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I always wanted to do an Awakening playlog and this place in particular is fond of them so I'm hoping at least someone will take an interest in mine here. I wanna do a high man, no kids Lunatic+ run. Highman runs are fun, even more so if no kids are involved, especially on Lunatic or above. I love the no kids variant as you have to raise a bunch of losers weaklings from beginning to end, making sure all of them pull their weight. There is always the decent possibility someone will lag and will be left behind so you have to backtrack. There is the equal possibility that someone will hog exp if they become too strong. This also means no Lucina, so Grima is harder to take down if I don't raise my units well. For the longest time, I avoided Lunatic+ because I didn't think I could do it. I found out recently I totally can. Counter is a nasty little bug, so my main way to deal with it is Nosferatu. I don't care, I'm not a good FE player. Couples I plan to use: Chrom/Sushi (an avatar name some people chose) Stahl/Cordelia Gaius/Tharja Henry/Sumia I usually get Libra and Olivia married through the art of dance. I'll do my best to get Frederick and Lissa to marry each other as well. My restrictions: No DLC No barracks No sparkly tiles I love Anna shops too much to give them up. Her items aren't free and may kill my budget if I am not careful, the same applies to why I don't ban the Bonus Box sellers. Poor money management can kill even the best of runs. I hope to begin this run by next week.

So I'm in the middle of playing through Radiant Dawn, and after seeing this I had the brilliant idea to do a challenge run of my own. The basic premise of this is that I use a random number generator to choose ten characters, and one heron, to use in the endgame. Also, I can only use these characters + the required units for the endgame throughout the entire game. The rules: - On maps where non-endgame characters are forced, they can move, but not fight. This means I can use them as shields for my weaker units, but have to unequip their weapons to prevent them from doing any damage - On maps where there are none of my endgame characters available, I can do whatever I want. Generally, I'll just mess around with the game, or try and use a single unit to solo it, just for fun. - I'm playing on easy mode, because I'm a baby who never plays any mode other than easy. (not entirely true, but I don't want to deal with the harder difficulties with this mess of a challenge) - I can't reset for better stats, or to rig a crit or dodge. More rules might be added later, but this is all I can think of for now. Anyways, on to the units I'll be using! Muarim Zihark Taroneo Rafiel Black Knight/Zelgius Astrid Soren Ranulf Janaff Ulki Tibarn And of course, the forced units for the endgame, Ike, Micaiah, Sothe, Sanaki, Ena, and Kurthnaga I feel like I got pretty lucky with some of these. Defiantly not as bad as it could've been. Anyways, on with the actual game. And thats that! These first too weren't that exciting, but it'll start to pick up as I continue. I'll update sometime, though probably pretty sporadically, since I'm pretty busy.

Hey everyone, I don't think it's been a secret that I've been working on an LTC playthrough. I am adding commentary to it, either by myself or alongside someone who is free and able to talk about LTC playthroughs (I have a mental list of people who can help) My first video I'm going solo because it's 3 and a half minutes long and there's barely any time for me to say everything I want in it so I can't imagine someone else being able to help me out. Here's the playlist with the videos, and once I'm done what I want to finish with the stream archive I'll post that here too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGwvZZVTdx4 Just a few links to tutorials and some minor details I'd like to point out before I start. RNG ABUSING As many of you know, random numbers are not entirely random. They are generated depending on the previous couple numbers, and the initial numbers used to generate more random numbers are known as a seed. If you are interested in computer science, then they follow a Linear feedback shift register which actually has a massive cycle rate so you won't see many of the same set of random numbers repeating. However, you will see that sometimes small numbers follow after small numbers, and these are a result of this idea. I can view these random numbers as a result of lua scripts which allow me to view the random numbers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqbn183W8E4 This video gives a basic tutorial of how to use it, but it helps me save A LOT of time in burning random numbers because I can see them. It is largely useless on enemy phase, because enemy phase burns random numbers to determine enemy movements path and enemy AI. You can actually use it to manipulate the first action or so but beyond that it becomes extremely difficult. The process of manipulating the RNG requires what's known as path retracing. You might notice me selecting a unit, wiggling them around, and they don't move or do any actions at all (and sometimes they do); this actually burns random numbers, because what happens is that the unit goes to a square with multiple paths. The way the game determines which path you traverse is through the RNG. This FAQ on IGN brings it up in more detail and also talks about how to manipulate it, however the IGN FAQ describes how to burn one random number at a time because the game has only two paths to choose from; if you notice from this picture: Florina actually has some squares she can traverse all the way to the left. One way of burning a bunch of random numbers at a time is going 6 spaces left and one space down, then from there I go one space down, one space right in order to burn anywhere from 1 to 7 RNs at a time. If I need to burn a single random number then I will apply the single random number tricks, however burning multiple RNs at a time speeds up the time it takes for me to hit the random number I desire. There is some fancy nonsense going on in the lua script, but I don't tend to make use of them because they make things more complicated. I am good at eyeballing the RN string because I'm not going to spend more time than I need manipulating the RNG. You often see weird things like Alan and Lance next to each other and Marcus on the other end of the map, but I attack with Alan first, Marcus second, and Lance third. This is because an RN string that benefits Marcus shows up before one that benefits Lance. (You'll see it in action in Chapter 1). I don't manipulate much of anything (outside of dodges, level ups, certain hits) on enemy phase unless I absolutely need a critical. There are very few instances where I will absolutely need a critical on EP, otherwise criticals on EP are extra and I just work around them if they happen. I do have to manipulate more than usual on EP due to the low survival rates I face sometimes. In general, I really have no remorse with criticals, and if I want or need one then I'll manipulate it. I try to avoid casually rigging a 1% critical, but if I need it to OHKO a boss then I'm going to go for it. RECORDING I use the movie tool in VBA to record my inputs, then I play the movie from the start and have vba record the .avi from it. In the process of recording the movie, I do a "dry run" of sorts where I record every single input I do down to the letter, I also do some testing to see which order they should happen in to ensure it looks smooth, and then I run it. I often use save states if I mess up an action, and other times I slow the game down so it takes me less time to RNG abuse. You may notice some weirdness in my first couple runs with menu commands, certain cursor movements, menu commands going fast, and certain RN burns a little too slow and whatnot, but they get largely better as the playthrough progresses. DISCLAIMER I view this as a tool assisted run (but it's not a tool assisted speed run) and I see no shame in that considering the fact that these tools just save me a lot of time instead of having to spend time doing a bunch of single RN burns, attacking, then repeating. It also makes it visually more appealing because I can do things to burn more RNs quickly, instead of doing a bunch of single RN burns. SELF-IMPOSED CONDITIONS - All units kept alive - All units recruited (51 characters) - Lowest turncount I can get to the best of my ability You guys will not like some of my strategies due to the risk involved, and that's okay with me. My purpose is to get low turn counts through mostly any means possible, and I end up RNG abusing a lot to keep units alive and other times to make up for random positioning errors. I could fix these up a little bit more, but as it stands I think my runthrough is fairly optimized for what it is and I could maybe save a few turns here and there early on. Many of these chapters will be the lowest possible turncount given the conditions I state. With that said, I will update this OP with a link to each of my chapter posts, and I will post any level ups I gained as well as a quick description of each unit I obtain in that chapter. Feel free to let me know if there is anything I can improve in my commentary, and also keep in mind that the majority of Chapters will be with me and another user (it'll vary a bit but I will do it with a select few people). OTHER INTERESTING LINKS Irysa's LTC playthrough - this one is interesting because Irysa spends a lot of time figuring out to what extent he can play this game. His EXP is far more optimized than mine is and he gets 7 stat level ups to see what ends up happening. Thus far he has saved 3 turns on my run because of major level ups (notably: Thany/Shanna having a significant amount more defense). Having that said, I do have a feeling that certain chapters could be done in x turns so everytime I have a feeling I could shave a turn from my run (with more durability and etc) I let him know. Often times he's able to achieve it. dondon151's 0% Growths LTC - much better commentary than I can provide, and he pioneered 0% growths playthroughs which changed the way we discussed the game. A must watch and Irysa and I are definitely drawing quite a bit of inspiration from this playthrough. He's given us some fundamentals for each chapter and I utilize a few of his strategies to some extent. Unfortunately they don't solely apply to my playthrough and I do A LOT of different things, but ultimately a lot of the same idea is there., Espinosa's FE6 Reverse Recruitment LTC - What if Marcus and Yodel switched spots? What about the Cavs and Juno/Dayan? What if you had a Dancer AND a Bard? Fear not, because there's a hack for that! Espinosa's doing an LTC run of it with minimal RNG abuse (but she is "fixing" the RNG so to speak, performing actions in a certain order to manipulate where the numbers go), and it's really interesting to watch because of all the weird stuff that happens in Reverse Recruitment. EDIT: I have decided to do a twitch stream of the whole thing and commentate in real time as opposed to make videos. It is much easier for me and suits my style more. I will be streaming it Sunday, 6/19 at 11am PST. Feel free to come by, my twitch is twitch.tv/lraven17!

Someone suggested in another thread that I try posting a playlog as a way to change things up with a new Fire Emblem Awakening playthrough I'm starting. I decided that I like this idea, and here we are. So you know all those Lunatic and Lunatic+ playthroughs that everyone talks about? Those challenges where people don't use any seals or promoted classes, or no grinding? This is not that playthrough. There will be nothing challenging whatsoever. In fact, the challenge that I've set for myself is the absolute laziest (or most hilarious) methods of beating Fire Emblem Awakening maps. The more specific rules I'm using are as follows: 1) There is no such thing as being overleveled. There is no such thing as overkill. All those things that count as cheating or cheap methods of winning? I'm totally going to use them. If I can land a hit for over 200 damage on a 20 HP enemy using a ladle, then I am succeeding in this playthrough. Feel free to start rolling your eyes now. 2) If a map takes more strategy than "hit the enemy with the thing, heal if necessary, rinse and repeat", then I am not playing this right. I will find a way to make it that easy, whether it takes more grinding, different skills, different classes... The only exceptions are when I decide to try to beat a map in a way that I deem hilarious, or at the beginning of the game before I can access the resources to make it easy. I've got some ideas. 3) Speaking of grinding: This does not break the "lazy" rule, at least for the purposes of this playthrough. Grinding, reclassing, running through Lost Bloodlines 3 and Rogues and Redeemers 3 a bajillion times for Paragons and Limit Breakers... these things do not count as work, since they all require simple button-mashing once units are leveled enough. Also, strategizing on marriages and/or skill sets does not count as work. Don't worry, I won't spend a lot of time describing all the grinding I do; I'm mainly focusing on the part where I ACTUALLY play the game. As in, actual in-game chapters. I might do a few DLCs, but it won't be the boring grinding runs where I mash "End Turn" repeatedly. I'd actually bring teams and stuff. 4) There can be no deaths. If somebody dies WHILE I am trying to cheat the system, then that's bad and I should feel bad. And restart the level with my head hung in shame. 5) If my units are taking any damage after getting access to Second Seals, I'm not doing it right. 6) Also after access to Second Seals: All story maps must be beaten using a certain theme. Like one might be Chrom's and my Avatar's family only, and another might be all fliers, and another might be people wielding ladles (if I can get enough ladles). Also, all characters must be usable (and preferably used) in some fashion, not just kids. That means leveling and reclassing everyone so they don't die when up against the late-game enemies (and preferably don't take damage), and getting all the characters, and completing all the paralogues (though maybe not right when they open; Donnel is going to be waiting in his village for a while, and those Paralogue 3 villagers can wait until I have a team of Galeforcers and/or rescue staves). Incidentally, Wellspring of Truth is going to be a blast when I get to it with all my fully-leveled units. 7) If people tell me that my "strategy" is the laziest thing they've ever heard of, brain-dead, or overkill considering the mode I'm playing in, I will take it as a personal accomplishment. With that being said, here goes. Wheee! [spoiler=First Things First: The Avatar] Starting the game: the selection screens are familiar by now. Since I am a very lazy person, as previously established, I am playing in Normal-Casual. Again, there can't be deaths and I'll reset the map if anyone does die, but I will also be facepalming while doing the reset. I'm 99% sure I can avoid that. And then there's the avatar creation screen. I'm picking FeMU, because once I get enough Galeforce users to make a team of them, I end up tearing through armies at ridiculous speeds. If the Avatar doesn't have Galeforce, then I often find myself in the unfortunate circumstance of having him stuck at the starting area of a map while Morgan and the kids murder everyone's faces, stuck as a support unit, or wasting rescue staffs (and staff-users' turns) ferrying him around. I do enjoy rescue staff overusage, but I enjoy my Avatar's ability to keep up with everyone more. Speaking of lazy, I have a build that I always use when playing a FeMU because being actually creative is too much work. This will get confusing later, trust me. Let me introduce you to Riza. As you might be able to tell, I like Fullmetal Alchemist. Funnily enough, I also have an avatar that I always use when playing MaMU. His name is Mustang, and I like to give him any sort of flame tome when available. And speaking of magic, I use it a LOT whenever possible, since it's the only set of reliable 1-2 range weapons in the game that doesn't require at least a D rank, can be found with the brave effect (I love Celica's Gale), and can have up to 45 uses. It's also shiny. Being shiny is important, for reasons. Therefore, Riza's asset and flaw reflect that. That didn't take long. On to the tutorial. Yay cutscenes. [spoiler=Creepy Gray Guy: The Tutorial/Premonition] I can't take screenshots of the anime-style cutscenes, which is probably for the best. You will already have to endure my commentary on everything else (or not, if you realize you have better things to do with your life than read this playlog), and all I'd really say about the opening cutscene is variations on "Dude, what is wrong with your skin, you should get that checked out". Or "magic is shiny". Plenty of opportunity for the latter in future chapters, though. Anyway, after that, there's this. So, this is the final battle. That means the game is done after this, right? Get closer? Why on earth would I do that? I mean, have you seen that guy's face? It's gray. Nobody's face should be gray. I knew I should have gone Sorcerer and grabbed a Mire tome before this. Anyway, the very first thing I do when I get control of the game is turn off the slide guides, because this allows me to pair up starting immediately. I also turn the interface view to full, and notice that Chrom never grabbed a Master Seal. I also notice that he has a Silver Sword, which has better Mt and Hit than Falchion. And since it's the tutorial, conserving weapon uses would be the most ridiculous thing ever. That's definitely going to be equipped. I pair him up with Riza and move them both as far as possible toward Creepy Gray Guy (yeah, I know his name but why would I use it when I can call him Creepy Gray Guy). I switch their positions and have Chrom equip his Silver Sword, and end the turn. Creepy laughs, and then Chrom feels the need to give me advice. Chrom's rank is supposedly Lord. I think that must be Nintendo Language for Captain Obvious. Chrom has somewhat better stats than Riza, and in this case having the range that magic provides doesn't do anything useful. Therefore, Chrom is the lead attacker. Chrom also has 100% chance of hitting and enough speed to double, and even if a dual strike from Riza doesn't trigger he's got 100% chance of winning the fight in this attack. Nice. Especially for a guy who never used a Master Seal. Of course, everyone already knew that, since this is the tutorial for Normal difficulty. It would take creativity to mess this up. I could get creative, but this isn't the "kill all the characters repeatedly" playthrough; this is the "win everything by being ridiculously overpowered" playthrough. So far so good. There isn't anything special that happens during the actual fight scene. Chrom attacks, gets hit for 19 damage, and then attacks again. No crits, no dual strikes; Riza just stands there holding her tome and watching Chrom smack Creepy with a sword. On a side note, I'd really like to know where Chrom learned to jump twice his height into the air when landing a final blow, and why he doesn't do that to get away from enemy attacks. You'd think it would be a more useful skill. And with that the stage is complete. That's right, there weren't any heroes. Despite the fact that I risked catching whatever disease it is that turned that guy's skin gray by coming withing 30 feet of him. That took courage, I'll have you know. Another cutscene plays, and despite the fact that I like to make fun of Chrom, this scene perfectly illustrates both why I think he's a tiny bit of an idiot and also really awesome: I just stabbed him in the stomach, and he's trying to tell me to run and that it's not my fault. I sincerely doubt that most people would say that to anyone who stabbed them in the stomach, weird magical mind control or not. But Chrom here is worried more about the person who just KO'd him than about the fact that he has a shiny magic spike sticking out of him. As I said, an idiot. But an awesome one. And with that, the tutorial is over. [spoiler=No Damage Emblem: The Prologue] Aaaand... it's another anime-style cutscene! Chrom looks a bit healthier than he did in the last one. The scene lasts for all of ten seconds, give or take a few. (I didn't count.) Now for the actual story stuff that I CAN screenshot. Though you've probably played the game yourself, so it's really unnecessary to remind everyone that Chrom is nice to the weird lady sleeping in a field near an area plagued by bandits, Frederick is overprotective and a bit rude, and Lissa is blonde. I mean friendly. I think it's funny that one of her few fully-voiced lines is "I am not delicate!" because this is obviously a very important line that deserves full voice acting. The lack of feet is slightly disturbing, etc. Screenshots are not necessary. Next, there's the actual fight in the town. This opens with ugly scary bandit, screaming village girl, and a rather ordinary-looking village. All it really needs to complete the cliches is a band of good-looking mysterious heroes running in to save the day... oh wait. That's us, isn't it? Of course it's up to personal tastes as far as Frederick being good-looking. I would probably like him better if he smiled more than once a year. On a side note, is it just me or do the barbarian sprites look like humanoid mice? Anyway, on with the actual game. Now, you'd probably expect that, since this is me being lazy, I'm going to now play Frederick Emblem. You would be wrong. The problem is, I like Chrom to actually kill bosses like Marth, because he gets special lines and that's cool. Plus, he's going to be on every map anyway; and because it's my lazy playing style, he's almost always going to be paired up with Riza (who, incidentally, he will end up married to rather quickly), so she'll be on every map too. Therefore, I don't want Frederick eating all the XP that Chrom and Riza need to level up quickly, so they can survive all those maps and become an unstoppable duo of destruction (until seals are freely available that turn everyone into unstoppable destruction). They will be hogging all the XP they can manage until the Outrealm is available. You'll find out why later. That doesn't mean that Frederick isn't useful, though. If I pair Lissa with him as a support unit, I can get her close to the battle without being targeted, and once Chrom and Riza kill everything in range she'll be close enough to heal them. Therefore, I pair her up with Frederick. I then have Riza support Chrom, and have him attack the myrmidon on the lower left. Chrom hits for a reasonable amount of damage, and then Riza steps in with her Thunder tome for the first dual strike of the game. Thank you, Chrom and your Dual Strike+. This is enough to kill the fellow and let me take a screenshot where Riza is doing some weird legless aerial dance move. You're welcome. I have Frederick (and Supporting Lissa) go wait by Chrom, and wait to see what the enemy does. The barbarian nearest our four intrepid heroes attacks Chrom and misses his swing. This ends very badly for him, since Chrom can double him easily. One dead barbarian is the result. The mage in the right-hand corner moves closer, but everyone else stays put. No damage has been taken and two of the enemy are dead. Normal mode is easy. That's the point, though. I'm curious about the sparkly tile, and there's no other enemy soldiers besides the mage who can immediately attack if I have someone go stand on it, so I send Frederick. His relationship with Lissa improves. Given that I'm not planning to have them marry each other and I'm not worried about Frederick's support levels for the extra hit and avoid right now, this is fairly useless. Not that I mind having their support convos unlocked, I guess. Now I can have Chrom and Riza go stand next to Frederick and attack the mage. This time, though, Riza is going to be the attacker, because Chrom can't hog all the experience and I have to attack at range to avoid the enemy myrmidon on the bridge coming down to attack as well. Riza also has more resistance than Chrom, and can counter-attack on the enemy phase in the rare chance that the mage is not killed on my turn. This would be somewhat unlikely. Another Dual Strike triggers, with Chrom smacking the mage in the face with Falchion. That 1 damage? Yeah, that didn't happen. Lissa is never going to get any XP, is she? (Don't worry, the Chapter 2 battle will give her plenty of opportunity to put her healing skills to use. Probably.) "Now that's strategy," Riza says. It must be, since I have now killed three enemies with zero damage. (More likely, it's good luck and being on Normal Mode.) The final myrmidon besides the boss does nothing on the enemy phase, which means that I can't get Chrom close enough to attack with Falchion. He's fast enough that neither Chrom nor Riza can double him even with pair up bonuses, though; so it comes down to which of them I want to get the XP. I choose Riza, because that at least means I have a 90% chance of landing 10 damage this round, which means that another 10 damage can kill him when he attacks on the enemy phase. She attacks, hits for 10 damage, and that's it. I send Frederick to stand next to Riza and have him wait. The enemy phase begins. The myrmidon manages to miss Riza entirely, and she hits him for another 10 damage, which kills him. The only enemy left is the boss, and none of my units have taken damage yet. Riza gets a level out of this, though. The HP and Speed, I'll take. I care a bit less about luck. Ah well. Riza and Chrom have a little discussion about the value of fighting side-by-side. Helpful for newcomers, a bit redundant when you've had the two of them paired up for the entire fight. They also mention how it is a good idea to use staffs to treat wounds. Which I totally would have done, if anybody was actually hurt. I suppose I could have Lissa heal the one point Riza is missing from leveling up, but I'd prefer to have Frederick go stand on the level's other sparkly tile. Yay. A glass bow. How wonderful. Unfortunately, it will probably never be used. I still have not figured out how to properly employ the archer class. Unless the enemy is entirely composed of archers, the enemy phase after an archer's attack means a whole turn where the archer is potentially stuck in enemy range without the ability to counterattack. If I need extra damage against fliers, I'll just use wind magic; and if the enemy is entirely composed of archers, I'm far more likely to have a magic user on hand for range on the enemy phase. Heck, I'm more likely to have somebody with hand axes or javelins than an archer. Oh boy. When I said I'd make all my units useful, does that really have to include Virion? ... That rule is going to come back to bite me. I've trained him once before, and it was beyond painful. Anyway, that is a subject for another chapter. Since Riza leveled up, I'd like to see Chrom get a level, too, if possible. So I switch their positions when I send them to attack Garrick the boss, who wants the "sheepy sheepy" to "come to the slaughter". Unfortunately for him, he just stumbled across the Shepherds. It's sad that I just got that joke now. Anyway, Chrom attacks and deals 10 damage, and then Garrick swings and misses. Then it's the enemy phase, and of course Garrick tries again. This time, a dual guard triggers - Riza leaps in front of Chrom and blocks the blow. I've always wondered how that works; you'd think that a squishy Tactician in an oversized coat would be damaged by jumping in front of an axe. Of course, this isn't nearly as strange and hilarious as Lissa the delicate healer dual guarding Frederick. Chrom counter-attacks and finishes off Garrick, whose last words are as dignified and eloquent as his role in this story demands. Bwaaargh indeed. I guess I'd probably say that too if I got smacked in the face with a sword. As I'd hoped, Chrom gets a level out of this. It's a bit better than Riza's level. This concludes the prologue fight. Two characters leveled, no damage taken, and Frederick didn't have to jump in and save everyone once. All in all, a good fight to start things off. Of course Riza and Chrom are the heroes. They soloed the entire map, basically. Frederick just sat on shiny tiles and made sure everyone ignored Lissa. This was probably because she hid behind the horse the entire time. The post-saving-the-town conversation now occurs. Chrom is still nice, Frederick is still a bit rude, and Lissa is still blonde even more friendly and a bit of a fangirl over Riza's fighting skills. I have to wonder exactly why Chrom is so eager to appoint Riza as the army's tactician immediately; the job application for Tactician in Ylisse must be the easiest on earth. The conversation continues with thinly-veiled exposition regarding the bandit problem and Plegia; and isn't it convenient that Riza is an amnesiac who needs these things explained? A villager invites them to spend the night. Frederick actually smiles. ... smiles, I should say, as he dooms our party to spending a night sleeping outdoors. Why do those few miles that we'll travel before nightfall make a difference, again? Maybe if everyone was well-fed and rested, they'd walk faster and with more energy the next day. You, sir, are on a magical horse that only appears during battles; you don't understand the rest of us who do not have magical horses and must use our feet like common mortals. Or... use the ends of our legs that would be feet in any other universe. You get the idea. Everyone, understandably, discusses Frederick's... Spartan view of how traveling should be done, in a rather less than complimentary fashion. It is around this time that it occurs to me, in every playthrough, that these characters spend a lot of time on unimportant dialogue. As do I, since it took me this many words to reach Chapter 1. ----- Table of Contents Main Story First Things First: The Avatar Creepy Gray Guy: The Tutorial/Premonition No Damage Emblem: The Prologue Stop Giving Me Bows: Chapter 1 A Death Montage: Chapter 2 I Found A Non-Squishy: Chapter 3 Hammer Time: Chapter 4 The Clone Wars: Chapter 5 Ad-MIRE-ation for the Exalt: Chapter 6 The Charge of the Knight Brigade: Chapter 7 A Moving Story: Chapter 8 Side Quests No side quests yet. But there will be. Extras Ship Happens: A Bonus Ramble on Pairings

Hi, everyone! This is a playthrough I thought up while suffering from insomnia last night. Basically, I am ONLY allowed to use SpotPass Bonus Box characters*. As some may know, these units CAN NOT support with any unit, but they are essentially Avatars in that they can reclass into any class not excluded by gender. If this sounds interesting to you, read on! If not, do as you will. I can't force you. Just please no hate comments or anything stupid. So, without further ado.... The Rules: 1) I may only use SpotPass bonus box characters. Those characters must be acquired according to the units I recruit. For example, when I acquire Virion, I must then get an Archer. If it is a Prepromote (Fredrick) I may recruit a unit that PROMOTES INTO that class (A Knight or Cavalier in Freddy's case.) *Exceptions: - I may use Chrom, Female MU (Janet, a play on my screen name, Joth) and their offspring (Morgan and Lucina) so that Janet has enough "invisible ties" to not die at the end and crush our hearts :,( - If the unit's class is either entirely unavailable to me (Like Tanguels) or not available for a long time (Manaketes) I may substitute that unit for a future non-SpotPass unit (Like Donnel) or another Spot Pass unit that I am in need of. 2) I may reclass the units as I see for for skills, BUT they must end the game as a promoted version of their base class. No exceptions. Yes, there are only two rules. I don't like rules. Goals for Normal Units: Chrom: Support/Offensive Great Lord -Aether -RK -DS+ -DG+ -Aegis Janet is going to be used more than Chrom most likely, so I made him mainly support. Janet (+Res -Str): Offensive Sorceress -Armsthrift -Hit+20 -Lifetaker -Tomebreaker -Galeforce Pretty self-explanitory. Hit+20 because hit for Dark Magic sucks. I'll be mainly using Forged Ruin, Mire, and to a lesser extent Nosferatu and Thoron. I need to hit hard, because Sorcerers aren't too fast. Morgan M: Defensive Sorcerer -Armsthrift -RK -Vantage -Pavise? -Aegis?/Galeforce A defensive Sorcerer doesn't care too much about Galeforce, but it's always nice to inherit just in case. Pretty standard, Nostank and Miresnipe all day. Lucy: Offensive GL -Aether -RK -Lifetaker -Tomebreaker/Ignis Ignis might be good since she will probably build up some good Mag as a Dark Knight and some as Grandmaster should she decide to grab it, Tomebreaker otherwise. Reader Involvement: If I need advice on any aspect of the game, or can't decide which SpotPass character to snag, I'll open it up to you and take any well thought-out contribution you make into consideration. I need you to keep this thread alive! That's all I'm gonna put in this post, because it's just far too long and I don't know how to do Spoilers. I'll update as soon as I get to where I can actually use Wireless, and slowly pick away at a few of the replacement characters (Fredstomping, ahoy!) Sorry again for the freaking WALL O' TEXT! ~Joth

My first attempt at a playlog was a failure, so this time I will try something more noob-friendly. I got the inspiration from CateTheHuman's post in this thread http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=39958, but my rules are slightly different. Rules - Lunatic/Classic (I will reset for usable level-ups early on, because I'm not good enough to beat Lunatic with an Avatar who has 10 Defense at Lv 10. - No DLC or Wireless Menu - No Event Tiles, Anna Shops, Barracks, or Skirmishes -No Nosferatu - After Chapter 13, first generation units must be retired. Like in the original, people like Anna and Tiki will be allowed. Anna can't get any experience until Chapter 13 is over. Since Chrom is required, he can ride on Cordelia's back to stay out of enemy range. Tell me if I missed anything. I fully intend to save Paralogues to train Lucina so she can have a fighting chance once I get her. I'm going on vacation, so I might be a little slow. Pairings (suggested by Czar_Yoshi): Chrom x Olivia MaMU x Nowi Vaike x Cordelia Gregor x Miriel Donnel x Sully Class paths Premonition Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

Welcome to my Hardcore Lunatic playlog! The rules: Lunatic and Classic, obviously. No DLC No Spotpass of any kind. No bonus box stages. No Risen. No abuse: No water trick on the prologue, no (intentionally) luring enemies to forts, no heal staff tanking (I will only heal when necessary), I will rout every map except in very special circumstances (e.g Ch. 21 with all the mires, Grima), NO RNG ABUSE, no Olivia dance spam. *pending more as people point them out* ONE second seal per character. Male MU. (since Chrom x MU is too strong) Why these rules? I previously did a lunatic run with these rules and TWO second seals per character, but I know I can do better. ONE EXCEPTION: I am going to use Donnell, and he'll need an extra second seal to promote from villager. So technically he gets two, but whatever. Let's get started! [spoiler=Prologue] Seda is born! Asset is speed, flaw is luck. Pretty standard. Some people like to take defense, I was considering putting resistance as the flaw, but this worked out well last time so whatever. I set the birthday to February so we won't get that bonus. Turn 1: The most important part of this map your first turn. This chapter is easy if you let Fred kill stuff, but I want that juicy exp on MU and Chrom. I move MU into the bottom left corner and trade the bronze sword to Fred. Fred moves right and up to draw in the enemies, and attacks a myrmidon, which will attack Chrom on the enemy turn and Chrom can kill it. (Fred br. sword + Chrom Falchion is exactly enough to kill. coincidence?) Lissa moves two right and down, so that no one can attack her, and leaves the northern barbarian to attack MU. Chrom's starting position allows the myrmidon to attack him, but the barbarian cannot, so that's exactly where I want him. End. The myrm hits Chrom for 10 out of 20, Chrom kills it. Barb hits MU for 13 out of 19, MU hits back for 8 out of 30. The remaining barb and myrm attack Fred and he hits back for 15 against both. The mage moves closer. Turn 2: Here's how it looks right now: http://i.imgur.com/KqJ3B0j.jpg?1 (The images are too big to embed in this post, but I will make them smaller in the future so I can just embed them.) IMO, this is the single best way to open on this map, since Fred doesn't take kills and it doesn't rely on the enemies missing their attacks. The barb and myrm on Fred can actually be in slightly different places even if you open the exact same way, but I tested those cases too and the solutions are the same, just in slightly different positions from what I'm about to do. Fred moves to the bottom left to get the barb in killing range, MU moves 1 to the right and kills the barb, Lissa moves left into the corner and heals MU, Chrom moves down 1 to block off MU from the myrm and uses a vulnerary. End. Myrm suicides against Chrom, barb and mage move closer. Turn 3: Lissa heals Fred up to 24. But the mage hits Fred for 13, so if I attack on my turn, the mage will kill him on the enemy phase. So I just move him into a blocking position, and then use MU and then Chrom to kill the barb, while also putting the MU in a blocking position so the mage can't get to Chrom. Here's how that looks: http://i.imgur.com/yOhsvXj.jpg?1 Pretty slick, if I do say so myself. End, mage attacks MU, MU hits back for 4. Turn 4: Fred his the mage, Lissa heals MU, I put Chrom behind MU for Veteran, MU kills the mage for a level up. +HP/Spd. That's pretty fuckin terrible, but fine. Look at that! We cleared the beginning of the map without using the silver lance, and Fred didn't get any kills. And you can do it too! Fred not getting kills makes it really tough, and it's really tempting to one shot that mage with the silver lance, but as you can see, this is totally manageable. Now I heal everybody to full, and MU gets the mystery square for 12 exp. Lissa levels up for +HP/Skl. Ugh. Turn 9: Fred moves to bait in the rest of the enemies by the boss. End. Myrm attacks Fred, everything else gets close. Turn 10: Here's how it looks, sorry for potato quality: http://i.imgur.com/nxeRy4O.jpg Fred kills the mage with his silver lance (I don't have a choice this time), I move lissa to the bridge to give Chrom +10 hit when he moves next to her to kill the myrm with his rapier, since it has better hit than Falchion and I really don't want to miss at this point. Chrom kills the myrm and levels up with +skl/spd/lck/res. Ugh. MU moves next to Chrom and Fred and trades with Fred to make it so Fred has the bronze sword equipped again, and then pairs up with Chrom. *enemy phase* The myrm attacks Fred, a barb attacks Chrom and misses, Chrom crits for the kill, second barb attacks Chrom and hits, Chrom hits back. THAT COULD HAVE GONE SO WRONG. Crits are actually bad sometimes, because if you kill the enemy, it lets a second enemy move onto that square for another attack on you. If that first barb hadn't missed, I would have been SO angry at that crit. Turn 11: Here's how it looks: http://i.imgur.com/6QGOMM6.jpg?1 Fred hits the barb, leaving it at 3 health, MU takes the kill with Chrom still attached. End. Myrm attacks MU, Chrom blocks and also dual attacks, the myrm dies. I want to point out that if Chrom had done neither of those things, I'd still be fine. MU is at full health and I could have just killed the myrm on my turn. As it happened, though, they did kill it and MU leveled up with +HP/Mag/Skl/Spd/Res. Much better. Turn 13: I move closer to the boss. Turn 14: I let Chrom take the mystery square next to the boss and he gets 13 exp, Lissa heals Fred to full. Turn 15: Here's how Fred looks against the boss: http://i.imgur.com/taHyYfc.jpg?1 That 8% chance to crit is basically a guarantee, so that's 21 damage, and then another normal hit on enemy phase would be 28 to kill Fred. That would be bad, and there's just no reason to gamble on that when you don't have to. So I put Fred next to the boss and end. The boss misses, Fred hits. Turn 16: Time to win. I put Lissa behind Fred for support purposes, and Fred attacks. The boss is now at 8 HP. I pair up MU with Chrom and go to the boss. Chrom has a 94% chance to hit with Falchion, but when you've played as much Fire Emblem as I have, 94% to win after this much work might as well be 15%. I switch to the rapier for a guaranteed kill. Chrom levels up with +HP/Str/Skl/Lck/Def. Cool. That's the prologue! Like I've said, it can be much easier than how I did it, but not if you want all the exp in MU and Chrom and you want to conserve the silver lance. Fred only took ONE kill! And ONE silver lance charge! That's pretty damn good for this map! [spoiler=Chapter 1] Turn 1: The only thing to really worry about on this map is the Hammer guy. I move Fred to aggro the nearby merc and barb with the silver lance equipped, and move the rest of the team close to clean up next turn. The two enemies get to low health against Fred, all the other enemies move closer. Turn 2: Put Lissa behind MU for extra magic, MU kills barbarian, Chrom pulls Lissa out and drops her nearby, Leave Virion where he is, Fred moves onto the fort and uses a vulnerary, finds Tiki's Tear on the mystery square (oh please let me win this time), put Sully behind Fred. She's a great support at this point in the game, actually. Strength, speed, and defense. The defense from Sully and the fort make it so the hammer barbarian can't one-shot Fred, which is nice. Here's the current map: Something about the reddish hue of this map makes my phone's camera unhappy. Sorry. End. Northern (weakened) merc attacks MU and dies, southern merc attacks Fred for 0 damage and dies (thanks to Sully's support strength), hammer guy misses fred, other barbarian hits for 4. Here's the map again: That was really the only turn that matters. Turn 3: Chrom kills the southernmost barbarian, Fred one-shots the archer (thanks again, Sully), I put Virion behind MU for Veteran, Lissa heals MU, MU moves to the square above the fort, trades to re-equip Fred with the bronze sword, and kills the last weakened barb for a +Str/spd/lck level up. The boss can go for Chrom or Fred but can't kill them, and the full health barb can go for Fred or MU or Chrom. If both had gone for and hit Chrom, I would have lost, but he prioritizes MU so it works out. Turn 4: Fred hits barb with bronze sword, Chrom kills barb. MU retreats and drops Virion near Lissa, but I fucked up the positioning so I can't heal MU this turn. End. Boss hits Chrom. There's no need for the details at this point. It's just a game of keep away as Fred whittles down the boss with his bronze sword. Fred gets a level up for +HP/Skl/Lck/Def/Res. Lissa gets a level up for +HP/Def (T____________T), and Chrom kills the boss for +HP/Str/Skl/Spd/Lck. That's it. Easy map. Fred got two kills.

Hey-lo. This is my first playlog so I'm going to be learning what works and what doesn't as I go. This isn't however, my first playthrough of FE4. It's actually my second so it isn't much better. Also expect terrible jokes. I will try to keep the language PG-13. My updates will be one castle per update and this will only be updated on weekends. I will be arena abusing because why not? Tell me if you want me to post before and after stats. The pairings for this run are... LevinLewyn/Tiltyu(<3Levin better treat her right...) Azel/Sylvia Beowulf/Adean Lex/Briggid Jamke/Fury Finn/Raquesis Holyn/Ayra Other than that, I believe we are good. With out further delay... [spoiler=Prologue: Part 1] It begins... Oh hey. A timeline. *skips* The land. The first character we see looks like a fat and old Italian.... I love this game. Now we have a shaved Jesus and his disciples. My father-in-law and that guy. The asshole and the blonde. What kind of high school reunion is this? Ah Yied Dessert. Good times... That's wise. #TrustNOne You're kidding right? Finally some booty, It was a sausage fest a minute ago. Too bad you can only be paired with Deidre. Also, how the hell do barbarians sneak across a border? "It's all right Midayle. I didn't expect much else out of you all." ...Did you just give me permission to get you killed? Lol. "Damn straight." Guess you're cool. ....Despite my pent up aggression from your mediocre performance last playthrough, I believe in second chances. Just don't give me an opening to- God knows you couldn't even do that right. 'Cuz you ugly. Actually yeah good idea. Maybe our enemies will just pass out when they see you. Not gonna lie. I thought that said "Junes" for a minute there. The first turn. The first attack. Come block their axes with your face. *myself. Thank you so much. Saved me the trouble of benching him. ...I'm pretty sure you'd break her honestly. Damn hoar. In reality, this walk should take days. I thought only food made people's mouths wat-...Oh... No Church In The Wild dear. Look. Somebody besides Sigurd dodging. Lex~~~ And Trashzel. If I didn't need a mage, you'd be dead. All right so your reservations in hell have already been made. Just tell me when you're ready to go. Even though I'm not using you full time, you are doing a good job. Pretty sure this is the only one he dodged so far. Healer get. ...Let's see... We've used swords, lances... I got it! Guess why they call it a Heal Staff~? FINN~~~~!!!!~~!!~~!~!!~~!~!~!~ It's not even fair at this point. Hey Arden. Look on the bright side. You can't get any uglier. And my bias begins. ....So you have a healing arm? Legit. Weakening him because why not. Not that he really needed it but I'd rather not have an arrow through my healer, *sigh* Nicely done I suppose. For trash. You would dare to attack Lex? And actually hit? You can do no wrong Finn. Duck just doesn't know what he's talking about. So we jumping people now huh? If you die, I wouldn't reset. Just letting you know. Lex da best. The bromance here is coming on way too strong. ... I'm pretty sure you were talking. With your bodies. ....You aren't helping your case here. Honestly I just feel bad at this point. It's like kicking puppies. He got Stength, Yay. Ooh Kill 'Em Scrub/10 ...See above. The assault. Why do they even bother? More Finn kicking ass. Stacking dat paper... coins... Heal your lover. 'Bout time they started killing this guy. The village is almost gone. There. Now you've succeeded at something in life besides fucking 14(?) year old sluts Lord forbid you die on your own and make me happy. ...QUAN TOO STRONK. If only he had Pursuit. I told you I have massive bias. Just wait till we get a certain Thunder Mage though. I want to promote Finn and Ethlyn before they leave. I've done it before and plan to do it again. #PersonalGoals Da boss. More dinero for Finn and a Speed Ring. Brother and sister love that isn't incest. Beautiful B-But Quan enjoys her Healing Staff... Says the barbarians who are obviously ninja that somehow crossed the border undetected. Lol. No sir. The fact that yo- Actually in the words of Masamune Date, "You never had a chance!" But no boss kill for Sigurd. Can we send him back in a coffin? Please? Burn him to the stake "Aww Azel. You're a burden to all of us. Not just him." #YOLO Screw the Weapon Triangle. LEX. That is all. And our forces are just that much more badass because you're here. ...Remember what I said earlier about, "Screw the Weapon Triangle"? This is two misses later. Don't fuck with Finn. Healing and setting up for next time Yes. "And there's also a bird in the sky. Can we go now?" Couldn't we just leave him? Forgot what I was gonna say here but I know it was good. And that's a wrap. Next update will come possibly today. Not sure.

Here ye be mah "Canon" (quotes for a reason) run. But, wait, I said "Gimmick" in the tags. I mean it. Long story short, I -am- something of a Fanfic author, and here is a bit of an ambitious project: complete "novelization" of FE:A. How? Well, May be based on true events, and PME-TMN Practice Means Everything-Theory Means Nothing. Well, yes, that's the trick. And part of the point of this Play log... Rules of the Run: Hard- Classic. Lunatic(+) is far too masochistic and dumb for me to write about! (No one wants to know how Frederick beats everything, and how Water Robin destroys all the badguys.) and it doesn't exactly make sense for random brigand myrm to be able to solokill Chrom. But death means drama, although I'm playing to avoid it... Ironman. Only Lucina gets a second chance at things, because she's hax, but she's already on her second roll. Also, 0 HP = DEAD unless you're evil. (Note, I can and -will- kill off people who die in game in the result, even if they don't die canonically, I.E. Frederick or Lissa.) (Yes, worst comes to worst, I'll even kill off Lucina :( ) This rule comes to a close after Chapter 25, discounting Bonus Box Paralogues. No Undermanning. Essentially, I'm playing as though I have a deploy minimum of "Whatever the Chapter's deploy limit is". This rule comes to a close for the post-chapter 25 grinding phase, and excludes Paralogue 23 (Which I'm going to put a "deploy minimum" at 20). Renown... Only logical things (basically, I can guess at Robin getting a hold of a Second Seal out of the Shepherd's "warchest" in the lead up to Chapter 5, but not say Gradivus) (Expect that Bullion to happen early though), and I can only get at it if its Logical to do so at that point in the story. Bonus Box Items. I will probably let every single one of them appear. (Note, for instance, the Luna Lance is Sumia's. (Headcanon: The Luna Lance is in fact, not the Luna Lance of FE2, but rather the lance Sumia and Cynthia were making- this is why it's Sumia's canon weapon, as seen in her official art)) but they won't happen early. Streetpass Teams Exist. I won't mention a dismiss, but if I buy or fight, it will be logged, and implemented. (Streetpass teams are sorta canon, if you note: they're soldiers from another world/timeline, sorta like you are in Future Past.) They will under no circumstances be recruited however. DLC Chapters. These will happen, once each at various points in the story, where it might make sense (Likely will start with some S1 in the "two year gap" (I.E. while the game says otherwise, it'd be between Ch11 and 12.)). I will not likely use the rewards (I.E. no random All+2 or Paragon, No Dread, No Bride... Limit Breaker doesn't exist.), until past Chapter 25, where upon, I'm going to grind everyone to kingdom come. Except Gold Pack, which won't be mentioned at all, except for maybe Infinite Regalia. (Because Deadlords...) Spotpass Teams. They're Einherjar. For me to summon a Spotpass Team, I must have defeated the Einherjar in an Outrealm, so I have its card. (So I can't say, summon Arvis near the start, but after beating him in Lost Bloodlines 3, I can.) Chances of me mentioning them is little though. I might summon Raydrik or Gharnef for a Mire or two, but not till later (and I probably will not mention that I did that.) They will under no circumstances be beaten up for EXP. Risen Skirmishes. FORCED (I.E. Risen Spawn, I must defeat it!) if Feasible (EG Not between Ch 8 and 10, unless the Risen spawns on chapter 8.), and Reeking Boxes do not exist, at all. (Except in the post Ch25 Grinding Phase, because really) Annas. Completely allowed when feasible. They are, after all, just the "Secret Shop" of Awakening. Paralogues. I will be doing -all- of them, just when feasible. (Like finding Owain near the start of the Valm Arc) This does include the Spotpass Paralogues. (I will -likely- go with the Valkyrie Emm theory- makes a bit more sense than her outright living.) [Note I -may- grind a bit to unlock Morgan's Paralogue before embarking on Chapter 14, or I may wait until after Chapter 21, not sure yet] Barracks. Events will be checked. Some may be logged/implemented. Staff/Dancer Abuse Not Allowed. As much as I want to kick myself for this. Rescue Staves exist. Cherche grinding with them doesn't. Olivia will not be frantically lapdancing a billion times for nothing but EXP. Each Chapter/Paralogue/Xenologue Will have a "Chapter Challenge". I'm going to try to complete each of these, the amount of objectives will vary based on the map. Skirmishes may or may not have them. (Feel free to suggest challenges, but outside of certain defeat commander maps, LTC challenges will largely be ignored.) Pairings These Pairs are fairly set in stone unless someone dies (or someone gives me legit enough reason to de-headcanon them) Chrom/Sumia Robin/Lucina Lon'qu/Lissa Vaike/Miriel Stahl/Sully Ricken/Maribelle Gregor/Nowi Virion/Cherche Henry/Panne Kellam/Cordelia [Feel free to point out why not, but Frederick/Cordelia isn't really an option unless I'm given objective evidence] Yarne/Nah Anything else will come to be on its own, unless someone wants to point out others (back it with evidence if you can. This is a more "story" oriented run.). I do plan on pairing everyone though, and am open to suggestions. Reclassing I'm going to try to avoid it, but options are still up there. I'm not going to outright say I'm going to reclass, but I'm not saying I'm not. MU Male Build: 1 Face: 1 Hair: 1 Hair Color: 1 Voice: 1 +HP, -LCK Name: Robin Birthday: October 22nd, as space radiation. Fanfic Link I suppose I should first post this: Howl to the Future (Up through Chapter 3.)