First time playing, advice please

[ping]

It's a Killer Bow (left village) vs. a Restore Staff (right village) and yeah, both villages close their gates if you visit either of them. The one in the SW is completely unrelated to this, though.

I believe that the Elphin/Bartre route nets you a Energy Ring while Echidna/Lalum gives you an Angelic Robe, fwiw. (plus a bunch of shared and/or less important items)

I just remembered: If you go Elphin/Bartre, bring Lot to Ch.10 as well and have him collect the villages. It's his hometown, so he (and Wade if he wasn't dead) gets not only special dialogue, but also way better items out of some houses than anyone else.

Welp, I've got some indecision to grapple with ~____~

Don't worry about it too much. Storywise, both Elphin and Lalum will appear anyway (and only Elphin will stay relevant for the rest of the plot), so it's mostly about the different units you can get. And while there are differences, neither route gives you a gamebreaking advantage or disadvantage.

Edited November 8, 2016 by ping

[BANRYU]

It's a Killer Bow (left village) vs. a Restore Staff (right village) and yeah, both villages close their gates if you visit either of them. The one in the SW is completely unrelated to this, though.

I believe that the Elphin/Bartre route nets you a Energy Ring while Echidna/Lalum gives you an Angelic Robe, fwiw. (plus a bunch of shared and/or less important items)

I just remembered: If you go Elphin/Bartre, bring Lot to Ch.10 as well and have him collect the villages. It's his hometown, so he (and Wade if he wasn't dead) gets not only special dialogue, but also way better items out of some houses than anyone else.

Oops.

Yeah... Wade is dead for me... haha... RIP Deadpool.

Tough call but TBH that Killer Bow sounds like the most appealing choice out of all of them lol. Guess it's Echidna/Lalum them. Too bad bc that Energy Ring sounds appealing (planning on using a lot of magic units), but ehh.

Elphin is def the more interesting of the two to me, but I suppose if he gets involved in the plot later then grabbing Lalum is the best/closest way to see most everyone.

This is really helpful BTW, thanks a bunch for your input haha.

[Flee Fleet!]

^Yeah I'm also going for the Lalum route.

Mainly because some characters come at lower levels but same base stats as they would have in the second route, iirc? And because you get Echidna, and she's seems to be awesome.

Currently, Noah is doing good for me. He also has a higher rank in swords so that helps a plenty.

[BANRYU]

Okay so.

I have a level 20/1 Bishop Elen now.

My biggest question is where's the light magix @___@

[ping]

My biggest question is where's the light magix @___@

Vendor in chapter 11, so it's not too far away.

Chapter 11, by the way, isn't super hard to finish, but (at least on hard mode) it's really difficult to get all the optional treasure. You have to visit all the houses (not so bad) and save all the NPC accompanying the recruitable enemies (much harder).

Also, recruit the new Peg Knight with the new Sniper, not with the old Peg Knight. It's much easier that way.

[BANRYU]

Aight, I'm up to chapter 11 by this point. Think I might try to use Geese if he doesn't grow terribly, we'll see how he goes.

Also, though I'm not gonna use him, I really like Gonzalez haha. How can you not love a big lug like that? Maybe if I decide to replay (probably won't but shrug)... He can't promote, can he?

Also, is Clarine supposed to have a terrible Magic growth? She's level 10 and has 2 points in it.

Wolt and Noah are getting ditched as well at this point I think. Sue and Lance are working out way better for me.

[ping]

Also, though I'm not gonna use him, I really like Gonzalez haha. How can you not love a big lug like that? Maybe if I decide to replay (probably won't but shrug)... He can't promote, can he?

He can - Geese and Gonzalez both use Hero Crests to promote into Berserkers. Gonzo gets +5 skill on promotion, by the way, so that might help him to hit stuff once in a while. His Skl growth is absolutely atrocious, though. He's much better on hard mode, thanks to the bonus stats he'll get as a red unit. On normal, they're both rather mediocre, Geese probably being a bit more reliable.

Also, is Clarine supposed to have a terrible Magic growth? She's level 10 and has 2 points in it.

You're a bit unlucky, but she has indeed only 30% magic growth. Each of the three healers has some kind of dump stat - Elen's speed (20%), Saul's luck (15%) and Clarine's magic (30% with a rather poor base stat).

[Shadow Mir]

Aight, I'm up to chapter 11 by this point. Think I might try to use Geese if he doesn't grow terribly, we'll see how he goes.

Also, though I'm not gonna use him, I really like Gonzalez haha. How can you not love a big lug like that? Maybe if I decide to replay (probably won't but shrug)... He can't promote, can he?

He can, but unfortunately, he needs a Hero Crest to do so.

[BANRYU]

ALL RIGHT. Managed to wipe out all enemies on the map AND save all the NPCs and villages, noice. Time for some arena abuse.

Rutger capped his Skill and Speed at level 18, so I promoted him. So let's see... I'll have a Hero Crest, Elysian Whip, and Orion's Bolt by the end, plus the Knight's Crest and other EW that I have already.... and I don't think I'm gonna use Tate. So that'll be Sue, Shanna, Lance, and then either Geese/Lot/Deke. Maybe I'll grind all three of them to 20 and give it to whoever has the best stats lol.

[ping]

Wait, shouldn't you have a second Elysian Whip from a chest in ch.8?

Nevertheless, dropping Tate is probably a good decision, especially if Shanna's doing fine. Her growths are quite good, but her base stats (and, same as Shanna, her low Con) don't do her any favours. Like Gonzales, Tate is quite a bit more viable on hard difficulty.

[BANRYU]

plus the Knight's Crest and other EW that I have already....

Wait, shouldn't you have a second Elysian Whip from a chest in ch.8?

Nevertheless, dropping Tate is probably a good decision, especially if Shanna's doing fine. Her growths are quite good, but her base stats (and, same as Shanna, her low Con) don't do her any favours. Like Gonzales, Tate is quite a bit more viable on hard difficulty.

Yeah, I was just unclear about how I referred to it. ~3~ My bad.

Yep that was probably the hardest level so far, had to replay it once but I got it, just rescued as many of the green units as possible lol. I sent Clarine with the party to the northeast instead of the south, so getting Klain's archers to stand clear so Roy could reach him before anyone killed them was kind of a pain, esp with the bandit on his way to the nearest house... Christ. Such a $#!7storm, BUT I CONQUERED. I GOT ALL THE THINGS. HAH. SUCK MY TACDICKS, GAME

Sooo... Clarine hit level 20 (finally got some points of Magic) and I got tired of grinding before Lot hit level 20, so Deke and Geese are my only options for my current Hero Crest. Compared Deke's level 20 promoted stats to Echidna and he's better in pretty much everything except Speed, but I might just go with Geese because I kinda like him, mediocre though he seems.

Man... I'm really missing the ability to use items in the base in this game haha... ;; it's really inconvenient. Oh well. I've got like 5 ppl to promote at the start of this level... And it looks like this is the one that unlocks the Armads level as well. Hoboy... time limits. Not a fan lol.

EDIT: is there anyone in particular who badly wants stat-boosting items, either now or later? I've been habitually holding onto all of them. Might use them on Sophia cuz favoritism, but ehh -shrug-

Edited November 11, 2016 by BANRYU

[ping]

Nah, apparently I just cannot read. :D

@Echidna: That's basically a recurring theme with the prepromotes in this game. They usually have great stats when they join, but their growth rates are pretty low. Iirc, Klain is the only prepromote with decent growth rates, but on normal, his bases aren't spectacular. Since you abused the hell out of the last arena, you'll probably be able to drop most prepromotes instantly.

EDIT: is there anyone in particular who badly wants stat-boosting items, either now or later? I've been habitually holding onto all of them. Might use them on Sophia cuz favoritism, but ehh -shrug-

Maybe an Angelic Robe to Roy or one of your magic users? Roy doesn't promote until very late in the game, so he's going to be more and more squishy from now on. Other than that, you might as well just drop all of them on Sophia. You could also sell your Goddess Icons and Talismans - this game features both a Silver Card and buyable stat boosters, so this would be a 1:1 trade for a better boost.

Don't worry about the time limit too much. Ch.12 is pretty easy, especially compared to ch11. Cath will make an appearance, so if Roy has chatted with her in ch6 and ch8, you can finally recruit her. Not that she's any good at this point of the game. :D

[BANRYU]

Oh yeah I finished it and grabbed Cath. I even somehow managed to scrooge every bit of exp out of the level by going after the defenseless clerics near the bottom lol... ;; Currently finishing up 13 after grinding Milady a bit, didn't get her as much as I'd have liked but ehh I'll make up for it somehow. Reinforcements were all over the place and it was hard to corral'em where I wanted but ehh w/e. Got her the boss kill at least haha.

Whoops, noticed THIS chapter has an arena too. Time for Milady to be a Wyvern Lord for next chapter lol. Man, this game has like... almost Awakening levels of grinding egregiousness, it feels like. Combined with Awakening levels of reinforcement cheese. shrug. Also, I'm running out of inventory space because the shop here has killer weapons and why wouldn't I buy like a million of them.

EDIT: hooboy Arcadia does not look fun. At least Sophia's finally-- ...level 1? ....Ohhh Sophia.... Sophia Sophia Sophia why...

Edited November 12, 2016 by BANRYU

[Jedi]

Whoops, noticed THIS chapter has an arena too. Time for Milady to be a Wyvern Lord for next chapter lol. Man, this game has like... almost Awakening levels of grinding egregiousness, it feels like. Combined with Awakening levels of reinforcement cheese. shrug. Also, I'm running out of inventory space because the shop here has killer weapons and why wouldn't I buy like a million of them.

With that logic any FE game with an Arena is like Awakening. Don't really agree with that statement in the slightest.

I'm honestly still not sure why people Arena abuse when it makes the game less fun (Imo anyways, sorry that may have sounded more elitist than I really intended), guess thats just a taste thing.

Edited November 12, 2016 by Jedi

[BANRYU]

I guess to me it's just the fact that they allow it. If you don't self-discipline, it's pretty tempting and easy to take advantage of, since there's no real penalty for doing so or reason not to-- in chapter 12, for instance (or whichever one it was where the bishop ran the mining operation in case I'm misnumbering), there is even a shop that sells staves directly north of the arena, so there's not even a limit in THAT regard. It's literally unlimited and without penalty, which I guess is what they intended for anyone who thinks to do that? And I guess that's fair.

Maybe there were more of those situations in Blazing Sword than I'm remembering, but for the most part, I don't recall many chapters with arenas that were THIS easy to exploit for exp and gold.

In any case, whether or not they ruin the experience depends on the person, I think. Ordinarily I'd be anti-grind, but since this game is so imbalanced with the new units they introduce so often, I prefer to do it just for the additional peace of mind it offers lol...

Also whoof. This chapter sucks. Already had to restart one because Shanna didn't find the treasure in that corner of the desert before the effeminate berserker twins showed up lol. And wasn't doing too hot aside. This is gonna be a rough one...

Edited November 12, 2016 by BANRYU

[ping]

You might want to know about the reset trick: If during ch.14 you

1) restart your GBA

2) continue the chapter

3) check exactly one character portrait (by pressing R) and leave the screen afterwards

4) walk any character into an item zone

5) repeat for every hidden item in the sand,

you get a 100% chance to find every item on your first try. It makes ch.14 a lot more tolerable, especially considering the relatively tight turn limit.

[BANRYU]

Oh. That sounds like a neat trick. I beat it anyway lol whoops. x3x Just used Shanna to ferry my thief around the map to all the treasure spots. Managed to get everything and clear the map in around 19 turns. Managed to feed Sophia two of the three manakete kills and a few others aside, she's just shy of level 6. Bought probably way too many Aircaliburs (like 6). Lugh joins the ranks of Deke and Clarine sitting at level 20 and waiting for a promotion item as well x___x Gonna use the Guiding Ring on Lilina.

The storage space getting filled up is an issue that's been surprisingly prevalent for me lol. Maybe it's just my scroogey habits from Blazing Sword and the greater weapon availability here, but I'm having to fill my unused units up with extra items that I know I'm not gonna need if I take Merlinus into levels. Jeez.

Ah, okay, so here's a question. Who are good recipients for the Body Ring and Boots? Ordinarily I give the boots to Hector in FE7, but not sure who would benefit from them here, since I'm not really using any Knights or other movement-restricted units.

[Shadow Mir]

Oh. That sounds like a neat trick. I beat it anyway lol whoops. x3x Just used Shanna to ferry my thief around the map to all the treasure spots. Managed to get everything and clear the map in around 19 turns. Managed to feed Sophia two of the three manakete kills and a few others aside, she's just shy of level 6. Bought probably way too many Aircaliburs (like 6). Lugh joins the ranks of Deke and Clarine sitting at level 20 and waiting for a promotion item as well x___x Gonna use the Guiding Ring on Lilina.

The storage space getting filled up is an issue that's been surprisingly prevalent for me lol. Maybe it's just my scroogey habits from Blazing Sword and the greater weapon availability here, but I'm having to fill my unused units up with extra items that I know I'm not gonna need if I take Merlinus into levels. Jeez.

Ah, okay, so here's a question. Who are good recipients for the Body Ring and Boots? Ordinarily I give the boots to Hector in FE7, but not sure who would benefit from them here, since I'm not really using any Knights or other movement-restricted units.

Bold: You'll be thankful for those later, really.

[BANRYU]

Bold: You'll be thankful for those later, really.

Ooh good to know.

[Jedi]

Give body rings to people who have low Con so they can double with heavier weapons better or just be better in general.

[Shadow Mir]

Ooh good to know.

Well, Aircalibur IS the bane of wyvern riders, and you're going to be seeing a lot of those late in the game.

[BANRYU]

Well, Aircalibur IS the bane of wyvern riders, and you're going to be seeing a lot of those late in the game.

yeah true. I guess my thought was IDK how useful they're going to be over regular tomes with strong magic users since WRs have crappy Res anyway. shrug.

In other news: My god, I thought 14 was bad... 14x is SUCH a piece of ass. Not even good ass, like hairy and wrinkly with warts and shit. Ugh.

Can't decide whether it's better to bait out the sages' Bolting uses until they run out or make a mad dash; tried both, neither is really working out for me. Blegh

Give body rings to people who have low Con so they can double with heavier weapons better or just be better in general.

Oh whoops I missed this. Duly noted.

Sue looks like she has the lowest Con of my physical units, so planning to give it to her so she can use Steel without being too slow. Otherwise, maybe Shanna. I like Sue better tho anyway.

EDIT: Okay that wasn't so bad, turtling up at the spawn area seemed to do the trick. Was able to funnel a lot of kills into Sophia that way, as well as stall for time for her to use all the stat boosters I brought for her (1x Seraph Robe, Secret Book, Dracoshield, and 2x Speedwing).

Here's what favoritism Sophia looks like after 14x:

That's not bad, yeah?

I think I'm basically pretending Sophia is my new lord at this point since Roy is hitting the stage in the game where he's pretty much useless for anything but seizing.

Still dunno who to give the boots to. Probably Sophia at this point lol but I'll hold off just in case.

Edited November 13, 2016 by BANRYU

[Flee Fleet!]

^Yeah, your Sophia's stat's are same as my Wendy's, except having less defense and more res.

Anyways, I had taken a break from the game, and now I'm back:

Ch9: Had to restart this chapter a few times, because either Fir or Noah died. But otherwise, I was able to have my units gain some good level ups. Unfortunately Fir only had skill and speed increased in most of her level ups, so she sucks in the defense apartment. Fortunately she has higher HP than Lilina. Also Shin has less strength but he gets the job done.

Speaking of Lilina, she's like the counterpart of Lugh, excelling in stats in which Lugh does not and vice versa.

Also I'm finally ditching Lot and Ward. They suck, a lot. Ward only excels in strength, and Lot does not even have a double digit point in any stat.

ch10A: I liked the design of this map. I had a bad start in the beginning, but fortunately it worked out. Also Dieck seems to only dodge attacks from axe users.He gets hit from every other enemy unit. I also promoted Ellen, and she looks fabulous. It's also cool to see promoted her come with a D rank in light instead of an E rank.

Also the two new units in this chapter were axe users, Gonzalez and Geese. I feel bad for Gonzalez. He's ugly and therefore rejected and has a Devil axe, which sucks. Also he has low accuracy, lower than Ward. But, fortunately, his bases are not that bad(except in luck and skill), so he does find. As for Geese:

Geese + Brave axe = An actual awesome axe fighter who doesn't suck and can actually fight.

Now, I'm going to start chapter 10A, so any tips please? I do know that three units will join in this chapter.

Also, I'm ditching Zelot, Marcus, Barth and Trec, as I don't really like the latter two, and the former two are prepromotes.

[ping]

Yeah, Lilina is basically Micaiah v0.6 and the Power Mage to Lugh's Speedy Mage.

Don't get too optimistic with Ellen's weapon rank because unlike in the other GBA games, more advanced weapons do not give the user more weapon EXP. Since Ellen is too squishy to see much enemy phase action, you'll have to invest pretty heavily to get to the S-Rank.

I assume you meant ch.11A? Save all the green units (the escort of two of the new recruits) and visit all the villages to get some promotional items. The former can be pretty tough, though.

The new recruits are 1) Enemy sniper coming from the SE (recuitable by Clarine or Roy)

2) Enemy peg knight coming from the NW (recruitable by said sniper and technically Shanna)

3) Allied Hero, appearing in front of one of the eastern houses. Recruitable by Lalum, but be careful - some enemies spawn with her.

Shanna can technically recruit the new pegasus knight, but it's much easier to let the new sniper do it. Not sure if this is true for normal mode, but if the pegasus squad moves south on their first turn, they will most likely be slaughtered by cavalier reinforcements. Try to lure them to the northeast - that's where their escape point is.

[BANRYU]

Yeah, Lilina is basically Micaiah v0.6 and the Power Mage to Lugh's Speedy Mage.

Don't get too optimistic with Ellen's weapon rank because unlike in the other GBA games, more advanced weapons do not give the user more weapon EXP. Since Ellen is too squishy to see much enemy phase action, you'll have to invest pretty heavily to get to the S-Rank.

I assume you meant ch.11A? Save all the green units (the escort of two of the new recruits) and visit all the villages to get some promotional items. The former can be pretty tough, though.

The new recruits are 1) Enemy sniper coming from the SE (recuitable by Clarine or Roy)

2) Enemy peg knight coming from the NW (recruitable by said sniper and technically Shanna)

3) Allied Hero, appearing in front of one of the eastern houses. Recruitable by Lalum, but be careful - some enemies spawn with her.

Shanna can technically recruit the new pegasus knight, but it's much easier to let the new sniper do it. Not sure if this is true for normal mode, but if the pegasus squad moves south on their first turn, they will most likely be slaughtered by cavalier reinforcements. Try to lure them to the northeast - that's where their escape point is.

I actually had a much easier time sending Shanna to where her sis spawns, dodging a few javelins, and neutralizing the hostility factor before sending the sniper in to recruit.

As for me, I'm up to the Aquleia chapter; Sophia is level 18 now and I'm super loving the new sniper and paladin that joined, will probably keep them. Also wanna use Fae bcuz obligatory dragons. The Hammerne staff is all for her.

Unfortunately, my computer is having major problems and can't boot up. My run might be over if they have to wipe my computer to fix it...