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Choosing preferred gender for Byleth on Maddening mode


Barren
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Choosing preferred gender for Byleth on Maddening mode  

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  1. 1. Which Byleth do you prefer to use for your maddening run?

    • Male Byleth
      19
    • Female Byleth
      30


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4 hours ago, Mylady said:

Female Byleth is more optimal and gets you free Sylvain. 

And on the one route where she doesn't do so (Blue Lions), being female still synergizes with Sylvain's personal ability.

That said, there's a similar argument for a male Professor on Golden Deer. Namely, he synergizes with both Hilda's and Leonie's personal abilities. So that's the one route where it seems more like a wash.

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I'd say female Byleth is preferable in the early game and male Byleth in the mid-late game. Byleth has a great strength base and a decent base speed combined with good, but not overwhelming, growths in both. That makes them into a good frontline unit early on, probably your best physical combatant outside of lords and Tempest Lance users (Byleth can also get Tempest Lance, after a bit). Female Byleth's main advantage is early flight with Pegasus Knight, which boosts her base speed and growth and eventually gets her Darting Blow. This also makes it easier for her to get into flying classes for the remainder of the game. It's worth noting that the early-game of NG Maddening is usually the hardest part since you have yet to unlock your best builds, so female Byleth's early game contribution is highly appreciated.

Around the time-skip though, Byleth themself begins to suffer from a lack of a strong combat art. Enemy speed inflates on Maddening, so doubling becomes less reliable, even with Darting Blow, and I find that Byleth's strength just doesn't yield one-hit KOs. This is true for nearly every character, but some other characters can rely on combat arts like Swift Strikes, Point-Blank Volley, Vengeance, etc. to shore up their damage output. This is around when I think male Byleth gains an advantage in combat with access to Grappler and Fierce Iron Fist. Both Byleths could instead go into Sniper for Hunter's Volley, but they have no proclivity for bows and Grappler does offer more mobility for less range (Byleth still retains sword access for range with SotC or Levin Sword).

Honestly though, both Byleths are good. Even if her damage output eventually gets outshone by other units with better combat arts, a flier female Byleth should, at worst, make a great Alert Stance dodgetank, particular since her high Charm allows for dodging gambits as well. Byleth usually ends up with the highest charm in my army by a good margin because the birthday tea parties easily net them +2 charm per month. And, with that earlier Pegasus Knight, Alert Stance just comes that much faster. Also, Falcon Knight access is determined in part by swords, so female Byleth has that as a lower investment Master Class option for continued flight.

Finally, as mentioned elsewhere, free Sylvain is nice. Not only is Sylvain a potential Swift Striker, he also allows you to get Lance of Ruin early for free, which is very strong, albeit inaccurate. An earlier investment in flight also makes it easier to recruit Ingrid out of house, who is a great recruit starting at Chapter 6 thanks to the enemy Pegasus Knight growths applied retroactively.

Edited by FashionEmblem
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On 5/26/2021 at 1:58 PM, FashionEmblem said:

An earlier investment in flight also makes it easier to recruit Ingrid out of house, who is a great recruit starting at Chapter 6 thanks to the enemy Pegasus Knight growths applied retroactively.

Not to mention that if you get Ingrid by chapter 6, her speed stat would be at 19 whereas if she was recruited in chapter 5 as a soldier her speed would be at 13. That is a pretty major difference. Plus neither Seteth or Manuela are available for chapter 6 due to plot so it’s generally better to get flying at D rank by the end of chapter 5 on a non blue lions run.

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On 5/26/2021 at 1:58 PM, FashionEmblem said:

Finally, as mentioned elsewhere, free Sylvain is nice. Not only is Sylvain a potential Swift Striker, he also allows you to get Lance of Ruin early for free, which is very strong, albeit inaccurate. An earlier investment in flight also makes it easier to recruit Ingrid out of house, who is a great recruit starting at Chapter 6 thanks to the enemy Pegasus Knight growths applied retroactively.

The female professor doesn't really have an advantage in getting to D Flight (which is all it takes to recruit Ingrid), though. Like, conceivably, she could certify in Pegasus Knight with C Lances and E+ Flight, and boost her rank with the class. But that's more effort (and activity points) than getting her to D+ Lances, and D Flight, for the same odds. Either version of the Professor can get to D Flight through Faculty Training with equal ease, so I don't see this as a male/female distinction.

 

2 hours ago, Barren said:

Not to mention that if you get Ingrid by chapter 6, her speed stat would be at 19 whereas if she was recruited in chapter 5 as a soldier her speed would be at 13. That is a pretty major difference. Plus neither Seteth or Manuela are available for chapter 6 due to plot so it’s generally better to get flying at D rank by the end of chapter 5 on a non blue lions run.

Is Flying mobility that big of advantage in chapter 6, though? It's an indoor map, with no traversable high-cost terrain, and a decent number of archers threatening you. I see certain advantages to waiting until chapter 7 - Ingrid gets 2 more free levels (with enemy Pegasus Knight growths), this is when her paralogue (and paralogues in general) become available, and she can be removed as a potential threat from Gronder Field.

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45 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Is Flying mobility that big of advantage in chapter 6, though? It's an indoor map, with no traversable high-cost terrain, and a decent number of archers threatening you. I see certain advantages to waiting until chapter 7 - Ingrid gets 2 more free levels (with enemy Pegasus Knight growths), this is when her paralogue (and paralogues in general) become available, and she can be removed as a potential threat from Gronder Field.

I'd say it's less that flight is particularly good (though there is a gap you can fly through in the eastern corridors) and more that high mobility is very useful there, especially since you're on a timer. Of course, you only have one flying battalion in chapter 6, which is a bit limiting.

Having said that, I would generally suggest chapter 6 over 7 for recruiting just about anyone (if given the choice) - chapter 6 is a map where you typically gain a deployment slot (due to no lord), and it's also a relatively long map, and one after activating Class Exp+2, so it could easily means 30-40 class exp which is huge since we're now at the point of the game where we're working towards Death Blow, Darting Blow, etc.

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13 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:
On 5/26/2021 at 1:58 PM, FashionEmblem said:

Finally, as mentioned elsewhere, free Sylvain is nice. Not only is Sylvain a potential Swift Striker, he also allows you to get Lance of Ruin early for free, which is very strong, albeit inaccurate. An earlier investment in flight also makes it easier to recruit Ingrid out of house, who is a great recruit starting at Chapter 6 thanks to the enemy Pegasus Knight growths applied retroactively.

The female professor doesn't really have an advantage in getting to D Flight (which is all it takes to recruit Ingrid), though. Like, conceivably, she could certify in Pegasus Knight with C Lances and E+ Flight, and boost her rank with the class. But that's more effort (and activity points) than getting her to D+ Lances, and D Flight, for the same odds. Either version of the Professor can get to D Flight through Faculty Training with equal ease, so I don't see this as a male/female distinction.

It's not that male Byleth has a disadvantage getting his flight up, it's that he's less likely to prioritize it. You're usually aiming for 1-2 out of 3 skills in intermediate tier: Death Blow (Fiendish for mages), Hit +20, and Darting Blow. You're probably only going to master 1-2 of these in a single playthrough without significantly delaying an advanced class promotion. Male Byleth lacks access to Pegasus Knight, so you may just be focusing on training axes and bows in the early game. Moreover, if you never plan to make Byleth a flier, you might just not train flying. This logic also applies to female Byleth, but if you're deliberately using her for gameplay and not aesthetic purposes then early Pegasus, and thus early flight rank, probably factored into your choice.

Chapter 6 is a great time for recruitment in general since units get those intermediate promotions and retroactive growths. If you wait too long after, you'll feel the pain of missed instruction time and harder time getting great intermediate skills. For example, Ingrid would want you to work on her axes pretty quickly to get Brigand's Death Blow and access to Wyvern Rider promotion (she really wants a certification at level 20 just in case her strength falls below the advanced-tier base stat). Only major exceptions that come to mind are Shamir/Catherine whom you want to recruit ASAP due to advanced classes (I think that's Chapter 4 for Catherine, but still 6 for Shamir) and units who have higher weapon ranks by joining as Monks or Fighters between Chapters 3 and 5 (e.g., out of house Bernadetta can join with D axes as a Fighter, easing the path to Death Blow), and Cyril because he always joins with bad Commoner class growths.

Edited by FashionEmblem
Expanded a bit on value of early Ingrid
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19 hours ago, FashionEmblem said:

Chapter 6 is a great time for recruitment in general since units get those intermediate promotions and retroactive growths. If you wait too long after, you'll feel the pain of missed instruction time and harder time getting great intermediate skills. For example, Ingrid would want you to work on her axes pretty quickly to get Brigand's Death Blow and access to Wyvern Rider promotion (she really wants a certification at level 20 just in case her strength falls below the advanced-tier base stat). Only major exceptions that come to mind are Shamir/Catherine whom you want to recruit ASAP due to advanced classes (I think that's Chapter 4 for Catherine, but still 6 for Shamir) and units who have higher weapon ranks by joining as Monks or Fighters between Chapters 3 and 5 (e.g., out of house Bernadetta can join with D axes as a Fighter, easing the path to Death Blow), and Cyril because he always joins with bad Commoner class growths.

That was why I brought up the Ingrid example like you did as well because on how the game auto levels these characters based on their class paths. This also saves you money in a way since buying intermediate seals can be expensive in the beginning. The speed stat difference is quite big since pegasus knights are already one of the faster classes around. Even if you plan on making Ingrid something else other than a flier, you’ll still benefit from recruiting her mid way through. 
 

Recruiting Bernadetta early like you brought is another fine example because of the head start on axes like you brought up. Balthus, Constance, Hapi, Caspar, Ignatz, Raphael, Dorothea, Lysithea and Marianne are all worth recruiting early because they also get a D rank in something they are neutral with or if it’s their bane. In Dorothea’s case, anytime between chapters 3 - 5 she’ll have her faith prowess at rank D despite it being her weakness, so she’ll have heal and you’ll have a head start on leveling up her faith rank unlocking her budding talent, which means you’ll get Physic pretty quickly.

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  • 1 month later...

Personally speaking, I've only made it to Chapter 3 in Maddening with Golden Deer, but later gave up.  Haven't decided if I should try them again or go with a different house, nor have I decided which Byleth to choose if I decide later to give Maddening another shot.  Mainly wanted to say that it's still bullshit how Female Byleth gets a free out of house recruit if not playing Blue Lions, while Male Byleth gets no one regardless of house chosen (ignoring the Wolves, Anna, and a certain someone else since they're DLC, and all of them are available for both).

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