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Starting Path Of Radiance


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As a general rule, mounted and flying units are especially good in this game. And you should definitely use Mia no bias at all nope. One of the nicknames this game has is Horse Emblem because of it. There aren't any paired endings in PoR, since those are handled in the sequel, Radiant Dawn.

As for special things to know, when you get to the desert, make sure to send one of your laguz to the upper right area of the map to find something special, and easily missable. I won't say more than that unless you want explicit details, but you'll know what it is when you find it. 

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Aside from what Ether said, two of your units will leave early on. The first one practically requires shoving to get back (technically; he can only be recruited by the new unit in this chapter, and she has a tendency to die if not recruited immediately), and the second one requires Rolf to talk to him (he'll do it for you if he can move up to Rolf), then you have to use Ike to defeat him.

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1 hour ago, PurpleKawaii said:

So yeah, I'm starting Path of Radiance. Which units should I use? Is there anything special I should know? Also, are there Paired Endings?

There are no paired endings in Path of Radiance; those wouldn't come in until the sequel Radiant Dawn.

As for great units to use: Ike (obvious, as a main character, but he'll always turn out pretty great), Titania (careful on her early use, as she's pre-promoted, but doesn't fall off like Jagen does), Boyd (great attack and high HP, good defense, etc.), Soren (squishy as all getout, but will decimate with his high magic)... In all honesty, all of the Greil Mercenaries are pretty good. Nephenee is really good, and Ranulf is the best laguz you'll get until the very end.

But yeah, most everyone is at least usable...except Sothe, for the most part, due to his lack of a promotion.

A word of advice. Be wary of using Shinon early. You'll find out why very soon while playing.

Edited by Extrasolar
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2 hours ago, Extrasolar said:

There are no paired endings in Path of Radiance; those wouldn't come in until the sequel Radiant Dawn.

As for great units to use: Ike (obvious, as a main character, but he'll always turn out pretty great), Titania (careful on her early use, as she's pre-promoted, but doesn't fall off like Jagen does), Boyd (great attack and high HP, good defense, etc.), Soren (squishy as all getout, but will decimate with his high magic)... In all honesty, all of the Greil Mercenaries are pretty good. Nephenee is really good, and Ranulf is the best laguz you'll get until the very end.

But yeah, most everyone is at least usable...except Sothe, for the most part, due to his lack of a promotion.

A word of advice. Be wary of using Shinon early. You'll find out why very soon while playing.

Yeah, So far I'm using Ike and Gatrie. I'm in chapter 8. Ike is Lv.20 and Gatrie is a Lv.1 General XD, Thinking of using Ilyana since I passed Soren cuase he seems really hard to train. My style is not using many units, which makes them Level up and promoting extremely fast. (Seen here)... But now I'm a bit lost... I wanted 2 more units... Ranulf maybe? I already have a lance user so no to Marcia... maybe Elincia later on?

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34 minutes ago, PurpleKawaii said:

Yeah, So far I'm using Ike and Gatrie. I'm in chapter 8. Ike is Lv.20 and Gatrie is a Lv.1 General XD, Thinking of using Ilyana since I passed Soren cuase he seems really hard to train. My style is not using many units, which makes them Level up and promoting extremely fast. (Seen here)... But now I'm a bit lost... I wanted 2 more units... Ranulf maybe? I already have a lance user so no to Marcia... maybe Elincia later on?

Uh... It may be too late, but you might want to ease up on Gatrie, for a reason you'll find out soon.

Soren actually turns out better than Ilyana if trained, with higher magic, resistance, speed, and skill than Ilyana, with Ilyana having a far better strength growth (if you want to use the heavier tomes, but a basic Wind tome is really all Soren needs to do damage) and being just slightly tankier on the defense. Soren's decent skill means Adept (gives him another attack for free) tends to activate a lot too. Soren's not too hard to train so long as you park a high defense unit right in front of him;, though admittedly you have to be very careful with him in the early game, as he'll at most take 2 hits before death. I used the likes of Oscar, personally, because his middling stats means that he didn't usually kill the enemy like Ike does.

Ranulf is a great choice. His stats are relatively high all around, whereas Lethe is faster, but more fragile, and Mordecai is much stronger, but also much slower. As for another lance user, wait until you get Nephenee. You won't be disappointed.

Edited by Extrasolar
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12 minutes ago, Extrasolar said:

Uh... It may be too late, but you might want to ease up on Gatrie, for a reason you'll find out soon.

 

Could you please tell me? Oh he only rejoins in chapter 13... whatever I'm using him anyway XD 

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1 hour ago, PurpleKawaii said:

Yeah, So far I'm using Ike and Gatrie. I'm in chapter 8. Ike is Lv.20 and Gatrie is a Lv.1 General XD, Thinking of using Ilyana since I passed Soren cuase he seems really hard to train. My style is not using many units, which makes them Level up and promoting extremely fast. (Seen here)... But now I'm a bit lost... I wanted 2 more units... Ranulf maybe? I already have a lance user so no to Marcia... maybe Elincia later on?

From the sounds of it you are playing easy mode then? The exp gains in that mode are all kinds of silly. Everyone will hit lv 20 long before the end of the game. So personally I don't think it's a fun mode to play. If you are having fun, it's all good of course. I just thought that you should know that this strange level progression is not normal.

Whatever the case, it might be a good idea not to give Ike any skills so that he has enough capacity to learn Aether when you get an Occult Scroll. Occult Scrolls teach promoted units their "Mastery" skill. Which may sound powerful, but in practice most of them are painfully underpowered. Aether on the other hand is basically Adept + Sol + Luna rolled into one and the best Mastery Skill by far.

Edited by BrightBow
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1 minute ago, BrightBow said:

Whatever the case, it might be a good idea not to give Ike any skills so that he has enough capacity to learn Aether when you get an Occult Scroll. Occult Scrolls teach promoted units their "Mastery" skill. Which may sound powerful, but in practice most of them are painfully underpowered. Aether on the other hand is basically Adept + Sol + Luna rolled into one and the best Mastery Skill by far.

Not to mention, you pretty much need Aether to beat the game. Ike is already a strong unit, but putting Aether on him makes him all the better.

6 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

I take it you are playing easy mode then? The exp gains in that mode are all kinds of silly. Everyone will hit lv 20 long before the end of the game. So personally I don't think it's a fun mode to play.

In all fairness, easy mode might be the best road for a first-timer. But otherwise, yeah, easy mode is very easy.

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15 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

From the sounds of it you are playing easy mode then? The exp gains in that mode are all kinds of silly. Everyone will hit lv 20 long before the end of the game. So personally I don't think it's a fun mode to play. If you are having fun, it's all good of course. I just thought that you should know that this strange level progression is not normal.

 

Yeah I'm playing on easy, It's my first time so yeah :P I also noticed it when Ilyana is getting literally 50EXP From Kills at Lv.15.

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16 minutes ago, Extrasolar said:

Not to mention, you pretty much need Aether to beat the game. Ike is already a strong unit, but putting Aether on him makes him all the better.

In all fairness, easy mode might be the best road for a first-timer. But otherwise, yeah, easy mode is very easy.

I'm not sure if it's even easy at all. I remember easy mode to be all kinds of weird. Like, that enemies were actually significantly tougher then the recruitable characters from the same map.

And then there is also the issue with the data transfer to the sequel game Radiant Dawn. The data transfer doesn't work with the early North American copies of Radiant Dawn if you have any Easy Mode data in PoR. Presumably because the developers simply forgot about it since this easy mode only exists in the international version.

Edited by BrightBow
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Aether is not necessary. Wrath can also suffice for the one-lucked based battle where it is useful. Or Ike can just land every hit on the relevant foe whiles Mist kills the Bishops that eventually get summoned to prevent them from healing. Losing said battle results in somebody dying and not being playable, and in RD Ike canonically won the luck fight. That said, the game will go on, and you'll get a different unit who is generally considered inferior, not that the unit it replaces is godly or anything near it, they just make the final battle a little easier than the replacement does. As others have said though, most Occult skills are useless, and you get four of those scrolls, whereas everyone likes the one Wrath scroll.

On the topic of the final fight, only Ike, either PC from the luck fight, and one of three characters you can summon for the final fight on like the second turn of it can actually damage the final boss. Ike with Aether, or Wrath and or Resolve, will make the fight go faster.

On average, Soren has the best offense of the Mages and Sages, Tormod has Celerity for the best mobility, Ilyana is just third place to them. Calill is good magic filler, albeit without staff access. Bastian has the highest growth rate total among Beorc, but either it isn't distributed well or his bases are just too bad because he is hardly a good unit. Rhys and Mist are second bananas when to comes to magic offense (Rhys can't double, Mist needs to boost her Sword Rank and relies on two rare weapons).

From a tier-list perspective, all the mounted units (Titania-Marcia-Jill being the holy trinity) are the best but everyone is usable in PoR, especially on Easy.

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mounts are by far the best units in this game, specifically marcia and titania.  but everyone is usable, even in hard mode.  like even rolf is decent because the game gives you enough bonus experience to fix shoddy bases.  

 

 

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Just use Mia, vantage + guard/adept/wrath is all really friggin good on her imo

but bias aside, Nephenee is great for lances, Ike for Swords (promotes after chapter 17 though so hold off on feeding him too much for the moment ;) ), Boyd or Titania for Axes (If limiting characters, go Titania), Soren for Magic (though I love Ilyana, but she needs to be fed 2-3 speedwings to be really outstanding).

as a tip, train soren in wind and thunder magic only, save some of the arms scrolls for him if you use him. You really want that A in wind (fliers) and S in thunder (S-tome) on your main mage, fire can be overlooked due to laguz weapons.

Elincia joins reaaaaaally late and is a sword and staff user, not lances. Special class and all that jazz.

Marcia can also really wreak havoc with swords and lances, she's a flier, but get her that one special item and she won't have to worry about a thing anymore (save for maybe a slightly low hp and def :/ )

 

Edited by Trymer
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2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Aether is not necessary. Wrath can also suffice for the one-lucked based battle where it is useful. Or Ike can just land every hit on the relevant foe whiles Mist kills the Bishops that eventually get summoned to prevent them from healing. Losing said battle results in somebody dying and not being playable, and in RD Ike canonically won the luck fight. That said, the game will go on, and you'll get a different unit who is generally considered inferior, not that the unit it replaces is godly or anything near it, they just make the final battle a little easier than the replacement does. As others have said though, most Occult skills are useless, and you get four of those scrolls, whereas everyone likes the one Wrath scroll.

On the topic of the final fight, only Ike, either PC from the luck fight, and one of three characters you can summon for the final fight on like the second turn of it can actually damage the final boss. Ike with Aether, or Wrath and or Resolve, will make the fight go faster.

Not having Aether on Ike makes the game in general far harder (especially considering we're giving advice to someone who has never played it before), since not only does it deal far increased damage, but is also a heal. You'll have a much more difficult time taking down the final two bosses without Aether equipped.

And assuming the OP is doing a classic "no character deaths" run, the fact that a character dies if the battle is lost is a bit counterproductive.

Edited by Extrasolar
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As far as I know, Adept+Wrath is actually the most reliable skill combo for the optional-and-luckbased bossfight, thanks to proc rates. For the final boss, Resolve+Wrath is the best available skill setup on Ike. The main reason to use Aether is the sweet attack animation.

Also, fleeing from the optional bossfight just gives you another playable unit, so it would still fulfill the 'Full Recruitment' criteria.

--

The big reason why mounts are (rightfully) considered to be far better than infantry units is that there is basically no downside to their increased mobility. Their combat parameters are just as good; if they're underleveled, you can just use BEXP to make them catch up; and the bonus damage from horseslayers/bows is hardly threatening in this game. But if you don't care about mobility (because you play cautiously/slowly anyway), the difference in performance between the units in this game is way smaller than for example FE6.

So tbh, you can just ignore any advice on who to use altogether and just roll with whoever you like. Just keep some bonus experience ready so they can become amazing instantly.

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Aether has at best a 27% chance of activating, you shouldn't rely on it for healing or damage. Also, an A Oscar's +30 avoid boost I'd daresay offers Ike more durability than Aether.

And again, Wrath and Resolve exist for the final fight, though it'd be understandable if you chose to give them to someone else. Not to mention on Easy the final boss doesn't move, so there is less incentive to kill him quick. And there is no second phase of the final boss on Easy so you get your final battle recruit pick almost right way.

Prior to Ragnell acquisition, Ike isn't the best fighter. You obviously should raise him, and he has the awesome stats for sure, but swordlock hurts in PoR. Ragnell is powerful, adds to Ike's physical durability, has infinite uses, and range 1-2, but is only usable in the luck fight and the last two chapters- less time than Roy gets the Binding Blade if you're going for the True Ending in his game.

As for the luck battle character thing, technically, while a character does die if you lose, from a gameplay perspective there is no character death, seeing how you never recruited them in the first place. Plus, you can't recruit a different character if you win, though winning or losing doesn't kill them plot-wise. I myself go for the win if I can, and sometimes I use Aether, but I've accepted losing the fight on a number of runs. Mostly because I don't want to refight the entire battle that precedes it.

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34 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Aether has at best a 27% chance of activating, you shouldn't rely on it for healing or damage. Also, an A Oscar's +30 avoid boost I'd daresay offers Ike more durability than Aether.

And again, Wrath and Resolve exist for the final fight, though it'd be understandable if you chose to give them to someone else. Not to mention on Easy the final boss doesn't move, so there is less incentive to kill him quick. And there is no second phase of the final boss on Easy so you get your final battle recruit pick almost right way.

Prior to Ragnell acquisition, Ike isn't the best fighter. You obviously should raise him, and he has the awesome stats for sure, but swordlock hurts in PoR. Ragnell is powerful, adds to Ike's physical durability, has infinite uses, and range 1-2, but is only usable in the luck fight and the last two chapters- less time than Roy gets the Binding Blade if you're going for the True Ending in his game.

As for the luck battle character thing, technically, while a character does die if you lose, from a gameplay perspective there is no character death, seeing how you never recruited them in the first place. Plus, you can't recruit a different character if you win, though winning or losing doesn't kill them plot-wise. I myself go for the win if I can, and sometimes I use Aether, but I've accepted losing the fight on a number of runs. Mostly because I don't want to refight the entire battle that precedes it.

Only 27%? The Ikes I raise tend to activate Aether at least every third fight, if not more. Do I just get insanely lucky or RNG blessed with them all the time? I just feel like the chance is greater than that.

I dunno, I never have any trouble with Ike. He's not quite on Titania level mostly due to the lack of a horse, but he's pretty great throughout the game, with his great strength, speed, and avoid; even the swordlock isn't a huge deal imo. Maybe I just get amazingly blessed Ikes or something if others think he's not that great.

EDIT: Just clarifying, the "no character deaths" for me is including the non-recruitable character at the end.

Edited by Extrasolar
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Well yeah, Ike is good, probably the best unmounted unit. He doesn't start godly, but grows into a great unit, there is no denying that.

And the formula for Aether in PoR is Skill = % (every other game it's in reduces it to 1/2 Skill = %). Ike's Skill caps at 27, so a 27% chance of activation at best; better or comparable to an SM's critical chance sans Wrath or a Killing Edge. Of course, some people get lucky with/think they get lucky with SM critical hits and for that reason love SMs, so your love of Aether is understandable.

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2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Well yeah, Ike is good, probably the best unmounted unit. He doesn't start godly, but grows into a great unit, there is no denying that.

And the formula for Aether in PoR is Skill = % (every other game it's in reduces it to 1/2 Skill = %). Ike's Skill caps at 27, so a 27% chance of activation at best; better or comparable to an SM's critical chance sans Wrath or a Killing Edge. Of course, some people get lucky with/think they get lucky with SM critical hits and for that reason love SMs, so your love of Aether is understandable.

Oh wow, I had no idea the activation chance was actually that low. Geez, guess I've been getting lucky...though now that I think of it, once every third fight or so sounds about reasonable, considering it's about a 1 in 4 chance of activating each time.

I'd say that's decently often...but I guess in a pinch, it's not all that reliable. I can understand Wrath + Resolve being more reliable and the best theoretical setup on Ike for the final battle. I just tend to shove Wrath on Mia or Stefan for best effect. :P:

EDIT: Though I should acknowledge that both the Sol and Luna proc of Aether can miss, which has happened to me every now and then in the second-to-last fight of the game, whereas a Wrath/Resolve Critical cannot. Aether is cool and has helped me, but it's not 100% reliable.

 

Edited by Extrasolar
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what i usually do now is just give him aether and make sure strength is capped.  he can win without needing to proc aether, but a proc would just make the victory quicker and sweeter. 

and then wrath and adept can be saved to be used on other units, instead of a unit who's already really good for the sake of just one battle.   though this does make ashnard's battle tedious.

Edited by Radiant head
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7 hours ago, Trymer said:

as a tip, train soren in wind and thunder magic only, save some of the arms scrolls for him if you use him. You really want that A in wind (fliers) and S in thunder (S-tome) on your main mage, fire can be overlooked due to laguz weapon

I don't see why you're recommending training Soren's wind rank up to A when most of the fliers you see are wyverns, which get rekt by any magic. Also, Tornado's piss weak for an A rank tome.

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Yup, forged tomes with +5 might are either almost as strong (fire, thunder) or even slightly better in both hit and power (wind). Weapon ranks for sages (except staves) only really come to play if you want to toy with long-range tomes (which all require a C rank).

7 hours ago, ping said:

The big reason why mounts are (rightfully) considered to be far better than infantry units is that there is basically no downside to their increased mobility. Their combat parameters are just as good; if they're underleveled, you can just use BEXP to make them catch up; and the bonus damage from horseslayers/bows is hardly threatening in this game. But if you don't care about mobility (because you play cautiously/slowly anyway), the difference in performance between the units in this game is way smaller than for example FE6.

So tbh, you can just ignore any advice on who to use altogether and just roll with whoever you like. Just keep some bonus experience ready so they can become amazing instantly.

Also, I forgot that mounted units can use their remaining movement after any action they take, including punching an enemy in the face. That combined with the dancer of the game - who is a laguz and can refresh up to four adjacent units when transformed - is pretty nice. Still, 'use whoever you like' is still the best approach for a casual game, if you ask me.

Edited by ping
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6 hours ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

I don't see why you're recommending training Soren's wind rank up to A when most of the fliers you see are wyverns, which get rekt by any magic. Also, Tornado's piss weak for an A rank tome.

4 hours ago, ping said:

Yup, forged tomes with +5 might are either almost as strong (fire, thunder) or even slightly better in both hit and power (wind). Weapon ranks for sages (except staves) only really come to play if you want to toy with long-range tomes (which all require a C rank).

hmmm oh yeah I forgot all about forging tomes. for some reason I did remember forging Silver Weapons, but I kind of never forged tomes. Most magic users 1 shot or 1 round most units anyway save for maybe tiger laguz and warriors in the last chapter.
also slightly biased towards cool animations, but that's not so relevant to dmg output ^^'

so then C-rank everything besides Thunder would be better?

 

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