Jump to content

First Time Playing Fates - Suggestions


zoologicwoo
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hi everyone! So for the longest time the only Fire Emblem games I had played were PoR/RD and 3H since I had mostly skipped on the DS era of games. But I played Awakening for the first time last month and found myself enjoying the characters and the children system much more than I thought I would. On one hand the level of customization is tons of fun if honestly overwhelming, but the amount of grinding required for optimization eventually dulled my enjoyment a little bit.

The last couple days I've started playing Fates for the first time, specifically Conquest first since I had read that there are a lot fewer opportunities for grinding combined with interesting gameplay for a good challenge. Have to say, this game is effing hard! I'm on Chapter 9 atm, and I've been doing Hard/Casual -- I've never had to do casual mode before in Fire Emblem, but I'm glad I did because this game is punishing. 

Similarly to Awakening, the level of customization and variability available for my units is overwhelming. For my first time playing Conquest I'm wanting to do a run that has me mainly using the children by the end (with little or no DLC). I did correct a mistake I had made in Awakening though, and researched/planned who to pair for all the children before starting the story. I was hoping for some input on whether these are all good pairs:

Arthur!(M)Kana, (F)Corrin!Percy, Laslow!Shigure, Azura!Soleil, Effie!Dwyer, Mozu!Sophie, Beruka!Midori, Selena!Siegbert, Nyx!Forrest, Elise!Ophelia, Camilla!Nina, Charlotte!Ignatius, and Peri!Velouria 

I'd read that Selena is apparently the worst mother in general, so relegating her to Siegbert mainly has to do with the fact that I don't really like Siegbert's design or plan to use him. Additionally I'm pairing Arthur with the avatar so far mainly out of my general ambivalence towards avatar characters; I hardly ever used Robin or Morgan in Awakening either. 

Otherwise, I really haven't that too much about classes or skill inheritance--so many options to consider. I'm wondering, is it easier to pass down desirable skills in Fates? One of my problems with Awakening is how slow it is to grind parents to Lv 15 in Advanced classes for things like Galeforce; in a lot of cases on my first run in Awakening I ended up passing down subpar skills to the children because I was impatient. 

Another question I have is: in Conquest, is it better to try to get the children as early as possible or wait until a certain time? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, uhmuzing said:

Another question I have is: in Conquest, is it better to try to get the children as early as possible or wait until a certain time? 

Depends on how many enemies do you want to face. The ride gets tougher the longer you put it off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You still have to get to level 15 for certain skills like Axefaire on potentially Percy for example. This game isn't as bad with grinding for skills since your levels don't reset after you Second Seal into a class. Generally you want to get the kids by chapter 19 IIRC, because they will have the ability to be in their advanced classes from their Offspring Seals, and this will save you Master Seals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, uhmuzing said:

I'd read that Selena is apparently the worst mother in general, so relegating her to Siegbert mainly has to do with the fact that I don't really like Siegbert's design or plan to use him.

According to whom?

3 hours ago, uhmuzing said:

Otherwise, I really haven't that too much about classes or skill inheritance--so many options to consider. I'm wondering, is it easier to pass down desirable skills in Fates? One of my problems with Awakening is how slow it is to grind parents to Lv 15 in Advanced classes for things like Galeforce; in a lot of cases on my first run in Awakening I ended up passing down subpar skills to the children because I was impatient. 

Only if the skills in question are not from promoted classes.

3 hours ago, uhmuzing said:

Another question I have is: in Conquest, is it better to try to get the children as early as possible or wait until a certain time? 

Early, especially for Ignatius and Velouria. For context: 

-Ignatius starts very far away from your party, and is guarding a village the enemies need to be kept out of. Getting to him is easy early on, but not so much after enemies promote, at which point it's very likely he'll get killed before you can do anything to prevent it.

-Velouria starts under your control... but she's far behind enemy lines.

Edited by Shadow Mir
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, uhmuzing said:

I was hoping for some input on whether these are all good pairs:

Arthur!(M)Kana, (F)Corrin!Percy, Laslow!Shigure, Azura!Soleil, Effie!Dwyer, Mozu!Sophie, Beruka!Midori, Selena!Siegbert, Nyx!Forrest, Elise!Ophelia, Camilla!Nina, Charlotte!Ignatius, and Peri!Velouria

Is getting all these children a specific goal of your campaign? You will end with double the characters that you can field per map.
Then again, mine may probably not be the best advice, for I prefer smaller parties.

 

4 hours ago, uhmuzing said:

I'm wondering, is it easier to pass down desirable skills in Fates?

Do not worry about late skills, just remember to organise the skill order (in the menu) before recruiting a child, so that they inherit the more useful skill of the ones currently available.
Note that, in some cases, if a parent learns a new skill during the recruitment map, this will be the one handed down.

 

4 hours ago, uhmuzing said:

Another question I have is: in Conquest, is it better to try to get the children as early as possible or wait until a certain time?

I firmly believe that it is better to recruit the children as early as possible; the more you know a unit, the better. For example, Sophie, Nina and Ophelia can all be recruited around Chapter 12, always. As "broken" as any of them could be by late game with careful skill planning, I would rather know them for ten more maps and watch them become powerful.

 

Try to understand your mistakes, so that Casual mode does not become a bad habit.
Some general advices about Conquest here and here, and about Fire Emblem here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, uhmuzing said:

I'd read that Selena is apparently the worst mother in general, so relegating her to Siegbert mainly has to do with the fact that I don't really like Siegbert's design or plan to use him. Additionally I'm pairing Arthur with the avatar so far mainly out of my general ambivalence towards avatar characters; I hardly ever used Robin or Morgan in Awakening either. 

Another question I have is: in Conquest, is it better to try to get the children as early as possible or wait until a certain time? 

DON'T! If only because Siegbert with red hair is a crime against fashion.

As for when to recruit I think it depends on the children in question. Go get Ignatius as quickly as possible because he will be a giant pain otherwise. I like to wait a little bit with most children so their weapon ranks will rise along with them, but recruiting them early has their benefits too.
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank y'all for the replies/advice! It looks like I'll go with trying to recruit the children as early as possible. I beat Chapter 9 recently and managed to Capture then persuade Haitaka over to my team and use my first Heart Seal on Mozu to get her to the archer class, in preparation for Chapter 10, which I hear is one of the hardest maps in the game. 

Team right now is Viona lv 11 (+Str -HP, she's turning out strong but frail so far with 22HP,  17 str, 12 spd, 8 def and 5 res), Jakob lv 12, Silas lv 9, Effie lv 11, Mozu lv 7, Elise lv 10, Odin lv 7, Niles lv 10, Azura lv 3, Nyx lv 10, and Arthur lv 9. So far Effie and Jakob and Silas and Elise are consistently getting great level-ups, the others struggle a lot. Especially Odin, who's borderline useless and will certainly be replaced by Ophelia as soon as he marries Elise (which is disappointing since he's one of my best/favorite units in Awakening as Owain). 

@Shadow Mir Selena being a subpar mother seemed to be a consensus I saw from Googling around, but maybe that's not the case?

@Sasori lol maybe Felicia!Siegbert instead? His design is just so meh to me no matter who his parents are. 

@starburst thanks for the links! And yes, trying to recruit all the children is more of a personal choice than from a gameplay perspective, since apparently the children aren't nearly as broken as they were in Awakening? I might still retain some 1st gen units by the endgame in place of child units whose design is sort of uninteresting to me.

Atm just grinding support before Chapter 10. I have Jakob and Effie at A, so I'm wondering is it possible to recruit Sophie and other child units before starting Chapter 10? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, uhmuzing said:

Atm just grinding support before Chapter 10. I have Jakob and Effie at A, so I'm wondering is it possible to recruit Sophie and other child units before starting Chapter 10? 

Not without Support grinding or a lot of luck with character encounters in your castle.

Do not be afraid of Chapter 10, is trickier than it is difficult. Particularly because it presents itself as a defending map while it should actually be played as a routing one. It will take you a couple of tries, embrace the restarts. 😉

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 6/13/2021 at 2:54 PM, uhmuzing said:

Team right now is Viona lv 11 (+Str -HP, she's turning out strong but frail so far with 22HP,  17 str, 12 spd, 8 def and 5 res), Jakob lv 12, Silas lv 9, Effie lv 11, Mozu lv 7, Elise lv 10, Odin lv 7, Niles lv 10, Azura lv 3, Nyx lv 10, and Arthur lv 9. So far Effie and Jakob and Silas and Elise are consistently getting great level-ups, the others struggle a lot. Especially Odin, who's borderline useless and will certainly be replaced by Ophelia as soon as he marries Elise (which is disappointing since he's one of my best/favorite units in Awakening as Owain). 

You must really be masochistic if you were okay with an HP bane for Corrin... anyway, welcome to Fates, where a good chunk of the parents are of dubious quality, especially the males.

On 6/13/2021 at 2:54 PM, uhmuzing said:

@Shadow Mir Selena being a subpar mother seemed to be a consensus I saw from Googling around, but maybe that's not the case?

I'm not sure myself, really. It depends on who you're talking about.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

You must really be masochistic if you were okay with an HP bane for Corrin... anyway, welcome to Fates, where a good chunk of the parents are of dubious quality, especially the males.

It surprisingly hasn't been a huge issue so far, I even got through the chapter today that only allows Avatar/Azura/Gunter with a mainly minimal use of Gunter and the Avatar still un-promoted. She only has 30HP atm, but that's more than almost all the other units I'm using at this point strangely. 

Update for fun: Enjoying this game so far! Having just finished Ch 16, my core roster at this point includes only Avatar, Azura, Elise, Mozu and Effie as the remaining 1st gen units I'm still using. As far as children, I've unlocked Effie!Dwyer, Avatar!Percy, Elise!Ophelia, Camilla!Nina and Mozu!Sophie. Somewhat surprisingly, Percy really struggles most of the time, even though his skill is perfectly adequate compared to everyone else. He just can't hit anything. Ophelia and Nina are fragile but monsters. Dwyer and Sophie are great mobile tanks. 

I've unlocked the paralogues for Arthur!Kana and Selena!Midori but thinking about letting those wait 'til Chapter 19? Seals seem pretty hard to come by in this game, I've only promoted Effie and Ophelia so far, but several others are around lv. 19 and will likely need Seals purchased after one more chapter. Gold is also kinda tight too though, especially since I discovered the whole thing with buying skills from people's castles. It feels like cheating a little bit, but it's so hard to pass up the chance to inherit things like Aptitude and Trample on everyone. 

With so many characters to juggle and grind support, probably skipping out on Ignatius and Siegbert and maybe Forrest too. Working on unlocking the paralogues for Peri!Velouria and Azura!Soleil/Laslow!Shigure, but it's pretty tricky trying to grind support for Laslow when he's so bad, at least in my experience so far. 

Sophie's paralogue was by far the most annoying part of the game up to now. I tried to do it around Ch 11 and it was just impossible haha. Had to quit and go back to it after I had move fliers/cavaliers. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, uhmuzing said:

Seals seem pretty hard to come by in this game, I've only promoted Effie and Ophelia so far, but several others are around lv. 19 and will likely need Seals purchased after one more chapter.

After Chapter 13, there are up to seven Master Seals at the store, and five more in chests/ drops (10, 13, 16,  17, 18.)
I usually promote all ten units at Level 19, and I am done by Ch 16.

 

21 hours ago, uhmuzing said:

Somewhat surprisingly, Percy really struggles most of the time, even though his skill is perfectly adequate compared to everyone else. He just can't hit anything.

Try deactivating the Gamble skill (+10 Crit/ -10 Hit), which he might have inherited from his father.
Axes demand defter units, and most of his teammates wield more accurate weapons.

 

21 hours ago, uhmuzing said:

[…] buying skills from people's castles. It feels like cheating a little bit, but it's so hard to pass up the chance to inherit things like Aptitude and Trample on everyone.

It is cheating, make no doubt about it.

 

On 6/22/2021 at 3:45 AM, uhmuzing said:

Sophie's paralogue was by far the most annoying part of the game up to now. I tried to do it around Ch 11 and it was just impossible haha. Had to quit and go back to it after I had move fliers/cavaliers.

It is tricky, but not particularly difficult. It can be done around Chapter 11, with eight units, no royals, no horses, no fliers.

The key is to send a pair to block the southern bridge and force the Lemmings to ignore the island and go north. Then send the other six units north then west, to advance and kill the boss by Turn 8 or so (before the reinforcements.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/22/2021 at 1:45 AM, uhmuzing said:

Somewhat surprisingly, Percy really struggles most of the time, even though his skill is perfectly adequate compared to everyone else. He just can't hit anything.

You probably had him inherit Gamble from Arthur - Gamble cuts into hit, and axes are inaccurate.

On 6/22/2021 at 1:45 AM, uhmuzing said:

I've unlocked the paralogues for Arthur!Kana and Selena!Midori but thinking about letting those wait 'til Chapter 19? Seals seem pretty hard to come by in this game, I've only promoted Effie and Ophelia so far, but several others are around lv. 19 and will likely need Seals purchased after one more chapter.

What part are you at? Because the level 2 shop has more seals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gamble would definitely make sense! Surprisingly enough it turns out he didn't inherit it, so I'm guessing I've just had some bad RNG with him combined with the innate inaccuracy of axes, although he's improved upon promotion and especially makes for a good defensive tank, particularly given the skill I did have him inherit from his dad; I have to admit semi-shamefacedly that that was Renewal. 

In retrospect I would probably try to do a stricter/more natural run next time; so that's a goal for a Revelations run once I beat COnquest's story. The breadth of customization offered by MyCastle skills was immediately exciting and I got a little carried away with it before considering how it breaks the spirit of the challenge intended in Conquest. Casual/Battle Saves too obviously, although I'm skeptical that I would enjoy this game as much without those since the difficulty, especially of certain chapters, is so much more than I'm used to in the other FE games I've played (Tellius1&2, Echoes, Awakening, 3H). 

@Shadow Mir I'm at Ch 19 now; I didn't notice before that the shop has more seals, so that's definitely good. 

@starburst That makes sense. I kept trying to just storm the island ahead of the villagers but at that point in the game I just couldn't figure out how to whittle down the Generals and Paladins' defenses quickly enough. When I went back a few chapters later I ended up diverting the villagers around the lake sort-of inadvertently, but either way it was definitely easier the second time. 

Although I take back what I said about Sophie's paralogue being the worst chapter so far. That new honor goes to Ch 17. Holy cow have I never had to restart so many times in a chapter. The endless ninjas, none of my usual tanks could stand up to anything for very long. I have no idea how people manage to keep Saizo alive the whole time, I could get about 70% of the way through the map before he inevitably got surrounded or picked off. 

Funnily enough Chapter 10 ended up being way more manageable than I expected it to be, especially thanks to keeping in mind your note about treating it as a routing chapter. I managed to beat it without having to restart more than maybe once or twice or having anyone die/retreat, although I did miss the bottom-right house, and if the conditions had called for defending for 1-2 more turns I for sure would have had several losses, everyone was on the brink of death by the end. 

Anyway, the last children I have left to unlock still are Azura!Velouria, Keaton!Shigure, and Nyx!Forrest. Decided for sure to ignore Soleil, Ignatius and Siegbert, so maybe I'll recruit them on a Revelations playtrhough. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/26/2021 at 3:59 AM, uhmuzing said:

Although I take back what I said about Sophie's paralogue being the worst chapter so far. That new honor goes to Ch 17. Holy cow have I never had to restart so many times in a chapter. The endless ninjas, none of my usual tanks could stand up to anything for very long. I have no idea how people manage to keep Saizo alive the whole time, I could get about 70% of the way through the map before he inevitably got surrounded or picked off. 

Chapter 17 is way easier once you know what to do, for the defensive thresholds are rather low (around 20 Def.) And you only need to hold a position for two turns. Afterwards, the map is so slow paced that one can level-up units that need to catch up or to learn skills in alternate classes.

You can read some approaches to Chapters 17 and 19 here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...