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Skirmish tips on Hard


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I don't think I'm qualified to write a definitive guide on this, but I should be able to give out some pointers.

What to expect out of a skirmish

If you're looking for the Awakening Normal mode skirmishes, you're out of luck.  At best you can bring one unit that can do some chip damage/kill stealing, but this is very map-dependent.  You're in for a fight, and some of those fights are a nightmare.

Before the skirmish

Scout the map.  I prefer maps that give me choke points, so I can bring a couple of tanks and let them take the brunt of the attack.  Bandit's Hideout is probably the most "open" map I'll do, unless I'm feeling really cocky.  If the map enemies look like a pain (say, an even mix of flying units and mages), I'll skip it.  For specific maps:

Spoiler

Most of Firene should be okay.  Grand Crossing is dependent on the number of mages that spawn - the fewer, the better.  Arena of the Gods depends on your strategy.  Destinea can work depending on the enemies the game throws at you.  The moor's a little iffier since your army's all spread out, but thieves like that map.  Don't do that stupid purple-flame fortress unless you're a masochist.

Obstruct is a 500G staff that can disrupt enemy formations.  Freeze is more expensive and has less uses but it can also help in a pinch.

Cook something!  You want stat bonuses and you want them now.

Forging is a permanent way to increase offense.  Forged Iron weapons go a long way.  So does a forged Initiate scroll.

Don't underestimate passive healing.  One emblem in particular is good with this, but it shows up rather late.

Rings and emblems

If you're lucky enough to get Eliwood's S-rank ring, put it on someone.  It's saved more than a few runs for me!

Snag Emblem skills when you can!  Some are pretty darn good, like Canter (Sigurd).  Micaiah's healing skill is great for staff users, and the Bld buffs from Leif can be used on units who are weighed down by most of their weapons (hello axe users).  Of the later emblems:

Spoiler

Ike's Resolve is pretty good on tanks and off-tanks.  Eirika's not quite as useful on harder modes, but she can help to turn some 2HKOs into 3HKOs.  Byleth's experience boost is great on Alear if you use their innate skill a lot.  Lyn's Speedtaker is for anyone who can snag early kills, because it'll cause them to snowball.  Do not get me started on Corrin, I think the reason why she's on Seadall is because she'd break the game if she started on anyone else.

I'm probably missing your favorite emblem and I'm sorry.

As for the emblems themselves, I like to mix up weapon types.  That is, shove Marth on someone that doesn't naturally have swords, because breaking is that good.  For more specific examples:

Spoiler

Marth on anyone with aspirations of being a dodgetank.  Or those who wield axes, because having someone dodgetank while throwing out Hand Axes is pretty funny.

Celica is built for mages but can also work with someone who needs a ranged armor-busting option and has decent magic.  Her "eat lunch and heal everything" passive is good for tanks, assuming you have the inventory space for said lunch.

Sigurd on damn near anyone, Canter is that good.  Though slapping him on a flying unit is also a legit strategy.  I've heard good things about Louis, but I have something else I'd rather put on him.

Leif works well on people who wield multiple weapon types.  But do get stuff like the Hammer out of their inventory because you don't want to be weighed down on enemy phase.

I didn't get much experience with Roy but he should be pretty good on someone who has good HP and not-overly-frail defenses.  Lancereaver is pretty funny.

Lyn's bows work well with someone who has high Strength, is swordlocked, and snowballs after getting +4 Speed or so.  I wonder which character fits that bill?

Eirika works well on off-tanks who hit hard.  The general gist is to take an attack then heal it right back up.  In my game she's currently on Alfred and he can tank hits decently enough.

Ike's Great Aether is great on true tanks if you can set it up.  Just make sure that Chain Strikes don't kill said tank.

Putting Micaiah on a staffbot seems silly, but being able to heal up after using Great Sacrifice is that good.  Jean makes amazing use of her.

Lucina goes on any mounted unit.  Read what Dual Strike does and thank me later.  Her shield can also hold a chokepoint for three turns, RNG be willing.  Bandit's Hideout skirmishes become a lot less annoying if you go this route!

Corrin is ridiculous.  She can heal the people around her, debuff whoever gets hit, pin enemies while engaged and Dragon Vein does things depending on the unit type.  Shove her on a thief and bring them to Arena of the Gods because you can.  Have your favorite Longbow archer debuff a bunch of enemies while cowering behind a tank.  Turn a flying unit into a mobile healer.  Just for the love of everything get her off Seadall, he has better things to do with his time than create ice pillars.

Byleth raided the armory before coming to Elyos.  Mystical units get a range boost, which can help underleved mages catch up.  Alear is another strong option, as the experience boost is an aura and we're already placing people next to Alear for the offense boost.  He's not quite as versatile as Corrin, but he's pretty adaptable.  Plus he gives Arts mastery, which is great if you really want someone to be a shielding staffbot.

During the skirmish

Most enemies will stick to Iron/Steel/Silver.  I don't remember if mages use wind attacks (but I remember that one jerk with Elfire that nearly ruined a run).

The time crystal exists for a reason.  Pay attention to what happens, especially if someone dies.  You may be able to change the result if you mix up your actions.  Don't use it to rig levels.

Be prepared to toss your plans into the trash.  Things move fast and you need to move faster.

Archers can usually take a single melee hit.  Useful if you need to withdraw your tank to heal them.  Sword units can also distract thieves and other ranged attackers if you position them right.

Because my strategies revolve around physically tanky units, enemy mages die first.  Thieves are next because poison is only good if I'm applying it.

Engage on the first turn if you must.  The goal is to survive.

Don't feel bad about blowing your once-an-engage attack on a thief, because again your goal is to survive.

Use anything and everything to win.  That includes expensive staves and healing items.  The skirmishes are usually harder than the story battles.

Thieves suck.  Mages suck.  A fist to the face will prevent them from countering once.

Do not underestimate Chain Strike, especially against armored units.

---

There's probably a bunch of other things that can be added, so have at it!  I'm currently on Chapter 17 and am using skirmishes to bring up a couple of units.  I'm also raising far more units than I should hence why I'm doing so many skirmishes.

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I will say that as they go on later in the game, you will see Elwind to mess up your fliers and it seems every map has at least on Elthunder. So keep an eye out for that. Swordmaster and Griffons are the bane of your existence as they can only be double by themselves. Halberdier is a swordmaster hard counter do to pincer attack and you will want a power bow user all the time. You will occasionally see some Brave weapons in the mix.

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I enjoy hard mode on the main campaign but I hate how it’s now basically impossible to keep all your units up to speed due to how skirmishes follow your level (however that exactly works) and how BRUTAL they are. They can quickly become way, WAY harder than anything the campaign can provide so far (nearing chapter 20 or something).

I like skirmishes being hard, I just wish there was a way to avoid needing to bench a ton of units.

And I’m not a fan of being stuck between a rock and a hard place where skirmishes become so insanely hard, and if you do them a tad too much (cause they’re fun), you outlevel the main campaign to the point it becomes a joke. So now I have a choice between near Lunatic-level skirmishes and Normal-level main missions.

Such a weird design decision.

Edited by TheHBK
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7 hours ago, eclipse said:

I don't remember if mages use wind attacks

They do and it's fucking annoying

 

7 hours ago, eclipse said:

A fist to the face will prevent them from countering once.

Honestly, that's essentially an waste of an turn in the early game. I would rather just eat the hit or rush them with Louis.

 

7 hours ago, eclipse said:

Do not underestimate Chain Strike, especially against armored units.

Conversely, this also applies to them, as well.

7 hours ago, eclipse said:

Use anything and everything to win.  That includes expensive staves and healing items.  The skirmishes are usually harder than the story battles.

Considering how I was initially trying to farm these for money, this kind of defeats the point of doing them.

 

And I kind of disagree about using Sigurd because Overide while does kill stuff, it usually  leaves me out of position. Plus, the only thing that I get out of it is an free Ridersbane, which isn't as useful as Seraphim, in my opinion

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On 1/26/2023 at 6:43 AM, Armchair General said:

Honestly, that's essentially an waste of an turn in the early game. I would rather just eat the hit or rush them with Louis.

Only if I can ORKO them.  Otherwise I'm taking unnecessary damage.  Plus Louis isn't the most accurate guy in the army, or he may be preoccupied with someone else.

On 1/26/2023 at 6:43 AM, Armchair General said:

And I kind of disagree about using Sigurd because Overide while does kill stuff, it usually  leaves me out of position. Plus, the only thing that I get out of it is an free Ridersbane, which isn't as useful as Seraphim, in my opinion

Override is situational at best.  If I use Sigurd, it's for the extra movement.  Though that Ridersbane is a lance, so it's useful on units who don't wield lances naturally.

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Some other general tips:

Do not turtle, march corner to corner. Turtling is death on certain maps (anything from solm) you will get overwhelmed fast so being proactive is a must

If it states it's an advanced skirmish, remember that it's stated so that they have base lvl 20 + the advanced level 1 boost. Treat these skirmishes accordingly.

Always have off tanks. There's only so much a louise/jade/vander/buret can take. Especially if  mages come into play. Swordmaster chain attacks into javelin from cavalry can easy chip down 1 to two tanks. And dodge tanks like yunaka become child's food to them. Honestly swordmaster are easily the most deadly melee enemy due to their high hit and good dodge. 

 

Kill something till it's dead. Healers will heal and you will be sad.

 

Check the tomes mages have. A skirmish tends to keep el tomes as the base where I'm at (ch 17 hard) but if you see one a bolongese or thoron, prioritize killing it; especially if you brought a general. They will get doubled, and they will die.

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A few tips of my own:

In addition to its immediate use, Obstruct staff is also a good source of XP for staff users in general, especially when you can buy an unlimited supply of them near the end of the game. 

Olwen's S Ring is far stronger than it looks- the utility of a range 3 Brave weapon equivalent cannot be understated, and forging can easily compensate for its lower damage compared to Elthunder and Thoron. 

On Maddening, the AI grows a bit more clever about how it'll choose to attack you. It won't bother attempting to fight units that would give it a hit rate of 0%, so you'll want to intentionally reduce your Avoid stat just enough to keep the AI from wising up to you without compromising your survivability in the process. 

As touched on earlier by a few other people, chain attacks deal a flat amount of damage equal to 10% of the target's max HP. On its own this wouldn't be too bad, but that damage bypasses all forms of damage reduction and it will add up. Make sure your tank has someone nearby to pick off Backup units adjacent to them, or they'll suffer a death of a thousand cuts. (Of course, this works both ways. It's practically a necessity in Maddening, where even basic enemies will have up to 50 HP and armored units will be nearly unkillable without chain attacks, mages, or preferably both.)

 

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I just finished my Hard/Classic playthrough and what I can tell is that the Training Skirmishes (those that spawn in each kingdom Castle) are the way to go if you wish to grind. Your units won't die even if defeated (good if the map's almost done and the enemy gets a lucky crit or takes down your dancer due to an oversight). These maps also give some extra exp to the units that survive the map, I think it scales with level as I got 20 exp on a level 2 Solm and 30 on a level 3 Brodia. They also give you some money after winning (scales with development level too, I get 3k from Brodia and 2k from Solm) so there's no reason not to do them when they spawn.

If you wish to train units that fell off give them the Micaiah ring and use Great Sacrifice for an easy level up. The Byleth ring gives less Exp but makes the unit contribute more with the dance. 

In extreme cases you can abuse the "Retry and keep Exp" to train units but I wouldn't recommend doing this unless you're grinding a team for your online map. 

When you get enough SP, grind Sigurd's bond level in the arena and give your healers and dancer Canter. The positioning flexibility it offers is godlike. Also get Byleth's Mentorship skill for slightly faster levelling (I've heard the Tiki Emblem gives even more exp and higher growth rates ala Star Jacinth but I haven't bought the DLC so I can't tell). 

I guess that's all the advice I can offer, after all I went and benched a lot of units as some of the later recruits are extremely powerful and utterly outclass even a stat blessed unit (RIP Alfred, always getting Str, Skl, Spd and Def but still lagging behind a Lance Paladin Goldmary). 

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On 1/30/2023 at 1:07 AM, Alexmender said:

and what I can tell is that the Training Skirmishes (those that spawn in each kingdom Castle) are the way to go if you wish to grind.

I wish they were always guaranteed to show up. I spent two hours trying to figure out a regular Skirmish (counting the time I spent trying to get through a late game Skirmish map)...

On 1/29/2023 at 1:18 AM, Vicyus said:

If it states it's an advanced skirmish, remember that it's stated so that they have base lvl 20 + the advanced level 1 boost. Treat these skirmishes accordingly.

Aren't all Skirmishes Advanced though? At least in post-game, they all recommend Advanced Level 20 units. Thanks in advance!

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2 minutes ago, Armchair General said:

They start becoming advanced either around Chapter 12 or when you start promoting your characters. 

Yeah, that does match what I remember. I wish we got a mix of on-level and low-level skirmishes though, it feels like such an odd decision/ oversight to not include ways to easily get older units up to par given the existence of a post-game in the first place.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So does anyone have an list of easy maps to farm? Solm Castle is kind of doable, along with Firene's castle. Brodia's courtyard requires some clever position; but half my team dies on the training mission. The cathedral is kind of good, provided that I can hold the doorway for an certain amount of time. And I also liked Solm's Northern Fortress...when I was playing through the story; I took one look at the Skirmish deployment locations and the went,"You know what? Fuck you, game."

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2 hours ago, Armchair General said:

So does anyone have an list of easy maps to farm? Solm Castle is kind of doable, along with Firene's castle. Brodia's courtyard requires some clever position; but half my team dies on the training mission. The cathedral is kind of good, provided that I can hold the doorway for an certain amount of time. And I also liked Solm's Northern Fortress...when I was playing through the story; I took one look at the Skirmish deployment locations and the went,"You know what? Fuck you, game."

Was Northern Fortress another split up map or something? Or did it force you into a surrounded sitch to start?

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3 hours ago, Armchair General said:

Brodia's courtyard requires some clever position; but half my team dies on the training mission.

How do you fight on this map? I try to get everyone into the bottom right corner and use the existing wall to give my weaker units some breathing space, if that helps?

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1 hour ago, DefyingFates said:

How do you fight on this map? I try to get everyone into the bottom right corner and use the existing wall to give my weaker units some breathing space, if that helps?

With nearly all of my army dead after reseting an few times.

 

2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Was Northern Fortress another split up map or something? Or did it force you into a surrounded sitch to start?

While it isn't as cruel as the Chapter 11(?) map, you're split into three groups of 4 across the two open areas and the hallway. There's miasma everywhere.

 

So yeah, someone was high programming that map for an skirmish.

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7 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

How do you fight on this map? I try to get everyone into the bottom right corner and use the existing wall to give my weaker units some breathing space, if that helps?

Haven't tried it in the late game by in midgame multiple tanking was my solution - Zelkov+corrin as one tank, well leveled yunaka with max avo build(avo+10, knife avo+5) as another, Louis as a physical wall with spear to tank some physical waves and everyone in a single deathball to kill incoming waves from one direction. Definitely not the way to level weak characters:)

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6 hours ago, Armchair General said:

With nearly all of my army dead after reseting an few times.

 

While it isn't as cruel as the Chapter 11(?) map, you're split into three groups of 4 across the two open areas and the hallway. There's miasma everywhere.

 

So yeah, someone was high programming that map for an skirmish.

Split up AND miasma? Fucking hell... couldn't they have taken cues from like Fort Steiger in Awakening or something?

Edited by Shadow Mir
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25 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Split up AND miasma? Fucking hell... couldn't they have taken cues from like Fort Steiger in Awakening or something?

I'm pretty sure that Skirmishes just flipped the deployment slots on you with some of the original enemies' starting locations. Sure, it's challenging; but there's only 2 or 3 maps that I've seen that are naturally difficult to defend

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