In A Normal Transfer Run...?

[~Silver]

How many, estimating, characters will I be able to get capped?

Like, do Laguz fighters count for 2 people capped, as they take so long, or what?

I'm about to kick off this run (Because I can't do it on easy) and I'm just hesitant about every little thing.

Any tips that should be known? How should I use my Bonus XP, and when?

Edited April 14, 2015 by ~Silver

[EricaofRenais]

Focus on the characters you want to use in RD and capping units is super easy, you should do fine and don't worry to much about using your bonus XP because you get a lot of it. My only advice is make sure you give Soren some bonus XP so that he can take a hit with out ending up dead. If there are several units you want to cap trade off every chapter and that way you use them all.

[Radiant head]

Collect all the stat booster items that you can.

I usually resort to reset abusing when using Bexp.

[sthbdis]

Collect all the stat booster items that you can.

I usually resort to reset abusing when using Bexp.

This. If you really want to make sure that as many people as possible are capping, definitely reset abuse.

On a side note, in PoR I think you definitely want to focus on characters that you really like in general. In RD it doesn't matter as much because of the irritating "support" conversations.

[~Silver]

Alright, so I don't want to be spreading BonusXP across so many people only to reach the end and find out I tried to cap too many.

What's like, a low number goal? How many am I SURE to cap?

[Ownagepuffs]

Normal mode you can easily get at least 5. Maybe even upwards to 8. Just rig level ups constantly with BEXP.

[sthbdis]

Ya, and if you aren't above restarting after shitty level ups you can do that. I would do that sometimes if it was like the first turn or two and I got a level up I wasn't a fan of.

[~Silver]

Normal mode you can easily get at least 5. Maybe even upwards to 8. Just rig level ups constantly with BEXP.

What about Characters like Sothe and Ike? I feel like I'll cap Ike naturally, and Sothe doesn't need to promote, yeah?

[Radiant head]

Sothe doesn't even have a promotion, so yeah he just needs to be level 20. His stats transfer regardless of if they cap. So he can actually become worse with transfers. I imagine Sothe wants a speed transfer, because his spd growth blows. Especially for someone whose class has among the highest caps in spd.

Ike can cap speed naturally, but just to be safe, but you might want to Bexp reset abuse anyway, because you never know what the RNG will do ultimately.

[~Silver]

Sothe doesn't even have a promotion, so yeah he just needs to be level 20. His stats transfer regardless of if they cap. So he can actually become worse with transfers. I imagine Sothe wants a speed transfer, because his spd growth blows. Especially for someone whose class has among the highest caps in spd.

Ike can cap speed naturally, but just to be safe, but you might want to Bexp reset abuse anyway, because you never know what the RNG will do ultimately.

Would either of them count as one of the Five Characters I can cap? Is it easy enough?

I'm also planning on capping Shinon, who's a Tier 2 class already, so... What about him?

[Dual Dragons]

Shinon has pretty high growth rates but pretty low bases. You're going to need to rig levels or get really lucky with him. Out of his 19 levels, he needs to hit 16 levels in Strength and Defense to cap, for example. That's naturally (without stat boosters). He needs 15 levels in Skill and Speed to cap those. Not to say that you want to cap those stats but just to show how little wiggle room you're going to have with him.

No-transfers Shinon in RD Hard Mode is serviceable. I don't play with Shinon much in either game but I would think he doesn't need that much extra help.

[Radiant head]

Would either of them count as one of the Five Characters I can cap? Is it easy enough?

I'm also planning on capping Shinon, who's a Tier 2 class already, so... What about him?

I guess Shinon wants strength, but honestly he should be low priority for transfers. I think it only makes a marginal improvement.

[Tomes]

I managed to get 10 characters to level 20 (I didnt do any boss abuse or anything like that) on my normal mode transfers run. I later did a re-run on easy mode where I got 20 characters.. so if you don't know wheter your copy of the game has the glitch fixed you might want to test that first..

Some tips:

When a character you plan to transfer joins give him/her some (maybe 1-3) rigged bonus exp level ups (more to lower level or harder to cap units). It takes 85 bonus exp points to level up level 1 tier 1 unit to level 2 and 444 points to level up a tier 2 level 19 unit to level 20 so dont sit on your bonus exp.

Try to finish maps with your characters close to a level up to make rigged level ups cheaper.

Save your stat boosters to the end so you can be sure who needs them.

Use weaker weapons on your stronger characters so that they dont 1RKO the enemies (or have them unequip their weapon depending on the situation).

Have bands equipped in a way that they boost stats that are less likely to cap (str/skl/spd/def are for most units the only meaningful ones when it comes to transfers + hp for the ones you plan to use a robe on or have a reasonable chance to max hp without it.. i dont remember if there are others than Boyd and Ike that can do it thought..)

In my opinion some good choices for transfers (str,skl,spd,def):

Ike (+hp,+res)

Jill (+hp)

Sothe (give him all your ashera icons and try to get perfect/close to perfect level ups - blossom helps and the cost is not that bad so dont remove it)

Nephenee

Zihark (maybe +hp also)

Mia

Tanith

Oscar

Titania (-def)

Marcia

Boyd (+hp)

Haar (you have to rig all his level ups or use stat boosters.. he also works fine without transfers but still good choice if you use him a lot in RD)

Geoffrey (not that useful in RD but low investment cost/close to a free slot thanks to high join level + paragon)

[Florete]

How many, estimating, characters will I be able to get capped?

8 is easy. 10 is reasonable. 12-15 is possible depending on which characters and how efficient you are at gaining experience.

Like, do Laguz fighters count for 2 people capped, as they take so long, or what?

Laguz count as a promoted Beorc. That's all. And that means they're ultimately faster than an unpromoted Beorc.

Any tips that should be known? How should I use my Bonus XP, and when?

For getting the most out of BEXP, use: http://www.fireemblemwod.com/fe9/aprovechar-exp-de-la-base.htm

It's in Spanish, but the top row is for most units, the second is for those with Paragon, and the last for those with Blossom. It tells you how much BEXP to feed incrementally at each level to save as much BEXP as possible. So if you're looking at a level 1, unpromoted unit without Paragon or Blossom, you'll want to feed them in increments of 4, resulting in using 75 BEXP instead of 85 for a full level up.

Make use of free exp from staff users as much as possible (especially the Ashera Staff, which grants a full level up), steal a lot if using Volke and/or Sothe, and use all the turns you have for max BEXP to kill as many enemies as possible.

[omglmaowtf]

General rule:

If a stat's growth rate is below 50%, the level 20/20 promoted unit won't be able to cap it, at least not without stat boost items.

e.g. Elincia's skill growth is 45%, so she'll need at least one Secret Book in order to cap that stat.

[Paper Jam]

If you know how to (ab)use the BEXP system, it'll only cost 1900 BEXP to level Sothe up to 20. And that's if he doesn't gain any CEXP at all.

Whether it's worth it or not is a matter I'll leave to others.

[Original Alear]

If you really want to maximize your exp gain, there are a few regenerating bosses you can abuse against. Ena and Bertram are the only ones coming to mind. Shaeffer can get temporary healing from some psychich priests, I think, but I guess you need to be careful leveling against his killer weapons.

[Snowy_One]

BEXP abuse the **** out of everything. Try to farm as much EXP as possible in every level without having units actually level-up. Save your stat-boosters till a unit hits 20/20 (I prefer the final chapter but it may not matter). DO NOT USE SOTHE! Ignoring that he's a cruddy unit his stats can come out worse. If you must transfer him remove his skill and BEXP him as hard as you can.

IMO 5-7 is a good number to look for in terms of stat-ups (barring when stats are capped of course). You should focus on about 6-8, MAYBE 9 depending on team make-up. If you want to toss caution to the wind you CAN staff abuse Soren, Ilyana, Tormod, Rhys, and Mist up to 20/20 swiftly but that will risk non-abused level-ups. Reyson can also do this. However, in doing so you will be for fitting a sizable chunk of BEXP for at least one chapter; so use at your own risk.

Ideally you should focus on either characters to help out the DB or characters you plan to take into the EG (No duh). The latter is a bit more preferable since the DB units struggle and can get left behind easy compared to the better units elsewhere. If you are REALLY desperate I'm certain you can hack the game to gain either a ton of EXP/BEXP/Stat-ups but, at that point, I doubt you're doing this on the actual Gcube and this whole topic becomes irrelevant since the question of who you should level-up is pointless since you can have everyone pumping capped stats at level 1.

Edit: I forgot. Astrid is also VERY easy to cap out at 20/20, but she's kind of meh for a paladin in PoR (Oscar, Kieran, and Titania are better, Makalov is debatable, and only Geoffrey is worse) and she's pretty UP in RD.

Edited June 24, 2015 by Snowy_One