ruadath

While I will be using Serra a good amount in LHM, this is more for staff EXP (I want to get her to B staves ASAP and then dump her for Priscilla once she is available in HHM) than actual EXP. You forget that once a healer promotes, the amount of EXP they gain from staves is halved upon promotion. In order to gain every last drop of EXP on chapters like Victory or Death, this actually means I want to keep Serra and Priscilla unpromoted and probably not much higher than level 10 for most of the game.

The main Rank that a promoted Sain has benefits on is tactics; by taking advantage of his extra Mov and higher Str/Spd, we can clear maps quicker than before. The kind of speed he provides with regard to turn counts isn't really necessary, but is obviously useful if one is trying to aim for the overall lowest turn counts (while completing everything else). I can see him shaving off at least a good 5-10 turns during HHM midgame, and possible more. With regards to the EXP rank, not promoting Sain allows me to cycle my three cavs during HHM which should always give me access to a cavalier on every map. However, a different benefit of actually promoting Sain, one which I did not take advantage of on my previous playthrough, is that on early chapters, Sain can be used to meet the low EXP requirements exclusively, which will can probably help me keep the rest of the team (notably Florina) at lower levels, allowing for more use in HHM. In particular, combined with the fact that I am also going to try and push Lyn's level up a bit (both for this purpose and for an easier time reaching Linus Chapter 24), I can probably keep Florina/Erk and possibly even Kent's level significantly lower than before.

By the way, I've completed a playthrough for Chapter 4 assuming that promoting Sain is still the game plan, but I will probably hold off on posting in for a small while in the hopes of eliciting poll responses/feedback from you guys on whether or not this is a good idea.

I was actually hoping to steal/adapt your 7x strategy for my 60/60 stars guide, not this playthrough, since I intensely hate that chapter and didn't want to calculate a route for Matthew to steal all of the Vulneraries and the Lockpick and open the Hammer in 5 turns on my own. ;)

The strategy of the next chapter will vary heavily depending on whether or not I want to promote Sain, so it might be a short while before my next post since I have yet to decided whether or not I'm promoting him.

Chapter 3 Turn 1: Kent doubles the archer (Iron Lance) from the south, Lyn recruits Wil, Wil moves behind Kent, Florina rescues Lyn and heads straight east. Sain moves above her, trades his Iron Lane over to Florina, and then rescue drops Lyn onto the forest. Enemy Turn 1: Pretty much all the enemies attack Lyn and die (but why u no critical?!?!). She hits C rank in swords during this process. An archer hits Florina. Turn 2: Florina moves 4 north and 3 west. Wil moves to where Florina started and attacks the archer. Lyn kill the merc for a sweet level. Most OP Lyn ever. Kent moves onto the forest, and Sain moves west of Lyn. Enemy Turn 2: The merc misses Florina and gets hit in the counter, and the archer attacks Lyn. Turn 3: Wil kills the archer, Florina visits the village and then moves east, Kent buys an Iron Lance from the armory. Sain attacks Migal. Enemy Turn 3: Migal suicides on Sain, as the merc does on Florina, ending the chapter.

Chapter 2 The required RNG abuse for this chapter makes it not really worth giving a proper playthrough. I'll just state what happens. Turn 1: Lyn, Kent move forward but out of northern bandit's range. Sain moves into range and RNs are burned so he crit kills the bandit on the enemy phase. Turn 2: Sain hits wall, Kent burns RNs and then awaits incoming bandit with Iron Lance equipped. He crit kills him on the enemy phase. Turn 3: Sain breaks the wall, Lyn moves in front of him, and Kent in front of her. RNs are burned so that Kent crit kills the bandit on the enemy phase. Turn 4: RNs are burned, then Kent crit kills the bandit approaching from the south for a level. He gets Skl/Spd/Luck/Res growths. More RNs are burned, then Sain crit-kills Glass with the Iron Lance for another level. He gets HP/Str/Spd growths. Lyn moves onto the throne, trades her Iron Sword to Sain, and then seizes to complete.

Since no one appears to be providing any objections, I will just move along with the next chapter and remove the question from the poll.

Just reread my post, and I didn't mean to sound as critical as it might have come off! The instructions probably make a lot more sense with the right starting position as well.

These instructions aren't very clear, and furthermore don't appear to be in line with the screenshot of the starting formation you have posted above. In particular, Dorcas is not depolyed, and Erk cannot move 2 west.

Chapter 7 Preparations Bench Rath and Erk, make sure Sain and Florina have Javelins and Iron Lances. Kent and Matthew should have a spare inventory space (or two). Deploy people as follows Turn 1: The game forces you to have Lucius attack, followed by Nils playing for him. Wil moves straight east and attacks the archer, and Matthew finishes him from below. Dorcas kills the Shaman from above, Lucius moves 3E 1N, Serra heals him from above, and Lyn moves east of her. Kent moves one NW of Wil. Make sure Sain and Florina both have Javelins equipped, then move Sain next to Florina, who rescues him and moves 6 south (1 before the end of her movement range). Enemy Turn 1: The shaman attacks Florina, who counters with her Javelin. Turn 2: Wil moves 2 east and attacks the bandit, then Matthew finishes him from below. Kent moves east of Matthew and trade-equips the Iron Lance that Matthew got from killing the bandit. Serra heals Wil and Nils plays for someone. I had Lyn buy a heal staff; I probably won't need it, but better safe than sorry. Florina moves 2 east and drops Sain south onto the forest, then flies around to the west of the snag (out of the range of the enemy Shaman). Enemy Turn 2: Heintz attacks Sain and gets Javelin'd. A merc attack Kent and gets hurt. The injured shaman attacks Sain and dodges one of Sain's Javelin counterattacks. Turn 3: Burn an RN, then Florina kills the shaman with her Iron Lance. Matthew moves south and attacks the merc, and Wil finishes him from west of Matthew. Serra moves 2 east and heals someone, Kent visits the village for Pure Water, and Nils plays for someone. Sain kills Heintz with his Iron Lance to finish the chapter. Nothing exceptional, but we'll take it!

Chapter 1 The first chapter that actually has some nontrivial strategy in it, since we have to keep both Kent and Sain's EXP low for Chapter 2. Since Lyn has to get most of the kills, this prevents us from getting the 3-turn clear, but a 4 turn clear is still very possible. Turn 1: Sain attacks the bandit from above with his Iron Lance; the bandit misses the counterattack. Lyn finishes him off from the west. Kent moves as far SE as he can go (into the enemy bandit's range). Enemy Turn 1: The bandit attacks Kent. (and misses) Turn 2: Lyn moves 4E, 1N. Sain moves east of her, takes and equips her Iron Sword. Kent moves behind her and gives her his Iron Sword. Enemy Turn 2: The weakened bandit attacks Lyn and dies. The other two bandits attack Lyn and Sain, respectively, and don't die. Turn 3: Sain finishes the bandit who attacked him from the south (Iron Sword). Lyn burns 5 RNs then continues east. Kent runs away to the SE corner of the map (or just outside the bandit's range). Enemy Turn 3: The bandit dies on Lyn giving her a level. Turn 4: Lyn attacks Zugu. Kent burns 13 RNs. Sain trades Kent his sword. Enemy Turn 4: Zugu attacks Lyn and dies. Depending on how you guys feel about the RN abuse, I can redo the last few turns to change the levels (if you wish).

Prologue Nothing else to be said here.

Cool, that was pretty much what I did, except that I had Kent take the southern route and Florina and Sain rescue-drop Matthew into Armorslayer range. Also, I let Erk and Wil kill the mercenaries on the bottom, didn't leave Serra in danger, and cleared all the enemies. I didn't scrutinize your playthrough to check this, but I'm not sure that you hit the 250 EXP requirement (I just barely made letting lower level units take care of the mercs, having Serra heal twice, and clearing all enemies). EDIT: On a separate note, I am beginning to rerun LHM, and I'm wondering what you guys think about the extent to which I am allowed to burn RNs without it being considered "RN abuse." Should it be absolutely no burns? This doesn't seem quite right, as surely it would be OK to burn an RN with a "natural" movement of the cursor (or something like that). Can ~5 RNs be burned at once? What about ~10? ~15? Perhaps I should add a poll question regarding this...

Chapter 6 In order to seed the RNG to a more convenient starting location, wait until the map animation where the party rides into Araphen is complete before skipping all of the cutscenes. Turn 1: The tutorial forces you to complete the sensible actions of recruiting Matthew (with Lyn), opening the door, and having Rath sit on the first trigger. Erk attacks the southermost merc from directly above him (we want him to get hit by the counter). Kent attacks the other mercenary from the east. Not too shabby from Kent. Wil finishes off the same merc from the forest above Kent. Serra visits the village for a Door Key, Dorcas moves 2E 3N, Florina moves east of Dorcas, and Sain goes to the southern spot of the entrance to the castle (the only purple square he can move to) The remaining merc attacks Erk and dies on the enemy phase. Turn 2: Matthew opens the chest for the Angelic Robe. Serra trades Kent the Door Key, then heals him (EXP is critical here since we are going to rush the chapter and finish it a turn early). Wil doubles the soldier for a nice level. Kent opens the door (keeps the Iron Lance equipped). Florina rescues Matthew from the north, Sain moves east of her, trading one of his Javelins for the Iron Lance (which he equips), takes and drops Matthew east, and then moves next to the enemy soldier. Lyn moves 2S 3E, Rath rescues her and then moves to the northern spot of the castle entrance (one space before the end of his movement range). Dorcas moves south of Rath, takes Lyn, and drops her east. End turn. On the enemy phase the two soldiers attack Kent and Sain respectively, and get killed. Turn 3: Wil steps on the second trigger, Serra heals Erk. Sain opens the door (he got a door key from killing the soldier that attacked him last turn), the moves to the square 1 SE of the enemy archer. Matthew opens the chest for an Armorslayer. Florina trades Sain for the Iron Lance, then attacks the enemy archer with it. Dorcas finishes the archer off. At this point, I burned 6 RNs and then had Lyn crit kill the boss. If you are unhappy with this, note that a completely equivalent strategy without the RN burns, with the same moves (just in a different order) and the same level ups for Kent and Wil can be obtained by skipping the cutscenes in the middle of a particular map animation. However, you only have ~10 or so frames to do that, so I just detailed this equivalent strategy instead. Rath then steps on the last trigger to end the chapter.

IIRC, there is enough funds in the chapter to clear it without the Armorslayer and still get 5-stars. However, I had just completed the chapter in 4 turns instead.

A couple of additional notes: - An alternative to raising Rebecca to B in bows is simply to train Rath a bit in Lyn Mode, but this seems unlikely to happen as well (and we don't get him back by Chapter 21 either). - While writing my guide for 60/60 starring LNM, I've discovered a 3-turn clear of Chapter 6 that grabs the Armorslayer, so I'll likely incorporate that into this playthrough (I haven't seen anyone else accomplish this, but let me know if this is already known)

Chapter 5 Turn 1: You are forced to have Lyn recruit Serra, then have Serra heal Erk, and then have Erk finish the archer (you should do so from the spot where he starts). Wil trades with Sain and grabs both the Vulneraries. Kent doubles the nearby brigand from the south, Sain moves east onto the forest and equips the Iron Lance. Florina rescues Lyn and moves directly east. On the enemy turn, the bandit attacks Kent and dies, the merc attacks Sain, and a merc doubles Florina (slowed by carrying Lyn and the Iron Lance). Turn 2: Serra and Erk move south and out of the way. Florina drops Lyn onto the forest north of Bug, then moves onto the forest 2 west of Lyn. Kent moves directly east, Sain trade equips Kent with an Iron Lance and hands off the extra Vulnerary to him as well, and then stays south of Kent. On the enemy phase, Bug attacks and gets crit killed by MK!Lyn. Both the bandit and the Merc attack Kent and die. Lyn and Kent are close to leveling, but don't quite make it. The southern merc attacks Florina and dies, leaving just the archer, who attacks Lyn and misses. Turn 3: Sain heads to the armory and buys two Javelins. Florina attacks the archer from the west with the Slim Lance (done for RNG purposes, because she doubles but doesn't kill him). Then Lyn finishes him off from the south for another level. An extremely impressive level for Lyn; her low HP is more than made up for by her two growths in Def and one in Res. And that clears the level! Pretty quick, wouldn't you say?

I'm happy with the Chapter 7 completed in 3 turns! I was going to make a comment on this thread about how I believed that was possible (when I checked in the morning and saw the question mark), but I guess you beat me to it! In fact (with a bit of luck), I believe the 3 turn is possible in a regular LTC playthrough and was planning on incorporating a strategy to do so in my (on hiatus for a long time) LTC.

Despite having come up with a couple of different strategies to salvage my current playthrough, I think I'm going to restart from the beginning (of Lyn Mode) for several reasons: - The extent to which I RN abused Lyn Mode was borderline cheating, and I can probably get by only doing so in Chapters 2 and 7x - I can use better strategies to gain less EXP overall in Lyn Mode (I can also document these strategies better) - The decision of whether or not to promote Sain; Angelic Robe Florina might be a better investment. I'm adding in a poll question regarding this. - Even less RN abuse in HHM (for levels, crits and stuff) - Possibly dropping the idea of getting Rebecca to B in bows; the extra 1500G gained via Hammerne use isn't really worth the effort + Eliwood not having access to Rapier (which lets him kill things easier) - Adding in the condition of all boss kills; I won't be skipping Puzon, for example, in this second run. Rerunning the playthrough shouldn't be too bad, since a lot of the strategies for the HHM chapters can just be adapted from what I already have.

Chapter 4 This chapter has an abundance of EXP, way more than the 450 required for 5-starring this chapter. Therefore, I will attempt to minimize EXP gain on this chapter while maximizing good levels, so my strategy might appear a little but strange. Turn 1: Lyn's move is forced. Florina trades to get Sain's Iron Lance, then moves north of Lyn. Wil moves straight west, Kent 2 south, and Sain to the east of him, trading to get back the Iron Lance. Make sure both the cavs have swords equipped. A few attacks happen on the enemy turn, but nothing particularly important. Turn 2: Lyn talks to Dorcas, Dorcas Hand Axe crits his friend from inside the fort. Florina moves outside the fort and as far north as she can go. Wil, Sain and Kent all kill whoever attacked them on the last enemy phase (in that order). A bandit attacks Kent and a merc attacks Sain on the enemy phase. Turn 3: Kent attacks the bandit in front of him, reducing him to 1 HP. Sain kills the merc (still Iron Sword) for a level. Sain becoming an unstoppable monster is a foregone conclusion of FE7. Wil and Dorcas run toward Natalie, Florina sits on the forest below the merc (equips Iron Lance, but doesn't attack). Lyn moves 1 east, 3 south (stopping a space before the edge of her movement range). The 1 HP bandit dies on Kent, the merc attacks Florina, a pair of bandits attack Kent and Sain, the latter getting doubled and killed. An archer hits Lyn. Turn 4: Lyn moves east of the the archer and doubles (kills) him with the Mani Katti. Florina attacks the full health merc with her Iron Lance. Kent finishes off the bandit who attacked him last turn. Finally, a solid level for Kent. He needed that. Wil and Dorcas move behind Natalie, Sain rescues Kent and moves toward her as well. Both mercs die on Florina on the enemy phase. Turn 5: Lyn moves onto the forest near her, Florina moves 2W and 5S, Sain moves behind Natalie as well and drops Kent, and Wil moves 2 south of Natalie blocking the entrance. Turn ends On the enemy phase, a bandit will attack Wil. If you've done everything correctly so far, he will miss. Turn 6: Florina moves up 2 spaces and attacks the merc who followed her. Lyn attacks Carjiga from the north, crit-killing him with the Mani Katti. Defense for Lyn is always good. End turn. The injured merc attacks Florina again, getting killed and giving her a level up. Now that's the kind of Florina level I want! The other merc attacks Florina as well, the bandit attacks Wil (hits him this time), and a bandit in the south attacks and gets killed by Lyn. Another great level for Lyn! She also hits C rank in swords. Turn 7: We've already exceeded the EXP requirement by ~60 EXP, so you can just have Florina and Lyn run away to a spot where they won't be attacked (keep Lyn where she is, fly Florina directly south), and keep everyone else where they are. Wil should be the only one who gets attacked on the EP and that finishes the chapter!

I've decided to tack on a new rule that forces me to aim for the lowest turn counts possible (without RNG rigging). This should force me to accept certain mediocre level ups in favor of finishing a map quickly, which will make this playthrough a bit more interesting (instead of turning Sain, Kent, and Florina into ORKO machines that slaughter everything in their path. That will probably still happen with Sain eventually though) Chapter 3 Turn 1: The tutorial forces you to have Lyn visit the village, and then have Wil and Florina team up to kill the mercenary. Sain attacks the archer from the east (with his sword; he'll miss the second hit if he uses the lance) Kent moves 1 SW of Sain. On the enemy turn, an archer will attack Sain for practically no damage. Turn 2: Florina visits the village for 2000G, then returns to the spot 1N of where she started. Sain kills the archer on the forest (this time with the Iron Lance), and Kent moves onto the forest and attacks the bandit with his Iron Sword. Lyn and Wil move forward. On the enemy phase, the bandit enters a second round of combat with Kent, hitting this time, but dies on Kent's counterattack. A mercenary also attacks Kent, and another one attacks Florina. Turn 3: Kent finishes the merc with his Iron Lance, and Sain rides through the forest and as close to the bandit as he can, equipping his Iron Sword. Wil attacks the bandit from the other side of the wall, Lyn moves east of him, and Florina moves onto the cross of the walls so that no enemies can attack her. On the enemy turn, the bandit attacks Sain an gets killed. Turn 4: Sain attacks Migal (Iron Sword), Kent attacks the bandit from the east for a level, and Florina finishes him from above with a critical from the forest. On the enemy turn, Migal suicides on Sain, and the merc dies attacking Florina. They both level up No luck for Sain (pun intended) here, but... he's already got two Str/Spd procs, so he's fine, and honestly, if it takes him a bit longer to become an ORKO machine, that's fine since it prevents him from hogging EXP for a bit longer And with all the enemies routed, that ends the chapter. Typical Florina level (minus Res growth)... kind of wish she got Str here, but whatever.

First of all, remember to reset before the start of each chapter! Chapter 2: Turn 1: The annoying tutorial force you to waste a turn visiting the villages on the south part of the map. Sain moves one east after visiting his, and Kent one NE. Turn 2: Burn 68 RNs. There are various ways to do this, but if you are playing on a console, the safest way is probably to select Lyn, move the cursor 2E, 2N, 1W, and then 2S. The game will burn an RN to decide whether to draw the arrow going up or right first, and you can repeat this process 68 times (counting carefully) to burn the RNs. Once that is done, select Sain and move him west of the approaching bandit, being careful not to burn additional RNs by making sure not to move through forests. Attack him with the Iron Lance to get a crit kill. Move Lyn and Kent up like so Turn 3: Have Sain strike the wall with his Iron Lance, then burn 5 RNs (here this can be done by selecting Lyn and moving 2N, 1E, 1S). Have Kent attack the approaching bandit with his Iron Sword from the north for a crit kill. Lyn moves forward. Burn 48 RNs with Lyn, then move her onto the forest north of Kent. On the enemy turn, the bandit will attack Kent and hit him, but Kent will counter with a critical. He'll level up too. Not an amazing level up, but there is nothing we can do about it, since we're going for minimal RN abuse here and we need the critical. Turn 4: Sain breaks the wall, Lyn moves 1NE of the space where the wall was. Kent burns 54 RNs then waits. On the enemy turn, the bandit inside the walls will attack Sain, miss, and get crit-killed. Turn 5: Burn 61 RNs, then have Sain crit-kill Glass with his Iron Lance. He gets a better level up than Kent, too, because the RNG gods love Sain (something you'll come to notice throughout this playthrough) Lyn seizes the throne

Prologue: There is really nothing to say here; the level is entirely scripted, so you'll always dodge Batta's second attack and crit-kill him on the counter. A HP, Str, Skl, Spd, Luck level up for Lyn is also guaranteed. Moving on... Chapter 1: I'll begin the guide at the start of turn 3, since everything is scripted before that. The game forces you to move Sain up to trade with Lyn (from the south), so I gave him the 2 use Vulnerary. Note that the game does not actually force you to use the Vulnerary; once you select "Item," you are free to cancel out of the menu without healing Sain. I did so, and then moved Sain one space east. After that, Lyn moves attacks the northern brigand from the east; she will crit-kill him on her second strike. Kent finishes the southern brigand from the east. The enemy will do nothing on their turn. Move Lyn west of the forest near the boss, then bring Sain below her to rescue her. Kent moves east of Sain and take/drops her into the river; I bet you've never used Lords' ability to cross rivers this early in your playthrough before! The enemy brigand attacks Lyn, who dodges and then doubles him. On the next turn, Lyn attacks the boss for the following nice level. Sain finishes the weakened brigand, and then we let Zugu kill himself on Lyn on the enemy phase.

This post has been somewhat inspired by FionordeQuester's recent guide to S-ranking LHM while getting Nils to level 7. S-ranking Lyn Mode alone is not a very challenging feat, regardless of the difficulty. However, achieving all of the tactician stars is a bit more difficult, due to some rather insane funds/EXP requirements for certain chapters (in particular, Chapter 2, where you can spend at most 60G worth of weapon uses and need to gain 200 EXP, which turns out to just barely be possible). This guide will aim to give a step-by-step walkthrough of how to get all 60 nice stars for Lyn Normal Mode on your ranking screen. Rules: - No RNG abuse, with the exception of Chapter 2, where it is necessary to rig every critical hit. - Before each chapter, a hard reset is done to bring the RNG back to its initial position for consistency. - All cutscenes will be skipped (Start) in order to avoid the burning of extra RNs during scenes with movement on the map. - Aim for lowest turn counts possible while meeting 5-star requirements. - All treasure obtained, all bosses killed (in other words a complete playthrough). Possibly something related to steals. My aim for this guide is for anyone who reads it to be able to achieve the same result simply by mimicking the playthrough given here, so if anything is unclear, or if you find something to be incorrect, don't hesitate to let me know! Alright then, let's get started! The save file I end up with in this run may be used in a future LNM+ENM Max Tactician Stars run, so I will keep that in the back of my mind while doing this. EDIT: Updated to include new rules!