bookwormbabe29

Gods, these third tier classes are actually annoying me. The RNG gods have deemed fit that my third tier units are having terrible luck with level ups. Chapter 1 took me far longer than needed just trying to get decent levels. Oy. This part of the game feels quite slow as it is, and having bad levels is not helping any. /Rant

It's question time with the bookwormbabe once again! Though take heart! I think I'll be running out of questions soon, as I appear to be running out of game. (unlikely spoilers) So I'm at the point of splitting my team into three. I have enough good units that dividing into three isn't too much of a problem, having fliers, sword users, etc. to have good teams all around. Yet one thing I can't split evenly is the disarm skill and those who can steal. I can't find anything online about 'best items to steal' or anything like that, so I'm not sure what team Heather should go on, and whether I should send my Disarm unit with Sothe or Heather. I know Volke shows up at some point, but not sure to what team or how this might influence things. Any insight into this would be most appreciated! Bonus Question: Does the story change depending if a character gets put on a certain team? Like, will Tibarn get more dialogue with Ulki/Janaff if they go with him, will anything happen if Meg/Brom end up on the same team, etc, etc. I don't want to miss any fun stuff, even if isn't game changing. Thanks for your time!

Well, this seems like a dicey topic... let's see if a 'new' perspective helps any (I'm the one doing the 'my first run' topic) Off the bat, I'm going to say Lucia and Stefen lose out from lack of availability. Lucia gets the worst of it, and Stefen comes ready to fight (especially if you count his blade) he's better than Lucia, but he's not as good as a unit you've been training yourself. That leaves Edward, Zihark, and Mia. Mia scores well with good starting level stats, and scores good availability as well with Ike's team. She also can get transfer bonus, which Edward cannot, which gives her even more of an edge. Edward starts out weak in part 1, and has a lot of potential, but he does require baby sitting to reach that potential. Worse, the Dawn Brigade doesn't get as many 'high end' enemies/chapters as Mia does, so it's much harder for him to get to the higher levels. Zihark is an odd mix of this, getting good starting stats, some early stages with Dawn brigade, and has the option of switching to Ike's team to gain more experience. He can also benefit from transfer bonus' as well. In my mind, he is essentially getting the best benefits of Mia and Edward, as he can replace either Mia or Edward without much trouble. Things look good for Zihark so far. Also in his favor are the caps, as Fire Emblem still angers me with different caps for different genders. Zihark gets more attack and defense than Mia. And with him being an Earth affinity, which gives him an amazing advantage to have the highest avoid rate too. So really, Zihark can hit as hard or harder, take as many hits or more, and avoid more often. Add in skills, and Zihark still looks good. While all three have decent skills, having a no cost Adept as well as Astra gives a lot of killing options. Wrath and Vantage are more situatational (only low health, or only when attacked) which are situations you generally want to avoid. Extra attacks is always useful. So while I adore Mia and would take her first by character design, I think by mechanics Zihark wins for the title of best. He can do everything the others can do (sometimes even better than they can) while no one else can match his avoid rate or his free Adept scroll. And while no on on the internet needs to believe me, in my many runs of PoR, I've never used Zihark, always using Mia instead. Playing RD, I've found more respect for Zihark, Ilyana, and Brom, who all do amazing for me so far in RD, but I've never fielded in PoR. tl;dr My list would be: In terms of liking characters: Mia, Stefen/Zihark (tie), Edward, Lucia In terms of mechanics: Zihark, Mia, Stefen, Edward, Lucia I like Edward, and I feel bad I can't rate him higher (especially since I did baby him thinking to use for a final team) but I feel he suffers from not having enough time with high level enemies to reach his potential without specifically training him over all others, which isn't reasonable when there are so many others units statistically better for said time. Edward has six stages to shine before Zihark shows up, and SOME of that time should be going to Micaiah so you don't have a frail commander. That point on, Zihark does everything he does but better for the Dawn Brigdade. Just my two cents.

Me again! :) So I have a question (gasp!) on using my bonus experience. I'm now on 3-11 and we have that whole big happy family moment with most of Crimea/Laguz/Greil team up thing going on. And with it, I am now sitting on 65,896 bonus experience. That seems a bit high to me (This is normal mode, as it's a first run I couldn't pick hard mode). I don't think I've been stingy or anything, but I have enough bonus exp to promote every unit I am considering using to third tier. My levels are: Ike: 19 Hero Soren: 1 Archsage Mist: 16 Cleric Boyd: 19 Warrior Rolf: 19 Sniper Nephenee: 18 Halberdier Brom: 18 Axe General Haar: 1 Dragonlord Titania: 1 Gold Knight Ilyana: 1 Arch Sage Heather: 19 Rogue Mia: 17 Swordmaster Marcia: 16 Falconknight And this team/force still has a master crown to use now, too. It seems excessive right now, which is weird to say as I initially thought I was spreading myself too thin. I guess I'm wondering if I should use bonus exp more, or if this is about right, or I should hoard up for some last minute arrival (like Elincia did last game). Thoughts and advice are welcome!

I don't intend to keep nullify on Haar. At the time, I thought he was weak to bows. I'm not sure who will get Nullify at this point, as that crimea royal knight chapter was a bit disappointing in experience gained for Marcia. I can make it work, but not sure. Next up is saving Elincia, and she could use Nullify with her rushing archers. Oy.

I did. Right now it's attached to Haar over with Ike's forces. I mean, why not make him even more unstoppable, right? I hadn't realized Wyvern knights didn't have arrow weakness at that point, and arrows HURT. Maybe it's my imagination, but the flyer weakness to arrows seems greatly increased in this game.

Ok, good to know. New question on saving houses. How does the Computer determine who will burn down a house? Are there certain units that will go to burn things down, or is it random? Haven't figured out a pattern as of yet. I had hoped to let Marcia solo most of the chapter, but if we're running around like mad, that's going to make things tricky.

This is news. I was planning to load up as much equipment onto the CRK (except Geoffrey) as possible. Do they lose their equipment or something?

Hey all! So I've made it to chapter 3-9 and back to Crimea. These guys do not get much use, so I'm debating my best strategy with this team. I've been feeding Marcia (lv 8 falcon) and Geoffrey (lv 15 paladin) the most EXP, though Calil (lv 6 fire sage) isn't too bad either thanks to transfers. The others are not looking too hot, which is sad as I loved Astrid in PoR and in RD she's like a different character altogether. I would so use Marcia in a final team, so I plan to steal Astrid's paragon for her, hopefully let her soar. I'm angry with Geoffrey, as I had hoped to A support with Elincia, and didn't see they only share three chapters together until it was too late (didn't get their C support during Elincia's gambit, which blows). Without the support, my interest in Geoffrey is little, as I don't care for him and his availability after this is near zip. I'm thinking of giving his Paragon to Calil, see if she can thrive with it. If i'm reading this chart right, this is the last chapter with the royal knights on their own anyway, so they'll get bunched up with better units so it shouldn't matter if the majority of these units hit the bench after. It seems like the knights join up with Ike after, so does that mean their bonus exp and/or convoy merges up finally? I'll likely stock pile the characters just in case. I grabbed Adept from the shop already, and i'm debating grabbing a few silver weapons to pass along. At least, those are my plans/thoughts as of now. These chapters that switch point of view through me off, as I feel like I'm going to RUIN EVERYTHING if I don't do it just right. If I'm making a huge glaring error, I'd love to know lol.

(unlikely spoilers) Hm, chapter 3-6 and we're back to the Dawn Brigade. Fun times. The team has little cash, and a whole lot of rare/awesome things to buy here. Any thoughts on which to prioritize? I'm leaning towards the physic staff myself, but there's plenty of other nice options too.

I thought as much, and yet it goes against my typical FE mentality. And according to the handy dandy item location chart, there are only 5 of these items in my English version. That's rough. Hm... I wonder if it's better to use the crown on units like Ilyana who would have ten levels of only luck without it, or Haar who would only need 4 levels? Decisions, decisions.

(Dusts off topic) Wow, feels like forever since I was able to sit down and play. Silly real life getting in the way! I have to go save Tellius! Anywho! I had another question to pose to the board, and again, in other games this seems so simple to me. Promotion. I mean, that's easy! Why wouldn't you you wait until level 20, right? More levels, more stats, all good, right? And yet, I just gained my first master crown (stolen from lazy freaking nobles in 3-3) and I'm actually thinking of using it. Consider my Haar: He is a level 16 Dragonmaster, and every stat but luck is Maxed already (thank you, transfer bonus'!). He can still gain 4 levels, but with only gaining luck, is it still worth it? Or is it better to promote him now, so when he levels he gains more than one stat? I have other characters in similar situations, too. Nephenee is a Lv 11 Halberdier and has maxed all but Mag, Luck, and Def (which needs 1 more point) and Ilyana is blowing my mind, being a level 7 Thunder sage and having maxed all but Luck and Res (which is 3 short, which she'll get going to level 10). I did a LOT of resets in PoR going for grand transfer bonus' and right now, these characters seem too good to be real. So yea, I'm really thinking some of these characters are better off being promoted early. I was hoping for a second (or third, or fourth, etc) opinion on the matter. Thank you for your time!

Hi there! I'm making a 'vague-ish' topic here to use to ask questions and such, to avoid making 20 topics on these boards. Who needs that, right? My big concern at the moment? (unlikely spoilers) I've made it to 3-2, and many awesome units just rejoined Ike's forces. Based on the suggestion of others, Ike's team was sent a lot of items via Ilyana, Brom, Heather, etc as well. Add in a silver card, and I'm in information overload right now, worrying over where to START. I mean, I love (and would like to use) ike, Titania, Soren, Mist, Boyd, Mia, Rolf, Nephenee, Brom, Heather, Haar, Ilyana, and I'm sitting here trying to figure out how to squeeze Oscar and Rhys in there too. That would be 14 out of 16 units! (Shinon and Gatrie are the only two I know I'm benching; I don't care how his stats are, I don't like Shinon. And I like Brom over Gatrie). I know it's too much, especially if the paths end up merging (as I'd then be adding in Elincia and Marcia, Micaiah and Sothe, etc) In PoR, the team members trickled in slowly, making team selection easier. Having this many good units to pick from all at once just seems evil, tempting with me all the awesomeness at once. And the stages seem to let you use more characters so far, as even the next stage lets me us all 16 characters. I'm torn over how many to actually use/train, who should get forged weapons this chapter with a silver card, and skills too (On skills, team has to give out: Discipline, Pass, Fortune, Nullify, Celerity, and Savior, though I'm thinking I might sell Fortune for more forged weapons). Oy. This is like, Fire Emblem 101, deciding who to use, how many to train... and yet it hurts to bench any of these units, like trying to pick a favorite among your kids. I'm hoping someone(s) can suggest a limit to how many I should use for this part of the game and/or end game, as at least then I'd know what size of a roster I should have on hand. From there I need to narrow down weapons and skills, which I am not looking forward to, let me tell you. I'm open to any ideas/suggestions you can give, as I'm doing this 'deer in headlights' things, not sure what to do. Anywho, I should shut up before I do anymore ranting. Thank you for your time!

So in an attempt to not make thirty new topics, I'm going to try and cheat a bit here, see how this works. I'm nearing the end of section 1 (the title of 'endgame' is sort of telling) and I'm wondering how the transfer of items/gold works between sections. Ritisa mentioned using Iiyana to transfer scrolls and items between chapters 1 and 3, so I'm wondering if there is anything special I should be doing at this point. I'm sitting on some stat boosters, not knowing if I should use them on this section of characters, or hold on to them. I know vaguely that there are several chapters/sections, and from what I have picked up Micaiah's team has the hardest go of things. Mostly, just worried I'm going to screw something up here. Hopefully that makes sense. Thanks for your time with my first run of this game. I have a serious problem of OVER thinking every scenario, so I appreciate your patience :) Team notes: Micaiah is level 20, Sothe is level 5, Ilyana, Nolan and Edward are now 20/1, and Jill is level 19 (with 99 experience and a master seal on her, ready to promote this chapter). Laura is level 10/1, as she was never going to get level 20 without staff abuse and at the time I couldn't afford that many staffs lol (money was quite low for a while) Zihark/Tormod/etc have gained a little exp here and there, but no levels. Aran made it to level 9 before getting the bench. Micaiah has resolve stolen from General T, Sothe has renewal and discipline, Nolan has Meg's fortune, Edward has leonardo's cancel and paragon, and Ilyana has beastfoe.

Ohhh, hadn't considered Resolve on Micaiah. That and sacrifice would be interesting. I have her with Discipline for faster weapon ranks, as her rank is much lower than anyone else's right now. I went ahead and grabbed Resolve off Tauroneo, and Fortune off of Meg too (can't use it yet, but figure if I'm not going to use her either, might as well). Edward has Cancel, and Sothe has renewal for now (as he's practically immortal as is, this makes it insanely so). Once Micaiah gets her weapon rank up a bit, I'll switch her over to resolve, and see what trouble I can get into with that. Beastfoe (I think it's called) is also sitting in inventory, as no laguz in sight next chapter. Team thoughts: I'm pretty sure Aran and Volug will get the bench soon, myself. I do like Zihark and I can see him getting a spot eventually, but I'm letting the unpromoted units do the work for now, let them earn exp. Once units start to promote, I'll give him a revaluation, see how he holds up. Right now, Micaiah is level 11, Edward is 14, Nolan is 16, and Ilyana is 15, Sothe is level 4. Laura is a problem for the team, being only level 4 (yuck) so she's so frail I'm not sure if she's going to last as a healer without staff abuse, and it's just as likely I'll get a better healer eventually, or one of my mages will promote to get healing (don't know that, but safe assumption based on other games). Sothe/Micaiah, Nolan/Edward all work well, and I thought Laura/Aran would hold up, but they are not able to keep up. Ilyana has some nice stats (good data transfer) so she's doing fine without supports at moment, though if things work out, could end up supporting Zihark (as I recall, they even support in PoR). We'll see!

Hi there! Me again! So I've just recruited some familiar faces (Jill, Zihark, Tauroneo) and by chance I have learned you can remove skills for them to become scrolls. Nifty! So naturally, I am experimenting with this new ability to see what I can DO with it. For example, I took Leonardo's Cancel and gave it to Edward, see how that works out. I'm torn over Zihark/Tauroneo, who will likely be seeing some bench/shield time being promoted already; is it wise to remove their skills, say give Resolve to Sothe, or Adept to Ilyana? I know the skills don't go back on so easily (odd that) so it will be ruining the characters if I do so. It's a fun addition, but is this ever a double edged sword. So yea, just curious what others have done in the past with skills, and if anyone would be willing to share some advise/insight. Thanks for your time! Full Team details for those interested: I am using Micaiah, Edward, Nolan, and Ilyana as my main damage units at the moment, Sothe as a shield, Laura as healer (duh), with Leonardo and Meg warming up the bench (Meg's a cutie, but so under leveled! Why?). Aran and Volug are on the fence, with Aran trying to keep up, and Volug being too powerful/Jeigen-ish and not being able to disarm him. With the new recruits, I want to add in Jill for sure, and Zihark and Tauroneo will likely be shields/benches seeing as they are promoted already. Sothe/Micaiah A support, Edward/Nolan B support, Laura/Aran C support.

Hmmm.... so money isn't as common eh? I bought the spirit dust and arms scroll on chapter...5? ( I think) so money is a tad low now. I might end up regretting that one, but only time will tell.

Hey there! So yea, topic. My first game of RD (finally have the transfer done, huzzah!) and I just gained the convoy/shops. The new feature of rare items is interesting, so I'm sitting here debating the best way to handle buying items this game. I'm not sure if this game is going to be like PoR where money falls from the sky, or I should be more frugal, you know? I don't 'need' anything at present, so I'm thinking of holding on to my cash, see if anything better shows up later. Still, I'm curious to know if there are any suggestions out there on the handling of resources, shall we say. Thank you for your time!

It seems even using an item causes them to arm themselves. Once I knew WHAT was causing it, finishing the chapter became easier. It's done and over with, but I never knew about this odd problem until now.

Ok, I have never had a problem with this before in ANY fire emblem game. I'm on chapter 15, and trying to not kill the laguz in the desert for the bonus exp. I am using my fliers (Marcia and Jill) and have them de-equip their weapons first turn. Despite this, a turn (maybe two?) I keep finding them with their weapons drawn, or they'll get attacked and be countering when I KNOW I de-equipped their weapons. I have failed this stage a dozen times this run, and 75% of the time it's because someone equipped an item after I de-equipped them! Why would they do that? What sick mechanic is behind this?

True enough. I was thinking normal would allow more transfers in general to offset the lost seraph robe, though I am hardly an expert on this.

I had planned on Normal, as I read (not sure if accurate...) that it gives more exp than hard mode, and it's in the form of bonus exp so it's easier to manipulate. I've cleared hard plenty of times so I'm not worried about difficulty or anything. If normal gives more exp, than normal it is, you know?

So two years back now, I attempted a transfer run of using/abusing bonus exp, boss abuse, staff abuse, etc, trying for this grand file for a transfer run. I had great stats for nearly 20 units (Ike, Elinica, Mist, Mia, Marcia, Boyd, Soren, Rhys, Rolf, Astrid, Sothe, Nephenee, Jill, Titania, Lucia, Bastian, Geoffrey, Haar, Tanith, and a not so great Reyson) and I was excited. Yet like many before me, I ended up reaching the end without hitting -/20 on some units (Rolf especially hurt, having all but Hp, Mag and Luck capped and only a level 13 sniper at last stage). I'm going to be giving this another shot, trying to make a grand file for transfers with as many maxed stats as possible. At this point, I'm in my research phase, trying to see where I went wrong, and where I can make improvements. The easy answer is using fewer characters, but maxing only six characters (for example) doesn't have the 'grand' feel I'm aiming for here. That said, I wanted to ask the pro's here about your own runs, in the hope of getting a better idea of what is actually achievable. Did you have better results with normal mode's extra bonus exp, or hard mode having more enemies? Did you fare better with clear bonus exp for turn count, or spend more time boss abusing? Any and all thoughts are welcome. Thank you for your time!

Good stuff. I didn't know of those recruiting methods (zihark/etc). And I thought meg/zihark thing was odd, but couldn't remember enough about to know either way. While on the story changes, how do people here feel about the paired endings? I don't want to get into 'canon' fights or anything so leave your canonballs at the door. Again, I'm just curious to how people feel on some of them, for while I love PoR's story, I feel RD drops the ball on the endings. Some, like Boyd/Mist and Elincia/Geoffrey work in my mind. Some have me shaking my head, like Astrid/Makalov. I adore Astrid, and I never pair her with that creep. Some are just plain odd to me, like Jill/Haar. I get that they're close, but I never saw this as a romantic bond, especially with the age difference here. Lucia/Bastian's ending just feels incomplete to me, with no resolution, just more of the same. In planning this transfer run, I know I'll get A support for do Ike/Soren (even if I do like Ike with Lethe in PoR better), Boyd/Mist, Elincia/Geoffrey. I'm not sold on the others myself, though that is only my opinion (put down the gunpowder!). Are there couples you like and/or hate for paired endings?

So I know (and I think most do) about the Ike/Soren stuff. So here I am, getting ready to replay these two (it's been a while) and reminding myself of the criteria to unlock it their full conversation. And something I see come up a bit is 'SOME a supports affect story, the most noticeable being Ike/soren.' Being the curious type, I was pondering what other changes have others noticed (if any at all?). Looking into, I've read that some of RD's paired endings require A supports in PoR and according the ever accurate youtube, there's apparently a base conversation of Meg/Zihark in RD if Brom/Zihark had an A in PoR. Are there any other known instances of this happening? I know it's not crucial and likely minor stuff, but as I said, I'm curious.