First Playthrough of Engage; Any Advice?

[vanguard333]

I finally began my first playthrough of Fire Emblem Engage, and I just completed chapter 3. For this playthrough, I don't intend on using any of the DLC with the sole exception of the Tiki Emblem, which I intend to give to Alear since I feel that Alear should've been given a dragon form. I do intend on later doing another playthrough that uses all the DLC. I picked normal difficulty since it's been a while since I played a Fire Emblem game and I went with casual mode, despite my preferring classic mode in FE games, because the ability to freely save is often tied to casual mode for some reason.

Since this is my first playthrough, is there anything I should know in advance?

[Sooks]

I don’t know how early in you are but if you feel like it’s worth it, you can save freely in normal and hard mode, regardless of whether you picked casual or classic. The only option that restricts free saving is picking maddening, so you can play normal/classic and still freely save if you want.

[lenticular]

Promote early. With the way that the class system works, there's very little reason not to promote at level 10 if you have master seals available. If you reach level 20 in a promoted class, you can second seal back to level 1 to continue regaining class xp. Once promoted, you can also second seal reclass to any other promoted class you have the weapon proficiencies for, so if you are looking to reclass anyone, it's usually better to promote first.

Expect to be changing up your team quite a lot over the course of the game. In most FE games, your early game units are as strong or stronger than anyone you pick up later on (provided you're levelling them appropriately, of course). In Engage, this mostly isn't the case. Some early units can be great and most are at least usable, but you will typically want to be swapping most of them out for stronger units you pick up later.

Level scaling on skirmishes is different to how it has been in the past. I don't really know much about how it works since I didn't bother much with skirmishes myself, but the general consensus seems to be that they can get very difficult and are not really viable for xp grinding.

[Hrothgar777]

8 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

I finally began my first playthrough of Fire Emblem Engage, and I just completed chapter 3. For this playthrough, I don't intend on using any of the DLC with the sole exception of the Tiki Emblem, which I intend to give to Alear since I feel that Alear should've been given a dragon form. I do intend on later doing another playthrough that uses all the DLC. I picked normal difficulty since it's been a while since I played a Fire Emblem game and I went with casual mode, despite my preferring classic mode in FE games, because the ability to freely save is often tied to casual mode for some reason.

Since this is my first playthrough, is there anything I should know in advance?

-It goes without saying you ought to upgrade your weapons from time to time. HOWEVER, this doesn't always mean you should throw out what you'd equipped a unit with before. I've been surprised by how often a "weaker" weapon ended up doing more damage. For this reason it might be helpful to equip several at a time so you have options when going into a battle. See which one will do the most damage, has the best accuracy, best chance of a critical hit, etc.

Likewise, if you have the spare room it doesn't hurt to give your lancer or axeman a ranged weapon.

 

-For difficult skirmishes, hunker down in favorable terrain with all your units huddled together. Don't try to advance to the other end of the map, because it'll be hard to keep formation and the enemy will pick off your most vulnerable people one at a time. When this happens, you lose their valuable skillset and the hardness of the already hard battle will steadily compound; for example, you might need Clanne or Celine to knock out an armored unit who Alfred only deals 4 damage to, but you've lost both of them to attacks from martial arts users.

If you have somebody who can take a lot of hits, position them in the front and at points of restricted movement (e.g. bridges) where the enemy can't just go around them to attack the rest of your party. If you have archers or mages, put them behind this line. Prioritize keeping your healers alive and use them to sustain your party until you've finished killing the enemy.

Note that this won't work in most chapter battles, because you're required to advance. Not only that but late chapters will actually penalize you for not advancing quickly enough. What I'm describing works for the optional battles on maps you've already completed. It also helped me survive Alear's paralogue.

But in both skirmishes and chapter battles, if a turn passes where you've lost one person too many, I strongly recommend that you rewind and try doing something differently. Maybe you kill one fewer enemy in that turn as a result, but the math more than checks out if, over the remaining course of the battle, that unit is able to kill another 5 or 6 enemies.

 

-Don't forget to collect "Achievements" in the Cafe Terrace, because that's a source of free Bond Fragments. Above that is the "Donations", which increases the possible reward from doing skirmishes. I've heard Firene's is not worth boosting more than once, if even that. That's because money is a valuable commodity that you don't get easily, so think before you splurge on something you're not sure of.

 

-If a unit increases their Bond Level with an Emblem, and it says you have a new ability, that does NOT mean the ability is automatically yours. This may be true while you're engaged for 3 turns, but not otherwise. For that, your unit needs to "Inherit Skill".

Edited June 23 by Hrothgar777

[ciphertul]

4 hours ago, lenticular said:

Level scaling on skirmishes is different to how it has been in the past. I don't really know much about how it works since I didn't bother much with skirmishes myself, but the general consensus seems to be that they can get very difficult and are not really viable for xp grinding

To expand on this the level of the skirmish is based on the highest leveled characters in your whole army. Usually it’s 8-12 of your top leveled units even if you don’t deploy them. 

[vanguard333]

11 hours ago, Sooks said:

I don’t know how early in you are but if you feel like it’s worth it, you can save freely in normal and hard mode, regardless of whether you picked casual or classic. The only option that restricts free saving is picking maddening, so you can play normal/classic and still freely save if you want.

Thank you very much. Can I switch to classic or am I stuck in casual mode?

 

7 hours ago, lenticular said:

Promote early. With the way that the class system works, there's very little reason not to promote at level 10 if you have master seals available. If you reach level 20 in a promoted class, you can second seal back to level 1 to continue regaining class xp. Once promoted, you can also second seal reclass to any other promoted class you have the weapon proficiencies for, so if you are looking to reclass anyone, it's usually better to promote first.

Expect to be changing up your team quite a lot over the course of the game. In most FE games, your early game units are as strong or stronger than anyone you pick up later on (provided you're levelling them appropriately, of course). In Engage, this mostly isn't the case. Some early units can be great and most are at least usable, but you will typically want to be swapping most of them out for stronger units you pick up later.

Thank you.

I had heard that this game encourages replacing early game units with later units and I have already been playing with that in mind.

 

Thanks everyone.

[Shadow Mir]

In general, try to avoid using weapons that are really heavy. If the weight is higher than the unit's build, they get slowed down. Also, don't get too attached to your first emblems...

[Sooks]

2 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Thank you very much. Can I switch to classic or am I stuck in casual mode?

Unless you restart, I’m pretty sure you’re stuck in casual.

[vanguard333]

1 hour ago, Sooks said:

Unless you restart, I’m pretty sure you’re stuck in casual.

Drat; that's annoying. If only I had begun this thread before I started the game.

 

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

In general, try to avoid using weapons that are really heavy. If the weight is higher than the unit's build, they get slowed down. Also, don't get too attached to your first emblems...

Thanks. Where can I see character build and weapon weight? I tried looking for those stats during the first three chapters, but I was able to find every stat except those two.

Sadly, I am already aware of what happens in chapter 10. I would've liked to go into this completely blind, but six months and being on the internet = inevitably seeing spoilers.

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

Thanks. Where can I see character build and weapon weight? I tried looking for those stats during the first three chapters, but I was able to find every stat except those two.

Build can be seen on a character's status screen. Weapon weight... well, that's trickier, but when a unit is weighed down by their weapon, you can actually see it in their speed stat, as it's lowered.

[Aria Belacqua]

You can also see weapon weight by opening the inventory, finding a weapon (on a character or in the convoy), and pressing X

X toggles whether you see the total stats based on character+weapon (attack, unit hit rate, speed, unit crit rate), or just the weapon base stats (might, hit, weight, weapon crit rate)

in general, the character+weapon stats are what are useful in battle or comparing characters, while the weapon base stats are useful for comparing weapons independently of the character holding them.

[Randoman]

In regards to advice that hasn't been given yet: make sure all units deployed in a chapter at least have Bond Rings equipped, if there's not enough Emblem Rings to go around. Otherwise, those characters won't be able to get any skill points from battles whatsoever.

[vanguard333]

7 minutes ago, Randoman said:

In regards to advice that hasn't been given yet: make sure all units deployed in a chapter at least have Bond Rings equipped, if there's not enough Emblem Rings to go around. Otherwise, those characters won't be able to get any skill points from battles whatsoever.

Okay. Thanks. When will I be able to get bond rings (right now I'm at the Somneil for the first time)?

 

6 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Build can be seen on a character's status screen. Weapon weight... well, that's trickier, but when a unit is weighed down by their weapon, you can actually see it in their speed stat, as it's lowered.

1 hour ago, Aria Belacqua said:

You can also see weapon weight by opening the inventory, finding a weapon (on a character or in the convoy), and pressing X

X toggles whether you see the total stats based on character+weapon (attack, unit hit rate, speed, unit crit rate), or just the weapon base stats (might, hit, weight, weapon crit rate)

in general, the character+weapon stats are what are useful in battle or comparing characters, while the weapon base stats are useful for comparing weapons independently of the character holding them.

Thank you.

[Randoman]

Another tip that hasn't been brought up is the usage of the well in the northeast (it's usable after Chapter 6). Basically, instead of selling unwanted items, you can throw in unwanted items in the well, and have a chance of getting some pretty nice items from it after one chapter/skirmish later. You can even get items that give a hefty amount of skill points to your characters, so that may be something you'd want to look into doing.

I personally haven't used the well too much myself, so you'd have to ask others for more specifics or strategies with it.

4 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Okay. Thanks. When will I be able to get bond rings (right now I'm at the Somneil for the first time)?

After Chapter 4, you'll be able to make Bond Rings in the Ring Chamber in the Somniel.

Basically, whenever characters equipped with rings get experience from battles within a chapter/skirmish, they'll get skill points as well (though even at max level, characters with rings will get skill points even though experience isn't obtained). Characters get more skill points when they have Emblem Rings equipped rather than Bond Rings, but without Bond Rings equipped, they won't get any skill points whatsoever. As a result of this, and due to skills being pretty expensive, you'll generally want every character equipped with either Emblem Rings or Bond Rings in every chapter/skirmish, so you can make the most of the experience you're getting. Even if it's all C Rank Bond Rings and even if the ring's stat boosts don't match the character (eg: Boucheron with a Magic Boosting Ring), the gained skill points will add up and you'll want to make the most of it (especially since there's no penalty or drawback for having Emblem Rings or Bond Rings equipped).

Also, I'm pretty sure all 4 ranks of Bond Rings give skill points at an equal rate, so an S Rank Bond Ring won't give you skills points at a faster rate than a C Rank Bond Ring.

Edited June 24 by Randoman

[martystarboy]

Everyone's already given some really good tips (even stuff I didn't know, like no SP gain without rings!), but I'll add in some. These are definitely not necessary but are good for certain play-styles:

• If you want to get even more upgrade materials for your weapons, put a bunch of dogs on your farm in the Somniel. Dogs give you ores. Other animals give you food items. After adopting them you have to manually go to the farm and choose which animals will be in the pasture.
• Unless you're interested in adopting every animal, it's probably not good to invest a lot in donating to other countries. After certain points, it gets very expensive. First level is good if you want cooking ingredients/better skirmish rewards.
• There are ways to farm for certain bond rings in the gacha without wasting too many bond fragments. If you're interested, there are several tutorials on youtube (which also tell you about the bond rings with the best S skills). It's better to save fragments for unlocking and inheriting emblem ring skills.
• ALSO...if you ever intend to use the DLC emblems on another run, make sure to do all the divine paralogues (where you get the DLC emblems) BEFORE completing the fell xenologue (the new story). The enemies on DLC emblem maps will be jacked up to much higher levels once you complete the fell xenologue, so unless you want a challenge, be sure to get the emblems first. You receive the DLC characters at level 20, so it's best not to finish the xenologue before chapter 13 of the main story.

Edited July 25 by martystarboy

[vanguard333]

@martystarboy Thank you; I actually completed my first playthrough a week ago, and I already knew about dogs providing ores and that investing in the kingdoms past the first level is largely a waste of money, but I appreciate the advice and it should help anyone who reads this who has yet to play Engage.

Thanks for the advice about doing the divine paralogues before the fell xenologue; that will help my next playthrough.