Does anyone have tips on preventing easy FE4 pairings from happening and making the difficult ones happen?

[Ⱥstra]

Hi,

I plan to iron man FE4 some time soon and this of course means that if I mess up a pairing, I am somewhat screwed. As I want to make good use of the Valkyrie staff, I don't really think I have a choice in whether I want to do Erinys x Claude, since Hannibal and his kid have a difficult recruitment that an inexperienced FE4 player such as myself will probably mess up. Ced also gives me one extra chapter of access to it and will therefore have more time to use it and to make more gold to repair it as well.  I already did this one in my first run but I need the staff so it is what it is. Though, maybe having rescue utility on Lana and eventually Leif is actually better for the purpose of saving units. Probably not though...

Anyway, this means that I want to pair Lewyn with Tailtiu, which is a pairing I have never done before. On my first run I messed up and got him married with Sylvia. I was therefore wondering if there are any consistent strategies to prevent a pairing like that from happening and for making the more difficult ones happen. Are there also any fail safes one can turn to in case something goes wrong? How exactly can killing a unit temporarily or permanently prevent a pairing from happening?

Any replies are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[indigoasis]

I'll go ahead and take the time to plug the Love Growths and Jealousy pages from the main site since they have the most reliable information on it, I think. I'd definitely give that a look-see when you can. It's supremely helpful. I'll also apologize in advance for any potential errors, as well as potentially providing information that you might have already known.

The best advice I can give is to have certain characters avoid each other like the plague, and keep the characters you wanna pair up directly next to each other as much as you can at the end of each turn. Certain characters come with a predetermined amount of love points between each other, so they'll have an easier time pairing up compared to others. For instance, Jamke has the highest starting amount of love points with Edain at 250, whereas someone like Midir has 120. However, they each gain 1 love point per turn no matter what, but if you wanted to pair Midir with Edain, placing Midir next to Edain by the end of every turn will cause them to pair together faster since the growth value is boosted by 5 if they're next to each other. This would eventually mean that Midir can pair up with Edain faster despite Jamke starting off with a higher starting value since Midir and Edain's love growths outpace Jamke.

Also, I'd suggest grinding love points between characters once you reach the end of a chapter when all the enemies are defeated. You can pair up the characters you want to pair faster, but only up until turn 50, which is when it stops growing for that chapter. Just keep in mind how long you're doing it for, because characters you don't wanna pair might end up getting together anyway.

FYI, Finn comes with the highest love growth out of anyone in the 1st generation with both Tailtiu and Brigid at 10 points per turn solely because he leaves the army at the beginning of Chapter 4, so this gives the player time to pair them if they feel so inclined to do so before he leaves. I remember it messed me up once and I had to start the chapter over to prevent it, so don't let it happen to you! Keep an eye on each character's status screens each turn to see who they might have paired up.

[Ⱥstra]

16 hours ago, indigoasis said:

I'll go ahead and take the time to plug the Love Growths and Jealousy pages from the main site since they have the most reliable information on it, I think. I'd definitely give that a look-see when you can. It's supremely helpful. I'll also apologize in advance for any potential errors, as well as potentially providing information that you might have already known.

The best advice I can give is to have certain characters avoid each other like the plague, and keep the characters you wanna pair up directly next to each other as much as you can at the end of each turn. Certain characters come with a predetermined amount of love points between each other, so they'll have an easier time pairing up compared to others. For instance, Jamke has the highest starting amount of love points with Edain at 250, whereas someone like Midir has 120. However, they each gain 1 love point per turn no matter what, but if you wanted to pair Midir with Edain, placing Midir next to Edain by the end of every turn will cause them to pair together faster since the growth value is boosted by 5 if they're next to each other. This would eventually mean that Midir can pair up with Edain faster despite Jamke starting off with a higher starting value since Midir and Edain's love growths outpace Jamke.

Also, I'd suggest grinding love points between characters once you reach the end of a chapter when all the enemies are defeated. You can pair up the characters you want to pair faster, but only up until turn 50, which is when it stops growing for that chapter. Just keep in mind how long you're doing it for, because characters you don't wanna pair might end up getting together anyway.

FYI, Finn comes with the highest love growth out of anyone in the 1st generation with both Tailtiu and Brigid at 10 points per turn solely because he leaves the army at the beginning of Chapter 4, so this gives the player time to pair them if they feel so inclined to do so before he leaves. I remember it messed me up once and I had to start the chapter over to prevent it, so don't let it happen to you! Keep an eye on each character's status screens each turn to see who they might have paired up.

Thanks, though I have trouble comprehending the jealousy mechanic. Seem quite complex and probably not necessary for my goals, though I may look into it more just for fun.

[indigoasis]

9 hours ago, Ⱥstra said:

Thanks, though I have trouble comprehending the jealousy mechanic. Seem quite complex and probably not necessary for my goals, though I may look into it more just for fun.

You can still fairly easily get the pairings you want without it, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Believe it or not, despite the documentation on how it works, it's actually a bug.

[Robert Stewart]

10 hours ago, Ⱥstra said:

Thanks, though I have trouble comprehending the jealousy mechanic. Seem quite complex and probably not necessary for my goals, though I may look into it more just for fun.

Because Jealousy works based on join time, I find it's not actually that useful for getting harder pairings.

One potential suggestion: if you want to prevent two characters from gaining points so that you can pair one of them with someone else (or get subs, maybe), you can kill one of them and then revive them with the Valkyrie staff later.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Don't let Sylvia and Erinys stand next to each other in chapter 4. That triggers a secret conversation that makes Lewyn x Tiltyu more difficult. 

If your goal is Erinys x Claude, I would suggest sending Erinys "across the ocean" in chapter 3. She can go to town killing Pirates, while also getting to end turn next to Claude. Or, give her the Thief Sword, and she'll be swimming in the dough.