1st Blue Lions Playthrough: Who to Recruit?

[vanguard333]

So, I started with a Crimson Flower playthrough, now I'm doing a Golden Deer playthrough, and, after that, I'll be doing a Blue Lions playthrough. I don't have any DLC, and I try to recruit at most two students in each playthrough. 

I try to make sure everyone can get a good paired ending if I can, but I mainly have chosen recruits based on either usefulness or what part 2 paralogues they unlocked. In my Crimson Flower playthrough, I recruited Lysithea (for beating the Death Knight), Leonie (for the paralogue with Linhardt), and Ashe because I felt sorry for him after Lonato's death. This meant I accidentally left Hubert without a paired ending. For my Golden Deer playthrough, I recruited Linhardt for Leonie's paralogue, and Ferdinand for Lysithea's paralogue, with no intent to actually use Ferdinand. For this playthrough, the only person without a paired ending is Ferdinand, but I only recruited him for the paralogue, so that doesn't count. 

With planning out my Blue Lions playthrough, however, I've run into a problem: I have to recruit Caspar for Mercedes' playthrough (though I'm more than happy to have him end up alone as I'm only recruiting him because I have to), and the Blue Lions team comes with enough lance-wielders (and therefore knight-kneeler) that I might not even need Lysithea to bring down the Death Knight, nor am I really sure who I would even use the Dark Seals on once I beat him. So, I could go the whole playthrough without recruiting anyone (except Caspar). However, I currently plan to pair Byleth with Ingrid, and Sylvain with Mercedes. This leaves four guys (Dimitri, Dedue, Felix and Ashe) and two girls (Annette and Flayn).

 

Who should I recruit?

Edited March 28, 2020 by vanguard333

[Benice]

You should bring Hilda and Petra! I think that they have paired endings with those guys?

[vanguard333]

1 minute ago, Benice said:

You should bring Hilda and Petra! I think that they have paired endings with those guys?

Well, I do know from my Crimson Flower playthrough that Ashe and Petra have a good paired ending, and she's flexible enough in terms of skills that I don't have to make her an assassin again; freeing up Felix for that role. Thanks for the suggestion. 

Hm... Not sure about Hilda. Possibly...

[NobodiePichu]

dimitri and dedue or dimitri and felix have a paired ending with each other so you can pair off one of them there if you like. marianne also sports a support ending with dimitri thats fairly popular.

as for actual utility though, id say the blue lions have your bases pretty much all covered outside of dark magic. shamir or cathrine aren't bad to have around since they both do their jobs well and id argue shamir is probably the best pure bow user in the game thanks to a more reliable attack growth. maybe leonie? shes reliable as a horse unit and fills a niche a lot of other units dont really do as naturally.

[Crysta]

Leonie was my cross-recruit MVP in my BL run. Also second Petra.

[Alistair]

You actually do need Caspar to unlock Mercedes' part two paralouge, which if cleared unlocks an extra scene after your final fight with DK. Additionally, if you want the Scythe of Sariel you need Caspar to beat him in that paralouge.

 

In terms of other recruits, the one thing I would suggest is to get a Warp user (Lysithea, Lindhardt or Manuela) since the Blue Lions are the only house without native access to it.

[vanguard333]

8 minutes ago, Alistair said:

You actually do need Caspar to unlock Mercedes' part two paralouge, which if cleared unlocks an extra scene after your final fight with DK. Additionally, if you want the Scythe of Sariel you need Caspar to beat him in that paralouge.

Oh, yeah; right. Thanks for the correction.

Drat; that means yet another guy, though I'd be more than fine with Caspar ending up alone; I already saw him get a paired ending with Bernadetta in my Crimson Flower playthrough. 

8 minutes ago, Alistair said:

In terms of other recruits, the one thing I would suggest is to get a Warp user (Lysithea, Lindhardt or Manuela) since the Blue Lions are the only house without native access to it.

Good point...

11 minutes ago, Crysta said:

Leonie was my cross-recruit MVP in my BL run. Also second Petra.

I was considering Leonie; it makes sense story-wise to recruit her, and she'd fit right in. There's just one problem: her B-Support is only available after Jeralt's death, which means I would need to get Byleth to a C-rank in lances if I wanted to recruit her sooner than that.

 

…Ugh, to paraphrase Lysithea, "[This is] quite a challenge". 

Edited March 28, 2020 by vanguard333

[LoneRecon400]

5 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

There's just one problem with recurring Leonie B-Support is only available after Jeralt's death, which means I would need to get Byleth to a C-rank in lances if I wanted to recruit her sooner than that.

You can get her to C+ rank, which lowers the requirement down to D+ Lances.

Normally the game doesn't show + ranks, but you can check it with either by Sharing Meals or Choir. 

[leesangstar10]

You have to recruit Caspar for Mercedes paralouge(and c-support for Annette and Gilbert for their paralogue)

Option A: recruit Catherine and do(more than one combination):

Gilbert+Annette, Dimitri+Felix, Dedue+Flayn, Ashe+Caspar, Catherine+Seteth

Option B: recruit Shamir(only one combination):

Gilbert+Annette, Dimitri+Felix, Dedue+Shamir, Ashe+Caspar, Flayn+Seteth

Option C: recruit anybody else that can A-support Seteth. This includes leonie, Hilda, Bernie, Manuela

Gilbert+Annette, Dimitri+Felix, Dedue+Flayn, Ashe+Caspar, [a-support]+Seteth

Option D: recruit anybody else that can A-support Felix. This includes Leonie, Lysithea, Bernie, Dorothea

Gilbert+Annette, Dimitri+Dedue, Seteth+Flayn, Ashe+Caspar, [a-support]+Felix

There are tons of other combination.

Personally, I recommend Linhardt(he can just pair with Caspar) since he has both physics(having another is nice) and warp. Lysithea is a good choice since you get one more unit that can deal lots of magic dmg(mercedes is going to just heal all the time) and warp. And Catherine cause if you recruit her early she can be broken and make mid game a breeze. Lvl 9 unit with swordmaster bases is insane.

Edited March 28, 2020 by leesangstar10

[EricaofRenais]

I am going to say Marianne since she at least for me has been my best healer every time I recruit her and I tend to pair her with Ferdinand since I find their supports rather nice.

[Darkmoon6789]

I would pretty much always recruit Lysithea as she is the most broken unit in the game. I also pretty much always also recruit Lorenz just to get his relic from his parallel and give it to Lysithea as it makes her range ridiculous, especially in combination with the Valkyrie class

[Stones]

I would recruit Raphael and Marianne, because they have support with Dimitri, which you will only be able to get on BL. He also has supports with Hapi if you end up getting the DLC. I wouldn't actually use Raphael or Marianne, but they need to be there to get their supports. Dedue and Gilbert also support a bunch of faculty members so I would bring them along, especially since they're so easy to recruit.

[vanguard333]

1 hour ago, Stones said:

I would recruit Raphael and Marianne, because they have support with Dimitri, which you will only be able to get on BL. He also has supports with Hapi if you end up getting the DLC. I wouldn't actually use Raphael or Marianne, but they need to be there to get their supports. Dedue and Gilbert also support a bunch of faculty members so I would bring them along, especially since they're so easy to recruit.

• I usually recruit faculty members for faculty training; I don't use them in battle (well, I used Hanneman in my Crimson Flow playthrough, but that was to get 2 units with meteor. He never did get his reason high enough for meteor though... He would've if Crimson Flower had the same number of chapters as every other route though). For my "Who do I recruit?" question, I mean, "Who do I recruit to actually use, or for paired ending". 
• I plan on getting the DLC once I've finished every route. It provides additional incentive to replay the game.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I would for sure recruit Marianne, she has very good supports with Dimitri and makes a good pairing for him.

[LegendOfLoog]

Definitely recruit Marianne. The Dimitri support is great, and Marianne is a fairly versatile unit. She has good Reason and Faith spell lists if you want to go the typical mage route, or you can use Frozen Lance as a Paladin or Falcon Knight for a highly mobile OHKO machine on Player Phase. I prefer the latter because it's more fun, but either option works well, imo. 

[vanguard333]

@Benice @NobodiePichu @Crysta @Alistair @LoneRecon400 @leesangstar10 @EricaofRenais @Darkmoon6789 @Stones @Fire Emblem Fan @LegendOfLoog

Thank you all very much for your suggestions!

Regarding Caspar, I think I've worked out a solution: I'll recruit him, and I'll have him deal the final blow to Mercedes in her paralogue to get the scythe, but I won't use him in my playthrough; I'll just have him as an adjutant with an experience gem to keep him at the level of the units I'm actually using. Then, I'll probably very slightly break my 2 students rule by recruiting 2 female students that I'll actually use, unless... do Dimitri and Catherine have a paired ending?

[darkblade2814]

recruit everybody

[vanguard333]

6 minutes ago, darkblade2814 said:

recruit everybody

No; I'm intentionally limiting myself to 2 students at most for my first playthroughs, both to get the most out of the students in the given house and to experience what's supposed to be one of the most tragic aspects of the game: students vs students. 

[darkblade2814]

35 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

No; I'm intentionally limiting myself to 2 students at most for my first playthroughs, both to get the most out of the students in the given house and to experience what's supposed to be one of the most tragic aspects of the game: students vs students. 

I feel the opposite, to me the spirit of the game is to SAVE as many students as possible in other words, all of them that are not route exclusives

[LegendOfLoog]

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

do Dimitri and Catherine have a paired ending?

Yeah, they have an A-support.

[paladin21]

Recruit Gloucester boy (I never remember his name) to get Thyrsus. He will appear as an enemy regardless.

[vanguard333]

On 3/30/2020 at 4:45 AM, paladin21 said:

Recruit Gloucester boy (I never remember his name) to get Thyrsus. He will appear as an enemy regardless.

I'm probably not going to recruit Lysithea (a bit of extra challenge), so probably not. 

On 3/29/2020 at 7:29 PM, LegendOfLoog said:

Yeah, they have an A-support.

Thanks. Is it any good?

By the way, what did you think of my plan involving Caspar?

[LegendOfLoog]

39 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Thanks. Is it any good?

By the way, what did you think of my plan involving Caspar?

I dunno, it's alright. I liked Marianne x Dimitri better. 

I used Caspar in the same way (leveled him enough to get the Scythe of Sariel and then benched), so it seems like your plan would work out. 

[vanguard333]

25 minutes ago, LegendOfLoog said:

I dunno, it's alright. I liked Marianne x Dimitri better. 

Okay. I'll consider recruiting Marianne. I was considering recruiting her and other devout students like Mercedes in the Church route, but I kind-of want to use the church route to try out characters like the Knights of Seiros, so maybe recruiting her in Blue Lions instead would make more sense. 

 

39 minutes ago, LegendOfLoog said:

I used Caspar in the same way (leveled him enough to get the Scythe of Sariel and then benched), so it seems like your plan would work out. 

Okay. Thanks. 

[Fire Emblem Fan]

9 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Okay. I'll consider recruiting Marianne. I was considering recruiting her and other devout students like Mercedes in the Church route, but I kind-of want to use the church route to try out characters like the Knights of Seiros, so maybe recruiting her in Blue Lions instead would make more sense. 

I would recommend always recruiting Marianne, honestly, because she's the only (or one of the only) students who will *never* reappear after the timeskip if you don't recruit her. It's the only way to see her on every single route (aside from her native Golden Deer one) after timeskip.