Kellam solorun (or close)

[mangasdeouf]

Hello,

Today I've begun a solorun with Kellam.

WHY KELLAM?

Because Kellam comes quite early in the game, allowing the player to solo most of the game with him. He also has a great class set with good growths in many areas and he can open chests so I don't need another character to do so (plus he is the tankiest possible thief you can have in the game except MU, Spotpass and DLC characters).

WHICH DIFFICULTY? WHICH MODE?

Normal difficulty because it's my 1st attempt to solorun and it's probably much more difficult on hard mode when you reach the endgame. I've heard that there are many healers healing the boss in the final stage and in hard it could be difficult to kill it if I can't deal more damage than they can heal.

No perma-death mode, simply because keeping everyone alive when you only use one unit in combat is very hard even in normal (some characters can't take more than 1 hit and are surrounded by ennemies after the 1st ennemy turn). I also intend on doing post-game content so I prefer recruting every gen 1 character without letting them die.

WHY "CLOSE TO"?

Because some chapters require to defend NPCs with many paths leading ennemies to them, so I used Frederick to block the paths and kill his way's ennemies (I don't want a ton of turncount either, even if it's not a speedrun). I also used some freshly recruted characters to make some turns not game over for stupid reasons like Lucina too weak to handle 3 ennemies in chapter 6 (seriously her stats as a NPC make me roar). Why IS? Why is she so WEAK?! She has even less def than Anna the merchant has in the chapter 9 map (where you recruit Tharja and Libra) and only a ridiculous 20 in avoid. I think Eirika lv 1 had about the same avoid in FE TSS (so correct me if I'm wrong, a 9 level difference and the same avoid for the same class and no skill like avoid +10 to compensate). The remake of the speed and luck stats seems complete trash to me (especially in early game) but that's another matter and that's not relevant.

NOW LET'S RECAP WHAT I'VE DONE SO FAR (chapter 20 or 21 completed yet).

[mangasdeouf]

Prologue, chapter 1 and 2 solo with Frederick (Chrom backpack). Nothing to add.

Chapter 3: Kellam only with Sumia as his backpack, Sumia killed the swordsman and the figther with a hammer in the top-right corner.

Chapter 4: Kellam solo with Sumia as his backpack.

Chapter 5: after a skirmish, Kellam reached level 20. I reclassed him into thief for obvious reasons. Frederick took out the lower part of the map while Kellam took care of everything else. Fred/Chrom, Kellam/Sumia.

Chapter 6: Fred with Chrom was sent to the left, just out of Gaius' attack range, while Kellam went to the south to kill the fighter near Lucina. Then Chrom recruited Gaius and switched back to Fred with a javelin to kill the mages. Kellam headed East to intercept some of the incoming ennemies. Some ennemies weakened Lucina. After thinking how to save her as*, I brought Gaius and Panne alongside, Panne blocking the South door with Gaius on her right side. None died. Frederick headed South-West to clean the remaining ennemies before the boss's arrival. Kellam cleaned the remaining ennemies on the East side and then he went for the South side before taking out the boss easily.

Chapter 7: Kellam advanced alone, Fred took Chrom on his back and avoided ennemies. Cordelia joined Kellam to build speed and res support until he got tougher and their support rank reached A.

Chapter 8: Fred took out some ennemies in the North while Cordelia flew Kellam into the ennemy pack in the desert area. Gregor was used to tank unequipped with Nowi as his backpack. Fred cleaned the annoying ennemies who kept coming North while Kellam tried to kill them before they had this chance. Then Cordelia flew Kellam to the West, Kellam visited the village (same for Fred in th North-East) and killed the fighter, then he took the event tile and killed the fighter, went for the South-East village and finished the boss.

Chapter 9: Sumia took Chrom to Libra without getting attacked, while Cordelia flew Kellam into the ennemy pack, 1-turn clean these guys. then Libra was recruited, Kellam headed back North to kill the Wyverns and back South for the other squad. Tharja tanked one with Sumia behind her (well I placed Sumia the wrong way so I had Tharja protect her). Then I finished (I take the event tiles whenever I have the chance).

Chapter 10: Fred killed the dragon killer sword thief with Chrom backpack, while Cordelia brought promoted Kellam (trickster) to the West for the 2 thieves. He killed the 1st with the spotpass Thunder sword. Then Fred headed North to kill the East thief when their paths crossed. Fred took all the East side and reinforcements before Kellam finished it (too any reinforcements were annoying so I cut it by killing the boss before getting bored).

Chapter 11: Cordelia flew Kellam just outside the West ennemies' range, while Chrom took Olivia as a backpack and ate a viagra pill to make her his wife instantly. Kellam took the chest to the West and headed East for the other one after killing the thief. Then I made a mistake: Kellam got besieged and had to make a path into the ennemies, meanwhile Chrom got surrounded by the Eastern mages fleeing from Kellam and the unpromoted units from the North-West reinforcements and I had to put Olivia on the front of the duo with a sweet raising hp, def and res in the 2nd bush from the extreme North-East. Olivia died and Chrom avoided the fighter's axe with his 1 or 2 HP remaining from his previous fight(s). Kellam let Cordelia get out of his back and Chrom replaced her. Cordelia died of encirclement. Kellam finished the level.

Chapter 12: Chrom supported Cherche to kill one knight, Kellam soloed the map.

Chapter 13: Kellam cleaned the northern ennemies before giving Cordelia to the Crow and the duo camped on the West fort to kill the escaping ennemies while Kellam rushed to the bridge. He killed every Eastern incoming ennemy on the bridge and killed the boss. Lucina: Daddy, no! Chrom: OMG you shouted "Daddy"! Who're you? Lucina: I'm your daughter, you genius! You didn't even see that I was a girl before I took out my mask, you idiot! etc. bla bla bla...

Chapter 14: Kellam solo and opened chests (south>east>west).

Chapter 15: Cherche took Chrom from the event tile and stayed out of range. Cordelia flew Kellam into the ennemies closest to Say'ri and cleaned every mobile ennemy from that position after he could safely release her from the 2 knights encircling her. Then Cherche flew Chrom to recruit the girl and Kellam finished the map (visited all villages).

Chapter 16: from here on, it's just Kellam with Chrom backpack. Took out all thieves except the one with the bullion (had enough money already) and killed every single opponent. Kellam had just been reclassed into Warmonk for Renewal.

Chapter 17: I chose the left side of the map for the strength increasing item and rushed for the event tiles and the boss.

Chapter 18: Kellam passed by the East and killed the boss around the 5th turn. Quite fast, honestly, knowing I nearly never grinded (except if in-game reclasses are considered grinding) anyway he doesn't gain much exp from long so it doesn't matter.

Chapter 19: placed the killer in the center of the map, then killed the annoying guy blocking my way to the east, and rushed to the Eastern chests, cleaned the ennemies, rushed to the Western chests, repeated, the boss had already come to me so I didn't go for the mages near the throne, instead I just killed the boss.

Chapter 20: what is it again? Can't recall this chapter, the storyline lost me when Valm matter ended. But I think I reclassed Kellam into Great Knight around the beginning of this chapter (or was it by the end? I don't remember).

Chapter 21: another straight forward chapter. Chests and boss.

Chapter 22: I think it's the chapter with the Great Knight Risen boss. I reclassed Kellam during this chapter when I reached lv 15 (why not taking the skill, after all?). Kellam Sage with capped defence, speed, strength and skill and around 21 magic/32 res.

Chapter 23: used skirmishes to raise tome level to B and a half. Then, I went for the event tiles (East then West) and the boss. C magics are strong.

Chapter 24: Chrom lv 17 got promoted to 1-turn the ridiculous boss with lv 1 MU backpack (speed asset hp flaw). Then split htem between Flavia and Basilio just in case and Magic Kellam played a trick on the ennemies, making them disappear during their own phase. Kellam equipped with B to A magics 'till the end (with tomefaire).

Chapter 25: straight to the objectives (unless there were chests, I don't remember, the 5 last chapters' order is confused in my head). Kellam reached level 20 and reclassed into...*drums*...Sage!

End: Grima: Straight for the boss. Crit 1st hit, Chrom misses, hit, re-fight hit, finished.

Choices: not bowing down, no sarifice.

Kellam never capped his magic but the 2 powders I got from in-game and the one from spotpass made him reach a good 36 or 38. He was around level 5-8 by the end (so many empty levels from the time he capped everything but mag and luck...).

Conclusion: Kellam is an excellent character, with a useful starting class, making him the tankiest thief or mage you can get from early game characters. He is completely self-sufficient and doesn't need Pavise at all even with the 34 def cap in his sage class (give him Naga tome if you play on higher difficulties and it's the same). He only lacks mercenary to be able to keep his weapons safe. I intended to make postgame Dread Fighter but it seems like there isn't any sort of Creature Campaign to keep playing wih your units after the ending (I miss this TSS element a lot, the only FE I've played in which you could continue to play with your characters of the game you just finished).

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Like her father, Lucina is geared toward offense, so she hits real hard, but if she doesn't dodge, tends to take it right to the chin. This, unfortunately, makes her a bit questionable for C6's guard duty. The good news is that if she can manage to survive EP with enough damage taken, she'll use her infinite-Concoction sword, giving her a bit of additional tankiness that one wouldn't expect from her stats. It's also worth noting that nothing is lost at all if she gets defeated in that chapter. She simply retreats and still joins after C13.

[mangasdeouf]

Oh I thought it was game over if she died in chapter 6 (I think I lost a couple times because of that in some harder difficulty, but my memory might be mixing it with Radiant Dawn part 1 desert chapter where in hard difficulty Jill died 5x or so in a row and made me reset as many times...

[mangasdeouf]

Now I'm on a Gaius solorun and it's much more difficult (at least in the beginning). Gaius's starting stats and level are soo low! He's 2HKO by nearly any ennemy in his 1st chapter...

I intend to do other soloruns, but many characters I like are recruited past chapter 8 or not from this game (spotpass/DLC) so not story-related, I don't know if I can use them (some of them are already too high level to make it interesting).

If you have funny challenges (not perma-resetting ones) to suggest me, I'd be very happy to try the ones I would like.

Edited November 7, 2017 by mangasdeouf

[eclipse]

Chrom, Hard Classic.  Yes, it's doable, since Chrom is pretty close to soloing Lunatic (Endgame walls him).

And if you want this to be THE solorun thread, please change the topic title accordingly.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

22 hours ago, mangasdeouf said:

Oh I thought it was game over if she died in chapter 6 (I think I lost a couple times because of that in some harder difficulty, but my memory might be mixing it with Radiant Dawn part 1 desert chapter where in hard difficulty Jill died 5x or so in a row and made me reset as many times...

It's entirely possible that you did technically lose because she went down, but not that you game overed as a direct result, which may affect your memory. That is, you can let Lucina get wrecked, but you also need to be watching the front door if she does get taken out early-ish. The enemy Thieves prioritize fighting, but if there's no one in their attack range, they'll open the door and if you've got no one else blocking the way... well, Emm's not gonna last very long.

[DestructionDragon360]

Kellam is one of my favorite Awakening characters, for some of the exact same reasons you stated about his class set. He's just a really fun character to fool around with, and his supports aren't so bad.

[mangasdeouf]

Thanks for your answers.

On 08/11/2017 at 1:32 AM, eclipse said:

Chrom, Hard Classic.  Yes, it's doable, since Chrom is pretty close to soloing Lunatic (Endgame walls him).

And if you want this to be THE solorun thread, please change the topic title accordingly.

Chrom can't open chests and there aren't any keys in shops. Without chest opening, I would miss a lot of items. That's why I thought of Panne instead (Gaius is horrible when recruted, but from the moment he becomes able to solo maps without potions/concoctions, it's not funny anymore. Basically the funniest thing in a solorun is the part where you still have to take care of placement to survive. After that, it's just auto-mode.

And I was just asking for what to continue with, I didn't tipe that I'll post my Gaius run or any other one.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

There are a few Chest and Master Key drops throughout the game. Could be fun determining which of the chests to prioritize putting those few previous drops toward.

[eclipse]

4 hours ago, mangasdeouf said:

Thanks for your answers.

Chrom can't open chests and there aren't any keys in shops. Without chest opening, I would miss a lot of items. That's why I thought of Panne instead (Gaius is horrible when recruted, but from the moment he becomes able to solo maps without potions/concoctions, it's not funny anymore. Basically the funniest thing in a solorun is the part where you still have to take care of placement to survive. After that, it's just auto-mode.

And I was just asking for what to continue with, I didn't tipe that I'll post my Gaius run or any other one.

Most chest items are nice extras, not necessities.  You can also wait for a thief to steal the item, then kill said thief for it.

[B_E_P_I_S_M_A_N]

Wait, who's Kellam?  I don't remember anyone called Kellam being in the game.

Anyways, this sounds like an unusual undertaking.  I assume you're gonna abuse the hell out of Second Seals in order to keep Kellam's growths up?

[mangasdeouf]

On 12/11/2017 at 6:50 AM, B_E_P_I_S_M_A_N said:

Anyways, this sounds like an unusual undertaking.  I assume you're gonna abuse the hell out of Second Seals in order to keep Kellam's growths up?

The run is already finished, I told every important thing done in the 2nd post.

Kellam reached lv 20 knight, then reclassed into thief, Trickster, reclassed into GK then Sage and reset Sage.