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In-Depth Report: Completed Maddening Classic, non-NG+ (Blue Lions blind run)


DrDimentio
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This long report (12,899 words) is essentially spoiler-free as I don’t cover individual chapters or anything story-related. It covers my first completed Maddening Classic run in Three Houses. It doesn’t cover my specific gameplay for particular chapters, but I discuss some of my general strategies, long-term planning and a summary of each character’s overall performance.
    I’m sure there are plenty of advanced players who know a lot of my discussed methods and much more, but hopefully this post is of interest to anyone who is thinking about doing a first Maddening run, or anyone who wants to know how particular characters can perform certain roles on this difficulty (mostly Blue Lions characters, but there are enough similarities to the others). It also serves as a showcase of the grinding potential in this game - my run was only 'efficient' in the sense of making things easier; it was extremely inefficient in terms of real time and turn count. The high turn counts were mostly in the missions where I did any significant grinding. Most of the grinding was completely unnecessary, and a lot of it didn’t affect the difficulty at all, e.g. grinding skills and abilities that I never ended up using. However, I did this to test the grinding potential in this game, and also just in case the difficulty decided to spike up later in the game. But as discussed in the "Downhill Difficulty Curve" section, that wasn’t the case.

————— Contents —————

i. Restrictions and Previous Paths
ii. The Downhill Difficulty Curve
iii. Comparison to Other FE Highest Difficulties
iv. Unnecessary Grinding: Monastery etc
v. In-Battle Grinding Methods
vi. Divine Pulse techniques (level-ups and battle RNG)
vii. Saint Statues: Renown spending
viii. Character Summaries (with video)
ix. Allocation of Permanent Stat Boosters

————— i. Restrictions and Previous Paths —————

Summary: Maddening Classic, not NG+, blind run of Blue Lions, offline, all possible recruitments.

This was started from a fresh file, not NG+. It was a completely blind run of Dimitri’s path; I didn’t know anything about this path, although I could make certain assumptions based on my previous 2 paths. My previous 2 paths were completed on Hard Classic: Edelgard’s Crimson Flower followed by Claude’s Verdant Wind. Since I prefer to figure things out myself, one of my main restrictions was a knowledge restriction. Thus, I’ve never looked at anyone else’s gameplay for any part of Three Houses, and I’ve also avoided reading any discussions about it. Therefore I didn’t know some things such as the exact Attack Speed formula, although it didn’t matter much - I had a rough idea of it anyway. The only things I’ve read are a few Monastery guides: Greenhouse info so I could farm Speed Carrots, Tea Time guides to boost Charm, requirements for character recruitment, and characters’ liked gift items so I could optimally refill their motivation bars and boost support levels.
    Apart from the knowledge restriction, I also avoided online features, and I didn’t use any of the special stat-boosters that appear in Byleth’s room as part of the DLC, as I generally avoid using gameplay-advantage DLC in FE games. I avoided the extra auxiliary battles (ones with the yellow exclamation mark), but I recruited Anna and completed her Paralogue mission. I never used Anna after that mission though. I mainly recruited her for the sake of full recruitment; I obtained every possible character in the Blue Lions path.

For the most part, I wanted to play Maddening as though it had been available from the game’s release.

————— ii. The Downhill Difficulty Curve —————

The main differences in Maddening mode:
- Higher enemy levels: Level 8 - 50 from the first to final mission.
- More enemies and reinforcements.
- Most reinforcements move on the same turn they appear.
- Enemies can have different weapons/items.
- Enemies have more/better abilities.
- Greatly reduced level-experience gains.

Despite all the changes it wasn’t particularly challenging after the early game, so most of my grinding of skills and abilities turned out to be unnecessary. One reason why it was harder at first was because of the extra enemy abilities, particularly Poison Strike (given to all archer classes) and Pass (on all Thieves/Assassins). In the early game you won’t have any reliable dodge-tanks to negate the threat of Poison Strike, so even Dedue can be worn down by multiple archers on Enemy Phase. However, Dedue doesn’t mind being at 1 HP in situations where none of the enemies can damage him with attacks/Gambits. As for Pass, this is another early-game threat since it can greatly restrict the safe movement options of your units that are vulnerable to being killed. Later on there’s access to more long-range and Canto options to deal with such enemies, and some of the frail support units can eventually help from a distance with Physic etc. Apart from Poison Strike and Pass, most of the other Maddening enemy abilities were much easier to deal with - with some abilities it was because they appeared later in the game, by which time I had many overpowered units.
    The greater number of enemies didn’t make much difference as they were mostly spread far apart, and there are barely any turn-limit missions in this game. High enemy density would be more threatening than total enemy numbers, but those situations can be handled with the offensive Gambits that hit more than 2 spaces (e.g. Blaze, Assault Troop, Resonant Lightning). The movement prevention from the Rattled status is what makes them so effective in such situations. Here’s a Paralogue screenshot showing the usefulness of Gambits in these situations - notice all the Rattled status icons: https://i.imgur.com/hW77FEe.jpg

I didn’t notice much difference with the types of weapons and magic used by enemies on Maddening; this had much less impact than their better stats and abilities. They mostly had plain silver weapons - it’s not like Fates: Conquest where part of the difficulty on Lunatic was due to enemies’ variety of effective and special weapons.
    The most noticeable Maddening difference throughout the whole game was the reduced level-experience gain, which allows enemies in the main story missions to maintain quite a level advantage. It’s much harder to grind in the early game before you get various Saint Statue bonuses from spending Renown, such as the double Class Exp and the four Exp +5% bonuses to start with. You also start with very limited Battle Points for extra battles, and you won’t have a Knowledge Gem or Experience Gem for a while. Magic users also start with very few spells and fewer uses of them, which limits their grinding.

Even in the early game, almost all bosses are shockingly easy even on Maddening. This is partly due to an issue that makes the whole game easier than many other FE games’ highest difficulty: there are so many ways to outrange enemies, e.g. Bowrange+ skills, bow combat arts, Thoron, Caduceus Staff, Thyrsus staff, and eventually Magic Range+ skills. Also, many bosses have only 1-range attacks, which is pitiful compared to other FE games where it’s rare to attack bosses without a risk of counterattack. I really thought Maddening mode would give more bosses the Counterattack ability. But then there’s also the fact that Gambits can’t be counterattacked in any way. So even against bosses with the Commander ability that greatly reduces Gambit damage, you can still rack up some free damage before delivering a safe finishing attack. That’s how I dealt with the first Death Knight encounter; I finished him with a very strong Knightkneeler combat art from Dimitri.
    The downhill difficulty curve was also due to the very generous amount of Divine Pulses: you can eventually have 10 on Maddening. However, even in the early game with only 3 Pulses, I never had a situation of using them all up and then making a fatal error that would lead to a reset. Although I did reset a few times in the first few turns of some early-game missions, that was mainly due to some bad RNG making me waste some Pulses, so I didn’t want to risk playing out most of a mission with hardly any Pulses left. Thus, one main challenge of the early game is that you have very few Pulses while your units have unreliable Hit and Avoid, since they haven’t had a chance to grind for skill ranks and potent abilities. This is also because enemies start with high-level Prowess skills (e.g. Lv4 Sword Prowess) which gives them a notable Hit and Avoid advantage when combined with their higher stats from their level advantage. As such, I initially used a lot of combat arts such as Dimitri’s Tempest Lance. Apart from increasing Hit, the added power from combat arts also helped a lot before I was able to grind several units to the point of becoming reliable one-round killers. By mid-game I wasn’t using offensive combat arts that often, other than the range-boosting bow arts. The movement arts such as Draw Back and Reposition are also especially useful for avoiding dangerous enemies.
    The initial scarcity of Divine Pulses also contributes to the early-game challenge for another reason: they help against reinforcements, which move on their turn of appearance on Maddening. I’ve always disliked the idea of instant-moving reinforcements in FE games - even with a rewind mechanic, it’s cheap difficulty since you can’t be completely prepared for them the first time, thus wasting Pulses on trial-and-error. Although their spawn locations are often made clear, there are some ridiculous ones such as Meteor/Bolting mages. Due to the threat of reinforcements I was quite cautious about where I moved my less durable units; even Dedue wouldn’t be safe if they happened to be mages.
    The early game also has a lack of good battalions; I placed fairly high priority on Authority grinding so I could use the better ones (C rank and above) once they were available. The higher-ranked battalions provide some huge stat boosts, which is another reason why the difficulty falls off after early game. The Gambits were less of a factor, but they were crucial in situations with high enemy density, as noted earlier. Despite so many enemies having battalions, my units were very rarely targeted with Gambits, let alone actually being hit by them. Enemy Gambits basically always had very low hit rates against me, so I had the option to Divine Pulse and then move the RNG if a Gambit hit led to a death; this very rarely happened though.
    I never had any notable money issues even in the early game, despite the frequent use of combat arts with a durability cost of 4 or 5 uses. I held back on using combat arts with the weapons that require rarer materials to repair them, i.e. the materials that can’t be purchased. I was still using forged Iron weapons in the late game, as I often had enough damage output from various abilities. My use of broken weapons for some types of grinding also helped with money efficiency, as broken weapons can be used infinitely (see the "In-Battle Grinding Methods" section). I ended up with 385,711 gold on the final mission.

————— iii. Comparison to Other FE Highest Difficulties —————

Every FE game’s differences between difficulties are listed here:
https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Difficulty

Out of the ten or so main-series FE games I’ve completed, the ones I haven’t yet tried on the highest difficulty are Binding Blade, Blazing Blade and Sacred Stones. I’m sure I’d be capable of doing those ones when I have time. One of my main thoughts on difficulty is that rewind mechanics (such as Divine Pulse) should be more limited if they remain in future FE games, e.g. a maximum of 3. Perhaps Classic mode should completely remove rewinds regardless of the chosen difficulty, as Classic is about being faithful to the older games. However, this issue depends on the level of significant RNG in any particular game, e.g. how high the enemy crit rates are. Three Houses includes many high-crit enemy classes such as War Masters with Crit +20, which may partly explain why they retained a rewind mechanic.

This list only includes the hard modes I’ve completed, and the comparisons are to Three Houses (3H) on Maddening. The order is from hardest to easiest, and it’s just a subjective difficulty ranking based on my own experiences.

1. Awakening: Lunatic+ Classic. It’s very restrictive on how you need to play, and it seems to necessitate excessive grinding to make a few characters very overpowered. I don’t like the way difficulty was handled in this game, as it’s much too easy on the lower difficulties, while the Lunatic difficulties seem to require heavy exploitation of busted gameplay mechanics, e.g. pair-up and the huge level-up potential even from lower-level enemies. At least 3H Maddening fixed the issue of grinding level-ups from lower-level enemies, although it perhaps went too far the other way.

2. Fates: Conquest Lunatic Classic. It was a satisfying challenge that rewarded my long-term planning. I think Conquest handled difficulty better than the other games on this list, as it was more about strategising to deal with enemies that were dangerous due to their positions and/or abilities. Unlike 3H it wasn’t about restricting experience which would encourage tedious grinding, and there were very limited grinding opportunities in Conquest anyway - I liked that design choice. Also, many of the enemy positions and abilities were designed to punish or restrict tactics such as turtling and luring (e.g. Lunge chains, Seal Def), and there were many interesting map designs and objectives that added to the challenge. The difficulty was fairly consistent until it spiked in the last few chapters, which introduce potent enemy-exclusive skills.

3. Radiant Dawn: Hard mode. It’s called Maniac mode in the Japanese version. Like Three Houses the difficulty decreased after the early game, but for different reasons relating to the game’s chapter structure. For most units there was less potential to become overpowered, compared to 3H. As with older FE games, the difficulty mostly came from long missions that tested my endurance, in terms of not making any fatal tactical errors over many turns.

4. Three Houses: Maddening Classic (Blue Lions, non-NG+). It’s somewhat low in this list due to the downhill difficulty curve, as discussed in the previous section. I doubt there would be much difficulty difference in the other story paths, as Part 1 gives plenty of time for units to become overpowered in various ways, e.g. offensively or defensively (see the "Character Summaries" section). The difficulty isn’t as hard as its name suggests - the only thing I found remotely maddening was a group of Meteor/Bolting reinforcements near the end.

5. Fates: Birthright and Revelation Lunatic Classic. Even if you don’t take advantage of the generous grinding opportunities, these paths on Lunatic Classic are so much easier than Conquest. They didn’t offer much of an interesting challenge, as it was generally too easy to power through the enemies without having to think too much.

6. Echoes: Hard Classic. Only 2 difficulty settings in this game, it really could’ve done with a higher one. The introduction of a rewind mechanic (Mila’s Turnwheel) takes away much of the challenge that would come from player errors and having to adapt to RNG outcomes. The gameplay balance was a bit weird, but there were enough tools to deal with any challenges the game could offer.

7. Path of Radiance: Hard mode (English version). Relatively easy, but it doesn’t really count since there’s also the Japan-exclusive Maniac mode; I would’ve played that mode if I had access to it.

————— iv. Unnecessary Grinding: Monastery etc —————

Although the downhill difficulty curve made my excessive grinding for skills and abilities completely unnecessary, it was still interesting to discover how much grinding was possible (see the "Grinding Methods" section). The grinding potential is one reason why Maddening was overall much easier than most other FE games I’ve played on the highest difficulty. Grinding for powerful abilities early on (e.g. Death Blow and Fiendish Blow) was one of the ways I greatly mitigated the challenge.
    I recruited all possible characters, which allowed me to complete all the Paralogues available in this path. I also made good use of my Battle Points for grinding in auxiliary/quest battles, whenever I chose Battle rather than Explore. I never chose Rest, and I only used a few Seminars early on; most of the time I alternated between Explore and Battle.
    The Explore sessions were initially focused on building supports and Faculty Training to reach the thresholds for recruiting all characters from the other houses. Faculty Training in Reason and Faith was my first priority, to get Byleth started as a magic user - I was patient enough to always reset for Great results. The early Explore sessions were also important for grinding my Professor Level. I bought all the fishing bait and waited until the first 'Fistfuls of Fish' event to use it all, to get the most professor points out of the bait. After Byleth eventually reached my desired skill levels in Reason, Faith and Authority, I then used most of my Activity Points on tournaments for completely excessive money grinding. As a result I had 385,711 gold at the final mission, which was *after* spending quite a lot on forging all the best weapons just for that mission. I also spent one Activity Point per month on a Spd-boosting dish from the Head Chef, as +1 Spd has more potential impact than any other stat. As for permanent Spd boosts, in the Greenhouse I always planted five Pale-Blue Flower Seeds and used the best available Cultivation option - this gave me the desired Speed Carrot most of the time.
    To assist my early-game supplies in particular, I favoured Group Task pairings with higher star-ratings, as they’re more likely to get a Perfect result for maximum gold and Smithing Stones. It didn’t matter that I was missing out on Group Task support-building between characters that hadn’t maxed out their supports, as it’s very easy to achieve all maximum supports among the roster of a particular house, in this case the Blue Lions characters. I never ran out of the most common forging materials, as I regularly topped up my supplies of the purchasable ones. For the non-purchasable forging materials, I went for Armour Breaks on most Giant Beasts whenever it wasn’t too inconvenient.
    With the Instructing I didn’t use Sauna boosts at all, and none of my units had any trouble reaching my desired skill levels, although Dimitri only reached S+ Lances (for an extra Lancefaire) right near the end. When I had units on the verge of reaching significant skill levels (e.g. to get a new spell or combat art), I would sometimes reset a few times until the RNG granted enough Great/Perfect instructing gains. In the early game I mainly focused my units’ Goals and Instructing sessions on skills that would provide the most immediate benefits, such as new magic and important combat arts. As mentioned earlier in the "Downhill Difficulty Curve" section, Authority was also a high priority for most units - this was especially for units that were below C in that skill. After various units became effective/overpowered in their roles by around mid-game, I focused their Goals and Instructing on longer-term goals such as unlocking Advanced and Master Classes. Most of the Master Classes require movement skills such as Riding and Flying, and most of the grinding in those skills was gained through Goals, Instructing and Group Tasks rather than actually battling in mounted or flying classes. This included Ingrid’s A+ in Flying for Alert Stance+.
    Overall, I underestimated how much potential skill experience can be gained throughout the game without grinding, so many units were eventually training completely unused skills for no particular reason. With the benefit of hindsight, I could have trained my magic users to obtain class certifications that would permanently boost their base Str, for the purpose of reducing AS penalties from equipment weight. However, it wasn’t much of an issue since they mostly equipped light or weightless accessories, e.g. Magic Staff or Rings.

————— v. In-Battle Grinding Methods —————

The methods that I discuss here involve keeping 1 or 2 last enemies alive for as long as possible, so you can get the most class experience, skill experience and level experience from them. The methods are most efficient with a Knowledge Gem (for skill and class exp), or an Experience Gem combined with Byleth’s personal ability (for level exp). Methods 1A and 1B are also more efficient with a Dancer to give the grinding unit two actions per turn; for Method 2, this only helps if the enemy deals enough damage to allow for an extra heal per turn. Efficiency matters because there’s a 100-turn limit for all missions (or it might be the end of turn 99, I never risked finding out).
    Make sure you have at least 1 Divine Pulse remaining if there’s any chance that one of your characters could die, e.g. to a crit. When you want to keep one particular enemy alive but there’s a risk of unintentionally killing them (e.g. with a crit), it’s ideal to have a second enemy alive so you can Divine Pulse if that happens, rather than the mission ending. For this purpose, the ideal backup enemy may be a non-moving one or a magic user that depleted all their attack magic. After using a Pulse, the RNG outcomes will be the same if you repeat the same battle actions in the same order. So after undoing a crit on an enemy, you could refrain from attacking on that turn, to let the enemy advance the RNG with their Enemy Phase attack. Against a magic user that has no attacks left, you can advance the RNG with a weak attack that won’t kill even with a crit, or with a very inaccurate attack - notably, broken weapons are both weak and inaccurate (more info about broken weapons below).

The grinding methods are most convenient to use against non-moving enemies, but against moving enemies you can surround them, which limits them to attacking one of four adjacent units (or fewer than four if you trap them next to impassable terrain: https://i.imgur.com/Fzy3T9b.jpg). You can’t trap enemies that have the Pass skill, so don’t leave them as the last enemies. With moving enemies, if they were already on the desired terrain (e.g. healing terrain) I just had to surround them with weapon-unequipped units that couldn’t be killed in one round of combat. If they’re not already on the desired terrain, it’s quite easy to lure them onto it while you only have one or a few units in their range, then surround them.
    When an enemy is surrounded by your units, you can influence their target by having some units equipped and others unequipped, and also by changing your equipped weapons and accessories. Before ending Player Phase, make sure the enemy’s indicated target doesn’t have the potential to die or kill the enemy with a counterattack. It’s very helpful that this game has enemy target indicators.

~ Method 1A: Non-lethal attacks against a surrounded self-healing enemy (for skill exp, class exp and level exp).

The most convenient situation involves a non-moving enemy on healing terrain. It’s particularly efficient if they’re a Priest/Bishop with Renewal, as their extra healing means you’ll be able to attack more frequently. Renewal enemies can also be attacked repeatedly on any terrain after they use up all their attack magic, although it’s less efficient since their rate of healing is much slower than enemies standing on healing terrain.
    If you’re just grinding for skill/class exp, it’s notable that you gain the same amount even with missed attacks. Therefore, if you don’t particularly need level-up experience, it’s ideal to lower your hit rate so you don’t have to waste as many turns waiting for the enemy to heal. To minimise accuracy, you can unequip nearby allies to remove Linked Attack bonuses, but more importantly you can attack with broken weapons. Broken weapons also help by lowering your damage and AS. I kept a broken weapon of every type (sword, bow etc) so I could grind any of the weapon skills. You also gain Authority skill experience regardless of your means of attack, as long as your battalion hasn’t retreated. This is important due to the earlier points about high-ranked battalions providing major stat boosts.

~ Method 1B: Very inaccurate attacks against a surrounded enemy (for skill and class exp).

Unlike the first method, this can potentially be done with attacks that would kill the enemy if they actually hit, as long as your Hit is very low. In this case it’s ideal to use an enemy with relatively high Avoid, and you don’t necessarily need an enemy that can heal itself. The first step is to lure them onto avoid-boosting terrain (e.g. forests) before you surround them. Using broken weapons against enemies in forests will severely lower your Hit, so you can get plenty of weapon and class exp from an enemy even if they can’t self-heal. Also unequip nearby allies to remove Linked Attack bonuses if possible. You may want to unequip Hit-boosting skills (such as the Prowess skills) if it’s an easy optional mission. If your Hit is above 0% and a hit would actually kill, you may also want to keep a second enemy alive so you can undo any hits with Divine Pulse, then advance the RNG to hopefully not hit them next time.

~ Method 2: Tanking/avoiding hits from a surrounded enemy on Enemy Phase (for class exp + healing exp if not avoiding).

A defensive method in which your character has no usable weapon equipped, ideally holding a Knowledge Gem for the maximum 4 points of class experience per combat. For the Master Classes that require 200 points for mastery, that means 50 turns if the combat is only on Enemy Phase. The optimal situation can reduce it to 17 turns; this involves two engagements (second via Dancer) on Player Phase with inaccurate/non-lethal attacks, then possibly unequipping the usable weapon via trading, for the Enemy Phase.
    When your grinding character takes hits rather than avoiding them, this method also lets you grind other characters’ experience (class, level and White Magic skill) by healing them. For this purpose, against 1-range enemies you can equip your damage-taking unit with a broken bow to lower your Avoid while still being unable to counterattack (assuming you don’t have Close Counter). As this will typically allow the enemy to double you, this assumes you can survive 2 hits.
    Although the basic Heal spell doesn’t grant much level-experience per use, there are significant gains from higher-ranked spells such as Recover and Physic. The best combination is Fortify + Experience Gem + Byleth’s personal ability. This is how Mercedes and Flayn ended up around level 60, while my other characters were in the mid 40s. It’s ideal if the enemy deals enough damage such that one Heal won’t bring a character to full HP, so you can use 2 healing spells on them per turn (via Dancer if it’s with the same healer). Using 2 different healers per turn on the same damaged unit is less convenient, as this requires constant Knowledge/Experience Gem trading and repositioning Byleth for optimal gains.
    To get the most turns of grinding with this method, use an enemy that has a breakable weapon rather than magic. This is mainly because they can still attack with a broken weapon, although they’ll have much lower Hit and damage. As such, for continued healer grinding you may need to tank the hits with a unit that has lower Avoid and Def. Remember that the broken bow method maximises the chance of taking hits.
    For healer grinding, there is another method: taking damage from terrain. There aren’t many maps with damaging terrain, but the Ailell map with crater tiles was sometimes available for auxiliary battles.

————— vi. Divine Pulse techniques (level-ups and battle RNG) —————

Since the aforementioned grinding methods can produce many level-ups, this leads into the next major way to mitigate the challenge of Maddening - the generous supply of Divine Pulses allows for plenty of RNG manipulation. Disclaimer: I haven’t read anything about this game’s RNG, so the following points are just my own observations and speculations.
    The level-up RNG seems to be separate from the battle RNG used for hits, crits etc. Once a mission starts, potential stat gains seem to be predetermined for all characters until the end of the mission, so the only way to reroll stat gains is by soft-resetting the game. Therefore I would often leave characters very close to levelling up at the end of a mission, so I could try for good/better level-ups at the start of the next mission. This method of refraining from level-ups was mainly done near the end of missions, so those characters wouldn’t miss out on too much experience. Divine Pulses were used to undo bad level-ups near the end of missions. I would then get those characters to retry their level-ups early in the next mission; obviously this is best done at the start so you don’t lose much progress by resetting the mission for better gains.
    I used this stat-rerolling method particularly with characters that were frequently getting bad level-ups, such as Dedue. It was also useful for characters that were struggling to gain certain stats they really needed, such as Str for Ashe. With those characters I generally avoided giving them a mission-ending kill if I expected that they could level up from it.

Although the main intended use of Divine Pulses is to undo fatal mistakes, you can also use them to take advantage of the battle RNG. I assume that when Divine Pulse is used, the game rewinds through the same sequence of random numbers ranging from 1 to 100, and the full sequence of RNG numbers (both future and past) is never altered by Pulses. Importantly, a particular number in the sequence would not necessarily produce the same battle outcome (e.g. whether an attack hits or crits) in all situations. This is based on the following assumption: the lower your listed Hit or Crit, the lower the chance that the RNG number will be within that number range. Therefore, at some particular point in the sequence you may always hit with an attack that has at least 60 listed Hit, but not necessarily with an attack that has lower Hit. The greater the difference between listed Hit/Crit values, the less likely it is that a successful hit/crit could be replicated in a situation with lower listed Hit/Crit.
    I also assume that the battle RNG number only advances whenever it needs to be called, so it would only advance whenever a unit attacks, to determine whether the attack hits/crits. Presumably that means the RNG sequence advances more times per battle when there are double-attacks. Finally, I also assume that the same sequence of random numbers is used by all units on the field, including enemies. Therefore, when you Divine Pulse to rewind by a certain amount of RNG calls, you should get the same sequence of numbers even if your characters battle in a different order than they did before the Pulse.
    Based on these assumptions/observations, I was able to do things such as changing a useless crit into a useful one - although this is less likely to work if there’s a significant difference between listed crit rates. For example, suppose Character A gets a kill with an unnecessary 30% crit, and they were the first character to move on Player Phase. You could then Divine Pulse back to the start of the same Player Phase, but this time attack with Character B first. The RNG number should be the same, since you’ve rewinded back to the same point in the sequence of RNG numbers. Therefore, Character B would get the crit if their listed crit rate is the same or higher than Character A’s was. But if Character B’s listed crit rate is lower, e.g. 10% compared to 30%, then it would only crit if the same RNG number was in that lower 0-10 range all along. The same applies to hit rates, so this method is less reliable if you’re trying to get the same battle result with much lower hit/crit rates as compared to a unit that attacked before the Divine Pulse.
    As for RNG manipulation of Crest activations, I have sometimes Divine Pulsed to get better use out of the same character’s particular instance of an activation. For example, if Felix gets an unnecessary damage boost from his Crest of Fraldarius, I can Divine Pulse after his action to change it into a useful damage boost, by making him attack a different enemy that actually needs the extra damage. This method also works for things like healing, so you could change Mercedes’ Crest of Lamine activation from a free Heal to a free Fortify, which provides a huge amount of level-experience (this assumes that the Crest activation rate is separate from the choice of weapon/magic, which I haven’t properly tested).
    It’s also possible to rewind one character’s Crest activation to get a different character’s Crest activation, but I don’t know any details about the different activation rates between Crests, such as the difference between Major and Minor Crests. I would assume that a Minor Crest activation could be rewinded for a guaranteed Major Crest activation, while the other way around wouldn’t be guaranteed to work. This assumption is based on my aforementioned observations of the battle RNG for hits/crits, as it would be like rewinding a crit from a high listed crit rate (Major Crest) to try and repeat it with a lower listed crit rate (Minor Crest).

————— vii. Saint Statues: Renown spending —————

The main challenge is in the early game, partly because the Maddening experience starvation allows the enemies to maintain a big level advantage; you also begin with very limited Battle Points for extra battles. As such, I first prioritised my Renown spending on the four Exp +5% bonuses. However, after getting the first of these Exp boosts on the Cethleann statue, it made sense for the next chosen bonus to be the important Class Exp +1 since it’s the next bonus on that statue. Notably, the +1 applies before the doubling from a Knowledge Gem.
    After the four Exp +5% bonuses, my next priority was the 4 extra Divine Pulses, which allows for a maximum of 10 on Maddening. Finally, I went for as many of the Exp +10% bonuses as I could get, ending up with 3 out of the 4. I gained as much Renown as possible, by doing all available Quests.

————— viii. Character Summaries (with video) —————

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI4hSp3W9LY
(spoiler warning: the final Blue Lions map is partly visible in the background, including the boss) This is a 3-minute video showing my characters’ summary screens and some extras: showing the full recruitment of all possible characters, my main characters’ available combat arts and abilities, my convoy and my 385,711 gold.

The character summaries are also written out in this section. Although I recruited all possible characters, these are the only ones I actually used throughout the game, apart from the Paralogues that forced deployment of other characters.
    I only list Skill Levels for skills that were actively trained, so I ignore E ranks and random Faith gains from choir singing etc. I list all Classes in which characters obtained certifications (even if I never used those classes), and the ones with class mastery are marked with a *. The 'Main accessories' part refers to my most commonly used non-weapon equipment for each character. The listed combat arts are just the ones I had equipped for the final mission, although I exclude the ones that I never used at any point in the game.

Roster (for maximum 12 deployment): Byleth F, Dimitri, Dedue, Ingrid, Felix, Sylvain, Annette, Mercedes, Ashe, Flayn, Dorothea, Manuela.
Movement types: Infantry x 9, Cavalry x 3, Flying x 0.
Attack types: Physical x 7, Magic x 5.

The cavalry units were Dedue (Great Knight), Annette (Dark Knight) and Ashe (Bow Knight). I briefly used some flying classes while grinding for abilities, but apart from that it was a grounded team. Although fliers are very useful, there were hardly any situations where I felt disadvantaged by not having any. From around mid-game I had plenty of long-range options to attack across impassable terrain, which reduced the need for fliers.
    The physical attackers were Byleth, Dimitri, Dedue, Ingrid, Felix, Sylvain and Ashe. The magic attackers were Byleth, Annette, Mercedes, Flayn and Dorothea. Byleth was my only mixed attacker (mostly magic from around mid-game), and Manuela was just for non-combat purposes.

Among my roster of units, my most commonly used abilities were Death Blow, Fiendish Blow, Prowess abilities, Black/White Magic Range +1, Hit +20, and eventually the -faire abilities from S+ skill levels. The Blow skills helped with getting enough damage against the much higher-levelled enemies in Maddening mode. These abilities’ restriction to Player Phase wasn’t an issue, as I just used the simple method of luring a few enemies at a time then defeating them mostly on Player Phase. The range-increasing abilities are good for keeping vulnerable units out of enemy attack range, both during Player Phase combat and in preparation for each Enemy Phase.
    I’ve never found Crests to be particularly important, so I often forgot about them until they activated and reminded me of their existence. Many of the Blue Lions characters have underwhelming Crest effects, such as conserving magic uses or boosting offensive combat arts - I mainly use these combat arts to secure enough guaranteed damage for a kill, so I don’t gamble for possible extra damage.
    With my battalion choices, I focused more on their stat boosts than their Gambit types. Apart from a few Strides mostly in the early-game, I never felt much need for the support Gambits.

Note: These stats and details are from the start of the final mission. The stats are taken from the unit summary screens during pre-battle preparations, so they factor in ability boosts (e.g. HP +5) but not the battalion boosts. As mentioned earlier, the full list of their learned combat arts and abilities is shown in the video.

~ Byleth (Female) - Professor’s Guidance+
Crest: Crest of Flames (life-drain, +Mt and prevents counters)
Class: Gremory - Magic Uses x2
Level: 48
Stats: 60 HP, 39 Str, 40 Mag, 38 Dex, 41 Spd, 36 Lck, 19 Def, 34 Res, 68 Cha
Combat Arts: Healing Focus (Healing), Draw Back (Movement), Bane of Monsters (Sword)
Abilities: Hit +20, Fiendish Blow, White Magic Range +1, White Tomefaire, Vantage
Battalion: Gloucester Knights (Phys Atk +6, Mag Atk +6, Hit +15, Prt +5, Rsl +5, Cha +7) - Gambit: Assault Troop
Black Magic: Fire, Thunder, Bolganone, Ragnarok
White Magic: Heal, Nosferatu, Recover, Aura
Skill Levels: Sword B+, Lance D+, Axe D, Bow B, Brawl B, Reason A+, Faith S+, Authority S+, Hvy Armour D+, Riding D+
Classes: Commoner*, Enlightened One*, Monk*, Mercenary*, Cavalier*, Brigand*, Archer*, Mage*, Priest*, Swordmaster, Assassin, Sniper, Warlock*, Bishop*, Mortal Savant, Gremory*
Main accessories: March Ring, Ochain Shield, Magic Staff, Speed Ring, Hexlock Shield, Evasion Ring
Adjutant: Alois - Guard, A support

Naturally one of the most important units, not only due to her required deployment. There’s also the power of the Crest of Flames (one of the only worthwhile Crests), her great versatility, and the usefulness of her exp-boosting ability in Maddening mode, especially for the early game. I’ve played as male Byleth in Claude’s path, but female was the better choice for me here as I prefer magic-focused units; after learning various class mastery skills she stayed in the female-exclusive Gremory class. It takes a while to get her started as a magic user, since you need Faculty Training to actually learn some magic. I didn’t have a definite plan for her when I started this run, but I ended up favouring the Gremory class, partly because I eventually found myself using Nosferatu a lot for Enemy Phase. With this I was able to tank many physical hits despite Def being her weakness. This tanking capacity was helped by high AS from quite a few permanent Spd-boosters (Speed Carrots etc), as well as her high Str which allowed her to maintain high AS even with a heavy shield + Nosferatu. The Vantage + Nosferatu combination still proved very effective in this game, especially once I had White Tomefaire. The Hit +20 ability made this tanking much more reliable, as well as Adjutant Guard protection against enemies fast enough to double her, such as Assassins and the brawling classes.
    Byleth was also a strong counter to mages as I gave her most of the Res boosters, and her convoy access allowed her to pick from a wide variety of physical weapons to use against them. She was my main March Ring user, so I could put her in good positions adjacent to other units that wanted the experience boost from Professor’s Guidance. Most of the skill grinding was initially focused on recruiting characters from other houses, but I also did extra training in Brawling for Healing Focus, Swords as she relied on them in the early game, and Bows for an early-game ranged option with the added benefit of Curved Shot. I never ended up using the Creator Sword.
    Byleth’s insane Cha stat resulted from all the Perfect Tea Times on each character’s birthday; I didn’t do any extra tea invites even when I had plenty of disposable Activity Points. This was helpful since enemies on Maddening have higher Cha stats to reduce the damage and hit rate of your Gambits, although the most important effect of Gambits was to Rattle large groups of enemies to lock their movement, so hit rates mattered more than damage.

~ Dimitri - Royal Lineage+
Crest: Minor Crest of Blaiddyd (combat arts Atk x2)
Class: Great Lord - Charm, Lancefaire
Level: 46
Stats: 77 HP (HP +5), 46 Str, 18 Mag, 32 Dex, 31 Spd, 24 Lck, 27 Def, 10 Res, 42 Cha
Combat Arts: Reposition (Movement), Monster Piercer (Lance), Tempest Lance (Lance)
Abilities: Lancefaire, Lance Prowess Lv 5, HP +5, Vantage, Death Blow
Battalion: Fraldarius Soldiers (Phys Atk +7, Crit +20, Prt +6, Cha +7) - Gambit: Onslaught
Skill Levels: Sword B, Lance S+, Axe D+, Authority S, Riding B+, Flying D+
Classes: Noble*, High Lord*, Great Lord*, Soldier*, Lord, Mercenary*, Cavalier*, Brigand*, Hero*, Swordmaster, Paladin*
Main accessories: Lampos Shield, Critical Ring, Evasion Ring
Adjutant: Catherine - Guard, A support

Dimitri wasn’t outstanding at any particular role, although he had very strong Gambits and was effective overall. He relied on raw power and sometimes a Brave Lance to make up for a usual lack of double attacks. His single-hit damage was especially notable with the Tempest Lance combat art in the early game. For most of the game his Spd was too low to justify using any Spd-boosters on him, partly because he was a Paladin for a long time until he unlocked his exclusive classes.
    Dimitri’s skill levels were slightly held back by his lack of instructing opportunities for much of Part 2, but he eventually got S+ Lances for an extra Lancefaire just in time for the final mission - not that I really needed that much power. His personal avoid-boosting ability in Part 2 didn’t come into play much, as he was completely outclassed by Ingrid in that regard. He was quite sturdy against physical attacks thanks to Adjutant Guard, although obviously not on Dedue’s level.

~ Dedue - Staunch Shield
Crest: None
Class: Great Knight - Canto, Lancefaire, Axefaire
Level: 45
Stats: 76 HP, 42 Str, 10 Mag, 26 Dex (Dex +4), 13 Spd, 28 Lck, 45 Def, 10 Res, 19 Cha
Combat Arts: Healing Focus (Healing), Smash (Axe), Armoured Strike (Axe)
Abilities: Death Blow, Axe Prowess Lv 5, Quick Riposte, Dexterity +4, Wrath
Battalion: Duscur Heavy Soldiers (Phys Atk +8, Hit +5, Avo -15, Prt +10, Cha +7) - Gambit: Line of Lances
Skill Levels: Sword D, Lance B, Axe S, Brawl B, Authority A+, Hvy Armour S, Riding C+
Classes: Commoner*, Fighter*, Armoured Knight*, Cavalier, Brigand*, Fortress Knight*, Warrior*, Great Knight*, War Master*
Main accessories: Accuracy Ring, Seiros Shield, Ochain Shield
Adjutant: Shamir - Guard, A support

Shortly before Three Houses released, I completed a Lunatic Classic run of FE Fates: Conquest, in which Benny was an incredible physical tank. Dedue is Benny 2.0 in many ways. He was either completely or nearly invincible when kept away from magic, although he had to be wary of Gambits that would remove his battalion’s +10 Prt due to the Rattled status. The Adjutant Guard was unnecessary most of the time, so I often changed my third adjutant to Gilbert guarding Annette.
    There were two major benefits from training Dedue’s Brawling skill: the Healing Focus combat art, and the Quick Riposte ability from War Master class mastery. Healing Focus is self-explanatory for a tank, although I had more than enough healers anyway. Dedue greatly benefits from Quick Riposte, as it’s so easy for him to stay above 50% HP. This not only allows him to actually double attack on Enemy Phase, it also prevents enemy doubles. That allowed him to tank a single magic hit in rare cases where that was necessary.
    Apart from his vulnerability to magic, Dedue’s main weakness was his accuracy in the early game. This was mostly fixed by grinding to Axe Prowess Lv 5, using an Accuracy Ring, and equipping Dorothea with Meteor for convenient linked attacks. Dedue also had the Smash combat art for +20 Hit, and I kept Dexterity +4 as there wasn’t much else to use. He only needed C+ in Riding for the Great Knight certification, and he was lucky to get it on the first exam attempt. The class’s extra movement and Canto helped with staying away from magic. Although he wasn’t the best unit for getting kills on Player Phase, his Armoured Strike combat art becomes extremely powerful as his Def increases (+16 damage in the final mission), and he can also use a Brave Axe. I gave him a few Lck-boosting Goddess Icons since tanks get the most use out of Crit Avoid. Although I could’ve used the crit-blocking Ochain Shield instead of the Seiros Shield, I mostly used the Ochain on Byleth. That allowed Byleth to equip five useful abilities that didn’t need to include Faith Lv 5 for Crit Avoid with Nosferatu tanking.

~ Ingrid - Lady Knight
Crest: Minor Crest of Daphnel (combat arts +Mt)
Class: Dancer - Dance
Level: 60
Stats: 65 HP, 41 Str, 20 Mag, 29 Dex, 48 Spd, 35 Lck, 27 Def, 39 Res, 54 Cha
Combat Arts: Healing Focus (Healing), Sword Dance (Sword), Grounder (Sword)
Abilities: Sword Prowess Lv 5, Sword Avo +20, Alert Stance+, Defiant Avo, Special Dance
Battalion: Aegir Astral Knights (Phys Atk +7, Avo +20, Prt +2, Rsl +2, Cha +7) - Gambit: Assault Troop
Skill Levels: Sword S, Lance A+, Axe D+, Brawl B, Authority A+, Riding B, Flying A+
Classes: Noble*, Dancer*, Myrmidon*, Mercenary*, Thief, Cavalier*, Brigand*, Pegasus Knight*, Swordmaster, Paladin, Falcon Knight*
Main accessories: Evasion Ring

https://i.imgur.com/vwDgQCK.jpg
Ingrid had up to 178 Avoid (see screenshot), and was easily one of the most useful units. Most enemies had a 0% hit rate against her.

However, the Dancer class is unavailable for much of Part 1, and she started out as one of my least useful units due to her lack of killing power. After some grinding for Death Blow and Darting Blow she became much better, but then I realised that I needed to choose a Dancer. She seemed like a good choice as she wasn’t the best fighter anyway, while her sword proficiency, flying proficiency and high Spd were a good fit with Sword Avo +20. This is because Ingrid’s proficiencies helped with grinding for the abilities needed to stack even more Avoid: Sword Prowess Lv 5, Alert Stance+ and Defiant Avo. The latter ability was overkill since she barely ever took a hit, even on the turns when she Danced rather than activating Alert Stance+. Therefore I often had Rally Magic instead of that ability, which sometimes allowed Dorothea to get an important kill with just one use of Meteor. Ingrid didn’t even mind taking magic hits in the rare cases where they actually hit her, thanks to her solid defensive stats.
    Once Ingrid became a Dancer with heavily stacked Avoid, she stayed in that class as she was incredibly useful for luring and distracting enemies, as well as blocking enemy movement, e.g. on chokepoints. She was the best lure for enemy archer classes, as Poison Strike only activates if it hits. Ingrid was also my best unit for stalling out uses of Bolting/Meteor, which appear in greater quantities in Maddening mode. In one late-game mission I stalled out 20 total uses of Bolting from 5 enemies all attacking Ingrid at once - they all had 0% Hit against her.
    Gambits had actual hit rates against her since they’re calculated differently (highest I can remember was 35%), but I was hardly ever targeted with Gambits. I don’t recall Ingrid ever dying with her Avoid build, even though she faced so many enemies throughout the game; she had a lot more Enemy Phase engagements than Dedue. Her own Gambits were very powerful due to her high Cha stat and personal ability.
    Ingrid became very overlevelled for the same reason that Mercedes and Flayn did: Dancing and white magic support spells all give consistent experience gains, rather than depending on enemy levels. Ingrid was 10 levels above the final mission’s level 50 enemies. The dancing experience cap per mission clearly didn’t matter much, thanks to Experience Gem and Byleth’s personal ability.
    Special Dance was very useful for its +4 Spd boost, which could be stacked with Annette’s Rally Speed - in one case this allowed Felix to Steal an item when it otherwise would’ve been impossible. In conclusion, my thoughts on Ingrid’s usefulness were the same as her own reaction to winning the dance competition: https://i.imgur.com/qvWeOUJ.jpg

~ Felix - Lone Wolf
Crest: Crest of Fraldarius (weapon +Mt)
Class: Sniper - Bowfaire, Bowrange +1
Level: 44
Stats: 51 HP, 39 Str, 18 Mag, 38 Dex, 39 Spd, 27 Lck, 23 Def, 13 Res, 21 Cha
Combat Arts: Healing Focus (Healing), Curved Shot (Bow), Heavy Draw (Bow), Hunter’s Volley (Bow)
Abilities: Bow Prowess Lv 5, Bow Crit +10, Hit +20, Close Counter, Death Blow
Battalion: Leicester Mercenaries (Phys Atk +7, Hit +20, Crit +15, Prt +4, Cha +7) - Gambit: Blaze
Skill Levels: Sword A, Axe D+, Bow S, Brawl B, Reason C, Authority B, Flying B
Classes: Noble*, Myrmidon*, Mercenary*, Thief*, Brigand*, Archer*, Dark Mage*, Hero*, Swordmaster*, Assassin, Sniper*, Mortal Savant
Main accessories: Aegis Shield, Speed Ring

Felix has one of the best Crests in the game, although I never specifically tried to rely on Crest activations. The chance of 5 extra damage per hit is very significant in the early game, but it obviously falls off a bit as the game progresses. His early-game power is also helped by his personal Lone Wolf ability, which falls off once you have enough Authority to use battalions that offer the same damage boost and much more. Felix generally had some of the best stat gains among my units, so I hardly ever rewinded any of his level-ups.
    He was initially focused more on swords, until I realised there wasn’t much reason to face counterattacks when I could instead use his bow proficiency and safely attack from afar. If I’d decided on that from the start, I probably would’ve trained in Riding and Lances to unlock Bow Knight. However, the Sniper class at least has its exclusive Hunter’s Volley combat art. Compared to Ashe who was my other main bow user, Felix was initially better at using heavier bows (i.e. anything above Iron Bow+) due to his much better Str, although Ashe’s AS gradually caught up with the help of some stat-boosters. Felix also had more reason to use Close Counter since he could actually take some hits with Aegis Shield, especially when its Pavise/Aegis effect activated.
    Whereas Ashe relied on crits for kills in the mid- to late-game, Felix had just enough power to not need them, which was good because his crit rate was much lower; most of the time I had other abilities instead of Bow Crit +10, such as Speed +2. He was consistently one of my fastest units, but I often had to switch between Aegis Shield and Speed Ring depending on the enemies. His high Spd was essential for his role as my only Steal user, although it’s certainly not necessary to steal anything. I found that the Battle of the Eagle and Lion was the mission where Steal was most useful, for the Accuracy Ring and Evasion Ring.

~ Sylvain - Philanderer
Crest: Minor Crest of Gautier (combat arts +Mt)
Class: War Master - Fistfaire, Axefaire, Crit +20
Level: 45
Stats: 69 HP, 46 Str, 18 Mag, 35 Dex, 37 Spd, 23 Lck, 31 Def, 14 Res, 36 Cha
Combat Arts: Healing Focus (Healing), Rushing Blow (Brawl), Fading Blow (Brawl)
Abilities: Wrath, Death Blow, Brawling Prowess Lv 5, Quick Riposte, Brawl Crit +10
Battalion: Goneril Valkyries (Phys Atk +8, Hit +20, Crit +15, Prt +6, Rsl +1, Cha +7) - Gambit: Assault Troop
Skill Levels: Lance D, Axe A+, Brawl S, Reason D, Authority A+, Riding C
Classes: Noble*, Fighter*, Brigand*, Brawler*, Warrior*, Grappler*, War Master*
Main accessories: Critical Ring, Aurora Shield

I knew from the start that I wanted a War Master, but the only Blue Lion with proficiency in both axes and brawling was Dedue, who already had a clearly defined role as a tank. I narrowed my choice down to Sylvain; he at least has axe proficiency, and a damage-boosting personal ability that goes well with gauntlets. Sylvain started off with low Hit and terrible damage, the damage being especially weak with gauntlets. However, he soon became extremely powerful on Player Phase, able to kill virtually anything (even Fortress Knights) with gauntlets before they could even counter. The increase in power came from his later abilities, Str gains from later classes, and a crazy crit rate - Sylvain and Ashe were my main crit machines.
    In the early game he became effective once he gained Death Blow, which is ridiculous with gauntlets. His power was such that I rarely switched from Training Gauntlets for the entire game, although I had Steel Gauntlets as a secondary weapon. Once he reached the War Master class for Fistfaire and Crit +20, he was truly unstoppable on Player Phase, and still destroyed most enemies on Enemy Phase thanks to his crit rate and Quick Riposte. Although he often had enough AS for 4 hits on Player Phase, enemies rarely had a chance to counterattack since he would either get a clean kill with 2 non-crits, or he would make use of his crit rate which was high enough to actually rely on it at times. I rarely used him for ranged attacks since that wasn’t his strength, but he had a Hand Axe for that purpose.
    Sylvain was also one of my sturdier units for physical tanking, which was helped by his high Spd to avoid doubles, and eventually Quick Riposte. The tanking role was aided by Healing Focus, which was typically the only combat art I used with him (so his Crest was rather useless). Overall, he turned out to be one of my best units after the early game - I doubt this would’ve happened if I’d taken him in any other class direction.

~ Annette - Perseverance
Crest: Minor Crest of Dominic (conserves attack-magic uses)
Class: Dark Knight - Canto, Black Tomefaire, Dark Tomefaire
Level: 48
Stats: 44 HP, 21 Str, 43 Mag, 36 Dex, 25 Spd, 23 Lck, 23 Def, 27 Res, 30 Cha
Combat Arts: Draw Back (Movement), Lightning Axe (Axe), Smash (Axe)
Abilities: Black Magic Range +1, Black Tomefaire, Rally Speed, Reason Lv 5, Fiendish Blow
Battalion: Macuil Evil Repelling Co. (Mag Atk +7, Hit +30, Prt +1, Rsl +6, Cha +10) - Gambit: Resonant Lightning
Black Magic: Wind, Cutting Gale, Sagittae, Excalibur
White Magic: Heal, Nosferatu, Recover, Abraxas
Skill Levels: Lance C, Axe B, Reason S+, Faith S, Authority S+, Riding A+
Classes: Noble*, Monk*, Mage*, Priest*, Warrior, Warlock*, Bishop*, Dark Knight*, Holy Knight, Gremory*
Main accessories: Thyrsus, Magic Staff, Hexlock Shield, Lampos Shield

Annette mostly served as a very accurate long-range magic nuke - the range was from the Thyrsus staff and eventually Black Magic Range +1 on top of that. This gave her 5-range attacks, which combined with the Dark Knight class’s movement range and Canto for a very effective hit-and-run attacker. Annette and Ashe were my main units for taking out enemies deep in the enemy attack range and then retreating to safety. Whereas Ashe needed to double and/or crit to get kills (except on mages and fliers), Annette was able to one-hit kill many non-magic classes. In this way, it was convenient that these two hit-and-run units included both a physical and magical attacker. Annette’s one-hit kill capacity was especially useful on Assassins, since she had very high Hit - against most enemies it was 100%. Annette’s accuracy and attack range also helped when using super-effective Excalibur against fliers, which can sometimes be hard to reach when they’re over impassable terrain.
    It was a good thing that Annette had so much power per hit, as she was one of my slowest units. This made her quite vulnerable on Enemy Phase, which is why I favoured the Dark Knight class for hit-and-run tactics. She also had much lower Res than my other magic-focused units. For these reasons, when I wasn’t using an adjutant on Dedue, I used Gilbert for Adjutant Guard on Annette. This had the added benefit of +3 damage at maximum support.
    Annette’s assistance with white magic was outclassed by Mercedes, Flayn and even Dorothea (Physic), but she at least had Recover. She also had the useful combination of Rally Speed + Rally Strength, while only using one ability slot because the latter is from her personal ability. This Rally combination was especially effective on Sylvain and Ashe. Although Annette was very effective overall, her main problem was that most of her stats were spread too evenly, whereas Mercedes, Flayn and Dorothea had more efficient stat spreads because they were closer to 'min-max' builds suited for magic users.

~ Mercedes - Live to Serve
Crest: Minor Crest of Lamine (conserves healing uses)
Class: Gremory - Magic Uses x2
Level: 60
Stats: 48 HP, 18 Str, 51 Mag, 36 Dex, 35 Spd, 21 Lck, 18 Def, 43 Res, 41 Cha
Combat Arts: Draw Back (Movement)
Abilities: Fiendish Blow, White Tomefaire, White Magic Range +1, Reason Lv 5, Faith Lv 5
Battalion: Macuil Evil Repelling Co. (Mag Atk +7, Hit +30, Prt +1, Rsl +6, Cha +10) - Gambit: Resonant Lightning
Black Magic: Fire, Thunder, Bolganone, Ragnarok
White Magic: Heal, Nosferatu, Physic, Restore, Fortify
Skill Levels: Bow B+, Reason A+, Faith S+, Authority S
Classes: Commoner*, Monk*, Mage*, Priest*, Warlock*, Bishop*, Gremory*
Main accessories: Healing Staff, Magic Staff, Rafail Gem, Silver Shield

Mercedes quickly became very overlevelled, especially once she gained Fortify (A in Faith) for much better experience grinding. She would’ve been very effective even without her gradually-increasing level advantage, as she had good overall stats and was the most useful healer; notably she has Physic which Flayn lacks.
    For most of the game she mainly attacked with black magic, but she eventually got more use out of Nosferatu once she had White Magic Range +1 and White Tomefaire. Overall, Mercedes performed well in many roles: she was an effective killer thanks to her level advantage and the lower Res of most enemy classes, a very useful support unit, and a very good magic tank. However, the tanking role was less important once I had unhittable Ingrid.

~ Ashe - Lockpick
Crest: None
Class: Bow Knight - Canto, Bowfaire, Bowrange +2
Level: 45
Stats: 48 HP, 30 Str, 18 Mag, 47 Dex, 42 Spd, 30 Lck, 19 Def, 19 Res, 19 Cha
Combat Arts: Deadeye (Bow), Curved Shot (Bow), Shove (Movement)
Abilities: Death Blow, Bow Prowess Lv 5, Hit +20, Bow Crit +10, Bowfaire
Battalion: Cichol Wyvern Co. (Phys Atk +7, Hit +15, Crit +15, Avo +5, Prt +6, Rsl +1, Cha +10) - Gambit: Assault Troop
Skill Levels: Lance B+, Axe D+, Bow S+, Authority A+, Riding S
Classes: Commoner*, Fighter*, Cavalier*, Brigand*, Archer*, Sniper*, Bow Knight*
Main accessories: Critical Ring, Accuracy Ring, Speed Ring

https://i.imgur.com/VL8WQtZ.jpg - Ashe with 104 Crit.

"Gotta crit 'em all!" - Ashe Ketchum. With a Killer Bow+ he ended up with 104 listed Crit before reduction from enemy Lck stats. As such, he was one of the main crit machines along with Sylvain. His other similarity to Sylvain was that they were both terrible in the early game, not only because of their very low crit rates to start with. Ashe’s early-game struggles were also due to his pitiful damage output (he even struggled to double for quite a while), less range, and having fewer options to keep him out of danger before he became a Bow Knight. As such, I placed a high priority on feeding him kills to unlock the Archer class and Hit +20. The other early-game priority was to grind through the Brigand class for Death Blow. His effectiveness kept increasing from there, as he gained useful combat arts, Bowfaire, extra range, very high crit rates from his Dex growth and Bow Crit +10, and eventually a second Bowfaire. Thus, he went from one of the worst units to a frequent MVP. However, it’s a shame that he has Lockpick instead of a battle-relevant personal ability.
    He used combat arts more often than any other character, as the extra range/accuracy with Deadeye and Curved Shot was very helpful. I also gave him a few Str stat-boosters which helped his AS, although he still mainly used the light Iron Bow+. Once Ashe learned Bow Crit +10, he would usually crit even with that basic weapon. He really appreciated Annette’s Rally Strength + Speed for the times when he needed a heavier bow to kill without relying on a crit.
    Ashe’s usefulness as a crit machine didn’t overlap with Sylvain’s role: while Sylvain was melee-focused and sturdy enough to also crit-kill enemies on Enemy Phase, Ashe was mostly limited to long-range hit-and-run attacks on Player Phase due to his frailty. The Bow Knight class is very good at staying out of enemy range after attacking.

~ Flayn - Lily’s Poise
Crest: Crest of Cethleann (healing magic +Mt)
Class: Gremory - Magic Uses x2
Level: 61
Stats: 46 HP, 24 Str, 57 Mag, 38 Dex, 36 Spd, 18 Lck, 28 Def, 49 Res, 45 Cha
Combat Arts: Draw Back (Movement)
Abilities: White Magic Range +1, White Tomefaire, Faith Lv 5, Darting Blow, Fiendish Blow
Battalion: Cethleann Monks (Mag Atk +6, Hit +20, Prt +1, Rsl +7, Cha +10) - Gambit: Resonant White Magic
Black Magic: Wind, Fire, Cutting Gale, Excalibur
White Magic: Heal, Nosferatu, Restore, Rescue, Fortify
Skill Levels: Lance B, Reason A+, Faith S+, Authority A+, Flying B
Classes: Noble*, Monk*, Mage*, Priest, Pegasus Knight*, Warlock*, Bishop*, Gremory*
Main accessories: Caduceus Staff, Magic Staff, Healing Staff, Speed Ring, Aurora Shield

Flayn became very overlevelled for the same reason as Mercedes: Fortify and Heal for grinding, plus Rescue which requires no setup for grinding purposes; it can simply be spammed. Having 6 uses of Rescue per mission is very useful - Rescue was Flayn’s main point of difference from Mercedes, although Flayn also had higher overall stats. She also had Excalibur to deal with Pegasus/Falcon Knights. Darting Blow contributed a lot to her killing power on Player Phase, as her Spd was always respectable. She was one of my longer-ranged attackers with Caduceus Staff and White Magic Range +1, which enabled 4-range with Nosferatu. Extra range is especially helpful for frail units, although her Def turned out surprisingly high for a magic user. She certainly isn’t frail on the magic side, being one of the sturdiest magic tanks.
    Flayn’s personal Lily’s Poise ability is also quite useful, mainly for helping tanks such as Dedue. Although -3 damage per hit becomes less significant over the course of the game, some later enemies have very high crit rates - the ability can reduce an enemy’s double-crit double attack by a total of 18 damage.

~ Dorothea - Songstress
Crest: None
Class: Gremory - Magic Uses x2
Level: 50
Stats: 49 HP, 19 Str, 43 Mag, 35 Dex, 30 Spd, 22 Lck, 15 Def, 43 Res, 33 Cha
Combat Arts: Draw Back (Movement), Hexblade (Sword), Grounder (Sword)
Abilities: Black Magic Range +1, Black Tomefaire, Reason Lv 5, Fiendish Blow, White Tomefaire
Battalion: Ordelia Sorcery Co. (Mag Atk +8, Hit +20, Rsl +6, Cha +7) - Gambit: Resonant Lightning
Black Magic: Thunder, Thoron, Sagittae, Meteor, Agnea’s Arrow
White Magic: Heal, Nosferatu, Physic
Skill Levels: Sword C+, Reason S+, Faith S+, Authority A+
Classes: Commoner*, Monk*, Mage*, Priest*, Warlock*, Bishop, Mortal Savant, Gremory*
Main accessories: Magic Staff, Accuracy Ring, Hexlock Shield, Silver Shield

Although I recruited all possible characters from the other houses, Dorothea was the only one I actually used. This decision was based on my previous 2 runs in different story paths, where I discovered how effective she could be. Her black magic was the main draw; my first priority was to exclusively train her Reason skill (mostly via Goals/Instructing) until she reached A rank for Meteor. I generally equipped this tome at the start of each Player Phase to set up 10/11-range linked attacks for increased Hit - this was especially useful for inaccurate characters like Dedue, and also for Gambit Boosts. As I was mainly using Meteor for linked attack bonuses, I usually conserved at least one use throughout most of each mission. Meteor can also take out troublesome enemies from a long distance, especially when boosted by a Magic Staff and Ingrid’s Rally Magic. Although Ashe and Annette could also serve that role, their ability to reach their target would sometimes be limited by terrain, such as impassable spaces.
    Dorothea also gains Agnea’s Arrow at A+ in Reason, which has up to 4 uses and an impressive 16 Mt. But even before all that, she learns Thoron early on, which helps a lot with its 1-3 range. This increased to 1-4 when she learned Black Magic Range +1, so I had plenty of long-range attack options among my units. While Dorothea’s main strength is her black magic, she also has the very useful healing spell Physic. She also provides healing with her personal Songstress ability, but this is mainly useful in the early game when you have very limited healing uses, so it didn’t matter as much by the time I recruited her.

~ Manuela - Infirmary Master
Crest: None
Class: Bishop - White Magic Uses x2, White Magic Heal +10, Terrain Resistance
Level: 33
Stats: 50 HP (HP +5), 18 Str, 25 Mag, 19 Dex, 31 Spd, 19 Lck, 18 Def, 24 Res, 26 Cha
Combat Arts: Hexblade (Sword)
Abilities: HP +5, Faith Lv 5, White Magic Range +1, Rally Charm, Sword Prowess Lv 4
Battalion: Kingdom Armoured Co. (Phys Atk +3, Mag Atk -2, Hit +5, Avo -10, Prt +5, Cha +3) - Gambit: Impregnable Wall
White Magic: Heal, Nosferatu, Ward, Silence, Warp
Skill Levels: Sword A, Faith S, Authority C
Classes: Commoner*, Priest*, Bishop*
Main accessories: Silver Shield

Manuela was an afterthought assist-focused unit who was mostly just deployed when there were 12 deployment slots, as long as that didn’t include forced deployments of units I wasn’t using (e.g. in Paralogues, but I can’t remember if any of those allowed 12 units). However, I also deployed her in quite a few auxiliary/quest battles to give her some grinding with healing and support magic. Apart from those deployments for grinding, she was used in the final three story missions. Her low level didn’t matter much as she avoided combat, but her Mag stat was still relevant for things like Warp range. Her support magic was the reason I used her: mainly for 2 Warps per mission and the occasional Silence, typically on Meteor/Bolting users. I never really needed Ward. Her personal ability (Infirmary Master) provided some insurance against the very long-ranged attacks in the final mission, e.g. it reduced the listed Crit from 11 to 1 on Dorothea. I also gave Manuela battalions with support Gambits, such as Impregnable Wall or Stride. With all my other units’ battalion choices I prioritised stat boosts over Gambit types, which left Manuela as one of my only choices for support Gambits.

————— ix. Allocation of Permanent Stat Boosters —————

This is about how I distributed the permanent stat-boosting items, including the Greenhouse items which are half as effective as the limited items from chests, mission rewards, etc. Unfortunately I didn’t take note of who received the items, so this is just a general idea. I chose not to use any of the special stat-boosters that appear in Byleth’s room as part of the DLC, as I generally avoid using any gameplay-advantage DLC in FE games.

HP - Byleth to support her general versatility and Nosferatu tanking, Dedue to help him against magic attacks, possibly Sylvain and/or Dimitri as they were among my sturdier units. The frail units had little chance of surviving late-game enemy attacks even with HP boosts, so I don’t recall using any on characters such as Ashe and Annette.

Str - Sylvain to get the most value out of gauntlets’ extra hits and his frequent crits. Ashe because he struggled with Str and needed better AS for double attacks, and it also enhanced the power of his frequent crits. Felix may have also received some, since fast units can double attack to get more total value from having extra damage per hit.

Mag - Mostly Byleth, as her Mag was lower than my purely magic-focused units (Mercedes, Annette, Flayn, Dorothea) since she also focuses on Str. Annette would’ve been the second choice - although she was typically too slow to double attack for the most extra damage, her one-hit attacks often dealt just enough damage to kill full-HP enemies. Therefore I wanted to maintain her one-hit kill threshold. There was also less reason to boost Mag with my other magic users, as they were generally dealing overkill damage with double attacks, especially those who became overlevelled from heal-grinding. The overkill damage was also because double attacks with magic can easily kill non-magic enemy classes due to their lower Res. Although some of my other magic users could’ve gained extra range on support magic such as Rescue, it wouldn’t be worth it since their Mag stats ended up much higher than necessary for support purposes.

Dex - Sylvain because he had some accuracy issues in the early game, and I needed him to land his multiple gauntlet hits for his role as a Player Phase nuke. This also helped him become a crit machine like Ashe. Ashe received some boosts despite having plenty of Dex already, as I wanted him to have very high Crit so I could actually rely on crits for kills. Whereas Sylvain often didn’t even need crits to kill, Ashe often relied on them. The accuracy boost also helped Ashe’s long-range attacks, especially as a Bow Knight attacking from at least 4-range. As such, it wasn’t overkill to boost his high Dex even further. Dedue was the other choice for some boosts, due to his accuracy issues.

Spd - Still the most important stat in many situations, so you don’t want to waste any Spd boosts. Byleth was a high priority, to improve her killing potential and Nosferatu tanking. Sylvain was also worthwhile so he could get 4 hits with gauntlets, but eventually his crit rate was high enough to usually kill within the first 2 hits before any counterattacks. Felix was generally fast enough to Steal with the help of Rally Speed and/or Special Dance, but he received some boosts as he was one of my faster combat-focused units, thus making it worthwhile to maintain his capacity for dealing and preventing double attacks. It also allowed him to justify equipping the Aegis Shield in more situations. I also gave Ashe a few Spd boosts because his non-crit damage was insufficient without double attacks.
    As the game progresses, there are more enemies with ridiculously high AS, such as Assassins, War Masters, Grapplers, Falcon Knights and Pegasus Knights. On Player Phase I could avoid the threat of their double attacks by weakening them from range first, then finishing them. On Enemy Phase I could prevent doubles with Quick Riposte, or by finishing off weakened enemies before their follow-up attack, if I could hit them despite their high Avoid. As for dealing double attacks against super-fast enemies, the Quick Riposte skill also took care of that, while on Player Phase I could use Brave weapons. However, I didn’t use them much because I had Sylvain with gauntlets; he specialised in taking out the very fast enemies. As he mainly used Training Gauntlets which have 100 Hit, their high Avoid wasn’t much of an issue.

Lck - Although many enemies have significant crit rates on Maddening, the crit-reducing effect of Lck isn’t as important in this game since you’ll have plenty of Divine Pulses by the time those high-crit enemies become more common. There’s also the Ochain Shield and Rafail Gem which both negate crits. Reducing crits is most relevant for units that take the most hits, namely tanks such as Dedue - his Lck would’ve been very low without the significant boosts I gave him. Byleth also received some boosts for safer Nosferatu tanking, so she could rely less on the AS-reducing Ochain Shield. In general, I figured that it’s better to make a low crit chance closer to 0% rather than reducing a high crit chance, as it wouldn’t make sense to gamble with significant crit rates. Therefore I tended to increase high Lck stats even further.

Def - Dedue made the best use of this stat, more so than HP because he often tanked several enemies per Enemy Phase, and before he had Quick Riposte he was getting doubled by virtually everything. It was also helpful to reduce crit damage as much as possible, due to the aforementioned high-crit enemies. For these reasons, Def boosts were better than HP boosts for reducing the total damage taken in proportion to total HP. I think I also gave some boosts to Sylvain and possibly Dimitri, as they were among my sturdier units. Although Byleth’s Def really fell behind as the game progressed, I decided that it was too low to salvage with boosts, and it only prevented her from Nosferatu-tanking some types of enemies.

Res - I had plenty of magic users with unnecessarily high Res (i.e. taking 0 damage), so I gave most Res boosts to Byleth to help her transition into the role of being another magic-based unit. This also made her effective as a mage counter, as she had the Str to use physical weapons against them. I may have also given some boosts to Annette, as she couldn’t take too many of the powerful magic attacks in the late game. My non-magic units either had Res too low to salvage, or in Ingrid’s case she didn’t need defensive stats because she was dodging everything.

Cha - I eventually realised that Ingrid was a good choice for Cha boosts to improve her chances of avoiding enemy Gambits, which were the only type of attack that had much chance of hitting her. Apart from that I favoured units who were using offensive Gambits that have 2 uses per mission, such as Assault Troop. I think Sylvain may have received a few. Byleth certainly didn’t need any, as it would’ve been overkill.

Mv (Movement +1) - I ignored the DLC items in Byleth’s room, so I was limited to the one 'Shoes of the Wind' item, from the Paralogue that requires Ashe and Catherine. I used it on Byleth, as she was a highly versatile unit and it helped with getting her adjacent to allies (along with the March Ring), so they could benefit from her exp-boosting ability. Without the boost she would’ve had lower base movement than most of my other Master Class units, due to her Gremory class. If I hadn’t chosen Byleth, a unit with Canto would’ve been another good choice, to enhance their hit-and-run capabilities.

————— The End —————

If anyone managed to read my whole report, thank you for taking the time! I’ll appreciate it if people read any parts of it though.

Edited by DrDimentio
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Thanks for the report!  I'm always interested in seeing other people's strategies and how they turn out.

How did Chapter 13 go for you?  I know that's widely considered the toughest point of the game after the early game is over (and maybe even tougher than the early game, especially if you go in with an inoptimal setup and no backup save file).

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6 hours ago, DrDimentio said:

The downhill difficulty curve was also due to the very generous amount of Divine Pulses: you can eventually have 10

Actually, you can get 13. Three of those come from Sothis's paralogue, which also has a Knowledge Gem.

Edited by Shadow Mir
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. . .things are easier if you grind.  That's why the difficulty curve felt like it fell off.

Anyway, I'm mostly impressed by the formatting.  For the run itself, I think you should re-attempt this without grinding.

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Congrats on the win! Yeah, since Maddening encourages metagaming so much, I did my own research for grinding possibilities as well and it gets to be pretty ridiculous. Even the light grinding I ended up doing (particularly in Seteth/flayns paralogue with three bishops that restore 50% health each turn) ended up gaining me more skill ranks than I needed. In pre-time skip, I made a fun minigame out of recruiting all the students - just to see how possible it was without NG+ bonuses and keep monastery sessions interesting. But the paralogues they granted me just made me even more powerful with exp and good items. Fishing also helped set me up with more money than I'll ever need - mostly spent on black sand steel for killer+ weapons. Now that I'm in post-time skip, it's become quite the slog. I want to just skip the monastery busy work, and the rational part of my brain is telling me I don't need that extra grinding anymore, but the skinnerboxed part of the brain just goes through with it all just to see more numbers go up. 

3 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Actually, you can get 13. Three of those come from Sothis's paralogue, which also has a Knowledge Gem.

Y'know that you mention it, I have 10 as well in my playthrough. You start with 3, get 4 from statues, and 3 from Sothis. Where'd the other 3 come from? As far as I remember from previous playthroughs, it was chapter 10 where spoiler happens to Byleth and the second phase of the map begins. Maybe it's a maddening mode difference?

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5 hours ago, ajmiam said:

How did Chapter 13 go for you?  I know that's widely considered the toughest point of the game after the early game is over (and maybe even tougher than the early game, especially if you go in with an inoptimal setup and no backup save file).

I actually don't recall any troubles in Ch13 at all - what's the main issue with this chapter? For me the toughest was probably Ferdinand + Lysithea's Paralogue, as it was a huge map with constant reinforcements. Also had some slight difficulties going for the Death Knight kill on his first encounter, mostly due to RNG.

 

1 hour ago, Glennstavos said:

Congrats on the win! Yeah, since Maddening encourages metagaming so much, I did my own research for grinding possibilities as well and it gets to be pretty ridiculous. Even the light grinding I ended up doing (particularly in Seteth/flayns paralogue with three bishops that restore 50% health each turn) ended up gaining me more skill ranks than I needed. In pre-time skip, I made a fun minigame out of recruiting all the students - just to see how possible it was without NG+ bonuses and keep monastery sessions interesting. But the paralogues they granted me just made me even more powerful with exp and good items. Fishing also helped set me up with more money than I'll ever need - mostly spent on black sand steel for killer+ weapons. Now that I'm in post-time skip, it's become quite the slog. I want to just skip the monastery busy work, and the rational part of my brain is telling me I don't need that extra grinding anymore, but the skinnerboxed part of the brain just goes through with it all just to see more numbers go up. 

Y'know that you mention it, I have 10 as well in my playthrough. You start with 3, get 4 from statues, and 3 from Sothis. Where'd the other 3 come from? As far as I remember from previous playthroughs, it was chapter 10 where spoiler happens to Byleth and the second phase of the map begins. Maybe it's a maddening mode difference?

Yeah, I had the same psychological conflict with mid- to late-game Monastery grinding, as I also knew it was unnecessary to optimise everything when I already had such powerful units. As for the Divine Pulses, I'm now seeing conflicting messages - I had 10 despite completing Sothis' Paralogue, which is where I got the first Knowledge Gem for grinding.
 

 

4 hours ago, Shoblongoo said:

I've never tried dancer Ingrid and that actually sounds hilarious. 

Yeah, it actually was quite amusing to watch her go from a struggling unit to an invincible one that could take on entire armies.

 

4 hours ago, eclipse said:

. . .things are easier if you grind.  That's why the difficulty curve felt like it fell off.

Anyway, I'm mostly impressed by the formatting.  For the run itself, I think you should re-attempt this without grinding.

I know, but that was just one factor among the many others I mentioned - that's why I specified that I mainly did the excessive grinding to test the game's limits with grinding potential. I had no intention of impressing random people online with the run itself, but I hoped it would at least be interesting and helpful to some. It's also why I mentioned that much of the grinding didn't actually affect the difficulty, especially with all my unused abilities which I learned "just in case". The experience grinding only had a major impact with the main healers + Ingrid, and it's not like their higher levels were the difference between completing the run or struggling. Overall, my point is that I'm not a bad player who actually needed to grind so much to win! Right now I'm too exhausted to play Maddening again, so I don't think it would prove or achieve much to re-attempt it - it would also be hard to draw the line between what counts as grinding or non-grinding gameplay, as I'm sure people all have different views on that.

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6 minutes ago, DrDimentio said:

I actually don't recall any troubles in Ch13 at all - what's the main issue with this chapter?

The fact that you're initially stuck with Byleth and Seteth/Dimitri/Claude depending on route. The other students from your chosen house come in later (which is the other problem - you're stuck with the students from your original house, which can really suck if you neglected or dropped some of them, which is a real possibility as not all of the units in a house are worth using; this is especially true of the Golden Deer).

Edited by Shadow Mir
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In that case, I guess it really helped that I used all the units originally from my house. As a personal playstyle preference I always use all of them no matter which house, so I try to find ways to make all of them effective - I think Ashe took the most work in this run. In Ch13 I didn't have much trouble reuniting my separated units despite their starting positions. Unfortunately I can't remember many specifics of how I played at the start, as it was quite a while ago. I do recall resetting/Pulsing once or twice to avoid a Poison Strike archer hit.

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G'day mate!  I also just finished a Blue Lions maddening w/o NG+.  I had a similar build to yours, but some notable differences.  Here it is: Felix (War Master), Ashe (Wyvern Lord), Sylvain (Great Knight), Ingrid (Holy Knight), Petra (Falcon Knight), Ferdinand (Dancer), Catherine (Mortal Savant), Setheth (Swordmaster), and Cyril (Bow Knight).  My Dimitri and Mercedes were the same as yours, for the most part.  I found it interesting that your team was highly magical... because mine is highly physical!  Thanks for the post!

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Ah, those are some very different class choices than mine - out of those I've only used Dancer Ferdinand (in the Crimson Flower path), as I recognised his Avoid-stacking potential back then. It was annoying that he kept gaining HP on level-ups, which cancelled his ability. My team was still physical in the majority, but I've always favoured magic units in FE games due to the lower Res of most enemies. The relative frailty of most magic users was less of an issue in this game, partly because of all the range-increasing options!

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3 hours ago, DrDimentio said:

I know, but that was just one factor among the many others I mentioned - that's why I specified that I mainly did the excessive grinding to test the game's limits with grinding potential. I had no intention of impressing random people online with the run itself, but I hoped it would at least be interesting and helpful to some. It's also why I mentioned that much of the grinding didn't actually affect the difficulty, especially with all my unused abilities which I learned "just in case". The experience grinding only had a major impact with the main healers + Ingrid, and it's not like their higher levels were the difference between completing the run or struggling. Overall, my point is that I'm not a bad player who actually needed to grind so much to win! Right now I'm too exhausted to play Maddening again, so I don't think it would prove or achieve much to re-attempt it - it would also be hard to draw the line between what counts as grinding or non-grinding gameplay, as I'm sure people all have different views on that.

Thing about Maddening is the general dearth of experience.  By grinding, you're getting around that limitation.  I don't think the effects of what you've done would be apparent unless you did a no-grind run (stuff like levels and available classes and whatnot).  But, Maddening is pretty exhausting, so I can understand why you wouldn't want to do that again.  Perhaps if you ever decide to pick it up again, you can revisit this write-up, and compare how the two runs went.

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If I were to redo this run with the difference of no excessive grinding, I'd have the advantage of knowing which classes and skills actually ended up being useful - therefore I'd be able to focus purely on unlocking the useful ones, so I'd get them sooner than in this run. As such, I don't think that particular change would make things much harder. While Ingrid would start out as a less reliable dodge-tank, she could take some hits anyway - not to mention the abundant Pulses for insurance. Also, most of my characters' levels stayed well below enemy levels due to the harsh experience scaling. I'd just have to play more carefully like I've done in FE games without rewind mechanics, and I'd probably use more of my old turtling tactics. Thus, by playing the way I did in previous games, I'm sure I'd have no major issues completing a no-grind Maddening run.

I really wish the game had a cap on skill and class experience per unit for each mission, like it does with Dancer level-experience. Without such caps I struggle to resist the temptation to exploit things.

I'm glad you agree that this mode can be exhausting - I attribute that to the Monastery and all the other tedious things I couldn't bear to skip between story missions. That's why I'm now relaxing with my Hard Classic run of Silver Snow. It feels ridiculously easy going back to this difficulty, even with much weaker character builds.

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Really great read! I'm doing Maddening BL too, but with NG+ and DLC, so not nearly as much challenge level.

I'm curious about the "no flying classes" - did you do that to challenge yourself; or, because you saw them as sub-optimal; or, because you just preferred other classes? Fliers are widely regarded as the best classes for most physical units, so beating Maddening with none is quite impressive. 

Also re:Ingrid, the Dancer build is super interesting. Is there a reason, though, that you prioritized learning Flight over Riding? I know you wanted Avoid Stance+, but Movement+1 is good on any unit - and dancers, especially so. Having a Dancer without it seems like missing out.

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Thanks, and good luck with your run - I'm sure you'll have no trouble.

One reason is that I originally expected to have Ingrid as a flier, until I remembered about needing a Dancer. I also planned my 3 cavalry classes in advance, and out of those, Annette and Ashe both had very long-ranged attacks for the same hit-and-run Canto tactics that fliers are good for. Their attack range was such that they were rarely inconvenienced by terrain. Many of my remaining units were magic-based, due to my tendency to favour magic users in any FE game. That left very few character slots for possible fliers, and out of those remaining units I think Sylvain got the most value out of his non-flying class (War Master).

Well, I wanted A+ Flying as soon as possible since I underestimated how overkill her Avoid stat would be - also, since I could safely place her in enemy range in front of my other units, there weren't many situations where I actually would've needed extra Move to reach someone for a Dance. If I really needed to Dance a specific unit, I had some of the movement arts such as Draw Back and Reposition. However, I agree that Move+1 on Dancers is very good, so in hindsight I probably should've continued that Riding training.

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I did 2 maddening runs and I did do some of the grind maps but didn't do the crazy exploits like rusted weapon farming or methods that took up numerous turns to level something. I stuck to methods that didn't require to do a map like fishing for professor EXP on certain days. There's also dumb mechanics like cooking every week for month long stat boosts. You can have +2-4 speed every story level this way. 

Those battle quests are really easy skill EXP as skill EXP doesn't scale off the enemy. So you equip a knowledge gem or two on someone and their adjutant and they would gain over 70 class EXP. This made it really easy to to wait on those battle questions then learn death blow on a bunch of different units in a single map in only a couple turns wasted. 

 

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Thanks for sharing your Maddening experience - I'd be curious to know whether there were any skills/classes you struggled to unlock within a reasonable time? Also, I can't believe I never realised you could stack multiple cooking boosts per month! And yeah, your point about the non-scaling makes me think that the developers should have considered scaling skill and class experience, not just level experience.

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