Garrett

Chapters 8, 9 and 10 were a breeze. Nothing much to report; Azura's singing has increased her level really high and I've got lucky with a few Defence and Resistance growths, I've promoted Corrin, and Haitaka's well above the level-curve as well. The gold from skirmishes and event tiles, coupled with what I already had squirrelled away, allowed me to recruit Daniela at the end of Chapter 8. The 10,000 gold from Chapter 9 allowed me to buy Kumagera as well, so I've recruited all the logbook Bosses allowed by my cousin. Chapter 10 was notable solely for the items dropped. Nearly lost Haitaka to a rush of mages, but that was more from me being cocky than anything else. Chapter 11 was difficult solely in the first three turns. The trick was dealing with whatever enemies could reach Orochi. She would die in a single round of combat on Lunatic outside a miraculous dodge on her part, so I had to strike out early and kill the threats without exposing myself too much on the Enemy Phase. Using a limited number of units made this more difficult than it would usually be. Managed this by equipping Daniela with a Calamity Gate to combat the attacking Ninja and buffing her with Rally Defence; even with this she was brought close to death, but I scraped by. Managed to baby Orochi through Chapter 11 as well, and she came out at level 11 and quite close to C rank in tomes. With Chapter 11 done I've also recruited Orochi, so I can finally start grinding supports amongst the main cast the same way I did on my Conquest run on the EXP map -- so as not to farm gold -- to unlock the paralogues. I'll be able to add Candace and Funke, both of whom are Adventurers, and Llewelyn and Lloyd, both of whom are Berserkers. I notice a lot of axe-wielding glass cannons in my future. Going to tackle Kana's Paralouge next to nab the twins, hopefully netting Orochi a few more levels in the process.

Finished work earlier than expected, so I picked up this file again and decided to run through two of the early Paralogues I've unlocked. Mozu and Shigure, if you're wondering. Mozu's was a complete cake-walk. I usually try to feed her a few levels, which makes it harder than it needs to be at times, but this time that wasn't an issue since she wouldn't be used again. Corrin was also a Sky Knight with Shelter; all I had to do was fly him clear of the Faceless and pick her up. Haitaka was fit to easily deal with the Faceless near the starting position. Any damage he did take was addressed by Azura's personal Skill. Shigure's Paralogue was more interesting. The shifting boat mechanic is what ultimately allowed me to complete this map using only three characters, and without a dedicated healer. Actually surprised I managed it with only three units! Corrin was close to levelling up, so I went in with a Heart Seal equipped and waited until he levelled up once as a Sky Knight. With that accomplished it was back to Nohr Noble and sword usage to counter the assortment of axe-wielding enemies. This chapter, even as early as Chapter 8, throws a lot of Berserkers and Sorcerers at you. The upside of this? Lots of experience! I was fairly lucky and got an Umbrella as a gift weapon between my earlier skirmishes, so I gave that to Corrin, whilst Haitaka got my Dual Naginata. Corrin ended up maxing his level at 20 against the promoted units and Haitaka came out at 15. There was a lot of moving about; using the shifting boats to my advantage, and no small amount of controlled retreating. But I managed it first time!

So, Chapter 7 was actually quite interesting from a tactical standpoint. If I hadn't mucked about with classes, though, it would have been fairly straightforward. But I got cocky. Usually you'd have either Jakob or Felicia to serve as a healer at this stage, but since I'm not using them -- or generics from the logbook -- my sole source of healing at the minute outside healing items happens to be Azura's personal Skill, which restores 10% of max HP. I also happen to only have Corrin, Azura and Haitaka as deployable units. I also made what I thought was a good decision, which was making Corrin a Sky Knight, but this ultimately made things far harder than they needed to be. You see, I ran through whatever Skirmish maps I was given -- something completely unavailable in Conquest, and something my cousin had also forgotten about. When I asked him how this fell for the rules he told me to "tear on, they're like DLC", so I'll use abuse them maliciously.😈 Gold allowing, of course. From these Skirmishes, I got perhaps the best luck ever -- lots of gold from Event tiles and drops, and a Heart Seal for good measure. Corrin learned Elbow Room and Shelter during these battles' courtesy of the Heart Seal, and I used the extra gold to buy a Partner Seal. Since he's S-ranked Azura already -- Trust Seed and Pair-Up abuse -- I was able to shift him into Sky Knight to begin pushing for Darting Blow and Camaraderie as soon as he learned the Cavalier Skills. Haven't got the latter Sky Knight class Skill yet but it's a 10% HP recovery which rises to 20% with Azura nearby. It'll do until I can recruit Daniela. Why is this bad, though? The plethora of archers and a fog of war mechanic I'd completely forgotten about! Corrin can't survive a round with archers yet, and Azura is famously squishy. So I was forced to push forward slowly with Haitaka in the lead. This was alleviated somewhat when I got Gunter -- he provided Haitaka with +4 Defence in a Pair-Up, which was as good as a Rally Defence. Once that was in place Haitaka, whose weapon rank with Spears is B, hefted his Guard Naginata and wrecked some shit. I haven't played Revelations in a donkey's age and this battle showed it. Still, thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was a pretty fun run. Here's the topic, if you want to give it a read. (link) Fair warning though, wall of text incoming if you choose to. I tend to waffle a little 😛 Yeah, I found the Dawn Brigade in general to be a little lacking. That said, they're compared against the Greil Mercenaries most of the time, and against those guys most groups in Fire Emblem games would be lacking. Anyway, if you're playing on normal, abuse the Battle Save feature. Micaiah's biggest failing is her Speed stat. Battle Save, kill bad guy, level up. No Speed, reset and rinse. Or use Bonus Experience. If I remember right, Bonus Experience boosts 3 stats at random. You might squeeze a few extra Speed out of her that way. Have fun!

Congratulations! Conquest Lunatic is no walk in the park; some Chapters really test your decision-making, and can stretch your resources to the limit. I did a recent Lunatic run of Conquest myself using only the MC, Azura, Niles and an army of kidnapped generics and Boss units that I posted on this board. It was great fun. Radiant Dawn is towards the top of my favourite Fire Emblem titles. If you did get it, hope you had fun with it!

Hey there, everyone! I'm back, fresh from a bracing experience with Fire Emblem: Awakening Lunatic, with a new Fire Emblem: Fates run courtesy of my cousin opening his mouth and proposing a challenge: Complete Revelation using the Captured bosses, in similar fashion to what I did on my last Lunatic Conquest run (topic here). He read through my report and laid down the gauntlet: "If they're as good as you claim, do it without generics like Kento and Ren," he said. *Sigh* I hate my cousin sometimes. So, what are the rules, 'cause there's no way he'd let me do a run like this without imposing a few restrictions on me. That said, he did allow some pros, but l'll get to them in a second. Here they are: Lunatic difficulty. I can't play the lower difficulties any more. Male Corrin & Azura pairing, with Corrin having Cavalier as his Secondary class. Why Cavalier? He'll be the only one capable of using the Shelter Skill, and Aegis is always nice to have. I found the Shelter Skill very useful in the earlier Conquest maps, especially when I was forced to deploy small numbers. Orochi will serve as my kidnapping unit because she has the benefit of being available earlier than Niles -- Chapter 11 vs. Chapter 17. If there's no Boss to capture in a specific map, she won't be deployed. Plus side -- she's a decent Mage. Downside? She'll get her levels solely from her recruitment chapter and Paralogues. Also, piss-poor Speed. *Ugh* If a main-story unit joins mid-level -- a good example being Gunter in Chapter 7 -- I'll use them for that Chapter. Once complete, they'll see use in DLC maps to build supports for the purpose of Paralogues. More-or-less the same as what I did in my Conquest run, so nothing new here. No generics -- so that means no handy Rally whatevers from Kento, and no Shuriken breaker Mizuki either. Conquest & Birthright exclusive Bosses allowed -- Hello Haitaka, hello Kumagera. Hello Daniela from Birthright too, so at least I'll have a competent Magic user. All three recruited via Logbook. NOTE: I raised the money for this by buying Kazuma from my Logbook, who was a Samurai I recruited on Conquest with Quick Draw. He then did the money DLC, so I avoided levelling Corrin and Azura. When I was finished I left myself with the starting amount of Gold: 5000. DLC, Battle Rewards, and Visit Rewards allowed. Daniela will likely be my Great Lord because I imagine Azura will have her Skill tree filled already. So, now that I've outlined the run, here are the characters I'll be using. Courtesy of Orochi being unavailable until Chapter 11 is completed I'll be working with a very limited roster of characters. In fact, I'll have only 5 characters for much of the early run. Oh, yay! Candace, Chapter 12. She's a Nohrian Adventurer with a quirky battle model. What makes it quirky? Its unique -- as such, she can't change classes. The only Skills she'll net at all are innate or granted via DLC. That said, I used her in my Conquest run, and she was actually useful on account of her weapon and staff ranks and high Strength. Daichi, Chapter 14. He's a Hoshidan Basara with no unique Skills outside his innate list. Poor Magic to boot. Might salvage him as a Grandmaster; time will tell. Daniela, Logbook. She's the only unit in the entirety of Birthright who comes with a unique Skill outside her innate listing, and that is Savage Blow. Given how I abused this particular Skill on my Conquest run, I'm happy with this development. Daniela will more than likely be my Great Lord as well. Charm would stack nicely with Inspiration. She may be an option for Witch too; the boost to Magic growth would be nice. Funke, Chapter 12. Another Nohrian Adventurer. The only way I see to help this guys poor growth rates is to turn him into a Dread Fighter and pray. Not sure if its worth a Dread Scroll though. More than likely he'll turn into a Speed-boosting Pair-Up mule. Gazak, Chapter 18. I'd be excited if he didn't come so bloody late! Chapter 16 and 17 are already looking like a pain in my rear end. Still, once I get him, he'll wreck things. The Nohrian Berseker with the fugly mug was one of most consistent performers on my Conquest run, and I doubt that'll change. Haitaka, Logbook. You have no idea how relieved I was when my cousin told me he'd let me use the Bosses usually restricted to specific routes, as this meant Haitaka was available to me. I can't say anything bad about Haitaka. On my last Conquest run he was the lynchpin of so many early chapters I may as well have called the game Haitaka Emblem. And when the others started coming into their own and I could drop Rally Defence, he absolutely wrecked things with Rend Heaven. Kumagera, Logbook. MY TANK! This guy, like Haitaka, was one of my key players in my last Conquest run. So happy I can use him for this run. Llewelyn, Chapter 12. Looking at his stats and growths, he'll be a glass cannon. Hero will probably be his best class. Unless I go Vanguard? Choices, choices. Lloyd, Chapter 12. He's got better Strength and Speed growths than his brother, but even worse Defensive growths. Still, he might squeak by as a Hero. Nichol, Chapter 15. Nichol was the standout of my Conquest run; hands down, no question. He killed everything I needed him to, he had great mobility, and amazing utility. He was the main component of many of my strategies. That said, it was Kento (Rallyman) and Nanoha (Rally Magic + Luck) who really allowed him to shine. Without those boosts I'll likely have to temper my expectations a little. He'll mirror my Conquest Nichol -- he'll finish as a Trample-equipped Dark Falcon, though I may mix in Grandmaster this time for Ignis. Time will tell. Senno, Chapter 18. He comes so late, and offers so little, I'm not even sure I'll bother. Seal Magic and Lucky Seven are unique to him on Lunatic, sure, but at best I see him as a gold battery. Tarba, Chapter 18. Again, he comes very late. Unlike Gazak he has none of the latter's unique Skills. Still, he has great growths in key areas. Not sure what way I'll work his class, to be honest. He has potential in a few places. Zhara, Chapter 18. Another great unit who comes to the party late. Zhara was my Lodestar in Conquest and finished his journey as a Vanguard. He comes with innate Sol, Countermagic, and Pass on Lunatic. Sol turned him into an HP battery, Charm aided the other units, and Pass lot him knock gaps in defensive lines. And that's it, folks. As of the writing of this I'm right at the start of the run, ready to tackle Chapter 7. I imagine the biggest challenge in the early game will be my lack of units; once I start filling in the roster, things will be easier.

So, as promised I went back to my older save file and did Chapter 25 conventionally, after I got home from work. Surprised myself, actually. Did it on the second try, with the first attempt getting about 10 turns in. Kireina was still buffed to high heaven, as the file was created just prior to the run where she successfully beat old Ryoma solo. Had a few healing items in the convoy just encase and for good measure I parked Nanoha nearby with Sakura's Rod equipped to heal through the wall if it were at all needed -- it was my sole 2-range healing staff without wasting Psychic uses, and it was perfectly acceptable considering how little damage Ryoma was doing. Swapped my Mess Hall bonuses to focus on Magic and Speed, rather than Speed and Defence, as soloing Ryoma was no longer the goal. Fed Mizuki and Nichol a Magic and Speed Tonic apiece. Anyway, Mizuki and Nichol were the absolute stand-outs. Gazak, as usual, melted things. Those Master of Arms didn't stand a chance, either against him, Zhara, or Haitaka. Even as an Attack Stance Pair-Up, the guy hit critical hits like it were going out of fashion. And the Swordmasters couldn't stand against his Dual Club. I did make one key change to Nichol however for this Chapter. I dropped his Strength + 2 in favour of Rally Movement. Since he needed Azura to Sing for a Speed boost anyway, using Rally Movement was a net gain on the others, and it was a better use of his time than simply waiting and doing nothing. Made rushing the opening areas far easier. Give Gazak Rally Movement and Candace as a Pair-Up, and he suddenly had +2 movement. Add Kento with his own Rally assortment and it was actually disgusting. Chapter 26 coloured my thinking here; Kento Rallied up Nichol, he broke out and killed something, and then retreated to safety courtesy of Galeforce. A lot of the enemies had overlapping attack range, which is the original reason I said "screw it" when I first attempted it and took the easy way out. Nichol was max level even at this point; I'd used the guy more than anyone, courtesy of his high mobility and great stats, so the things he killed easily on Chapter 26 died even easier on Chapter 25. I had two Calamity Gates -- one from Paralogue 20, and a second from Visitor rewards, so both Mizuki and Nichol could reap the benefits. Considering Mizuki also had Shurikenbreaker, all those lovely Ninja who litter the map were barely a consequence. Fare thee well Inevitable End, you barely bothered me. They can't lower the stats of someone they can't hit, after all. Nichol, however, needed Azura's song, his own Speed + 2, a Speed Tonic, and Kento's Rally to double the Ninja; without that, my strategy would have fell apart. And Seal Strength, Speed, Defence, whatever, can't activate if the opponent dies before the battle's end. Thus, it became a matter of killing the opponent in one round of battle. Niles and Candace saw some Freeze usage -- not enough to impact my successful 26 strategy, should I ever come back -- to ease certain parts, but it probably wasn't even needed. The entire run was more aggressive than I usually do things, but I honestly think I looked at this map, panicked, and skipped the first time because I remember having a really tough go of it on my first Lunatic run way back when.

So, my cousin asked me if I had any desire to do a similar run of Birthright on Lunatic. Although Birthright is easier than Conquest regardless of the difficulty setting, the thing that made the above run so fun for me was the unique Skills you get on characters that people simply couldn't get otherwise, which is a feature of the Capture scene on Conquest solely, it appears. So no Ren with Grisly Wound, or Mizuki with Shurikenbreaker. Let's have a quick gander at the Bosses up on offer in Birthright, and the earliest point they can be recruited. Funke: This guy's a Nohrian Adventurer. The earliest possible recruitment point for him is Chapter 8, as Orochi joins at the end of Chapter 7. The earliest availability sees him join at Level 2, with no Skills. He'll eventually learn the Outlaw Skills, and can reclass into a Bow Knight. His growths are pretty awful too: 30% in HP, Strength, Magic & Skill, 55% in Speed, 25% in Luck & Defence, and 50% in Resistance. With growths that bad I don't see him being good outside a staff bot or a Pair-Up mule. Daichi: This guy's a Basara and, quite frankly, a poor imitation of the awesome Haitaka. The earliest possible recruitment point is Chapter 13, and he comes again with no Skills. The only stats he has with a growth rate above 50% is HP at 65%; the rest sit between 30% and 50%. You might be fit to salvage him as a Grandmaster. Tarba: A Nohrian Berserker who dislikes Shiro. The earliest recruitment is Chapter 14; again, though, he comes with no unique Skills, with his only options outside DLC being his base class and his reclass. That said, he has a Strength growth of 70% and a 60% growth in Skill and Speed. He'd do one thing good and frankly that's all he would need to do. Tarba's actually got better growths than Gazak, for example; Gazak just has better Skills. Toss a Great Club on him and things would melt regardless. Daniela: The only Birthright Boss whose Captured during the main campaign and not a Paralogue, and she's also the sole Birthright unit who comes with a unique Skill. She's a Strategist who comes with Savage Blow. Given she'll eventually net herself Inspiration, I see her as a great support unit. She's also the sole Boss unit you can Capture who'd be able to become a Great Lord -- Charm stacks with Inspiration, Striker would help her in an Attack Stance -- especially if she's the first to attack a group to reap the rewards of Savage Blow -- and she can swap to Maid for Shuriken shenanigans. Flame Shuriken, or Felicia's Plate would be useful. For levelling, she looks to have pretty average growths as a Maid; RNG would be the deciding factor.

Did not know that. I haven't played Normal in a donkey's age, though. I'm repeating myself, but its one of the more enjoyable runs I've done of Fates in a while. Fully recommend you try it. This run actually branched off from my standard Lunatic run of Conquest. Everything seemed to samesy, though, and I took that one to Chapter 18 when I decided to abandon it and start this particular challenge. So glad I did too!

Agreed! Yeah, I can be a bit long-winded at times 😅 Certainly possible with fewer units. The biggest issue with the characters you're recruiting are their stats. Kazuma's a good early example -- his stats are the average on Chapter 9, but since you Persuade or Bribe him after the Chapter is completed, by the time he joins for Chapter 10 he's below the average stats of the deployed enemies, and that Chapter is a pain at the best of times. This is true across the run; only the Bosses run opposite the curve. That said, deploying only 10 units max per chapter would give everyone a better EXP pool. The avatars required, so drop that to 9. Add Niles, otherwise you won't Capture anything, so 8. Azura's pretty essential, so you're down to 7 generics. Azura won't be attacking, so you've only got 9 units to soak up all that EXP. The 7 generics will grow more powerful than the people you're capturing. One clear upgrade I noticed early without using DLC was Samurai Hiromi (Lunge, Armoured Blow) on Chapter 11 and Hero Roland (Armoured Blow) on Chapter 15. You can definitely grow attached to the main cast. My favourites are on Birthright route, but the more you use the generics, and the more they surprise you, you realize quickly that you wouldn't mind using them again. I'd use Nichol, Zhara, Mumagera, and Haitaka in a heartbeat. I'd also grab Mizuki and Kento again and deploy them, no problem.

Laptop died, and I lost my big write-up. Ugh. Now for the re-write! Anyways, Endgame is done and dusted! Komachi set up the Rescue chain and a combination of Kireina weakening Takumi -- she left him with 3 HP -- and a Warping Ren did for Takumi. I have no desire to do that Chapter normally. It forces you to play aggressively and that goes opposite my preferred play-style to start with, so I'm happily content with ending the run on that note. That said, I'm going to list the units I used throughout, including the benched ones and the two unfortunate deaths, for anyone whose curious. Wall of text incoming! * = Standout unit. Kazuma: Ah, my first recruit. I did Chapter 10 using only Kireina, Niles, Nyx and Azura, so the fact I managed to Capture anyone was a triumph in my book. Kazuma came with 10 Strength and 14 Speed, with innate access to Quick Draw. I sunk two levels into him to learn his class Skills and then transitioned him into a Vanguard. This beefed his physical Defence, Heavy Blade further increased his Player Phase damage, and Veteran's Intuition patched his shaky Luck, all for little investment. He was my first recruit and my first death. Kazuma died on Forrest's Paralogue alongside Akihiro, and he went out like a trooper. Plugged the corridor to block reinforcements who took me by surprise, and without his sacrifice Azura and Nanoha were up on offer in classic silver platter style. Kind of ironic, in a way. I recruited him from the team trying to kill Azura once upon a time, and he went out saving her life. Haitaka *: I can't say anything bad about this guy. In the early chapters he was the absolute lynchpin of my team. Early access to Rally Defence was an absolute Godsend on Chapter 10, which I did with only Kireina, Niles, Azura, Haitaka and Kazuma prior to Camilla, Selene, and Beruka arriving to assist. He continued to carry the team throughout the run -- he was Strength and Skill blessed, and had Defence in the mid-20s by the finish. Got lucky very early on and grabbed two Hexlock spears through My Castle gifts. Forged them, and gave them to Haitaka. This left his Resistance essentially equal with his physical Defence, which helped what he could and couldn't face much more, offering me a safety net of sorts. As my team developed I was eventually fit to drop Rally Defence and go with a more offensive set. Lancefaire, Rend Heaven, Quixotic, Strong Riposte, and Veteran's Intuition. The only thing he lacked was really high Luck, which Veteran's Intuition addressed. He was strong on Player Phase, and he was strong on Enemy Phase. Solid unit, great early recruit. Would use him in a standard run in a heartbeat. Tomihiko: Lunge-equipped Oni Savage from Chapter 10. I actually turned this guy into a Grand Master, if you'd believe it. He had great Strength -- bolstered by a Heavy Blade scroll -- but his Speed was horrendous, and his Defence wasn't that much to talk about either. Still, Tactical Advice and Solidarity gave him use as an Aura user, which I was greatly lacking. Early on I really missed the likes of Camilla and Elise, whose personal Skills I've often taken for granted. Since the aforementioned Skills activate when the owner is adjacent, he saw great use as an Attack Stance ally. That said, he was benched in favour of the far more powerful Gazak. Akane: Darting Blow Sky Knight from Chapter 10. Akane saw use as a high-mobility ferrier who saw further use as a Speed Pair-Up bot. She saw deployment up until I finished the Chapter in Cheve, which saw me recruit a hardier Wyvern Knight with Quick Draw. No unique Skills, and poor stats. Still, she served a function and, at the time, a vital one. Nanoha *: Nanoha was the sole Shrine Maiden who hangs out behind Hinoka on Chapter 11. When I recruited her she had neither good bases nor any equipped Skills, was Level 10, with the only thing going for her being the fact she was a healer. That said, she definitely impressed me. Promoted her at Level 14 -- she saw two levels in her native class for the Miracle and Rally Luck Skills, then she transitioned into a Dark Flier for Relief and Speed +2. Magic blessed. Turned her into an Onmyouji as I lacked a Magical attacker at the time, and she soon learned Rally Magic. When I recruited Nichol she became his best friend, boosting two of the stats Rallyman couldn't, and I'd even go as far as to call her one of his two royal retainers. I'll explain this further later, trust me. Her Magic stayed high, her Speed was great, and her Skill wasn't too bad. She did exactly what I needed her to do, when I needed her to do it. Saw deployment in every Chapter from the moment I recruited her. Hiromi: My other recruit from Chapter 11. Hiromi was one of those Lunge-using Armoured Blow Samurai in the room immediately before Hinoka's chamber, and prior to becoming a recruit he proved to be a substantial pain in my ass. This dude almost killed Niles! That would have, like, voided the whole run. He became something of a jack-of-all-trades. Lot him learn Vantage before promoting him into a Dread Fighter. Armoured Blow allowed him to tank physical hits on the Player Phase, whilst Iron Will allowed him to tank mages on the Enemy Phase. It was Hiromi who dealt with Orochi and her mages in Cheve to great success. Although a good unit he was ultimately benched; Ren was better in every regard, with unique Skills that Hiromi simply couldn't compare with. They deployed together for a short time, but that sold it in the end. Ren was better, no comparison. If he were a Pokemon then Ren would be Hiromi's evolution. Akihiro: Diviner from Cheve who comes equipped with the unique Malefic Aura. I was really excited about Akihiro, I will admit, and I was inevitably let down by him at the same time. I talked about this before in a prior post, but Fates has few really solid Magical units. It isn't like Awakening where mages rule. Akihiro was an offensively-focused Magical unit, which was something I lacked at the time of his recruitment, and didn't really get until my Kireina started getting Magic grwoths, and Nichol grew into his role. Sadly, even with Magic +2, he lacked in Magic growths, and he became a unit used more for his Aura than his offensive prowess. I fielded him during Forrest's Paralogue with the intention of benching him afterwards, but rather than live to see retirement he went out in a blaze of glory! I got ambushed by reinforcements, and Azura and Nanoha were up on offer; my other, hardier units were a turn away, and my supporters wouldn't survive the Enemy Phase. Akihiro, alongside Kazuma, plugged the corridor and bought that turn I needed with their life's blood. He was a poor unit whose end was glorious! He's earned a spot in my Logbook for that act alone however, and this post stands as testament to his deeds. Otto: A Wyvern Rider from Cheve recruited alongside Akihiro. He came with Quick Draw and replaced Akane. That said, he saw deployment in exactly one Chapter thanks to a certain unit called Andreas. We'll get to him later. Otto, however, packed a punch, and had great mobility, which made him a better Akane. Punch and mobiluty I lacked in one package at the time of his recruitment, so he was welcome, even if it were only for a single Chapter. This was where I started doing some Paralogue quests in earnest. Built up the main cast in the EXP DLC -- Kaze's weapon Skills in particular so I'd get the Spy's Shuriken down the road in Chapter 26 -- in order to unlock the Paralogues. No generics, standard or Boss, were used in those EXP runs. As soon as I got S rank supports, I moved on. The first Paralogue was Sophie's chapter. I paired Silas with Beruka, because why not? Andreas *: This guy was a Level 1 Wyvern Lord found in Sophie's Paralogue, and he came along with base stats comparable to Xander! Yeah, Xander. A whole two story Chapters before I recruited said Nohrian prince. No unique Skills, but with bases like he had, I wasn't complaining. All he lacked that Xander had was Luck, which a Veteran's Intuition scroll fixed. This guy came exactly when I needed him. His base stats, weapon ranks, and mobility saw me through the next couple of Paralogue Chapters. He was no Nichol -- that guy was an absolute beast, and in a league all his own -- but what he brought to the table at that point in the game was exactly what I needed: a strong, sturdy unit, who could get the job done. He also loved Azura's song. His base Speed was 15 -- a 3 point boost, even if temporary, was noticeable. He was benched, sure, but he was the only benched unit to net himself a star. Nichol **: The star of the show; Royal-class, no joke. Recruited alongside Andreas, and one of only two units who I gave two stars to. Just for shits and giggles, I'll even name his royal retainers for you: Nanoha and Mizuki. Rally Magic and Rally Luck loved Nichol. He saw time as a Wyvern Lord, Malig Knight, and Dark Falcon, with the latter as his final class. The way his stats developed left him in the mid-to-high 20s in everything but Luck. Outside fliers, almost every unit you encounter on Conquest are grounded. Trample gave him an effective +5 attack against pretty much everything regardless of what weapon he had equipped, so it became something of a combined Tome and Lancefaire in one package. Savage Blow allowed him to weaken nearby opposition which I admit to abusing maliciously, with Galeforce allowing him to retreat to safety or further weaken the opposition in preparation for a rush on Player Phase. He was the tip of my spear. And damn, that was a powerful spear! His remaining Skills were Strength +2 and Speed +2. Now, this might seem strange, as those Skills tend to fall off in effectinvess as you progress, but there's a method to the madness. Those +2 were often the difference between him doubling and not, or finishing off a unit who had Countermagic with a physical weapon, rather than using his preferred magical attacks and eating a nasty reprisal. This lot me place my Mess Hall bonuses elsewhere, which heped the entire endeavour. Also, Galeforce nesseciates no support. So he needed those boosts at key points. I'd recruit him again in any run -- he plays almost identically to Camilla, though slightly inferior, and I fed him a single Speedwing and Spirit Dust to address this. It needs to be said, though. He needs support; Nanoha, Mizuki, and Kento all came together to make Nichol awesome with various Rally whatevers. Mid-game his best weapon was a Horse Scroll. The +3 to Speed really helped his doubling, whilst a Calamity Gate late-game saw a lot of use. Chapter 26 pretty much revolved around Nichol's ability to kill, weaken, refresh, and then retreat. Those Maids with the annoying staffs didn't stand a chance, and neither did Hans. The prick. Kumagera *: My only complaint about this guy was his piss-poor Speed. Even after being the recipient of all but one of my Speedwings -- that final one went to Nichol -- he still needed the Mess Hall or Speed Tonics to be safe on Enemy Phase. On Player Phase he was an absolute ace. High critical on account of Death Blow, added Speed from Darting Blow, almost guaranteed hit rate thanks to Certain Blow, and access to both Counter and Countermagic. He was my go-to Tank and an absolute wall whenever I needed him to be. He packed a wallop too -- he maxed Strength at 35 early. Combine him with Azura, or Kento, and he was awesome. Kumagera was also one of the units who played to my preferred defensive style. He was rarely in danger, and the Counters he had thoroughly disciplined attackers. In Chapter 22, where you fight Sakura and Yukimura, I made a mistake after capturing Mizuki. Kumagera ate an Axe Breaker hit and a few other hits for by and survived! Thats what I call a Tank. Would definitely recruit him in a standard run. Candace *: This was one of the surprises of the run, to be perfectly honest. Candace was an Adventurer who can't change class on account of her unique model, has poor base Speed, but brings a solid Strength stat to the table. She's thus even more retricted than the generic units I've been recruiting, 'cause at least they have a branching promotion. Magic-wise, I think mine may have been Magic blessed; she got a Magic growth almost every level! She was a solid candidate for a Shining Bow because of this; Berserkers and Generals, whose Resistance isn't great, absolutely hated her. Her Skills are locked to the Outlaw and Adventurer, and she can only learn other Skills through DLC. Luckily, she has a B rank in staves, meaning she can double as a staff bot. Niles finished the run with only a D rank in staves, so the fact she could use most of the high-tier stuff right out of the gate was very helpful early on. She was my go-to for Freeze and Silence, for example. And she was the unit who Entrapped the rogue they send to kill Forrest during that particular Paralogue the moment you engage the enemies, and then killed him next turn for by! Slapped Heavy Blade on her which allowed her to function as an Attack Stance ally, as she could heal on the front-line whilst thoroughly admonishing attackers. She had more sturdiness than Nanoha, for example. Late-game she served as Tobias' frequant ally, as her boosts in a Pair-Up fixed his Speed, and his own Defender Skill rounded out the rest of his issues, namely Skill. Zhara *: My offensive capability leapt noticeably when I first recruited Zhara. I promoted him immediately into a Lodestar the moment he learned his remaining Mercenary Skills, and reaped the benefits of Charm and a high-speed unit. I'm a lover of these kind of units. High speed, Godly Skill, and amazing avoid. He was a blink-Tank in every sense of the word. The Guy and Lyn of my run, who lives and dies by their ability to dance around an enemies attack. Old-man Karel would have praised him both as a Sword Saint and a Sword Demon, and have his throat slit the moment he voiced it. Zhara was that good. The character who laughs at an enemies hit score of 20+, avoids their damaging attack, and turns a damage of 12 into 36 with a critical hit. And when he was eventually hit? His innate usage of Sol, coupled with a high Skill base and growth, meant he was activating it very frequently. 1 in 4 the moment I recruited him. He became an HP battery and the sole character I had who could make use of the powerful Ganglari sword, which helped against tougher opposition. There was one Chapter where he tanked an entire Enemy Phase at 1 HP, Ganglari equipped, without being hit once. Mid-game, Pass gelled well with Charm. He could pass through the front-line, kill those behind or ahead to open up holes, whilst boosting the attack of those attacking after him. His one flaw was a low Strength max. Lodestar maxed out at 27, so I ended up switching him to Vanguard when he learned all the Skills, which maxes out at 34 Strength. He was an all-around solid unit and one of my best fighters. That said, he fell away into the late late-game. He couldn't keep up with Gazak's sheer force, lacked Kumagera's defences, and lacked Haitaka's ability to trigger Rend Heaven. Still, he gave +5 Strength in a Pair-Up, and he stood beside Kireina against Takumi at the end. Fantastic unit, would recruit again. Gazak *: Two words: critical hits. This guy right here is an absolute machine! I've never really used a Berserker before; I play defensively usually, with characters like Xander tanking the Enemy Phase, and the likes of Ryoma carrying the Player Phase. That was my last Revelation run more-or-less to a tee. Yeah, I'm a real Revelation fanboy. The fact I'm using the likes of Xander and Ryoma as examples, whilst talking about Gazak, should be a good indication of how highly I ranked him in this run, however. His critical hit sat between 43% and 98% -- Tomahawk, Dual Club, Arthur's Axe, and a Great Club, if you're wondering. His HP, Defence, and Speed was actually very impressive; 29 Speed at the end, which rose to 35 with Kento and his various Rally whatevers. He may be doubled by Sword Masters without the Rally boost, but with a Dual Club he laughed at them even as they doubled him. Chapter 27 Sword Masters did 4 damage to him. Yeah, 4. The last Axe-wielding Tank I had in a Fire Emblem game was Hector. Yes, I'm comparing Gazak to Hector. He's that good! He also had Pasive and Certain Blow, in addition to Good Fortune. Three Skills he couldn't get otherwise. Bad Luck limited Good Fortune, but I always made sure I had a Luck Tonic on-hand for him to help. This tipped the RNG in my favour, giving him a 1 in 5 chance to heal -- he rarely fell below half HP. Add Gamble and Axefaire and you've got an absolute beast of a physical attacker. He melted against mages, but damn was he good in a fist-fight. I lost two units to recruit him: Kazuma and Akihiro, and he relegated Tomihiko to the bench, so in-all Gazak cost me three units. He lived up to that hype though, and would have equalled three more. Damn good unit. Tobias *: I recruited this guy as a Cavalier alongside Gazak. He came with the unique Trample Skill, which is +5 damage to unmounted units; otherwise unavailable to him. Given Conquests plehtora of foot soldiers, Tobias had a field day. He did one thing well and that was physical attack. I gave him Heavy Blade to capitalize on this further alongside Elbow Room and, in-late game, a Pair-Up with Candace fixed his biggest flaws thanks to Defender, allowing him to double with an attack stat that was frankly disgusting. He had an effective Strength increase of 11, a base Strength of 17 upon recruitment, and carried around a double forged Steel Lance and Steel Sword. This guy packed a punch even before he promoted! When faced with Faceless, I gave him a Blessed Lance. It hit his defences, sure, but he killed most things in one hit, no matter what its name was. Combine with Nichol's habit of weakening foes enmasse with Savage Blow, or Ren hitting 40% of an oponents HP with Poisin Strike and Grisly Wound, and Tobias had fantastic killing ability that was matched by few; Silas on his best day never turned out as well for me. A real team player. He only got stronger as he levelled too. Shelter gave him strategic use in certain Chapters, which was key to a number of my strategies, chief amongst them Chapter 26. He wasn't at the level of Nichol or Haitaka in terms of usability, but he was no slouch either. Roland & Fritz: These guys are mere footnotes recruited in the boat Chapter where Xander joins you, and I killed Shura for his pair of sweaty boots. Roland was a Hero with Armoured Blow; Fritz was a Sorcerer with Inspiration. Roland never saw a deployment. Fritz, meanwhile, was a slightly better Akihiro, but ultimately useless in the grand scheme of things. His Skill and Speed prevented him making a real impact, so both ended up benched. Manfred: I recruited this guy from a Paralogue at Level 20, which was a mistake on my part. I think it was Nina's chapter? Anyway, he came with Armoured Blow, Wary Fighter, and Inspiration. If I had waited one more Chapter I could have recruited him as a General and saved myself a Master Seal and the liability of having a unit who needed to build weapon ranks. Promoted him to Great Knight for added mobility, and that was about it. He shined once in the Kitsune map, and that was because of Inspiration and the fact he couldn't be doubled and had enough Defence not to be killed even with bonus damage against mounted units. He saw a few deployments after that, but he was benched in favour of others. Ren **: This guy was, hands down, the best generic unit I recruited who wasn't a capturable Boss and a named unit. You'll notice I gave him 2 stars, the only other unit to get this being Nichol. Ren was that good; he had range, he could take a hit, and mages hated him. He also looked good doing it. In my own head canon I swear that he's the bastard brother of Kaze and Saizo, and Kagero's wet dream for by -- he's probably the reason Kagero broke up with Saizo in the first place! He was simply better than anything I recruited previously. Never mind Asugi being Saizo the 6th. Ren's the Saizo! Two Arm Scrolls as a Dread Fighter allowed him to use axes with incredible ease, up to Rank C. He came to me as a Master Ninja on the Chapter where you need to baby Saizo with Movement +1, Poison Strike, Grisly Wound, and Locktouch. The moment I recruited this guy I made him a Dread Fighter, hence the Arms Scrolls. Hiromi couldn't compare in stats or Skills or head canon. Despite their simalirities, Ren was superior in every respect. Anything Ren couldn't kill, or even damage, he did 40% HP damage to them post-battle, and weakened them with Shurikens, which allowed the likes of Nichol -- whom I've talked about already with Savage Blow -- to finish off, and activate Galeforce. His innate Skills were simply too good. End-game he had Aggressor for +7 attack, Shurikenfaire for +5 attack with Shruikens, and a 3-range Spy Shuriken, which would have been nice about 4 Chapters before I got it. Need to raise that battle/visit rank for reasons. He also took less damage from mages on Enemy Phase. The guy was a walking mage-killer! Not to mention a wall killer. Generals? He laughed at them. If they had a Spear? Dual Shuriken laughed at them! Awesome unit. He shined particularly in Chapter 26. The mages barely bothered him, he could weaken the Stoneborn regardless of range with Grisly Wound, and he had solid Defence. He also killed Takumi in Endgame, so that alone elevated him above the others in terms of how I valued him. Who doesn't love a Warping Ninja? Senno: His stats are average around-the-board. He was useful because of this, and he gave nice bonuses when Paired-Up. Chapters with a plehtora of fliers hated him. I was lucky enough however to get Anna's Bow as a My Castle gift shortly after recruiting him, so he became an effective Gold bar farmer with the +5 Luck. Nanoha's Rally Luck, coupled with Azura's song, netted me multiple Gold bars in the early phases of a fight, which helped buff my other units in later Chapters through Tonics without affecting my finances. Not someone I'd bother with again, but he certainly helped me out, even if thid was through my coffers. Zhara wouldn't have had a Brave Blade, which he used to kill a full HP Stoneborn with in Chapter 26, had it not been for Senno, for example. Mizuki: An Onmyouji from Chapter 22, who sits beside Sakura, and would make a good Ninja killer. Comes equipped with Tomefaire and Shurikenbreaker; yeah, you read that right. With a Calamity Gate, he kills enemy Ninja with virtually no chance of being hit by them. Add Kento for Rally shenanigans, and Nanoha for further Rally shenenigans, and you get the following 9-word sentence that makes me very happy on Lunatic: Fair thee well Inevitable End, you barely bothered me. Does that qualify as a Haiku? Probably not, but we aren't here for poetry. We're here 'cause certain generics are awesome, and I chanced upon a few of them in this run. And one of their names -- in my gane at least -- was Mizuki. Since completing Endgame, I completed Chapter 25 without using the get-out-of-jail-free-card that conists of killing Ryoma with Kireina, courtesy of a second save file. Mizuki was key to this particular attempt. High Magic, good Speed growth, Magic +2 for a total of +7 when equipped with a Tome, and access to Rally Magic. Entrap -- which I didn't need for Endgame -- helped. In my own head canon, Mizuki was one of Nichol's retainers, the other being Nanoha. Hey, I described Nichol as Royal-class, for crying out loud. I'd be neglectful if I didn't give him two retainers. Kento *: Aka Rallyman. The generic of much fame and the one mentioned most by people as a solid unit in a standard run. My run became much easier the moment I recruited him, no big surprise there. Need I say more? The only main charcater I've used who can match Kento is a Rally-fosuced Laslow, whom I happened to use on my last Revelation run courtesy of a very helpful guy on Gamefaqs who gave me his multiple Rally Laslow to let me net the Skills required. I went the full-hog with Kento and ran him through four levels of Grandmaster to net him Rally Spectrum, which really helped crank up those stats. As I found with Nichol, even a +2 to a single key stat could make all the difference. This was deemed excessive by some; let me tell you, at times it was the bloody difference. The guy gets a star for the simple fact he allowed my real star units to perform even better than usual! Ren, for example, couldn't have killed the weakened Takumi in Endgame even with a Dual Shuriken, had it not been for Kento Rallying those stats. Komachi *: The final recruit who actually saw extensive use. She was a Falcon Knight from Hinoka's Chapter who came with Pass. She had very good bases across the board. Yeah, yeah, Pass = Endgame cheese. Don't hold it against me, okay? Her usefulness extended to far more than that however, as there were a couple of Chapters between her recruitment and the Endgame, where she'd shine. And shine she did! She was my Great Lord recipient and became another Aura user with access to Charm, alongside Zhara. With stats comparable to Nichol -- and in some cases bettering him -- she was an absolute gem. Too bad I only had two Dark Falcon seals, otherwise she would have been comprable to Hinoka as a unit (whom I usually make a Great Lord in Birthright and Revelation). She had no problems doubling, could take a hit from both physical and magical sources, and when you knocked her HP down low she had a tendency to go a little mad and Awaken her dormant potential and murder things violently with a Killer Lance. The Berserker of Chapter 27 annoyed her in such a manner, and he wished later he hadn't. She one-shotted him despite her weapon disadvantage, all with a single attack. Said Berserker had 60+ HP and hadn't been damaged prior to that. Rule of thumb: don't mess with my Komachi. She's like to hold a painful grudge. My last to hold such a grudge was my waifu Scarlet on Birthright, and Komachi channeled the spirit of In Extremis in that particular fight to wipe the floor with said Berserker. Endgame saw her set up my Rescue chain, so that alone deserves a star. Hidetora & Masahiko: Footnotes! These were the Amaterasu-equipped Rallying Spear Masters from Chapter 23 whom I wasted one use of an Entrap stave to safely Capture. By the time I persuaded them to my side, Kento was a full-fledged Flag-bearer with Rally Spectrum on top of all his existing Rally ups. Benched. They are in my Logbook now though... And that's all, folks! All the units used, a breakdown of their usefulness, and hopefully an enjoyable read for you all. I hope it also serves as a guide of sorts for those who want to attempt such a run themselves, and are wondering which units are usable. I skipped a fair few -- I didn't Capture a single unit after Chapter 23, so there's certainly more to experience. The Maids in Chapter 26 have fantastic stats, for example. If you want a more detailed breakdown of Skills I used on what units, let me know and I'll share the builds. It's been a blast, folks! Thanks for reading!

Thanks very much! Glad you've been enjoying it. I definitely recommend you try it for yourself. It's been one of the more enjoyable runs of Fates I've had since I did a child-only run a good while back. What makes it so fun -- at least for me -- is the units you can nab with unique Skills they couldn't possibly have access to any other way. My Paladin, Tobias, had Trample from the Malig Knight, for example. My Master Ninja, Ren, ended up with Shurikenfaire and Aggressor, with Grisly Wound and Poison Strike. +12 on attack and a 40% drain on the targets HP after battle. He was great at pulling down those tougher units. The Bosses you can Capture definitely makes things easier, but I imagine you could push through without them. It would be more difficult, but it would be doable.

I opened the door to the right of the Maid so yes, the one that leads into the bottom room. Never touched the bottom door of the treasure room; the Stoneborn took care of that for me. I gathered from your explanation, no worries. I knew from the other side that opening the bottom door of the treasure rooms didn't trigger reinforcements. As for the questions: I've got Niles & Candace as Adventurers, Nanoha and Mizuki as Onmyoji, and Komachi as a Falcon Knight. So 5, though Niles barely contributes on that front. His staff rank is D. Chapter 26 was the first time I weaponized his staff usage with Freeze. Positive on the Spy Shuriken. That particular chest can either be the Spy's Yumi or the Spy's Shuriken. It's contents are determined by Kaze's weapon rank, specifically his Shuriken rank. If it's B or higher, you get the Sky's Shuriken. If its C, you get the Spy's Yumi. I fielded only the main cast pretty early on and ran them through the EXP DLC to build support ranks as soon as a new pairing became available in order to unlock the Paralogues -- none of my Captured boys saw deployment in that time. One of the reasons I did it this way rather than, say, using the Awakening map, was because it builds weapon ranks. I already knew I wanted that Master Ninja with all the Skills from Saizo's chapter, and with Dread Fighter he'd eventually get Aggressor and Shurikenfaire. I built him specifically for that Spy's Shuriken. Excepting a few cases I mentioned earlier in the thread, I've used everyone I've been allowed to use. May as well give my roster; been a while since I posted them. Kireina (Avatar, Nohr Noble). Azura (Songstress). Niles (Adventurer). Haitaka (Spear Master). Nichol (Dark Falcon). Kumagera (Oni Chieftan). Zhara (Vanguard. He was my Lodestar). Gazak (Berserker). Nanoha (Onmyoji). Those are my key 9 units and have been in every battle from the moment I recruited them. When extra slots are allowed, here are the others. Candace (Adventurer, Staff usage). Komachi (Falcon Knight. She was my Great Lord). Kento (Rallyman, Master of Arms). Ren (Master Ninja). Tobias (Paladin). Mizuki (Onmyoji). Senno (Merchant, Gold bar farmer).

And that's Chapter 26 done and dusted, with no casualties, and all chests looted. Nichol, Tobias, Ren, Gazak and Kumagera were the absolute stand-out performances, but the truth is that I needed everyone to pull their weight at some point or another. Except Senno -- his contribution amounted to 7 Gold Bars, and then he became Ren's Pair-Up to reap the benefits of +3 Defence and a Guard gauge. So, here's what I ended up doing. Wall of text incoming! Pre-match, after many test runs. Nichol grabs one of my remaining two pairs of Boots; I'll explain why later. Niles got my two Energy Drops and a Strength Tonic. First room: Rally Up everyone with Kento, break out and kill the Maid with Calamity Gate-equipped Nichol. Galeforce refresh to safety. Kumagera, Zhara, and Haitaka tank the Heroes weakened by Savage Blow outside Iago's range, and those Heroes that attacked at range die at range come my Player Phase. Move Nichol into position. Next turn, Rally up with Kento again and kill the axe-wielding Hero on the left-bottom with Nichol. Galeforce to safety. The same three as before tank the three Heroes. And that's the first room. Mage room: I pair Niles up with Kumagera for a needed Strength boost and move him into range of the Entrap Maid, equipped with a Dual Yumi. Kento hits him with Rally Spectrum -- anything higher would raise his Resistance too high, and the Sorcerers wouldn't attack. Niles retaliates, killing one Sorcerer. On Player Phase, he switches to Kumagera, and he kills the maid with his Bolt Axe. Sorcerer attacks, but full Guard gauge. During this time I move Komachi (Falcon Knight with Pass), Tobias (my Shelter Paladin) and Azura towards Niles, all the while avoiding Iago's range. Drop Kumagera, he gets targeted rather than Niles, and pairs up with Niles again who flees to the squares between the ranges of Iago and the Maids. Wait for Enfeeble to run its course. Once that happens Kumagera pairs up again, Kento uses Rally, and Niles busts the door down at range -- all the pre-match prep and Rally boosts gave him 50 exact attack with a Dual Yumi. Azura sings for him. Niles rushes in, switches to the Shining Bow, and kills the Freeze Maid. Tobias moves and Shelters Azura -- the candle inside the room means he can only be attacked by enemies coming through the door, but two hits would kill him. Komachi follows, staying out of range of Enfeeble, and Freezes the Sorcerer above Niles. Tobias can now only be hit by one unit. Niles, assuming he isn't critical hit by the Mjölnir unit, survives with 7 HP -- 10 if he avoided the Maid's counter. Guard saved his ass. Controlled retreat with everyone else; Komachi ferries Kento, Azura Warps herself and Tobias to the starting room. Niles equips his Dual Yumi and has a whale of a time killing everything. The reinforcements always went after my other units, but Ren was more than a match. Kento uses his Rally, kept Ren in an Attack Stance with Gazak, and the mages melted. Niles killed the lone Sorcerer in the corridor for good measure. Interim: Before I started on the bottom room, I had a bit of a detour to make. Baited the two Faceless and the Stoneborn in the corridor; Nichol with all my available Rallies, plus his Forged Lightning tome, hit it for 30x2. Now for the reason behind the detour. I've found that the Stoneborn don't move, but they will attack if you enter their 5-square attack range. I used this to my advantage and weakened the top two in the room using Ren, whose equipped with Grisly Wound. He lowered both to single digits before I prepared my team for the bottom. Bottom room: Kireina, Gazak, Nichol and Komachi sat around Kento at the first set of stairs where the reinforcements spawn. Niles opened the door, Mizuki pulled him clear with Rescue, and Tobias sheltered Mizuki. Niles equipped with Movement +1 could stay ahead of the reinforcements without issue. Kento Rallied up my squad, Nichol killed the Maid as usual with no support to nab Galeforce, and he retreated to a point where he'd be able to hit the next Maid who appeared on the next turn. Kireina, Gazak and Komachi killed the three mages without issue. Kento grabbed a ride from Komachi, Gazak got ferried by Kireina, and Nichol killed the Maid before escaping himself. Candace and Komachi had Freeze staves -- these I used to control the approach of the Berserkers. Nichol could one-round the Berserkers with a single Rally Magic and whenever he did this, Savage Strike did its thing to weaken the Wary Fighter Generals nearby. Set them up perfectly for an easy kill for Gazak or Kumagera. Quick and easy, never in danger. Hans & Maids: Nichol, Azura, Kento and Mizuki did the job for the bottom Maids and Hans. I used the range of the left-most Maid to calculate my approach, and dropped Nichol within range, but at the extreme of it. Azura sang for him, whilst Kento and Mizuki rallied him. With 9 movement he could move above the first Maid and sit neatly between them all in order to damage Hans and the Generals with Savage Blow when he killed the Maid. Galeforce refresh and move him safely into a Pair-Up with Azura. The Miads don't trigger Hans. Next attempt was Hans himself. Weakened as he was, Nichol could one-round him. Hew ate a Countermagic reprisal, but he killed Hans. He did it with Aether too! During this period I had moved the others into the cleared mage room. The reinforcements didn't stand a chance -- Gazak and Kumagera absolutely mauled the Generals, and the Berserkers fell to Kireina and Zhara. Nichol killed the Maid. I had toyed with the thought of Capturing her -- she had nice skills, and would have made a good Great Lord given her stats. Bit Komachi had already used my seal, so I didn't bother. Iago: Niles could reach the door under his own movement, and I settled on Kireina as the killer. She was the logical choice -- Gazak has bad Resistance and worse Luck, and Zhara's already been a victim of RNG once before. Her Resistance was high enough to tank even a critical hit so there wouldn't be any more nasty Iago critical hits derailing all my effort. She had the resistance to survive a critical, but I Rallied her up anyway. It was poetic, in a way. Critical hit Dragon Fang! Couldn't have written it any better if I had tried. Interim: With Iago dead, I could weaken a third of those Stoneborn with Ren. Once that was accomplished, I began my conquest of the final room. Stoneborn room: Kudos to Starburst who gave me the idea. Allowed the Maid to Entrap Kireina who quickly mopped up the Maid and the Faceless. Given I had weakened 3 of the 4 Stoneborn however, I opted against opening the southern door to the room. Instead, I opened the door leading into the bottom room, which triggered the reinforcements. The first group of 3 Faceless and 1 Stoneborn went after my main group in the top room, and I baited the Stoneborn using Ren to weaken it. I had far more options for movement considering Iago was dead, so it became a simple matter. Kireina, Niles, Nichol, Nanoha and Kento stayed in the bottom room to split their forces; when the reinforcements came from the bottom steps they bashed down both doors between them and my smaller squad, with the entire Faceless group within the room sans the first 3 Faceless reinforcements ran after Kireina. 2 of the weakened Stoneborn went north, the other went south. Nichol picked off the weakened one down below, with Savage Blow knocking the other a little. He then kited the Faceless, all whilst weakening the Stoneborn, until it was within the killing threshold without worrying about Countermagic. Kireina mopped the Faceless without issue from there. Up north, the Ren tactic worked very nicely against two of the Stoneborn. Froze one in place because I couldn't reach it to kill it, but everyone did their job. The highlight of the top front? Zhara fought one Stoneborn at full HP equipped with his Brave Blade. I imagine he narrowed his eyes, said "SCREW YOU", and smacked it with a critical hit. That wasn't the end; oh, no. Zhara then hit Aether; first hit weakened it further, and he critted on the second hit. WHOO!! Payback for previous runs. Can't believe I pulled that off. And I still have one use of Silence left, one use of Entrap left, and a total of 5 Freezes spread across three staves. And Ren has his Spy Shuriken! Scorchio!

I knew about his staff rotation, but I honestly find staying out of his range easier. Turn count isn't an issue. I tend to play defensively in most cases, and the strategy I'm refining with each attempt is very consistent. Killed everything short of the Stoneborn on my last two attempts, including Iago, without casualties. The resets come when I attempt the Stoneborn. I've found a nice answer to two of the initial Stoneborn though. Ren was the Master Ninja I captured back in Saizo's Chapter, and he came with Grisly Wound. The Stoneborn don't move if the door leading into their room remains closed, but they will attack if you enter their range - in their case 5. There're two places where I can put Ren where he only gets targeted by one at a time. With a healer nearby he can safely chip those two down to single digits. They also sit outside the nearest Maid's healing range. Once I have everything else cleared out I use Niles to open the bottommost left door, kill the Maid with Nichol, and Galeforce him away. That triggers the reinforcements. Kento (Rallyman), Nanoha, Niles, Kireina and Nichol stay in the bottom berserker room to split their forces -- at the moment, I'm averaging roughly a 3/4 split. The 3/4 go after my main force in the first room, with the rest going after Kireina and co. The weakened ones have always gone after Kireina. Weakened as they are, though, Nichol can safely melt them, with his Savage weakening the rest. Galeforce away. With enough cycles he and Kireina can mop up the bottom without seeing much Enemy Phase issues with the Faceless. For the top, the first Stoneborn is baited by Kumagera, whose defences allow him to tank a few hits. That's where my last run got to -- bad positioning left Kumagera, who was already weakened, to eat another stone I hadn't intended him to take. Ranged healing would have allowed him to live, and my Player Phase would have cleared the map, but I had mine in the convoy. Rectified that, and I'll try again after work.