[Why I Gave Up on Fates]

2 hours ago, A.G. Zhark said:

Now that I think about it, Birthright isn't that great of a game either. Xander ended up killing Takumi and wasting all of my time taking out every enemy unit aside from Laslow, Perry and Garon.

I ended up resetting the game since I didn't want to play the rest of Birthright without Takumi and went to check if I made a Battle Save. I didn't, but decided to delete the two that I already had seeing as they were old. Since I was somehow still in the "delete" menu, I selected the chapter I just played and accidentally deleted it. There goes days worth of progress, and an S-rank support with Kaze and Felicia. I specifically focused on using him JUST so he would be at the right EXP and support levels so he wouldn't die in that one cutscene. I have never been more disappointed with a video game in an extremely long time. I've never been screwed over by any other video game series except for Fire Emblem. To the rapidly rising difficulty in Mystery, Genealogy of the Holy War, and Thracia 776, to the painfully strict support system in Three Houses, no video game series has done this to me, and seeing how this is a forum website with vibes similar to Reddit, AND a Fire Emblem forum at that, you already know I am going to get shat on for saying anything even a bit negative. But, hey, I still have my first Birthright save from 2022, and another Birthright save I made a few days ago where I'm playing the game in Hard/Casual (I'll probably regret that).

Maybe I'll play that, and finish my Awakening Hard/Casual run and see what I can pick apart there.

[Why I Gave Up on Fates]

This one is going downhill after reading the recent replies. I wish I could close it. I don't want/wont check any more comments here, but I will say that after glazing over... like, one good sentence in a comment made up there, that if I ever do try playing this mess again, I will focus on the defense aspect of this map, and just forget about Takumi. That will allow me to use more of my units to defend against the reinforcements. I noticed that someone else said in a comment that Defense stance is for enemy phase and Attack is for wanting to kill an enemy quicker. The rest of the comment wasn't very nice though.

But to conclude, its a shame that I'm only able to play 1/3 of a video game. I can't play Conquest for obvious reasons, and Revelations isn't accessible anymore sadly. I am currently playing Awakening on Hard, which I did lie about because I thought that if anyone talked about my experience playing Conquest, they would be less harsh about it. No, blunt is a way better word, or "snarky" as one hypocritical comment said. I am also replaying Birthright on Normal/Classic which is a bit challenging, but I find the word "challenge," more of a negative word than many, many other gamers. Oh, I do have a question about when in the story I should promote my units. Now that I think about it, Birthright isn't that great of a game either. Xander ended up killing Takumi and wasting all of my time taking out every enemy unit aside from Laslow, Perry and Garon. Back to the point, if I ever finish Awakening on Hard/Casual, then maybe I will talk about that. You know, if the mods don't go on a power-trip for the fourth time and kill me off.

[Why I Gave Up on Fates]

On 5/12/2024 at 3:37 AM, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Holy moly if you did not care for Fates, Revelation will not change your mind. You're typing up about map design and unit balance and Revelation is The Worst in those areas. In the entire franchise, not just the three versions of Fates. Revelation is for a) people who liked Fates and b) people whose biggest issue with Fates is that not everybody gets to be Corrin's friend.

You should flip on Phoenix Mode. If you just want to beat the game, see how the story shakes out, do it. They put it in the game for precisely this scenario. They allowed you the option to lower the difficulty settings precisely because they knew this was a polarizing, complicated set of mechanics that aren't built with permadeath in mind. Nobody on this Forum is going to make snarky comments. Maybe you'll end up liking the game. Maybe you'll subconsciously master Attack Stance and Pair Up and decide to take on the harder difficulties on your next playthrough. Who knows?

For some reason, I cannot change the difficulty to Phoenix mode, nor is the option showing up, although I certainly would switch to that, although many, many players bash on those who do. And about Attack Stance and Pair Up, I find those useless in this game. It's completely inferior to Awakening. Cohorts cannot use offensive skills, cannot do follow-up attacks, etc. And... the line about snarky comments, oh boy...

https://forums.serenesforest.net/topic/98391-close-this-guide/#comment-6032295

[Why I Gave Up on Fates]

9 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Unit stats are part of the design though.

Then my complaints about the difficulty in Conquest, or Fates entirely are just as valid as over 50% of the Fire Emblem community complaining about Binding Blade being "too difficult."

[Why I Gave Up on Fates]

7 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Did you play Binding Blade on hard mode? It's less complex than later titles, but you really have to know what you're doing and understand the game well to have an easy time of it.

I played it on Normal several times, and Hard once, but that one time was about three years ago. Binding Blade is usually ranked as difficult due to unit stats, poor RNG, etc., and not actually due to challenging design compared to Conquest, so I think I see what you mean.

[Why I Gave Up on Fates]

On 5/12/2024 at 3:51 AM, Jotari said:

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Are you saying the difficulty of Binding Blade is mild compared to Conquest.

Yes. One reason I did not struggle in Binding Blade is because you are actually given an opportunity to train your units. Fates has these slow "challenge" maps, the "invasion" maps are more for endgame content, and the Arena can't be constantly used and you can't choose what units can enter. 

On 5/12/2024 at 4:59 AM, Imuabicus der Fertige said:

What difficulty did you play BR on?

Can you elaborate on this? I think it´d be interesting what your thoughts are here, but as far as I can see, you never make specific mention of the issues you faced.

I played Birthright and Conquest on Normal/Casual. And what I mean is, that the maps just aren't that great. I would explain more about the maps in Conquest but I have not gotten that far for obvious reasons... and elaboration would not be best considering that this is the Fire Emblem community I'm associating with, not everyone is the nicest when it comes to casual gaming. Not to mention that I do not have an elaboration. The maps are just complicated and gimmicky. Not because of the dragon veins, but other things. The Birthright map where you meet Camilla, Arthur and Effie has way too many narrow corridors. The map where you fight the Daimo and have to "Sing" to Takumi is also bad. The traps just get in my way, and you HAVE to fight them up close and suffer the traps being sprung. Not to mention that Azura has not enough movement to reach Takumi until the Fates-inferior AI decides to have him snipe Azura. A similar thing happened when fighting Robin in the Hero Battle. Corrin and Kaze paired up got as close as possible to the Great Knight yet it didn't budge until Felicia and Azura stepped in the far edge of it's movement range

13 hours ago, henrymidfields said:

I don't exactly remember, but I think I prioritized as many flying units as I can. I definitely left Oboro, Hinata, and Takumi alone, as I think they mostly stayed out of range. (You do know that this is "Defend for 10 turns", right?) I would also explore the Mess Hall and the Cooking options in My Castle so that I can get stat buffs and maybe get some extra damage/accuracy.

The only flying units I could have possibly had was Camilla and Beruka, and only Camilla was strong enough to take down all the Sky Knights in one turn. And of course I know this is a defense map, but few of these kinds of maps in the Fire Emblem series can be cut short if you defeat the boss.

[Why I Gave Up on Fates]

I received Fire Emblem: Fates Conquest for my birthday back in 2022. Although I wanted Birthright due to my feelings against the Nohrians. I heard that Birthright was also the easier game, so I ended up spending some money purchasing that in the "Explore Fates" section of the main menu. Anyway, after playing through Birthright, I realized how poor the game handles stats in my opinion. None of my units aside from Ryoma, Corrin, Kaden, Kagero, and occasionally Oboro could ever make follow-up attacks, aside from when holding weapons that prevent them. The speed stats of the rest of my units were painfully low, so most of the time I had to abuse the Fates-inferior version of Pair Up to raise supports to try to make up for the loss of expected speed. With this knowledge, I can only imagine how Conquest would have been.

Two years later, in 2024, I attempted to play Conquest seriously. I knew the game was supposed to be more difficult. I know that stats aren't everything, and you also need to pay attention to what units are used, but the maps are also an issue, and I finally reached a dead end in Chapter 10: Unhappy Reunion. I have attempted this chapter 3 times. In my latest run:

• Silas took the left aisle followed by Felicia to support him.
• Odin stood at the fire orb, and Niles stood at the middle ballista.
• Nyx and Robin went to the right aisle since magic users are strong against bows.
• Azura stayed in the middle to support Odin and Niles.
• Beruka, paired up with Selena followed Camilla and supported Corrin while heading southward towards Oboro and then Takumi.

But there's some problems.

• Once Silas dealt with the two Oni Chieftains, he couldn't do much because of several Ninjas in his way on the way to Hinata.
• There were way too many Sky Knights for Beruka and Camilla to deal with, so Azura and Niles were done for.
• With all the enemies in the way, there was no way that Corrin was getting close to either Oboro and Hinata in the same battle.

Not only do I blame the map itself, but again, the way the game handles difficulty and stats. I know this is a poor comparison, but I have literally beaten JP Blazing Blade had more fun than playing Conquest on Normal/Casual. Maybe because it's maps aren't like mazes with a bunch of gimmicks, apart from Dragon Veins. I genuinely see no way out other than switching to Phoenix mode, which many elitists tend to harp on. Which is also why I feel such worry typing this. Sites and forums like r/fireemblem have nothing but LOVE for elitist play styles (something along the lines of Maddening/Classic or Lunatic/Classic) and yet tend to complain, and those kinds of players would tear you apart if you had any negative thing to say about the difficulty in a Fire Emblem game other than one or another being "too easy," only to turn around and whine about something mild like Binding Blade.

But this leads me to a final question. If I were to purchase Fates: Revelations, would the difficulty be any worse, and are there any other maps aside from the infamous endgame Takumi map that I need to watch out for?

[Close This Guide]

On 3/20/2024 at 9:48 AM, Cdijk16 said:

There wasn't really anything in either of those two posts that you mentioned which could be seen as an insult. Why do you perceive them as insults? I also don't really see any hateful behavior in this thread.

The fact that I was being spoken to as a lesser individual, etc. Hope that helps!!

[Close This Guide]

On 3/12/2024 at 11:03 AM, ping said:

I do not think that anybody here intended to hate on you or your playstyle. You had framed your initial post as a guide - and while that doesn't imply that you're telling people how they must play the game, it presents itself as advice how to beat the game more easily, or more efficiently, or "better" in any other sense of the word. People have criticised your initial post under that assumption, and stopped after you gave the clarification that you were describing your personal playthrough.

There is no hard feelings on my part, but I want to point out that it's quite rude on your part to describe the replies as "hate and arrogance" or, implied by your last reply, with a "close mind and bad attitude". You've put out your opinions, others have responded with theirs, generally in a polite tone and explaining why they disagree. I know and understand that it sucks when you put effort into something and it doesn't receive the feedback you were hoping for, but I hope you will be able to look at this thread later and see that it really didn't have much of a hostile atmosphere.

Finally - warnings from a moderator really don't have a lasting impact. They expire fairly quickly, if I recall, and nobody but the mod team and yourself will be able to see them. Again, I fully understand that it doesn't feel nice to be told what (not) to do, especially when it's a rule that doesn't seem obvious (doubleposts is just something that's always been seen as rude in forum culture), but I would advise that the only thing you should take away from the warning is to not doublepost again.

Found another close-minded individual who spouts backhanded insults, but also somehow gets offended when I call others out for hateful behavior.

[Close This Guide]

On 3/15/2024 at 5:59 PM, Capt. Fargus said:

So this is just another backhanded, sarcastic jibe at me, is it not? That is what I got from this, and the comment above yours. Not my fault this site resembles a floor of uncracked eggshells.

[Close This Guide]

So this is just another backhanded, sarcastic jibe at me, is it not? That is what I got from this, and the comment above yours. Not my fault this site resembles a floor of uncracked eggshels.

[Close This Guide]

Agreed. He simply is too cool to not pay any attention to. Finally... someone with an open mind, and good attitude.

[Close This Guide]

I don't even know how to properly use forum websites. My first post and I'm being crapped on and penalized like this is Reddit. Help me out and tell me how to delete posts. I genuinely made a big mistake making this post thinking that everyone would have an open mind.

 

10 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Fixed the multi-post. I assume in this instance it was an honest mistake through the Quote feature, but be advised that multiple posts in a row are against site guidelines (unless you're updating a Let's Play or some other project).

Since power granted by the site wants to be used for bad instead of helpfulness, then at least tell me how I can delete my "repeat" comments or my account. Genuinely. I had already been booted off of Reddit because of its vague rules, rude users, and abusive power to older and higher up users. I feel as if leaving would be better for not just me, but for those who's time I've wasted. Take that as an apology, and just tell me how to delete my account.

 

14 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

It's fine if you want to be helpful, but some of the stuff you posted was just begging to be called out. Like your seeming inability to grasp that pretty much everything in FE in general is random, for example. And the part about using slim swords, as those have no purpose in this game; they're weaker and more expensive than iron swords, and all they have to show for it is a tiny crit boost and overkill accuracy. If I really wanted to boost my crit chance, I'd be better off using a Killing Edge, which actually has some oomph behind it. Even when using those, I might not crit in combat, but still, it's leagues above "use a slim sword because it has more crit". Another issue I had was this:

I shouldn't have to point out that this is extremely vague and unhelpful. Who are you suggesting Dieck builds support with??? Because he joins with three other units nearby. 

While your advice on Magic users is useful, most of what I hear is simply "I don't like this, so it's bad."

I know this is a forum website, but it isn't Reddit. Again, let me say that this "guide" I made should have been clarified as me simply telling you all how I played the game last.

 

I am replying to this. I'm not sure if I'm doing anything wrong, as the rules are really vague, and I'll mostly get penalized again, but if anyone knows how to delete their account, tell me how. I do not want a repeat of my last Reddit experience.

[Close This Guide]

On 4/27/2023 at 1:45 PM, A.G. Zhark said:

Items are underlined while names and in-game terms are simply Capitalized.

 

In the first few Chapters, you need to switch between both Roy and Lance. Prioritize Lances over Swords when it comes to Lance. Your other units have Vulenaries that you can sort out between the two. It would not hurt to build at least 2 Support Levels, as later on in the game, Lance will normally fail to defeat his enemies, even with Follow-Up Attacks because he lacks the necessary Attack, even when at a Weapon Triangle Advantage. Give Maltet to either him, Shanna, or Milady, and give the majority of your stat-boosters to Roy.

When you recruit Dieck and the rest of his crew, you should immediately start to build Supports between the two of them. Before Promotion, Dieck can weather and dodge the blows of Enemy Soldiers and Cavaliers, so he can be leveled up quite easily in the first few Chapters. Dieck should be the one who wields Armads. This will take tons of investment in his Axe Skill, but is possible. This saves a slot for what would normally be for Gonzalez. Seeing how the Hit Rate for Gonzalez' attacks is quite bad, this saves room for a Skill Book too, as it can be given to someone else.

• Although Fir can be good to use alongside Rutger, that only calls for more training. She lacks only slightly in Avoid rate and overall Strength, but still has the Speed to make up for it. Rutger should still be used to hold Durandal, and giving Fir a Wyrmslayer is not a bad idea as well. The second (or third) one you get is in the chapter you encounter Zepheil in one of the chests you find on the right side of the map. She is easy to train in the first few Chapters you have her in because of an abundance of Axe-Wielding Enemy Units. Later on, she can easily take down many Infantry Units with her high Critical rate and can even surpass Rutger in some situations. Leave the brawn to Rutger and the Criticals to Fir. They work good as a team. 

Once you encounter Rutger and Saul, use them immediately. Rutger has bad Defense but high Speed, making him great for common foot-soldiers, though his bad Resistance means that you must keep him out of Enemy range. When holding a Slim Sword, he can launch enough Criticals to make up for his flaws. When you finally Promote him, use a Skill Book to make up for the lack of Criticals he fails to land. On the other hand, with Saul, Healing staves are very common in this game, so make sure to always use Heal or Mend on your other units to quickly level him up, but it most likely won't be until you fight Narcian when you're at that point to finally Promote Saul. Since he Promotes so late, it is best to use him whenever possible to quickly get his Light Magic Skill rank to S. Dieck is also a good candidate for holding Durandal, although, if your Supports with Shanna are high enough, as well as his his Strength and Critical rates, giving him a Wyrmslayer would not be a bad choice.

Lilina has awful Defense, and Speed, but once fully leveled, makes up for this with excellent Attack, Resistance, and Skill (when fully Supported with Roy.) Just like with Dieck and Shanna, having Roy and Lilina in close vicinity powers them both up. When you fully level her up, she loses the traits of having such bad Defense, and when paired with Roy, her Speed is perfect for taking down Cavaliers, Fliers, and any Axe-Wielding unit. She is the one who you should give Forblaze to, but to properly train her without casualties means that you must weaken Enemy Units first, and finish them off with Lilina. Her great EXP growth rates make up for this.

While Lilina is a great Mage to use, Hugh is also quite good. His stats are much higher and he is already close enough to level 20 to fully utilize his Promotion. Even with slightly lower Speed compared to his allies, he can still easily take down Cavaliers and Fliers, making him perfect for the Ilia and Sacae Chapters. When fully leveled, even without Promotion, he can easily weaken or take down the Fire Dragons with Elfire or Aircalibur. In the Chapter introducing him, it is best to use Silence or Sleep on him to easily approach him. But, if you run into trouble with Douglas, simply use Sleep on him instead. There is an Enemy Bishop who attacks with Purge, and although you can affect it with Sleep, the exact next turn, it would go back to Normal Status.

• If you are simply trying to make it through the Chapter with Hugh, send Roy on the second path, avoiding or dispatching the Enemy Mage which uses Bolting. Douglas will most likely attack Roy since the rest of your Units (aside from Milady) are far quicker than Roy. Give Roy either a Slim Sword or Iron Sword. When Douglass attacks, Roy won't do any damage to him when Counterattacking. Bring the Units who will be facing Narcian on this path as well.
• If you want to access the Secret Shop, you need to take Roy on the second path far enough that Hugh's AI heads in that direction. Take either Lance, Percival, or Sue along to speed up the process. Take Milady on the first path, being wary of the Enemy Bishop. Properly position and maneuver her around Douglas.

Raigh can be recruited pretty early in the game, and although it will be some time until you get your hands on Flux, Nosferatu does have a high enough power to defeat weakened enemies. Give him a Speedwing to help with his mediocre Speed. He is your go-to with Apocalypse. Niime joins too late, and Sophia is horrible. Although her EXP rates are good, all her other skills are awful. 

Although, by the Endgame, Lance should have high enough Speed to do Follow-Up Attacks, Percival is still good to use, as his Speed is high enough to do Follow-Up Attacks with ease. Percival is good to use as an obstruction sided by Lance against many Mounted, Flying, and Infantry Units. In the Final Chapter, though, it is suggested not to bring him along, as you would practically have 4 units using the same weapon.

Milady is perfect when fully leveled. She has immense Speed, Strength, and Defense, allowing her to weather several shots from Archers, although it is not advised to put her in their sight unless needed. Once promoted, she can hold Steel Lances and Silver Lances easily allowing Follow-Up Attacks on Knights, Mounted Units, and several Infantry Units aside from the Swordmaster, Hero, and Nomad Trooper.

Sue should be trained immediately when you get her, and is perfect against Soldiers. Although her Strength can be lacking, she makes up for it in Speed. She should be the one to use Mulagir. To make recruiting her easy, defeat the Enemies already on the Map, and then the Reinforcements. Already heading in that direction should be Roy and Chad.

Milady can also tank Fire Dragons, even the more powerful ones in the Final Chapter. Given  a Silver Lance, she can easily take on the other Enemies.

 

On 4/27/2023 at 5:22 PM, ping said:

To be honest, I disagree with a lot of that advice. You can definitely beat the game following it, but I think it tends to be too specific in a lot of places, in a "I recommend doing precisely this thing" sense when BinBla does allow (and, thanks to the RNG, requires) some flexibility with who you pick for your team. What comes to mind..:

• Lance and Allen are very close in how good they are and in my experience, it's left to the RNG who ends up on top in an individual playthrough. You're generally better off using both of them in the earlygame and then keep the one that's performing better (or neither, if they both end up disappointing you).
• Roy is not a great recipient for stat boosters, I find. Giving him the first Angelic Robe is a good option, since you do have to get him to the throne safely in every map and that's easier if he can take a hit, but he generally doesn't see as much combat as other characters, which means that he doesn't do a whole lot with the stat boosts you're giving him.
• Getting Deke to S Axes is a lot of effort. If you want somebody to use Armads, you're better off using a primary axe user - Lot, Geese, Gonzales with HM bonuses - or even Echidna or Percival. Or you can just not use it. It's a good weapon to be sure (+5 Def is a nice bonus, too), but you don't need to use all the legendary weapons.
• I really don't think that the +5 crit from a Slim Sword makes up for the reduced damage. Rutger does best with Iron, Steel, and his Killing Edge, or effective weaponry when appropriate. You also can't mention Rutger without mentioning his boss killing abilities, thanks to his high accuracy, speed, and (post-promo) crit chance.
• Lilina really doesn't grow out of her bad durability. She has a 10% Def growth and even her promotion only gives her a +1 bonus, so she'll always be two-shot by basically all physical attackers. She's a glass cannon from start to finish. The way you're phrasing it also makes it seem like her Roy support improves her Speed, which is not the case. Lugh also deserves mention when discussing this game's mages, thanks to his earlier joining time and higher Spd compared to Lilina, which make him easier to get going than her.
• Percival is really good. Not quite as much on normal difficulty, but he's pretty much always worth deploying if you recruit him in Ch.15 with HM bonuses.
• The best day-to-day weapons for Milady are Killer Lances, which happen to be buyable in her joining chapter. It takes a little while until she can use Silver Lances (she comes with C lances, so she needs one rank plus promotion to get to A) and Steel Lances are just terribly inaccurate.
• Sue is fairly decent, but it should be mentioned that Shin is arguably a bit better than her on normal difficulty, and kinda blows her out of the water if he gets HM bonuses. There's also the Ilia vs. Sacae question to be brought up - I don't think Sacae is quite as bad as its reputation, but most players still find Ilia to be the easier route between the two.

I also think that for picking your team in BinBla, the concept of "temporary characters" is very important. BinBla gives you a buch of prepromoted characters that don't make for good endgame picks (ignore my signature) but can be really helpful for a couple of chapters: Marcus, Jerrot, Klein, Igrene, even Yuno as a taxi in ch.21... It helps a lot to make use of these characters while they're good, ideally to set up kills, but without worrying too much about them "stealing XP". Marcus being able to perfectly set up kills in the earlygame on hard difficulty is my favourite example for this.

My goodness. When I made this guide, I should have clarified that you don't have to follow it, but it is just what I had done in my most recent playthrough. Although I don't think your gripes are an attempt to belittle me. I've done several combinations for teams, but this one here I've done was simply to see how far my units could go. I do greatly agree with the advice on Milady and Killer Lances, though.

 

On 4/27/2023 at 9:01 PM, Shadow Mir said:

I have issues with some of this advice... it sounds way too specific, which is really iffy in a game where everything is random, and some of it is just outright not helpful at all. For example... I see no reason to buy a Slim Sword when it's, to be blunt, wasting money, as the extra 5 crit doesn't make up for being weaker than an iron sword.

The problem here is that raising weapon ranks is slooooow. Dieck prolly wouldn't make it to S axes unless-maybe even if-he used axes exclusively (which is a dicey proposition). Also, I don't see why Gonzales would be worthy of a skill slot; sure, he is usable... if you like gambling, because his hit rates are utterly atrocious, even on hard mode (and no, a Secret Book isn't gonna fix that). Also, Gonzales is hard to impossible to rescue, which is a bad thing in a game with big maps. And that's not even getting into the promotion item quandary...

The problem with Hugh is that to get him at his best, you need to pay 10 grand. Also, iirc, Silence will prevent you from recruiting him, as silenced units are unable to use talk or support commands. Also... To be honest, for the most part, status staves are Useless Useful spells, as most units don't have the magic to have good hit with them. Especially Silence, which is more likely then not to fail against the stuff it's meant to be used on...

She needs some work to get to silver rank, and Steel Lances are just plain bad (lol 55 hit).

Like was said earlier, Lilina's gonna have bad durability forever, and her Roy support isn't gonna fix that. That said, it is lightning fast, which most supports AREN'T.

Build supports between the two of who???

As to that, I wouldn't bank on having someone use Aureola, as Saul and Ellen both need to work their way up from E rank (AFTER promotion), with the utterly glacial weapon rank gain this game has (which isn't helped by their being really fragile)... and Yoder, who has much less work to get there, is more geared for support.

If I really wanted to use Apocalypse, I'd find Niime to do just fine for that. Not that Raigh can't be good.

Raising a Berserker just for two chapters sounds like bad advice, to be blunt.

While some of your advice is good, I would appreciate if you don't crap on mine. I can admit that I should have clarified that you don't have to follow this- it was simply to tell others how I've completed my latest playthrough and if anyone felt like doing so as well.

 

12 hours ago, Hello72207 said:

I do not agree with some of the advice here. As someone who is a fan of binding blade, has played through it many times, and done some funky challenges, there's some issues with what's seen here. Assuming this guide is to a player new to hard mode trying to get through as smoothly as possible, here's some pointers:

In the earlygame, train Roy, Lance and Allen, Shanna, Lugh, and Rutger. These units all have various strengths and reasons to be on a team, and provide utility throughout the game.

Roy is the weakest of the units recommended here, but investing in him will make later maps much easier as he can survive siege tomes without any worry. Early on he has swords in axe land, so his combat is actually fairly good.

Lance and Allen are essentially the same unit. The top post claims to focus on lances, and this is not true. Use the weapons on the cavaliers that work best in the moment. Early on, there's so many axe enemies that not equipping a sword when you have the option is going to drop your survivability, as fighters will be hitting more often and dealing more damage, and contribute to the accuracy issue many new players attribute to binding blade by losing 25 hit over using an iron sword.

Shanna is an interesting case. In the midgame you will be able to purchase killer lances, and with them Shanna's combat is much stronger, but early on she will be a struggle to train. Soldiers, archers that are weakened, and mercenaries are your best bet. She will die if attacked by an archer or two axe users early on, so be careful with her. You can give her the early angelic robe to mitigate this issue, but another option is to not train Shanna. She can still provide great utility on some chapters by saving villages without fighting and rescuing units, but if you aren't comfortable with frail fliers, don't worry too much.

Lugh is another interesting unit. His base stats are very low, and his low durability early on means he has to watch out, but he's easier to train then Shanna because of one reason: anima magic. Anima is the best weapon type in the game, hitting enemies lower res, having 1-2 range, and having base 95 accuracy. Lugh will eventually start doubling everything he sees, and his combat will be some of the best. Another topic to talk about with Lugh is bosses. Lugh can very easily wear down bosses or other powerful enemies thanks to his high accuracy, and in some cases can be safer then Rutger on them (looking at you, Henning).

Rutger is a good combat unit. That's about it. He's the first unit with hard mode bonuses you get, and he definitely shines. Rutger can double many enemies early on and if you're in a pinch, he can reliably kill an enemy with his killing edge.

These are the units I recommend absolutely using early on as combat units. In terms of healers, you can use any combination of the first three staffers, Saul and Ellen are essentially the same unit at slower playthroughs, while Clarine is a very flexible healer thanks to her horse. I suggest using two of them, but however you want to split it up you can.

There are other units that I suggest using as filler. They will definitely be useful and you should not sideline them, but they won't be useful the whole game.

Dieck is pretty strong early on, but will fall off eventually without high investment. As a combat unit, he's great, but competes with Rutger for a promotion item and is definitely weaker then him.

Marcus, on the other hand, is the actual savior of your earlygame. Marcus early on has your best combat, and he can always pull you out of a pinch. Need to lure a group of units? Marcus has higher durability then your other units. Need to kill something? Marcus silver lance. Need to accurately wear down a boss? Marcus has high skill, a hit boosting support affinity, and weapon flexibility. Marcus has some of the strongest combat in chapter 7, a very hard early map, and can use axes to have advantage over the cavaliers and wyverns. He will fall off, but use him while he's good.

I don't suggest using Lilina, but she's definitely capable if raised. Lilina is very weak early on, and will remain pretty slow and frail until promotion, where she will gain enough speed to not worry about being doubled and onerounded by enemies. Even after promotion, keep her out of enemy range and don't let her take hits. She can work as a second, harder hitting, but slower Lugh.

Hugh has ok bases, and can work as a filler unit, but he's also not necessarily that good. Steal his member card and kill him if you don't want to spare the gold.

Raigh is not that good either. He lacks anima, giving him accuracy issues, and nosferatu is a fairly rare and expensive tome and not worth training him. When Niime joins, she performs the same function in combat: hitting hard once, while providing incredible staffing utility. Use niime when she shows up.

Yeah use Percival he's pretty good.

Melady is a wyvern rider that joins in chapter 13. She's the best unit in the game, practically undisputed. Dump exp on her in her join chapter, promote her in that chapter, and watch as she snowballs through the rest of the game. Any problems Shanna has in combat are completely erased with Melady. She's bulky, she's strong early on, and she's very good overall.

Careful if using Sue or Shin. Between the two, I recommend Shin, but both work very well. However, if you use one, train a pegasus knight. Whoever of your two groups gets more exp chooses your route. Pegasi send you to Ilia, but nomads send you to Sacae. Sacae is... not fun. Don't go there.

If you must have a bow user, I suggest Klein. He joins earlyish and has a high bow rank and good bases. A speedwing on him guarantees him good combat for the rest of the game with consistent use.

For the legendary weapons, don't worry about them. You don't need a user for each of them, and the only map where the main weapons used are legendary weapons is pretty easy. You don't need to design your party around having a user for every weapon. Use who you want, but the units I recommended above will make the game much easier and smoother.

I do agree with this. But to respond to your first argument, I should have clarified that this "guide" was simply me telling everyone what I had done in my latest playthrough, and simply giving pointers on anything anyone may want to do as well.

 

10 hours ago, SnowFire said:

People have done crazy challenges and beaten FE6 with nearly any combination of units, including "bad" ones, so I agree with others that the tone is a little too specific.  Totally fine to say "I did this and this to get through," but it's certainly not required.

I'll just briefly echo others and agree with some Lugh hype.  Enemy Resistance is trash in FE6, so a speedy low-attack mage like Lugh can still ORKO quite a lot of enemies, and perform valuable, safe chip on others.  Lilina's high-attack, medium speed approach can be a bit better against the rare enemies who sport good resistance scores, but how many enemy bishops are you even fighting, anyway?  Hugh has the problem that, if playing "efficiently", he costs money to recruit in the game that has storebought stat increasing items (if you FAQ up the secret shop).  He's also quite a bit underlevel.  Why not just use the money on any other mage, and also give them some Boots in the bargain?  For all that he's still not terrible, mages are good in FE6 due to the "bad enemy RES" issue mentioned before, but at some point there starts to be a crunch on Guiding Rings if you try to build too many unpromoted mages.

I do agree with your advice, but I would appreciate if you all did not harp on this "guide." I should have clarified that this was made to simply tell people what I had done in my last playthrough, why, and gave pointers if anyone wanted to do so as well.

[Close This Guide]

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[Strategy for FE6 Chapter 21 without Warp staff]

A good strategy?

First of all, use Dieck and Shanna. Fully level up their supports and make sure to level them both up, even past promotion. Place them always in close vicinity and give Dieck several axes and give Shanna any lance weapons aside from the Steel Lance. This provides an easy way to get through the reinforcements as both will almost always dodge and retaliate with both criticals and follow-up attacks. If they do not defeat any enemies that come their way, use Sue, Lance, or Saul to finish them off. See here I brought along Hugh, who can easily cut down pre-promoted Wyvern Knights, Knights, and Archers on this map at range-1.

Or...you could use a Phase cheat from one of those really old forums. Take Roy, Lillina, and either Dieck/Shanna or Rutger all the way down to Murdock and chip away at him with coordinated magic attacks, or criticals. I'm playing my 5th run of this game on an (further updated) English patch which also raises growth rates and "nerfs" many enemies and bosses. I level my units up to Level 20 before promotion, and even still, this is one of the maps that I struggle on. (Aside from the first Sacae map with the two circles of huts surrounding the boss.) This is as far as I've gotten...

Left: Shanna, Dieck. Middle: Hugh, Rutger. Top: Raigh