Astellius

Well, I got S-rank in all the stages, on all difficulties! I spread it out some, since there are quests everyday for it. It was a surprisingly fun game, especially towards the end.

I managed to complete the armor quest this time around, with BK, Amelia, Christmas Chrom, and LA Hector. Wary Fighter was essential on Chrom and Hector, and everyone had Ward Armor, except Amelia. I'm glad I eventually got the Armors to work, I was thinking about spending a lot of orbs trying to get Lyn so that I'd finally have an Armor that could hit from a distance. Now, I'll wait to see who the next new heroes are before I throw more orbs at this banner.

Yes! Zelgius has been unarmed in my runs as well. Additionally, for the new Navarre maps, there has been no music.

It should be pointed out that the 803-3003 and 803-3001 errors are distinct errors, with 803-3003 being a server error. The solution is just to wait and try again later, there's nothing more to do than that.

I've put a lot of work into making both Fir and Clair solid units for me, despite them usually ranking near the bottom in tier lists.

Once again, the armor quest was the toughest for me. Infantry was easy, I just threw Adult Tiki at it, and the enemies just suicide on her. I also post a strategy when Infernal first came around with Nino, Tharja, Eirika, and Olivia, for those looking for help with Infantry. For Horse Emblem, I essentially used the same strategy I did before, except Cecilia was even stronger this time around. For Flier Emblem, I deployed Airzura, S. Corrin, Elincia, and Cherche. I don't remember exactly how this one went, but it went pretty quickly. I don't think that Cherche actually did anything at all. For Armor Emblem... ugh. This one gave me trouble. I managed to do it with BK, Winter Chrom, LA Hector, and Amelia. Both Chrom and Hector had Ward Armor and Wary Fighter, and BK needed the +3 Spd seal. The Distant Def seal was on Chrom, Chrom has Bonfire, and Amelia had a speed refine. If people want pictures for how I did the Armor clear, I could see about putting some up. Glad my strategy was useful for you both! :D

Well, of course other people celebrate some of the holidays I do not. Where did I say that nobody celebrates the holidays that I don't celebrate, or anything remotely close to that? That would be a silly claim to make. I was merely offering the reasons for my own preferences, since you asked why people would pick that option at all over a literal interpretation.

I went with vague interpretation, plausible alternatives, fanservice, and favorite character. For fanservice, well, much of the game itself really serves as fanservice for fans of the FE franchise. But even within a more narrow ambit, I would consider the CYL heroes to be fanservice, especially given their meta references to Smash, along with Horse Eirika. So that's enough for me to want to check that box. I like seeing my favorite characters get alts, although I'll add the caveat that I prefer for them not to be terribly garish or ridiculous in appearance. I skipped the spring banner the first time around, despite Lucina being on it, for just that reason. And I prefer vague interpretations and plausible alternatives. Lots of room for creative and interesting outfits this way. For a fantasy game set in a different world, I'd rather have creative and different lore presented in the game, as opposed to just having our world's holidays imported wholesale over there. It's a different world, there should be different holidays. I also think it's more creative. The second reason for me is that I get tired of our holidays, and think that they're often garish, gaudy, and overdone. They also go on for way too long. Christmas lasts for at least two months now; Valentine's is a month. So if I'm already tired of seeing red, white, and hearts all over the place, it should make sense why I don't want to see more of it in the game. I also think dressing people up in clothes adorned with hearts everywhere is just tacky. Plus, I don't even celebrate some of these holidays, so why would I want the game to try to foist them on me? Hence, a vague option where there's a new holiday in-game is preferable to me. I agree on the points about the creativity of new holidays in-game. As for the 50 page thesis remark, that made me think of this class I took in college on Don Quixote, which was taught by two professors, who alternated each class. For one of the sessions, the professor who was teaching that day spent the entire class talking about a simile involving a pomegranate. We got to hear the history of pomegranates, how they were used in the days of Cervantes, their literary significance... He pretty much bored the class to tears. The other professor was great though, and the following class he said straight up that he didn't care at all about pomegranates or any nonsense like that, and that we should just focus on enjoying the book.

Congrats! And, yeah, Armors as bonus heroes might inflate the score. I know Anna was dragging down my score this week, but I pulled an LA Hector, so I may be able to reach new heights... I also am heading back to T19, and was barely kicked out of the top 5k for AA. I think I need to use some of those blessings to boost my score, as well as decide on the next character I want to heavily merge. I actually only just entered and surrendered, since it was an extra crest. But Caeda sure is looking nice with the new Wing Sword, huh?

@LordFrigid I saw your team in the Arena today! :D

The Rachel did get the 4* treatment. I managed to pull a 4* one last night on the LA banner, and was quite excited. I had been trying to pull her on the Magvel banner when it was out, but she spurned me there. But now she graced my roster with her presence--with a +Atk/-HP nature to boot! Great job! I hope you manage to stay in T20 & get to stay in the under 3k bracket! And I think Spring Chrom is kinda underrated. I pulled a +Spd one on the Legendary banner he was on, and he could definitely be quite quick! Haha, I like that team too!

The Whitewings just hopped in the hot springs, pegasi and all. Can... can pegasi breathe water? I hope so, because, otherwise, well, you know...

Definitely +Def/-Res, which actually looks like a pretty solid nature for her. She'll reach 30 Def/31 Res (or 33/34 with Fury), which enables her to be a decent mixed tank, especially if her allies are running Ward Armor. Fury would be quite good on her, as would Close Counter. Furthermore, she wants both her Atk & Spd intact. Her Atk is middling to begin with, and an Atk bane drops her attack by 4, to a gross base of 27. As for her Spd, she has a great Spd stat, but a bane there knocks it down to an unimpressive 33, so she'd lose out on a doubling a significant portion of the cast, and she would find herself being doubled by the faster mages and such. Meanwhile, her Res is high enough that she won't mind a bane there, which can easily be patched up with Fury.

True; I do hope they decide the mode is a success and keep it for the long term. Fire Emblem has a lot of great music, so I hope they decide to incorporate more variety in the future (and not just a couple songs per 100 floors...).

I'm glad that they're moving beyond just Awakening/Fates characters for seasonals. I fully expect them to give Marth a seasonal variant, and, really, I'm surprised they haven't done so yet, given how popular he is. There's also a good chance Ephraim and Ike will get seasonal costumes as well. Reinhardt, too, given his fame in Heroes. For the ladies, I think they'll do Lucina again, and I think Celica, Ninian, and Eirika are strong possibilities as well, maybe Micaiah, Mia, and Elincia. I personally would really like to get alts of Minerva and the Whitewings. It's at least a possibility. And, at some point in time, they are going to do a Summer Camilla. We all know it's going to happen eventually. TWEWY Tiki needs to happen! They can release her as a promotional for when the TWEWY remake comes out! Or how about a random Bride!Villager? I think Reinhardt would be a good option. And I think it'd be really funny if they did Y!Tiki, since they did A!Tiki last year.

Finally, a challenge! This one was definitely the toughest one so far, and I'm not sure I have a competent enough armor team to do it yet. I don't have any ranged armors, and the team just fares too poorly against mages. Infantry: Adult Tiki (+9), Brave Lucina, PA Azura, and Lilina. This was an easy win, I just sent Tiki to tank Xander, the 2 mages, and the swordsman. Following Tiki's rampage, the remnants were pretty easy to clean up. Flier: Summer Corrin, NY Azura, Cherche, and Elincia. This one was pretty easy too. Cavalry: Reinhardt, Cecilia, Brave Roy, and Xander. I might, at some point, try to make a video of this one, because it was so strange. This one was difficult, and I had to give Reinhardt Swordbreaker from a 3* Sully I had lying about so that he could get rid of Xander. My victory seemed sort of like a fluke with the AI here. Armor: Haven't figured this one out yet.

This game mode is actually pretty fun, even if I do find it too easy. I've been having the Whitewings (including Minerva) soar through the levels! Hopefully they'll add more variety to the songs that play in the future, along with harder modes, and perhaps at least a minimal reward for achieving S-rank in everything. Don't worry, you are! The only rewards are for completing the level the first time, along with the daily quests of completing 4 stages and defeating a boss.

I gave the GHB quests a go, and they were pretty fun. I found the armor quest to be the most difficult for me, but part of that is that I just don't particularly like using armor units. At any rate, my teams were: Infantry: Adult Tiki (+9), Brave Lucina, PA Azura, and Deirdre. This was mostly just another chapter in the neverending saga of "Tiki Tanks Things." Cavalry: Xander, Camus, Reinhardt (+4), and Cecilia (4*+10). My original Horse Emblem team rides into battle once again! It has actually been a long time since they've ridden together, quite possibly a few months, so it was pretty fun to have them get together to crush the enemies once again. Flier: Summer Corrin, NY Azura, Elincia, and Cherche. I do love Flier Emblem, all of those units are really strong, and the addition of NY Azura really works great with Corrin's Blarblade of Destruction. I got the enemy to start pursuing us by having Corrin fire a couple shots at the axeman, and then retreating with the aid of Azura, so that no one was stuck in the bow knight's range. Armor: BK, Amelia, Hector, and Effie (4*). It took a couple tries, but this crew pulled through. Effie has Hone Armor, and, with Effie's buff, I had BK tank the hammer guy and the bow knight, killing them both (he also had the QR seal). I then sounded the retreat, with BK tanking the axe peg. At this point, BK's job was done, and it was up to the others. I think Amelia took on the lance cav. Effie took on Lloyd and the blue mage, and was able to survive their attacks due to Wary Fighter. Success! With a year to spare...

Oh, another VG? Wonder if they'll implement any changes for this one. I don't mind, it's been awhile since we've had one, and feathers/coins/rocks/etc. are all nice rewards.

For Atk/Def Bond, I feel that it would be a stronger skill for a slower enemy phase tank to have, where the two most important stats to increase are Atk & Def. I think that Lukas, Beruka, Adult Tiki, Chrom, a lot of the armors, and other characters that fall into that mold, would all do quite well with Atk/Def Bond. I find that the Bond skills are generally easier to use on enemy phase units and armors, given the positioning requirements they need to be used. With respect to Masked Marth, I feel she would benefit more from having an A-passive that boosted both her Atk & Spd. Her defense is pretty meh, so it doesn't seem worth it to try to invest that much in it, especially when her Atk & Spd are so good. With the Atk/Def Bond, Falchion special enhance, and a Close Def 3 seal, her enemy phase defense would be 40, which is quite respectable. It would be an interesting and different build for her, but this comes at the cost of her player phase speed, which would be pretty middle of the road. But consider, Chrom, running that same setup, would get to up to 46 Def, and Lukas with a Def refine, Atk/Def Bond, and Close Def seal would reach a towering 53. Neither of those characters has a speed stat worth trying to enhance, they'd be relying on QR, and the extra Def is more useful for them, since they're likely to be doubled. Armors are natural candidates for it as well, since they usually need to run together for optimal performance. --- For Wind Boost, Marisa has good HP and Spd, but her Atk stat is really wanting, so she'd really prefer an A-passive that gave a boost to her Atk. LnD works great on her. In my opinion, Wind Boost would be better suited to some of the faster armor units, such as Amelia or BK. That said, I personally wouldn't use it on any of those characters, and actually just wouldn't use it at all. Most of the people with the HP and Spd to make use of it would just outright prefer LnD, Fury, or some other skill. In my opinion, it's something of a dud skill, since there are plenty of easily available, better options. Instead of using Gray for Wind Boost, why not give Olivia Sword Valor 3? Dancers are often used for training, and Sword Valor 3 is a great quality of life skill for that.

I'm hoping that they eventually give out some more Legendary Heroes for free. This mode is at least another reason to vote for Ike in the A Hero Rises event, since that's another hero everyone could use. Maybe they'll eventually make the Askr trio Legendary Heroes, too. As of right now, though, the Legendary Heroes + Blessing requirement just seems really limiting, especially for F2P players like myself. I don't think the Blessing mechanic has been as popular as they thought it might be, but they seem to be pushing it more and more. I know I don't particularly care for it, so I'm a bit disappointed that they're doubling down on it. Ah well, I guess we'll have to wait and see what's in store for us!

I'm really liking the plate as well, it's a fantastic upgrade for Felicia. If only I had more Divine Dew! I struggled to find a good use for Felicia in my army before, but now she's quite strong. With the upgrade, Vantage seems like a pretty solid and notable option for the B-slot. I'm running Fury, Vantage, & Atk+3 SS on my +Atk Felicia, and she definitely has the attack stat to one-shot a lot of the glass cannon mages. Edit: Oh, and you have Sacrifice listed in the medic build. It should be Ardent Sacrifice, as Sacrifice is Micaiah exclusive.

I agree that the loops are annoying, although I don't really feel they need to be fixed. They're usually not too difficult to deal with, and sometimes you can break them out of the loop by moving your characters around (assuming you don't want to charge them). Actually, I sort of always thought that the GHB no death sort of emulated the permadeath mechanic. I, along with plenty of other players, always reset whenever a character of mine falls in battle. The GHB forces that play style. It's about as good a way of giving a nod to the permadeath mechanic in a game like this as I can think of; it would be absolutely terrible if your characters died forever in a gacha game!

Wow, some people really go all in to compete for the top rankings for this! I, however, am perfectly happy to sit in the 10k-50k bracket with about 58k points. Good luck to everyone! Hope you stay in the bracket you wanted!

This depends on how you want to allocate your resources and what your goals are. If you want to make some heavily merged characters, the better way to go about that would be to pick a character that's in the 3*-4* pool, such as Tiki or Nino, and promote all pulls of them to 5* for merging. It'll take a ton of feathers and a long time, but eventually you'll get a 5*+10. If that's what you're aiming for, then you probably won't want to be promoting that many GHB characters to 5*, since to promote a 3*-4* character up to a 5*+10 will take a minimum of 220,000 feathers. That's a long-term goal. I'm F2P as well, and my Tiki is a 5*+9 after spending most of my feathers on her for several months (I just need another pull of her at this point). You can also make some 4*+10 units, which have the stats of around a 5*+4 or 5*+5 unit. Now, if you're wondering whether the free units are any good, then, yeah, some units are good, some aren't that good. They're all at least usable, and their usefulness isn't really hindered by a lack of merges. Outside of scoring for the Arena, merges are less important than people usually think. Having a robust roster is more important for tackling the harder content in the game. Plenty of the TT/GHB characters can fill certain roles really well. You should at least get the free characters, since, if nothing else, they can be useful for skill inheritance. I personally always train up the free 5* characters from TT, and I almost always get a 4* version of the GHB units up to level 40.