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Lunatic+ LTC Rules: Lunatic+ / Classic +Mag/-Str Female Robin. Going -Str is just a big mistake objectively and there is no reason to do it, just go -Luk like a normal person. +Mag is required for hitting a specific benchmark for chapter 5, as well as for general high killing power. -Skl is the usual flaw but I can't do it in this playthrough because Skl won't be a dump stat here! Renown allowed up to Tiki's Tear. Given the nature of this gamemode, I want as many statboosters as possible for consistency - this seemed like a good stopping point. For a future run, this is probably unnecessary and going up to Seraph's Robe is probably just fine. For complete overkill, going up to Gradivus will allow for Gradivus Fred which sounds pretty hilarious actually but that's not going to be a thing for this playthrough. All Gen 1 units must be recruited and kept alive. Gen 2 characters are optional. Paralogues 1, 2, 3, 4 and 17 are mandatory and may be done whenever. Children paralogues are all optional. However, any children paralogues done must result in the children themselves being recruited. Skirmishes, DLC, Logbook, bonus box, wireless, Anna shops are all banned. Exception: Spotpass shops may be used to replicate items in shops blocked by Risen. Sparkling tiles must be avoided where possible. Any items obtained as a result must be discarded. The major divergence for this run is allowing renown beyond the standard Bullion (L) - going up to the Seraph's Robe seems arbitrary, but I'll talk about it a little later. For the uninitiated, in this gamemode every enemy has two random L+ exclusive skills - it is also assumed these skills are all uniformly distributed. These skills re-roll on each map roll (though they do not reroll for map skirmishes). From Prologue to Chapter 2, the random skill pool is: Hawkeye (Enemy hit is 100%) Luna+ (Luna which always triggers). Note that Luna(+) always rounds down for total damage dealt. Vantage+ (Enemies always attack first) Pass From Chapter 3 until the rest of the game, the random skill pool includes the following skills on top of the previous four: Counter Pavise+ (Pavise which always triggers) Aegis+ ( Aegis which always triggers) One peculiarity of Lunatic+ is that enemy units do not 'know' they have their skills, bar Pass and (I strongly believe) Hawkeye. This means that for instance 1-2 range Counter enemies can be manipulated to attack at 2 range if able, and enemies with L+ can be baited to damage a unit in preference to killing another. To give a specific example for the latter, let's assume a 9 Str Iron Sword myrmidon with A swords and L+ has two targets: 3 HP / 14 Def Silver Lance Fred 20 HP / 6 Def Robin With L+, the Myrm will deal 7 damage to Fred and cleanly kill him; in practice, the myrm will always go for Robin over Fred as the combat forecast damage shows a higher displayed value, so assuming he does not double Robin will survive. Another peculiarity of L+ is that due to the existence of the two skills Luna+ and Counter, having a high amount of raw HP is extremely helpful compared to normal play; this explains the seemingly arbitrary Renown benchmark of Seraph's Robe. In addition, unlike many other FEs, Awakening enemy AI is 'smarter'; Units are able to gang up on a single unit if the AI calculates there may be a kill, and it will also move a unit out of the way if a unit can score a kill - a prime example here is during Interceptor's old Chapter 5 turtling strats, where a blocking melee may move out of a way if a mage can score a kill. There is also minor (but still extant) randomness in the AI, in which it may behave slightly differently for no discernible reason; this can happen for attack order, unit targeting, and general enemy movement. As an example for the latter, KTT's Chapter 1 strat may see the boss move in another direction some of the time for no real reason. This run plays significantly differently compared to vanilla lunatic. The nature of this gamemode encourages juggernauting to the extreme; in particular, I rig Robin's early levels a lot so that she can snowball ASAP. Also, the reliability of many early to mid game chapters are probably completely shot, but I wouldn't attempt this run if that discouraged me. >.> Chapter List:

I haven't had the time to play low-turn counts for nearly half a year, it seems. Now that I've got some, I could get into something and since an Echoes LTC had been brought up to me several times, it's no surprise I started the run. Gaiden/Echoes seems like the least LTC-friendly games out there, as enemies you can't reliably one-turn KO are a nightmare to a run like this, other factors also contributing to the difficulty. YouTube Playlist Above you can find everything I've shared of the playthrough so far. I record every battle and eventually it all ends up in the playlist. The video for each map is accompanied by a lengthy video description, which I never seem to grow tired of writing. I've felt the need to start this thread for multiple reasons. The main one is getting some advice on some rather important policies (outlined in the topic poll) and another one is to document and plan out the run. The few times I did a playthrough of the game, I hardly did it with an eventual LTC in mind, so I have quite a lot to brainstorm about moving on from casual to really meticulous and ambitious playstyle. My current turn counts are as follows: Having reached map 1-7 with a pretty mag-rigged Silque @ lv. 5.98, I've been wondering if she can feasibly get to Warp prior to this map. Being able to warp a fighter or two over the wall would presumably speed up the map's completion exponentially. Since we're talking about 6 levels worth of experience in 4 storyline maps, I imagine the answer is affirmative. I've gone back to past maps (from the very beginning) trying to improve upon the chapter 1 clear by feeding Silque all of the bosskills and also trying to get some extra exp from enemy phase (not the hardest thing to arrange when Silque takes the most damage if nobody else in range is getting doubled). I may have to give all three +spd well boosts to Silque, but am not yet sure if this necessary. If she can gain these points on her way to Warp, others could make use of the well boosts. For example, when you play very fast, Merc!Gray only has 7 base spd with the Lightning Sword. This means he needs 3 procs to double Slayde in the last map of the chapter (which is not necessarily a turn-shaving difference considering how many other foes we need to handle and that Gray can't 2HKO anyone but archers anyway). Playing fast and making so many sacrifices restrains me even more (skipping random battles and dungeon fights is already rather limiting). For instance, I can hardly imagine which kills I can afford to feed Kliff on the revised run (which could well prove a failure with Silque not reaching Warp but I'm hoping for the best) and if he's ever seeing promotion at all (I guess, he just needs to be fielded for that bonus exp to get there some day). At the same time, I really do require a competent archer, possibly two. Now some urgent problems outlined in the poll... Silver Mark farming and Forges This is a very important issue, because so far it seems to me that silver marks can be farmed for endlessly in dungeons without aggroing enemies, 1-5 per visit or more if you're feeling reckless. I've heard others say the coins eventually end and you can't milk a dungeon for any more, so I tested this today and got to over 100 silver marks before doing map 1-3 in chapter 1, not to mention a ton of food from boxes. If marks can really be farmed endlessly, you just need to dedicate yourself to farming as many as you can to have the best versions of your weapons as early as possible. This can get too silly imho. e.g. the chapter 1 Iron Bow can turn into a Killer Bow+3 because you just need to get 590 silvers/2 golds to max the forge. Every other earlygame weapon is maxed similarly, and it's possible considering gold marks can be traded if you bring enough silvers with you. It's easy to see why I would find such a run discouraging (too much looking around grass in dungeons instead of strategising), but how can I handle the problem? One solution is simply never picking up any food from dungeons and never cutting grass for coins. Some money can still be accumulated by beating enemies in fixed encounters, selling food found in towns and doing quests. I'm not sure if there's any middle ground. Optional encounters A notorious obstacle before this run. Once enemies appear on the map, they appear to have a fixed pace at which they progress towards you. Reloading your save will not change their behaviour at all. Naturally, this problems makes me very apprehensive, as I would need to manipulate them in order to (ideally) not see any optional battles on my run. Unless somebody makes a discovery regarding their behaviour and ways to exploit it, I will probably have to suck it up and just face some of them in-battle. This leads us to another issue to be solved - do these encounters add to the turn count in the run? I should also add that the line between storyline and optional encounters is somewhat thin. Many folks who have played the game more than once may have noticed that if some "random" enemies appear in the same place of the map where a storyline battle is about to occur, you will be facing both the fixed enemies as well as the skirmish party on the storyline map. It's all very confusing and troublesome at the moment, and yet without resolving the issue there's little clarity concerning LTCing the game past chapter 2 or so. Any help and opinions are greatly appreciated, as per usual!

Which is a more important stat in Fire Emblem Gaiden Specifically? We all know that speed is universally the best stat in every FE game. But is it more or less important than defense in Gaiden? Personally, I'd say that defense is more important. In Gaiden, the amount of enemies you face at the middle and end of the game are quite strong, and many enemy units can attack almost anyone from multiple angles (Knights, Snipers, wizards, paladins etc can all gang up on you). Since the minimum damage dealt in gaiden is 1 instead of 0, you would think that defense doesn't matter much. But consider this: Would you rather take 2 points of damage from being doubled on enemy phase, or 6 damage from one attack? While getting doubled is never fun to look at, it's never really an issue in gaiden, assuming you promote and utilize your items. A majority of your units will have enough speed to double or not get doubled by generic Snipers, Knights, and even the Final Boss! As for being doubled by magic enemies that swarm you, there are few instances in Gaiden where Magic is an issue. You have the angel ring, dread fighters, the magic shield, and even the Dragon shield that all make proper defenses against magic that you can give to your knights and low res units. Of course, high defense and Speed is fantastic, but few units have that advantage. Celica can be fast, but Valbar takes all the abuse. And last I checked, an average Celica can't handle Geyse 1v1. What do you guys think?

So ... we have some interesting things on our hands. a) Debuffs from weapons, which apparently stack [i heard that Silver debuffs add up over consecutive battles.] b) An inability to double with most 1-2 range weaponry, the exceptions being Tomes. c) Nosferatu nerf [can't double]. d) Nohrian terrain, map layout and varied objectives. e) A lot of Player Phase oriented skills, like Prescient Victory or Belka's Ambush skill, or things like Flamboyant and Line of Death which make it inadvisable for units to take on tanking roles. There's an obvious shift in emphasis from Enemy-Phase action to Player Phase actions. The weapons have also gone some interesting shifts: Bows are part of the triangle, have some interesting slayer options and Prescient Victory is a solid skill, especially when you factor in that bows can double at range. Myrmidons and Archers are no longer straight-forward the weakest, high-movement classes are not by default the best because while they can get places faster they can do less when they get there and a shift to a predominantly not-Seize or Bosskill playstyle is upon us, if Nohr is any indication. Our previous understanding of how to play Fire Emblems is being rewritten. Going forward, what will be the best way to play the game at a brisk place? Reliable player-phase offense seems to be very valuable since our tanks won't also be our routers. What does everyone think?

Eh, I'm not that good at making long introductions, not like you need one. Anyway, I decided to do a H4 efficiency run. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VApt8XaW9cI Rules: - H4 / Lunatic Reverse mode. - Efficiency, aka quick and reliable clears. Map save-backed up crits are fine; one is allowed per map save at 20% or better, except for Hardin (two crits). I do accept a prologue steel axe dodge here and there because who doesn't. - Full recruitment, no deaths. - Lunatic Boosters, Mixed Reclass, RP, Growth Drop and Bond Drop are fine. - No How's everyone. - Growth rigging isn't prohibited. While I won't reset for excessive blessings, I prefer having the possibility to make up for screwages via map saves. (The first part excludes Drill Grounds because I'm not investing money into bad or mediocre levels.) MU: Myrmidon, Orphan (Str / Mag), Kind (Def), Enlightened (HP) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhCrgmcY3Hg P1: MU should get a Str proc here; it's IIRC about equally likely as rigging the Fighter roll on Prologue 3, and it's better for longterm. P2: MU should proc Str again, to gang up on the Fighter on P3. MU having 3 Lck might be needed for a 4-turn, but I don't exactly remember. Luke's possible 9 Skl roll makes me suspect it isn't needed. P3: A 4-turn is possible if MU's levels are more blessed, with my actual MU it would've required 2 dodges because my Vulnerary count was a bit low. P4-A: I think a 4-turn might be possible because by turn 4, all enemies but Athena would be defeated with a different strategy; I recall that I'd also have enough units to gang up on Athena Atk-wise, but they'd sit so low on HP that they can't take a single hit from her. P5: Can be more reliable if Ryan proc's Str twice (like, if he gets 2 levels to begin with, but I'm not focussing on using him a whole lot). P6-O: Tried if a 2-turn is possible on H4, but there's a similar issue as for the Athena 4-turn. P7-C: Luke had 5 Lck, allowing for a 3-turn if the Myrmidon that attacks him on EP1 has 14 Skl. With a more def-blessed MU, I feel it can be done by manipulating the Myrmidon and Archer rolls to lower Atk and attacks a Luke with above 5 Lck who has a sword equipped, but that's less likely to occur. 4+4+5+5+4+3+3/28 turns. Turncounts and videos: Staff usage: Credits:

What the title says. In case the reader doesn't know what this is, there was a disc available with Mario Kart Double Dash. If the disc was inserted in the Gamecube, and if the Gamecube was connected with the GBA, then it'd allow "transfer" data from the disc to the game. This would allow access to some items from Chapter 12 onwards. There are save files around the internet that allow access to these items. These are: -> Emblem Weapons (free Iron Weapons with 60 uses) -> An Emblem Seal (+10% hit and avoid) -> Statboosters (one of each class, except Speedwings ._. I believe they already knew that Speedwings!Marcus would be broken) -> A Wind Sword. -> A Dragon Axe. -> A Thor's Ire. -> A Silver Card. I haven't read any consensus regarding these items in LTC context, so I wonder what impact would these items make in an efficiency environment. I apologize for the grammar mistakes.

H4 Orphan, Strength, Honourable Female Mage!MU. Mixed classes, Forges, Lunatic boosters, Bonds, and Base arena are okay. RP, Drops, Wi-fi and Everybody's situation are not. All playable characters will be recruited and kept alive. All villages will be visited. (C15's joint village may or may not be up to a vote which I may or may not veto depending on how close the vote is.) This playthrough will be a semi-efficiency playthrough. That is, I'll keep dead turns (where nothing much is happening besides healing and movement or just literally nothing is happening) to a minimum but the style of play will be relatively safe (except maybe around save points - I don't know why I can't help myself around them). Prologue 51 turns P-1 6 P-2 6 P-3 7 P-4A 9 P-5 4 P-6O 3 P-7C 3 P-8 13 Chapters C1 8 C2 6 Anyway, P-1 to P-4A, P-5, P-6O, and P-7C. MU ends up pretty SPD and RES blessed by the end of P-7C.

I’ve been arguing for Sirius to be in Top and others have asserted he should be in High. A lot of Sirius’s utility comes from a wide class selection and good enough weapon ranks. Depending on what forges you have available he could actually be really adaptable. Anyways, this thread is help people see what I see in Sirius and to know what forges people make. The forges don’t have to be for a particular mode or even for efficiency play. These are the forges I think are pretty good for H3. Most of these forges are pretty common knowledge obviously. I think only like 2 or 3 stand out. In not-so-efficient play I like to make some fun forges like Excalibur Mt Shavers so I can pretend this game isn't sexist and that Linde is just as good as Etzel. Worth it! What forges do you make?

1. Lunatic stat-boosters and mixed male classes are assumed. 2. I'm not going to be using any Wi-Fi stuff, so no Rainbow Potion et al. 3. Everyone must be recruited, and no playable characters are to die. I'm not going to be as cold-hearted as Marth, at least not in this playthrough. 4. The framework for efficiency I adopt is expected turncounts; this isn't pure LTC. 5. Rigging for good level-ups is OK, but I probably won't do it often, if at all. While strategies demanding near-perfect level-ups often have low raw turncounts, the expected turncounts are likely to be higher once the player is penalized for the resets needed to get those level-ups. Welcome to another playthrough topic. The name of the game is Lunatic Reverse. I am already familiar with some of the LTC strategies developed by Colonel_M, dondon, mjemirzian, and others, so their strategies will be cited when appropriate. For those strategies of theirs with which I'm not familiar, I'll figure them out independently and/or improve upon them, if possible (I'll likely not figure them out at all). My Avatar is named ヒース (Heath), and his build is: Clergy's Child: Def +2 Diverse: Str and Mag +1/+10% Honorable: Skl/Spd +15% I considered Noble's Child, but found that Prologues 1 and 2 would, on average, take a bit longer than with a Clergy's Child due to Jagen being too strong and Rody being too durable. [spoiler=Prologue 1 (4/4)]A Clergy's Child Avatar all but guarantees a four-turn clear, Iron Lance misses notwithstanding. Unless the +HP Past trait is also used, the +1/+5% Def Present (cba to look up the name) will take an extra turn if Jagen spawns with an extra point of attack; the Clergy's Child doesn't have this problem. In my redo of the level with an Honorable Avatar, I forgot to write down the stats. I suppose I'll keep the old set of stats here for the heck of it. [spoiler=old, irrelevant] Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Heath 2.70 21 10 01 05 02 04 13 00 D Lance Knight [spoiler=Prologue 2 (4/8)]A four-turn clear requires either that a Clergy's Child Avatar gets (I think) two +Def level-ups OR that a +1/+10% Str Avatar gets at least one +Str level-up in the two level-ups that occur before facing Rody (at a 50% growth rate, this occurs 75% of the time); if neither occurs, then this transitions into a five-turn clear. I think if Rody spawns with 17 Atk, the four-turn clear can occur that way without the need for the extra Def. Not much worth noting other than the fact that an Avatar who doesn't have at least 10 Str before facing Rody will finish on turn 4 enemy phase at the earliest, whereas a 10 Str or better Avatar can finish on turn 4 player phase. Again, I forgot to write down the stats following this chapter. [spoiler=old, irrelevant] Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Heath 3.10 22 10 01 06 02 05 14 00 D Lance Knight Ryan 1.69 base [spoiler=Prologue 3 (4/12)]In my redo, I managed to get a four-turn clear. I do not think Spd is necessarily a limiting factor for the four-turn clear; however, having 3 Spd or more definitely allows for more ways of securing the four-turn clear since the Knight can be used more aggressively to draw in enemies. Str is important, as an Avatar with 11 Str can kill Fighters after two Iron Lance hits and a shot from Ryan. I used the standard 'T' formation on turn 1 and KOed one of the two drawn-in enemies on turn 2. What I often did in my test runs was to draw in either the Fighter or Caeda on turn 2, while also forming a barrier to protect Ryan from the remaining drawn-in enemy, and wait until turn 3 to draw in the other of the Fighter/Caeda, though I had one successful run that involved drawing them both in on turn 3 enemy phase. If Caeda has 32 HP instead of 31, it may not be productive to have Ryan attack her, as a Knight Avatar plus an Iron Bow shot will not be enough to KO her; in a subsequent test run, I wound up having Rody KO Caeda after she took a second hit from the Avatar, while Ryan chipped the Fighter on turn 4 player phase for Luke to finish. The run of the level I actually kept was one in which Ryan KOed Caeda, and Luke and Rody didn't get any kills for themselves. I would have preferred that Luke got a kill or two, but EXP optimization is really meaningless and unreliable in this stage due to the varying enemy stats. I only kept this run because I didn't feel like recording a new set of stats. These stats are up to date. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Heath 3.90 21 11 01 07 03 03 14 00 D Lance Knight Ryan 2.49 19 08 00 05 04 03 08 00 D Bow Archer Luke 1.20 base Rody 1.20 base [spoiler=Prologue 4 (4/16)]Everyone hid in the alcove except for the Avatar, who was positioned to face at least two enemies per enemy phase. Caeda got the boss kill, and Ryan got in some potshots. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Heath 5.78 23 12 01 09 03 03 15 00 C Lance Knight Ryan 3.39 20 08 00 06 05 03 08 00 D Bow Archer Luke 1.33 base Rody 1.20 base Caeda 4.69 base Wrys 3.51 base [spoiler=Prologue 5 (5/21)]Credit to dondon for the general structure of the strategy. I suspect a four-turn clear is possible at realistic odds if Athena dodges either a Fighter on turn 3 or the boss on turn 4, but I didn't want to bother with that. Turn 1: Athena was positioned on the forest tile 2U1R from the fort. Everyone else stayed out of enemy range. For this tactic to work, Athena must dodge one of two Fighters, each of whom has 60% true hit; if she dodges more than one of the two, then I suspect the strategy transitions into a six-turn clear, as one of the enemy hunters behaves slightly differently. Turn 2: Merric got onto the fort and finished one of the Fighters. Luke finished the other one, making sure to stay out of enemy range. Ryan chipped the top Hunter, and Heath finished the kill from the square below the upper fort. Athena moved to the square below Heath and ORKOed the other Hunter. I think I subsequently moved Caeda onto the top fort; not completely sure what I did in this particular attempt since, depending on the enemy and player stats, other moves may also work. Turn 3: Finished the non-boss enemies. Turn 4: Healed. Turn 5: Dogpile on the boss. Luke got the kill. I suppose it is worth noting that a Noble's Child Avatar with five level-ups (Lv. 6) has a 57% chance of reaching 5 Spd ('=BINOMDIST(3,5,0.65,1)' in Excel), enough to avoid getting doubled by Fighters, whereas an Honorable Avatar has only a 13% chance with five level-ups. Reaching the 5 Spd benchmark probably allows for a five-turn clear or better without needing a ninja dodge from Athena. Actually, I'm not even sure if a fast Avatar is necessary for a more reliable five-turn clear, but I kind of just want to move on. For giving him the boss kill, Luke rewarded me with an HP-only level-up. Stoopid Luke. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Heath 6.47 24 12 01 10 04 03 15 00 C Lance Knight Ryan 3.49 20 08 00 06 05 03 08 00 D Bow Archer Luke 2.28 21 07 00 05 07 04 07 00 D Sword E Lance Cavalier Rody 1.20 base Caeda 4.89 base Wrys 4.19 who cares Athena 10.72 base Merric 10.39 base [spoiler=Prologue 6: Draug (3/24)]This map was relatively simple. Turn 1: Cecille, Heath, Ryan, and Luke made a 'T' formation along the RHS, with Heath protruding, and with Cecile, Ryan, and Luke collinear from top to bottom in that order. In the process, I traded the Steels to the relevant characters. Meanwhile, Merric was positioned to draw in the Mage, and Caeda was positioned at the bottom-right corner. During the enemy phase, the Soldiers attacked Cecile and Luke, while the Mage attacked Merric. Turn 2: Caeda finished the Mage; Merric and Ryan teamed up on a Soldier; and Heath finished the other Soldier while making sure to be in Draug's range. Turn 3: Merric chipped Draug, and Luke got the kill. Everyone else teamed up on the Soldier, who would be killed by Caeda. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Heath 6.86 24 12 01 10 04 03 15 00 C Lance Knight Ryan 3.89 20 08 00 06 05 03 08 00 D Bow Archer Luke 3.00 22 08 00 06 08 04 07 00 D Sword E Lance Cavalier Rody 1.20 base Caeda 5.46 19 06 02 08 16 14 08 06 D Lance Pegasus Knight Wrys 4.19 who cares Athena 10.72 base Merric 10.64 base Cecile 3.10 base [spoiler=Prologue 7: Cain (4/28)]A three-turn clear is possible at lowish but not unreasonable odds: if all three of Caeda, Luke, and Athena at their base stats attack Cain with their Steel weapons, Cain will have only 2 HP remaining. Thus, if Caeda has +1 Str from base OR the three units have a combined +2 Str from their bases, then they will KO Cain. I didn't meet the benchmarks, so I settled for a four-turn clear without Athena. While I met them by the end of the level due to Caeda's level-up, I hadn't fielded Athena, and I'm not sure if Caeda's level-up occurred before or after KOing Cain. Turn 1: Merric attacked the left Knight, and Heath finished. Caeda attacked the Myrmidon, making sure to stay out of range of the other enemies (saw this idea in Balcerzak's video some time ago). Ryan, Wrys, and Luke advanced slightly. During the enemy phase, a Myrmidon attacked Heath; the other Knight took a counterattack from Merric; and the other Myrmidon died from Caeda's counterattack. Turn 2: Positioned 1D1R from the bottom fort, Merric finished the Knight he chipped during turn 1 EP. Wrys Healed Merric. Luke and Caeda teamed up on the Archer. Heath pulled back by a square and used a Vulnerary, though I think I would have had to do something different if he hadn't just procured a point of Def. Turn 3: Caeda blocked the northeastern fort, Wrys blocked the southeastern fort, Luke blocked the northern fort near the center, and Heath KOed the Archer. During the enemy phase, a Cavalier spawned and hit Heath, while Cain attacked Luke. Turn 4: Heath pulled back and healed, with the Cavalier dying on the enemy phase to his counter. Everyone else ganged up on Cain and KOed him during the player phase. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Heath 7.87 25 13 01 11 05 04 16 00 C Lance Knight Ryan 4.02 20 08 00 07 05 04 08 00 D Bow Archer Luke 3.42 22 08 00 06 08 04 07 00 D Sword E Lance Cavalier Rody 1.20 base Caeda 6.58 20 07 02 09 07 15 08 06 D Lance Pegasus Knight Wrys who cares Athena 10.72 base Merric 11.13 25 00 07 06 11 07 07 06 D Tomes Mage Cecille 3.10 base [spoiler=Prologue 8 (11/39)]I fielded Caeda, Heath, Merric, Athena, Marth, Wrys, Luke, and Ryan. Turn 1: Formed a five-unit line with Caeda, Heath, Merric, Athena, and Marth. Marth was positioned at the right in order to draw in the RHS Hunter and Bandit. The two Thieves took counterattacks during the enemy phase from Merric and Athena. Turn 2: Cleaned up the enemies and placed Heath in range of the LHS bandit. Turn 3: I hid my units, as attacking the Hunter from 1-range would have triggered the Silver Axe Bandits and Mages. Heath was positioned just in range of the LHS Thief. During the enemy phase, the Hunter attacked Merric, who was positioned on the throne, and the Bandit died to Heath's enemy-phase counter (Heath was and is a bit Str-blessed; this wouldn't have worked with a Str-screwed Avatar). The LHS Thief attacked Heath. Turn 4: Finished up the enemies in the immediate vicinity and put each of Ryan and Merric in range of an advancing Hand Axe Bandit. Turn 5: In anticipation of the advancing Thieves, I put each of Heath and Caeda in range of a Thief. Ryan and Merric retreated and healed up while each staying in range of a Hand Axe Bandit. Everyone else was also bottled up towards the corners. Turn 6: Cleaned up the two Thieves and two Bandits. Athena walked in range of the Silver Axe Bandit, drawing in that Bandit as well as the two Mages and remaining Bandit. Turn 7: With Ogma and/or Est and good AI manipulation, it should be possible to clean up the four enemies drawn in on turn 6 during turn 7 player phase. I instead chose to retreat, making sure Merric was in range of the Hand Axe. On the enemy phase, the Silver Axe bandit weakened by Athena died to a counterattack from Marth. Turn 8: Cleaned up the Mages and remaining Bandit. Turn 9: At full health, Caeda flew in range of a Silver Sword Thief and a Levin Sword Thief. Merric walked in range of the Levin Sword Thief on the opposite side of the map. During the enemy phase, the Silver Sword Thief on Caeda's side died to her counterattack (this doesn't happen unless Caeda is very Str-blessed and/or the Thief spawns with 28 HP/2 Def. I don't think it really influenced the turncount of this particular attempt for several reasons, but I suspect that the fastest clear will require this sort of luck). The other Thief took a counterattack from Merric. Turn 10: Retreated and healed my units. Turn 11: Cleaned up. Athena KOed Katarina. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Marth 7.87 27 09 00 10 11 09 08 00 D Sword Lord Heath 9.82 27 14 03 13 06 06 18 00 C Lance Knight Ryan 4.62 20 08 00 07 05 04 08 00 D Bow Archer Luke 5.59 24 10 00 07 09 05 08 00 D Sword E Lance Cavalier Rody 1.20 base Caeda 8.25 20 07 02 11 19 16 09 06 D Lance Pegasus Knight Wrys 6.06 16 00 03 07 10 04 03 08 D Staff Curate Athena 11.53 26 09 00 13 14 ?? ?? 01 B Sword Myrmidon Merric 11.87 25 00 07 06 11 07 07 06 D Tomes Mage Cecille 3.10 base I started to write down Athena's stats right as the stage was ending, so I didn't actually get them all down.[spoiler=Chapter 1 (8/47)]I gave a Seraph Robe to Heath, who was Spd-blessed enough to double the Bandits as a Pirate, and, with the Seraph Robe, durable enough to survive two Silver Axe hits with a single point of health. I don't think the eight-turn clear happens without either a stat-blessed Avatar or more than one stat-booster. The Rainbow Potion, combined with a single booster if necessary, also works. Deployed Arran (General), Luke (Hunter), Draug (Cavalier), Cecille (Peg Knight), Heath (Pirate), Rody (Curate), Gordin (Cavalier), Ryan (Archer), and Marth (Lord). Turn 1: Arran used the Steel Lance on the northwest Bandit, and Luke KOed with the Iron Bow; if Luke weren't so Str-blessed, Arran would have simply used the Silver Lance instead. Rody healed Arran from Arran's left, and Draug moved up to shield Rody from the Bandit. Cecille headed toward the cave. Heath moved in range of two Bandits (well, three, but I knew one of them would attack Draug). Marth joined the other units, making sure to be shielded. Although Luke was not shielded, the one Bandit who could attack him instead chose to attack Draug, presumably because the Bandit was hoping for a crit. Gordin and Ryan headed left but stayed out of enemy range. During the enemy phase, Heath ORKOed two Bandits, and Draug (I think) got a crit on the Bandit that attacked him, though it wasn't important since I a bow user and another Cavalier ready to team up on that Bandit. Not really planning on using Draug long-term, either. Turn 2: Cecille visited the cave; in retrospect, this was probably a mistake since I could likely have KOed the Thief (who didn't spawn) with Luke at a later time for free EXP. Arran and Luke teamed up on another Bandit for a KO. Marth moved towards the village while staying out of range of the axe user. Gordin and Ryan had nothing to do since Draug ate their lunch during turn 1. Rody healed somebody, probably Draug. During the enemy phase, the Hunter attacked Luke. Turn 3: From here on out, it's pretty straightforward. Marth recruited Mallesia. Draug (either him or Gordin; probably Draug since his Def is lower than Marth's) blocked Mallesia's eventual destination this turn, preventing her from being attacked. Mallesia moved to said square and healed Draug. Luke got into position to attack the Bandit on the next player phase. During the enemy phase, the Bandit attacked Draug and took a sizable counter. I think I used the save point sometime either this turn or the next. Turn 4: Luke chipped the Bandit for Marth to finish. Someone visited the shop and bought two Javelins. People got healed and got into position for turn 5. Turn 5. Arran was healed and got on the fort with a Steel Lance equipped. Cecille headed left to distract some enemies, but stayed just out of their range. Marth used his max move for this turn and the next two. Turn 6: Ryan and Luke used their bows to finish the two enemies Arran weakened. Heath ORKOed the Bandit, and Arran teamed up with someone (probably Draug) to KO the Hunter drawn to the right. Marth moved towards Lorenz. Turn 7: Only two enemies remained, so I cleaned up pretty easily. Marth talked to Lorenz. Turn 8: Heal and Seize. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Boosters Marth 8.04 27 09 00 11 12 10 08 00 D Sword Lord Heath 10.42 35 16 04 13 15 06 12 00 E Axe Pirate Seraph Robe Ryan 4.89 20 08 00 07 05 04 08 00 D Bow Archer Luke 6.74 25 11 00 10 09 05 04 00 E Bow Hunter Rody 2.56 18 01 01 04 05 06 02 06 E Staff Curate Arran 3.25 base Draug 6.47 base Cecille 3.10 base Gordin 5.32 base Mallesia 2.02 17 00 03 01 05 12 01 05 C Staff ClericExpenses: Sold the Bullion. Bought 2x Javelin, 1x Iron Axe, 1x Seraph Robe. (10680 G remaining)[spoiler=Chapter 2 (6/53)]This was a doozy; turn 1 required very precise positioning to bait the AI, and later turns involved some shaky hit rates from Steel weapons or from Heath facing WTD against Swords, though save points made this somewhat less annoying than it could have been. And yes, I did scoop up both the Lady Sword and Cord. As with Chapter 1, I don't see any way of clearing this in six turns on H4 without either a stat-blessed Avatar or the Rainbow Potion. I forged a +8 Mt Iron Bow at the beginning of the level. I chose this over the +5 Mt Steel Bow suggested by dondon et al. to allow both Luke and General Arran to use the bow (recall that General Arran has no WEXP in bows). Turn 1: Draug headed northwest to intercept the Lady Sword Thief. Marth recruited Cord. Luring the enemies the way I wanted was sort of annoying since it's just trial and error. Catria got a Steel Lance from Arran this turn. o A o o o o B o o o C D E o o o F o o o G o o o o o H o o I A = Heath B = Ryan C = Catria D = Arran E = Mallesia F = Luke G = Rody H = Gordin I = Marth (village tile) Turn 2 PP: Luke chipped a Hunter with an unforged Iron Bow, though I could have used the forge if he were Str-cursed. Catria recruited Warren and finished the Hunter. Heath moved up and ORKOed another Hunter. Cord moved near Heath while staying out of range of the Soldiers. Marth headed north. Mallesia healed Luke. Arran and Ryan moved north through the forest. Gordin headed around the forest, in preparation for a single turn 5 attack, as his initial positioning was too far away to let him get through the forests in time. Draug continued heading northwest. Turn 2 EP: Two Soldiers were ORKOed by Heath. Catria got lucky against the remaining Soldier with a crit, though it wasn't necessary since I had spare bow users during the subsequent player phase. Turn 3 PP: Cord used the save point. Draug hit the Thief with a Javelin. Heath was healed by Mallesia and headed north, just out of range of a Dracoknight, to take out two Cavaliers during the enemy phase. Arran moved north. Warren moved west to use the other save point on the next turn. The bow users moved as close to the action as they could without getting in enemy range. Catria moved left and used a Vulnerary. Marth headed north. Turn 3 EP: Two Cavaliers died to Heath, while the other got chipped by Marth. Turn 4 PP: Bord and Luke teamed up to KO the Cavalier weakened by Marth. Arran unequipped his weapons to avoid getting KOed by the boss, who would double Arran and gang up on him with the Draco to his right. Arran, Marth, and Heath were positioned left to right in that order, with Heath positioned on the center-right fort using a Vulnerary during the player phase. Marth also used a Vulnerary to survive a hit from the remaining Cavalier, whose positioning was limited due to the forests. Catria finished the Lady Sword Thief. Draug equipped the Steel Lance and moved in range of the leftmost Dracoknight. The bow users moved closer in preparation for Draco-sniping. Turn 4 EP: Marth countered the Cavalier with the Rapier. Arran survived the boss (who doubled him) and a Dracoknight. Heath countered a Dracoknight, scoring an unnecessary crit (someone would have KOed him anyway on the next turn). Draug countered a DK towards the west with his Steel Lance. Turn 5: With his unforged Steel Bow, Warren teamed up with Draug (who switched to his Javelin) to weaken the leftmost Dracoknight for Catria to finish with her own Javelin. They faced shaky hit rates, but that's what the save point is for. Everyone else cleaned up, passing the Iron Bow forge around (I used it three times this turn). Gordin KOed someone with his unforged Steel Bow. Turn 6: Heal and Seize. No enemies were standing at the beginning of the turn. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Boosters Marth 8.22 27 09 00 11 12 10 08 00 D Sword Lord Heath 11.64 36 16 04 14 16 06 12 00 E Axe Pirate Seraph Robe Ryan 5.59 21 09 00 08 06 05 08 00 D Bow Archer Luke 7.93 26 12 00 10 09 05 04 00 E Bow Hunter Rody 2.56 not using him anymore Arran 3.55 base Draug 6.82 base Gordin 5.59 base Mallesia 2.87 17 00 03 01 05 12 01 05 C Staff Cleric Catria 7.48 23 08 02 09 15 10 09 00 C Lance Pegasus Knight Linde 4.00 base [spoiler=Chapter 3 (17/70)]I'm using Linde since I want to see what all the fuss in the tier list is about. I missed out on about 42 EXP (three shots of chip damage) due to me not giving Linde her Seraph Robe at the beginning of the level; initially I had been saving the money for a Speedwing in the event Marth would gain enough Spd by C4 to double Hunters after downing a Speedwing, but I later realized that this wasn't necessary for a seven-turn clear of C4. The general skeleton of the clear was more or less taken from what I remember of CM's thread. I deployed Heath (Cavalier), Luke (Archer, NOT Hunter because I prefer the Archer's growth spread), Ryan (Archer), Gordin (Hunter), Mallesia (Cleric), Arran (Dracoknight), Linde (Mage), and Catria (Pegasus Knight). Turn 1: Arran, Heath, and Marth moved left. Luke distracted the Ballista to protect Marth. Palla flew up to a fort out of DK range. Everyone else just got out of the way of the DKs and stayed near the starting position. Turn 2: Arran flew in range of one DK, which would draw three down during the enemy phase. Marth continued moving left and down. Heath moved left. Catria and Luke each face-tanked a Dracoknight from one of the rightward groups. Turn 3: Catria, Luke, and Linde each got a DK kill. Arran flew left, staying in range of only one DK. Marth and Heath kept moving. During the EP, two of the three Dracoknights drawn in by Arran flew towards the starting position. Palla OHKOed the Thief. Turn 4: Marth kept moving towards the village. Heath finished the DK that followed Arran. Palla occupied the leftmost fort and used a Vulnerary, equipping a Silver Lance to OHKO a Cavalier during the EP. Everyone else braced for the two incoming Dracoknights drawn in by Arran. Turn 5: Marth recruited Bord. The units near the starting position cleaned up the two Dracoknights. Palla flew left and healed again. I don't remember what exactly I did with Heath and Arran this turn; I may have drawn in the Master Seal Dracoknight either this turn or the next. Turns 6-12: Marth KOed the Master Seal Dracoknight and moved at full speed; Palla and Heath cleaned up the Cavs chasing her; Catria, Luke, and Linde took care of the remaining Dracoknights; Catria was subsequently healed and flew across the sea to pass her Vulnerary to units who needed it; Mallesia spammed heals, with characters being put in range of the Ballista if necessary. Turns 13-17: Marth recruited Julian; Julian recruited Matthis; Catria (Javelin) and Arran teamed up to draw in the Cavs; Heath finished most of the Cavs; blah blah blah. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Boosters Marth 8.91 27 09 00 11 12 10 08 00 D Swd Lord Heath 13.21 38 14 04 17 16 07 16 00 B Lnc E Swd Cavalier Seraph Robe Ryan 5.59 21 09 00 08 06 05 08 00 D Bow Archer Luke 9.93 26 12 00 11 08 06 08 00 E Bow Archer Arran 3.86 base Gordin 6.01 26 12 00 11 08 06 08 00 E Bow Hunter Mallesia 5.79 19 00 04 02 06 13 03 07 C Stf Cleric Catria 9.23 25 10 02 11 17 11 10 06 C Lnc Pegasus Knight Linde 6.07 22 00 05 06 10 10 02 04 D Tme Mage Palla 11.33 25 10 02 12 16 09 10 06 B Lnc Pegasus Knight No expenses were made here. (2540 G remaining)[spoiler=Chapter 3x (6/76)]I deployed Heath (Cavalier), Catria (Cavalier), Mallesia (Cleric), Palla (Pegasus Knight), and Linde (Mage). Turn 1: With the Starsphere shard, Catria used a Javelin on the bottom Knight. Heath traded the Steel Lance to the top of Catria's inventory and attacked the top Knight. Having taken a Seraph Robe from the shop, Linde finished off the Knight from 2-range. Palla moved down and prepared for a hit from the middle Knight. During the enemy phase, Linde chipped an Archer, and Catria finished the bottom Knight with her Steel Lance (she got very lucky with her +Str level-ups). Marth...moved. Wrys ran away towards the right. Turn 2: Palla headed right and was healed, though I don't remember if it was with a Vulnerary or with Mallesia. Catria and Heath finished the Archers, while Linde finished the Knight. Marth and Wrys moved. Turn 3: Palla ORKOed the Archer and would chip the Knight during the enemy phase. Mallesia healed someone, and everyone else moved right. Turn 4: Palla went to the fort and finished the Knight with a Javelin. Wrys healed Palla. Someone (Linde?) blocked the other fort. More healing and moving took place. Turn 5: Palla flew in range of the rightmost Knight, and Marth moved in range of the other Knight. More healing and moving. Turn 6: The Knights were KOed by Catria and Heath, I think. Marth Seized, and Mallesia healed someone (probably Linde) Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Boosters Marth 9.00 28 09 00 11 13 11 09 00 D Swd Lord Heath 13.64 38 14 04 17 16 07 16 00 B Lnc E Swd Cavalier Seraph Robe Mallesia 6.61 19 00 05 02 06 13 03 07 B Stf Cleric Catria 9.83 25 10 02 11 17 11 10 06 C Lnc Pegasus Knight Linde 6.71 22 00 05 06 10 10 02 04 D Tme Mage Seraph Robe Palla 11.95 25 10 02 12 16 09 10 06 B Lnc Pegasus Knight Expenses: Bought a Seraph Robe for Linde (40 G remaining)[spoiler=Chapter 4 (7/83)]More or less the standard strategy was employed, though I doubt I would have managed a seven-turn clear (at least in H4) without my Avatar being above average in Spd and Def. I deployed Heath (Cavalier), Luke (Cavalier), Arran (Dracoknight), Mallesia (Cleric), Catria (Pegasus Knight), Linde (Mage), Palla (Pegasus Knight), Ryan (Hunter), and Gordin (Hunter). Turn 1: Gordin chipped the Thief for Luke to finish. Ryan chipped a Barbarian for Linde to finish. Palla and Catria ORKOed a Barbarian and a Hunter, respectively. Heath ORKOed a Barbarian and was in range of another for the enemy phase. On the other side of the map, Ogma headed left, in range of a Barbarian. Yumina used Rescue on Marth, who traded her a Mend and an Iron Sword (the former was important, the latter was not) before recruiting Castor. Castor took an Iron Bow. Arran flew up. I don't recall if the Barbarian died during the enemy phase or if instead Heath missed an attack. Turn 2: Again, I don't remember what happened during the enemy phase, but the Barbarian was dead by the end of this player phase, either from a PP attack by Linde or a clean EP KO. Heath and Catria teamed up on the Devil Sword Thief with their Javelins, and the Devil Sword was then sent to the convoy. The forts were blocked by Ryan, Arran, and either Palla or Linde; probably Palla since I think Linde needed to attack the Barbarian during the PP. Yubello and Castor teamed up on the Barbarian drawn in by Ogma. Yumina healed Ogma, who teamed up with Marth against the Thief. Turn 3 PP: Heath moved as far northeast as possible and healed, putting him in position to ORKO two Barbarians (one of which was a reinforcement) during the enemy phase. Catria followed him but stayed out of enemy range. Palla moved northeast and healed. Linde moved northeast. Arran also moved northeast and used the save point. By this time, Gordin was in position to block the lower-left fort, while Luke moved towards the northeast. Ryan and Mallesia blocked the other two forts. The northern guys pulled back slightly in an attempt to manipulate the AI. Turn 3 EP: One Hunter moved towards Marth's group, while the other moved in range of Catria. The two Barbarians died to Heath, and I think two others approached. Turn 4: Catria ORKOed the Hunter from a safe square (I don't think she was in range of more than one Barbarian, if any). With her low Def, Linde baited one Barbarian and dealt a strong counterattack. The other Barbarian died to Palla during the enemy phase. Heath plugged the fort and used a Vulnerary. Ogma and Marth teamed up on the other Hunter. Luke continued moving up. Turn 5: Marth kept moving towards the throne. Ogma recruited Sirius, who then took the Devil Sword out of the convoy. With their Javelins equipped, Heath and Catria baited a Hunter and a Hand Axe Barbarian, respectively. Linde finished the Barbarian she previously chipped, while Luke kept moving towards the throne. Turn 6: Linde headed back towards the starting position to get healed by Mallesia. Luke finished the Hand Axe Barbarian. Ogma teamed up with Castor and someone else (Palla?) to finish the Silver Axe Barbarian. Turn 7: Used the save point. Arran, Palla, and Catria hurled Javelins at the boss with low accuracy (the more hits, the better, but only one hit needed to connect). Sirius attacked with the Devil Sword. Heath finished with...something (if only one Javelin connected, a Silver Lance hit would have been needed, but I think more hits occurred on this attempt). Mallesia healed Linde, and Marth seized. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Boosters Marth 9.54 28 09 00 11 13 11 09 00 D Swd Lord Heath 14.78 38 14 05 18 16 07 17 00 B Lnc E Swd Cavalier Seraph Robe Luke 10.20 29 13 00 11 11 06 09 00 D Swd E Lnc Cavalier Arran forgot to record his stats Mallesia 7.30 19 00 05 03 06 13 03 08 B Stf Cleric Catria 10.71 26 10 02 12 18 12 10 07 C Lnc Pegasus Knight Linde 7.57 30 00 05 07 10 11 02 04 D Tme Mage Seraph Robe Palla 12.58 26 10 02 13 16 09 11 06 B Lnc Pegasus Knight Ogma 7.36 base Sirius 1.09 base Sold the Bullion from Chapter 4 (5040 G remaining).[spoiler=Chapter 5 (10/93)]Looking at one of dondon's topics, I now realize I could probably have gotten a nine-turn clear if I had planted Mallesia on a fort on turn 8, shielded her from the RHS Knight using Catria and Palla, and KOed the rightmost Ballista that same turn with Heath. I suspect it would still have been possible to do Chapter 6 in six turns by using the Door Key from that map instead of having to wait until turn 10 of C5 to buy a Door Key. Ugh. Before doing the stage, I reclassed Heath to a Pirate and fought once in the Drill Grounds to level up, gaining Spd, HP, and one or two other stats; subsequently, he promoted at Lv. 15. The mean speed of an Honorable Avatar who gains eight levels as a Knight, three levels as a Pirate, and three levels as a Cav is only 15.65 once he is reclassed to a Dracoknight; for this reason, doubling the enemy Dracoknights in this level isn't that reliable for him, with or without the Rainbow Potion, though a Noble's Child Avatar continues to have the best chance of doing so. Because my Avatar was Spd-blessed enough to double, the clear wound up being faster than I was expecting. I deployed Marth, Heath (Draco), Luke (Hunter), Ryan (Hunter), Catria (Pegasus Knight), Palla (Pegasus), Linde (Mage), Sirius (Draco), Caeda (Cavalier), Mallesia (Cleric), and Ogma (Mercenary). Turn 1: Everybody moved up, with Palla and Heath each in range of one Mage to KO during the enemy phase. Ogma recruited Barst. In retrospect, it would have been preferable to buy an Energy Drop for Catria to guarantee a ORKOed Mage, as my Str-cursed Palla would not have ORKOed if neither the left nor the right Mage spawned with 2 Def. I wound up buying a Drop for Catria to tackle Chapter 6, anyway. Turn 2: Sirius used his Steel Lance to weaken a Cavalier for Palla to finish with her Javelin. Catria used an Iron Lance to KO the remaining Mage. Ryan and Linde teamed up on a Thief. Mallesia healed Heath, who ORKOed another Cav during the player phase. Caeda moved in position to KO the last of the initial group of Cavs during the enemy phase. Turn 3: Heath moved in range of a Sniper and OHKOed the Master Seal Thief with a Silver Lance. Everyone else stayed just out of range of the Snipers and healed. Marth continued moving towards the Hammerne village. During the EP, Heath facetanked a Silver Bow hit, while the other Snipers moved south towards the other units. Turn 4: Heath weakened the Sniper who hit him for Marth to KO. Everyone else dogpiled the other group of Snipers. Jeorge was bodied up. Barst managed to survive his Parthia with a single point of health. Turn 5: Caeda moved up and chipped the Bishop with a Javelin. Heath moved in range of two Dracoknights, one of whom would attack Sirius during the enemy phase, and the other of whom would get ORKOed by Heath during the EP. Luke moved up slightly. Jeorge was still trapped; Linde chipped him with Fire for some EXP. Marth moved closer to the village while staying out of range of the DKs. Turn 6: Caeda finished the Bishop. Luke KOed the Dracoknight weakened by Sirius. Heath ORKOed another Dracoknight. The remaining Dracoknight was in position to be KOed by the combined attacks of Palla, Catria, and Sirius, though I don't recall Sirius needing to attack. Linde chipped Jeorge. Mallesia moved south. Marth continued moving. Turn 7: Catria and Palla headed west and healed. Sirius and Heath moved closer to the Ballistae and healed. Mallesia continued heading south. Caeda headed back down towards Jeorge, who was chipped by Linde again. Turn 8: Marth got the Hammerne. Linde traded an Iron Sword to Caeda, who switched places with Linde and chipped Jeorge. Catria equipped a Javelin and moved in range of two Cavaliers towards the west. Heath moved right between the Ballistae and healed. During the enemy phase, all but one of the Knights died to Heath's EP counters; meanwhile, the western group of enemies approached Palla and Catria. Turn 9: Mallesia Rescued Marth, who moved towards the throne. Heath and Sirius KOed the boss and the other Ballistician, respectively. Catria and Palla pulled back and healed; after the enemy phase, the only remaining enemy from the western group was the Sniper. Turn 10: Sirius bought five Door Keys. For whatever reason, the Sniper initially chasing Palla and Catria headed south for Heath to KO. Marth Seized. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Boosters Marth 10.07 29 09 00 12 14 12 09 01 D Swd Lord Heath 3.39 42 19 06 23 20 08 22 03 A Lnc E Axe Dracoknight Seraph Robe Luke 10.89 29 13 00 11 11 06 09 00 D Swd E Lnc Cavalier Mallesia 8.53 20 00 06 03 06 13 03 08 B Stf Cleric Catria 11.28 27 10 02 13 19 13 11 08 C Lnc Pegasus Knight Linde 9.11 30 00 07 09 12 13 02 04 D Tme Mage Seraph Robe Palla 13.71 27 10 02 14 17 09 11 06 B Lnc Pegasus Knight Sirius 1.70 base Caeda 9.95 23 09 00 09 18 17 11 01 D Lnc E Swd Cavalier Barst b.se base Expenses: Bought five Door Keys and fought one battle in the Drill Grounds. (2860 G remaining)[spoiler=Chapter 6 (6/99)]The general idea behind the clear is taken from dondon: Rescue Marth with a six-move unit. Before doing the chapter, I bought an Energy Drop for Catria to let her 2RKO the Swarm Bishop even after the other Bishop used Physic on him. I deployed Marth, Heath (Dracoknight), Luke (Hunter), Mallesia (Cleric), Catria (Pegasus Knight), Palla (Pegasus Knight), Linde (Mage), Caeda (Cavalier), Sirius (Dracoknight), and Arran (Bishop). In retrospect, I could have squeezed out a bit more EXP for Palla and Sirius had I reclassed Sirius to a Paladin (Armorslayer); additionally, reliability could have been improved slightly by reclassing Heath to Horseman since Javelins are so inaccurate. Turn 1: Heath moved in range of one of the upper Knights towards the left. Caeda moved in range towards one of the lower Knights. Catria headed right, equipped a Javelin, and used a Pure Water. Marth headed towards the chest while staying out of range of the Mages. Julian headed towards Rickard. Everyone else headed left. Turn 2: The guys on the left cleaned up; Sirius needed a Starsphere Shard to OHKO a Mage with the Silver Lance. Marth finished a Mage, while Catria flew in range of the Swarm Bishop and healed (the other Mage died during the enemy phase; if this didn't happen, it would only mean that Catria would KO the Bishops slightly later in the six-turn clear, and that Mallesia would need to use Physic on Catria). Julian opened the door. Turn 3: Sirius opened the door to Samto's chamber, and Caeda attacked the Sniper from 1-range with a Javelin. Julian recruited Rickard and took the Bullion (L). Catria attacked the Swarm Bishop. I don't recall if Marth needed to heal this turn (the Mage he finished last turn may have missed) or if he just got the chest, though I suspect it was the latter; I had some successful attempts in which Marth used a Vulnerary this turn. Either way, it would have simply delayed the unlocking by a turn, possibly requiring yet another Physic use to allow Catria to nail both Bishops in time, while still permitting a six-turn clear. Palla moved up and healed. During the EP, the Physic guy healed the Swarm Bishop before the latter KOed himself from Catria's counter. Turn 4: Caeda recruited Samto. Sirius and Heath teamed up on the Sniper, with Sirius getting the KO and leveling up. Luke, Linde, Norne and Frey hung around the left to take some of the reinforcements. Catria got in range of the Physic Bishop and healed. Mallesia may have also healed her this turn with Physic; I don't recall. Turn 5: Palla and Sirius prepared to gang up on a Knight guarding Lang, while Caeda and Heath also got in position to KO Lang on the subsequent turn. Frey and Norne kept chipping the reinforcements. Catria finished the Bishop this turn, though I forget if it was during the PP or the EP. Turn 6: Palla and Sirius took out the Knight, Heath chipped Lang with a Javelin, and Caeda finished with Wing Spear; if one or more Javelins missed, a crit from either Heath or Caeda would have been needed (on this attempt, I think one Javelin missed). Arran Rescued Marth. Linde and Luke each got a kill. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Boosters Marth 10.37 29 09 00 12 14 12 09 01 D Swd Lord Heath 3.87 42 19 06 23 20 08 22 03 A Lnc E Axe Dracoknight Seraph Robe Luke 11.18 30 15 00 13 11 06 05 00 D Bow Hunter Mallesia 9.43 20 00 06 04 06 13 03 08 B Stf Cleric Catria 12.92 28 12 02 14 19 14 11 08 B Lnc Pegasus Knight Energy Drop Linde 9.57 30 00 07 09 12 13 02 04 D Tme Mage Seraph Robe Palla 14.06 28 11 02 15 17 09 11 06 B Lnc Pegasus Knight Sirius 2.34 27 13 01 14 14 04 14 03 A Lnc E Axe Dracoknight Caeda 11.36 24 10 00 11 20 19 11 01 D Lnc E Swd Cavalier I think I made a mistake in recording Sirius' stats, but this is what my notes say for this chapter. My C7 stats have Sirius at 26 HP as a DK, which is weird. I made prior several attempts at this level to determine how to milk EXP more smartly, so I probably got confused.Expenses: Bought one Energy Drop for Catria. (360 G remaining) [spoiler=Chapter 6x (1/100)]Heath (Berserker) crossed the stream and doubled Roro, who was KOed by Palla. Linde was reclassed to Cleric to use Rescue for some EXP; this was a mistake, as apparently the Cleric's Mag growth is way lower than the Mage's Mag growth. Caeda, Luke (reclassed to Myrmidon with the Devil Sword and the +Luck shard), and Catria each got kills of their own. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Boosters Marth 10.37 29 09 00 12 14 12 09 01 D Swd Lord Heath 3.97 42 19 06 23 20 08 22 03 A Lnc E Axe Dracoknight Seraph Robe Luke 11.35 30 15 00 13 11 06 05 00 D Bow Hunter Catria 13.07 30 14 00 12 18 14 14 02 B Lnc E Swd Cavalier Energy Drop Linde 10.05 30 00 05 10 13 14 01 10 E Stf Cleric Seraph Robe Palla 14.63 28 11 02 15 17 09 11 06 B Lnc Pegasus Knight Caeda 11.53 24 10 00 11 20 19 11 01 D Lnc E Swd Cavalier Expenses: Sold the C6 Bullion (L). (10360 G remaining)[spoiler=Chapter 7 (5/105)]I gave Marth the Secret Book at the beginning of the chapter. Probably would have sold it if not for Medeus. I deployed Marth, Heath (DK), Luke (Hunter), Mallesia (Cleric), Catria (Cav), Linde (Mage), Palla (PK), Sirius (DK), Caeda (Cav), and Arran (DK). Turn 1: Heath used a Javelin to chip the nearest Thief, who would die during the enemy phase to a counter from Palla. Caeda prepared to counter the Fire Dragon. Navarre attacked the Iron Sword Thief and received a Dance from Feena. Mallesia was given both +Mag shards to just barely reach 8 Mag, enough to heal Navarre enough to survive a second attack from the Thief he would finish with Feena's assistance; a Lv. 9 Mallesia with 40% Mag growth has only a 41% chance (=BINOMDIST(4,8,0.6,1) in Excel) of gaining the required four points of Mag to heal for enough damage with the shards, so ordinarily a Spirit Dust would have been needed. Turn 2: Catria and Linde teamed up to finish the Fire Dragon. With +Def shards, Linde just barely escaped getting OHKOed. Heath chipped a Thief with a Javelin and received a Dance from Feena. Heath flew north and ORKOed the Hunter near the northern save point with a Javelin. Sirius finished the Thief chipped by Heath. Navarre and Arran teamed up on the southern Hunter. Marth continued moving towards the throne. Palla chipped a Thief. During the enemy phase, a Thief and a Hunter both took counterattacks from Heath, with the Hunter getting ORKOed. Although my Avatar is a bit durability-blessed, I suspect someone using the Rainbow Potion with an average Avatar or promoted Palla should be able to similarly survive the Hunter comfortably. Turn 3: Arran used the save point near the boss. Marth moved north, received a Dance from Feena, and subsequently KOed the Thief weakened by Palla. Palla moved north and finished a Thief who took a counter from Heath during the previous enemy phase. Sirius chipped a Thief. Heath moved left while staying out of range of Astram's team and healed with a Vulnerary. The guys towards the cave healed and made their way towards the Physic. During the enemy phase, a reinforcement Mage died to Heath's Javelin. Turn 4: Marth moved north slightly and healed with a Vulnerary. Feena Danced for Marth, who was able to finish the Thief previously weakened by Sirius because of his Vulnerary. Palla moved adjacent to the boss and used a Pure Water with her Silver Lance equipped. Heath moved to KO the Seraph Robe Thief (I think it was this item...it was the Thief who was just about to leave the map), putting himself in range of two Heroes. Mallesia used Physic on Heath. The other units near the cave prepared for an enemy phase attack from the reinforcement Cavaliers, who would die during this enemy phase to Caeda (Wing Spear) and Catria. I think Arran and Sirius teamed up on another Thief, with Arran taking the kill since Sirius couldn't stand to take another hit if he was to finish the boss without needing healing. During the EP, Palla dealt a decent counter to the boss. Turn 5: Navarre used the other save point. Mallesia used Physic on Palla and got the cave's Physic. Palla attacked the boss again. Sirius finished the boss. Heath OHKOed the remaining Thief. I don't recall if Arran needed to do anything this turn, but all the Thieves were dead by the end of this turn (one of the two Master Seal Thieves escaped early on). The cave guys teamed up on a Knight. Marth Seized. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Boosters Marth 11.23 30 09 00 15 15 13 09 01 D Swd Lord Secret Book Heath 5.01 42 21 06 24 21 09 22 03 A Lnc E Axe Dracoknight Seraph Robe Luke 11.35 30 15 00 13 11 06 05 00 D Bow Hunter Mallesia 11.20 21 00 07 04 07 14 03 08 B Stf Cleric Catria 13.41 30 14 00 12 18 14 14 02 B Lnc E Swd Cavalier Energy Drop Linde 10.86 30 00 05 10 13 14 01 10 E Stf Cleric Seraph Robe Palla 15.46 29 12 02 16 18 10 11 06 B Lnc Pegasus Knight Sirius 3.34 26 14 01 15 14 05 14 03 A Lnc E Axe Dracoknight Caeda 11.94 24 10 00 11 20 19 11 01 C Lnc E Swd Cavalier Feena 1.85 Arran 4.70 [spoiler=Chapter 8 (3/108)]I read the general idea behind the clear in CM's thread a while back, so credit to him. I should have reclassed Sirius to a Bishop to Rescue Marth for free EXP (Sirius wouldn't have leveled up). It wasn't reasonable with my stats to feed Sirius a General kill at a reliable rate, even after trading Starsphere shards around from the other side of the map, since 14 Def Generals (which he could kill after said Starsphere shenanigans if Heath had a shard and a Steel Axe) weren't very common, and since Heath needed to use turn 3 PP to get the Arms Scroll. I bought a Speedwing for Palla at the beginning of the level. I also used the C7 Seraph Robe on Caeda. Finally, I forged a +1-Mt Javelin for Catria to guarantee a KO of the Leo Thief regardless of how much HP/Def it spawned with. Turn 1: Catria took the Spd+2 shard and ORKOed the Leo Thief. Feena Danced for Catria, who proceeded to ORKO the Firestone Thief. Caeda moved in range of a Paladin. Heath flew straight up to engage three Generals during the enemy phase. Marth headed towards Bantu's village. Gordin bought a Silver Lance. Everyone else headed left and stayed out of enemy range. Of the three Paladins, one died to Caeda during the EP, and the other two took counters from Catria, who I think took a +Def shard or two to survive. Turn 2: Caeda recruited Roger. Linde and Luke finished the Paladins weakened by Catria. Cain moved in range of the Mage about to spawn from the southern fort. Palla moved in range of a Hero. Feena Danced for Wendell, who used the save point. Heath healed with a Vulnerary and moved to a position allowing only two Generals to be adjacent to him at any given time. Catria moved northwest while remaining out of range of the Snipers. Marth recruited Bantu. Gordin headed up. Sirius got some chip EXP with a Javelin. During the enemy phase, Cain and Palla countered the Mage and Hero, respectively. Turn 3: Feena Danced for Gordin, who recruited Jeorge, who used the save point. Caeda finished a General weakened by Heath. Heath took a Killer Lance from Caeda and ORKOed the Arms Scroll General. Palla and Cain chipped the Hero for Linde to finish, while Luke finished the Mage weakened by Cain. Roger plugged a square to allow Wendell to Rescue Marth to the proper square. Catria ORKOed a Sniper, obtaining a free Silver Bow. Marth Seized. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Boosters Marth 11.23 30 09 00 15 15 13 09 01 D Swd Lord Secret Book Heath 6.71 42 21 07 25 22 10 22 04 A Lnc D Axe Dracoknight Seraph Robe Luke 11.99 30 15 00 13 11 06 05 00 D Bow Hunter Mallesia 11.20 21 00 07 04 07 14 03 08 B Stf Cleric Catria 14.66 29 13 02 16 20 15 12 08 B Lnc Pegasus Knight Energy Drop Linde 11.88 31 00 08 11 14 14 02 05 D Tme Mage Seraph Robe Palla 15.68 29 12 02 16 20 10 11 06 A Lnc Pegasus Knight Speedwing Sirius 3.56 26 14 01 15 14 05 14 03 A Lnc E Axe Dracoknight Caeda 12.98 32 10 00 12 20 20 12 01 C Lnc E Swd Cavalier Seraph Robe Feena 2.36 Expenses: Bought a Speedwing for Palla; forged a +1-Mt Javelin; sold the C7 Firestone and Bullion; sold a bunch of Iron and Steel crap (13145 G remaining).[spoiler=Chapter 9 (6/114)]Yet again, a Spd-blessed Avatar saves the day: five levels of DK, eight levels of Knight, three of Pirate, and three of Cavalier give a mean of 19.15 Spd (Honorable), but my Avatar had 22 Spd, just enough to double the Dracoknights (who all have 20 Spd) when given a Scorpio shard. He only attacked two DKs, though, so perhaps doing a six-turn clear in H4 with one Rescue use and average stats would not be terribly different. The outline of the clear is a bit basic (Marth recruits Minerva, then Etzel). I probably would have figured it out myself eventually, but I first saw the idea in PKL's thread some time ago, so credit to him. Palla fought once in the Drill Grounds and promoted at Lv. 16. I deployed Marth, Heath (DK), Luke (Hunter), Mallesia (Cleric), Catria (PK), Linde (Mage), Palla (DK), Sirius (Sniper), Caeda (PK), Julian, Feena, and Jeorge (Sniper). Turn 1: Palla chipped the Thief Staff guy with a Javelin. Jeorge (I can't believe I fielded Jeorge) moved north across the river. Mallesia used the Barrier Staff on Heath. Heath flew northeast in range of the rightmost Dracoknight. Julian moved twice towards the chests thanks to Feena. Marth moved towards Minerva's village. Sirius and Luke got in position to shoot down DKs towards the center-left of the map on the subsequent turn. During the enemy phase, the Dracoknights approached, and the rightmost Dracoknight got ORKOed by Heath's Steel Axe. Turn 2: Julian got the Boots and sent them to Marth, who moved and used the Boots. Feena Danced for Marth, who KOed the Thief Staff guy. Jeorge used a Steel or Silver (probably the latter) Bow on the Draco in his vicinity, allowing Linde to finish with a Fire tome. Sirius (with a +Str shard) and Luke traded the Iron Bow forge to take out two Dracoknights. Heath flew north and OHKOed a Mage with the Steel Axe; I avoided using the Hand Axe since Heath was now in range of Etzel, and since a DK would die from the Steel Axe counter during the EP. Mallesia used Physic on Heath. Caeda prepared to weaken a Mage near the northwestern part of the map during the EP. Etzel attacked Heath, with two Mages following Etzel towards the village, while the other Mages headed towards my units near the center-left of the map. Turn 3: Julian unlocked the chest with the shard. Marth used the savepoint. Jeorge headed left and finished the Mage previously chipped by Caeda. Sirius and Linde teamed up on the other Mage who came by. Mallesia headed left and used the Barrier Staff on Catria, who subsequently flew in range of both Swarm Bishops to ORKO a Mage. Palla chipped the Master Seal Thief with a Javelin. Heath headed towards the village while remaining in range of Etzel and used a Vulnerary. During the enemy phase, the Mages near Etzel changed course and headed towards the center-left of the map where my other units were. Turn 4: Palla flew west, positioned to draw in the DK nearest the throne while staying out of range of both Swarm Bishops, and used a Vulnerary in anticipation of a turn-5 Swarm. Mallesia healed Caeda, who ORKOed a Mage with the Steel Lance, while Sirius and Linde (I think) teamed up on the other. Marth recruited Minerva, who teamed up with Heath (who in turn used a Vulnerary to prevent Etzel from KOing him) to cut off just enough squares to prevent Etzel from KOing Marth. Catria twiddled her thumbs on the fort. Turn 5: Mallesia headed towards the throne and used Physic on Palla, who flew north to ORKO the Speedwing Bishop with a Javelin. Someone chipped the remaining DK for Linde to finish. Marth recruited Etzel, who teamed up with Minerva and Heath to finish the two Thieves who were approaching the village. Catria flew north and weakened the Mend Bishop. During the EP, the Mend Bishop attacked Palla with Swarm. Turn 6: Catria ORKOed the boss with a Silver Lance and possibly a Starsphere shard or two, while Palla KOed the Mend Bishop. Mallesia used Rescue, and Marth Seized. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Boosters Marth 11.63 30 09 00 15 15 13 09 01 D Swd Lord Secret Book Heath 7.46 42 21 07 26 23 11 22 05 A Lnc D Axe Dracoknight Seraph Robe Luke 13.24 32 16 00 14 13 06 07 00 D Bow Hunter Mallesia 12.96 22 00 08 05 08 15 03 09 B Stf Cleric Catria 15.64 30 14 02 17 20 16 12 08 B Lnc Pegasus Knight Energy Drop Linde 12.76 32 00 08 12 15 15 02 05 C Tme Mage Seraph Robe Palla 2.22 35 17 01 18 21 10 16 03 A Lnc E Axe Dracoknight Speedwing Sirius 4.00 31 13 01 19 17 06 12 03 C Bow Sniper Caeda 13.39 31 09 02 15 20 20 10 07 C Lnc Pegasus Knight Seraph Robe Feena 2.36 Jeorge 5.24 Minerva 4.13 Etzel 6.14 Expenses: Palla fought once in the Drill Grounds; sold the C8 Firestone; sold more Iron and Steel crap. (14315 G remaining)[spoiler=Chapter 10 (3/117)]I don't think a two-turn clear is doable at a reliable rate in H4 since the Shaver Mages will ambush any fliers who try to attack. I deployed Marth, Heath (Berserker), Minerva (Sniper), Luke (Myrmidon), Catria (Cavalier), Palla (DK), Mallesia (Cleric), Linde (Mage), Feena, Caeda (Cavalier), and Wendell (DK). Turn 1: I played the map pretty conservatively. Caeda and Linde headed left, with Caeda (Javelin) in range of a Mage. Catria and Luke headed right, with Catria (Javelin) in range of a Mage. Mallesia used Barrier on Heath. Palla KOed the left Bishop from 2-range, and Heath walked across the stream to KO the right Bishop from 2-range while occupying Wall Street the left Bishop's old square. Feena Danced for Mallesia, who used Physic on Heath. Wendell and Marth moved north slightly. Minerva moved to the spot two squares south of the right Bishop's initial position to bait and ORKO the RHS Shaver Mage by using the Scorpio shard with a basic bow, preventing Heath from getting KOed. I would have used Sirius over Minerva were it not for Sirius' lower Luck allowing him a larger chance of getting crit-blicked; not really planning on using Minerva long-term. Turn 2: Catria, Luke, Caeda, and Mallesia all pulled back a bit. During the previous EP, Heath got a crit against the Sniper, forcing Palla and Marth (especially the latter) to lose out on EXP. Marth continued moving north. Turn 3: With Feena's help, Mallesia used the Thief Staff to take both the Bullion (L) and the Unlock Staff. Wendell recruited Ellerean. Everyone else mopped up whatever enemies they could. Didn't bother recording detailed stats since only two characters gained levels. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Boosters Heath 8.11 47 23 07 24 26 11 18 02 C Axe Berserker Seraph Robe Mallesia 14.62 23 00 10 05 10 15 04 09 A Stf Cleric [spoiler=Chapter 10x (1/118)]Before the stage began, I forged the Dragonpike in preparation for the next stage. Sirius (Paladin) and Linde teamed up on one of the bottom Roro clones, while Catria (Scorpio shard with a Javelin) and Marth (Devil Sword) finished the other bottom clone. Palla was Spd-blessed enough to ORKO one of the clones in the intermediate "layer" as a Paladin with the Lady Sword. Heath, who was reclassed to Horseman and who received a Dance from Feena, was able to KO the real Roro with the Iron Bow forge as a result of Palla ORKOing one of the clones blocking the hallway. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Boosters Marth 12.37 31 10 00 15 15 14 09 01 D Swd Lord Secret Book Heath 8.58 47 23 07 24 26 11 18 02 C Axe Berserker Seraph Robe Catria 15.98 30 14 02 17 20 16 12 08 B Lnc Pegasus Knight Energy Drop Linde 13.42 32 00 08 13 16 16 02 05 C Tme Mage Seraph Robe Palla 2.93 35 17 01 18 21 10 16 03 A Lnc E Axe Dracoknight Speedwing Sirius 4.24 31 13 01 19 17 06 12 03 C Bow Sniper Feena 2.36 Expenses: Forged a +3-Mt, +5-Hit Dragonpike. (8915 G remaining)[spoiler=Chapter 11 (5/123)]Credit to dondon for the strategy. I suppose PKL's playthrough also gets credit for confirming for me that my idea of handling the enemies in Jake's vicinity wasn't completely stupid. One upside to training Linde is that she can get the Speedwing while the five fliers on the field do other things. Her main problem here is that, without a Rainbow Potion, there is a very real chance she will get doubled even if she is promoted and has the Scorpio shard: a 14/1 Sage Linde with 70% Spd growth and the Scorpio shard has a 15% chance of getting doubled (=BINOMDIST(5,10,0.7,1) in Excel) by the Flying Dragons. I didn't have this problem since Linde was above her average in this playthrough. Luke fought two unconsecutive matches in the Drill Grounds as a Hunter and promoted to reach C-ranked bows as a Horseman. He subsequently took the Arms Scroll from C8 for an additional ~60 bow WEXP. I also gave him the Speedwing from C9 since he was a bit Spd-cursed. Linde fought twice in the arena and gained a level. In one of my attempts, she didn't gain enough Spd to avoid getting doubled without the Scorpio, so I promoted her after the arena (the promotion would give her enough Spd); I later deleted that save to see if I could get a longer arena streak going with Nosferatu and an extra booster from the base shop, to no avail. In the attempt submitted here, she gained a point of Spd upon level-up, so I didn't bother promoting. I suppose by a stretch you could call this growth-rigging, but the intent wasn't quite the same. Palla took an Energy Drop and a Dracoshield from the base shop; both were necessary to handle the enemies near Jake and secure a free booster since Linde was on the other side of the map doing other things, though if I hadn't fed her both those boosters, I would simply have missed out on one booster in the level. Marth took the last Energy Drop available in the base shop to alleviate the need to use the Devil Sword (and risk self-destructing) so often. Caeda fought once (I think) in the Drill Grounds and promoted at Lv. 14. I forged a +10-Hit Hand Axe for Heath since I cannot stand missing. I didn't want to use Javelins since Heath really needs axe WEXP. I deployed Marth, Linde (Mage), Heath (DK), Sirius (DK), Luke (Sniper), Mallesia (Cleric), Catria (PK), Palla (DK), Caeda (DK), Feena, and Etzel (Sorceror). Turn 1: With the Scorpio shard (giving him enough Spd to double the Flying Dragons) and his accuracy-forged Hand Axe equipped, Heath flew in range of the two Bandits left of the starting point while staying out of range of the Hunter. Etzel moved twice thanks to Feena, landing in range of a single Flying Dragon and securing the Spirit Dust. Luke equipped the Steel Bow and walked north in range of a Flying Dragon. Marth followed Luke but stayed out of enemy range. Caeda baited the rightmost Bandit to prevent Heath from dying. The other fliers headed northwest while staying out of enemy range. During the EP, two Flying Dragons and two Bandits attacked Heath, with the Bandits dying and the Dragons surviving, while Luke chipped (or OHKOed, I don't remember) the Dragon that attacked him and Etzel OHKOed the Dragon that attacked him. Turn 2: Sirius and Linde finished the Flying Dragons weakened by Heath. Palla equipped the +1-Mt Javelin forge I made previously and flew in range of the Flying Dragon nearest Jake. Caeda followed Palla but stayed out of enemy range. I don't remember if Marth finished the Flying Dragon previously attacked by Luke or if Luke got a crit. Etzel headed left towards the throne, while Heath moved north in range of two Dragons and healed with a Vulnerary, securing the Seraph Robe. Mallesia healed Linde and someone else thanks to Feena. Sirius moved as far left as he could without being in enemy range. During the EP, two Dragons were attacked by Heath, while one was chipped by Palla; one other Dragon approached Luke without attacking. Turn 3: Either Luke or Marth KOed the Flying Dragon; all I remember is one of the two Dragons attacked by Luke in turns 1 and 3 died to a Silver Bow from Luke, and the other died to a Steel Bow + Steel or Devil Sword combo from Luke and Marth. Palla used a Silver Lance to finish the Dragon that attacked her. Caeda moved closer to Jake but stayed out of range of enemies. Catria took out one of the Dragons attacked by Heath; the other died to Heath either this turn from a Hand Axe or on the previous EP (crit), probably the former. Sirius kept moving northwest. Equipped with Nosferatu, Linde used a Vulnerary this turn and ran straight down between the Hunter and Bandit, and would remain out of range of both the rest of the way while being in range of the Flying Dragon. Mallesia used Physic twice on Palla. Turn 4: Linde charged toward the Speedwing and equipped the Aura tome to finish during this EP the Dragon that previously attacked her. Mallesia used Physic on Linde. Etzel kept moving towards the throne, while Sirius got the Goddess Icon and Catria got the Secret Book. Palla ORKOed the Hunter near Jake using an Iron Axe, allowing Caeda to safely recruit Jake and trade him a +Str shard, the Iron Bow forge, and the Member Card. Jake moved left one square to bait the rightmost Dragon during the EP. Marth and Luke didn't really do much this turn. Heath moved slightly closer to the boss. Turn 5: Depending on how much HP/Def was on the Bandit blocking the path to the boss, Catria may have needed to use during the previous player phase the Energy Drop obtained from the Dragon she KOed; it wasn't necessary on this attempt, though, so she cleanly ORKOed the Bandit with a Silver Lance. Etzel moved north, Rescued Feena, and moved again to Rescue Marth. Heath OHKOed the boss with the Dragonpike forge. Sirius got the Elysian Whip, while Palla got the Energy Drop and Caeda got the Dracoshield. Jake went to the Secret Shop. Linde picked up the Speedwing. Marth Seized. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Boosters Marth 13.37 32 13 00 15 15 15 09 01 C Swd Lord Secret Book; Energy Drop Heath 9.87 43 22 09 26 23 12 22 05 A Lnc D Axe Dracoknight Seraph Robe Luke 1.58 39 17 01 19 18 07 12 03 B Bow Sniper Speedwing; Arms Scroll Mallesia 16.62 24 00 11 05 12 16 05 09 A Stf Cleric Catria 16.68 31 15 02 18 20 16 12 08 B Lnc Pegasus Knight Energy Drop Linde 15.34 32 00 10 15 18 17 02 05 C Tme Mage Seraph Robe Palla 3.73 35 20 01 19 22 10 18 03 A Lnc E Axe Dracoknight Speedwing; Energy Drop; Dracoshield Sirius 4.64 27 14 01 16 15 06 15 03 A Lnc E Axe Dracoknight Caeda 1.17 36 14 01 15 21 20 15 04 C Lnc E Axe Dracoknight Seraph Robe Feena 4.74 Etzel 6.95 Expenses: Caeda fought once? in the Drill Grounds; Luke fought twice in the Drill Grounds; Linde fought twice in the Drill Grounds; bought two Energy Drops and a Dracoshield; forged a +10-Hit Hand Axe; sold more Iron and Steel crap; sold some low-ranking tomes; sold the C10 Bullion (L); bought two Wyrmslayers, three Dragonpikes, and a Wing Spear. (3316 G remaining)[spoiler=Chapter 12 (5/128)] Catria fought once in the Drill Grounds as a Cavalier (failing to gain Spd, sadly), and then promoted with the Elysian Whip at Lv. 17; Caeda used both Energy Drops from the previous chapter; Heath used the Dracoshield from the previous chapter; Sirius used the Seraph Robe from the previous chapter; Linde promoted at Lv. 15. In addition to my typical combat units, I fielded Yumina as a Cleric (for Physic), Mallesia as a Cleric, and Linde as a Sage (for Rescue). I poked and poked at this stage until realizing that the only way to clear in five turns required a Rescue use on Feena by a six-move unit. I subsequently recalled first seeing this idea in KoT's thread, so credit to him. Turn 1: Heath used a Pure Water and received a Dance from Feena to attack the Tomahawk Bandit from two squares to his left; it was important to avoid putting anyone on the terra firma above and including the forts to avoid triggering reinforcements, so Heath was on an air tile. The two Fire Dragons died during the player phase. During the enemy phase, two Flying Dragons and two Fire Dragons attacked Heath, while the Bandit died to Luke's Steel Bow. Turn 2: Heath moved to the northern save point and used a Vulnerary. Mallesia and Yumina both healed him with Physic; thanks to all this and the Pure Water, Heath was able to successfully tank a good number of attacks and counter with a Hand Axe. Catria moved north while staying out of range of most of the northern enemies. Everyone else finished off the Dragons (bow forge worked against the Flying Dragon). Turn 3: Everyone continued moving north and cleaned up the enemies, save for Palla and Sirius, who healed and headed towards the boss. Marth recruited Darros. Mallesia used the Hammerne on the Rescue staff either on this turn or the next. Turn 4: Blocked the forts. Heath was positioned above the rightmost fort, ten squares from the Fire Dragon holding the Starsphere shard. Marth was situated between the center and center-left forts. Turn 5: Caeda weakened a Fire Dragon for Marth to kill. Linde moved to the square previously occupied by Marth and Rescued Feena to her left thanks to a unit blocking the square to Linde's right. Feena Danced for Marth. Palla and Sirius teamed up on the boss, with Sirius taking the kill. Heath got the twelfth and final Starsphere shard. Before Marth Seized, everyone else got what EXP they could. [spoiler=Chapter 13 (6/134)]While playing through H3, I suspected a sufficiently strong team could split up and clear the level without much fuss. Credit to dondon, whose topic confirmed to me upon briefly skimming it that this was possible. I split up the team, with Marth joining the units on the LHS to recruit Beck and Etzel heading right to Rescue Marth. I don't think this is necessary for a six-turn clear with one Rescue use, but you do pick up a free Dragonpike this way, so there's that. During an attempt that probably should have been successful, I wound up missing a Steel Bow shot with Luke that gave me the excuse to retry from a save point and get slightly less terrible level-ups (both Catria and Swordmaster Linde failed to gain Spd that time), when I could have instead guaranteed the finish with the Iron Bow forge. On the subsequent attempt, the one submitted here, Linde failed to gain Spd IIRC, though Catria didn't. In the Secret Shop, I purchased three Physic staves and a Shaver, the last one mostly for giggles. [spoiler=Chapter 13x (2/136)]Credit to CM, whose thread confirmed to me that a two-turn clear with the Iote's Shield could occur with Feena deployed; when I did H3, I got lazy and used the Thief Staff lol. Turn 1: Linde (Swordmaster) took out the nearby Ballista with a Levin Sword and revealed a Fighter, whom Heath (Berserker) weakened and Marth finished with a Levin Sword. Feena Danced for Marth, who headed right then up to reveal a Bandit. Palla (Dracoknight) took out the Bandit and revealed the remaining LHS enemies. Sirius (Dracoknight) and Caeda (Paladin, though Swordmaster would have been preferable to increase the odds of gaining Spd) finished the Ballistae. During the EP, the lone Bandit attacked Caeda, while Marth survived an attack from a Myrmidon because of the Scorpio shard. Kleine and a bunch of the RHS enemies took counters from Heath. Turn 2: Marth got the Iote's Shield. I think on this attempt, Heath got a crit against Kleine, though it wasn't necessary since Linde could double and deplete the remainder of her health if a crit didn't occur. Feena Danced for Linde, who finished the lower-right Ballista thanks to Heath revealing it. The fliers cleaned up the other enemies during the PP. [spoiler=Chapter 14 (6/142)]I didn't think my team was strong enough to finish in five turns, so I opted to field Julian as dondon chose to, allowing me to get the Sword Killer. Turn 1: With a +Str shard and a Str Bond (from the support between Heath and Marth), Palla OHKOed the Fortify Thief and sent the Fortify to the convoy. Xane moved in range of the two Dark Mages in the right corridor, took a Javelin and a Dragonpike, and transformed into Heath. The six enemies near the starting position all died during the PP. Linde was positioned to draw in the two Dark Mages in the left corridor. During the EP, Caeda ORKOed a Thief thanks to the Scorpio shard and her +Spd level-up, and Heath weakened another Thief; Xane ORKOed two Dark Mages with a Javelin. Turn 2: Cleaned up every Thief during the PP thanks to Catria and Caeda being able to double them when given the Scorpio shard. Linde was able to OHKO with Aura and a Mag+2 shard. All the Dark Mages near the center were gone by the end of the EP. I drew in the RHS Ice Dragons during this turn. Palla headed back towards the center and healed. Turn 3: Finished the RHS Ice Dragons. Palla healed again, though this was probably a mistake, as I will elaborate on. Marth got the Starsphere and Lightsphere. Turn 4: Julian got the Sword Killer. Palla and someone else (Caeda?) each took out an Ice Dragon towards the left, and Luke subsequently moved a Javelin to the top of Palla's inventory. Heath and Xane blocked the right corridor. Marth moved twice towards Tiki thanks to Feena. During the EP, a Dark Mage attacked Palla, which I didn't expect since she tied in Resistance several others with lower HP who were also in his range; it would have been preferable to use a Pure Water during a previous turn along with a Fortify, as this would have guaranteed survival of the Ice Dragon and Dark Mage attacks she sustained this turn, probably resulting in the DM attacking someone else. The DM wound up missing, so she survived in spite of my negligence. Turn 5: Linde got the Again using the Thief Staff. Everyone cleaned up the LHS and RHS enemies. Turn 6: Mallesia Rescued Marth. Finished all the enemies and Seized. Not sure if I would have finished all the enemies had I done the Pure Water thing or if Palla hadn't gotten a Javelin crit against the Ice Dragon that attacked her during turn 4 EP. I used three Fortify charges during this chapter, though it probably should have been four to protect Palla. I'll probably just fire an extra one off at some point to account for this. [spoiler=Chapter 15 (5/147)]Credit to -Cynthia-, whose post in PKL's thread recommended a near-rout of the boss area during turn 1. Turn 1: Linde needed a Spd Bond (from the support convo between Catria and Heath) plus the Starsphere to double and successfully Nosferatank the RHS enemies. I fielded a bunch of fliers (including Xane, who received a Dance from Feena) as well as Luke as a Berserker to take out during the first turn everyone in the boss area save for the boss, the General, and Abel. Turn 2: Finished up the Paladins weakened by Linde (all the Horsemen died) and cleared out the next batch of enemies blocking the door to allow Marth to open it once Restored by Mallesia and Rescued by Linde. I had a Fortify-free plan to take out every Paladin while safely opening the door in the event one of the Paladins didn't get damaged at all (something that would happen if Linde didn't score any crits during the EP), but it wasn't necessary here. Turn 3: Linde gave the Starsphere to Caeda and Healed her. Caeda opened the next door and Marth took the Starsphere from her to prevent getting doubled. Sirius (Swordmaster) headed left. Everyone else prepared for the boss. Turn 4: Cleaned up the boss area and recruited Abel. The forts near the castle were blocked. Caeda KOed the Bishop, allowing Marth to move. During the EP, Marth took a hit from a reinforcement Paladin. Turn 5: Sirius and friends got what EXP they could from the LHS enemies. Caeda finished the Paladin who attacked Marth. Marth moved twice thanks to Again and Seized. [spoiler=Chapter 16 (2/149)]Credit to PKL for the strategy. Turn 1: Heath (Swordmaster) headed left to engage two Heroes and a Sniper during the EP. Jeorge followed Heath but stayed out of enemy range. Catria (Falcoknight) received a Dance from Feena and attacked the Geosphere Thief with a Javelin. Mallesia used Hammerne on the Rescue staff, held by Linde. Linde and all the combat units moved right, with Xane transforming into Caeda and receiving a Heal from Linde. Marth used the save point. Turn 2: Macellan (or Dolph, I don't know these guys' names) took a Door Key from one of my other units and opened the door. Luke (Swordmaster) ORKOed the Soldier blocking the entrance. Xane used the Wing Spear to ORKO the General. Linde Rescued Marth. Palla (Swordmaster) used the Wo Dao with the Starsphere to ORKO the Sniper at high odds. Caeda (Paladin) had the Lightsphere and took the Starsphere from Palla to ORKO the boss with a Javelin forge I had made long ago. Towards the left, Heath finished off a Hero with the Levin Sword. Jeorge recruited Astram, who finished off the other Hero weakened by Heath to get a free Silver Sword. Catria got the Geosphere. With Feena's assistance, Mallesia used the last two Thief Staff charges to get the Bullion (L) and the Rescue. Marth Seized. [spoiler=Chapter 16x (2/151)]The Starsphere was passed around to take out all four Berserkers during the first player phase. Sirius (Swordmaster) ORKOed the Pure Water Berserker and sent the Starsphere to the convoy; Marth then moved left to allow Luke (Swordmaster) to take the Starsphere out of the convoy and ORKO another Berserker. Heath (Horseman) took the Starsphere and used the Iron Bow forge to ORKO a third Berserker. Palla (Swordmaster) ORKOed the Swordmaster using the Starsphere and the Lady Sword. Feena Danced for Heath, who took the Starsphere, spoke to Katarina, and ORKOed the last Berserker. Mallesia used Physic to heal Heath. By doing all of this, I managed to avoid using any Fortify charges in this chapter. During the second turn, Heath spoke to Katarina twice, and everyone else cleaned up the enemies. Lvl HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES WExp Class Boosters Marth 17.54 34 17 00 17 16 19 11 01 C Swd Lord Secret Book; Energy Drop Heath 16.03 48 21 10 28 26 17 22 05 E Swd D Bow Horseman Seraph Robe; Dracoshield Luke 7.81 41 21 01 18 20 10 14 03 D Swd B Bow Horseman Speedwing; Arms Scroll Mallesia 4.91 34 03 21 08 17 20 08 08 A Stf D Tme Sage Catria 9.32 43 21 03 25 26 22 16 11 A Lnc E Swd Falcoknight Energy Drop Linde 7.41 41 03 14 19 21 22 05 08 B Tme D Stf Sage Seraph Robe; Spirit Dust Palla 11.09 42 21 01 29 30 10 17 03 C Swd Swordmaster Speedwing; Energy Drop; Dracoshield Sirius 8.88 37 17 01 19 20 10 16 03 A Lnc E Axe Dracoknight Speedwing; Seraph Robe; Goddess Icon Caeda 9.52 46 20 01 21 25 25 16 07 B Lnc E Swd Paladin Seraph Robe; Energy Drop x2 Feena 9.29 Etzel 7.84 31 03 13 15 13 09 09 12 B Tme D Stf SorcerorExpenses: Bought two Speedwings and used one on Sirius (24360 G remaining).Continued here.

YouTube playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c0XWTNe8cDJBsbjljp4jA2b Narga said it'd make more sense if I kept a playlog of my run instead of double posting in advice threads so I thought I'd start a new topic documenting my progress. I've been re-doing a LTC run of Blazing Sword multiple times during the last couple of years. Recently I redid the Lyn Mode portion because I wasn't happy with the resource allocation, namely the experience and bosskill distribution. My discovery of beamcrash videos and GeneralHorace's approach to FE8 made me more aware of what it takes to achieve the lowest turn count so the progress in my playing has been very noticeable. I don't think I can surprise anybody with FE7 efficiency in the year of 2013, but I think this continuous LTC run has already had many interesting achievements. Besides the actual lowest turns, I will often aim, whenever possible, to obtain the items that are worth my time (e.g. my Pirate Ship 3-turn has me steal both the promotion items as well as a Pure Water from one of the Shamans) and, of course, train my units to continue performing adequately. General rules/assumptions behind the playthrough: - LHM is played prior to playing HHM, with efficiency continuity between the two - All Gaiden chapters besides 19xx (due to the absurdity of the requirement in LTC) in spite of the extra turns taken involved and sometimes also needing to take additional turns to fulfill the requirement (see desert chapter) - Character recruitment (not to mention the availability of promotion items) can be ignored if their presence is detrimental to turn counts A few notes on RNG/reliability as relevant to this runthrough: - This is not a full-fledged reliability/reliable efficiency run, as some of the strats will be riskier/less reliable but mainly because there are too many variables involved that makes repeatability in another playthrough problematic (the RN string controlling the combat outcomes, and level-up differences such as an extra point in skill being enough to determine whether a particular attack will connect or crit) - I do not have any means to literally look into the game's current RN state (aside from playing a turn and seeing what happens) nor can I hack it - This means perfect level-ups are unlikely to be observed (don't believe I've had one on this run yet) - Nevertheless, for the purpose of meeting certain "magic number" requirements or simply maintaining a competent team of units in a context where I have little time to train outside of defence chapters in a fast-paced run, I have and will continue to try getting good levels. This mini-goal tends to interfere with survivability on enemy phase in some of the "rushes" not to mention connecting the bosskilling attacks, so some characters will get quite RNG-blessed (right now the luckiest is Eliwood with str/def increases on each level-up), others not nearly as much (Kent is the biggest offender with very mediocre durability, and I also wish Marcus grew some speed which he hasn't yet done). Turn counts Resource allocation Promotions Prologue - Chapter 10 The entirety of Lyn Hard Mode is in this video. If you go directly to the YouTube page, you can click on the time numbers in the description to immediately go to specific chapters (as well as the turn count). The focus of the LHM clears, besides low-turning everything, was training Sain (emerges at 13/1 at the end of Lyn Mode) and Florina (takes the robe), to a lesser extent Kent and to an even lesser extent everyone else. I have found out (and will some time in the nearest future certify with video evidence) that a second Paladin is the only way to 6-turn chapter 17 and 2-turn chapter 17x.

[spoiler=Links to various chapters] Premonition: 2/2, Prologue: 5/7, Chapter 1: 4/11 Chapter 2: 7/18 Chapter 3: 5/23 Chapter 4: 5/28 Chapter 5: 6/34 Chapter 6: 4/38 Chapter 7: 3/41. Chapter 8: 5/46 Chapter 9: 4/50. Chapter 10: 2/52 Chapter 11: 3/55 Chapter 12: 3/58 Chapter 13: 1/59. Paralogue 12: 1/60. Chapter 14: 1/61. Not super duper optimized at all, particularly early on, I just wanted to see what turncounts roughly look like with a few conditions. - No Spotpass, DLC. - Anna shops, event tiles, barracks, etc are fine but I probably won't use them. - Renown starts at ~330 (maybe more so Celica's Gale is available for Walhart, etc.) - All Paralogues and Challenges are optional and count for turns - For the purpose of this topic, efficiency refers to fast and reliable clears (tending toward the lowest expected turn count). I think I generally favor more reliable clears, or strats that transition, compared to other LTCers. Decisions I'm making. - Not resetting for growths, etc - I do not like sacrificing units if possible. - +Def/-Luck. It's very possible +Spd or +Mag or something is better in the long run, but +Def snowballs quicker. - Not using Galeforce. It's probably faster in the end since the Renown Seal is there, but w/e. >_> - Testing a core of Griffon Avatar, Griffon Panne, Great Knight Lucina, and Rescuebot Morgan. Just for fun. [spoiler=Premonition: 2/2] Yep [spoiler=Prologue: 5/7] Essentially followed Redwall's strategy. Kill middle Myrm, then Mage while luring the top group, then Mage again while blocking some spaces, then boss. Chrom was unequipped the whole time so there were 4 nice and easy kills for Veterantar. I didnt really see a configuration where its more favorable to have a nonzero Dual Strike chance. I prefer taking advantage of Veteran over an unpaired strat. Also a minor modification at the end. If Frederick has 8 or more health, he attacks the boss with the Bronze Sword on turn 4 with Chrom unequipped. If Frederick has 7 or less health, Frederick heals and equips the Silver Lance with Chrom unequipped. Chrom finishes on player phase either way. The former occurred for my run. We eschew the 4 turn here (requires a Dual Strike or Frederick being at higher health and getting the bosskill) in favor of a more reliable 5 turn with Chrom consistently getting more exp. We also don't have Chrom face a 2hko at 65% true hit. Frederick's chance of death is probably ~5%, but there are always those rare outlier cases like Gamble crits or multiple Frederick misses on Barbs which result in death or lengthening the chapter. Imo, it's probably not worth the turn, but w/e I went with it. I think it's well understood 4 turns is easily possible with Chrom getting the kill. As well as an alternative and even safer 5-6 turn. [spoiler=Chapter 1: 4/11] Random enemy movements, Frederick's level up, random skills and various inaccurate attacks can all cause trouble here. There are usually ways to consistently 4 or 5 turn using a few key ideas. Pair Chrom and Frederick so they double Fighters. Pair Avatar and Lissa so Sully and Virion, unpaired, are available for chip. In my case, Avatar with Lissa with chip from Sully and Virion just kills the Archer which was convenient. It's pretty important to chip the Archer a little bit on enemy phase while still being relatively safe. I like to have Frederick with Chrom end the first turn 1 space left of where Chrom starts. Avatar with Lissa just out of range of stuff. If the Barb attacks Frederick from the South (Merc to the left), then Avatar finishes the Barb from the adjacent square on the right (allows him to counter the Archer on enemy phase) at high accuracy, Frederick kills the Merc from on the fort; he just kills with a Bronze Sword, which also gives him triangle against the coming Fighters. Virion trades the Elixer. Sully moves Up. If the Barb is to the left and Merc to the south, Virion moves and trades Avatar Thunder away so he doesn't steal the kill and chips the Merc. Avatar moves adjacent in the same square as the other case, trades for Thunder and the Elixer, and finishes the Merc. Frederick kills the Barb from on the fort. Each case appears to happen randomly 50/50, but at least that's half the time Avatar isn't attacking the dodgy Merc (against Patience, Avatar only has 78% true hit). Either way, we have nearby enemies dead, the Elixer to Avatar (not sure if this matters or not), and Frederick on the top fort by turn 2. At this point, Frederick has to dodge the Hammer (it's quite low true hit on a fort) but everything else is pretty variable for the next 2 turns. If Frederick got Str on level up, he can one-round Fighters that don't have Hp+5. If he gets Spd, he can double the boss, making it a little more lenient to 4 turn. If he doesn't kill Fighters, it's possible to get Avatar a little more exp but it can be dangerous. Should probably try conserve Silver Lance uses if possible as well. Just need to use Sully and Virion chip safely, and should be able to 4 or 5 turn with Avatar getting the bosskill. I ended up with a pretty common configuration. 1 Fighter was left alive, plus an damaged Archer and full health Merc over on the side. Frederick could weaken the Archer further for Avatar to kill with Bronze, while being in range of the Merc. Avatar finishes the Archer while in range of the Fighter but not the Merc. Turn 4, Frederick weakens the boss, Avatar finishes. Sully and Virion chip and finish the Merc. If Frederick didn't double the boss I think I would have finished the Archer with the Silver Lance so the Merc would be more heavily damaged and require less chip. Now reading through my strat, I just realized that maybe the initial Merc doesn't die (turn 2, in the case it's to the left) if Frederick doesn't proc Str. For some reason I never ran into that case. I suppose Frederick can use the Silver Lance first turn to solve that issue. Or maybe just keep Virion out of range and have Avatar to counterkill an extra enemy. I already hate Chapter 2 again. >_>

Ok folks, it is time to settle something that has been a hot topic for a while, among the kid Fire Emblem units, who is the stronger unit between the ever fabulous Inigo Shin, or the massive chump (just like Shin), Brady Horace. We are assuming efficient play, as much as it pains me to use the term. No sitting around killing reinforcements and the such, or spending turns waiting for the enemy to come to you. Lastly before I begin, I'd both appreciate no interruption until all is said and done, feel free to comment when they're done. Judging will be done by a neutral arbitrator that has never played a Fire Emblem game, such as PKL, Refa, or Sharpy. Keep it clean, guys. Each personal attack will result in a 4 turn penalty for your theoretical playthrough. If you are banned from SerenesForest from said attack, it will be increased to an 8 turn penalty. Warp is banned. Wendy is free.

For a long time, I favored expected turncount as a useful way of simultaneously valuing high reliability and low turncounts. However, I never thought very hard about accounting for resets. I propose a simple solution: we add in the turns spent in those unsuccessful attempts. Let 0 <= x <= 1 be the chance of a clear without a reset. Let 0 <= 1-x <= 1 be the chance of a reset occurring. Let t be the conditional mean turncount of a clear, given no reset occurs (probability x). Let 1 <= k be the conditional mean turn on which a reset occurs (probability 1-x). Note that x, t, and k will not in general be integers. Assume the player will play until achieving a successful clear that doesn't end in a reset. How many turns will he or she be expected to play if we add in the turns spent in any attempts ending in resets? The probability that the first attempt doesn't end in a reset is x. The probability that the first attempt ends in a reset is 1-x. As a result of this, the player will then try again. The joint probability that the first attempt ends in a reset AND the second attempt does not is (1-x)*x. The joint probability that both the first AND second attempt end in resets is (1-x)^2. The joint probability that the first two attempts end in resets AND the third does not is (1-x)^2 * x. I hope you see where this is going. <TC> = xt + (1-x)k +(1-x)*[xt + (1-x)k] + (1-x)^2 * [xt + (1-x)k] + ... = [xt + (1-x)k] +(1-x)*[xt + (1-x)k] + (1-x)^2 * [xt + (1-x)k] + ... = [xt + (1-x)k] * {1 + (1-x) + (1-x)^2 + ...} = [xt + (1-x)k]/x = t + k(1-x)/x Let us look at some intuitive cases. If x = 0, then the series diverges; a player who plays such a stage until he or she clears it will spend an infinite number of turns trying to win. If x = 1, then there is no chance of a reset, and the player's expected turncount is simply t. If x = 0.5, the expected turncount is t + k. Because the odds of an attempt ending in a reset are equal to the odds of clearing without a reset, asking the player to play until a no-reset attempt occurs necessarily yields the same results as asking him or her to play until a reset occurs. We can spot several trends: for fixed t and k, decreasing x from 1 down to 0 will increase <TC>, appropriately penalizing the player for adopting risky strategies. Additionally, for fixed x and t, increasing k will increase <TC>; we favor strategies that fail sooner rather than later because we will have spent more turns (not to mention human time) on those strategies that fail later. What did I mean by "almost" in the topic title? Note that I have been vague about the conditions underlying a reset; for example, if I get Sumia, who is responsible for saving many turns, killed in C3 of Awakening, I can technically choose to go on with or without her. The present framework allows the player to reset and incur the resulting C3 turncount penalty; however, the player can also continue without Sumia, in which case he or she must recompute the expected turncount without the reset while accounting for the turns lost in Sumia's absence. In an Ironman playthrough, the latter way of doing things is obviously preferable, but in other contexts, it is up to the player; I suspect that most players will restart upon character deaths and nothing else, so for those players, those will be the conditions underlying a reset. For other players, they may reset if they do not get the lowest turncount possible; that is something also treated by the current metric. Unless a Lord dies, it is up to the player when to reset, and it is for this reason that the metric cannot be completely self-consistent. While I cannot define for you what is warm and what is cold, I can objectively define terms like temperature that can inform your understanding of warmth and cold; for example, temperature is the partial derivative of energy with respect to entropy at constant particle number and volume. The idea behind this thread is the same: I'm not telling you what you should consider efficient or inefficient, but I am telling you that using expected turncount as a measure can rigorously answer questions like why we believe spending five extra turns to boost reliability by 5% is generally not worthwhile, and why we believe resetting earlier is preferable to resetting later. None of this stuff is all that fancy, and has probably been figured out before by some other members of the forum; however, my hope is that this becomes a more popular way of thinking about decision-making in FE games.

[spoiler=Links to specific chapters] Prologue to Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 to Chapter 11 Chapter 21 in 3 turns with all 4 chests Chapter 22 in 1 turn with Valflame, Gungnir, Helswath, and Balmunk. Chapter 23 in 2 turns. Chapter 24 in 1 (or 2) turn(s) Chapter 25 in 1 turn. Endgame in 1 turn. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ No Second Seals. Probably won't use anything from the Wireless menu including Renown and also random things like Anna shops/barracks/event tile items just because I'm lazy. They're probably not that broken though. Other than that, we'll leave all Paralogues, Skills, Weapons, Characters in. Forging and tonics in. Obviously no grinding from DLC and such. I won’t be going that fast since I find it boring in this game (too many bosskills in the latter half, plus I generally dislike LTC with random growths), though I also won’t go that slow (won’t dance/staff/boss/etc abuse). Since the earlygame is very similar across Lunatic runs, here are some general Lunatic tips and detailed strats for a No Avatar run up to Chapter 5. It gets mostly easier after that point. There’s no Second Seals until C8 anyways (if no Renown/Anna shops), so No Avatar is actually a little harder until then. The remainder of the guide (after Chapter 5) will have commentary on No Second Seals (but yes the Avatar is allowed, his main advantage Veteran is counteracted by the level cap). There will be widely applicable general strategies for every chapter for all Lunatic runs. Some of it is written in a walkthrough-like format since I was kind of working on a faq/guide. General strategy and map overview: I’ll give some introductory thoughts and as well as general conceptual tips and advice for the chapter. The idea is you should be able to complete the chapter with this advice after spending a little time thinking of a specific strategy for your team composition. No Avatar strategy: A detailed account of a No Avatar strategy to complete the chapter. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: I’ll comment on any noteworthy stats your characters should be around, other luck based components of the map, and anything else that’s interesting like analysis of character performance. Go ahead and ignore stuff if I start to ramble too much about random things for your liking. [spoiler=Prologue:] General strategy and map overview: This map may be a wakeup call for those who haven’t tried an FE Maniac or Lunatic mode before. The earlygame often requires extensive use of the prepromoted character, Frederick in this case. However, this character typically has lower bases or growths than a trained unit would have, therefore it’s typically beneficial for kills to be given to others when possible. There are exceptions, but Frederick in this game has extremely low personal bases and has little midgame and lategame potential. With Frederick as the only one that fights well here, it’s best to use him to clear the more dangerous enemies such as the Mages. He can oneshot them as well as the Myrms and weaken the Barbs to low hp, perfect for Chrom or Avatar to kill. It is possible to give Frederick the Bronze Sword here to conserve Silver Lance uses, but it’s not necessary and makes it harder to feed certain kills to Chrom/Avatar as well as making the Mages more dangerous. It’s possible to take advantage of Support bonuses for Avatar to face 0 crit against the boss and Avatar can slowly chip him down for exp. Pair with Chrom, stand next to Lissa and Frederick. No Avatar strategy: Frederick kills the middle Myrm. Lissa moves out of range and others stay put. After enemy phase, everyone retreats to the bottom left with Chrom in range of one of the Barbs, Frederick is healed up. Next turn, Lissa heals Chrom (Paired with Frederick she isn’t doubled by the Mage), and Chrom kills the other Barb. Avatar hides in the corner. Next turn, Frederick weakens the Mage with the Bronze Sword, Chrom finishes. Lissa heals everyone up. Frederick with Bronze Sword lures the top group, countering a single Myrm first. Next he kills the Mage with the Silver Lance, and Chrom goes to counter that weakened Myrm on enemy phase while out of range of the other enemies. Lissa heals up, Frederick runs away, Chrom cleans the weakened Barbs. Frederick weakens the boss with the Bronze Sword for Chrom to kill. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: Shouldn’t be any RNG-intensive parts. Everything is overall pretty consistent. Random allocation of Avoid+10 and Gamble is pretty lame, but oh well. Can Pair Frederick with Chrom or Lissa for a marginal boost to Hit and Crit avoid from Luck. Chrom is level 3, almost to 4. [spoiler=Chapter 1:] General strategy and map overview: The enemies rush the starting positions so take an advantageous position on the Fort terrain. Using Swords will work well against the many Fighters. Have someone tank the majority of the chapter on a fort with a Sword. Chrom or Avatar with Frederick Pair Up is usually the better option since they can get tons of exp. Sully and Virion come after most enemies have already charged, but can serve as distractions, especially with Sully’s 7 move. Beware of the Hammer enemy if using Frederick to tank. If he was traded him Avatar’s Bronze Sword and he's on a Fort, the hit rates are low on him, but it does a huge amount of damage. Try to give Virion’s Elixer to Frederick this chapter for a little more flexibility in the opening moves next chapter. It’s not a huge deal however since it is possible to trade in that chapter too. No Avatar strategy: Frederick with Chrom (unequip the Falchion) goes on the north fort. Without any levels yet, he brings the Fighter to 1 hp with the Bronze Sword and weakens the Myrm. 2nd turn, Chrom kills the Myrm. Sully with Virion stands in place to lure a fighter. Next, Chrom wipes out the enemies surrounding him. Sully kites her enemy up to the top right corner. Separate with Virion so he has a player phase to chip if no Dual Strikes happen so they can finish him off in time. Slowly weaken the Archer/Boss with Frederick and give Chrom the kills. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: Chrom can die on turn 2, but it’s rare, around a single digit chance, since all the enemies have to hit and they have 50 hit rates on the Iron Axes and 32 true hit for the Hammer enemy. Only 1 has to miss. Random Avoid+10 and Zeal are lame in principle, but shouldn’t cause any resets typically. Frederick should tank fine if used, just need to dodge the 20% hit for the Hammer. +Def asset Avatar should also tank fine, but might be doubled by Myrms at first (need 8 Spd). Chrom is level 5 and has C Frederick. Sully got 1 kill. [spoiler=Chapter 2:] General strategy and map overview: Just starting and there’s another jump in difficulty. The enemies now use Steel weapons and a huge number will rush all at once on a pretty open field. The key to this chapter is to trade the Elixer over to Frederick, and use the terrain and weapon triangle wisely. Also notice the 4 safe spots on turn 1 to hide people in and the mountain on the left. Leave someone unpaired so Miriel has somewhere to go when she joins. Only +Def Avatar with Frederick or Frederick himself can realistically tank the first part of the chapter. The Barbarians do the most damage, so the safest weapon to equip initially is the Bronze Sword and hopefully Avatar or Fred can dodge a few of them. After that, there are numerous Soldiers, so Tomes or Lances are safer. It may be useful to have the support character unequipped so no Dual Strikes occur so the tank doesn’t kill an enemy too early and allow more enemies to surround and attack that turn. Plan on either hiding everyone else in the bottom left or bottom right while the main tank lures enemies elsewhere and handles most of the enemies in the first wave on Mountain or Forest terrain. It’s possible to pick off weakened units with anyone that can take a hit. The second wave is easy to tank on a fort. Either rush up to the north forts or lure them down to the middle forts. Note that all the top enemies charge after getting in range of one of them. Try to feed other characters kills whenever possible. If doing a no grinding run, begin thinking of characters to train, some to become long term fighters (usually reclassed with early Second Seals), some as Pair Up partners (early Master Seals, and are in classes with good bonuses like Cavelier). Start thinking about Supports, what Pair Up bonuses they give each other and how they work with the character’s stat distribution. Think about synergistic skill combinations. No Avatar strategy: Virion trades Chrom the Elixir and pairs with Stahl. Avatar pairs with Sully. Vaike pairs with Lissa. Stahl and Sully go full left. Lissa goes full left and drops Vaike. Chrom pairs with Frederick and Frederick attacks the left Barb on the mountain with the Bronze Sword. If it dies, great. If not, someone will have to take a hit. Next turn, have everyone in the bottom left finish the Barb if necessary. Frederick goes onto the mountain and heals, equips the Silver Lance. After the enemies are thinned a little bit, switch to Chrom to finish off the weakened enemies. Depends on Chrom’s exact stats when this is safe, but he should be able to nab a few kills and get to level 6-7. Afterwards, rush the top fort with Chrom/Frederick, tank everything. The Barbs and Boss have <20 hit (spoiler: axe enemy hit doesn’t increase much for a long time) and everything does single digits. I fed the bosskill to Sully since I’m going to try and use her for Chrom’s marriage, Lucina’s bases, and as a Pair Up partner. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: This strategy feels slightly more reliable than the often advised, go to the left end of right Myrm’s range -> then forest next turn. Here, Frederick or whoever tanks will face less attacks on the turn when not on favorable terrain, and is on a mountain instead of a forest, so +1 Def, +10 avoid. Plus the terrain penalties mean he’s less surrounded each turn. I didn’t even need any Elixer uses. It should really be very consistent, but you have to judge when it’s safe to have Chrom (or Avatar if using him/her) tank instead of Frederick. It depends on what enemies are left, and what stat ups they get, but near the average or even a little below is sufficient to get a lot of exp. Avatar will need 8 Spd to avoid being doubled by the Myrms. Chrom is level 8, almost to 9 with 98 exp. Sully is level 3. Frederick is level 2, almost 3. [spoiler=Chapter 3:] General strategy and map overview: Go ahead and talk to Kellam with Chrom, Pair Up with him and have him move out of range. You have as much time as you need to set up the initial offense. Both sides in the bottom will only rush someone is in range of an enemy. The idea is to clear one of the sides quickly so everyone can regroup and face the other side as it charges toward you. Because of the Archers, this usually involves either Frederick with the Javelin or Avatar with Magic to initially counterattack and weaken the enemies so others can finish them off the next player phase. Give them the Elixer if needed. The top is easy to clear. Anyone can kill the knights without aggroing anything, though beware their high attack. However, again note that getting in range of anything else will cause the top to all to chase you. Anyways, slowly kite all around the stage to pick off enemies and feed kills to whoever you want. Beware of a Hammer Fighter that starts in the top right. No Avatar strategy: Chrom talks to Kellam, pairs with him, they move out of range and separate. Frederick takes the Javelin and Kellam pair up. Next turn they move left and attack a Soldier (unequip Kellam so no Dual Strikes). Chrom is with Sumia. Sully is with Stahl. Everyone else is unpaired. Next turn, Chrom/Sumia finishes an Archer. Sully/Stahl finishes the Soldier. Frederick finishes the Knight. Others stay out of range. Chrom or Sully can finish the remaining archer. Lissa heals Frederick, who goes right and heals with a Vulnerary. Then feed Chrom and Sully kills as safety allows. Use Miriel/Virion/Vaike chip as necessary. Afterwards, Chrom with Frederick opens the left door and kills the Knight with a Rapier. Frederick with Chrom with Javelin goes to the stairs tile to lure enemies. Kite all the way back around, feeding kills to Chrom and Sully. Boss is easy with Chrom. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: If Chrom is too weak to take an Archer + other hit (not including Knights because they’re slow and easy to kite) Frederick needs to be used slightly more to weaken enemies. However the Archers have 22 att, Myrms around 24. Fighters maybe around 27 with WTD. Level 9 Chrom will usually have 27 hp, 9-10 Def + 5 from Frederick, so it’s a fairly generous benchmark. Other than that, it’s possible to use more Miriel/Virion/Vaike chip to clear the bottom groups if offensive stats aren’t up to par. At this point, if Avatar was used instead of Chrom for the previous chapters, Avatar can really solo this entire map. Or else weaken enemies for Chrom/others. Chrom is level 11. Sully is level 4, very close to 5 and has C Stahl. Both still need some babying. [spoiler=Chapter 4:] General strategy and map overview: The way the map plays out depends on how the AI feels like moving, because it will box you into different situations. The important issue is to not let the Mages be too close to each other because they’ll 2hko everyone. Still it’s sometimes needed to have Frederick take hits and ohko mages with the Silver Lance (use tonics/Pair Up as necessary). Also Lissa or really anyone with Kellam can usually take a single hit if necessary. Kellam with Sumia can take hits if necessary, and can survive a round with the boss with a Def tonic. Sully/Stahl should be able to take 1 hit too and then outrun most enemies. Use these free hits wisely. Other than that, start moving to one side and kite to the other side. It can be tricky but as long as the Mages are dealt with quickly and you watch movement ranges, it should be doable. Remember Knights have only 4 move. Frederick with Kellam has very high defense, so use him to weaken enemies and feed kills to others if they need it. Careful positioning is most relevant if you’re trying to feed kills to other units for the long term. Otherwise, it’s much easier to solo/duo with Frederick or Avatar. No Avatar strategy: If I don’t mention them specifically, they just stay somewhere near Chrom but out of range. I brought Lissa, Kellam, Sully, Stahl, Frederick. The general strat for me is, Chrom with Frederick with Tonics can oneround the Fighters so they go right (but still within 6 spaces of the left Fighter on turn 2). Next turn, Chrom or Frederick kills the left Fighter depending on if Chrom was hit or not. After that, go in whichever direction looks safer. The priority is to kill the Mages in the next 1-2 turns, and the Knights soon after that. Ideally Frederick can kill a mage with the Javelin and either get a Dual Strike to take no damage or Lissa can heal while out of range of the other mage. It’s fine to use Chrom if he doubles or the Silver Lance as well, and Lissa can heal and take a hit from that mage. The Short Axe enemies are not a threat to a leveled Chrom and neither is the boss. Sully can nab weakened enemies or just run around and kite stuff with her 7 move. I gave her the bosskill. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: 15 Spd is a magic number for your units because the enemy Fighters and Mages all have 10 Spd. Doubling lets to quickly kill each enemy wave as they moves downward so you’re ready for the next wave. If Chrom cannot double Fighters without a boost, I would Pair with Sumia instead and use the Frederick/Kellam + Chrom/Sumia combination to kill them. If Fighters have Hp+5 or Chrom is weaker, then Chrom can weaken them for someone else, like Sully in my case. If Chrom cannot take multiple hits from the Fighters and Mages, Frederick needs to ohko the mages. Chrom at this point should have around 11-12 Def on average + 5 from Frederick + 2 from tonics + 1 from weapon triangle. The Fighters shouldn’t be a major threat to him. The Short Axe ones have like 30 disp hit, which is quite low. Even if Chrom has lower defenses or Frederick is needed elsewhere, it shouldn’t be a huge problem, as the majority of the time they’re kiting and had opportunities to heal. On the offensive side, my Chrom had fairly high speed, so I could afford the Frederick Pair up and still double. If Chrom’s speed is not as good, it’s a good idea to try to build C support with either Sumia or Sully instead, then use Str tonics for that extra boost. The chapter is more difficult if no one can one round the Fighters, and it may be necessary to use Frederick much more in that case. It’s not a huge deal since there aren’t too many kills to allocate anyways. The chapter is substantially easier with a strong Avatar since they have access to Tomes which are 1-2 range. In addition they’re probably really overleveled and with high Def. You can use both Avatar and Frederick to tank and weaken enemies and feed kills to whoever you wish. At this point, no one else really has the exp to fight that well. Afterwards the DLC opens up, so it’s now possible to grind if you bought it and want to. Chrom is level 12 with 70 exp. Sully is level 5, almost 6. [spoiler=Paralogue 1:] General strategy and map overview: The key to this map is to clean up the right side relatively quickly so that someone can catch the Thief with the Killer Lance as it’s heading down. If you don’t care about that item, then you can take more time, but it’s fairly lenient to do so you might as well. The other Thief near the bottom won’t move unless a unit gets in the range of the western enemies. With that said, it’s easier if your Sword using units have the +10 Avoid from a C support and a decent sword rank. They can quickly reduce the enemy hit rate to very low numbers, particularly if standing in a forest. Lon’qu can already do this at base level due to his Avoid+10 skill, but requires a +Def Pair Up or Defense tonic to not get ohko’d for better reliability. A general starting strategy is to have a strong unit like Chrom/Avatar with Frederick head upwards to clean up the nearby enemies. The Archer and Thief are pretty dangerous to the others. In the meantime, have some Sword wielder hold off the Barbarians coming from the left. Clean the the starting area, regroup, and head left as the Killer Lance Thief is heading down. Be careful not to aggro a few of the upper enemies with ranged weapons too early by watching movement ranges, and you should be fine. All in all, this is a great map to get tons of levels for your weaker characters. Donnel can be easily leveled by surrounding Archers and having Donnel poke them to death. I tend to use Frederick to drop Donnel next to the upper left Archer that’s already boxed in by the walls. It’s possible, though more risky, to weaken enemies then have Donnel snipe the last hit. No Avatar strategy: Chrom with Frederick attacks and kills the northern Barbarian. Sully with Stahl lures the north Thief with an Iron Lance. Lon’qu with Vaike and Def tonic heads into the forest in the bottom, using the Killing Edge to hopefully clean them up faster. Lissa and Donnel hide next to Sully. Afterwards, the enemies are split, with the dangerous Archers heading upwards near Chrom. He cleans them up in the next few turns, and then heads down to help Lon’qu. Sully finishes the Thief and runs out of range or can help Lon’qu if it looks safe. Lon’qu finishes all the Barbs surrounding him. Quickly heal up and head left. Frederick can rush from just out of range of everything to next to the west Archer, who Chrom kills. Again Sully lures the Thief while Lon’qu lures the Barbarians. After that, have Donnel poke at the upper left Archer while slowly luring enemies and feeding kills to Lon’qu/Sully. In my case, Chrom with no Pair Up weakens enemies just enough. Lon’qu with Vaike and Def Tonic can slowly chip and kill the boss, a 4hko. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: The chapter is much easier if Chrom or someone can double and oneround the Barbarians and Archers, which means having around 16 speed. Chrom or Avatar, if fed kills earlier, with Sumia should really meet this benchmark easily, but will have much lower Defense. A really high level unit won't even need Sumia and can use Sully or Frederick Pair Up instead. The issue isn’t that big if Chrom’s Weapon Rank is high and he has a C support for +10 Avoid, since he will face very low hit rates against the axes and doesn't need to oneround them. The Thieves and Archers are spread out and rare throughout the chapter and aren’t a huge threat as long as the Thieves don't double. Lon’qu faces low hit rates at base against the axes, around 30% which is around 18% true hit. Though unlikely, it is possible for him to die if he gets hit multiple times in a row. Again, that’s pretty unlikely, so it’s acceptable for a strategy here. If he criticals enemies with the Killing Edge, they would have less attacks on him and therefore less chances to hit him. But it’s not a big deal if he doesn’t critical, he just has a slightly higher chance of dying. In most playthroughs you’ll have Avatar, Chrom and Frederick to help out to Lon’qu so he'll have more assistance against his enemies. I also had Lon’qu with Vaike face the boss and he did have a chance of dying from a critical, but it was so low (maybe around 1-2% per round) that it’s fine. Sully just has to 2hko the Thieves which is very easy with an Iron Lance. Using Str Tonics or any Str Pair Up makes it easier. Though she is doubled by them, it’s easy to get enough Def to survive with using a Lance, a +Def Pair up and Tonics. Lon’qu is level 9 with C Vaike. Sully is level 7. Chrom is level 14 [spoiler=Chapter 5:] General strategy and map overview: First off, this chapter is certainly easier if you got the Rescue Staff from Paralogue 1. Pair Miriel with Lissa to get enough Magic and range to Rescue Maribelle + Ricken turn 1. The enemies in this chapter rush the team from 2 fronts, with numerous reinforcements. In addition, the Wyvern Riders will easily bypass whatever formation and chokepoints you set up. Therefore, it’s much easier if the enemies are bottlenecked at the fort above your starting position and your tank takes advantage of the terrain bonuses of that Fort. Remember than any strong Sword user can reduce Axe hit rates to very low, so any unit that gets on the fort should be able to tank most of the chapter. The only really threatening enemy is the mage and there’s only 1 if the initial Dark Mage in the middle is dealt with quickly. The idea is to get onto the fort on turn 2 and there are many ways to do so. One good way to do this is have whoever is going on the fort, usually someone + Frederick to rush as far up as possible and attack or kill the Barb (you have enemy phase and chip as well if necessary). Have Virion or any meatshield who can take a Nosferatu hit (Virion can also counter for a little damage) just behind that person. On enemy phase the Dark Mage will usually attack the bait so the tank can go on the fort, finish the Dark Mage and tank the rest of the chapter. Alternatively, Sumia could fly someone onto the fort, the main issue being the lack of a +Defense from Pair Up. In the meantime, someone needs to hold off the enemies coming from the left. Luckily, you have the rest of your whole team to do so, and they’re usually low accuracy enemies that someone like Lon’qu can dodge. There’s only a single enemy with high hit, the Myrmidon. Don’t be too aggressive and stay near the middle Fort and forests near the start until the enemies stop coming. All the reinforcements will rush you but there’s a group of 3 ground enemies in the top left and a bunch of wyverns + the boss who do not rush you unless you get in range of one of them. After clearing the moving reinforcements, lure a Wyvern, then get back onto the fort until everything is clear. Then clean up. No Avatar strategy: I use the above strategy to get Chrom with Frederick onto the fort. He destroys stuff. Meanwhile, Lon’qu with Vaike in a forest demolishes most of the bottom left with Killing Edge, one rounding most enemies without crits. He got a ton of levels in Paralogue 1 so he can double non-Myrms even with no Spd Pair Up. Once it’s more clear, Sully helps out too and gets some exp. She can Killer Lance the Dark Mages to one-round them. Some Wyverns are lured to the bottom level so Chrom doesn’t take all the exp. Spread kills to Lon'qu and Sully. Chrom got the bosskill. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: Hopefully you have at least 1 strong unit besides Frederick from all the previous kill feeding. Otherwise, Frederick is the one who has to take the fort and it’s quite hard to give other characters many kills. Luckily, any sword user with a decent sword Rank like C rank, and a C support for the 10 avoid can usually suffice. Also they need to have good enough Def/Spd to survive the Myrms. Hopefully the support partner is someone who gives lots of defense like Kellam or Frederick. Remember to use tonics as well. You should really be training Chrom at least, and he only needs a few levels on average to have good enough stats. It does help if this strong unit doubles the Barbs and Wyverns, but is not necessary. My Chrom had Spd a bit above average and Str/Def below average. Luckily those are the stats boosted by Frederick and Tonics. My Chrom completely destroyed this chapter and a much weaker one can probably beat it as well. It's a little risky to use someone like Lon'qu there in the middle because he probably isn't as strong, has much lower Defense, and doesn't support either Frederick or Kellam. A trained Sully or Stahl might work. If Lon’qu doesn’t have many levels and a C support, he could die from the bottom left enemies. In that case I would Pair with Sumia so he can double and for a tiny bit of avoid and Res (not as good long term Pair however since they don’t support). With training and the C Support with someone, he really shouldn’t have any problems. It is slightly riskier if the Dark Mage has Anathema, but the hit rates overall should be really low in general. Again, you have most of your team to deal with these few enemies and a little space to kite and back off, so it shouldn’t be a big problem. With weaker units, it’s probably necessary to turtle a little more than I did. Note that Sully is probably a better filler support for Lon'qu than Vaike since she gives Speed. Lon'qu, if a little Spd screwed like mine, is very borderline on doubling. However, I'm trying to train Sully too so they're separated. Lon'qu barely has enough Speed to double. It’s pretty easy to kill the Dark Mages, who have single digit stats. For my Sully who is currently by far the weakest combat unit of the ones I'm using, the Dark Mage would have to hit with Nosferatu, Sully would have to not crit twice at 30%, and Stahl would have to not Dual Strike twice at about 40%. Overall she kills with 90+% consistency. Chrom and Lon’qu easily kill them and can usually dodge the Nosferatu as well. A potential issue for slightly weaker units is that it’s hard to chip them down, especially those with Anathema/Hex because of an accurate Nosferatu and their decent Hp/Def. Using someone like Sumia’s Pair Up for the Speed to double and the Resistance is useful. Most people can take a hit, including the healers, so could also just try for a Killer crit each turn and heal if it fails. Chrom is level 17 with A Frederick. Lon’qu is level 11. Sully is level 9. Chrom can nearly solo chapters while Lon'qu and Sully are becoming competent. That’s all for No Avatar. Just for reference, I completed the No Avatar run with Swordmaster Gaius (probably Def blessed, but was ridiculous after the start and getting reclassed by the C8 Second Seal), Wyvern Lon’qu (I’m pretty sure anyone reclassed to Wyvern is op and Lon’qu is one of the easiest to train early on. He took the C12 Second Seal), Paladin Sully!Lucina (amazing <3), Tiki (Manakate. :D), and crew who pretty much still steamrolled later on. I stopped taking detailed notes. <_<. Really, any unit that reclasses properly can steamroll after getting a few initial levels, which is quite easy. That's the inspiration for a No Second Seal run instead. Everything afterwards will still have a general tip/advice section, but detailed strategies/misc comments will focus on the No Second Seal run. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Main difference in Prolouge-C5 for No Second Seal is I used +Def Avatar instead of Chrom early on to phase out Frederick faster. Also didn’t train Lon’qu, but used Chrom and Sully more in place of him. Sully is really good. Chrom is really not good. Avatar is a slowpoke though has high Def. Stats to come. The planned final team is: Chrom, Avatar, Lissa, Sully, Cordelia, Gregor, Libra, Anna, Lucina, Morgan, Kjelle, Sevara, Gerome, Flavia, Basilio. I’m also using filler until everyone, particularly the children, join, so I’ll mention those when appropriate. I also plan to do as much postgame as possible, if any, and might use the Spotpass paralogue characters if I can get them. With all that said, finally here’s Chapter 6 and 7. [spoiler=Chapter 6:] General strategy and map overview: May look intimidating, but most enemies come in distinct waves and there are chokepoints to use. It’s fairly useful to have a few competent units, hopefully not Frederick, by this point to hold various key positions. The most important of these positions is the middle chokepoint. The narrow hallway prevents too many enemies from attacking you at once and bottlenecks a bunch of dangerous Thieves and Mages. Note that a Thief will be in the position you want to block off at the start of Turn 2 so you’ll want another unit to take him out so your tank blocks that middle chokepoint. The Fighters and Dark Mages there have pretty low hit. Thieves have very high hit (particularly since they have Underdog for some reason), but low Str. Whoever tanks the middle probably wants a Sword to dodge Axes and Def support/tonic for the Thieves. Marth can hold off the first few waves coming from the right side, which leaves the rest of the team to the left. Chrom is likely part of the left group to recruit Gaius early. It’s typically better to have multiple units on the left to team up on the Dark Mages. The reason this chokepoint strategy works is Marth will take care of the single Thief on the right side and the all the others are blocked by the middle chokepoint. The door to Emmeryn is safe. There are other ways to position your units beside the one mentioned here. Just take advantage of Marth’s decent combat and finish off each wave on the left quickly so they never become overwhelming. Beware the Cavaliers which may be surprising with their high move and also the last Fighters that arrive since they have Silver Axes. No Second Seal strategy: Chrom with Frederick and Avatar with Lon’qu left. Sully with Stahl and a Def tonic in the middle. The chapter is very straightforward, with Avatar weakening things like the Dark Mages on the left and Chrom getting most of the kills. Sully and Marth slowly grind through the enemies in the middle and right. Panne does some meatshielding in the narrow corridors since she can take a hit, multiple with Kellam and a Defense tonic. That’s mostly used to protect Lissa from getting surrounded. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: The primary benchmarks to note regard Spd. If your units are not doubling, they won’t clear the enemies quickly and can get overrun. This is most important for the left enemies since the middle and right are mostly blockaded. At this point in the game, most trained characters will likely still need some kind of +Spd Pair Up like Lon’qu or Sumia (or Avatar, but he’s usually fighting). Naturally fast characters like Lon’qu or Sully may be able to take better supports like from the Caveliers, which also give Str and Def. There is often a balance in Lunatic between Speed (which determines offense, doubling damage and increasing Dual Strikes) and Defense (Frederick or Kellam Pair Up give huge durability boosts especially at this stage in the game, like +50%) My Avatar is nearly max level unpromoted so I want to use him to weaken stuff. His Mag and Spd are terrible so he Pairs with Lon’qu. Because he’s weakening enemies, I can have Chrom with Frederick, even if he doesn’t double, which allows him to tank the Fighters and Caveliers better. In general, Sumia may be a better Pair Up for Chrom if he heads to the left because of the Spd to double and the Res against the few dangerous Dark Mages. Unless Chrom is very overleveled, he lacks the capability to deal well with the Mages alone so he does need some help. Marth, with no help, dies maybe 40% of the time during the wave with the enemy Caveliers. By that time the enemy numbers have thinned out, so it’s not a huge deal if it happens. The right enemies still have to go through the tank in the middle since there’s no thieves to open the door to Emm. My tank for the middle, Sully, doesn’t have as much avoid as other Sword users like Chrom or Lon’qu. She makes it up by having very nice Def and even okay Resistance. It is somewhat required to be a decently high level, say 10+, and with a good, at least C rank, support like Stahl. In the past I’ve used a trained Lon’qu who can also do well in the middle since he has the avoid to dodge Axes and Dark/Thunder magic well. At this point he likely has a few Def from a C support and Tonics as well so Thieves do pretty low damage. Anathema is a more problematic skill here, since the Fighters/Mages hit very hard if not dodged. It’s just 10 hit, but does manage to influence the reliability percentages somewhat. Sully has less trouble than Lon’qu in that regard since she can take a few more hits. Of course Frederick can pretty easily hold the middle with a decent Pair Up, but all the beautiful exp, etcetc. Same deal with my overleveled Avatar I can’t promote yet. Compared to the no Avatar run, I’m using mainly Chrom, Avatar, Sully instead of Chrom, Frederick, Sully, Lon’qu, Gaius. As a result, everyone is already very strong. Chrom is probably the worst since he’s not fast enough to double without Sumia, but is also super Def screwed, 9 Def at level 13 so he needs Frederick. Avatar is level capped, so Sully ends up doing a lot of fighting. I’m not really keeping track of levels anymore but I’ll note important things like Skills/promotion and have stats later. [spoiler=Chapter 7:] General strategy and map overview: A straightforward map since any Sword user you’ve been training can probably take on most of the map. Just kill Thieves and Archers on player phase and rely on mostly Avoid and counterattacks to clear out the Axe users. There are a lot of Wyverns scattered around the map and they have high Defense. Chrom easily slays them with the Falchion, but other Sword users may want to use the Killing Edge to clean them up at a reasonable speed if they lack the Str. The reason you’ll want to clear them somewhat quickly is 3 Wyverns reinforcements will arrive around turn 5 enemy phase and at the same time the rightmost enemies and the boss charge in a pincer maneuver. By clearing out most of the map beforehand, you eliminate any threat of your healers and other soft units getting trapped. No Second Seal strategy: Chrom with Avatar and Sully with Stahl can easily steamroll the map with Swords, using Forests as convenient. However, I actually use Frederick for a decent amount of combat because I’m trying to marry him off to Lissa so I get Owain’s map for exp if I need it. So basically just exposing Frederick to a few attacks each turn while cleaning up everything else with Chrom and Sully. Cordelia joins but it’s halfway through the chapter and there are too many axes. She doesn’t do much except try to leech kills. It’s very dangerous for her to do so as well. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: Spd to double is again probably the most important benchmark, particularly to kill the Archers quickly. However, since Avoid is pretty reliable on this stage, it’s not as necessary to use Def Pair Ups so +Spd ones can be used, making that benchmark easy to meet. What’s probably more important is having a strong Sword user in general. It changes what could be a very challenging chapter, with numerous Wyverns and a pincer attack, into something quite easy. It’s been a common theme that Weapon triangle + high Weapon rank + C support + Skills give a unit Avoid necessary to dodge Axes which then makes a lot of the early maps much easier. Yes, Frederick can also use Swords, but that’s tons of exp “wasted”. There are numerous other candidates to give those kills to. Avatar is overleveled from Veteran and is dominant so that’s that. Chrom/Sully are similar in having balanced stats. Depending on their levels, they can take Spd Pair Ups like Sumia and Lon’qu/Chrom respectively. Or +Def from Frederick or Kellam. Or balanced stats from the Caveliers. The flexibility makes them good options to train and Chrom gets to easily slay Wyverns as a bonus. Stahl is in the interesting position of not really having a good early Spd Pair up until Panne/Cordelia, fairly late in the arc, and low Spd base/growths. With a little luck he’ll reliably double with Sully support, but another option is go heavy on the Def with a Kellam support, which quickly makes him a nice tank. Lon’qu loves the earlygame axefest. High Spd, Avoid+10, base C rank Sword mean he’s able to quickly become a reliable contributor. He does have low defenses, so some bad luck or Anathema/Hex can hurt his durability. Gaius actually has amazing personal bases, but is held back by Thief. In addition he joins relatively late compared to others, is underleveled, and doesn’t have any Avoid skills. He does have some of the better long-term potential once reclassed or promoted. Still, any of these Sword users are options to invest exp into so that it doesn’t all go to Frederick. It’s somewhat notable that after the Plegia Arc, and heading in Valm, Sword users tend to have a harder time against the increased weapon variety, particularly from the numerous mounts. One way to keep these units useful is to also train in a secondary weapon, easy for the Cavs. Or in a regular run, reclass early to really boost up those stats. Another alternative is to promote and then have them as mostly Pair Up partners later on. Spd is one of the most important stats throughout the game, particularly later on as enemy stats really ramp up, and these units tend to give a lot of Spd in Pair Up. That won’t happen for a while, but it’s fairly important to plan for the future. And we will be seeing a few more enemy Lance/Tome users in the chapters coming up. Quite a lengthy tangent, but it has important considerations to earlygame Lunatic and the implications are very obvious in this Chapter. I’m think I’m saving some Paralogues until I need them to train Sevara/Gerome when I get them. Paralogue 2 is pretty easy to do as it opens though, just need to realize some of the middle Barbs are not aggressive, so Sumia is safe to fly over with someone like Chrom to save Anna and the Village. For Paralogue 3, just need to clear the west enemies quickly to save at least 1 Villager for the Seraph. No need to worry too much about the east enemies until later. I’ve done a few more chapters, but need to write them up. Stuff gets more interesting down the line and we begin the see some early effects of the No Second Seal restriction.

1. No Renown, Spotpass, DLC, Anna shops, event-tile weapons etc. 2. All first-generation characters needed to be recruited. Children were optional. 3. P1-4 and 17 were required; other Paralogues were optional but counted for turns. 4. Soft resets were needed upon character deaths. Towards the beginning of the playthrough, I wasn't too concerned with getting the absolute lowest turncounts in certain stages, which is why my Prologue and C1-5 clears are each a turn above the established minima, though as soon as C6 (the first stage for which there doesn't exist a fully documented Lunatic LTC solution) began, I started getting a bit more fussy. I didn't reset for growths; after clearing Ch 3, I overwrote my save after receiving a favorable level-up for Fred while I was testing the C3 enemy AI, but that was the closest thing I did wrt growth-rigging. My C20 clear was pretty sketchy, but my team certainly had the firepower to clear the level reliably, albeit at a slower pace. The long-term plan was to, with proper support, Galeforce the crap out of everything. I trained two Galeforcers instead of one, but under my constraints, this was a decision with no opportunity cost; Tiki's map required either a lightning-fast player-phase attack or a sturdy defense capable of withstanding several turns of enemy-phase combat, and given the nature of the playthrough, I was inclined to choose the former option. Galeforce alone wasn't enough, however; enemy stats were rather high towards the end of the game, necessitating the use of Rallies. Finally, because obnoxious maps like C23 featured ridiculous numbers of strong enemies in wide-open spaces, Nosferatu wound up finding use as a source of enemy-phase healing. Pre 2 C5 6 P4 5 C15 4 C21 2 Pro 5 C6 4 C10 2 C16 1 C22 1 C1 5 C7 3 C11 3 C17 1 P9 2 C2 7 C8 6 C12 4 C18 1 C23 7 (ugh) C3 5 P2 5 C13 1 P17 2 C24 3 C4 5 P3 4 C14 2 C19 1 C25 1 P1 7 C9 4 P12 2 C20 1 Fin 2 I deliberately slowed down in C14 and P12 to get Galeforce and train Morgan, respectively; I believe these were beneficial actions from a turncount perspective, and will elaborate at some point. As for Final, my team was really weak and lacking in real (non-Galeforce) mobility; clearing the level with any reliability required enough infrastructure to slow me down a turn from the absolute minimum. My Avatar was named Pam, and had +Mag asset and -Lck flaw. Prologue (5/7) Chapter 1 (5/12) Chapter 2 (7/19) Chapter 3 (5/24) Chapter 4 (5/29) Paralogue 1 (7/36) Chapter 5 (6/42) Chapter 6 (4/46) Chapter 7 (3/49) Chapter 8 (6/55) Paralogue 2 (5/60) Paralogue 3 (4/64) Chapter 9 (4/68) Paralogue 4 (5/73) Chapter 10 (2/75) Chapter 11 (3/78) Chapter 12 (4/82) Chapter 13 (1/83) Chapter 14 (2/85) Paralogue 12 (2/87) Chapter 15 (4/91) Chapter 16 (1/92) Chapter 17 (1/93) Chapter 18 (1/94) Paralogue 17 (2/96) Chapter 19 (1/97) Chapter 20 (1/98) Chapter 21 (2/100) Chapter 22 (1/101) Paralogue 9 - Cynthia (2/103) Chapter 23 (7/110) Chapter 24 (3/113) Chapter 25 (1/114) Final (2/116) Stats and reclasses before Final Bro, should you even Galeforce?