[Ranking each game by class: Armour Knights]

Man it sucks that Armor Knights aren't well looked upon (the class admittedly deserves the bad reputation). These guys are easily some of my favorite units to use in the series. I play slow though, and I suck at FE. 

The only game I would really say Knights are above average units is Engage. 

[What are the best units to use in Radiant Dawn?]

On 11/18/2021 at 8:38 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Nah that is fine haha. I honestly forgot about this thread.

Anyway, 11 total playthroughs in under half a year? Munchin' manaketes! For me, three FE playthroughs make for a busy year. I have to assume you're quite enjoying the Tellius games, at least.

I didn't forget about it, I just had all the information I needed so I didn't think continuing the thread on forever was necessary. 

Haha yeah FE has consumed pretty much all my time off the past year. But in reality, it was actually 8 playthroughs of the Tellius series since the 3 other POR playthroughs were just to get stat bonuses in RD. So I've played both of them equally. Blazing Blade, Sacred Stones, POR and Radiant Dawn are definitely my favorite Fire Emblems released in the west. (Three Houses is but it's post Awakening) 

[What are the best units to use in Radiant Dawn?]

On 10/31/2021 at 5:10 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

This was my "rude awakening" when playing FE9 after FE10 - discovering that the skill I'd just taken off a unit could not be reassigned. 

Anyway, how's the playthrough going? I know this was a while back, but did you finish?

Oh, wow. I haven't been on this site in like a month and didn't even see this. I wasn't ignoring you! I apologize I have been having some things going on in my life that have been taking a lot of my time away but anyway I have finished 4 playthroughs of Radiant Dawn since then and about 7 of POR (I wanted the transfers and every time I played I went to POR before).

Yeah... Fire Emblem pretty much takes up all my free time anymore XD 

[What are the best units to use in Radiant Dawn?]

2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

You did remove her and Geoffrey's Paragons before starting, did you not?

Well, I have 2 Paragons equipped to other units not Astrid and Geoffrey, so I think I took it off of Astrid... But Geoffrey's? I don't think I did. Which now looking back was... Very stupid of me. BUT I just found out recently that you could reuse the skills you removed from units!

[What are the best units to use in Radiant Dawn?]

On 7/14/2021 at 3:55 PM, Shadow Mir said:

RIP one Paragon. Unless you removed her and Geoffrey's Paragons before starting... but this leaves me to ask, what happen?

On 7/14/2021 at 7:26 PM, ciphertul said:

Astrid received the nerf bat far to hard, She suffers far to much death was the only mercy

Pretty much this... On all seriousness though, I was trying to keep her away from combat and the reinforcements from the beginning of the map got her. She was so useless she couldn't even defend herself

 

[What are the best units to use in Radiant Dawn?]

Alright well thanks to everyone for giving me advice again on my 900th best unit post. I really appreciate all the detail you put into all these answers lol. I read all of what Gonzo said and I'm almost going to beat part 3 with only 2 chapters left. I am not going to fight my Ike on Ch. 13 because he has 4 stats maxed and is a level 20 Hero. Compare him to my *** micaiah units and I am asking for trouble. I am going to try the strategy Gonzo gave because I'm really dreading that. 

I also beat Chapter 9 pretty easily and I didn't even have to use the Master Crown, which I was debating about using but I left it there and if I was unable to beat the map I'd use it. I had a pretty easy time with it thanks to Devdan, Geoffrey, Kieran and Marcia. Calill and Makalov didn't contribute much, and Astrid didn't contribute at all because she died on turn 3. Only MC I've used on any unit is Gatrie because I wanted to give him more speed since his cap was low. 

Oh and I never had one green unit on 3-10 die for me because like I said, my GM units are so OP that the game is easy as pie with them around. I think I also completed it in like 6 turns. The bridge chapter afterward is what sucked, those dang pits. But I was able to manage it in 10 turns and I just had Tibard and his hawks Avoid using the direct command and Haar pretty much kill everything himself. Would've gotten it faster and I could've looked up where the pits were but I didn't feel like it.  Speaking of Haar, I couldn't agree more. I gave him a speedwing after I promoted him and he's unstoppable. Thunder mages do kinda scare me around him but he seems to dodge them luckily. 

On 7/11/2021 at 3:32 PM, GonzoMD1993 said:

-For 3-12, there's actually one thing your omega speed screwed Nolan can still do. Tier 2 Nolan (which you already have) can use crossbows. This map mostly just throws at you a horde of infantry units, but there's 2 to 3 Peg Knights that are really, really annoying and will try to snipe your backline (so units like Micaiah and Laura could be in danger). If you buy Nolan the cheapest crossbow in the shop, he can still OHKO Peg Knights with it. I would highly recommend that you do this; getting rid of those Pegs early on is a big relief.

I'm going to have to use Nolan sadly because I have no other option. Good to know he can do something at least. Is there any possible way I could transfer Aqqar to the DB? That doesn't matter though, because he should be able to KO them with a regular crossbow. My nolan is terrible though and I'd rather be safe than sorry. 

 

On 7/11/2021 at 3:32 PM, GonzoMD1993 said:

-One last thing about 3-E. Ike will automatically promote to tier 3 at the end of the map, so make sure that he's at level 20. When he promotes he will automatically gain his mastery skill (like all tier 3 units), but he will also get Nihil for free. In part 4 you should remove his Nihil and give him one of your 3 Paragons instead so that he can gain as many levels as possible before the endgame. Once you reach the endgame, make sure to remove the Paragon and give him his Nihil back. All of the endgame bosses have some nasty skills so Ike will need Nihil to not get destroyed.

Okay thank you for this, this is also really important because I've been trying to avoid using my Ike since he's max level and 4 stat caps, and I want everyone else to get XP so now I can use him more often after. 

A lot of this information is useful. Thanks! Maybe moreso for my second playthrough because I know I missed a lot of details this time lol.
 

On 7/11/2021 at 5:00 PM, Shadow Mir said:

Well, the RNG giveth as it taketh away, I guess.

I also never gave him a speedwing and he didn't get transfer bonuses. Would've rather Nolan turned out better than him but alright. 

 

[What are the best units to use in Radiant Dawn?]

Okay I am very sorry for such a belated reply but I've been really busy and haven't been able to play as much as I want normally I'd have already beaten the game , but family and a lot of life issues got in the way and I've just now for the past two days played the game and I've gotten past Part 2 (It was really short) and am 7 chapters into Part 3 and the game has been a lot easier and better for me taking youns advice into account as well as getting the Greil Mercenaries which are OP as all hell and has made the game infinitely easier for me.

Yes I already cleared the swamp after you posted this but this is really good advice for my next playthrough. Everything will be easier next time since I won't be playing blind. I COULD'VE used Vika to kill those wyverns already but she didn't transform for 900 turns and I didn't have olivi grass which I now have stockpiles upon stockpiles of! Having to use an item though just so laguz units can fight is a pain though and reminds me why I don't use them unless I have to.

Oh that note, I just played 3-6 today and I didn't find it hard at all. Maybe because I didn't use Tauroneo much in the beginning like Shadow mir said but I had Jill promoted and gave her all my stat boosters. I gave her and Nolan as well as Edward a bit of Bonus EXP and they were great with their weapons they got from the base. Then the black knight came along and proceeded to nuke everything so it wasn't bad at all. Actually, the part 3 chapters haven't been hard at all. Maybe because it's normal mode, but I had a huge problem with part 1 and even part 2 on the last chapter was a nightmare. Only thing I am missing is a few items from villages/tens and some secret ones but I will have to get those next time. Volug contributed a bit but he mostly sucked compared to Jill, nolan and edward. Sothe did too, which I expected. 

And yeah, I am DEFINITELY canning Nolan whenever I get the chance. I had to use him this chapter, and even give him some exp just so he could fight a bit but he has been completely speed screwed only getting 1 SPD level at level 2 Warrior. He now has 11 speed. Meanwhile, I've gotten completely different results with Boyd! He has 26 speed now and has gotten a spd level on almost every level up as well as strength. He's a monster along with titania, ike, shinon and mia. Nolan doesn't even compare. My Haar is good too, but he doesn't double at 22 speed. Gatrie is good for me too combat wise, but he almost never sees any action because of his move. 

On the chapter where you only have Micaiah and the BK I did struggle with that one. Mainly because I was setting it up to rescue her and just have him destroy everything but when I went to do it I wasn't able to. Really put a dent into my strategy (lazy one) where I could just have him eat everything.

I didn't know you could unequip skills from units and put them onto someone else, and I didn't really pay attention to skills in part 1 because I was too focused on just trying to beat it lol. I know the game better now and wish I could've got celerity from tormod before the end but I'll just have to save it for next time I guess. 

And I agree pretty much with SM on everything he said about laguz units, I've said my piece on them though.  Oh, and crossbows weren't really a problem for me except in part 2 where I had Marcia and elincia, they suck bad other than dealing with pegasus. 
 

Quote

Bold: I'd say Boyd is really terrible in this game - he struggles to double pretty much anything for a loooooong time, and it's very hard to justify investing in him when I am given two better axe users from the word go, and get two more only two chapters in part 3.

Not my boyd. He's doubling everything after a few levels now. 

[What are the best units to use in Radiant Dawn?]

OKAY I got lost in all this and honestly didn't expect it to turn into such a heated argument, I just wanted some tips on how to play the game since I've never played RD before but I've played all the other FEs, so I wouldn't consider myself a FE noob just a noob to RD. I'm not going to quote anybody in this reply because that will take up a ton of space so I will just write down my thoughts and what is going on in my RD adventure as of right now. 

On the Tauroneo thing, I actually haven't used him much BUT without him I wouldn't have had my other units survive most of the chapters. Actually, he was key to Chapter 6 part 2 and Chapter 7 simply for the fact that he is invincible right now and the reinforcements in this game are constant and my other units (the ones I should be training) are incredibly weak sans Edward and Jill now and having him there to block and deal with the reinforcements saved me multiple times. I don't think I would've been able to beat those chapters without him. 

This is the hardest game I've played in the series because dodge rates are horrible even when the enemy is below 25 hit and you can almost never double. That on top of the numerous reinforcements and feeling like I have to rush and get the map done fast so I can get bonus EXP just makes it extremely hard for me. I am never for using prepromotes in FE since I like growth units but without Tormod, Volug and Tauroneo I wouldn't have been able to get myself to chapter 9. 

On the Laguz thing. I generally hate shapeshifting units in these games and go out of my way to not use them. Volug and Nailah have been an exception but I will give a good example as to why I don't use them:

Here I am on Chapter 8 (the swamp ch.) and I cannot field Jill or Tauroneo so I am stuck with most of the Laguz. While I'm using most of my units that can't go into the water to defeat the main army a wyvern comes out of nowhere and starts murdering the villagers. I then have nothing up my sleeve for that since Jill had to be left behind and all I have to rely on is... Vika. 

There she goes, standing right by the civilians as they get brutally slaughtered by a man on a flying lizard, being able to do absolutely nothing but watch, do to not being able to transform. It took 6 TURNS for her to FINALLY shapeshift and actually do something, and when she was finally able to it wasn't even worth it. Nailah is godly though and Volug has saved my butt numerous times. 

Oh, and my Jill is great. Nolan is the one who has turned out terrible for me. 10 speed at LEVEL 20

I didn't even know Olivi grass or the Rune existed... 

 

[What are the best units to use in Radiant Dawn?]

On 6/28/2021 at 3:03 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Depends. For it to do anything the unit needs to have reached level 20 and capped some stats then they get a +2 at base in the formerly capped stat (I think its higher for HP, but I am too lazy to check). Sometimes that can let units cross some critical stat thresholds to make them much better, but even if not its a nice boon, and gets them closer to capping a stat (which is important for abusing Bonus Exp in this game). I guess the A supports in PoR become +5 bond supports in RD, but those are incredibly minor and only affects crit and crit avoid...

 

Nolan is generally seen as one of the better Dawn Brigade units. Edward is alright, some people try investing in him, but he is more of a secondary mention from some of the bigger names that will join.

 

Figured I would warn ou in case you don't already know, but the difficulties not translated consistently between PoR and RD, so RD's Normal will be more like PoR's Hard...

On 6/28/2021 at 5:19 AM, Jotari said:

It also increases weapon ranks, even if you don't cap them.

On topic, you're going to get exposure to most units in the game due to the way this entry is set up. It has a huge cast but it's divided among multiple armies. So with a few exceptions you will be forced, or at least encouraged, to field and use every unit in the game at some point. So it should be easy enough for you to figure out yourself which units are decent and which are trash. Though I'll warn not to invest too much in Tormod and his gang, they're powerhouses in Part 1, but after its finished they stumble into a plot hole and completely disappear until near the end of the game (retaining the same levels).

Well, I think only Ike is the one who reached level 20 in both my playthroughs of POR so I guess it worthless to transfer data but I guess it don't hurt. 

I just beat Chapter 6 and now I have Jill, Tauroneo and Zihark. I really liked jill in POR, how does she fair here? My Nolan is good but he hasn't gotten a single speed level from 9 to 16.

And yeah, I've had a ton of trouble with the game right now especially since none of my units can double. Micaiah in fact gets one shotted by archers. 

Hmm. Idk if I like that honestly, that really messes with my team building. BUT there is no benching of units in that case so everyone gets some use, which is also nice I suppose.

On 6/28/2021 at 9:26 AM, Etrurian emperor said:

Units named Haar are the best to use. 

Oh wow. I know he's a wyvern and that kind makes me wish I would've trained him in POR.

 

On 6/28/2021 at 4:26 PM, Shadow Mir said:

First off, I'll start by saying this, in case you don't know: Radiant Dawn is rather wonky when it comes to character availability. The game's structure is such that you switch between multiple groups quite a bit. Anyway, I would generally avoid overusing anyone that looks like they're blatantly overpowered for that point in the game, as they probably won't be around long. Especially Tormod and friends, who are usable in part 1... but then disappear for nearly the whole game once part 1 is over (and when they're usable again, they're still the same levels they were at once part 1 concluded; considering that they come back really really late, this is bad). The sole exception is

  Reveal hidden contents

1-9 and the Black Knight

 because the only other unit you have is Micaiah.

Okay if that's the case then what is the best possible candidates for stat boosters? I've been holding off for this exact reason because I have a dracoshield, energy drop and a seraph robe that I don't want to waste on anyone yet. 
 

On 6/28/2021 at 8:21 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Nolan is generally good to invest in - he's weirdly fast for an Axe fighter, his Earth affinity can boost his (and an ally's avoid), and he's pretty solid in physical bulk. He also gets a personal weapon later on in the game, with high accuracy and a defense boosting effect.

Edward is variable in how he turns out. With really good level-ups (i.e. consistent HP, Strength, and Speed), he can be a force to be reckoned with. He also gets a personal weapon, but his isn't quite as good. And if you're only planning on one swordmaster, another shows up to overshadow him.

Leonardo... isn't very good. He can do chip damage, but not a ton. He does well in Skill and Resistance, but if he's not doubling, he's not doing much damage. That said, he gets two tools to help on this front later on - a personal bow that boosts speed, and a Brave Bow that nobody else in his army can use. He's the iffiest of the three, but definitely usable in the long term on Normal difficulty.

Tormod and friends do get a couple chapters where they're effectively force-deployed. I would recommend using them there - the faster you finish the chapter, the more bonus EXP you get. But after that, take their skill and items off. And definitely don't feed them Bonus EXP in Part I.

On 6/28/2021 at 10:15 PM, Shadow Mir said:

Nolan is great. Leonardo, not so much, but he has his uses. Edward has it really bad; not only is he a fragile melee unit, but another unit in his class comes along later to overshadow him.

My Nolan is slow as molasses, he hasn't gained one point of speed in 7 levels and his base is 10. But on that fact nobody in my army can double besides Edward sometimes (Volug can but he's a laguz unit) so it's not really that much of a negative for him. 

Is that swordmaster Zihark? If so I got him but he's a prepromote. 

My leonardo hasn't gained 1 level since the beginning of the game, I've already found out how useless he was from the start and I don't even feel like babying him. Perhaps with the stuff you mentioned he might be worth it but I just don't feel like it because if I want an archer I'd rather have a mounted one. 

I see. On that note actually, who is worth giving BEXP to? I don't have much because I'm very slow finishing maps in FE, but I can still use the bit I have. What I've been doing right now is just leveling a unit with it that's above 70 EXP, so I can give them a level.

Also does promotion work like it did in POR or do I have to use the Master seal I got?

 

[What are the best units to use in Radiant Dawn?]

I'm on Chapter 1 (not prologue) and I'm using my save transfer from my second playthrough of Path of Radiance. 
 

Actually off topic, is that even useful? I have no POR characters in my army yet, how much stronger does it actually make them? 

Okay circle back. Right now I have Micaiah, Nolan, Edward and Leonardo. I want to use Micaiah obviously even if she isn't worth training but the others I will drop if they lack anything useful. 

I'm playing on Normal mode if it helps. 

[Why are supports still considered to be a good form of storytelling in FE?]

I remember viewing a support in my last playthrough of TH between Lysithea and Felix that somehow didn't come until after the timeskip when it was supposed to appear before the timeskip. It just seemed... Very awkward and out of place for those characters since they changed a lot. This is probably unrelated to the topic and isn't a useful post, but I wanted to share how out of place it felt lol.

[What are the best units to use in The Sacred Stones?]

13 hours ago, Hawk King said:

2 Speed in 10 levels is average. If you get him any more than that, his performance will be that much better. Great thing about Garcia is that even if he fails to double, his Strength will be high enough to kill weaker enemies with one hit. 

Hey, debates like this are fun, and something I think Serenes Forest needs more of. They used to be a common occurrence, and I, for one, miss them. 
 

I personally feel the GBA era was the best along with Path of Radiance. I know a lot of people love it, but Radiant Dawn was a step backwards in my opinion. I like the remake games a lot for staying pretty true to the originals, but all of the new games starting with Awakening have been missing something for me.

Sacred Stones is my favorite because it is so short and easy. The challenges come from figuring out how to meets the pretty strict requirements for LTC. Plus, there really isn’t a single character in the game I dislike. Every single character can be useful. 

Haha, I can't disagree with that. They're always in good faith, and it's very entertaining to participate in and hear other peoples opinions on how to go about my favorite franchise ever. My binding blade question like this garnered a ton of debates and it was pretty huge haha.

My Garcia is level 16 Fighter with 20 strength, his Str has went up every single level. He has the most strength in my army right now (Seth has 17 for me but I have used him as much this time around) with 9 speed. If he was a just a bit faster, he'd be monstrous and easily my best unit. I'm hoping when I get the speedwings and promote him to Hero this will fix that issue and he'll be my best unit. He doubles some units, like soldiers and Shamans, but not much. So yeah, he's pretty much working out for me like everyone said he would. 

I honestly couldn't agree more with that statement. You see, I like every FE game (even the first one) and I admittedly still have a soft spot for Awakening and Fates: Conquest because those games are what introduced me to the series when I was a teenager. But, now that I've played the GBA games, POR, and and Shadow Dragon and Genealogy, it's hard to go back to the 3DS era and enjoy it. It's just not as fun and is missing the charm of the older games. Now that I'm older and I've played a lot of the series, I've began to see why FE fans are so adamant on the series returning to it's roots. And I agree with them. 

I haven't played Radiant Dawn yet, so I can't say how I feel about it. I also haven't played Gaiden or it's remake, so I can't judge those either. BUT, I do love Three Houses and I believe it's a step in the right direction from what Awakening and Fates was. I'm a relatively new fan of the franchise though, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Nothing will ever beat this game or the other GBA titles for me though, lol.

That's also what my biggest gripe with FE6 was when I played it. The shear amount of mediocre and downright terrible units they give the player is a negative for the game in my opinion, especially considering it's difficulty. (Hard mode for me was omg) I loved it just a little less than Sacred Stones for that reason. I mean, Bors? Gwendolyn? Wade? Excuse me while I barf. 

This one doesn't have that problem and every unit I have is useful in one way or the other. They're also very pleasing to look at. I mean, even the early game archer can be good. (My neimi is a beast).

Long post but I'm done now xP
 

[What are the best units to use in The Sacred Stones?]

On 4/16/2021 at 1:35 AM, Hawk King said:

Problem is that you don’t get a second Hero crest until Chapter 14 I think. So I personally wouldn’t use both Garcia and Gerik. Garcia needs the +2 speed from Hero and Gerik can get more levels until the second Hero Crest so it wouldn’t be a huge problem. Also Garcia almost absolutely needs Speedwing and for his speed growth to cooperate. However a speed blessed Garcia would be an absolute monster. If you rigged him to get speed every now and then you wouldn’t have to worry at all. 

Well I tried to rig him a couple levels today for speed but, I only got 2 speed levels but the rest were INSANE growths but without speed, so I think that might be enough. 

 

On 4/16/2021 at 10:44 AM, Shadow Mir said:

That's a blatantly unrealistic level to be at at that point (at least without grinding, which can be used in favour of anyone), given that you're going to be leveling much slower when you promote. For reference, I had recently watched a video of an 0% growth LTC run, and Gerik, who the player was heavily leaning on, wasn't at level 10 by chapter 18, so I can't see any of those three can be at the level you're using for this by that point without massive favoritism (that said, the player went Ephraim route, where Gerik joins later, but still).

I'd say Garcia isn't going to be better even on Ephraim route even knowing that Gerik joins later. 

It's not so much about horseslayers as it is about the fact that Great Knight is a lousy class, especially compared to Paladin.

On 4/16/2021 at 11:46 AM, Hawk King said:

Level 10 promotions are unrealistic for someone’s casual play of the game. It is a very conservative estimate. 
And using Gerik’s experience gain on a 0% growths Ephraim route LTC for reference to how much experience units can get on a casual play of Eirika’s route is a bit silly. 
As someone who has played many drafts of this game, getting to those levels in LTC settings is quite easy. Not to mention, Garcia doesn’t even have the option to promote until Chapter 11 so he will be quite a bit higher than level 10 when he does promote. Ross can promote after Chapter 9 since a mid chapter promotion doesn’t really do much for him. As long as you get him to Trainee LV10 on Chapter 5, he can get a ton of experience on Chapter 6. He can walk over the river, kill some archers, and get the boss kill on Chapter 7. On Chapter 8, he can kill a bunch of soldiers, armors and other enemies (about 10 total) on his way to killing the boss here. And then on Chapter 9, he can walk across the water killing all the pirates on his way to the south part of the map where the enemy density is quite high. 

Let’s not forget that the person who is doing this play though has already said he plans to take advantage of the arena for extra money. Which will give him more experience on Garcia and Ross. Especially if he can get Ross to LV10 on Chapter 4 which is entirely possible when you aren’t concerned about turn counts. 
 

Paladin is obviously better than GK, but GK is also obviously better than General. 
 

On 4/16/2021 at 11:46 AM, Benice said:

In terms of total level, not really. Since Ross starts well behind the level curve, he gets exp very easily until he's roughly level 7-9 as a pirate or fighter, at which point he's normal. If the player were to promote Ross at level 10, he is unlikely to reach 10 as a berserker, but Ross could very easily be 10/15/5 or 10/19/1, which would have exactly the same result. (His speed is also the same on average from levels 10/10/8 to 10/10/11) Gerik joins at a higher level as well as ten maps later than Ross and Garcia, (Since it's a 0%, I assume Gerik was promoted to hero right away as well), so he loses the benefit of accelerated exp gain. What is more is that the player has access to Garm, which allows basically free doubling for them, aside from the very fast enemies.

Plus, NM has faster EXP gain.

As for Dozla, even assuming he is base level, he still packs a solid punch if you have the deployment slot empty. Would someone like Saleh be better than him? Absolutely. However, we're not talking about optimal play here-If we were, basically nobody but Seth, Franz, Vanessa, Cormag and Moulder would be in this conversation. Dozla fares fine at the very worst, even well after his join time. Again looking at chapter 17, base level Dozla will deal roughly 13~ damage with iron weaponry, but he could very easily just hold onto his battle, steel or killer axes to increase his output by a lot.

I do not want to start a binding blade level debate again XD.

On the last note, I'm on Chapter 10 right now and I really think this is my favorite FE out of what I played. If the difficulty was just a little higher and on par with, let's say, Binding Blade, then this is easily the best one in the series and definitely on the GBA. And this is coming from a person who thought Three Houses was the best thing since sliced bread.

 

[What are the best units to use in The Sacred Stones?]

12 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Depends on the route. He joins in chapter 10 on Eirika route, and chapter 13 on Ephraim route.

Right. And that's why other than Gilliam, I wouldn't consider it for anyone, as essentially being a foot unit that takes worse movement penalties defeats the purpose of being mounted.

So then he is probably better for the route I'm taking (Eirika's) than Garcia but when I do Ephraim I'll probably keep Garcia.

Yeah I'm kind of leaning on on General > Great Knight. Although, if there is only 2 horseslayers in the game then it's not much of a difference and it still gets 6 move
 

11 hours ago, Hawk King said:

@sinfonic18 For the arena, you soft reset on the screen where it shows the enemy’s class, level, and weapon. Don’t abuse it to the point of making the game brain dead easy (unless you want to), but getting everyone two or three levels might go a long way for you. 
Gerik joins automatically after Chapter 10, or you can recruit him mid chapter by talking to him with Innes after you talk to Innes with either Eirika or Tana. 
I believe there are only one or two enemies in the entire game who have a Horseslayer so the extra weakness for GKs really isn’t a problem. 
After taking a closer look at base stats, growths, and enemy data per chapter; I actually like Dozla even more than I did before. With a speedwing, and average speed growth, he actually doubles 75% of remaining enemies, and the only enemies that double him, which is like 5% of the enemies, only do 2-5 damage per hit. 
I would rank the axe infantry as Hero!Gerik > Zerker!Ross > Hero!Garcia=Dozla. 

You need to actually look at enemy stats. The axe boys double 50-90% of enemies in every map for the cost of just one speedwing. They can potentially one shot quite a few enemies they don’t double, and the very few enemies they get doubled by will deal single digit damage per hit. Mouthe Doogs are moot as well since they have at most 24Hp and 4Def so Garcia and Ross will one shot them before they get their 2nd attack. 

I see. I'm going to try that instead of save stating because that doesn't reset the RNG like this method does.

So Hero Garcia can still be viable though? I'm not much of a fan of prepromotes so I'd prefer to use Gerik + Garcia instead of Dozla.

 

[What are the best units to use in The Sacred Stones?]

20 hours ago, Benice said:

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Quite excellent. Good stats, good promotion. It is worth noting that both Ephraim and Eirika get absolutely BONKERS prfs midway through the game, and once they get that, they become very good.

IMO Moulder is much, much better, (Earlier joining time which means he can reach promotion level sooner, great con, etc. He can even use Elfire without losing speed at all, should he be promoted to Sage. Natasha has the benefit of a higher magic growth, and she also won't be facing passive crit, which is actually a problem for Moulder should he become a combat unit for you. The other thing Natasha's got is access to Valkyrie, and she is probably better than the other one. Who is still quite good, though!

That being said, I personally don't find that either of them are particularly worth promoting. If you've got the spare guiding ring, either one works, really. If you get her to promotion, Natasha will be better than Moulder, but she's also takes a lot longer to get there. The third staff user has the benefit of starting on a horse and lacking the luck problems that Moulder has, but...Kinda suffers everywhere else. Still, mounted healers are nice and you don't need stats to be able to heal 20+HP per turn.

Yep. It's more of a concern on Ephraim's route, but after opening every chest, I'm left with two uses left on his lockpick. I opened some doors as well, though.

Just so you know, Amelia can get Great Knight from both Cavalier and Knight. You just seemed down on adding another cav, so I mentioned the knight choice. Stat-Wise, Knight grants...Mostly slightly better boosts, but Cavalier does add to her speed, whereas Knight doesn't.

(Also, both Generals and Great Knights have full access to the weapon triangle in this game.)

 

Anyways, re: Dozla; he's a good filler unit at worst. You can basically just put him in there if you have an empty deployment slot, as you likely will in the lategame. There are some other solid prepromotes as well to fill them in, (and those slots aren't really important anyways...) so he's not a necessity or staple unit.

 

 

Well damn if they are this highly touted I'd be dumb not to invest something into them at least. They don't sound like no Eliwood or Roy.

I'd really like to have a Valkyrie for two reasons: Mounted healing + damage. I mean, the class is like Sage on a horse. BUT, it might be dumb to use Moulder/Natasha, Lute AND Artur all on the same team. That might be a little too many frail magic users so I might just use Moulder and Lute and drop the other two. I'm not sure yet, but I'm leaning on those two. 

Well then that solves everything. I can just easily promote her to Cavalier and then Great Knight to get a general on a horse, not having to mess with a garbage lance-locked knight until I get there. 

I think I'll make Duessel and Dozla filler units when I can but for now they can warm the bench. 

11 hours ago, Hawk King said:

@sinfonic18 Ephraim has great bases, amazing growths, an amazing prf weapon and horse on promotion which all factor into him being one of the best Lords ever.  He can get plenty of exp on 5x and since you are going Eirika route he will get auto-leveled 6 levels but only un to LV15 max. You won’t need to really put any effort into training him. 
As long as Ross get average to above average luck on his levels he will be good to great. I’ve seen him hit the skill cap as a pirate, and I’ve seen him gain just 1 point of speed in 18 levels. 99% of the time he will fall somewhere in between. 
For chapter 6, Franz should be starting to become mini Seth if you are focusing as much combat and kills into him as you can as Franz should definitely be one of you main core units. 
There is a trick/exploit to the arena. The game only “locks in” random numbers after combat is initiated or a unit ends their turn. So you can go to an area and check to see what enemy shows up. If you have weapon triangle advantage or you know it is a class you will double and beat easily you can accept the fight. If it is a bad matchup, you can soft reset and go to Resume Chapter and the unit you checked with will still be able to move since you haven’t locked in their action. Then you can burn RNs and check again for a more favorable matchup. No emulator or savestates required. This trick can be performed on a cartridge. 
Personally, I would advise against using Garcia long term and suggest Gerik instead. He is another axe infantry unit since he promotes into a Hero. Has a much better speed base and growth with amazing bases and growths all around. And can potentially insta-promote as soon as you get him if you need the immediate boost. Obviously, the more you train him before promotion the better he will be. Garcia’s 20% spd growth can be infuriating. 
Axe infantry are actually consistently better than Sword locked units in this game. SM’s dislike of them is a bit puzzling to me. Hero!Gerik is considered a high/top tier character. Enemies just don’t have extremely high speed stats. 15 speed is enough to double 75% of enemies. 
Generally, I would say don’t train both Artur and Lute especially since you plan to use so many of the early joining units. You might actually need to take advantage of the Chapter 5 arena to help train some of the up. If either Lute or Artur gets stat screwed you can drop one of them for Saleh who is the mage equivalent of Seth. 
Long term, Natasha is a little better than Moulder. For LTC Moulder is always better because of his higher base level. 
The main case against Colm getting the Ocean seal is that he already has 6 movement as a Thief and his 15 uses of lockpick are more than enough to get everything you need. 
Both Generals and Great Knights can use all three weapon types. General has slightly better stat caps than GK. GK is widely considered the better class because of the mount. 

Oof that seems like he is very unpredictable with his growths. I was kind of unlucky on him last time but by the sound of that maybe, just MAYBE I will get very lucky on him this time. I haven't got to chapter 2 yet because I just restarted yesterday but we'll see.

Well, my Franz on the last run was almost offensively as good as Seth, but his defenses were no where near the level of Seth's so many times I did not feel comfortable putting him out there a lot because he was frail, but offensively very potent for a cav. So yeah, I agree. A mini Seth is a good way to describe him. xD

So THERE IS A TRICK to the arena. When I read about Arena abuse it always puzzled me how people did it on an actual cartridge without savestates, speed up and all the other fancy amenities that emulators give you. But here's the thing, how do you check what the enemy is and what they carry prior to paying? This sounds like a much easier method than save states.

Gerik... Hmm. When do you get him? My Garcia might be better by the time I get him maybe. I'll have to look at his growths if he is underleveled.

I'm taking that advice because you're right. I have too many magic users planned so I'm either going to drop artur or lute depending on whoever turns out worse. (I'm leaning on artur for now)

GK only has 6 move in this game though right? I would figure the mount is a flaw with the class since it adds a horseslayer weakness that General doesn't have.

6 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Most of what you face in the tower is revenants, aka punching bags. Perfect for getting the trainee units up to speed.

TBF, Ross isn't that good anyway. As a Pirate, he only has a 1 speed lead over Fighter... which disappears if he uses literally anything heavier than an iron axe (and it ain't like he's a speed demon). For someone who everyone is so willing to put in a good word for, that's really lousy.

As he is the other main character in this game, it'd behoove you to invest in him anyway.

EDIT: Also, don't forget to take Orson's Silver Sword before clearing 5x.

Why? Because most GBA axe users are lower than dirt. Being slow with low defenses is a losing combination for a frontline unit.

When I talk about axe infantry, I specifically mean anyone who starts in an axe class. Which, in the context of this game, is Ross, Garcia, and Dozla. And many of them, as stated earlier, tend to be slow as molasses and have poor defenses on top of that, which adds up to them being unreliable as frontline units and easily outperformed on the offense. Which makes it all the more puzzling that Garcia was apparently a renowned commander in Renais's army before the game started, because with growths like that, he sure as hell ain't gonna live up to the reputation he had back then...

A big one is that Torch staves are buyable in Serafew after you win the battle there. Also of note, the Torch item is best used by a thief, as thieves already can see farther than other classes in fog of war maps.

Oh yeah, those entombed zombies. Reminds me of Awakening. 

Yeah but it's not his first promotion which makes him it's his last which is Berserker with 15+ crit and a 30 strength cap. 

Oh, that's a little detail that I wouldn't even have looked over. I thought you got Orson back later but apparently he disappears after that so I didn't even think about taking his weapons.

Well maybe in his older Dad years he's become more worn and his growths reflect that. At least until his son put the fire back into him.

[What are the best units to use in The Sacred Stones?]

22 hours ago, Hawk King said:

@sinfonic18 So to answer some questions and give you the best chance of doing well and completing the game without giving up or starting over, I will give you a few tips. 
Every unit is good in this game for casual play, and all but a few can be made useful in LTC settings. 
Focus on a small number of “core” units. Like 3 or 4 to feed 75% of combat and kills into. Then have another 7 or 8 units for support roles. The core units will be nearly invincible, and the support units will have plenty of exp left over to stay as strong or stronger than the enemies. Good candidates for the core units are mounted and flying units. Their high mobility will allow them more freedom to protect any other vulnerable units and complete objectives faster and easier. 
Eirika is good, Ephraim is a candidate for best Lord in the series. Don’t go out of your way to force feed Eirika, she will be fine with one or two kills per map. 
Ross is the best of the trainees followed by Amelia then Ewan simply due to their availability. Berserker!Ross imo is the best combat unit in the game. Water and mountain walking is nice but very niche. He excels because of the high Str and 15% crit bonus of the Berserker class. Most enemies are pretty slow, so with average Spd growth he will double most enemies. Also note that Pirate and Berserker promotion bonuses both give +1 spd whereas Fighter and Warrior give 0. 
Dozla is usable, but he will be inferior to any other axe user you train up until you get Dozla. 
For Chapter 6, it is too hard to rescue the villagers. The easiest way is to just kill the boss before the spider gets to them. Don’t be afraid to have Seth or Franz charge in and kill half of the enemies on the map by themselves. There are plenty more left over to give all of your other units two or three kills. Make sure to get Torch staves so your healers can light up the map when they don’t need to heal. 

Is Ephraim really that good? I wasn't planning on investing in him too much (I was still gonna use him) but now I'm thinking over my decision.

Everyone here has said Ross can be excellent if trained and I love training units that start weaker to grow into strong ones so he will be apart of my core units. (receiving promotion first, stat boost items, etc) I might use Dozla for the map he joins on but other than that I'll probably bench him since he is a prepromote.

That's a good strategy, thanks! That map was giving me a headache because I really need that Orions bolt for Niemi. I'm not worried about seth charging in, but I am reserved about letting an unpromoted Franz charge in without any backup because it always ends in failure for me. 

19 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Dozla is... fine. He's decently bulky, with good-not-great Strength. He's slow, but his high Con lets him wield basically any axe with no loss. That said, he's also harder to rescue/carry. B Axes is kind of disappointing for his join-time, but he can probably reach A (Silver Axe) and S (Garm) naturally. His growths are... actually quite solid for a pre-promote. I view him as less good than a trained-up Ross, but with the benefit of no investment required. 

Ultimately, though, different players will have different opinions. My recommendation is, figure out which units you want to use, and use 'em. Sacred Stones is an easy enough game that you can make it work with pretty much any batch of units. Let us know whom you decide on, and how they turn out!

Hmm. I'll take it into consideration, I like axe users so much though that I might end up using all three axe infantry. (Garcia, ross, dozla) but that doesn't give much variety, so, idk. I'll have to see when I get there what I decide.

If you want to hear, I plan on my core 12 being: Eirika, Ephraim, Ross, Garcia, Tana, Joshua, Molder/Natasha (whichever one is better, I need to look those two up sometime.) Seth, Franz, Lute, Artur and finally Neimi. 

15 hours ago, Benice said:

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He's solid. Good enough bases, good enough growths. He's a tad slow, but his speed growth is decent.

IIRC Mir just really doesn't like infantry axe units, and giving the Ocean seal to Ross is more of an opportunity cost.

That said, a lot of people prefer giving Ross the ocean seal because Colm really doesn't benefit that much from promotion. Rogue gives him Pick,* but that's about all that it gives him aside from some modest buffs to stats. Promotion doesn't give him any more movement or anything noteworthy. If you have got your whole team promoted in chapter 15, it could be a good idea to give him the Master Seal for the second rogue, but that aside, Colm's not missing anything from having not early-promoted.

Ross, however, gets a lot from promotion to berserker-Mountain walking and +1 mov, some pretty hefty stat boosts, a large Con boost, +15 crit, raised strength cap. Even at as low as 10/10/1, Ross' stats are fairly impressive-Actually a little bit better than Dozla at base barring a solid lead for Dozla in HP and a small lead in skill for Dozla which doesn't really matter, since Ross will have higher hit when factoring in his luck.

Ross also will suffer a fair bit from not being able to promote until basically chapter 16, since there is a possibility that he'd have capped strength for a while at that point and he won't be able to instantly get the large boosts of promotion.

*I should point out that if you are frugal with your lockpick uses, (I.E, using door keys when an enemy has just dropped one) you won't need Colm to get Pick to open any chests, and once the prepromote thief arrives with Pick, you'll be fine.

 

 

Good case for Ross. I mean, by the way you make it sound, he could be the best character in the game (I mean, he probably could if you were really lucky with his growths) but like I said, I'd rather give Ross the first Ocean seal and make Colm wait since he seems to not need it as fast as Ross does. I've actually never used door/chest keys in FE games because I always have a dedicated thief but that is a great strategy for saving up some since i guess I'll have to this time around.

13 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

There's no need for the arena in this game, other than getting some pocket money; you can just use the Tower of Valni to grind after you reach the route split. Also, there are only three arenas in the game, only two of which you can access in any playthrough because two are mutually exclusive.

In a word: Junk.

I don't consider it worth it because it's ten billion percent harder to train a knight than it is a cavalier. Also, it is just not worth suffering through two tiers of 4 move lancelock.

Speaking of which, it's worth noting that some of the shops have different items on the world map than they have when you're in the chapters with the shops themselves.

Simply put, I have a low opinion of most axe infantry, largely because many of them are lacking in most stats not named HP and Strength (of course, Ross, Garcia, and Dozla are NOT exceptions to this). They're only good for hitting stuff hard... Once. IF they hit. As a result, I find that most of the few good foot axes excel in spite of their class, rather than because of it. It doesn't help that foot axes tend to be very consistent about having crippling weaknesses that eclipse their strengths...

Well I'd like to have pocket money for secret shops. BUT, if the Tower is much easier to level up on than the Arena, I am all for it. I dread the arena every single time.

Well regardless of what personal bias/vendetta to have against axe users, everyone has said Dozla is outclassed by Ross once he gets there so it's a moot point anyway.

That's true, I guess. I don't mind grinding past Knight though to get General with axes, but Great Knight in this game is basically general but with swords. 

Huh... I didn't know that. That will be good to keep in mind for the rest of the game. 

Axe hit rate is only a problem in Binding blade though. (Gonzales gets better though, I swear) but not so in other games since enemies don't have any luck (the stat). But yeah, I can agree with the notion that they have no other stats other than Str and Hp, they are severely lacking in speed. There are exceptions though. What do you think of Boyd from FE9? He is probably the best foot axe users in the series. He's accurate, fast and hits hard, he's just a frail sponge though. 

 

13 hours ago, lightcosmo said:

 

[What are the best units to use in The Sacred Stones?]

14 hours ago, Benice said:

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It's not actually that hard, especially if you've got save states. Arenas scale to your unit's stats.

Despite its reputation, FE8 has some tough maps, especially if you're not using Seth.

You'll also definitely want to visit all three villages in chapter 5, since they get you a guiding ring, dracoshield and two less important items.

The village that you start near in chapter 6 gives you an antitoxin, and saving all three villagers gets you the only non-secret shop Orion's Bolt you get in the game.

In my opinion, it's not. The other thief's combat stats are perfectly acceptable, and Colm really doesn't gain much from promotion aside from Pick or Lethality; he doesn't gain any movement or anything, and his stats generally won't matter that much. I will touch on this more later, though.

O O F

On Eirika's route, you get two speedwings, while on Ephraim's, just one. You could either put him into hero, hope he gets some speed and drop both speedwings on him, or have him commit to his role as a one-hit tank. You still have some time before you get the first Hero crest, so he can still get speed.

Fighter is basically the objectively worse choice for Ross, since he gets access to promotion later, (which won't matter too much to you), loses his nifty access to water-walking, (very helpful on one quite tough map on Eirika's route) and gains worse stats on promotion to it. He makes those back with promotion to Hero, but Hero doesn't fit Ross as well as Berserker.  Even though 'Zerker only gains one point of speed upon promotion, Pirate gets one too, so Hero has the same speed as Berserker for Ross. The one advantage Fighter has over Pirate is the +1 con prior to promotion, which shouldn't matter too much to Ross, as this will be fixed upon promotion to Berserker.

As for Colm, he's not worth using as a combat unit and generally won't have much payoff for the work put in, but he can be used if you really want to. His value is from using lockpicks, and despite his solid growths, his low bases and class kinda sink his potential. Regardless, I would personally promote him to Rogue for three reasons: the first being that Lethality isn't a great skill and Rogue's combat is only slightly worse than the Assassin's, the second being that you don't have to bring the other thief along on every map with chests, and the third being it looks cooler. There is one lategame map where having both thieves is especially helpful, though.

 

 

That may be true but I never have any luck in the arenas. Even at a low bid, the enemies always just seem way too strong for me to handle and usually get Silver and Steel weapons while I'm stuck with a crappy iron one. Doesn't help when the enemy has a hit of 25-30 and manages to hit every single darn time lol. JUST. ONE. MISS. AND. I. WILL.- *Dead*

I agree with that. Personally, this one has been harder for me than Blazing Blade or Path of Radiance even. I mean, it's not on binding blade level hard but it's certainly not as easy as what I've played. It's a fun little challenge.

Yeah I need to save those villagers in 6. The reason I failed to do it last time is I wanted to keep Seth going west and dealing with all those enemies over there and to the north, while simultaneously not realizing that there is also a crap ton of enemies on the east where the villagers reside. I was too busy trying to kill all those and before I knew it the spider was there. Fog of War maps suck. 

I'm going to do Eirika's route first so I'll get the speedwings. If nobody else on my planned team (Lute, Artur, Ross, Neimi, Franz, Seth, Eirika and Ephraim, Tana, etc) doesn't need them, I will dump every one onto him since I don't think those aforementioned units will need it really. I may be wrong though with how RNG works against me usually.

That's also a really good statistical observation (literally) which an average player like me wouldn't think much into. I'm 90% probably going to make Ross into a pirate for that reason because everyone has stated multiple times here that that is the route to go. I'm just curious as to why SM is so against it lol. 

I'll take it into consideration but I'm pretty adamant on not promoting him especially since I want Ross (Kid berserker, I mean c'mon) I really only ever use thieves for stealing and chesting purposes but I will definitely level colm so he gets speedy enough to steal. I just don't want him to turn out to be another Matthew and completely waste the resources on him because he sounds exactly the same.
 

13 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

My personal recommendation for Ross is Pirate -> Berserker. As @Benice said, the water-walking can be nifty in a couple chapters. He hits hard, and grows to have a ton of HP. While he'll never be fast, most enemies aren't fast enough to double him with an Iron Axe or Hatchet equipped. And the crit-boost from Berserker is certainly welcome.

Re: Colm, my "optimal" approach would be, use him as a Thief when he's convenient, then drop him once you get Rennac, in chapter 14. Maybe unbench Colm for chapters 15 (desert treasures) and 20 (lotta chests). Rennac comes kind of late, but I've found his combat, while lacking, to nonetheless be at least comparable to Rogue!Colm. He can be conscripted... I mean, recruited freely with L'Arachel.

That said, if you have your heart set on making Colm work in the long term, then by all means promote him. I recommend Rogue, to retain the ability to Steal. In this case, you could either do Fighter!Ross, or just drop Ross once Dozla (the Berserker) shows up.

I mean I agree personally, and I probably still will make him one, but idk, I'd like to see Mir's opinion on it lol.

I asked SM this already but how does Dozla fair? I might not even give Ross the time if he is decent.

12 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

OOF. However... With him only having a 20% speed growth, it's not that farfetched.

The villages have a Dragonshield, Torch, Secret Book, and an Armorslayer. You also get a Guiding Ring if none of the villages get destroyed.

I would make Amelia a cavalier instead if you use her, because Knight just isn't worth it. Also, you can just use the Tower of Valni for grinding (which I would recommend if you want to use her or Ewan).

Being a main character, yes. Though if you go Ephraim route, she gets auto-leveled when she reappears later in the game.

You two are giving water walking far more credit than it deserves. A slow and defensively weak foot axe is the absolute last unit I'd send off without backup, which is what you're implying is a good idea.

Personally, yeah.

Yeaaaah.... 20% for me in FE is more like 0% lol. Yes it's low, but there is still a chance for it to happen for most people lol. He did get a ton of strength, skill and luck level ups though. 

And yeah, ugh. I'm definitely going to have to pay more attention and slow down with that map. I'm back on Ch 4 now, so tomorrow I'll make sure to do it better.

@Benice said it would be fine to make her a General, since I didn't want to cav spam the game. Idk if she is worth it at all no matter what the class she is in because her growths looking at them are, ew. Her base stats wouldn't be so bad if she had amazing growths but... 

Oof well I'm getting mixed messages here. xD How about this. Is the other Berserker you get in the game that is prepromoted any good? Because I could just use him and have Ross be a fighter/Warrior/Hero. I don't like prepromotes but like seth and titania I'll give this one an exception.

[What are the best units to use in The Sacred Stones?]

On 4/11/2021 at 1:33 AM, Benice said:

 

Runeswords are actually pretty good in this game, but you don't get them aside from...the Tower of Valni, which is basically a grinding spot.

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She can also become a General, and is the only Non-Gilliam General. Otherwise, she can split the difference and become a Great Knight. I usually make her a paladin because her supports with Franz are cute.

I'd say that Ross is decent, but the other two really aren't. Amelia gets ORKO'd by a lot of enemies on her join map IIRC, so you have to be careful. So does Ewan, but he's much easier to keep safe on both routes.

Also, if you wanna get Amelia in chapter 9 (Eirika's route only) rather than 13, you really need to rush. You'll basically need either to fly Eirika over there or have a promoted Franz charge over there from the get-go.

One thing worth noting is that, especially on Ephraim route, Colm may run short of Lockpick uses.* You MIGHT wanna give Colm some levels so that he can grab some Lockpicks off of other thieves.

*Especially if you miss out on Rennac, which is really easy to do on Eph. route.

Joshua is in chapter 5, Tana at the start of 9 on Eirika or middle/end of 9 on Ephraim.

Also, this will save you some troubles: Joshua will not attack Natasha.

Warrior grants no speed, so he'd have 7 speed still.

He should have 9 speed by level 13 on average.

Yeah. I think that the chapter 15 Master Seal works on them, but you should have recruited the promoted Thief by then, and if Ross is a pirate at chapter 15, he's probably toast anyways.

 

Once more, spoiled for size.

I really wanted to train Gilliam into a General because I like using armors but he was just terribly bad and was not getting any better with growths so I dumped him. Maybe in this next run he will get luckier but for now if I was an armor I will have to use Amelia I guess. Training her though in the arena will be dang near impossible though since she is so weak sounding. Idk about using all three. Going to give Gilliam one more try. 

I cannot for the life of me, BELIEVE that Joshua was on chapter 5! I completely missed him. I didn't think the myrmidon on the map was anything special and I just zoomed right by that entire area taking my team through that corridor to the west and killing the boss. I knew I would miss a few villages but I didn't know I missed him omg. I'm restarting tomorrow especially since I failed to save the villagers in chapter 6 because I am that bad at FE, even the "easy" ones.

Idk what I missed in the villages but they were probably good. I only got like 3 hours of sleep yesterday and playing anything was a bad idea. 

I'm going to definitely level colm regardless since I want that support boost for Neimi but I just didn't think it was worth using the ocean seal on him.

Reason I asked that was because my Garcia got zero speed points on his levels from 4 to 12, so I was just considering the worst since I definitely got screwed on him. :( Even if he can't double, he's pretty strong and durable for me.

One more tiny thing. Is Erika worth leveling? 

23 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

That's right. Also, in case you're wondering, the boss in chapter 6 is around the area with the + on the ground. You'll want to beware, as there's a Fighter that has a Halberd, which is effective against cavalry units, so make sure to keep a sword equipped.

Also, the Light Brand can only be gotten late in the game, and even then it's easy to miss (it requires a certain number of NPC knights survive), and the Runesword is mostly something you'll get from enemy drops, as the one you get is not attained until late in the game.

I managed to beat the boss but the villagers were killed anyway, so I have to restart again with this advice pounded into my head. That chapter is hard. 

Well I like to grind so getting those wouldn't be a big deal for me. I just never thought they were worth it from playing FE6, 7 and 9.

15 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Do note: you get one Ocean Seal* in the game, in chapter 9. Only Thieves (Colm) and Pirates (possibly Ross) use it to promote. So if you go Fighter!Ross, then Colm has no competition for the promotion. But if you're doing Pirate!Ross, and want him to work as a combat unit, I'd say he has "dibs" to the Ocean Seal, over Colm.

*You can buy them from the Secret Shops, sure, and you also get a Master Seal. But these come kinda late.

To be honest, I actually made Pirate!Ross work, with the late promo through the Master Seal. He and Garcia were my father-son power pair. But I would've preferred the earlier Ocean Seal promo, which I wasted on Colm (I dropped him and Neimi, as they were worse than Innes and Rennac).

14 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

I dunno - I personally find Berserker Ross to not be that good for all that, largely because all it blesses him with is the ability to walk on terrain that is never practical to access. And frankly, I think it's *very* easy to do better than a slow foot axe that also takes massive damage from everything.

Well would you recommend fighter Ross and Assassin/Rogue Colm? I personally want a pirate, but I don't want to cripple myself anymore lol.

 

[What are the best units to use in The Sacred Stones?]

On 4/9/2021 at 3:43 AM, Benice said:

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I've... Never actually used Erk or Lute, actually. That said, from what I can tell...She's alright? Her bases, (especially in con) aren't great, but she's got good growths.

How all three of them work is: They join in a personal "trainee" class, those being Journeyman, Recruit and Pupil. Once they reach level 10 in that class, they will be able to change classes in the next prep screen. Taking Ross as an example, he can become a Fighter or Pirate, going from basically a class that is level 0 and into a normal class.* From there, they work as normal units.

*They still get promotion bonuses into these classes!

Yup.

Uhhh...

Weeeelll...

Ross is alright, I guess. The same can't really be said for the other two. Amelia joins with lower bases than Ross did, only she's seven-and-a-half maps later. Her ONLY redeeming trait as a unit is the fact that she can become a Paladin. And she has a support with Franz, I guess. Ewan joins even later, but due to his class, he's slightly better and isn't that hard to train up, especially since he joins on a map with an arena in Ephraim's route if that's what you wanna do. He's also one of two possible dark mages in the game, and the other one has marginally better growths and acceptable bases, but Ewan will have better stats than him at the same level. The other dark mage is still pretty nifty, though.

Something true for all three trainees is that...Well, their growths are average at best? (Seriously, 10/20/20 Paladin Amelia is only better than Lv. 20 Seth in three stats-A 5-point lead in Spd and a minor lead in skl and major lead in luck.)* I'd personally consider their growths sub-par. They do get the extra stats from the extra promotions, but, with the slight exception of Ross if you can get him to promote in chapter 4 or 5, they won't significantly contribute to the army once they get into a normal class.

However, I always use all three of the trainees 'cause I'm like that. They are not unworkable, even on Hard mode with no grinding! If you enjoy using units whose characters you like, wanna give Franz a paired ending or like seeing zeroes becoming heroes, then by all means, use all three! The later two trainees may be inferior to basically all other options, but I have a fun time using them.

Her bases aren't very good, but her growths are quite strong and she can get a horse on promotion if you want, so she SHOULD become quite potent, especially with her nice Colm support. Alternatively, she can become a sniper, which is pretty much objectively the worse choice, but it does offer a little more strength and lets her stay closer to Colm...

One good thing for Neimi is that the only competition for the chapter 6 Orion's Bolt is the shop! There aren't any other unpromoted archers in FE8.

As for Colm, well, he can be used. Bases are bad, growths are solid. He has a nice support with Neimi as well. There isn't really much to steal in FE8, and you get a prepromote later on who can deal with lategame stealing duties, and between the pair's joining time, I don't actually think there's anything other than a Lockpick for Colm to steal that he needs to be above base level for.

Myrmidons can become Assassins in this game, and there is a really good one in Joshua, who is admittedly best suited to the Swordmaster class from a story perspective. There's also Marisa, but she's not good. At all. Still, not unusable.

Duessel is a prepromote, but the others aren't.

For the majority of the game when you have a lot of units, you'll have 12 slots. The last three maps have a lot more, though-17, 18 and the final map with 12.

So yeah, 12. You also get a host of great prepromotes IF you wanna fill out every slot, which is not necessary.

She isn't the only flier you get! Tana joins later with...Marginally better bases, but very good growths overall. Vanessa has the advantage of being the first flier you get as well as being able to promote quite early on, but I've never quite been as fond of her as others are. That said...Well, I suck at FE.

Garcia is something of a Jagen. Quite good bases and fantastic con, but his speed growth is limp. Normally, he will need a speedwing to be able to double consistently throughout the game, (Promoting to hero helps him a lot) but if he gets bad growths or you don't feel like investing that much, going Warrior for the higher strength cap is an option. Garcia's pretty good, and he doesn't NEED the speedwings. However, he is probably one of the better uses of them should you choose to go that way and if Ross isn't super slow.  His strength is phenomenal, by the way.

For the record, the endgame doubling benchmark is pretty much 15-16 AS to get the vast majority, but 12 is sufficient for most enemies. A Hero Garcia that sees a lot of use can reach that 15 AS without speedwings, but giving one to him is probably wise. As a warrior...Well, the speedwings will pretty much be necessary to get him to 15 AS.

Basically, Garcia is like Ross, but with good bases and worse growths; if Ross is used a lot, he'll surpass his pop at endgame, sporting better stats in almost all areas, most notably speed, (and basically exactly matching Warrior!Garcia's strength) as well as having the better class in Berserker. However, Garcia will not need the help Ross does at the start and can nab an early-ish promotion to patch his speed quickly, although Pirate Ross can beat him to promotion. Of course, you can just use both!

*Amelia does quite soundly beat the other Phantastic Paladin Prepromote, Orson, in most stats, but does have lower strength. Soooo... she does outgrow one of the best units in the game!

(Spoiled for size, there's nothing spoiler-related I mention)

Oh... Well, alright. I will say though, if you like growth mages, Erk is awesome.

That's a very cool feature that I'm surprised they wiped after this game (I think). I mean, granted, like you said they are really freaking weak as Ross is for me right now and his growths aren't very good for me. They have a niche (ross is early, amelia can become mounted, and ewan is the only other dark mage) but they're probably just average. At least, in my experience with one. 

I'm planning on using them too, only leaving out Amelia because I don't feel like paladin spamming the game to oblivion, and play with more variety. 

On the note of Neimi, I'm glad there is finally an early-game archer than can turn out good (or decent at least) and is worth the investment after all the other garbage FE archers like Wolt, Wil and even Rolf. Idk if I'll end up using colm for combat, it depends on how Neimi is performing I guess. I don't see the point in promoting him if he just going around lockpicking.

What chapter do you get Joshua if I may ask? Oh, and also, Tana, since I'm going to use her instead of Vanessa when she comes. (I haven't researched them because I wanna keep myself a little blind to it)

Alright, well let me ask you this. Considering the worst possible situation where Garcia gets zero speeds levels from 1 to 20 and I promote him into Warrior instead of Hero, will a single speedwing still suffice to get him up to at least 12 AS? Or would he require two? 

I'm just asking incase the worst happens with growths since they're so unpredictable and looking at his speed growth it doesn't look like I'll get 1 or maybe 2 levels of that anytime soon.
 

On 4/9/2021 at 4:27 AM, Shadow Mir said:

The final chapter allows for 12, with both the twins as mandatory. The chapters immediately beforehand allow the use of 17 (Last Hope) and 18 (Darkling Woods), but for the most part, you get around 12 slots.

Simply put, Ross, Amelia, and Ewan automatically get to go into an actual class when they are at level 10 when you start a map. Also, their growths are not that good.

Well, Neimi can get a mount on promotion, and the two have a very fast support. Make sure to get the Orion's Bolt in chapter 6, though (you get it if the villagers survive; better send Vanessa to intercept the spider or finish the map [it's kill boss, and fog of war] quickly)! Also, I will note that Colm needs an Ocean Seal to promote (of which there's only one in the game, short of the secret shop), and one of his promotions is Rogue, which does away with the need for lockpicks (it's not like Assassin is THAT much better at combat anyway). That being said, Myrmidons can become Assassins as well, but I wouldn't really recommend it (it's not that assassin is bad, per se, it's that Swordmaster is more reliable).

Well I'll just use prepromotes to fill in a few holes in those types of chapters like I always do. 

I really like mounted archers (anything mounted though is good) so I'm going to raise her and maybe Colm if she doesn't perform well without his support. 

On that note, if I'm using Ross and promote him to Pirate, doesn't he need the Ocean Seal? I might as well drop colm already and use him only for chesting. I'm literally playing chapter 6 right now and that spider is inching ever so closer to those villagers smh. Seth is over there but he's also dealing with a ton of other enemies over that way. I need that Orion's bolt but I'm having trouble getting it because Vanessa is just too weak to take them on by herself.

Aren't both classes considered suboptimal due to no 1-2 range? (Not that I care really about being optimal, I just like to use what I want regardless if the game is slower/harder etc. Swordmasters are always a staple on my FE teams usually. Lol, if I wanted to be optimal I wouldn't use anybody else and just use Seth!) I mean yeah, there's Runesword and Light Brand but those suck.

On 4/9/2021 at 6:02 AM, L3xandr3 said:

 

Sacred Stones, Fates, and Three Houses are the only FEs with a route split. Maybe SoV/Giaden, but that's pushing it.

Yeah. It's only difficult if you handicap yourself. Like no S rank weapons, for example.

10 - 13 units is what I'd recommend. But to each their own.

Lute starts out weaker, but ends up stronger. Slightly more Nino-ish? Not the best term, but still.

Ross is OK because you can get him to tier 1 within 1 map, Amelia is just bad, and Ewan is better than the other available dark mage.

Niemi is a growth archer and Colm is the better of the two thieves you get. Niemi's problem is that she has pretty bad bases, and Colm's is that his promotions aren't great.

Garcia is Ross if he was a (Mini?) Jagen. Enough said.

Well FE6 has a route split and FE7 (Kind of) has 2, though those aren't really splits,  since it's pretty much the same story with a few different maps. you're right though, It just seems like a lot of games do but that isn't true.

Bad base stats aren't really a problem for me as long as growths are good because I prefer babysitting and grinding characters.

Basically I like growth units and prepromotes or high-base stat characters aren't preferable. 
 

On 4/9/2021 at 8:55 AM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Vanessa's combat isn't great, but her utility comes from rescue-carrying allies, and being able to reach certain map objectives (i.e. villages) faster than everyone else. She should only fight when she doesn't have anything better to do.

Lute is comparable to Erk, I'd say, in that both are early-joining Anima mages. She can also get a horse upon promotion, if you want.

Cool thing with Artur - if promoted to Bishop, he'll have C Staves out the gate. Which is nice in conjunction with monster-effective magic.

I actually prefer Colm as a Rogue - he doesn't need a Lockpick, he can keep on stealing, and there's no significant losd to his combat relative to Assassin. As for Neimi, she has a tough start - but she gets a fast support with Colm. And once enemy fliers (i.e. gargoyles) show up, she can really give them trouble.

Use both of 'em! Like Neimi/Colm, they get a fast support together, helping both if them in combat. Hero gives him Speed and C Swords, while Warrior gives him Bows as an anti-flier option.

I... don't think this is really true? Knoll can promote to Summoner right out the gate, while for Ewan, you need to put at least 18 levels into him to get there. It's doable, but it takes some serious babying. Ewan's stats will probably be better with that investment, sure, but that doesn't hugely matter with Summoners. Speaking of which - try using a Summoner! Thr phantoms they summon can be excellent for manipulating enemy AI (i.e. luring particular threats, attracting siege spells).

That's a thing I've never utilized much out of fliers. For my entire time using them (in the GBA games with the rescue command) I've strictly utilized them as combat units. Only a while ago while playing through FE6 again did I realize how useful rescue-carrying was for putting a really good combat unit into position to take out a lot of tough enemies. But it helps for them to be good at combat though, and Vanessa just isn't, at least right now for me. 

Yes a mounted mage is always good in my book. 

Warriors suck in the other 2 GBA games so Hero it is for Garcia. 

On 4/9/2021 at 3:47 PM, L3xandr3 said:

Let me correct myself: Ewan makes a better combatant than the other dark mage, and about the same as a Summoner.

And I have used Summoners. They are indeed quite useful.

19 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Oh, I'd agree that long-term Ewan has better combat potential than Knoll. But base Ewan is far weaker than base Knoll. Still, if you get Ewan to level 10 Mage/Shaman by chapter 15, then by all means, take him the distance. 

Summoner sounds cool especially since I get kind of tired of the same Druid/Sorcerer dark magic users. I'm going to give Ewan a try with that class and see how it goes (whenever I get him)  

 

[What are the best units to use in The Sacred Stones?]

On 4/8/2021 at 12:53 AM, Shadow Mir said:

Putting aside Seth, Franz and Vanessa are some of the better units in this game. Also of note, there's a route split about 2/5 of the way through the game; some characters are better on one route than the other. 

Idk about Vanessa. She seems to be doing alright on this chapter I'm on right now but looking at that base strength and growth is... Yikes. Unless I get really lucky (I never do) her damage output will never get better (and it's already not good for me)

Of course there would be a route split... Wouldn't be FE, would it now. 🤦‍♂️

On 4/8/2021 at 2:07 AM, L3xandr3 said:

FE8 is quite easy. More or less, you can just use whomever you please.

If you're asking for the absolute best, aside from the ones Mir above me pointed out, Ephraim, Saleh, Dussel, Gerik, Cormag, and Tana are very good.

So in short anyone is viable and I shouldn't headache myself about it too much, right? 

I will say, I'm on Chapter 4 and I haven't had any units die on me yet, and that is rare for me, so... 

15 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I wouldn't suggest focusing on more than 12 overall. And you can get by with a far smaller core squad. But the game is easy enough that you don't have to hyper-optimize your team. It's fine to experiment with newcomers, especially on chapters with wider deployment slots.

I like to use the most characters as possible, so can I get by with a core team of twelve and perhaps another? How many deployment slots in the chapters towards the end? 

15 hours ago, Benice said:

I feel like it is worth noting that Bishops are really good in the lategame of this one in terms of damage dealt, so if you're looking for a mage that isn't Saleh, Artur or Moulder are probably your best bets, even if they end up mag screwed.

And while he's far from GOOD, Ross takes a lot of effort but can end up with a good payoff as a pirate->Berserker. Definitely not a must-use, but I will advocate for at least trying out one of the trainees, if only to see what they're all about.

As for other suboptimal-but-still-good units, Joshua is quite good, Gerik is quite good, Kyle is OK, Duessel is quite good on Ephraim's route, (which is harder than Eirika's) Tana is an investment that should pay off well and Forde is acceptable.

I'm using Artur but didn't plan on using Moulder (I got him but I didn't plan on promoting him when the time comes). Speaking of mages, is Lute good? I liked anima magic in the other GBA titles so does she perform as well as Hugh and Erk? 

That's another thing, how does the "trainee" unit work? From what I'm reading, there is 3 in the game and they don't require a seal to promote? They can essentially get 50 levels in total as opposed to 40 like the rest? If that's the case, they should be the most op characters in the game. Only if their growths are good I guess, but I haven't checked that out. 

Also, Niemi and Colm. Are they good in combat? I know people don't hold early game GBA archers in very high regard and thieves are best kept lockpicking but I'd really like to try them out, since I like bows and have never used and assassin. 

I'm going to try and use all those units you listed except if they're a prepromote because I don't do those unless it's FE6.

I'll add Ross regardless because Berserker = best class in all of FE. What about his father? Garcia? This guy is... very peculiar looking for a FE game lol. I like it.

[What are the best units to use in The Sacred Stones?]

I played this one several months ago but dropped it after the first 2 chapters. It's not that I didn't like it, I loved it. I just... Dropped it, and never touched it again. Which was a shame because this looks like a truly fun one in the franchise so here I am back in the FE kick after a good break. 

I remember Seth being unstoppable in my last short playthrough but I am not sure about the other ones.

Right now, I'm playing Hard mode and only have Seth and Eirika. What are the best characters in the game you get in the future and how many units is best to train? 

Thanks again! 

[I'm not enjoying FE4 very much. Should I just give up on it?]

On 3/12/2021 at 12:47 AM, Benice said:

The father passes down his items to one child, and the mother to the other.

I believe that the Valkyrie straight up deletes the death; inventory, love points/lover, stats, level and everything else should stay the same.

I finally got to the 2 gen this evening and everyone of the children I have, Seliph, Larcei, Edain's daughter (I forget her name) and Ulster all have everything I had on their parents so I think it's determined by gender.

On 3/12/2021 at 3:01 AM, EnjolrasMTAfem said:

Inheritance is swapped for Ethlyn's and Briggid's kids tho, there the son inherits from the mother and the daughter from the father.

Welp, I've done screwed that up. At least my Seliph is decked out. 

[I'm not enjoying FE4 very much. Should I just give up on it?]

23 hours ago, Benice said:

You'll want to buy it back during chapter 5 on someone who has married, just so you know; parents pass down items to children, (Unless the child lacks the ranks to use it; I.E, if Midir marries someone who has no children with bows, he cannot pass on the killer bow.) which makes the beginning of gen. 2 a lot more manageable, given the massive amount of units you have at the start of it. (Basically doubled, except for a few people who are off being absolute Johnnies elsewhere and join later on, such as Brigid and her children) Speaking from experience, dealing with the organization right away isn't great. Heck, you'll want any items you want your units to have free access to on people who are married. Most child units don't have many starting funds, AYRA, YOU'RE THE HECKING PRINCESS OF ISAACH, YOU CAN SURELY AFFORD TO GIVE LARCEI AND WHATSHISFACE A BETTER ALLOWANCE, so it's a good way to start off. 

I've gotten to Chapter 5 today and I've given it to Sigurd, since I figured I'll want Seliph getting as many levels as he can. That's the thing, do the children inherit items from their mother or father? I'd imagine I can't buy items from the pawnshop then since they no funds starting out, so that is a further incentive to inherit items. 

One more question, I got Talitu killed on Chapter 4 but I didn't sweat it too much since I plan on using the Valkyrie staff on her this chapter, she was married to Azel before she died. If I were to resurrect her, would she still be married to him? Would she still have thoron? 

[I'm not enjoying FE4 very much. Should I just give up on it?]

On 3/8/2021 at 12:29 AM, Benice said:

Well, promotion is generally bonkers in this game, (Thracia shares this trait IIRC) so that fixes him. I'm mostly using him because he's bad.

For the memes and because he's absolutely awful, and I adore using bad units. It's also why I'm using Dew, although there is actually merit to using him.

Uh...Playing inefficiently. I wasn't able to do much with him in chapter 2 due to how fast you have to go to get the villages, but he did some good work in chapter 1; he can actually be a decent way to bait out Ayra, (Alec is better if he has gained at least one or defense, though) and useful for covering the castle while Sigurd raced across the map to save the village in the middle of nowhere.

There is literally no reason to use Arden at all other than wanting to.

They're generally no good in this game, but I like having a javelin on Quan for ranged chip if I need it; his strength tends to be good enough regardless and he lacks pursuit, so unless I'm looking for adept, speed doesn't matter.

Anyways, glad to hear that you're enjoying the game more now!

Yeah but getting him to that promotion is probably hard (Promotion stat gains are OP)
I can't front you for using someone underrated/bad. I did the same thing with Wil in both my FE7 runs! :D 

That sounds like a decent way to get her. What I did this run was keep my entire party right beside that village on the road and then snuck Sigurd around the castle to seize it while Ayra focused on the army. 

I gave one Javelin to Sigurd but I never use it.

Yeah thanks, I wasn't able to play for a couple days due to being out of town but I was back to it today and I've made it all the way to Chapter 4 now without any hiccups. I agree with everyone here, the game isn't as polarizing once you get familiar with it, since it's much different from other entries.

On 3/8/2021 at 8:25 AM, Murozaki said:

Trading around the Paragon Band is not worth it. It's better to just pawn it off to one unit you want to give favoritism to than to try to make as much people use it as possible. Most people make that one unit Lachesis since it makes her getting to Master Knight far quicker.

After about 3-4 trades I decided to just pawn it and leave it there. Even if the EXP gain is nice, it's way too expensive. 

[I'm not enjoying FE4 very much. Should I just give up on it?]

On 3/6/2021 at 4:03 AM, Benice said:

Ah, I meant 2rn, not 1rn. Awakening uses 2.

Also, Fates has a really weird mixed rn where hitrates above 50 have something similar to 2rn, (but not quite as extreme) while anything below 50 uses 1rn.

My advice is to not overlook Quan; he lacks pursuit, but he's really good. His growths are solid and he's bulky.

Really? In my experience, even the weakest units can get past round one; my base level Noish made it into round three in chapter 3.

It's possible that I got lucky, but I used only Finn, Quan, Sigurd and Midir* as mounted units in combat and, as of the end of chapter 2, I have not let a single village get wholly burnt. I think Sigurd had the speed ring, but it may have been Quan. Midir had the skill ring, but he really didn't need it. I also put the defense ring on Dew, because I decided to make him a combat unit for no reason other than the fact that he's bad at it.

You don't have to get rid of every enemy with your cavs-In chapter 1, there's that one village on the opposite side of the map that I sent Sigurd to deal with. There were still tons of enemies elsewhere. Super Canto is also a thing in this game, so your cavs can escape danger if they must.

*Also Lex, but barely. I DID get the Brave Axe, but he saw, like, two rounds of combat in chapter 2.

(In case you're curious, my primary foot units were Arden, Dew, Azelle, Raquesis and Edain.)

Brave axe is in a chapter 1 secret event with Lex, Pursuit ring is in a secret event in chapter 2 for Arden.

If you're looking for the brave lance, it's in from a Quan/Finn talk convo in chapter 2. The brave sword is a Holyn/Ayra one...I wanna say in chapter 3, but I can't remember for sure.

Leaving Dew there is usually a bad idea. I did it, but only 'cause I wanted to make him promote. It is a good way to rack up cash, though.

By the way, don't miss the thief's sword. It's kinda bad, but it gives the user the Steal skill, which can be pretty danged nifty; it's from a talk event in chapter 2 after you recruit Raquesis.

Arena myrmidons are indeed generally the wall for most units.

It's just a straight up better version of the steel axe-the only problem with it is that you get it later. As for exp sharing, I wouldn't worry about it TOO much-especially for Lex.

You get substitute characters for the females who don't marry-Children are tied to the mother, not the father. As for optimal, there are options, but the best units in the game are the ones the game gives you for free-Shannan, Oifey, Seliph, Finn, etc., as well as whoever you used in gen 1.

I don't really know what we're doing all that differently, but in chapter 2, I presently have this team and setup: (Note that I decided offhand to use Alec after benching him in chapter 1, hence why he has the paragon band; ordinarily it'd go on Raquesis if you're trying to use her, or anyone else you favor.)

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Well, there's always the Valkyrie staff. Or you can go around the river, it's just incredibly annoying to do so.

Hmm, interesting. I wonder if they changed the RNG in Fates for balance reasons.

Quan is my sole enemy-weakener (Bad term for it but whatever) in this new run I started. He gets them just in the right range for just about anyone to finish off and collect all the EXP. He's also 1 of 3 that can actually finish the arena without getting blocked by annoying myrmidons. The first time through he died and I didn't think much of it because he was a pre-promote but then when Ethlyn left with him it blew my mind. 

My Noish, Alec, Lex, Finn and even Azel sometimes could never get past the first or second round in my last two runs, but I seem to be having better luck with it this time because my Lex got to the myrmidon before being defeated and Finn almost cleared the entire thing while getting stuck at the last round. For that matter, I seem to be having better luck period this run. Growths, hit rates, all that I seem to be getting the better end of the stick. (KNOCK ON WOOD, DON'T JYNX IT MYSELF😫). This could just be me creating my luck though, since I've been using almost everyone available to me and just taking it a lot slower than I was. Helps to know what I'm getting into, though.

I also got the brave axe for Lex this time and he has come around to be very viable. It helps to know that though!

Although, looking at your roster I can't help but be curious as to why you are using Arden? As a person who believes that armored characters are treated unfairly by FE fans and how I personally adore them that piques my interest. I try to use them every game but I skipped the armor this time because I thought and read that being a knight in FE4 is a death sentence, so I skipped out on him and he has been relegated to castle-guard duty. What uses did you find for him and get him to level 12? 

I did get the brave sword last time but it was with Lex/Ayra instead of Holyn and then they married. 

Thanks for that. The secrets are kind of a pain but it makes the game a lot easier with what you get. 

Does Alec ever get better? I've found Noish to be a lot better than him even though he lacks Pursuit because Alecs stat-growths and damage are terrible for me. I've been using them mainly for just weakening enemies.

I also did just today what you suggested and gave Lachesis the Paragon Band and used the Return staff to abuse her up to level 20 and promoted her and holy, she's become a completely different unit. Not only can she use almost every A rank weapon but her stat gains were insane and she was able to clear the arena completely with her Miracle Sword with ease. If I gave her the skill ring to boost her accuracy a bit she will definitely surpass Sigurd for my best unit, bar none. And to be believe I let her die on my last run *sigh* I'm now doing the same thing with Ethlyn, hopefully she turns into a beast too.

On 3/6/2021 at 7:01 AM, Sooks said:

Are you playing on emulator? Arena battles reset other arena battles, so what I do is once a unit faces a round where they cannot win but the rng can be in their favor (when it’s reasonable, not when there’s like a 1% chance for them to hit) I rewind/load a prior save state and fight up to that battle but then have them leave beforehand, then go back to that unit and try again after doing the same thing with a successful one. Other arena battles will change your RNG. That would take forever without save states or rewind though.

Are you using any mounted units other than Sigurd? Getting them was never that difficult for me.

Yeah, don’t let this happen again. You’ll want Dew for chapter 4, because without him you’ll have to spend fifty turns crossing a mountain.

Certain children resulting from a specific pairing can literally solo the game.

Only if you did everything exactly the same, which you almost certainly won’t.

I recommend using this guide https://serenesforest.net/genealogy-of-the-holy-war/miscellaneous/secret-events/ to get goodies like Lex’s brave axe in chapter one.

The best pairings are generally seen as Aideen x Jamke, Lex x Ayra, Azel x Taillte, Claude x Sylvia, Lewyn x Erin, Beowulf x Raquesis, and Dew x Brigid, if that helps.

The only way I know to play this game in english is with a ROM and the patch, so yes... I will have to this tactic.

Yes. All of them this time, as of last though, I benched Midir, Alec and Noish because they were mediocre, but you need everyone in this game. There is no tossing units away.

I've had him on village duty going around getting all that money so he can give the gold to everyone that needs it so he doesn't see much combat this time around.

You see, this is why I want to marry my units with the best pairings (thanks for those by the way!) because I want OP characters that can make the game easier, especially with how hard of time I'm having with it. 

Also thanks so much for this guide! This is exactly what I needed for all the secrets since the guide I was looking at just stated the chapter it's in and not the location on the map.

It does help because now I know who to pair and won't have to mess with researching it. 

On 3/6/2021 at 7:42 AM, Benice said:

Regarding pairings, I will post this:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

It's exceedingly in-depth and shows a lot of options.

Also, I can confirm that Lex/Erinys is glorious. Have you ever wanted a pegasus knight with 70% defense growth and 105% HP growth?! Now you can have one!

This is actually the guide I've been looking at, as well as the one you gave me on Reddit for beginners. 

On 3/6/2021 at 4:49 PM, Dandy Druid said:

If you hate it, you should probably give it up for your own sanity. FE4 is polarizing- no one is neutral on it. You either like it, or don't. 

FE4 for the first time is not a fun ride. It's more fun when you know what to do and understand the game's mechanics. 2nd runs are more fun.

I can second this. I delete all my files and restarted the game from scratch yesterday and now that I know what kind of things I missed, what I could do differently, etc. the game is so much more enjoyable. It's definitely not a game you can just pick up and learn.

On 3/6/2021 at 5:52 PM, indigoasis said:

I absolutely agree that the trading system in FE4 is pretty bad, but part of the strategy of the game is gold management and which enemy units you defeat with your allied units so they get the right weapons, as well as so you can lessen the need to trade. It's hard to "defend" the mechanic since a lot of people (myself included) agree with your sentiments. As it stands, all I can really say is that it's just a part of the game. : (

Like Sooks said, FE4 differs from the rest of the franchise in that it's RNG isn't as random as you think it would be. 

This video actually gives a great (and brief) explanation of how it works (I've linked it at the timestamp where he talks about the RNG). The "Hard RNG" (as I like to call it) is why Sigurd can defeat the first enemy unit in the Prologue the same way every time.

It should also be noted that you can change the outcomes of RNG simply by doing things in a different order. It's as simple as that, so it makes it a hell of a lot easier to solve problems you may be having by just reloading a save and doing things a tad differently. It's sort of like a choose-your-own adventure in a way, but with RNG.

The Marriage system pays off in the second generation. Depending on who you've paired in the first generation, some of the child units can become absolutely busted, not to mention that the Marriage system isn't required at all in the second gen (but it's still available for the player to do in order to trade gold and get occasional in-combat bonuses). Trust me, you'd want to pair your units in the first generation. The substitute characters, while not necessarily bad, will typically pale in comparison (except for maybe Laylea). 

I like to use this site here to see how units would turn out with certain parents (or just check stats, skills, and growth rates). I'd recommend checking it out to see for yourself.

I think that your criticisms of the game are very much valid. It can be a very daunting game with how much you need to pay attention to and manage. If you would really like to experience the story of the game without having to deal with much of the hassle of the gameplay, I would suggest using cheat codes if you're playing on emulator. I'm sure a lot of people may disagree with me about doing that, but it would be for your own personal experience with the game to get the most enjoyment out of it, and you really wouldn't be harming anyone by doing so (expect for the feelings of purists). It's completely up to you, though. (I'd also recommend restarting the game from the beginning if that's the route that you decide to go down).

That may be true but too me personally it just feels like a massive inconvenience and has nothing to do with strategy. I agree that is probably what they were going for, but they were completely wrong on it and it's just a slog instead of strategy. That's just me I guess. Doesn't make it a bad game, just a frustrating one. 

Something is definitely "unique" about the RNG in this one. While it's not as random as other FEs it somehow feels more random and completely out of whack. This is the only FE I've played where I could have a Hit of 80 or so and the enemy will have 30 and I will miss, twice, and the enemy will land both hits. It's mind boggling and makes me laugh every time. 

But, as you stated this can be circumvented by doing something different after saving in-game or with a save state. This is also true for other FEs after FE4 because I've done it numerous times to get better growths or get out of a fatal situation. Sometimes though there isn't any way out of trouble and you have to take the blow...

I've noted that site, thanks for that. 

I was thinking of that perhaps, but, I'd rather just not play the game than cheat. I like to play FE for it's gameplay because it's gameplay is addicting as hell and cheating just to witness the story which is my least important FE feature just takes all the fun out of the game for me. Now that I've gone through a couple chapters of the game (several) times I'm having a lot better time with it and am actually enjoying myself to the point of grinding a little. Plus, a lot of things I learned on here has helped me with the game, and it's not as daunting of a game as I thought it was previously. 

21 hours ago, Murozaki said:

People say that FE5 is the game that you gotta play with a guide, and honestly, i only agree to a certain extent.

For FE4 though? That is the game i feel new players should absolutely read about before starting, sure, it's a far less difficult game than FE5, but unlike FE5, which, despite all the nutty stuff, still follows a standard FE game formula, only with a bunch of extra mechanics that change it up like Capture or Stamina, FE4 is from the outset a completely different beast that can be hard to adjust to.

The biggest pieces of general advice that i can give are:

• Money matters only as much as one unit needs it, and the only money a unit will ever need is how much money they need to get a ring they need, or, if they're a Staff unit, fixing a broken non-healing Staff, anything else, from buying weapons on the armory, passing weapons through the Pawn Shop or fixing weapons, can all be handled by sending the unit to the Arena for a bit;
• To make dealing with the above issue more easy, whenever you face a boss with a proper portrait and dialogue, specially if they're guarding a castle, make sure to check if they drop an item or weapon, if they do, make sure to have a proper plan on who to get the killing blow to make inventory management easier;
• As far as weapons go, typically you will want each unit to carry around one strong weapon, one weak weapon, one 1-2 range option (If they have access to one) and maybe one situational weapon (e.g. Armorslayers, Horseslayers, Wingslayers, etc.), anything more will be superfluous, there's no reason to give Ayra a Silver Sword since if she needs a strong weapon to one-round an enemy she can just use the Brave Sword for example; 
• Don't do Arena before starting the chapter proper, if you wanna grind, do it mid-chapter during moments of respite between castle seizes, or at the very end before seizing the final castle in a chapter;
• Mounted combatants are decent at worst though how they're good can often be unintuitive or have caveats to it in Gen 1 at least, this could honestly be its own list with how it goes:

1. Sigurd is Sigurd;
2. Alec and Noish can contribute a lot but only if you give them lots of favoritism, Noish needs a Pursuit Ring and Alec needs a very strong offensive boost such as the Power Ring and/or a stronger weapon;
3. Quan has excellent bases, if you get him the early Silver Lance from Chapter 2, he will be perfect for setting up kills for other characters as his lack of Pursuit and reliance on Adept means he's unlikely to 1-round most enemies but he'll still leave them with very little HP to help your other units get the kill, kills he himself won't need because his bases are already great;
4. Finn is just okay until he gets the Brave Lance (And even then you might need to pawn off the Speed Ring to him to make him more consistent); 
5. Lex needs the secret event to get the Brave Axe to be great;
6. Midir can contribute a lot... if you pawn off the early Killer Bow to him, trust me, Jamke won't need it, Iron Bow Midir is okay and Killer Bow Jamke is good, but Killer Bow Midir is great and Iron/Steel Bow Jamke is still good, giving Midir the Killer Bow means having an excellent high move chipper (Which trust me, is far more useful than it sounds) and Jamke's own performance as a "1-round 1 Enemy" button for Player Phase will only be slightly hurt at worst;
7. Beowulf is straightforward, already starts off with Pursuit, has much better bases than Alec and Sword access means it's not hard for him to double, all he needs is a good weapon, preferably a 1-2 range sword like the Bolt Sword from Chapter 3;

As you can see, mounted combatants can and will contribute a lot, but in order to do so you kind of have to either give them some kind of preferential treatment (Alec and Noish mostly) or you have to do some kind of "How was i supposed to think of that?" decision of investment like the Midir one, it's all rather unintuitive i'll admit, but if you do stuff like this you'll get way more out of them than just using them at base with their starting inventory without putting much thought into more. The only action here in this list i wouldn't take is the favoritism for Alec and Noish and even then only if you really want to focus on Inheritance and training up your footies a lot.

Yeah I wish I would have paid a bit more attention to the guides Benice gave me on here a little more before jumping in like a moron. Like the GBA FEs for instance I barely looked at a guide during all of them (except FE8 since I only played like a chapter of it). This game is a whole 'nother ball game and without a guide you will miss a lot, as I did, twice.

The trouble I'm having with money is everyone needs it for the Paragon band lol. That and the Pursuit band. As far as weapons go though, you're right.

That's something I'm guilty of not doing and I need to break that habit. It'd save a lot of money and time. 

Now about 1-2 range... Is that really that important in this game? I understand why 1-2 range is good but things like Javelins and Hand Axes in this game are so darn heavy that for a while here I thought I was better off not using them. A lot of times I wielded one (like my Quan for instance) I would get doubled easily and my dodge chances were worse than they already were. I've been debating whether to give some of them those weapons as of now they are setting at the pawnshop.

Noted. As of now, I've been doing it before the chapter starts and then departing.

I don't use Alec or Noish in this playthrough for anything but chip damage because they are honestly terrible, and I don't feel as if giving them items just to make them decent would be a great idea when I could give another unit that's actually worth it those.