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FE8 HM 0% Growths LTC (with commentary)


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The introduction video to my FE8 HM 0% Growths LTC playthrough. 

This thread will contain various information that I'm not able to explain sufficiently in commentary. 

The Purpose of this Playthrough

The goals of this playthrough, in order of priority, are:

1. Beat Fire Emblem 8 (Defeat Fomortiis) on Hard Mode with 0% growths while following these conditions:

  • Recruit and keep alive every playable character
  • Participate in Ephraim's version of Chapters 9 - 14 (15 and 16 are also influenced, although not entirely different chapters) 
  • No utilizing skirmishes, the Tower of Valni, the Lagdou Ruins, or the Pierce / Silencer skills on bosses

2. Do the above in the lowest overall turncount possible (or at least the lowest I can achieve).

3. Beat the game with the lowest in-game time I can achieve (I'm definitely not optimal in this respect, since I don't use the L button very often, but otherwise I think I go fast enough).

Other general tidbits 

RNG (the random number generator):

Since Fire Emblem is quite reliant on the RNG for a multitude of things (hits, criticals, enemy stat generation, level-ups, and many other things), it can be quite beneficial to understand how it works, and how to manipulate it. 

The first thing to understand is that, in the GBA games, the RNG is entirely predictable. What this means is that, upon resetting the game (as simple as turning it off and on again), the random numbers are pre-determined, and as a result, if you do certain inputs, no matter how many times you reset, the game will always use the same random numbers (which I tend to call "burning" random numbers), and any RNG-based events will consistently occur. 

rng.png.2004cf7154ab62e36fdcf0d730f5f079.png

In the case of the GBA games, when the game is reset, the random numbers (which can range from 0 to 100) will always start with these initial values, and the rest of the numbers are also already determined. Utilizing a lua script allows you to see the random numbers at any given time, but my previous iterations of this playthrough were actually done without one. Regardless, it's a nice tool to have if you plan on doing a run like this. 

It also helps to understand how many RNs (random numbers) are burned for any given action in the game. Here are the most prominent actions in the game and how many RNs they burn:

Spoiler

Missing an attack: 2 RNs (The game averages out the two numbers and compares that average to the user's hit rate. If the average is greater or equal to the hit rate, the attack will miss, and no further RNs are burned for that attack)

Hitting an attack: 3 RNs (If the average is less than the hit rate, the attack connects, and an additional RN is burned to determine if the attack is a critical hit. This results in the actual chance of hitting being different from the hit rate, often referred to as the True Hit system. Feel free to read more about it here: https://serenesforest.net/general/true-hit/)

Critting an attack: 4 RNs (One of FE8's RNG oddities. Normally, once the crit check is done, no more RNs are burned, no matter if the attacker actually critted or not. However, in FE8, if the attacker crits, a 4th RN is burned to determine whether that attack is a Silencer strike. Even though this RN only ever affects Assassins, it still gets burned no matter the class)

It should be noted that skills such as Sure Strike, Pierce, and Great Shield all burn an additional RN to determine if they activate. 

Leveling Up normally: 7 RNs (Seven numbers are typically burned, corresponding to the seven stats which can increase, and these numbers are compared to the unit's growth rates to determine which stats actually increase)

Leveling Up in 0% growths: 21 RNs (In general, if the initial seven numbers don't produce any stat-ups, the game burns additional rounds of seven numbers in an attempt to get the unit an actual level up. If three rounds of seven RNs fail to produce any stats, the game will give up and hand that unit an empty level up. Since this is 0% growths, these 21 RNs will always be burned whenever a unit levels up)

Attempting to hit a Status Staff: 1 RN (unlike normal attacks, the game only burns 1 RN to see if a status staff hits, meaning the True Hit system does not apply to status staves)

Attempting to find an item in the desert: 1 RN (unlike the other GBA games which rely on a secondary RNG to determine this, FE8 just uses the regular random number chain to see if a desert item is found)

Indeed, all this information is cool stuff, but it's manipulating the RNG that helps accomplish the events that need to happen. So how do we do that?

One method of manipulating the RNG is by playing part of a chapter, suspending out of the chapter, and restarting the chapter (without resetting the game). When you re-enter the chapter, the chain of RNs will remain, but you will be at the start of the chapter as opposed to wherever you left it. This method is primarily helpful for trying to rig enemy stats, but I'm not a big fan of deliberately changing enemy stats to be lower than normal, which is why I make it a point to reset before every chapter. 

The method I typically use for manipulating RNG is what I like to call arrow dancing. Essentially, when you select a character to move, you get an arrow which you use to point them to where they will go on that turn. However, simply wiggling around with this movement arrow can often advance the RNG, even if you're not intentionally trying to. I typically move the arrow on the edge of a unit's movement range, since that tends to give the most control in terms of how many RNs I want to burn. 

 5b3f7e17ad1e0_beforernburn.png.51c42315affbdbd5888af8238b8ee4eb.png   5b3f7e278bcc6_afterrnburn.png.1c5619af3e1c1dffc281bc02131c837b.png

(An example. Vanessa moves the arrow all the way to the right, then one down, followed by one left. The game has to burn an RN to determine what the arrow's path is, and as you can see, the random numbers get changed as a result. It should be noted that if I move one left, then one down instead, I would be the one directly determining the arrow's path, not the game, which means no RNs would be burned)

So, whenever you see me moving to the edge of a unit's movement range and doing some nonsensical cursor movement back and forth, chances are that I'm burning some RNs to accomplish a certain task.

Reliability of strategies 

I feel that this is important enough to reiterate. As a general rule, the less turns one has available to pull a strategy off, the less reliable that strategy is. This forces one to question if they're willing to sacrifice reliability for the sake of turncount, and if so, to what extent. For me, I almost always choose the turncount over the reliability (this is an LTC playthrough after all), but I still attempt to have a strategy be as reliable as possible given the turncount. For the most part, I do think this playthrough is relatively reliable (not that 0% growth LTC playthroughs can be too reliable...), but there will be a fair share of timely criticals, chances of death, and other such stuff. I will be noting these in the form of annotations in the description.

-----

I believe I've explained everything else sufficiently in the video, so make sure to watch that. Otherwise, I hope you guys stick around! This has been my passion project for more than a year at this point, so I can only hope that my efforts will finally come to fruition. I'm not very familiar to this whole video making process (processing, uploading, commentary, etc.), so any advice is appreciated. Thank you all for your time, and I hope you have a blessed day. 

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The Prologue + Chapters 1, 2, and 3 are completed in 1, 3, 4, and 4 turns, respectively. 

Prologue Notes:

Spoiler

New Units:

Eirika

5b4e05dd58952_EirikaBases.png.22ac14cc3f0e99b27a7e429601ef3400.png  5b4e060159024_EirikaWeaponRanks.png.98ca7c56a38c4c22fac96a998b2aa5f9.png

Eirika is one of the Royal Twins of Renais, and thus she is our lord for this initial part of the game (potentially the entire game if you go Eirika Route). This primarily means that she needs to be fielded in every one of these earlygame chapters, and that she needs to Seize the gate or throne when applicable. This can sometimes be problematic, since her combat stats aren't too great. She can double most of these earlygame enemies (namely, Chapter 2 Brigands), but she's never one-rounding the enemy without a crit, and she gets 2HKO'd by every enemy in the game (with some basic enemies eventually being able to OHKO her. Yikes!). Getting her frail self over to the seize point is one of the primary challenges of these earlygame Seize maps. 

Seth

5b4e0998c3ff1_SethBases.png.2eb502c0c61a8a0729df57ce3092c54c.png  5b4e09a3bdc2b_SethWeaponRanks.png.5b54e38f1f74b98a858aac353ba43b29.png

(Note that Seth's HP is depleted a good amount for Prologue due to plot stuff)

The man, the myth, the legend. Seth is considered one of the most powerful units in the entire series for a reason, and it's not hard at all to see why. He's got absolutely monstrous bases (just compare them to Eirika's, for example), the highest move value in 8, a mount (which means he gets access to Canto, allowing him to use his remaining movement after rescuing or trading), and dual A weapon ranks in both Swords and Lances. His most important feature, however, is that he joins with all of these traits in the first map of the game. We will not be getting a unit who can even try to compare to Seth for quite a while, and Seth will carry this playthrough to a ridiculous extent. 

It should be noted that another reason Seth is considered so extremely powerful is that his growths are extremely high, especially compared to other earlygame prepromotes in the series. Obviously, this isn't a factor in this playthrough, and as a result. his combat will progressively become less and less capable, but it always remains proficient enough, especially with some statbooster investment. 

New Items:

Rapier Rapier

Eirika only, 7 Mt., 95 hit, 5 weight, 10 crit, effective damage vs Cavalry + Armor, 2 WExp

This weapon is what prevents Eirika from being a poor combat unit in this early part of the game. The Rapier has been a series staple, appearing in all the previous games other than FE2 and FE4, usually as the lord's personal weapon, and in FE8 that's no exception. It's essentially a slightly stronger Iron Sword with a bit of crit against normal units, which is quite nice, and slightly makes up for Eirika's poor 4 Str. It also gives 2 WExp, which allows Eirika to raise Weapon Rank quickly (explaining how she got to D Swords in Chapter 3, despite not doing too much combat). The Cavalry + Armor effectiveness isn't too relevant in this playthrough, but it does give her capable combat versus Armors and even Generals in a more growth-oriented playthrough. Overall, it's a solid weapon locked onto a less-than-solid unit, but it deserves a mention anyways.

Chapter 1 Notes:

Spoiler

New Units: 

Franz

5b4e0fe88e484_FranzBases.png.6187f9e4c644201068a8dcd5ccc61ebb.png    5b4e0ff6ce0a9_FranzWeaponRanks.png.f17d3f231736d34f8b6268ed01d310c8.png

Franz is a complete embarrassment compared to his mentor, Seth, but his combat is serviceable at this point in the game. In all reality, he's more useful for rescue dropping  with his 7 mounted movement than actually fighting, but that is most certainly an important niche to have. He will serve some important roles in upcoming chapters. Regardless, we'll be getting some better Cavaliers soon enough, so Franz's usefulness is dated. It should also be noted that Franz is the first member of the "15 Aid or Above" Club, which ends up being a quite specific yet very much important niche to have, for reasons that will be apparent later in the playthrough. 

Gilliam

5b4e1291068ef_GilliamBases.png.da49ece9464b5036c213fe37f8d72074.png  5b4e129768fbd_GilliamWeaponRanks.png.3ff37b2c1539329be57a067b4af19f77.png

Armor Knights get a bad rap among efficient players, for very understandable reasons (low movement, typically low speed, among other things), but Gilliam stands out from the rest in the series thanks to his promotion to Great Knight, allowing him to get a promoted 6 move like most infantry units, but with access to three weapon types and a horse (Canto) as premium benefits. Alas, for this playthrough, I've no need for a Great Knight with mediocre combat, especially since other, better candidates for promotion appear soon enough, so Gilliam hits the bench after these first few chapters of free deployment. 

Chapter 2 Notes:

Spoiler

New Units: 

Moulder

5b4e15e3c629b_MoulderBases.png.5c1e5ef2d39ac8499d6def29dee63522.png  5b4e15f092c84_MoulderWeaponRanks.png.826cc361cdc0d72aa149e284421883b1.png

Moulder is one of the most important units in this run. Not only does he keep our units alive by healing them, but thanks to being Lvl 3 (aka a bit closer to promotion at Lvl 10) and having a base C Staff Rank, he's also our primary candidate for using A or S Rank Staves later in the game, some of which are quite important to improving reliability or clearing maps quickly. As a result, Moulder is gonna be a mainstay on the team. Getting him to Lvl 10 for promotion is tougher than you would think, due to Staves not giving too much exp, but with enough efforts and staff usage, we can promote him precisely when needed. 

Vanessa

5b4e176581ce5_VanessaBases.png.40cae569a46443e307bb91fa00198eef.png  5b4e177214614_VanessaWeaponRanks.png.6083f1a966716314aa32713ae730c661.png

Vanessa has alright combat for this part of the game, since she's able to double enemies for an extended period of time. However, what's more important is that Vanessa holds the acclaimed position of being the first flier in the game, which means that she is able to fly over terrain that other units cannot hope to pass. Considering that certain objectives are often made more obscure by tricky terrain such as mountains or rivers, being able to fly over all of that is a very important niche to have. However, since her combat abilities don't hold up for very long, it's often more useful for her to rescue and carry someone more capable to places instead. Her niche as a flying rescuebot is just so important that, even when better fliers arrive, Vanessa is still worth fielding so that we can have multiple fliers performing rescuedrops. She also joins Franz in the "15 Aid or Above" Club. 

Ross 

5b4e1b22c3ac3_RossBases.png.0bd1ee636464480fd0098cb66f77f4d2.png  5b4e1b4198bd1_RossWeaponRanks.png.51397240611d266a1bd50c276eafc85f.png

Ross is our first of a few Trainee (otherwise known as Tier 0) unit, a class type which only exists in FE8 (although units in other games such as FE13's Donnel are a pretty similar concept).  Essentially, Trainees are cursed with horrible base stats all around. In exchange, they have access to more levels of growth, and gets an additional promotion to a Tier 1 class (such as Cavalier or Shaman), this promotion happening at the beginning of the chapter after they reach Lvl 10 (no promotional item needed). Considering the amount of effort it takes to train Trainees, and the lack of growths to benefit from additional levels, you'd think that I would just throw Ross onto the bench and call it a day. But that would be incorrect! It turns out that Ross is the only unit in the game with access to the Pirate class, via his promotion. Pirates are especially adept in moving over water tiles, such as rivers, and we need a unit that is capable of doing this to clear a certain chapter 1 turn quicker. As a result, I have to invest 9 levels (900 exp) into Ross so that he can promote to Pirate for that chapter. This is helped by the fact that Trainees gain exp at a very fast rate, but it's hindered more by the fact that Ross has such horrible base stats, that I need to spoonfeed him said exp. It's quite the tight squeeze to get Ross to Lvl 10 in time, only to use him for a very niche purpose, but hey, anything for the LTC.

New Mechanics:

Villages

I didn't mention it in commentary, but Chapter 2 is the first chapter in the game which features villages. Villages are essentially areas which you can visit to obtain an item or character, depending on the village. As the pre-chapter dialogue demonstrates, enemy Brigands can destroy villages if they enter them, preventing the player from obtaining the reward from within. In this chapter, the villages are within our reach quite easily, so the Brigands weren't a threat to them, but the Brigands can often have the jump over an unsuspecting player. Villages often contain very useful items, so for the most part, I make sure to visit them. The three visitable villages in this chapter wield pretty important items. 

Droppable Items

5b4e254433860_DroppableItem.png.f20fd8755d4a0a41f69710aead7d46cd.png

The Brigand that Ross dueled for most of the chapter has the first droppable item in the game, a Vulnerary, which Ross received upon killing him. Droppable items are highlighted Green, and are obtained after killing the unit in possession of the item. There are some enemies with very notable droppable items, which we'll have to make sure to kill, even if they're inconveniently placed. Note that weapons can also be dropped as well.

New Items:

Red GemRed Gem

Item. Can be sold for 2500 G.

The Gems are much like the various Bullions in the DS + 3DS Fire Emblem games, in that they serve no useful purpose other than to be sold for money. The Red Gem sells the least of the Gems, but 2500 G is still a solid amount. Funds in this playthrough (or FE8 in general) are quite plentiful, but we don't have too much money this early in the game, so having the extra funds available is very nice.

ElixirElixir

Item. 3 uses. Fully restores HP.

The Elixir is essentially a Vulnerary on steroids, able to instantly recover a unit's HP to full, regardless of how much HP was missing. This simply gives our units more survivability, and that's always useful. They become more available later on in the game. 

Pure WaterPure Water

Item. 3 uses. Temporarily raises Resistance by 7 points, with the boost depleting by 1 every turn that passes afterwards.

We've encountered no magical enemies thus far, and we've got a few more chapters before we actually encounter any, but the Pure Water remains a useful item, giving our units a buffer against magical threats, which is quite important since no one other than Seth has a notable Resistance stat. It's important to manage the 3 uses carefully however, since we don't get another Pure Water for a few chapters, and we don't get buyable Pure Waters until after Chapter 12.

Chapter 3 Notes:

Spoiler

New Units:

Garcia

5b4e2613d692c_GarciaBases.png.2d0c7551f97cc57989e35f37a9f5c6cf.png  5b4e261e8c007_GarciaWeaponRanks.png.866ca80923514ef77cebec98afd60e24.png

Unlike his son, Garcia is an actually competent combat unit. His bulk is better than most of our other units, and he's quite strong, sporting 8 Str and wielding the strongest melee weapon type, Axes. He does very solid chip damage, and is even capable of ORKOing slower opponents that he can double, a feat which other units other than Seth can't really claim. He's an alright candidate for promotion, since he can get to Lvl 10 without too much effort, but we get a better candidate soon, so his bases will only hold up for so long. Regardless, he's a good combat unit for this part of the game, and he'll see a good amount of usage. It should be noted that, right now, Garcia is our only infantry, 5 move unit who can rescue Seth, which will be relevant soon enough.

Neimi 

5b4e2793cbb4c_NeimiBases.png.f1c0a25b98a0088a6cd68244e2c092c4.png  5b4e27a6f10ea_NeimiWeaponRanks.png.2cff4b6b8c400228a97db0049583f130.png

Neimi's stats are very poor, to the point where they're comparable with Ross's, despite the fact that she's not a trainee unit. In addition to having poor stats, she is an Archer, which means she is cursed with a lack of 1 Range options, severely limiting her potential Enemy Phase output. For the player who is willing to train her, they are rewarded with early access to her promotion item (which only she can use, since she's the only archer in the game), and a potential promotion to Ranger, which gives her a mount and 1 Range, a solid promotion indeed. However, for this playthrough, Neimi is simply not worth training. Despite everything I've said however, Neimi makes an important contribution to a chapter later in the game, which is more than most bad units can say, so I appreciate her for that. 

Colm 

5b4e295c7d269_ColmBases.png.eda0a600535e9cc9fb17ee36b43c775b.png  5b4e2966d62ab_ColmWeaponRanks.png.7915b43778e17eb867d898e669d1e90b.png

Colm is comparable to Eirika, in that they both are sword-locked fast units that aren't too capable offensively or defensively. But where Eirika has the Lord status keeping her relevant, Colm is our only Thief in the game, which means that he will see a good amount of usage for the purposes of opening Doors and Chests. Thieves in this game can also steal items (but not weapons) if they have higher speed than their opponent. Colm has enough speed to perform all of his stealing duties well, and there are very important stealable items that only Colm can obtain, so he's one of our more important units. It should be noted that Colm is capable to walking on water, and carrying Eirika, both of which are important features to have for a certain chapter (at this point, for the more familiar readers, it's pretty obvious what chapter this is...).

New Items:

JavelinJavelins + Hand AxeHand Axes

These items are both defined by being slightly weaker than Iron weapons, having ~65 hit, being fairly heavy, and being E Rank weapons. Their most important aspect, however, is that they have 1-2 Range, allowing units such as Seth and Garcia to attack enemies at 2 range, and allows them to retaliate against 2 range enemies. They're very useful, since being able to retaliate and do damage on Enemy Phase regardless of the enemy's range is just a nice ability to have. We make sure to buy a good amount of both before the chapter starts.

LockpickLockpick

15 uses, Thieves + Assassins + Rogues only, can open doors and chests

In some of the later Fire Emblem games, Thieves can just naturally open Doors and Chests with no problem, but for the GBA Fire Emblem games, the Lockpick is the item which Thieves need to use to open doors and chests. It has a limited amount of uses, which can be somewhat problematic, but Colm's original Lockpick is all that's need for this playthrough. Later on, we get a Rogue, which are promoted Thieves capable of opening Doors and Chests without a Lockpick.

Door KeyDoor Key

1 use, opens a door

The Door Key is nothing new or special. It allows any unit (not just Thieves) to open a door, and the Chest Key does the same with opening Chests. However, the Door Key deserves a special mention because unlike Chest Keys, they are unbuyable in this game: they are only obtainable via stealing or enemy drops. This can definitely pose a problem if Door Key uses aren't managed properly, especially in an efficient setting, since mounts are our preferred door openers over Thieves. Just look at Mekkah's FE8 run to see the frustrations which can result from improper Door Key management in an LTC setting (seriously though, Mekkah's run is amazing, go watch it if you haven't): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA69XE9lKaI5rcU-NUAXOBYhyajTHgzag. As for this playthrough, Door Keys don't really manage to screw up the run in any significant manner, so that's nice.

 

 

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hmn i'm legitimately curious to see how far you could potentially take garcia since he does get +2 spd from the hero promotion.

i mean granted even with that, he'd probably fall off by the desert, but still. 

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Garcia, as I understand, does have pretty good bases, even in speed.

Can't base Seth ORKO enemies in the final chapter using the silver lance?

Will Ross be the only trainee you use? I imagine that even a horse doesn't make Amelia very useful compared to her bases and necessary investment.

I don't do LTC runs so forgive me if I sound like an idiot.

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1 hour ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Garcia, as I understand, does have pretty good bases, even in speed.

Can't base Seth ORKO enemies in the final chapter using the silver lance?

Will Ross be the only trainee you use? I imagine that even a horse doesn't make Amelia very useful compared to her bases and necessary investment.

I don't do LTC runs so forgive me if I sound like an idiot.

Yea, Garcia's bases are solid, which makes him a good combat unit both in normal gameplay and in this playthrough. 

Seth probably 2HKOs most of the non-DracoZombie enemies, but unless they are weighed down by Shadowshot or something, I don't think he typically doubles at base. Still really good considering how early he joins, though.

Ross is indeed the only trainee I will use. Getting kills with him this early on in the game is already quite difficult, so you could probably imagine how much worse it would be to try and give Amelia or Ewan kills versus mid-game enemies. Ross also is only getting this treatment because he's the only Pirate we get in the game, and I need one of those. Meanwhile, Amelia and Ewan bring nothing unique or special to the table. 

No worries! They're good questions, and I love answering these types of questions as well. The purpose of all of this (the commentary, the posts, etc.) is to assist in viewer understanding, and answering questions is a part of that, so always feel free to ask any questions you may have.

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7 hours ago, Kebe said:

Ross is indeed the only trainee I will use. Getting kills with him this early on in the game is already quite difficult, so you could probably imagine how much worse it would be to try and give Amelia or Ewan kills versus mid-game enemies. Ross also is only getting this treatment because he's the only Pirate we get in the game, and I need one of those. Meanwhile, Amelia and Ewan bring nothing unique or special to the table. 

 

Will you dump him after the chapter he's needed for?

 

7 hours ago, Kebe said:

No worries! They're good questions, and I love answering these types of questions as well. The purpose of all of this (the commentary, the posts, etc.) is to assist in viewer understanding, and answering questions is a part of that, so always feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

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On 7/18/2018 at 10:42 PM, AnonymousSpeed said:

Will you dump him after the chapter he's needed for?

Yea, outside of waterwalking utility, he's wholly outclassed by his father, so he's just gonna serve his one purpose and then hit the bench.

Chapter 4 is completed in 2 turns.

Chapter 4 Notes:

Spoiler

New Units

Artur:

5b50de95b2e1c_ArturBases.png.5cc34740e2d9f14d2adea4752ee6b1a1.png  5b50deb771eda_ArturWeaponRanks.png.04e427a2331130e4ff2989d65f41a8a7.png

Artur is one of the best units in the game on a regular playthrough. He's the first magic user in the game, which means he targets the enemy's Resistance, which tends to be the lower of the two defensive stats on most enemies, and more importantly, he's a fantastic staff user once he promotes. He gains exp at a much faster rate than Moulder, since Artur can get kill exp, and thus he can promote earlier. His Bishop promotion grants him C Staves, which is absolutely incredible, and makes him a very competent staff user capable of wielding late-game staves even better than Moulder is able to. Alas, this all only applies in a normal playthrough, where getting Artur experience isn't too difficult, the Chapter 5 Guiding Ring is obtained, and having a secondary user of A-rank Staves is needed. Sadly, none of these conditions hold in this playthrough, meaning that it's not worth training and promoting him, so he is but a unpromoted magic user. Albeit, this in and of itself is useful, and needed in certain chapters, but as we'll see later, his cohort, Lute (who was recruited at the end of the chapter) has slight advantages over him, which means she'll be the one used for our magic purposes (I guess you could say she's superior after all)

New Mechanics:

Battle Preparations

Battle Preparations is a series staple which usually appears after a few earlygame maps. You can do certain actions during Battle Preparations to ready your units for the upcoming map, depending on the game. In FE8, the player can choose which units to deploy, change their equipment, use items such as statboosters or promotional items, view supports, change the starting formation, view the battlefield, and an assortment of other things. It's a pretty essential part of the game, which is why I choose to show it for every chapter. 

Monsters

This map is the first map with Monsters, which the plot hypes up to be significant threats, but are for the most part easier to deal with than regular enemies. They are usually concentrated within certain chapters, and are rarely seen in the same map with regular enemies. They become more prevalent in the lategame, to the point where the last three maps of the game (almost) only consists of monsters. The Legendary Weapons of this game deal effective damage against monsters, but sadly, it's only x2 effectiveness as opposed to the x3 . There are promoted and unpromoted monster classes just like with regular classes. The Slayer skill, which Bishops possess, allow them to deal effective damage to monsters with any tome, which makes them pretty potent offensively versus monsters. 

Reinforcement Zones

This map also possesses the first Reinforcement Zone in the game.

5b5586cca87c4_reinforcementzone.png.b18bd934c168d801472ba7746c5dc279.png

(Image courtesy of Fire Emblem Wars of Dragons (FEWOD))

The black line in the middle of the map indicates a reinforcement zone, and crossing that line causes reinforcements to appear on the following Player Phase (in this case, 4 Zombies reinforce from the top left of the map, indicated by the red squares).

In some cases, it's impossible to avoid reinforcement zones, and so you just have to take on the additional enemies. In this map, I have to make sure to avoid the reinforcement zone on Turn 1, and you can see that I just about do so. Then, I rout the map on Turn 2, preventing the reinforcements from spawning on the next Player Phase. 

 

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Chapter 5 is done in 3 turns.

Chapter 5 Notes: 

Spoiler

New Units:

Lute

5b57782d0b47d_LuteBases.png.1ca7e0bbdc50d3c3c11659f89e5ba0a9.png  5b57783a05ad0_LuteWeaponRanks.png.495c693afa850ef37fcaedb1efcfdd3b.png

Lute is recruited at the end of Chapter 4 if her village wasn't visited, and she's the second magic user in the game. Her bases are essentially identical to Artur's, although she has a surprisingly high C rank in Anima Magic, allowing her to wield up to Elfire tomes, so that's cool I suppose. The difference that makes Lute the preferred Magic user in this playthrough is that she has much lower Constitution (in fact, it's the lowest Constitution stat in the game, I believe). For most players, this peeves them because it means she gets weighed down by even a basic Fire tome, but it also means any random unit can Rescue her, even the frailest-looking ones. Speaking of which...

Natasha

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Take Moulder, make him appear three chapters later, give him an overall decrease to his bases, make him Lvl 1, and reduce his Staff Rank to D to get this wonderful unit. Natasha is inferior to Moulder in almost every feasible way, and she will never be able to reach promotion level at this pace either. By this logic, you would think that I'd just not use her, but as it turns out, two proficient Staff users for lategame isn't enough, so I need to train her to B Staves by the time the end of the game approaches. She'll appear often enough so that she can raise that staff rank, and she does end up being essential to lategame strategies, so I appreciate that. She also does a notable thing this chapter...

Joshua

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She recruits this guy. Joshua is an impressive combat unit stat-wise, especially when compared to our other chumps. For reference, he's just as strong as Garcia, and even faster than Seth. He also comes with a Killing Edge, which gives him a ~30% chance to triple his damage output. He is limited by his infantry movement and being locked to swords (which means he can't attack from 2 range), but his offense is too important to pass up, and with a promotion, he actively contributes for a majority of the game. Too bad Hard Mode bonuses don't exist in this game though. 

New Items:

Killing Edge Killing Edge  

C Rank Sword, 9 Mt., 75 hit, 7 weight, 30 crit, 20 uses, 1 WExp

Joshua joins with the first obtainable Killer Weapon in the game, the Killing Edge. Killer weapons are very powerful, not only because they sport good might and low weight, but because they have an entire 30 crit. Critical hits in FE8 triple damage dealt, which obliterates most enemies. Being able to do them semi-reliably is very nice, and is needed to get certain kills, especially versus defensively tough bosses. However, 30% is still kinda shaky to rely on, and 20 uses prevent the weapon from being entirely spammable, so it's not the default offensive option, but it's a very potent one that has to be relied on sometimes. 

Secret Book Secret Book + Dragonshield Dragonshield

Item. 1 use. Increases Skill by 2 (Secret Book). Increases Defense by 2 (Dragonshield). 

These two are the first statboosters in the game. As the name implies, statboosters grant a permanent increase (usually +2) to a certain stat for the unit that uses the item. Statboosters in general are extremely crucial to the success of this run, since they're one of the few options units have to increase their stats in the 0% Growths setting, so it is very important that they're properly managed and used. As for the actual statboosters obtained in this chapter, the Dragonshield (or Dracoshield in later games) is quite nice to boost a unit's durability a little bit, while Skill is comparatively a less useful skill that would just slightly improve hit and crit rates with a boost. Both of these boosters would be put to good use by a unit who sees a lot of combat. I wonder who that could possibly be...

 

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Chapter 5x is completed in 6 turns. 

Chapter 5x Notes:

Spoiler

New Units:

Ephraim

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Eirika's twin brother and Prince of Renais. Ephraim features as this chapter's lord, and potentially the lord of most of the playthrough if his route is chosen after Chapter 8. We are indeed going Ephraim Route, so he's going to be very relevant as the lord for the latter part of the game. Unlike Eirika though, Ephraim is also relevant because his combat is pretty good. He's pretty fast, decently strong, has 1-2 range that Eirika doesn't, and much better bulk as well. His personal weapon, Reginleif, solidifies his spot as one of the better combat units not only in this map, but for a good amount of the playthrough. He still has some trouble taking multiple hits (as the end of the chapter showed...), so investing into his bulk further ends up being pretty useful. He also has supports. 

Orson

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Orson carries this chapter very hard, as you would expect a prepromoted Paladin to. In fact, his stats are very comparable to Seth's. Sadly, as games such as FE4 and FE5 demonstrated, there's only one force which can end the dominance of these broken prepromotes: the plot. Orson is not available for the rest of the game as a result, and his contributions are limited to this chapter. They are still important contributions, nonetheless. 

Forde + Kyle

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5b5de19c8f624_KyleBases.png.cbcd80c7d608361bc8ace301d5720a92.png  5b5de1a79fb9f_KyleWeaponRanks.png.54b64f779c05bd9e32fc0bf9b760891a.png

I think it goes without saying that Forde and Kyle are extremely similar, which is why I can basically analyze them side-by-side. They're both Cavaliers with better bases and weapon ranks than Franz, while having similar stats between themselves. Kyle has slightly more HP, Str, and Def, while Forde has slightly more Skl, Spd, and Luk. For the most part, they're interchangeable, and whatever one is capable of doing, the other can do as well.

They're also our two candidates for an upcoming promotion, but we only have one Knight Crest to promote them with: so who will be trained to promotion? The answer (for this playthrough, anyways) is Forde, because he starts out at Level 6, one level higher than Kyle, making him closer to promotion. Promoted Forde will do some important tasks for the midgame, but both of them are worth using for a good while. It should also be noted that both of them are part of the "15 Aid or above" Club, and they're the bulkiest members of that club we will ever get (other than Dozla, but he's not mounted so rescuing with him isn't too useful anyways). However, something tragic is the fact that they are no longer part of that club if they promote, so that's pretty unfortunate. 

New Mechanics/Concepts:

Chapter 5x? 

The numerical notation of this chapter is pretty wacky, and something not featured in too many Fire Emblem games. Essentially, the "x" in 5x indicates that this chapter is a Gaiden chapter. There are two defining aspects of Gaiden chapters, one from a story perspective, and one from a gameplay perspective. From a story perspective, the chapter is a sidestory to the main plot, and divergent from the primary focus of the story. From a gameplay perspective, the chapter can only be accessed by accomplishing a certain objective in the previous chapter, and is otherwise skipped and not playable in that playthrough.

This chapter is pretty interesting because it is a Gaiden chapter from a story perspective (since it's literally a sidestory, showing what Ephraim is doing as Eirika progresses in her journey), but it's not a Gaiden chapter from a gameplay perspective (since Chapter 5x is neither obtained by doing something in Chapter 5, nor is it skippable). This is further confusing by the fact that there are no other Gaiden chapters in the entire game (this is the only occurance of the "x" notation). This forces one to question if it was really necessary for this chapter to be labelled a Gaiden chapter at all. Regardless, it isn't really anything to worry about since it doesn't appear anywhere else in the playthrough. Just think of it as a sidestory chapter (that is what Gaiden literally means, after all).

The rescuedrops, and how they save a turn

For a seize map such as this, a classic way of determining the LTC is by seeing how many turns it takes for your most mobile unit to reach the throne. In games without Rescuing, you can only go the pace of your Lord (he/she is the one who must seize, after all), so you focus on their movement, but since this game has Rescuing, the Lord can just be carried along by the most mobile unit. 

Our most mobile unit for this map is Orson, so let's consider his progression through the map. For our purposes, let's assume the enemies don't block our way (we can kill them if they do, after all). 

5b5dee509e98a_Chapter5x.png.ff0e3f316dbede8a03a299b4a3bf489f.png

(A visual representation of Orson's progression throughout the map. Considering he's also our bosskiller of choice, his endgoal is to reach the spot next to the throne. The black spots indicates where he would be if he moves his full 8 movement every turn, directly to the throne, the 1st spot being where he'd be at the end of Turn 1, the 2nd spot at the end of Turn 2, etc. Original map is from FEWOD.)

As we can see, Orson can attack the boss on Turn 6 if he uses his full movement every turn. However, killing the boss is only Step 1 in the seizing process: we still gotta have the Lord land on the throne and seize. If we also want Ephraim to seize on the same turn Orson can kill the boss, we have to drop him the previous turn, because only then is he free to move (and seize). We see where Orson would be on Turn 5, and if we drop Ephraim on that turn...

5b5df0975ead3_Chapter5x.png.f3bade45d93ea88ff59563933d2a2cd1.png

(The first blue spot is where Ephraim would be when dropped on Turn 5, and the next spot is the farthest he could move on Turn 6)

He can't reach the throne! To be more specific, Ephraim is exactly 2 tiles away from the throne. We see that he can clearly seize on Turn 7, but he's so close to a 6 turn seize: do we really have to settle for 7 turns? If we just have Ephraim 2 tiles closer, he'd be able to seize. And since Ephraim's drop point is dependent on Orson's movement, if we can somehow get Orson 2 tiles closer, we will have the 6 turn in our grasp.

But how? How do we get those extra 2 tiles? Well, the big thing to note is that Orson's starting position in this map is very poor. Not only is he very far back in the position, but our two other Cavaliers have better starting positions, especially Kyle. However, if we have the Cavaliers rescuedrop Orson on Turn 1, Orson only gets boosted 1 tile. That's just not enough.

That's where the solution in the actual run comes into play. Forde's starting position is also pretty far back, so we can have Kyle and Orson drop him forward on Turn 1. Then, since Kyle has the favorable starting position and Forde is further ahead thanks to the rescuedrop, they can now rescuedrop Orson on Turn 2, advancing him 2 tiles forward overall, allowing for a 6 turn clear which saves a turn over a regular Orson rush to the throne. 

(Do note that if we could change the starting positions in this map, we could just have Orson be where Kyle starts, and that would work. Indeed, quite a simpler solution, but hey, I like chapters that forces one to think outside of the box)

New Items

Reginleif Reginleif

Ephraim only. 10 Mt. 80 hit, 8 weight, 10 crit, 45 uses, 2 WExp, effective against armor + cavalry

The Reginleif is to Ephraim as the Rapier is to Eirika. But not only is Ephraim a better unit in general, and the Reginleif stronger, but it being a Lance also prevents it from having Weapon Triangle Disadvantage versus Armor Knights and Lance-wielding Cavaliers. It also has advantage versus Sword Cavaliers, which is further multiplied by the effective might bonus.  The Reginleif is a great weapon, and Ephraim's default choice for combat. Him being able to OHKO Cavaliers and ORKO Armors with ease improves his combat by a good amount, and gives him a niche that otherwise wouldn't be present without this weapon. It having 2 WExp also lets Ephraim get Lance rank quickly, which ends up being useful.

 

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15 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

One question I meant to ask last chapter but forgot to until all this talk of Knights Crests reminded me, how much of an issue are promotion items in this playthrough?

It's not much of a concern at all. They appear when they need to for the most part. Some characters even come with their promotion items in hand, which is very convenient. 

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Chapter 6 is completed in 2 turns.

 

 

Chapter 6 Notes

Spoiler

No new units :^[

New Mechanics/Concepts:

Fog of War

Fog of War is a mechanic present in certain maps in the game. In Fog of War maps, the map is covered in a white fog, obscuring most enemies. Player (and NPC) units have a certain amount of vision through the fog, which can only be improved by using the Torch item (or in a staff users case, a Torch Staff also helps). Thieves have an additional 5 tiles of vision through the fog over other player units. For the player playing the game for the first time, Fog of War can be a big nuisance which only serves to punish offensive approaches through the map. But a player who has already played the game can be roughly aware of the enemy positioning and formulate a strategy from there, which helps a lot. Obviously I have to know the enemy positioning in order to get these clears, although just because I know an enemy's exact position does not mean I can attack them while in the fog, so vision still remains an important thing to manage for certain maps.

New Items: 

Torch Torch Staff

D Rank Staff. Range = Mag/2 (min. Range = 5). 10 uses, 15 Exp, 5 WExp.  Improves vision of the spot casted, vision boost decreases every passing turn.

The Torch Staff is an amazing staff for a few reasons. It's a D Rank Staff, which means even a chump like Natasha can use it without any prior training. Unlike Heal and Mend, it can be used every single turn without the need to injure people. It gives more experience than Heal and Mend, and it grants additional vision in Fog of War maps (which is especially important for first-time players). However, its best aspect is the amount of Weapon Experience it grants the user: an entire 5. For reference, only 3 staves grant more Weapon Experience than the Torch Staff, and they're not nearly as spammable, and other staves such as Heal and Mend only grant 2 and 3 Weapon experience, respectively. The one drawback of the Torch Staff is that it's only usable on Fog of War maps, which are the minority of maps in the game. But when we do encounter Fog of War maps, it is essential to field both Moulder and Natasha so that they can take in all the (weapon) experience they can get. 

Orion's Bolt Orion's Bolt

1 use. Promotion item for an Archer at Level 10 or above.

Since we skipped the Chapter 5 Guiding Ring, the Orion's Bolt is the first promotional item we get in this game. Promotional items are (surprisingly enough) items which allow an unpromoted class to turn into a promoted counterpart, gaining benefits such as additional movement, stat gains, and new access to one or more weapons, depending on the promotion. Speaking of which, Fire Emblem 8 is the first Fire Emblem game where you can choose the promotional path of your units. Upon promoting, every unit has the choice between one of two distinct promoted classes. For example, with an Archer promotion, they can choose between promotion to Sniper (which grants more Bow rank and a shiny new skill in Sure Shot) or a promotion to Ranger (which has a mount and access to Swords). Promotions are important in any playthrough so that capable unpromoted units can reach their full potential, and this playthrough is no exception. Of course, in this playthrough, we need to get any units we want to promote to Level 10, which is a shame since the units don't benefit from the levels as normal, but it's still worth it to get those juicy promotional bonuses. When we do encounter promotions, I will note which promotional path I take and why. Finally, it should be noted that Trainee (Tier 0) units, such as Ross, do not need a promotional item to get their first promotion. They only need to reach Level 10. 

Oh... I've been talking about promotional items in general this entire time, but didn't actually mention the Orion's Bolt in particular. Essentially, this Orion's Bolt is Neimi's personal promotion item, since she is the only playable Archer in the game. But promoting her isn't worth it in this playthrough, and it does sell for a good chunk of money, something I don't have much of after this most recent shopping spree. Hmm...

 

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Chapter 7 is completed in 3 turns.

Chapter 7 Notes

Spoiler

No new units :^[

Promotion Analysis:

Fighter or Pirate?

Upon reaching Level 10, our boy Ross will take a step further into becoming a man, and that step is promoting into the player's choice of a Fighter or a Pirate. I should note that 0% Growths does affect the promotion path I choose (and also which guys get promoted in the first place), but I'll also analyze from a normal playthrough's perspective as well. 

For this playthrough, Pirate is the choice without a doubt. The only reason to promote Ross period is so that he can contribute to Chapter 7 by walking on the river, and of course he can only do that if he is a Pirate. Fighter Ross would just be a straight rip-off of Garcia in every relevant way, and there's just no need for such a unit.

For a regular playthrough though, Fighter should be given a bit more consideration. It still applies that Pirate Ross contributes to Chapter 7 better than Fighter Ross, and now you can train him further so that he can promote into a Berserker. Berserker is a nice class that gives Ross additional critting capabilities, and that's not only very handy, but also a (basically) unique niche that only Ross has. However, Fighter Ross has its own perks, mainly in that only Fighter Ross can promote to Hero. Promoting to Hero gives Ross an instant C Swords, allowing him to wield some pretty advanced weaponry from the get-go such as Killing Edges, not to mention a Hero proficient in Axes can be a very nice thing to have as we'll see later in the playthrough. You do detract a Hero Crest that could otherwise go to Joshua, Garcia, or Gerik (two of which can also be Heroes) though, so that's a shame. Overall, Pirate is still probably better since Berserkers are great as is waterwalking, but Fighter -> Hero Ross is a cool alternative that can be useful as well. I should also note that only 1 Ocean Seal (needed to promote Pirates and Thieves) is available in the main campaign, and if you plan to promote Colm, Pirate Ross is left unpromoted for the entire rest of the game. In that event, I would especially advocate for Fighter Ross, although promoted Colm isn't that great.

New Mechanics/Concepts:

Stealing

I touched upon stealing's existence briefly when I talked about Colm, but this is the first instance where it appears, so I ought to explain it more in-depth. Stealing is a mechanic prevalent in quite a few of the Fire Emblem games, but varies in nature depending on the game. In Fire Emblem 8, Thieves and Rogues (but not Assassins) are able to steal the items of any adjacent foe, as long as that enemy is slower than the thief. Items are things such as Vulneraries and Pure Waters, things that don't fall under the 8 useable weapon types (Swords, Lances, Staves, you get it). So we can't snag weapons from any unsuspecting enemies, but there are certain items which are very important to obtain (like this chapter's Energy Ring), that are only obtainable by stealing with a thief. For this reason, Colm will be seeing use in certain chapters for stealing these items (thankfully he is fast enough such that the speed restriction isn't very relevant).

New Items: 

Knight Crest Knight Crest

1 use. Promotion item for a Cavalier or Knight at Level 10 or above.

The first Knight Crest in the game is an important item. It's your first opportunity to promote one of your proficient Cavaliers to a majestic 8 move Paladin, or perhaps you prefer to make Gilliam a mean green Great Knight machine? There's a lot of potential options to use the Knight Crest on, but most of these options are great ones which will help any player. As for myself, as I've stated before, this Knight Crest is Forde's, since I need a Paladin as soon as possible and Forde is the Cavalier closest to Level 10.   

 

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I was wondering if you were going to be able to steal that energy ring. How much stealing will you be doing? I remember there's a Draco Shield on a Berserker in chapter 17, but that seems a bit out of the way for a map that comes after the Warp staff.

If you are doing a lot of stealing, will Colm's 10 base speed be enough for what you want until Rennac arrives?

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7 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

I was wondering if you were going to be able to steal that energy ring. How much stealing will you be doing? I remember there's a Draco Shield on a Berserker in chapter 17, but that seems a bit out of the way for a map that comes after the Warp staff.

If you are doing a lot of stealing, will Colm's 10 base speed be enough for what you want until Rennac arrives?

I don't believe I do that much stealing in this run. There's this Energy Ring, and I steal the Chapter 13 Speedwings, but I believe that's it (in previous runs I also got the Chapter 14 Body Ring, but I can't get it in time anymore). Still very important items to obtain nonetheless. Colm is fast enough to steal them as well, thankfully.

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Chapter 8 is completed in 5 turns.

Chapter 8 Notes

Spoiler

Ephraim and Christmas Cavs rejoin, but no actual new characters :^[

New Mechanics/Concepts:

Skills

Tirado is our first encounter with skills in this game I believe, and 1 of 3 enemies in the game to have a skill. Skills are a mechanic featured in different Fire Emblem games to varying degrees. In some games, skills are a definitive part of a game's experience, and a unit's performance is dependent upon what skills they have. But in FE8, skills are not too prevalent, and are locked to certain classes. Both player and enemy units can have skills, and I'll take a moment to note the skills in the game.

Great Shield (General Class Skill): Gives a chance to negate damage from an enemy strike. Chance = (enemy's level)%. In the player hands, this skill is not too great, since it's not very reliable. Even in the enemy hands, it's little more than a nuisance. 

Sure Strike (Sniper Class Skill): Gives a chance to guarantee a hit. Chance = (unit's level)%. Another mediocre skill. Snipers aren't very inaccurate anyways. 

Silencer (Assassin Class Skill): When a critical hit is landed, grants a 50% chance to instantly kill the enemy. A cool little skill, although crits usually tend to kill the enemy anyways, so its practicality is questionable. It's an intriguing option to kill otherwise defensively tough bosses though. Still locked onto a less-than-great class though, and I wouldn't allow myself to cheese bosses in that way anyways.

Pierce (Wyvern Knight Class Skill): Gives a chance to negate enemy defense. Chance = (unit's level)%. This is a pretty nice skill locked onto a flying class, which is a good thing. In most FE8 LTCs, this skill allows you to turn most bosses into complete mincemeat. However, it's pretty unreliable, since LTCs can only have so high a level on their Wyvern Knight of choice. For me, using something as cheesy as Pierce is just lame, and so I specify that I will not be utilizing Pierce versus bosses. Makes things more interesting too. In a normal playthrough, it's just a cool little trick that can happen occasionally, nothing too great.

Slayer (Bishop Class Skill): Grants effective damage versus monster units when attacking. Slayer is a great skill which gives Bishops a good offensive presence in the later, monster-saturated chapters of the game. Probably the best among the skills in terms of practicality. 

Summon (Summoner Class Skill): Summons a 1 HP phantom onto the battlefield. Summon is a great niche which Summoners have. Due to the 1 HP phantoms have, the enemy will always be attracted to killing them, allowing for useful diversions. Combat-wise they're nothing great, especially in this playthrough where they also have 0% growths, but being cannon-fodder is a more-than-useful ability that will be put to good use later in this playthrough.

Pick (Rogue Class Skill): Allows doors and chests to be unlocked without the use of an item. Gotta save those Lockpick uses, I guess.

The skills aren't the most notable thing in this game, due to only a few having practical purposes, but they deserve a mention anyways.

New Items:

Angelic Robe Angelic Robe

Item. 1 use. Increases HP by 7.

The Angelic Robe deserves a special shout-out among the statboosters for granting a fantastic +7 HP boost, compared to the usual +2. This gives the user a substantial boost in durability, often allowing them to take at least an additional hit. It's often useful on combat units with less-than-great bulk that are often placed in dangerous positions anyways. 

 

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I assume by 1 in 3 enemies to have a skill you mean Tirado, Valter and Vigarde? Technically all Snipers, Generals and even Bishops (Riev) you face have skills though they're obviously rare and irrelevant for the most part. 

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4 minutes ago, Mekkah said:

I assume by 1 in 3 enemies to have a skill you mean Tirado, Valter and Vigarde? Technically all Snipers, Generals and even Bishops (Riev) you face have skills though they're obviously rare and irrelevant for the most part. 

Yeah, I forgot generic enemies. I did remember Riev, but it's not like the player has any monster units for him to hit effectively, so didn't include him.

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I don't know how I missed this but it's pretty cool, also just a question that I have about this kind off strategies, I could do them myself at a slower pace right? And resetting after every chapter is also mandatory yes?

Also what weapon are you going to have Seth use that requires him to get S in Swords instead of Lances? I haven't finished the game so that's why I'm curious.

Edited by This boi uses Nino
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He said in the comments of the Chapter 7 4-turn attempt that he would use Audhulma with Seth. I've never even thought about this before, and I'm interested myself on what high-IQ things he has planned for it.

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13 minutes ago, da5011 said:

He said in the comments of the Chapter 7 4-turn attempt that he would use Audhulma with Seth. I've never even thought about this before, and I'm interested myself on what high-IQ things he has planned for it.

Oh that's what the Audhulmeihsksjk;oij thing was, I thought it was some joke with Audhulma being an adjective to seth :|

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17 minutes ago, This boi uses Nino said:

I thought it was some joke with Audhulma being an adjective to seth :|

The legendary ice blade of Jehanna (given it's a desert kingdom, I guess it's supposed to be a heavenly cool and wet contrast to the arid inferno of a country).

Normally I'd go for S Lances for the S rank +5 Hit/Crit bonuses, but I can see a reason for S Swords. The Lance Vidofnir offers +5 Def, whereas Audhulma is +5 Res, but I don't think magic tanking is the true reason for S Swords. Normally, Lances are stronger than Swords of the same tier in FE, yet Vidofnir has 15 Mt, whereas Audhulma is 18. Three points, which is doubled against monsters (to keep them from being broken, the S ranks only double Mt over the tripling of normal effective weapons in SS), could very possibly secure a kill in LTC I could imagine.

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13 hours ago, This boi uses Nino said:

I don't know how I missed this but it's pretty cool, also just a question that I have about this kind off strategies, I could do them myself at a slower pace right? And resetting after every chapter is also mandatory yes?

Also what weapon are you going to have Seth use that requires him to get S in Swords instead of Lances? I haven't finished the game so that's why I'm curious.

Thanks! As for the questions, you can indeed pull them off at a slower pace, since speed doesn't matter, only the specific inputs do. You just have to edit a ROM to have no growths and replicate my inputs well enough (even seemingly unnecessary stuff like wiggling the cursor back and forth is needed to get the RNG in your favor). Resetting after every chapter is also necessary.

And as the others have mentioned, the legendary S ranked sword is Audhulma, which has a nice +5 Res bonus that comes in handy once in the run. The +5 hit and crit bonus Seth gets from using Swords also helps with securing the next few boss kills easier. 

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