First playthrough advice

[EdwardSunnyDisposition]

Hi,

I'm playing FE6 for the first time.

Was just wondering if it's one of those FE Games where a small, devoted team of units is preferred, or if it's possible to swap out units when it's needed.

Is there an Arena feature in this one? Also I feel like Shadow Dragon in that this game chucks loads of units at you but they're all low level (I'm about to start Chapter 3 and I already have 13 units).

Any advice would be appreciated.

Stuff like, one cavalier or both? One fighter or both?

[Shadow Mir]

The fighters in this game aren't very good. Also, to get the true ending, you must obtain all the divine weapons and not break them by the time you defeat Zurg (AKA the Big Bad, AKA Zephiel).

Edited August 17, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Topaz Light]

To answer your questions...

I would say it's better to have a consistent team of characters rather than be constantly switching out. You do get a few good prepromoted characters (for example, Perceval, Klain I think the newest fan translation calls him, and Igrene), but by and large, you don't want to let any unpromoted characters you're using fall too far behind.

Binding Blade does have Arenas, and unlike later titles, Support bonuses remain in effect during arena battles. Just... puttin' that on the table. It's as game-breaking as it sounds.

Deke, Clarine, and Rutger are all very good. You'll probably find all of them most satisfactory as team members.

Might as well say it now, there's gonna be a desert chapter with hidden treasures, fog-of-war, a freshly-recruited Shaman made of wet rice paper, and a time limit. Brace yourself.

As Levant said, Fighters... are not so good in this game. Lott's probably the best of the bunch, but even he's more mediocre than actually good. Berserkers are pretty decent, though, if a bit of a crapshoot at times. You've got Gonzales for a hyperspecialized Berserker with his absolutely towering HP and Strength at the cost of abysmal Skill. Geese, to my knowledge, is a bit more balanced, and pretty much nobody cares about Garret so I couldn't really tell you how he performs. Axes in general are more inaccurate here than in any other GameBoy Advance Fire Emblem game, as are Lances. It's not nearly so bad as to render them unusable, it's just something you might wanna be expecting going in.

On the same note as Fighters, there aren't really any good Knight-class characters in the game, either. Bors is probably your best bet if you're dead set on a General, but he's a bit of a mixed bag. Barth is too specialized in being a Knight for his own good, and Wendy could only be less worth the effort to level her up if she stole Jagen's growth rates. (Seriously, she's not even an Est, she's just mediocre even with loads of babying and favoritism).

In terms of Archers, both of the unpromoted Archers you get are kinda eh, but the two prepromoted Snipers are actually pretty excellent. It's up to you what to do with this information, of course.

You actually get four Cavaliers in this game, as well as three prepromoted Paladins. Marcus and Jerrot are both Jagen-types, so they're really helpful early on, but end up dropping off later, while Perceval is pretty good from recruitment to endgame. As for the unpromoted Cavaliers, Allen, Lance, Noah, and Treck are all pretty usable. All the Cavaliers are actually pretty balanced, with only slight inclinations towards various stats (Allen's a bit powerhousey, Lance is a bit speedy, Treck's a bit tanky, and Noah's pretty unremarkable), but they're all still very viable. Allen and Lance come in Chapter 1 as opposed to Chapter 7, though, so they'd probably be easier to use. As for "one Cavalier or both"? I'd say pick any two of the four Cavaliers, then, if you want, add either Perceval or a third Cavalier. Or just use all of them if you like. They promote into powerful, well-rounded juggernauts with high movement and full weapon triangle access, so there's really no such thing as too many Paladins, I wouldn't say.

Edited August 18, 2016 by Topaz Light

[ping]

Going into FE6 completely blind can be a bit frustrating, because quite a few recruitable characters appear a few turns into the map and/or their recruitment itself is a bit obscure.

Same goes for the gaiden requirements which you need to fulfill to get the legendary weapons which you need to play the last few chapters. Although 'obscure' is the wrong word here - it's usually "finish chapter in x turns and {characters} must be recruited and alive". But the game usually doesn't tell you which chapters you need to finish fast(ish) and which characters you need, so it's quite easy to get screwed this way.

As a rule of thumb, every single prepromote in the game is at least decent when you get them, but most of them will fall behind at some point. So basically use them as long as they're good; you probably won't assemble your final team in the earlygame, anyway. EXP isn't that big of an issue, so you don't have to go out of your way to prevent them from killing stuff.

@Archers: You also get two archers on horses without a weakness to horseslayers. So yeah, the two earlygame archers aren't really worth any effort. They're quite usable (you'll fight a lot of flyers in this game), but the nomads and the snipers are simply better.

Another rule of thumb: if a character looks really bad now, they're probably not worth investing into. There are some underleveled characters with great base stats worth the effort, but there are no real Est-types in the game. Wendy (your 3rd and final Armor Knight) is a good excample: Even though her growths are above-average, she will on average hardly catch up to Bors, who joined way earlier and still kinda sucks.

Thiefs don't promote. Also, they can steal from every enemy, even if he's faster. So you might want to not train you thieves at all and just use the highest-leveled one you get; his combat actually stays decent for quite some time.

[EdwardSunnyDisposition]

Another rule of thumb: if a character looks really bad now, they're probably not worth investing into. There are some underleveled characters with great base stats worth the effort, but there are no real Est-types in the game. Wendy (your 3rd and final Armor Knight) is a good excample: Even though her growths are above-average, she will on average hardly catch up to Bors, who joined way earlier and still kinda sucks.

I'll be real here. Everyone has worse growths than I anticipated. I mean I'd heard about Roy but...1-2 stats per level up? On everyone?

[EdwardSunnyDisposition]

When do I get access to an armoury? Because it's pretty annoying having to use the Rapier - I had wanted to conserve it as much as possible.

[Kirie]

There's an Armory and an Item Shop in Chapter 4, so it's coming up soon.

[ping]

You'll get a replacement Rapier in Chapter 7, though, so you don't have to be that stingy with it. And even with effective damage, most of the time the Rapier is only as strong as a Silver Sword (because the -1 Might against lances is also tripled), making it rather mediocre in the middle- and endgame.

I'll be real here. Everyone has worse growths than I anticipated. I mean I'd heard about Roy but...1-2 stats per level up? On everyone?

Yeah, pretty much every growth unit has combined growths of 270-290%. Roy's is actually higher (325%), but his best growths are mostly wasted on Skill and Luck. Most prepromotes (I think Klain is the only exception) have around 200% or even less, but as I said, their base stats are usually really good for their join time.

[Rend Keaven]

I would also like to add that this game does have Ambush Reinforcements. But like Awakening, some chapters give you hints on when they arrive.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

FE6 is "sword-emblem" because this game made the accuracy of axes and lances worse than in other parts for no reason.

An iron sword has still more hitrate against a lance despite weapon triangle disadvantage than an iron axe. It already says how broken swords are in this game.

If you want to have semi usable axe users later on, then go for the cavaliers you got in the beginning and/or one of the two mercenaries in this game. I'd prefer Dieck though since he has better con.

Also magic is more accurate than bows. Actually you don't even need a bow-user unless you want to use the S-weapon.

The chokepoint in this game is chapter 7, the hardest chapter in the game tbh.

After that the game becomes more managable.

Edited August 18, 2016 by Ayama Wirdo

[wissenschaft]

Well, after being turned off by FE6's hard mode at first, I'm back at it again. I suppose having beat the other two GBA games has helped me figure out what to do. I'm just about to attempt the infamous ch 7.

One tip I can give is figure out how to stop reinforcements on each map. For example, in ch 6, reinforcements will spawn at the entrance and at the stairs behind the throne. You can stop the reinforcements from the entrance from spawning by keeping a unit there and if you kill the boss fast enough the reinforcements from behind the throne never spawn.

I assume this works on all maps of the game so its probably a good idea to rush for the boss of a map and kill them ASAP and then collect any treasure. Also, make use of Marcus. Limit his kills if you can help it but hes great for weakening enemy units. Don't be afraid to use a silver lance to destroy dangerous enemies quickly, like high speed nomads. The silver lance is there to make the early game manageable.

Edited August 18, 2016 by wissenschaft

[Shadow Mir]

There's an Armory and an Item Shop in Chapter 4, so it's coming up soon.

There's also one in chapter 2, but I assume he missed it.

Anyways, remember my point about the fighters in general sucking? It's actually pretty much all the first tier axe users stinking to high heaven. Also, since the Ocean Seal doesn't exist yet, you'd need a Hero Crest to class change brigands or pirates... which doesn't help their case.

[ping]

Also magic is more accurate than bows. Actually you don't even need a bow-user unless you want to use the S-weapon.

I disagree with you here - while Anima magic is pretty good, the abundance of wyvern in the game alone makes using one or two bow users viable. Aircalibur might be a thing, but the bow users still tend to have somewhat better stats and in case of the nomads better mobility.

@wissenschaft: I'm not sure if every bosskill stops reinforcements. I think at least one of the Sacae maps has some after the bosskill, but don't quote me on that.

In general, this game has both turnbased and zonebased (as in 'if someone enters this zone, they spawn') reinforcements and chapter 6 is unique (I think) because here all you units have to be in the upper half of the map to trigger them.

If you see any forts or stairs after chapter 2, you can basically assume that reinforcements will spawn on or around them. So either block them by placing a unit on top of them or keep your squishy units far away from them.However, not every spawn point is marked... ;)

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Wolt and Sue tend to be very mediocre bow users.

Shin is ok, but it grants the risk to go to Sacae which I highly recommend not to do.

Bowusers are only really useful in chapter 7 against the three draco knights and in 21 aginst the pack of dracoknights, but they're still more inaccurate than aircalibur.

A good bowuser is actually warrior Batre.

No, not each bosskill stops reinforcements.

[Myrmidon Jim]

Swordmasters and Berserkers have a passive 30 crit boost in this game. They will have a good chance to crit even your luckiest units.

Gonzales is probably the best Berserker in the game, which admittedly isn't saying much. Although he only has great stats in Hard mode, he will be powerful and fast. However, he is very inaccurate, so if you do decide to use him, you may need to shore up his accuracy with supports.

Shamans are fairly bad in this game. If you really want to use one, Raigh/Ray is the best offensive option. Niime is the best staffbot, due to her magic base and A staves. If she gets Apocalypse, her staff ranges will become pretty insane. Luna doesn't exist in this game, so they won't be helpful against Idoun.

Pegs are bad in this game, except for HM Tate/Thite, who is fine. Miredy is amazing, Zeiss has similar potential but is harder to train up.

Light magic users are rare. The only units who can use Light magic are Bishops, and they start at a D rank. Otherwise, your best bet for Aureola is Jodel, who is a pretty poor character offensively. Or you can just not bother with it. It's not a great divine weapon.

Ballistae are rare and cannot be moved unlike in later GBA titles. You're not missing out on much if you don't train an archer.

Lugh is very overrated, his bases are shit and he has a shaky MAG growth. You need to be patient with him because he won't be that good until after promotion, and that's only because of his bonuses. That said, he is your best option for a Sage, and he usually has enough SPD to do good damage even with his average MAG. Aircalibur is nice too, but you won't get one until Chapter 12. Lilina plays like Lute, but isn't weighed down by everything that ever existed. However, she joins at Level 1 in a chapter where most of your units around Level 10, and her SPD growth is fairly mediocre. Hugh is somewhat tanky and he has better MAG than Lugh, but you need to pay for him.

Siege tomes have fairly low weight in this game. This is more important for the enemy because they are common after the first half of the game. All of them are also A-ranked except for Eclipse (which is a joke), and have around the might you expect an A rank tome to have. Fimbulvetr cannot be obtained outside of Trial Maps.

Resistance is very low for most physical units, outside of Falcoknights. This means Elfire and Fenrir will hurt. There are Barrier staves and Pure Waters available, but the latter isn't available until later on.

Wolt and Sue tend to be very mediocre bow users.
Shin is ok, but it grants the risk to go to Sacae which I highly recommend not to do.

A good bowuser is actually warrior Batre.

Sue is a perfectly viable option and one of the best dodgetanks in a game where dodgetanking is fairly reliable, though her strength is atrocious so she'll need to rely on Silvers or Killers to do actual damage. Shin is great in Normal mode, and even better in Hard mode. He has 16 STR/19.5 SPD at 20/1 in Normal, meaning he can pretty much decimate fliers, and WLs are especially common near the end of the game. Not to mention they can support each other for a minor STR/DEF/AVD boost and a full CEv boost, which Shin could use. Meanwhile, Wolt is outclassed by everyone else from the get go, will never improve more than anyone else, and only really has availability on his side. He doesn't even begin to compare with Sue or Shin. As long as you're prepared, Sacae isn't as bad as many people make it out to be.

Bartre is a more specialised Ward, which is bad enough, but he gets destroyed by anyone with speed and that D rank in bows isn't making him a reliable bow user. He also isn't going to improve quickly with that 10 SPD.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Myrmidon Jim

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Sue is ok in NM but on HM... no!

(actually Idk what difficulty OP is playing, guess NM for being the first time)

Sue has no HM boosts and joins with awful bases.

In the chapter she can act for the first time the enemies (draco knights) can already oneshot her.

She has actually a similar problem to the pegasus knights: awful base strength, low con and has hit issues. It's way too much effort to invest into her.

Shin is ok for having HM boosts and better con.

In my current HM I even use Wolt instead of Sue, what I don't regret. Since he has a fast support with Roy and Alance he can become more accurate early on. Of course his speedgrowth isn't as good as Sue's, but therefore he has more con and better support options.

About Gonzales: As a berserker he tends to have more crit- than hitrate which is hilarious.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Ayama Wirdo

[ping]

Comparing base stats, Sue beats Wolt in every single one except HP (where she ties). But of course, a trained Wolt has a considerable EXP lead, so I'll admit that training her is an effort at first.
Her strength growth is a bit shaky, but her speed is good enough that she should be able to tank the speed penalty of the Steel Bow. She also has the highest skill and luck stats of all the four early game bow users, so I'm not sure why she should have accuracy issues.

But I'll leave it at that, we're kinda derailing the thread. ;)

--

Since we already mentioned it: This game has two route splits that each last a few chapters and give you different recruits.

First one is on the Western Isles and not that big of a deal. You can choose the path by (not) visiting a certain village in the first Isles map. One route does offer a better prepromote than the other one, but she's far from being a gamebreaker - still a nice unit for quite a few chapters though.

Second one is a bit more tricky - you either go to Ilia (if you Peg Knights gather more EXP over the course of the game) or to Sacae (if your Nomads gather more EXP). The exclusive recruits both kinda suck, but I think most people consider Sacae to be the harder route, simply because enemy Peg Knights are pathetic while Nomads can actually be a pain. However, I agree with Myrmidon Jim that Sacae isn't as bad as people say, so I wouldn't drop a character just because of this (unless you replay the game and try to go the other routes). Just make sure you steal a certain item from the chapter 16 Boss. You'll know when you see it. =)

---

Bartre is a more specialised Ward, which is bad enough, but he gets destroyed by anyone with speed and that D rank in bows isn't making him a reliable bow user. He also isn't going to improve quickly with that 10 SPD.

He can provide some decent chip damage for a while, so that's ...nice (and bows with their good accuracy help with that). But yeah, he's pretty bad compared to the other prepromotes in this game. Also, I kinda forgot about Yuno and (to a lesser extent) Dayan in my first post; they are also pretty sucky even when they join.

€: Also, I agree with everything else in that post. I love Lugh, but your judgement is accurate, unfortunately. ;)

Edited August 19, 2016 by ping

[gringe]

This isn't so much a gameplay tip, but I would recommend downloading the English translation patch and Japanese ROM and patching it yourself. There is a pre-patched ROM floating around the Internet that causes the game to hang after a certain chapter halfway through the game.

[wissenschaft]

So I've beat Ch. 9 Hard Mode now. You know, surprisingly, I'm enjoying FE 6. The map variety seems pretty well done and I enjoy the storyline. FE 7's story seemed more bland at the start. My Dieck is level 13 with Str 16/skill 17/Spd 16. Seems like quite above average growths for him. How did that happen? lol I'm going to raise up Noah, Lilina, and Fir to see how they turn out. I'll use Shin too just to poke enemies but I'm leveling up my Pegasus Knight because I sure as hell don't want deal with maps full of nomads.

Oddly enough, Lugh is my highest level character, at level 15 already. lol Magic is at 11 which I suppose is decent given his growth rate but he has defense 9 and resistance 12. Hes decently tanky, for a mage. I still have that Angelic Robe, I might give it to Lugh to complete his tankyness.

Edited August 21, 2016 by wissenschaft

[EdwardSunnyDisposition]

I have not played in a while, probably going to do a session now. I think I'm starting chapter 4?

Thanks for all the advice, I have been reading it even if I haven't replied!

Edit: Wow I recognize this map from EliHector story, takes me back"

Edited August 23, 2016 by EdwardSunnyDisposition

[EdwardSunnyDisposition]

Update: About to start Chapter 6, how are my levels looking?

(Despite all the advice, I've been using almost all the units :/ And suddenly a good majority of the units in this map are on par or above my highest level...ah well, it'll be a doozy!)

Roy 7
Marcus -/1 Haven't used him much but he could be good setup with a weak weapon to train other units
Alan 5
Bors 3
Wolt 5 Kind of meh but...I still want to use him for some inherent reason, will probs use a prepromote in conjunction

Lance 6
Merlinus 1 lol
Ellen 5
Ward 5

Lot 6
Dieck 7
Thany 2 (Haven't used her much)
Chad 7 ...He actually caught up very quickly (high internal EXP gain?) and I do like training thieves past utility purposes
Lugh 6
Clarine 2 (I'm going to use both healers, any healer is welcome in my book)
Rutger 7 This guy broken af with or without the Killing Edge

[Dual Dragons]

Once you drop a few units, you should be fine on levels. At the very beginning, it can be hard to drop units until you have better ones. In all seriousness, dropping Bors and Wade (for example, all depends on your playstyle) is probably for the best. I personally find Knights in this game hard to use due to the huge map sizes and every chapter except one being Seize objective. And I agree with the others saying Lot and Wade are not that good. Lot's better but not much better.

Thany has a tough start because the early game being pretty axe/lance heavy. If you don't train her soon, she'll have a tough time later in the Western Isles.

I like Saul (who you get in this chapter) over Elen since he's faster. The real problem with these two is that, upon promotion, they have an extremely low Light rank on default and raising weapon ranks in this game is slow.

[EdwardSunnyDisposition]

Once you drop a few units, you should be fine on levels. At the very beginning, it can be hard to drop units until you have better ones. In all seriousness, dropping Bors and Wade (for example, all depends on your playstyle) is probably for the best. I personally find Knights in this game hard to use due to the huge map sizes and every chapter except one being Seize objective. And I agree with the others saying Lot and Wade are not that good. Lot's better but not much better.

Thany has a tough start because the early game being pretty axe/lance heavy. If you don't train her soon, she'll have a tough time later in the Western Isles.

I like Saul (who you get in this chapter) over Elen since he's faster. The real problem with these two is that, upon promotion, they have an extremely low Light rank on default and raising weapon ranks in this game is slow.

Well, I'll try my best to make my team smaller. So far it hasn't been too bad, as long as I play tactically. Honestly the current level of difficulty I face is most likely due to my lowish levels, but I'm actually enjoying the fact. I suppose I won't think so happily if I maintain it for lategame though :o

[wissenschaft]

Don't worry, your levels will catch up and surpass enemies soon enough. You will also keep gaining better units as the game goes on so you can switch in the new characters so they can gain levels rather than then letting over-leveled units hog all the EXP.

[ping]

I don't really like using Saul as a combat unit either because his luck is absolutely atrocious and I don't really like having to worry about enemy crits constantly. So I don't think that either he or Elen have a big advantage over the other. Clarine, meanwhile, can grow up to be an amazing dodgetank, although her low magic base and growth can be an issue.

This chapter features (a part of) one of the most annoying recruitments in the game. Cath (that thief girl) will appear at some point and Roy can talk to her. She won't join yet though - instead, she'll appear in a few more indoor maps and will only join your team after Roy has talked to her a third time. You can steal her lockpicks, though!

Well, I'll try my best to make my team smaller. So far it hasn't been too bad, as long as I play tactically. Honestly the current level of difficulty I face is most likely due to my lowish levels, but I'm actually enjoying the fact. I suppose I won't think so happily if I maintain it for lategame though :o

Well, you only have 10 slots (plus the new recruits) in this chapter, so you're pretty much forced to downsize from here on. ;) It's not worth it rotating units in and out of your team, so you'll automatically focus your EXP more now.

I'd recommend keeping your Cavs, Marcus (for now), Deke and Rutger, and probably Thany, too, if only for her flying utility in some upcoming chapters.

Also, you'll get two bow users in this chapter, both probably better than Wolt (one has generally better growths, the other one has a pony). But if you want to keep Wolt, go ahead. He'll most likely turn out fine, he's just not quite as good as them and needs way more tender loving care than the prepromotes.