How possible is a Gordin only run on FE1/3?

[BergelomeuSantos]

Ever since my third Fire Emblem (Shadow Dragon), Gordin has been one of my favorites units to mess around (mainly because I find his name funny), with Cavalier Gordin being a staple of mine on every FE11/12 run.

However, I now decided to take things to a next level. I want to beat every game he's in using only him. I can manage my way with FE11/12/13/14/16 (MU will be Gordin) (for FE12, MU will also be Gordin but only for the chapters he's not in), but I hardly know anything about FE1/3 (and yes, I'll play them before doing the joke run). 

So..yeah, that's it. I just want information on how possible will it be.

[Gordin]

So long as you rng abuse, it probably is very possible.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

For fun I was doing a marth solo run of FE1. I did not finish (got bored), but the chapters I did finish were exceptionally easy past chapter 1. No save states necessary. But there's some real obstacles to doing a solo run with a ranged attacker like Gordin in any fire emblem game. Once four enemies surround him, it's a functional game over. And archanea map design is enemies clumped up in groups of 6+. You just can't kill them fast enough before the softlock, and you have no dancer to allow for more than one kill a turn. I guess you can allow yourself the use of Cheney (Xane) since he at least takes on the appearance of Gordin when he morphs, but he's not in the game until chapter 16. Instead I might suggest an archers only run of the game, since that sounds theoretically possible.

Another FE1-specific barrier to solo runs is the infinite spawning reinforcements on some chapters. If you're not quick, or warp skipping, it will just be physically impossible for Marth to walk to the throne in time and finish the chapter. Furthermore, this is one of those games where enemies will walk in range to surround you, but not attack you if they can't do at least 1 point of damage. At least that's what I think I remember, so I'd avoid defense boosters early on in order to keep enemies suiciding on you on enemy phase. Not that that would be a common occurence if you're playing with only 2 range attackers, but it really helped keep the marth solo from being a slog of just killing one enemy a turn while body blocked.

Edited May 22, 2020 by Glennstavos

[BergelomeuSantos]

36 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

For fun I was doing a marth solo run of FE1. I did not finish (got bored), but the chapters I did finish were exceptionally easy past chapter 1. No save states necessary. But there's some real obstacles to doing a solo run with a ranged attacker like Gordin in any fire emblem game. Once four enemies surround him, it's a functional game over. And archanea map design is enemies clumped up in groups of 6+. You just can't kill them fast enough before the softlock, and you have no dancer to allow for more than one kill a turn. I guess you can allow yourself the use of Cheney (Xane) since he at least takes on the appearance of Gordin when he morphs, but he's not in the game until chapter 16. Instead I might suggest an archers only run of the game, since that sounds theoretically possible.

Another FE1-specific barrier to solo runs is the infinite spawning reinforcements on some chapters. If you're not quick, or warp skipping, it will just be physically impossible for Marth to walk to the throne in time and finish the chapter. Furthermore, this is one of those games where enemies will walk in range to surround you, but not attack you if they can't do at least 1 point of damage. At least that's what I think I remember, so I'd avoid defense boosters early on in order to keep enemies suiciding on you on enemy phase. Not that that would be a common occurence if you're playing with only 2 range attackers, but it really helped keep the marth solo from being a slog of just killing one enemy a turn while body blocked.

Welp, that sucks. Especially the ''body blocked'' and ''infinite reinforcements'' part.

Archer only seems fine until you realise there's only 3 archers in the game (Gordin, Tomas and Jeorge) and they don't join early. Sure, Hunters are a thing, but I'm not using them because....yes.

Anyway, my solution is: I can use Gordin and Draug until Tomas joins. That's it. After that, I can only use Gordin, Tomas and Xane. Tomas and Xane have the same appearance of Gordin in FE1, so I think it's fair.

This sounds theoretically possible at least. If not doing that, I may just try to beat every chapter with Gordin until Tomas joins.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

1 minute ago, BergelomeuSantos said:

Archer only seems fine until you realise there's only 3 archers in the game (Gordin, Tomas and Jeorge) and they don't join early. Sure, Hunters are a thing, but I'm not using them because....yes.

Oh I was counting hunters and horsemen as "archers" when suggesting an archer only run. That way you'd have two units by the end of chapter 2, and four by the end of chapter 5. George and tomas bringing you up to a grand total of six playable units, seven with Xane. I am very skeptical you'd make it all the way to Jeorge with just Gordin, due to the body blocking I mentioned earlier. Not unless throwing weaponless units as decoys/sacrifices is allowed for the run. I've never really talked to anybody about the commonly accepted rules of a "solo run", I just ban and allow whatever makes the run possible but still makes it challenging.

[X-Naut]

lol good luck

Serious talk though the run is impossible because Medeus is immune to 2-range attacks. And as other people have said soloing with an archer is pretty much impossible in this game due to the 1-range blind spot.

[BergelomeuSantos]

2 hours ago, X-Naut said:

lol good luck

Serious talk though the run is impossible because Medeus is immune to 2-range attacks. 

...Fuck. I forgot about that.

Eh, who needs to see the ending, right?

And about all the ''you gonna get softlocked really easy''...this is the fun of the challenge. 

[X-Naut]

25 minutes ago, BergelomeuSantos said:

...Fuck. I forgot about that.

Eh, who needs to see the ending, right?

And about all the ''you gonna get softlocked really easy''...this is the fun of the challenge. 

Well, I was only thinking FE1. It is possible for FE3 but it sure won't be easy.

[𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥]

11 hours ago, X-Naut said:

Well, I was only thinking FE1. It is possible for FE3 but it sure won't be easy.

if we're talking FE3, i don't think it's about difficulty. rather, it's just not doable.

Book 1 might be easier to deal with due to linear difficulty scaling, however without buying many keys or using warp staves(especially for the last chapter), dealing with enemy reinforcements and locked doors is going to be a mess.

besides, once you get to the Flame Barrel chapter in Book 2(if you can even manage to get there at all), it's over. you're not going to survive all the flying dragons, Fire dragons and berserkers with Devil axes coming at you at the same time from both front and rear on a narrow bridge with 2~3 tiles at best to move around:

 

see those 3 fortresses down there? that's where you start, and after a while they keep spawning berserkers and fire dragons.

and of course, there's also all that beautiful stuff on your way to the main fortress.

Edited May 23, 2020 by Fenreir

[Whitfield1999]

Yea probably not possible. Lack of one range means no enemy phase and you need someone to draw the draco knights towards you on enemy phase. I just don't know how you could do that with gordin only. 

Actually it's probably even more impossible then I thought because in fe3 book 2 there are those mountains he can't cross cause of his 5 move lol

[BergelomeuSantos]

So the dream is basically over for FE1 and 3, huh?

Well, I guess I'll just have to make some ''changes''...