Resetless Lunatic+ Run COMPLETED (Deathless) (With Complete Guide)

[Czar_Yoshi]

All right, figured it out.

The chart on the site is using total support points, while Tables's guide breaks it into per-level. Since you get one point for reading the support (how the game knows whether or not to treat it as an extra level), it takes 3 points to be able to view the support, then reading it gives you a fourth, putting you at the four on the chart. Fred and Virion should fit in the 3/5/7 category, which means they can indeed reach C from one map's worth of fighting.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Update time! Got the chapter 1 guide complete now. But first, changes to Prologue:

-Robin takes a potshot on turn 1 before Fred offs the Myrm (thanks, Czar_Yoshi for pointing that out)

-Fred takes Chrom's swords on turn 2 (Czar_Yoshi again), then gives them back as he pairs up later.

 

Anyway, onward to the chapter 1 guide:

 

Pre-reqs:

-Fred and Robin should each enter the battle with a Vulnerary.

-Chrom and Avatar to have attained max support points, which is 12 points; 3 for attacking while paired, 1 for attacking while adjacent, with an additional 1 for dual striking while paired (my Prologue guide should bring in far more than enough unless Robin somehow crits everything). They need to collect 7 during this chapter to reach C support.

-Robin at 8 Mag or able to reach 7 Mag with Tomes C within her next 2-3 attacks.

-Enough stats going in such that leveling up to 8 can give enough durability to survive a 23 mt Luna+ with a Sully support, 10-11 healing in between (odds are Lissa should get +1 Mag over 2 levels), then with a Virion support and Woods tile (25 HP and 8 Def or 23 HP and 9 Def). This is pretty much entirely to deal with the boss having Luna+ and Vantage+ together (an 8% chance if all abilities have equal chance of being picked).

 

Turn 1

-Pair Fred to Robin

-Move Robin to the south Fort. Now this strat changes a bit depending on stats. If Robin has 10 Spd, then trade Fred the Bronze Sword and use that instead of the Silver Lance. Without HP+5, the Fighter will die, Fred will conserve lance uses and have a better hit chance to boot. It costs Robin some potential EXP, but it’s better for Fred to pick up the kill than for Robin or Chrom to risk taking damage. Anyway, switch to Fred and attack with the lance/sword.

-Make sure Chrom’s Rapier is equipped (backup ‘dual strike in case Robin misses that high hit chance’ strat), then move to the right of Fred. Trade back the Bronze Sword if Fred has it, then transfer Robin. Switch to Robin and kill the Fighter (if he’s not already dead; otherwise, moving here is for AI manipulation).

-Move Lissa 3 tiles down (seems to get better AI movement results over 4 tiles down).

-Enemy phase: No one in attack range, so they just close in.

 

Spoiler

 

Turn 2

-Move Virion over to Fred, trade him the Elixir, unequip his bow, then pair onto Fred.

-Move Fred two tiles right. At most, he’ll have taken 12 damage. The Fort will heal him for 5, meaning a Vulnerary can put him at full, where, if he’s standing in the Woods, he can survive a round against both Mercs and a Fighter, even if all three have Luna+. If you want to be stingy about Vulneraries, assess his remaining HP against the output of those three (since Luna+ for all three is semi-unlikely).

-Move Robin 3 tiles right and 1 tile up. Drop Chrom below her (once again, seems to produce better AI movement results).

-Pair Sully to Lissa. Move Lissa to 1 tile above the Woods? and drop Sully to her right.

-Enemy phase: The bottom Merc will get himself insta-gibbed by the Silver Lance, the other will attack Fred from above and be left with 1 HP and the Fighter will be left with either 4 or 9 HP.

Spoiler

 

Turn 3

-Pair Chrom to Robin. Move Robin below Sully, equip the Bronze Sword, then transfer Chrom to Sully.

-Move Fred below Lissa. Transfer Virion to Lissa. Pair Fred to Robin.

-Move Lissa 1 tile left, 2 tiles up, then 1 tile left. Drop Virion above her.

-Move Sully 2 tiles left, then 3 tiles up. Drop Chrom above her.

-Enemy phase: Merc suicides on Robin (Fred has his lance for backup in case she misses). The three Fighters should move toward Robin. The Archer should move up to that Lissa is just out of his range. The Boss might move erratically, which is why I have two variations of turns from here.

Spoiler

 

Turn 4A (Boss goes north; about 2/3 the time)

-Robin goes below Sully and transfers Fred to her, then pairs to Lissa.

-Lissa moves 2 tiles left, 1 tile up, then 2 tiles left. Switch to Robin, equip Thunder and use a Vulnerary.

-Move Virion to Robin’s right, transfer Lissa to him, then drop Lissa above him.

-Unequip Sully. Move Sully above Robin, switch, transfer Sully to Robin. Have Fred use an Elixir (it’s possible to substitute a Vulnerary or nothing at all if the Mercs and Fighter were wimpy enough; as well as the Boss and Archer being wimpy… but if they’re all that wimpy, why isn’t Robin Fort-tanking with Fred?).

-Move Chrom 1 tile down and unequip him.

-Enemy phase: Fighters all zerg toward Chrom. Archer ho-hums in the middle of the forest. Boss exchanges blows with Robin.

Spoiler

 

Turn 5A

-Pair Virion to Fred.

-Move Fred above the Boss and hit him.

-Pair Chrom to Lissa.

-Move Lissa above Robin and heal her.

-Move Robin into the Woods left of Fred and finish off the boss.

-Enemy phase: Lissa gets shot (but not doubled, thanks to Chrom). Fighters zerg.

Spoiler

 

Turn 5A Back-Up Plan

-If Robin whiffs, the enemies get out of formation (uncommon, but it happens) such that Lissa can’t safely heal Robin or Vantage+ would cause the Boss to kill Robin before she lands the finisher, there is some back-up movement that can be done. Note that this only works if Robin can survive a non-Luna+ hit from the Boss after a Vulnerary with no +Def pair-up bonus (even if the Boss has Luna+, this will still work since the AI disregards procs when doing calculations).

-Pair Virion to Fred and Chrom to Lissa as usual.

-Move Robin all the way to the left and use a Vulnerary. Move Lissa above Robin, transfer Chrom for Sully. Swap to Sully and make sure she’s unequipped if the Boss doesn’t have Hawkeye.

-Move Fred right below Robin.

-This allows Sully to soak a hit on EP, yet be able to disengage with everyone else on the next PP. However, from this point on, early improvising begins. The Boss should generally be way out ahead of his goons, though, so Robin has a decent chance of being able to just kite him down.

 

Turn 6A

-Things get a little messier here compared to route B, especially if the Archer has Luna+.

-Move Fred 1 tile up, then 5 tiles left. Switch to Virion.

-Move Lissa to the right of Fred. Switch, then transfer, then switch, such that the pair now in range of the Archer is Fred/Chrom.

-Move Robin straight down as far as she can and drop Sully below her. If she pairs onto Sully next turn, she can get a ton of mobility.

-Enemy phase: Archer shoots Fred. Fighters zerg toward. After this, it more or less goes into general strats, since the enemies start to move erratically. Except there’s an Archer instead of just three Fighters. Divide and conquer is the name of the game.

Spoiler

 

Turn 4B (Boss goes south for some inexplicable reason; about 1/3 the time)

-Robin equips Thunder, then goes below Sully and transfers Fred to her, then pairs to Lissa.

-Lissa goes four tiles left. Take an assessment of Robin and see if she can take a hit from the Archer (17 attack; -1 for Woods tile, -2 or -1 for support and support against Luna+, respectively). If so, switche to Robin to equip Thunder, then switch back and drop Robin below Lissa. Otherwise, drop Lissa below Robin.

-Sully goes 1 tile down, 4 tiles left, then 1 tile down. Switch to Fred, transfer Sully to Robin/Lissa (whoever was dropped). Use an Elixir with Fred (it’s possible to substitute a Vulnerary or nothing at all if the Mercs and Fighter were wimpy enough; just make sure Fred has 9 HP if the Boss doesn’t have Luna+ and 17 HP if the boss does have Luna+).

-Move Virion above Lissa.

-Move Chrom 1 tile down and unequip him.

-Enemy phase: Archer will attack Robin. A Fighter will attack Chrom.

Spoiler

 

Turn 5B

-Move Fred below Robin/Lissa (whoever was dropped), transfer Sully back to him and attack the Archer.

-Move Robin to the left edge of the second row from the top of the Boss’s attack range (his movement can vary a bit from the screenshot, but usually won’t). If Lissa’s healing won’t bring Robin back to full HP, use a Vulnerary.

-Move Lissa left of Robin and heal.

-Pair Chrom to Virion.

-Move Virion above Robin. Switch and transfer Virion to Robin.

-Enemy phase: Boss moves to attack Robin.

Spoiler

 

Turn 6B

-Boss movement will vary a bit, but it should place him on a Plains tile.

-Move Fred beside the boss and attack. Just make sure it’s out of range of the Fighters (most of the time, it’s the tiles to the Boss’s left and below him that are safe).

-If the Boss has Vantage+, heal Robin with Lissa, then move Robin to finish off the Boss. If the Bronze Sword does enough damage to kill him, consider using the other adjacent to attack with it (5 extra hit, 1 damage reduction). Otherwise, use Thunder.

-Move Chrom as far down as he can.

-Enemy phase: Fighters zerg. This is where they kind of break off and start moving more randomly when not in range of a target, so I cover more general strats in the section below.

Spoiler

 

General Strat — the Rest of the Map

-Make sure to set Robin/Chrom up to fight at least two more battles together

-Fred has already fought three battles with Virion. If on route B, try to get a fourth by having Virion take a potshot with Fred unequipped. Evidently, they can C support after chapter 1.

-Use the diagonal formation with Fred and Sully to allow Robin to take a fight, then escape getting cornered via the transfer-pair combo

-Heal with Lissa, if necessary, using Virion, Sully or Fred as a paired escape point. If both are fleeing together, leapfrog to essentially gain an extra point of movement.

-Unpaired Virion placed near the fringe of enemy ranges can bait them away from Robin. This is because Virion’s stats are so bad and they think they can corner him. If unpaired Fred or Sully are on stand-by within his movement range, then he can just pair onto them to avoid being trapped. Doing this repeatedly can have Virion lead them on a merry chase.

-If this is coming in from variation A, try to kite so that the Archer ends up in front of the Fighters. This should make it so Robin can duel him and since he’s out front with the most range, the Archer will be the only one to end up engaged.

-Once there are only 1-2 Fighters left, if healing charges are at 10 or less, try to conserve them and any remaining items for chapter 2 by kiting to allow Robin a turn or two sitting on the Fort to heal. Sometimes Sully or Fred near the border of their attack range will provoke them. Also try to conserve Thunder (kinda just guessing now, but I’m thinking ~6 uses, preferably more) by engaging with the Bronze Sword where able (be careful to only engage one,  depending on stat luck, as Luna+ Hammer and Luna+ Iron Axe together are still deadly).

Edited January 17, 2017 by Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Whoops, been neglecting organizing my notes for posting. I'm probably not going to have a lot of step-by-step from here on out, because Interceptor has C2 and C3 covered for that, C4 is really easy and everything else after that has quite a bit of random enemy movement involved (sometimes even on the first EP). Anyway, this post will have my notes on C2 and C3.

 

Chapter 2

Interceptor Strat, Low Attack/Barb Has Gamble Variation

Spoiler

-A shout-out to Terrador here for making me go back to re-examine the standard strat long enough to find this.

-This is based on the optimized version of Interceptor’s strat, but has a very slightly lower chance of being successful, by virtue of not being able to get a freak Fred Dual Strike that half-murders the Barbarian. It does, however, allow for as low as 11 Attack and cancels out that 8% chance for Stahl to be inta-blicked in the event of a Gamble Barb (without needing Solidarity). Note that this is a bit less flexible in terms of facing enemy skill combos, so some improvised movements may be required for Fred on turn 2.

-While not strictly necessary, this strat prefers Robin to have a C support with Lissa.

 

Turn 1

-Pair Virion to Robin. Move 2 tiles below the Merc, swap to Virion and shoot the Merc.

-Move Fred to the left of the Merc and kill him.

-Move Lissa 1 tile down, 1 tile left of Virion and wait. If she has a C with Robin, this should provide an additional 5 Hit.

-Move Chrom left of Virion, take Robin, then switch to her. She should be getting +15 Hit from Chrom C, Lissa C and Virion unranked. With 11 Attack, Robin will do 2x8. Chrom needs to Dual Strike once to bring the total damage up to 23. Alternatively, with 12 Attack, Robin can trade the Bronze Sword to the top of Chrom’s inventory to give him +10 Hit and still achieve the 23 damage.

-Pair Vaike to Stahl. Move Stahl above Robin and attack the Barb. The 10 damage should finish it off. Even if the Barb has Gamble and Vantage+, Stahl will have support level 3, cancelling out the crit chance.

-Move Sully to Stahl’s right and take Vaike.

-On enemy phase, a Soldier attacks Fred and a Soldier attacks Sully.

 

Turn 2

-Robin, Chrom, Stahl and Virion all do as they normally would in the Interceptor strat.

-Pair Miriel to Lissa.

-It’s possible for Fred to do as he normally does, but it depends on enemy Luna+ distribution. If the three enemies nearest him have it on two or more units, he may have to move differently to kite them. If possible, he wants to at least kill the Soldier Sully wounded.

-Sully can move to safety and possibly get an earlier heal from Lissa (provided Fred doesn’t have to alter his movement in a way where it’s preferable for him to get the heal).

 

Turn 3+

-Due to enemy movement volatility, this is where things break down. It’s entirely possible for this to continue much like Interceptor’s strat, but with Sully in better health, but there’s no guarantee. The more Fred has to kite, the more improv is required. Still, it front-loads a riskier start in order to face fewer enemies in the final turns.

 

Defensive Strat

Spoiler

-The idea of this strat is to avert having to fight against the Mountain terrain bonuses. This kills fewer enemies at the start, so the risk is a bit more even throughout the strat. This can somewhat rarely cause problems toward the end (depending on random enemy movement).

 

Turn 1

-Pair Robin to Stahl. Move Stahl all the way left.

-Pair Fred to Sully. Move Sully below the leftmost Soldier and swap to Fred. If there is Luna+ present in the Merc/Soldier/Barb combo, wait. Otherwise, you can get away with attacking.

-Pair Chrom to Lissa. Move Lissa 3 tiles left. Swap to Chrom. Make sure the Rapier is equipped, then drop Lissa to his left.

-Pair Vaike to Chrom.

-Move Virion down 1 tile.

-On enemy phase, the Soldier and Merc should fight Fred. The Barb should fight Stahl. A caveat here is that on rare occasions, the Barb will target someone other than Stahl. Hopefully, this is Chrom, but it’s possible for Fred to be targeted. If Robin has 10+ Def, giving Stahl 9 Def, this is slightly more likely.

 

Turn 2

-Mileage may vary, if the Barb proves uncooperative. Since this is so rare, I was assume the Barb targeted Stahl (and that it didn’t blick him if it had Gamble).

-Pair Virion to Miriel

-Move Chrom below Stahl. Transfer for Robin. Swap and kill the Barb.

-Move Fred 2 tiles left, then 3 down. Take an assessment of enemy damage output. He can usually get away with healing with a Vulnerary, then getting a Lissa heal, but if Lissa hasn’t been gaining much Mag or both Merc and Soldier have Luna+, he might need the Elixir (very rare case).

-Move Miriel to the right of Lissa. Swap to Virion and transfer Miriel to Lissa.

-Move Lissa to the left of Stahl. Swap to Miriel to trade the Fire and Iron Axe to Vaike. Swap back to Lissa and heal Fred.

-Move Stahl to the left of Robin. Swap to Vaike and trade over the Fire. Drop Stahl below him.

-On enemy phase, the Soldier and Merc suicide on Fred.

 

Turn 3+

-This is where the improvisation starts. Enemy movements will be a bit erratic, so you’ll have to compensate by luring them out. Usually, this will be done by Fred. Sometimes Robin can lure one and Vaike can handle lure a non-Merc (but will need a Spd or Def support against soldiers) once, but will likely be unable to tank more than once because he’ll need at least two heals and is less versatile than Robin. Still, in a pinch, he can finish off weakened non-Vantage+ Soldiers or Barbs.

-Fred prefers to have Sully as a partner if for no other reason than Virion can safely dispatch an enemy weakened by him. Robin typically wants to fill this role, as well. If you’re feeling really desperate for safe killing/wounding power, try to get a tome back into Mirel’s hands.

-Another thing to consider is reverse fighting order if the enemy doesn’t have Vantage+. This will let Fred still utilize his massive damage output in a safe way that allows the party to go more on the offensive. Also, it helps to give Fred EXP. Robin would prefer to have it, but if anyone else needs to get any, Fred is the next preference (since having a LV3-4 Fred by the time he gets benched helps make a lot of these early chapters much safer).

 

Optimized Standard Interceptor Strat

Spoiler

-Note that this strat is obsolete within the run itself, but I have left it in because it is still a solid, usable strat for anyone simply seeking to get through Lunatic+.

-This is pretty much done using Interceptor’s strat with some modifications:

-In Chapter 1, trade Robin’s Bronze Sword to Fred before the map ends.

-Fred should go before Stahl, finishing off the Merc with his Silver Lance (can be somewhat risky if the Merc has Patience because this drops displayed hit to 78, but the Barb is a worse potential point of failure).

-Stahl then attacks the Barb while beside Fred. This allows him to pick up the hit+10, bringing his displayed hit to 90 and giving a chance for dual strike from Fred. Now, before Stahl attacks, if Robin has 12 Spd, which will let her double the Soldiers with a Chrom C pair, Stahl can trade the Bronze Sword to the top of Fred’s inventory. This gives him more hit on the Barb if he does dual strike and the damage is still enough to make a difference (thanks to Czar_Yoshi for pointing this out). The reason Robin needs to be able to double Soldiers is because of the one that attacks Fred on EP. If Fred hits it with the Silver Lance, Robin only needs one hit for a kill. But with the Bronze Sword, she needs two hits.

-When Vaike has an opportunity to trade Fred his Iron Axe, always do it. Fred will be in attack range of two Barbs and a Soldier. The axe does more damage to set the rest of the team up for survival, as well as being neutral to both Barbs and has WTA against the Soldier. The sword is too weak and likely to just get the Soldier jumping on him for WTA. The lance is technically the strongest, but will cause the wounded Barb to jump on him and he might die if there’s too much Luna+.

 

 

So The First Wave Didn’t Murder You

Spoiler

-For the second wave, after Chrom packs up Fred and goes south of the river, the next PP will have the river itself be just out of enemy range. As tempting as it is to go there, don’t. The enemy will split up and surround him. Instead, wait until the turn after, cross the river and drop Fred again. For whatever reason, this makes the AI want to kill them more (my guess is that they see an exposed unpaired Chrom who can’t escape back across the river and get out of range, making that a “game ending” move). So instead of enemies randomly bleeding off right away, 5-6 of the enemies should keep pursuing so long as Chrom keeps doing this two move cycle and Robin fights the Boss far enough to the left. A Soldier or Barb might bleed off of the pack as Chrom is doing this, but Robin shouldn’t have any trouble taking it down, as usually this won’t happen until the Boss is dead. One thing to keep in mind is when Robin starts deliberately pulling enemies away, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll come off 2-3 at a time. Take this into account when prepping. Also, when the enemies chase Chrom at the top part of his cycle, it’s possible to have a Cavalier jaunt over and drop Robin on the left Fort for some healing (useful if the staff or consumables are running low).

-If using female Robin, pair up with Sully when fighting the Boss instead of Vaike. The Cavalier C support is helpful for Chapter 3.

-Note that having a C with someone other than Fred or Chrom can be very helpful for the second wave. Namely, because the Boss has Gamble (and up to two of his lackies afterward can also have it), which always puts Robin at risk. Lissa should be the most common choice here, but female Robin can theoretically get a Sully C in C1; and male Robin can get a Virion C (somewhat less likely, as Sully’s got the +1 Spd on pair-up bonus, making her preferred, since that one point can really make a difference).

 

Chapter 3

 

Defensive Strat

Spoiler

Anyway I found an opening move that, while not completely fool/RNG-proof, helps cover for a large portion of the weakpoints in Interceptor's strat (namely, if those jerks bring Luna+ on the near Archer, Pavise+ on the Soldier or Aegis+ on the Knight). Because of the way the AI works in determining its target, Fred effectively becomes a ninja.

 

Basically, if Fred's Def is high enough, he can run into range of all four enemies and half of them will completely ignore him (and they all would if he wasn't the only one in range of two of them). Depending on if we want the Knight away from everyone or to be pulled closer so that they can burst him down, Fred either goes above the Knight and hits the Soldiers with the Javelin or 1 tile down and 1 tile right of the Soldier and hits him (don't want to body block him). This will draw the Knight onto the rear Archer onto him and make them take retaliation damage. Robin is placed along the top wall at the very edge of the Soldier and nearest Archer's range (can be edged a little closer and still be out of the Knight and rear Archer's range if something more aggressive is required). So long as Fred is outside the threshold of dying to all four when Luna+ and Counter is mostly not taken into account, the Soldier and near Archer will gun for Robin. The reason I say mostly, is that the Knight will always go first if it can hit someone. So Luna+ and Counter matter here because the AI adjusts according to numbers on the fly. So if fighting the Knight hurts Fred enough, everyone else will suddenly target him. What this means is that there are still problem ability sets that can mess Interceptor's strat up, then mess up this strat.

 

 

Spoiler

Another possible issue is if Robin has some bad stat luck, particularly in Speed (Defense and HP are important, to a lesser extent, too). She wants 15 (which is the low end of expected average for +Spd) so that a Sully C lets her double the Soldier in the typical tanking situation. With 11 expected Mag, she likely won't kill anyone (except maybe with Sully Iron Lance dual strikes), but can at least significantly weaken the enemies she engages.

 

Now for the problem guys. The Knight is the biggest issue, as he has a couple combos that make things really bad. Luna+ and Counter together make it so Fred can't take on the Knight, meaning we lose positioning and some damage output, since Fred needs to go up and out of the Knight's range (he can attack the near Archer while doing so, although it's probably not a good idea if the near Archer has Luna+. He can then still injure the rear Archer during EP. Now for the partially problematic scenarios:

 

Knight with just Luna+

-Fred can no longer get away with 17 Def (base plus Virion C). 19 Def, however, will work, but it requires Fred to nab Kellam.

 

Knight with just Counter

-Base Fred has 13+3+2+1=19 Attack at base with a Kellam support. Leveling up (likely) has a chance of pushing this up to 20. If right beside the Knight, it won't move out of the Woods to attack Fred. Against 11+1 Def, Fred will do 7x2 or 8x2, depending. The first scenario will work with 20 Def (65% of getting that +1 on level up), but the second just plain won't. If the Knight also has Def+2, suddenly that becomes 5x2 or 6x2. At level 2, he can get away with the first with 19 Def (he's guaranteed at least 1 HP), but the second scenario requires 20 Def. Pavise+ will also make either scenario work with 19 Def.

 

Knight has Counter and Aegis+

-This is really bad because of the problems mentioned above, compounded with magic going from ganking him to being required to set up Fred finishing him off with the Silver Lance on PP. It's a major damage commitment. This also stuffs up Interceptor's strat and makes mine significantly less reliable. If anyone has any ideas of how to deal with this, I'm open to them.

 

Soldier with Counter

-If the Soldier and the nearest Archer have no Luna+, Fred with Kellam can do the pull Robin normally would if the Soldier didn’t have Counter. With base Str, base Def, A Lances and the Javelin equipped, Fred can survive. He’ll take 3 from the Archer and 4 from the Soldier, then deal 15 to the Soldier. This is 22 out of Fred’s 28 base HP (which will be at least 29, if level 2). If the Soldier has both Counter and Pavise+, then Fred will only take 15 damage. This gives enough leeway that an Archer with Luna+ will only bring the damage up to a non-lethal 24. If the Soldier doesn’t have Pavise+, keep Robin and Chrom beside Fred for Solidarity and support Crit bonuses, as Fred can safely crit and kill it. Otherwise, keep them away, lest he crit-blick himself.

-As a last resort (if Fred will die), Robin can instead tank unequipped, which completely destroys the team's damage output. If the enemy team has lots of Pavise+ and Aegis+, this may make the scenario unrecoverable.

 

Both the Soldier and near Archer have Luna+ (bonus points if the Soldier also has Counter, making everything way worse)

-With 10 Def (low expected) and a Sully C pairup (+3), 29 HP (low expected), Robin can easily survive a single Luna+ from the Soldier and a non-Luna+ from the Archer (highest damage output without dual Luna+). Dual Luna+ brings that benchmark up to 15 Def (either low expected with Kellam or high expected +1 with Sully C) and 30 HP (high expected). Obviously, this is a big survival problem if they decide to bring dual Luna+ here and one of Fred's problem scenarios. Granted, Robin can have Kellam and Fred can go up to avoid the Knight, but team damage drops so much that survival is very iffy (although not as iffy as if the Soldier has Counter).

-A very tentative solution involves positioning Robin one tile to the left of where she would normally pull from and then placing Vaike with a Sumia or Chrom pair to the right of Robin. If Robin can kill the Soldier in retaliation (generally an iffy amount of scenarios, since Fred needs to weaken him for average Mag Robin to have a chance and Pavise+ or Aegis+ mess that up, barring two Sully Iron Lance dual strikes) and the Archer's non-Luna+ hit can't kill her (almost a given), it should run up in her face and shoot Vaike, instead. This means losing some damage output, but it's better than hoping Sully dual guards Robin or messing up Fred's first PP damage output.

 

 

Anyway, the bottom line is that even with the two strats in play together, the game can still randomize bad skill sets that have overlap against each. My strat can still make an earnest attempt, but it goes from being fairly reliable to a crapshoot. The scenarios are:

-Knight with Aegis+ (Int) and Counter (mine)

-Soldier with Pavise+ (Int) and Counter (mine)

-Soldier with Luna+ and Archer with Luna+ (Int) (both required against mine)

 

If any of these scenarios happen, my strat can still be run, compensating for each of the problem enemies. However, if enough Pavise+/Aegis+ are present, even the whole team ganging up on the remaining enemies may not be enough (the Soldier having Counter makes this especially likely).

 

Aggressive Strat

Pre-reqs: Robin/Sully C, 15 Spd on Robin (low end of average)

Spoiler

-The Soldiers has 33 HP, 5+1 Def and 2+1 Res. Base Fred with Kellam support and Lances A has 31 Attack with the Silver Lance and 23 Attack with the Iron Axe. If he has no Pavise+ or Aegis+, there are very good odds of killing him. In this case, consider using the Iron Axe for Hit rate safety (provided Robin has 11 Attack with Fire). If the enemy has Aegis+, then Robin will need to land both hits (Attack doesn’t really matter here, unless Robin has 16+, which will make the kill only take one hit), or land a hit and get a Dual Strike from Sully. Pavise+ will require Robin to be able to do 21 damage, which means having at least 14 Attack (average Mag of 11 with Tomes C and Fire). Sully can help, but it’s generally not worth trying to count on a Dual Strike from her.

-Anyway, Robin/Sully starts just out of range along the fort wall. Sully should be leading. Fred/Kellam should also start 1 tile down and 1 tile left of Sully. Standard turn order is to have Sully move 1 tile up, 1 right from the Soldier, swap to Robin and attack the Soldier. Fred then moves to the right of the Soldier and finishes him off. On EP, the Archers will fight Robin and, since the Knight is body blocked from her by Fred, will fight Fred (it should die if he has the Silver Lance out). Note that this kill is impossible without two lucky Dual Strikes (out of a pool of a possible two from Sully and one from Kellam) or one Dual Strike and Robin having abnormally high Mag. It’s just not worth the risk. This also won’t work if the Soldier has Vantage+/Luna+ and the Knight has Luna+ (Fred will die from focus fire). Another scenario where this won’t work is if both Archers have Luna+ (unless Robin has absurd enough durability to tank two 22 Attack Luna+ hits, which would require 33HP/10Def or 31HP/11Def, both combinations that are a bit above average).

-If the Knight has Counter, then the order has to change to Fred attacking the Soldier first, then Robin trading away his weapon so he’s unarmed, then killing off the Soldier. This variation cannot work if the Soldier also has Counter, or both he and the Knight have Luna+ (Fred will die from either cutting himself or focus fire).

-If the nearest Archer doesn’t have Pass, but the Knight has Counter, the aggressive strat can be adjusted a bit to still work. Robin would then go first against the Soldier, with Fred finishing (incidentally, this allows the strat to also get around the Soldier having Counter). This makes it so that there’s exactly one tile that only the Knight can attack. Place an unequipped Vaike there to pull the attack off of Fred.

-An alternative, if the Soldier has Pavise+/Aegis+, is to go for the Archer right above the Soldier instead. Since the Soldier will be stuck with only defensive skills, it’s possible for this variation to work against dual Luna+ Archers. However, the Archer right above the Soldier can’t have Counter (Robin will die during EP). The Archer also can’t have Vantage+ if the Knight has Luna+ (otherwise, Fred will die from focus fire).

-The Archer has 31 HP, 4 Def and 2 Res. Base Fred with Kellam support and Lances A has 20 Attack with the Javelin. This will let Fred do 16 HP if the Archer has Pavise+, 8 if he does. A 14 Attack Robin can soften him up so that Fred can land the kill. If the Knight has Counter, then the attack order will have to be reversed again, with Fred Javelinning first, then Robin finishing. Only one of the Archer or Knight can have Luna+, otherwise Fred will die from focus fire.

-One other variation that can help keep Robin from dying to dual Luna+ Archers is that if starting with the Soldier kill, this provides a place on the right (where Robin would normally pull both the Soldier and Archer in some of the other back-up strats) where only the Archer can damage something. Vaike/Sumia or Vaike/Chrom can be placed at the edge of that range to lure the Archer away. Since it doesn’t have Luna+, unless the non-Luna+ damage looks like it will collectively kill Robin, he’ll decide he wants to get Vaike more. The downside to this is that it prevents Robin from being able to counter this Archer on EP, losing a lot of damage output. The scrubs can probably gang up on him and take him down, but doing this requires staying in the middle for another turn, which allows the right side to get uncomfortably close. Keep this in mind when planning (especially if the Knight has PavGis+ and/or Counter).

-So this works for a fairly wide variety of cases, even if it gets tripped up by a lot of niche skill combinations. Because there are some risks with the Soldier kill (about on par with Interceptor’s strat, since there are high, but non-100% Hit rates), the above strat that lures the enemy out is usually safer and preferred (killing the Archer is relatively safe, but places the rest of Robin’s team farther away, making it tougher for them to help). However, this strat is particularly good at removing that annoying Counter(/Pavise+) Soldier, who tends to get in the way of the other strats.

 

Interceptor Strat

Spoiler

With my two strats having evolved enough, I find that they make the entirety of my strategies at this point. However, I’ve decided to leave Interceptor’s strat in because his benchmarks a bit laxer, allowing someone who is just trying to complete Lunatic+ or who gets extremely stat screwed to get a reliable start. One thing to note about his strat is that for Fred to be able to get a clean finish on the Soldier, he either needs to have gained a level with +1 Str or Robin needs to be at 10 Str (this is below the average for most builds, so it should happen) to gives Kellam an extra Str on pair.

 

The Chokepoint

Spoiler

-Getting into the chokepoint can be a little tricky, since Robin and Fred may not be enough to finish off the enemies, so the scrubs may have to dog-pile, putting them out of position. However, there is one thing Fred can do to buy an extra turn and possibly save on tomes/Vulneraries, depending on skill distribution. If he goes to 2 tiles to the right of where the Soldier spawned, he can make the enemies attack from farther back and clump up. Enemies move a bit randomly, so the melee enemy out front will vary, but if it doesn’t have Counter, Fred can safely use the Javelin to fight both the melee and the Archer. During this time, it will be a priority to get Robin within 5 tiles of standing on the door tile, heal her up and get someone within range of the door to have the Door Key (Sumia, or possibly Sully, tend to be the natural candidates).

-On the turn following, Sumia or Sully need to open the door, then Robin/Chrom can rush in to injure or kill the Knight at range. If the Knight doesn’t die and has Pass, make sure to block up the rest of the passage. If Fred was able to fight with the Javelin, he has the choice to move 5 tiles away, stopping at the mouth of the corridor so that he can get another round of combat in. If he doesn’t want to fight, he can move 1 tile up from there, which makes him safe from enemy attack. Either way, the enemies will be too far away to attack over his shoulder, so Lissa can get a heal in if she has any charges left. If the Knight didn’t die and space is short, the tile to the left of the corridor should be safe. If you utilize it, I recommend whoever of Sumia or Sully didn’t open the door be the one to stand there, as it makes rearranging the formation easier.

-At this point, it’s a matter of rearranging the formation so that Fred is unequipped at the front, body blocking and healing as necessary (Elixirs may be necessary if the Knight and/or Archer have Luna+; killing a Luna+ Archer during the kiting phase can pay dividends here). Robin should be behind him (make sure she’s healed, as the Archer will target her if he can kill her), with Lissa behind her. The others can fill up the last two tiles however they like, just so long as it stops the enemy from Passing in.

 

Round and Round We Go - Wave 2

Spoiler

-The second wave is generally best pulled by attacking the Merc on the far left from 2 tiles to his left (not 1 down, 1 left, as that’ll draw the Fighter too). This allows Robin to hopefully (if Chrom’s not feeling lazy) take down both the Merc and the Archer. There is risk of the Merc not dying, unless Robin has exceptionally high Mag, so assume this is going to happen. If both enemies have Luna+, Robin may need a Sully or Fred support instead of Chrom to survive. If Robin’s survival stats are really dismal, Fred may have to do the pull with a Javelin instead (Robin with a Sully C and Sully will need 34HP/10Def or 32HP/11Def; Fred gives 1 more HP or Def of leeway). Anyway, in anticipation of problems, make sure to position two 7-Move units near the mouth of the door corridor, such that the pulling unit can hop over, Transfer, then pair to escape.

-Once the pull is done, kill the rest of the enemies may be a simple matter of kiting 1-2 enemies from the edge of their range to death at a time. Counter on the melee complicates this. One thing for sure, though, is that the situation is actually really safe, but the more Counter melee there is, the longer and more tedious this gets.

-Note that this requires opening the second door once the enemy has been more or less pulled through the left side’s corridor. Thanks to the separate->re-pair tactic to gain an additional movement, plus the fact that all the units can use this, then boost even farther by pairing to Sully and Sumia, it’s possible to outrun the enemies. Getting close enough to the rear of trail of enemies will cause the rearmost to break off and head the other direction (be careful not to get too aggressive, though, as sometimes this can pull an Archer with a melee). This allows that single enemy to then be jumped by the entire team and massacred accordingly. Run circles enough times, picking the rest off one at a time and the enemy will eventually lose.

-Try to conserve at least 4 tome uses for Raimi (more if she has Aegis+). If nervous about Chrom being able to contribute (at all or enough) with the Rapier, an alternative is to have Hammer-wielding Fred as Robin’s support.

 

Edited January 29, 2017 by Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi

[Czar_Yoshi]

This is just a random thought but what if for Cht.3 you have Robin x Sully attack the Soldier with Thunder/Fire (double) and then have a Fred with whatever pairup will give him lower durability than Robin try to tank on the edge; basically flipping Robin/Fred from your current strat? If the thresholds line up it might be able to cleanly handle a Pavise+/Counter Soldier.

Also I wonder how feasible a Robin/Miriel C support would be. It would increase the chance of a random DS on the Knight in Int's strat which could provide a little RNG insurance in allowing Robin to fight the Soldier instead of Kellam next.

Edited March 5, 2015 by Czar_Yoshi

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Hmmm, could be worth looking into the thresholds. I'm not sure if a non-Def Asset Robin (or, rather, Def-blessed Robin, since you saw my last Def Asset Robin, who had horrid Def) will be durable enough to get ignored. It'd probably have to be an unpaired Fred to even have a chance of drawing enemy fire. I think it's definitely worth checking out to see if it does work, though. Once I'm done playing around with C5 and 6, maybe I'll start another file and rush to C3 to do some testing.

As for Miriel C, it'd probably be easy enough to squeeze in four rounds of combat against the wave 2 mooks. Chrom and Sully should already be at three rounds after the Boss dies, so they just need to snag one each, then there should be more than enough enemies to get the requisite rounds with Miriel. The only concern might be durability, but I'm sure it wouldn't be too, too bad.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Being contingent on having high Def isn't too bad since it would be a backup strat for a very specific skill combination.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Yeah. Granted, the odds of having good enough Def for that at that point will probably be very low, which would unfortunately make it even more niche than it is. I'll just have to toy around with it to see how viable it is. I wish Renown was available sooner, because then I could use the Dracoshield to help test thresholds without replaying the game a bunch.

Also, fun thing I've run into when checking C6 stats: Emm is actually about as tanky as the player Cavaliers at this base levels. She can take a Dark Mage blast to the face and not even care if it's a Luna+ blast. One of the Cavalier could even stab her with a non-Luna+ hit and she'd live. And she has enough Spd that neither of those enemy types double her.

Edited March 5, 2015 by Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

So I've toyed around with killing the C5 enemies in order to make Interceptor's strat more reliable and the main problem with trying to pick off problem enemies is that just trying to position for a kill on turn 1 EP usually results in taking out more than the target, which creates holes that let one mage sneak in an attack on Fred, which pretty much unravels the whole strat. I'm still working things out in their entirety, but it looks like with some finagling, I can get away with killing 2 of the melee, which pretty much has to be one of four enemies that can be problem enemies.

A secondary problem is that for some dumb reason, melee will sometimes fixate on Robin and line up straight to the left of the melee being unequip tanked (it's also very clear that multiple melee enemies could fill that space to Fred's left). This leaves the spot 2 tiles left from Fred open for a mage, which pretty much means he's dead (it'll hit him, then the melee will hit him, then the AI will see that he can die and move a melee out of the way for another mage to attack). This can happen on the base strategy where I don't kill anything at all, which is a concern, since I don't know why they do this (appears to be random, since the Defs haven't changed at all over many tests; HP is a maybe, but I doubt it, since the enemies will also randomly change behaviour while Robin and Fred are both full).

So far, the most reliable start has been to have Robin sit where Chrom starts. That allows her to kill the Dark Mage and the upperleft side Barb. This delays the mages arriving even more, makes 2-range clean-up safer and possibly sets Fred up with a safer opponent. Possibly, because if the either Myrm has Luna+, then it can be even worse than a Luna+ Barb, since Fred gets doubled (and random movement means that if I don't act to change the outcome, which Myrm gets on him is also random). Otherwise, the Myrm very sadly pokes him twice for 1. The first Barb to move will always target Robin, though, so that's why the Myrm ends up on Fred. Now, with some Rescue shenanigans, I can snipe either Myrm or the remaining Barb and Rescue Robin into tanking position. But then if the snipe is of anything other than the left side Myrm, the risk of the melee being dumb and lining up to Robin's left comes back. Luna+ on the remaining Barb is actually relatively okay, so long as it doesn't have Hawkeye (although, if the Wyvs aren't too bad for skills, Luna+/Hawkeye might be manageable), since Robin's Avoid is approaching 70 after support bonuses and Barbs only have 95 or 90 Hit (if Gamble). Likewise, if a Myrm with just Hawkeye gets on Fred, it's pretty much irrelevant.

If the chance for skill distribution is completely even (did anyone look at the distribution chances when the ROM was cracked?), that's only about a 2.4% chance for Luna+/Hawkeye in tandem, but each Myrm (or Barb, if I go for the kill nothing variation) has around a 28.5% to get Luna+. This is relatively significant, since it's possible to just get no one Fred can tank well.

This is still probably the most reliable way to go, though, since the alternative is to go full offense and Counter messes that up pretty hard, nevermind when Aegis+ and Pavise+ get in the way of non-Robins.

MODEDIT: some guy who isn't you op told me this post was probably meant for here and not the other thread pls tell me if i was wrong to agree

Edited March 8, 2015 by Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Updates on toying with the AI:

-I have to take back the Dark Mage-Barb kill being safe. It's much rarer, but the melee can still do dumb things that leave the spot to attack Fred from 2 range open. The rareness seems to be tied to the fact that by turn 3, not only have the melee had more time to settle into place, the sheer volume of incoming enemies forces enemy units to take whatever open spot they can get.

-I think tha safest opening now (granted, still over limited testing) is actually the one where I kill nothing. It seems that when melee enemies are alone, they are prone to misbehaving. However, when ranged units are involved, the melee will try to avoid blocking then ranged unit's maximum movement (provided there's nothing for said melee to attack, then it's just a free-for-all). I've found that standing 1 tile up and 1 tile left from where Fred's tanking position is in the first formation will manipulate the Dark Mage into moving all 5 tiles to the right in order to put that unit into next turn's attack range (once that unit shifts into the tanking formation, the Dark Mage can't hit anything, though). Additionally, not decoying the top Dark Mage allows him to get in range of the traffic jam without being able to target anyone. Two ranged units trying to take choice spots forces the five melee to fill out the traffic jam more, which should end in the ideal body blocking scenario (assuming the two Barbs aren't toting scary skills for each respective tank). The standing issue is that trying to pick even one guy off to modify which enemy faces who is very likely to cause the formation screw-up, so I still need to look at ways to manipulate Barb/Myrm or Myrm/Myrm vs the tanks without allowing a mage in to pick off Fred.

-The mages secretly hate their teammates. If one can score a kill (usually Fred), he'll force a melee to move out of the way in order to take a shot at it. However, if two mages could work together to kill something, neither will force a melee to move out of the way. They're perfectly okay kill stealing from their melee, but won't allow other mages to kill steal from them.

So in theory, I may be able to get away with picking off 1-2 melee if I can somehow use decoy Sumia (or possibly even someone else) to lure a mage into wanting to move to a spot that will bully the melee into position.

[Irysa]

KTT, considering you've done a lot of experimenting, do you have any insight on whether or not theres some kind of cap of support points per opponent? I was experimenting in Chapter 1 on Luna+ where I was fortunate enough to have Robin able to tank pretty much everything, luring some off with Chrom and Virion. I broke the weapons of the boss and remaining fighter whilst sitting on the fort and had Virion chip the boss 4 times with Fred not paired (but still the in battle support unit) and Chrom do some remainng chip with Robin as a support unit before letting Robin take the kills for level 10, but I I didn't get C support for Virion/Fred or Chrom/Robin. Prologue should definitely have capped Chrom and Robin out due to sitting around doing the water trick for ages, so this is puzzling.

The only thing of note I can refer back to is that I made formations around the enemies to try to maximise support points, and I encountered this problem before in my first Lunatic playthrough where I hypothesised that the side support units might actually "leech" battle point due to the fact Cynthia and Severa had needed extra battles to reach a B support. Tables and Kaoz were unable to really confirm this but I'm wondering if you've noticed anything.

I highly regret not backing up a bookmark before I tried doing all this chip. I guess I'll just reset until I can repeat the process for Chapter 1 again to test further.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Irysa

[Czar_Yoshi]

Fighting adjacent but not paired gives very little support in comparison to fighting paired. Even if you've got Chrom/Robin's support maxed from the Prologue, it'll still take at least two battles while paired in Cht.1 to hit C.

Jealousy is interesting but I wouldn't expect to see it in Awakening. Maybe though.

[Irysa]

So am I to understand that being the IN BATTLE support unit (you have the chance to DS or DG, and your model is there) but NOT being paired up does not in fact give the same BP bonuses as being paired up? I was under the presumption that as long as you appeared in battle you got the full battle points.

Even disregarding that, there has to be a cap because I paired Chrom into Robin for the killing blows on the final two enemies (Veteran) so that's two battles plus all the adjacent ones that went on whilst Chrom chipped and yet there was no C support.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Irysa

[Knusperkeks]

There is a cap for support points on every single map for all characters, I'd have to look up exactly where it's at. The only exception I know of is chapter 11 for Chrom and Olivia, they don't have this limit on that specific map.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Even disregarding that, there has to be a cap because I paired Chrom into Robin for the killing blows on the final two enemies (Veteran) so that's two battles plus all the adjacent ones that went on whilst Chrom chipped and yet there was no C support.

Then you must not have gotten the full amount in Pro.

[Irysa]

Nah, for that particular file I copy pasted KTT's prologue strat specifically to max out exp since my own method wasn't as good/didn't get anywhere near C tomes (mostly due to not trading Lissa off for maximising Tome WEXP whilst in the water). Even if that wasn't the case, Chrom was paired into Robin to fight the boss (4 times) on Prologue, so that is actually just impossible. There must simply be a support points gained per enemy cap.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Irysa

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Hmmm, I don't think I've run into that problem, but I also don't tend to break enemy weapons. Given that I haven't come across it and your own experiences, I think it's pretty reasonable to consider that there might be Lunatic-level caps on support point gains similar to the deteriorating CEXP and the hard capped WEXP gain. Personally, my first instinct would normally be to wonder if support points gained from being the support unit, but not a paired support unit, are lower than initially thought, but since those numbers were pulled from the ROM, I don't think that'd be possible without misinterpretation.

[Czar_Yoshi]

The support thresholds were pulled directly from the ROM, but Tables' interpretation of how points are gained in battle is I think just something he came up with that fits available data.

If we can get physical data (nothing less than a video) of a scenario that goes a different way than his chart suggests, then I'll look into it myself. But barring that I know I've had plenty of strange cases where I thought I would get a support and didn't, but upon closer inspection it was a math error on my part.

[Irysa]

I've given a video that shows that chart to not be entirely infallible already to Tables and Kaoz a few weeks ago and they were not able to figure it out. In this one. Cynthia and Severa fight 5 times on turn 1, with a bunch of DS procs, then before the final turns of the map I bookmark backup, then complete the map to demonstrate that they do not reach a B support. I then reload the bookmark and demonstrate that an extra round of combat lets them reach B support after the map finishes.

If you want, I'll record a full prologue 1 and chapter 1 clear involving this but it'll probably be on regular lunatic just to make it so Robin can just facetank everything on the fort until all the weapons break after the water trick, and I'll show it.

EDIT: got some terminology about DS mixed up.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Irysa

[Czar_Yoshi]

Well then, I'm definitely curious.

I still don't think the table's wrong, though (since it's straight from the ROM). It's more likely a difference in either how the pair gains support (different actions give different amounts?) or in how the enemies give support.

Watching that video, my initial thoughts are that they might be gaining 50% support on enemy phase for whatever reason (doesn't make sense, but I think it adds up), or Cordelia standing next Severa interferes somehow. I'll test these in a more controlled setting sometime.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Czar_Yoshi

[Irysa]

So just to be clear, you don't want me to record a full clear file > prologue > c1 demonstrating this problem right now then? Because it's a pain in the ass to record stuff on a phone and I have to lie down on my bed and play in an awkward position that gives me cramps. :(

Cordelia standing next Severa interferes somehow

That's my personal theory too, which is why I referened the whole leeching/jealousy thing beforehand.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Irysa

[Czar_Yoshi]

Yeah no need to record the Pro-Cht.1 stuff.

One third possibility is that there's a cap on how much support can be gained per turn, but we'll see.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

All, right, so last night I finished routing C16 (sorry about not keeping the notes posts here particularly up-to-date). Since C15 is the last chapter where I needed to save a scrub, I think it can be pretty much said that not only is the his run real, but I have strats that keep everyone alive without putting Robin in significant danger. I seriously doubt there's anything beyond C16 that can stop me from finishing at this point (routing will still be required, but it's going to come a looooot easier than getting through Prologue, C1-6 and P1).

I've been organizing my notes a bunch more (there's just pages of pages of random shorthand for ideas and results that would make no sense to anyone else), so hopefully I can start moving things through here again. I've largely been touching C5's up, which is a semi-step-by-step that will have screenshots, because the opening 3-4 turns require some fairly fine manipulation.

Until then, have my notes on C4 and P1:

Chapter 4

-Renown Rewards Available: Glass Sword, Second Seal, Orsin’s Hatchet, Seed of Trust, Levin Sword

-Pre-Chapter Shopping: Flux, Wind, Thunder

-Fred allows Robin to get the drop on Counter Fighters on the first turn, as well as engaging the Mage on the EP. C support gives Fred an okay chance to dual strike. He should generally bring the Iron Sword because of increased hit against the Fighters and Silver usually being overkill for Attack. Plus it’s better to reliably bring the Fighter into OHKO range so Robin doesn’t take Counter damage (especially against Aegis+). This lets Robin fight the first two enemies with increased mobility and Def.

-For the second turn, heal with Lissa if necessary. Then, if unpaired Chrom is near the edge of the Fighter’s range, Robin can move up to him, swap to Fred, then transfer Robin to Chrom. They can then get the drop on the second Fighter and EP the Mage. Virion should hop onto Fred. From this point on, Fred can play backup damage or peel off enemies to lessen incoming damage on Robin (Fred can also offtank a Short Axe Fighter or Hammer a Knight if RNG luck has been particularly bad; Hammer uses are valuable for selling, though, so only do so in a case of extreme emergency).

-If Robin hits low average of expected Spd(17), a Chrom support lets her double Marth (21 vs 16). Unless Marth has Aegis+, it’s possible to get her stuck in a healing loop (heals at less than half of max HP), even if dual strike luck is poor. If she has Aegis+, Fred can contribute to keeping her stuck in the loop, since at 14 Mag, base Fred with Virion C and a Javelin will just barely help get Marth under half). She will, however, prioritize killing over healing, so watch out for that (mainly if Lissa is healing; AI will also see 8x2 damage against Fred if he’s got base Def, equipped with a lance and paired with Virion, so just make sure he’s above 16 HP). Note that this healing loop is only really necessary if she has Counter, as otherwise, it’s possible to let Marth get countered on EP, then finish her off on PP.

Paralogue 1

-Pre-Chapter Shopping: Forge the Flux with +4 Mt, +5 Hit (assuming 14 Mag); if Risen are preventing a Flux from being purchased, then forge a Thunder with +12 Crit.

-Tonics: Chrom (Str), Robin (Def)

First Wave — Opening Problem Enemies (North side)

-Steel Axe Barb (Aegis+, Pass)

-Thief (Pavise+, Counter)

-There is also an Archer, but even with Aegis+, Fred can pick him off on the next turn. Even if the Archer and Thief both have Luna+, as long as the Barb dies and Robin’s counterattack will OHKO the Thief, she shouldn’t die.

-Fred with Lances A and Virion C can one-shot Thieves with the Silver Lance if they don’t have Pavise+.

-Against the Barb, one dual strike when doubling can be considered as reasonable, if somewhat risky, expectation (should be around 55% chance at this point; meaning a 20.25% chance of failure). While Solidarity-Rapier Chrom has a non-trivial chance of crit, it also can’t be counted on. Barb has 17 Avoid. Base Chrom can only hit for 8 (10 with Tonic) with the Rapier. However, with the Renown Glass Sword, he can do 14 (16 with Tonic).

-Robin with the average 14 Mag with B Tomes and Thunder, Robin will have 18 Attack. Average Skl and Luk with net Robin +25 hit. Chrom support adds +10, another +2 from pairup bonus, bringing the total to 37.

-If Chrom hits with the Glass Sword at any point, Robin needs 2x11 damage to one-round.

-A +4mt/+5hit Flux forge will let Robin finish him off (technically overkill, but need a +2mt Flux minimum and the Glass Sword won’t last for further Barbs and even if it does, want to save it for C5). Need to be careful about this tome with Counter, though. Also note that Flux’s hit is rather poor, so the +5 hit pushes Robin into ~95 displayed hit, which gives are 99.55% true hit. Although 90 displayed is 98.10%, only 1.5% behind. Depending on funds situation, could possibly forgo the hit bonus to save 270 gold.

-Base Fred with Lances A and Viron C will have 21 Attack against the Thief with a Javelin. Against Pavise+, this will do 9. Robin then just needs 20 Attack to one-shot him and prevent Counter. This falls to 17 against the Barb, where 13 damage can be enough to finish him off if Robin and Chrom couldn’t. However, there cannot be a problem Thief for Fred to be available for this backup strat.

Second Wave

-Robin can get kill the forwardmost, which puts the a melee enemy in range of her.

-If that melee enemy has Counter, he can be baited into Short Axing Sully at range (she can survive a Luna+ hit so long as she has a sword equipped). Unpaired Fred can also be used to bait.

Treasure

-If both melee Barbs along Thief escape route have Counter, clearing it out in order to ambush the Thieves can be a bit tricky. There are a couple ways to handle this.

-Route A: Go through middle. Unpaired Fred can bait lower Barb without provoking Archer by going one up from the Woods tile by the 1x2 wall. Robin can then nuke the top Barb. This will, however, draw fire from 2 Archers and a Short Axe Barb. The lower Thief will also aggro (non-Pavise+ can be one-shot by Fred, non-Counter can just be tanked). Killer Lance Thief will swing down, but not initiate attacks. If body blocked without Pass, will still fixate on the bottom escape tile and take the long way around.

-Route B: Go around back through the pillar room. There will be a lot of enemies in range at various points, though. While they’re mostly 2-range, this variation gambles on more consecutive Robin dodges. This strat is also not a good idea if the two pillar room Barbs have Counter.

-Far Thieves will also choose to pick a fight instead of moving closer to the Chests.

-Once the one Thief has the Killer Lance, he will ignore combat to leave off the south side of the map.

Nabbing Donnel

-Trapping the armoury Archer and having Donnel poke solo is enough EXP to recruit him. If the Archer has Pass, the tight confines of the room allow people to just plain body block him from getting out. Put unequipped Fred next to Donnel to have him soak the hits while body blocking. This can be used as an opportunity to get Lissa a bit of EXP too (don’t go too crazy, as those Heals are valuable for later chapters and the budget is tight).

-Donnel’s Attack is so sad unpaired that he doesn’t really care about Counter. He’ll need to hop out once for a healing if the Archer does have it, though.

Edited September 25, 2015 by Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Still working on getting my notes into a a presentable state. Unfortunately, some unexpected real life stuff has killed the time I would have used recently to get those together. On the upside, the last stream went pretty well and I finished up the last of the routing. I still have a few tweaks to do with C24, but the run's pretty much ready. I'll be streaming my first attempt at bringing the whole thing together tomorrow at about 9:30PM Pacific.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Shucks, I was hoping to see the first go but internet won't allow it (out of town for Spring Break). Oh well.

[Irysa]

Are you planning on tackling Tiki's Paralogue in your complete run? I'll be tuning in regardless, I haven't watched live previously but have periodically been watching some of your routing archives.