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Tips for a first playthrough of Binding Blade


Maddie
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I just finished my first playthrough of Fire Emblem 7 and absolutely loved it so I want to play 6 next but i've heard it is one of the most difficult games in the franchise. What tips would you recommend for a first playthrough e.g. which units to focus on and which weapon types are best for each character.

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-Avoid the armors, especially Wendy/Gwendolyn (she has it especially bad with her poor bases and her joining situation in general) - this game has really big maps (not Genealogy-level big, but it's still noticeable compared to the other two GBA games)
-Avoid the axe infantry - axes are really inaccurate
This game has two route splits - the first is determined by which village you visit in chapter 9, and the second is determined by how much experience your nomads got vs how much experience your pegasus knights got. If the former got more experience, you head to Sacae after chapter 16x; If the latter got more experience, you go to Ilia instead.
-Speaking of, if you want the true ending, you'll have to play through all the gaiden chapters and not break any of the weapons you get in those chapters. A certain lategame recruit will come with whatever divine weapon is associated with the country you did not go to after the second route split. And I'd recommend checking a guide.
-You will want to have some bow users and mages, since you'll be seeing wyvern riders often.

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The first route split isn't super important other than determining if you get a dancer or a bard, but the second one you might want to be careful on - Sacae is generally considered to be the more difficult way to go by a wide margin. Chances are you'll end up in Ilia just because it's more likely for you to use both of the Pegasus Knights than you are to use both Nomads, but something to keep in mind (and hey, maybe you want horse archers on open plains rammed up your butt).

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Generally speaking, keep chapters 8, 12, 14, 16, 20, and 21 in mind; you'll want to keep the playable units you acquire in those chapters alive and beat 12, 14, 20, and 21 within a certain time frame (which they usually make somewhat obvious, else you can look at the requirements here).  Reason being is if you don't, you'll get locked out of the "true" ending.  Also, don't break the Divine Weapons until Chapter 23, for the same reason.

Other than that...

I'm gonna recommend using Thany/Shanna and Thea/Tate.  Or at least, use them more than you use Sue and Shin, because otherwise you'll be forced to play a sequence of maps which really sucks (basically, just try to make sure Thany and Tate's combined levels are greater than those of Sue and Shin by three or more).  Or alternatively, don't use them at all.

Aside from them, most units will range from "decent" to "awful".  I'll say that Zealot's group of cavaliers are the worst cavaliers in the game, the armor knights aren't worth considering because Binding Blade suffers from what we in the FE fandom call "Horse Emblem",  and most non-hero axe-wielders aren't worth using because they can't hit the broad side of a barn.

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Well, I'm really not sure if a first Binding Blade is difficult at all, since on the first run you are defaulted to Normal. But:

1) Avoid axes like the plague

2) Since bosses are much harder to kill than in FE7 (because of the insane throne bonuses), you must use a certain myrmidon that joins fairly early, he will be your best boss killer. He's busted.

3) Avoid armored units. They're all shit in this game. 

4) Lance and Allen are the only cavaliers you'll need in the game. Also, Perceval. The two other cavaliers that join later are also shit (it's been a while since I played FE6, I'm not sure if there are any more recruit able cavaliers. Probably not.). You can't rely on Marcus as you did in FE7- he's still very useful, but he will fall off quickly. 

5) Despite what tier lists say, keep a Mage or an archer, preferably a nomad (Sue) around. 

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Actually Finish FE7.  That is, go play Hector Mode.  It gives a bit of additional story.

Then, remember how irritating bosses on thrones are and get ready to scream.  Throne bonuses in FE6 are larger, and most of the requirements are Seize.

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Don't be afraid to arena abuse, despite what a lot of people say. They are very good opportunities to raise speed/skill-oriented units like Rutger/Fir, Sue/Shin, and Shanna/Tate too. Just be really careful about the amount of gold you wager. It's been a while so I don't exactly remember, but one of the advice in the Nitendo Dream magazine from Mainichi Communications advise against wagering 800 gold and above. Also, if you accept, then I think the class of opponent is shown between your wager acceptance and the actual fight. If the class turned out to be either Berserker or Swordmaster, then reset immediately - you'll be sent back to the previous map view without any penalties, and you really do not want to be fighting either of those two class units.

In relation to the above, I'd generally prioritize units that has good Speed/Skill, as accuracy is a big issue through the game, and you really can avoid tank as hell (especially in later chapters). The only exceptions are as followings:

  • Alan, Lance, Perceval, and Milady - all of those have (or can be expected to have) generally high enough stats of everything.
  • Lilina - Ship her with Roy and both get a lot of support bonuses. It's also one of the quickest support bonuses you can get, and you'll also get a secret ending. Lilina's low Skill shouldn't be a huge problem as anima tomes are inherently accurate to start with - especially once she starts romancing Roy - and it's not like Lugh can crit like Rutger's business. Her low speed could be an issue, but I personally haven't seen Lugh double all that much either in the early game.

Finally, Swordmasters in general are overpowered due to both high skill and avoid, and also for the +30% crit bonus. I know Rutger is infamous for this, but I say use him and Fir. Fir comes in in a chapter that has a lot of enemy ax units, so she'll be easy to raise, and besides, she's easy to arena abuse.

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Save up some money, and use the secret shop in chapter 16. I won't tell you the exact location, in case you think it's a bit too cheaty, but depending on the team you use, you'll absolutely need it. The only promotional items that can be found commonly are the Orion Bolt and the Elysian Whip. The game gives you enough to promote all the fliers and archers you'll ever need. For everyone else, however, you'll be given at most two items of each kind before chapter 16. And for the most part, the second items require fulfilling obscure and/or difficult side objectives that are easy to miss. If you're going in blind, you'll most likely miss at least one of them.

Magic users are particularly screwed over by this. There are only two guiding rings that are obtained early enough to matter, and one of them requires going out of your way to do something you'd probably not do otherwise. The third ring arrives late in one of the routes, and way too late in the other one. As for the fourth guiding ring, it has to be stolen off of the third-to-last boss. Of the good ending. There's a chance you won't even see them at all.

Even assuming you find the second ring, the Mages, the Shaman, the Priests and the Troubadour all want one. There are also a whopping three prepromoted magic users, and one of them isn't good at combat. I can almost guarantee that you'll need at least one extra ring.

So yeah, that's my tip. Find the secret shop in chapter 16. Anybody who promotes after that - if they're even able to - will most likely not be able to catch up, so make sure you have a fully promoted team past that point.

Besides, even if you end up not needing the secret shop, you'll want to have some cash to spare in chapter 16. Just saying.

Edited by Saint Rubenio
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This game uses single ring to calculate hitrates, so an enemy with 50 hit will hit half the time enemies with 36 or so hit will hit every third time, your units are not as good at dodging as in fe7

Other than using Pegasus knights more than nomads, use whatever characters you want, some are better than others but since you're playing the game blind you shouldn't try to play optimally. This is your first run of fe6 go nuts, have fun. While everyone has given you good advice about making the game easier, you should play however you want, if you want to use the armour knights go ahead, if you like the axe users, use em. If you find fe6 fun and go back to it in hard mode, then you can optimise your team. 

You can only play a game blind once, so make it count. 

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17 minutes ago, Pengaius said:

if you like the axe users, use em

Noting that... Lott, at 40% has one of the best defense growths in the game, only matched by Barth "The Knightest Knight who ever was Knighted", and Karel "Over 100% in every growth rate". So if you really want a bulky unit, the guy might be for you. If you can handle the fact his weapon type isn't very accurate in this game.

Is this turning into an LP thread reunion?

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Honestly I can only reiterate what other people have said, except to say watch out for Chapter 21. It's big and ugly and you have to do it within 30 turns to unlock the true ending. My first run of Binding Blade was single-handedly ended by this chapter because I had trained the wrong guys and couldn't promote some of them because of the dearth of promotional items. I don't recommend playing it blind. It's a good time and very manageable on normal once you know what you're doing, but it can definitely be rough if you're unprepared (or if you're dumb like me).

Edited by Solvaij
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6 hours ago, Pengaius said:

This game uses single ring to calculate hitrates

No it doesn't, it's 2RN but several difficulty differences to FE7 and 8 make you miss more.

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8 minutes ago, This boi uses Nino said:

No it doesn't, it's 2RN but several difficulty differences to FE7 and 8 make you miss more.

Huh, didn't know that, always thought it was single RN, nevertheless, hitrates are more accurate than you think they are in fe6, dodgetanking is very unreliable

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Binding Blade does use double-RNG, but the RNG is actually bugged; it goes from 0 to 100 or something instead of 0 to 99.

That said, I find it's always a good idea to play as if you're using single-RNG, and it's particularly smart to approach Binding Blade in that manner.

(I'm doing a random priority run of Binding Blade where I'll be forced to use Echidna.  She looks like she has the Skl, Spd, and Axe Rank to actually make Axes work, but I've yet to really try using her.)

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12 minutes ago, Edegard1902 said:

@samthedigital Are the true ending requirements just to do all gaiden chapters?

No. You must also not break any of the weapons you acquire in said chapters before defeating Zephiel.

Edited by Shadow Mir
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To get the good ending: do all the gaiden chapters (look up the requirements if you want to), don't break any of the legendary weapons until you get to chapter 23, and for the best ending get the finishing blow on the final boss with the sealed sword.

As for advice, mostly just what other people said. Watch out for ambush spawns, hit rates are lower than fe7, you fight a lot of wyverns so it's a good idea to train magic or bow users, and if you're playing normal mode you should be fine using whoever you want but I'd recommend using Alan/Lance and Rutger. If you ever decide to try fe6 on hard mode, you should know that enemies in the first 7 or so chapters will have very high stats for that point in the game so don't be afraid to use Marcus.

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First run? Go for Ilia route.

Nice to hear your Lilina is doing well. Sue, Shanna and Dieck are also good in most cases.

Where on earth are Rutger and Clarine? Don't tell me they already hit the bench.

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@Garlyle Do you get the choice between Ilia or Sacae or are there requirements for those routes? I am using Rutger and Clarine but I have to carefully use Rutger as he has low defense and doesn't always dodge attacks and Clarine is the most useful healer as she is mounted.

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2 minutes ago, Edegard1902 said:

@Garlyle Do you get the choice between Ilia or Sacae or are there requirements for those routes? I am using Rutger and Clarine but I have to carefully use Rutger as he has low defense and doesn't always dodge attacks and Clarine is the most useful healer as she is mounted.

If the Pegasus Knight characters get more EXP than the Nomad characters, you go to Ilia.  Otherwise, you go to Sacae.

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On 10/6/2019 at 5:48 AM, Pengaius said:

Other than using Pegasus knights more than nomads, use whatever characters you want, some are better than others but since you're playing the game blind you shouldn't try to play optimally. This is your first run of fe6 go nuts, have fun. While everyone has given you good advice about making the game easier, you should play however you want, if you want to use the armour knights go ahead, if you like the axe users, use em. If you find fe6 fun and go back to it in hard mode, then you can optimise your team. 

You can only play a game blind once, so make it count. 

As much as I would want to agree with this, I cannot. This game is one where not everyone can be salvaged.

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