Aggro Incarnate

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Any tips for Invasion 3 in Conquest Lunatic? I find this to be the most difficult chapter in the entire game. Even with Edifice placement abusing, a Golembane Dragonstone+ Kana and nearly endgame units, the combination of enemies that include Lunge Stonebornes and bulky other enemies is just too much for my team. I want to do this without resorting to DLC, Path-bonuses or My Castle Skill Purchasing. Any advice?

A possible series of strats that could be helpful if you decide to use the full roster. (and not send, for example, two units) 1. Units with high movement are preferred in this chapter. I went with Camilla, Xander, Great Knight Effie, Bow Knight Nina, Leo (I used a Sorcerer Leo with Nosferatu, but Dark Knight could do as well), a Mechanist Kaze and a healer or two, along with the Avatar, Azura and some pair-up fodders. (Basically I used the maximum possible roster) A flier or two (better if royal blood) can help reach for dragon veins when needed. In particular promotions of Cavalier classes are preferred since they not only have high movement but also have Shelter, which can be used to protect weaker units, particularly against those 5-range attack Stonebornes. Camilla is particuarly a Godsend since she has Lunge. Azura is actually viable if you use Paladins/Great Knights to Pair Up to move her around or Shelter her to protect her appropriately, and can be a massive help in moving other units move in and out of enemy range at critical moments 2. Magical damage can be helpful, particularly with the Stoneborne. Bolt Axe on Camilla, Levin Sword on the Avatar/Kana, Shining Bow on Nina served me quite well. In particular, if you happen to have a MAG+ Corrin or Kana with a particuarly good magic stat, using the Dragonstone+ may allow them to OHKO Stoneborne, although this is a bit unlikely. (After my first run of Lunatic, I tend to pass on Golembane to Kana just so that he can one-shot Stonebornes...; pairing him up with a flier helped me a lot, though this requires massive hindsight). I'm not sure which difficulty you're playing on, but if your difficulty happens to have Wary Fighter on Stonebornes, it's best to rely on Dual Attacks using magical weapons. 3. Having 3 units that can tank allows one to use the following strat: The Eternal Stairways have those large-scale stairs that no unit except fliers can cross vertically, and so the Faceless tend to attack heading down from the sides, which have typically have width 3. Arranging your 3 tanking units paired-up (to prevent dual attacks from hitting your tanks, and also to get those dual guard gauges up!), horizontally in a straight line minimises the exposure to the Faceless (since they only come from the top) and thereby minimising the effects of Savage Blow, protects your weaker units from the Faceless storming from above, and allows one to pluck Faceless that still are alive after the Enemy Phase using weaker units in the player phase to spread EXP. In particular I recommend using Wolfssegners as tanks since they have Better Odds which heal their HP by 40% every other turn. 4. Most importantly, make good use of the Player Phase. Savage Blow activates when the Faceless are the ones attacking i.e. in the Enemy Phase, so if possible eliminate blocks of Faceless during the Player Phase. Also, be sure to check the range on the Stoneborne, and make sure weaker units are not in range. Of course, doing this is only viable during earlier phases of this chapter where the number of Faceless in a given area are few; towards later turns there will be swarms of Faceless heading down, which means it's best to Tank in the Enemy Phase and heal and take care of adjacent surviving Faceless. 5. Don't bother to attack the faceless in the bottom, just head up from Turn 1. Time is of the essence, and with the reinforcements piling from the bottom it's best to run quickly to the escape points. 6. If you're having trouble keeping healers alive, let your tank carry healing items like vulneraries.

Kana's nice for grinding (esp. with the reinforcements coming after Turn 8 or 9 if I remember correctly?), Percy's can be a bit tricky and Dragon Veining them is perhaps more optimal, and Siegbert's is simiply annoying, especially on higher difficulties..

I've been seeing some complaints about how often one is encouraged to use dual guards than dual attack but I'm not sure if this is the case. At least for some of the higher difficulties I think there are more incentives to use dual attacks; In Conquest Lunatic a recurring theme are certain enemy placements or reinforcements that simply cannot be dealt with guard stance. One needs to get rid of most of the the block of enemies, pronto, ASAP, and the need for the manpower to get rid of all of them within the player phase encourages one to use dual attacks instead of relying on dual guard. In many ways I feel that I'm rather encouraged to use dual attack in higher difficulties, though not always (which is a good thing: being encouraged to choose out of the two given the situation is optimal), but perhaps that's more testament to my personal style of playing, or perhaps the situation is a lot different on Hard Mode I guess... (I'm especially thinking chapters 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 23, and 24)

Lol, though, they're effective against fliers as well, so that's a plus I guess?

As a related but slightly different question, suppose Mozu was to mother a child and passes down aptitude. I remember hearing from VincentASM that Offspring Seals raise stats to the expected value at the level it raises the unit to, given the base stats of that child unit at level 20. If that's the case, is it worth passing down aptitude to a child to be recruited quite late in the game? I'm not sure if I'm correct to assume that passing down aptitude to a 2nd gen unit will give slightly better stats upon using an Offspring Seal...

I've been searching for some details about calculations of all sorts in Fates; how we get the numbers that we do in this game. So far I found a comprehensive account outside of Serenes Forest at http://www2.pegasusknight.com/wiki/fe14/index.php?%E8%A8%88%E7%AE%97%E5%BC%8F, but the formulas for combat forecasts and class bonuses seemed to be somewhat incomplete. In light of the compilations of definitive formulas as we had for Awakening (http://serenesforest.net/awakening/miscellaneous/calculations/), I thought it might be worth having something analogous for Fates as well. I've listed below some information I could find so far, and tested some of it for myself with the game that I have, but I feel like this is too much of an undertaking to do it by myself. So I decided to post a thread to see if we can get more input from others in the forum who are interested. In brief, the suggestion is to - confirm that the formulas that we have are correct - find out what other things we might wish to calculate and work on discovering/confirming those (Posted in red are personal questions of mine) Combat Stats* Physical Attack = (Strength) + (Weapon Might) + (Weapon Rank Bonus) Magical Attack = (Magic) + (Weapon Might) + (Weapon Rank Bonus) Hit Rate = (Skill) x 3/2 + (Luck) x 1/2 + (Weapon Hit Bonus) + (Weapon Rank Bonus) + (Class Bonus) Avoid Rate = (Speed) x 3/2 + (Luck) x 1/2 + (Weapon Avoid Bonus) + (Class Bonus) Staff/Rod Hit Rate = (Magic) + (Skill) + (Staff/Rod Hit Rate) + (Weapon Rank Bonus) + (Class Bonus?)*** Staff/Rod Avoid Rate = (Enemy Resistance) x 3/2 - (Enemy Luck) x 1/2 Critical Rate = (Skill - 4) x 1/2 + (Weapon Critical Bonus) + (Class Bonus) Dodge Rate**= (Luck) x 1/2 + (Weapon Dodge Bonus) + (Class Bonus) Rating = (Strength) + (Magic) + (Skill) + (Speed) + (Luck) + (Defense) + (Resistance) * Fractional values are rounded down to the nearest integer ** Undisplayed *** Does Iago in Conquest Ch. 26 get Hit +5 in Staves for being a Sorcerer as well? Combat Forecast* Physical Damage = [(Strength) + {(Weapon Might) - (Ineffective Weapon Might Drop)} x (Effective Damage Coefficient) + (Weapon Rank Bonus) - (Enemy Defense) - (Enemy Terrain Bonus) + (Weapon Triangle Effects) + (My Castle Effects*) + (Effects from Skills)] x (Stance Coefficient) Magical Damage = [(Magic) + {(Weapon Might) - (Ineffective Weapon Might Drop)} x (Effective Damage Coefficient) + (Weapon Rank Bonus) - (Enemy Resistance) - (Enemy Terrain Bonus) + (Weapon Triangle Effects) + (My Castle Effects) + (Effects from Skills)] x (Stance Coefficient) Hit Rate for Weapons = (Unit Raw Hit Rate**) - (Ineffective Weapon Hit Drop) + (Ally Support Hit Bonus) + (Enemy Raw Avoid Rate) - (Enemy Support Avoid Bonus) - (Enemy Terrain Effect) + (Weapon Triangle Effects) + (My Castle Effects) Hit Rate for Offensive Staves/Rods = (Unit Raw Staff/Rod Hit Rate) - (Enemy Raw Staff/Rod Avoid Rate) - (Enemy Support Bonus) - (Enemy Terrain Bonus) + (My Castle Effects)? Critical Rate = (Raw Critical Rate) + (Support) - (Enemy Raw Dodge Rate) - (Support) - (Terrain Bonus) + (My Castle Effects) * Fractional values are rounded down to the nearest integer ** Raw Rates refer to those indicated in the Combat Stats *** My Castle Effects refer to buffs induced by buildings, accessories, and certain My Castle-related skills. Note: In case of a critical attack, the actual damage dealt is one indicated on the Combat Forecast multiplied by 3. For Killer weapons (i.e. weapons that 'deal extra damage on critical hits'), the damage is instead multiplied by 4. Note: Certain effects of skills that changes damage dealt/received are also taken into account, but at various stages Skills that increase the main stats (Strength to Resistance) are reflected in the Combat Stats and Combat Forecast. Skills that increase/decrease the combat stats (Attack, Hit rate, etc.) are reflected in the Combat Stats and Combat Forecast. Skills that alter damage dealt or received (Rose's Thorns, Swordfaire, etc.) are reflected not in Combat Stats but are in Combat Forecast.* Offensive Skills with activation rates (e.g. Luna, Astra) modify the damage from the one shown in the Combat Forecast and are calculated before critical hits. Defensive Skills with activation rates (e.g. Pavise, Miracle) modify the damage from the one shown in the Combat Forecast and are calculated after critical hits. Weapon Rank Bonus Effect depends on the weapon rank and type of the equipped weapon. (1) Sword/Katana, Dagger/Shuriken (2) Lance/Naginata, Bow/Yumi, Tome/Scroll, Dragonstone, Beaststone, Fist, Breath, Puppet, Stone (3) Axe/Club (4) Staff/Rod E/D Rank: (1) None / (2) None / (3) None / (4) None C Rank: (1) Attack +1 / (2) Attack +1 / (3) Hit Rate +5 / (4) Recovery +1 B Rank: (1) Attack +2 / (2) Attack +1, Hit Rate +5 / (3) Hit Rate +10 / (4) Recovery +1, Hit Rate +5 A Rank: (1) Attack +3 / (2) Attack +2, Hit Rate +5 / (3) Attack +1, Hit Rate +10 / (4) Recovery +2, Hit Rate +5 S Rank: (1) Attack +4, Hit Rate +5 / (2) Attack +3, Hit Rate +10 / (3) Attack +2, Hit Rate +15 / (4) Recovery +3, Hit Rate +10 * Note: Weapon Rank Bonus does not apply to units at disadvantage in the weapon triangle Weapon Triangle Effects Effect depends on the weapon rank of the unit in advantage (Advantaged Unit / Disadvantaged Unit) E/D Rank: Hit Rate +5 / Hit Rate -5 C Rank: Hit Rate +10 / Hit Rate -10 B Rank: Attack +1, Hit Rate +10 / Attack -1, Hit Rate -10 A Rank: Attack +1, Hit Rate +15 / Attack -1, Hit Rate -15 S Rank: Attack +2, Hit Rate +20 / Attack -2, Hit Rate -20 Effective Damage Coefficient Effective Weapon: 3 Beastbane Skill: 2 Golembane Skill: 2 Other: 1 Effective Weapons These weapons are listed as being 'effective against ~ units') Against Armored Units: Armorslayer Against Fliers: All Bows / Yumi (unless the unit has Wing Shield), Excalibur Against Wyverns / Dragons: Wyrmslayer Against Beasts / Horse/Bird-Mounted Units: Beast Killer, Hunter's Bow, Hunter's Knife Against Monsters: Blessed Lance, Blessed Bow Against Weapon Triangle Advantaged Weapons: Swordcatcher, Axe Splitter, Pike-Ruin Club * Do effective damage stack? Ex.) Hunter's Bow against Sky Knights (Fliers from Bows, Mounts from Hunter's Bow) Ex 2.) Blessed weapons against Stoneborn while Equipping Golembane Ineffective Weapon Drops: Reduces might by 4, hit rate by 10 In Fates, weapons effective against certain units are usually weak against other units (ex. Beast Killers are 'effective against beasts and mounted units' but 'weak against nonbeast units') In this case, the ineffective weapon drops apply. Class Bonus Note: Hit, Avoid, Critical and Dodge refers to Hit Rate, Avoid Rate, Critcial Rate and Dodge Rate, respectively. Also, generic enemy class bonuses are halved. Swordmaster: Avoid +10, Critical +10 Spear Master: Critical +10, Dodge +10 Sniper: Hit +10, Critical +10 Master Ninja: Hit +5, Avoid +5, Critical +5, Dodge +5 Berserker: Critical +20, Dodge -5 Sorcerer: Hit +5, Critical +10, Dodge +5 Monk / Shrine Maiden / Troubadour: Dodge +10 Nine-Tails: Avoid +10, Critical +5, Dodge +10 Wolfssegner: Hit +10, Critical +5, Dodge +10 Lodestar: Hit +10, Avoid +10, Critical +5 Witch: Avoid +10, Critical +10 Pegasus Knight (DLC Cipher): Avoid +10, Critical +5, Dodge +10 Other: None Stance Coefficient Lead Unit: 1.0 Supporting Unit in Tag Team: 0.5 Weapon EXP Units receive 1 Weapon EXP (per battle? per number of attempted hit?) E->D: 20 D->C: 30 C->B: 45 B->A: 65 A->S: 90 Further points of inquiry? 1. EXP Does anyone know how the EXP formula work in depth? I recall seeing accounts here and there on Serenes but it might be worth searching for a definitive account of how it depends on - level of your unit and the enemy - difficulty mode - damage dealt / kill - specific bonuses for enemy unit type (ex. outlaw / healers / bosses) - some kind of internal level (if there are any: does EXP gain differ for the same promoted level if the promoted occured before Lv. 20? I did notice that 2nd gen units at the same level tend to earn EXP slightly quicker than 1st gen ones, but I can't be too sure) - tag team / pair ups - singing, staff/rod uses, etc. 2. Proc-Priority Back in Awakening it was Lethality > Astra > Sol > Luna > Ignis > Vengeance, but now there are more procs around. (Dragon Fang, Rend Heaven, etc.), and establishing priority may be worth it since people are interested in optimising skills, for whether it be the main story, My Castle Battles, Multiplayer or whatnot. 3. Abuse prevention in higher difficulties? (EXP, WEXP, etc.) Back in Awakening we had EXP decay in Lunatic mode and higher, and I remember something similar going on with Weapon EXP (Up to 5 battles gave WEXP or something like that?). Is there one in place in Fates as well, and how does it run? 4. How are support points built up and calculated? Are there ceilings for how many support points can be earned on how many units per chapter? Any corrections, responses, criticisms or further contributions would be very much appreciated :) [EDIT] 21/03/2016 Thanks for all the responses :) [EDIT 2] 05/05/2016

I recall that at least in Conquest Hard and Lunatic, the enemy AI will not attack if it deals zero damage; this probably isn't the case for all routes, all difficulties since I remember it being otherwise in Birthright Lunatic. I'm not sure as to what extent enemies with stat seals, HP-reducing skills, or position-changing skills are an exception though

Also, Stonebornes with Lunge in Invasion 3, Conquest Lunatic. I've endured and can understand wyvern lords with lunge, master ninjas with lunge, automatons with 3-range bows with lunge, but Stoneborne with Lunge, given their 4 movement and 5 attack range, on top of their high HP makes them extremely challenging to deal with. The fact that there's multiple of them close to one another makes eliminating them very difficult. Honestly w/o DLC or Streetpass grinding and such I think Invasion 3 in Conquest Lunatic is more difficult than the Endgame... And I thought Invasion 2 was annoying enough with 5 status-debuffing maids and 4 merchants paired up at the bottom, and having to beat the map in 4 turns to prevent reinforcements from coming in, which includes even more maids and merchants along with great knights, and that's just the bottom...

Something that I didn't like from Awakening and carried onto fates: when moving healers in the range of another unit (not at Max HP) for pair-up they automatically heal instead of pairing. This costs a reset. I know this arises from carelessness but... it doesn't change the fact that it's frustrating when the healer ends up ending their turn within enemy range, particularly if having other unit around to use shelter / Azura to dance isn't viable for survival.

It'll be interesting to see how Proximity Shot actually works though: for example if an archer with Proximity Shot is using a Spy's Yumi, will that unit be able to attack 1~3 range, or 1-range and 3-range but not 2-range?

Am I the only one digging the music? (Why can't I redirect the time correctly? It should start at 25:00)

If my limited Japanese isn't failing me, basically Hoshidan Anna is welcoming the Avatar into the Hoshidan Festivities in the Outrealms (What? Why would you have Hoshidan festivities in the Outrealms and not, you know, Hoshido?) Just wondering, are the titles you put up translations of the text? I don't see any implications of the '絆の白夜祭' being a 'Harvest' scramble?

I'm quite glad how the Memories of Foam (A Failed Revolution?) DLC has a total of 6 maps. But then in the trailer one of the map was identical to Birthright Chapter 26 (Castle Krakenburg, Combat Room), so I'm a bit concerned as to whether they'll just be reusing maps from the main game. While I don't mind the story that much at this point, I do hope that the new DLCs provide some interesting gameplay elements like Hidden Truths, Beach Brawl or Royal Royale did... Interesting how the difficulty rating for this is 3 stars. If I remember correctly Hidden Truths was 3 stars and Royal Royale was 4, so I'm guessing it's not going to be very difficult but somewhat challenging. (Still don't see how one can reliably beat Royal Royale with Sakura's team after what I've seen from the JP version..) The Hoshidan/Nohrian Festivities of Ties have difficulty rated as 1 star, so I guess it's going to be similar to Awakening's Harvest/Summer/Hot-Spring Scrambles...

I'm a bit skeptical as to whether the analogous challenge can be done with Conquest Lunatic though; can you beat chapter 10 with 5 characters? (MU, Jakob/Felicia, Silas, Azura, Mozu)? EDIT: Then again now I think of it if the only condition is that recruitable characters fall in the respective chapters they come in, maybe we can have Camilla, Beruka and Selena commit suicide as meat shields... But then the other chapters are kinda sigh....

Something I've seen done already: Clearing Birthright Lunatic, but killing all Birthright-exclusive characters in their recruitable maps... (but not capturable units) This honestly seemed like a challenge, and from Ch. 23 things got really difficult... In the stream I was following she ended up relaxing certain conditions.

Just noticed on that trailer, is the map with the 2nd gen identical to Birthright Ch. 26 (i.e. Castle Krakenburg, Combat Room)? EDIT: I think it is.

JP Nintendo Direct: Fire Emblem IF new DLC release

So the first two DLCs are Hoshidan/Nohrian Festivities of Ties. and the third one is Memories of Foam? My Kanji is very shaky though...

Does the 3rd of the DLC translate to Memories of Foam?

FE Fates announced for May 20 2016 for EU! Special edition includes a single cartridge that includes all three games+Steelbook+Artbook+Poster

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