HM 0% growths playthrough

[dondon151]

FE8 HM completed in the fewest turns possible (or at least to the best of my ability), 33 characters alive, no access to Valni or Lagdou. You know the drill by now. I'm also using the (U) version and not the (J) version of the game. This is important because the chapter 14 secret shop sells Angelic Robes and Energy Rings in the (J) version but not in the (U) version.

Usable items:

Promotion items obtained:    Stat boosters obtained:
05 Guiding Ring Knoll        05 Dragonshield Seth
06 Orion Bolt   (sold)       05 Secret Book  Seth
07 Knight Crest Kyle         08 Angelic Robe Seth
08 Elysian Whip (sold)       09 Dragonshield Cormag
09 Ocean Seal   (sold)       09 Speedwings   Seth
10 Hero Crest   Gerik        09 Angelic Robe Duessel
10 Guiding Ring Moulder      10 Goddess Icon Cormag
13 Knight Crest Forde        11 Secret Book  Duessel
13 Elysian Whip Cormag       12 Energy Ring  Seth
14 Hero Crest   ---          14 Energy Ring  Duessel
15 Master Seal  (sold)       15 Body Ring    Saleh
19 Guiding Ring Natasha      15 Swiftsoles   Duessel
                            19 Speedwings   Duessel

Turncounts:

P    1 turn   05   3 turns  09A  9 turns  14A  9 turns  19   2 turns
01   3 turns  05x  8 turns  10A  6 turns  15A  7 turns  20   3 turns
02   4 turns  06   3 turns  11A  7 turns  16A  5 turns  F1   3 turns
03   4 turns  07   4 turns  12A  8 turns  17   2 turns  F2   3 turns
04   3 turns  08   9 turns  13A  6 turns  18   6 turns

Total turns: 118

Videos:

Prologue:

Chapter 1:

Chapter 2:

Chapter 3:

Chapter 4:

Chapter 5:

Chapter 5x:

Chapter 6:

Chapter 7:

Chapter 8 (1):

Chapter 8 (2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAGy-xEgzF4

Chapter 9 Eir (1): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpff5YOedNQ

Chapter 9 Eir (2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_GS40xjTBg

Chapter 10 Eir (1): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJtQ-TaKrNs

Chapter 10 Eir (2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yS30GgLDeo

Chapter 11 Eir (1): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deEKp3aNk5E

Chapter 11 Eir (2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ph0NTkjnbc

Chapter 12 Eir (1): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHFcfM1DwjM

Chapter 12 Eir (2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xvnyddYpnU

Chapter 13 Eir: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqtWEdfkBdI

Chapter 14 Eir (1): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NruOX6XjBQU

Chapter 14 Eir (2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBDtOB8zLXw

Chapter 15 Eir (1): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH37H1tnvEk

Chapter 15 Eir (2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=952OaYTHQc8

Chapter 16 Eir: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa_aD5tub4w

Chapter 17: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1p939donqg

Chapter 18 (1): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUYAtrg9LkQ

Chapter 18 (2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAepCa803XY

Chapter 19: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_zvqNtKfxA

Chapter 20: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHv14Xe0OhE

Final Chapter (1): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqI5fjvTNCY

Final Chapter (2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1qm9gRd1Lg

Edited May 10, 2010 by dondon151

[Anouleth]

Good luck.

[Integrity]

whee. This might be interesting. What's the flightplan?

Edited April 25, 2010 by Integrity

[dondon151]

Play by ear, probably. Cormag and Gerik will get promotions for sure, and I'll probably just use up all of my promo items because you can't buy stat boosters in this game, so there's no point in selling promotion items except for extra cash to buy killers (and with my playstyle, I don't really need that many). Ideally I will do both Eirika and Ephraim routes, but for the time being I'll only go Eirika route.

Prologue:

Haha prologue. Turns: 1

Chapter 1:

Seth rescuing saves a turn, at least.

Turns: 3

Chapter 2:

Eirika needed to critkill that brigand to end the chapter on turn 4 of enemy phase. She has 3 potential attacks to crit with 14 crit, so it's not all too unlikely to happen (~36.4% chance given that all attacks hit). It could have spawned with lower HP, def, or spd, which would have cut out the reliance on a crit entirely.

Turns: 4

Chapter 3:

The important part here is to break the walls efficiently and have Seth charge through. I got a little unlucky with a 7 spd brigand up top that Colm couldn't double.

Turns: 4

Chapter 4:

Artur risked death here for a 3 turn clear, but it was worth it (plus it was only about a 50-50 gamble...)!

Turns: 3

Chapter 5:

Getting Natasha to Joshua in such a constrained time frame was a nice challenge, as was making sure that Vanessa didn't die when grabbing the villages. I put Natasha in range of 2 enemies, but one of them went after Franz instead, who was left with 1 HP after the attack, while Franz was not vulnerable to the other.

Turns: 3

Chapter 5x:

Ephraim's offense is really good, and I compensated for his poor move by positioning him for enemy phase counters (which would explain why he burned through so many Vulnerary uses). Orson quickly nabbed the Killer Lance and rejoined the rest of the group. I skipped the Elixir because it would probably not be needed, given that I have Ephraim's Elixir and 2 more from Eirika's party that would only need to last me until chapter 12.

Turns: 8

Chapter 6:

Seth got a Dragonshield prior to the beginning of the chapter.

Seth makes his way to Novala while everyone else kicks back. I had to watch out for the dropped Halberd fighter and kill him on turn 2 player phase while he still has an Iron Axe equipped. Colm was necessary to spot Novala on turn 3 player phase.

Turns: 3

Chapter 7:

Thank you for flying Vanessa Airlines. We hope that you will fly with us again.

Turns: 4

Chapter 8 (1):

Chapter 8 (2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAGy-xEgzF4

The hardest part of this chapter was trying to figure out a way to grab all of the treasure while not holding up the seize. I somehow always ended up 1 tile short of the Silver Sword chest, but finally changed up the strategy a little bit and fulfilled all of my objectives.

Turns: 9

Edited April 25, 2010 by dondon151

[dondon151]

Chapter 9 Eir (1):

Chapter 9 Eir (2):

Here's another rout map, and this one is considerably more difficult than chapter 4. Mercenaries are anywhere from a 3 to 4RKO with my non-Seth units, pending on the weapon used. Forde and Kyle can just barely 2RKO in tandem if they both use Killer Lance and/or Steel Lance, but that usually involves taking a counter - it's not THAT bad when they double you because they do 3 x2 or 4 x2 (4 x2 or 5 x2 in Forde's case), but compounded on other damage and it does have a consequence. Vanessa airlifts Seth onto the southern portion of the map and he solos everything there.

Forde and Kyle finally got their C support. No luck yet for Vanessa and Moulder or Joshua and Natasha yet, though. I just realized that supports are really slow in this game - Forde x Kyle is 17 turns to C and 27 turns for subsequent levels, Vanessa x Moulder is 33/40, and Joshua x Natasha is 20/27. I don't even think Vanessa x Moulder is going to materialize for awhile, although they will probably both be deployed in every chapter from now on.

Turns: 9

[chococoke]

Wow, great stuff, looking forward to seeing how you continue onward.

[dondon151]

Chapter 10 Eir (1):

Chapter 10 Eir (2):

Gerik promotes over the course of the chapter.

The U shaped turn at the top of the map just screams to be skipped with fliers. So I do just that. Seth powers through the group near the gate (albeit kind of slowly, since he doesn't double and can't counter the archers) and solos Pablo while the rest of my team hole up at the starting position for minimal risk on enemy phases. Tana avoids the enemies and recruits the NPCs, and Gerik recruits Marisa on the last turn. Note that the priest has a Sleep staff, but his mag is too poor to use it with all of the other enemies blocking his way.

Turns: 6

[dondon151]

Chapter 11 Eir (1):

Chapter 11 Eir (2):

Here is yet another rout map, wrapped and packaged in fog of war. Luckily, the enemies are pretty tame outside of the wight boss and the deathgoyle in the bottom right corner of the map. I bought 2 Torch staves prior to starting the chapter and had Moulder and Natasha spam them as much as possible, as on top of the 15 EXP per use (honestly not that much of an improvement over Mend), Torch gives 5 WEXP per use, which helps get staff WEXP up in a hurry. Theoretically this chapter should have provided 35 WEXP each for both of them, a little less for Moulder because he spent turns being rescued and a little more for Natasha because of Tethys.

Seth and Gerik pretty much solo their own sides of the map. Forde and Kyle hang back to defeat the revenant reinforcements at the starting point and Vanessa and Tana use their terrain bypassing ability to help scoot units past the 1 tile wide corridor. Forde did face death chances against the second wave of reinforcements, but enemies had only about 40 hit on him on a forest with C Kyle, so his likelihood of death was pretty small.

Turns: 7

Chapter 12 Eir (1):

Chapter 12 Eir (2):

Seth got a Speedwings prior to this chapter so that he could double all of the 10 AS gargoyles.

I hate rout maps. This one is infinitely more annoying than the previous one, and due to the nature of the map and the gargoyle reinforcements, I was forced to not field Moulder or Natasha. That said, I did obtain 2 powerhouse units in Saleh and Dozla, who were able to pick up the slack. Saleh has great offense but unfortunately lacks a bit in durability, because he is just 3RKO'd by Iron Lance gargoyles (note that he did face death chances against the 3 reinforcement gargoyles; all 3 needed to hit to KO). Dozla climbs on top of a peak and becomes invincible. Vanessa and Tana are yet again paramount to the success of this chapter, picking units up and dropping them across peaks to get in the range of more enemies. It may seem like a waste for Seth and Gerik to heal 16 or less HP with an Elixir when they could have used a Vulnerary instead, but I couldn't be bothered to redo the chapter.

The completion of this chapter really just pends on when that last bael in the top left hand corner attacks your units. It's honestly kind of annoying how they start on the peaks and only have 1 move.

As for rout maps, there's still chapter 15 to look forward to...

Turns: 8

[Mekkah]

Ch12 is the kind of map playthroughs strand on because you fall asleep playing it.

[Integrity]

I admit, I'm looking forward to several of the next chapters. I ain't been following too closely, but 13 is where I'll probably pick up interest.

[Anouleth]

Every map on Eirika route is the kind of map playthroughs strand on because you fall asleep playing it.

I fixed your post for you.

Edited May 1, 2010 by Anouleth

[Integrity]

13 is short enough that you don't fall asleep if you rush Mr. Dude Guy.

[chococoke]

13 is short enough that you don't fall asleep if you rush Mr. Dude Guy.

Too bad he's surrounded from the beginning by almost all of the non-bandit troops

[dondon151]

Chapter 13 Eir:

The bulk of this chapter was just stalling until Cormag showed up, and then defeating Aias early after completing the recruitment. This required a minimum of 6 turns; I could have easily cleared the map in 4 or maybe fewer turns. Ending early means that I also miss the Swordslayer, which is dropped from a warrior reinforcement on turn 8. This will make bosses like Carlyle and Caellach substantially more difficult, but it can be worked around.

If you're wondering why Saleh is spamming a Barrier staff, it's because it's the easiest way to get his staff rank up. Barrier gives 4 WEXP per use, and Saleh needs 50 WEXP to B and 110 WEXP to A.

Turns: 6

Chapter 14 Eir (1):

Chapter 14 Eir (2):

It's too bad that the fastest way to the throne still involves 2 U-turns. I pass up the Guiding Ring, as 10000G is worth more. The bulk of my combat units chase after Rennac while a few others go left to snag some treasure. The Dragonspear should come in handy in subsequent chapters.

I realize that I took some risks with Carlyle, and they probably could have been mitigated in several different ways. I could have had Gerik not attack Carlyle and instead simply do an enemy phase counter, which would have prevented the throne healing (and resulted in a clean 3RKO). Innes could have performed a take-drop on Tethys, and on turn 9, Gerik would be mended up and danced for 2 attacks to KO.

My secret shop bill totaled up to over 24000G. Stupid Silver Card not being available until next chapter. I had to sell my Ocean Seal, Orion's Bolt, and Elysian Whip to garner enough cash to buy all of the merchandise that I wanted. Most of it might turn out to be unnecessary as well. The Barrier and Physic staves are to facilitate my staff users gaining EXP and WEXP and the Silver Blade and Battle Axes are mostly just for Gerik.

Turns: 9

Edited May 2, 2010 by dondon151

[Mekkah]

Nice stealth RN burn with Rennac on the knight.

[dondon151]

Nice stealth RN burn with Rennac on the knight.

Hey, he gained 2 WEXP in the process. That was my primary intention >.>

Chapter 15 Eir (1):

Chapter 15 Eir (2):

Cormag got a Dragonshield prior to the beginning of the chapter in order to achieve being 4HKO'd by Steel Lance WKs, which was important for surviving turn 1 enemy phase. Saleh getting the Body Ring prevented him from being doubled by Valter when using Exacalibur.

I don't think there is a single player out there that enjoys desert maps, and I'm no exception. The frustration is compounded by the presence of Valter and Caellach, who are probably a couple of the toughest bosses in the game that I have to deal with (a fact made even worse by me passing up the Swordslayer in chapter 13).

Seth, Gerik, and Innes were effectively locked to the non-desert portions of the map and thus dealt with the enemies in the north. I really could have used some more manpower down south, but Caellach and his cohort required 4 units and someone had to intercept the PK reinforcemens. Cormag and Saleh made their way down to Valter unhindered, with Cormag making use of the Dragonspear and OHKOing the wyvern riders. I needed to trade Duessel a Halberd to kill the cavalier reinforcements and Knoll a Guiding Ring for summons, which was essential in KOing a ranger that narrowly missed being OHKO'd by Halberd Duessel.

I obtained all items with the help of Tana and Vanessa, minus the Killer Bow and Eclipse. Clearing this map by the 7th turn is important, because otherwise a bunch of reinforcements show up at Ephraim's starting point.

Turns: 7

[chococoke]

If this run doesn't prove how awesome Seth is, I don't know what does.

[Anouleth]

I thought that Rennac getting the boss kill was quite funny.

[Junkhead]

Proof that Rennac isn't bad, you know, since he's actually a theif with mediocre combat abilities and not horrible.

Duessel was a beast.

[dondon151]

Nah, Rennac's combat sucks. I just wanted him to take the bosskill for the laughs. I probably should have given it to Innes since it would have added 1% to Sure Shot rate.

Chapter 16 Eir:

Duessel got the Swiftsoles and a Secret Book, Cormag got a Goddess Icon, and Seth got an Angelic Robe, Energy Ring, and a Secret Book. I needed Duessel to have 8 move to get this strategy to work, and it would be a good investment anyway since he can rescue and canto. Either Seth or Duessel needed an Energy Ring to cleanly 2HKO Orson, and I decided that Seth would make better use of it since he doubles more enemies. Seth was also borderline 2HKO'd by a Bolting and the Silver Sword hero, plus the Angelic Robe would complement the Energy Ring on enemy phases. Secret Books were for padding hit rates and the Goddess Icon was to help get rid of those annoying crit rates that kept showing up on Cormag. Also notice that Kyle and Forde got Knight Crests to help keep up with the rescue chains.

The moment you exit that corridor, the enemies decide to go berserk and all go after you. Most of this chapter can be divided into 2 tasks: getting necessary units through the corridor as quickly as possible, and positioning correctly to kill Orson. The phantom absorbed a hit from the Horseslayer knight, who would have done 21 damage to Swordreaver Duessel (it would have only done 12 damage against any other axe Duessel, but the hero would have also done 12 x2 at 100 hit instead of 9 x2 at 55 hit). Silencing the Purge sage was necessary, as no one could survive a Purge and a Bolting (29 and 31 atk, respectively) and a hero or a warrior.

Silencing at 19 hit is pretty funny, I guess. Saleh was spamming Barrier and barely got B rank staves in time and Natasha was spamming Physic for EXP.

Turns: 5

Chapter 17:

I'm glad Moulder has A rank staves. Even though 5 staff range is pathetic, it still proves to be a great help. Saleh snipes the Brave Axe hero with Purge so that Duessel could get a new toy to play with.

Turns: 2

Edited May 3, 2010 by dondon151

[Integrity]

Rennac crit that boss, Soul.

For 9 damage.

And he didn't double.

His combat is critty. :P

EDIT: I'm leaving that typo for lulz, but I meant to say shitty.

Edited May 3, 2010 by Integrity

[Junkhead]

That was fun though, it's going pretty great. Rennac's combat is pretty much good in relation to others', you know, he doubles a ton of things and has two-digit Str, but that's not very important when he is sword-locked.

[Anouleth]

And to think I was proud of beating C16 in 10 turns, and you do it in 5.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

And to think I was proud of beating C16 in 10 turns, and you do it in 5.

DD151 Axe

9 Mt

70 hit

7 Wt

5 Crit

Rank C

Range 1-2

15 uses

Effect: Sinks the morale of the enemy army after the user has killed an enemy with this weapon (-25% AVO and Hit).

Gotta love how shitty Lyon's AS is.

[Anouleth]

I'm not too fussed about dondon beating me. That 10-turn completion was on Ephraim route which is always longer, I didn't have to rely on hitting Orson twice with 40-45 displayed hit, and I got every item in the level. I think I could have done it in 9 turns if I had skipped out two last items. I think I almost routed the chapter as well.

If only Lyon was smart enough to switch to Nosferatu, he might be a boss as annoying as Valter or Caellach. It's a shame dondon didn't have Duessel break out the Brave Axe on Lyon. It means he only needs to hit 4 times instead of hit twice and crit. Or if Duessel got the Energy Ring, he would only need three hits.

Edited May 3, 2010 by Anouleth