Squad Assault and Chain Challenge discussion thread

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

TA Raven breaks CC 5 lol

[Bartozio]

In case there are people who are having trouble with the Squad Assault, nstyler posted a video clearing it with only 4* units and no SI. Not all units a free, but it might still be useful.

 

[Cute Chao]

I couldn't do it with just 4* units, though I tried not to resort to my usual fallbacks. Failed on the last map, but I'll give a list of the units I used. All units have varying levels of SI... Like my amazing Iceberg Lukas... 

Map 1: 5* - Jeorge and Lukas. 4* - Nino and Abel.

Map 2: 5* - Linde and Roy. 4* - Sully and Ursula.

Map 3: 5* - Camus and Azura. 4* - Narcian and M!Robin

Map 4: 5* Ninian, Ephraim and Tharja. 4* - Alfonse.

Map 5: 5* Hector, Xander and Reinhardt. 4* - Olivia.

 

I kinda got nervous on the last map since I didn't want to lose all my progress, so I just threw the units I use the most (Xander and Reinhardt) at it. I probably could've done it with some other units, but oh well :) 

Map 4 destroyed me first go round... I didn't realise Chrom would do so much damage against Ephraim. Other than that, most of the maps were beaten first go. I say most, 'cos I'm not really counting my first go of Map 3 earlier on this morning, when I mistook the lance cavalier for an axe cavalier and brought Alm along. Whoops! Swapped him out for Narcian and it went a heck of a lot smoother!

[Vaximillian]

43 minutes ago, Bartozio said:

In case there are people who are having trouble with the Squad Assault, nstyler posted a video clearing it with only 4* units and no SI. Not all units a free, but it might still be useful.

Followed this with minor alterations (Sharena and brave lance Est instead of Sully and Cordelia on map 1; Maria instead of Lachesis on map 2; Rauðrraven Sophia instead of Henry on map 3; Sanaki instead of Sophia on map 4; Reposition Reinhardt instead of Barst on map 5). Cool stuff!

[Astellius]

2 hours ago, Bartozio said:

Also had the problem of being stingy early on and not using some of my better characters...

Squad assault was a lot easier then I imagined. I probably can't build 5 good balanced teams right now, but if I only need to counter team stuff it's a different story. Having a good ammount of decent 4* units trained up helps a lot (unless you're a whale and have a lot of 5* units of course).

Better to not field them at all, than to field them and find you really need them later, right? The fact that the enemies don't have any skills makes it a lot easier than what it could have been. It should be pretty doable if people have a sufficient pool of leveled 4*s and 5*s available on hand to counter what's on the map.

1 hour ago, MrSmokestack said:

@Astellius Can I join too? Squad Assault was pretty cake first time around too.

Sure! Let's have a party!

[Lushen]

I think the 20/30 stamina requirement is a bit of an oversight for normal and hard difficulties.  I feel like they should be less, it'll take a week to get enough stamina for all the normal/hard clearing - and that's excluding the fact that all my stamina will be going into tempest.

[Tenzen12]

Isn't that intention rather than oversight? It means you will have stuff to do even after week of playing it, which is far from bad thing.

[SalShich10N]

Can I get some help for chapter 10 Chain Assault on Lunatic? I'm having some real issues surviving the first map. I'm not sure whether it's better to turtle or to go aggro. How did you guys went about that one?

[Vaximillian]

15 minutes ago, Tenzen12 said:

Isn't that intention rather than oversight? It means you will have stuff to do even after week of playing it, which is far from bad thing.

Keeping in mind that these are permanent, yes, this is no oversight.

[Lushen]

23 minutes ago, Tenzen12 said:

Isn't that intention rather than oversight? It means you will have stuff to do even after week of playing it, which is far from bad thing.

Every other mode has normal/hard costing less stamina.  Considering it's not really 'playing' when you can auto-battle normal (and most of the time, hard), it's literally just a stamina drain.  There is no thought/risk of losing so to have it span several weeks is either a mistake or an oversight. I'm fine with the lunatic mode being 20/30 stamina because there is an actual risk.  Also, it doesn't make sense that something that normal/hard which are meant to be easier and offer less rewards than lunatic (though, I dunno - I kinda need feathers) cost the same amount of time/stamina.

[Astellius]

46 minutes ago, Lushen said:

I think the 20/30 stamina requirement is a bit of an oversight for normal and hard difficulties.  I feel like they should be less, it'll take a week to get enough stamina for all the normal/hard clearing - and that's excluding the fact that all my stamina will be going into tempest.

On the contrary, I'm certain it's intentional, and I'd actually consider that amount of stamina consumption to be rather generous. You're playing 5-10 maps in a row, and this is a permanent game mode.

Compare that with the stamina consumption for pretty much anything else you'd be doing in the game. It costs 20 points for a Tempest Trial run, 9 points for strata 8-10 of the Training Tower, 15 for a GHB attempt, and each part of the story chapters of 9, 10, & 11 all cost 20 points or more, individually, on Lunatic. So, for the same amount of stamina as one Chain Challenge run, you can do: 1 part of a Lunatic chapter; 1 Tempest run; 1-2 attempts at a GHB; or 2-3 runs on a top tower floor.

[Tenzen12]

30 stamina per run means 6 stamina on map. That is very cheap. And of course here is risk of losing. Losing stamina that is.

Also whether you use some super units for auto battle or use opportunity train weaker units is only up to you and has nothing to do with IS intentions.

[jameslove001]

24 minutes ago, Astellius said:

On the contrary, I'm certain it's intentional, and I'd actually consider that amount of stamina consumption to be rather generous. You're playing 5-10 maps in a row, and this is a permanent game mode.

Compare that with the stamina consumption for pretty much anything else you'd be doing in the game. It costs 20 points for a Tempest Trial run, 9 points for strata 8-10 of the Training Tower, 15 for a GHB attempt, and each part of the story chapters of 9, 10, & 11 all cost 20 points or more, individually, on Lunatic. So, for the same amount of stamina as one Chain Challenge run, you can do: 1 part of a Lunatic chapter; 1 Tempest run; 1-2 attempts at a GHB; or 2-3 runs on a top tower floor.

I would agree here. I mentioned above that I used this to train my team of 5* Xander, Faye, Azura and 4* Boey to get ready for the TT. For that 30 stamina Faye went from Level 35 to 40. I went through 5 levels (because of a dumb mistake where Faye had to clear 2.5 maps by herself) for only 30 stamina. Not shabby at all.

Edited July 5, 2017 by jameslove001

[Zeo]

I'm a stubborn one so I beat Squad Assault. I don't remember everything I did play for play but I remember most of the key stuff.

Map 1 - Cherche/Hinoka/Sully/Unknown - Brave Axe+ Cherche finally got a chance to shine. She oneshot Jagen (with Hone Fliers from Hinoka for good measure). Then her and Hinoka proceeded to deal with Marth and Caeda/Respectively. Sully was used for Drag Back and I can't remember my 4th character but I'm pretty sure it was Maria for a spec of healing.

Map 2 - M!Marth/B!Caeda/Ursula/Olivia - Olivia wasn't really necessary. B!Caeda was there so that M!Marth and Ursula could double Camilla and Leo who were just outside their range. Olivia did a bit of dancing to speed things up and B!Caeda finished off Xander after 2 rounds of combat.

Map 3 - Lukas/S!Frederick/Sakura/Jeorge I was saving Lukas specifically for this map as he trivializes 3 of the 4 units, but even with QR2 + Ignis he didn't oneshot a single unit. S!Frederick and Sakura hang out on the left side and duel the archer, takes a good 3-5 Rounds of combat to kill him while Sakura keeps him healthy. Lukas tanks the other units and Jeorge who I thought would be useful did basically nothing.

Map 4 - Xander/Nino/B!Cordelia/Maria - I took the wrong B!Cordelia so this one was missing Luna, still I was able to beat it. Nino distracted Lissa and eventually chipped out Chrom who was busy dueling with Xander while being healed by Maria, Cordelia was mostly doing chip damage without Luna or Brave Bow+. After Chrom went down Frederick was slain in a single turn.

Map 5 - Kagero/Athena/Takumi/Wrys - Kagero oneshot the faster Ninja with Daggerbreaker and Takumi was able to kill the Rogue dagger one with Vengance on the 2nd round with 2 HP. Athena had swordbreaker so she oneshot Navarre. After a little healing from Wrys, Takumi oneshots Wrys. Probably the easiest stage of them all. Would have been a nightmare without Kagero though.

I used one stamina potion to figure this out. Not that bad I guess.

[Rezzy]

I tackled a fee of the Chain Maps, and it's a nice way to get Orbs.  I did Pull a Cecilia and have been leveling her to get ready.

I'm glad these aren't time limited, since I know Tempest will eat up my Stamina soon.  I guess I'll just finish them at a leisurely pace.  At least there's no new Banner for a month, so I'm not in a hurry to get those Orbs just yet.

[Korath88]

I've been doing the paralogue chain challenges first since they're easier. I honestly dread the thought of the last few CCs for the main story. Those maps are something else.

As for squad assault, here were my teams. * indicates 4* units

1: Lyn, Rebecca, Sharena*, Narcian*

2: Ephraim, Roy, Ursula*, Olivia*

3: Lilina, Catria*, Clarisse*, Lachesis

4: Eliwood, Camus, Elise, Cecilia*

5: Kagero*, Ninian, Alm, Priscilla 

I was very hesitant to use my better units, so I ended up using a lot of 4*s, making it a lot harder than it had to be. If I had brought Celica, Zephiel, Ryoma or Michalis to the earlier maps it would have been easier, but what's done is done.

Edited July 6, 2017 by Korath88

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

I need to practice 9-x Maps seriously. Used too much resource dealing with 9-x made the 10-x maps harder than they actually are

[GuiltyLove]

10 hours ago, JSND said:

I need to practice 9-x Maps seriously. Used too much resource dealing with 9-x made the 10-x maps harder than they actually are

I still haven't gotten that far. I do remember Veronica's map being pretty hard though! are you on Lunatic? I'm still doing the Normal maps

[jameslove001]

11 hours ago, JSND said:

I need to practice 9-x Maps seriously. Used too much resource dealing with 9-x made the 10-x maps harder than they actually are

I underestimated your post here, until...I am just doing the easy (to get XP for a bunch of people I would like available for TT), and I cruised through the 9x levels, cruised through the 10x levels...and got destroyed when it bumped up to level 35 and combined. I need to go watch a bunch of videos...and not run a team with both Sharena and Anna with no healer!

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

1 hour ago, GuiltyLove said:

I still haven't gotten that far. I do remember Veronica's map being pretty hard though! are you on Lunatic? I'm still doing the Normal maps

Yeah its the 9 & 10 Lunatic, haven't tried other aside from 9 & 10 Normal yet

Veronica surprisingly isn't too hard once i had like 5 try on it and memorized what i want to do. For 9-x the real problem map is Ursula. For 10-x the real problem map would be 10-3 because that Pegasus Knight is so unnecesarily tanky.

25 minutes ago, jameslove001 said:

I underestimated your post here, until...I am just doing the easy (to get XP for a bunch of people I would like available for TT), and I cruised through the 9x levels, cruised through the 10x levels...and got destroyed when it bumped up to level 35 and combined. I need to go watch a bunch of videos...and not run a team with both Sharena and Anna with no healer!

Yeah kinda what i want to do atm. Only 2 of my squad is ok enough to be called optimal so i should start hitting map 3&4(i heard its basically the best farming map in the game so it would be nice if you haven't cleared it) and grinding up a third squad before trying again

I think if i can make a squad that somehow have 10-4 in the bag, i could clear it since last i checked 10-5 isn't too hard(bait Titania with someone who can survive Mist, clean up Soren, clean up Lance, duel Ike) but oh well

Edited July 6, 2017 by JSND

[NekoKnight]

19 hours ago, Rezzy said:

 At least there's no new Banner for a month, so I'm not in a hurry to get those Orbs just yet.

Is this confirmed or just something people assume because the swimsuit banner was made extra long?

[Ice Dragon]

6 minutes ago, NekoKnight said:

Is this confirmed or just something people assume because the swimsuit banner was made extra long?

Assumed.

[maybe]

6 minutes ago, NekoKnight said:

Is this confirmed or just something people assume because the swimsuit banner was made extra long?

as far as i know it hasn't been confirmed

[NekoKnight]

57 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Assumed.

 

57 minutes ago, unique said:

as far as i know it hasn't been confirmed

Good. I was starting to assemble my orb horde in the likeness of Micaiah. Getting a little stir crazy without new characters on the horizon.

[Zeo]

I'm actively using the orbs I'm getting while pushing towards summer units and a new Tempest bonus unit. So I've been tackling the CC maps on lunatic first. Once that's done I'm just going to take the normal and hard maps slow while building up units. The feathers will come at their own pace.

They've dumped orbs on us so they're probably going to release a fantastic banner and here I am whittling my orbs away in hope for a Mae/Alm and some summer banner units. Ugh.