feplus

It also promotes bad habits and creates worse players.

Eyrios is the easy answer here, but I wonder how much things would change if Thracia had true hit. Olwen would still have availability, and she makes contributions on 13 and 14x. Her survivability improves dramatically. She still needs Ambush and Eyrios' inventory / weapon ranks / no-effort production still make him better, but I think this would be quite a bit closer.

I do think a Merric rescue will be necessary. Game plan is to rush Marth / Feema across the water once Ellerean is out of harm's way, but if Merric hasn't been rescued then Ellerean will keep fixated on him and stay in the upper room. Wendel can't move across the water. If Merric tries moving west/east he'll be swarmed and killed, and if the killing edge merc moves (which I believe he does) then he's toast in a few turns anyway. But we'll see.

You'll definitely be using rescue in the following places: Ch.4 (saves a ton of turns) Ch.10 (Merric) Ch.11 (saves a ton of turns) Ch.20 (Midia) So you've got one more to play with. Other good rescue candidate maps are 8, 9, and 18. Promoting Yumina won't save turns on 4, 10, or 20. Might save a turn on 8/9/18. Will save one turn on Ch.11.

I did not say every map in Mystery was reasonably sized. On the whole FE3 is pretty good about finding a Goldilocks zone between too big and too small, but sometimes it missteps. Ch.11 doesn't take very long if players invest a rescue staff use, which cuts required turns by about half.

For example, the Nintendo wiki has this HQ image of Ellerean art from the card game, stand-alone and without any of the card game fluff. But the Serenes artwork pages just seem to have (sometimes blurry) scans of the cards. Any place to find more HQ card game artwork?

Again staff has three durability and most players will have maybe one use left over by the fight with Medeus. Every turn on part two has something happening, whether it's dealing with demon dragons, dark bishops, or siege tomes (which cover the stairway and chunks of the starting location). Mystery on the whole has very reasonable map sizes.

I'm a fan. All three sections are reasonably difficult, so the gimmick raises tension without introducing much frustration, since permadeath has little consequence during endgame (unless players are striving for the perfect ending). It helps that the final maps are excellent and put Mystery's myriad tools to good use.

Despite being ahead of its time and featuring many fun novelties, Gaiden is probably the worst Fire Emblem game. Embarrassing UI, slow, notorious map design, and tedious. (Summoners spawning a random number of enemies / dracozombie summons are unbearable.) It encourages grinding, JRPG-style exploration was poorly implemented and adds little, and NPCs should not have been featured considering the Famicom's limitations. It's a toss-up between FE1 and FE2 for series-worst, but FE1 has solid map design and a battle preparations menu.

Simple explanation, thanks. Might be worth including that link on the base stat page in case others are curious about how the calculations are done.

Example: Vaida. Here's the Serenes listing... Name HP S/M Skl Spd Lck Def Res Vaida 43 20 19 13 11 21 6 VaidaHM 47 22 21 14 11 22 7 ...but this does not appear to line up with her growths: Vaida 60 45 25 40 30 25 15 Based on her growths, I would anticipate Vaida's expected boosts to be +3HP / +2Str / +1Skill / +2Speed / +1-2Luck / +1Def / +1Res. Instead, the expected boosts are listed as +4HP / +2Str / +2Skill / +1Speed / +0Luck / +1Def / +1Res. I assume the tables are accurate, so what explains the disconnect? Are recruitable enemy boosts calculated differently from non-recruitable enemies? Are the boosts custom, as with some bosses?

Well, I tried every approach I could think of, but eclipse is right: reducing Jaffar's odds of death to zero percent requires rigging. You either need a caster with 26 magic and B-staves, or you need to hope a slew of long-range tomes (including Eclipse) connect against Maxime. Unfortunately the boots are acquired during BBD, otherwise there would be a couple ways to reliably save Jaffar. His odds of death are low anyway, but the fact that I can't come up with a guaranteed approach annoys me. Oh well.

300 / no arena sounds fun. I'll report back if it's too easy.

Unlock only opens doors.

Binding Blade ranking requirements are too generous, so I want to impose stricter ones. Combat doesn't matter. Survival (and recruitment) of all units is a given. 501 gained levels and 1000 total levels (default requirements) seems reasonable. The real problems are tactics and funds. 600+ turns is excessive, and the glitched funds total for the best ending makes this requirement trivial. I could try ranked LTC, but I'm not a big fan of LTC and would prefer a set turn amount with some flexibility. I could demand getting the 138,000 gold total required in a bad-ending Roy/Lilina playthrough, but this seems low and I'm not sure it would challenge me much. To those who have done FE6 ranked with self-imposed restrictions, what requirements would create a good, fair difficulty?

Maxime is not a problem for Jaffar, but he aggros the berserk'd fighter east instead of south.

In that case, the only question left is whether berserk'd AI can be manipulated favorably. RFighter heads towards Maxime presumably because he is closer. Are there other variables that determine movement behavior beyond proximity?

Jaffar has a small chance of dying no matter how quickly the player moves forward. I want to reduce the odds of death to zero by pulling Jaffar north and out of harm's way.

Here's a map for reference. I've been trying to devise a way to save Jaffar without RNG abuse or glitches. I did come up with and confirm one solution: Kill the leftmost figher (LFighter) and mage with long-range magic; kill Maxime with long-range magic; berserk the fighter closest Maxime (RFighter). (You can also kill the mage with 2-range offense.) The whole problem with this BBD scenario is that the fighter next to Maxime isn't aggressive. He doesn't charge towards blue / neutral units. If he did, then Jaffar would head north rather than east, since he prioritizes this fighter over the eastern fighter. Berserking is the only way I can figure out that "switches on" RFighter's aggro. The mage is in range, so he needs to be killed off. LFighter goes first, but will aggro RFighter north if alive. RFighter approaches Maxime if Maxime lives (putting him outside Jaffar's attack range), so Maxime needs to be killed as well. This isn't reliable, since it would require a very strong Erk/Lucius and a very accurate Canas. So this solution works but is inadequate. 1. Is there a reliable way to kill Maxime on player phase turn one (could it be done on 0% growths with supports / stat-boosters)? 2. Is there a means beyond berserk to "switch on" enemy aggro? 3. Is there a way to send RFighter south without killing Maxime? 4. Is there a way to attract Jaffar north without putting RFighter in range? If any of these questions can be answered "yes," then we have a reliable Jaffar save. Those of you more familiar with GBA enemy AI and behavior, please share your thoughts. Is there a missing piece to solve this puzzle, and if so, what is it?

It's actually one of the most beloved maps in the series. I haven't seen any Serenes poll on this subject, but whenever the topic of best maps comes up on the FE subreddit BBD is always at or near the top.

Earth Orb has a damage range of 5-15. Damage dealt to Medius is not halved. Mounts can have stats above their dismount penalty threshold but, as you say, these stats must be acquired while dismounted (through level-ups or stat boosts).

Without two warps, Ch.20 takes a minimum of three turns. Earth Orb cannot kill, so Marth must spend a turn removing one of the surrounding enemies, a turn killing Medeus, and a turn seizing the throne. It is possible the other thirteen warp uses at one's disposal all save more than two turns, in which case a final map one warp / three turn clear is preferred.

Yes, a nice quick pace. Some enemy phases take a while, but this is rare thanks to FE3's overall low enemy density. Fliers don't need promotion to be useful on outdoor maps. Considering Shiida is Book 1's best flier and is rocking a silver lance from turn one onwards, getting her experience isn't difficult. Foregoing the Falchion is probably a sensible idea factoring in Starlight. Here's a no-Falchion one-turn clear strategy: Warp max-strength Partia/Gradivus user into the throne room. Have three units swap and use up the Earth Orb, bringing Medeus' HP to 30 or under (damage varies). Grind attempts until Partia/Gradivus user activates a double critical. Warp Marth into throne room and have him seize. This strategy entails training up either an armor or (preferably) a bowman.

You can pause FE3 videos too. You'll need to subtract defense from attack and avoid from hit (although displayed hit caps at 100), but that's just a problem with FE3's primitive battle forecast.

FE6 fighters get two speed on promotion.