Cor Leonis

Hm... I'm unfamiliar with the game, so feel free to correct me. I remember people pointing out evidence of the unreleased hot spring DLC content in Encore, but I forget if it was in the trailer or the website screenshots. If it was in the screenshots, are those screenshots still there? Even if the costume changes are still present, I was wondering if it was at least possible the unreleased DLC could still be localized. It would be weird if a "definitive edition" actually ended up missing significant paid DLC content from the original game just because they were too lazy or scared to translate it for the original international version. Somewhat related—the whole situation reminds me of Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition where it was technically missing pre-order DLC costumes from the PS3 version (maybe there's some PSN policy about devaluing pre-order bonuses?) and some iDOLM@STER costumes since their license expired. Losing some costumes doesn't really compare to potentially losing an entire paid DLC side story, though.

Can't say I ever used Wrath+Vantage in this game since I've found using Canto to hit-and-run a lot more reliable. Add Warp and Stride on top, and you're able to hit something troublesome far away (mostly siege weapons) and able to run all the way back to a safe distance with little issue. It's an aggressive Player Phase version of turtling (as contradictory as that might sound) that I've had great success with. It also requires little investment since most units are trained for Canto Master Classes from the beginning of the game. My fresh NG Maddening run of Golden Deer has been smooth sailing because most of them could get into Canto classes very easily. Let Lysithea nuke or Warp as needed. My cross recruits (Linhardt and Sylvain) are mostly regulated to being Adjuncts with Sylvain pulling his weight as a Wyvern Lord when there's more than 10 deployment slots. My third Adjunct, Assassin Catharine, is underrated, too. Training her in bows for Assassin lets her get Hit+20 from Archer which fixes Thunderbrand's shaky accuracy. It's kind of a shame I can't find more opportunities to deploy her at this point in the game (post timeskip).

I'm specifically referring to the last week of a given month only since you generally want to Explore the first couple of weeks to keep Motivation high on your units that need the WEXP and there's no tutoring before story missions. Selecting Battle every single week is really redundant since one Battle session is all you really need stabilize your team. It's all about striking a balance with the options available.

I think it's important to point out the grind isn't infinite (99 Turn limit abuse for WEXP and class mastery notwithstanding; I can't defend anyone doing that), and the Maddening EXP nerf pretty much hard caps your Level. After a Battle session, I can confirm your EXP comes crashing to a halt once you start catching up to the recommended levels. Support spellcasters can get ahead due to an oversight in their EXP formula, but most support units already do their job effectively by the time you get A+ rank Professor Level.

Is there any particular reason we're acting as if selecting Battle instead of Explore isn't a legitimate form of play? Explore mostly becomes useless outside of boosting Motivation and cooking Bullheads after you hit A+ rank Professor Level. Random stat boosters from gardening helps but isn't strictly necessary, and reclassing Byleth is really overrated since Enlightened One gets the job done and lets you focus on swords. Using the last week of the month to do whatever Paralogues or quests you have available and filling in the gaps with standard auxiliary battles is a great use of resources. It builds up your Renown for statue boosts and keeps your team's EXP and class mastery from lagging behind. This isn't Normal mode where you can spam free auxiliary battles until you're maxed.

Ah... Those 180 extra points from the Tournament Bait ended up mattering a lot. It allowed me just enough wiggle room to pump out an A rank Professor Level right at the beginning of Chapter 8. A+ is definitely out of the question until the fishing grind next chapter, so I can finally stop focusing on Explore and hit up all these Paralogues. I'm surprised how fair and relatively balanced everything has been on a fresh Maddening run. Lorenz's and Sylvain's Paralogues were tight but nothing unreasonable, and I managed to knock them out on my first tries as soon as they unlocked. Sometimes I feel like my stat ups from leveling have been subpar, but all my in-house (Golden Deer) units have been continuing to pull their weight despite it all. I've yet to truly hit a brick wall, and I haven't even touched my stat boosters yet (aside from some Speed Carrots to meet some key Attack Speed thresholds). They'll probably just rot in the Convoy until timeskip, honestly. The +1 Spd boost from cooking Bullheads every Explore session is really all I need to carry the team.

Just tested my Tournament Bait idea. It's not worth it. You can only catch one non-tournament fish, and it only gives 10 EXP. They're also rare enough soft-resetting is pretty much out of the question. That said, you're still given 50 free bait, and you might as well just use it and hope for the best. I ended up getting an extra 180 EXP by the end. Nothing terribly game-changing, but it may nudge me into a higher Professor Rank down the line.

Hey, any free Professor EXP is welcome. That extra 1000 or so points can go a long way.

Speaking of exploiting Explore... Can I save my extra Tournament Bait for the next Fistsful of Fish event? Or does it become unusable after the quest is over? Gotta min-max my Professor Rank (even though I'm already about to reach B+ as early as Chapter 6).

This there a guide floating around anywhere on where to find items throughout exploration? I don't mean just Lost Items; this includes the Professor Rank increasing items and the like. It has become tedious searching every corner of the map just to get a few bonus points on my Professor Rank in this fresh Maddening run.

How does bonus Renown carry over multiple playthroughs? Say I never touched my 50000 Renown from clearing routes. Would my next NG+ have 100000 Renown (50000 + 50000 carryover) or just 50000 again (50000 is overwritten due to its bonus nature)?

Didn't the original datamine show an Infernal difficulty option after Maddening? What's the Japanese wording for Infernal compared to what was translated as "Abyss"? If someone can confirm they are in fact different words, I feel it would clear up any misunderstandings about "Abyss Mode". If it is the same, however, I suspect you either pull over your Cleared Save units à la Trial Maps or you're given similarly ridiculous units relevant to the side story.

Yes, healing/support spells bypass the curve even in Aux. Battles. That's how my Linhardt got ahead. I mean, I guess you could could try and get ahead that way? You'd only be limited by your spell casts and battle points, but it seems like a major time sink just to get an edge in on the difficulty. Maddening mode has stat inflation on enemies, but it isn't THAT bad.

True, but then you're gimping your mages' EXP by letting everyone else steal their heals. (This is taking kill-stealing to a whole new level, huh?) Besides, this is still Maddening mode; your units have key roles to play if you actually want to clear maps. Your vanguard should be hitting things, not healing allies. They need the stat bonuses and abilities of physical classes, and investing in Faith is very much counterintuitive.

The only problem with that is someone needs to be damaged, and everyone trying to spam their own heal gets in the way. Linhardt, Dorothea, and Lysithea alone keeps nearly everyone's HP maxed without really trying so far on my BE-Church playthrough. I can't really imagine throwing seven more healers on top would offer any real benefit...