|
How Rude posted:The newer titles have hard modes that are similar in the "gently caress you" category but I can't think of a single other Fire Emblem chapter that could be worse than this one. The only other contenders I can thing of would be some of the desert levels and some FE5 maps. This one is probably the worst of the lot, though.
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2014 15:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 18:07 |
|
|
Chapter 4, Part 6: Fear Mountain Mara the witch leads a strong group holding Fear Mountain. Alm fearlessly charges ahead anyway.  The mountain divides the enemy army into two groups, with a single witch holding the small fort and sitting on a recovery tile.  Mara looks a little ill. She's a higher-level witch than we're used to, and only has Aura so will counter with it for 26 Magic Attack whenever she's attacked. However, Aura's heavy and has a high HP cost so she's not as threatening as she appears here.   A couple of barons are guarding Mara, and the knights scattered around the map are a bit higher level as well. They're still pretty tough for Alm's army, but will fall quickly to magical attacks.   The snipers and paladins are normal grunts, and not a problem when handled carefully. Turn 1  I'm sending the magic users north first to deal with the knights along with some support for the sniper. A few strong physical units hold off the eastern front, where the enemy paladins will arrive first due to their higher Movement.  - Chapter 4 Part 6 Battle 1.gif) And another dick move from the game - Mara can summon 1-8 witches for free. Those witches can teleport and wreak havoc all over the place, though the AI generally doesn't use them very well (probably intentionally so). Turn 2  Still using the mountain to maintain two separate fronts here. Both paladins will reach on the enemy phase and attack Matilda and Cleive, who are holding the Steel Lance and Knight Killer, respectively.   Matilda does her job, but Cleive whiffs and is double-attacked. Should've probably had Matilda use the Knight Killer instead. Turn 3   With the barons and sniper up north hanging back, the knights here are easy pickings. Ryuto and Dyute soften up each one with Excalibur and Aura, respectively.  Cliff finishes off one of the knights, but I don't have anyone close enough to finish off the other one this turn.   Matilda finishes off her paladin opponent, while Claire gets a lucky crit with the Holy Lance to wipe out the other one.   I remember that Silk can actually attack and knights have low Magic Defense, so I give her a shot. She gets two attacks in with Nosferatu and gets lucky and lands both.  I don't want to get too spread out here, so I'm just going to wait for the eastern group to make their way forward - both snipers will reach us on the enemy phase.  Both snipers go after Alm, but only one shot lands, for 5 damage. Alm has the Regal Sword, as usual, so will heal up that damage at the start of the next turn. Which is right now. Turn 4  The snipers don't fare very well when Alm can fight back. He does 32 damage to this one.   Force and Robin are attacking the other sniper here. I'm not really expecting them to do anything more than not get themselves killed, but both are at 99 XP so it's an easy level.   I've been spoiled by Celica's doubled-gains, but these are actually pretty good levels for these two, considering both average well under two stat gains per level.  Python and Claire team up to finish off the sniper.  With witches coming in from the north, and knights headed in from the east, I need to reverse my formation a bit. The magic-users head back to the south for a swap.  Alm dodges another sniper for the only action on the enemy phase. Turn 5  Dyute is the only mage (other than Silk) who can reach the knights, so she starts out the turn with a shot of Aura for 24 damage. Unfortunately the knight starts off with a rather impressive 40 HP.  Alm's on a roll, taking out another sniper.  My anti-witch squad forms up, and Python takes a shot at the lead witch but misses.  Force and Luka are keeping the knights away from the mages, but it's Alm who's going to be taking all of the hits.  The sniper does 7 damage to Claire, but she'll heal up most of that with the Holy Lance.  The first knight smacks Alm pretty good, and at this point I realize that if all three land attacks on him, he's toast. He does counter for 16 damage at least.  The second knight misses, and Alm's counterattacks combined with Dyute's Aura earlier in the turn is enough to finish off the knight.  The third knight connects on Alm, but the fourth knight is too far away to do any damage so we survive the turn.  Oh and Cliff dodges a fireball from a witch. I took the Bolt Sword off of him, since it's not of much use against witches. Turn 6   Cleive and Claire take out the most immediate threat in the area, the last of the snipers.  It's worth a nice level for Claire, though her Speed is unusually low for a pegasus knight.  Matilda is more than strong enough with the Steel Lance to take out a witch by herself.  Her level isn't as strong, but she's still got way better stats than most of Alm's army.   I was trying to have Cliff set up a kill for Python, but he got greedy and pulled out a crit to take the kill for himself instead.  Python has to settle for taking off 10 HP from the last witch in the area.   With the knights already weakened from Alm's strong counterattacks, Dyute and Ryuto are able to finish them both off with their magic.   One of these levels is much better than the other. Also, Ryuto picks up Lightning magic for some extra range when needed.  Only one knight left in the eastern group. There's a baron lurking to the north but no one's in his range, so he's going to go back into the fort on the enemy phase.  The last knight attacks Robin, who's just fast enough to avoid a second attack.   The weakened witch retreats into the hills. Not a bad strategy, really. Turn 7  Ryuto kicks off the turn with a critical Excalibur to blow away the last knight.   Dyute's the only one that can reach the witch down south, and her Aura is just strong enough to break through the witch's high Magic Defense. That extra point of Magic Power she just gained made the difference.  Mara is summoning witches slowly at this point, so I move ahead cautiously to keep drawing them out while trying to avoid the barons. The eastern group is gone, so I'll be able to regroup for a stronger push in a couple turns.  And Mara chooses this moment to come up with six witches. That witch.   The witch that had been summoned previously, teleports down south to take some shots at Luka. He's got 24 HP and takes 11 damage per attack, so he'd still survive two attacks, but my healing capacity is rather limited here so I'm glad he was able to dodge one of the fireballs. Turn 8  Silk's been busy healing pretty much every turn, and this one is no exception.   Ryuto and Dyute team up again to take out the vagrant witch.  Trying to maintain a position to assault the witches as they leave the fort, while keeping back from the barons until my top mages can get back up to the front.   One of the witches teleports down to attack Ryuto. He's actually in pretty bad shape thanks to casting Excalibur so many times, but he dodges one of the attacks.  Another witch teleports over to take a shot at Claire. Her Magic Defense is pretty high so this attack isn't too troubling; the witch would've had much better targets elsewhere. Like the almost-dead Ryuto. Turn 9  There's a witch down south, three in range in the north, and the baron is lurking nearby as well.   Python and Cleive take out a witch.   Dyute weakens the southern witch. She'll probably retreat on the enemy phase now.  Another great level for Dyute.  Rather than go after the remaining witches in the north now, I'm going to let them come to me so that the baron stays out of the fight for now.   Alm is attacked by two witches but dodges one of them. One of the witches had teleported from within the fort.  Another witch takes a shot at Claire. The southern witch is content to do nothing this turn. Turn 10  There are four witches in the immediate area that need killing, with another one lurking near the barons.  Dyute needs to move north anyway, so she follows the retreating witch and finishes her off.   Alm takes out one of the northern witches, and Claire finishes off another after Matilda missed one of her attacks.   This time, Cliff does set up the kill properly for Python.  Ready to draw out the last two witches, and maybe a baron.  Mara summons a single witch, while Alm fends off another fireball. Turn 11  Flying Matilda takes care of Alm's attacker.  Much tighter formation now.  One of the barons comes out to play but can't reach anyone. Meanwhile Alm fights off another fireball. Turn 12  Matilda takes care of the witch, leaving me with several attackers that can focus on the baron.  Cliff has the Bolt Sword again, and uses it to inflict 16 damage on the baron.  Two shots of Excalibur from Ryuto bring the baron down to just 4 HP remaining.  Even Gray can be useful in this situation, and he finishes off the baron with a 6 damage fireball for 70 XP.  Not terrible, unless you compare him to Ryuto or Dyute.  Python weakens the witch a bit to wrap up the turn.  Cliff draws in the second baron, hoping for a strong counterattack.  - Chapter 4 Part 6 Battle 2.gif) The baron hits hard, but gets the worst of the exchange.  The witches are still falling hard for Alm, but Cleive presents a better target this time and takes 12 damage. Turn 13   Alm starts off with some witch revenge, and Claire takes out another witch that's still in the fort.   Ryuto and Gray finish off another baron, leaving just Mara. Python takes a shot at her, just because.  A single witch is summoned on the enemy phase. Turn 14   Claire and Alm have no problem with the witch. Python does some more scratch damage to Mara.   The witches are all over Alm, as Mara changes her pattern here to attack him instead of summoning more witches. Turn 15  I retreat but Mara only has eyes for Alm. Luckily she missed or Alm would be toast right now. Turn 16   Ryuto and Python bring Mara down to 2 HP. At the same time, Matilda and Claire have claimed the fort and its recovery tile. Since Aura costs 6 HP to cast and Mara has no source of healing, we've effectively neutralized her. All she can do now is summon more witches for easy(ish) XP farming.  Of course, she immediately summons six witches to help her. Turn 17  I'll spare most of the details from here, but you can see that I was only able to fully kill off four of the witches, leaving two behind to do some damage on the enemy phase. One goes after Alm, the other cowers in the corner. Mara runs off and hides. Turn 18  Cliff gained a pretty crappy level attacking the leftover witches. Turns 19-26  Spent a few turns letting Mara run around aimlessly before she finally did something - she summoned a single witch to her side. It was immediately killed.  A few turns later I have her surrounded so she can't run anywhere, with maximum access for killing off any summoned witches as efficiently as possible.  And of course Mara decides to test my theory by summoning seven witches. Well, easy XP, at least.  Terrible level for Claire out of that rush. She really needs to step it up.  Five of the seven witches are killed at once, leaving two behind that can actually attack us now.  And Mara summons six more witches right away. At this point I'm seriously considering just finishing off Mara and ending the battle, but Alm's army really needs some more levels. Cliff and Claire end up taking the attacks from the two witches leftover from earlier this turn - there's not much room for them to maneuver. Turn 27  Matilda gets some more Speed by killing the first of the eight witches that are now on the field.  The very next attack yields another dead witch and a pretty terrible level for Alm.  And later in the same turn Dyute gets her third level of the map and her third straight gain in Magic Power.  By the end of the turn only one of the witches is left, though the box formation has been broken. Even Robin and Force got in on the action by finishing off weakened witches. The last witch attacked Cleive while Mara made a run for it. Turns 28-31  Mara summons seven more witches for us to play with, so let's not disappoint her.   Force get the last of seven kills in the turn, and gains a bit of an odd level. I've been able to kill the witches more efficiently using my weaker units as finishers, and they're finally getting some steady XP out of it. Force can now promote into a knight.  After a couple of turns with no action, I've got the box formation around Mara again, and she fills it with another seven witches. Turn 32-40  Cleive immediately picks up the worst level of the map.  Robin picks up a level cleaning up a witch that Cliff had weakened. More Power is fine, but more important is the fact that Robin can now be promoted to a Paladin, which would give him more Power, Speed, Defense, and more.  Luka likewise gets a level from finishing off a witch, this time one that Python had weakened. He's also able to promote into a knight now.  The rest of the witches fall without incident.   Mara summons a single witch a few more times, but nothing troubling. I give Gray the kill on Mara at the end of the final (40th) turn.  The resulting level was not really worth it.  Well, that wasn't so bad. Next time:  - Chapter 4 Part 6 Battle 3.gif) Ambush! The group of witches that formed up a few battles ago advances and attacks Alm!  We're in the defensive spot this time. Also notice that only ten units of Alm's army are here - Robin, Gray, and Luka all got left behind. We're being attacked by five witches, backed up by three Slime-wielding wizards and two level 5 myrmidons. Turn 1   The enemy also gets to attack first, since they initiated the battle. Two witches attack Claire and Silk - one of them is wielding lightning. I guess she's supposed to be the leader of the group or something.  We've got Force, Matilda, Cleive, and Python in the south, but only one witch is headed their way right now.   Claire wipes out one witch, while Cliff and Dyute take out the other. Turn 2  Simple advancement from the enemy phase, not even any teleporting.  Python was going to soften up the witch here for Force, but he missed one of his attacks. Matilda takes the kill instead.   Dyute gets rid of the lead wizard with a critical Aura.  After three straight levels with Magic Power, I'm okay with her getting some Speed here.  Ready for another round. Turn 3  The remaining enemies charge ahead. I could've done with them spreading out a bit more, though.  The southern group rushes ahead to try and help.   Claire isn't much good against the myrmidons - she's weaker and slower - so she takes out this witch instead. She gets a level out of it that isn't that great (just the one stat) but she can now promote to Falcon Knight. (Yes, I forgot to grab her stats page again.)   The myrmidons are the biggest threat here, since they're fast enough to double-attack everyone. Alm lucks out with a crit to eliminate one of the myrmidons immediately.   Ryuto, Dyute, and Cliff all combine to take out the other myrmidon. Just two wizards and a witch left - I'll be in trouble if they all gang up on someone and land all of their attacks, but it's pretty unlikely. Turn 4   Claire and Alm both dodge despite being entirely encased in slime. Maybe they're really just behind the coil here rather than inside it.  The last witch here isn't much threat by herself, but she misses anyway. Three straight dodges, nice and lucky.  On the player phase now, Claire kills another witch.  Alm takes out one of the wizards, dodging the slimy counterattack.   Cleive reaches the main battle just in time to massively weaken the last enemy. He also dodges the slime-counter. Four slimes, zero hits.   I give Matilda the final kill. Mostly because she was close to a level. More Defense is pretty nice for her.  Alm's finally free! It'll be the Fear Shrine next for him. Next time:  Celica starts to explore the Lost Woods.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2014 05:06
|
|
|
Well, using a summoning enemy to grind out party levels does seem to be in the spirit of the game, annoying as I imagine it can get.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2014 09:27
|
|
|
Whoa, interesting that the enemy can attack you, and move first! This game uses a lot of interesting mechanics. I kind of wish they'd remake it... Has the "enemy can move first" gimmick been used anywhere else in the series?
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2014 12:23
|
|
|
Glazius posted:Well, using a summoning enemy to grind out party levels does seem to be in the spirit of the game, annoying as I imagine it can get. It'd probably be less 'necessary' if I weren't challenging myself by not grinding levels repeating the dungeon battles over and over. There's a later map that has a repeatable battle with a shaman who summons gargoyles. That one's a favorite for the XP-grinders.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2014 16:04
|
|
|
Five people are getting left behind in Celica's next battle. Pick your favorite bench-warmers. Here's the roster.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 15:34
|
|
|
When was the last time Valbo actually did something?
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 15:48
|
|
|
DKII posted:Pick your favorite bench-warmers.  Catria, Palla, Noma, Saber, and Leo.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 03:22
|
|
|
GoatLord posted:When was the last time Valbo actually did something? He's basically a movable wall. Which is more useful than Atlas and Boey usually are.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 06:20
|
|
|
I'm feeling kinda dickish (and too lazy to look), so whoever the top 5 highest leveled people are.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 06:48
|
|
|
Silver Falcon posted:Has the "enemy can move first" gimmick been used anywhere else in the series? It sometimes shows up in modern Fire Emblems as an optional difficulty attached to Lunatic called Lunatic Reverse.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 13:15
|
|
|
Actually, Lunatic Reverse is a whole other brand of bastardry. In LR, the enemy attacks first during combat, even on your turn.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 21:42
|
|
|
Palla, Catria, Est, Atlas, Boey
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 22:05
|
|
|
DKII posted:Pick your favorite bench-warmers. Valbo, Boey, Atlas, Leo, Noma
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 23:52
|
|
|
Silver Falcon posted:Valbo, Boey, Atlas, Leo, Noma What this guy said.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 23:58
|
|
|
asymmetrical posted:I'm feeling kinda dickish (and too lazy to look), so whoever the top 5 highest leveled people are. That's honestly not really a bad idea - we have several units high enough level to promote that won't gain as much XP until they do, so could benefit from catching up some of the others.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2014 02:14
|
|
|
DKII posted:That's honestly not really a bad idea - we have several units high enough level to promote that won't gain as much XP until they do, so could benefit from catching up some of the others. That was pretty much my plan when picking people. I don't remember if promoted classes get less XP or not, but that's what I tried to go with. (After I decided including Jenny seemed too mean.)
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2014 02:22
|
|
|
I wonder if witch AI is set to never be able to target a possible kill unless no other option is available. Their teleporting seems to suggest either that or it's completely random.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2014 05:34
|
|
|
DKII posted:He's basically a movable wall. Which is more useful than Atlas and Boey usually are. drat it, now I want to see a Fire Emblem game where one of your allies is literally just a moving wall. Can't talk, can't attack, just moves around and tanks hits like a champ. Even better if you give it a promotion to put spikes on the wall so it can counterattack. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2014 06:22
|
|
|
Chapter 4, Part 7: Lost Woods Celica's headed into the Lost Woods today. There's not much room to maneuver in the woods or something I guess, so we only get to bring ten people along. Here are those ten, fully equipped.  Noma stays behind because he's already promoted and has terrible growth rates so won't benefit much from more experience at this point. The others are left out because they're already ready to promote so the experience is best used catching up everyone else.   The teleporter in Dolk's Fort leads to the Lost Woods. It's a two-way teleporter, so we could go back if needed, but there's not really any reason to do so.   The Lost Woods is a classic "unfair" maze common to these early video games. By unfair, I mean that the layout is complete physical nonsense - you can't draw a map and feel out the boundaries of the maze to find your way out. There's a set path through the maze, and if you stray from that path, you end up with an endless sequence of four-way intersections, and the only way to stop is to retrace your steps.  The exit is relatively easy to find - from the start, go up two screens and then take the left exit. But you're missing a lot if you just leave immediately, and will eventually be unable to complete the game without taking one of the side paths here.   Go one more screen to the right, and take the top exit to reach the rather well-hidden Sage Village. We'll explore this more later.   From the start, go three screens down and take the right exit to reach one of the three battles scattered throughout the Lost Woods. Zombies are a joke. These aren't quite zombies but might as well be.  Technically they're mummies, but you're forgiven if you can't tell the difference. Their stats are exactly the same. The one difference will become immediately obvious later.  Eight pseudo-zombies aren't exactly challenging, so I'll forgo the blow-by-blow details. Basically, Atlas runs out to fight alone with the Angel Ring.  - Chapter 4 Part 7 Battle 1.gif) So where zombies are only worth a base of 15 XP, mummies are worth a base of 255 XP - 17 times more. That's more than enough for a free level per kill for low-leveled units like Atlas.   I could wish that he would take better advantage of the opportunity, though.  Sonia picks off one of the mummies, but she's up at level 10 so only gets 31 XP. The XP formula is rather complicated, but essentially at level 10 Sonia is getting 20% of the XP that Atlas was getting at Level 1 or 2 (though Atlas's gains were capped at 100 XP).  Atlas gained so much XP on the enemy phase of the second turn that he gained two levels, so I couldn't get his stats screen in between. First level was Defense, the second was Skill and HP.   Sonia zapped another mummy to put her on the verge of a level, but Atlas still has the Angel Ring so he goes and gets another free level here. He's picked up HP, Skill (twice), Speed, Luck, and Defense now - everything but Power, which is already his best stat anyway.  The enemy phase on the third turn gave Atlas two more levels - one Skill, one Defense. He's actually a serviceable unit now.  May finishes the battle with a fireball to get in on the XP bonanza.  By leaving the Lost Woods and re-entering, this battle can be repeated indefinitely. It doesn't take a genius to figure out the implications of having such an easy source of XP, combined with the Angel Ring. But we won't be doing that here.  After each of the three battles, continue in the same direction from which you entered (in this case, go right).  Treasure!  A Silver Sword! At 8 Might, it's stronger than any sword we've seen so far save the risky Dark Sword, and is also lightweight (1 Weight) and accurate (90% Hit Rate). There's no Crit Rate, so the Hero Sword is still better in some circumstances, but we have plenty of sword users to go around anyway.   The next battle is found by heading down one screen from the start and then taking the left exit. This time we've got seven vanilla wizards - no fancy XP gimmicks.   Sonia's out front with the Angel Ring this time. She doesn't get much XP so she won't hold onto it long, but she was only 8 XP from a level.  That's a tough little mage.   A turn later and I give Atlas one more shot since he was close to a level. Wasn't worth it.  I'm trying to get Sonia and May up to level 12 so they can promote, but the wizards are only worth 10 XP for a kill so it's slow going.   Jenny's been stuck at 99 XP for awhile so I finally find the time to get her the Angel Ring and she doesn't disappoint me.   Est ends the battle with a level of her own, though she still has a long way to go to catch up to her sisters.  More treasure awaits to the left of the battle site.  And Leo gets a pretty nice upgrade. The Silver Bow is much stronger than the Steel Bow at 7 Might, with a higher Hit Rate (80%) and the same extended range and bonuses against flying units. The only penalty is a slightly higher Weight (2).   The third battle is also placed so that you'll stumble into it while searching around for the exit - just go one screen up from the start, then take the left exit.  We're faced with three "High Knights" here. They're exactly identical to barons in every way (even XP given, this time), so I'm not sure why they needed to come up with a new class here. As with the barons, coordinated magic attacks will be the way to go here.  May isn't really the best choice to face the high knight's charge, but she's in a tree and will only get hit once. She's also got the Angel Ring for some free healing on the following turn.   And the tree pays off.   Sonia weakens the high knight further, so that May can get the easy kill.  Better crit rate, I guess.  Celica's got the Angel Ring next, and the high knight goes after her for 10 damage.   May and Sonia make short work of the third high knight. I think it's still just the third turn at this point.  Sonia gets decent XP out of the kill for a level 11 unit. A level 4 unit would've gotten 96 XP, for example.   Celica dishes out two shots of Angel to the second high knight. She doesn't get the kill, but she does get more than enough XP for another pretty great level. Her Magic Attack is up to 25 with Angel, or 22 with Excalibur.  Boey takes the final kill. He might be the only unit in Celica's army that won't be able to promote; he's still five levels away.  Continuing left after the battle yields the third and final treasure.  A Silver Lance will be very useful for one of the pegasus knights, or even for Atlas. It's got 8 Might, with a 90% Hit Rate and just 1 Weight. Like the other silver weapons, it's much better than the steel version.   The last secret to be found in the Lost Woods is an angel statue, just above where the first treasure was located (from the start, go two screens down, then two screens right). Promotion time!   The main promotion gain for Atlas is better mobility. He's actually shored up pretty much all of his weaknesses.   Jesse gets some much-needed Defense, previously his biggest weakness.   Kamui receives a significant Speed boost. I'm pretty sure he was supposed to gain a lot of Magic Defense as well - Serene's Forest says the myrmidon base is 6, and Kamui's is only 2. Must be bugged or something. I guess Kamui's never going to be much of a mage-killer, then.   Palla gets a lot tougher, bumped up to 40 HP and 12 Defense. She also got robbed on a Magic Defense upgrade, though - the base for falcon knights is supposed to be 12.   Catria gets moved up to the same base HP and Defense as Palla, but it's much more of a boost for her. Catria's a total beast now, with much higher Skill, Speed, Luck, and Magic Defense than Palla. Still waiting to promote are late-comer Est, plus all the magic-users - Jenny, May, Sonia, and Boey. They all need to reach level 12. Is it bullshit to hide the late-game promotion shrine inside an unfair maze that has no hints whatsoever? Yes, yes it is. But with this map you too can navigate the Lost Woods.  Let's check out the Sage Village now.  However, he lost a dispute with the shaman Judah and fled here. Judah is a vile man. If you wish to fight him, there is only one way. On turn 4, 8, 12....Ugh....I....Judah's spell has....  - Chapter 4 Part 7 Battle 2.gif) After his speech, the villager vanishes. I guess he died? Regardless the hint is a little heavy-handed - I wouldn't have thought that in-game characters would know what "turns" are. Moving along....  We know what these are.  Hmm, well we did just get a bunch of treasure. Think Alm could use any of it?  Oh, I suppose it's Alm's turn to play with the Angel Ring.  The trader actually leaves the screen. Presumably to go deliver the ring. The other two characters in the building are also traders, so we could send Alm three different items if we were so inclined. We're not.  There's also a single lion-head shrine here. It gives Defense, and has five uses instead of three. So as usual, I'll let you decide who gets the extra Defense: VOTE HERE Est isn't eligible - she'll get set to 12 Defense upon promotion so any shrine uses are pretty much wasted on her here. Jenny's in a similar situation.   This is Sage Hark. He does some important stuff. We'll talk to him later. Let's move on from the Lost Woods for now.  A group of high knights pop out of Doma's Tower. Celica will have to deal with them later.  Celica appears on the other side of the forest (notice the little house representing Sage Village tucked away from the path). Her next fight appears to be a tough one. Next time:  Alm takes the Angel Ring into the Fear Shrine.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2014 22:07
|
|
|
For the most part, the voting preference is for the rich to get richer as the best units get more Defense - Celica, Saber, Palla, and Catria, with a side of Jesse, currently hold the top five spots. I'll leave voting open for another day before I start updating on Sunday (it'll likely be a long update). Vote!
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2014 20:06
|
|
|
Poll will not let me vote to give all 5 to Valbo. Poll is faulty.
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2014 20:30
|
|
|
With a late surge in voting, Kamui displaced Jesse for the last Defense boost (actually, he passed Palla, too): Winners: Celica, Saber, Catria, Palla, Kamui I'll work on an update tomorrow.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2014 03:40
|
|
|
So is that trader limited-use, or can you just freely pass items back and forth?
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2014 23:10
|
|
|
Glazius posted:So is that trader limited-use, or can you just freely pass items back and forth? Well when I used it, the trader went away and didn't come back. So I would assume it's limited to three uses for the three guys that were there. Not sure about the earlier traders, I would assume they work the same way but with only the one guy, so single-use. As for the update - it's taking longer than expected, and I'll be breaking it up into two parts, with the first part hopefully in a couple days.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2014 08:39
|
|
|
Yes, the trader is indeed single use.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2014 09:01
|
|
|
Chapter 4, Interlude: Fear Shrine Alm's up today, with another shrine to conquer.  But first, some leftover business for Celica and company in the Lost Woods. With that out of the way, Alm enters the Fear Shrine.  The usual entrance room, with a battle waiting in the screen above.  It's the first shrine battle with either multiple screens or terrain. The swampland in the upper half will be annoying but not too much trouble.  The wizards are no problem. One of them is level 3 but isn't any more of an issue.  The shaman summons gargoyles. There's also a handy chokepoint between the two halves of the map. Hello, XP.  Inside a shrine, there is no option to retreat, and no turn limit. So we can farm gargoyles for as long as we want. As soon as I realize this, I restart the battle with the junior varsity team (added Luka, Robin, and Gray; benched Claire, Cliff, and Cleive).  Ryuto drew in the wizards on the first turn, and most of them were dead on the second turn. Nothing really interesting to show here.  The next umpteen-billion turns looked pretty much like this, with two units holding the chokepoint against infinite gargoyles.  Yeah, lots of gargoyles. No one needs to see all that. Instead, here's a level-up montage. Ryuto:   Ryuto only needed two levels to be able to promote into a sage, adding a bunch of Speed. Did I mention that Celica sent over the Angel Ring to Alm's group last turn? Kind of makes the whole exercise work here. Python:    A few well-rounded levels for Python for a couple extra points of everything but luck. Force:      Force gets a massive Power surge. His Speed still sucks he'll make a good wall eventually. Luka:      Luka gains a bunch of Skill, to go along with a bit of Speed, Power, and Defense (the actual important stats). Robin:      Lots of Power, Skill, and Speed for Robin, but he's still made of paper so won't be all that useful. Promotion will help there a little. Gray:      Gray gets a little more Power and Defense but overall pretty disappointing as usual. He does get the Arrow spell for some extra might. Matilda:       Matilda gets a huge Speed boost (+10 in 6 levels). If we could find her a strong, heavy weapon she'd be all set. She became eligible for promotion to Gold Knight at level 10. Silk:    Even Silk gets some action with three great levels for Silk. She's suddenly a powerful healer, and can now promote into the not-yet-seen Saint class. Alm:         I took Alm all the way to level 20. He gets a story-forced promotion soon. He gained a lot of different stats and is now pretty beastly, especially when he's got that Regal Sword. Dyute:            Dyute also got pushed to level 20, because the female mage class is bugged and can't promote until level 20 (at which time they can promote into the new Priest class; different from the Priest class in which Celica starts the game). In 11 levels, she got 12 Magic Power, 10 Speed, and 6 Defense which is pretty incredible. She also picked up two great spells - the monster-killer Angel, and the everything-killer Ragnarok. The latter spell has 24 Might and 100% Hit Rate for 20 Weight and 10 HP. It's massive, and with Dyute's super-charged Magic Power, she can throw out a 51 Magic Attack with a very small but non-zero 1 Attack Speed. Combine that power with the Prayer Ring which guarantees a crit when at low health - a calculation made after the spell's HP cost is subtracted - and Dyute is now the ultimate boss-killer. Here's Dyute one-shotting the boss of the battle with her new spell:  - Chapter 4 Part 8 Battle 1.gif) Boom.  Not much trouble there.  Let's keep going a bit further.  Jackpot!   I don't have to tell you which of these bonuses is better. Choose three characters to receive an extra point of Speed: VOTE Let's get our long-overdue promotions from that angel statue:   Luka gets a little tougher - he's actually moderately useful now.   Some more Speed for Gray is obviously welcome but won't make much difference. Of more importance - like all mages, he gets access to the Recover spell as a promotion bonus. All of our mages are now also healers, and Alm's army immediately goes from a single healer to four of them.   Not much of a bonus for Ryuto, but his stats were already pretty good. Like Gray, he can now cast Recover for some healing.   Silk gets a lot more survivability. She also gets a much more useful offensive spell - Angel.   Dyute's stats are already crazy high, so all she gets is HP (plus Recover). More Ragnarok fuel really. She's also now a super-charged healer.   Robin's biggest problem gets a little patch, but he's still pretty underwhelming.   Matilda becomes our first third-tier unit, and gets some massive promotion bonuses befitting the position.   Not much of a boost for Python, whose only real asset is his range.   Force becomes a bit more of a wall, with 4 more Power than Luka but 2 fewer Speed.   Claire, Cliff, and Cleive all missed out the battle since they were all level 11/12, but they still get to promote. She gets a massive +7 Defense and +19 HP to bring her up to the falcon knight base stats, much like Celica's fliers.   Cliff was already pretty well-rounded, but his extra Speed will come in handy.   Cleive already meets the minimum for every paladin stat, so just gets a small boost to his HP. It's pretty easy to see that the two units who got all the way to level 20 on their first class (Alm, Dyute) are the best-off right now. So if you have the patience for it, grinding up even more levels would pay off. It's just pretty boring.  There's more to the shrine behind the angel statue. Some treasure maybe?  Oh - stairs. Ok, let's head down.  There's another floor to the shrine! The Fear Shrine is Alm's mini-dungeon, similar to Celica's Lost Woods only without the stupid unfair maze part. We'll explore the rest of the shrine in full - next time.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 06:23
|
|
|
 God drat, Dyute.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 06:57
|
|
|
Wow, those two wouldn't be out of place in the endgame of most other (non-FE10/Awakening) Fire Emblem games. I assume this means they'll completely slaughter everything in their paths in this game?
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 20:51
|
|
|
fade5 posted:Wow, those two wouldn't be out of place in the endgame of most other (non-FE10/Awakening) Fire Emblem games. I assume this means they'll completely slaughter everything in their paths in this game? I haven't really seen a lot of details about what lies ahead, but I wouldn't assume anything. The stat caps are 40 here, with many classes getting a second promotion, and we haven't even gotten the most over-powered piece of equipment yet.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 23:48
|
|
|
Voting update: Alm, Claire, and Silk are all 2-3 votes clear of the closest competitors in Python and Dyute. I'm not sure why people are voting for more Speed for Silk, but I guess all the magic-users are both healers and nukers now so it can't hurt. I do need some further input - I need three units from Alm's army to miss out on the rest of the Fear Shrine. Or at least the initial portions.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2014 16:43
|
|
|
DKII posted:I do need some further input - I need three units from Alm's army to miss out on the rest of the Fear Shrine. Or at least the initial portions. Matilda and Dyute 
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2014 16:45
|
|
|
Chapter 4, Part 8: Fear Shrine II Time for Alm to clear out the rest of the Fear Shrine.  But first, some more Speed for some of our top units.  Let's head up first.  A varied group, but as long as we don't let the mages gang up on anyone there won't be any problem here. On the bench for Alm's team: Ryuto, Dyute, and Matilda, three of the strongest units who don't have any further promotions available.   Luka takes out a witch all by himself somehow.   Claire and Robin take out a wizard. Robin's actually more useful than Cleive now. Who would've guessed?  Python assassinates a witch.   Silk warps Force up to the top of the map to take out another wizard.   Alm gets a torched a bit on the enemy phase by two of the remaining witches.  Robin gets slimed by the last wizard, but he's got the Leather Shield for some extra Defense so the two myrmidons can't hurt him too bad.   On the second turn now - this image is not a duplicate, Force is just a wizard-killer now.  Silk's a boss now, wielding Angel like mad against the myrmidon for 18 damage. Cliff finishes it off.  Arrow's not hugely reliable with a 70% Hit Rate, but when it lands and crits Gray can wreck units like the other myrmidon here.   Just three witches left now. Well, one after Python and Claire each take one out.  Robin ends the brief battle. It's still the second turn here.  Moving right along.  More creepy magic lion head statues!  Unfortunately they're both just offering revival of dead units.  There's another path in this basement cavern off to the right, and another battle waiting in that direction.  Ten gargoyles this time. We're pretty familiar with fighting them by now. Although these ones are level 5, so a bit tougher than the summoned variety.   The Angel spell gives Silk a huge advantage here - she can one-shot the gargoyles, and has enough Defense now to survive a few attacks. Silk gets 40 XP from the kill, too.   Claire's our other efficient monster-killer. The falcon knight class has a bonus that treats all of her attacks against monsters as if she were using a holy weapon (triple attack power).   Gray and Cleive are able to pick off another gargoyle, while I surround Silk with some shields so that she doesn't counter-kill herself to death - she counterattacks with Angel now, which one-shots the attacking gargoyles and drains her HP.  Seven gargoyles left, and our units are lined up so that they can't gang up too badly on anyone. Not that we have any low-Defense units for them to pick on anymore.   Robin and Cleive get scratched by two gargoyles each, Claire counter-kills two others, while the last flies around the line to go after Python for some reason. You can see the mini-Angel effect that accompanies Claire's attacks against monsters now.   Silk starts the second turn by pulverizing another gargoyle.  Remember when Silk was made of paper and had to be carefully shielded from all attacks?  Gray and Claire each finish off another gargoyle, leaving just two remaining.   Python and Cleive finish off another one.  Cliff, Robin, and Luka chip away at the last gargoyle. I'm leaving it alive on purpose for one more turn so that I can move the Angel Ring around.  Force takes the easy kill to start the third turn, ending another battle.  He's a pretty solid wall now.  Keep moving forward (to the right).  Another battle! There are three high-XP mummies mixed in with these zombies. The greatest challenge here is managing the XP-pinata mummies so that no one gains a level unless they're holding the Angel Ring.  Python's actually attacking a zombie first, since he's only a couple XP away from a level.  Speed's probably the biggest thing holding him back right now, so this level is pretty great.   Gray misses, but Claire follows up and gets the first mummy kill. She's got the smallest possible XP modifier though, so she only gets 26 XP out of it.  The two mummies are the two left units in the top row. One can only reach Cleive, who's too weak to get a kill. The other can't reach anyone yet.  Cleive gets a ton of XP just from maiming the mummy. Half of the zombies kill themselves on Robin, Force, and Silk.   Robin's taking the second mummy kill. He gets 77 XP out of it.  Robin joins the ranks of units-who-used-to-suck-but-are-now-kind-of-good.  The rest of the zombies are taken care of with ease, and the end of the second turn has the mummy sealed up.   Cleive faces the mummy's attack, but I planned ahead and gave him the Angel Ring. He misses an attack so his XP gain is down, but it's still enough for his first promoted level.  And even more Defense. Compare this stat screen to Robin's just above - Robin has 1 more Power, 3 more Speed, 3 more Magic Defense, and 5 more Skill. The only stat Cleive has on Robin is 6 more Luck, but who cares about that.   Cleive hands off the Angel Ring to Luka at the start of the third turn. Luka gets a full level from the kill. Knights get a bit more of an XP bonus than other second-tier units, probably because they're not expected to get as many kills while mainly playing the role of a wall.  Where Force is a classic wall, Luka is actually more well-rounded with that extra Speed.  We came from the left, so forward is now up.  No battle on the next screen; keep going up.  Ten vanilla skeletons, no real challenge here. Even our weakest units only take a couple points of damage from them now.   After Gray softens up the first target, Luka grabs another kill.  He ends up with even more Speed. Luka's actually a better unit than Cliff now, at least against physical attackers.  The player phase of the first turn ends with a simple line, against which the skeletons crash in the enemy phase, with little effect.   Claire and Silk are just as overpowered in this battle, racking up a few counter-kills.   Claire finishes off one skeleton to start the second turn. Cliff gets another one after Robin softened it up.  Cliff gets some more Speed, but he either needs some Power soon or a better weapon than the Bolt Sword.  The rest of the skeletons fall before the end of the second turn.  After the battle, we're left in a room with two ways to progress. Let's head up first.  Treasure! Also, there's a trap here. See that dark tile in front of the treasure chest, that looks like it's just decorative? Let's flash back to a certain similar feature that Celica saw recently: That was the teleporter in Dolk's Fort that took Celica and company into the Lost Woods. The dark tile here in the treasure room is also a teleporter.  It leads back to the entrance to the basement. The battles remain cleared, though, so all it really costs you is a couple of minutes walking back.  Approach the chest from the left or right instead to open it and receive the most over-powered combat item in the game. (The Angel Ring is the most over-powered item overall, but doesn't directly help combat ability all that much.) The Quick Ring not only sets the user's Speed to 40, it also grants +5 Movement. So, guaranteed double attacks and a huge mobile range. It also has the usual +5 HP per turn for the holder that every ring has. I put the ring on Force for now (his Speed goes from 6 to 40, and Movement from 4 to 9) which transforms him from a movable wall to some kind of mega-death tank. Really, though, this item makes Dyute completely broken as she'd be able to double-attack with Ragnarok with ease. Two successive shots with a 51 Magic Attack can take out pretty much anyone short of the final boss, and she'll have 10 Movement to reach most of the battlefield instantly as well.  Headed back to the previous room, we go left this time for the last battle in the shrine.  A single shaman. This one summons zombies so isn't really worth grinding. I do pick up a few levels for units at 90+ XP:  Silk gets yet more Speed and another new spell. Dear is a 'turn undead' type of spell - at a cost of 14 HP, it'll straight-out remove some number of enemy monsters from the map entirely. They don't count as kills, so the XP is just gone, but can be useful if you're stuck in a jam.  Robin picks up more Defense. It's been a very Defense- and Speed-heavy day today. Not that I'm complaining.  Claire gets a great level by killing the shaman to end the battle.  The battle leaves Alm in a room with nothing but more stairs headed down, so let's take them.  The sub-basement has yet more stairs, plus a couple of suspicious-looking waterways. First, let's head down the stairs again.   No tricks this time, just treasure. The Magic Shield doesn't directly modify your stats, but instead sets your magic evasion to 90%. Put this item on an otherwise strong unit with terrible Magic Defense - like Luka - and they won't have to worry about getting ganged up on by mages anymore.  The waterway, as usual, has a trick to it - it can only be entered from below the second tile. From here, we'll take the top path first.   There's a great treasure right in front of us - the Holy Bow does exactly what you would think, with triple Might against monsters (as well as flying units) and healing the user for 5 HP each turn. Perhaps more important are its base stats - in addition to 5 Might, it has 100% Hit Rate, 10% Crit Rate, and 0 Weight, making it by far the best and most reliable bow available even against non-monsters. Python greedily grabs this upgrade.   Taking the lower path, there's a promise of more treasure ahead....  Two treasures actually, with a sign posted out front:  Looks like you guys have a decision to make. Silver Shield: +7 Defense Holy Shield: +13 Defense against monsters only, +5 HP per turn for the holder Next time:  It's back to Celica as she charges Doma's Gate.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 01:01
|
|
|
God drat, I'd forgotten about the insanely broken Quick Ring. Absolutely stupid. Grab the Silver Shield.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 01:49
|
|
|
Sets speed to 40 and adds +5 move? Also, more passive healing is always a good thing. Holy shield.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 02:18
|
|
|
Go for the Silver Shield.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 03:06
|
|
|
Silver Shield. In the end, our beef is with humans, not monsters.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 03:12
|
|
|
Holy Shield. Go big or go home. Passive healing is really useful, any it becomes absurd on monster maps, which there are definitely going to be more of.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 05:03
|
|
|
fade5 posted:Holy Shield. Go big or go home. Passive healing is really useful, any it becomes absurd on monster maps, which there are definitely going to be more of. That being said, the monsters haven't been all that threatening lately, and Alm's army already has six healing items and four healers, so how much more is really needed? Granted I don't really know what lies ahead all that well, there may be some super-monsters in the next cave for all I know. Also most of our units are too busy carrying around weapons or overpowered rings to bother with a shield so the choice may be moot anyway. The Holy Shield would be handy to stick on a healer/mage for sure.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 06:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 18:07 |
|
|
Man, this game has a lot of really good equipment for your dudes. I suppose that's some of the Final Fantasy feel.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 22:27
|
|