The Lunatic Club [Fates]

[Ownagepuffs]

Congrats! This thread technically can't necro so I think you're good.

I legit will never do no rescue of CQ endgame. It's too dumb.

[Gradivus.]

CQ Endgame is actually one of my favorite FE maps on Hard, but I don't like how far they went with the Lunatic changes. I'm still somewhat fond of it's "embrace the bullshit" nature there, but I'd like it more if the enemy-only skills were less overpowered.

Edited September 18, 2016 by Gradivus.

[Namarid]

I've also beat conquest lunatic. I would have to say chapter 25 was my favourite map and chapter 20 was my least favourite.

Sorcerers are lovely in fates.

[Wayward Alchemist]

What ever happened to the +Str Master Ninja and +Mag Levin Paladin fads for Lunatic Birthright/Conquest, respectively?

[Ownagepuffs]

CQ Endgame is actually one of my favorite FE maps on Hard, but I don't like how far they went with the Lunatic changes. I'm still somewhat fond of it's "embrace the bullshit" nature there, but I'd like it more if the enemy-only skills were less overpowered.

Same. The map is near perfect on HM but just way too much in LM.

What ever happened to the +Str Master Ninja and +Mag Levin Paladin fads for Lunatic Birthright/Conquest, respectively?

Still a thing. Add Dark mage and +Str Wyvern Lord and +Mag Malig to the list.

[Wayward Alchemist]

Heh, I run +Mag Malig anyways so I can attest to it's badassery. Only problem is no Yato, but you can always Reclass back to Nohr Noble when Yato becomes important.

[Dualazi]

Heh, I run +Mag Malig anyways so I can attest to it's badassery. Only problem is no Yato, but you can always Reclass back to Nohr Noble when Yato becomes important.

Dunno that it ever becomes important enough to *need* to do so if you prefer something else. I killed Takumi with double sorcs and Garon is a pushover no matter what weapons you choose to wield. Definitely wished I had a malig's mobility though.

[Maribelle]

I'm about to start a Conquest Lunatic file. It'll be the first Lunatic file I've ever done and I plan to make a female Corrin. Anyone with suggestions to make the run fun and not too difficult like suggestions with build, skills, pairings, etc?

[Dualazi]

I'm about to start a Conquest Lunatic file. It'll be the first Lunatic file I've ever done and I plan to make a female Corrin. Anyone with suggestions to make the run fun and not too difficult like suggestions with build, skills, pairings, etc?

Well, many of the more veteran and skilled players in this thread can probably offer more concrete analysis, but I'll try and offer what advice I can.

1) I'm going to assume you've beaten Conquest on normal/hard, and if not, I'd probably advise you to do so. Reason being is that due to the limitations on gold and XP inherent in Conquest, you'll need to plan your progression to a greater degree than the other two paths. I would glance over the chapter synopses on the wiki to refresh your memory on what to expect.

2) I used a +mag -luck female corrin on my successful play through, and married Odin. I can definitely couch for the effectiveness of this, as it gives you a large number of very powerful casters, with Odin and the MU being tankier than most other options. Thanks to being blessed with another Nosferatu from the RNG gods of the lottery, I had 3 drain tanks to make use of. It also makes your Ophelia insane, since you can have your subclass be one of the two that unlock Onmyouji for Tomefaire.

2b) Whatever you choose, get Ophelia. She's frequently cited here as one of the best children, and her paralogue is packed with loot, including the only Calamity Gate, which will be really really useful against the aforementioned ninjas.

3) For skills, I personally would recommend getting 2 people with Shurikenbreaker, because chapter 25 in particular is Ninja hell on Lunatic. Xander can be one of these if he befriends Laslow, who can get it himself, and Sophie has it in her repertoire naturally.

4) For kids, the only one I would focus on getting early is whichever one you stick with Aptitude, since I don't think the child seals take the improved stat gain into consideration. Everyone else I'd wait till chapter 15+ so as to get a free mastery seal and weapon proficiencies out of the deal. I dunno about anyone else but I particularly like using this method for healers, since it means you don't have to slog through using E-D rank weapons in the late game.

5) Here's my list of pairings, if you're interested. It worked out pretty well in general.

MU x Odin (Worked amazingly well. Odin is a stella drain tank, and MU had insane damage and tanking ability by the end. Dropped Kana but Ophelia was also incredible. Lightning tome+Dragon Fang is dumb.)

Keaton x Azura (Azura's great strength and speed growths made Velouria a machine.)

Jakob x Elise (Grabbed Dwyer early for chapter 12, but it's doable in one turn and gets you a bunch of healing staves as well)

Silas x Mozu (Sophie was incredible, got her early and she remained a powerhouse throughout the game.)

Kaze x Camilla (done postgame, no recommendation)

Xander x Charlotte (Charlotte is a great support for Xander, and gives crazy strength to Siegbert, who can be either a dedicated unit or even better support to a female, as a berserker with a female lead he adds like +10 damage)

Leo x Nyx (post game, no recommendation)

Arthur x Beruka (post game, no recommendation)

Laslow x Selena (Works well into transforming either Laslow or Soleil into a Rallybot.

Niles x Felicia

(post game, no recommendation)

Benny x Effie

(post game, no recommendation)

6) USE TONICS. Caps because I seriously underestimated how much of a difference these can make on my hard playthrough, but they're amazing.

6a) Always give lilith food when possible, the gold bars she occasionally gives are a great supplementary income, especially for the above tonics.

7) Use the kitchen. Another element I overlooked before, a good chef can give everyone in the army +5 stats total by the end, which stacks with other sources.

Hope this helps!

[Inference]

- Reclass Jakob first to breeze through the early game.

- Stack meal bonuses and tonics on pivotal units for each chapter as needed. If you are using online resources, pick up at least 30 Quartz and buy a Chef's Hat from a lv. 3 shop as early as possible to give to a units who makes Exquisite-type meals (Jakob, Peri, Anna, etc.), as they offer the highest bonuses.

- Sorcerers break the game. You can stack Spirit Dusts and forge Nosferatu for the likes of Ophelia or Corrin to solo entire sections and chapters.

- Xander with resources also breaks the game. Charlotte marriage + every Talisman and Speedwing allows him to autopilot through sections that are normally made difficult by most units not having good mixed defenses or reliable 1-2 range weapons, such as lategame Onmiyoji spam.

- Capture a Pass Falco from Ch. 24 to have recruited before endgame. With Rescue, this allows you to skip all of the enemies in the chapter to fly straight to Takumi and end the game.

[Panthera]

Attempting Conquest Lunatic for the first time and I think I might need some help. At chapter 12 and pretty much needed luck to get past 11, mainly because of the ninja room. My Corrin (+Spd Samurai, which seems redundant but I'd heard it works) is kind of useless, she's still in her base class and can't kill anything, so I can't reclass her or she'll be useless (strength is too low to one round anything without Arthur pair up, maybe not even then). I've heard Odin can help a lot thanks to Nosferatu, and he's done some good things but his magic is falling behind and he'll start being ORKO'd by everything unless his speed actually goes somewhere. I basically don't have any units that can do anything useful besides Camilla and Effie (w/Arthur), who at least can kick a lot of ass but everyone else basically can maybe 2HKO things and die equally fast. Even Silas for all I've heard is kind of crap (he can do a lot of damage, but his speed has barely grown, and even with VoF up he dies in 2 hits to most things). I haven't tried 12 yet, debating doing the Percy paralogue first for some EXP, or just starting over with a better Corrin.

Is it normal Lunatic procedure to have next to no one that can handle more than one enemy without being on death's door, or am I super unlucky with growths or just dumb? Like I'm looking at 12 and I'm pretty sure that literally no character I have can deal with the area with the Spendthrift guys unless I burn a Freeze to prevent having to face multiple enemies, and I've burned through too much Freeze already. I feel like I must be doing something wrong here but I'm not quite sure what. Spreading exp too widely or something maybe, but I didn't think this would be like Awakening where you let Robin solo so that you can let Robin solo some more. Could kind of use advice (also note that I'm playing with no DLC or multiple paths or anything online, so I can't get any cheesy win-buttons that way.)

[Aggro Incarnate]

I can think of around 3 kinds of strategies people tend to employ in that chapter:

1) Travel in a large inverted L that crosses one of the corners (the left is usually a bit easier in this regard). This allows you to ignore some of the enemies, though you need to get careful about the Apothecary reinforcements and the pots that you need to break before you escape, since enemies will start rushing in at the very end.

2) If you're not using the DV and progressing up slowly breaking pots, then using Guard Stance effectively is crucial. Be aware of which units boost which stats through pair-up, calculate damage you take in the Enemy Phase, pack some Vulneraries or be careful not to place your 1st servant in the Silence Staff range, and remember that Pair-Up's biggest utility is movement and shuffling around units. If you're using the Avatar as a tank, the Dragonstone may be helpful, depending on his/her HP, Spd and Def, though this is going to variable through playthroughs, and ultimately you are going to need some player phase.

3) Use the DV. It's in a more precarious position in Lunatic compared to the lower difficulties, but due to the Hexes and Freezes working on some of the enemy units with the poison pots breaking, it actually works to your advantage if one has positioned units carefully and use Attack Stance effectively. It becomes a large Player Phase battle, but it's more doable than one might expect.

As for units, if you're having trouble meeting stat benchmarks forging and tonics are always a thing. Average stats are up here (uses pre-localised names because it's a bit old, some info is not entirely accurate but it's correct for the most part) so you can check whether you're getting RNG-screwed or otherwise. Also, there's a +4 Def Medicine Pot near the bottom of Ch. 12, which might help your tankier, damage-dealing units.

Btw If you're using Freeze too often, you might want to look back and see whether you're being over-reliant on Enemy Phase or using too much Pair-Up. Pair-Up is good if you have tanky high-damage output juggernauts wanting to do more juggernauting in Enemy Phase in order to play efficiently and save turn counts, but in terms of action-by-action reliability and freedom to do more in Player Phase I generally find having the number of unpaired units available ready to do things more fit for a slower but more reliable playstyle. Due to low HP compared to general damage output, as well as the prevalence of debuffs (Shuriken, Seal Def/Spd, Poison Strike etc., Enfeeble, Hex) and forced-movement-inducing skills and staves (Lunge, Entrap, Freeze) the safe, reliable way to play Conquest Lunatic is to kill most enemies in Player Phase with maximizing Attack Stance shenanigans so that there simply aren't any enemies left to hit you on Enemy Phase, and in the few instances in which a unit will be hit on Enemy Phase unavoidably, reluctantly put that unit in Guard Stance to tank. It also helps that Attack Stance gives +10 Hit by default, so abiding by the Weapon Triangle and using trading to have the best weapons for Attack Stance available usually is quite reliable.

Edited October 2, 2016 by Aggro Incarnate

[Inference]

Is it normal Lunatic procedure to have next to no one that can handle more than one enemy without being on death's door

Yep. You're doing fine for a first run. Don't be afraid to apply more Camilla in the early chapters to make problems go away. That's what she's there for. You also don't want to risk her being underpowered in key chapters where flight control shaves the difficulty by a significant amount (20), so it's actually advantageous to have her fight a lot before then.

Chiki's Conquest run demonstrates just how pivotal a unit she is the whole game. Here's how he approached Ch. 12:

https://youtu.be/kFI_vcP81zo

As for me, not sure if this is the same for every cartridge, but the medicine pot at the beginning always gives me +4 defense and to the right is one with +4 Mag. Once I have all relevant units positioned around those pots, there really isn't much to the rest of the map besides running sandbag units into the poison pots to clear a path for Camilla. Don't forget the treasure chests to the left and right. You'll need that money for all of the post-13 shop goods.

Sincerely consider +Str/Mag for all future runs. They give higher bonuses than the other boons and killing faster makes the game easier from Ch. 1 on. Nothing else compares.

Edited October 3, 2016 by Inference

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Also worth noting that the leads of paired units can participate as the support in Attack Stance. What I ended up doing for most of the game (up to the very latest chapters... around 23 or so, which start to demand having some level of juggernauts) was having 2-3 of my tankiest units (who swapped around a bit, depending on if they were eating physical, magical, or even both, types of damage) as lure units. They would pull enemy formations and weaken them with counterattacks. Everyone else would be unpaired, then run up and Attack Stance using the paired units as base support partners—that is, if there's enough enemies, sometimes the cluster would get big enough that the initial Attack Stancers were drafted in as supports to other Attack Stances. In short: a few permanently paired units don't hurt, since the rules still allow them to provide Dual Strikes and, comes the start of PP, will often be in the best position to do so.

Edited October 3, 2016 by Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi

[joshcja]

The pot layout is always the same on every cart.

Ch12 is pretty much a hard damage check it you're not abusing Odin's brokitis or VoF man's stupid personal. Just smash the pots and attack stance the map with freeze+enfeeble+heartseeker securing an ez Ryoma kill and stabilising the Ep.

Note: Train Odin, buy and use both nos tomes.

Edit note: Abandon Effie.

Edited October 9, 2016 by joshcja

[Qilin]

Is there any tricks to deal with the people above the wall in chapter 23 (edit: Conquest) or does everyone just send Benny in there to bait them?

Edited October 9, 2016 by Qilin

[joshcja]

Is there any tricks to deal with the people above the wall in chapter 23 (edit: Conquest) or does everyone just send Benny in there to bait them?

Entrap stave.

[Crecentful]

Any tips for chapter 20 of Conquest? Been stuck on it for 3 days now

[Espinosa]

Any tips for chapter 20 of Conquest? Been stuck on it for 3 days now

Units are pushed 5 tiles north or south depending on the wind type. If the tile is an empty space, they will be pushed to whatever the next (further not closer) tile is available. If the tile is occupied, they'll remain on the same place. You can activate the winds prematurely on player phase via Dragon Vein, pushing not only your folks but also enemies, which can have some use. Don't begin acting with your units until you have calculated where they will end up on the next turn.

Your goal is simply to kill Fuga and seize, so you could always skip on the parts you fail to strategise for, should you find yourself in too much trouble.

[Inference]

If your team is shit, you can always play it safe and crawl to the goal while waiting for good wind patterns. I don't even have a solid approach for it half the time because my team tends to vary wildly from 4 fliers and 2 Sorcs (cake) to none of those things. As bad as it may seem to begin with, the aggro wind patterns do let up eventually.

Edited October 9, 2016 by Inference

[Dualazi]

Any tips for chapter 20 of Conquest? Been stuck on it for 3 days now

Grit your teeth, while probably not the hardest, that mission was definitely the longest and most aggravating for me. My recommendation is to break left from the start, and hang around that lower left platform until the Great Master reinforcements show up. Kill them off so you don't have people bugging you while you fiddle with wind patterns.

Hayoto can be dealt with in either direction with use of the wind on your turn; you can either blow him towards you and destroy him before he can hex you, or blow him away so he has to run back into range. Both are good options so I'd take whichever one happens to work best at the time.

Between his passive and the throne he's sitting on Fuga has pretty high avoidance, I'd sit some sorcs next to him when you're moving in for the kill. If you raised Mozu/her spouse to be a Sniper then Certain blow is also quite good for dealing with him.

Above all, take it slowly and carefully, wait until you know the wind plays to your favor.

[joshcja]

Is there any tricks to deal with the people above the wall in chapter 23 (edit: Conquest) or does everyone just send Benny in there to bait them?

Use the wind aggressively. Highly aggressive play is just the best way to Conquest in general.

Drop more info if you want more specific advise.

Edited October 10, 2016 by joshcja

[Qilin]

How do I get this guy without reloading a safe because I don't have Entrap?

[SalShich10N]

Is there any tricks to deal with the people above the wall in chapter 23 (edit: Conquest) or does everyone just send Benny in there to bait them?

Kinda late but what I did was I had a Xander married with Charlotte, meals on def and speed, tonics on HP, Res, Def and Str, Rallied by Arthur ('zerker), Camilla (WL) and Elise (strat) and just send him off, killing the ballista archer, skipped a turn, and he ended up being ok (he only took half HP). I don't recall if this escapade drew in Oboro's group or not, but I could deal with it either ways, since I did go out of my way to make everyone in my team powerful. Attack Stance is your friend when dealing with large numbers, so station units unpaired below the stairs.

[Inference]

Attack Stance is your friend when dealing with large numbers, so station units unpaired below the stairs.

100% agree with this, as well the notion of 23 generally being Xander + Rallybots: The Motion Picture, but I also wanted to chime in how lol Oboro's group is because their Xander checks are basically herself (if she procs), and the other Basaras. But she'll never actually reach you because you can hover just in reach of the Basara she's paired with, so he'll attack you and die, leaving her useless ass to be unprotected PP fodder.