ruadath

I think I might have a way to RNG abuse on FE9; after performing a Suspend in the middle of the Chapter, one can duplicate the save on the memory card to another memory card (similar to the Wii battle save trick for FE10 hard mode). I might use this to 3-turn Chapter 2, especially since I would only need 2 segments. On a different note, just finished 3-turning FE8 chapter 2 (previously thought to be impossible). Hopefully my good luck continues.

Since I can't offer you a video for Chapter 2, I decided to at least make a post with screenshots and the general strategy: Starting Stats: Name: Lv.XP HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES Seth: 1.98 BASE Eirika: 1.75 BASE Franz: 2.08 21 8 6 8 2 6 1 Gilliam: 4.39 Vanessa: 1.00 BASE Moulder: 3.00 BASE The strategy for the Prologue and Chapter 1 to get these stats was taken directly from General Horace's run, which can be found here; the only difference is that I mainpulated Franz level to give him an extra point in Skill, which turned out to be unnecessary.Preparations: Franz trades his Iron Lance to Vanessa in exchange for her Javelin Now for the actual playthrough! Displayed below is the starting position: Turn 1: First we manipulate the RNG and then fly Vanessa directly south onto the fortress above the bandit. She double attacks with the Slim Lance, criticaling the second time, while the bandit misses, leaving him with 8 HP. Turn 1 (cont.): We then maneuver the rest of the troops like so Franz is left to RNG manipulate before ending his turn, at the spot marked by the arrow. Enemy Turn 1: The bandit Vanessa attacked hits her for 7 damage; she counters with first a miss and then a critical to finish him off. On the other side of the screen a bandit attacks Ross, missing him. During the other phase, Ross and Garcia reduce his HP to 5. Turn 2: More RNG abuse. Moulder moves above Vanessa and heals her. Vanessa then flies onto the tile north of the boss and attacks (crits) him for 15 damage with the Iron Lance. He misses. Turn 2 (cont.): Everyone else moves like so; Seth visits the west village for a Red Gem before ending his turn. RNG abuse occurred before that. Enemy Turn 2: The bandit east of Vanessa attacks her, missing. She counters for 5 damage. The boss also attacks Vanessa; they both miss. A bandit attacks Ross, missing; on the counterattack and subsequent attack on the other phase, Ross dispatches him, and Garcia attacks the enemy archer. Two enemy reinforcements appear on the west side of the map before Turn 3: Turn 3: RNG abuse. Then Eirika moves next to the bandit who moved off the mountains and kills him with a critical. She levels up too. Turn 3 (cont.): More RNG abuse. Then Franz kills the reinforcement below him with a Javelin critical. Turn 3 (cont.): Even more RNG abuse. Vanessa critical-kills the boss with the Iron Lance. She levels up too, gaining HP, Str, Skl, Spd, but I don't have a screenshot. Turn 3 (cont.): Gilliam visits the village for an Elixir. Moulder heals Eirika the HP she got from her level up. Seth RNG abuses before moving onto the forest east of Franz. Enemy Turn 3: The remaining bandit on the mountain attacks Vanessa, hitting her for the first time, and gets killed by the ensuing critical. It is important she got the Str during her last level up, or he would have survived! The remaining reinforcment charges Seth and gets slaughtered by his Steel Sword. Seth gets a poor level up, which I don't have a screenshot of here. Garcia and Ross finish off the enemy archer for victory! We end the chapter with the following stats: Name: Lv.XP HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES Seth: 2.02 31 14 13 12 14 12 8 Eirika: 2.12 17 5 9 10 6 4 1 Franz: 2.41 21 8 6 8 2 6 1 Gilliam: 4.39 BASE Vanessa: 2.84 18 6 8 12 4 6 5 Moulder: 3.22 BASE (Hmm... despite resizing the images on my PC, I can't seem to make them any bigger in the post... help?)

Although at this point it probably seems like I'm doing too many different playthroughs simultaneously, I've watched some of GeneralHorace's 66 Turn LTC of this game and successfully managed to improve his Chapter 2 from a 4-turn to a 3-turn via extensive RNG manipulation (combined with strategy; it was not at all trivial to 3-turn the chapter, even with control of the RNG). I would be happy to post my strategy for the chapter if anyone is interested and will attempt to get videos of the rest of the challenge up.

With no one responding, it feels like I'm talking to myself... Anyway, I've figure out a battle plan for Chapter 8, though I'm not sure I'll be motivated to do it today. Nils dances for 70 free exp. Dorcas rushes at the mages by the village for at least 100 cheap exp. Lance users (Kent, Florina) + Lyn mop up most of the level. Sain gets the boss kill and anything else I can afford. Magic is too expensive, so I can't use Erk/Lucius. Serra probably won't be healing, of course, since that will save money (if I have some left over, I will be glad to have her heal though)

Wait, how can you RNG abuse in FE9?

Haven't played at all today yet, but Chapter 8 looks like it might be a little bit tricky; I need to get 500 exp w/ only 360 gil worth of weapon use. Anyone have any good strategies they would like to suggest? I suppose I am probably going to have to bring out the underleveled characters (Dorcas, Erk) to reach this target...

Would you recommend recruiting Marcia at all, then? I'm not too familiar with the LTC strategies for PoR/RD, so I'm not sure how to best distribute resources. Also, is the reason for transferring Jill just so she survives Chapter 1-6 (the one where she is an NPC, if I remember the numbers correctly)? Or is it that you really need the increases in HP/Str/Spd?Def/etc elsewhere? Because I imagine if it wasn't 1-6, then you could simply BEXP her a bit to get her stats up, no? EDIT: 3-turning Chapter 2 appears to still be out of reach, although I would only need to rig three criticals for it to work (one from Oscar or Boyd, 2 from Ike)... so I guess this puts the expected number of resets to roughly 50*25*25*5~150,000 (the last factor to account for Ike getting KOed)... which is not quite out of reach, although still... If I manage to achieve this, I'll probably (backup the save!) try to go for just a straight up FE9 HM LTC with it before I work on this combined challenge.

OK, so assuming I didn't screw up with any of calcluations, Chapter 7x and the hardest part of the Lyn Mode preparations is over. I tooks 22 turns on the Chapter, which puts me back even with the Tactics rank, and my stats are as follows: Name: Lv.XP HP STR/MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES Lyn: 5.43 20 7 9 13 9 3 1 Sain: 10.56 28 16 7 15 6 10 2 Kent: 5.01 23 10 7 10 3 6 2 Florina: 5.45 20 9 8 13 9 6 6 Wil: 3.17 20 7 6 6 6 6 0 Dorcas: 3.00 BASE Erk: 1.74 BASE Serra: 3.09 19 4 6 10 8 2 6 Rath: 7.13 BASE Matthew: 4.84 20 6 5 13 2 4 1 Nils: 4.26 17 1 0 14 13 8 7 Lucius 3.00 BASE I'm allowed 7+8+12=27 turns on the remaining Chapters, so Nils should hit level 7 without much trouble (dance every turn, plus get hit by a few more enemies). Surprisingly, my Combat Rank is still intact after that mess of a chapter (85/196=.433>.4), so it looks like I'm good to go! It looks like Sain will promote at level 12 or so, which with his current stats looks to be fine. Hopefully, everything will be smooth sailing until HHM begins.

Finally, someone who knows what they are talking about! Mia is clearly the sexiest, cutest, most delicious lady in Tellius.

I'm still not really attempting this challenge yet (busy with tedious Lyn Mode stuff in FE7... sigh), but I loaded up my treasured Hard Mode completed prologue save with Ike having obtained a perfect level (you can imagine my exuberance when that happened) and had ridiculous, godly luck on the first chapter! Obviously, I got the 2 turn, but Ike also criticaled on Enemy Turn 1, causing him to gain another level, in which he got a 7-stat up, with only Magic missing! (I also grabbed both the Steel Sword and Seraph Robe) So I've got an extremely RNG blessed Ike, which might have the potential to 3-turn Chapter 2! I'm excited to see what happens. I believe Chiki also has the record for FE9 HM at 112 turns. I'll take that as my par for the first half I guess. Anyway, as excited as I am about this, I'll have to leave it for another day. Just finished clearing the annoying Gaiden chapter in Lyn Mode!

For anyone who is interested, I actually now believe that my original goal of 58/60 stars may be possible. The trick here will be to train Nils up on the level where we already perform badly; Chapter 7x. Since the funds rank cannot be achieved here, we are guaranteed to lose at least 1 star in this chapter, and this thus proves the ideal opportunity to have Nils sit around and get attacked by enemies. Let me explain further. Leveling up Nils at the expense of the Tactics rank should obviously be done in 1 chapter to minimize damage, and will cost at least 2 stars from the chapter where it is done. If done in a chapter different from 7x (usually 10), this automatically costs us at least 3 stars. However, if both losses are combined in a sinlge chapter, it only counts as a 2 star loss. In addition, we must also account for the Combat rank, which will inevitably go down due to all of the battles that Nils will take part in. However, as long as this doesn't go below 2 stars (15% of battles end in victory) for the chapter, we will still suffer a net loss of only 2 stars for the chapter. Since Nils' levels take care of the Experience Rank (more or less), this provides a perfect opportunity to have Sain run around the map ORKOing stuff (with Matthew tagging along for the steals and chests). Of course, I will have to TA this level, since I need the enemies to consistenly miss Nils, since I can't afford to damage my Funds rank further by bringing Serra along to heal. Wish me luck! See http://serenesforest.net/blazing-sword/miscellaneous/rankings/tables for more information regarding the calculations done here.

After much planning, I've finally cleared Chapters 6 and 7. I took 4 turns on each, which is much longer than the best possible times (3 turns and 2 turns, respectively), but necessary to get the experience I need. Actually, I found a 3 turn strategy for Chapter 6 that met all the requirements, but I was not able to distribute the EXP as I liked, and I decided to take my 4 turn instead since I liked the levels I got better. Anyway, here are my stats: 15 turns ahead of Tactics Rank Name: Lv.XP HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES Lyn: 5.25 20 7 9 13 9 3 1 Sain: 9.06 27 15 7 14 5 9 2 Kent: 4.69 23 9 7 10 3 5 1 Florina: 5.25 20 9 8 13 9 6 6 Wil: 3.17 20 7 6 6 6 6 0 Dorcas: 3.00 BASE Erk: 1.74 BASE Serra: 2.32 18 3 5 9 7 2 5 Rath: 7.13 BASE Matthew: 4.06 20 6 5 13 2 4 1 Nils: 1.43 BASE Lucius 3.00 BASE As always, let me know if you have any thoughts! I appreciate the feedback!

No, I'm thinking a single person challenge. What do you think a reasonable target is... <275?

I had a thought today that it might be interesting to try out a (hard mode, of course) combined LTC of PoR and RD, where the transfers from the first game carry over to the second, and any unit that dies in the first game cannot be used in the second. Due to the fact that I am currently occupied by a FE7 challenge, I can't work on this right now, but what do you guys think? Does it sound fun/interesting/challenging?

Now that I have cleared Chapter 5, I figured it might be a good time to post a progress report (using Balcerzak's nice template): Name: Lv.XP HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES Lyn: 4.89 19 6 8 12 8 3 0 Sain: 7.57 25 13 7 12 5 8 1 Kent: 4.41 23 9 7 10 3 5 1 Florina: 4.31 20 8 8 12 8 5 5 Wil: 2.60 BASE Dorcas: 3.00 BASE Erk: 1.43 BASE Serra: 1.33 BASE I'm also 10 Turns ahead of the Tactics Rank. What do you guys think? Perhaps I should also state that I remembered to buy Javelins this time (embarassingly enough, I forgot on my initial attempt, and this was the real reason for my restart... it has been a while since I last played this game)

Yeah, you're correct. I followed Vykan12's run for the first couple of chapters. I strayed after that, though, because I rushed Sain to Level 8 in the next two chapters. Edit: Well I'm not doing it as a TAS, just a TA lol. Edit 2: Actually, I'm thinking of re-running from Chapter 3, since I would like to save a few more turns for Nils to make life easier.

Sorry, I meant before the end of Chapter 9. I don't just want to S-rank Lyn Mode, but grab 58/60 stars too (with Nils at lv 7).

Hey guys, I'm new to this forum (as a contributor anyway) but certainly not new to Fire Emblem! I've completed S-ranked runs of HHM several times, but one challenge I have always wanted to undertake was a Max Tacticians Stars S-Rank. I haven't been able to find anyone who has done something like this online, so I decided to attempt this myself! I am currently in the middle of a tool assisted run on LHM, where I am attempting to get 58/60 stars while getting Nils to level 7. I am only using TA because it is required; I hope to not do so for HHM (which I consider to be the actual challenge, this just being the preparation). In terms of preparation, I am aiming to get Sain promoted (which I have to do before the end of chapter 9) and train up Florina and Matthew (and of course Serra/Nils). I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this challenge and any advice you may have to offer. Let me know what you guys think! Edit: Now with links to all of the completed chapters so far: [spoiler=HHM - second attempt] Chapter 11 (6 turns) Chapter 12 (4 turns) Chapter 13 (5 turns) Chapter 13x (8 turns) Chapter 14 (4 turns) Chapter 15 (8 turns) Chapter 16 (4 turns) [spoiler=LHM - 78 turns] Prologue (5 turns) Chapter 1 (4 turns) Chapter 2 (4 turns) Chapter 3 (3 turns) Chapter 4 (8 turns) Chapter 5 (3 turns) Chapter 6 (3 turns) Chapter 7 (6 turns) Chapter 7x (19 turns) Chapter 8 (6 turns) Chapter 9 (7 turns) Chapter 10 (10 turns) [spoiler=LHM - 79 turns] Prologue (5 turns) Chapter 1 (4 turns) Chapter 2 (4 turns) Chapter 3 (3 turns) Chapter 4 (8 turns) Chapter 5 (3 turns) Chapter 6 (3 turns) Chapter 7 (3 turns) Chapter 7 (6 turns) Chapter 7x (16 turns) Chapter 8 (7 turns) Chapter 9 (8 turns) Chapter 10 (12 turns) [spoiler=HHM initial attempt (unfinished)] Chapter 10 Chapter 11 (watch MoogleBoss's video) Chapter 12 (slightly outdated) Chapter 13 Chapter 13x (missing) Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 17x