Espinosa

Wouldn't Xander be pretty much indestructible on Normal difficulty?

Outlaw class set MU will also have 7 mov as a promoted Adventurer/2nd tier Princess; not sure if that's a problem.

wtf A Brave Lance from the Lottery sounds absolutely ridiculous.

I thought you only inherit the non-fixed parent's primary class set, if anything at all?

If you're seriously breeding for children, efficiency isn't such a concern as to bar you from pairing up two fliers. I'd rather pass Matoi a class she doesn't have however. What new does she get from Hinoka? No inherited unique abilities, no new class sets. Plus it's Hoshido/IK, you can grind for money and keep levelling after buying new Eternal Seals so even the poorest of growths won't stop you from hitting the caps without any DLC. Also, do the 2.5 growths round up, down; neither?

I'm not an experienced drafter but it seems that Jakob would be too overpowered for the run. Early promoted Cyrus would arguably not be too far behind though, but Jakob just levels up far too quickly while having incredible stats as a Paladin.

It means somebody's pet mud shark has been up to no good again!

Most of the time, I get random generic materials but my last attempt at lv. 3 Lottery got me an Arms Scroll. Pity I didn't get it waaaaay earlier into the game. I wonder if there's a full list of the possible Lottery rewards somewhere. Aren't Japanese wikis usually up-to-date on this kind of stuff? I bet we can look this stuff up if we try.

Basically, you won't have a significantly sturdier Matoi than Rinkah!Matoi, but you can get one with better strength or magic if you choose another mother. It's not a bad idea to wait until you recruit her since you need C lances for Shockstick usage. I used an Arms Scroll on mine since I was impatient to get her going.

I gotta love how Ms Jihad has a 10% individual skill growth rate. Dragon Fang off 7 skl at lv. 11 unpromoted is utter bollocks.

Actually, Rinkah being Matoi's mother makes the sturdiest Matoi physically. I'd argue you don't want Matoi's strength to be too high since this will activate her personal skill less often. If you are willing to wait a loooong time, Oboro could be the best mother for Matoi. Compared to Rinkah, she sacrifices 10 in skl, and 5 spd and def growths while providing 10 hp, 15 str, 5 lck and 10 res, but what you really want to have is Lancefaire. Otherwise, Kagerou is still the highest str mother and Orochi the highest mag mother. The Shockstick magical Matoi build probably wants Orochi as her mother the most, but Tsubaki won't appreciate Orochi's support until it's chapter 14 and he's got C lances... (he doesn't mind Spellcaster's +spd pair-up though)

What explains Velour's statistical prowess then? Is it just the Beaststone+? Her individual growths?

My Dread Fighter Rinkah got like 3 +str/spd/def levelups in a row so I expected the marriage to produce a stellar Matoi, especially considering how she was brought up as being better than the other Hoshido kids.

How come Rinkah!Matoi has such a poor defence score? I got her as early as I could and she's not impressing me with anything other than the Swordslayer she brought (which anybody else could use).

I've always thought Brain Salad Surgery to be El-P's best!

You gotta admit that an entire (unhacked) run done in that style achieving the absolute lowest turn counts on HM would be hella impressive and interesting in its execution. But yeah, you'd have to bust your ass to get it done, which nobody has had the patience to do yet.

Forge Ike a max Mt Steel Sword that doesn't weigh him down and continue using him. He still has 24 levels to gain strength. With promo bonuses and stat boosters, you should eventually be looking at a good Ike. You may want to escape from the optional BK battle anyway, but he will fight the final boss just fine - simply don't waste your Wrath and Resolve skills on anyone else before.

Yeah, it's a real pity I can't access Dark Falcon on the file that I have, only Dread Fighter. Also, just realised Dread's pair-up bonuses are +2 str/+2 spd/+4 res. I guess I just might turn Hana into one on my current run, maybe after she hits L10, since I did intend to use her as Cyrus's support bot that occasionally also fights people.

The first Energy Drop is in a chest in chapter 13. Such info can be looked up in the Items Locations section on the respective game's page on SF.

You could take that pretty far though; I'm sure some people don't want to be seen with the anime-based characters altogether; shall we blur out all character portraits and mute the voices just so that somebody somewhere can feel they're not seeming 'uncool' in public?

Zero's strength is really middling, and can't be fully fixed through Pair Up, sadly. If you aren't collecting capturable bosses, his only longterm application is pair up fodder and lockpicking. Besides the occasional sniping, he's hardly that useful. I'm glad it's been proved one doesn't need Pass to clear Nohr's Endgame, because training him all the way to Adventurer 15 is hard to justify. Setsuna seems pretty lacklustre.

It's still a highly potent skill that many units would desire. DLC restricts access to it as it does some other similarly desirable and gamebreaking things.

Nosferatu is still cheesy; you just don't double or proc skills with it anymore. However, you needn't buy more than one either! It's probably a perfect tome for Nohr!Odin who has good bulk and doesn't really manage to double all that much anyway. oh, and neither Ruin nor Aversa's Night are in the game.

Well, the stronger you make Odin and his spouse, the stronger Ophelia you get. I don't know if I'm simplifying it at all, but doesn't this apply to every single kid in general? If you have one decent parent and their pair-up fodder, you get a strong kid. If they've both gained a lot of levelups, the kid will be great. On my last Nohr run, I had Camilla marry Flannel, predictably, and the moment Velour Child Seal'd to 20/14, I quickly made her Camilla permanent pair-up partner, whereas Flannel usually fell short of being a strong unit in spite of repeated efforts to feed him kills. I bet the Beaststone+ (with a ridiculous speed bonus enabling her to double Trueblades and Elite Ninja) has something to do with it, though. Do we know how Child Pair Up bonuses are calculated? I notice it's, just like bases and growths, a mix of the two parents. The bonuses were kinda like Velour's, except with some resistance (Camilla's influence?).