Lunatic+: coming up with a reliable clear for Ch. 2 - *COMPLETED*

[PKL]

I was thinking: Does this strat work even with a blessed Avatar? If not, what adjustments should you make? Might be worth looking into a blessed Spd Avatar as it might affect AI priority among other things.

[Interceptor]

Thanks so much, Interceptor, I had just about given up on Lunatic+ after getting two consecutive DGs.....and then dying from a 4% crit with 29% hit. Also that one reset where the map spawned with 14 Luna+ enemies. You're a genius. you know that?

No problem, glad to be of assistance. This chapter has always really annoyed me as well, and though I am not a genius (otherwise I would have figured this out in 2013), I guess that stubbornness + creativity gets you there eventually.

I was thinking: Does this strat work even with a blessed Avatar? If not, what adjustments should you make? Might be worth looking into a blessed Spd Avatar as it might affect AI priority among other things.

Off the top of my head, it shouldn't make a difference. Any extra stats are gravy. Most of the heavy lifting is done by units who have base stats that aren't changing, and there aren't really all that many branches where enemies have a choice of who to attack.

On Turn 1, both enemy attacks can only happen against Sully and Fred. There's a choice on Turn 2, but the Merc can only reach Frederick, and the top Barbarian can only reach Robin, so the lone variable is the Barbarian in the middle. Your only goal there is to make sure that Robin doesn't ORKO, and she's not going to be able to do that no matter what (needs 17 STR for a clean kill or 14+ SKL to even have listed crit), so it's not a problem regardless of what the Barbarian chooses to do.

Turn 3 has the most AI variation, but you can position Robin out of reach of all but one enemy, and Frederick can be unequipped to limit him to two facings at most. I suppose there is a chance that Robin will be ignored and they go for Fred on both sides, but he can handle that unless facing Luna+ on both. And in that case, you can have him shoulder-to-shoulder with Robin, so that they each only have one facing, unequipped if necessary. There will be one Elixir use left.

On subsequent Turns, you have basically complete freedom to kite whoever is left, so Robin's stats don't even matter anymore. Unless there's some weird edge case that I am neglecting to consider, I think that any stat distribution will be OK as long as you have the MAG and SPD minimums.

EDIT: technically you do need SOME durability increases on Robin to make sure that she can survive a Hawkeye/Luna+ Barbarian (because 19 HP and 6 DEF is not getting that done), but +3 HP and +2 DEF over base gets you there, and that's extremely easy.

Edited June 22, 2014 by Interceptor

[Jotari]

I was thinking: Does this strat work even with a blessed Avatar? If not, what adjustments should you make? Might be worth looking into a blessed Spd Avatar as it might affect AI priority among other things.

What do you mean by a blessed Avatar? Do you mean blessed level ups or is there some chance to get an Avatar without a flaw?

[eclipse]

What do you mean by a blessed Avatar? Do you mean blessed level ups or is there some chance to get an Avatar without a flaw?

Probably stat-blessed. Too much durability/avoid can cause the AI's targeting to do strange things.

[Ownagepuffs]

You're amazing, Interceptor. Simple as that.

[shadowofchaos]

This makes me wonder what the actual strategy guide for Awakening says about Lunatic and Lunatic+....

Lunatic, yes I'd imagine they'd say something.

Lunatic+? They skimmed over it at best.

The Japanese "Perfect Guide Book" was more like an Awakening pokedex more than an actual strategy guide for those difficulties.

It has two sentences on Lunatic+.

[Bloo]

We need an Interceptor's guide to Chapter 3 now.

In all seriousness, this allowed me to actually clear this chapter for the first time, which felt so good (even if I played no part in the strategy.)

[Interceptor]

We need an Interceptor's guide to Chapter 3 now.

In all seriousness, this allowed me to actually clear this chapter for the first time, which felt so good (even if I played no part in the strategy.)

Congrats on clearing it; did you use the river fording trick with Chrom/Frederick for the top half?

You can look at the guide in my sig if you need help on Chapter 3. It was designed for a +DEF Robin, but the general idea is the same. Ch. 3 is still about leveraging the most efficient Player Phase possible (just like in Ch. 2), you just can't face as many enemies at once. Recruit Kellam without aggroing anyone, blow up the guys on the LHS, get the door open, kill the Knight on the other side, clog the hallway with un-Paired units to protect yourself from Pass, and then just turtle.

I can't really make a turn-by-turn, though; unlike the prior chapters, this one actually has defensive Lunatic+ skills like Aegis+/Pavise+, so you can't count on guaranteed damage. Warrior Realm is really the first place where you are kinda on your own.

[Bloo]

Congrats on clearing it; did you use the river fording trick with Chrom/Frederick for the top half?

You can look at the guide in my sig if you need help on Chapter 3. It was designed for a +DEF Robin, but the general idea is the same. Ch. 3 is still about leveraging the most efficient Player Phase possible (just like in Ch. 2), you just can't face as many enemies at once. Recruit Kellam without aggroing anyone, blow up the guys on the LHS, get the door open, kill the Knight on the other side, clog the hallway with un-Paired units to protect yourself from Pass, and then just turtle.

I can't really make a turn-by-turn, though; unlike the prior chapters, this one actually has defensive Lunatic+ skills like Aegis+/Pavise+, so you can't count on guaranteed damage. Warrior Realm is really the first place where you are kinda on your own.

I did use the fording trick. The thing about playing Lunatic+ is that you discover so much about the game that you miss on lower difficulties (fording water for example.)

I'm yet to actually attempt Chap 3, but it might be painful with a +SPD -LUK avatar.

Thanks for all the help anyway.

[Interceptor]

I did use the fording trick. The thing about playing Lunatic+ is that you discover so much about the game that you miss on lower difficulties (fording water for example.)

This is definitely one of the coolest things about Lunatic+, all of the weird strategies that suddenly become necessary for survival. Water is a big one, but I also like clogging Passing lanes with trash units, using fliers + Rescue staves to assassinate Counter enemies before their groups arrive, the power of the Bow-using classes, and random things like the sudden importance of the OHKO.

I'm yet to actually attempt Chap 3, but it might be painful with a +SPD -LUK avatar.

I'll post my brain-droppings when I get around to trying it seriously myself. Currently I'm still working on that Chapter 2 clear; I have a start that I like, but two wild variations on it, and I don't know which one is better.

Something to keep in mind, though: a +DEF Robin only has a +2 base and 10% growth rate advantage in DEF over a +SPD version. Going into Warrior Realm, you're probably looking at level 13 or so, which is essentially the difference between having ~11 DEF or ~14 DEF. But the +SPD Robin has ~15 SPD compared to ~12 for the +DEF asset version... that's actually kind of a big deal, since 16 SPD doubles Archers. So while +DEF needs C Chrom to double an Archer, +SPD only needs a Cavalier, and Chrom can sit on Sumia. Etc. So you just have to be particular about choosing the right set of offensive combinations.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Something to keep in mind, though: a +DEF Robin only has a +2 base and 10% growth rate advantage in DEF over a +SPD version. Going into Warrior Realm, you're probably looking at level 13 or so, which is essentially the difference between having ~11 DEF or ~14 DEF. But the +SPD Robin has ~15 SPD compared to ~12 for the +DEF asset version... that's actually kind of a big deal, since 16 SPD doubles Archers. So while +DEF needs C Chrom to double an Archer, +SPD only needs a Cavalier, and Chrom can sit on Sumia. Etc. So you just have to be particular about choosing the right set of offensive combinations.

I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing for +Def, though. Avatar x Chrom is generally one of the best ways to get through Lunatic+'s story mode, so I think needing Spd is better than needing Def (and having to lean on Fred as a pair-up for longer...). That said, as someone who has run a +Spd Avatar through Lunatic+, leaning on Fred a bit longer is still viable, but Chrom just won't be throwing out those dual strikes as often once Avatar does transition over to using him.

[Interceptor]

I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing for +Def, though. Avatar x Chrom is generally one of the best ways to get through Lunatic+'s story mode, so I think needing Spd is better than needing Def (and having to lean on Fred as a pair-up for longer...). That said, as someone who has run a +Spd Avatar through Lunatic+, leaning on Fred a bit longer is still viable, but Chrom just won't be throwing out those dual strikes as often once Avatar does transition over to using him.

Yes, definitely in a void you'd take +DEF over +SPD for this Chapter, if for no other reason than the ability to just bulldog the whole LHS with Robin/Fred using a tome and rocking 19-20 DEF. That will stick a bunch of damage on all four targets (and killing the Knight outright, if he doesn't have Aegis+), allowing for an easy clean-up with your scrubs next Turn. Easy to execute, quick recycle times (so you can keep retrying quickly until you get a favorable Enemy Phase), fairly straightforward tactics. You can switch to Chrom once things are secured, for doubling the leftover Archers (who can be dangerous).

But in the +SPD world, you can't do that, even if Robin/Chrom is probably the best Pair going forward. You can't handle more than two people at once if you only have ~11-12 DEF. Frederick can't double anything special here (can't get to the 16 SPD threshold), either. So you have to be a little more creative, and I have a feeling that being able to throw Chrom on someone else will help you out. Sumia can double with him, and Chrom as Support with a Rapier is also a decent maneuver for sticking some damage on the Knight. It just forces a different approach early. Eventually you'll catch up.

[Interceptor]

Time to put this into a single post, for perma-linking purposes; what follows is a complete walkthrough for beating Chapter 2 on Lunatic+, from start to finish.

Here are the minimum stat/support requirements for Robin (AKA Avatar) by the time this chapter starts:

• C-rank support with Chrom
• Either 9 MAG plus C Tomes, or 10 MAG without (+3-4 MAG over base)
• 11 SPD (+3 SPD over base, for a SPD asset Robin)
• Enough durability to take a 25mt Luna+ hit to the face and survive (such as: 7-8 DEF and 22 HP, or 6 DEF and 23 HP)

You'll want Robin to be level 6-7 by Chapter 1, and around level 9-10 when Chapter 2 begins. Try to get your SPD to 10 by the end of Prologue (use the Water Trick for this); that will make Chapter 1 easier, since it opens up the ability to double Fighters with a Chrom support. Hitting the 9 MAG threshold is also helpful, since it allows you to ORKO them with a Dual Strike even if they spawn with the +5 HP skill.

It is helpful -- but not strictly required -- for Lissa to have at least 6 MAG by Chapter 2 (which is only +1 over her base).

Here's the layout for the bottom half of Chapter 2:

Turn 1 - Player Phase:

• Pair Virion with Robin, move south of left Merc, Switch, attack with Virion.
• Move Stahl to left Barbarian, attack from the right.
• Move Chrom south of Stahl, take Robin, Switch, attack the Barbarian with Thunder. Restart the Chapter if the Barbarian doesn't die.
• Pair Vaike with Sully, move Sully her full MV all the way west and one square north.
• Move Frederick north of Stahl, trade for the Bronze Sword, and attack the Mercenary with the Silver Lance.
• Move Lissa south of Robin/Chrom.

Two enemies should be dead (Mercenary, Mountain Barbarian), and two Soldiers will injure themselves on Sully and Frederick during Enemy Phase. Misses should be rare once you can get Thunder/DS to hit, but if anyone DOES miss, restart. Here's what the layout will look like now:

There may be variance in terms of where the Barbarians are standing, but this screenshot is the most common arrangement.

Turn 2 - Player Phase:

• Pair Miriel onto Lissa, move them south of Sully, Switch, trade the Iron Axe to Vaike, and attack the Soldier with Fire (needs to hit).
• Switch Vaike to the front of his Pair, attack the Soldier (needs to be a kill).
• Move the Robin/Chrom Pair to the far west of the wounded Soldier above them, Switch, unequip Chrom's weapon, Switch again, attack with Thunder (needs to be a kill).
• Pair Virion onto Frederick, move southwest onto the Mountain, heal with the Elixir (trade for it if needed).
• Move Stahl to the west of Robin/Chrom, trade with Robin, put the Bronze Sword at the top of her inventory.

On Enemy Phase, one fresh Barbarian will attack Robin/Chrom (she cannot kill him, because Chrom is unequipped), and a Mercenary will attack Frederick (who will leave him with only a few HP). The second Barbarian will either attack Frederick, or nobody. Best case he'll be weakened by Frederick, worst case he's untouched. Here's what the best case looks like:

YMMV, but as long as two units got wounded during Enemy Phase, the particulars don't matter.

Turn 3 - Player Phase:

• Move Frederick/Virion two squares to the west and use an Elixir (if needed).
• Move Vaike/Sully one square east onto the Mountain, and analyze the situation. If Fred is only facing a couple of Barbarians, consider leaving a Sword at the top of his inventory. If there's a Soldier in range (and especially if he has Luna+), consider giving Fred the Iron Axe, or removing all of his weapons. In either case, take the Elixir from Fred, and drop Sully to the south.
• Pair Stahl with Sully.
• Switch Miriel/Lissa, heal Sully.
• Move Robin/Chrom to the left of Vaike, and take the Elixir and heal if necessary. She should only face a single Barbarian, the one she injured last Turn.

During this next Enemy Phase, Robin will kill a Barbarian, and Sully will kill the Mercenary. Best case scenario: Fred kills the second Barbarian, and the two remaining Soldiers are split; just pigpile one of them and then kill the other. Worst case scenario: Barb/Merc died, but Fred couldn't do any damage because you had to unequip; in that case, rush in the opposite direction of the Barb/Soldier and clog the squares behind you. You'll have to kite a little bit until they are weak enough to focus fire, but since almost all of the enemies are on on side and you have tons of running room, figuring it out won't be a problem.

After you finish off the rest of the enemies on the bottom, take the time to heal everyone to full. Don't use Lissa if the Heal staff is getting low; use the Forts instead. Send Stahl, Sully, Vaike, and Virion into the lower-left corner (we don't need them anymore). Send Chrom/Frederick to the east, just under the right-most Water tile. Send Robin, Lissa, and Miriel to the west, near the enemy Soldier. You MAY want to send Vaike with the Robin team, if she needs the extra STR/DEF Pair-up stats for fighting the boss.

Remaining movements:

• Team Robin walks onto the Water tile southwest of the left-hand Soldier, and attacks him with Thunder or Fire. Miriel or Vaike for a partner, as appropriate. It's better if she hits, but it doesn't matter if she misses.
• Chrom/Frederick walks one square north, drops Frederick onto the Plain with a Silver Lance equipped.
• End Turn.
• Enemy Phase: Frederick will counter the right-hand Mercenary, and the left-hand Mercenary (or Soldier, potentially) will move north of Robin and attack. Every other unit will make its way towards Frederick.
• Move Robin one square west, and attack the unit that hit her last Turn.
• Heal Robin with Lissa (if needed).
• Pair Frederick on Chrom, move one square south, off the Water onto a Plain.

At this point, the turn-by-turn is over; you need to adjust based on the circumstances. The layout SHOULD look something like this after a couple of Turns:

The boss will prefer to keep attacking Robin across the Water (so keep drawing him to the west, countering with tomes, and healing with Lissa), while everyone else gathers together in a large group to go after Chrom/Frederick. As long as you keep Frederick on top of Chrom and stay adjacent to the Water tile on the right, you can keep crossing back and forth and making the normal enemies reverse direction to chase you. Keep doing this, peeling them off one by one for Robin to kill, until everyone is dead. Remember to keep Robin's inventory relatively clear, so that you don't have to throw away either the Iron Lance or the Iron Sword (convoy doesn't exist until Chapter 3).

Fin. Chapter 2 finished. Robin should be around level ~13 or so.

EDIT:

BONUS CONTENT: Chapter 3 Clear

Edited August 29, 2014 by Interceptor

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Yeah, that's pretty much been my experience too. What I remember doing with +Spd is moving a Thunder-equipped Avatar/Fred into range of the 2 Archers and Soldier. This basically means that the Soldier can't have Counter, though and I think Luna+ messes things up too, but that leaves the Knight out of the equation for the first turn of engagement. If Fred scores just one Silver Lance dual strike or Avatar a crit on any of the three enemies, I think it should be fairly easy to clean up on the second turn with scrubs. The Knight can be teamed up on with both tome users and Sumai/Chrom can usually clean up a lingering Archer (at least through Counter, but possibly not Pavise+). A Take->Swap combo can usually get Fred a Silver Lance attack on something too.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Frederick can't double anything special here (can't get to the 16 SPD threshold), either.

This isn't strictly true- if Fred gets one +Spd level, a C support with Chrom and Chrom gets two +Spd levels, he will hit 16 Spd. That could be a bit much to ask for, but it should be possible, especially if Chrom has to do more work on Cht.1. Also don't forget that Fred gives +1 Spd for helping Avatar reach Spd thresholds.

Anyway, I am now convinced that anyone who thinks Lunatic+ is fake difficulty is wrong.

[Jotari]

For the record I managed to use this guide with a -Magic Avatar (not advisable but I have an Apotheosis set up I'm planning for). A lot of it had to be reworked but I think the most crucial thing on the entire map is getting rid of those two units on the first turn.

[Interceptor]

This isn't strictly true- if Fred gets one +Spd level, a C support with Chrom and Chrom gets two +Spd levels, he will hit 16 Spd. That could be a bit much to ask for, but it should be possible, especially if Chrom has to do more work on Cht.1. Also don't forget that Fred gives +1 Spd for helping Avatar reach Spd thresholds.

True, but that's a lot of "ifs". You not only need to hit the 50/50 on the SPD level-up, but you have to use Chrom and Frederick a ton in the first three Chapters, to the detriment of Robin (and in the case of Chrom, also of strategy). Feeding Chrom in particular makes reaching the MAG/SPD thresholds for Ch. 2 especially annoying; at least Frederick is carrying water for the team when you're OHKOing and weakening stuff with him.

It's gravy if you can pull it off, but it's unlikely. And even after all that, he still can't double the Soldiers -- just the Archers -- which is kind of a bag of whatever. I guess I'd probably give him Sumia if he got +SPD getting to level 2, since she's too fragile to be a frontliner with Archers alive anyway.

Anyway, I am now convinced that anyone who thinks Lunatic+ is fake difficulty is wrong.

Indeed. The solution was well-hidden, but it did exist.

For the record I managed to use this guide with a -Magic Avatar (not advisable but I have an Apotheosis set up I'm planning for). A lot of it had to be reworked but I think the most crucial thing on the entire map is getting rid of those two units on the first turn.

Yeah, that is the part that was the key (killing the first two units efficiently). Everything else sort of falls into place if you can eliminate them, and control the way that your team faces damage on Enemy Phase. Leaving either of them alive creates all sorts of other annoying complications, which is why I called it a fair trade to have to rig a crit/DS to make it possible.

I feel like -MAG isn't such a big deal, though. Getting to C rank Tomes isn't hard to do, and you only need +4 MAG over base normally to make that work. With a -MAG flaw, you now need +5 MAG over base and have to get it with a 40% growth. Fun fact: the poor bastards who choose -LCK as a flaw already take a smaller MAG growth hit; they have 45% instead of 50%.

Anyway, you ought to be able to get Robin to level 10 by the start of Chapter 2, and nine level-ups with a 40% MAG growth rate will get you to the minimum MAG or higher about ~27% of the time. And that sort of overstates how much effort you need to use, because you can repeat Prologue until you get MAG-blessed (~45% chance to get +3 over six levels), leaving only 2 points needed in Chapter 1 (~35% chance to get +2 over three). Both of those are really quick maps once you have a good set of opening movements.

EDIT: also, as a Plan B, a crit will kill the Barbarian even with lower-than-minimum MAG. If you follow the movements exactly, Robin will have +10 bonus crit from Support levels (C Chrom, and unsupported Stahl + Virion). Realistically, this is a 12-13% chance to crit on any particular hit (Barbarian has 6 LCK, Thunder has 5 crit, plus half of your SKL), or somewhere in the neighborhood of ~24% to crit on one of them. Plus a double-DS from Chrom will also do the trick in a MAG-starved environment (which happens ~20% of the time or something).

It has nowhere near the consistency of the double + DS variant, but overall you have a realistic shot at a ORKO even without 9 MAG.

Edited July 5, 2014 by Interceptor

[Jotari]

True, but that's a lot of "ifs". You not only need to hit the 50/50 on the SPD level-up, but you have to use Chrom and Frederick a ton in the first three Chapters, to the detriment of Robin (and in the case of Chrom, also of strategy). Feeding Chrom in particular makes reaching the MAG/SPD thresholds for Ch. 2 especially annoying; at least Frederick is carrying water for the team when you're OHKOing and weakening stuff with him.

It's gravy if you can pull it off, but it's unlikely. And even after all that, he still can't double the Soldiers -- just the Archers -- which is kind of a bag of whatever. I guess I'd probably give him Sumia if he got +SPD getting to level 2, since she's too fragile to be a frontliner with Archers alive anyway.

Indeed. The solution was well-hidden, but it did exist.

Yeah, that is the part that was the key (killing the first two units efficiently). Everything else sort of falls into place if you can eliminate them, and control the way that your team faces damage on Enemy Phase. Leaving either of them alive creates all sorts of other annoying complications, which is why I called it a fair trade to have to rig a crit/DS to make it possible.

I feel like -MAG isn't such a big deal, though. Getting to C rank Tomes isn't hard to do, and you only need +4 MAG over base normally to make that work. With a -MAG flaw, you now need +5 MAG over base and have to get it with a 40% growth. Fun fact: the poor bastards who choose -LCK as a flaw already take a smaller MAG growth hit; they have 45% instead of 50%.

Anyway, you ought to be able to get Robin to level 10 by the start of Chapter 2, and nine level-ups with a 40% MAG growth rate will get you to the minimum MAG or higher about ~27% of the time. And that sort of overstates how much effort you need to use, because you can repeat Prologue until you get MAG-blessed (~45% chance to get +3 over six levels), leaving only 2 points needed in Chapter 1 (~35% chance to get +2 over three). Both of those are really quick maps once you have a good set of opening movements.

EDIT: also, as a Plan B, a crit will kill the Barbarian even with lower-than-minimum MAG. If you follow the movements exactly, Robin will have +10 bonus crit from Support levels (C Chrom, and unsupported Stahl + Virion). Realistically, this is a 12-13% chance to crit on any particular hit (Barbarian has 6 LCK, Thunder has 5 crit, plus half of your SKL), or somewhere in the neighborhood of ~24% to crit on one of them. Plus a double-DS from Chrom will also do the trick in a MAG-starved environment (which happens ~20% of the time or something).

It has nowhere near the consistency of the double + DS variant, but overall you have a realistic shot at a ORKO even without 9 MAG.

I can't remember exactly how much magic I had at that point but I do remember having a lot of trouble killing the barbarian on the mountain with just Robin. In the end I had to finish him off with Sully instead of using her to bait the enemy on the left. That enemy still attacked and was closer in to the group but from that point on it was just about controlling enemy phase and getting enough lucky dual strikes to finish the more troublesome enemies off.

[Interceptor]

I can't remember exactly how much magic I had at that point but I do remember having a lot of trouble killing the barbarian on the mountain with just Robin. In the end I had to finish him off with Sully instead of using her to bait the enemy on the left. That enemy still attacked and was closer in to the group but from that point on it was just about controlling enemy phase and getting enough lucky dual strikes to finish the more troublesome enemies off.

So, the Barbarian is guaranteed to have 33 HP. Stahl w/Bronze hits him for 6, leaving 27 HP left for Chrom and Robin. Chrom at base level will do 7 damage with either of Falchion or Rapier. That gives a few different scenarios:

• 9 MAG: Robin does 2x10 damage, and Chrom throws in a DS. Perfect kill.
• 8 MAG: You either need a crit (3x9 damage from Robin, 19% chance once you factor in HIT rate) or two Dual Strikes (14%, adjusted for HIT).
• 6-7 MAG: Needs crit + extra hit, or double DS from Chrom.
• 4-5 MAG: You are kinda screwed. Need a perfect storm of everything.

The 8 MAG situation happens about 30% of the time, which I consider to be pretty much the minimum acceptable success rate. 6-7 MAG or below really kinda sucks rocks, so you'd either need to do the thing you did with Sully, or do a better job rigging level-ups.

You can also improve your killing chances a little by having Frederick attack the Merc as your first move. Then when Stahl attacks the Barbarian, he'll take Fred as his Support partner, and they'll have a 24% chance for a DS, which will pretty much guarantee that Robin can finish the Barbarian off if it lands. That boosts the success rate of the 8 MAG to about 42% (which accounts for Fred's WTD). Not bad.

[Interceptor]

Bonus content! Here's a method to quickly get rid of the four starting enemies on the left-hand side in Chapter 3. It works with any asset/flaw on Robin, and sets up an easy (well, easy for for L+) clear of the map.

Requirements:

• 8 SPD on Robin, and enough HP/DEF to survive a 22mt hit with Luna+
• Thunder tome with at least 2-3 uses left
• Knight on left cannot have Aegis+
• Soldier on left cannot have Pavise+
• Archer on left (the close one) cannot have Luna+. Doesn't matter what the other Archer has.

Assuming equal skill distribution, there's a 5/7 chance that any one enemy will be missing a particular skill. So with three enemies that each need a specific skill gone, there's a ~36% chance that you have a map you can work with. Fortunately, it's super-easy to reset for skills, because you can save on the formation screen, and there is no dialog or cutscene to blast through until you actually start.

Leave one of Sully or Stahl on the bench (it doesn't matter which). Start by running Chrom out to Kellam, recruiting him, Pairing up, and walking the two of them back to safety. Then, set up your army like this:

The specific pairings and placements are important, although Lissa and Chrom can do whatever they want. Miriel and Robin need to split up the Fire/Thunder tomes, and it doesn't matter who gets which. Steps:

• Move Miriel/Robin 4W, attack the Knight. Thanks to Pair-up, Miriel doubles and does a ton of damage.
• Move Virion/Kellam 4W, Switch, Transfer Virion for Robin, and attack the Soldier with a Javelin for 8 damage. Robin gives Kellam the +STR/HIT he needs, and Miriel wants Virion for Enemy Phase.
• Move Fred/Vaike 6W, kill the Soldier with Silver Lance. Vaike's +4 STR to Fred guarantees the finisher (8 + 25 = 33... the Soldier's HP).
• Move Sully 1W of Kellam, Transfer Robin, Switch, finish off the Knight at 2-range with a tome.
• Fly Sumia west and Pair with Kellam. This gives him enough +SPD to avoid being doubled.
• Note that the units are placed such that the far Archer can't get to Miriel, not even with Pass.
• Move Chrom and Lissa a little to the left while staying out of range of the Archers. Turn ends.
• Near Archer will move next to Kellam and take a shot at Miriel, bringing her to 1 HP. Far Archer will attack someone else, and every potential target has enough DEF/HP to survive.

After that, clean up the Archers (easy, since both are probably injured). The guys on the right hand side haven't even made it halfway over to you yet, so just open the door, kill the Knight, heal people, and set up a chokepoint on the north side of the corridor. Spread out your units (without aggroing the guys in the north) so that the enemies coming for you can't use Pass to get through to the back.

After you kill the guys that came from the right, you can take care of the mob in the top at your leisure, either by choke-pointing them or kiting them around in a circle. Watch out for the guy with the Hammer, and beware enemy Archers who can fire over the heads of your tanks and kill units like Miriel or Lissa.

Fin.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Ha! I knew it!

Now, I wonder if, with enough resetting, it would be possible to reach the Outrealm Gate in L+ without saving...

[Interceptor]

I guess it would be theoretically possible, but you've got a lot of resets in your future between hits/misses, getting a timely DS proc, getting the right stat distribution on Robin, etc. It's not too bad if you can save between chapters, but without those saves, yikes.

Maybe it would be less insane on Casual mode, where you could choose to sacrifice someone or another in order to bail out a bad miss.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Ha! I knew it!

Now, I wonder if, with enough resetting, it would be possible to reach the Outrealm Gate in L+ without saving...

It's always been technically possible, but these guides make it somewhat more probably. Still, there's a lot that can go wrong. I suppose it's no different than the speed runners who go at a game over and over trying to get a run with good luck, though. I mean, I've seen people do 12 hour runs and consider resetting 1 or 2 hours in, so needing to reset a bunch on... let's say a 30 minute set of 4 chapters (assuming the animations, etc. are off and strong familiarity with the strats), a bunch of times, wouldn't be the most intense thing.

I guess it would be theoretically possible, but you've got a lot of resets in your future between hits/misses, getting a timely DS proc, getting the right stat distribution on Robin, etc. It's not too bad if you can save between chapters, but without those saves, yikes.

Maybe it would be less insane on Casual mode, where you could choose to sacrifice someone or another in order to bail out a bad miss.

I guess this will vary from player to player, but I think that's something that can feasibly be done to improve odds off success on Classic too. Chapter 3ish is when Robin starts to gain enough momentum to take several enemies on at the same time. It becomes relatively safe to throw other units under the bus just to ensure that Robin snowballs during chapter 3 and the possibly next couple chapters (to compensate for assets/flaws other than +Def). I'd speculate that if we allow for this, if Robin can make it past chapter 6, then the right setup with a bit of shop luck could do most, if not all, of the rest of the game, without resetting (without grinding and possibly with no or very limited use of bonus box and renown).

I kiiind of want to attempt this now. >.>

Edited September 2, 2014 by Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi

[shadowofchaos]

I kiiind of want to attempt this now. >.>

So I'm wondering... how much of that curiosity if it's possible is required for you to give in to that masochistic tendency of yours?

[Czar_Yoshi]

So I'm wondering... how much of that curiosity if it's possible is required for you to give in to that masochistic tendency of yours?

Well, I think I'm going to give it a try once I get a free file (even though I won't be saving, I want to run through the route a few times with saves first to get a good feel for it).