New Player Tips and Tricks Thread

[bookwormbabe29]

 

Hello all!

 

So something I noticed, while we have Q&A threads, we seem to be missing a basic tips page for new players. I thought it might be useful to have on hand so new players (like myself) don't need to search 20 pages of archives or clog the board with things like 'what are materials?" and such. For example, I can't find much on the differences between difficulty modes, or what (if any) story changes picking Rowan or Lianna makes. 

If you have any basic tips/information to share or neat tricks you've learned and want to share with new players, post them here. I'll try adding my own two cents as I explore this game more. Thanks for reading!

 

 

[Harvey]

When facing a boss, if your unit is going to take massive damage from the boss regardless, let the unit end his/her turn staying close to the boss. This way, the boss won't instantly kill your unit during the enemy phrase and you will be able to heal your unit easily when your turn comes.

..or you can just use the rescue command if that move comes to you.

Conserve your resources as much as possible like..you know? Your swords, axes, lances, tomes, potions..whatever. Some of the games have limited resources and unless you're playing games like FE7, 13 or even 14, don't waste weapons unnecessarily.

 

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Harvey said:

When facing a boss, if your unit is going to take massive damage from the boss regardless, let the unit end his/her turn staying close to the boss. This way, the boss won't instantly kill your unit during the enemy phrase and you will be able to heal your unit easily when your turn comes.

..or you can just use the rescue command if that move comes to you.

Conserve your resources as much as possible like..you know? Your swords, axes, lances, tomes, potions..whatever. Some of the games have limited resources and unless you're playing games like FE7, 13 or even 14, don't waste weapons unnecessarily.

 

Um... This game doesn't work like that.

-Look out for red bubbles with black ! in them - those units are effective against you

-On higher difficulties, it might be in your best interest to knock enemies in forts out of them

-You don't have any health insurance unlike in Hyrule Warriors/Legends, at least not before creating Prayer Crests

-Chapter 12 and chapter 13 are really big doozies

[CmdrQuartz]

1. Always pair up your playable characters. Dual guards blocks damage and doesn't take many hits to charge. Dual attack (not the special) can get you a stun gauge when you might otherwise not get one. You can command a pair up before battle begins. Select a character to be the support, hover over their would be partner, hit X instead of A it'll bring up the list of targets, select the partner and there should an option to "pair up as support"

2. Critical hits (breaking a stun gauge) are generally the best source of damage. Generic characters and captains may die easy enough to normal/strong strings but heroes will need a bit more. Critical hits also trigger armor break.

3. Armor break is amazing. To prevent yourself from being armor broken dual guard protects you from damage and Armored blow (Tiki's skill) and Pass (Lyn's skill) don't stop you from taking damage but does stop you from "flinching" which is apparently the trigger for armor break on playable characters.

4. If you can help it try and have a character with a staff available as even if they aren't one of your playable 4 you can still command them to heal when necessary. The command is found the same way as the "pair us as support" command

5. Try to always have your playable characters doing something. Unless they are at a disadvantage they're pretty good about getting stuff done. At the very least while you are doing the other thing they can make their way to the objective and when your currently controlled group is done you can tell them where you want them to go next and then switch to the other group that still needs to finish their objective. Any npcs that I can command I usually have guard the base/allied commander.

6. Shadow Elimination, people don't tend to like it. Identify the shadow summoning mages on the map before starting, make sure you have a healer npc, command your playable chars to pair up and then start the battle. If possible choose people with slayer and/or advantage over the shadow. If you have the flexibility pick pair ups with a mounted character as they will be able to get to the shadow summoners and return to base to finish the shadows much faster than those on foot, even if they aren't the one you kill the mages/shadows with. Ignore everything but the mages at the start of the battle you can maybe take a fort as I've seen it distract the shadows but the mages summon another shadow pretty quickly and you don't want to deal with any more than 6 shadows.

7. Dodging is the greatest. As you get better at recognizing attacks instead of dodging away you can start to dodge into the attacks and be in melee range as soon as the stun gauge opens. Dodging immediately puts the character into a sprint so when you finish off a hero/captain dodge and you'll already be sprinting to your next destination.

[Nym]

Be ready to grind... A LOT if you plan to play after the story mode

[Florete]

What I've found to be the single most important piece of advice is don't underestimate effective damage. Effective damage can make a fight go from multiple minutes to 20 seconds. Get those slayer weapons and save up your extras for forging.

 

8 minutes ago, Nym said:

Be ready to grind... A LOT if you plan to play after the story mode

You don't really need to grind at all unless you're going for 100% support completion.

At least, I didn't.

[Nym]

7 minutes ago, Florete said:

You don't really need to grind at all unless you're going for 100% support completion.

At least, I didn't.

It depends on what a player want to do exactly, but doing the Anna missions for example will require minimal 4 characters with 6 skills and an optimal forged weapon to use. And weapons skill unlock can take a lot of time.

Edited December 30, 2017 by Nym

[Florete]

41 minutes ago, Nym said:

It depends on what a player want to do exactly, but doing the Anna missions for example will require minimal 4 characters with 6 skills and an optimal forged weapon to use. And weapons skill unlock can take a lot of time.

That's very much endgame content, but also...so what? If a player has done everything else before attempting to S rank these maps, they should have pretty high levels on plenty of units (and some extra skills on them), strong weapons, and - most importantly - a solid grasp on the game and how best to tackle maps.

The only unlockable attribute I might have used is True Power, and 5* Brave weapons have the same power anyway.

[Anomalocaris]

Tips, huh? Have some related to skills:

• Save up at least three of a character's silver materials (acquired from defeating them as an enemy, or getting supports with them as a playable character). You can unlock that character's personal skill using them, and that should be one of the first things you purchase for them.
• Once two characters reach A-rank support, you will acquire one of each of their "essences". These rare materials can be used to share skills between characters.
• Prioritize getting people to A-rank with Marth and Ryoma; Marth's personal skill boosts Exp gained, and Ryoma's makes your attacks faster. Both of those skills should be permanent additions to every character on your roster (until they hit max level, at which point ditch Marth's obviously)

Some other stuff:

• There are enough Master Seals in the game to promote everyone, but some are hidden behind tougher missions in the depths of History Mode. Your first Master Seal should definitely be used on whichever of the Aytolis twins you chose as your starting character, else you might struggle with the later story levels.
• Chrom and Lucina use the exact same moveset, and only differ based on their stats. You may consider giving one of them the Antitriangle attribute once you unlock it, if only to give them different niches. You might also consider using it on either Hinoka or Caeda to differentiate them from each other and Cordelia, but lances are already somewhat scarce.
• Lissa, Sakura, and Lianna have higher Magic stats than Strength stats, and should be given the Topsy-Turvy attribute as soon as you have the chance; Celica and Cordelia have equal attacking stats and thus also appreciate it, if only to differentiate them from Marth and the other Pegasus Knights respectively.

Edited December 30, 2017 by Anomalocaris

[Ertrick36]

I'm not the most experienced with the game, but I've played enough that I think I can give some advice:

• First of all, you can go for the History Mode maps right away if you want, but it's generally recommended to treat the story mode not as the main mode of the game but rather as an extended tutorial of the game.  Most of the content will actually be found in History Mode... and trust me, there's plenty to do in each map.  But you won't have access to all of the maps unless you beat the story.  Not only that, but you need to beat the game in order to get access to half of Anna's Mementos in the story mode.
• Master seals: You do get enough seals to promote everyone... but most of them are scattered and outside of story mode.  This has led some to suggest that there's a sort of priority for using them.  You shouldn't worry too much about it, though it's most recommended to use the first one on the twin you selected as the protagonist.  Beyond that, you might want to hand most of them to members of whichever game whose History Mode you intend to tackle first (like Awakening, since that's the first one).  Though in all honesty, you can do this however you want; it might just make it more difficult for you to acquire an S-Rank for some missions.
• One other thing about master seals: at what level you use them really doesn't matter.  All master sealing is in this game is just a huge stat boost with a new costume to boot; it doesn't affect progression in the slightest.
• Forging and badges shouldn't be overlooked; both can help make your characters super OP, and badges in particular are mandatory if you want to be able to use better weapons and more combos.  Even some of the seemingly minuscule stuff like the buffing badges can possibly give you the edge you need to S-Rank a particularly difficult mission in History Mode.  To get the materials required, you need to fight captains and commanders whose weapons correspond with the badges, and you sometimes will need to gain support levels.
• Topsy-Turvy is an interesting weapon attribute that can make some weaker allies more useful...  Maybe some like Sakura.  It can also strangely make tomes strength-based, which could have its uses (e.g. mage-only missions with lots of high-res enemies).

Aside from that, I'll agree with others.  Especially to not underestimate effective damage; you really don't want to leave a pegasus knight unattended with an enemy archer nearby.  They will get eviscerated.  Not only that, but if you get slayer attributes, you can cut through armor knights, manaketes, and great knights like butter.  And characters having access to other characters' skills is great, and is a fact that should definitely not be neglected.

[Shadow Mir]

9 hours ago, CmdrQuartz said:

3. Armor break is amazing. To prevent yourself from being armor broken dual guard protects you from damage and Armored blow (Tiki's skill) and Pass (Lyn's skill) don't stop you from taking damage but does stop you from "flinching" which is apparently the trigger for armor break on playable characters.

I would beg to differ - sure, you could combine Armored Blow and Pass to practically negate the downside, but what about before then (considering that Tiki isn't gotten until somewhat late in the main story and Lyn requires finishing the main story - which is required to unlock her map - and Noble Lady of Caelin)...?

9 hours ago, CmdrQuartz said:

6. Shadow Elimination, people don't tend to like it. Identify the shadow summoning mages on the map before starting, make sure you have a healer npc, command your playable chars to pair up and then start the battle. If possible choose people with slayer and/or advantage over the shadow. If you have the flexibility pick pair ups with a mounted character as they will be able to get to the shadow summoners and return to base to finish the shadows much faster than those on foot, even if they aren't the one you kill the mages/shadows with. Ignore everything but the mages at the start of the battle you can maybe take a fort as I've seen it distract the shadows but the mages summon another shadow pretty quickly and you don't want to deal with any more than 6 shadows.

Speaking of, one such map in Together to the End has your base rushed by archers, and your base commander is a Wyvern Lord, which is weak to archers.

3 hours ago, Ertrick36 said:

Master seals: You do get enough seals to promote everyone... but most of them are scattered and outside of story mode.  This has led some to suggest that there's a sort of priority for using them.  You shouldn't worry too much about it, though it's most recommended to use the first one on the twin you selected as the protagonist.  Beyond that, you might want to hand most of them to members of whichever game whose History Mode you intend to tackle first (like Awakening, since that's the first one).  Though in all honesty, you can do this however you want; it might just make it more difficult for you to acquire an S-Rank for some missions.

Whilst we're on the subject of Master Seals, it's worth noting two of them are in chests in the maps where you meet Ryoma and Xander.

Anyway, something else I've observed - Awakening mode allows your character to use their full move set, even if they can't.

Edited December 31, 2017 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Anomalocaris]

Not exactly a beginner tip, and pretty irrelevant since you'll likely have cleared the story long before you get her, but Anna can open treasure chests without needing a key. Niles can't, though, despite being an Outlaw.

[Harvey]

10 hours ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

Um... This game doesn't work like that.

What game doesn't?

 

 

[Thany]

12 minutes ago, Harvey said:

What game doesn't?

 

 

You cant compared a hack and slash game with a turn based stratagy. that advice wont work in a game that lacks the mechanics you described. I'm guessing you havent seen much gameplay of this one before.

 

Anyways, for advice, Learn quickly if you think pair up will be or will not be your main stratagy of map combat. once you learn that fast, you can form effective stratagies on the maps you play.

[Florete]

44 minutes ago, Harvey said:

What game doesn't?

Look at the subforum this is in.

[Harvey]

1 hour ago, Florete said:

Look at the subforum this is in.

Oh..Sorry about that.

 

[r_n]

Every single onslaught stage can be trivialized by using Camilla. Her dashing strong attack is a quick dive with a strong area of effect. It will wipe out large groups of soldiers and deal surprisingly decent damage to normal characters. You can quickly dash out of the landing animation and then do a follow up almost immediately after and she has solid invincibility frames. Beyond maybe a quick detour to kill a commander to spawn more, you can pretty safely & quickly go around the map and rack up the needed kills.

The three pegasus knights have a similar dashing strong attack, but the dive has more lag associated that makes it harder to spam; i don't believe it does as much damage either.

Luna (Chrom's skill) should always be one of your skills when you can get it. It's entirely free extra damage that is applied to every hit and the amount done (technically it's the amoun defense & res are lowered) increases with luck. Astra (Ryoma's skill) just straight up makes all of your attacks come out faster and unless you can't get used to the speed, shoudl also be stapled to your units.

The speed stat determines how long your Awakening lasts, but it's not too important. Caeda's Speed+10 skill only gives about an extra second, for reference.

Frederick & Xander are very bulky and, even when facing weapon triangle disadvantage or level mismatches can take a while to kill. My level 60 marth still had problems taking down a level 45 frederick, i twas kind of ridiculous even ignoring the gimmick it had (Arena final round, with a heal buff). Probably the best argument for carrying horse slayer.

When deciding on skills to put on your weapons, you can't go wrong with Rainstorm. It makes all hits in your normal attack string deal more damage. Also, personal weapons with their potential unlocked don't take penalties from effective damage skills.

Liana, Rowan & Anna are always available for use in history mode missions that limit you to specific games.

[Shadow Mir]

The nastiest restrictions (weapons-wise) are Bows and Tomes/Stones - the former only has two characters available in the base game (three with Anna, but she takes a lot of work to unlock), and the latter tends to throw tons of highly resistant enemies at you.

The free Hero Challenge map has some fights that are ideal for grinding materials, with the archer and myrmidon fights being the most notable since bows tend to be rather rare and you need a hell of a lot of Myrmidon's Head Guards.

[Nym]

On 30/12/2017 at 1:29 PM, Florete said:

That's very much endgame content, but also...so what? If a player has done everything else before attempting to S rank these maps, they should have pretty high levels on plenty of units (and some extra skills on them), strong weapons, and - most importantly - a solid grasp on the game and how best to tackle maps.

The only unlockable attribute I might have used is True Power, and 5* Brave weapons have the same power anyway.

Yea oops I realize my mistake.

 

So to correct my mistake, you gonna grint a LOT if you want to 100% this game. Otherwise it's... alright.

[MrPerson0]

If you are planning to grind in this game to 100%, do NOT choose Lianna as the main lord. Chapter 20 is one of the best grinding maps (gold, support, and character mats all in one go). If you do pick Lianna, it'll be slightly harder to make shadow Lianna summon the second set of shadows, because you will have to fight her with Lianna, as opposed to shadow Rowan summoning the second set of shadows no matter which unit you fight him with.

[SoulWeaver]

If you want to grind out Weapon Skills that need unlocking, the battle on "The Path is Yours" with Sakura as the map sprite can net you 2500+ kills easy if you play your Awakenings right as it's set outside Castle Sol and two Awakening Tonic Transporters spawn within the courtyard and can be killed off quickly so you have Awakening Tonics on hand for during Awakening - my current record of kills in a single Awakening is 1905 thanks to that battle. This is of course level dependent because stats are a thing, and also character dependent as certain movesets are less efficient at killing large groups than others - Enliron and Facinna in particular have been obnoxious for me, while I got Spellbane Yumi done in 4 runs - but the lowest I've got for this battle is about 2000, which is decent enough. It'll also net you a crapload of Archer materials(the Transporters are Archers) and a fair amount of Spear Fighter and Monster materials.

I'll need to keep poking around, but I should be able to find other things you guys haven't got yet.

[Anomalocaris]

On 1/3/2018 at 8:26 PM, SoulWeaver said:

If you want to grind out Weapon Skills that need unlocking, the battle on "The Path is Yours" with Sakura as the map sprite can net you 2500+ kills easy if you play your Awakenings right as it's set outside Castle Sol and two Awakening Tonic Transporters spawn within the courtyard and can be killed off quickly so you have Awakening Tonics on hand for during Awakening - my current record of kills in a single Awakening is 1905 thanks to that battle. This is of course level dependent because stats are a thing, and also character dependent as certain movesets are less efficient at killing large groups than others - Enliron and Facinna in particular have been obnoxious for me, while I got Spellbane Yumi done in 4 runs - but the lowest I've got for this battle is about 2000, which is decent enough. It'll also net you a crapload of Archer materials(the Transporters are Archers) and a fair amount of Spear Fighter and Monster materials.

I'll need to keep poking around, but I should be able to find other things you guys haven't got yet.

I just use the Timed Onslaught maps. Usually get 3500 - 4500 KOs.

[Ertrick36]

On 1/3/2018 at 6:26 PM, SoulWeaver said:

If you want to grind out Weapon Skills that need unlocking, the battle on "The Path is Yours" with Sakura as the map sprite can net you 2500+ kills easy if you play your Awakenings right as it's set outside Castle Sol and two Awakening Tonic Transporters spawn within the courtyard and can be killed off quickly so you have Awakening Tonics on hand for during Awakening - my current record of kills in a single Awakening is 1905 thanks to that battle. This is of course level dependent because stats are a thing, and also character dependent as certain movesets are less efficient at killing large groups than others - Enliron and Facinna in particular have been obnoxious for me, while I got Spellbane Yumi done in 4 runs - but the lowest I've got for this battle is about 2000, which is decent enough. It'll also net you a crapload of Archer materials(the Transporters are Archers) and a fair amount of Spear Fighter and Monster materials.

In all honesty, most Timed Onslaughts are pretty easy to rack up the KOs in.  If you're decent, aren't using a character who is way underleveled for the mission, and you stay as mobile as the mission requires, you'll probably always at least get 2000 KOs in every Timed Onslaught.  It's mostly just a matter of how much time it'll waste you.

The level 2 Onslaught in Invisible Ties (literally one of the first ones available) takes only nine minutes, and I've been able to rack up 3,500 KOs.  Easy peasy.  Though you won't get quite as good or rare materials from it, but that's okay.

 

Here's another tip: don't take on one of the Anna missions with a team of level 40's unless you're really good and maybe willing to either sink tons of hours repeating the same crap or are willing to pay out the ass to revive your units (if you're playing on Classic).  I beat the Awakening Anna mission with such a team (and an unpromoted level ~20), and that cost me 900,000 gold because all my playable units died except Cordelia, who I employed massive cheese strats with.  And no, I didn't even get A rank.

Basically, don't be stupid like I was :p

Spoiler

At least I got Anna, tho.

 

[Florete]

1 hour ago, Ertrick36 said:

Here's another tip: don't take on one of the Anna missions with a team of level 40's unless you're really good and maybe willing to either sink tons of hours repeating the same crap or are willing to pay out the ass to revive your units (if you're playing on Classic).  I beat the Awakening Anna mission with such a team (and an unpromoted level ~20), and that cost me 900,000 gold because all my playable units died except Cordelia, who I employed massive cheese strats with.  And no, I didn't even get A rank.

Basically, don't be stupid like I was :p

  Reveal hidden contents

At least I got Anna, tho.

 

I did this, too, but only because I wanted Anna asap (not on Classic, though). Took me ~45 minutes on the clearing run, and only because I'd failed enough times to know exactly what to do and where to be. Would not recommend otherwise.

Not sure how much of a "tip" this is, though. 80 is the in-game recommended level.

[Ertrick36]

2 minutes ago, Florete said:

I did this, too, but only because I wanted Anna asap (not on Classic, though). Took me ~45 minutes on the clearing run, and only because I'd failed enough times to know exactly what to do and where to be. Would not recommend otherwise.

Not sure how much of a "tip" this is, though. 80 is the in-game recommended level.

I don't know how much my words convey this tone, but my "tip" was very tongue-in-cheek.

That being said, some higher level missions are perfectly doable with underleveled characters.  I've gotten S rank on at least one of the time distortion rifts with that same level ~40 team.

I'd say despite me losing almost a million gold, it was worth it to get another character earlier than intended.  I certainly didn't want to wait until I had a party of level 80's before I got Anna, particularly since she starts as an unpromoted level 1.