Lunatic+ playlog/guide/walkthrough - COMPLETED

[Airship Canon]

Glad to hear it; I don't judge. Lunatic+ is ridiculous, and everything is fair game when trying to beat it.

I dunno, going Full Grind really felt like cheating if you ask me.

Because having everyone be level 50 and just trivialize all non-counter, non-Hawkeye/Luna+ enemies until I get second seals [after which everyone was grinded to Limit breaker caps]... is a bit overkill.

[Interceptor]

Yo.

I'm thinking about creating a v2.0 of this guide. Still in the early planning stages, so it'll take a while to come to fruition, but here's what I was thinking of adding and/or doing differently:

• Louise (Robin) will be SPD asset rather than DEF, to take advantage of the strategy I came up with for Ch 2. It's unclear what implications this will have for earlygame past Ch3, but we will find out.
• I'll do a better job of using Miriel efficiently. This time, no stop in Troubadour: she's going Mage -> Sage -> Valkyrie. I never did use Mire on her, and I think that her offense proved more powerful than her Demoiselle utility, which brings me to...
• Maribelle instead of Lissa. She can become my Demo bot sooner, and lategame she retains similar flying staff utility to Lissa by going Troub -> Valkyrie -> Pegasus Knight. It will hurt to throw away Lissa's levels from earlygame, but such is life.
• Chrom is going to reclass to Archer once he hits Lord level 10 for Charm. I am not sure if he'll ever get enough resources to keep up and go to Bow Knight, but surely this is a better plan then what I did with him last time.
• I may avoid heavy training on Gregor entirely, and just marry him to Miriel ASAP. Chrom can take the EXP in his place. LAURENT! doesn't really need the base stat help, and with some light training on Gregor I could get the ability to pass down Sol. Going from Mage -> Mercenary -> Dark Mage on LAURENT! is probably OK as a progression, in order to pick up Patience and Armsthrift. Second Seals are cheap by then, and training in his joining chapter is fairly straightforward. He only needs to be ready by the first Walhart episode.
• Anna will get some playing time. I think that given where she falls off, she can replace some of the things that Gregor did pre-Valm, with less investment of resources and a better lategame.
• This will be the lowest of the priorities, but I'd like to see if I can get DG+ on Frederick by the time that prepromoted enemies show up, or shortly thereafter. Lategame Luna+ from 70+ mt enemies hurts like a sonofabitch.
• I would not mind getting Galeforce going, but given the units I've chosen, it seems pretty unlikely. I may be limited to Ghetto Galeforce, which is to say Rescue staff + Dance.

Naturally, there will also be cosmetic improvements like a more consistent chapter layout (I altered the structure as I went last time), and proper screenshots (no more Blair Witch shaky-cam pics from me). Floor is open to comments if anyone has any input or thoughts (particularly WRT Galeforce viability).

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Speed asset is what I used for my grind Lunatic+ routing run and the first no grind, IIRC. It's viable, letting Robin be more aggressive earlier in terms of eliminating threats, but also makes her a shakier tank. I'm pretty sure I had to rely on Fred for his +Def pair until the end of chapter 4, whereas with a +Def, I can swap to Chrom as early as chapter 2 if I get lucky.

As for Chrom, aside from missing out on a really good hard support, I don't see why he wouldn't work. He's got good availbility and so shouldn't be much harder than any non-Robin to train.

Regarding Galeforce, I don't think it's worth it for non-Robins. At least the growths and seal requirements of all the other characters just aren't high and low enough, respectively to merit that kind of investment. And with Robin, you kind of have to prioritize it. I get it pretty much every time, but the two class routes I've done it with are Tact->Tact->GM->DF and Tact->DM->Sorc->DF. As you can see, I gun right for it in either route. Feeding all the kills to Robin, she can see Galeforce as early as mid-chapter 10 (sooner if Anna shows up with a Master Seal, as some EXP is wasted in capped tier 1, otherwise), but more realistically, a four-combat-pair team with Robin as the main tank will see her pick it up around chapter 12-13. Since that's pretty heavily a non-bow route, it probably won't be worth trying for for you.

[Octag]

Have you considered training Lissa as well as Maribelle? I never had any difficulty finding enough staff XP in the earlygame to train them both- both were capped at level 20 before I had enough Master Seals to promote them. Maribelle was statistically superior and made for a great filler pairup partner in the lategame; by training both, I was able to use Lissa as a Falcoknight without sacrificing Maribelle's strong Valkyrie pairup. I think I spent a little cash on Mend staves so Maribelle could level more quickly but the game throws money at you as it is so it's not a huge sacrifice.

Perhaps it's a little superfluous to have that many staff users but I didn't feel like it ever hurt and there were some maps where I liked having more Rescue/Physic staves around.

Edited January 16, 2015 by Octag

[Interceptor]

Speed asset is what I used for my grind Lunatic+ routing run and the first no grind, IIRC. It's viable, letting Robin be more aggressive earlier in terms of eliminating threats, but also makes her a shakier tank. [...]

WRT SPD asset, I think it'll be fine to keep Frederick as a partner for a little longer than usual. Once Outrealm shows up, the Renown Dracoshield will be available (if someone is crushing Renown) and there are tonics, so as long as Ch3/4 aren't complete shitshows, it sounds like it won't be a problem going forward past that.

Chrom is mostly an experiment. I figure that while bows aren't superb, they are still pretty good on a backliner. He should be able to do most of his important work there (give out Charm, make Dual Strikes), and while he won't have Rapier access after the reclass, I think I can probably fake it until Lucina shows up. Maybe it's a crappy idea, but it can't be any worse of a return than Gregor was.

Sounds like I'll just never be using Galeforce at all, then. While I wouldn't have any problem running either of those paths that you did, I still want to keep the general idea of using Robin on Bows to control the pace of the maps. And there is definitely no room to raise Sumia or Cordelia or whoever.

Have you considered training Lissa as well as Maribelle? [...] Perhaps it's a little superfluous to have that many staff users but I didn't feel like it ever hurt and there were some maps where I liked having more Rescue/Physic staves around.

This is a good point. Lissa isn't going to drop off the face of the earth, and neither of them are going to be priority targets for a Master Seal ahead of people like Robin or Miriel, or maybe even Gregor. They may cap early given how I suggest people train units, and it's very easy to just keep her on deck until she is needed. Maybe she even has a future as a War Cleric for Rally LCK or something, assuming that I don't reclass her as a PK; after all, it's pretty easy to get four random level-ups when you are a Staff user.

I run with Renown up to the Bullion (and plan to keep it that way), so extra gold for Mend staves definitely isn't a problem. I think what I'll do is just favor Maribelle for Demo, and then see how things shake out from there.

Thanks for the feedback, folks!

Edited January 16, 2015 by Interceptor

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Oh, okay, I misunderstood Archer!Chrom as you wanting to have him as a lead. While I didn't do Archer!Chrom, I did an experiement when I was during the routing run with Sniper!Chrom for Hit+20 (and came to the conclusion that there were better ways to get him extra hit for Grima). He's actually pretty decent at it. Losing the Rapier does kinda suck, but the nice thing about support bows is they don't care about the weapon triangle. So can just keep using the same thing for every Dual Strike against a mixed crowd and not worry about losing accuracy (except against Bow Knights, but meh). He'll also wreck some of the more annoying fliers later on where Falchion would be iffy, since the Wyverns toward the end will all have Swordbreaker. One thing that might be an issue (wasn't as a Sniper because I had a way overleveled +Spd Robin by that point) is that unlike Lord or Cavalier, Archer doesn't give a Speed bonus for pairing up. There's also the whole needing a Second Seal for this thing that Lord doesn't need to worry about.

Overall, I think it offers enough advantages that making him a support Archer wouldn't be a flat-out mistake so much as a trade-off, where the final value depends on which parts of the game you consider a bigger problem for the run.

[Interceptor]

I was going both ways with it; as an Archer he can be lead unit, but only on offense. Chrom doesn't have the beef to really soak hits like Robin/Morgan/Lucina (no Veteran, no chance), and isn't an effective self-healer, so even as a Lord you have to hide him to some extent. He'll also give me a unit that can use a Longbow before my Snipers get going (even hough getting to C Bows is no easy lift, he does at least have DS). As for the +SPD support, I am hoping that Archer!Chrom will smooth out the difference between DEF and SPD asset on Robin (the Pair bonuses work out pretty well in that respect).

It's just an experiment that doesn't cost much, since I have to get him to Lord 10 anyway. If there's a real conflict of resources, against a real unit, chances are that he loses.

[Czar_Yoshi]

I heartily approve of this endeavor and will contribute as best I can.

WRT SPD asset, I think it'll be fine to keep Frederick as a partner for a little longer than usual. Once Outrealm shows up, the Renown Dracoshield will be available (if someone is crushing Renown) and there are tonics, so as long as Ch3/4 aren't complete shitshows, it sounds like it won't be a problem going forward past that.

Remember, Renown and Wireless features open after Cht.3. Cht.4 is rarely problematic thanks to them.

I've been doing a ton of runthroughs of earlygame using your Cht.2/3 strats and they're almost something resembling consistent (haven't gotten all of them in one shot yet, but I'm close) even with +Spd/-Def. Obviously a Def flaw isn't wise after Cht.4, but the early chapters aren't actually as big of a deal anymore.

You may want to look into clearing Cht.5 before Par.1. Saving Maribelle without the Rescue staff will be a huge pain (as will having fewer levels on Avatar in general), but Par.1 is one of the most lucrative staff training chapters in the game for me and having it for Maribelle would make a big difference in her ability to catch up to Lissa.

Wrt Galeforce, it's a kind of all-or-nothing strategy: if you can get enough of it it lets you play like Apo and pretty much avoid taking EPs. In moderation, though, it's just another somewhat useful skill on a fairly frail class- nothing to shake a stick at but not something you can build a core around. If you do want to use it, you need to use Chrom x Sumia and Avatar x Cordelia, and have both Pegs pass it down- the exp requirements mean you might have to drop Gregor and Miriel though. When I do this I usually find it helpful to pick up Libra!Owain (since his parents are really easy to S-rank thanks to Staves) and use him as a hard support with DSp+.

Edited January 17, 2015 by Czar_Yoshi

[Interceptor]

You may want to look into clearing Cht.5 before Par.1. Saving Maribelle without the Rescue staff will be a huge pain (as will having fewer levels on Avatar in general), but Par.1 is one of the most lucrative staff training chapters in the game for me and having it for Maribelle would make a big difference in her ability to catch up to Lissa.

My brain just went into a fetal position at the prospect of trying to come up with a reliable clear of Ch.5 without Rescue. I might have to use Bonus Box items and have Frederick go HAM early to get those two out of there. Definitely I would like to do this, but it seems daunting on the surface.

[Vorena]

My brain just went into a fetal position at the prospect of trying to come up with a reliable clear of Ch.5 without Rescue. I might have to use Bonus Box items and have Frederick go HAM early to get those two out of there. Definitely I would like to do this, but it seems daunting on the surface.

Could you attempt to sacrifice Ricken? A unit only needs to move north 4 squares into the nearest choke point and clear out the myrimdon. Afterwards you can pair-up ricken with maribelle. Have maribelle ride over to the spot where the myrimdon was killed, then trade Ricken's items, switch, and pair-up with the unit that killed the myrimdon. If need be you could have a unit take maribelle, then have another unit go pair-up with the unit that killed the myrimdon to defend on the following turn. Ricken being defenseless would absorb one of the hits of the enemies. Aftewards, you play the chapter as need be.

It would be a reliable turn one I think at the very least.

Edited January 17, 2015 by Vorena

[Gradivus.]

C5 rescue-less turn 1 strat? ORKO the Dark Mage with Fred (no Pav+), chip the Myrm away with Ricken, Miriel and MU (no Aegis+) and KE crit the Fighter with a KE user of your choice (no Pav+). Found this strat on Tactician of the Plains' youtube playthrough of vanilluna. The fred stomping is harder to pull off on L+ though. I should actually be proceeding my L+ playthrough and eventually try this strat. lazy players like me are lazy.

Edited January 17, 2015 by Gradivus.

[Czar_Yoshi]

I think I'll test that right now.

Edit- new idea for Pro: instead of attacking the top Myrm with Fred, leave him (with a Lissa support) two tiles to the left of it, and have Robin x Chrom wait in the one safe space in the corner. It's slightly less Luna+ tolerant and Chrom won't get any exp for hitting a Myrm, but it makes the Barbs behave much more nicely (no chance of having to step inside the Mage's range for Robin to get the PP kill on one) and gives Robin a much greater chance of getting the Elwind Mage KO.

Edit 2- argh at Cht.2 and I've got 16 Spd and only 8 Mag and 7 Def. Why must my stats be so lopsided?

OK, that attack pattern is not going to work. It's possible to clear out the first three enemies that way and survive the next EP (requires either Fred to survive two mooks on EP or use a very strong 2-range weapon- like a forged Short Spear or the Gradivus), but then your whole army is right in the middle of the map with a pile of things on either side of you. There's probably a way to handle that (starting with doing it with fewer/more mobile units), but it requires a lot more testing which requires a more consistent turn 1.

Fortunately that strat has Robin pulling nowhere near his/her weight so there's room for improvement.

Edited January 18, 2015 by Czar_Yoshi

[Cat1803]

I'd absolutely love to see this.

I think I'll test that right now.

Edit- new idea for Pro: instead of attacking the top Myrm with Fred, leave him (with a Lissa support) two tiles to the left of it, and have Robin x Chrom wait in the one safe space in the corner. It's slightly less Luna+ tolerant and Chrom won't get any exp for hitting a Myrm, but it makes the Barbs behave much more nicely (no chance of having to step inside the Mage's range for Robin to get the PP kill on one) and gives Robin a much greater chance of getting the Elwind Mage KO.

Edit 2- argh at Cht.2 and I've got 16 Spd and only 8 Mag and 7 Def. Why must my stats be so lopsided?

I've taken to using a modified version of FionordeQuester's strat (pg 13-14, I think) without using vulneraries. It's heavy on Thunder uses, but I haven't had Thunder break before Ch. 3. I usually hit Lv 8 and give Chrom the boss kill. It takes a hundred turns, but it's workable. On the bright side, you're guaranteed to hit C Tomes before Chapter 2. The only downside other than Thunder uses is that it's highly allergic to the lower enemies having Luna+. However, being more picky about skills in the Prologue allows me to be less picky about skills later thanks to having a less squishy avatar. I'll try out your idea for the Prologue, though, since I now have a free file thanks to my clumsiness and forgetting to back up my saves.

Ah, lopsided stats. I've had -Def avatars with base Def and 14 Def at Chapter 2. On the bright side, I've found having a large HP pool counters Luna+ well (as well as you can counter Luna+ at this stage of the game, anyway), so having low Def is workable if you've gotten HP often enough.

[Czar_Yoshi]

All right, I cleared the lower half and all the reinforcements from Cht.5 without Rescue. I used the Gradivus from Renown so it's a little above the Bullion(L) limit but that lance is definitely worth it (seriously going in blind it would probably save you more time than the time needed to grind the Renown to get it).

What I'm doing is using Fred x Chrom (they don't have a C support yet for me, so consistency might be improvable there- or it might not matter) to handle the four left mooks. By standing them in the middle tree (Bronze Sword equipped) with Lissa to the right, they take only one Barb fight on turn 1 and generally manage to knock him into Gradivus KO range without taking damage, as long as he doesn't have Hawkeye/Counter. Fred was only doing 12 damage though so Counter isn't too big of a deal. For the rest of the enemies: Fred doubles the DM with a Chrom support and can 2RKO him with Gradivus (a Javelin forge might also work, didn't test), and OHKOes the Myrm as long as it doesn't have Pavise+. If the Myrm lacks both Pavise+ and Luna+ it's almost completely harmless. From there some combination of kiting into the corner with Lissa healing and an optional Lon'qu x Vaike for an extra PP KO on a weakened Barb, they clean up nicely by turn 3.

Meanwhile Robin x Sumia (no support yet either, more potential improvements- my Sumia is Lv.5) fly northwest of the Myrm and blast either him or the Barb- whichever is more dangerous- with Rexcalibur (no Aegis+) or Celica's Gale (Aegis+). The other one and the DM die on them on EP. It's quite a bit hairier here than Fred's side, but with possible help from a freed up Fred to lure a foe and OHKOes from Rexcalibur on Counter Wyverns, Robin can tank everything with careful use of the Fort/Vulneraries and PP KOes on bigger threats, they can hang on long enough for Maribelle and Ricken to slip by. Maribelle can survive a hit from the Elfire Mage, and Ricken can set up a dangerous Wyvern for Lon'qu to KO if you can get a pull. I had most of everything cleaned up by turn 4, which gave me enough freedom to kill the reinforcements through kiting and PPO alone. It's very helpful to remember than Wyverns never come out of the bottom left Fort, so killing the things that come out the next turn with ranged weaponry is completely safe. Turn 9 and everything is gone, with no (barring 90+% misses) chance of death for the last three turns.

And done. Lissa is Lv.11, I think I'll use both healers and take this run as far as I can for experimental purposes. Using a +Spd/-Skl Avatar-M, and going for a Galeforce strategy. I haven't decided yet exactly how much I want to abuse Staff exp.

Edited January 18, 2015 by Czar_Yoshi

[xypher]

[Prologue: The Verge of History]

...while ChromxFrederick play rope-a-dope elsewhere to keep the Mercs and Barbs at bay. Once the mage is dead, it's a simple matter to kill off everyone else with Thunder, worry-free.

Okay, I must be either dumb or misunderstanding, but what exactly did this part mean? Having Fred/Chrom duo lead the Barbs/Mercs around until Elthunder Mage is dead? Sorry, everything else made sense but I never got this part.

Edit: Oh christ I didn't realize the last post was almost a month ago. Sorry!

Edited February 10, 2015 by xypher

[Czar_Yoshi]

Chrom can walk on water. Barbs/Myrms can't. They can't catch him should he go swimming out of the Mage's range. From there, he can walk within a tile of a shore space that's out of enemy range and everyone will come to get him, before he moves out of the way on the next turn- you use this to get them into a better position for blasting with Robin.

[xypher]

Chrom can walk on water. Barbs/Myrms can't. They can't catch him should he go swimming out of the Mage's range. From there, he can walk within a tile of a shore space that's out of enemy range and everyone will come to get him, before he moves out of the way on the next turn- you use this to get them into a better position for blasting with Robin.

Ah! Okay. This is why you don't play games in the wee morning hours, kids, you mess up stuff like that.

Thanks for the clarification.

[Cat1803]

All right, I cleared the lower half and all the reinforcements from Cht.5 without Rescue. I used the Gradivus from Renown so it's a little above the Bullion(L) limit but that lance is definitely worth it (seriously going in blind it would probably save you more time than the time needed to grind the Renown to get it).

What I'm doing is using Fred x Chrom (they don't have a C support yet for me, so consistency might be improvable there- or it might not matter) to handle the four left mooks. By standing them in the middle tree (Bronze Sword equipped) with Lissa to the right, they take only one Barb fight on turn 1 and generally manage to knock him into Gradivus KO range without taking damage, as long as he doesn't have Hawkeye/Counter. Fred was only doing 12 damage though so Counter isn't too big of a deal. For the rest of the enemies: Fred doubles the DM with a Chrom support and can 2RKO him with Gradivus (a Javelin forge might also work, didn't test), and OHKOes the Myrm as long as it doesn't have Pavise+. If the Myrm lacks both Pavise+ and Luna+ it's almost completely harmless. From there some combination of kiting into the corner with Lissa healing and an optional Lon'qu x Vaike for an extra PP KO on a weakened Barb, they clean up nicely by turn 3.

Meanwhile Robin x Sumia (no support yet either, more potential improvements- my Sumia is Lv.5) fly northwest of the Myrm and blast either him or the Barb- whichever is more dangerous- with Rexcalibur (no Aegis+) or Celica's Gale (Aegis+). The other one and the DM die on them on EP. It's quite a bit hairier here than Fred's side, but with possible help from a freed up Fred to lure a foe and OHKOes from Rexcalibur on Counter Wyverns, Robin can tank everything with careful use of the Fort/Vulneraries and PP KOes on bigger threats, they can hang on long enough for Maribelle and Ricken to slip by. Maribelle can survive a hit from the Elfire Mage, and Ricken can set up a dangerous Wyvern for Lon'qu to KO if you can get a pull. I had most of everything cleaned up by turn 4, which gave me enough freedom to kill the reinforcements through kiting and PPO alone. It's very helpful to remember than Wyverns never come out of the bottom left Fort, so killing the things that come out the next turn with ranged weaponry is completely safe. Turn 9 and everything is gone, with no (barring 90+% misses) chance of death for the last three turns.

And done. Lissa is Lv.11, I think I'll use both healers and take this run as far as I can for experimental purposes. Using a +Spd/-Skl Avatar-M, and going for a Galeforce strategy. I haven't decided yet exactly how much I want to abuse Staff exp.

I was able to repeat this with a Def flaw (though I was Def blessed to the point where it was almost moot).

Adjustments: Knowing I'd be trying this ahead of time, I worked in Ch.3/4 to get Chrom/Frederick and Avatar/Sumia to C Supports. Due to focusing training on Miriel, Sumia was base level until leveling up once through Dual Strikes, but that was just fine. The +Avo really helped Avatar out. I didn't have enough Mag to OHKO non-wyverns with max-forged Rexcalibur, but someone with Mag asset may have better results - most of my resets were from barely not being able to KO someone on the EP and dying to Counter, aside from the usual Hawkeye/Luna+ shenanigans.

Vaike and Lon'qu's role here was minimal - Vaike managed to soak a hit (Lon'qu paired to avoid being doubled) and later threw a hand axe at someone so Ricken and Miriel could finish them off. A player better at thinking ahead/positioning may not need them at all.

I'm going to take this run as far as I can; I'm pleased with being able to use Maribelle in Paralogue 1.

Due to Avatar being the only competent combatant other than Frederick (Miriel didn't level as much as I wanted her to in Ch.3/4), she got most of the experience and was able to class change to Merc before I got to the upper half of the map. I gave her the Wyrmslayer that Lon'qu never used and suddenly counter was not an issue for the rest of the map. It was hilarious.

On to Paralogue 1 for me.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Cat1803

[Czar_Yoshi]

School happened and I haven't been working on this as much as I'd like, but a couple of odd improvements based on that:

-If Avatar and Sumia get max support in Cht.3 (pretty easy to do), then one Event Tile/Barracks will put them up to C in time for Cht.4. This may be able to boost Sumia's training potential there so she can be more helpful in Cht.5. Alternately, the same thing could be done for Fred x Sumia (she'd still be able to easily get the Chrom C support from Cht.3) which would likely provide a much greater training potential boost if you were clever with switching around her support in Cht.4, which could merit looking into. Finally, with a Barracks/Event Tile boost in or right after/before Cht.4, Chrom and Sumia can have a B support going into Cht.5, which also might be useful in some situations (Fred rides up to Avatar, switches, transfers, switches, Sumia x Chrom then KO someone with a Javelin + DS, Avatar can still attack with a Fred support).

-There's a Mjolnir in the Bonus Box. If you can get A Tomes by Cht.5 (not sure if that's feasible, though) it would provide a little more mt over forged Rexcalibur and if it's enough to OHKO Wyverns anyway then as long as they lack Aegis+ it might be the better choice all around. Forged Thoron is another B-rank possibility for a hefty damage boost over non-effective Rexcalibur, though whether or not it works still depends on Robin's Mag.

-Since I'm going for GF strats, I'll be investing in a lightly forged Short Spear for Cordelia later (to ORKO the Cht.8 DMs). It might help to have on hand here as well, especially if Sumia reaches C Lances and ever comes out from behind Avatar.

-Similarly, Str tonics are a thing- Fred might be able to make good use of one depending on Counter distribution.

Edited February 15, 2015 by Czar_Yoshi

[Cat1803]

School happened and I haven't been working on this as much as I'd like, but a couple of odd improvements based on that:

-If Avatar and Sumia get max support in Cht.3 (pretty easy to do), then one Event Tile/Barracks will put them up to C in time for Cht.4. This may be able to boost Sumia's training potential there so she can be more helpful in Cht.5. Alternately, the same thing could be done for Fred x Sumia (she'd still be able to easily get the Chrom C support from Cht.3) which would likely provide a much greater training potential boost if you were clever with switching around her support in Cht.4, which could merit looking into. Finally, with a Barracks/Event Tile boost in or right after/before Cht.4, Chrom and Sumia can have a B support going into Cht.5, which also might be useful in some situations (Fred rides up to Avatar, switches, transfers, switches, Sumia x Chrom then KO someone with a Javelin + DS, Avatar can still attack with a Fred support).

-There's a Mjolnir in the Bonus Box. If you can get A Tomes by Cht.5 (not sure if that's feasible, though) it would provide a little more mt over forged Rexcalibur and if it's enough to OHKO Wyverns anyway then as long as they lack Aegis+ it might be the better choice all around. Forged Thoron is another B-rank possibility for a hefty damage boost over non-effective Rexcalibur, though whether or not it works still depends on Robin's Mag.

-Since I'm going for GF strats, I'll be investing in a lightly forged Short Spear for Cordelia later (to ORKO the Cht.8 DMs). It might help to have on hand here as well, especially if Sumia reaches C Lances and ever comes out from behind Avatar.

-Similarly, Str tonics are a thing- Fred might be able to make good use of one depending on Counter distribution.

I think I'll try the above since I have another spare file.

What's the normal class progression for Cordelia in L+? I've always done Peg Knight --> Merc --> Bow Knight --> Dark Flier, but the experience required to do that in nogrind might make it unworkable. I'm curious to see if getting Armsthrift and Galeforce on her is viable.

[Czar_Yoshi]

I won't be going for AT on her since she won't be getting enough exp to put it to good use. She'll be going straight to DF (need to see when the latest I can reasonably promote her is) to pass GF and then to Falco for Staffbot utility alongside Sumia, Lissa and Maribelle.

Thoron thresholds (assuming +5 mt and B Tomes): 14 Mag (OHKOes Mages), 15 Mag (OHKOes Wyverns and Myrms), 19 Mag (OHKOes Barbs), 20 Mag (OHKOes DMs). Everything gets 2HKOed at base, and 2HKOing through Aegis+ requires at most +1 over the OHKO threshold. If you don't hit 15, you should definitely use the Spirit Dust to reach it. You should also wait to forge the Thoron until right before Cht.5; you won't need it for Cht.4 and this way if you're Mag blessed you can give it a lighter forge to save cash.

[Cat1803]

I won't be going for AT on her since she won't be getting enough exp to put it to good use. She'll be going straight to DF (need to see when the latest I can reasonably promote her is) to pass GF and then to Falco for Staffbot utility alongside Sumia, Lissa and Maribelle.

Thoron thresholds (assuming +5 mt and B Tomes): 14 Mag (OHKOes Mages), 15 Mag (OHKOes Wyverns and Myrms), 19 Mag (OHKOes Barbs), 20 Mag (OHKOes DMs). Everything gets 2HKOed at base, and 2HKOing through Aegis+ requires at most +1 over the OHKO threshold. If you don't hit 15, you should definitely use the Spirit Dust to reach it. You should also wait to forge the Thoron until right before Cht.5; you won't need it for Cht.4 and this way if you're Mag blessed you can give it a lighter forge to save cash.

Ah, gotcha. Thanks for the clarification and threshold information.

The original run I had with this ended after Chapter 11 - I decided to train Chrom as an experiment at the cost of not training Gregor and it was a disaster. I should've kept a save in case I changed my mind about who to train, especially since I'm still learning. Gives me more opportunities to experiment with this, I guess.

[Knusperkeks]

Edited.

Edited May 31, 2015 by Knusperkeks

[Interceptor]

A thousand pardons for my silence thus far; I've been flat-out busy for a month and a half. Currently I am noodling around in Prologue with the alterations to the Water Trick that KTT posted about in his new L+ thread. Saving vulnerary uses is sneaky important for Ch2/3, so I want to incorporate as much of that as possible.

I am very interested in swapping the Pro1/Ch5 order, because archer/staff abuse is the very best GFY stick-in-the-eye that you can give Lunatic+. I'd rather avoid digging too deeply into Renown or rigging skills/crits if possible, will cross that bridge when I get to it.

Also, just to give it some visibility, Knusperkeks has been editing in L+ run updates above, and there are some really good strategy tidbits in there that are worth reading (feel free to bump for updates, BTW: this is a project thread, and your mirror run is about as on-topic as it gets).

[Vesly]

Have you tried a run-through without buying items from summoned teams? I'm interested in devising a speed-run like that, so I'd be curious as to how one may go about it regularly.