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Is there any specific tricks for surviving Lunatic?


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So I almost finished Conquest on Hard after spending a few months on it, and then I noticed that I haven't touched Birthright. Seeing that's it's the easiest of the three, I figured that I could use an challenge, so I set on Lunatic. Now, the first 2 or 3 levels on Birthright were an bit of a cakewalk; but the insanity started to kick in on Kotaro's map. The haunted steamship had me forging an Iron Katana and Naginata. And now I'm stuck on the opera house, where the heavy cavalry are tearing my unpromoted army limb by limb.

So after leaving this alone for a few months, I noticed that I'm basically short by 10 str/def and I'm losing because of this. Since the random battles are only offering gold (which I plan on using it for forging iron weapons to gain an little bit of attack power), I'm wondering if there's an faster way of level grinding in this game, aside from buying DLC.

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If you did all the invasions, then I think the only other way you can grind besides DLC and skirmishes is I guess doing My Castle battles.  Though I don't know because I never did any My Castle battles.

You using Silas, Oboro, Hinoka, and Saizo at all?  They're regarded as the best units early on, and they all are known for being the tankiest units (even Saizo, his versatility is quite surprising) aside from Scarlet and your avatar (if your avatar has the right boons).  You may also want to consider using Reina.  If you have Jakob instead of Felicia, you should've made him into a Paladin or Great Knight.  Otherwise, it'd be ideal if Felicia had a C-rank in knives/shuriken so that she can use the flame shuriken and thus deal damage with her better stat.  Mozu could also be good depending on if you invested in her at all.  Rinkah, Hana, Subaki, and Orochi are typically liabilities (either can't survive anything stronger than a paper cut or they don't have much damage output), so maybe drop them if you can.

I'll also say the team you have should all be close to level 20 or already promoted (from my experience, anyway).  And if you're running short on Master Seals, visit Castles with max level staff and/or rod shops.

As for the specific map you're stuck on, I usually try to push forward fast with the toughest units at the front using any kind of armor/horse-slaying weapons they can use (or otherwise the weapons with the highest might).  Maybe have fliers to transport other strong units about.  Kaden is good at killing mounted units, so maybe consider pairing him up with a tougher unit (especially if they're a knight or great knight) and helping out some.  If need be, you may want to forgo the treasure (which is a Dracoshield - a great item, but not worth losing units over) and just fly your avatar to the escape point while getting as many kills with the rest of your units as possible (don't worry, everyone else will escape even if you only have your avatar reach that point).  Even in no-grind runs, I've been able to take down Xander with good tactics and planning.

If all else fails, remember one of the most basic principles of strategy: always think one turn ahead.  Don't think about what you're doing right now, but rather what will happen after your turn is done and where you'll be when the dust settles.  Sometimes I forget to think ahead, and when I remember it helps me a lot.

I'd say after... about two chapters after this one, things will get a bit easier.  Until you reach a certain point later on that involves an enemy boss bombarding your team field-wide attacks.  You'll know it when you come upon it.

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Well, I'm doing My Castle and Skirmishes, but it's kind of impossible to get any EXP unless I find someone with a promoted Corrin. Most of my team is at around level 15 in their intial classes, but I'm waiting until 20 before I promote them. The ninjas are useful for spamming Poison Strike and Saizo's pyro, I'm kind of unsure as to how to promote Silas because I replaced him with Xander in Conquest, but Oboro is kind of useful with her personal skill and seal def.

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You can try getting the items you gain by MyCastle Visits. Those items could be useful, and you can obtain stat bonuses. If you have the other two routes, you can get the Ebon Wing and Dread Scroll. I don't particularly remember how I passed but I didn't use DLC or items but I got up to that one chapter with the volcano(?), and it wasn't that much of a challenge for me. You could try maybe restarting and using a different boon/bane combination. Try + STR / - LUK? Make good use of Oboro and Hinoka. Those are one of your tankier melee units (surprisingly for the latter).

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1 minute ago, Armchair General said:

Won't I miss out on stats that way?

 

Not enough to matter.  The difference can be made up using tonics, cooking, and a stat booster or two.

Meanwhile, you're missing out on level 5 promoted skills, which range from meh to "hey this might be useful" (Great Knight comes to mind).

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2 hours ago, Armchair General said:

Well, I'm doing My Castle and Skirmishes, but it's kind of impossible to get any EXP unless I find someone with a promoted Corrin.

Are you doing the skirmishes with a full army, or just a few?  I personally find it better to use a few, I typically get at least one level up per skirmish this way.

Also, I think you should consider distributing experience carefully in the main chapters.  You'll get more in them due to them throwing higher level enemies at you than their skirmish counterparts.

2 hours ago, Armchair General said:

Most of my team is at around level 15 in their intial classes, but I'm waiting until 20 before I promote them.

Yeah, no, don't wait until 20.  If they're at 15, that's good enough.  Some even benefit from earlier promotions so that they can level up their rank in weapons they don't have access to in their unpromoted classes.

I'm not saying you should always promote at 15.  What I'm saying is that the stage at which you promote greatly depends on your playstyle and necessity.  It's different for everyone.  I've played through Birthright enough that I can make do without promoting units until they've capped their levels.  You're playing this path the first time on the highest difficulty.  And you're struggling.  So maybe you should promote a unit or two.

3 hours ago, Armchair General said:

The ninjas are useful for spamming Poison Strike and Saizo's pyro, I'm kind of unsure as to how to promote Silas because I replaced him with Xander in Conquest, but Oboro is kind of useful with her personal skill and seal def.

Focus more on the fact that they all are better at tanking more than two hits than most other units in this path.  The vast majority of player resets are due to losing a unit, and I doubt you're much different in that regard.  What you're overlooking is these units' defensive capabilities rather than their offensive capabilities.

Of course, Rinkah also has defense, but her tradeoff is per-hit damage, while the characters I listed still retain reasonable damage output.  It's not so much that they can kill so well, it's that they're capable enough and also better at surviving than units like Hana or Kaze.  Basically, they're not the best because they excel at this or that, they're the best because they're balanced while most everyone else has some fatal, critical flaw that makes them into a liability.

As for promoting Silas, make him a Great Knight.  Overall tankier, and you also get Luna at level 5 as a Great Knight, which I'd say is quite a bit more useful than the Paladin's Defender skill.

2 hours ago, Armchair General said:

Won't I miss out on stats that way?

You'll miss out on the rest of the path if you don't.

Look, when people say "wait until level 17-20 before promoting", what they're really saying is you should restrain yourself from promoting until either you absolutely need it or until your units are starting to hit a plateau.  Right now, you need to promote some of your units, otherwise you're gonna be beating your head against a wall for another several hours until you ultimately just give up.

And I'm gonna say the units I'll recommend for promotion are the same as the ones I'd recommend you favor: Oboro, Silas, Saizo, Hinoka, and Corrin.  Promote a few of them, and the heavy cavalry will no longer be chewing through your ranks.

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Well, the good news is that I did most of what you guys said and got down to around 17 enemies before I had to flee. Although the Great Knight at the end would've been a pain to kill if I didn't have Kagero's Sting Shuriken.

The Chevois map was kind of easier than Kotaro's map on account of the fliers and cavalry being easy to bait with Rinkah, Silas, and Saizo. I had to juggle with Silas' weapons for the second wave, but these guys weren't that big of an problem.

Now I'm at the Nohrian wall and I'm guessing that there's more cavalry in it, isn't there?. I only looked at it and I see three formations of paladins and Benny carrying an Beast Killer.

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  • 4 months later...

So after spending quite some time waiting out the suicide units on Camilla's chapter and intentionally stumbling unto the Nohrian training grounds to have Ryoma rush the Berserkers (it worked with acceptable injuries), I'm currently finding myself sandwiched on Iago's map. Thankfully, heavy cavalry has been nerfed and I'm only taking hits from the wannabe magicians and mounted archers. And it turns out that Tomebreaker on Jakob is broken beyond all of recognition. But the reinforcement spam is getting old, at this point, even when I have 12 units caught between the hammer and anvil.

 

Fuck my life.

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I'll. . ..let this go, even if it's technically a double post.

Iago's staff shenanigans aren't going to let up, ever.  Remember that he can only target one person at a time. . .so plan carefully!

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12 hours ago, Armchair General said:

So after spending quite some time waiting out the suicide units on Camilla's chapter and intentionally stumbling unto the Nohrian training grounds to have Ryoma rush the Berserkers (it worked with acceptable injuries), I'm currently finding myself sandwiched on Iago's map. Thankfully, heavy cavalry has been nerfed and I'm only taking hits from the wannabe magicians and mounted archers. And it turns out that Tomebreaker on Jakob is broken beyond all of recognition. But the reinforcement spam is getting old, at this point, even when I have 12 units caught between the hammer and anvil.

 

Fuck my life.

Step one, put toniced Ryoma in entrap range.

Step 2. Map is over bye

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11 hours ago, eclipse said:

I'll. . ..let this go, even if it's technically a double post.

Iago's staff shenanigans aren't going to let up, ever.  Remember that he can only target one person at a time. . .so plan carefully!

I'm pretty sure that you have your games mixed up. Because Iago doesn't have a variety of staffs in Birthright, but he does have a few strategists with Entrap scattered throughout the map, which is kind of slowing down my approach because I'm trying to wait out the reinforcements that came after the horsemen.

6 hours ago, joshcja said:

Step one, put toniced Ryoma in entrap range.

Step 2. Map is over bye

Yeah, I've thought about doing this, but I can't be at the very edge of it. Otherwise, he won't be anywhere near the dragon vein.

 

In other news, I can make until the eight turn or so, since that's when they stop sending mounted units at me and I'm free to bait out the rest of them. I'm kind of hoping that nobody goes after the chests on this map.

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1 hour ago, Armchair General said:

I'm pretty sure that you have your games mixed up. Because Iago doesn't have a variety of staffs in Birthright, but he does have a few strategists with Entrap scattered throughout the map, which is kind of slowing down my approach because I'm trying to wait out the reinforcements that came after the horsemen.

Yeah, I've thought about doing this, but I can't be at the very edge of it. Otherwise, he won't be anywhere near the dragon vein.

 

In other news, I can make until the eight turn or so, since that's when they stop sending mounted units at me and I'm free to bait out the rest of them. I'm kind of hoping that nobody goes after the chests on this map.

Don't worry. He just gets entrapped chained straight to the boss.

Clearing the map any other way can softlock the game.

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6 hours ago, Armchair General said:

So, can does playing defensively ruin this level?  

To my knowledge you can complete it at your own pace. I never let them fully chain entrap me to the boss when I did my female only run of Lunatic Birthright, so I think you are OK

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16 hours ago, Armchair General said:

So, can does playing defensively ruin this level? 

Asking because I had to trap Saizo in that ninja hell level in Conquest and this is the first time that I've of FE being unwinnable.

The game can literally generate enough enemy stuffage to soft lock the game in this map.

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2 hours ago, joshcja said:

The game can literally generate enough enemy stuffage to soft lock the game in this map.

I can see this happening, but when does this happen, exactly?

Because I think this is an rout map and I can initially kill off the cavalry spam, the nearby generals and strategist, and draw in a warrior or two from the hallways. After that, I have 2-4 enemies creeping towards me in addition to what I'm trying to bait.

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1 hour ago, Armchair General said:

I can see this happening, but when does this happen, exactly?

Because I think this is an rout map and I can initially kill off the cavalry spam, the nearby generals and strategist, and draw in a warrior or two from the hallways. After that, I have 2-4 enemies creeping towards me in addition to what I'm trying to bait.

It's a kill boss map.

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Today I just finished my current run of Conquest Lunatic. Ch 26 left side is probably one of the hardest parts of the whole game. That and ch 25's ninja hell. Niles got STR screwed and I didn't get Selena enough exp to get Shuriken breaker. So I said screw it, and bought Ophelia Shuriken breaker. Between vantage, calamity gate, and some health buffs from robes and tonics, she was able to tank the whole right side almost entirely by herself. Xander was able to crush the left side, with buffs and tonics his maxed strength was able to one shot the master ninjas.

Make sure you save entrap and rescue for the final few sets of missions. They are invaluable then. CH26 wants you to use entrap on at least one saw unit to make the left side room easier to deal with for Xander. Ch27 really wants you to use entrap to kill Hans to make the final room easier to deal with. Ch27 is a joke and easy to rush through which is good because on classic you can't save during the final mission. Said mission is also a joke if you save two different rescue staffs with 1 charge each. Ch24 (Hinoka's chapter) there are a few falcon knights with pass, capture one (they can use rescue staff with their high movement). The other rescue staff user I use is Shigure (Azure's son). Once you know the right positioning, its easy to rescue skip through that whole level. I also make Ophelia a witch so she can use warp. Between dumping a ton of damage buffs on Corrin and Ophelia using calamity gate, its very easy to beat the final mission in just 2 turns. 

If your playing on classic lunatic, just don't bother trying to beat the final mission without rescue skipping. Yes, its possible to do and not lose anyone. No, you don't want to experience the suffering that is trying to do that.

MVPs for Conquest Lunatic, characters that your going to want to use every playthrough.

Xander and Benny (they are your tanks, praise be their name)
Camilla (Not quite tank but great combat ability, you can reclass her to wyvern lord or keep her in her malig knight class to use bolt axe, if she gets a bit magic screwed dump your spirit dust into her)
Opheila - built as above and she becomes the bane of all ninjas. You will learn to hate ninjas on conquest lunatic but you will also love her.
Kaze - Murders many mages, another good use for energy drops if he gets a bit str screwed.
Mozu - reclass her to archer, baby her a lot, and by the time she promotes she'll become a murder machine.
Corn (mary sue) - Three great builds exist. Magic+/Luck- cavalier into paladin and Nohr Noble for skills (for levin sword abuse, hard to use with that -20 avo but oh so worth it). You tend to end up decently tanky and have good magic for Dragonstone tanking.
Str+/luck - Samuari into Master Ninja build. The idea here is reclass at first to Samuari for duelist blow and vantage (its much easier to handle the early missions when you keep your sword rank), latter when Kaze joins you can buddy seal him for the Ninja class, mission 13 has an arms scroll if you want to use it or just forge bronze daggers) The endgame of this build is Vantage + high strength 1-2 range dagger throwing + high skill for max chance to proc dragon fang or crit and you can still use Yato. Less tanky then the other two builds but brutal offensive and great 1-2 range. 
Third build is just being a straight up dark mage. Tank stuff with Nosferatu, late game as a Nohr Noble or Dark Knight you shall obliterate enemies with 1-2 range and still have sword use with likely decent strength, use energy drops if needed. (pick Diviner so you can get tomeflaire)

Edited by wissenschaft
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