MartyTheDemonSlayer

Definitely. I'll be sure to do that next time. Thanks for the feedback.

Since I've got the first generation pretty much all planned out, I'll start posting videos now. Here's the prologue, completed in 9 turns.

If you break the prayer sword, you can sell it in the pawn shop, have it be bought by a male unit, and if they repair it with no other weapons in their inventory, they will have it equipped, though they can only counterattack and the moment they equip anything else it becomes unusable until it is broken again. I use it at several points throughout my playthrough. One is the first castle of chapter 9, where since all my units are super weak defensively and can't really stand up to the hero lance using armors well I have Celice charge into them with the prayer sword equipped, is knocked down to two health by an archer, proceeds to dodge all the enemies because prayer is ridiculous, and then gets two hero sword crits on the boss to clear the castle in two turns, though now that I have the rescue staff in chapter 9 I may revise that strategy. It's mostly useful to let my pitifully weak 24 health Leif survive some of the toughest enemy phases in the game while Celice holds the prayer ring. It allows me to avoid using Shanan at several parts of the game, which is good because I want to avoid using infantry whenever possible.

No. The only bug I'm using is the prayer sword on a male unit bug, because otherwise my turn counts in chapter 10 and the final chapter would be terrible and I feel my run would be a lot less enjoyable to watch if everything suddenly got a lot slower in the end.

I actually cut it down to 24 turns. With growths 22 turns is possible, but these are both reliant on RNG abuse. Playing reliably I'm not sure what kind of turn counts you could hit. Any super fast clear of chapter two is reliant upon believing and taking advantage of the power of Sigurd (you can just cavalry bum rush all of the map with growths, and most of it without growths), not wasting any time with using warp/return, taking advantage of Sylvia as much as possible (if you're going fast enough she doesn't need to fight bandits and can be returned home quickly), as well as going straight through enemy formations to seize the gate whenever possible (in Heirhein and Anphony.) Once I'm done with the whole run I'll post videos and explain my strategies. The major adaptation I had to make for 0% growths was to exploit Deidre's prayer skill to clear Macklily out entirely with just her, Holyn, Aira, and Lachesis before Sigurd and Cuan arrived (working this out was probably the second hardest part of the run.) This let infantry contribute to the final fight at Agusty without wasting turns, as unfortunately by the end of chapter two Sigurd and Cuan are getting pretty weak and need some back up on 0% growths.

I did that on my first try. I kept Rana near leveling up range and left units alive and all that but it's still hard to get favorable RN chains, Celice's chance of death is just too high. I may just have to resign myself to a terrible turn count there, since I see no real way to get him a significantly better inventory. My one other idea is to try the chapter out and if the RNs ever become unworkable I can go back to chapter five, burn a bunch of RN's, and then try again. It will be tedious, but it should eventually yield good results.

Yeah, there's reasoning on both sides, but in the end you just have to try it both ways to know for sure. In the case of chapters four and five, it's definitely better to have it on Sylvia. Anyways, I finished what is probably my last run of Gen1 before recording. I 13 turned chapter 5 again, but if I had Sigurd literally one square further forward I would've 12 turned it, so I know that it's possible. I also know that I can 12 turn chapter 3, and if I get Azel and Aideen together earlier in chapter 1 they will still fall in love in time. In the run I actually record I think I'll probably finish the first generation in 97 turns. Here will be my turn counts: Prologue 9 Chapter 1 19 Chapter 2 24 Chapter 3 12 Chapter 4: 21 (this one is the one I think could maybe be cut down one more turn, but I'm not sure... since at this point Sigurd isn't that strong Levin has to do a lot of work, and he unfortunately isn't mounted) Chapter 5: 12 Overall for Gen 1: 97 Claude manages to pass down the Rescue staff, which will help me save turns in chapter 9. Right now I'm just really trying to work out a way to clear chapter 6 quickly. It's the hardest chapter in the game to get right because Celice is pretty bad even with the best gear possible and there's no ability to RNG abuse, but he needs to be promoted. If worst comes to worst I'll burn rn's before I end gen 1 to set up a favorable string in the second generation, though that is really tedious and I hope to find a better way. My current inventory for Celice is as follows: Hero Sword (not enough kills to crit) Power ring Elite ring Speed ring Leg ring Knight ring and in the storage is the shield ring, light sword, and earth sword Any suggestions on how to quickly clear chapter 6 with Celice promoted would be welcome. If anyone wants to try it out I guess I could post a save.

The main benefit is when moving through terrain like forest or mountains, because the staff range is still 10 but nobody is moving that far. I'll give the leg ring on the dancer a try though, just to see if it saves turns or not. The biggest issue with having it on the dancer is that Sylvia/Laylea (more so laylea) can be a huge liability on 0% growths, so I don't always like having them out in the open, though maybe with better planning this can be worked around. So having it on Leif/Lachesis is probably better in the more dangerous sections and having it on my dancer would probably be better in the more open sections, but I'm not sure if I have the money to be trading it around a lot. That's what test playthroughs are for though, to see which is faster. Another question: if two units are standing together when the final gate is seized, does it count as them spending a turn next to each other in terms of love points? I worked out a 12 turn for chapter three, but Azel and Aideen need one more turn to fall in love, unless ending the map adjacent counts as a turn. I suppose I could go back to chapter one and get Aideen and Azel standing together sooner if I really had to as well, but I'm just curious in case I find further optimizations, since I know that with growths the nicovideo play through got ~10 turns on chapter 3, so maybe I can cut it down to 11. ' Edit: I was probably just being silly actually. Tried out leg ring Sylvia in chapter 4 and cut two turns from my run with leg ring Lachesis. Thanks for bringing me back to sanity.

FE4 Master Knights and Lord Knights. Access to every weapon type and the rescue staff as well as having a mounted lord was so broken that I understand why neither ever returned as playable units, but they sure were fun to use.

I've actually had the leg ring on the rescue user in my test runs, and I'm like, 60% sure that that's better for most of 0% growths (and I don't have the money to trade it around for the situations where it isn't.) The leg/knight ring dancer is really good for moving four nine move units around the place quickly, but Shanan and Levin are both only six move and are unfortunately necessary at several points (the last two chapters of the first generation are just Lachesis rescuing Levin around), so the super overpowered rescue dancer abuse doesn't work out too well. I'm doing one more test play through before I record though, and now that I'll have the rescue staff in chapter 9 (which can be beaten with just mounts) I'll see if giving the leg ring to a dancer is better or not. Since there isn't anything that's important in the long term going on in the prologue/chapter 1 and I'm sure that beating 19 turns in chapter 1 is impossible on 0% growths, I can probably upload videos soon. However, if I do, there'll likely be a long time gap before other chapters are up, as those strategies aren't completely finished. Would you rather I upload the first two chapters now or wait a bit?

Sorry for the double post, but I managed to 19 turn chapter 1! The main problem was that although Sigurd and Cuan had the movement to reach the gate on time, the archers fanned out and made it impossible for both of them to attack Sandima on the same turn, and Sigurd doesn't have the strength to one round him even with a steel lance on 0% growths. However, I managed to manipulate my positioning so that Deidre spawned on the other side of the massive choke in front of the swarm of axe users. I had her walk around the forest then bait out one of the archer to get the whole castle guard charging. The first shot knocked her down to 11 health, then she recovered six hit points on the following turn. On the following enemy phase (turn 18) an archer knocked her down to two health, activating prayer, but since the AI prioritizes low health units even if they have absurd prayer bonuses everyone went for her. This got rid of the problem of archers blocking my path, so I managed to seize the gate on turn 19. I'll start working on a 24 turn of chapter 2 now. I can't cut any more turns than that or Aideen and Azel won't be paired in time.

Since I'm RNG abusing I don't really have time to pair anyone besides Azel x Aideen and Fury x Claude (for chapter 9 rescue staff.) Celice, Oifaye, Leif, Aless, and Laylea form the core of my team for most of the second generation with Shanan occasionally dropping in for the toughest fights. Leif is only there for rescue and even 0% growths Celice can one round every second generation boss except for Blume, Julius, Alvis, and Manfloy (not that I'm fighting him) with a power ring and a high kill hero sword. I'm not really even using the substitute characters, since they don't have the greatest skills or weapons and are mostly unmounted.

Nope. Lachesis is too busy charging around the map using the rescue staff in chapters four and five. It's unfortunate, but oh well. Also, I've been working a bit on my Chapter 1 strategy. I'm still not sure if a 19 turn is possible, but I adjusted my strategy so that Aideen and Azel start standing together a turn earlier, which means I can afford to cut two turns instead of just one from chapters 1-3. The main problem with a 19 turn on 0% growths is that all the archers get in your way when you near Verdane castle, but I think that maybe if I get Deidre to go around instead of through the forests she can contribute enough to make it possible. I'll probably know if it's possible or nor by the end of today.

Ooops, I meant to type 12/13. I managed a 13 turn, and think that maybe I can reduce it by one more if I'm super precise with positioning, but I'm unsure. By exploiting jealousy with Aira and Briggid (they aren't really needed for anything else by chapter four) I only need to keep them together for 31 turns, so yeah, all should be fine. I generally use teh nico video 161 turn play through to see what kind of turn counts I should be hitting (within reason, at some times I'm ahead of them because I don't care about full recruitment like they do, and much lower at other times because my characters are terrible.) In chapter 1 the nicovideo play through manages a 19 turn, but they can take advantage of things like Sigurd one rounding all the archers with a javelin which I can't. Also, nobody in the army is strong enough to reliably one round the barbarians in the massive choke point, so I think that one turn slower than that play through is pretty good. I'm less sure about chapters two and three, but I can only afford to cut one turn off the two of them so I can get Azel and Aideen paired.

Hmmm I'm not sure. If I was to replace Levin!Sety it would actually be with Claude!Sety for the chapter 9 rescue staff. I'm not sure whether I can replace him to be honest, since I'm still working out the final chapter. I'm currently using Sety to clear up the Rotten Ritter, but Shanan could probably wipe out all the 1 range enemies and then Aless and Oifaye + Celice with high kill weapons could clear out the rest rather easily. The one place where I thought I would need him was the Weissen Ritter, but now that I think about it, Celice can knock himself into prayer range and Leif can exploit the prayer sword glitch, meaning I can avoid fighting them altogether in a breakneck charge for Barhara. I guess I can get rid of Holesty. The rescue staff will probably only save a few turns in chapter 9, but it'll be worth it. I guess I'll try another play through where I feed more kills onto the hero sword and pair Fury and Claude. Do you think any of the first generation turn counts can be improved much or were my estimates that they were near optimal good? If not I'll try and cut those down some more.

Pursuit to Leif is probably the best option. As for the hero sword, just make sure Sigurd has it by the end of the generation. If you think someone else can give it more kills then give it to them, otherwise let Sigurd use it. A high kill silver sword would probably help Leif clear the arena and promote faster so sure.

This play through has been completed in 174 turns. RNG abuse and the prayer sword on a male unit glitch were used. The only pairings were Azel x Aideen and Claude x Fury. Thanks for following! [spoiler=Turn Counts]Prologue: 9 turns Chapter 1: 19 turns Chapter 2: 24 turns Chapter 3: 12 turns Chapter 4: 19 turns Chapter 5: 13 turns Chapter 6: 20 turns Chapter 7: 21 turns Chapter 8: 10 turns Chapter 9: 8 turns Chapter 10: 10 turns Endgame: 9 turns Total: 174 turns [spoiler=Videos]Prologue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8658NZpRLRM&feature=youtu.be Chapter 1: Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkhh3nR1jHw&list=PLcvuFX_7kixQMuuU0PDx-JcPNvkhDB40T&index=2 Part 2: Part 3: Chapter 2: Part 1: Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2a1GxGphN0Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAy-_a17ig8&feature=youtu.be Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CFKyuHPFSc&feature=youtu.be Part 5: Chapter 3: Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFcJTfH-CN4 Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYVGFZQ5Hgc Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRK0kzWoIc4 Part 4: Chapter 4: Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIwUatu0eLE&feature=youtu.be Part 2: Part 3: Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBT6-8pT-yg Chapter 5: Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw2jS3oDsE4&feature=youtu.be Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGVHG26xCQU&feature=youtu.be Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xFqOmQO0ws&feature=youtu.be Chapter 6: Part 1: Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbV2wVxyfjI&feature=youtu.be Chapter 7: Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag63VDqfUgo&feature=youtu.be Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JCu1wgrVLw&feature=youtu.be Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHw14GOVTiI&feature=youtu.be Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkH_qS7WuZc&feature=youtu.be Chapter 8: Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ6l1BpMQQU&feature=youtu.be Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sPmWvP2vxQ&feature=youtu.be Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVkv6bHBPYo&feature=youtu.be Chapter 9: Part 1: Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgmGDvaqBzg&feature=youtu.be Chapter 10: Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzz9akIC77c&feature=youtu.be Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbxuES_FpOg&feature=youtu.be Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcDW_kZqKw4&feature=youtu.be Part 4: Endgame: Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHnsnI9333Y&feature=youtu.be Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zopN995Ab1g&feature=youtu.be Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj8RMISj6HE&feature=youtu.be Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77XxGa92OGw&feature=youtu.be

1. Probably Ethlin. 2. Ethlin may be a good choice so that Leif can buy the elite ring quickly + will have no trouble repairing the rescue staff. 3. According to this page (http://serenesforest.net/genealogy-of-the-holy-war/characters/jealousy/) you can't use jealousy on Levin and Tilityu. I'd advise you go for Claude!Sety instead to pass down the rescue staff earlier. 4. I'd advise Power, Speed, Leg, Elite, Magic, Hero, Light, and Earth Sword/Life ring (depending on whether you got it or not.) With the hero sword he wouldn't be reliant on crits and would help feed kills onto a better weapon than the silver sword, and if he got a few magic procs before fighting the hand axe cavalry (which is likely if you're feeding him almost all the kills) he can one round at 1-2 range as well.) You can keep the magic ring + light sword in storage and then switch them out after Ganenshire. 5. If you keep Aideen and Azel glued together they'll be paired by chapter four. Then a promoted Lachesis (just spam staffs) can make the whole process much faster.

I feel that what makes the gap between infantry and cavalry so large is enemy density. In the other games, mounts also have far higher move than infantry, but since there are usually enemies all over the map infantry has an easier time contributing, at least in the earlier stages of chapters. However, in FE4, units have to spend countless turns traversing the map without any fights, which allows the gap to widen before any fighting even begins. Imagine a remade chapter two where your home castle was only ten squares or so away from Nodion and the gaps between other castles were also smaller. Infantry would be far more useful. If there were more enemies and less dead space, infantry would be able to contribute at a similar level to other games. This might get rid of the big map feel, but could also be achieved by keeping the distances similar but filling empty space with more enemies and reducing exp rates.

Except even weak cavalry is enough to beat the game, so the removal of the arena wouldn't achieve anything. On 0% growths, where levels gained don't really matter, cavalry is still enough to win the first four chapters of each generation alone. It's harder than usual, but there's no need to use the statistically better infantry units. In the first generation near the end the only unit with good enough stats is Levin, but that isn't really representative of normal play, as if Sigurd and Lachesis had gotten even a few stat ups they'd be capable of closing out the generation. However, near the end of the second generation, even a pitifully weak 24 health Celice and Leif can trivialize most castles with a rescue staff to skip enemies and a high kill hero sword and power ring to snipe bosses (27 attack power on a high kill hero sword can one round every boss in the second generation except for Julius, Arvis, and Manfloy, and Celice in a real play through will be much stronger than that.). Remove the benefits of leveling entirely and cavalry are still the best by far. Enemies in FE4 are weak enough that even underlevelled cavalry can destroy anything. Infantry will always be bad when cavalry can do everything the game requires and at a faster rate.

I think that the pawn shop system is, just like the large maps, something that you'll either completely hate or love. I personally enjoy how it adds a strategic aspect to something as simple as spreading weapons around, but it's also unnecessarily complicated, and I can understand why you would dislike that. Getting rid of it would require nerfing rings and weapons like the sleep sword a huge amount or else the game would be more absurd than it already is, which I feel would be worse than keeping the system in place as abusing these things is part of the fun of FE4.

I feel that the pawn shop system was created to try and compensate for how ridiculous some items get. Like, imagine exploiting canto to trade chain the elite ring and a high kill hero sword as you kill a densely packed group of enemies. Whether inventing an insane mechanic to compensate for imbalances was good game design is debatable, but I find the absurdly powerful items fun to play around with. Of course, the whole flawed system is completely reliant on arena use.

The trade function is very important though, to the point where ranked runs are reliant upon having everyone use the elite ring for each arena. Even with the arena Dew's money collection is still useful for things like getting Lachesis and elite ring in chapter 2. Rather than axing the arena the game could maybe be better balanced by increasing repair costs for silver, hero, and holy weapons so that the player is actually forced to use weaker weapons. If everyone had to use iron or steel from time to time it would make skills like Astra more useful and maybe not just overkill.

The game is easy without the arena. Even on 0% growths (so a game mode where the extra stats don't exist) things like holy weapons and massed cavalry charges (for the first four chapters of each generation) can trivialize the game. Furthermore, not all units can reliably clear the whole arena, at least in the first generation. Balcerzak's AAAA play through managed to get most units through every arena, but this was with some rng planning (not that there's a problem with that, it just isn't representative of normal play) or the abuse of mechanics like prayer or the sleep sword. In fact, a lot of mounts actually don't preform that will with the arena like Lex, Midir, Alec and Noish as they normally hit fights they can't pass without planning or luck. In spite of lots of infantry like Jamka, Aira and Holy gaining a disproportionate advantage from the arena, the gap between mounts and infantry is huge. Even if you removed the arena it would remain, since even under leveled cavalry can still take care of what the game has to offer. And this all ignores that the arena doesn't take up turns and was clearly intended to be used (as without the money how would mechanics like high kill weapons ever be relevant?) FE4 is my favorite game, but I don't think it could ever be called well balanced, even if you removed the arena.

To Holyn's credit I'd say he manages to do more than say, alec noish or midir, even once you factor in his movement, since his high base stats and proximity to promotion make him really shine in those situations where foot units can keep up. Also, about Finn, I forgot to mention the fact that he has prayer, which is absurdly powerful if you plan knocking him into prayer range out. Outside of Holyn and Levin I feel that all infantry have issues. Aira is weak defensively, Arden is just all around worthless, Dew has nothing besides his money giving utility, Jamka and Brigid are locked to bows, Azel is incredibly vulnerable and doesn't have access to wind until really late, Lachesis takes time to get going, and Deidre is Deidre. Besides Sigurd the individual mounts might not be game breaking to the extent some really powerful infantry are like Levin, but the cavalry mob sure is. I feel the chapter that the huge maps right is chapter three. Though Madino castle is a massive cavalry rush the smaller distances and the multiple directions enemies come from allow infantry to stay relevant throughout the whole chapter if you position them right.