Vanilla Lunatic Chrom Solo Playlog/Guide

[Sodium Hydroxide]

Alternative solutions are fights with SpotPass teams, which I will be doing at least one of, and DLC, especially EXPonential Growth and Golden Gaffe. Unfortunately, I have a grand total of 0 DLC maps, so I can't use any of the related skills or classes, nor can I grind on any of the maps. We might not even get to Cav or the Outrealm Gate, though, since Chapter 3 has been handing me my own rear end time and time again. I can't survive a Knight plus a Soldier with a Sumia pairup, and can't get enough Player Phase offense with a Kellam pairup. I've tried going left with Sumia, left with Kellam, right with Kellam, multiple times each, and all were miserable failures. I haven't tried going right with Sumia yet, but doing so leaves me with the unsolvable dilemma of whether to smash the Knight and have the Archer go at me for ages, or take out the Archer and risk instant death from the Knight and one of the Soldiers. I also haven't tried pairing Sumia with Kellam because I need one of their sets of boosts on Chrom, despite his seemingly incredible Str and Def (I had the amount of Str I had now at level 15 in my invalidated routing, as an example)

[eclipse]

halp i ded on premonition lunatic 2 stronk

With that out of the way. . .questions galore~!

- How important are those event tiles in terms of hitting level benchmarks? Extra experience is nice, but what if I wind up with a combination of Micaiah's Pyre and WEXP? Would it be possible to get that third level without hitting the experience event tile?

- Chapter 3 can die in a fire. However, does Chrom have enough Speed to double the archers with a Sumia pair-up?

- If I run out of things to do, would you mind if I did a horrible rigged run similar to this? By "rigged", I mean "Chrom will be leveling Speed at every opportunity". I'd like to see what numbers benchmarks need to be hit in order to make this run less headache-inducing.

[Sodium Hydroxide]

To answer question 1: You can hit level 3 on Prologue without event tiles, but you might need to get both Str and Def on level 2 to have sufficient stats for it while also using Bronze on the boss without a pairup. You're only getting level 4 if you feed Chrom every melee kill except that Myrm Fred blicks on Turn 1 and get EXP from both tiles.

Question 2: Yes, I can double and ORKO Archers with a Sumia pairup, but I can't survive the Enemy Phase after doing so unless both the Knight on whichever side I'm attacking and at least one other enemy miss.

Question 3: Go ahead, when I start making this into more of a cohesive guide it'll be appreciated.

[eclipse]

Huh, thanks! If Chrom could somehow hit Robin-levels of overleveled by Chapter 3, and could double archers without Sumia, he'd be in much better shape. I might give this a shot on Lunatic/Casual, so I can inspect the level-ups before they happen. Not right now, but maybe if I'm bored enough while waiting for the bus!

[Czar_Yoshi]

Yeah, you might just need to drop the whole "reliable" thing and rig as hard as you can for perfect growths. But since Chrom's got no Staffbots to back him up, even if you take down one of the bottom sides, what then? You'll be hurt, will you use your items? They won't last if you do.

[Sodium Hydroxide]

Basically, what I'm getting is that I shouldn't really have put 'guide' in the title because I 'don't have a fart's chance in the wind', to quote Basilio, of getting the clear to be reliable (If I can get it at all). I'll post several of the stat benchmarks you'll want for Chapter 3 here, also:

Speed Benchmarks

• Unless you're really screwed in Speed you'll have enough to double the Knights (9)
• You need 17 Speed to double the Soldiers
• 16 Speed is required to double the Archers
• If you somehow get 18 Speed you can double the Mercs
• 15 Speed allows you to double the Fighters
• You only need 10 Speed to double Raimi

Attack benchmarks

• 23 Attack allows you to 2HKO Soldiers
• 21 Attack allows you to 2HKO Archers
• 21 Attack is also the 2HKO benchmark on the Mercs
• The Fighters are 2HKO'd by 21 Attack as well
• If you have 22 Attack with Falchion equipped, you can 2HKO Knights with the Rapier
• 25 Attack with Falchion equipped allows a 2HKO on Raimi with the Rapier

Survivability benchmarks

• HP+Def must be greater than 38 to prevent a Knight-Soldier combo from killing you with a Sumia pair
• HP+Def=37 allows the survival of Knight + Archer + Soldier with a Kellam pair
• HP+Def=38 allows the survival of a Soldier and 2 Archers with a Kellam pair
• HP+Def>25 allows Raimi to not kill you
• To add a Merc to any of these benchmarks, add 19 to the required HP+Def when paired with Kellam
• To factor a Sumia pair, add 5 to the required HP+Def for each enemy engaged.

The Speed benchmarks all assume a Kellam pair, and the Attack benchmarks all assume a Sumia pair. Take the Attack benchmarks with a grain of salt, since I may have calculated the effective damage bonus incorrectly. Looking at my stats after Ch. 2, the only benchmarks I meet are 'Double Raimi', 'Double Knights', 'Survive 1 Soldier +2 Archers with Kellam pair', 'Survive Knight + Soldier + Archer with Kellam pair' and 'Survive Raimi', while being close enough to 2HKOing most enemies that a Kellam pair pushes me over the threshold. This is not looking too good, I must say. I might have to go to attempt 3 and massively rig my early levels so that they all have Str, Def, and Spd, plus whatever other stats are willing to cooperate. Doing this also abandons the last shred of hope of making a clear, cohesive, repeatable guide for the challenge, but if it's necessary in order to clear at all then I'll just have to accept it.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Hmmm, if you're running into EXP issues, you could probably do some enemy Fort abuse. The C1 and C2 bosses are good obvious targets because despite their relatively high Attack, Fred on a Fort should be able to tank the 25 hits to break the weapon with very little Heal usage (just make sure to get them onto the Fort for that final durability). Other good candidates are the C1 Archer and any of the Mercs, since they're all relatively fast, letting Chrom get good stat gains without starting to double until late. This would necessitate keeping Lissa alive through C1, but also makes good use of your Heal that will be be totally useless after C2, since Lissa gets benched (all other staff recruits you could use during their map come with Mend).

Overall, I'm thinking Def is going to be your most important early stat. Str and Spd are important too, but for vanilla Lunatic, getting tinked super early is probably more important than having good offense (until C6, anyway), since healing items are very limited, whereas Falchion provides no worry of running out of weapon durability and taking more rounds against enemies is actually worth more experience overall. A good benchmark for C3 is probably about 15. With Kellam's +5, Chrom can sit on a Woods tile for a cumulative 21 Def. This causes Archers to only hit for 1, Soldiers for 3, Mercs for 3, Hammer Fighter for 4, Steel Axe Fighter for 5 and Knights for 8 (making them the priority target... Luckily, Rapier exists). With no further increases, Raimi will deal 11, meaning that saving healing items for her is crucial (even if Chrom does gain a few extra points).

After that, shops open up, so you can load up on Vulneraries and raid your Renown cache. This gives you more potential EP offense for C4 in Spirit Dust + Levin Sword, which is good, because Chrom will be losing Kellam's +5 Def. This also lets you reclass to Cavalier if you want, yet still maintain something that can do significant damage to both Knights.

Chrom can then steal Lon'qu's Killing Edge for C5. Retrieving the Killer Lance from P1 would probably be good if possible too, since a Cavalier!Chrom can very quickly build lance ranks to be able to use it.

Are you busting into the Bonus Box too? If so, Tyrfing may be a key item when facing Mages (maybe not to much Dark Mages, because of their terrible Hit), since Chrom's Res will be weak and it gives a nice +5. Not to mention that it's a legendary weapon, so it'll give him good offense to tear through the melee while weathering the magic until he can take them on. Mystletainn isn't as notable, but it still provides another high-power sword to muscle through a problem chapter with. Luna is in the same situation and while Lances A will be coming a bit late, Gáe Bolg provides +5 Def, which may be key to survival at some point.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Keep in mind that with those survivability benchmarks, when you're taking multiple hits, Def counts for more than HP. It's never strictly Def + HP unless you're facing a single hit.

Also, keep in mind that surviving a round counts for nothing when you can't heal up afterword, and your heals are extremely limited- so the benchmarks don't matter as much as simply being as tanky as possible. Resetting for perfect Def/Spd levels is probably going to need to be a thing.

[Elieson]

Don't forget about the bits of terrain in Ch2/3 that ENEMIES can stroll into just as easily as you, giving them extra def (and avo)

[Sodium Hydroxide]

I'm going to try KTT's suggestion of Boss grinding Ch. 1 and 2 with Heals and the Bronze Sword before I make an adjudication of whether resetting is required. I'll also try fighting them with a Female Avatar pairup when their weapons are broken because, while Morgan's paralogue gets less direct levels, the boosts from Naga's Tear are equivalent to between 5 and 7 levels in most stats if my combination of calculation and estimation is correct, while also keeping my internal level lower and allowing me to get more levels faster (unless I've already maxed it by Great Lord on my stated class path, but then those boosts just take even more combat to get).

[spoiler=Premonition/Prologue attempt 3]Since I'm on attempt 3, I'll be using 3 as my Avatar. Go to KTT's Resetless Lunatic+ thread for details on 3, and the other Avatars he has used.

The Premonition is quite possibly the easiest thing in Fire Emblem (not quite in gaming, since I can think of a few easier fights in FF4's DS version, but I digress).

The Prologue goes similarly to the other 2 attempts before it - Fredstomp the lower-left Myrm, feed Chrom some melee, keep Avatar/Lissa out of melee range, Fredstomp the first mage, heal, event tile (Alm's Blade), get Avatar and Lissa to the bottom-right corner, bait wave 2 in such a way that Chrom takes one melee engagement and nothing from the Mage, retreat a little, Fredstomp the second Mage, feed Chrom the rest, heal, event tile (WEXP), and Bronze the boss with Avatar pairup if they're female or Fred if you have a Male Avatar. All in that order.

STATS AFTER PROLOGUE:

Lord level 3, 40 EXP

21 HP, 8 Str, 1 Mag, 9 Skl, 9 Spd, 7 Lck, 8 Def, 2 Res

D Swords + 4 attacks

ITEMS AFTER PROLOGUE:

46 Bronze Sword uses, 35 Rapier uses, 10 Alm's Blade uses, 21 Silver Lance uses, 45 Thunder uses, 24 Heal uses, 5 Vulnerary uses

[spoiler=Chapter 1 attempt 3]Fort tanking is my favourite strategy for any chapter where it can be done. This chapter is no exception. To set Chrom up on the Fort, he'll need a Fred pair. When you've got that, have Chrom move to the fort event tile (29 EXP) and equip Falchion. Fred should be unequipped, but have both Vulneraries in his inventory in case of an item from the event tile. Lissa fullmoves straight down and Avatar goes 1 tile above her. If this didn't all happen on Turn 1, reset and make sure it does.

On Turn 2, Chrom should change Forts. Pair Sully onto Lissa and have Virion trade Avatar the Elixir (quite possibly the most important move in the entire run) before pairing onto them. Have Avatar move 1 tile left and as far north as they can, and drop Virion left. Lissa should do the same for Sully.

On Turn 3 and afterwards, Chrom needs only ensure he survives, while the scrubs have to stay out of range at all costs. Break both the Archer's weapon and the Boss'. Ensure they end up on Forts on the turn their weapons break. Pick up the second event tile (WEXP), pair Chrom up with Avatar and slowly Bronze the remaining foes to death. If Chrom does not have at least 9 Def by level 5, reset. The same goes for if he hits level 6 with single-digit Def.

STATS AFTER CHAPTER 1:

Lord level 7, 49 EXP

23 HP, 8 Str, 1 Mag, 13 Skl, 12 Spd, 9 Lck, 22 Def, 2 Res

C Swords + 1 third of the WEXP bar

ITEMS AFTER CHAPTER 1:

25 Bronze Sword uses, 35 Rapier uses, 10 Alm's Blade uses, 50 Bronze Lance uses, 21 Silver Lance uses, 40 Iron Bow uses, 44 Thunder uses (Dual Strike on Archer because I forgot to unequip 3), 24 Heal Staff uses, 4 Vulnerary uses, 3 Elixir uses.

Two things I have to say about attempt 3 so far:

• Deathless Chapter 1 for the first time!
• I purposely left it here so you, the readers and fellow strategists, can weigh in on whether I view the Chrom/Avatar C support conversation (which is available) and thus get Morgan's paralogue and Naga's Tear, or not (and leave the child paralogue decision for later).

[Czar_Yoshi]

I'm willing to bet this won't be the last reset you make, so whether or not you get the C support shouldn't matter. Might as well just do it.

[eclipse]

So the bus was delayed, and I had a lot of time to give this a shot. Here's my Lunatic/Casual take (no EXP tiles):

- Casual: This was solely for the battle save feature, which allows me to "examine" the RNG string before I end my turn. It won't tell me what numbers are up, but it preserves the state of everything, including the RNG itself. With a bit of action manipulation, it's not that hard to rig Chrom's Speed levels. And oh boy does he need it! We're talking 100% growth rate to Chapter 2.

- Prologue: Have Robin toss the Bronze Sword to Frederick, then have Frederick grab Chrom and smack the myrmidon up north. If Frederick positions himself such that he's just to the right of the myrmidon, he'll attract both axe guys and the other myrmidon. Lissa and Robin can talk about fruit or something. On the second turn, switch to Chrom and back out of the mage's range. As long as Chrom dodged one of the axes, he'll be fine. Once the mage comes down, switch to Frederick and OHKO the jerkface. From there, use Lissa to heal because it's the last time she'll be used. Send the Lissa/Robin pair over the eastern bridge into the corner, while Frederick arms the Silver Lance and baits the myrmidon to the left. From there, it's a matter of having Frederick hit all other physical units once, switching to Chrom and getting out of the mage's range, and then OHKOing the mage with Frederick. After that, have Frederick trade everything to Chrom while Chrom stands next to the boss. If the boss hits, move out of range and have Lissa heal. If the boss crits, have Frederick rearm the Bronze Sword and stand at a distance. Your goal is to hit level 3 with +2 Speed and at least 1 HP and 1 Def (2 Def is ideal, but kinda hard to rig in conjunction with Speed).

- Chapter 1: Lissa and Robin escape north. Next, have Frederick pair up with Chrom, and save. Have Chrom attack the axe guy, and take note of whether or not he gets hit. Then, see if Chrom survives the enemy phase (I have pretty good luck with this). Sully and Virion should show up if Chrom survives. Have Sully run north and Virion pair up with her. Keep Chrom in place, and check his health - if it's really low (>5), reset. Otherwise, save, down a vulnerary and wait it out. If at any time Chrom doesn't level Speed, reset, and see if massaging the RNG helps (if not, restart the chapter until it behaves). Your goal is to kill everything except the archer and the boss. Once you're ready, smack the archer, go back on the fort if you need to heal, then smack the boss. Your goal is to hit level 6 with +3 Speed and +2 HP/+2 Def (the Def is slightly more important than the HP).

- Chapter 2: Have Virion trade the Elixir to Chrom, then pair up with Stahl. Have Robin pair up with Lissa, then have Lissa run all the way west, and separate from Robin (dropping him/her to the west). Vaike can hitch a ride with Sully. Have Frederick arm whatever it takes to ORKO the axe bandit, or the enemy phase won't work out. Once you regain control, have Chrom slowly make his way to the forts - you may need to down an Elixir shot to make it happen. He should be able to kill off everything between him and the forts (stay in the forests if at all possible). The object is to make the axe guys miss consistently, which should cut down on the amount of healing you need to do. Once Chrom and Frederick are done healing, have them pair up again, and have Frederick in the lead with the Bronze Sword, and trade all of Chrom's weapons to Fred. You want to bait the mercenary, then run back to the fort, trade everything back to Chrom and then some (so that Frederick doesn't get a Dual Strike), and slowly kill off everything. Again, if at any time you don't get a Speed level, reset. Your goal is to hit level 10 with +4 Speed and as much HP/Def as possible (my current run is 26 HP/11 Def).

- Chapter 3: The hardest part is the first three turns. If you managed to get 12 Def and more than 23 HP, then you can tank an archer and both lance units. Otherwise, you'll need to use the alternate plan, which is to have Chrom recruit Kellam and pair up with him, have Sumia dump all of her stuff in the convoy, and have Chrom double and kill an archer with the Rapier. That will deflect one of the blows onto Sumia, who will die and hate you forever. Chrom, in turn, should be able to take out the second archer on his turn. From there, you can clean up the left side, heal up, and wait in the FOREST. You'll need to do some dodge-rigging (the bow guys are your best bet), but if you can force all the melee units to suicide, it'll be a lot easier. Wait in the southernmost forest, so you'll have slightly less things to deal with per turn. From there, open the door, beat up the knight, bait the mercenary, dodge all the axes (13 STR and a Kellam pair-up will ORKO them), and run back out. You should be able to heal/pick everyone else to bits. Raimi will be 4HKO'd by the Rapier. I finished this chapter at level 13, and skipped a Speed level. Not that it matters, since I'm gonna hack out the Renown rewards and feed Chrom mostly everything. An Anna shop has a Concoction for sale, which I'll grab.

- Prelude to Chapter 4: Grabbed all the stat boosters, money, Second Seal, Leif's Blade, Tiki's Tear, Levin Sword, and Glass Sword. Stocked up on Vulneraries, Strength Tonics, and Defense Tonics (five each). Chrom to Cavalier.

- Chapter 4: Popped Tiki's Tear so Chrom would have 22 Speed (he needs 21 to double Marth), armed a sword, and got busy. It shouldn't be too hard to dodge one of the mages (or both axe guys), and once those mages are dead, take out the Levin Sword, let the Hand Axes guys suicide while you run circles around everyone else. If you can kill a Knight without leaving yourself in range of Marth/get yourself killed, do so. Once you're ready, boogie on over to Marth, and watch the carnage. My sparkling tiles were a Tiki's Tear (which was just good fortune IMO) and WEXP, with the latter allowing me to hit D lances. Javelins, here I come~!

- Paralogue 1: Training for Chrom. The axe guys have terrible hit, and lances work wonders against thieves and archers. Grabbed Rescue and Donnel's stuff before ending the map. Chrom hit C lances, thanks to a WEXP tile and a lot of archer abuse. Chrom is currently a level 8 Cavalier, and has maxed Speed.

- Chapter 5: At this point, Chrom should have something like a +12 stat lead on everyone that's not the boss. Partner up with Ricken, get on a fort, arm a Javelin, and grab some popcorn. In my run, Ricken somehow leveled off of dual strikes. . .at 38% apiece. Dunno what happened.

- Chapter 6: Kill the thieves, and the rest will take care of itself. . .as long as Chrom has D lances at minimum!

- Chapter 7: Use the Falchion to take out ranged attackers on PP, and you'll be good.

- Prelude to Chapter 8: Bought a LOT of Javelins. Chrom's gonna need 'em!

- Chapter 8: Good night Nowi! Chrom can ORKO stuff and they have atrocious hit rates in return. I promoted mid-map because Chrom hit level 20. Great Knight here I come~!

- Skirmish (Southtown): I needed Bronze Axes, and the enemy Wyverns got in my way. Chrom still had a pretty hefty stat lead on these jokers, so I OHKO'd the lone mage, killed the archer, and then basked in my sword superiority. Bought my Bronze Axe when all was said and done.

Edited January 9, 2016 by eclipse

[Czar_Yoshi]

You made it all the way to Cht.8 while waiting for a bus? That's a serious delay!

If Cht.6 is down, you should be safely above the level curve. I doubt much will matter until late Valm now. And I would like to know more about the positioning used for Cht.6.

[eclipse]

You made it all the way to Cht.8 while waiting for a bus? That's a serious delay!

If Cht.6 is down, you should be safely above the level curve. I doubt much will matter until late Valm now. And I would like to know more about the positioning used for Cht.6.

The bus chapters were up to Chapter 3. Had to redo 3 a couple of times (so many stupid benchmarks), and I think it's the hardest of the early chapters!

For Chapter 6, it was something like this:

- Chrom murders the axe guy near Marth. On EP a thief suicides into Chrom, and other stuff happens. Marth dodges the axes, which changed a hell of a lot, as a thief challenged her (so she killed it on her phase instead of healing).

- Chrom arms the Javelin (which I completely forgot about in Chapter 5 because Kellam had it in his inventory) and chucks it at the closest mage. On EP, more stuff relinquishes its life to Chrom, including another thief. Before the carnage, Panne teams up with Chrom, because the best kind of kill is overkill! I think this is where Marth ate it, too.

- Chrom recruits Gaius, then Javelins the nearest enemy. Gaius runs into Emmeryn's room. EP should be pretty predictable by now.

- Chrom kills the final thief, as the enemies thin out. Everything by the closed door is dead, and only a handful of things are near the open doorway.

- Chrom hacks out the Falchion and takes a vulnerary. Because of the one-tile door, one of the mages is forced to go melee.

- Chrom kills the other mage, and the final axe guy meets a very messy end.

- Chrom takes another vulnerary swig while waiting for Validar.

- Rather than challenge Validar, Chrom finishes off the vulnerary, with Javelin up and in Validar's attack range. On EP, Validar activates Vengeance for a whopping 0 extra damage, while Chrom removes most of his HP. On the next PP, Chrom finishes Validar off.

THE END~!

[Sodium Hydroxide]

OK eclipse, I yield, I just have a few minor nitpicks with your earlygame strats. The strats I'm using feed Chrom more EXP (most notably by having him bait the Myrm at the start of Prologue wave 2 and break weapons in Ch. 1 and 2) while also being on Classic so I can't map save. Another difference is that I'm going for HP and especially Def to live as much stuff as possible, rather than the offensive option of rigging Speed and hoping for HP and Def. The intention is to take a Kellam pair and sit on a Woods, taking as little damage as possible while going after whatever Archers can be reached from the Woods I'll be turtling from (in the lower left corner) and hoping for Kellam Dual Strikes on them for the ORKO. I guess we'll see which one works out better by the day after tomorrow. Also, chapter 2!

[spoiler=Chapter 2 attempt 3]Supports available if you follow these strats to the letter: Fred C, Avatar C. Take Fred C at least, and only avoid Avatar C if you want to do a different child paralogue and miss out on the Naga's Tear and some other juicy items like Bullions and a Fortify staff for sale value.

When the actual map starts, pair Chrom to Fred. Then, have Fred attack the Mountain Barb from the east with the Silver Lance. Pair Stahl onto Sully and have her run 5 tiles west and 2 south. Then pair Avatar to Lissa and have her fullmove west, dropping Avatar further west. Virion should then pair onto Vaike, who moves 2 tiles west. You'll want 2 enemies, at most, to go after the scrubs in the southwest (on my successful clear I got 1).

On Turn 2, move Fred as close to a Fort as he can reach. Switch to Chrom and attack a Barb if he can, otherwise wait. Move Sully onto the northermost 'safe' tile she can reach. Pair Miriel onto Lissa and have her move as close to Sully as she can. Move Avatar as close to Sully as they can get, and put Vaike where Lissa was. An enemy might be in range to attack Vaike, in which case he's almost certainly dead and Virion can pair onto Avatar or be death fodder. If Vaike's out of enemy range, that means the best case scenario - that all enemies are either dead or after Chrom. Speaking of Chrom, he should level up again on Enemy Phase. If he doesn't gain Def yet again, reset.

On Turn 3, have Chrom Vulnerary - on a Fort if possible. Put everyone else out of enemy range however possible. There's the possibility of you not being able to get everyone out of enemy range, which requires a sacrifice. Vaike (if he's not already dead) and Virion are your best death fodders, followed by Stahl, then Miriel, then Sully. Lissa should never die. Avatar never will die on a successful clear for obvious reasons.

After this, just keep the scrubs out of enemy range and Chrom healthy.

Between waves, heal both combat units on the Forts and pick up the event tile (Innes' Bow) if you didn't do so already. Move the scrubs to the bottom-left corner, only Avatar will have any further use after this map and that's not until Ch. 23.

Right before wave 2, have Fred take everything Chrom won't immediately use (Vulnerary uses, the Elixir, the Rapier, the Bronze Sword) off of him, and wait just outside attack range. Then, have him gun all the way to a Fort, switch to Chrom and attack the enemy there if there is one. Make sure Fred is unequipped, then Fort tank until only the Boss remains alive. Break his weapon and place him on a Fort. Bronze Sword him to death, without a pairup. I picked up the 2nd event tile (WEXP) when starting the weapon breaking.

STATS AFTER CHAPTER 2:

Lord level 11, 68 EXP

26 HP, 11 Str, 1 Mag, 15 Skl, 14 Spd, 11 Lck, 13 Def, 2 Res

B Swords + 2 thirds of the WEP bar

ITEMS AFTER CHAPTER 2:

63 total Bronze Sword uses, 40 Iron Sword uses, 35 Rapier uses, 10 Alm's Blade uses, 50 Bronze Lance uses, 40 Iron Lance uses, 13 Silver Lance uses, 40 Iron Axe uses, 40 Iron Bow uses, 15 Innes' Bow uses, 45 Fire uses, 44 Thunder uses, 3 Vulnerary uses, 3 Elixir uses.

For Chapter 3 I'm intending to use Alm's Blade to 2HKO the left hand side (Archers first, obviously) since I have a whopping 28 Attack with it equipped (31 with a Kellam pair, which I'll be using for the Def).

[Czar_Yoshi]

THE END~!

In that case, congratulations, you're now the best in the world at this. The only one I ever saw before that cleared Cht.3 croaked on Cht.6 and declared Emm impossible to save.

I'm really curious to see just how far this can go, now. These are uncharted waters, which is really rare for Awakening nowadays.

If anyone wants to try something else with solo Chrom, take a look at Normal Apo. I spent some time routing it a while back, and I'm fairly convinced it can be done with a 0% chance of death, with sufficient preparation and proper strats. It's very important to play on Normal, though, because breaking weapons on forts for unlimited exp is required due to needing several mid-map reclasses.

[Sodium Hydroxide]

Taking a final try at Chapter 3 before going to bed, and I succeeded.

[spoiler=Chapter 3 attempt 3]So now we're finally getting battle preparations. You may not have Fred to pair up with anymore, but Kellam and Sumia can each provide their own set of handy boosts - Kellam boosts Str by 3 and Def by 5, while Sumia boosts Skl by 1 and Spd by 4.

When the actual Chapter starts, have Sumia throw everything she has in the convoy. On the same turn, have Chrom recruit Kellam and be ferrried by the ninja Knight over to the enemy Archer he can reach so Chrom can slam him with either a 15mt event tile Sword (if you have one) or the Rapier (if you don't).

On Turn 2, move to the only Woods you can reach and Vulnerary. Sumia should stay out of enemy range.

On Turn 3, kill the only remaining Archer. Have Sumia wait and die.

On Turn 4, Chrom should go to a Woods, equip the Rapier and Elixir. Repeatedly Vulnerary until all but the Archer are dead, then Falchion it.

One the lower half is dead, open the door with the Rapier equipped. Prepare your way to kite (or Stairs turtle) for every mook kill for the rest of the map. Kill Raimi with the Rapier when they're all dead, but not before grabbing the event tile (4 EXP). Don't worry about running out of Vulneraries, you can buy them when this chapter's complete.

STATS AFTER CHAPTER 3:

Lord level 15, 26 EXP

30 HP, 14 Str, 2 Mag, 18 Skl, 14 Spd, 14 Lck, 16 Def, 2 Res

A Swords

ITEMS AFTER CHAPTER 3:

63 total Bronze Sword uses, 40 Iron Sword uses, 5 Alm's Blade uses, 26 Rapier uses, 50 Bronze Lance uses, 109 total Iron Lance uses, 13 Silver Lance uses, 25 Javelin uses, 40 Iron Axe uses, 25 Hammer uses, 40 Iron Bow uses, 15 Innes' Bow uses, 45 Fire uses, 44 Thunder uses, 54 total Heal staff uses, 1 Door Key, 2 Vulnerary uses, 2 Elixir uses, plus 1050 Renown and the entire Bonus Box.

[eclipse]

In that case, congratulations, you're now the best in the world at this. The only one I ever saw before that cleared Cht.3 croaked on Cht.6 and declared Emm impossible to save.

I'm really curious to see just how far this can go, now. These are uncharted waters, which is really rare for Awakening nowadays.

If anyone wants to try something else with solo Chrom, take a look at Normal Apo. I spent some time routing it a while back, and I'm fairly convinced it can be done with a 0% chance of death, with sufficient preparation and proper strats. It's very important to play on Normal, though, because breaking weapons on forts for unlimited exp is required due to needing several mid-map reclasses.

Oh dear. . . the world is doomed

Anyway, Chrom absolutely must be a cavalier for Chapter 6, because his other unpromoted classes don't have enough movement to reach everything in time. Not sure if Javelin usage is an absolute must, but he's got plenty of time to train them on Chapter 5 and Paralogue 1.

Now then. . .I'm currently on Chapter 14. The only thing I'd say to be aware of is Chapter 13. I'm not sure if it was sheer luck, but none of the Warriors spawned with Counter. As for recruits, Libra survived by a miracle (dunno if it was Actually Miracle or just dumb luck, because he recruited himself at 1 HP) and it's not a bad idea to recruit and disarm Tharja, as she can either give Chrom a bit more movement, or he can haul ass back to the double forts to take out the wyvern swarm.

I really want Chrom to go Sniper at least once before endgame, but I'm not quite sure how I'm going to tackle some of the maps. Chapter 17 seems like an ideal time, if I can clear out the left treasure room fast enough (so that I can hole up and shoot things to my heart's content), and Chapter 18's pretty good, as well. Chrom is currently a Great Lord (level 8 or 9), and is well on his way to getting Rightful King. Once he gets that, life's gonna be a lot easier.

Sometime before the end of the game, I'll go into Rogues and Redeemers 3, because Limit Break will make Chapter 23-25 a lot less frustrating. I'll probably be a Bow Knight, park myself in a corner, and snipe the entire map. Then, I'll kill the last two units. Or something. I'll need to see if this is viable once I get there!

Edited January 9, 2016 by eclipse

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Grats to the both of you on getting past C3!

Chrom would definitely want Javelins for C6, if only to make fighting Validar safer (Levin won't cut it against his Res). As long as Chrom has the stats to survive combat with a constant mob of enemies, he can keep them away from Emm (again, because Thieves want to fight before lockpicking).

I do want to point out that the reason I was confident that C6 is doable is because I've done the straight Robin/Chrom full-game duo where Chrom just hides behind Robin all game. Since the movement would be similar, the big question becomes whether or not Chrom would have the stats to survive (which Eclipse answered with a resounding "yes").

[Sodium Hydroxide]

I managed to clear chapter 4 as well.

[spoiler=Attempt 3, chapter 4]Before this map starts, make sure you have gotten all the Renown and Bonus Box features you'll allow yourself to. Also ensure that you have at least 5 fresh Vulneraries and 4 of each Tonic that can be bought at this point (I got 7 Vulneraries and 6 of each Tonic). Use the Renown Second Seal to become a Cavalier, regardless of your current level and EXP. Make sure a Bronze Lance is in your inventory, along with a powerful Sword and also Falchion. You'll want to train the Bronze Lance once all the Axes are dead, Falchion is to WTA the Axes so you can Stairs dodgetank them to an extent, and the powerful Sword is to OHKO the Mages that would otherwise pose quite the problem. Then use a Strength Tonic, a Defense Tonic, and every statbooster in the convoy before starting the chapter.

When the battle begins, bait a Fighter to you with Falchion equipped. I sat on the event tile (22 EXP) for this.

On turn 2 there will be a Mage. Blick him from the west with the powerful Sword.

On turn 3, smack the other Mage with the powerful Sword.

After this, kite the remaining enemies around, using the Levin Sword to kill the 1-2 range Fighters, then the Bronze Lance (and probably a lot of Vulneraries) on what's left.

STATS AFTER CHAPTER 4:

Cavalier level 4, 57 EXP

33 HP, 19 Str, 4 Mag, 23 Skl, 15 Spd, 19 Lck, 17 Def, 2 Res

A Swords, E Lances + half the WEXP bar

I have abandoned the 'Items after map' section because my convoy is now too full of items to make that practical.

[eclipse]

OK eclipse, I yield, I just have a few minor nitpicks with your earlygame strats. The strats I'm using feed Chrom more EXP (most notably by having him bait the Myrm at the start of Prologue wave 2 and break weapons in Ch. 1 and 2) while also being on Classic so I can't map save. Another difference is that I'm going for HP and especially Def to live as much stuff as possible, rather than the offensive option of rigging Speed and hoping for HP and Def. The intention is to take a Kellam pair and sit on a Woods, taking as little damage as possible while going after whatever Archers can be reached from the Woods I'll be turtling from (in the lower left corner) and hoping for Kellam Dual Strikes on them for the ORKO. I guess we'll see which one works out better by the day after tomorrow. Also, chapter 2!

[spoiler=Chapter 2 attempt 3]Supports available if you follow these strats to the letter: Fred C, Avatar C. Take Fred C at least, and only avoid Avatar C if you want to do a different child paralogue and miss out on the Naga's Tear and some other juicy items like Bullions and a Fortify staff for sale value.

When the actual map starts, pair Chrom to Fred. Then, have Fred attack the Mountain Barb from the east with the Silver Lance. Pair Stahl onto Sully and have her run 5 tiles west and 2 south. Then pair Avatar to Lissa and have her fullmove west, dropping Avatar further west. Virion should then pair onto Vaike, who moves 2 tiles west. You'll want 2 enemies, at most, to go after the scrubs in the southwest (on my successful clear I got 1).

On Turn 2, move Fred as close to a Fort as he can reach. Switch to Chrom and attack a Barb if he can, otherwise wait. Move Sully onto the northermost 'safe' tile she can reach. Pair Miriel onto Lissa and have her move as close to Sully as she can. Move Avatar as close to Sully as they can get, and put Vaike where Lissa was. An enemy might be in range to attack Vaike, in which case he's almost certainly dead and Virion can pair onto Avatar or be death fodder. If Vaike's out of enemy range, that means the best case scenario - that all enemies are either dead or after Chrom. Speaking of Chrom, he should level up again on Enemy Phase. If he doesn't gain Def yet again, reset.

On Turn 3, have Chrom Vulnerary - on a Fort if possible. Put everyone else out of enemy range however possible. There's the possibility of you not being able to get everyone out of enemy range, which requires a sacrifice. Vaike (if he's not already dead) and Virion are your best death fodders, followed by Stahl, then Miriel, then Sully. Lissa should never die. Avatar never will die on a successful clear for obvious reasons.

After this, just keep the scrubs out of enemy range and Chrom healthy.

Between waves, heal both combat units on the Forts and pick up the event tile (Innes' Bow) if you didn't do so already. Move the scrubs to the bottom-left corner, only Avatar will have any further use after this map and that's not until Ch. 23.

Right before wave 2, have Fred take everything Chrom won't immediately use (Vulnerary uses, the Elixir, the Rapier, the Bronze Sword) off of him, and wait just outside attack range. Then, have him gun all the way to a Fort, switch to Chrom and attack the enemy there if there is one. Make sure Fred is unequipped, then Fort tank until only the Boss remains alive. Break his weapon and place him on a Fort. Bronze Sword him to death, without a pairup. I picked up the 2nd event tile (WEXP) when starting the weapon breaking.

STATS AFTER CHAPTER 2:

Lord level 11, 68 EXP

26 HP, 11 Str, 1 Mag, 15 Skl, 14 Spd, 11 Lck, 13 Def, 2 Res

B Swords + 2 thirds of the WEP bar

ITEMS AFTER CHAPTER 2:

63 total Bronze Sword uses, 40 Iron Sword uses, 35 Rapier uses, 10 Alm's Blade uses, 50 Bronze Lance uses, 40 Iron Lance uses, 13 Silver Lance uses, 40 Iron Axe uses, 40 Iron Bow uses, 15 Innes' Bow uses, 45 Fire uses, 44 Thunder uses, 3 Vulnerary uses, 3 Elixir uses.

For Chapter 3 I'm intending to use Alm's Blade to 2HKO the left hand side (Archers first, obviously) since I have a whopping 28 Attack with it equipped (31 with a Kellam pair, which I'll be using for the Def).

Heh, sorry, didn't see this before SF went weird on me!

Mine is supposed to be a full-on rigged run, which makes Casual a must! I give you props for doing this on Classic, where toying with the RNG is nigh-impossible. It also makes things a little dicier, since Chrom absolutely needs to hit certain benchmarks on the early chapters, or they become a lot more painful. Since you made it past Chapter 4, you should have no problem stomping Paralogue 1, which will give you more than enough stats for Chapter 5. This stat lead will last. . .a long time. Got distracted by Trails of Cold Steel, but I'm on Chapter 14, and the pain train is still goin' strong!

Oh, right, gotta do Paralogue 4 first. That Arms Scroll will be the final item I need.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Sometime before the end of the game, I'll go into Rogues and Redeemers 3, because Limit Break will make Chapter 23-25 a lot less frustrating. I'll probably be a Bow Knight, park myself in a corner, and snipe the entire map. Then, I'll kill the last two units. Or something. I'll need to see if this is viable once I get there!

Do RaR3 as soon as possible if you intend to do it at all, since LB isn't a static boost- Chrom will need a ton of levels after getting LB to put it to use. And since DLC is on the table, do LB2 as well, since Res+10 will help massively in RaR3 (there aren't too many mages there, but some of them are scary).

[Sodium Hydroxide]

I'm predicting our ahead-of-the-level-curve statuses to last until about Ch. 19, eclipse. We'd better enjoy them while we've got them, because I know for certain we'll be back behind by Endgame and are gonna have to pull something out of the metaphorical hat to beat Grima.

For the people not focusing on eclipse's playthrough exclusively, I've gotten Paralogue 1, Chapter 5 and Paralogue 2 done, in that order.

[spoiler=Attempt 3, Paralogue 1]If you've cleared Chapter 4 and this map gives you trouble, something's very wrong. You'll want to use one Tonic of each kind you can have before starting the chapter to be safe, regardless.

On Turn 1, have Donnel put all his stuff in the Convoy before pairing onto Chrom, who should attack the closest enemy to the Thief that he can reach, using Falchion if it's a barbarian or the Bronze Lance otherwise. Stomp the first wave of enemies, then Bronze Lance the entire rest of the map - you should be able to double. Make sure you get the Killer Lance, and whether you get the Rescue staff or not is your own decision - I don't know the chests that well, so I picked it up. The event tiles each gave me 22 EXP.

STATS AFTER PARALOGUE 1:

Cavalier level 9, 6 EXP

38 HP, 23 Str, 4 Mag, 25 Skl, 17 Spd, 22 Lck, 18 Def, 2 Res

C Lances + the equivalent of 3 non-Discipline attacks.

[spoiler=Attempt 3, chapter 5]Before entering the chapter from the world map, hit up the Tonics again, and put the Javelin in your inventory so as to counter the magic-based enemies running around.

When the actual Chapter starts, pair Ricken to Maribelle, who should wait exactly where she is. No enemies can reach that spot. Chrom should run up the middle to 2 tiles south of the Fort almost directly above his starting position, and Javelin the Barb there.

On turn 2, move Chrom northeast of the Myrm he weakened last turn and finish him. Maribelle should run towards Chrom and be paired onto him by use of Switch followed by Transfer, leaving Ricken to dump his tome in the convoy and become wyvern food.

On turn 3, move to the nearby Fort, equip Falchion and Vulnerary. Fort tank until only the boss' group and those 3 last ground enemies are alive, then rush in with Falchion to make mincemeat of them. Right before finishing off the 2-rangers attacking me on the Fort, I grabbed an event tile for Maribelle support.

STATS AFTER CHAPTER 5:

Cavalier level 13, 73 EXP

42 HP, 27 Str, 5 Mag, 25 Skl, 19 Spd, 25 Lck, 20 Def, 5 Res

A Swords, B Lances + the equivalent of 1 non-Discipline attack

My capped Str is shown by me underlining that stat. This will be the case whenever I have a capped stat in any update. It should be noted that I did manage to dodgetank Chapter 5, needing 2 Vulnerary uses and 0 Elixir uses. However, when you consider that Steel Axe Barbs had 2 displayed hit when I was on a Fort with Falchion, it's not all that surprising.

[spoiler=Attempt 3, Paralogue 2]Just rush to the village with either a Bronze Lance or an Iron Lance, and the only potential problem for the entire map is a possible need to Vulnerary or Elixir. It's easy. I wasn't able to save the village, but did grab a single event tile for 19 EXP.

STATS AFTER PARALOGUE 2:

Cavalier level 16, 92 EXP

45 HP, 27 Str, 5 Mag, 25 Skl, 20 Spd, 28 Lck, 21 Def, 5 Res

A Swords, B Lances + half the WEXP bar.

[eclipse]

Sheesh, my Chrom refused to cap Strength, so grats to you! I did Paralogue 2 after I promoted to Great Knight so I could train up axes (hence the Southtown skirmish). I didn't take that map seriously, and neither did Anna (she got hit by everything).

I'll probably procrastinate until tomorrow. The next series of chapters should fly by, because there's a lot of low-level enemies and you have a giant beatstick. Oh, and buy some Javelins, you'll need 'em!

Thanks for the suggestions, Czar, and I think I will! I might some use for Aggressor as well! I grabbed all the DLC more-or-less as soon as it was announced, and I'm glad I did! I'm skipping Paragon/All Stats +2, though - the former really isn't needed, and I'm a little too tight on skill space for the latter.

[Sodium Hydroxide]

I'll probably procrastinate until tomorrow. The next series of chapters should fly by, because there's a lot of low-level enemies and you have a giant beatstick. Oh, and buy some Javelins, you'll need 'em!

I bought 6 Javelins, should that be enough?

Also, I'm going to take your momentary procrastination as my opportunity to double the number of people to pass Ch.6. Looking at sitting in the lower left to get all the Thieves, then choking everything at Emm's door, similar to how you did it but with capped Str.

EDIT: Succeeded

[spoiler=Attempt 3, chapter 6]Tonics again, and make sure you have at least twice as many Javelin uses as there are enemies on the map (so a minimum of 48).

On turn 1, stand 1 tile left of the Fighter near 'Marth' and kill him with a Javelin. This catches a Thief on Enemy Phase, with some other stuff in position to be killed. I tagged all the Thieves so I knew exactly where they were at any given time.

On Turn 2, move 4 tiles north and 1 west, and Javelin the Fighter there. Pair Panne onto Chrom 'Marth' will engage several enemies, but she should live.

Turn 3, Javelin some stuff on the left on Enemy Phase. This is when Gaius got murdered.

On Turn 4, slay the Thief that didn't attack 'Marth'. Enemies will swarm around the two of you and get killed in droves. This is the turn that 'Marth' died on my clear, but the last Thief also kicked the bucket on this turn.

On Turn 5, make sure that the Thieves are all dead. If they are, move so that you can choke enemies out at the west door to Emm's room and Vulnerary. If there are still surviving Thieves, slay them.

Choke all the mooks out, then rush Validar with a Lance to finish it.

STATS AFTER CHAPTER 6:

Cavalier level 19, 50 EXP

47 HP, 27 Str, 6 Mag, 26 Skl, 22 Spd, 31 Lck, 22 Def, 5 Res

A Swords, A Lances

Edited January 10, 2016 by Sodium Hydroxide