SuperPokéfan95

As many in this thread have shown, its all a matter of preference. Doing paralogues before Chapter 18 saves you a lot of headaches later, but it can also be nice to save a few of them for later. For instance, if you want a rescue skip candidate for Conquest Endgame, you'd save Nina's paralogue till Chapter 27. This is of course assuming that you marry Camilla and Niles of course. Saving her paralogue till then would allow you to Offspring seal her into Adventurer (which gets her Pass) and then reclass her to Wyvern Lord (for the boosts and for the movement). All she would need from there is a boot (which you get in Takumi's chapter if I'm remembering correctly) and your designated Takumi killer who gives another movement, (8 move from Wyvern Lord, +1 move skill, +1 from the boot, and +1 from Great Knight pair up to give her 11 movement). This is unnecessary if you are willing to play through Endgame, (god help you) but it is still an option. This also depends on what difficulty you are playing on and what restrictions you have, (like no DLC grinding). Another thing to consider is will you be using the kids at all. The only kid I use in Conquest is Sophie (mainly because she ends up better than her father, but having Aptitude probably doesn't hurt :P), while the rest are mainly for exp, money, and free stuff. Some examples of the ways I used the children paralogues include: - Kana's is used for grinding early on (mainly before Chapter 17 so you can promote your units before the Ninja cave) - Dwyer's gives you a free Sun Festal, which is always nice - Sophie's is a bit tedious, but she is a great unit to have (specifically if her mother is Mozu) - Shigure's paralogue is used for catching up units late game - Midori's is the same as Shigure's but with a free Dragon Herb - Percy's gives you money, which is always a good thing in Conquest - Forrest's gives you money, Gazak, and another healer should you need one. - Ophelia gives you a free Calamity Gate, Horse Spirit, Lightning, Spirit Dust, and she isn't too bad but she won't see very much action late game (mainly in Chapter 25 :P) The rest of the kids either had tedious paralogues, I had no use for them, or both. It was usually both. This of course was on a no grind Lunatic run, so your preferences for the children you want to use will vary. All of this is also considering that you are playing Conquest, given that it has the more difficult paralogues, (and lack of grinding). This can apply to Birthright, but they aren't as challenging even after Chapter 18, (barring Shiro's but that's because his AI is stupid).

A good way to go about this map, is having two split groups for both sides. The group that fights Hana should be ready to deal with the Blacksmiths and Oni Chieftans. Your Corrin should be enough to handle both but the low res might be an issue for dealing with the Chieftans. The right side should be comprised of mage & pegasus killers. If you take out every enemy on the right side, engaging and killing the Oni Chieftan will trigger reinforcements. So a decent way to deal with this is to draw out the Puppets with Yumi's at the start and dispatch them, followed by the Onmyoji's on the right side. You should also place Leo or a magic user in range of Sakura's silence staff, so that it gets used up as soon as possible. The Freeze staff can be dealt with once Hana's forces are out of the way, since you can either place a unit in range of the Onmyoji inside, (in this case not since your Corrin would probably die) or one space away so it can't engage anyone. After they are dealt with, you can use the Dragon Vein that lowers the first wall on the left side and send your units inside to deal with the remaining puppets. They will also have to deal with Falcon reinforcements, so Beast Killer Effie should take a few out as well as Niles. Aqua would also help them if they don't take them all out. When they've been dealt with, you can deal with Tsubaki's group by using the Dragon Vein where Hana's group was. It'll drop the wall, so your units need to be ready to engage them. Afterwards, you can charge up the middle of the hallway and take out the remaining puppets and Mechanist duo. Doing this will spawn the reinforcements. The right side shouldn't be a huge issue if you sit on the fort where the Mechanist duo was. You will have to deal with some Mechanist reinforcements on the right side, but your huge defense stat should make them a non issue. The left side will have to deal with Onmyoji's from the top left forts, (you can block it with Niles w/Shining Bow if he can tank the hits), Falcon's will spawn and work their way up the hallway, so block it with Effie or someone who can deal with them, (if you had Sniper Mozume, you could place her on the left side of the hallway to deal with stray Falcons). There will also be Puppets who spawn with pass, and so long as you deal with the Falcons, the puppets won't be any problem. Not having Sniper Mozume also makes dealing with Yukimura a pain, but sitting in front of him with a Dragonstone or Dragonstone+ should get rid of his Spendthrift damage, (unless you want that Gold bar, but 300 gold isn't much when he gives you 5000 anyways). Sakura is the same thing. If you make it to her, she isn't that big of a deal. Not sure how effective this strategy is on Hard, since I did this on Lunatic recently (but I had Sniper Mozume so I could deal with more threats on the map). Either way, this should give you an idea of what to do and who goes on what side. Not that you can't place everyone on one side and go from there. Edit* Guess I also should have said who I used on the map. Left Side: Corrin ~ Dark Knight Jakob ~ Great Knight (paired with Corrin) Effie ~ General Keaton ~ Wolfsenger (paired with Effie) Mozume ~ Sniper Sophie ~ Great Knight (daughter of/paired with Mozume but they switch when necessary) Right Side: Xander ~ Paladin Charlotte ~ Fighter Leon ~ Dark Knight Felicia ~ Maid (paired with Leon) Camilla ~ Malig Knight Niles ~ Adventurer (paired with Camilla but switches between the two) Aqua ~ Songstress Elise ~ Strategist Odin ~ Mage (paired with Elise for supports) Edit 2* Mixed up the sides :P

As many have already echoed, Conquest has great gameplay and a meh story. If you want to get into spoilers territory why the story isn't that great to most, (including myself) you can search up one of the many posts discussing the story. As far as gameplay goes, its fantastic. The maps are challenging and aside from a few duds, the maps are very well designed. My only issue comes from lack of grinding and not much to do afterwards if you don't have DLC. I only wish you could grind optionally in the case that you get a stat screwed unit. Having a main stay on your team get mediocre growths for some time can really hurt you in the long run since there isn't really a way to fix it, (especially on Lunatic). There also isn't that much to do once you beat the game without DLC. There is the PVP stuff, but I'm sure your team wouldn't be able to stand very well against Revelation units who have maxed out stats and crazy good skills or people who hack, (but those people aren't worth the trouble anyways). The MyCastle battles also exist, but you won't get much out of it since you have limited money and won't be able to inherit that many skills from other peoples units. I suppose you could just unlock the remaining children paralogues you wouldn't have after you beat it, but unless you have good skills to inherit for the kids, its kind of a waste. That's just how I feel though. Alternatively, you could just replay the game from scratch and use different units that you didn't use on your first run. I've run through the game twice on hard and while I always use the royals and others, I've used Odin a bit to get his kid, and she is a main stay currently. So if you have no problem with a lack of post game content and you can overlook the story, this is definitely worth a shot.

Beating Garon in Chapter 12 is a fun challenge, especially on Lunatic. You just need to get good defense growths so you can take a hit from his axe and survive. In particular, having 20+ defense, using a defense tonic, cooking defensive food, pairing up with Silas or Rinkah (unless you have Jakob who you could reclass to Great Knight or Paladin), Sakura & Aqua nearby for Healing and Aqua's Inspiration Song, and of course clearing out almost all of the enemies in your path before engaging him, (including Xander and co). So it is doable. You don't get much for doing it, other than a lot of EXP. The story will still progress normally once you've cleared out the enemy and escaped. I find it funny though, since I beat Xander fairly easily and yet he wants to fight me again. :P

It really depends on what you think of replay value. For both routes, you'll have 28 chapters and 14 paralogues. If you play Conquest, I highly doubt you'd actually get access to all of the paralogues given how scarce exp and gold is. You can at least farm in Birthright, so you can bring characters you haven't used up to speed. While I would say Conquest is better as far as gameplay is concerned, (it does offer up more variety in terms of objectives) I still think it has its issues that keep it from being perfect, at least to me. Birthright is perfectly fine, since the gameplay is identical to Conquest's. The only difference is that the enemy won't have many skills on them, if at all any as opposed to Conquest, where they will almost always have skills on enemies. You'll also mostly see Route the Enemy maps and Defeat the Boss maps. At the end of the day, it depends on what you want. Do you want the easier and funner game, (at least to me its more fun) with farming that'll help keep all your units usable? Do you want the more challenging game that limits your resources and will most likely keep you from utilizing all the units you don't use who will be stuck at whatever level you left them at come the end of the game that doesn't have a way to bring them up to speed (this is of course barring DLC)? Its up to you. I think Birthright is a nice way to get into Fates first, (on Lunatic) so you could get used to the new mechanics and be ready for Conquest. You can still go right into Conquest, but just know that without DLC, you will have to use a handful of units and I think Conquest is best played on Hard mode. Its more enjoyable than Lunatic and it won't make you want to tear out your hair. Anyways, sorry for the wall of text, but hopefully it'll help you on your decision.

My list won't include the children characters, as I haven't gotten any of them on Conquest, (can't be bothered to either :P). The list will go in order of recruitment. Birthright - Rinkah - Tsuabki - Hana - Saizou - Orochi - Hinoka - Oboro - Takumi - Kagerou - Yuugiri - Nishiki - Ryouma - Crimson Conquest - Elise - Effie - Arthur - Beruka - Flannel - Leon - Flora Shared Characters - Felicia - Jakob - Kaze - Silas - Anna This is all based specifically off of their character designs and not promotions. I would throw Kamui in there but the male's designs are ok while the female's thigh holes don't do it for me.

One thing that annoys me is the perfect shield feature, (where the meter fills up and your partner blocks an attack). It has helped me but I hate it when they waste it on an attack that won't hit or an attack that does 0 damage. I wouldn't mind if they were Ninja attacks since debuffs, but I wish it wouldn't block 0 damage attacks.

Since I've spoiled the story for myself, its mainly the gameplay I'm excited for. Mainly Hoshido Lunatic. I can't find any videos on it past chapter 9 so I can't wait to see how it is for myself. Nohr and Revelations Lunatic will be interesting thats for sure.