gave to Chrom)

Paralogue 12

I was gonna skip this, but with the Berserker camping the tree, I got impatient and came here just to get the Change Seal. Used 2x Talisman, 2x Dracoshield, Secret Book, Seraph Robe and Goddess Icon on Chrom. Why, you might ask? Well, Avatar is kind of maxed out, so she doesn’t want them and Chrom is the only other unit I’m using. Additionally, while I may be as cold-hearted as Marth, I believe even he would be loathe to watch his son die. Between both parents' stat boosts and Axe Breaker being inherited, Morgan had just barely enough survivability against certain skillsets. With some resetting, I was able to pull the strategy off.

Basically, none of the melee by him can have Counter, the Myrm can't have Luna+, the Wyvs can't have Hawkeye and the Sages shouldn’t have Luna+ (although one did during my run). Oh and the Arcfire Mage can't have Luna+. Player phase I killed the closest Myrm, then Galeforce killed the Arcthunder Mage. EP, the two Wyvs missed Morgan (as expected... given ~106 hit vs ~115 avoid), the Myrm stabbed him and got stabbed back, the Arcfire Mage missed (~60 hit chance... this was enough damage reduction to let him live), the Luna+ Sage hits him and the other Sage missed (~82 hit, leaving Morgan with 17 HP instead of 3). Ally Phase, Morgan healed (up to 37). Player Phase, I ran over to kill the Myrm. Galeforced up beside Morgan, recruited him, traded him an extra Concoction and an Elixir, then killed the Mage (in melee, but thankfully, the Mage didn’t have Counter). This let Morgan run out of range of one of the Sages. I unequipped his weapon and had him eat a Concoction to put his HP to full (51). From this point on it was just having Morgan run back to the starting point while Avatar picked enemies off and tried to body block for him while not taking Counter damage. Cleared out the rest of the map, took my hard earned Second Seal, Naga's Tear and Morgan and went home. Having to have Morgan use an Elixir paid off in that the shop stocked them.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar DKnt 14.43 *80 *37 *40 *40 *40 *44 *46 *40 Swd+Tom A

Chrom GLord 19.94 60 30 6 37 27 35 28 15 Swd+Lan A

E-tiles: WEXP (picked up by Morgan, since it was his only safe tile at one point), EXP

EDIT3: The carnage continues.

Chapter 21

I figured this was as good a time as any to toss my remaining stat boosters at Chrom. He got Energy Drop, 2x Spirit Dust (yay, +1 Mag when supporting now :P ), Speedwing, Goddess Icon and Naga's Tear. Then I class changed him to Paladin. Made a quick first turn detour to the top-left chest to get the Secret Book. This ended up boxing me in a bit, but Avatar was able to Galeforce her way out. I tricked a Counter Assassin into not fighting me at range instead of melee by standing Avatar 2 tiles away from some stairs. He opted to shoot at her from there. After that it was just a straight run to the bottom, being mindful of Counter enemies, until I could fight the boss. There was a small concentration of three Luna+/Hawkeye comboes near the bottom that left Avatar with 10 HP. Wussy boss still didn't stand a chance. Picked up Lifetaker somewhere during the battle, but like Sol, I tossed it out the window as soon as I did.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar DKnt 17.67 *80 *37 *40 *40 *40 *44 *46 *40 Swd+Tom A

Chrom Pal 1.75 67 33 13 39 30 39 30 20 Swd+Lan A

Chapter 22

Pulled out a bunch of consumable buffs (Tonics and Kris's Confect). I had to kite a lot here due to skill line-ups. I took down the left side easily enough with a Beast Killer, although the Hellswath guy was being annoyingly durable. I bypassed Aegis+ and Tome Breaker a few times with the Levin Sword. The Waste Sorc was still nasty, though because he had Luna+, allowing him to deal 37 damage per hit (through Pure Water and a Kris's Confect) with around 60 hit. Aversa had Counter, but Chrom still did her in with Beast Killer assists. After I finished the chapter, an army of Annas spawned (seriously, I got 6 new merchant shops on the map).

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar DKnt 19.27 *80 *37 *40 *40 *40 *44 *46 *40 Swd+Tom A

Chrom Pal 2.47 68 34 13 40 31 39 31 21 Swd+Lan A

E-tiles: Relationship+, Roy's Blade

Anna Shop Purchases: Armourslayer, Discount HP Tonic (a whole 41 gold savings!), Brave Lance, Thoron

Chapter 23

Gave Chrom the Goddess Icon from Aversa and the Secret Book I looted in chapter 22, but forgot to use (again). I was a bit worried about this map because of the tight quarters and huge crowd of enemies. At least 2/3 of them came with Counter too, so that was a concern. I did a fair amount of Galeforce kiting back and forth, but there were a couple times where I was forced to face them in melee (mostly when I could isolate them, because the big ball of Counter was starting to have too much map control). An Ignis crit and liberal use of Elixirs solved that issue. When it came down to just Validar and Avatar, I pulled out the Valflame (he had Pavise+ and Vantage+). Scored a crit on the second blow, which helped make that boss battle a turn shorter. Chrom also maxed his first stat (my baby support’s all grown up! :P).

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Avatar DKnt 20.00 *80 *37 *40 *40 *40 *44 *46 *40 Swd+Tom A

Chrom Pal 4.45 70 34 13 *41 32 43 31 22 Swd+Lan A

E-tiles: WEXP, EXP

EDIT4: And that's all she wrote.

Chapter 24

Used a Kris's Confect. "Only" about half the map spawned with Counter this time. I had to fight aggressively to get rid of the Wyvs ASAP, otherwise they'd pin me against the sea of Counter Paladins. This required dealing with a half dozen Luna+ enemies, half of which had Hawkeye and a Counter Wyv. Avatar had 1 HP left at the end of those two rounds. Luckily, Elixirs fix everything. Once the Grimleal had squandered their air support, I used Avatar's superior mobility to turn the forest into guerilla warfare hell.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Chrom Pal 6.42 71 35 13 *41 32 45 31 23 Swd+Lan A

E-tiles: WEXP, Sweet Tincture

Anna Shop Purchase: Discount Brave Sword

Chapter 25

Used HP, Spd (needed to double Swordmasters), Mag, Def and Res Tonics. Decided to do this the long way because a Galeforce rush down without staff user support would be pretty risky (especially with all the Counter spawned along my usual eastern route). Chrom didn’t seem to mind the extra levels, anyway. I was also dumb and forgot to take off Veteran, which didn't matter too much, but in the very least the Def and Res would have added up. Anyway, this is the first time I've played out all the reinforcements on this map and there was plenty of Counter to go around. AI pathfinding isn't very good with a huge mountain in the way (I’m not sure whether their attempts to navigate forests or around the mountain are worse), though, so some of the reinforcements took the long way around after they spawned. Aegis and Axe Breaker got a huge workout here.

I blew through all my Thoron-level and Arc-level tomes, plus used up almost my entire Killing Edge and Killer Lance stock with Chrom. There were a few close calls, but Elixirs, once again, fixed that right up. Since I forgot to swap in Defender, I only had 49 Speed, which couldn't double Aversa's 45. She only had Hawkeye and Vantage+, though, so she wasn't much of a threat.

Character Class HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Profs

Chrom Pal 10.64 75 37 14 *41 35 *46 33 24 Swd+Lan A

E-tiles: Wolt's Bow, Gaius's Confect

Endgame

Sold most of my surplus junk, bringing me up to 46 600 gold. Which meant it was time to forge a badass Brave Sword (+5mt, +15 hit). Gave Chrom a Talisman because I didn’t really have anything better to do with it. Swapped Veteran out for Defender on Avatar, then gave her and Chrom Kris's and Gaius's Confects, and Luck Tonics, plus a Mag Tonic for Avatar. This was a super short battle. I just rode up into the safe zone on turn 1, then on turn 2, killed the left side Berserker and Galeforced over to Grima. Chrom was doing 17 damage per assist with a 93% chance of dual strike. He missed a few hits, but even two Ignises couldn't come close to killing Avatar, so I got the chance at the full eight uninterrupted (at least by goons) attacks.

Going on a brief tangent about AI here, if Grima is close to or able to one-shot Avatar with an Ignis, it does not. Seems even with an 80% proc rate, the AI can’t be bothered to factor Ignis in. So Grima’s goons will try to weaken the character in question. In my previous runs that allowed Sol, this led to some weirdness where after Solling the goons too much and ending up well out of Ignis killing range, Grima would attack Avatar again. This was likely an attempt to weaken her so that it would put the other goons in range of killing her. Obviously, this is a problem if the first case keeps occurring and the goons attack Avatar endlessly (or get her down enough for Grima to finally go for a kill shot and actually land it). The point of this is that it was nice to not have to deal with that threshold, since piling more Def onto +Def Avatar left her with a lot of spare HP.

Anyway, Chrom scored the killing blow on Avatar's sixth swing. And that's game.

My final skill build was Defender, Axe Breaker, Aegis, Galeforce and Ignis.

Turn Counts

Some of these are actually surprisingly low.

Chapter Turns

Prem 2

Prologue 38

1 10

2 20

3 33

4 8

P-1 24

5 36

P-2 18

6 8

7 7

P-3 14

8 22

9 11

P-4 18

10 27

11 14

12 13

13 19

14 13

15 21

16 26

17 20

18 18

19 33

20 17

P-12 17

21 6

22 20

23 14

24 19

25 27

End 2

Avatar had 1387 battles and 1130 victories.

Edited June 6, 2013 by Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

(Reserved for more logs in case of overflow)

[1% critted]

Wowwwwww. I'll be checking this!

[Chiki]

Is a Sorcerer Avatar really useless as Interceptor claims? I find it incredibly hard to believe because Luna+ is not that damaging and Vantage+ and Hawkeye don't even matter for Sorcerers. Won't Nosferatu be fantastic regardless?

What I'd do is promote the Avatar to a Hero instead of Dark Flier (Galeforce won't be necessary after Sol, imo) and then reclass into a Sorcerer.

I'm not experienced in Lunatic+ but that sounds right to me.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Chiki

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Is a Sorcerer Avatar really useless as Interceptor claims? I find it incredibly hard to believe because Luna+ is not that damaging and Vantage+ and Hawkeye don't even matter for Sorcerers. Won't Nosferatu be fantastic regardless?

What I'd do is promote the Avatar to a Hero instead of Dark Flier (Galeforce won't be necessary after Sol, imo) and then reclass into a Sorcerer.

I'm not experienced in Lunatic+ but that sounds right to me.

Sorceror isn't useless, but needs to be a lot more careful than in vanilla Lunatic. Luna+ isn't a huge problem, but Counter is. Combining Sol and Nos could make it more sustainable, though. Aegis+ will always throw a wrench into the works, but honestly, Sorceror is probably powerful enough to get through with just a bit of caution.

Galeforce is definitely necessary for me since I've banned any kind of life drain in this run (so no Sol or Nos). Avatar is a consumable-aholic and I only predict the game making me feed it more the further I go.

[Interceptor]

Nice. This is a cool concept for a playthrough. I also like that water abuse is now a thing.

And with just one pair, a bow strategy would be almost entirely out of the question

Not that I'd recommend it at the most optimal strategy or anything, but you can get around the boxed-in problem with Pass. This is how I had Lon'qu operate, as an Assassin, in my first Lunatic+ run. But you have to get out of that class as soon as possible, because the DEF cap is atrocious.

Is a Sorcerer Avatar really useless as Interceptor claims? I find it incredibly hard to believe because Luna+ is not that damaging and Vantage+ and Hawkeye don't even matter for Sorcerers. Won't Nosferatu be fantastic regardless?

Good grieving, you are bitter.

What I actually said was "you cannot Nosferatank your way through that meatgrinder", which is to say that equipping Nosferatu and mashing Start will not be a winning strategy like it is in vanilla. Sorcerers are not "useless" in Lunatic+, you just have to keep in mind that Counter will ruin your day if you aren't careful, and it only gets worse as you get stronger. Doesn't take a mathematician to note that 100% damage return rather quickly outpaces 50% healing, especially when you're also facing normal damage on top of it.

[Chiki]

With Sol, it seems that you can. I'll be giving this a try sooner or later.

[Interceptor]

Not to hijack KTT's thread, but you "can" without Sol, too. It's just a question of reliability. The healing comes before Counter's damage (which comes before a Dual Strike), so the deadly mix is always present somewhere. All it takes is one lategame 72mt Luna+/Counter/+HIT Barbarian with an illegal forge landing a glove on you, and you might be cashing in your life insurance policy.

Don't imagine "possible" or "impossible", imagine running with a raw egg balanced on a spoon, because that's closer to the truth of it.

[Thor Odinson]

Doesn't Nosferatu/AvN only (not counting sol for now) return y/2 hp given x damage and y hp left where x > y? Which would make it not very effective against counters unless you do less than or equal to the enemy's hp coupled with Sol or something. I remember dicking around with AvNs postgame and doing something like 72 damage but get much less than 36 in return displayed because the enemy doesn't have that much hp.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Nice. This is a cool concept for a playthrough. I also like that water abuse is now a thing.

Thanks.

Well, the water abuse thing is a pretty reliable strategy and a great find. I didn't even realize those classes could tread water until you mentioned it. I kind of have to wonder how I didn't notice it before. It came in rather handy in Paralogue 2, as well, since part of my circuit had to cut through the river near the southeast hills.

Not that I'd recommend it at the most optimal strategy or anything, but you can get around the boxed-in problem with Pass. This is how I had Lon'qu operate, as an Assassin, in my first Lunatic+ run. But you have to get out of that class as soon as possible, because the DEF cap is atrocious.

Yeah, that was pretty much the only way I was going to consider trying to do bows with a single pair. The problem with that was that my options to get there were basically to class change to Thief or Myrmidon and have to deal with being sword-locked for some of the hardest parts of the game or to go Assassin after Grandmaster, which would delay getting Galeforce. Galeforce is just more versatile overall (although Galeforce with Pass might be rather amusing) and flying units have some notable terrain advantages in chapters 12, 13 and 14. Although if I was running a male Avatar, I'd probably want to do something like Grandmaster -> Assassin -> Sniper -> Bow Knight -> Warrior.

Doesn't Nosferatu/AvN only (not counting sol for now) return y/2 hp given x damage and y hp left where x > y? Which would make it not very effective against counters unless you do less than or equal to the enemy's hp coupled with Sol or something. I remember dicking around with AvNs postgame and doing something like 72 damage but get much less than 36 in return displayed because the enemy doesn't have that much hp.

Yep, you can't heal more than (remaining HP)/2. Sol on its own runs into the same limitation.

[darkkfan]

Nice, I was hoping you would do this. Because I totally wasn't trying to goad you into doing it by mentioning it hypothetically multiple times or anything...

Not that I actually thought you would do it XD.

Anyway, good luck and i will be following this.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Nice, I was hoping you would do this. Because I totally wasn't trying to goad you into doing it by mentioning it hypothetically multiple times or anything...

Not that I actually thought you would do it XD.

Anyway, good luck and i will be following this.

:P

Once I got theorizing about it, I did want to try it. I just needed to take a break because that last run wore on me a bit.

Anyway, edited the first post to add more logs. As much as I love Speed, Defense asset pretty much dances around the game singing the "trollolol" song.

[Interceptor]

Geez, you are just plowing through the game, this thread might not even hit a second page. Agreed about DEF asset; it's not better than Veteran, but totally in the conversation for top three broken things, along with Galeforce.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Geez, you are just plowing through the game, this thread might not even hit a second page. Agreed about DEF asset; it's not better than Veteran, but totally in the conversation for top three broken things, along with Galeforce.

Hehe, yeah, I have a bit of a tendency to get carried away when I get momentum (with Avatar being such a juggernaut, the result is kind of inevitable). Having animations off and only having to manage one pair on player phase helps keep things really speedy too.

Yeah, Veteran and Def asset are pretty overpowered individually, but they also have insane synergy, since Veteran helps Avatar take advantage of that cap and growth. Together they render anything not Luna+ or Counter a non-threat and then Galeforce helps deal with those. Sol would make a pretty good alternative, as well.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Well, I finished the run a few days ago, but I've been kinda lazy about editing my notes into a coherent log entry. Updated to chapter 23 inclusive. The next one should contain the rest of the logs plus turn counts.

[Aircalipoor]

Well, I finished the run a few days ago

When did you start it? I guess you didn´t need a week at all.

Very Impressive and a bit depressing that you can beat this game even on L+ with MU. And I tried challenging L+ with a larger team but feel like a retard now.

Edited June 3, 2013 by Aircalipoor

[Chiki]

Didn't you have trouble with the people who have Counter in the later chapters? How'd you deal with them?

Edited June 3, 2013 by Chiki

[Interceptor]

Seems like he is kiting with Galeforce, and hoping that the Counter clouds can be evaded long enough. Why Paladin on Chrom instead of GK, by the way? I figure you'd want the higher STR cap, and bonus MV.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Seems like he is kiting with Galeforce, and hoping that the Counter clouds can be evaded long enough.

Pretty much this and if necessary, purposefully ending turn in range of just one Counter enemy, so I could take them down piece meal. I used a lot of Concoctions and Elixirs in this run.

Why Paladin on Chrom instead of GK, by the way? I figure you'd want the higher STR cap, and bonus MV.

A bit part of it was for the Spd boost (although the general good balance of offensive and defense bonuses was nice). Some of the speedier enemies toward the end needed me to have 49 or 50 Spd to double. Since Dark Knight +Def Avatar caps out at 40 Spd, I really couldn't afford to take it, especially given how much I was relying on Galeforce. So as much as the move bonus and Hammers tempted me (the way things were going, I really wasn't expecting the Str cap to help Chrom, since he wouldn't even hit the Paladin one), I really didn't think I could afford to.

In the end, it looked like I just barely could because Chrom hit LV10 at the end of chapter 25. My main concern for the Endgame was that without Paladin!Chrom, Avatar couldn't double Grima, which severely hurt my chances of winning. I guess in theory, I could have changed Avatar to something faster, but then I would have been taking a bit Def hit. There's also Paladin having 6 more Skl (which he did cap out), which, considering Grima's avoid and that I was relying on him for Exalted Falchion damage, was a significant boost.

When did you start it? I guess you didn´t need a week at all.

Very Impressive and a bit depressing that you can beat this game even on L+ with MU. And I tried challenging L+ with a larger team but feel like a retard now.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think it was 2 or 3 days before I started posting logs.

Don't get so down on yourself. Lunatic+ generally goes much smoother with more experience and finding out just what will and won't blow up in one's face in a mode like this (with the exceptions of the first few chapters, which, unfortunately, have a rather large luck component). This was my third run and I can promise you my first two weren't anywhere was smooth as the mid-latter parts of this one (not to mention getting started was still pretty ugly).

[Chiki]

At level 20 you could have depromoted back into a Dark Flier. Why didn't you do that?

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Avatar would have lost 10 Def (which puts her in range of being killed by two Ignis procs which each have an 80% chance of happening) and then have been stuck with a 35 Skl Chrom on top of that.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

The final update has been edited into the first post. Overall, this run was and wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be. I grossly overestimated how tough the late game would be, even with the life drain ban. Effective weapon assists, Galeforce and Elixirs are the heroes of that portion. However, as powerful as Avatar is, a true duo (that is, following all the constraints starting with Prologue... or even Premonition, if one wants to to be really picky about it) would be nigh-impossible. There would be a massive luck factor in just surviving, nevermind killing stuff and getting the right level ups (an enormous amount of low chance dual guards, dodges and crits would be required to preserve the party's paltry stock of healing items until chapter 4).

[Interceptor]

There go the dreams of keeping the thread to a single page. Nice work on the run; I never would have thought at the beginning that a mere duo would have run over those lategame Routs like you ended up doing.

[darkkfan]

Nice job, it looks like this "challenge" was hardly a challenge for you. I'm impressed Now for the no Avatar run.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Nice job, it looks like this "challenge" was hardly a challenge for you. I'm impressed Now for the no Avatar run.

Well, I did technically cop out a bit, since I didn't want to gamble my way through the first four chapters any more than necessary. And... I may have already written up a plan for that. I think I need another break, though. :P