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I'm skeptical of this. I feel like adding a free combat unit, especially an axe unit, will centralize and distort the game. This happened last time when I made Hector free, although I was not aiming for "efficiency". If Bartre clause is too fishy for this forum, I would rather modify the recruitment clause to exclude Karla (she sucks).

Working backwards from FE11 to FE10, FE9, and most recently FE8, I've landed back on the first Fire Emblem game I ever played. Supposedly, I should be much better at the game than I was the first time, so I thought about trying one of those "low turn count" things that seem so popular here. Since there seem to already be hundreds of threads detailing the exact steps to get the lowest turn counts (which critical hits on which turns with which units), I've decided to add some additional constraints. Using only female units is standard enough for me, so that constraint is obvious. However, FE7 is a patriarchal conspiracy or something, since there's an extended drought of female unit availability, so I need some help deciding on rules. Lyn Mode: P / Lyn / Lord C3 / Florina / Pegasus Knight C5 / Serra / Cleric Easy enough. Lyn x Florina OTP. Hector Mode: C12 / Rebecca / Archer C12 / Serra / Cleric C14 / Priscilla / Troubadour C16 / Lyn / Lord C16 / Florina / Pegasus Knight C19 / Fiora / Pegasus Knight C21 / Ninian / Dancer C22 / Isadora / Paladin C25 / Farina / Pegasus Knight C26 / Louise / Sniper C28 / Nino / Mage C29 / Vaida / Wyvern Lord C30 / Ninian / dead C31x / Karla / Swordmaster The obvious problem is that nobody is capable of fighting until C16H when Florina rejoins. Then until C22H, I only get two healers, two flying horses, and Lyn. Here are the rules: Draft clause: Male units can not enter battles, interact with female units, break walls, steal items, open doors, or lure enemies. Recruitment clause: All female units must be recruited, except Karla. Patriarchy clause: Male units are not restricted on C11-C15. Nils clause: Nils is just a crossdressing Ninian. Progress so far: Chapter / Turns / Total ----------------------- P 5 5 1 5 10 2 6 16 3 5 21 4 8 29 5 5 34 6 4 38 7 2 40 8 6 46 9 3 49 10 3 52 11 6 58 12 4 62 13 5 67 14 4 71 15 8 79 16 9 88 17 11 99 18 2 101 19 3 104 20 6 110 21 2 112 22 3 115 23 4 119 24 2 121 25 6 127 26 12 139

You can forge one Silver Sword per chapter, starting at c23. I should have started using them earlier, as I had way too many by endgame, where there are actually very few enemies. A number of chapters could have been completed earlier. C15 in particular could have been done in as few as 15 turns with better luck getting the Boots. Several later chapters were completed quite quickly though, including a 3 turn finish in c19. It's worse, because I died several times in c9 before figuring out how to position everyone correctly. Hand Axes are a creation of the devil. Each unit that joins in the early game brings a free vulnerary. At least three elixirs are also obtained for free. However, as Jotari points out, Mist only needs to heal in c9 and c11 where she is underleveled and the last few chapters where one Elixir use per chapter is sufficient. You can see from some of the screenshots that many enemies have 0% hit rate against Mist. It seems to be the tradition to conclude playthrough logs with a tier list of sorts, so I'll oblige. Titania: Still the best unit, despite not appearing for most of the game. Essential to promoting Mist early. Tanith: Comes with a Sonic Sword. Also the best babysitter for Ike. Jill/Marcia: Makes c11 and c12 possible, respectively. Jill comes with a Laguzguard. Mist: Still kind of sucks despite ludicrous amounts of favoritism. Everybody else: Stays out of the way and gives free items/gold. Ike: He has two jobs, staying alive and killing Ashnard. He's terrible at both. Elincia: Actively tries to sabotage the run.

As trying to kill 5 red dragons in c28 with melee weapons is an exercise in frustration, I decided to apply Wrath and Resolve to Mist. This has the side effect of trivializing the remainder of the game. The supposed disadvantage of Wrath/Resolve is that they require the user to be below half health, but this leaves Mist with plenty (30 HP) remaining. Additionally, since Resolve increases speed and thus evasion, most of the enemies can no longer even hit Mist (39 SPD). Endgame is unremarkable. Ike can solo regular Ashnard with Aether and some luck. The Laguz royal backup (Giffca) can solo Berserk Ashnard. Since I have 10 turns before Ashnard moves, I have Mist run around killing everything until then. She uses the Sonic Sword and Runesword to ORKO enemies until below half health, at which point I switch her to Silver Swords. Watching the credits scroll by is quite amusing, with most units having 0 wins. The turn counts on some chapters are quite cringe-worthy (231 turns on c9 ). My top 5 units for this playthrough were Oscar, Boyd, Ike (14 wins), Titania (59 wins), and Mist (508 wins).

I have the power of Dolphin, so I don't need any AR device. With that said, the point of a challenge isn't so much to complete the game but rather to explore the limits. If you add the Lord skill to Mist, you only need Resolve to defeat Ashnard. Ashnard has 35 DEF and Mist has 48 MT (20 STR * 1.5 + 18 MT) with Ragnell.

C27 is hard only because I'm running out of weapons. Unfortunately, with only one unit, it is not possible to get all (or even most) of the chests. While Mist can't use any of the items in the chests, the gold from selling them would have gotten me an extra Silver Sword. I have approximately 38000 gold and a maxed Silver Sword costs 21000 gold (10000 without crit). I play this chapter out similarly to the previous chapter, heading directly for the boss and leaving behind pursuing enemies. The main complication is getting the Resolve in the upper-left room. Mist rescues Ike on turn 1 before taking the upper pathway, killing a swordmaster for a Door Key on enemy phase. Mist opens the door on turn 3, having not enough movement to reach it on turn 2. It is very easy to get trapped in the upper-left room due to the three generals standing in the way and oncoming soldiers from the boss chamber. Taking a circle around the chests causes the enemies to split apart, leaving the mob thin enough to break through offensively. Once outside the upper-left room, Mist kills Hafedd and arrives. Hafedd's Brave Lance is super annoying as he can hit Mist for 34 damage with it. Mist obviously can't defeat the Black Knight due to plot armor not having a blessed sword. Instead, I take the opportunity to repair the Sonic Sword before fleeing. I obtain an Occult in the chapter. Since I have enough BExp to put Ike at 20/20, it would be plausible for him to use Aether against Ashnard. This would let me swap Mist's skills for Wrath+Resolve. However, Vantage has served me well up to this point, so I may just sell the Occult.

Mist joins on turn 2, so you can't return to base. I must have been insane while writing the previous post. I tried c26 again on a whim today and got through it on my first try. I didn't even need to change any skills or fudge with Elincia. I was doing a number of things totally wrong the last time. I tried to lure the paladins by heading straight up on the first turn instead of diagonally. The paladins will follow regardless. I was using Steel Blades to save Silver Swords, leading to too many almost-dead enemies blocking the path. Moving slowly lets the foot units catch up. Unlike wyverns and paladins, foot units don't run away after attacking and must be killed. I ran at full speed towards the castle with Mist, who made it there on turn 4. Importantly, most of the enemies were trailing behind on turn 3, so only the paladins near the fort could reach her. The paladins dash away after attacking, leaving a thin spot guarded only by a half-dead swordmaster. Importantly, this swordmaster (the one with the Brave Sword) needed to be RNGed with enough speed to not be doubled by Mist, leaving an open kill for the following player phase. Additionally, the bishop next to the castle must choose not to heal said swordmaster. After killing the swordmaster in turn 4, Mist parks in front of Bertram with a Silver Sword, dealing 2x 12 damage to him on enemy phase. Bertram hits Mist for 22 damage, leaving her nearly dead. With some luck, none of the attacking paladins, wyverns, or snipers kill her. On turn 5, Mist switches to the Sonic Sword and heals with an Elixir. Bertram commits suicides on the following enemy phase, dropping a Runesword, which allows me to send the Sonic Sword back to my convoy and change Mist's weapon to a Steel Blade. The Steel Blade does not kill anything, minimizing the remaining battle count. In summary, I was caught off guard by a chapter that actually required some thought. The previous chapters were so trivial that I had switched into autopilot, which eventually led to a crash.

I can give you a copy of my save file if it will save you time. Otherwise, the c9 promotion will be quite time consuming.

This isn't Shadow Dragon; "max crit forged swords" have an amazing 9 crit. I have 6 Silver Swords that can ORKO everything except wyverns and knights, but I run out of swords before making it to the gate, due to enemy phase antics. Even if I kill something on each player phase, I will only be able to move one square each turn. This doesn't account for turns spent healing either, as Mist won't be dodging 10+ archers forever. Gamble has the same problem as Wrath. I have to either remove Vantage, making it even easier to die, or Saviour, turning the map objective into rout. And I still can't attack the archers. To make matters worse, Elincia prevents me from rushing to the gate. I only need to slug through 4 or 5 squares if I use my maximum movement each turn. However, I need to stay behind to draw the bow paladins and Short Spear wyvern towards Mist. I'm sure it's not strictly impossible with enough save state/RNG abuse, as I've gotten pretty close to the gate a few times. However, I don't currently feel like retrying this any more. P.S. Out of curiosity, I gave myself a bunch of extra Sonic Swords with AR. I needed 5 to clear the map by bulldozing.

I have neither of those things. It looks like I'm going to have to give up at c26. The enemy has 2 bishops and 4 sages and heals faster than Mist can deal damage. It is impossible to reach the boss without being surrounded, at which point there is no way to break free, resulting in slow but assured death. Edit: Perhaps Wrath would get me through this chapter. Not sure what I'd do about Ashnard without it though. Edit2: Nope. Wrath is useless. This can't be done.

C25 is straight-forward. Mist rescues Ike with Saviour before charging up the left side. To conserve weapons, I buy a set of Steel Blades for the next two chapters. The Steel Blade is not powerful enough to ORKO the enemies on the map, so Mist eventually gets cornered halfway up the mountainside. Eventually, all the enemies will commit suicide trying to attack Mist. At this point, I descend the other side of the mountain and clear up the remaining enemies. I enter the map with one generic Silver Sword, two Steel Blades, and 22/25 Sonic Sword uses. I end the map with 15/25 Sonic Sword uses and no other weapons. They just don't make swords like they did in the old days. Just as I escape the hell of babysitting Ike (seriously, what kind of guy needs his little sister to babysit him), the game throws Elincia at me in c26. And she's even more pathetic than Ike if such a thing is possible.

C24 is straight-forward. The objective is to reach the castle before Geoffrey Ike gets killed. Mist has 10 move, allowing her to out-pace the pursuing enemies. I take the upper bridge to get the Saviour, which would have been a neat skill if it were available 10 chapters ago. A generic Steel Sword is sufficient for this chapter as most foes flee when at low HP. Curiously, this chapter features what I believe is the only other Valkyrie in the game. Mist's clone, the allied healer, sadly always ends up dying. Her comrades must not like her very much, as they ignore her while myrmidons whack her to death. On which note, the game logic for "arrive" maps never made much sense to me. Mist safely reaches the castle while leaving everyone else behind to die.

I'll probably have someone hold the weapon to be repaired. Mist currently has her default Miracle as well as Vantage, which is a godsend as it converts 3HKOs to 2HKOs. Overall, there's not a lot of skills available in this game. Savior would have been great if it showed up about 10 chapters earlier. Vantage: good Adept: missed Wrath: Ike Miracle: useless Resolve: Ike Guard: useless Gamble: useless Smite: useless Corrosion: useless Nihil: useless Saviour: c24 Occult: c27 Edit: C23 is awful. The reinforcements eat through swords like there's no tomorrow. Mist clears the first two ballistae before doubling back to take out the reinforcements. After advancing a bit further, Haar spawns, forcing Mist to head back yet again. Once all the reinforcements are down, Mist still needs to muscle through several tigers, paladins, and wyvern riders. Petrine herself has ridiculous defense and speed, wasting yet more swords. I get a free Silver Sword from Lucia next chapter, but otherwise it's looking grim weapons-wise. I have one generic Silver Sword left, and I'm not ready to start burning my forged copies yet. I guess I'll have to settle for generic Steel Swords and the resultant 2RKOs. As for my Sonic Sword, I used 4 of the remaining 5 charges taking out Haar's company, followed by 3 charges post-repair against Petrine.

The extra 2 MT on Steel Swords is important for a number of ORKOs. I did buy a few Steel Blades for c21 though. "Weapons mule" Ike doesn't work out very well, because the enemies like to gang up on him. C22 is not an especially difficult chapter, but the initial phase is tricky as the sage with Bolting can target pretty much every square on the map. To get past this, Mist needs to fight off several waves of enemies while rescuing and guarding Ike. As I needed to obtain a Chest Key to get the Resolve in c27, I had to kill an extra priest. In total, I killed two priests and Tomenami. The boss is a joke; unsurprisingly, none of the three priests next to him felt like healing him.

Anti-class weapons like Laguzslayer and Armorslayer are terrible in FE9 due to only having 2x MT when used against their intended target. As such, they aren't any stronger than a Steel Sword. Not making anti-class weapons 3x MT like in Shadow Dragon (Rapier) really nerfs their usefulness. C21 was very much a challenge, again due to the problem of running out of swords. Although the chapter is not a rout map, it effectively became the same thing as Ike needed to safely travel to the throne. I entered with 2 Steel Blades, a Steel Sword, and the Sonic Sword. I finish the stage with half of a Killing Edge and 4/25 Sonic Sword uses remaining. The chapter would have been lost if an enemy hadn't dropped the Killing Edge. While I am now low on weapons, c22 should be possible to complete while minimizing combat. Silver swords in c23 should fix most of my inventory problems, as buyable weapons will finally have usable MT.

Just before you wrote this, I was doing some calculations in my head and I realized that the Sonic Sword is actually weaker than the Silver Sword (26+10 vs 20+18 MT). The Runesword is indeed a better use of Hammerne charges. C20 is a race against the clock. Not the 15 turn clock to shut the flood gates, but a 6 turn limit to save Ike from enemy reinforcements. The wyvern riders and knights are too defensive for Mist to ORKO with the Steel Sword, so I end up burning half of my remaining Sonic Sword uses to get past the chokepoint on the mountain slope. Shiharam is obnoxious as he will stall with Elixirs if at low HP, so I need to ORKO him. I have 11/25 Sonic Sword uses left. They may very well be exhausted in c21 to defeat Tauroneo and Ena.

C19 was a joke. Apparently the BExp for sparing the crows is only awarded if Naesala is befriended. Simply ending the chapter without fighting any crows does not grant the BExp. However, in something resembling an LTC playthrough, Mist defeats Homasa on turn 3, netting the entire 300 regular BExp.

To be honest, this hasn't been much of a challenge to point. Mist's strength looked like an issue at first, but for the first two-thirds of the game, she is very overleveled. Entering c18, Mist had 18 STR, the same as Tanith, who joins in that chapter and is generally considered a top-tier character. I don't know how c19 will turn out, but my goal is to only kill Homasa for maximum BExp.

As a rout map, c18 is an exercise in endurance. Although Mist is never in any real danger of dying, she can easily run out of swords. The Sonic Sword is Mist's most powerful weapon, but it must be used sparingly until Hammerne is available in c23. In this chapter, I use it to quickly eliminate the wyvern rider reinforcements, leaving me with 22/25 uses. Otherwise, I use up a Steel Sword, an Iron Blade, and two Iron Swords routing the map. Mist reaches 20/20 at the end of the stage, following which I use my remaining stat boosters, a Seraph Robe and Speedwings, on her. For reference, her average 20/20 stats are as follows. HP 38, STR 16, MAG 26, SKL 14, SPD 25, LCK 28, DEF 10, RES 22 Aside from another +2 STR from the c21 Energy Drop, Mist's stats have no further room for improvement. However, Silver Swords will be available in c23 and the Runesword in c26. It remains to be seen if this will be enough to remedy her stagnant offensive capability.

The primary challenge in c17 has nothing to do with Mist, but rather Ike. The name of the game is to keep him alive while achieving the map objectives. Here's a summary of the game plan for each subchapter. Part 1: Mist runs up and kills everything before going back to take out the reinforcements. To minimize turn count, I only attack ranged units on player phase. Part 2: Mist rescues Ike and runs across the swamp to arrive. A few horsemen and soldiers are killed along the way. Part 3: Mist routs the top half of the map over the first three turns, while Ike slowly retreats from the oncoming enemies from below. Once all mages in the top half are killed, Ike hides in a bush while Mist heals him. Part 4: Ike has nowhere to hide, imposing a 6 turn limit before the reinforcements appear and kill him. The horseman with a droppable Iron Blade is a lifesaver as I had only one sword left at the start of the subchapter. I fail to reach the halberdier with the Adept in c17-4 by turn 5. Mist is unable to ORKO the halberdier, so I am forced to kill Oliver to end the battle, losing a moderately useful skill. Overall, I complete c17 surprisingly quickly in 34 turns (10+9+10+5). On the bright side, I have automatically recruited Sonic Sword Tanith, the MVP for the final chapters of this playthrough. I've taken the advice of my fellow posters to level Ike. If I hadn't done so, he would likely not have survived c17-3 and c17-4 anyway.

Technically, you can also level her in c9 by having her dodge axes (Merlinus-style) if for some reason you can't afford to buy staves. Yeah, although I'm surprised by the extra MAG points. The single-digit exp gains definitely distort her growths though. There's no strategy involved in c16. I dump my accumulated stat boost items onto Mist for +7 HP, +2 STR, +6 SKL, +2 MV. During the chapter, I obtain a Dracoshield for another +2 DEF. Mist runs through and routs all enemies, stopping to open the first door and obtain the Chest Key from the halberdier. Careful avoidance of unnecessary combat in the preceding chapters leaves me with 3 swords left for c17, which should be plenty if I disequip Mist during c17-3. By now, this barely qualifies as a challenge given Mist's inflated stats. I need to decide whether to spend BExp on Ike or Ena, as Ike will automatically promote after c17. I have 4130 BExp with the possibility of about 500 additional "easy" BExp. Ike is currently almost level 7, so I have enough guaranteed BExp to get him to 20/15, which should be enough to defeat Ashnard.

C15 is likely the most annoying chapter of this playthrough. To maximize BExp, I need to forgo most treasures to avoid fighting the various Laguz. The only treasure I take is the Boots, which will be needed to prevent Mist being mobbed by 9 move enemies in later chapters. As Mist has a total of 2 move in desert, she will be quickly surrounded. The only treasures that Mist could have used are the Silver Blade (inaccurate, low uses) and Vague Katti (useless). However, the loss in gold may cost me a few weapons, as Steel Swords run about 10000 gold each. The Laguz casualty list came out as 1 crow, 2 hawks, 2 tigers, and 3 cats. I gain 440 BExp from the remaining 11 enemies left alive. If Swordmaster Mist had not criticaled as many foes, I may have gotten away with two fewer casualties. At level 14, Mist has the following stats (subtracting stat boost items): 36 HP, 14 STR, 26 MAG, 14 SKL, 23 SPD, 26 LCK, 11 DEF, 20 RES Her averages (rounded down) should be: 35 HP, 14 STR, 24 MAG, 13 SKL, 22 SPD, 25 LCK, 9 DEF, 21 RES I'm not sure what accounts for the discrepancy, particularly in magic. I unwisely obtained the Miracle and Ward from c7, leaving me with only one chest key remaining. I will gain a chest key in c16, but no further keys until c22. This forces me to choose no more than 3 items from the upcoming chapters, which will likely be: Dracoshield (c16) Wrath (c18) Energy Drop (c21)

I didn't think of logging this until after I got to around turn 207 in c9, so there are no pictures unfortunately. I had Titania+Oscar/Ike wall the axe pirates. Titania is unkillable, so the trick is to make sure the Hand Axe pirate throws axes at Titania instead of Oscar/Ike. Basically, the formation needs to be as such: H P P P T I M H = Hand Axe, P = Pirate, T = Titania, I = Oscar/Ike, M = Mist I needed about 200 staff usages for Mist to gain 20 levels and promote. I had two Heals and one Mend, but additional Heal staffs can be bought. Each pirate has 45 uses of Iron Axe, which inevitably break. When this happens, I retreat one square to allow the Venin Axe reinforcements to attack, at which point I need to make sure Oscar/Ike don't accidentally get killed by poison. The poison effect of the Venin Axe is useful as I manage to get 5 staff uses out of one axe use. Once Mist evolves promotes, she solos the knights and enemy reinforcements. There is sufficient room for her to run away without allowing Ike et al to be within enemy attack range. I never touch the enemies on the beach other than the first two pirates I abused. Edit: Sadly, level 3 Mist was not strong enough to damage the c10 boss (did 3 damage with Armorslayer) so I ran away without fighting. Edit2: I must be going senile. I now remember that the soldiers at the bottom don't approach, so Lethe and Mordecai actually just sat there.

At this point, Mist's evade is high enough that she's mostly unkillable. However, her low power prevents her from clearing the enemy mob in c13. The battle outcome largely depends on how good the NPC soldiers and Gatrie are at hitting the enemy. Getting the energy drop is infuriatingly difficult as the crows can always seize unless someone is sitting at the bottom of the stairs. I'm debating whether to reset until I somehow manage to get that Energy Drop. The difference between 16 and 18 STR will be huge at the endgame. An additional difficulty is that Mist now only gains 1 exp per battle. Since all her growth rates are below 50% this makes it impossible for her to improve her stats... Edit: In an amazing feat of RNG abuse, Mist was able to clear out the middle bridge with three consecutive critical hits, taking out a halberdier, a fighter, and a myrmidon. With an Energy Drop in hand, I will be advancing on to c14. From this point onwards, Steel Swords will be purchasable, possibly helping remediate Mist's strength problem. Edit2: C14 is a joke. Some of the enemies are so weak that they can't touch Mist's 12 DEF. I rush up the left with a Steel Sword, which is strong enough to ORKO all enemies (13+13 MT). Items obtained include Vantage (mostly useless), Secret Book (useless), and Spirit Dust (useless). Mist achieves S rank in swords and can now wield the Vague Katti!

No problems. I did some quick calculations and it looks like Ike only needs to be at around 20/10 for the Wrath/Resolve strategy. With 40 MT (22+18), 44 HP, and 24 DEF (19+5), he can survive one hit from either form of Ashnard and counter for 15 damage on critical. I overestimated the difficulty of c12, as it was pretty much a joke. It makes no sense for the crows to be unable to attack over the side of the boat. Swordmaster Mia Mist sits in the corner and takes out oncoming crows with criticals. In the chapter, I gained two Seraph Robes, two Secret Books, and an Arms Scroll. The robes will help in surviving the next chapter. Unfortunately, Seeker's Corrosion skill left my Laguzslayer at 7 uses. C13 will be tricky as it houses the first of two Energy Drops. It was difficult enough to get the chest without having the ship seized by crows in a Titania solo, so I'm not confident that it's possible with Mist. The outcome likely depends on my ability to manipulate Gatrie into guarding the ship. I could also cheat and have Ike guard the ship if I decide to use my BExp on Ike instead of Ena.