FE Echoes: Difficulty

[SpiritZion]

Eya, I recently bought Fire Emblem Echoes and founf it to be very hard around chapter 4, especially the Alm route (4 units died on me, namingly Python, Clive, Mathilda and later Kliff) and I just wanted to know if that's something normal or me being an idiot.

[indigoasis]

I don't recall Chapter 4 being too difficult (although I did grind up my units considerably on my last playthrough, so maybe I'm not the best person to answer this). I do remember the first map on Alm's route against Berkut and Nuibaba's map being hard to approach, however. How exactly did your units die? Did you send them into the fray or did they get assaulted by enemy units?

It also depends on how strong your units are and what difficulty setting you're playing on. Are you playing on Normal or Hard?

The best advice I can give you is to try and keep all of your units (or at least have units move in groups) together and don't over-extend. If you think a unit is going to die on the enemy phase, move them out of range of enemy units and have another ally unit deal with them. Losing units in Fire Emblem is a part of the game, so I wouldn't fret too much over it. Echoes has Mila's Turnwheel, too, so you always have the option to turn back the clock (or turn count, however you want to look at it) and give the map a do-over.

[Ertrick36]

You should probably grind.  For Alm's Route, do the Fear Mountain Shrine; that's to the east from where you crossed the Sluice Gate in the previous act.  For Celica's Route, your best bet would be the Lost Treescape, which is along the normal path.

If you aren't so inclined to grind, then I'd just say try to keep the units that die a lot safe.  And make sure the experience is getting distributed evenly.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Are you promoting units as soon as you're able? If you're waiting till later levels to promote them, then that's probably contributing to your struggles.

[𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥]

3 hours ago, SpiritZion said:

Eya, I recently bought Fire Emblem Echoes and founf it to be very hard around chapter 4, especially the Alm route (4 units died on me, namingly Python, Clive, Mathilda and later Kliff) and I just wanted to know if that's something normal or me being an idiot.

usually when someone dies it's either because he/she was placed in a bad position, or because an apparently viable strategy ended up backfiring badly. mistakes do happen sometimes.

i wouldn't consider Echoes very hard thou.

compared to the difficulty of the original Gaiden for NES, it's been toned down quite a bit, and improved the gameplay a lot by adding new features like weapon skills.

 

if you're having issues early game, then perhaps you should consider leveling your characters a bit more to promote them in order to gain more valuable classes.

that's what most people do with "standard" units, especially because there's no point in maxing characters during early game when you eventually end up without healers in your party.

the only characters worth maxing out are probably Alm, Celica and the few ones that will become sword fighters. other units supposed to become healers, mages or anything else, should be promoted as soon as possible.

Edited December 30, 2018 by Fenreir

[Etrurian emperor]

For me it was incredibly easy until the game suddenly get a nasty difficulty spike in Rigel where I found some chapters becoming frustratingly hard. I didn't really grind much and in fact did the dungeons as fast as possible so that might have hindered my stats to some extend. 

[Interdimensional Observer]

Seems like I found it a bit harder than everyone else here, and I generally grind to 20 in a lot of cases. I'm not the best FE player, but I'm middle of the pack certainly, leaning a bit towards the efficiency side. 

 

16 hours ago, Fenreir said:

the only characters worth maxing out are probably Alm, Celica and the few ones that will become sword fighters

Actually, they're the ones who should least be worth maxing level-wise, since they have their infinite loop.

Mages, Clerics, and Pegasus Knights on the other hand are all worth delaying, to me at least. Other than Sage!Tobin, I don't see a point in promoting any Mage early. And for some reason, I find every level counts for the Pegs, since they need their stats.

Sniper>BK and the whole Soldier line, or at least Knight>Baron can probably be delayed as well, since what do they gain on promoting?

[𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥]

18 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Actually, they're the ones who should least be worth maxing level-wise, since they have their infinite loop.

usually i tend to level up units in Echoes based mainly on the class i want them to be, then considering also their weapons.

while it is true that you can loop a sword fighter to oblivion and beyond, i'm not exactly the kind of player that likes grinding. that's why i tend to maximize sword fighters early, and eventually loop them only if i really want to boost/cap some more stats. that's just me thou.

23 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Sniper>BK and the whole Soldier line, or at least Knight>Baron can probably be delayed as well, since what do they gain on promoting?

well, it depends on the situation.

if you want to keep a "canon" unit build, you can delay for sure, no issues with that. it's probably going to be worth the wait too.

but if you want to reroll a unit into something else out of curiosity, or for personal preferences, that's another story.

unless it's a first time, it's always wise to plan before starting a new playthrough. that way you can save time and be more efficent as well.

[ZSel]

Started my first playthrough yesterday in hard mode and didn't seem me hard :/
Some chapters are harder than others, especially when there is something really stupid like this summoner on the boat in the Celica part, who was hard to kill due to healing and others..
 

Maps are a bit too open in my taste, even tho I should admit it's closer to the reality. I especially liked the part where you've to take castles !

Overall you can just put a Tanky unit and being cautious about a mage that may counter it or just send Alm taking care of him.. but ye if you're patient in your strategy the game reward you a lot.

[Shadow Mir]

Personally, I didn't see too many hard maps until act 4. About the only one I remember was Greith's Citadel, which actually forced me to retreat. Other than that, my issues largely stemmed from enemy spawns, since once you near them they WILL ambush you, with the resulting combat starting on the Enemy Phase, which can be disastrous depending on the map (the forest where you first fight Berkut is one of the worst to be ambushed).

Anyway, you'll want the Blessed Shield from the Fear Mountain Shrine. It'll make a certain lategame segment more bearable.

[Fibberkick]

As a wise character once said "Easy picking"

 

(Hard/Classic) 

[eclipse]

Alright. . .what units are you using, and what levels are they?

[Jotari]

On 12/31/2018 at 11:19 PM, Interdimensional Observer said:

Seems like I found it a bit harder than everyone else here, and I generally grind to 20 in a lot of cases. I'm not the best FE player, but I'm middle of the pack certainly, leaning a bit towards the efficiency side. 

 

Actually, they're the ones who should least be worth maxing level-wise, since they have their infinite loop.

Mages, Clerics, and Pegasus Knights on the other hand are all worth delaying, to me at least. Other than Sage!Tobin, I don't see a point in promoting any Mage early. And for some reason, I find every level counts for the Pegs, since they need their stats.

Sniper>BK and the whole Soldier line, or at least Knight>Baron can probably be delayed as well, since what do they gain on promoting?

There's simply not enough exp in the base get to get many, if any, units to 20/20/20 unless you're intentionally grinding to the point of trivialising the difficulty. So promoting early is heavily recommended for every class due to the bump in stats (including move) and skills units get at third tier. Even for 20/20 units there's small chance of them hitting the level cap (and also assuming you're making a reasonable effort to train everyone). The only units I'd generally advise you don't promote immediately are the villagers due to them levelling faster as a trainee and having lower base stats to being with. You'll want to get them into more interesting classess eventually though so I wouldn't recommend hitting the full 20 levels. Just wait until you have a decent weapon to give them in their intended class. Does anyone know if villager levels count towards learning spells? If they do then that would be a massive incentive to stay in villager longer for your Mage(s).

 

Edited February 10, 2019 by Jotari