Self-Imposed Challenges

[Dracologist]

Do you guys have any self imposed challenges you like to do when you play different Fire Emblem games? A couple of my favorite ones are not promoting any units until they reach max level and not grinding in games that have infinite grinding. I'm doing a level 20 promotions only run in SoV right now, actually. It was also planned to be a no grinding run, but I gave up on that part around the time I reached Dragon's Maw. I would do more no reset runs, but I get too attached to my units to really enjoy playing that way.

[Dismissed]

Whenever I play FE12, I always challenge myself to recruit all the characters, which is a tough challenge because it's ~70 characters spread throughout ~30 chapters, which is made even worse when the sidequest chapters need you to fill the requirements, and you still need to collect all 12 star shards and the 4 other orbs, and a lot more stuff gets in the way.

[ChaoticHoundoom]

I've done a few challenges. Usually solo runs, PMU, or themed runs. Trying to solo Conquest with Kaze was the hardest challenge I think I've done.

[Elieson]

I've beaten three FEs without using promoted units and/or promoting anyone on my team. Like a masochist, I'll continue my endeavor!

[Magical Glace]

I purposely avoid using Jeigan units as much as I can (oftentimes stripping them of weapons).  They're useful, but I'd rather let the weaklings do everything.  More fun that way.

I make an exception for Sothe though, since he's forced.

[Ertrick36]

I'd say no promotions until 20 is smart more than anything.  Except in SoV; that game seems to outright punish you for promoting late.

Anyway, I think no-grind is pretty much a given for any challenge.  That being said, I'll allow grinding for supports in Awakening and Fates to acquire child characters if need be, but it can only be low level skirmishes/non-leveling DLC.

Also not forging or buying weapons (except bronze if need be) is pretty standard.

Typically, I like to pick certain units and use them exclusively.  For example, someone made a tier list for Fates, and I actually opted to do two separate runs of Revelation based off of it; the first being the twelve worst units (and since he excluded healers from the tier list, I'm not using them there), and the second being the best unit from every "class" he listed barring the royals because I sort of already did that.  I'm also not allowed to reclass in either of these at all, since reclassing wasn't considered in the tier list.  And I've been chugging through on a no-grind run with my favorite characters in Fates, with them all being reclassed.

I'd like to try BR with no promoted units.  Maybe also Awakening, though with some possible Second-Sealing depending.  Won't do the same with Revelation, since that one would just be - as Charlotte would say - a pain in the butt.

Possible SoV spoilers:

Spoiler

There was also one time I ran through SoV in a bid to kill Desaix's body double.  I did grind, since that's pretty much necessary if you want to be able to kill the dude before idiot Slayde gets himself killed on your units.  And it wasn't a big challenge, but still was interesting.

 

3 hours ago, Glaceon Mage said:

I purposely avoid using Jeigan units as much as I can (oftentimes stripping them of weapons).  They're useful, but I'd rather let the weaklings do everything.  More fun that way.

I don't think I've ever used the original Jeigan at all.  Maybe for a bout or two, but that's it.  Same with Arran.

I also tend to relegate Gunter to support only, though I think in that game all of Corrin's retainers barring Flora count as Jeigans sorta, since they're promoted and can handle themselves pretty well in the beginning.

[Lau]

I soloed Awakening with Chrom and Robin, obviously it wasn't that hard, but yanno. I also played SD without getting Falchion at all, that was...fun.

Another challenge I tried was beating Awakening in 12 hours. I don't think I've used the start button so much...

[Jotari]

Beating Shadow Dragon with everyone but Marth dead XD Just so to see the sweet irony of him claiming it was friendship that got him through. I haven't done it yet but I am quite tempted to do a run through of Shadows of Valentia using only the tactics option.

On 10/28/2017 at 5:19 PM, Ertrick36 said:

I'd say no promotions until 20 is smart more than anything.  Except in SoV; that game seems to outright punish you for promoting late.

Possible SoV spoilers:

  Hide contents

There was also one time I ran through SoV in a bid to kill Desaix's body double.  I did grind, since that's pretty much necessary if you want to be able to kill the dude before idiot Slayde gets himself killed on your units.  And it wasn't a big challenge, but still was interesting.

 

Not really. Promoting around level 15 is generally the smartest. You get the boosts earlier and by the time a unit gets to 20/15 the stats don't matter, they'll be able to kill most things anyway. And if you're training a full team then many of them won't even reach 20/20 by endgame. So promoting at level 20 just means you get the boosts later with very little benefits...I still do it without fail like every single game though...Because perfect units.

Also I've killed Desaix without grinding. Just need to manipulate Slayde onto a healing tile and keep rotating your units so he (and Desaix) don't kill any of them. Once you get it all set up the biggest hurdle is actually killing him before the 50 turn limit is up.

[Punished Dayni]

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

Also I've killed Desaix without grinding. Just need to manipulate Slayde onto a healing tile and keep rotating your units so he (and Desaix) don't kill any of them. Once you get it all set up the biggest hurdle is actually killing him before the 50 turn limit is up.

Wait there is a turn limit?

I of course wouldn't know it (didn't take 50 turns to kill Desaix's double after all, but still. Does it act like as if you retreated? 

[Ertrick36]

5 hours ago, Jotari said:

Not really. Promoting around level 15 is generally the smartest. You get the boosts earlier and by the time a unit gets to 20/15 the stats don't matter, they'll be able to kill most things anyway. And if you're training a full team then many of them won't even reach 20/20 by endgame. So promoting at level 20 just means you get the boosts later with very little benefits...I still do it without fail like every single game though...Because perfect units.

I'd say 15-20 is best.  There's no specific level that's objectively the best to promote from, honestly, and it varies from game to game and unit to unit.  At the very least, if you start seeing promoted non-bosses, you should at least think about promoting units.

And who honestly cares if a team reaches 20 promoted by endgame?  I mean unless it's Awakening, Sacred Stones, Echoes/Gaiden, or Fates: Birthright or Revelation, where you're able to grind endlessly for next to no cost, but...  I think when I played SD and New Mystery, the only units that level capped were Marth and Kris.  Possibly the other non-promotable units like Ballisticians, Manaketes, and Thieves, but definitely not any other unit.

[Alastor15243]

Fates has caused me to grow a liking for ironmans, something I initially only did because resetting on a screenshot let's play would be a fucking nightmare. Fates as it turns out is amazingly well-designed for ironman runs, with a combination of its ease of information access thanks to the dual screens and NOT pulling bullshit same-acting reinforcements out of nowhere. The other games, not so much, I don't really enjoy iron-manning those, especially the ones before determining the damage values of multiple units in succession stopped being a chore. But in Fates it's really fun and surprisingly easy.

 

As for other challenges, I did mounted-only runs of Conquest and Birthright (A large part of the latter involved having everybody socialize the hell out of Silas to get Kaze, Hinoka and Ryoma to be paladins), a Marth-only solo of Shadow Dragon so I could see all of those extra chapters you have to kill your own teammates for, and a "Justice Cabal" run of awakening where I could only use the units that would eventually produce Owain, Cynthia and Morgan.

Edited October 31, 2017 by Alastor15243

[FiboSai]

Here are some challenges I imposed on myself. Some of them are still running

• Female-only runs (including the Lord): I did this in FE9 and FE12, though it turned out to be pretty stupid in FE9 as I could only use Titania and Ike for the first 7 chapters, and beating chapter 8 with 3 characters without healing was annoying (although not hard, as an overleveled Ike and Titania stump everything)
• No pair-up run in FE13: I did two versions of this, in one of them I added the challenge of not being allowed to use second seals. This challenge makes Aweking much harder, but also much more balanced, as most of the broken thing about Robin are caused by Veteran, which is useless without pair-ups. Nosferatu is still a thing, but is harder to pull of because your mages won't have the raw stats to withstand hordes of enemies for most of the game.
• No promotion runs in FE13: Basically playing FE13 without using Master Seals or using pre-promotes. This is hardly more difficult than vanilla FE13 until the very end game, as your stats with pair-ups are still good enough. Still haven't finished that one.
• Random recruitement: I let a random number generator generate a selection of units for me to use. Did this for FE10 and FE12. Funnily enough, I got the 4 worst units in FE10, Meg, Fiona, Astrid and Lyre, all in the same random selection.

[Jotari]

11 hours ago, Dayni said:

Wait there is a turn limit?

I of course wouldn't know it (didn't take 50 turns to kill Desaix's double after all, but still. Does it act like as if you retreated? 

Yep. I don't think it even has any text or anything. Just boots you out of the level. At least when you try the fight again only Slayde and Desaix are around so setting up the battle of attrition is much easier.