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[Tackhead #9]

I'm playing Lunatic on new mode (I'm so ashamed), and even then, I'm getting my ass handed to me. Trying to avoid spamming Frederick, while playing keep away with Chrom and the Avatar - letting other units get in one shot and then die immediately afterwards... It's a struggle, but once the roster grows, it should become easier.

Going to try Lunatic + with classic... that'll be intense.

 

[Anteo]

I'm playing Lunatic on new mode (I'm so ashamed), and even then, I'm getting my ass handed to me. Trying to avoid spamming Frederick, while playing keep away with Chrom and the Avatar - letting other units get in one shot and then die immediately afterwards... It's a struggle, but once the roster grows, it should become easier.

Going to try Lunatic + with classic... that'll be intense.

You need to beat Lunatic with classic to unlock classic L+.

 

[Tackhead #9]

Oh wow. Thanks for the heads-up, that saved me a lot of wasted time! Hadn't gotten too far yet, and so... back to the beginning I go...

 

[Petrie]

Having not played much FE and now getting to chapter 6 or so having to decide who to use, is very frustrating. I ended up putting the game away because picking the wrong characters or raising them "wrong" in games like this just annoys me. I'll never understand why I'm like this. Help me GAF.

 

[Anteo]

Having not played much FE and now getting to chapter 6 or so having to decide who to use, is very frustrating. I ended up putting the game away because picking the wrong characters or raising them "wrong" in games like this just annoys me. I'll never understand why I'm like this. Help me GAF.

Well since you can freely grind on normal, just pick whoever you like. And spam heal with your healers, even when someone is missing just one hp

 

[Petrie]

Well since you can freely grind on normal, just pick whoever you like. And spam heal with your healers, even when someone is missing just one hp

Where does one freely grind?

 

[Anteo]

Where does one freely grind?

Random battles on the map, also you can buy Reeking Boxes that summon random battles, they are not that cheap but you make more money than you spent on them on normal.

 

[Incandenza]

This Chapter 10 music tho.

 

[DY_nasty]

I'm kind of curious about Second Seals and whatnot.

Ever since I got Donnell and let him go through two classes, I've seen that you can build characters into monsters but I'm kinda lost on how to do it with everyone else. Had a little success with Sully but other than that I'm kind of clueless. Is there a good guide for this out there?

 

[Anteo]

Well is not like Sully has much going on for her. I think she can get Vantage and Luna? I dont think other of her skills are worth it.

Just use the seals to get good skillls. From the first tier only Armshift and Vantage are good, everthing else sucks, Underdog is not good for Donny but it does work really well for

Spoiler

___Nah__ because her max level is 30, so in later levels it will always be active.

. From the second Tier Luna is the best.

 

[DY_nasty]

Well is not like Sully has much going on for her. I think she can get Vantage and Luna? I dont think other of her skills are worth it.

Just use the seals to get good skillls. From the first tier only Armshift and Vantage are good, everthing else sucks, Underdog is not good for Donny but it does work really well for

Spoiler

___Nah__ because her max level is 30, so in later levels it will always be active.

. From the second Tier Luna is the best.

Wait, so skills are character dependent and not class dependent?!?

 

[McNum]

Wait, so skills are character dependent and not class dependent?!?

No, skills come from classes, but characters only have certain classes available. There are only a few character specific skills, but those characters are either DLC or SpotPass units.

Although some skills become character specific due to class exclusivity. Like Donnel is the only one with the Villager class, so only he learns Underdog naturally. Likewise, Chrom and the Avatar have specific skills tied to the Lord and Strategist classes. Although... those skill aren't quite as exclusive as Donnel's. Special note about Chrom, actually. He always passes down one of the two Great Lord skills to his children. Even if he hasn't learned them.

 

[Anteo]

Wait, so skills are character dependent and not class dependent?!?

A good example is Sumia vs Cordelia


Sumia Classes and notable skills
Pegasus Knight -> Falcon Knight/Dark Flier : Skills Lancefaire/Galeforce
Knight -> Great Knight/General : Skills Luna/Pavise
Cleric -> War Cleric/Sage : Skills Renewal/Tomefaire

Cordelia Classes and notable skills
Pegasus Knight -> Falcon Knight/Dark Flier : Skills Lancefaire/Galeforce
Mercenary -> Hero/Bow Knight: Skills Armshift/Sol/Bowbreaker
Dark Mage -> Sorcerer/Dark Knight: Skills Vengance/Tomebreaker/Lifetaker

So, while both start as pegasus knight, they dont have access to the same classes and because of this, they dont have the same skills.

 

[Shengar]

I'm kind of curious about Second Seals and whatnot.

Ever since I got Donnell and let him go through two classes, I've seen that you can build characters into monsters but I'm kinda lost on how to do it with everyone else. Had a little success with Sully but other than that I'm kind of clueless. Is there a good guide for this out there?

Major thing that you must remember about Second Seals is that using it will increase your unit internal level unlike Master Seals. It will make them require more EXPs to level-up. The most optimal way of using Second Seals in a non-grinding run is use them in early game, turn one of your units into different class when they reach level 10. While it does increase internal level, first tier unit is still easier to leveled up, so by turning your unit they will gain more stats along the way.

 

[Mx_Paladin]

This is kind of related to Fire Emblem I suppose.

I want to pick up the game really bad because I'm done with Pokemon X, and Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies. Should I just pick up a retail version now or is there any news of a sale for the retail version of the game? Coming this Black Friday perhaps?

 

[Starwolf_UK]

If I were to play Lunatic I would probably go classic and get everyone but the core cast killed and take it slowly by getting lots of barracks bonuses. But it is finding an artificial answer to the challenge.

;_; Oh gawd why were there so many Sorcerers with Beserk Staffs?? Now that was horrible.

It was more the fact they had Luna which made me hate that mode. Going form Eliwood normal where they had like 12 magic in Genesis to like 20 in HHM (might have even been 22) was a lot to deal with. 20 being an important number because there is nothing you can do as a player to survive a luna critical (as your HP maxes at 60 and it has good critical rate). Eventually you get Iron rune (removes the critical chance) but you have to go through a lot to get there.

Having not played much FE and now getting to chapter 6 or so having to decide who to use, is very frustrating. I ended up putting the game away because picking the wrong characters or raising them "wrong" in games like this just annoys me. I'll never understand why I'm like this. Help me GAF.

Picking the "wrong" units matters most on the harder difficulties. It is why I prefer to play the games in Japanese (I don't have to worry about liking the personality of a unit who can't cut it in battle).

Should I just pick up a retail version now or is there any news of a sale for the retail version of the game? Coming this Black Friday perhaps?

Its not exactly mainstream so I would not expect much for Black Friday. I don't know if any stores have generic B2G3 deals which it could be part of though. If you are that concerned you could wait until Black Friday has passed.

 

[dakkumauji]

Gen 1 Keychains

Gen 2 Keychains

I-I-I want them....Mostly the Gen 2 ones.

 

[Moonlight]

There's no Anna or Morgan.

 

[Dresden]

No Severa.

No interest.

 

[Kincaido]

No Cordelia or Severa, no buy. Do want the Lucina one though.

 

[ohlawd]

No Cordelia or Severa?

What the hell is the point then? No one buy these. This is an insult to the fanbase. No respect whatsoever.

 

[TWILT]

Cherche pls.

 

[BuckRobotron]

No Severa, Tiki, or Cherche? BAH, I say.

 

[ohlawd]

looking at it again, what's with the secret spots?

maybe it's Cordelia and Severa for their respective gens?

I actually kinda want Cynthia and Noire's. Portable hyper and DDs on the go.

 

[GamerSoul]

Finally Sully is a part of the recognized crew.

It was more the fact they had Luna which made me hate that mode. Going form Eliwood normal where they had like 12 magic in Genesis to like 20 in HHM (might have even been 22) was a lot to deal with. 20 being an important number because there is nothing you can do as a player to survive a luna critical (as your HP maxes at 60 and it has good critical rate). Eventually you get Iron rune (removes the critical chance) but you have to go through a lot to get there.

I don't think I made it that far to get the Iron Rune or I may have missed it. I was at a point where I lost too many characters to ever have a chance to complete the current chapter. I. Systems needs to do a remake so I could give that mode another go...with the benefits of Awakening's system.

 

[Technoweirdo]

Secret Gen 1 is

Spoiler

Kellam

-----

No Tiki, no Anna, no Cherche, no Cordelia, no Severa...That's sad and all, but the real tragedy is we have Noire but no Tharja. ;-;

 

[dakkumauji]

Secret Gen 1 is

Spoiler

Kellam

Not really fair to only have 9 characters when they said there'll be 10.

 

[Technoweirdo]

Not really fair to only have 9 characters when they said there'll be 10.

But you are getting 10! Hell, the 10th's right there in the picture! You just have to stare, really, really hard!

With all due seriousness, it's likely either Maribelle or Ricken (Please not Ricken). Barring Robin, everyone else was a Shepherd from the start of the game. Still, one can hope for *insert waifu here* to be the 10th.

 

[GamerSoul]

Four playthroughs in and I still am having trouble using every unit and planning accordingly. I might be missing out on some great units I can't help but play favorites. This happens to me almost every fire emblem. heh I still haven't given Donnie, Brady among others a fair chance. >.>

 

[Shengar]

Gen 1 Keychains

Gen 2 Keychains

I-I-I want them....Mostly the Gen 2 ones.

There are Miriel and Sully, I'm impressed.

 

[dionysus]

Alright Gents, this is my first Fire Emblem and I feel like I am missing something fundamental because it seems a bit too hard. I am playing on hard in episode 5 and so far I can't even begin to clear the stage without a bunch of deaths. It feels like to me that I am underleveled but as far as I can tell there is no way to level up outside of story missions. Is this true? (Some random encounter did appear on the map but I think it is even harder than the story mission.)

I also don't have enough money to have all my characters using good weapons. Is this normal?

And finally the one mechanic that I haven't explored is pairing up. I dismissed it for general purpose use because at this stage of the game it seems to be like sacrificing an attack for marginal defense improvements. The speed boost from pairing a slow with a fast also seems worthless since you have to switch out the lead character and that takes an entire turn. Am I missing something here?

 

[demidar]

Alright Gents, this is my first Fire Emblem and I feel like I am missing something fundamental because it seems a bit too hard. I am playing on hard in episode 5 and so far I can't even begin to clear the stage without a bunch of deaths. It feels like to me that I am underleveled but as far as I can tell there is no way to level up outside of story missions. Is this true? (Some random encounter did appear on the map but I think it is even harder than the story mission.)

I also don't have enough money to have all my characters using good weapons. Is this normal?

And finally the one mechanic that I haven't explored is pairing up. I dismissed it for general purpose use because at this stage of the game it seems to be like sacrificing an attack for marginal defense improvements. The speed boost from pairing a slow with a fast also seems worthless since you have to switch out the lead character and that takes an entire turn. Am I missing something here?

I wouldn't recommend a newcomer to start on Hard (at least not with Casual on). Are you good at grid-based SRPGs/play other SRPGs?

Yes, you'll have to make sacrifices early on on how to spread your good weapons.

Pairing up is actually very good, you can use it to hide a near-death character behind Fredrick, boost up a tank to withstand more hits (damage = attack - defense so even a marginal increase in defense will allow you to survive many more hits from multiple attackers), edge a character's speed to 5 above an enemy's (having more than 5 speed means you can attack twice), put an armoured unit onto a flying unit to ferry them across the map (you can split up a unit at the end of a move turn so it's like rapid deployment).

Since you're on Hard, you'll have to do a lot of calculations in your head about how much damage you'll receive so you can survive a turn and then counterattack brutally, count tiles so the enemy stops just beyond their attacking range in front of you, check your flanks to see if an enemy can potentially kill a weakling from a dogpile (enemies attack the target they can deal the most damage to in range, so they are predictable and can be baited with this tactic), always have a back-up plan if a crucial attack misses, minimize the chance you will get critted/maximize the chance of a crit not bein fatal, etc.

 

[McNum]

Use Pair Up, seriously. It's nearly game-breakingly good. Well, it IS game-breakingly good on Normal, but you're playing on Hard. Also, if this is your first Fire Emblem, you might not want to do that. These games have a reputation, and even though Awakening is kind of easy for a Fire Emblem game, it's still a Fire Emblem game.

Put a weaker unit in a pair with Frederick to see what all the hubbub is about. Weak unit in front, Frederick in the back. That's the basic power of Pair Up with a promoted character. You do lose an action per turn, but you get characters that are much more powerful on the enemy's turn in return for that. And a lot of Fire Emblem is played in the Enemy Phase.

As for good weapons, you want a few, but Iron weapons are going to see use well into the final parts of the game. They're dirt cheap at that point and can be used a lot before breaking. Awesome weapons are usually a bit fragile.

Also, build up as many supports as you can. There is no max limit on supports in this game, and they stack. The only limit is that you can only have one S rank per character.

 

[dionysus]

Yep I play other SRPGS, that is why I chose hard but I am thinking about starting a new game.

Looks like I haven't been utilizing skills appropriately as well as pairing. Looking at the PC and Chrom, I am thinking they should always be in a pair though not necessarily with each other.

Does the chance for a dual strike increase with increasing character affinity?

 

[McNum]

Yep I play other SRPGS, that is why I chose hard but I am thinking about starting a new game.

Looks like I haven't been utilizing skills appropriately as well as pairing. Looking at the PC and Chrom, I am thinking they should always be in a pair though not necessarily with each other.

Does the chance for a dual strike increase with increasing character affinity?

Yes, and so does the chance to dual guard, and the stat boosts you get for pairing up. At S-rank and nearly max stats, Chrom will have a 100% dual attack rate. Although that's an edge case, but 80%+ dual attack rates aren't rare at high levels and max support.

Supports and Pair Ups are basically the gimmick of the game. Learn to use that and it becomes easier.

 

[demidar]

Might as well drop this link here which explains pretty much everything including mechanics.

http://serenesforest.net/fe13/

Here's the page on calculations if you love crunching numbers.

The person who runs that site is also on Gaf, Aveyn Knight I think? So shoutouts to him/her.

 

[Incandenza]

Alright Gents, this is my first Fire Emblem and I feel like I am missing something fundamental because it seems a bit too hard. I am playing on hard in episode 5 and so far I can't even begin to clear the stage without a bunch of deaths. It feels like to me that I am underleveled but as far as I can tell there is no way to level up outside of story missions. Is this true? (Some random encounter did appear on the map but I think it is even harder than the story mission.)

I also don't have enough money to have all my characters using good weapons. Is this normal?

And finally the one mechanic that I haven't explored is pairing up. I dismissed it for general purpose use because at this stage of the game it seems to be like sacrificing an attack for marginal defense improvements. The speed boost from pairing a slow with a fast also seems worthless since you have to switch out the lead character and that takes an entire turn. Am I missing something here?

I was in your exact position like a week and a half ago. Up until that point I wasn't really getting into the game at all, and chapter 5 was a huge roadblock. It's basically a test of whether or not you understand the battle mechanics. It was frustrating as hell for me but once you get through it the game gets waaaay more fun, because you'll actually understand all the strategy to battling.

First of all, you can definitely level up outside story missions. Paralogues are one way, and random enemy encounters are another. Random encounters show up automatically but you can also buy a Reeking Box to call them to the map. Those are mad expensive on Hard though so I don't recommend it. You can also call in Spotpass teams via the wireless menu for free grinding, but you probably don't need to do this at your stage of the game.

Yes, learning the pairing system is essential, especially to beat chapter 5. Pretty much the only way to save the two new characters (I think it's Maribelle and Ricken?) is through effective use of pairing. Yeah, you're sacrificing an attack to some extent (although with a high enough support your paired unit will be doing lots of extra attacks). But as you've probably already noticed, you only have a few characters who can really take a hit. Frederick, Kellam, Chrom, and your Avatar being the big four, probably. Characters like Miriel are just going to get wrecked if you put them in attack range of someone. So you can either A) have a weak character pair with a strong one, thus protecting the weak one and boosting the strong one's stats, or B) have a strong character pair with a weak one, hopefully making it so the weak one can take hits now and rack up EXP. You can also do stuff like take advantage of Sumia's great movement by pairing a slow character up with her and using her as a transport (hint hint), or pair a really fast character up with a strong one so the strong character can get double hits on dudes and basically wreck shit. Also a thing to keep in mind: your Avatar has a skill (or will have one, I forget if he starts with it) that gives him EXP boost when paired with another unit. ALWAYS have your Avatar paired with someone.

And if you're really stuck and need a strategy for Chapter 5:

Spoiler

If Lissa has a rescue staff, you can pair Ricken up with Maribelle and probably get in range for Lissa to cast it within one or two turns. If not, then have Frederick pair with Sumia, have Sumia fly him up towards them and drop him off. Ricken can pair with Frederick and be safe, Maribelle can pair with Sumia and fly away.

 

[Shengar]

Alright Gents, this is my first Fire Emblem and I feel like I am missing something fundamental because it seems a bit too hard. I am playing on hard in episode 5 and so far I can't even begin to clear the stage without a bunch of deaths. It feels like to me that I am underleveled but as far as I can tell there is no way to level up outside of story missions. Is this true? (Some random encounter did appear on the map but I think it is even harder than the story mission.)

I also don't have enough money to have all my characters using good weapons. Is this normal?

And finally the one mechanic that I haven't explored is pairing up. I dismissed it for general purpose use because at this stage of the game it seems to be like sacrificing an attack for marginal defense improvements. The speed boost from pairing a slow with a fast also seems worthless since you have to switch out the lead character and that takes an entire turn. Am I missing something here?

First question I would to asked: do you overused Frederick? If yes, he is the reason why you characters might be underleveled. It is not really that hard to went through Hard difficulty without sacrificing anyone provided you can carefully place your troop during the earlier chapters (which many says the hardest part of the game especially on Lunatic). You units shouldn't be underleveled unless Frederick take all the kills. MyUnit especially, with their Veteran ability should make them overleveled enough if you feed them all the kills to deal with any further advesaries.

The trick to went through the game without grinding whatsoever is focusing all the EXP on one or two pairs of unit. The amount of exp focused will make them practically unstopable juggernaut since they have vastly superior stats over the enemy. With only two or four units, you don't need to buy a weapon especially on Hard. Even it is enough to finish the game with dropped weapons. But on Hard, it is still possible to have larger group of army if you capable distributing it among your unit.

Pairing is seriously important mechanics here since FEA is all bout surviving Enemy Phase, not wiping around during Player Phase. Small stats increase in early game actually very important. One difference in DEF should make a unit take an extra hit. One extra SPD can make the job faster when they doubling the enemies who attacked them. The only unit in early game that you shouldn't be paired is Lissa or any healer, except when some unit need extra RES or the healer don't have anywhere else to go to escape from enemy attack.

Does the chance for a dual strike increase with increasing character affinity?

Yes it is.

And if you're really stuck and need a strategy for Chapter 5:

Spoiler

If Lissa has a rescue staff, you can pair Ricken up with Maribelle and probably get in range for Lissa to cast it within one or two turns. If not, then have Frederick pair with Sumia, have Sumia fly him up towards them and drop him off. Ricken can pair with Frederick and be safe, Maribelle can pair with Sumia and fly away.

Just positioned Lissa to the right side of the starting map. Her MAG should be enough to rescue the pair in one turn since Maribelle can move pretty far down to the cliff. Just paired Lissa with Miriel if she still unable to rescue them.

 

[Marz]

Why is there so many people playing on hard in their first fire emblem game? It makes no sense whatsoever and then they come in here frustrated lol.

 

[Incandenza]

Why is there so many people playing on hard in their first fire emblem game? It makes no sense whatsoever and then they come in here frustrated lol.

Eh, I'm playing on hard my first time and I feel like I would have gotten bored already if I had played on Normal. I like that every move matters and every enemy can be dangerous.

It does kinda suck for the first, like, 8 hours though.

 

[Shengar]

Why is there so many people playing on hard in their first fire emblem game? It makes no sense whatsoever and then they come in here frustrated lol.

I played on Normal just to tested the water and get to know the mechanics. The real first playthrough was done on Hard because Normal was too easy.

 

[dionysus]

Why is there so many people playing on hard in their first fire emblem game? It makes no sense whatsoever and then they come in here frustrated lol.

Well for me hard is the right difficulty level for most srpgs and rpgs. Seems like FE:A does not go easy on new players on hard though. From what I am reading, the game is at its hardest early on. So while I am trying to actually learn the systems, the game is also at its hardest.

I switched over to normal.

 

[Karsticles]

Why is there so many people playing on hard in their first fire emblem game? It makes no sense whatsoever and then they come in here frustrated lol.

First FE here and I started on Lunatic.

 

[Shengar]

First FE here and I started on Lunatic.

You don't serious about this don't you?

 

[Petrie]

First question I would to asked: do you overused Frederick? If yes, he is the reason why you characters might be underleveled. It is not really that hard to went through Hard difficulty without sacrificing anyone provided you can carefully place your troop during the earlier chapters (which many says the hardest part of the game especially on Lunatic). You units shouldn't be underleveled unless Frederick take all the kills. MyUnit especially, with their Veteran ability should make them overleveled enough if you feed them all the kills to deal with any further advesaries.

The trick to went through the game without grinding whatsoever is focusing all the EXP on one or two pairs of unit. The amount of exp focused will make them practically unstopable juggernaut since they have vastly superior stats over the enemy. With only two or four units, you don't need to buy a weapon especially on Hard. Even it is enough to finish the game with dropped weapons. But on Hard, it is still possible to have larger group of army if you capable distributing it among your unit.

Pairing is seriously important mechanics here since FEA is all bout surviving Enemy Phase, not wiping around during Player Phase. Small stats increase in early game actually very important. One difference in DEF should make a unit take an extra hit. One extra SPD can make the job faster when they doubling the enemies who attacked them. The only unit in early game that you shouldn't be paired is Lissa or any healer, except when some unit need extra RES or the healer don't have anywhere else to go to escape from enemy attack.
.

The game does a poor job explaining pairing. I'm always getting units next to each other, but I never "pair" them, and can't quite understand why I'd want to do so.

 

[Dispatch]

The game does a poor job explaining pairing. I'm always getting units next to each other, but I never "pair" them, and can't quite understand why I'd want to do so.

I made the same mistake, meaning I simply had units fight next to each other without actually using the command to pair them up. By pairing units, they move as one and their relationship level escalates more quickly.
Units that pair up frequently eventually execute blocks and counter attacks based upon the level of the relationship. Finally, units of the opposite sex produce offspring who inherit skills from the parents. For me, this is where the depth of the game is.

Maybe I'll start a new game again; it's my favorite 3DS game, for sure.

 

[-Horizon-]

First FE here and I started on Lunatic.

 

[Marz]

First FE here and I started on Lunatic.

But did you come into the thread and complain about it being too hard? Lol

 

[Chrom]

First FE here and I started on Lunatic.

You are already dead.

 

[Petrie]

I made the same mistake, meaning I simply had units fight next to each other without actually using the command to pair them up. By pairing units, they move as one and their relationship level escalates more quickly.
Units that pair up frequently eventually execute blocks and counter attacks based upon the level of the relationship. Finally, units of the opposite sex produce offspring who inherit skills from the parents. For me, this is where the depth of the game is.

Maybe I'll start a new game again; it's my favorite 3DS game, for sure.

So are there examples of units that are best paired?

I'm really trying to wrap my head around this. It's complicated, and now I feel like I need to restart because I didn't do the things mentioned.