Naoko_Akamori

What do the final tier Saint Statue buffs do? Do they just... give all of your units a free +5 to their stats, or do they increase caps?

Oh, so even with the maxed experience boost from Statues it's still a decent challenge? Alright, that's something at least. If the Chapter 14 reinforcements for non-BEs can move on the same turn they appear, that's definitely going to require some clever thinking at the very least. Honestly, bosses having unlocked movement from the get-go is a nice change. Though, I'm curious as to what Conquest did that made its Lunatic mode so well-received. I guess they just focused on giving enemies access to some of the players' toys?

So... Overall, I like Three Houses. I like the story and most of the characters. I like the music (Especially the Endgame music). But, after a first playthrough, it really feels like we're playing an eleven-twelve chapter game (Or six-seven in the case of Crimson Flower) Part I just doesn't change that much from route to route. I noticed a few extra scenes with Claude in GD which I appreciated (Including one that leads into his exploration dialogue in a particular chapter), but the battles are all the same (Admittedly with different stakes depending on whether you're playing Blue Lions or not). There's also the issue that all of the maps are bog-standard "Kill everything" or "Kill the one guy in the important pants" maps, but that's been an issue with the series for a while.

1. Well, D+ and then I can spam the certification since it's a 2/3 chance of success per attempt. I think that's 400 skill experience, so assuming I don't get any Greats or Perfects, it'll take about three chapters' worth of investment. 2. Fair point, though I wasn't planning on going ham with Battalions too much until I unlocked them fairly. Same thing with shops, really.

So, I was going to do a NG+ Blue Lions run for Maddening, but it'd be my first time playing BL (So Dmitri and Dedue wouldn't be going in with any class masteries or weapon ranks). The plan was to try to get Dmitri's axe rank up early through instruction/goals so he could get Brigand. Now that I'm hearing so much about enemy stat inflation, weapon ranks, and the skills they're pretty much just given for free, I'm wondering if detouring into axes is really worth the loss to, say, Authority or Riding EXP. (That being the case, I could just give him the Super Boots and just have to worry about Lances, Axes, and Authority but where's the fun in that?) All that in mind, I am planning to do NG+, so I'm wondering if that'll balance the challenge out somewhat. I do also have a few ideas in mind for things I could do to make things more interesting (Like not relying on Lysithea to nuke the Death Knight) but we'll have to see how it goes. TL;DR 1. Would it still be worth it to go off the beaten track a bit with Dmitri to get Brigand/Death Blow on Maddening, considering what that Axe experience is scooping up from other sources? (I don't have maxed out statues, but I was going to be using the Professor Knowledge bonus, which offsets his flaw, and +1 from Saint Cichol). Especially considering availability post timeskip to actually be trained? 2. Does NG+ offset the absurdity of Maddening somewhat? At least to the point where it provides a reasonable challenge that requires some tactical thinking, but isn't to the point of requiring super gimmicky strategies? At least in the experience of those who have played it.

In the previous two routes I've played (Crimson Flower and Verdant Wind), most of the dialogue in cutscenes is between the Lord, Byleth, and one other character (Hilda, Hubert). Occasionally other nonplayable supporting characters. Everyone else would usually just get one response that was relevant in some way to their character, and that no one else really reacted to much.

So, I've played both the Crimson Flower and the Verdant Wind routes so far, and it seems to be implied that Hubert came up with the name "Those who slither in the dark" to describe the ancient civilization. Not only is the name a ridiculous mouthful (To the point where, y'know, forum users just call them TWSITD), Claude and Rhea (In Verdant Wind) both just immediately go along with this. I don't know - the name just sounds a little... extra for Hubie. We know that he likes the effect he has on people, but coming up with a name that is... honestly, I think, a complete sentence (Subject, verb, object) is a little much.

Is Blue Lions better than the other routes at having the supporting characters actually do more than just show up and say their one line about the situation? Also, is there any way to give characters their post TS outfits in classes other than their 'canon' ones?

As far as I can tell so far, no. It'd be cool if that was gonna be the additional story DLC coming out next year.

If you really want to know...

How do these setups look for Annette and Sylvain? Annette (Gremory) Abilities: Fiendish Blow, Darting Blow, Reason 5, Rally Movement, Rally Speed Sylvain (Wyvern Lord) Abilities: Axes 5, Deathblow (Possibly replace with Axefaire), Alert Stance+, Weight -3, Axe Crit +10 I'm planning on giving Sylvain the Rafail Gem for free Aegis/Pavise and Flying Effect Null. I might try to set up Weight -5 on him for NG+.

Mine was probably Hubert (My representative), Raphael, and Dedue. I'm not even sure why Hanneman and Manuela picked those two, since I'd done very little scouting from the Blue Lions or Golden Deer. Hubert won, by the way.

Seriously, why couldn't they just be Jeralt's TA or something? It was brought up in the thread talking about which Byleth people prefer, but them being a Professor really doesn't seem to change anything (There's only a few situations in supports when it even comes up, and there's no real ability to 'be a teacher' in those scenarios). For pretty much every route, your students just say "Hey, we're going to treat you like one of us," and your response can't be anything other than "Oh, okay, sure." The only other professional colleagues you have are; Rhea, Seteth (Who completely distrusts you for most of Part 1), Manuela (Who's got both a drinking problem and self-destructive tendencies), Hanneman (Who keeps trying to collect bits of you for study purposes), Catherine (Who's jealous of you and Rhea), Shamir, and Alois. ... Actually, yeah! We should have more opportunities to hang out with Shamir and Alois. They're both pretty great. You can give your students 'advice,' which in a lot of cases mostly amounts to playing to their characters rather than actually teaching them anything. I feel like the game wouldn't have been changed in any significant way if Jeralt was the professor - and you were either a student, or an assistant (So you could run lectures, but with the caveat that he's out on a mission or something. Or hung-over. Man likes his drink). The player could still have control over Goals and Instruct and stuff.

I don't know about Dmitri's route (Saving that for last) but in the GD route Claude at least drops the "Professor" thing (For the most part) and just calls you "My friend." It's a little stilted, but it's better than El calling you "My teacher" even as she's (ostensibly) proposing marriage to you. As far as Avatars go, I prefer female Byleth for actually conveying emotion. Yes, the outfit is... Uh... Questionable, but really so is male Byleth's. They both took a perfectly good coat and are wearing the sleeves as some sort of accessory while cutting holes in it for their arms. The outfit is just so 'busy' that it doesn't really fit the setting at all. The costume that they released as the first DLC in the "Season Pass" looks a lot better on both characters, but that's paid content (Admittedly with additional story later on down the line, but still)

Alright! Thanks.

So, I saw a few posts going around about an issue with the content pass or season pass or whatever you want to call it causing an error that won't let you load the game. Apparently the only way to fix it is to get a refund? I'm curious as to how widespread this is, because my saves are still working fine.

If you're trying to garden for +1 stat boosters, can you mix and match seeds to get multiple different ones per harvest? Or are you better off just using a bunch of one type of seed that guarantees one stat booster? Also, how hard is it to keep one of the Lords' special Battalions at critical HP for Battalion Wrath/Vantage/etc?

I think the flower one is a quest item you pick up in the Greenhouse - it's not an actual flower. The material ones are actually listed on the quest, in a way that they kind of look like quest 'rewards.' It's a little confusing. All you get for the supply runs is money.

Does NG+ nerf your growth rates, or am I just having the worst luck? I've been getting a load of 1 and 2 stat levels lately.

Let's say you got a job teaching at the Officers' Academy. 1. What subjects would you focus on? Pick two to three. 2. Which students would you like to have in your class? For the sake of staying in character, assume you only know surface level details about each of them (Like most teachers would). Pick eight, they can be from any house, but only pick one Lord. Cyril and Flayn can be included as students. For me personally... 1. I'd probably teach Lances and Authority - There need to be more footlocked Lance infantry besides Dmitri, mainly to help thin out the massive numbers of enemy Swordmasters and Assassins. 2. For students, I'd like: Annette, Ferdinand, Ignatz, Marianne, Raphael, Caspar, Linhardt, and Claude.

Also, do we have any idea when the harder difficulties are supposed to be coming out? It's said they're going to be a free update that will come out 'later this year,' but is that going to be part of October or December's DLC waves?

So, one of the biggest obstacles to starting a new route for me has been Part I, and just... doing all of the content over. But Golden Deer did kind of change things up a bit by adding some extra scenes that fleshed out the world a bit. Are there any scenes during the Blue Lions route that add onto the story in Part I?

Is Dedue worth using long-term? His defenses look solid, but that speed growth... I feel like even his personal skill won't save him from getting doubled, especially considering the sheer glut of enemy swordmasters/assassins you run into later on.

It depends on the monster type. Someone posted a list a page or two ago, I think it's... Birds - Mythril Wolves - Wootz Steel Snakes - Agarthium (Also explains why I never saw any, I didn't do any desert monster hunts). They also drop Venom Stones or whatever they're called, which you can use to make/upgrade Venin weapons if you so desire. The dragon looking ones are the ones that drop Umbral Steel.

Is there any downside to just leveling certain units as adjuncts? I think they might not gain EXP as fast, but if you've messed with the Saint Statues, is that really a problem? It also seems like a great way to grind supports.