Astellius

Mia is an excellent sword user, so I'd definitely recommend using her. She also doesn't have useful skills for fodder, so that helps with that (Flashing Blade is usually an inferior choice for an A-passive). Check which one has the better nature (+Atk or +Spd are the best boons for her, and, of course, are also the worst banes), and you can use the lesser one for a merge. Soleil is also an excellent sword user with a good kit. She can be handy for promotion, and she also comes with the Firesweep Sword, which can be a very nice player phase weapon. I'd recommend building her. If you need a sword cav, I would opt for Ares over Eliwood, as Ares is superior to Eliwood. Caeda's fine if you like her and want to do a +10 merge project. I would like to point out that a 5*+10 merge project will take a long time and will consume a substantial amount of feathers, so you should make sure you pick a character you really like before you set out to do that. I think you should prioritize building up a robust roster that can tackle Arena Assault and the Squad Assault challenges before you start trying to make 5*+10 characters, but if you're interested in maybe making a 5*+10 of her in the future, it's not too early to start saving up copies of her though. As for Caeda herself, she's a decent flying sword unit. Her Prf weapon is good, and she has access to class buffs, so she's a viable option if you're in need of a red flier. Selena is used as fodder for Reposition, Hinata for Fury (using him for Buckler is a waste, Fury's a much more valuable and handy skill), Lonqu for Vantage, Roy for Triangle Adept, and Athena for Moonbow. The remaining swordies tend not to be so useful for fodder. As for whether or not to train up all the units, I would say, no, not unless you like them all. There's a large cast, so I'd focus on characters that you like first and foremost. With the right investment, all of the characters are at least usable. Now, for Sophia, Henry, and Raigh. Of those, Sophia makes for an excellent Raðurraven mage. Give her Triangle Adept and Bowbreaker, and she'll be a steadfast counter to bow units in the Arena. She's also a pretty common summon, so it's easy enough to make a 4*+10 copy if you wanted to do that. As for Henry or Raigh, I don't think they're worth investing in, unless you like them. They're always going to be towards the bottom of the red mage totem pole.

Me! I'm a refugee from the lost armies of Ike, and Lucina prior to that. But it seems the time has come for me to finally join Veronica.

I finished the new mode, and, whew, it's really something of a mess at the higher difficulties. The stats on the enemies just got to be too ridiculous, especially with that many reinforcements. With the final map, it's possible for the enemy to get itself stuck if the healer moves into the wrong spot. Then you can just safely watch the hordes of reinforcements fill up the map behind it. I strongly prefer Rival Domains over this nonsense, and might send them some negative feedback for the mode.

I am forever Team Macedon. Although, I must admit, I do have some reservations about Michalis. I'm not totally convinced I can forgive him for what he did. That said, I recently upgraded the Savage Blow SS for Maria, and gave her a Pain+ staff. She's quite incredible with that set. But it's good to see another who is so fondly a member of Team Macedon! #MacedonForever

Nice! I've been meaning to get around to building a Selena, but haven't yet. I do, however, have a Beruka built up, although I'm debating on which premium skill to pass onto her, Steady Stance 3 or Close Def 3. Merging decreases the cost of upgrading by the amount of feathers you would otherwise earn by sending the unit home. In other words, it's almost entirely useless, and it can be safely ignored, unless, for whatever reason, you were merging fodder units.

I joined Team Lucina, and it's pretty much just been endless multipliers for us. Veronica's Army has the largest base out of everyone this time around, by a rather substantial number. We're slated to give Veronica a multiplier later on, which is projected to bury us for the rest of the match. Still, I'm going to give my favorite princess here all of my flags!

Update is here! That means it's time to go clear out space in my barracks. I've been looking forward to making combat manuals; this should solve all my needs for space! Cherche's Axe is also quite nice, now my +10 Cherche is even more deadly than before. The Panic Ploy upgrade is also a nice effect, since she does have a huge HP pool. The axe itself also looks very cool too. I guess I know where my Dew is going... I got my Celica on her release banner, she's definitely gotten good use out of Renewal. Indeed, she probably will continue to need it, as her refine is lower on my priority list. Plus, I'm out of fodder Shannas, so there's no cheap Desperation available for her. My Cherche got great use out of her Brave Axe+, and Fir did well with her Wo Dao+. Those were both good investments, even though now they've been powercrept by Prf weapons. As you say, resources are meant to be used! Actually, her HP is in an optimal range to use with Fury. She'll take 11 damage in combined recoil from Fury and her tome, which is sufficient to put her into Desperation range. So, after any first engagement, all her passive effects will be ready to go. Of course, that's not counting Summoner Support. If she's +HP or has merges with Summoner Support, then she might have 45 or more HP.

Alternatively, you could do what I do, which is not field any armors at all and just play the map with regular units. So long as you max out your score in every other area, it's actually unnecessary to get any kills with the bonus type. Just get 20 kills with regular units and capture all the enemy strongholds, and your score will be sufficient to surpass the threshold. I find it much more fun to do that than to mess around with armor units on the RD maps. As for the GC, there are stat boosts for armors, sure, but otherwise there's no reason to field them if you don't want to. That's pretty impressive! Although I find it kind of surprising that one of the units with 0 HM is a dancer.

@Jotari There are a considerable number of characters in the franchise that I would like to see in Heroes, but, if I were to pick just one, I'd go with Milady. Nailah's definitely a good choice! When are they finally going to add some of the Laguz or other beast units! Nailah and Tibarn would be high on my desired units list (were I to make such a thing). Pent & Louise too, definitely looking forward to their eventual release.

@mampfoid Very nice one-turn clear! I was wondering if it might be possible on these new Abyssal maps -- and, sure enough, you proved it was! And I like how both Celica and Alm ran together for this one.

Oh, thank Naga for this! Managing the space in my barracks has always been one of the least enjoyable aspects of the game. My barracks are pretty much always full, and deciding which units to send home was always a pain. I hate having to hold onto so many units as prospective fodder, so this is an update I feel was sorely needed. Here I was, hoping for another free increase to the size of our barracks, but this is so much better! Also, it does away with the unnecessary aspect of having to level a unit up just to turn them into fodder, which is another nice feature. I've always had enough shards on hand to get the fodder units to level 20, but even just using those is still time wasted navigating through menus. I'm definitely happy about this, it's a nice quality of life improvement.

I haven't written up a strategy, but I did post my builds in the Marth thread. Micaiah was pretty integral to my strategy, as I used her both to dance and to take care of the green mages that came from the right side of the map. Her Res is also quite high, so she could also help wall off the healer towards the end of my run. Reinhardt's merges probably don't make that much of a difference, but, if they mattered, one could substitute Ally Support with Olwen instead. Since I doubt I'll write up a formal strategy, I'll put the general idea for what I did here. For the opening, I had Reinhardt take out the knight, get danced, then get rid of the swordsman. Olwen repositioned him, and she would tank and counter-kill the bow cav. For the second turn, I had my cavs clear out the reinforcements at the bottom, and Micaiah tanked and killed the green mage. At this point, I maintained control of the bottom and left sides of the maps, and eliminated all reinforcements in those areas immediately. Olwen and Reinhardt mostly stuck together, since Reinhardt had Hone Cav. Micaiah would later tank the Gronnwolf mage from behind the wall. As stuff poured into the middle, I tried to snipe it the best I could, keeping my characters out of the range of everything but the cleric. The cleric was the last thing to go, since it didn't hit very hard. It was crucial to have a melee fighter in order to finish it off though. Hope that gives you some ideas!

Well, I managed to clear Abyssal Marth as well! Tiki sat this one out this time, in favor of a cavalry team. Reinhardt, WT Olwen, Camus, and Hoshidan Festival Micaiah emerged victorious, securing the Golden Seashell. Of those, only Reinhardt has any merges, and then it's only +4. I think that's good for now, time to rest. My tactical muscles are tired after that.

I successfully conquered Abyssal Marth! It was, as expected, extremely difficult. But my team of Reinhardt, Camus, Hoshidan Festival Micaiah, and my recently acquired WT Olwen proved worthy of the task. Reinhardt was the only one with any merges, sitting at a healthy +4. For builds, I had: Reinhardt (+Atk/-HP) - Death Blow 3, Lancebreaker 3, Hone Cav, Atk+3 SS, Reposition, Moonbow Camus - Fury, Goad Cav, Drive Def 2 SS, Reposition, Draconic Aura, Micaiah (+Atk/-HP) - Base Kit, Iceberg, QR3 SS Olwen (+Spd/-HP) - Swift Sparrow, Desperation, Goad Cav, DD3 SS, Reposition, Glimmer After vanquishing both Grima and Marth, I'm pretty spent. Of the two, I actually had an easier time on this map, though initially I thought it would prove to be much harder than Grima. Perhaps some of that was simply getting acclimated to the ridiculous difficulty. However, I also found this map to be friendlier to a Horse Emblem team, and the mobility made it easier to maintain control over the bottom portion of the map without getting swamped. Marth himself is a less daunting enemy than Grima, since he could be safely attacked from a distance.

Tiki, you definitely deserve to wear the Golden Goggles obtained from the abyss. It's only fitting that you should be the one to take down Grima! Tiki then proceeds to tank pretty much everything else there, including the blue manakete, all in a valiant defense of Our Corner. But whew that was insane. I haven't really attempted Abyssal Marth yet, but that one looks even harder. The Infernal mode for that battle was reasonably difficult, but the healer with the Panic Ploy on Abyssal complicates things. We'll see if I can muster anything to defeat him or not...

Magic really is everything! The crown was also knocked off my head as well, but I expected as much. I'm hoping that I can bounce between the ranks for at least a little while. But, yeah, I certainly don't care enough about it to merge up any of the common armor units, and that's especially true given my near complete lack of interest in the ones lurking in the 3*-4* pool. Maybe if Amelia dropped in rarity, I would consider adding her to my list of 5*+10 projects. I'd much rather devote my resources into the characters I actually like.

While Veronica is certainly a strong unit, I don't think she's bringing anything particularly novel or fearsome to the meta. It's not as though the razzle-dazzle combo is new, and we've already had, e.g., Priscillas running around with Pain+ with stacked Savage Blows. Those can prove to be a real nuisance in the Arena, particularly if you're running EP units. After Priscilla dropped in rarity, I saw a spike in the number of them running around. Thankfully, I see less around now, possibly in part to outscoring that range in the Arena. But I certainly don't expect any radical shift in the current meta from Veronica, certainly nothing like what happened last year with Brave Lyn. That said, I think that healers just generally tend to get underestimated and underappreciated. Razzle-dazzle is amazing, Gravity+ can allow you to kite for days, and Pain+ & double Savage Blow lets you decimate armies with a single attack. Veronica's new buffing/debuffing AoE is also pretty fantastic. Of the four new CYL heroes, she was the one I wanted most, and she surely does not disappoint!

Fair enough, but none of that is really any evidence that Hrid himself is popular, or that he could pull off a feat like Loki. You could just as easily sub in the names "Alfonse" or "Surtr" to the same effect, but nobody really thinks that either of those guys stands a chance. I haven't seen any evidence that Hrid is especially popular, so it seems especially out there for me. If an OC were to make top 2 on the male side, I would think it to be Bruno, but even that seems unlikely. And yeah, Robin was pretty consistent in his popularity, and he might be more popular now than he was then, since he got his Grima form. Chrom might get a popularity boost from being included in Smash.

With respect to Laegjarn, I think that she gets less flak than Xander since this is a mobile game and so I generally don't think people take the story very seriously. I certainly know I don't. FEH just doesn't carry the same weight and expectations as a regular installation to the franchise when it comes to things like that. Meanwhile, the advertisement campaign surrounding Fates emphasized the story and characters, so, if people found those deficient, they have a reasonable basis for offering vocal complaints. As for Hrid, I consider him extremely unlikely. I haven't seen any evidence that he's that popular, and I found him so forgettable that I actually had to look up who he was. He doesn't have any particular quirks that would attract people to him. He hasn't established himself as an interesting or different character. I think that Bruno is a much better possibility, but even Bruno seems like an extreme longshot. Is there any evidence or reason to suggest that Hrid is popular enough to compete with Marth, Chrom, or Robin?

I finished at about rank 600, with ~240k points. A good number of people capped their HM during it, including Clive and Sharena. Had a nice haul of feathers, both from ranking in the top bracket and as gifts from my heroes for HM!

Marth seems like the obvious choice to win the male division, especially since he was shafted by the split votes this last time and can't seem to catch a break in terms of actually getting some alts. For second, I think Chrom and Alm are the most likely options, but I'll just guess Chrom for now. For the female division, I think Camilla's time has come, I think she'll secure first place. Now, for second, I think there are some other interesting possibilities. Eirika is an obvious possibility, sure, but I think there are some other serious contenders. If CYL 3 voting rolls around and there still are no beast units in the game, I think there's a distinct possibility that a good portion of the player base will push IS's hand and rally around Selkie. She made a serious showing last time, just slightly underperforming Leif. Leif scored so high because he was a hold-out lord. The desire for Veronica to be playable also pushed her high to the list. I think something similar could happen with beast units, and Selkie seems the obvious choice, given how well she's done already. With that in mind, I also think Loki could put up a serious fight as well, if she's not playable by then. There could be a good push for her like there was for Veronica. Well, in any case, that sums up my thoughts for now. My prediction will go with Marth & Chrom for men, and Camilla & Selkie for women.

I think the following should be removed from the 5* pool: Red: Saber, Gray, Eldigan, Karel, Luke, Katarina, & Morgan Blue: Morgan, Olwen, Tailtiu, L'Arachel, Shigure, & Shiro Green: Sonya, & Rhajat Colorless: Mist, & Faye I definitely feel that red is the most bloated pool. I'm pretty okay with the Green & Colorless pool. I'm fine with some characters, like Lyn & Ike, being exclusive to the 5* pool, based on their popularity and prominence in their games. But Luke? Saber? Those are odd choices for 5* exclusives. Also, this posted before I was done writing it, for some reason.

This is definitely an indication that you should take better care in managing your finances. The game hasn't tricked you, you have, in a certain sense, tricked yourself. While you could uninstall the game to prevent yourself from making more purchases like that, I'd like to point out that that's only a short term solution, as this doesn't address what caused the problem in the first place. If you picked up another game with micro-transactions, you could very well find yourself in this predicament again, just with another game. With that in mind, you need to figure out a way to keep track of your purchases that is more concrete than simply relying on what your impressions are and what you recall, since that has proven to be unreliable. I think that it would be a good idea for you to establish a monthly budget for the game, and then consult your budget before you make any purchases in the game. Another option is to go entirely F2P. This game is quite generous to its F2P players -- indeed, I find this to be one of the best games in that respect. The game gives you a lot of free orbs. You could try it out for awhile, and see if that makes you feel better about the game. As for the daily quests and such -- those are going to be in most games with an ongoing lifespan. However, the daily quests in this game usually aren't that important (unless they're during an event), mostly just crystals and shards, and you don't even have to login consecutively to get all of the orbs from login rewards. But, if you're not enjoying the game, or if it starts having a significant negative impact on your life, then you should uninstall it. This is, after all, just a game, and I'm sure there are other things that are as worthy of your time. I agree with this. I generally just avoid putting money into gacha games, with the extremely rare exception of an exceptional pack, since they're a sink with bad returns. Yeah, this is undoubtedly one of the best mobile strategy games, both in terms of quality and accessibility to players who don't want to burn their wallet. It's not as though the other strategy games in the Play Store are necessarily going to be any cheaper or more affordable, and it's not as though switching to a different game is going to make the person less susceptible to overspending on micro-transactions.

That's pretty cool. I haven't done much auto-battling to grind HM, but I tried this and it works nicely with my Est. I think I might use this to grind out some HM while it's up. Thanks for this!

Thanks! I went with Glimmer because of the short CD time. Since she uses the Heavy Blade SS, she will almost always activate Glimmer on the second hit from her Brave Axe. I think that's a pretty nice setup, being able to use the special in every round of combat she initiates.