Squad Assault and Chain Challenge discussion thread

[Apples]

6 minutes ago, Armagon said:

But the stats on Squad Assault enemies are too high imo.

These aren't limited-time maps. These are meant for people with absolutely decked out units that are looking for something resembling a challenge-which can be anyone given enough time. The enemies aren't even randomized which means that with the right preparation, you can have teams of counters at the ready just like GHB's. Besides that, after spending the stamina on a couple attempts before you beat it, there isn't much reason to play it again. 

These two modes are designed to give the game some more longevity.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

10 minutes ago, Rezzy said:

Is there any reward for either of these modes after the first clear?

Is that Seal reward basically a second HP+3?

Yep, it is. Kinda meh, but I guess almost anyone could use extra HP, so it's universally useful. It's just a bit of a letdown with such an elaborate name.

11 minutes ago, Armagon said:

By interesting, do you mean bullshit? Because i don't think Luna+, Pavise+/Aegis+, and Vantage+ are "interesting". Though, i guess, you do have a point in that Squad Assault isn't exactly Lunatic+ levels of bullshit. But the stats on Squad Assault enemies are too high imo.

They create interesting scenarios that require clever play to get around that don't rely on RNG. Bullshit would be giving everyone Lethality, if you ask me. Of course, the mode's not for everyone.

EDIT:

4 minutes ago, Apples said:

These aren't limited-time maps. These are meant for people with absolutely decked out units that are looking for something resembling a challenge-which can be anyone given enough time. The enemies aren't even randomized which means that with the right preparation, you can have teams of counters at the ready just like GHB's. Besides that, after spending the stamina on a couple attempts before you beat it, there isn't much reason to play it again. 

These two modes are designed to give the game some more longevity.

I do hope they do something more just a lot of stats in the future. It's a design that can be interesting for maybe 2-3 Squad Assaults before I feel like there would be a clear lack of variety. Skills make the enemies more interesting, which makes me prefer the Lunatic Tempest enemies who have lower stats, but are fully SIed.

Edited July 5, 2017 by Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi

[Arcanite]

Squad assault was EZ bangers 

Chain chomp was EZ bangers too 

I like them both!

Edited July 5, 2017 by Arcanite

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Chain Challenge drops your exp and SP gains on a second playthrough right? Maybe I should surrender on the final map and save these challenges as a great means of grinding up units at level 32+.

[Armagon]

5 minutes ago, Apples said:

These aren't limited-time maps. These are meant for people with absolutely decked out units that are looking for something resembling a challenge-which can be anyone given enough time. The enemies aren't even randomized which means that with the right preparation, you can have teams of counters at the ready just like GHB's. Besides that, after spending the stamina on a couple attempts before you beat it, there isn't much reason to play it again. 

These two modes are designed to give the game some more longevity.

That doesn't necessarily make it any better though. All Assault Squad really is is just a glorified Tempest Trial, without the randomness, but with much higher stats, while also making it so that you can only use each time once, and that's probably the worst part of this mode. And I don't even think GHB stats were that high, except for like, maybe Lunatic Zephiel with his 68 HP or whatever. And personally, GHB's difficulty came not from the enemies, but from the map layout itself (that and the forced deathless mechanic).

And another thing, why is Assault Squad locked to Lunatic? If the enemies aren't randomized, then they could've put in a Hard version of the maps to ease players into the mode.

[wizzard of soz]

5 minutes ago, Gustavos said:

Chain Challenge drops your exp and SP gains on a second playthrough right? Maybe I should surrender on the final map and save these challenges as a great means of grinding up units at level 32+.

damn..that's a good idea. too thirsty for orbs and feathers to do it myself.

[Arcanite]

2 minutes ago, Armagon said:

And another thing, why is Assault Squad locked to Lunatic? If the enemies aren't randomized, then they could've put in a Hard version of the maps to ease players into the mode.

It's not meant to be easy

It's meant to be REALLY hard. If you can't do it, try again when you have better units and a little more skills too!

 

ALSO JUST A PSA

Spoiler

 

EFFIE BASICALLY SOLOS THE FIRST MAP

ALL YOU REALLY NEED IS HER, AND MAYBE A BOW UNIT

YOUR OTHER SLOTS CAN BE FILLED WITH LEVEL ONE 2 STAR UNITS SO YOU CAN SAVE YOUR BETTER ONES FOR LATER

If you don't have Effie, then that's unfort :P

 

 

Edited July 5, 2017 by Arcanite

[Refa]

1 minute ago, Arcanite said:

It's not meant to be easy

It's meant to be REALLY hard. If you can't do it, try again when you have better units and a little more skills too!

 

12 minutes ago, Arcanite said:

Squad assault was EZ bangers 

Chain chomp was EZ bangers too 

I like them both!

Looks like they failed spectacularly then!

[Zapp Branniglenn]

4 minutes ago, wizzard of soz said:

damn..that's a good idea. too thirsty for orbs and feathers to do it myself.

yup yup. Just save some of these normal difficulty rounds for that purpose. I just surrendered on map 10 to keep all my earnings

Edited July 5, 2017 by Gustavos

[Arcanite]

Just now, Refa said:

Looks like they failed spectacularly then!

Exactly!

It took 4 tries!

I had one 5 star unit on the first and fourth map, 2 on the second and third, and only the last one had 4 five star units

E Z P Z 

[Refa]

WE TAKE THOSE 

I'm waiting for quests to show up personally 

[Arcanite]

Just now, Refa said:

WE TAKE THOSE 

I'm waiting for quests to show up personally 

I was talking to someone else who said the same thing

I figured, "well at least now I know what to do and I can adjust as needed"

I need some quests to make it harder anyway HEH

[Armagon]

5 minutes ago, Arcanite said:

It's meant to be REALLY hard. If you can't do it, try again when you have better units and a little more skills too!

Which is basically only possible if you throw money at the game. Which i don't. Either that, or you get insanely lucky with your pulls. Most of the time, i just pull Subakis, and i'm honestly starting to hate the guy because of how much i've gotten him.

But even my few Lv.40 5-Stars have issues beating this. I can basically only do the first map. The second map destroys me like how the Death Star destroyed Alderaan.

[Arcanite]

Just now, Armagon said:

Which is basically only possible if you throw money at the game. .

I didn't spend a rat's behind on this game so I'd argue otherwise ;P

I don't even have horse emblem, or even a single distant counter unit yet XD

[Ice Dragon]

2 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Which is basically only possible if you throw money at the game. Which i don't. Either that, or you get insanely lucky with your pulls. Most of the time, i just pull Subakis, and i'm honestly starting to hate the guy because of how much i've gotten him.

But even my few Lv.40 5-Stars have issues beating this. I can basically only do the first map. The second map destroys me like how the Death Star destroyed Alderaan.

You're talking to the robot person that most vehemently opposes my attempts to convert them to the dark side.

[Johann]

After getting home, I updated and gave the Squad Assault a try. Really liked it, and managed to win on my first try somehow. Nothing story related, but I'll spoiler the 5 maps:

Spoiler

They're the first battle from each of the first 5 main story chapters, ie: Marth/Caeda/Jagen, followed by Xander/Camilla/Leo/Elise, and so on.

All with high stats and very few of them have actual passive skills, the rest having nothing but their weapon (and a heal for the healers). You get to look at the maps when selecting your team, just like when you'd fail a Tempest map. Breaker skills, Triangle Adept, and debuffs (daggers, staves, Seal/Threaten skills) are highly recommended; 5* Felicia with Seal Speed 3 made the 3rd map pretty easy for me. If anyone cares, here were my teams and course of action:

Spoiler

1) Robin (M), Ryoma, Takumi, Soren - Robin had TA3 and swordbreaker; Ryoma did nothing except buff and use swap once; Takumi and Soren didn't have any real SI going on so they weren't one-shotting anyone like Robin did to Marth

2) Xander, Ursula, Clarine, Jeorge - the 3 cavaliers had buffs to spread around. Ursula had Blarwolf+ and baited and killed Leo, Xander baited and weakened Camilla. Jeorge finished off Camilla, Xander repositioned Ursula to hit the enemy Xander, and then Elise was easy pickin's. Clarine didn't have to heal, she was just there to make sure Xander and Ursula got Hone Cavalry.

3) Sheena, Effie, Ike, Mist - My Ike is +Def, so he baited the archer and whittled him down. Sheena baited and killed the lance cavalier using QR. Even though Ike had swordbreaker, all of the units here had 51 or more attack, so Heavy Blade didn't help unless I had Threaten Attack go off. Mist provided valuable defense and healing to keep Ike and Effie going to finish it off. The real threat in this map is the archer, or at least it was for me since I used Robin on map 1.

4) Cain, Roderick, Felicia, Ninian - Felicia has Seal Speed 3 and baited Lissa off to the side, so she'd get stuck on the tree and build up Glacies. Then she was able to debuff Chrom for Roderick to take out. Cain has the defenses and speed to shrug off Frederick, and with Felicia's debuffs, he was able to wipe him out in a single action the next round. Don't think I really needed Ninian, certainly not to fight.

5) Frederick, Sharena, Bride Cordelia, Azura - Magic is kinda much useless on this map since the 2 thieves and Wrys have like 40+ res and far too much HP. Frederick killed the northeast thief, Azura refreshed him to get him out and then he repositioned her. Sharena with swordbreaker 1 moved in to deal with Navarre. Cordelia has a Flamesweep Bow but I don't really think it was necessary, since the second thief has the same stats as the first, so Frederick could destroy him too. Wrys, final boss material that he is, was left last.

Edited July 5, 2017 by Johann

[Astellius]

Oh nice! The new modes are available! Thanks for the notice!

I went and tried Squad Assault, and managed to clear it on the first attempt. The enemies don't have any skills, so the main thing to worry about is the inflated stats. But the maps were pretty favorable, and I didn't have too much difficulty employing strategies to pick off the enemies. I actually ended up not even fielding some of my top characters! I ended up not using Cherche, Azura, Tharja, Cecilia, or Nino, and I saved Horse Emblem for the last battle (Priscilla went in instead of Cecilia). The seal we get is sort of a letdown though...

Time to check out the Chain Challenge!

[DLNarshen]

21 minutes ago, Gustavos said:

Chain Challenge drops your exp and SP gains on a second playthrough right? Maybe I should surrender on the final map and save these challenges as a great means of grinding up units at level 32+.

After getting Mae from Lv. 31 to 40 just from the 10-map Ch. 1 Chain Challenge, I think I'll be saving Normal Ch. 2's for this exact purpose.  The enemies are way easier than what's typically found in the upper strata of the Training Tower, too.  Good idea!

Edited July 5, 2017 by DLNarshen

[Zeo]

Chain Challenge is actually really awesome and I'm going to take my time with it in order for grinding purposes.

Squad Assault is an interesting idea but the execution right now is a little off. No duplicates sucks a lot, the stats basically mean *5 or bust and currently the rewards aren't even ALMOST worth the trouble unless someone can confirm that you can get more orbs after already beating it.

It's pretty interesting the way they set it up and it's potentially really fun as it makes you think and you can plan ahead. But right now with the Tempest Trials coming up, Chain Challenge soaking up stamina quickly and only 16 potions, the rewards from SA aren't worth the stamina investment right now.

[Armagon]

1 minute ago, Arcanite said:

I didn't spend a rat's behind on this game so I'd argue otherwise ;P

I don't even have horse emblem, or even a single distant counter unit yet XD

Neither do i but you clearly have much, much better units than i do.

Honestly, the more i look at it, it's not the enemies that are the problem. It's the fact that you can only use each time once, and if you lose even a single unit, it's an automatic game over. 

[Johann]

1 minute ago, Armagon said:

Honestly, the more i look at it, it's not the enemies that are the problem. It's the fact that you can only use each time once, and if you lose even a single unit, it's an automatic game over. 

Well, look at it this way; you know exactly what you're fighting before each round (minus the first unless you've tried it or heard from someone). It's a little more like doing 5 GHBs in a row, and like GHBs, you may need to end up using skills you didn't think much of before (like -wolf tomes, who knew? glad I had that ready). Plus, unlike GHBs, Tempest, or even Arena, there's no rush to beat these.

[Lushen]

I'm not going to complain, but I'm not sure why they decided to release normal and hard varients of chain challenge.  I mean, everyone playing this game is probably in lunatic phase.

Squad Assault needs to give more than 2 orbs.  

[Arcanite]

10 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Neither do i but you clearly have much, much better units than i do.

Honestly, the more i look at it, it's not the enemies that are the problem. It's the fact that you can only use each time once, and if you lose even a single unit, it's an automatic game over. 

My units are okay I guess. They're not exactly the greatest thing since sliced bread though. And using them only once is the challenge, otherwise someone could just do the whole thing with horse emblem like everyone does these days!

[Xenomata]

As much as I'd like to tackle Squad Assault right now, I don't even have 20 good units. Out of the 16 Level 40 5* units I own, only a few of them are decked out to be used seriously, meanwhile I've still not done anything with this +Att -Res Charlotte, I still need to train Mah Boi and Fae, and god knows what I can even do to train Bridal Lyn and Sakura, meanwhile I'm building up another 20k feathers and don't even know what unit I wanna 5*. Legion? Cordelia? Xander? Camus? Odin to immediately sacrifice to my Bridal Caeda?

Man, good thing this content doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon...

Edited July 5, 2017 by Xenomata

[Lushen]

2 minutes ago, Arcanite said:

My units are okay I guess. They're not exactly the greatest thing since sliced bread though. And using them only once is the challenge, otherwise someone could just do the whole thing with horse emblem like everyone does these days!

Might I ask which units you used on each stage?