help Is it realistic to use every unit on hard?

[Ryanman2003]

Hi, I've played a fair bit of fire emblem but I just started playing through Sacred Stones for the 1st time on hard mode.  I've just finished chapter 5 and I wanted to know if it's realistic to keep most/all units up with the main team by grinding a so that I can try different teams for different chapters and will this either take many hours of mindless grinding or turn the game into a complete faceroll?

I ask because so far I already really like every single character in Eirika's army (apart from Artur, sorry bud) and I really want to try each and every one of them out on a run of the game so I can form my own opinions on them both as units and characters throughout the whole game.

Typically whenever I play other games with infinite grinding such as awakening, birthrights, rev, etc.  I tend to spend most of the game raising a vast majority of the units and then in the last 5ish chapters I'll pick out my favourites now that I actually have experience to base my decision on and build a team for endgame like that.  I'd just like to know if this will work in Sacred Stones.

Thanks a bunch in advance for any help or suggestions.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Ryanman2003

[Jotari]

It's a pretty easy game with a rather small cast, so yeah, I reckon it's pretty managble to raise the entire cast in a single playthrough. From what I recall the boss on Tower of Valni first floor gives a guaranteed level up to any unit that kills it, so grinding isn't even that hard. My one concern however would be weapon durability. Grinding has a few sparse weapon drops, but the funds you get from that might not offset the cost in durability from weapons you end up using (skirmish levels tend to be a lot of weak enemies, which means a lot of weapon uses). So if you are doing it, I advise you try to use the cheapest possible weapons as much as you can and sell basically everything else.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Jotari

[Ryanman2003]

15 minutes ago, Jotari said:

It's a pretty easy game with a rather small cast, so yeah, I reckon it's pretty managble to raise the entire cast in a single playthrough. From what I recall the boss on Tower of Valni first floor gives a guaranteed level up to any unit that kills it, so grinding isn't even that hard. My one concern however would be weapon durability. Grinding has a few sparse weapon drops, but the funds you get from that might not offset the cost in durability from weapons you end up using (skirmish levels tend to be a lot of weak enemies, which means a lot of weapon uses). So if you are doing it, I advise you try to use the cheapest possible weapons as much as you can and sell basically everything else.

Ty so much, that's just what I was hoping.  Thanks for letting me know about the weapon thing as well, probably would have struggled with that if I didn't know, I'll be sure to be careful with my weapon durability.

[Jotari]

25 minutes ago, Ryanman2003 said:

Ty so much, that's just what I was hoping.  Thanks for letting me know about the weapon thing as well, probably would have struggled with that if I didn't know, I'll be sure to be careful with my weapon durability.

Let us know how you get on. It's not something I've ever considered doing. And with the exception of full deployment Genealogy and Gaiden, it's about the only pre-DLC game where you stand a reasonable shot at it.

[OriginalRaisins]

6 hours ago, Ryanman2003 said:

Typically whenever I play other games with infinite grinding such as awakening, birthrights, rev, etc.  I tend to spend most of the game raising a vast majority of the units and then in the last 5ish chapters I'll pick out my favourites now that I actually have experience to base my decision on and build a team for endgame like that.  I'd just like to know if this will work in Sacred Stones.

It seems like you're willing to use grinding mechanics like the tower of Valni for this purpose, in which case yes you can use every unit. If you want to infinite grind, get through at least chapter 10 so that you can unlock a shop that sells chest keys and tower of Valni floor 3. The 3rd floor of the tower of Valni has a chest with 3000 gold in it and if you manage to get to that floor you will definitely earn more money through loot than you spent on weapons to reach it. If you can chain train through the 3rd floor and stick to iron weapons I guarantee that weapon durability and money are not going to be an issue in your training.

If you are unwilling to use infinite grinding such as the tower of Valni, then whether you will be able to use every unit depends on your definition of "use". You will have more units than deployment slots beginning in chapter 4 and will therefore need to undeploy some units on some maps, but there's nothing stopping you from just rotating through your cast each chapter. I will say that even though the game is easy to me, spreading exp thinly across every member of the cast can leave a newer player unprepared to face some of the challenges in mid and late game, especially if you insist upon deploying weaker units in chapters where you are struggling. Even though people frequently beat this game on 0% growths that does not mean that an arbitrary player has taken the necessary steps to have the tools available and you should not be afraid to deploy the strongest units you have when you are struggling.

6 hours ago, Ryanman2003 said:

then in the last 5ish chapters I'll pick out my favourites now that I actually have experience to base my decision on and build a team for endgame like that.  I'd just like to know if this will work in Sacred Stones.

You clearly have an idea in your mind that at some point you want to transition from using the vast majority of units to trimming your team down to the best units in your army. If you want to do something similar in Sacred Stones I would recommend going by the pacing of the promotion items. Unlike Awakening, Birthright, and Rev, promotion items only work for a small set of classes. You can use a knight crest to promote a cavalier, for example, but not a mage. My completely subjective advice which you can ignore if you like (and I won't be offended if you do ignore) is that whenever you get a promotion item, you make a decision then and there on which of your candidate units you intend to use it on. You don't have to use it right away, but at least have an idea of who you are going to promote with that item. For example, when you get the first Knight Crest, examine all of Franz, Forde, Gilliam, and Kyle and decide which one you want to promote. You may want to give your selected unit more levels before promoting them, but still choose which one to promote nonetheless. This eases you into the practice of preparing your team for endgame by trimming down the weaker units from your roster.