How can I improve in FE?

[TheGreatNothing]

I am awful in FE. I struggle on hard mode in FE13. The turnwheel was a godsend for me in FE15 normal mode. So, I do improve at the game? Thanks in advance. 

[Thane]

Well, asking for help and concrete advice always helps. Since I've got nothing to really go on when it comes to helping you, I'll just remind you to remember the fundamentals, like thoroughly checking the enemies' skills and stats, bringing a varied team of units to help tackle different kinds of enemies, and so on.

[Ronnie]

Bait in enemies with your defensive units like Kellam or Stahl (try not to use Frederick too much only if you're in a jam). Then on enemy phase the enemies get weakened and your other units can pick them off. Always press X to see the full enemy range and in your options change the enemy range from Attacks to All so you see EVERYTHING your enemies are capable of doing. Use pair up as much as possible in Awakening and feel free to change around classes with second seals since the displayed level resets and you can get some useful skills.

[TheGreatNothing]

1 hour ago, Thane said:

bringing a varied team of units to help tackle different kinds of enemies, and so on.

For the Echoes' post game- Is this a good party? 2 Archers, 2 lords, 2 clerics, Delthea, and 3 Dread Fighters?

[Thane]

Just now, ThatOneWeakArcher said:

For the Echoes' post game- Is this a good party? 2 Archers, 2 lords, 2 clerics, Delthea, and 3 Dread Fighters?

Just want to point out that Echoes' post game is not particularly well received, and I personally suspect it's intentionally skewered against the player not to creae a challenge, but to sell overclass DLC. 

As for your balance, it sounds nice on paper. Maybe two clerics are a bit of an overkill since both Celica and Delthea can heal. 

Oh, and by the way, you can effectively cheese all of Echoes by having Genny summon Illusions. The AI will practically always go for them instead of playable units, which means you can completely neuter the enemy phase.

[TheGreatNothing]

8 minutes ago, Thane said:

Oh, and by the way, you can effectively cheese all of Echoes by having Genny summon Illusions. The AI will practically always go for them instead of playable units, which means you can completely neuter the enemy phase.

But isn't Tatiana better because she has fortify? I also use Faye for having all the "Standard" cleric spells + anew BTW. 

EDIT: I'm currently stuck on the last boat map on act 6. None of my units can kill the Dagons on their own.

Edited July 21, 2017 by ThatOneWeakArcher

[Armagon]

11 minutes ago, ThatOneWeakArcher said:

For the Echoes' post game- Is this a good party? 2 Archers, 2 lords, 2 clerics, Delthea, and 3 Dread Fighters?

It's all gonna depend on their stats and what weapons they have. Make sure you have at least one Parthia for Trance Shot and one Zweihänder for Tigerstance. I recommend you Villager Loop some of your units.

2 minutes ago, ThatOneWeakArcher said:

But isn't Tatiana better because she has fortify? I also use Faye for having all the "Standard" cleric spells + anew BTW.

For the two clerics, i recommend Faye and Genny. Faye because Saint!Faye is one of the best units in the game and Genny because Invoke is broken. Tatiana also has invoke, but for some reason it's not as efficient as Genny's.

[TheGreatNothing]

13 minutes ago, Thane said:

Just want to point out that Echoes' post game is not particularly well received, and I personally suspect it's intentionally skewered against the player not to creae a challenge, but to sell overclass DLC.

So is it a bad idea to play act 6 or...

[Thane]

1 minute ago, ThatOneWeakArcher said:

So is it a bad idea to play act 6 or...

That is all up to you. I would for the sake of completion, but it's not exactly required, and I personally didn't have a very good time playing it.

[SoulWeaver]

1 hour ago, ThatOneWeakArcher said:

But isn't Tatiana better because she has fortify? I also use Faye for having all the "Standard" cleric spells + anew BTW. 

EDIT: I'm currently stuck on the last boat map on act 6. None of my units can kill the Dagons on their own.

UGH. The Dagons. I hated that level. Your best bet with those is preventing them from using their breath attack as it treats your DEF as 0, so you have to rely entirely on your HP to tank them. Their claws still calculate your DEF, so you stand a better chance at close range. I ended up level grinding the Whitewings to level 18 Falcon Knights and using them to Triangle Attack the first one, following up with a point-blank Delthea Aura and Celica Ragnarok on the second, then killed the last one with Alm's Scendscale, again at point-blank in case it failed to kill. As you can imagine, it takes a long time to get to that point, but maybe you can manage to do it sooner. Using Invoke is a good idea, but Genny is the wrong Cleric - Silque takes much longer to learn the Skill, but she summons Dread Fighters, which are more likely to make it out of a tussle with a Dagon without dying because dodge. I can't speak for Faye as I've always made her a Cavalier or a Mage, but Fortify is a good choice too, yes. I use Tatiana for Fortify and Silque for Invoke.

Act 6 isn't necessarily bad, but it can be very frustrating and time-consuming. I'll see if I can remember anything else that helped me and get back to you later.

[MediocreLee]

3 hours ago, ThatOneWeakArcher said:

So is it a bad idea to play act 6 or...

Like others have said, completely your choice to play Act 6 since once you beat Act 5 you technically beat the game anyway.  Act 6 is just an add-on.  But I would recommend at least one cleric and a couple of mages/priestesses.  Seraphim helps quite a bit when dealing with the monster units.  If I can remember correctly, the team I had going into the Thabes Labyrinth was Celica, Alm, Sonya, Kamui, Saber, Palla, Python, Delthea, Genny, and Lukas.  What also helps is knowing what items your characters are going to have equipped since skills are a pretty important thing when going through the labyrinth.

As for the team to bring, completely your choice.  Different people have different playstyles.  Hell, I brought Python with me (since he's being notorious for not doing well for others) and he was MVP against the boss in the labyrinth.

And for improving, it really depends on them game.  In Awakening's Hard Mode, use the highly defensive characters for bait and then take them out with the units you want to level up.  After a while those units you'll use to defeat the enemy will be able to hold their own especially if they're paired up with someone.  Overall, look at the enemy's stats, skills, etc. to get a better picture.

[SoulWeaver]

Ok, back. So what I did for Act 6 was Alm, Celica, Palla, Catria, Est, Silque, Tatiana, Delthea, Sonya, and Bow Knight Kliff. I did end up OverClassing Palla because I was making her my super overpowered Unit with all the Stat boosters and Springs going to her, but she was the only OverClassed Unit so you can do it without those. My strategy was basically let the Whitewings carry me as much as they could thanks to their natural extra damage against almost everyone in the Dungeon, with Tatiana providing heals and Delthea, Sonya, and Kliff doing long-range kills as necessary. Parthia is especially useful as the Weapon Art it unlocks provides like an extra three range for your shot, meaning Kliff(or the Archer of your choice) can hit people from crazy far away, often without fear of retribution. I also forged a Gradivus in addition to finding the one in Act 5(in case it wasn't obvious, I have the Gold DLC), so Catria and Est had a Range of 1-2 while Palla was fighting with a Blessed Lance for some extra oomph. She didn't need Gradivus as Harrier naturally has Fire, meaning she could attack from a distance on her own. I didn't really run into any problems besides a lack of provisions to keep the Whitewings happy(one floor can easily shoot your fatigue into the worst zone if you're not sharing the fights evenly enough, so either watch that or make sure you have a LOT of provisions) right down to the last two floors, which…basically, thank goodness I was playing Casual because it was my first playthrough. Floor 9 has a fight with several Dragon Brethren, and I would have lost just about everyone if it weren't for Casual, then I reached the final. The Creation has easily 120 HP on Normal difficulty, so if you're playing Hard then it's probably worse. I Triangle Attacked it to start off and Palla promptly got beaten into the dirt, followed quickly by Catria, though I managed to pull Est back in time to keep her from biting it. Basically, Silque spawning Dread Fighters nonstop with Tatiana Fortifying the ones that survived each turn was the reason I managed to get through for long enough to set up Ragnarok Ω followed by Scendscale to finish it, though Kliff did quite a bit as well thanks to the fact that Parthia can reach around 8 squares, out of reach of pretty much everyone. I also summoned Our Boi™ who killed some people for the LOLs

Overall, Act 6 wasn't the most annoying FE setup I've had to go through(that was Gharnef's first appearance in a level in Shadow Dragon), but it's very time-consuming and you want a lot of provisions to keep your Fatigue from wrecking you. It's also where you get the Boots among other nice things if I recall correctly, so if you want those then there you go.

[Shadow Mir]

Use the X button to mark all ranges. Also, look out for blue weapons - they're forged to be stronger and more accurate. It also helps to look out for skills - that Wyvern Lord you thought you were going to wreck might now go so easily if they have Swordbreaker. On the skill front, you really want to beware of Counter - it takes all the damage you deal to an adjacent unit and hits you with it.

[SpearOfLies]

Echoes is not a very good game to improve your fire emblem skills.

The basic strategy: bait with one unit with good defense and then gangbang the enemies that attack you unit without enter on other enemies' range if isn't you tank unit.

General advice: always try give at least a little experience to your underleveled unit that you plan to use until the final chapter. Using strong unit to weak enemies to give to your weak units the last blow is fast way to give them exp. If they have more hp and def/res, they are less likely to die.

 

The final boat advice: You need tons of damage to sulvive this battle. Expecially people who can OHKO the dagons or people who can 2HKO the dagons without die.

[The Baroness of Blainswal]

-always check the enemy's range 

-always check the enemy's inventory/skills

-it is often a good idea to let an enemy attack first so they're weak enough to finish off during the player phase (though not always)

-place units on forts or stairs to prevent reinforcements

-have fun?

 

Edited July 21, 2017 by The Baroness of Blainswal

[TheGreatNothing]

Thank you for all the feedback! I just made it to the 4 floor of thabes.

[SoulWeaver]

4 hours ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

On the skill front, you really want to beware of Counter - it takes all the damage you deal to an adjacent unit and hits you with it.

But Counter's garbage, remember? ;P

2 hours ago, ThatOneWeakArcher said:

Thank you for all the feedback! I just made it to the 4 floor of thabes.

Sweet! Be a bit more careful with Alm or Celica once you get to around 7F or 8F as they can get squashed pretty fast if you leave the enemies an opening - I lost Alm midway through 8F because I wasn't paying attention to the exact location of the enemies' reach and had to redo the whole freakin' thing.

Also, something I forgot about Invoke Units is to keep them walled in - The enemy AI usually puts priority in order of Invoker->Invoked->Amiibo->Everyone Else, so if you leave Genny, Tatiana or Silque where they can get to them then the enemies will go for that kill instead of wasting time with all the Illusions as the game recognizes that killing the Invoker automatically kills the Illusions most of the time, though there are moments where you just sit there scratching your head because sometimes the game's an idiot.

[Shadow Mir]

24 minutes ago, SoulWeaver said:

But Counter's garbage, remember? ;P

It is garbage... For the player, that is. On the enemy, however? It has the potential to be really rage inducing.

[SoulWeaver]

6 minutes ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

It is garbage... For the player, that is. On the enemy, however? It has the potential to be really rage inducing.

Yeah, sorry, that was me goofing off again. I remember the first time I had to deal with Counter, I was attacking with Chrom, funnily enough, and it was…something else. The only time I was more thrown was when I took on Apotheosis thinking King Marth would just carry me through like he had on every other DLC level I had at the time and he got thrashed by the first General I attacked.

[Topaz Light]

Here are some basics! A lot of this stuff, other people have already covered, but:

• In games that have it, use the weapon triangle! Swords beat Axes beat Lances beat Swords. While your units' odds will naturally be at their most favorable when pitted against an enemy whose weapon type theirs has the advantage against, it's usually pretty safe to pit same against same, too, i.e. sword vs. sword, lance vs. lance, etc. While it can still work to send, say, lance-users against axe-users, pitting a unit against an enemy whose weapon has the edge against theirs is a risky business, so be very cautious about doing so!
  The only Fire Emblem games which do not feature the weapon triangle are as follows; all installments not listed here do have it!
  • [FE1] Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (NES)
  • [FE2] Fire Emblem Gaiden (NES)
  • [FE3] Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (SNES)
  • [FE15] Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (3DS)
  • [FE16] Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch)
• Keep an eye on the enemy's range, and don't move your units carelessly! It's generally a good idea to use hardier units such as Knights and particularly sturdy Cavaliers or Wyvern Riders to bait out enemies. For magical foes, you'd want to use a unit with high Resistance, instead, which usually means Clerics, Pegasus Knights, or Mages, which leads me into another point...
• Know your units' stats, and always check out the enemies' stats! If a unit has very low Defense, for example, you're going to want to be more careful when sending them into battle against physical enemies. Slower Mages might want to keep out of the way of fast or hard-hitting physical units such as Mercenaries, Myrmidons, Fighters, etc. These are just a few examples! Also keep in mind that very often, although not always, Strength/Defense and Magic/Resistance kinda correlate with each other, in that units are usually specialized more in one of those two pairs of stats than in the other. This is kind of a double-edged sword in ways; magic users often deal less damage to other magic users, but take less in return, for example. Targeting the enemy's weaker defensive stat can be very effective, but know that, depending on the enemy's class and weapon, doing so may put your attacker at risk if you're not careful!
• Watch the combat forecast closely! It shows how much damage each combatant will deal per attack, what the odds of each unit's attack connecting are, and each unit's chance of striking a critical hit (damage x 3), plus it also shows if either combatant will attack twice. Watch out for enemy units being able to get in two attacks! 6 damage may not look like too much, but when it's coming at your level 1 Villager with 18 max HP twice in one round of combat, that's suddenly a lot scarier. The good news is, of course, that double attacks can also work in your favor when it's your units pulling them off!
• Keep an eye on enemies' equipment and skills! Bows dealing extra damage to airborne units is pretty basic and is often taught pretty explicitly in most Fire Emblem games, but there are other weapons to look out for, too; Wyrmslayers deal extra damage to draconic units, Armorslayers deal extra damage to heavily-armored units like Knights, etc. It's generally best to keep units out of the way of weapons that will deal extra damage to them like this. There are other matchups to look out for, too; magic often rips right through Knights' defenses, for example, and can really put them in a bad place, so keep your low-Resistance units out of range of spellcasters, when you can!
• There's rarely any reason to have units attack from where they can be counterattacked when it's possible to have them attack from where they won't be. For example, there's no real reason to send a Mage to face a Knight in melee combat when they could attack from a distance and deal the same damage while keeping themselves perfectly safe from counterattack.
• Use terrain wisely! Terrain can grant bonuses not only to evasion chance, but also to Defense and Resistance, and can even allow units currently standing on it to recover HP based on a percentage (usually 10% or 20%) of their max every time that unit's Phase rolls around; Player Phase for your units, Enemy Phase for enemies, etc. It's usually good to have your units act from advantageous terrain when you can, and to try to keep enemies off of it to the best of your ability. It can make a bigger difference than you might think! The properties of the terrain on a particular tile can be viewed in a little box in the corner of the screen while the cursor is hovered over that tile!
• Train a diverse team! Many Fire Emblem games will send a variety of different enemies and challenges at you over the course of their stories, and it's always good to have a varied array of party members with different classes and specialties, so you're never totally left out to dry when something new and surprising is sent your way.

There's more to it than this, of course, but these are some good basics to keep in mind!

Edited February 15, 2020 by Topaz Light