Next grand hero battle: Zephiel

[Kaden]

Oh, duh, the knights have Fortify Res 3. That's why Ursula couldn't ORKO the red mage on the first turn because the red mage is right next to the blue knight unlike the blue mage aka "I'm stupid, so hit me with green magic maybe". Ursula would have needed a minimum of 2 more attack buff, 3 more to whatever non-attack buff, had she been a 5*, or had Blarraven+ as a 4*, she would have been able to ORKO the red mage. I had Selena for Reposition, but she didn't do much other than finish off the axe knight for kicks. Eirika would definitely have given Ursula more than enough buffs to decimate the red mage.

Anyway, yeah, pretty easy map. Kind of wished I could have done it without skill inheritance since all 3 Lunatic GHBs I've done required inherited skills; Michalis needed Cherche to have Lancebreaker, Navarre needed Tiki to have Reciprocal Aid and Quick Riposte, and with Zephiel, I had F!Robin inherit Gronnraven+ (and Rally Resistance just because; couldn't afford it, though) and Ursula inherit Blarblade and R Tomebreaker 2. That said, I did intend to get those skills for F!Robin and Ursula anyway and the others were for crucial parts of the strategy; I needed someone to bait and ORKO the lance flyer or I needed to bait and damage the Rogue Dagger thief. Here, I had several units who more or less hard countered or could hard counter with some help against almost all of the units. I say almost, since the red mage was the one that worried me the most. Didn't know who could actually take out the red mage or at least bait and do something that makes red magic less threatening to all of my units.

So, strategy-wise, I intended to take out both mages on the first actual turn, the turn before fumbling around positioning everyone even with the help of pre-battle positioning which is awesome, but should have been in the game from the beginning. I didn't know the knights had Fortify Res 3, so that changed things a bit. Since Selena wasn't that useful, I think had I brought in Eirika or someone else, it would have worked and by the second turn, only the knights would have remained which is pretty awesome.

Process in spoiler.

Spoiler

Units: lv. 32, 4* Olivia (neutral), lv. 40, 4* F!Robin with Gronnraven+ and an Attack Seal, lv. 40, 4* default Selena (+Def, -HP), and lv. 40, 4* Ursula with Blarblade and R Tomebreaker 2.

Set-up. From their starting points, Selena stands at the left corner next to F!Robin, Olivia is between F!Robin and Ursula -- Ursula can be behind Olivia. Basically, F!Robin and Ursula need to be next to Olivia for Hone Attack 3.

Turn 1. F!Robin moves up to kill the blue mage. If she is a 4* and you have Gronnraven+, she will leave the blue mage with 1 HP without an Attack Seal. She or any other green mage for that matter needs 43 total attack (and B Tomebreaker or 37 speed) to ORKO the blue mage. F!Robin takes 16 damage dropping her to 21 HP and deals 23x2 to the blue mage, killing the blue mage.

Next, Selena uses Reposition on F!Robin. I could have used Olivia's Dance on F!Robin and just had F!Robin move behind her, but I wanted to use Selena and people were talking about how Draw Back and Reposition were good things to have for this GHB. And to end turn 1, Ursula moves into the red mage's range.

Enemy turn 1. Red mage receives the blue knight's Fortify Res 3 buff. I knew something happened, but I didn't know exactly what happened. Red mage gets baited by Ursula and attacks. Ursula takes 8 damage dropping her to 25 HP and deals 19x2 to the red mage leaving the red mage alive with 7 HP.  The axe knight moves in front of Zephiel who sits there. Pretty sure he just sat there.

Turn 2. Ursula finishes off the red mage. Olivia uses Dance on Ursula and I moved her behind Olivia or to the right corner next to Olivia. End turn.

Enemy turn 2. The knights do their Swap dance thing. It reminds me of that shuffling game where a ball or whatever prize is placed under a cup and it gets shuffled around with 2 or more other cups.

Turn 3. Pretty sure the lance knight was the closest, so he got pelted by F!Robin and Olivia used Dance so she could get out. That or I hit him again and killed him since Ignis was ready. I might have played it safe and ended the turn... Or not.

Enemy turn 3. The knight dance again. Intimidating, isn't it?

Turn 4. Either the lance knight gets nuked by F!Robin or Ursula hits Zephiel. I'm pretty sure F!Robin murders the lance knight by this point. Both might have happened since if the lance knight was gone, then the others might not have been in range, especially after Olivia uses Dance to get the whoever out.

Enemy turn 4. Axe knight plays Swap with Zephiel as Zephiel becomes increasingly discomforted by his ally's need to dance while his other allies are dead.

Turn 5. I think the axe knight was the closest. F!Robin hits him, she moves out with Olivia's help, Ursula gets out of range, and for kicks, I had Selena bait the axe knight.

Enemy turn 5. The calculator says Selena is supposed to take 5 damage, but I clearly remember her taking 0 damage... Hmm... Oh well. Zephiel moves closer.

Turn 6. F!Robin and Selena take out the axe knight. Ursula pelts Zephiel and moves out with Olivia's help.

Enemy turn 6. Zephiel moves closer.

End turn. Hilariously, Ursula was able to activate Growing Thunder and Zephiel dies. End game.

There is no way I did this in 7 turns. No way. I'm pretty sure I'm missing a few steps since Ursula would have needed to attack 3 more times after the first enemy phase to get Growing Thunder to activate on Zephiel and with the turns I listed and tried to remember, she would have killed Zephiel before that happened. Maybe I hit either the axe or lance knight with both F!Robin and Ursula. I don't remember. That said, this could have been at least 1 turn less if Ursula was able to ORKO the red mage on the first enemy phase for reasons described before.

TL;DR: Basically, have a blue and green mage at least ORKO one of the mages and then troll the living hell out of the knights.

Speaking of trolling, that second strategy of Mkv. where she brought in a level 1, 3* Zephiel was just stupid.

Edit: How the hell did Selena... I swear she took 0 damage from the axe knight. None of other units have Fortify Def, Seal Attack, Threaten Attack, or whatever else that could have... Whatever. If it did happen, then it happened and if it didn't, then it didn't.

Edited April 21, 2017 by Kaden

[silverserpent]

29 minutes ago, Lyrai said:

... as usual. Since Roy only promotes far, far later, we need to grind the other characters, who can promote... like me! :)

Haha, I actually just realized that that is so true! XD I'll have to see if I can do a Blazing Sword run as well, just so Hector can avenge his future self, lol

[mewyeon]

After like 10 tries, I finally beat the lunatic version.  Brought along Reinhardt, Sanaki, Nino, and Serra to heal.  Nino's Draw Back is so clutch y'all, plus Reinhardt's special to deal damage to all enemies in a line.

[Ice Dragon]

6 hours ago, LordFrigid said:

Ok, completed @Ice Dragon's challenge.

Not going to lie, things did not go as planned. I thought I had a reasonably solid 5-turn, but the Swap Knights have rules for swapping beyond my ability to fathom. It ended up taking me 6. I might retry it later. Also, turns out I didn't use or need Seals. Edit: Just realized that I failed super hard. It's a 5 turn. Still no seals, same team, same basic strategy up to the end, where I actually take Zephiel down instead of sitting there, watching him for a turn LOL.

Team was 4* Sully (+Spd/-HP, 'cause Swordbreaker + Draw Back = OP), along with 5* versions of Merric (neutral, for the bulk and AoE), Felicia (neutral, for the -7 Def/Res debuff and the huge Glacies damage), and Fae (+Def/-Atk, Draw Back and a bit 'o tanking). Video version below, somewhat loose turn-by-turn under that, and justifications for the +1s (Fae & Felicia) just below that.

Video

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First attempt, complete with terrible turn 5 failure.

The 5-turn run:

 

Turn by turn

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1. Setup turn, moved Merric and Felicia just outside the blue and red mage's ranges (respectively) and stuck Fae and Sully behind them (also respectively).
2. Merric chipped the Axe Knight, and was drawn back by Fae. Felicia dropped a hit on the Lance Knight, and was drawn back by Sully.
   
   Red Mage attacked Felicia, fully charging Glacies, and the Lance Knight basically told him "sorry bud, you're on your own". Zephiel moved down and the Axe swapped with him, trapping the blue mage in the left alcove.
3. Felicia is totally fine with free mage kills. Merric chipped the Axe Knight again. I ran the numbers front, back, and sideways during my initial planning, and knew that he could eat the Brave Axe and Thoron, living on 1 HP, with Sully next to him. Can't do without that Growing Wind charge, so I had her work her way over there.
   
   Stuff happens as expected on the EP. Seal Attack when I'm about to get off a huge AoE sucks, but oh well. Zephiel can't move 'cause he's stuck behind the mage.
4. Merric smacked the Axe, and because Growing Wind is cool enough to happen before combat, it broke Wary Fighter and let Merric double for the KO. Felicia ate the mage, and Fae moved in toward the Lance Knight.
   
   Fae can't OHKO the Lance, but it's not really that important, since Zephiel's nowhere near her.
5. Fae finished the Lance, Felicia poked Zephiel for the stat drop. Sully poked Zephiel. Merric finished the job.

And finally, the merge notes/justification

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Felicia picked up HP & Spd from her merge. 37 at neutral/no merges is enough to double the mages (32 Spd) anyway, and she was never anywhere close to 1 HP.

Fae gained HP & Res from her merge. She never fought a mage, and was also never anywhere near 1 HP.

 

Ooh, nice. Merric and Fae, huh. Growing Wind does look like it would be super useful here.

 

I wonder how many Drag Back Reposition shenanigans I can pull with Donnel and Selena. I might need to try Merric for a green mage. He sounds promising as a physically tanky mage with Growing Wind, but I'd need to train one up first. Yolo with level 1 Merric, go!

Ooh, the anticipation.

[Faye]

Oh, I am frustrated with the level 30 one. "OTL I was SO close. Then Catria died. I'd be happy with a 3-star Zeph, but gosh is this somehow MUCH harder than Navarre's battle.

[Ice Dragon]

1 minute ago, Faye said:

Oh, I am frustrated with the level 30 one. "OTL I was SO close. Then Catria died. I'd be happy with a 3-star Zeph, but gosh is this somehow MUCH harder than Navarre's battle.

Do you have a dancer and a strong mage? You can kite nearly endlessly with Nino (Draw Back) and a dancer. Or just any mage and a dancer, really.

[Pimalai]

I've tried a couple of times (lunatic, the hard one was easy), and I failed.

None of my units can ORKO anything, so the map gets complicated with my units out of place. I don't have drag backs, that could be useful.

I've tried with Effie, who can't stand those magic attacks; Julia, who can't ORKO the armored blues; Eirika for buffing; and then tired M!Robin or Bunny Camilla.

I'll level Nowi up to lvl 40 and try with her... I also have a very appropiate Reinhardt, but he's a 4* lvl 1, and I would need to build him in days (and I already have bunny Lucina and M!Robin as blue mages...).

[Magical Glace]

5 minutes ago, Pimalai said:

I've tried a couple of times (lunatic, the hard one was easy), and I failed.

None of my units can ORKO anything, so the map gets complicated with my units out of place. I don't have drag backs, that could be useful.

I've tried with Effie, who can't stand those magic attacks; Julia, who can't ORKO the armored blues; Eirika for buffing; and then tired M!Robin or Bunny Camilla.

I'll level Nowi up to lvl 40 and try with her... I also have a very appropiate Reinhardt, but he's a 4* lvl 1, and I would need to build him in days (and I already have bunny Lucina and M!Robin as blue mages...).

Do you have the free Olivia?  She can help a lot with the kiting.

[vercio]

Got it in three and 4 star version.

Does everybody know if we will have some reward out of the battle? I'm in "Orb Saving" MODE and the more i get the happier i am. Besides that, having Zephiel by my side allow me to have a great Armor Team, with Effie, Sheena, Gwendolyn (Brave Lanced) and Zephiel. Since i'm developing a Horse Team with Eliwood, Olwen, Gunter and Jagen and i'm growing them up for "only" 28000 orbs, next thing i'll do once i upgraded the team is to carry my Zephiel to 5 stars

[Pimalai]

33 minutes ago, Glaceon Mage said:

Do you have the free Olivia?  She can help a lot with the kiting.

I keep her, but she's level 1. May I work on her?

[Magical Glace]

Just now, Pimalai said:

I keep her, but she's level 1. May I work on her?

Just get her to the point she can learn dance, since that's what she needs to help with the kiting.

[Vaximillian]

19 minutes ago, Mr.Vercetti said:

1) Does everybody know if we will have some reward out of the battle?
…
2) i'm growing them up for "only" 28000 orbs

1) Like after the Michalis map? Nope, there was a special event that time, nothing of the kind now.
2) I've never seen feathers confused with orbs before. Flags yes (same first and last letter) but orbs? Huh.

[Roflolxp54]

1 hour ago, Pimalai said:

I've tried a couple of times (lunatic, the hard one was easy), and I failed.

None of my units can ORKO anything, so the map gets complicated with my units out of place. I don't have drag backs, that could be useful.

I've tried with Effie, who can't stand those magic attacks; Julia, who can't ORKO the armored blues; Eirika for buffing; and then tired M!Robin or Bunny Camilla.

I'll level Nowi up to lvl 40 and try with her... I also have a very appropiate Reinhardt, but he's a 4* lvl 1, and I would need to build him in days (and I already have bunny Lucina and M!Robin as blue mages...).

It's possible to clear the Lunatic map using 3* free units (Raigh, Olivia, Cecilia, Donnel) without taking a single point of damage.

EDIT: Mkv cleared the Lunatic map using 3* Donnel, Olivia, Cecilia, and Zephiel; no damage. Zephiel is only lv. 1 and is likely only on the map for AI manipulation (or being dead weight).

 

Edited April 21, 2017 by Roflolxp54

[Marcodian_Elite]

So just completed the Lunatic level with

Ursula 4* level 40

Olivia 4* lvl 38

Julia 5* lvl 40

Abel 4* lvl 40

 

I originally tried my Ephraim but he got destroyed by the red mage I think it was, so swapped him out for higher res. unit and abit more mobility, got rid of the mages and the rest was easy - peppered away at the armors with Julia then took out Zephiel with Ursula and Julia .

 

[HK Motendra]

Oh hey, I was able to win this one too! My team being Michalis (with Draw Back), Sanaki (w/out inherited skills) Azura, and.... a 4star Lilina

The only real hassle was finding a way to safely take out the mages; the red was simple enough in that I just had Azura lure it out and finish off, since she took no damage from it; the blue was tricky since it kept hiding behind the knights after it was done attacking. This is where MIchalis comes in with both Drag Back and Blazing thunder with some help from Azura, which if he doesn't finish off, or cant go back any further, one of the two mages finishes them off

Took me a few tries, (like 3-4, I think, including switchng units) and a few turns of waiting it out but I strategize through trial& error which works out eventually

[silverserpent]

I accidentally sent my level 30 4* Zephiel home  I was doing comparisons for skill inheritence and included him in the "go home" by mistake. I didn't realize he was there until after i was already pushing the button...

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

4 hours ago, Roflolxp54 said:

It's possible to clear the Lunatic map using 3* free units (Raigh, Olivia, Cecilia, Donnel) without taking a single point of damage.

EDIT: Mkv cleared the Lunatic map using 3* Donnel, Olivia, Cecilia, and Zephiel; no damage. Zephiel is only lv. 1 and is likely only on the map for AI manipulation (or being dead weight).

 

He's there as slot filler, since the map will complain about not having enough party members if you try to go in with less than four.

 

30 minutes ago, silverserpent said:

I accidentally sent my level 30 4* Zephiel home  I was doing comparisons for skill inheritence and included him in the "go home" by mistake. I didn't realize he was there until after i was already pushing the button...

That sucks. Hopefully you can still make use of the 3*? I'm pretty paranoid about that kind of thing, myself, so I tend to favourite anything I'm even remotely interested in keeping around.

[Folt]

Cleared the Hard and Lunatic versions: Used Eirika (for buffing), M!Robin (deals decent damage against most of the armors + he has Triangle Adept 3 and B. Tomebreaker for the mages AND Reposition which helped with the mages and otherwise trivialized the map once the mages were stone-cold dead), Julia (nukes the armors and the blue mage), and Serra (for healing, which I occasionally had to do).

[silverserpent]

29 minutes ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

That sucks. Hopefully you can still make use of the 3*? I'm pretty paranoid about that kind of thing, myself, so I tend to favourite anything I'm even remotely interested in keeping around.

Well...on the brightside, it does maximise the amount of SP I can farm for skill inheritance, so...but it still kinda sucks.

[Thor Odinson]

@Ice Dragon I'm probably not your challenge's intended target but I also felt like doing it, if you don't mind

Video:

 

 

I also used Merric (+Spd -Def, 5*) and Sully (+Atk -Spd, 4*), and my other choices are Hana (+Atk -Def, 4*) and Hinoka (+Def -HP, 5*). Hana is brought in both for Rally Atk for Merric to secure the ORKO on the blue mage. Hinoka is specifically to deal with red mage. The only A and below mages I have trained are Merric, FRobin, and Ursula, and Merric's stats made him the best choice out of the 3 (though Growing Wind is also pretty good). Sully is drag back, though she fares pretty well against Zephiel himself and if I needed her to she could probably dent him a bit. I didn't need to, though. 

Edited April 21, 2017 by Thor Odinson

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

8 minutes ago, Thor Odinson said:

@Ice Dragon I'm probably not your challenge's intended target but I also felt like doing it, if you don't mind

 

Everyone picking up the forgotten Red Cav Sully ayyy (even though all she did was Drag Back...)

[Thor Odinson]

2 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

Everyone picking up the forgotten Red Cav Sully ayyy (even though all she did was Drag Back...)

She actually could do a good 30something damage to Zephiel (i forgot exactly how much) while not actually taking much in return. I guess you don't want reprisal up (though she can probably live that too, haven't done the math though), but if Merric couldn't chip just enough for Hana to finish in the end there, Sully actually would've been good there instead.

Edited April 21, 2017 by Thor Odinson

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

Just now, Thor Odinson said:

She actually could do a good 30something damage to Zephiel (i forgot exactly how much) while not actually taking much in return. I guess you don't want reprisal up, but if Merric couldn't chip just enough for Hana to finish in the end there, Sully actually would've been good there instead.

Yup, I used her in my strat too. Mine was also +Atk, and she did 19*2 I believe, without Hone Atk. With Hone Attack she can crack Wary Fighter for an easy finish by your mage. She can actually survive Reprisal just fine if she's the first one to attack on Player Phase, iirc.

[Ice Dragon]

14 minutes ago, Thor Odinson said:

@Ice Dragon I'm probably not your challenge's intended target but I also felt like doing it, if you don't mind

Everyone is welcome to take the challenge. Proving that low-tier characters are not useless!

Also... I didn't realize Hinoka was only A-tier.

 

7 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

Everyone picking up the forgotten Red Cav Sully ayyy (even though all she did was Drag Back...)

Sully is blue, though.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

1 minute ago, Ice Dragon said:

Sully is blue, though.

Red as in like, the Red and Green Cav pair.