Espinosa

But bases man!

It's something like: 5 - 1 6 - 1 7 - 1 8 - 1 9 - 1 10 - 2 (now going for a 1-turn) 16 - 1 17 - 2 18 - 1 19 - 1 20 - 2 I seem to have 2 Warp uses surplus with this plan. The first one (from the first staff) could go to either Paola's chapter or the desert, while the second one could be used for a 1-turn of Gharnef's map (easiest thing ever and doesn't require a bulky Marth). wait, I can't count, only the first Warp use has an extra use. So Marth will have to endure the attacks of everyone in Gharnef's map.

Confirming the 4-turn works exactly as you said. Is this from an unrestricted LTC run by the way? Your characters in use look pretty unrestricted, but that trained Roshea makes me think otherwise. Characters like Biraku would actually be pretty usable if they were available in Book 2 with all those shards...

Hmmm... I guess that could save a turn in the entire run by preserving a Warp use for, like, chapter 11/12? Pretty useful indeed. I no longer have my C10 save from the hacked test/trial run, but I do recall the Bishops rushing in Marth's direction even though I didn't injure anyone up north. Could be wrong though; might've weakened the Rapier thief or left one of the silver soldiers alive by breaking my Iron Sword at the wrong time. Could you send your saves my way so that I can re-check it? edit: also, 11 move Marth can only target the boss at 2-range on the next turn following opening the door. Are you implying he gets the bosskill with, like, the Thunder Sword?

I've considered that. Marth ends up wasting a bunch of turns having to open the door for himself, killing the enemies in his way to the boss (I was also worried it might take more than 1 turn since they like to clog up space and Marth can only do it alone), killing the boss and seizing. Might as well 2-turn it with a double Warp. Using 11 move still falls short of reaching the boss, and the Bishops have weird AI that makes them block Marth's path to the boss even though they can't attack. The mages should catch up with Marth soon enough, and he can't counterkill them on EP. Also, I've added a YouTube playlist link to the OP.

I enjoy the FFT series to a varying extent depending on which one we're talking about. Tactics Ogre games are fun, but time-consuming and I tend to not finish my runs. Disgaea is a bit too easy, and the puzzles are in the centre of the game. I don't think lowmanning is a thing in Disgaea because it's generally a good idea to have multiple strong characters than a single strong one (for the storyline anyway). Equipment is generally more important than levels there, though levels also matter a good bit. Pokemon Conquest was a fun little game the two times I played it; don't think there's any reason to go back and play it again. Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume was a ton of fun and I'll be sure to replay it when I can slide a cart into something, because doing it on keyboard is detrimental to enjoying the thing. Breath of Fire 5 / Dragon Quarter is a great game, as drastically different as it may be from the first four. It could've still used a full overworld and a larger cast of characters to make it more enjoyable. The Devil Survivor titles are basically just another Atlus thing; I 100%'d the first one but could never force myself to finish the second one even though I attempted to play it thrice or so. I know it's improved compared to the first game but I get bored of it past some point.

I wonder if there are any more RNG-in-use tricks that would be useful to know. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om3hvuZldl8 So I did get around to uploading chapter 4 (7-turned). Any idea who should get the first Speed Ring? I do get another one in chapter 14, after killing the chapter's boss. +5 spd could be a very substantial boost to the offence of whoever happens to receive the item. Some possible candidates are - 1) Marth. Already at 12 speed in chapter 9, he could actually cap the stat before he reaches his level cap (if that even happens), and his swords are light enough to double stuff with. +5 avo is always helpful for combat-heavy enemy phases. 2) Kashim. He's got only 8 spd, which makes doubling enemies with the right bow hard. However, he lacks EP combat and could be simply fed his kills instead until he reaches his 20 strength. If he wants anything, it's the Power Ring imho. 3) Minerva. She's also got 12 speed at base, but 17 is nice and allows her to dominate and have effective enemy phase combat. I'm not sure if she really will be outclassing Sheeda by the time the latter promotes though. 4) any unit using heavy weaponry like lances, including Hardin or even Abel (who's already at nice 12 speed). ...and I guess that's about it. As potent as the item is, it's not exactly terribly desired right now, it seems.

Doesn't Boah need the Arms Scroll? That's what dondon's old spreadsheet said iirc.

Okay, chapter 8 6-turned. This must've been one of the tougher chapters to do, because manipulating the dracos to not kill Sheeda and getting Minerva to not fly away from Marth required some careful rehearsals, but at least it wasn't down to luck. Speaking about RNG-related stuff, it looks like Sheeda proccing a Silver Lance crit on the Hero attacking her causes her to always get a +str levelup 100% of the time, and I have a feeling this works not only against that Hero in that particular map. Level-ups were generally good (Hardin, Sheeda, Kashim) except for Minerva's first levelup which sucked bigtime. Doing the George/Linda map now, and I wonder if I should send Minerva and Sheeda up and dismount them to face the bow users, ballistians and cavs there, or play more carefully and lure only a few of the enemies while going all the way around with cavalry. Sheeda has pretty damn good avo to try sitting on a fort and hitting stuff with, like, Silver Sword or Kill Sword or something. Also, I'll see if I can upload chapter 4 later tonight.

That's quite a feat to achieve in H5 then. In FE3 Book 1, the positions are really different, with the party starting out in the upper-right corner, so you can get the Hero to attack Sheeda instead.

Could a sturdier Marth (with growths, let's say) hope to seize on turn 6 in this game? Cause I know for a fact he can in the FE3 version, but I believe the terrain there is also a little different.

Thanks. There's definitely a shortage of exp to go around in this run, and you can't really afford to train everyone who's simply a good character objectively. Abel had a nice head start against Cain in chapter 2 while performing Doga's duty, and while I still used Cain for his movement and good bases, he mostly just weakened enemies for others to kill. The first Knight Crest comes soon in chapter 10, but it's likely the only one that will make a difference because of how late the next one comes. I use Hardin more than Cain because of his better bases, but between chapters 4-7, he never gained a level either.

At the start of chapter 8, Marth actually has the exact same offensive stats as Abel. Abel is a lot more durable physically however.

Finally had the free time to upload another video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaDJAONzIJA Chapter 3 in 5 turns. You might still want to pause the video to see what the levelups are.

That's interesting. I guess that explains why all 3 of Oguma's level-ups so far have been +skl/lck/wlv, even though his skl growth is 20% and his HP growth is 80%... I mean, he's had other level-ups besides that and much better ones, but these were the ones I ended up keeping. Samson may end up the better Hero than him at this point... Really should've focused on Navarre instead.

Resetting the game each time, I can't seem to kill the boss without giving Marth a level-up that isn't +skl/lck or +skl/lck/hp. Considering how wildly Lena's level-ups change after the Warp on nearly every attempt, you'd think the RNG really is "reset", but so many attempts in, I haven't had a single Marth level-up different from these two, so it makes you think it's fixed in some way. Marth's skill growth is only 40% so it's not random that he always procs it on successful attempts. Just how does the RNG work on this game? How does it work in SNES FE in general? Do we know?

C17 still looks like the one map you'd want to use two Warps on just because of how threatening surviving the enemy phase is. In the last map, having a ~20 str Kashim able to wield Partia saves 2 turns, so that Warp is almost a given. Anyway, we both brainfarted yesterday because chapter 6 IS 3-turnable. Wendell just needs to use his better move to Warp Marth on turn 2 after he visits Banutu's village, and Marth should crit the boss with the Rapier on EP. It's less reliable and it deprives folks like Abel and Sheeda of 1 level or so worth of exp, but low turn counts is what we're interested in here. The OP now contains my current turn counts. I've 2-turned chapter 7 and got myself a save in the following chapter, which is a really interesting one, but I wasn't happy about Marth's Shin level-up (which he insists on repeating everytime I get him to 4HKO the boss with hit+crit). Hardin also whiffed one of his Steel Sword attacks, failing to grab the kill, but that's nowhere as near important, since the availability of promotion items makes this more of a Marth + fliers + cavs rush game than a Paladin rush one. Abel WILL promote in chapter 10 and kick butt, though. I also feel guilty for using Jeigan when I can more or less make do without him for the entire game, though it's a little early to tell - maybe his movement will be an advantage in Minerva's chapter. If he's not shielding units from harm or chipping in so that others can get the kill, his 10/0% growths mean training him basically just wears your inventory out and little else. I have really high hopes for Minerva btw. Proccing Sheeda's strength is sorta nice but not something you can rely on, while Minerva's growth can actually be confided in. And she's promoted in outdoor maps before the absurdly late C15 whip! In all honesty, Sheeda being a cav wouldn't be that much worse considering it's really just chapters 9, 12, 16, 19, maybe 13, where her flight is very useful, and Minerva also exists in all of these maps. She'll be a good deal better than Paola though, in spite of that low HP of hers...

Dondon, how do you see the run (difficulty, focus, your enjoyment) changing if you made recruitment optional or required yourself to visit all Gaiden maps?

...and yet I've just got the 2-turn after a surprisingly modest number of attempts. Some other unnecessary luck-reliant things happened on the same clear, too. After grabbing the dodge + bosskill, I trembled that the remaining enemies would occupy the seize tile, but they did no such thing. Topazd, are you sure chapter 6 can be 3-turned with a single Warp after recruiting Banutu? Because no matter where Sheeda starts, she cannot target the boss at pointblank range on turn 3, and nor can Jeigan if he tries to rush south with his 10 move - most of the castle area is 'blocked' and Sheeda has to move all the way around. She would reach the boss if she could start from Marth's fixed position however. I guess it's a 4-turn then, with Marth getting surprisingly many attempts at self-improvement. The bosskill/survival is still not simple in a 4-turn clear.

Okay, I guess the chapter 5 2-turn warpskip isn't happening. I may have calculated nicely that Marth 4HKOs the boss, or one-rounds with one crit and one regular hit with the Armorslayer, but Marth's 6 skl doesn't give him particularly good chances of actually proccing one, and 77 displayed hit (pretty sure this game is using the 1 RN system like its two SNES successors), coupled with unreliable (at best) chances of survival means our odds of success really are astronomical. Rapier having 3 less mt doesn't make it worthwhile to try as an alternative, really. Marth can technically try to attack both on PP and EP, facing 66 hit from the boss, but even though he 4HKOs, he will need the 6% crit to proc anyway because of the throne healing. Marth hasn't proc'd a single point of skill in his level-ups with a 40% growth; maybe it would've been a little different with 9 or 10 skill, but I was worried about the other stats more... So I guess I'll be saving the Warp and clearing the map normally. Also, I did decide to train Kashim after all.

There's exactly one Bishop with healing (before the reinforcements arrive on turn 6 or so) in the final chapter and he's one of the three enemies standing right next to Mediuth whom you have to remove on turn 1 (you can wait for the Manakete to attack you). Should Marth choose to improve his chances of survival and kill the untransformed Mammacute instead, we needn't really worry about the Physic Bishop because Mediuth can be killed in one turn. His throne recovery is also just 7 HP/per turn, so we might have a chance to kill him on enemy phase instead, reducing the heavy reliance on both crits and the right Earth Orb procs. Mediuth is basically the last of our worries given a strong enough Marth (which he should end up being advancing 11 tiles per turn in the second half). Camus is a huge headache however, Michael's chapter could play out in so many unexpected ways, and there's a lot of uncertainty regarding which warpskips are remotely possible knowing Marth's earlygame impotence and which promotion items can be skipped. At least now I know I can just not bother with Kashim and just train a bunch of fliers (Sheeda and Minerva come first), a couple cavs (Abel has grown into a swell unit as of C4, and I guess I'll also use Hardin as my second cav), Oguma and probably Julian? I have a feeling I am going to want him to take a hit or two.

So I finished my first test-run in which I tried to clarify where warping would be a good idea. In Michael's chapter, I didn't find any Knight Killer pegs, but there were several Javelin ones with 15 atk. Marth reaching 15 def is kind of a feat even with a Dracoshield investment, and we could also always opt against investing boosters, so I think they could decide to target him anyway - survival will be a better problem then, what with having low HP. It's worth noting that Michael doesn't stand on the gate and will move wherever you position Marth, and you could place him on a terrain square for extra avoid. It seems that this is the only map where enemies' AI is programmed to occupy the gate so that Marth cannot seize - I slowly killed like 20 of them, all trying to block Marth's path to seize after killing Michael, and then 20 more came as reinforcements, so I couldn't advance until I warped Samson to temporarily occupy the seize square. I'll probably re-run the game with a Marth with more modest defences to see if he has any chances at all to seize on the 2nd turn without any support, but it seems like a 2-warp strat could well be required. I didn't get much of a taste of Gharnef's chapter due to capped defences, but you're in reach of a ton of enemies that you could fail to dodge or continue to be hit by due to having excessively good offence. A bulky Marth with good luck dodging could probably survive the first turn to seize on the next. idk I'd also probably need to arrange that the weapon he kills the fake seize tile Gharnef with breaks on the second hit (which also kills him), reducing the number of enemies that can target Marth. A 2-warp 1-turn strat is always possible, but is it worth it? As for the final map, I started to wonder if a 3-turn strat wouldn't result in anyone dying because there are some really competent enemies rushing in to attack. At least some of the Manaketes can be killed before they actually get a chance to transform! And there's always Ellis with her Ohm Staff...

LTC runs have multiple Bishops? Moulder might as well go Sage since staff rank is not a problem for him at all, but Bishop grants an extra point of magic so LTCers might make Moulder a Bishop anyway.

Thanks for this observation; looks I've been spreading misinformation by claiming it's AS (as contrasted to 'speed') that affects avoid. I did check the Calcs page here on SF, but ingame I played around with Minerva holding the Javelin she comes with and a lighter lance, and must've misread something because I deemed the Calcs page erroneous regarding the avoid calculations. Double-checked it again and yeah, it's right. I guess Marth will have a tiny bit more avoid in that chapter 5 situation I outlined. Could be worth it going for a warpskip there, I guess. idk Chiki has 0 AS, which leaves her easily doubled by everyone threatening, and doesn't really OHKO anyone other than ballisticians (who are extremely weak defensively in this game). About Chiki's defence-ignoring attack though... Won't that pierce Mediuth's defence AND ignore attack reduction on half? 'Cause I'd rather not bother training Kashim at all. Not promoting bow users is directly linked to shaving off turns, and waiting for so long to promote a 6 mov bowlocked unit with mediocre combat at base just doesn't seem worth it. Of course, somebody still has to kill Camus, and that's a problem, but we could take more than one turn doing that. It seems that 11 move Marth needs 4 turns to seize after crossing all the mountains and forests, so a warpskip would be preferred, and it's one of the most efficient warp turn-saves lategame. And killing Camus? Anyone with 19 AS holding the Miracle Sword / Mercurius that Est brought doubles him (have Est throw it into Marth's supply, warp Marth up, retrieve it and tradechain to where Camus is standing, clear one of the 3 stationary paladins out of the way and add some more damage in). This is idle theorycraft I suppose, but I like exercising my imagination in this way lol.

Chapter 16 appears to be one of the toughest chapters in the entire game. You need to recruit Est first (by visiting the Hammerne village), then Marth needs to move to the other side of the mountain to seize, by which time Lawrence should be recruited by Sheeda and Camus should somehow manage to die (Killer Bow!Kashim? idk). The enemies next to Camus are also stupidly tough, and the ballisticians' actions don't make any sense at all (their range is supposed to be 3~10 according to the site but they aren't too eager to shoot for some reason anyway, even if I place my fragile Rena in their supposed range). edit: Camus even has 65 avoid... Just what the hell...