Fire Emblem Engage General Questions Thread

[Xylaugheon Daily]

15 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

So I just finished my pet project of maxing out all Emblem Rings/ Bracelets for Divine Dragon!Alear. Are there any particular Rings that are considered the best for them, be they Emblem or Bond Rings, or should I just use Byleth or Corrin/ Camilla? Thanks in advance!

Depends on what you want from your Alear. In one run I had they with the FEH ring that gives Spur Attack as they were a Rallybot with Geosphere. Another time I ran them with Hector with Sword Power and Lifesphere with a heavy weapon with Ike Engraving turning them into a moving choke point with self session and excellent enemy phase damage. But, generally, Corrin always feels best to me.

[Shadow Mir]

On 4/1/2023 at 4:07 PM, samthedigital said:

Ike!Panette, Warrior; finish the Ike paralogue once you have access to Byleth (that's when it becomes pretty easy to cheese) and Leif paralogue cheese once you have access to that. Vantage+ and Hit+20 or Canter depending on the situation and she becomes an EP machine even on Maddening with a Lyn forged Killer Axe and a crit forged killer bow depending on the situation. You might be able to get away with wyvern too depending; I haven't tried that yet.

Anything else? Because Warrior Panette didn't really pan out for me. She's just too slow, and not durable enough.

Also, am I the only one that finds that Yunaka falls off as the game progresses? She's not evasive enough without assistance from fog (which needs Corrin, who has other uses) or terrain, and her fragility is showing. Maybe I did something wrong, but...

Edited April 4, 2023 by Shadow Mir

[Dark Holy Elf]

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

Anything else? Because Warrior Panette didn't really pan out for me. She's just too slow, and not durable enough.

Also, am I the only one that finds that Yunaka falls off as the game progresses? She's not evasive enough without assistance from fog (which needs Corrin, who has other uses) or terrain, and her fragility is showing. Maybe I did something wrong, but...

I had great results with Warrior Panette running Lyn. Obviously Lyn is a great emblem for a lot of people, but Panette's monstrous power combined with all of Lyn's speed boosts results in someone with peerless offence, AND she has 3-range backup options. Just an all-around solid unit.

Yunaka just seems vaguely underwhelming to me sadly, her only particularly good stat is res. I'm currently running her alongside Wolf Knight Alear and the comparison is not kind to her. Her personal screams "get me into a class which actually can use killer weapons" but you can't even do that until Level... 20? 21?

[samthedigital]

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

Anything else? Because Warrior Panette didn't really pan out for me. She's just too slow, and not durable enough.

Do you have the full build set up? She reaches 100% hit+crit against just about every enemy and attacks first, so provided you're sending her out against enemies she can counter you won't have to worry about getting damaged at all once she has vantage up; she's strong enough to one shot everything in the game. If that's not working you can try to use some more player phase oriented build with Wrath and Canter as a wyvern or something to make her a player phase machine or use speedwings to patch up her issues, etc, but it's not going to be nearly as effective. You could also try a few more classes with the same build, but I can't attest to the efficacy of that personally as I've only played through Maddening once with Panette.

Edited April 5, 2023 by samthedigital

[Shadow Mir]

22 hours ago, samthedigital said:

Do you have the full build set up? She reaches 100% hit+crit against just about every enemy and attacks first, so provided you're sending her out against enemies she can counter you won't have to worry about getting damaged at all once she has vantage up; she's strong enough to one shot everything in the game. If that's not working you can try to use some more player phase oriented build with Wrath and Canter as a wyvern or something to make her a player phase machine or use speedwings to patch up her issues, etc, but it's not going to be nearly as effective. You could also try a few more classes with the same build, but I can't attest to the efficacy of that personally as I've only played through Maddening once with Panette.

The problem is, the existence of Break alone makes this iffy, especially when she's so slow that most anything that attacks her gets to smack her twice. And I must reiterate that I'm only playing on hard mode, and she's frequently at risk of being doubled... I'm not sure that this is so great when as a Warrior, she's prolly gonna be at death's door after one enemy attack, making it such that she's done for the moment she fails to one-shot for whatever reason.

[samthedigital]

4 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

The problem is, the existence of Break alone makes this iffy, especially when she's so slow that most anything that attacks her gets to smack her twice. And I must reiterate that I'm only playing on hard mode, and she's frequently at risk of being doubled... I'm not sure that this is so great when as a Warrior, she's prolly gonna be at death's door after one enemy attack, making it such that she's done for the moment she fails to one-shot for whatever reason.

If you're playing on hard mode the strategy should be even more effective. Ike is there to help tank hits, and if you're worried about getting broken before she gets to half HP all you have to do is avoid that encounter. Once she's set up and you don't send her in against enemies she doesn't proc vantage against she will one shot just about everything. You also have control over what enemies she faces; some armored enemies are probably too bulky, but there isn't much of anything that lives outside of that. The problems you listed really don't really apply when she's set up; if you're having difficulties getting her to half health you can get her to take damage on player phase since you have more control over the damage she takes, but with Ike it's possible to do it on EP too in some situations.

Here is a quick example of the build in action:

I am now a Panette believer - GIF - Imgur

Edited April 6, 2023 by samthedigital

[meltenvy]

After you beat Fell Xenologue you can recruit characters from it right? How does it work? Is it like every playthrough you want to use them you have to complete the Xenologue? Or do you just have to beat it once, and then you can just recruit them on subsequent playthroughs like with the Ashen Wolves?

I haven't beaten it yet so please refrain from any specific spoilers about which characters, I'm only concerned with how to recruit them in base game. 

Edited April 6, 2023 by meltenvy

[Acacia Sgt]

6 minutes ago, meltenvy said:

After you beat Fell Xenologue you can recruit characters from it right? How does it work? Is it like every playthrough you want to use them you have to complete the Xenologue? Or do you just have to beat it once, and then you can just recruit them on subsequent playthroughs like with the Ashen Wolves?

I haven't beaten it yet so please refrain from any specific spoilers about which characters, I'm only concerned with how to recruit them in base game. 

It seems it has to be played every time for each individual playthrough. Since unlike Cindered Shadows, you play the Fell Xenologue from the playthrough itself, not as its own thing.

[meltenvy]

9 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

It seems it has to be played every time for each individual playthrough. Since unlike Cindered Shadows, you play the Fell Xenologue from the playthrough itself, not as its own thing.

That is so lame man. I hope it's at least easy to mindlessly speedrun it on Easy Mode or something if I want to do another playthrough with those characters.

[King Marth 64]

I have some questions about the Fell Xenologue:

1. I'm at Chapter 18 (the one is Lindon is at) as of right now, does the Fell Xenologue contain any spoilers from the main story like Ashen Wolves had in Three Houses? I wanted to have the new DLC characters added to my team in my playthrough.
2. How many chapters does the Fell Xenologue have?
3. Does the plot secret recruitable characters get a special conversation with the other world's maps in the Fell Xenologue?
4. I did seen some conversation videos with the Four Winds have special conversation with Marni in Solm Castle and the other two in the Ferine Port, does the Special Conversation gets triggered any later chapters when the Four Hounds appeared in.
5. Lastly, does any of the Four Winds trigger a Special Boss conversation with Evil Velye, Mauvier, and Sombron?
6. I'm at Chapter 18 as of right now, how main game chapters remaining do I have left to go before the End?
7. I did seen Evil Alfred used the D Word in his boss conversation with encountering Boucheron, does any of the Evil Version Characters made any swear words in any of the conversations?

Edited April 6, 2023 by King Marth 64

[ciphertul]

1: it does hint at a spoiler that happens a bit later in the main story but isn’t outright spoiled.

2: 6 chapters, however chapter 5 is rather long and 6 can be long.

Someone will have to answer the others. As I had to stop just after beating it.

[Shadow Mir]

12 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

It seems it has to be played every time for each individual playthrough. Since unlike Cindered Shadows, you play the Fell Xenologue from the playthrough itself, not as its own thing.

Does it scale to player progress?

11 hours ago, King Marth 64 said:

I'm at Chapter 18 as of right now, how main game chapters remaining do I have left to go before the End?

7 more. 21 and 22 must be tackled consecutively, so prepare accordingly beforehand. If you use meals, I'd savescum for good results, as the stat alterations carry over; I know this from watching someone else's run on Youtube. They got a bad meal before chapter 10, and it wasn't pretty, to say the least, as they also had to do chapter 11 with the stat drops from that bad food. Also, chapter 20 is really tricky, as it's fog of war, and the boss uses Celica's powers. Namely, Ragnarok Warp (no, it's not the same as what you used in the early chapters, as the warp comes after the attack). What's more, he actually leaves his position before the first player phase to hide in the darkness... and right near your initial positions! But that's not the worst of it. After berserking, he unlocks Unholy Stance. Ever beaten Radiant Dawn? Long story short, it works like the Aurora skill from that game, which itself worked like Counter (Counter in that game bounced back half the damage dealt to the user back to the attacker), except guaranteed to work. Yeah... Also, it's active on both phases, meaning you best be careful about who fights him and what weapon they use, lest they do themselves in. That said, Engage attacks avoid this problem entirely. Also of note, Entrap is a thing here, and the enemy with it drops it, so I'd use Astra Storm to get rid of the user before they can cause any trouble with it. Oh, and there are thieves too.

Edited April 6, 2023 by Shadow Mir

[Acacia Sgt]

2 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Does it scale to player progress?

I believe so, yes.

[samthedigital]

4 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I believe so, yes.

Not exactly. From what I understand the character levels, classes, and inventory are set, but you can swap emblems and skills and characters are unlocked as you progress through the story.

Edited April 6, 2023 by samthedigital

[Azz]

7 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Does it scale to player progress?

To expand more on this, the FX doesn't scale difficulty wise with your playthrough. The FX's difficulty is separate from whatever file you are playing currently, in that you could be playing maddening mode in the base game but choose to play normal mode in the FX.

The only thing your main file affects is what units and emblems (plus supports and bond levels, and also any skills too) you have available. Unit levels and inventory are all pre-set in the FX. So basically you can make the FX a bit easier by having decent supports and higher bond levels on units and you may be artificially making the FX somewhat more difficult by playing early on where you less emblems, supports and skills available for your units. Also worth noting that pre-promotes are inherently better in the FX as units that join in base classes are forced back into their base classes for the first two FX maps meanwhile pre-promotes stay in the normal classes, thus have 5/6 move.

For example:

Spoiler

In the first FX, all your units are level 15 and anyone who wasn't promoted when recruited goes back to their base class, meanwhile pre-promotes retain their promoted status. So in the first mission, you can choose to deploy and a level 15 Axe Fighter Boucheron with 12 strength, or if you have her, a level 15 Berserker Panette with 22 strength or a Saphir with 20 strength. It's kinda comical actually.

 

[Acacia Sgt]

27 minutes ago, samthedigital said:

Not exactly. From what I understand the character levels, classes, and inventory are set, but you can swap emblems and skills and characters are unlocked as you progress through the story.

Ah, thought they referred to the enemies.

[Kirby1up]

I was wondering how easy it is to get second seals in this game? With the weapon customization and emblem ring mechanics, I was wanting to tinker with my army a bit (Like making Framme a speedy sword unit,while I make Alear a healer for example) but I'm not sure how well it'd play out compared to Fates or awakening.

[Azz]

12 hours ago, Kirby1up said:

I was wondering how easy it is to get second seals in this game? With the weapon customization and emblem ring mechanics, I was wanting to tinker with my army a bit (Like making Framme a speedy sword unit,while I make Alear a healer for example) but I'm not sure how well it'd play out compared to Fates or awakening.

Second seals become available from chapter 8 in the shop (you also get a couple from chests I think) and you get a couple available every chapter in the shop, until chapter 17 where they become infinitely buyable. So yeah they are in fairly large supply.

[ciphertul]

So as far as I know the Divine stage seem to only spawn Silver Corrupted, the Fell side seems to only spawn Gold ones can anyone else confirm this?

[Shadow Mir]

On 4/5/2023 at 8:22 PM, samthedigital said:

If you're playing on hard mode the strategy should be even more effective. Ike is there to help tank hits, and if you're worried about getting broken before she gets to half HP all you have to do is avoid that encounter. Once she's set up and you don't send her in against enemies she doesn't proc vantage against she will one shot just about everything. You also have control over what enemies she faces; some armored enemies are probably too bulky, but there isn't much of anything that lives outside of that. The problems you listed really don't really apply when she's set up; if you're having difficulties getting her to half health you can get her to take damage on player phase since you have more control over the damage she takes, but with Ike it's possible to do it on EP too in some situations.

Here is a quick example of the build in action:

I am now a Panette believer - GIF - Imgur

Now that I think about it... isn't this doable in just about any axe class? Why Warrior?

[Ether]

6 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Now that I think about it... isn't this doable in just about any axe class? Why Warrior?

Well, Warrior is a flat upgrade compared to Berserker, and you want a class with A axe since it isn't Panette's innate prof and she has good reason to want Revanche(basically just a better killer axe). That leaves you with General, Paladin and Griffin Knight. General is weaker than warrior with little benefit, lower mov and the def is of little benefit once she gets into vantage range. Both Paladin and Griffin take notable Str hits compared to Warrior(-4 and -5) but they do get more Dex and more Mov, and while Griffin does have staff access, C with low magic limits how much Panette can really do with it. It comes down to more Str to OHKO physically bulky guys and being a backup compared to more Dex and higher mobility. Having used paladin Panette, it was very good, and I'm sure Griffin is much the same, but Warrior is the most intuitive reclass for her.

[samthedigital]

14 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Now that I think about it... isn't this doable in just about any axe class? Why Warrior?

Killer bow access and class bases are the main reasons to go for Warrior, but you can experiment with multiple classes and probably still have success with it. One shot thresholds are likely lower on hard mode, so the lack of strength on other classes might not matter either. I just don't don't want to fully endorse a setup that I have not tried personally.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Strength tends to be very important for Wrath setups, since each point is 3 damage, and if you aren't killing the build often struggles to be useful. My experience on Maddening with Warrior Panette is that she needed Warrior's Str to claim quite a number of one-shots with killer criticals she would otherwise miss, though the specifics will vary by your level of forge, choice of engrave, emblem equipped, stat boosters used, exact level, etc.

Warrior's a solid class anyway; even if you're building Panette primarily for enemy phase, her chain attacks on player phase can still be extremely valuable to held her teammates secure one-hit-kills, and Warrior is one of the best classes for those.

[Shadow Mir]

18 hours ago, Ether said:

Well, Warrior is a flat upgrade compared to Berserker, and you want a class with A axe since it isn't Panette's innate prof and she has good reason to want Revanche(basically just a better killer axe). That leaves you with General, Paladin and Griffin Knight. General is weaker than warrior with little benefit, lower mov and the def is of little benefit once she gets into vantage range. Both Paladin and Griffin take notable Str hits compared to Warrior(-4 and -5) but they do get more Dex and more Mov, and while Griffin does have staff access, C with low magic limits how much Panette can really do with it. It comes down to more Str to OHKO physically bulky guys and being a backup compared to more Dex and higher mobility. Having used paladin Panette, it was very good, and I'm sure Griffin is much the same, but Warrior is the most intuitive reclass for her.

Revanche has more might than a Killer Axe at full forge, but the cost is what makes me balk. It needs something like 40 silver ingots to get to max (it also needs iron, but that's negligible in comparison). Also, honestly, I found that even with Ike, Panette's ability to take hits as a Warrior was still suspect... on paper, it should not matter, but in practice, she's walking a really treacherous RNG tightrope where death results if the RNG goes against her.

Anyway, what's the consensus on effective weapons in this game? Because I think most of the ones that don't require engaging are pretty bad...

[Ether]

21 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Revanche has more might than a Killer Axe at full forge, but the cost is what makes me balk. It needs something like 40 silver ingots to get to max (it also needs iron, but that's negligible in comparison). Also, honestly, I found that even with Ike, Panette's ability to take hits as a Warrior was still suspect... on paper, it should not matter, but in practice, she's walking a really treacherous RNG tightrope where death results if the RNG goes against her.

Anyway, what's the consensus on effective weapons in this game? Because I think most of the ones that don't require engaging are pretty bad...

A +3 Revanche is equal to a +5 Killer axe, and at +4 gains a whopping +4 Mt. +5 is another 4 Mt on top but you probably don't need to go that far, and the forge cost is heavily backloaded. As for Panette's bulk, the point of running her with Ike is to safely get down to 50%(I think that vantage++ is overkill, you want to get 30 hp knocked off for Wrath anyway) and then vantage takes over, as long as you play her smart the remaining bulk doesn't matter. Honestly, with the well giving abundant SP, I decided to inherit both Wrath and Vantage+ and have Roy be her main emblem. Hold Out let her use risky engraves like Camilla or Eirika with no actual risk attached and Roy himself gives a large boost to her Str.

As for effective weapons, I didn't use them all too much. Hammer and Armourslayer were decent for niche uses but ultimately were replaced with general magic damage, and especially levin swords in the case of the latter. I would imagine that horse-slaying weapons have a place for dealing with Wolf knights given how much of a pain they can be, and bows for griffins and wyverns is one of the hallmarks of why warrior is such a great class.