LunaticScreamer

Alrighty, let's kick off the morning with another update. [spoiler=ch17: Handing a chapter its ass on a silver platter] Starts out easy enough, but there's actually a reason besides high hp enemies that this map is a challenge. All in due time though. Certainly not because of female Nomads with much higher stats than their male counterparts of course. It's also not because of some of my units being able to steamroll through the competition, that's for sure. While this girl taking the place of Raven is notable, it too isn't the reason. Oh yeah, see that Cavalier wedged in between those two closed off rooms? It's a bow specialist. Hope you didn't have plans to save all of the Soldiers locked up there except for Ash who isn't dying anytime soon. Archer's hitrate status: Can't strike the broadside of a barn! Since the team can't go much further until that girl comes closer, Guy takes this chance to drop an Archer, capping his skill & speed for the effort. Girl is in range so Hector drops on by to chat with her and convert her to our side. This is Milia, probably, in my opinion, the second most broken character in this hack. Her bases are batshit insane (she gets Hard Mode bonuses too, heh), her growths are almost as good as Isadora's (10% less speed, 5% less hp, 5% more skill compared to her), and her personal weapon there boosts speed by 5 and has good Mt. Milia's one problem early on though...like Isadora, her con is pretty low, meaning she's eating a penalty from basically any axe aside from that Bronze Axe (The weapon below her personal weapon there). Finally...for me, her support options aren't going to show up for awhile yet. Just a minor concern in the grand scheme of things Here's why the map is challenging. This Thief appears after a few turns, then a buddy of his follows on the turn after that. They're going to dart for the northern treasure room, steal the treasure, then escape. I've been hauling ass since the map started and even then, you're not likely to get there before they can open the room. What you can do though is block them in the room. This is why Sain & Kent are so useful for this chapter. While they can pick up kills, both are tasked with moving like a bat out of hell to that treasure room. Aftermath of everyone's turns. Priscilla is indeed going to go where the arrow is here. Both of those enemies only have 1 range weapons and she can afford to take one hit right now. Also, if you're wondering where Bartre, Dorcas, and Meredia are right now, they're on guard duty down south since reinforcements come in there after several turns. Priscilla herself will eventually book it down there to lend a healing hand. Milia swats away an annoying Archer, allowing Kent to run full speed ahead to start intercepting the thieves. Katt likewise does with the whole swatting away annoying enemies tactic, this time on a poor Knight. Hector makes it 3 for 3 on annoying enemy swatting away tactics, gaining a level in the process. Sain gets rid of the last obstacle between him & Kent reaching the northern treasure room. Oh, something that managed to be a threat? Sadly for this Fighter, he's the only one in the vicinity that can actually damage Kent worth a damn. Too bad! That would be both treasures stolen (the other treasure the Thief swiped is a Silver Sword). Sadly, Sain is about to block the exit out. Milia took a detour east to go murder the female Cavalier and have a chat with Ash to bring him back on our side. Randomly given Lightning tome that I'll likely be selling for free gold later? Works for me! Also, Ash rescues the nearby green army Soldier so he doesn't get his ass killed off in a stupid manner. Finally, the reinforcements down south begin appearing. Sometimes, certain reinforcements will ninja jump past your defensive line if they were assigned to appear on a square an enemy is currently occupying, namely the Nomad to the east of Meredia. Nomad: Denied bow using capabilities! Matthew's up at the treasure room now, stealing back the Knight's Crest and both sets of Lockpicks. The one Thief with the Silver Sword will drop it when he dies, a feat I'll have Katt do when Priscilla can get back up this way. Also, I have Sain rescue Matthew here because I wasn't sure if the Thief could steal back his goodies, but turns out they don't care about doing that even. Hell, they won't even actively try to attack someone next to them, making them possible grinding chances for anyone on your team. Meredia increases her killing power by stabbing a random Nomad. Matthew gets shuttled down south by Sain as they hook up with the southern team after they finished dealing with the reinforcements, slaying a random Shaman along the way while Matthew looted this treasure room for a Hero Crest, as shown here, and the other opened chest there that had an Unlock staff (20 uses!). Already knew who was getting this long before I reached this chapter. The usual absurd promotion bonuses shore up the one stat Dorcas was lacking in while also giving him C-Bows. This is why I like Dorcas & Bartre so much. Once they promote, they become my anti-flying hotshot duo, able to drop damn near any flyer in a few attacks, if that. Bartre will get his Hero Crest in a couple chapters. Katt's training begins, grabbing her first of several levels from this chapter and reclaiming the Silver Sword. She also takes out two Knights, a Mage, three Archers, and a Nomad, leaving only the boss alive. Nothing special really besides being on a throne, automatically making him an annoying jackass to hit and tanky as all hell. Drained all uses of the boss's weapon again so Katt could have counterattack-less assaults on the boss, using the last shot of her anti-armor weapon to do the killing blow with help from Kent getting it set up. At least her defense is ticking on up quickly. After the boss went down, the usual support grinding took place before the throne was seized. Random loot award, yay. Also, free tickets for everyone to visit 17x. That's good too. Death Count: Bartre (1), Rebecca (1), Matthew (2), Guy (1), Dorcas (1), Isadora (1), Priscilla (1), Merlinus (1), Katt (1) Next time: How a character with a 0 in a stat and 0% in a growth is actually useful. [spoiler=Growths & Comments (Milia)] Milia's growths: Hp: 90% Luk: 75% Str: 65% Def: 55% Skl: 65% Res: 65% Spd: 60% Insane growths, simple as that. Her endgame potential also makes her into the second most broken character in the hack. Just watch out for her low con early on as that will hamper her use a tiny bit until Body Rings come into play.

Alrighty, time for another update. [spoiler=ch16: Lyn's team returns!] Pictured: My life getting much easier from here on out. Also to note, three characters here have S ranks from grinding in Lyn's story (S-Bows for Wil, S-Axes for Sain, S-Swords for Kent). Having an S rank grants you an extra 15 hit and 10 crit with that weapon type. Of course, they have to start out far away from my team. No problem. They just have to deal with a few minor enemies, hit up a village, then travel north where they'll eventually meet up with the rest of the team on the way to the boss. Pictured: Two Pegasus Knights that Wil lured in, forced to attack him at range. The encounters end predictably of course. Back up by Hector's team, They've moved into position to counter the first wave of enemies coming at them. Rebecca here lures in a Javelin using Wyvern Knight and was intending to weaken it for someone else who really needed the exp to kill, but she was content with slamming a critical down the beast's throat on her 2nd hit, netting a good level in the process. Strength's all she really wants at the moment since she's not going to be around after this chapter. This Thief actually stole a pack of 3 Vulneraries. All part of the plan because he has a Lockpick up for stealing. Female Myrmidon on the right there who's located by the southern village Lyn's team is going for. Surprisingly not as assholish as the female Nomads because she's using an Iron Blade which is really chewing into her AS. Being able to turn the tables on FE7if's difficulty for the time being feels so good, heh. Hector's team is doing pretty well, but the constant flow of enemies with high hp means they're not going to be pushing forward quickly anytime soon. Florina uses this time to visit the village by the water for a Red Gem. Fucks given by Lyn's team while dealing with the female Myrmidon: 0 Also, a Heavy Spear from the village. Useful for dealing with armored units. Spellcasters finally make their reappearance in Hector's story. This Mage soon meets his end on the next player phase, dropping a Fire tome in the process. This will go in storage for now. Katt: Dodging like a boss! Katt: Not dodging like a boss for several fights straight in a single enemy phase! Barely survived this shot with single digit hp, but whatever, she's alive now. Eliwood grabs a level weakening a Cavalier. More resistance is always nice. Rebecca kills Eliwood's weakened Cavalier and continues to get strength. Matthew's here intercepting some Brigands to keep some heat off the team while Lyn's squad is almost reunited with Hector's army. Meredia: Spearing things in the face with the power of FIRE! Guy picks a random target and murders for a good level. Perhaps could do with some more defense, but strength is also good. Lyn's squad is wrecking the difficulty curve of FE7if right now and I love it. Ballista ass kicking in two turns or your money back! A small group has broken off from the team to intercept some reinforcements that are going to be coming from the northwest for a few turns. This guy's arm just got Dead Space'd in attempt to hit Isadora. Whoops! Tanking it up something fierce against a random Mage, then watching Kent remove almost half of the spellcaster's life in one blow. Still loving how I'm telling FE7if's difficulty to shove it right now. Enemy reinforcements finally arrived. Sadly, there's about 6 competent units there about to ruin the shit of each reinforcement that comes in. Meanwhile the rest of the team has reached the boss. Some strong weaponry and lots of defense, but hardly the worst FE7if has thrown at you. Also, while I haven't been touching on the music, I have to here. The boss theme for this particular enemy is Valkyrie Profile's normal battle theme, "The Unfinished Battle with God Syndrome". I don't know why, but I laughed for a good few minutes the first time I played this hack when I heard that. Sheesh girl, 3 straight levels of gaining strength on a 30% growth? Nice! Shame you're going to be going to the bench after this though. I wanted an excuse to grind Priscilla up to 20 so I had Hector drain all the weapon uses from the boss. She turned out pretty well, all things considered. She'll just need a Guiding Ring to promote and then she can use the two anima tomes I have stashed away. Figured I might as well top off Katt's level before letting Hector end things. Not going to complain about more defense on her. Hector ends things, then caps speed. Strength will hopefully follow soon. Now, while supports are being raised, Florina is doing some shopping. Before selling stuff, I grab an extra weapon for Katt. Screwed up weapon prices for the stats involved? Nice one FE7if! Death Count: Bartre (1), Rebecca (1), Matthew (2), Guy (1), Dorcas (1), Isadora (1), Priscilla (1), Merlinus (1), Katt (1) Next time: Handing a map its ass on a silver platter!

Torch glitch...oh yeah, I know one chapter that's going to be PERFECT for utilizing that glitch on. That's not for a long time yet though. In the meantime, have another update. [spoiler=ch14-15: Cameos from other games!] First and foremost...FE7if surprisingly didn't screw you over with getting Merlinus at a stupid time. He joins up here with the most appreciated tent. Don't have to worry about inventory management much now! Also, despite that big group of enemies at the start, it's not too bad. Dorcas can kill a Soldier while Bartre greatly weakens the Knight while everyone else frail gets out of the way. Guy is going to park near the southern cliff in anticipation for an incoming Pegasus Knight. Hopefully he can kill it. Now then, Isadora had some very important work to do so I had her barreling southwest. It didn't go so well because I was doing so good with positioning Meredia (who also has very important work to do here). After a restart, I had Isadora wait next to Meredia. That way, Meredia could rescue her and I could have both of them able to clear some space around the southern village. Granted, this screenshot was from my first attempt before trying the "carry Isadora" strategy, but Meredia's first stop regardless is to visit this village and get that Iron Blade (Take note of green army unit Erk there. He'll be saved, don't worry). Well now, you're sure a colorful girl. I'll just take my Iron Blade and...wait, where's my item get screen? On second thought, this is a MUCH better reward. If you're familiar with the game Breath of Fire 2, then you'll recognize this girl as Katt. She's unique for the fact that she has no weapon ranks, preferring to use her own unique weaponry, both of which are very good. That 50 use one is great for anti-horse & armor crusades (though it does slow her down a tiny bit due to its weight). Both weapons also grant stat boosts of +3 spd & +5 luk, making her into a nice dodge machine once she can start gaining some levels. Speaking of her growths...new character, what do you expect, BAD growths? Hardly. Granted, her hp growth is a pinch low, but she's quite well off otherwise. Also, based on those caps....yep, she's going to be able to promote later on. If you played through the entirety of Breath of Fire 2, I don't think I need to tell you what her promoted form is going to look like. We'll cross that bridge when we reach it though. Here's how it looks back at base. The Knight will go run and heal up while the Soldiers will more or less suicide on Bartre & Dorcas. The one up by Serra will end up attacking Erk, but whatever. I sent Lowen that way to rescue him, then bring him back to home base so Serra can talk him back into our army. Katt can make her way back on foot. As for Meredia? She's bolted south, then managed to dodge a 78% accurate shot from an Archer like a boss....and she was carrying Isadora to boot. Hector caps defense and gets even closer to his speed cap (why 15 why) as he trades blows with a Mercenary. Meredia dropped Isadora down by a couple Cavaliers, then swooped on over the southern village. On her next turn, she enters it and finds a new unit for the team, Priscilla. Her durability is almost nil (Just about any physically aligned enemy is going to one shot her at this point), but she makes up for that by being mounted and a healer, even if her magic growth isn't the best. I foresee her sticking around for some extended amount of time until I get my actual endgame healers. Wanted to feed this Mercenary to Rebecca, but she missed so Matthew took the kill. Hector & Eliwood are just fine against that group of four units down there. Katt's back at home base. She'll be guarding the bridge for a bit due to some incoming enemies. Guy continues to be good as he finds a random unit to turn to sludge with his Wo Dao. Might be hard to make out here, but this is Katt about to crit the face off of a poor Soldier. Oh boy. Isadora, Meredia, and Priscilla need to haul tail back to home base fast. This message indicates the boss is about to move on his next turn. Luckily, rain starts to pour down right after this, giving Meredia some time to shuttle Priscilla about halfway to home base so she can ride the rest of the way there while Meredia doubles back to rescue Isadora and bring her quickly back to base. Speaking of the boss, I forgot to take screenshots of his stats so here's the rundown on him. High stats all across the board (were you expecting less?), two nasty weapons (Killer Lance, Silver Lance). Being on horseback though makes him crash & burn quite hard once he gets into the range of Eliwood & Hector. Eliwood grabs a level fending off a Pirate. More resistance is fine by me. The boss finds Hector and hits him with the Silver Lance. Hector retaliates with his Wolf Beil and does quite a bit more damage than he took in that exchange. Guy apparently became a giant blade of light to smite down his adversary. The RNG gods decided to give the gold star to him for that performance. On the next turn, another Wolf Beil hit allows Eliwood to take out the boss for an awesome level on top of the Killing Lance he dropped. I am so good at remembering to keep frail characters away from bow based units. Rewind a bit, place her somewhere where she isn't going to be owned, we're all better! On the plus side, before I had to rewind there, I got to see this happen to three enemies who thought they could kill Guy. Priscilla pick up her first level patching up some wounds Isadora took fending off a couple enemies. Useful simply because it had hp which isn't all that common for her. Map is pretty much over with at this point, just a few stragglers left to kill. There's a Brigand up north trying to reach Merlinus, but Bartre makes him think twice with a pair of axe strikes to the head. Rebecca misses this shot, what a surprise. Eliwood steamrolls past a Cavalier. Before Guy sent this Archer packing, Meredia & Rebecca took potshots at it to pick up some levels. Only one enemy left so I get all my support grinding done (Katt's going to get a B support with Isadora by the time the next chapter concludes), then have Hector grab another Iron Sword from the armory before Guy finishes off the last enemy for yet more resistance and the end of chapter 14. Chapter 15! Gotta survive for seven turns here. Not that hard to do in all honesty, but there's extra work to be done that rewards well for your efforts. To do this, someone needs to bait out the boss as Eliwood does before the first turn ends. Everyone else is assigned to kicking the tail of the incoming enemies (though Meredia got nailed by another bow user and dropped to 1 hp, yay). This is about the point in the game where female units tend to have much better stats than their male counterparts, usually seen in mounted units like these Nomads (the female is on the right). Eliwood's plan has worked to reel in the boss. As you can see, he has a Dragonshield he'll drop upon death that I want...and it's going to be easy as hell to kill him. He's equipped with a Longbow that has 2-3 range. Good stats and all...but it has 19wt, casting the boss's AS into oblivion and making it easy for Eliwood or Hector to double him. Slight problem though...only one of them can attack the boss due to the other enemies in the way. Luckily, Hector's B support with Eliwood is just enough to one round the boss, netting this good level for him as well as the Dragonshield. One away from capping speed! Things are looking good here. Lowen got roughed up badly by a Mage & Archer, but all's well. Next task to do here...have Matthew steal the Thief's lockpick, then have Lowen shuttle him to the west with the help of Meredia. Bartre & Dorcas clear the trash in their way. Katt had to come down and rescue Priscilla the turn before lest she get turned to sludge by a nearby bow user. Gotta love that 21 speed Thief, eh? This is why I wanted Matthew to have capped speed before the end of Lyn's story. Getting near the end of the chapter, Katt gets her first level beating up the Thief while Priscilla gets a level of her own patching Katt up. Silver Axe? I can get behind that. The other chest contained a Mend staff. Merlinus takes one for the team. No fucks were given that day. Not much else happens before the chapter ends, just the usual walling off to ensure everyone (important) survives. Death Count: Bartre (1), Rebecca (1), Matthew (2), Guy (1), Dorcas (1), Isadora (1), Priscilla (1) Next time: My nuclear army of four returns! [spoiler=Growths & Comments (Katt, Priscilla)] Katt's growths: Hp: 65% Luk: 65% Str: 60% Def: 40% Skl: 45% Res: 45% Spd: 55% Katt's pretty amazing. Good bases, good growths besides hp being a very slight bit underwhelming. She just needs some help early on as she's rather frail until she can get some levels to boost her survivability. Priscilla's growths: Hp: 45% Luk: 40% Mag: 35% Def: 25% Skl: 35% Res: 55% Spd: 70% While her growths are rather weak besides speed & resistance, Priscilla is still very useful by virtue of being a mounted healer. Just make sure you don't let anyone attack her and she'll do alright.

I know a 100 hp boss appears during the Canas chapter. As for normal enemies...want to agree with Klok on Dread Isle there (though that only applies to promoted enemies really. Unpromoted enemies are still running with 50-60+ hp at least). Anyways, here's an update to kick off the morning. [spoiler=ch13-13x: Merlinus joins!] Nothing special to kick off the chapter. Everyone that got a support last chapter kicked them up another level. Bartre placed himself in position to intercept an incoming Wyvern Rider on the first enemy phase while Isadora broke down some roots leading west to a village. First enemy phase isn't much to write home about. Flyers trying to cause chaos really. So much for your high defense, ha! Of course, non-flyers aren't doing much better honestly. Not much happened on the next turn. Rebecca offed this Pegasus Knight, Hector & Eliwood took out the other one, Isadora finished off the Cavalier that attacked her last enemy phase, and walls were sent forward to keep Rebecca from getting turned to sludge with the Brigand in the way getting owned something fierce. Good thing I got all those levels last chapter, otherwise Wyvern Riders like this one would be a nightmare to deal with. Even then, half my army can't do big chunks of damage to it. That is, unless you're these two who completely and utterly invalidate this threat with criticals. Oh hey I think this village had a Mine in vanilla. That'll help me stuff it to a stupidly hard... Oh SCREW YOU! FE7if doesn't want me to have any fun. Isadora reaches the northwestern village and finds our good buddy Merlinus, scoring a Torch and tickets for everyone to head into 13x. FE7if's version of dodging bullets ala The Matrix shall we say? Tricky situation here. This Myrmidon highlighted has a Wo Dao with a very high crit rate. Coupled with his skill, his base crit rate is in the low 50s, meaning any low defense units had best stay far away from him. He does have one weakness though... Matthew can recruit him on to our time, thusly giving me that Wo Dao to use for critting hijinks. In any case, this is Guy and, surprisingly, is a good combat unit for this stage of the game unlike Lowen & Rebecca. One, he gets hard mode bonuses (His bases are 28/7/11/13/5/5/0 in normal mode for reference). Two, he can support with Matthew and shoot that crit rate, among other stats, higher. Growth wise, it's surprisingly good. Not Isadora or Meredia levels of good, but quite acceptable nonetheless. Just watch out for his low defenses as his growths there aren't the best. I should really remember to not keep flyers in range of bows. Rebecca tries to kill this Cavalier, but misses. Guy doesn't miss though. Rebecca grabs a useful level weakening a Cavalier while Guy gets an equally good level killing a random enemy. Forgot to screenshot his first level, but it was skill, speed, and resistance. An Archer is cornered for Guy to wail away on for some easy experience. Meanwhile, a Cavalier came to harass the party. Eliwood isn't standing for this crap and sends him packing. Guy's levels while he cut the Archer down to size. Not bad at all. Grabbed another Iron Sword from the shop here. Granted, the boss is on a gate and thusly has 28 effective defense, but he's not doubling anyone anytime soon. Try as he might, the boss couldn't dodge Hector's attacks all day and he eventually went down. Hector's close to ramming into that defense cap which is good. On to 13x after everyone grinds up support points. Now, you'd expect that protecting Merlinus would be a pain in the ass on 13x. You'd be correct, but... Alice is back, taking Merlinus's spot. While she's not quite as capable of killing things as she was in chapter 4, she's still has her uses here. Anyways, most everyone is going to try pushing north and get close to the boss. Meanwhile, Isadora is going to block the western passage and Guy the southern one for a bit. Quite a few enemies coming from each direction there. Eliwood gets this attacking a Myrmidon. Guy failing to critical twice, yay. Meredia hits this village up, and for good reason. She literally has to fly out here right away if you don't want to see it get destroyed by the 2nd turn. After that, she's mostly useless for the next few turns due to lots of Archers & Nomads. Guy failing to comprehend the meaning of dodging a deathblow. At this point, I realized I wasn't going to be able to deal with the boss in a timely manner with all the rabble around, thusly I restarted the chapter. Eliwood gets a more useful level this time. Ok, might actually get somewhere this attempt, assuming half the enemy army doesn't turn into a meatshield wall of doom. Ok, looks a bit messy, but perhaps Matthew will eventually be able to do something up northwest? Nope! He's going to need Guy up here for his support bonus so restart time once again! This time, I'm smart and rig a critical hit to blow a Myrmidon away. Precious resistance! Ok, much better situation here. Eliwood's blocking the bridge going east and Guy's coming up to boost Matthew's chances of survival. Guy doesn't kill this Mercenary, but he gets a damn good level for his efforts. Also, I think he's gotten resistance on all but one of his level ups. Amusing. Alrighty, this is pretty much the best shot I'm going to have at luring the boss in. Guy kills the Mercenary he attacked last turn and everyone else does something or whatever. This is why I needed Guy up here to help Matthew. Yes, the fucker has an Angelic Robe that he'll drop, but good luck surviving a round of combat with him unless you have defense up the ass and don't get criticaled. Did I mention the boss is using a Brave Sword? Because he is. Isadora moves here now to keep Serra safe on that side. *Insert Price Is Right loser horn theme here* Last turn and Matthew, while not having a good chance to try stealing the Angelic Robe due to needing to patch up with the assistance of Serra, did weaken the boss with the help of Alice. Rebecca chips in a bit as does Meredia, putting the boss low enough for Eliwood to come in and make the kill. Afterwards, just needed to make sure all my blockers had enough hp to weather the final enemy phase and 13x is over with. Death Count: Bartre (1), Rebecca (1), Matthew (2), Guy (1), Dorcas (1) Next time: Catwoman perhaps? [spoiler=Growths & Comments (Guy)] Guy's growths: Hp: 70% Luk: 45% Str: 40% Def: 25% Skl: 55% Res: 30% Spd: 75% Unbelievable. A vanilla character that didn't get hit with a giant spiked nerf bat. Pretty good all around, but watch out for his defensive growths.

Alrighty, another update coming your way with...good god, chapter 12. This chapter can go die in a car fire for all I care. [spoiler=ch12: How is this FAIR ?!?] Well, this chapter is...a thing. Before getting into the meat of it, we've got a ton of fresh units that have joined, two of which are special. Well now, look who's decided to join early. Standing in for Marcus is none other than Isadora. She wasn't anything useful in vanilla, but here...hoo boy, watch out when she can start gaining some easy levels because her growths...good god her growths. Her lowest is defense...at 55%. FE7if is an odd beast when it decides what vanilla characters get to rock and which get to suck. She does have one weakness though...that con. She's going to get slowed down using almost anything better than an Iron Sword. Still, she can take a couple hits or pick on targets from range with her Light Brand. The other new recruit of interest is this one, taking the place of Oswin. Her name is Meredia and she's a most welcome addition to Hector's army simply because she's a flyer. While her growths aren't sky high like Isadora's, they're still damn good. Only sub-50% growths are defense (45%) and resistance (35%). She can also promote later, an interesting twist considering most new characters don't promote. Also, take note of her speed & move. Her speed is getting boosted by 5 thanks to her personal weapon which has 1-2 range and lots of uses. As for that move...10. Pretty awesome, that's for sure. Now, for the vanilla crew. First up, the final lord of the game, Eliwood. If Lyn was skewed toward speed & luck and Hector strength & defense, Eliwood takes the middle ground. While you might think that makes him weak, that's far from the truth. His growths are very close to that of Meredia's, just with less defense & resistance growth. He also has his Rapier which boosts his defense by 5 while it's equipped, meaning he could potentially be as good of a physical tank as Hector if he gets enough defense from level ups. As for the other one, it's Bartre, a Fighter much like Dorcas. His growths are quite close to that of Dorcas as well, trading in a bit of strength & defense growths for more stable skill/speed/luck growths. Toss in the usual quickened exp gain for Fighters and he will be a godsend once he has some levels under his belt. Then, we have the token "Dammit FE7if why do WE have to get screwed over?" characters, Lowen & Rebecca. Lowen's growths are rather bad across the board aside from hp & defense while Rebecca has crap for defense and low con (She takes a -3 AS penalty using an Iron Bow. Yeah). Even though they will get auto benched once Lyn's team pours back in, it's all hands on deck until that time so those two are getting trained. Also returning is Serra & Dorcas. Serra is up with Hector's team while Dorcas is down with Eliwood's team. Now, what am I up against? Uh...oh dear, oh dear. I like how several of my party members can get doubled by some of the enemies here. Also, note the Pegasus Knight. There are ~5-6 of them on the map, some of them having 8 con. Enemies having freaking CON growths? Apparently, says FE7if. Do I dare ask what the boss is like? ...I think this is the part where I cursed the name of FE7if for the first time. I'm not going to complain about the 67 hp, but rather the absurd stats. Basically, he crits someone and they're likely dead in one hit, even Hector if his defense growth has failed him even in the slightest. Did I mention that speed? Even though that Steel Axe is giving him a -3 AS penalty, he can still double two thirds of my army. Want to know what's worse? This asshole MOVES. Not right away, but after a couple turns rather. Still, if he feels like going south, things can and probably will go to hell in a handbasket. ...Ok, so I probably brought this on myself by selecting Hard Mode, but still...did the hack creators consider BALANCE when dealing with this chapter? Evidently not! Gotta love shitty hit rates because of balance fuck ups, don't you? Luckily, Rebecca hits. As for strategy, Meredia rescues Serra and brings her south where she will be sorely needed for her healing services. Hector is distracting enemies up north with Matthew hiding out in a forest should any random enemies head his way. Meanwhile, Dorcas is in a fort fending off a Brigand & Archer with Bartre luring in a Pegasus Knight for Rebecca to shoot at (seen above). Don't you love getting doubled? Luckily, Eliwood lands his blow. Ok, this should be fine. Archer shouldn't be able to kill anyone. Meredia's here to try baiting the Mercenary over her way to take some pressure off Hector (who's tanking like a champ by the way). Balance? Who needs that? Not this hack! Meredia's baiting plan works, even getting a crit in the process. Hector levels while continuing to tank like a beast. That's the good news. The bad news is that balance is still out the window and Bartre kicks off from being doubled by the Archer. Good thing I'm save stating periodically and reloaded it. Meredia didn't get her crit again sadly, but at least Bartre survived this time. Hector re-gets his level. Archer boxed in, meaning Bartre can rake in some sweet experience once things die down. Ow. Isadora got roughed up something fierce here. She'll live though. Unlike this girl. This guy at least knows how to survive a deathblow. Good for Bartre! While you don't see it here, the boss has started moving south. Great. Luckily, I can fix this, hence Meredia picking up Hector and flying south. Rebecca & Bartre work together to drop the pesky flyer with Bartre getting his first level. Not too bad, but FE7if demands speed & defense sir. Eliwood finally claws his way to a first level. Speed! Isadora breaks out her Light Brand to greatly weaken a Brigand while Matthew uses an Elixir in preparation to take the boss's incoming attack (That's him next to Matthew's hp bar there). Boss hurts like a train. Bartre begins his leveling career in earnest against the poor blocked off Archer. Matthew has lower defense and can't counterattack you idiot, act like a good derpy Fire Emblem AI unit and beat up on the poor Thief! Alright. Now, what's going to happen here is that Matthew is going to sit on a fort and break the boss's Steel Axe because I need to boss abuse. Yeah, I'm not putting up with this imbalanced crap and I'm going to make my army competent. Anyways, Matthew can take two hits back to back no problem. Three hits in a row (Hit rate was like 33-38% or so weaponless?) will kill him though. Like so. Magical rewind button go! That took awhile. To boot, he's an asshole without a weapon on as he is almost impossible to get onto a fort when that happens, hence why I need his last hit of his Steel Axe to occur while on said fort. He's surrounded now though and primed for grinding. Getting Bartre to 20 wasn't that hard actually. He got 30-40 exp per hit, meaning he could complete his training with only one weapon. Others, like this guy, couldn't do that due to only getting 10-20 exp at best per hit and had to settle for lv10-12. Eliwood doesn't mind though. He did need a use of Dorcas's Energy Ring to do any damage to the boss on the fort though. Isadora only gets like 5 exp a hit sadly so this is all she could get besides Swords-A. The sooner she can hit Swords-S, the better. Offensive stats still a bit under par, but her defense is quite good. These two got their training in last. Because I didn't want to burn any more Energy Ring uses, I let the boss off his fort once everyone else was done training and let them plink at the boss until he was near death. Lowen's got alright defense while Rebecca is stacked up on speed to offset her weapon weights a little. Here's hoping they can get some more speed or defense in the upcoming chapters. Weapon shop! I sold a Lockpick & Blue Gem to get 12,000 gold, then used a portion of the funds to get an Iron Sword & Axe (this was taken post purchasing spree). As for the village on this map? It has a Secret Book. The usual 3 use and +1 stat boost per use deal here. Everyone's done training and getting supports up and firing (Bartre & Dorcas have a C support, Lowen & Rebecca likewise have a C support, and Eliwood has C supports with Hector & Meredia), so Hector finally ends the life of the punching bag boss and this stupidly imbalanced chapter comes to a close. Death Count: Bartre (1), Rebecca (1), Matthew (1) Next time: Something not as bullshit hard, yay! [spoiler= Growths & Comments (Isadora, Meredia, Eliwood, Bartre, Lowen, Rebecca)] Isadora's growths: Hp: 95% Luk: 75% Str: 65% Def: 55% Skl: 60% Res: 65% Spd: 70% Shocking, a vanilla non-lord character that got BUFFED. Granted, her terrible con is going to hamper her early on as well as her low exp gain until the midpoint of the game, but she'll be rocking the house when that comes to pass, no questions asked. Meredia's growths: Hp: 80% Luk: 55% Str: 50% Def: 45% Skl: 55% Res: 35% Spd: 60% Not quite as solid growths as Isadora, but still damned good. She can even promote later and continue amassing large quantities of stats. A bit of a slow start, but she's a solid unit as FE7if wants. Eliwood's growths: Hp: 85% Luk: 60% Str: 50% Def: 35% Skl: 55% Res: 30% Spd: 55% Nearly identical growths compared to Meredia, just with switched speed/luck growths and Eliwood having lower defense/resistance growths. A promotion in his future also helps things. Bartre's growths: Hp: 105% Luk: 35% Str: 70% Def: 35% Skl: 40% Res: 30% Spd: 35% Better than Dorcas stat wise. Slightly less strength & defense growths alongside one less point of con, but much more stable skill/speed/luck growths as a result. Quickened exp gains thanks to being a Fighter help too. Lowen's growths: Hp: 100% Luk: 45% Str: 30% Def: 55% Skl: 40% Res: 30% Spd: 25% Just awful, plain and simple. Only hp & defense, arguably resistance, are the decent growths. Even better when considering he's going to be ousted after Sain & Kent return. Rebecca's growths: Hp: 65% Luk: 50% Str: 30% Def: 20% Skl: 75% Res: 55% Spd: 60% Granted, she will get ousted when Wil returns and her con is terrible, but she has a bit more utility than Lowen simply because nobody else is capable of using bows until that time comes to pass. Just watch out for her awful defense and hope she doesn't get strength screwed with a growth like that.

Well, time to get the next leg of this stupid adventure underway. [spoiler=Ch11: Hector's quest begins...and it's a painful one] It begins. If you thought FE7if wasn't bullshit enough yet, it's about to get worse. MUCH worse. While Matthew's back here with the same stats he had in Lyn's story and fresh equipment (Iron Sword, Lockpick, Vulneraries), this guy is the real star of the show. This is Hector and he's pretty awesome. Solid bases besides having no resistance to speak of (That +5 is being provided by his Wolf Beil). Growths are rather min-maxed...namely, hp, strength, and defense are his best. The rest are low, but not stupidly so. Now then, things start out rather...ominously. Like so. That's not every enemy on the map, but still, FE7if just decided to ramp everything up more. I think hard mode adds something like +6 hp and +2-3 to almost all stats, maybe more, compared to this map on normal mode (and all future Hector Mode maps I presume). Here's another problem. This particular Thief is going to bolt for the door just south of the chest, open it, try to claim the chest, then probably open more doors or book it. First, I don't want that chest being swiped. Secondly, that just lets in more enemies to make this a slog. Situation on turn 2. Matthew's opened up the treasure room while Hector is walling up against the Soldier & Archer. So long as the Archer doesn't get any ideas about doing bullshit criticals, things shouldn't get out of control. Hector may only be hitting once, but it's decent damage (you suck 46 hp Soldier. Why couldn't you have had 1 less hp?). His defense also means he can tank surprisingly well here, provided he doesn't get swarmed by 3+ enemies at once. Hector takes Matthew's Vulneraries to heal up while Matthew rushes south to meet with the Thief and lift his Lockpick from him. That's 7250 gold for the pile which is always nice. Said Thief suicided on Matthew in the following enemy phase like an idiot. This is why having a well trained Matthew pays off. He can keep the heat off Hector who'll be plinking away at enemies to slowly increase his level. Archers are still stupid it seems. It went here to attack Hector, not aware that Hector could move one square south and box him in, rendering him toothless. Hector decides to punish the idiot Archer by critting his face to the moon and getting a solid first level up. Slight forewarning...I might have to rig a couple level ups for Hector so his speed doesn't suck. Trust me, FE7if gets bullshit enough to force my hand on this. Not that I did it on this one mind you, but something to keep in mind. Hector's in a good position now, able to wall off the enemies coming from the south and grab a level with more defense. Just as important for him as speed is to be honest. Gotta love the smell of fresh lured in Archer in the morning. I want to say that this level was rig'd up. Only one more was like that this map and it was at the boss. This Archer makes for good training material for Hector. He'll keep using those Vulneraries when he gets low on hp, meaning more chip experience for Hector (Think he gets around 10 exp or so per hit, 25-30 for a kill at this stage). Hector's last level before the boss. No, I didn't rig that one up. Hector was just awesome enough to get that on his own. Meanwhile, Matthew loots that chest, netting a Blue Gem that sells for 5000 gold. Between that and the Lockpick, I've got 12,250 gold in the war chest. Not bad at all! The boss isn't anything to write home about. He has an Iron Lance & Vulneraries. That means Hector gets to use his Hand Axe until it breaks, gaining a bunch of levels in the progress (Remember, Hector's only getting about 10 exp per hit on the boss and maybe...70+ exp for the boss kill). Considering Hector's speed cap is 15 (WHY), he's well on his way to almost ramming into it. Fun fact...the last use of the Hand Axe killed the boss (which is when Hector got that last level up). Timed perfectly, heh. Next time: How FE7if makes things even worse [spoiler=Growths & Comments (Hector)] Hector's growths: Hp: 100% Luk: 30% Str: 70% Def: 75% Skl: 30% Res: 25% Spd: 35% Not much really needs to be said. Hector's still a knight in lord's clothing and it serves him well early on, making him into a solid defensive wall that hits hard. He just needs to get some early skill & speed and he'll do well...for now.

Time to wrap up Lyn's story! [spoiler=ch8-10: Lyn's story conclusion] Chapter 8 starts out easily enough. The majority of the enemy units are going to come from the south, trying to pass through that narrow passageway with all the forests on the west side. Also, take note of the ballista and the village. The ballista is basically saying "GTFO Florina" until its ammo is depleted while the village has a Lancereaver, a sword that is effective on lances and has double bonuses for a weapon type advantage or disadvantage, namely 6 Mt and 20 Hit. Anyways...guess who's going to run interference and stall most of the enemies coming from the south? Nils. With his massive evasion in a forest, there's maybe one enemy that could hit him in a forest... This guy. Even then, good luck hitting the kid. Opening salvo of levels goes to Dorcas & Wil as they weaken a Mage coming in from the east. Both are good simply because it features speed, a stat both of them sorely need. Dorcas gets bonus points for getting defense & luck, among other things. Serra got nailed by a ballista bolt during the first enemy phase, then the Mage & Shaman decide that instead of a chance to do actual damage to Wil or Dorcas, they attack Serra. Fire Emblem AI: The AI stands for Artificial Idiocy! Not much to say for the challenge of the map. Sain or Kent take Nils' place in a forest when they're ready and start killing things to get to lv10 at least while Wil takes potshots and Serra heal spams. Once Sain & Kent have hit lv10, any enemies not yet dead before the bridges leading to the boss get axed to death courtesy of Dorcas. So long as his strength & defense continue to rise, I'll be satisfied. Couple things to note...some Cavaliers can use bows, meaning you'll need to check weapons closely if any approach so you don't accidentally make your flier an arrow pincushion. Also, those lockpicks. Yeah, a pristine 30 use one sells for 7500 gold. These two and that Fire tome (dropped by the sole Mage) put me over 20k gold. You'll want to watch out for the Mercenary/Soldier/Brigand combo here. Each one carries a reaver type weapon and can easily gank you if you rush in recklessly. Nils runs over the bridges to the one leading west to some forts to lure the Mercenary his way, making it easy to drop him without luring in the Soldier too. Dorcas proceeds to remove most of the Mercenary's hp for a level that has speed while Sain gets whammied. That is precisely why you don't want to have a weapon type disadvantage against a reaver using enemy, especially if you have low luck. Not that Sain's luck is bad, but still. Of course, Sain wants to make sure such an event isn't as likely to happen again. Can't say I blame him. Not much to say about the boss besides a reaver weapon and high defense. Taking him out from range would be ideal if you can do even 2-3 damage a hit because he's probably one shotting half your army if his attack goes critical. Another wave of levels thinning the herd some. Lyn does her usual business with killing bosses and gets strength. Nice! Chapter 9 time. Right at the start, a new unit joins, Wallace. Continuing the proud FE7if tradition of neutering vanilla characters, he has a big fat 0 for speed...and a 0% speed growth too. While this does makes him useless, he's not for this chapter and most of the next one for one reason...a massive defense score, meaning the chapter 9 & 10 bosses are likely going to be the only ones aside from spellcasters that can actually harm him heavily. Also, note the Knight Crest in his inventory. This is one reason I wanted to do Lyn Hard Mode as I can toss that Sain's way when he hits lv20 this map. Yes, he's going to do that. In the meantime though... Basically, Wallace is going to be a giant armored blockade for the southern bridge and a weaponless Ash for the northern pass. Matthew is going to weaken Brigands coming from the southwest fort so Wil, Kent, or even Sain can pick up kills for easy experience. Alternatively, send a rampaging Dorcas to shame 3/4ths of the northern pass forces since he still gets like 40+ exp a kill, even at lv15+. That works too. Wil taking 0 damage for the win. Granted, it was an Archer, but still. Between some earlier enemies and some of the last batch by Wallace, Wil picked up enough levels this chapter to hit lv20 and used that Orion's Bolt next chance he had to promote. As you can see, promotion bonuses got a massive boost. Sadly luck still got shafted in getting any kind of bonus, but whatever, that's a pretty damn good promotion for Wil, especially the +7 speed and +5 defense. He's almost as tanky as Wallace. Amusing. Matthew taking some steps to correct that low luck of his a bit and get some extra defense on his way to hitting lv20. Looking pretty good, all things considered. See that Cavalier? It was going into the mist to heal up at a fort, then coming back for more beat 'em up sessions, hence why Matthew was able to reach lv20 so easily. Sain was abusing this Cavalier for awhile too...until he randomly critted her. Oh well, I have plan B for getting him up to par. Hello plan B! Bosses are getting steadily more ridiculous with their stats, but his weaponry leaves a bit to be desired, even if it's ranged equipment. That Javelin of his? It has 22 Wt. FE7if sure doesn't want non-bow based units doubling very often, if at all. Still, Wallace is going to drain all of his weapon uses, getting help from Kent & Florina to shuttle him to a nearby fort for easy healing as needed. Didn't take long to be honest. Sain took some time to grind on the boss, easily hitting lv20 and promoting. Lacking a bit in skill, but otherwise he's doing good. Dorcas took some boss abuse grinding time as well to hit 20. It'll be quite some time before he gets a chance to promote though. The usual boss kill for Lyn, though note that damage. She'll need to keep getting strength here if she doesn't want to turn into a liability for boss slayings which, if that level is to go by, is going to be no problem for her. Her strength caps low (15), so it's reasonable to assume she could reach it or come close. Chapter 10! Easy enough chapter before the boss. The enemies don't pose much of a threat, but there's this village Florina's booking it towards. There's a Brigand that can reach this village and destroy it which I don't want to happen. Luckily, the periodic rain storms work in her favor, reducing the movement rate of all units except fliers, meaning she's in no danger here, able to slip in the next turn, grab the Energy Ring, then bolt back to the team with no danger to herself. Thanks to a bit of abuse on a Knight while it was standing on a fort, Kent was able to hit lv20 and promote shortly before the boss. The ridiculous stats just keep getting higher and higher and EVEN HIGHER! Oh yeah, he's also an actual threat. Those silver weapons hurt like hell. So much so that I can't even risk using Wallace to drain his weapon uses with as the crit risk is just too high. More overpriced equipment (Heal staves for 9000 gold, really). After all of the bosses weapons were depleted (Needed a Heal staff so the process wouldn't take over an hour with Sain taking the blows), I aimed to get everyone that was promoted to at least lv10 or close to it. Everyone else not promoted went for lv20 (mainly Serra). Yeah, it was 5-7 exp a hit for the promoted gang, but whatever, I'm going to need some strong units later, trust me. The unpromoted crew. Matthew likely will never promote since his replacement is going to blow him out of the water stat wise. Serra is in the same boat too. Dorcas though? He's getting a promotion once I run across the Hero's Crest to promote him. He's a central figure in my army for a good portion of the game. Also, Lyn was doing well enough with her strength growth that I threw all 3 uses of the Energy Ring to Matthew. He could use all the extra help he can get in chapter 11. The red/green cavalier duo finally has some stat differentials between them. Sain's very strong and able to stuff criticals pretty damn well, but Kent is very fast and much more accurate. Once supports open up, those two are going to form one so they can kill more effectively. Wil capped skill as expected and is doing pretty well otherwise, getting a rush of resistance levels late to help shore up that weakness of his a bit. Ash even got in on some leveling himself. Not much luck, but that's ok. Everything else is much more important for him right now. That's everyone...actually wait, isn't there one person left? Oh yeah, Ms. Boss Slayer. She needed some Armorslayers from the shop to do any damage once her Mani Katti ran out, but she managed to hit lv20. That'll help her in her return later in the game. Next time: "But know this - about you, and this purgatory from which you long to escape... ... you're merely at the threshold." [spoiler=Growths & Comments (Wallace)] Wallace's growths: Hp: 100% Luk: 60% Str: 65% Def: 70% Skl: 65% Res: 50% Spd: 0% Well, FE7if dun fucked up another vanilla character! Even then though, Wallace wouldn't be useful long term. Low movement, low speed cap for Generals (21 I believe). Lovely.

Yup. Characters from the base game are basically tossed aside as mildly useful at best (Lyn and, to a lesser extent, Dorcas). To prove that even more, here's another update. [spoiler= ch7 & 7x: Boss abuse time!] The usual new character joining regiment. First up is Nils who's gotten a buff for one simple reason...he can use staves. Granted, his magic caps very low (10), but it means he can do some backup healing if he so desires with that Mend staff (User's magic + 20 hp restored to an adjacent target). Of course, he still has his ability to grant an adjacent target an extra turn. He'll be getting boosted to lv20 next chapter. Yeah, you heard me right. There's still one more character that joins though. It's not Lucius sadly, but knowing the hack creators, they'd gimp him to hell and back somehow. FE7if is going to drill one thing into your brain...new characters are basically god tier units. Enter into this new character, Ash, who I swear has an ugly black outline on his portrait. His bases are pretty solid and he has a personal weapon that has 1-2 range and boosts his defense by 5. His growths though? His lowest is luck...at 40%. Everything else is higher than that. Much higher. You'll see when I talk about his growths later. Time to dive into the map. Since I need to clear it quickly to reach 7x, Florina is going to shuttle Ash to a small island west of the boss where he'll sit until I'm ready to push forward. Florina will then go back and rescue Lyn to bring her to Ash, just so I possibly can dump exp on someone that might benefit from it. During that time, everyone else is going to push east and start killing enemies. Sain here feels like turning his sword into a boomerang to instantly slay an Archer and gets a typical Sain level for his efforts. Better than Kent's screwed up scythe-related level, that's for sure. Just to give you an idea what some enemies are like stat wise at this point. High skill, high speed Mercenaries are lovely, that's for sure. Rest of the map is boring (besides a few magic casting enemies making a debut), so have some levels. Matthew's share from this chapter caps his speed and nets him another point of strength. Last pair of levels gained this map. Dorcas gets an...odd stat, given his usual growths, while Serra gets a good one since it had defense. After that village in the northeast is visited (Holy Water get), Ash begins to crawl east, running into a female Druid before ramming into the main boss of this chapter. This one is nasty because, of course, on a gate for lovely evade boosts, but more importantly his stats. He's got a decent chance to crit and nobody outside of Lyn & Ash can easily survive a critical unless a use of Holy Water is applied. Worse yet, his defense is high enough that Lyn can't easily solo the boss by herself. Thankfully though, Ash's unique weapon doubles the boss and does good damage. Once Serra gets over to him to act as his healer, he has no problem killing the boss, getting roughly half a level's worth of experience for the effort as the team goes on to 7x. Team for chapter 7x. Erk & Rath sit out once again (They did so last map too). Starts out simple enough. Matthew, Ash, and Nils are going to book it for the treasure room since a Thief is going to get in there after a few turns otherwise and loot the chest which has a Hammer. Meanwhile, everyone else will clean house up the only other two routes going north. Soldiers aren't very exciting aside from the usual absurd hp level, the highest of any non-boss unit here. Wil kicks off the festivites by planting an arrow in the Soldier's face and getting a damn good level. Strength & speed are already great as is plus yet more defense. More importantly, that one point of strength is going to allow him to get some mad experience come boss time. Soldier begins breaking through a wall I'm pretty sure every single male Soldier & Cavalier cringe when they have to go into battle, mainly because of this happening. An Archer with silly delusions of trying to harm Ash can't even damage him. Ash makes him think twice and kills him with the power of shinies. Wil consumes a use of the Holy Water, just in case the Mage attacks him again on the next phase (he doesn't, opting to attack Kent instead). Matthew intercepts the Thief and steals his Lockpick. This will be worth something later, trust me. And another male goes down in painful fashion like the Soldier. Matthew tries to kill the Thief with the help of Nils, but can't crit and thusly he's going to turn tail and run away from the map. Can't blame him. Meanwhile, Dorcas & Kent are going up the central path when a Brigand comes to play. I wanted Dorcas to weaken the Brigand so Kent could pick up a kill, but Dorcas was intent on pulling a crit out of his ass to one shot the poor sucker. Fine by me I guess. Some level ups while people are cleaning house all over the map. No complaints here (though Kent MIGHT want to get some speed soon unless he feels like forcing my hand in rigging level ups to include that). One Mage isn't having any luck trying to hit Nils. Same goes for a Shaman not seen in screenshots once the Mage dies by Matthew's hand. Matthew getting more defense. Always good. Only the boss left now. Built pretty much like the lowly Mercenaries with that high skill score, meaning a crit from him is likely killing half your team in one shot or close to it. On the plus side? He's got an Orion's Bolt he forks over when he kicks off. Wil's going to like that, especially when he's about to get mad exp. You see, that one point of strength he got earlier is just enough to let him do 1 damage a hit with his Iron Bow. First thing's first...Ash comes in weaponless to drain the uses of the boss's Hand Axe with Serra healing him as needed and Nils dancing for exp. Once that goes kaput, Wil comes in to begin his training spree. Once the boss reaches a point where any hit from Wil would kill him, Nils goes into dancing king mode until he hits lv20. The results? Wil has the highest defense of the army right now, Nils is doing fine for what I want from him (too bad he didn't cap speed), and Serra got some precious hp & defense, among other things. Lyn comes in to get her usual boss kill, doing some nice evasion tactics and overkilling the boss for a solid level with more defense in it. Strength is a bit weak, but that can be fixed in a few chapters. Next time: Lyn's story concludes! [spoiler=Growths & Comments (Nils, Ash)] Nils' growths: Hp: 45% Luk: 110% Mag: 25% Def: 20% Skl: 20% Res: 95% Spd: 85% Not much needs to be said about Nils. Yeah, his hp & defense aren't going to amount to much, but his evasion is going to skyrocket, making him a nice way to bait out low accuracy enemies. He also happens to have a high resistance growth, making him useful for baiting out dangerous mages. Ash's growths: Hp: 120% Luk: 40% Str: 80% Def: 50% Skl: 70% Res: 50% Spd: 60% Yeah, Ash sets a gold standard for all new/special characters that join the team. His lowest is luck, and even then, that's an acceptable growth for most vanilla characters. He'll need some levels when the game really gets serious, but he'll pull through with those growths, no questions asked. Always a mainstay of my endgame team (Though that's just as easily due to FE7if wanting you to use the new characters, heh).

Yeah, I'm the same guy that did a video LP of this hack back some time ago. There's a lovely story behind that one, but I'll get to it when we get there. Also...yes, I'm the rabid Rex fan. My avatar? That's Rex from TLP (Though I call him Captain Rex just because). With that, might as well drop another update here. Sooner I can finish Lyn's story, the better. [spoiler=ch4-6: New characters and how not to balance old characters] Jumping into chapter 4, we see one very silly change. For whatever reason, the hack creators felt it necessary to limit the movement of fliers inside buildings like this one. It's rather stupid, but not the stupidest thing this hack does. In the meantime...aren't we supposed to be protecting a green army unit here? This would be the first instance of new characters getting added into the hack. This one would be Alice and, well...I don't think she needs protecting, do you? Granted, there's still a chance she could be taken out... That would be due to this asshole trio. As you can see, these three have some rather high stats, especially in skill, just so they can kick your ass better. The Mercenary uses a Steel Sword while the others use Iron Axes. Even then, It would take a huge effort by them and the others of the peanut gallery to take out Alice. She'd have to be around 20 or so hp before an enemy phase began to be at risk of dying. Now, while I could wall up at the start and let the rest of the non overtuned enemies come crashing against my party, the boss has something... Bog standard Brigand #whogivesadamn, but he's holding a Dragonshield. Only boosts defense by 1, but the catch is that it can be used three times, meaning one person could get +3 defense or you could spread the uses amongst a few characters. As such, he needs to die in 7 turns. One problem though...how do I not invoke the wrath of the asshole trio? Simple! Basically, Kent equips his Iron Sword, then rescues Alice and puts himself just below that central inner chamber. Florina takes Alice from Kent and places her where you see her in that screenshot, then moves a bit east. Lyn, Wil, and Sain go out the east exit to await the enemies on that side. Lyn equips her Mani Katti before this turn ended. There's a wall, but it folds instantly thanks to a member of the asshole trio. As the enemy phase begins, one Brigand attacks Kent, but thankfully not from the asshole trio so he survives easily. On the east side, Lyn dodges an attack from an interesting fellow, one she can recruit on the next turn. Sain also trades blows with a Brigand in the northeast. Easy enough, wasn't it? Anyways, this is Dorcas, a unit I'm going to rely on heavily after Lyn's story concludes. He's got pretty solid bases to work with. As for growths, despite that speed base, his growth there is bad, but at least for now, it won't be a huge deal. He's just looking for his levels to provide strength, skill, and defense at a bare minimum. Also, that Hand Axe of his? It has 20 Wt. That's...silly. Oh whatever, let's keep going on here. Sain smacks the Brigand he started with on the enemy phase, then Dorcas tries to kill him, but misses, forcing Wil to come in and deal the killing blow, netting him this level with some badly needed speed. The Brigand drops an Iron Axe which is going to Dorcas on the next turn. Everybody else starts to file out through the eastern exit before the next enemy phase begins. Florina takes Dorcas's Hand Axe from him because he's in range of a Brigand and I don't want him getting doubled by it. One of the asshole trio members finds Alice. She is not amused (that's the beginning of her crit animation). Between that hit and her next one, this Pirate goes down to 18 hp. She then decides to nuke & kill the poor Brigand that Kent weakened on the first enemy phase. Turn 3 kicks off with Lyn smacking this poor Archer with a crit. Too bad that first hit wasn't a crit too or this one would be dead. Slight problem here...that Brigand by my team on the east side could pose a threat, but there's also that Archer down south and I need one of them dead this turn. Wil damages the Brigand, Kent follows with a hit of his own and Dorcas... ...kills the Brigand, despite the shaky odds. Take note of that exp bar of his...that was all after ONE kill. If he got a non killing blow in, that would have been roughly 30 exp. Dorcas levels fast as hell thanks to this. Turns keep advancing with Florina finally dropping that Mercenary that appeared in the northeast (Sain boxed him in during that time). Sain's down here to weaken this Brigand. Kent manages to get the kill, picking up some precious luck and more strength in the process. Meanwhile, near the boss, Lyn offs a Brigand for a pretty good level. More strength! Dorcas grabs his first level killing one of the Mercenary reinforcements from the northeast with the help of Florina and the cavs. Not the best, but hell, it's strength. Better than resistance. Also, his hp growth is 100% so he will always be getting a point of hp per level. It took some effort, but between Wil & Lyn, the boss fell in a couple turns with Lyn getting yet another good level, netting that Dragonshield in the process. After this, not much happens besides grabbing some minor experience wherever it could be found before the final turn. As for Alice? She wiped out the asshole trio. Used a few Vulneraries, but whatever, she didn't mind. Onto chapter 5! Right away, Lyn gets to recruit two new units, Serra & Erk. The hack did something to each character that is utterly stupid. For Erk, you see that 0 skill? Hello having 60-70 hit rates against enemies...and that's BEFORE forests or terrain boosting crap. As such, he's going to attack a bit early on, then fade into mediocrity after that. My complaint for Serra goes right to her hp growth...30%. What in the seven hells did the hack creators do that for, seriously? Someone must have played TearRing Saga and thought that'd be a good idea for her. I think they should be smacked royally for days on end, but that's another story. Even so, Serra's still a welcome addition to the team because of her Heal staff, healing (user's magic + 10) to an adjacent target. Sain gets the first level finishing off an Archer that Erk weakened. Any skill that Sain gets is welcomed, given his low growth there. Wil follows suit weakening a Brigand that attacked Kent. This guy wants to tank, that's for damn sure. Wanted to finish off a Mercenary and Florina was the only one that could easily do it before the enemy phase. I let her since she could gain a level and...well, I think she wants me to give her a bit of training so she's somewhat useful later on if this is anything to go off of. I think Kent's still paying for that crit he did with his half assed attempt at a scythe back a few chapters ago. Serra then follows up with healing him and, thanks to her healing any damage other units took, gains her first level. So long as she's getting magic, I'm satisfied. A very typical Sain level comes after he kills an Archer in the northeast. The Brigand that starts near this Archer also drops an Iron Sword when killed. Oh hi boss that doesn't move and only has a 1 range weapon. I hear you and the chapter 3 boss are best buddies. Well sorry, your idiot buddy got cheesed to death and so will you. These two use their ranged weaponry to nab some easy free experience. No complaints here. Weaponry shop with even more stupidly overpriced crap. Erk's Fire tome gets sold as well as a pack of Vulneraries to buy an Iron Bow because eh, I felt like it. Lyn gets her usual boss kill and level up to close out the chapter. Chapter 6 time! First of the new recruits for the chapter. Rath certainly starts out well enough with decent offensive growths. The problem arises once Lyn's story concludes. He then disappears for a huge chunk of the game, only coming back when the enemies will greatly outpace him. As such, you need to decide now if you want to grind him up, something I'm not doing because of... ...This. Matthew's got workable bases, but the issue at hand here is that I need him up to par when Lyn's story concludes so he can help someone with fighting. The more strength & defense he gets, the better, though speed aplenty is useful too. Basically, for this chapter, Matthew's going to lure enemies one at a time, killing them via counterattacks while Serra heals his wounds. Matthew's level ups during his training this chapter. Serra's level ups, including the one she got right after healing up units after the boss died at the end. Dorcas got a couple of level ups during this chapter too. One for weakening an Archer, the other abusing yet another melee only boss from range. Same level up both times, but worth it! There's a pair of chests in this chapter too which Matthew can open. One has an Armorslayer, the other an Angelic Robe (3 uses, +3 max hp per use). Lyn got every use of the Angelic Robe because nobody else is worthy enough of it. Oh yeah, and she gets her usual boss kill level up. Defense! Next time: Kids, another new character, and more boss abusing tactics! [spoiler=Growths & Comments (Dorcas, Serra, Erk, Rath, Matthew)] Dorcas's growths: Hp: 100% Luk: 30% Str: 75% Def: 40% Skl: 35% Res: 20% Spd: 25% Dorcas is another min-maxer like Sain. His Hp will never fail to grow and his strength & defense growths are solid, but he falters a bit everywhere else, especially speed. Might have to rig a few speed level ups if you want him to stay relevant (yes, this hack may require doing that if your level ups suck too much). Serra's growths: Hp: 30% Luk: 55% Mag: 60% Def: 20% Skl: 30% Res: 60% Spd: 55% What the hell hp growth? Why nerf THAT of all things for her, seriously? Oh, and I guess she's got a good magic growth. Seriously though...30% GODDAMNED HP GROWTH IS STUPID STUPID STUPIDDDDDDDDDDDDD (/end rant)! Erk's growths: Hp: 85% Luk: 20% Mag: 25% Def: 75% Skl: 40% Res: 45% Spd: 50% Erk's definitely an odd beast. Getting past his stupid 0 base skill, he has terrible magic growth, something mages want NEVER, yet his defense growth is stupid high. If he were leveled up, he'd be an interesting way to really disrupt the ranks of physical units. Rath's growths: Hp: 95% Luk: 25% Str: 45% Def: 25% Skl: 80% Res: 25% Spd: 55% Rath's growths aren't bad, but his late rejoining time after Lyn's story means you need to grind him up the moment he appears if you don't want him to be near useless when he does finally rejoin. Matthew's growths: Hp: 75% Luk: 35% Str: 35% Def: 25% Skl: 45% Res: 25% Spd: 80% Typical skewed Thief-like growths, but he'll be your only Thief for a good portion of the game so you'd better train him up!

Well, while I'm waiting for the final official version of FE7 Chaos Mode to come out, I might as well play through another FE hack while waiting. That's the good news. The bad news.... ...I'm playing THIS hack. This is FE7if, the infamous japanese hack. New music, "new" characters, difficulty boost, the works. Some of the stuff seen here is even stolen from the English community I believe. Granted, my memory is going to be cloudy on what exactly is stolen, but what I do know is the difficulty. Good lord the difficulty. We'll get to THAT as the game progresses. I intend to plow through Lyn's story within 3-4 updates, max, before the REAL bullcrap begins. As such, there will be very little in the way of talking about my battle actions during her story, just some explanations about a few things as we go along here. Ideally, I'd like to get out an update or two per day as I'm rarely busy during the day. With that...first update! [spoiler=Prologue to ch3: Where my sanity begins its slow decent into nothingness] Lyn Hard Mode go! I'm not one to sit through boring tutorials. Random blood type selection and my birth month (May) Actual changes are getting into play now. Besides weapons having more uses overall and rebalanced stats, characters are also changed. In Lyn's case here, she's still speedy as all hell, but her defenses need work. Thankfully, her growths have been increased something fierce...but of course, defense is her one bad growth. Not good! Of course, when characters get rebalanced, so too do the enemies, in particular hp. One thing this hack fucks up on is the fact everything merely has inflated stats. We'll be seeing enemies with massive hp pools much sooner than you think. Bosses get inflated too...although this poor sucker manages to be weaker overall than his cohort except for an extra point of hp. Anyways, nothing to really say about strategy here. Lyn parks her ass on a forest, lets the first Brigand come on over so she can tear him apart, then walks up to the boss and starts ending her turns. He can two shot Lyn. Like so. She'd have to get lucky as hell to not die if she were to attack herself. As such, she'll kill off the boss with counter attacks, using a Vulnerary to heal each time she's hit. Thank god Vulneraries are 5 uses and heals 15 hp per use as she needed three doses to put down the boss. First level up! Despite her low defense growth, she hits that and plenty others, making it a solid first level up. No strength sadly, but her cap there is rather low so there's plenty of time for that to catch up. That's the prologue complete. On to chapter 1 where two new party members join. Kent & Sain, the typical cav duo. One usually focuses on strength, the other skill & speed. Here though, that's a bit different. Sain still has his usual high strength & hp growths, but also has a equally high luck growth. Poor skill, speed, and lowish defensive growths though. For Kent, he's more balanced. That's usually asking for the RNG to come and own your poor character's ass in level ups. Also, that luck base makes him prone to getting crit early on. It might be only a 2-4% chance, but that can easily come up and bite you in the ass. Anyways, not much else to say about chapter 1. Everyone attacks from a forest when possible to minimize chances to be hit with Sain & Kent swapping their sole Iron Sword around so both can get in on some action. Sain grabs his first level fairly quickly. Can't argue about speed, simple as that. Bosses are pretty bland early on, not gonna lie. Weapon type advantages got changed too. It's +3 Mt & +10 Hit if you have the advantage against your opponent's weapon type. Anyways, Sain & Kent weaken the boss so Lyn can get the kill. She was hit by a Brigand earlier on and couldn't risk engaging the boss without using a Vulnerary first unless the others weakened said boss enough so she'd wipe him out in one hit. Kent picks up a decent first level weakening the boss. Of course, Lyn's happy to show him how a smoking good level up looks like. Chapter 1 down. Simple map. Lyn hands over her Iron Sword so the boys can rack up some easy experience here. Like so. Speed alone makes both of these level ups good as the duo will need a good 3-4 more speed than this to be doubling Brigands later on. Did I mention certain terrain got buffed bonuses. The fort's make sense, but holy christ those throne bonuses are insane. Sain grabs another level wiping out the last Brigand skulking about the temple. I think he's determined to get at least one non hp/str/luk oriented point in something per level with the way he's been going thus far. As for the boss...annoying all thanks to that asshole throne. Nobody's getting higher than 60 or so hit, if that, even with weapon type advantages. Thankfully, he's not all that powerful. Also, Kent can double him with an Iron Lance. He and Sain go at the boss, weakening him while stepping back to the forts as needed for health regen. Once he's low, Lyn comes in for the kill. Not the best, but still, more speed. Always important. That's chapter 2 wrapped up. Chapter 3 starts out with Lyn looking at her shiny new weapon... Lyn's Mani Katti is pretty good. Basically, a slightly weaker Killing Edge with 60 uses and boosting her speed by 5. She can double basically anyone now plus that extra avoid helps to cover for her low defense some. Chapter 3 also brings new recruits to the lineup. First, Florina. Her bases are pretty solid aside from defense and, to a lesser extent, hp. Growths though...while she has absurd amounts of speed growth (95%!), she has some problem areas, namely her awful strength growth. As such, I tend not to use her long term, but she's still good for being a flyer and thusly capable of shuttling people over mountains and other such terrain anyone can't cross on foot. Wil on the other hand has more use combat wise. Bases aren't too bad aside from no resistance (but no mages right now thankfully). Growths are fine as well aside from luck, defense, and resistance. Not much to be said for the strategy here. Florina flies north to visit the village (2000g), everyone else goes east, weakening enemies so Wil can get kills under his belt. Kent continues to get tankier and tankier. Signs you're an idiot: You're an enemy archer, there's TWO people without ranged weapons in your way, and you decide the best course of action is to attack the one person with a bow. Wil happily kills the stupid Archer on his counterattack and gets a quite acceptable first level as a result. Sain's holding up a chokepoint in a forest, weakening anything coming his way. He even gets a good level up out of it. This guy's gotten 3 speed in 4 levels with a 30% growth. Pretty awesome. Unlike this asshole. Kent's apparently capable of turning his spear into some gigantic ass scythe when he crits. The RNG gods are not amused sir. Lyn manages to reach the armory and...super expensive as all hell weapons. Real freaking cute game, sigh. Lyn sells a pack of Vulneraries (a pack of 5 sells for 1000g), then picks up an Iron Sword so Kent & Sain don't have to fight over a single sword anymore. As for the boss...he doesn't move, only attacking anyone right up in his face. Basically, he's telling Wil to kick his ass. Wil's first strike gives him...more defense? Sheesh, that's only a 25% growth there buddy. He continues to weaken the boss until Lyn can come in and finish the job. That's what I like to see girl, thank you. Next time: More "new" things this hack introduces! [spoiler= Growths & Comments (Lyn, Sain, Kent, Wil, Florina)] Lyn's growths: Hp: 75% Luk: 70% Str: 50% Def: 25% Skl: 75% Res: 45% Spd: 75% What else is there to say about one of the main characters? Besides that poor defense growth, she's solid everywhere else. Good for when the bullcrap starts to really ramp up. Sain's growths: Hp: 80% Luk: 65% Str: 60% Def: 25% Skl: 20% Res: 25% Spd: 30% Sain's definitely a min-maxer. Solid hp, strength, and luck, but poor otherwise. We'll be seeing people who have at least 40% minimum in defensive growths soon enough. Even then, he tends to stick around for a good portion of the game for me. Kent's growths: Hp: 85% Luk: 25% Str: 40% Def: 30% Skl: 45% Res: 25% Spd: 45% While Sain focuses on a few specific stats, Kent prefers to spread out his growths. Ok I guess, but he's prone to get RNG screwed easily. Florina's growths: Hp: 55% Luk: 40% Str: 25% Def: 20% Skl: 50% Res: 70% Spd: 95% Here's the problem with this girl...her speed growth is so absurd that her average expected speed at lv20 is 30.05, meaning a cap if she were in her promoted class. She's not and it's sucking points away from what she really needs, namely strength & defense. She's only useful to shuttle people around a big map as her task is for a flier, nothing more. Wil's growths: Hp: 75% Luk: 20% Str: 45% Def: 25% Skl: 80% Res: 25% Spd: 40% Like Florina, Wil has an absurdly high growth in one stat, his skill. He's not as worried about having low defensive growths due to wanting to stay away from melee combat as much as possible thanks to his bows. Sadly though, he can still be prone to the same kind of RNG screwing Kent's vulnerable to, namely in strength & speed, two stats you NEVER want to be screwed in.

Just one thing to note...taking a look at the spreadsheet I noticed an oddity. I'm pretty sure Matthew's strength isn't 20 to start, heh. Looks like something got messed up there. Other than that...grats on the new release! Been waiting for this update so I can start an LP of it within the next week or two.

Having quite a bit of fun with this hack so far. Currently up to chapter 24B (The Wallace chapter). One small bug I noticed...despite the Recover staff (full hp to an ally in range) saying it has 1-2 range, I can't target anyone that is injured with it whom is at 2 range, only if they're at 1 range. Finally...if you still need a save for the Wallace chapter, let me know. I can send mine your way.

Just finished playing through ver 1.2. Should have the last chapter stuff uploaded on my YT channel by tomorrow. I've gotta say, this hack is one of the best ones I've played in a long time. The story is amazing, the difficulty is just right, and the characters are likeable (Rya's probably my favorite right now). The sad thing is the wait for the rest of the hack to be completed, but it will be a good wait, I can tell already. May as well show off the stats of some of my most used units in my army... [spoiler=End of Chapter 8 Stats] Doing pretty good she is. A little slow and low on the resistance, but when she can rip off a massive chunk of basically any enemy's health in one shot, it's certainly a good day. Despite her low strength, those magic bows more than made up the difference on low res targets. Maybe I'll throw her one of my Luckos Fangs to remedy that strength a bit. I dunno. He's a big bundle of strength & speed, yes, but those defenses. I'll have to see how he turns out with a few more levels. Surprisingly high hp for a mage type class, that's for sure. Not doing too bad for his stats besides defense, but dang, that 35 hp, heh. Definitely gets my vote for a unit one should not underestimate despite his starting stats. He's surprisingly good at knocking off a respectable chunk of health from a monster. Being a healer helps too. Probably one of those characters that might be relegated to the bench. I've got plenty of sword users who are doing better than she is right now. Then again she does have nine levels of growing room so who knows. Yeah, that speed is horrid. He's got respectable defense though. That on top of the ability to do hit & run tactics made him a pretty fun unit to play with. Can't really form a solid opinion on him until he gains more levels, but he's decent right now. ...Damn! She's turning out to be a star player in my team. Considering she started out at lv1 on chapter 8 and got to that level by the end of it, yeah. Another incredibly useful character for me. Healing hit & run tactics are great. So is being able to whack enemies with a sword. Another beast of a unit on my team. Tons of hp, high defense, respectable speed. Going to love seeing what his promotion choices will be like in the future. Loved his recruitment scene. He turned out to be a surprisingly sturdy unit in his own right with an amazing amount of defense for a Thief. Probably going to be another one of those units that sticks with me until the end.

Well now, having finished my videos for this awesome hack (still in the process of encoding them and whatnot, will be a day or two before everything's up), I felt it was time to post the stats of my main crew to see how they fared. Took these shots from the start of finale part 1. Overall, a very fun hack that kept my attention for a very long time. Can't wait to see what stuff like the bonus dungeon or supports will bring to the plate in the future!