difficulty Hardest Lord route for all time. (All difficult)

[drattakbowser]

Black eagles : Hard

Blue Lions : Easy

Golden Deer : Normal

[Dark Holy Elf]

Similar to your other recent thread on the subject: my general feeling for difficulty is SS > AM > CF > VW

I finally completed SS on Maddening and yeah it has a tough final battle! It was a bit less tough once I stopped listening to Seteth's advice about stopping the reinforcements which causes every enemy on the map to aggro at once, but still the strongest monster boss in the game and the added spice of Miracle on a number of enemies is rough for sure. Besides that it was probably gonna be the hardest anyway due to no lord + lower deployment + no OP battalion.

AM's last two maps are rough; in general its lategame makes way more use of siege tomes and artillery (including some with significant crit) than the other routes which are some of the trickier things to deal with, particularly the infamous reinforcement in the final battle. You also get fewer flying battalions.

CF is the most different from the rest, but ends up in the middle for me anyway. The levels ramp up slightly faster than the other routes, but there's no Reunion at Dawn. And having five uses of Raging Storm for each of the endgame fights goes a long way to making those easier than those of SS and AM. You miss out on the critical-nulling accessories which I find useful for the big bosses but there are other solutions.

VW has a relatively easier final battle than the others and Immortal Corps is just ridiculous (even going a long way to make Reunion at Dawn much easier if you haven't done prep for it, 2-use ranged giant AoE gambit is silly).

If it's not obvious, I don't find the earlygame differences significant. The Lions have a slightly stronger Level 1 roster, but the other houses can poach Sylvain with FByleth. And of course, if you're playing with the Wolves recruitable, the roster differences decrease further.

[Gordin]

1 minute ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Similar to your other recent thread on the subject: my general feeling for difficulty is SS > AM > CF > VW

I finally completed SS on Maddening and yeah it has a tough final battle! It was a bit less tough once I stopped listening to Seteth's advice about stopping the reinforcements which causes every enemy on the map to aggro at once, but still the strongest monster boss in the game and the added spice of Miracle on a number of enemies is rough for sure. Besides that it was probably gonna be the hardest anyway due to no lord + lower deployment + no OP battalion.

AM's last two maps are rough; in general its lategame makes way more use of siege tomes and artillery (including some with significant crit) than the other routes which are some of the trickier things to deal with, particularly the infamous reinforcement in the final battle. You also get fewer flying battalions.

CF is the most different from the rest, but ends up in the middle for me anyway. The levels ramp up slightly faster than the other routes, but there's no Reunion at Dawn. And having five uses of Raging Storm for each of the endgame fights goes a long way to making those easier than those of SS and AM. You miss out on the critical-nulling accessories which I find useful for the big bosses but there are other solutions.

VW has a relatively easier final battle than the others and Immortal Corps is just ridiculous (even going a long way to make Reunion at Dawn much easier if you haven't done prep for it, 2-use ranged giant AoE gambit is silly).

If it's not obvious, I don't find the earlygame differences significant. The Lions have a slightly stronger Level 1 roster, but the other houses can poach Sylvain with FByleth. And of course, if you're playing with the Wolves recruitable, the roster differences decrease further.

Pretty much this

[LoneRecon400]

AM just because it has the roughest Hunting by Daylight if you aren't prepared for it due to Dimitri being Footlocked.

But really, most of diffculty is really the same between the routes. I don't agree that the late game of AM is that difficult if you make the most of the tools available in the route. Between Battalion Wrath + Vantage Dimtri, Sacred Shield + Retribution, early Dance of the Goddess and a 2nd on the final map, I'd argue it has the easiest Endgame.

Edited August 16, 2020 by LoneRecon400

[PeaceRibbon]

Crimson Flower, because personally killing six of the Blue Lions causes me emotional trauma.

[drattakbowser]

Never play Crimson Flower and Azure Moon again. I prefer Hero route.