GaleforceAbuse

Just finished this hack, and wanted to give my opinions, most of which will focus on gameplay. I did quite enjoy it for the most part. So, the story is more-or-less fine, though we don't really get to see much of that merchant country or the country ruled by warlords. That last part is pretty disappointing since a lot of Ava's backstory (and the game's backstory) is tied to it. There are also some typos throughout, and the prose is a little...beige?...for my liking. Vance's issues with his father are also a little too dramatic for my liking and repeated for too long. I was kind of on dad's side just because of how over-the-top Vance was. The gameplay, was, honestly, a little more of a mixed bag, though there were some interesting ideas. First, while the two Gaiden chapters that you play as generic units (with a couple of characters you can recruit later) were interesting in theory, the gameplay was not in practice. The characters that are actually recruitable in those chapters don't gain exp (at least they didn't for me, even after going into combat), meaning anything they do in those chapters is pointless. In addition, their inventories don't seem to carry over to when they're actually recruited, so there is no point to actually trying to explore the map or go into combat. Having the generic unit deaths count against your survival ranking is also annoying, though that is understandably a technical issue. But because nothing that happens in gameplay in these chapters matters, there really doesn't feel like there's a point in playing them. The chapter with Kraval and Yorlu is especially egregious, since all you have to do is form a two-tile chokepoint with an unarmed Kraval and that Duke Knight captain and mash End Turn (while healing occasionally.) Maybe include a secondary objective that gets you something nifty later on (though you'd have to buff the generics, since otherwise, they can't contribute meaningfully.) That ties into the second comment, which is that the chapters in which you also get some generic blue units feels...unnecessary (the generic units that is.) They die way too easily and tank your survival ranking, and your units are generally more than good enough. If you got some more cavaliers or fliers, that would be at least interesting for rescue shenanigans. My biggest complaint would have to be the chapters in which you used generics. Third, enemies really do give WAY too much exp and way too many of them spawn. This is made worse by the fact that most of them are not offensively threatening (except for the ones you're not supposed to fight) but are way too bulky. I played through the hack a second time, this time rigging level ups. Even with capped ATK/SPD, you're not typically one-rounding without some limited use weaponry. But there are a ton of enemies, and they're not really very strong offensively, so it just becomes a slog (and with a bunch of rout chapters, your units get a ton of exp.) Fourth, there aren't many tactically fun tools to use. You get like one sleep/silence staff, and some physics/fortifies. Unless I missed them, I don't think you get any warps/rescues, and you get like one/two siege tomes. I do like that we got buyable longbows for a good portion of the game, but some more warps/rescues/siege tomes would have be nice (and since most maps are rout, they don't completely trivialize them.) Finally, there should probably be a few more master seals. There are like two-to-three units you can't promote, and there aren't even secret shops. So, yes, I definitely enjoyed the hack and can definitely see the work that was put in. I really enjoyed the passive boost items you could hold, but they do come a bit late. A few chapters could also be improved by not making them rout.

What are you talking about? Running through the mass duel simulator, if she initiates with LB+, Moonbow, TA3, QR3, and Threaten Res (+ATK, -HP), she gets like 80 wins even if all enemies are given Fury (74 wins if everything's neutral). If the enemy initiates (with Fury), she gets 91 wins and 30 losses (which are, of course, almost all against greens ==> realistically speaking, you'll also never see half of those greens.) And Nowi tanks all reds (barring Falchions and like full-buffed Leo) without breaking QR, but she can just initiate on those while taking single digit or even no damage. Edit: Sorry, misread the last part. She can easily tank a red and still have QR up to take out another unit though. Still highly splashable glue. She doesn't really need to do much more. You can have her just sitting there repositioning people or using Reciprocal Aid or something.

Come on. There are four reds that can actually do noticeable damage to Nowi, and none of them are common anymore. She OHKO's them on the initiation (except for Alm, surprisingly enough, but whatever), and they require very specific set ups to actually kill her (which again, the AI will never actually accomplish.) Also, I don't know about other people, but I never even see Falchions anymore. And while Nowi has like one/two common sets (but TA and QR is better in my opinion), that set is an extremely cheap set (4* Subaki and 4* Roy, 4* Selena will also suffice) that provides a lot of general coverage. It's not that hard for her to pick off a random ranged threat with QR, then happily eat swords afterwards anyway. She's easy-to-assemble role compression, checking/countering reds while also being good ranged/non-green bait with QR. And that's all you really need her to do. She's useful glue for a team. So, yeah, wins against all reds and is very splashable. At least A+ and a reasonably strong case for S.

I think you're way, way overselling the L&D Lucina thing. If you're using Nowi on offense, no enemies should ever have Desperation up anyway (especially one as frail as L and D Lucina.) No one uses Falchion people on their defense teams anymore (if anyone does use a sword that's not part of a horse/flier/armour emblem team, it's almost guaranteed to be Ryoma/Ike. At least, that's what I'm seeing in tier 18.) I do think the wiki overrates her (A+ sounds good for her, honestly), but she's a solid swiss army knife. (Granted, Nowi's not great on defense (but honestly, nowadays, no one who isn't a powerful ranged unit or like an armoured unit stacked to the nines with ward armour is.) I think she's more or less a better Hector (though if you're at the very top of the arena, he's better by virtue of higher BST, which matters at that level.) Speaking of which, I cannot wait until we have crap like ward dragons.

For Bride!Cordelia, is +ATK/-HP or +SPD/-RES better for a Brave Bow/LaD build? I'm personally leaning towards the +ATK, but the -HP means that she absolutely cannot take a hit (33 HP and 14 DEF is awful) and has to rely on Reciprocal Aid/Ardent Sacrifice to get into Desperation range. I could run a breaker in place of desperation, but there's not much she really needs on that front (DC units she doesn't kill in two hits will generally kill her back; Swordbreaker doesn't really help since they generally OHKO her, etc.) Might as well take the Desperation (if using +ATK) and pair it with some hone speed. Looking at matchups (neutral IVs/with Fury/with +SPD/with both/with DC), it seems like ATK is generally better (except against DC units, but you can play around that with Threaten Defense, for example.) Still, any other advice/considerations?

I think a lot of people were hyping up Wrathful Staff because of the meme potential, but I do think Elise can be fairly good with Wrathful Staff. Hmm, I think her best set might be something like [+SPD, -RES] with Assault/Fear/Absorb/Slow, Rehabilitate, Imbue/Balm, ATK/DEF +2 or Distant Defense 3, Wrathful Staff, and Cav buff with an HP +3 Seal. That'll at least protect her from most Distant Counter OHKOs, and she gets excellent Speed and solid Attack.

I dunno if it's that good. Close Counter means she'll have to forgo ATK +3, so only 46 Atk. 42 SPD is pretty good, but there are a lot of meta threats that she won't be able to double (or do that much damage to.) She'll still only have 30 HP (33 if we include the seal) and 24 Def. And parking her on a fort in quite a few maps exposes her to multiple attacks potentially. If you're just trying to attack with Absorb, her first hit won't heal her since she'll be at full health (and if she kills someone on the second hit, you'll only get healed based on the amount of HP they had left.)

I'm fairly certain that Elise is the only one who is worth using Wrathful Staff on (maybe Priscilla, but she's flat out worse than Elise), and only on a Horse Emblem team. 32 ATK + 3 from ATK+3 + 10 from Goad/Hone + 10 Assault = 55 Atk and 42 Spd that isn't mitigated by anything except forts and -Raven tomes. With a +1 Atk seal, she can actually one-round a neutral Julia that's not on a fort. Probably still worse than just adding another -blade mage to your team, but not by too much. Unfortunately, her inability to use stuff like Desperation, Fury, or LoD means that she does have to be very careful of physical Distant Counter units, since her attack isn't quite high enough to one-shot but her physical durability does get her one-shot.

Ah, okay. Thanks!

Sorry for the repeated post (mods, please let me know if this is against the rules), but I didn't get an answer for my previous question. I have a +SPD/-DEF Linde and a few other Lindes (one of whom is +ATK/-HP.) I was going to do a Blarblade + build for the +SPD one and a Wings of Mercy/Breath of Life Aura healer for the +ATK one. But, I don't know if I really need to keep them separate. Would it be a better idea to just merge everyone into +SPD Linde after SP training, or should I keep the Blarblade + one and healer one separate? The higher merge level would be great for the Arena, but maybe having two Lindes could be annoying on a defense team, possibly? But, I guess I could just use the singular higher-merge Linde on a defense team and just swap skills around as necessary? Thanks.

Is there a particular reason for renaming the -foe skills? The original names made it very clear what they did at a glance, but that's lost with the new names.

I think the wiki has a page on how stat growths work. Non-HP stats at like 24/25/26 often get a +4 boon. I recall a lot of stats that are at like 17-19 getting -4 for a bane. 38/39/40 HP often gets a -4 bane too.

I'd probably go Moonbow. 4 charge on bonfire is just so slow.

There have been numerous EXP boost events. You have stamina potions. Reroll each stratum until you get colour-favourable units. My god, 3 stars can gain EXP from units like 10 levels below them. You never have to leave the hard strata.

Then follow the strategy shown in those videos exactly. And what's worse? Failing to complete a challenge and complaining about it or doing something different and completing it? Beating a challenge with weaker units or fewer resources is typically considered a sign of skill.