Boss/NPC Only Run

[GODOFWAR]

After playing through a capture only run of Fire Emblem Conquest, I realized I had way more fun with it than I did with conventional Fire Emblem. Using NPCs and unplayable characters is just cooler. With the power of cheats/hex editing, I started a run in Fire Emblem Echoes with more characters playable. Ever wanted to see the glorious Brigand Boss destroy the continent of Valentia? Well this is the run for you.

First off big thanks to darkkfan for inspiring this run. That run was one of the most fun things I've read through and I urge everyone to check it out.

I'm going to be posting pictures of my experiences throughout the days, whether it be units or chapter. I'll most likely post my thoughts on how the unit performed or which chapter were worth mentioning. Maybe I'll make a tier list at the end of it and see which NPC did the best.

Echoes NPC/Bosses Run:

The Rules/General Info:

- Since NPC's don't have growth rates of their own, they'll be using their class growth rates. Most of them are almost identical so bases and class will be mattering most

- Hard/Classic Mode

- DLC banned until part 6 for overclass

- Will try and avoid grinding, but 3d section encounters will inevitably happen.

- Mila Turnwheel allowed. 

- Alm and Celica are the only base units that are usable, all other must be killed or ignored

- Boss/NPC must have their initial chapter completed before they join

- All named characters can be recruited in a map (If not a repeat)

- Repeat Bosses such as Berkut and Fernand can only be recruited once.

- Hard Mode Bases will be used

- NPC/Bosses can join with their equipment

- Possessed Delthea, Masked Knight, Boss Deen/Sonya will be treated as different units from their base counterparts, so they are usable. Berkut will have his portrait replaced with his insidious counterpart when his chapter is passed.

- Alm's route characters: Slayde, Brigand Boss, Desaix, Zakson, Fernand, Berkut, Jerome, Tatarahh/Fallen Delthea, Hestia, Marla, Lawson, Magnus, Rudolf, Rinea, Xaizor, Gazelle, Nuibaba, Mueller

- Celica Route characters: Barth, Garth, Blake, Deen/Sonya, Dolth, Garcia, Greith, Jamil, Jedah, Mikhail, Wolff, Masked Knight

-Part 6 Characters: Cerberus, Naberius, Hades, Aurum, Argentum, Gharn, Duma

 

I'll post updates as I play through. If anyone has any suggestions for making the run smoother let me know. 

Thanks for tuning in!

Table of Contents 

Act 1 - Zofia's Call to BrigandMaster1

Act 2 - Pilgrims of the Caribbean

Act 3 Alm's Side - TILES SUCK

Act 3 Celica's Side - Valentia's Infestation

Midpoint Recap

 

Edited June 29, 2022 by GODOFWAR
Change to the ruleset

[Anathaco]

Does recruiting enemies mean you get access to enemy only stuff like Medusa or upheaval?

If that’s the case, then hoo boy this’ll be fun.

[GODOFWAR]

On 7/16/2021 at 5:21 AM, Anathaco said:

Does recruiting enemies mean you get access to enemy only stuff like Medusa or upheaval?

If that’s the case, then hoo boy this’ll be fun.

Yup! Stuff like Conjure, Jedah's Gimmick, Teleportation - all of it. It's about to be some unbalanced fun. 

 

Some changes I wanted to make with the run: Characters will now be using their hard mode bases. Normal mode bases just makes them underpowered to the point where you have to grind them. Not much fun.

 

Act 1 - Zofia's Call to BrigandMaster1

Spoiler

The first character isn't Brigand Boss as many of you might think, instead we get a certain snake Mycen sonned in the prologue.

Slayde joins as the first character besides Alm. If we had more than 2 characters, he'd definitely qualify as our Jeigan. His low stats for a promoted unit may seem unappealing but oh boy, does he annihilate the early game. He's similar to Alm statwise except he's mounted, making him a terror for the early scrub brigands. He has enough speed and strength to lower brigands to a sliver of hp, letting weaker units pick them off easily (if we had any). His bulk is terrific. Base 28 hp and 7 def is more than enough to shake off any hit. Combine this with the leather shield we get from the mercenary later, he can even shrug off steel bow archers with ease.

To be honest, the first maps up to the brigand hideout isn't that interesting. It mostly boils down to a Slayde and Alm extermination party. Not a single enemy can touch either of them. Makes you really think on how strong Mycen is if he was able to one round Slayde in the prologue.

And here's where the enemy growths start kicking in. If you read earlier, enemy units don't have growth rates of their own. Instead, they all used a shared class one. This will make most levels linear with our characters, making bases matter more. On the bright side, the enemy class growth rates are better than the playable ones, making Slayde here have a really nice level.

Next we storm our way through the brigand hideout. The bandits outside stood 0 chance against our slasher paladin, what makes you think the ones inside will? And with the bandit stronghold conquered, we're rewarded with the most powerful character in all fire emblem history.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen

I present to you

Brigand

BOSS

Bask in gloriousness! Behold his power! Watch as he single handedly DECIMATES the forces of Rigel and Zofia combined! Fear his-

Oh.

So uh, bad news. I played this part before I implemented the rule change. This means Brigand Boss here is stuck with his normal mode bases, causing him to be similar to his generic mooks. Which means he's getting doubled hell and back to everything in sight. Get used to his amazing 4 move as well and limited weapon choices, with the best one being a rare and dangerous to use devil axe. Sigh...

Well, in the words of Berkut: "Plying the gods' mercies is what men do in hopeless situations, is it not?"

I may have gone a bit overboard. Its not really grinding when I accidently got charged by the men he left right?

We make our way out of the Boss' raid party and move on to the deliverance hideout. On the way, Slayde picks up a nice prize.

This is honestly extremely overkill for this point in the game but goddamn, is it fun. Slayde becomes a general on wheels with this, making even steel bow archers bounce off him.

Makes him great at baiting stuff too. It at least lets that loser Brigand Boss get close enough for kills. His 4 move self is never getting bett-

😳

😳😳😳

Clive and Mathilda who?

With our band of fast and powerful juggernauts of units, we easily cut through the northern part of Zofia. Not even the terrors can stop the might of Brigand Boss and his splitting axe. Fernand was so terrified of our squad he had to zoom out of the hideout. Coward. We'll get him next time.

In the meantime, it's time to challenge Desaix.

Oops. Seems we're a little outnumbered. This is probably the only map that poses a decent amount of challenge. Trying to charge through middle causes us to be greeted by a sea of arrows and a barrage of cavaliers. While only doing around 2 damage on Alm and Slayde and 5 on Brigand Boss, it'll add up quickly and we'll be overwhelmed fast. Safe to say, we're not getting the dracoshield from Desaix anytime soon. 

I instead decide to slowly bait out the arches from the right side, making sure to avoid the arcanist positioned next to the other Slayde. Alm slices through the reckless archers with the lightning sword while Slayde handles the Cav squad until... 

Bad move Slayde. The other one I mean.

Should I have stayed next to Desaix. Now you're getting destroyed by yourself.

And with that, the rest of the goons are gone. Alm was the clear mvp of this, as his lightning sword made quick work of the enemies. Slayde was pivotal in baiting the rest of the enemies with his bulk. And Brigand Boss was uh....there I guess.

And that clears Act 1! Not a very eventful one considering we only got 2 units, but definitely still had fun. Most of the maps required little to no thought, as the combo of 2 very strong base stat units made quick work of the slow and weak enemies scattered throughout Act 1. The only challenge came at the end, but even that had a simple but annoying solution (damn you avoid tiles). 

Hopefully Brigand Boss improves in Act 3. But for now, he's stuck as a 4 mov scrub. Maybe Act 2 will have some more interesting units/chapters? 

Until next time. Thanks for tuning in!

 

Edited July 19, 2021 by GODOFWAR
Update to run

[Anathaco]

3 hours ago, GODOFWAR said:

Teleportation

Oh no.

Slayde as the lord of an FE game is the biggest trip I’ve had in a while.

At least the growths for Slayde and BB are looking pretty nice. I keep forgetting that enemy class growths are way higher than player ones, so I was expecting some really bad levels lol. Damn, looking at it now their res growths are both 10%. That’s pretty good.

I’d honestly recommend the devil axe for BB if enemies didn’t have literally 0 luck. My luck blessed Tobin put in some serious work with a shadow sword last run, but the risk here is too great.

Since you’re only recruiting one person per chapter, what happens to Fernand and Zakson since they share a map? Will you get Zakson, wait until Forest Crossroads for Fernand and then wait until act 4 for Berkut? Or will you just never get Zakson lol.

[GODOFWAR]

1 hour ago, Anathaco said:

Since you’re only recruiting one person per chapter, what happens to Fernand and Zakson since they share a map? Will you get Zakson, wait until Forest Crossroads for Fernand and then wait until act 4 for Berkut? Or will you just never get Zakson lol.

First option. I definitely want my man Zakson. Only time a choice happens is Boss Sonya/Dean and Delthea/Tattarah.

[RNGSOMEONE]

This looks fun. That being said, here's what I can say based off of your post.

Act 1 Dozer has a Dragon Shield. He also has Act 3 bases. You need to put some nerfs on him or the Dragon Shield or he will crush absolutely everything.

Recruit Fernand when he shows up, as Berkut will show up later to be recruited. Recruit Berkut on his second appearance (3 Paladin map) and recruit Rinea in Act 5 to get all three while under the 1 recruit/map rule.

F!Delthea is the first unit recruited that can teleport (though IDK whether or not this retains when hacked to player control, as Teleportation is technically a personal skill and not a class skill of Witch/Vestal). Given the lack of any Cleric/Saint recruits, she will probably be able to cheese stuff by warping in to Aura a boss to death. Also, she's probably better than Tatarrah because she has mobility and you get better magic users later like Marla, Hestia and Nuibaba.

Celica has exactly 1 recruit in Act 2 in the form of Barth, which means that Celica has to get through the graveyard as well as half the seaway ALONE. Celica might want to take Mae/Boey's food as well as some way to self heal...

Recruit Deen, Skip Sonya. Celica gets plenty of good magic users in the form of cantors, so she doesn't need a mediocre mage who no longer has a good spell-list. Deen on the other hand is at least decent with Dread Fighter promo gains.

Mikhail is the first unit recruited that can infinitely summon reinforcements. Since he can summon an infinite supply of flying cannon fodder, he can pretty much trivialize the entirety of Act 4 Celica.

Marla is the first unit recruited that infinitely summons witches, which is to say, magic reinforcements with infinite movement. Just park her in the back, summon for a few turns and have the expendable witches all zerg rush the enemy on a single turn for maximum effect. Hestia also shows up on Rigel Falls, and she's way better than Magnam for the same reason despite having the same stats as Marla.

Nuibaba... breaks the game. Medusa is completely bonkers with base 1-5 range, and with the Magic Ring she joins, it gets bumped up to 1-7, letting her hit Bow Knights or even GRIMA without being countered in return. While she lacks Teleportation and only has 4 mov, Fortify makes up for it and just about any threat can be cheesed by a hit with Medusa followed by a swarm of magic attacks from Marla's summons.

Aside from the OP witches, Alm Act 4 gives him a decent supply of mediocre physical units. Then Rudolf shows up as the Gotoh and he can steamroll Act 5 with either a Silver Lance or Dragon Shield.

Celica Act 4 gives her a huge supply of Cantors, and while no witch-summoners join her, swarms of Gargoyles and Necrodragons fix that issue. Also, how will Jamil Upheaval work?

Of the potential recruits in Duma's map, Gharn is probably the best, since he also has Medusa, which is probably more valuable than Duma.

Overall, Medusa + Expendable summons means that difficulty simply ceases to exist once you get them.

 

[Anathaco]

Oh god recruiting Jedah will be a thing, and probably his dracoshield version too. Damage nullification for the win. 

I assume changing Berkut’s portrait means you don’t get Kriemhild then. That’s a shame. Would’ve been amazing to see someone like Rudolf use it to just crush the rest of the game.

Do witch reinforcements/cantor shenanigans in general fall under your direct control, or will it be like invoke where the ai will control them to the best of its (limited) ability? 
 

Also I’m only now just realising that Medusa has 70 hit, which is actually pretty great considering how low Nuibaba’s hitrates against your units can get. But enemies don’t have luck to get around that so you will actually be consistently hitting, which is awesome.

[RNGSOMEONE]

And Medusa has 1-5 range, or 1-7 with Magic Ring. Grima just became one of the easiest bosses because he won't move if you're not in range, but you can just outrange him with Medusa.

[GODOFWAR]

I decided to try and test teleportation and upheavel. While the skills are still present on the unit when player controlled, I can't find a way to use it as I initially presumed.

For Desaix and Jedah, I'll make special cases and have them recruited with the Javelin and Animus Ring respectively. Dracoshield Desaix is probably overkill on act 3 and Animus Ring seems way more interesting than Dracoshield.

I'll address more later. For now, its time for....

Act 2 -Pilgrims of the Caribbean 

Spoiler

So we have a slight issue. Our next recruit doesn't come until we reach the pirate base. Kind of an issue because...

Looks like it changed from a boss recruit run to a Celica solo run. How can she criticize Alm for going to war when she's doing stuff like this?

I'm pretty sure even Walhart wouldn't go this hard on some seadogs. She literally chased after a wounded man who would've likely surrendered.

...You sure she isn't a witch already?

Anyways, we finally move past some pirate slaughter to move on to barraging a pirate stronghold. Can't these guys catch a break? We're rewarded for our efforts with the most handsome pirate since Jack Sparrow.

Now this is a step up from Brigand Boss. Barth here comes as a level 15 brigand with some killer stats. 13 str is nothing to scoff at and 8 spd doubles the hordes of pirates and archers we have to deal with. His bulk is also out of this world for this point in the game. 43 hp and 8 def pretty much guarantees he'll be shrugging off every physical hit, including mercenaries who double him. Even a few magic hits won't phase him due to his ridiculous hp. Good thing too, because pretty soon we're going to need it.

To further augment his bulk I decide to reward him with the leather shield we picked up at the pirate base. And to fill in the void of having no good axe to use....

Hey! We're not hopelessly outnumbered for once! 2 vs 1. We can easily kick this losers as-

Oh yeah

Well at the very least Barth's unbreakable defenses can let him withstand the infinite zombies coming at us.

And luckily, Celica decided to learn recover! Thank god for our first healer. 

Still, there's about 4-5 zombies each turn and only 2 of us. If we stay in the chokepoint, it'll be a never ending stalemate until the ends of time. We need to be aggressive. Let's crush this old man!

Shit

We'll instead of a stalemate, we're stuck in a duel to the death with this guy. While Barth can take 3 hits from the spells, the chip from the zombies add up and he'll be in danger fast. Doesn't help that he has shaky hit rates due to the supplies. Celica can do a lot of damage with her spells but using one stronger than fire basically guarantees she'll be killed the next turn. Her sword is too low of a hit rate on the cantor and isn't worth the risk. 

Still, we press on. I decide to abuse the thunder spell Celica learned recently and snipe the dude. Luckily, miasma isn't 1-3 range.

Barth manages to land a few lucky hits on the guy dealing around 10 damage. Quite a nice level as well!

After 5 turns of this BS, we corner him.

I pray to Mila that we hit the most important 90% of my life and......

Victory! I can't wait when the roles are reversed and I'm the one infinitely spawning cannon fodder.

Now that was a grueling battle. After that, it's smooth sailing from here on.

Oh yeah. 

Luckily, this is a HUGE step down from the cantor we just dealt with. The necrodragons actually do a pitiful amount of damage to Barth, made even worse by the fact that they're slow as hell.

Sure Barth isn't doing any meaningful damage himself. Good thing he doesn't have to.

The necrodragons could easily take Celica out combined with the seraphim hp cost, but they strangely insist on attacking our chunky pirate man. Not complaining though. This leads into an extremely easy victory.

The seabound shrine wasn't really that interesting. I pick up the blessed sword and ignore the stat fountains. I'll come back when our army is more than just 2 people. 

🤢

Bad level aside, we have a few more road blocks to get through. Looks like the pirates aren't too keen that Captain Barth Sparrow left them for a bloodthirsty priestess out to recruit every villain in Valentia.

Should've remembered why their boss was the pirate king in the first place. He's the great wall, and nothings getting past him. Barth soaks the hits while Celica snipes from the back and provides healing. Kind of reminds you of the chapter Saber is first usable huh?

Not even their new mercenary boss can handle him, even with his 13 spd and atk. Sorry, but you're not breaking past a man with 40+ hp.

🤑 That's more like it!

Now THAT should be the last battle from port right? Are we finally done? Can I get a new character now?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Ok to be honest, it wasn't the worst. Sure Barth got pelted to the ends of the Earth, but his massive HP lets him take some hits. Both him and Celica and do way more damage back, and Barth can get healed pretty quickly with recover + food. 

Still screw the arcanist and cantors, I am done with them.

And at last we are FREE. No more dumb boats and magic users. It's time to recruit some more characters. And the next one is...

Huh. Now this is an interesting one. Technically this mysterious masked knight differs from his counterpart when it comes to bases and growths. So for the purposes of this playthrough, he counts. Unfortunately he joins right when Act 2 ends, so we'll have to wait till Act 3 to see him in action.

Closing Thoughts on Act 2

Oh man this was painful. While most of the maps were extremely easy due to the absolute physical bulk of Barth, I definitely do not want to ever fight either a cantor or a horde of arcanist with only 2 units. The cantor one in particular was some hell. Something extremely easy on a normal playthrough became way more complicated than it needed to be and in the end, we had to rely on some luck to get past it. While definitely not one of the more interesting Acts when it came to characters, I still had some fun watching enemies break their weapons on the steel wall known as the Pirate King.

Thanks for tuning in, and until next time.....

 

 

 

 

[RNGSOMEONE]

You can still get Jedah's Dragon Shield pretty easily. Just have all your cantors spam summons to get rid of Jedah's immunity and then try to nuke him down with a combat art from promoted Blake.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

It's bizarre seeing that Act 1 only had two named bosses (one of whom was "Brigand Boss"). Not even the legendary Battle of the Southern Outpost got a named boss.

Anyway, this looks like a really fun undertaking! I be pleased to see the piratin' ways used to the player's advantage.

[AnonymousSpeed]

This seems like a fun run. I'm definitely excited to see Barth, Garth, and Grieth running around on your team.

I'm no expert on any of this, but I wouldn't stress out too much about "One Unit Per Map" if there's multiple named units that would be interesting to recruit for you to pick from at once. The fact that they have to be named units already puts a limit on your team size.

Edited July 28, 2021 by AnonymousSpeed

[GODOFWAR]

I'm back! Sorry about the long wait on this one. I recently contracted Covid-19 and have been suffering through it for the past week. Good thing I can still update the run without risk.

On 7/28/2021 at 6:53 PM, AnonymousSpeed said:

I'm no expert on any of this, but I wouldn't stress out too much about "One Unit Per Map" 

Yeah I kind of realized this was a bad idea the further along I was playing. Unfortunately, I already played Act 3 which contains the majority of the choice units. Maybe I'll let you guys decide if the rule should be removed from now on. Vote here and choose!

And with that, we move on to...

 

Act 3 Alm's Side - TILES SUCK

Spoiler

We begin Act 3 by picking up the best weapon for any point in a Fire Emblem game. Not only is Act 3 chalk full of cavaliers, our psychopath paladin has enough speed and strength to one round all of them. Desaix probably should have took it before it could be used against him. 

Speaking of Desaix...

Desaix comes as a Tier 3 Level 5 Baron. I decided to hold back with him joining with the dracoshield due to deeming it too much for this point in the game. Even without it though, he's pretty much untouchable to everything other than magic. Weapons bounce off him due to his base 20 DEF and 47 HP while he does a sizable chunk back with his trusty javelin. He even manages to double a few of the slower classes, ensuring they die with his gargantuan 27 strength. Honestly I don't think he's that gamebreaking right now. His garbage 4 mov ensures he's always falling behind with resident trash bag Brigand Boss and some of the harder hitting spells such as mire will put a dent in him. Still an amazing unit obviously who I can count on to hold the fort down.

It seems the trend of being sorely outnumbered continues...

But I wonder. Who's REALLY outnumbered here?

Looks like Rigel and the Rebelling Zofians will already begin to rue the day they decided taking the ridersbane with them was too much luggage. 

TIME FOR SOME SLAUGHTER!!!

Safe to say, Slayde handled the left side by himself. We won't be recruiting Fernand in this chapter. He comes later. 

Back to the middle side, Desaix and Alm try to hold back the army of soldiers and archers while Brigand Boss is used as bait for the barrage of arrows. Well, not that there was anything else he could be due to his shitty mov and no real weapon.

Due to the weight of the iron bow, these poor archers actually manage to get doubled by Desaix. Imagine getting killed because you got doubled by a dude with 3 attack speed. Funnily enough, not even the enemy armor knights got doubled, making these archers the worst the Rigel army has to offer.

I love this animation.

The witches come out of nowhere and snipe Desaix for some hefty damage. While we manage to get rid of them rather quickly, we're still getting surrounded.

BRIGAND BOSS DO SOMETHING

Slayde is forced to rejoin with the main force. That arcanist HURTS.

Eventually, Zakson's slow tail manages to reach our forces. It's just too bad we have an improved version of him.

Also, Archers aren't the only ones getting doubled by Barons

At least they do more damage?

Poor Zakson didn't stand a chance once the arcanist left him. Desaix easily took the 3 damage Zakson was giving him and Alm targeted his awful res with his lightning sword. Safe to say, he didn't last long. Poor guy. Getting decimated by a better version of himself.

Good job Brigand Boss.

Oh no

Its not going too bad. We get a new unit from the previous chapter who might be able to help us out.

Alright I know what you're thinking. "He has 1 res and 3 spd! He's going to get destroyed!" While that may be true, you saw how slow the base stat arcanists are. While Zakson is going to be getting chunked alot, he can take it with his 42 hp and he'll one round the arcanist back with his massive 23 strength. In general, he joins as a slightly lower leveled Desaix. Everything I said about Desaix you could apply it here. Not the most interesting recruit, but he'll get the job done.

As I said before, the armor knights are actually defeating the magic units by doubling them. Only in Echoes huh?

With this, the rest of the arcanist fall like flies as suicide themselves onto our two meat grinders. Only by the end of the onslaught, I remember something...

WE NEED A DAMN HEALER

I think these two chapters have single handedly cut through my food supply. I don't even think a nuclear bunker worth of food would be enough to feed my army. I'm beginning to miss Silque and her instant healing...

Regardless of that, we're in a bad situation. Most of the units who can do real damage to the boss are weakened and need something to heal with. Problem is, Alm is either too far away or we leave our units in position to get whooped by the boss. 

In short, we need to go on the offensive (again) and take this dude out. I start off with a windsweep from Alm's iron sword, letting us take a hefty amount of health. I follow it up with an attack from Brigand Boss, leaving the boss on a sliver of health in the process.

Why does it always come down to life or death hit rates............

Never doubt the power of the javelin. Promotion this early rocks too. Gold Knight bases are sick.

We make our way past the bloody pool of dead arcanist and reach the frat boy cavalier party. Berkut is not we've been stealing his commanders into our army, so now he's going to finish us off personally. 

Sorry Berkut fanboys. We won't be getting him yet. Although getting him this early would be insane, as he has some killer bases. Instead, we're going to be getting his second in command at long last.

While Berkut would definitely be the better recruit here, Fernand is pretty awesome as well. 9 spd and 13 str is similar to a well leveled Clive and he's level 10, meaning he can promote as soon as he joins. He makes a decent backup for Slayde in case we need some ridersbane trading shenanigans done. Due to still being a cavalier, he may even end up surpassing Slayde at some point. 

But enough of that, we need to kick his ass first.

Damn. I forgot about forest positioning. Fernand is gonna camp and dodge everything isn't he-

 

😎

So as Fernand becomes our prisoner and contemplates his luck, Alm and Berkut go at it in an epic duel to the death.

I love how even it is.

The two trade blows with neither army (or more like Berkut's one paladin buddy) getting involved. Eventually reaching the climax.

Farmboy this motherfucker

Sucks to be Berkut today. Got exposed in a 1v1 and got his right hand man taken away. 

After destroying these poor fools, the pathway to the other Desaix should be open. Unfortunately, ANOTHER squad of paladins zoom out of Desaix's castle to take their place. Free EXP time!

Huh. Seems we have a lot of units needing a promotion. Maybe we should make a detour to the nearest mila shrine.

Time for some much needed upgrades.

Oh yeah I forgot to talk about it. I'm sure this is common knowledge by now, but Fernand and Berkut have unused playable quotes that can be reactivated with the use of game patching. They say things like real characters: Level Ups, Food, Turn Select, Dungeon Retreat Sounds, and After Battle quotes. They feel like the most real characters in this run besides Alm and Celica themselves.

Pretty interesting. Maybe they were planned to be spotpass or dlc characters in a cut update? 

We make our way towards the other Desaix's fortress to finish what we started at Zofia castle. It seems I made a serious error of judgement however...

So I failed to see the paladin squad that had spawned again with Desaix, making this map have cavaliers and an arcanist with mire. If I turn around to leave, they'll jump me in the forest crossing, something that I think is too risky. We're gonna have to fight through it. Fight through the hordes of cavs and their avoid tiles. With an angry other Desaix equipped with a javelin. Sigh.....

Pray for me.

I immediately begin by placing Fernand on the stairs to bait out the cavalier squad hungry to keep us out. Slayde is letting him borrow the ridersbane, so he'll make quick work of them. With them cleared, I begin to start a push with Desaix. He's our tankiest unit and if we ever needed a point to be choked, its now. 

Ignoring those pesky archers, I go for the main unit I'm most scared of. Desaix would easily take him out if not for the annoying avoid tiles. The arcanist dodges and we miss our opportunity to nail him.

A huge blow for us, especially since...

We're literally almost the exact same statwise. The only reason this isn't a fair fight is because of the uber tiles helping other Desaix out. 

Can you tell if I hate this mechanic or not?

Cue the most boring fight of all time. I'm not even going to bother showing what happened. It's literally just missed attack after missed attack with the occasional food healing with Zakson taking Desaix's place for a second. This map is fucking awful. You ever play this map and say: "Gee, I wish I could play this map with less units, no healer, and no magic unit". No? Well why? 

DON'T YOU LIKE 20 AVOID TILES WITH A TIER 3 TANKY BARON AS THE BOSS WHO CHOKEHOLDS THE MAP AND UNREACHABLE ARCHERS WHO GIVE CONSTANT CHIP DAMAGE AND MAKES IT GO 10X LONGER?????

Zzzzzzzzz.......Oh! We're done?

Alright, so we finally get this ugly bastard down with our own beautiful bastard. Please burn in hell and take your tiles with you you tedious asshat.

So the other guy FINALLY goes down. In a good map, we would be celebrating as victory inched near. I think you forgot we're playing Fire Emblem Echoes though.

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

THIS IS SLOWER THAN GIANNIS' FREETHROW ROUTINE. THIS IS SLOWER THAN PATH OF RADIANCE ANIMATIONS.

MAKE IT STOP

Things are finally looking up for us as we break through the defenses of the fortress and make our way in. Let's see how YOU guys like the 20 avoid.

🤑

FINISH HIM FERNAND. LETS GET OUR OF HERE

.........................

.........................................

I need a nap after that...

I'll save my thoughts on that map later. I have way too much to say on it. Mila seems to have taken mercy on me and our next battle seems made for us. Finally something easy!

ITS SLAUGHTER TIME!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh you poor, miserable fools. They're marching straight to their grave. None of them other than the boss can survive a round of combat with our brutal weapon. All it does is add to the kill count of Rigelians who got way in over their heads.

 

Someone turn this into a horror movie. 

Let's talk about Lawson now that he's on our side. He was kind of irrelevant and just died in our battle with him lol. Ridersbane is just busted.

Lawson joins as a level 10 Paladin. This is huge, as he can instant promote into a Gold Knight. Looking at him, he's quite similar to Slayde, sporting about the same stats. That's great, as he can act as our backup Gold Knight who'll be able to dish hits and take them back with ease. Might not be the most interesting unit but he'll get the job done. Enough speed to double and enough strength to one round a fair bit of units with the steel lance.

I decide to take advantage of his level and reach the gargoyle dungeon to get the shrine.

Lame! I forgot to mention this with Zakson, but both him and Lawson lose their unique model when promoting. Makes sense, as the developers likely didn't think their was a need to put it in the game. Too bad they lose their cool color palettes....

I find the fountain of exp at the end of the dungeon. Fernand was close to promoting so...

Fernand lost his unique palette too. Sigh.........

Jesus christ Desaix. Never thought I'd see a Baron get speed over strength.

We pick up the blessed lance from the village and continue our way towards Rigel. Seems Rudolph is getting tired of our victorious and had to send in the big guns.

READY FOR ANOTHER MAP WITH NO COUNTERING!?!?

It shouldn't be too bad though. After the hell we've endured, our new shiny tier 3 units can easily tear through these cowards. Oh, and Brigand Boss and there too I guess.

Good sign here. Slayde can one round these archers, meaning the rest of our gold knights can do the same or come reasonably close to doing it. 

The battle is a cakewalk. Our two heavy armor barons bait out the archers while our 3 Gold Knights bum rush any who get too eager and overextend themselves. Almost all the enemies on this map are frail and slow units who can't do much damage up close, causing them to be BBQ chicken to our Gold Squad.

Seems like Gazelle here forgot one thing. He may be tanky compared to the rest of his squad, but he forgot one crucial detail. He's a mounted unit. And we have the PERFECT friend for mounted units.

HEHEHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Can you believe that even if our Gold Knights continue to get these amazing levels, their still going to be outclassed by one at the end?

Poor Zakson and Desaix. They're honestly too slow to be getting kills, so they're usually relegated to tank and chip duty. Still more than what Brigand Failure has to offer.

Let's welcome our first archer to the Rigelian Prison Squad!

Gazelle is a Bow Knight. Bow Knights are broken. Gazelle is broken. End of Evaluation.

.....

What? You want more? Fiiiiinnne.

Gazelle joins as a prepromoted Bow Knight with bases that are only 1 point higher than the Bow Knight base in all stats besides luck and res. This honestly doesn't matter. Him being our first archer already gives him a massive edge over all of our units due to his access to the ridiculous Killer Bow. I already traded in a shit ton of stuff to make the killer bow solely for him. Bow Knights are simply insane in this game, with 8 mov and unmatched range. Needless to say, he'll be our best delete button for awhile. Any unit who isn't armored simply drops to the sheer might of Hunter's Volley.

Good thing he joined right before this map.

Gazelle is our savior here. He's the only one who can fire and counterattack these magic bastards. The Killer Bow is going to tear through these old losers with ease, even with the 20 avoid.

Its....

ITS

BEAUTIFUL

That was one of the easiest maps I have ever played in my life. True, Gazelle got extremely lucky with his constant crits, but it honestly didn't matter. The arcanists couldn't counterattack his shots and all of them were slow enough to get doubled and eventually crit on. We're only one map in and he's already proven himself as the MVP of this army. Fallen Delthea didn't even have time to teleport due to him clearing the map so fast.

Speaking of her, I forgot to talk about our next recruit. It was a choice between her and Tattarah, and I originally was going to pick her due to the teleportation skill. Problem is, I have no idea how to activate it or use it, so she's essentially an Aura bot with slightly higher bases than normal Delthea. Yawnnnnn.

So Instead, we're picking the decrepit old man!

HOLY MOTHER OF JESUS, OUR FIRST HEALER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tatarrah joins as the first of two things. Our first user of magic and our first healer. I don't think I need to tell you how strong fortify is. My biggest gripe has been answered with one of the greatest healing tools ever. We basically never have to worry about being overwhelmed again, as a single spell will bring everyone in range back up to shape. Gazelle can fire off his volleys with no regard for the HP cost as long as this guys around. Just slap a ring of any kind on him and he's good to go. Death is an extremely strong spell with 1-3 range, so it'll come in clutch when we need some strong magic chip. All in all, Tatarrah packs some serious utility and he'll probably be our go to healer for some time. Goodbye days of stuffing our faces with oranges.

Closing thoughts on Alm Act 3

DESAIXS. MAP. I don't think I've ever had less fun in a Fire Emblem game in that moment. Holy hell that was so bad. Not only was the chokepoint the most boring shit known to Mila and Duma, the fact that the shitty 20 avoid tile was given to every enemy on the map made it last longer than it should have. The barrage of arrows and units swapping back in forth in order to heal from ALMS CONVOY made it 10x worse than it already was. Its kind of a sick joke our healer joined on the very last map of this section, but alas. The recruitment selection this time was an obvious step up from the previous sections. Sure, some of them are quite similar to each other such as Zakson/Desaix or Slayde/Lawson, but we also got some awesome picks like Fernand, Gazelle, and Tatarrah. Most of these maps aren't really that interesting, but that applied to Alm's route anyways until Act 4 was reached. Besides, having a full Rigel Empire at the end of this sounds badass as hell. 

Thanks for tuning in! Next time, we're gonna check out how Celica is doing. Maybe she'll have a better time than Alm did during Desaix dodge box. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to my kitchen and doing a little renovation....

DEATH TO TILES

 

Edited July 31, 2021 by GODOFWAR

[AnonymousSpeed]

58 minutes ago, GODOFWAR said:

Yeah I kind of realized this was a bad idea the further along I was playing. Unfortunately, I already played Act 3 which contains the majority of the choice units. Maybe I'll let you guys decide if the rule should be removed from now on. Vote here and choose!

I'm sure you can guess my vote.

Still, if you haven't started Act 4 yet, you could at least put in Fallen Delthea and Tatarrah without the former being left behind compared to normal. Obviously she's no fortify bot, but he can get recover on promotion at least.

58 minutes ago, GODOFWAR said:

I love this animation.

Sparta.

58 minutes ago, GODOFWAR said:

Oh yeah I forgot to talk about it. I'm sure this is common knowledge by now, but Fernand and Berkut have unused playable quotes that can be reactivated with the use of game patching. They say things like real characters: Level Ups, Food, Turn Select, Dungeon Retreat Sounds, and After Battle quotes. They feel like the most real characters in this run besides Alm and Celica themselves.

Interesting. I would say it was because of the DLC, since Fernand is playable in a couple of those maps. However, Slayde is playable in those same maps while Berkut is not.

58 minutes ago, GODOFWAR said:

With an angry other Desaix equipped with a javelin.

Which one is the real Desaix, and which one is the doppelganger? Who was recruited at the capital, and who really died in the fort that day?

58 minutes ago, GODOFWAR said:

The battle is a cakewalk. Our two heavy armor barons bait out the archers while our 3 Gold Knights bum rush any who get too eager and overextend themselves.

Yeah, I definitely think this is going to be a pretty busted run- early access to promoted units with really high bases is gonna be pretty slick. The one drawback is that you're mostly stuck with Gold Knights and Barons for a while. Celica has a bit more going for her- Sonia and cantors for mages, Wolff for a sniper, Blake and Grieth and maybe Deen as Dread Fighters (you only get one Dread Fighter on Alm's route I think). Might make a good candidate for the loop- Gazelle and Wolff are the only Bow Knights I think you get naturally so this could get you some more archers. I know there aren't any boss clerics or pegasus knights, and since there are no female mercenaries to put through the loop, those classes are 100% off-limits. Unless you use pitchforks on witches or something.

Do you think you'll ever be getting Desaix's dracoshield, or is that going to remain a relic of a previous age?

Edited July 31, 2021 by AnonymousSpeed

[Anathaco]

Desaix doubling is the most cursed thing I’ve ever seen

Also never seen Gazelle’s full portrait and I find it hilarious. Just pointing to himself for no reason.

[GODOFWAR]

9 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

I would say it was because of the DLC, since Fernand is playable in a couple of those maps. However, Slayde is playable in those same maps while Berkut is not.

 

Thing is, DLC Fernand and the Fernand we have here have completely different sets of voice lines. This means that even in the DLC, the voiced lines that he uses here are completely unused. Also Slayde is never playable in the DLC, he's only an uncontrollable green ally or an enemy.

9 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Do you think you'll ever be getting Desaix's dracoshield, or is that going to remain a relic of a previous age?

We probably won't be getting Desaix's Dracoshield. We might get someone else's though...

12 minutes ago, Anathaco said:

Also never seen Gazelle’s full portrait and I find it hilarious. Just pointing to himself for no reason.

Yeah I didn't notice it until using him. Like bro, what are you doing lol.

Edited July 31, 2021 by GODOFWAR

[RNGSOMEONE]

Your first healer on Alm route is Tatarrah, though he is a Samson to Delthea's Arran. Delthea also can promote, even if she lacks her normal spellist, as she is still classed as Mage and promotes to Priestess, which gives Recover. Tatarrah is stuck with Fortify which is expensive to cast. Nuibaba is the next healer, also locked to Fortify and no more are obtained on Alm's path. Recruiting both enables Fortify spam strats, but also makes it difficult to make use of Nuibaba and Tatarrah's good magic damage. Otherwise, recruiting Delthea and promoting her to Priestess is best healer possible, as Recover is only 1HP cost.

[GODOFWAR]

We are back! Found out how to use the screenshot function on homebrew 3ds without crashing, so enjoy some high quality pictures from now on.

Act 3 Celica's Side - Valentia's Infestation

Spoiler

 

Seems we're not out of the pirating ways yet. One more captain to dethrone.

Yikes. Looks like they brought the whole crew. We only have 3 units with us at the moment. One of which being...

(Old pic sorry) Let's talk about that mysterious masked knight. Unlike his counterpart, MK joins way earlier than when he does in the base game. This is huge. His bases for this point in the game are crazy. 13 spd and atk are solid offenses, with only extremely fast myrmidons being able to double him. 11 res makes him great at taking out arcanists, most doing only 1 damage at max. He even has a luck stat unlike the rest of our goons! He sounds pretty good so far. Unfortunately, he has some big issues that hold him back. His base bulk is quite pathetic when it comes to the physical side. 6 defense is pretty low, and it doesn't help that he has low HP compared to the rest of our recruits. While being a paladin makes him awesome for maps like this, it'll really start to hurt when we reach those desert and swamp maps. He might as well not even be there. He's a solid unit overall, but he'll quickly be outclassed by the myriad of dread fighters and summoners we get later.

Good thing none of that matters at the moment. He kicks major ass for this battle.

Blessed ring helps him deal with his low bulk somewhat. And the WALL Barth is there to keep it from getting out of hand. Captain Barth and MK work with the pegasus sisters to clear out the top right.

MK gets some spicy levels from his troubles.

The last one is huge, as he is now able to double these speed demons.

Seems like the top side is under control.

What about the bottom side?

PERISH HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH

Huh, seems like Barth has a twin brother! Too bad he made the mistake of fighting our murder priestess. 

And with that, the pirate threat is over. All hail Captain Barth! The one last true pirate-

Oh yeah, this guy. Well, Garth-

.....

.......

..........

Huh.

Yup, you're not seeing things. Barth and Garth are exactly the same statwise. Guess they're taking identical twins to a whole new level. While Barth's stats were great at his joining time, they're not going to cut it at this stage in the game. Garth is literally just a clone of Barth who joins way later. This means his bases will be used during key fights like Wolff, Blake, and Grieth. He's stuck with 4 mov in a path where desert maps are about as common as rattatas. He hits like a wet noodle due to lacking a real weapon. Safe to say, he is not going to be one of the star players anytime soon. Definitely the most boring and useless unit we've come across so far.

We move past the pirate attack and we're met with a dividing path. While most players go and fight Wolff first (due to Atlas and the whitewings leaving if don't), we are not bound to such restrictions and go for Blake.

While this map may seem daunting due to us only having 4 units ( most of which lack 1-2 range), I feel pretty confident. MK got those crucial speed level ups, letting him double the witches and mercenaries on this map no problem. He also has a shit ton of res, making the witches and arcanists attacks bounce off him.

Knowing this, I begin to charge my units ahead.

We use Garth as bait, as that seems to be the most useful thing he can do at the moment. MK and Barth form a defensive wall, preventing the mercenaries from coming to our healer Celica. The witches decide to be merciful for once, not teleporting and sniping Garth.

Going pretty smooth! The witches come normally and we easily take them out with MK and Barth. Show Garth how a REAL pirate fights.

Blake eventually reaches our small platoon and pulls a reckless move.

While Blake has just enough attack to finish MK off, he initiates the battle despite MK being in a bush. This causes a costly miss for him, leaving him open for...

Git Gud scrub

MK has been getting some kickass levels! Guess he wants to prove me wrong.

And with that, the path to the Mila Temple is clear! Seems we got a prisoner during the skirmish however...

Blake is fucking awesome, simple as that. He joins as a level 12 myrmidon, meaning he can insta promote into the best class in the game: Dread Fighter. His bases kick ass. 20 spd and 17 atk absolutely tear through Act 3 with ease. The movement buff given by Dread Fighters and how they ignore terrain slowdowns is extremely helpful for Celica's route, with deserts and swamps being less painful because of it. The Shadow Sword he comes with can be turned into a Brave Sword, making him pound for pound the best combat unit in this army by far. He possesses excellent bulk to boot, with 40 hp, 11 def, and 11 res (when promoted). A huge step up from Garth and he'll be instantly useful in dealing with the next chapters gimmick.

I make some quick detours. First, we head to an armory and change that trash Shadow Sword into a Brave Sword. Miss me with that 0 luck.

Next, we head to the seabound shrine.

PROMOTION TIME

I stop by the experience fountains we skipped earlier. Might as well use them while I'm here.

MOTHER OF MILA

I've never seen a unit more willing to snowball in my life. It pisses me off that he's stuck in the cavalier line. In the future, he won't even be able to use these insane stats. Can't fight the enemy if you can't reach them in sand or water.

Well Hell, we took out Blake. Might as well get Mikhail too. On to the Temple of Mila.

Now normally this would be a huge pain in the ass. It still is, but I think having a hyper offensive dread fighter and a blessed paladin should make this part somewhat easier.

Slight issue. The forest bushes make crossing the right side a huge pain in the ass without one of our units taking a hefty chunk from the mire arcanists. 

Might as well get some use for Garth

Thanks to the heroic efforts of Garth face tanking the spells, our main units are able to come out without being on a point of health. Still, the hordes of gargoyles hurt.

I start to move the main force forward. Even though there's a jackpots worth of Arcanists and Snipers, we're never going to win by just tanking it. Luckily, both MK and Blake can take a fair bit of magic due to their high res.

Seems Garth is attracting some Gargoyles. Maybe he can make himself usef-

......I think I found a unit worse than Brigand Boss. My mans is getting sonned by generic summoned monsters. Now THATS pathetic.

Sigh.....Just find some corner to hide in you useless first mate. Barth is 10x the man you'll ever be.

Blake decides he's had enough and goes on a killing spree.

The exterminator eventually meets the cockroach behind this gargoyle infestation. 

Good thing Mila hired the right exterminator. I might have to change the Brave Swords name to RAID after this.

Oh yeah. I forgot about the rest of his squad. Seems MK is having trouble all on his own. 

FINNNNE. Blake steps away from Mikhail to help out with the archer problem while Celica tends to MK's wounds.

ALRIGHT. Somehow, the combined efforts of Blake, MK, Barth, and Celica are enough to mow down the army.

Your time is up asshole. Not even your gargoyles can save you now (they're busy harassing Garth)

And with that, there's only one poor arcanist left. Too bad all his friends are gone.

GET HIM MK-

........This is an ill omen. 

Well, Blake is down for some overtime. Why must Celica's route hate cavaliers so much?

While masked knight seemed pretty useless in this, he was invaluable in tanking the archers and magic users coming his way while also doing meaningful damage back. This earns him a swift promotion in my book.

His bulk is fixed now too! What an absolute chad of a unit.

Too bad though. All of those stats, and they pale in comparison to our newest unit.

Behold.

OUR FIRST SUMMONER

Mikhail joins as the first unit that can summon terrors that bend to our command. Now before you talk about it being like invoke in the base game, its not even close. Invoke has a small limit of about 5 units you can summon, most being grounded soldiers. Invoke also has a huge cost of 12 hp, making it a commitment if you want to use it. It was still broken, but not enough to break the game in half.

Well, throw that shit all out the window. Conjure only takes 5 hp from the summoner, making the cost basically irrelevant with a ring. Oh wait! He has incarnation, a passive that works in the exact same way a ring does. Meaning a ring isn't even required to offset the already minimal health requirement! And oh boy, conjure doesn't summon some pussy ass weakling green units. It summons full on monsters with threatening stats relative to the enemy. Ill describe more when we see it in action.

Mikhail himself isn't just some summon bot either. He comes with the powerful mire and an excellent speed stat for a cantor. He can double a lot of enemies you wouldn't think about, to the point where his damage isn't chip anymore. He'll one round a lot of the slower enemies with his sheer power, augmented by the fact that he has 1-3 range. He's easily a top tier unit, no investment required.

Instead of just telling you how broken conjure is, how about I just show you hm?

Our squad clears the Temple of Mila and we make a trip back to Wolff's fortress. Now in vanilla, this map is considered to be one of the hardest in the route. Slowed down movement while trying to enter a fortress full of powerful archers and magic users? No thanks.

Things seem even more grim as we have 4 units slowed down by the desert. Only Blake will be able to make meaningful distance. If we make a head on assault, we'll be pelted and chipped down by the hordes of archers.

Good thing we don't have to.

Hehehehhehhehe

HEHEHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

BOW BEFORE US, PERISH PATHETIC MORTALS

As I showed earlier, these gargoyles aren't just some infinitely spawning death fodder. They're stats are comparable to generic enemy mercenaries who also happen to have wings. This lets them go toe to toe with the archers inside. 

And Mikhail himself gets rid of the Arcanists who had a shot of minimizing the damage the gargoyles could have done. Look at his power!

I bet Wolff is regretting working for Grieth by now huh?

With our sea of flying monstrosities, our units barely have to lift a finger. The gargoyles easily overwhelm and take out the poor enemies stuck in the box. Wolff puts on a valiant effort, but even he's chipped down to death's doors.

YOUR TILES MEAN NOTHING TO US HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

I'm sorry little ones...

Some of you were probably wondering why I cleared the Mila Temple before going to Grieth. Well, this was the reason why. There was no why in hell I was going to fight Wolff's army of archers with fucking Garth alone lol.

Speaking of Wolff-

Now Wolff might not be the most interesting unit considering we just added a dark gargoyle conjuring magic monster to the squad, but he's solid enough right now. He's the only archer Celica will get, and he joins at a decent level. Only 4 levels and he can access the broken Bow Knight class, maybe even pick up a killer bow on the way. Overall, we could do worse (like Garth), and he'll be useful for dealing with the multitudes of Gargoyles and Necrodragons Celica will have to face.

.....Can this be the new norm for everyone's tiles?

Now the next map has a bit of a dilemma. Just like in the base game, we need to choose between Deen or Sonya. But unlike the base game, we're actually going to be attacking the one we want. I go with Deen due to him having access to the broken Dread Fighter class and Sonya being stuck with excaliber as an enemy.

Only physical units? Oh no.....

SNACK TIME BOYS

We also slapped the Blessed Ring on Mikhail, giving him a massive 10 hp per turn. As if he wasn't broken enough already.

The map isn't very interesting. Deen's merc squad is no match for our infinite horde of monsters. He tries to put up a valiant effort though.

Too bad he left himself open with that one. 

Unlike Deen, Blake learned his mistake when he did the same to us.

He have a new prisoner!!!

Deen joins Celica again. Unlike his base form, however, he's blessed with some insane bases. He gets a flat +4 to all of his offensive stats compared to his normal counterpart .This lets him double pretty much everything in Celica's route, while also being a crit machine with the brave sword he comes with. He joins level 12 instead of 5. This means he gets instant access to the dread fighter class. Huh, seems similar to Blake. But unlike Garth/Barth, Deen is an actual amazing unit who will be an awesome addition to the team. With bases that are on par with my Blake right now, an extra dread fighter will be extremely helpful for the swamps and magic users we're going to have to face.

I make a quick detour to the Temple of Mila and-

So we currently have 2 dread fighters and a summoner who can infinitely spawn hordes of powerful monsters that can fly anywhere on the map.

Goodbye Grieth.

FLY MY PRETTIES

That archer and arcanist must have thought they were safe in their little box. Too bad we have flying cannon fodder.

The flying horde manages to bait Grieth out of his little hiding spot. 

First Blake, then Deen, now Grieth. When will you mercenaries learn to avoid traps?

Deen, why were you working with this loser for so long? I doubt he or Sonya could challenge your insane base stats.

ARE YOU CHALLENGING ME?!?!?

Unfortunately for this cantor, pussy ass skeleton dudes are nothing compared to Mikhail's roided out Gargoyles. Our dread squad simply tear through and take him out. 

I really wish I had more to say about this map but it ended like the rest. A bloody gargoyle infestation party.

Quite an anticlimatic way to end huh? Well, there is one exciting thing about this map being cleared.

>:)

Oh yeah, the Captain got an upgrade. Might seem dangerous due to my mans literally having no luck, but what true pirate doesn't live on the edge like this? Besides, I'm just glad we got a real weapon that's not the splitting axe.

Oh right, I should talk about Grieth too.

Grieth joins as a prepromoted dread fighter with some average bases for his level. Honestly, compared to Deen and Blake, he falls short in a lot of ways. Only thing he really has going for him is slightly more bulk. Luckily for him, that doesn't really matter. He's blessed with the broken Dread Fighter class, meaning he'll still be zooming across maps and take on enemy magic users with ease. He still has a respectable 20 spd and 17 atk, letting him still double most of the enemies in Celica's route. Give him a blessed sword, and he'll be our go to guy for taking out terrors.

Before we finish this section off, lets tie up some loose ends.

We enter the shrine and obtain some needed levels and promotions.

I don't care how dangerously stupid this is. THIS IS FUN.

We finish up and head back to the Mila Shrine to progress with the story. I give Mikhail some levels due to his Gargoyles leveling alongside him. So yes, our broken Gargoyles can get even stronger. 

AND we get the Mage Ring! 1-5 range with mire is crazy and will help offset his 4 mov. I pity whatever enemies we have left to face. This is going to be a bloodbath!

That ends Celica's section of Act 3. I apologize if this one was all over the place. I'm still getting used to the screenshot function so forgive me if this one didn't have as many pictures as the last ones. This was the most fun I've had so far in this run. Summoning is just unfair on so many levels and game balance has been thrown out the window. The monsters are just too strong and having them be infinite is just icing on the cake. Levels like Wolff's box are just completely cheesed by our new Gargoyles, and all the challenge in that map was gone. Not that I'm complaining though. I cannot wait for even more summoners to join our ranks. Celica's route is about to be decimated, and I'm all for it. 

Until next time...

Bow before the Gargoyle squad.

 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2021 by GODOFWAR

[RNGSOMEONE]

You know what's better than expendable Gargoyle cannon fodder?

Expendable Witch cannon fodder. Provided you can actually beat Marla, that is. Terrain is nothing compared to a swarm of expendable magic users.

[AnonymousSpeed]

On 8/6/2021 at 4:12 PM, GODOFWAR said:

Oh yeah, the Captain got an upgrade.

Meme weapon good.

>gargoyles

Playable bosses are kinda broken, which I suppose isn't surprising. Are you planning to do any Dread Fighter loops?

[GODOFWAR]

Probably. I might use pitchforks for the heck of it, but that breaks the rule of no DLC.

Next chapter might be a little late due to me just moving into college, but I assure you this is not dead. I'll try to get the next one out as soon as possible.

[AnonymousSpeed]

I don't know if pitchforks are necessary for Celica's route, since she has so many dread fighters. As for Alm's route, I'm still not sure. I'm worried it might "take away" from the experience if the bosses reclass into things which they weren't as bosses. Might be worth using on Barth (or even Garth) though.

[Magically Inclined Dunmer]

Can you still assure us that this is not dead?

[GODOFWAR]

On 1/19/2022 at 4:47 PM, Magically Inclined Dunmer said:

Can you still assure us that this is not dead?

Been a while hasn't it? First off, i'd like to apologize for the extremely long hiatus. College has kept me busy! Fortunately, I finally remembered that this existed and now, I'm going to finish what i started. I'm just uh... 10 months late.

Without further ado...

BOSS/NPC RUN MIDPOINT

Spoiler

Before I begin the next chapter, I think it's fair to have an army "recap" of sorts due to it being almost a year since I last updated this. Let's go back and see all our recruits! 

ALM'S ARMY (The Degenerance)

Spoiler

After years of torment from his boss, he decided that the weird green haired farmboy had a better gig than his evil chancellor friend, making him the first member of the Degenerance. Unlike before, he's now free to let loose and enjoy his true calling! Horse extermination. Despite some reservations about his trustworthiness, Slayde has proven to be an effective second-in-command now that he's no longer bound to an incompetent leader like Desaix. He's just a little.....eccentric. 

THE KING HAS ARRIVED! .....Or not. Brigand Boss was so enamored by the way Alm and Slayde cleared out his hideout that he made the decision to join Alm's death squad in hopes of spreading his fearsome name across Valentia. Sadly, his reputation seems to have been exaggerated a bit. Slayde and Alm quickly found out that his skill with an axe was no better than his underlings. The only reason they followed him was due to his fearsome name. He's been relegated to stable duties due to his poor performance in battle.

Zakson was a longtime veteran and loyal commander of the Rigel Army, so his recruitment came a bit of a shock to the Degenerance. His reason for joining? Oranges. Zofia offered something Rigel couldn't, so Zakson felt he had no choice but to defect. As long as he gets full access to the Orange supply, he'll remain a loyal soldier of the cause.

Much like Slayde, our imposter here found out what it meant to be working for the corrupt chancellor. After getting ditched and for dead in the name of his boss, Desaix? was more than happy to join up with our group to enact some good old fashioned revenge to his old employer. After skewering the old snake with his javelin, Desaix? wants to crush the Rigel Empire so he can be free to pursue his desired career as an actor.

Unlike the rest of the army, Fernand was a bit... resistant in joining the merry band of the Degenerance. Much like the rest of Valentia, he saw the group as nothing more than deranged bandits. His point of view soon changed when he found out that his little sister was still alive! In the hands of the deranged Alm. As long as he follows orders, his sister lives another day. Needless to say, Fernand stays as an uneasy ally to the Degenerance, with him butting heads with our psycho second-in-command quite frequently.

During his time as Rigel Commander, Lawson was nicknamed "The Sheriff" due to his imposing presence and serious disposition. After his squad was routed by Alm, he was convinced by his fellow Rigel native Zakson to defect, with Zakson pointing out the growing corruption of Rigel at the hands of its incompetent leaders. Plus, Zofia has oranges! Who wouldn't say no to a proposition like that? Although Lawson has been trying to keep to himself, he finds himself the mediator when Fernand and Slayde begin to bicker at each other.

Gazelle was never the most loyal of soldiers in the first place. Much like his Zofian counterpart Python, he's a lazy bum with an excellent shot. Originally starting off as a game hunter, he was pressed into service by Rigel due to his talent with the bow. As such, it didn't take much convincing from Alm to join the Degenerance. Alm got a talented sniper, and Gazelle got to keep his head AND begin to pursue his hobby in hunting. His arrogant and selfish personality has been grating at the army, but his skill with his bow is invaluable.

After liberating the Sluice Gate, the army of the Degenerance took this crusty old bastard in for questioning when they found out something shocking. He wasn't the one controlling Delthea; Delthea was controlling him! He was just doing his daily stroll around the gate when he was suddenly kidnapped and put under a spell by the crazy witch. Grateful for his freedom, he offered the army his services in mass sage powder mass healing.
 

CELICA'S ARMY (The Killgrimage)

Spoiler

Across the ports of Zofia, one man has made a joke of the stationed guards as a living legend in the art of Piracy. When Celica went off on her quest to purge the Duma Faithful, she hired the services of the famed Captain Barth. Barth joins as the official first mate of Celica's crew. Despite this, he continues to go by Captain. With his knowledge of the seven seas, navigating the treacherous waters of Zofia was an easy task. After losing his ship to an ambush by deadly cantors, his motivation for joining Celica's band is simple; he wants vengeance against the Duma Faithful and take their riches to himself. The legend of the captain continues...

The Masked Knight had planned to lay low and simply observe his sister until the time came....until he spotted her mercilessly cutting down pirates with the infamous Captain Barth! Shocked at this unexpected turn of events, The Masked Knight had no choice but to join Celica early due to wanting to keep a closer eye on her and her new pirate crew. While he considered revealing his identity, the sudden change in his sister's personality has convinced him to remain Masked for the time being...

With the reputation of the famed Captain Barth stretching across the lands of Valentia, imposters would inevitably arise. Garth is the less talented twin of the legendary captain. After living in his brother's shadow for so long, Garth travelled across the land instead of the sea, attempting to trick unwary travelers to believe that he was the real deal. Unfortunately for him, Celica's crew stumbled upon him harassing two tourists! It didn't take long for Captain Barth to lay down the law and force his brother to repent by joining Celica's motley crew of misfits. He has taken of habit of telling Barth "Celica said its my turn to be Captain".

Due to his incompetence, he has been relegated to being the summoner Mikhail's guinea pig. The summoner thinks great power allows Garth to attract his gargoyles, not realizing that it might just be Garth's awful stench of dried cheese...

It was just another average day for Wolff. Standard checkups on the watch tower. Pointless drills from Grieth. Everything was going great until he and his men heard an unholy screech from the horizon. In the distance, he saw a sea of cracked wings blotting out the glare of the sun. Before he knew it, his whole outpost had been overrun by devilish gargoyles. Miraculously, he was spared by the horde and brought before a red haired witch. Without hesitation, he took up her proposition and left Grieth's employ. Nowadays, he quietly keeps to himself, sometimes speaking to his old comrade Deen about the good ol' days. He stays far away from Mikhail though...

Much like Wolff, Deen too was suddenly overrun by an army of gargoyles and brought before a red haired witch. Unlike Wolff, who quite enjoyed his gig under Greith, Deen was more than happy to join with this strange new crew. He always hated Grieth anyways, now was the perfect chance to rid Grieth's grip over the desert. To go along with his new job, he's been assigned as to the crew's Dread Fighter Spec Ops, assassinating high target enemies before they become a problem.

Blake was a mere hired merc assigned to guard the Temple of Mila. That all changed when he recklessly challenged Celica's crew to a duel, causing the arrogant swordsmen to overextend and be humiliated by a masked knight. Humbled by his defeat, he offered to join Celica's crew and turned over a new leaf. With his shadow sword replaced by a shiny new brave sword, Blake joins Deen in Dread Fighter Spec Ops in hunting down dangerous monster summoners.

Mikhail was a high-ranking member of the Duma Faithful assigned to watch over the Temple of Mila. When the red haired witch and her crew of pirates and knights stormed the temple, he was shocked to find that his gargoyles reacted strangely to the pirate named Garth! They only seemed to target him. After being defeated, he offered his services to the Killgrimage in exchange for being able to study the strange Gargoyle attracting pirate. He spends most days stalking Garth, determined to find the source of the pirate's "power".

Grieth is the newest addition to Celica's Killgrimage, and he is by far the most unwilling. Within a day, his whole criminal empire crumbled before him and the iron fist of the red haired witch seized his base of operations. With nothing to exchange but his service in combat, Grieth now serves under the very men he bossed around days before. As a fresh member of the dread fighter spec ops, he now quietly waits for Celica and her first mate to let their guard down for a chance at vengeance...

 

CHAPTER 4 PREVIEW

Spoiler

 

 

Edited June 29, 2022 by GODOFWAR

[Magically Inclined Dunmer]

Neat.