timon

OR 3. use an actual healer like everyone else? You've got Mercedes, Linhardt and Marianne, plus Flayn, why the hell would you ever need to heal with Byleth. And no, heal+10 is NOT the reason Bishop is relevant, the reason Bishop is relevant is having ten uses of Physic. Heal amount doesn't really matter, just heal more often. Even less with Bishop, it'll never use a healing spell that isn't called Physic after turn 1. I just don't get why I should put my best physical unit (aside from Edelgard and Dimitri) through white magic training to put them in some twisted avoid-healing frontline, when I can just put them on a Wyvern to literally annihilate anything or give them a bow and a horse and have them shoot stuff at 5 range and counter-attack everything thrown at them. Also, "have endgame powerhouse mages heal you" (which you don't need to since you have dedicated healers and a dancer) is still better than using your most powerful unit to do so. As a side note, stop hyping up the sword of the creator pls, it's useful for the occasional kill at best, but you're better off stacking forged brave and silver and call it a day. Especially if you've got bows.

Eh, I'd say Jeritza is pretty much revealed in chapter 6 already, come on it's basically explicit. Anna has some lines if you go to the market in battle-prep, but then again they never needed any good reason to put Anna in, I'm okay with it even if it doesn't make sense (I also think that this one might be the best Anna design we've ever had).

Opportunity cost is tied to value. 1 point spent for useless faith costs more than 64 spent on the most broken weapon type in the game, talking about bows btw. (+ lances, which are a lot better than swords, SoC doesn't matter considering how hard it is to repair) As I said, healing with Byleth is always a mistake, and his spell list is literally useless, so instead of throwing away your time with dumb white magic you can invest in axe/flying or lance/bow/riding. The only argument here is what you choose between WL or BK (FK is alao there for F). WL is the better endgame class, but going cav>pally>bk has a stronger early/midgame. That's the choice, every other option is subpar. It's sad really, but it's what happens with a shit class system.

1. I think we're arguing over two different points here, I understand that she needs to kill the bishop, that's not my problem. Why doesn't she ask first?? That's my problem. It's in her interest to know the truth! If you go into a room and there's someone with a gun and a corpse, then they're probably the killer. Assuming they're not in a position to harm you (and the western church guys are not when they're in front of her) you can either kill them on the spot or ask them why they did it (since maybe they'll try to kill you as well!) and THEN kill them. First you get the information out of the bad guy, then you dispose of the bad guy, that's how it works. Her willingness of putting that whole deal away as fast as possible just goes to make her look as dodgy and fanatic as she can be (even if maybe she isn't). 2. As for the "crest disappearence" thing, I wasn't really talking about her control over the crest or anything, it's more of a thing that I wanted to clarify, since there's a lot of misunderstanding over that ending scene in CF (which affects only Byleth, while people seem to think it represents the disappearence of all crests on the spot). Still, it's not explained why the heart disappears, I interpreted it as Sothis leaving Byleth live as a regular human, since he doesn't end up as arcbishop like in the other routes, thus he doesn't need her guidance anymore.

Paladin only wants B/B, has one more Mov, comes 10 levels earlier, has Lancefaire, and you don't have to lose your time with WORTHLESS faith (we're talking heal and restore! Honestly?). And you can use that time to get bows and go into Bow Knight, which is just behind Wyvern Lord for the "most broken" award. Bows are conveniently the best weapon in general, and using a lance early on means Tempest Lance and Knightkneeler, a lot more relevant than tanking with a 1mt-8wt spell if you ask me. Wyvern Lord is certainly a high opportunity cost in term of proficiencies, but it's broken so who cares, it makes it worth it and you go by Brigand which is even better. And for F!Byleth it's probably the best path since you're going Pegasus anyway (I hope). The point is, you don't want to invest anything into White Magic for Byleth (it takes 12 activity points just to unlock his talent!), he doesn't get Physic, no Fortify, no Rescue, no Warp, no Abraxas, no Seraphim, it's complete and utter TRASH. If you go Holy Knight you have to lose your time for worthless spells, at that point you might as well go Dark Knight, at least you have something to do with your magic. Or just go WL/BK which are straight up better. And to add to this, Byleth is going to be one of your powerhouses (and in Maddening you're not getting a lot of those) so you need to have him always in the front lines grinding meat, healing with him means losing a very precious turn.

There are important things you're not considering though (apart from the Nosferatu weakness). 1. you have to be in a magic class. Enlightened one is not that good and is footlocked, DarkKnight is not Byleth's cup of cake (no matching proficiency), HK is just useless. Gremory is not a thing you should consider. 2. 12 uses. You have twelve uses. If you're trying to lure in enemies it means you're playing quite slow, if you're playing quite slow 12 uses are not enough. 3. opportunity cost, you're using up a skill slot for a thing that'll matter 12 times in a battle at most (15 with aura). Absurd. You also need to do Faith faculty training, which is basically useless considering Byleth has a garbage white spell list and you never want to heal with your powerhouse anyways. Sure, you can pull it off quite easily, or you can instead spend your points pulling off axes for deathblow or riding for cavalier or flying for pegasus or hell, even just straight up boring swords.

It's not a matter of historical context, it's a matter of logic. If someone is trying to assassinate you or trying to pull a coup you should be concerned with understanding their reasons and, more importantly, the true size of your enemy. She doesn't give a damn, she's blinded by her zealotry. Her crests disappear in other endings as well, probably due to research or magic or god knows what (with Linhardt' I'm pretty sure it's confirmed to be research, but she loses the crests even in some endings with Byleth and it's not exactly explained why). Still, it's nothing different in Crimson Flower, it's never even remotely hinted that Rhea's death has ANY significance for crests, aside from Byleth's.

The thing that makes the execution wrong on all levels is how she takes the decision. "Hey Rhea so these are the baddies" "Cool, kill every last one of them" "Shouldn't we ask or invest-" "I said kill them shut up" Are you trying to look as dodgy as possible or what? And why wouldn't you at least try to understand? They're literally trying to tell that they've been tricked before she shuts them up. To me that's an incredibly irrational decision, especially for a head of state, that shows just how bad of a ruler she is. Also on CF, the disappearence of crests makes sense, I think you may be misinterpreting here. They don't go away with Rhea's death, they go away because people don't care anymore and over time the bloodline weakens. In other routes they keep existing because of Hanneman's ministrations, otherwise they'd still disappear (it's a biological process more than a political one). What is actually true and never explained is why Byleth loses his crest with Rhea's death. That's almost as random as having Nemesis be the GD boss. I guess it just goes into the big pile of incomplete CF stuff, let's hope the DLC can finish it (eg add twsitd confrontation after ch17, like it's supposed to be).

That's probably the case, but they still never explain why she can wield the combat art, you'd need matching crest for that.

What am I missing, how is that different from just soft reset?

Mostly interested in the new classes (Halberdier and master magefor males please). Also Anna and Jeritza of course, I really like Anna's design this time around (maybe one of the classes will be the trickster/adventurer?), and Jeritza as a hopefully CF addition to let us know more about his motives. And I hope we can have him playable as his DK version, because the OG design is actual trash (I doubt it though). I'm surprised by straight up new characters though, I was sure it would've been Rhea and Sothis (and Jeralt with some weird shenaningans). Interacting with cats is obviously a great addition, not so much interacting with dogs...

Does the greenhouse event affect the harvest of that day or the planting?

Scythes use Axe animation, that has been so even before the patch. Not sure about other weapons though, I think the mace might act like a sword? It's been a while since I've used one though. Also @Flying Shogi nope, probably DLC.

Man, that's such an important thing that people seem to magically forget whenever CF in general is brought up (and especially for recruitments). It's not just a matter of following Edelgard or Byleth just because crests are bad, the people you recruited have literally seen Rhea flip into an insane giant lizard, what more do you need to choose your side? I still can see the point (that I make myself too) of people like Ingrid or Annette struggling to find a place in CF, but there's still a reason, and that's what they've seen (and knowing that their Kingdom is supporting THAT).

I've done a few (by the time you get to the 4th route you really have to to keep it interesting). Here are some of my favourites: - Holy Knight Catherine, her Faith is useless, but who cares, I love it. She's a zealot, she's made to be a Holy Knight and embrace the crazed crusader way (especially if you're in Silver Snow). She wasn't bad as a Paladin though, not at all. - Cavalier Raphael, made him into a Great Knight which is subpar but still not out of "norm". What I'm focusing on here is the cavalier part, early game he was very powerful, that tankiness and power on such mobility is amazing, and I didn't even feel bad about the -10% speed (he ain't getting it either way). - Dancer Hilda, not "unconventional" as I think a lot of people pick her for the competition, but still, dancer with giant axe is a funny, and I wanted to try Bolting. Sadly a terrible unit even with Fiendish Blow from mage (aside from the dancing of course). And to stay in Axe Mages topic, does Bolt Axe WL Annette count? If yes, I did it, she was better than I thought. I think Edelgard could pull that one off a lot more efficiently though (using Bolt Axe as a side weapon and not as main focus). - I also actually extensively used Gilbert in my BL playthrough, at first it was more because I really like the character, then he got into Great Knight in like 1 chapter time and he became very useful. Very good unit, I probably got blessed since by looking at numbers he shouldn't be, but he was crucial in that run (and he gets to Mov+1 fast too). Added him here because I think most people bench him, and the few who use him go Wyvern (which is fair, but I wanted to try something else). - Finally, Gremory Bylass, actually a very good unit. Her Mag isn't really bad, especially if you go through the mage path. Spell list is not amazing, but with double uses Bolganone and Ragnarok are spammable. I also had Dark Knight Bylad, but that was through the cavalier route so Reason was more of a side thing (absolutely love Paladin Byleth though). War Master was also fun, mostly for the roman-ish look of the outfit, managed to pass the certification without ever touching the stupid Gauntlets too (C+ through faculty was enough).

Is the Bolt Axe buyable? Because otherwise Edelgard won't get it, as it appears in the reunion chapter.

Also another thing, adjutants will receive the same exact bonus, and follow up attacks are so rare you don't need to worry about it. So you can do 2 people at the same time. More importantly, you can equip the adjutant with a spell (which will never run out), making it the only way to cheese Reason and Faith (and bows before cc).

RNG

my god why is this argument still running around. You can justify literally everyone in every route, and I mean literally. Hell, even the one that can't actually happen, even Seteth has some reasons to join CF. As for Ferdinand, he straight up tells you why he's there and why he's convinced. He knows his father wasn't a good man, and he admires Edelgard and takes pride in his role, therefore he decides to stick with her to be her advisor and make up for his father's missdoings. If you ask me it's even a better reasoning than going against her just because he's supposed to hate her (which is not the case if you read the supports) and she took his father's power (which Ferdie knows he uses wrongly).

It's pretty much straight up told that the seven nobles' thing is orchestrated by Thales, we don't know exactly when he took Arundel's place (to be fair we don't even know if he IS actually a substitute, though it's heavily implied throughout the routes).

It would've been interesting if Rhea became your lord and playable (also giving her supports with non-Byleth people). Seteth isn't fit for the position and it would also make for a different story from GD. Wheter it's necessary or not... it's a nice bonus, a 4th path, but it's a bonus a developer should consider if they can deal with 3 paths first... which is not the case looking at the ABSURD rehiteration of maps and the incompleteness of Crimson Flower. Also I'm convinced that Byleth's origins (which are actually completely explained only in Silver Snow) should be explained in every route, since they're central to the plot and the question is teased A LOT (eg in every conversation with Sothis or Jeralt you're left wondering what the hell you are, don't tease if you can't deliver, game. And no, expecting people to play 4 times isn't delivering).

Barbarossa / Wyvern Lord / Bow Knight (don't do it though, respect the only halberdier we got in the whole game plz thank you). If Emperor had magic access like it should it could be better, but as it stands now just go for the full Daenerys cosplay and call it a day. For Claude it's a no brainer obviously.

I think you can find motivations for basically everyone tbh, probably the topic would be easier to address in the opposite way (who DOESN'T make sense). But here are the ones I consider more obvious. Empire: Felix, Lysithea, Marianne are the ones that come to mind immediately. There's a case for Sylvain, but I did recruit him and he wasn't exactly on board with invading Faerghus, I think he loves his home more than he hates his crest. Lorenz as someone else said probably doesn't like her ideals, but he does value bloodline a lot, so I can see him choosing his family's interests over his own. Lions: Raphael as he really wants to be a knight and doesn't have any more ties to the alliance (outside of his sister, which I assume can be easily moved around). Deer: Ferdinand as he'd want to enter the noble alliance after being kicked out of the empire. Petra as she'd like to have a relevant position for her nation (though I disagree with a lot of people that say she's "anti empire", she definitely admires Edelgard a lot and wants to be her ally, and Edelgard herself says Brigid will be treated as such under her reign). Church: Mercedes, Ignatz, Marianne. Also on every route I'd recruit Leonie. She doesn't have any strong tie to the alliance, but is strongly connected to Jeralt and in turn to Byleth. Get her, she needs to be at your side. I also think that Dorothea pretty much would join Byleth anywhere, she's tied to the people not to the land. But as I said, it's very easy to find motivations for everyone, so I'd actually rather list the exceptions: Empire: Ingrid, she hates everything adrestian. Lions: Ignatz, it's everything he doesn't like in one place. Petra, she doesn't have anything to do with a kingdom, and she'd probably have even less power than with the empire. Lorenz, nobility is a lot different in the kingdom than in the alliance. Hilda, she either is a retainer and can't be recruited, or she can be recruited everywhere. It doesn't make sense that she's route locked (except that they didn't want people to play both her and Edelgard's paralogue and notice they're the same thing). Linhardt/Caspar, don't see how they'd leave the empire. Deer: Sylvain/Ingrid/Felix (to a lesser extent). No reason to leave the kingdom. Also again Linhardt/Caspar. Church: Lorenz, he doesn't believe and is affiliated to the empire.

Story wise Edelgard's hands down, the only one that feels right to me tbh, even though it's rushed and it needs to be completed. Gameplay is fun and different from the other, but it is shorter (which to be fair, also means the end chapters are a lot harder, since you don't get to snowball as hard). Fhirdiad on fire might be my favourite map of the game. Gameplay wise probably overall GD? It's the one of which I recall the most fun maps. Story wise I also like how Claude seeks out the information, I feel like I'd do the same in the monastery situation, I really can't understand how everyone just lives by without ever worrying about how everything works. It goes a bit downhill when he starts going "power of friendship end racism", which is obviously very noble, but a tad boring. BL is my least favourite story wise, I just find it boring, and there are some things that straight up don't make sense. Gameplay was... unremarkable I guess? I can't remember many big gameplay moments, so I guess there just weren't many. Church is story-wise basically a spinoff that should've been clarified in every route (why do I have to play a specific route to know my origin? I'm the goddamn protagonist!). It's also the weakest since BE characters aren't exactly invested at all. Gameplay wise it's just GD, which is good in itself, but not so good if you already played it. Seteth is a nice character, but I'm not sure he's in his place as "path leader", should've just kept Rhea around and made her playable.