Ice Dragon

Here's a list of every character known to be eligible for a Resplendent outfit that hasn't gotten one yet (i.e. standard pool characters up through Ophelia) (parentheses are characters with Resplendent outfits to total eligible characters) (Herodex order): The charts from before, updated for Corrin's announcement: Sorted by percentage representation: Genealogy: 7/14 (50%) Thracia: 3/6 (50%) Tellius: 6/13 (46%) Echoes: 7/16 (44%) Blazing: 9/21 (43%) Binding: 4/13 (31%) Akaneia: 7/25 (28%) Sacred Stones: 3/11 (27%) Awakening: 6/27 (22%) Fates: 7→8/41 (17→19%) Heroes: 0/1 (0%) Sorted by how long it's been since the last Resplendent Hero: Path of Radiance: Elincia (2021-03-10) Thracia: Leaf (2021-05-10) Sacred Stones: Amelia (2021-07-25) Radiant Dawn: Sothe (2021-09-25) Binding: Shanna (2021-10-10) Akaneia: Est (2022-01-10) Genealogy: Lachesis (2022-04-10) Echoes: Faye (2022-05-10) Awakening: Gaius (2022-05-25) Blazing: Karla (2022-07-10) Fates: Corrin (2022-07-25) Count for each outfit origin sorted by book: Askr: 9 Embla: 9 Nifl: 8 Muspell: 9 Hel: 8 Ljosalfheim: 5 Dokkalfheim: 5 Nidavellir: 3 Jotunheim: 4 Sorted by how long it's been since the last Resplendent Hero: Ljosalfheim: Est (2022-01-10) Dokkalfheim: Ophelia (2022-03-25) Nidavellir: Saber (2022-04-25) Embla: Faye (2022-05-10) Muspell: Gaius (2022-05-25) Jotunheim: Effie (2022-06-10) Nifl: Matthew (2022-06-25) Hel: Karla (2022-07-10) Askr: Corrin (2022-07-25) I'm expecting an Awakening character this time around since the previous announcement was Fates and Awakening has the second lowest percentage representation (after Fates and not counting Heroes). Tharja is a very notable missing popular character, but I could also see Frederick or Olivia if it's Awakening. Sacred Stones also has a decent chance due to having a combination of low percentage representation, low absolute count, and having not gotten a new Resplendent Hero in over a year. Ephraim is still notably missing, but the list of missing characters is pretty stacked, so it could be almost anyone if it's Sacred Stones. Repeating a game is rare, but not unheard of, and Fates has a massive number of missing characters including still more than half of the missing royals. As far as outfit origin, Nidavellir is currently lagging the most, having one unit less than Jotunheim and having the third least recent release. However, we haven't gotten a fairy outfit in a while, so I'd probably put Ljosalfheim as the most likely choice. My prediction is either Tharja or Ephraim. In either a fairy (Dokkalfheim preferred for both, but Ljosalfheim is more likely) or Nidavellir outfit. Or Nidavellir Brave Lyn. Would be nice to get Peri, though. I want a Peri alt, even if it's just an outfit.

No. The game will explicitly warn you any time you are about to perform a destructive action. EDIT: As a side note, it is still possible to deploy both the front and the back unit on the same team. However, doing so will temporarily disable the Pair Up.

This screenshot perfectly summarizes my luck pulling for the last 4 copies to +10 Summer Lyn: This banner can go fuck itself with a hacksaw. EDIT: Final counts. 227 pulls from the Summer Lyn banner: 4 Summer Lyn 1 Summer Ursula 5 pity breakers 2.2% focus rate and 4.4% total 5-star rate. Garbage. 65 pulls from Duo Byleth's banner: 2 Duo Byleth 1 Summer Ingrid 2 pity breakers 4.6% focus rate and 7.7% total 5-star rate. Above average, but not good enough to make up for the previous garbage. Across both banners, 2.7% focus rate and 5.1% total 5-star rate. Garbage. Summer Lyn is now +10. Summer Ursula is now +4. Duo Byleth is now +5. Summer Ingrid is now +5. The only notable pity breakers were a +Spd Constanze, which is going to be my new merge base for her once the Special Training maps roll back around (will be +5), and a merge for Ascended Idunn (now +4). Notable pulls from the 4-star SR pool were the last copies of Female Byleth and Fallen Mareeta to reach +10. I also pulled my 20th copy of Ishtar, which is notable because still none of them are +Spd. I'm probably going to have to go for minimal pulling from the upcoming Mythic Hero banner and the next Special Heroes banner in anticipation for CYL and FGO's summer event. Today's pulls were well over what I had budgeted for them.

There were no flying dancers until New Year Azura was released at the end of the year, so the team would be Spring Camilla (Gronnblade), Summer Corrin (Blarblade), Halloween Nowi (Grimoire or Raudhrblade), and one other flier of your choice (likely Hinoka for Hone Fliers or you gave Hone Fliers to a unit easier to merge). Nowi ran her default Hone Fliers, and Camilla and Corrin ran Fortify Fliers. Running a dancer was not advised because you'd lose out on buffs, and there wasn't any content at the time that needed a dancer anyways when you had tome flier mobility other than a few maps with cramped terrain. New Year Azura replaced the unit in the fourth slot and has Hone Fliers by default, so the rest of the team didn't need to change. Nino would finally replace Camilla in June 2018, but Litrblade spam had already fallen off by then.

Gronnblade Spring Camilla says hi from 2017.

Did 31 pulls from the summer rerun banner because why not: 2 Duo Hilda 1 4-star Summer Caspar 1 Sara Hilda is now +3, but I haven't gotten a merge base better than the neutral copy from the spark on her original banner, so she's still neutral. Maybe I'll do a few more pulls on Duo Byleth's banner sometime before the banner ends.

I mean, those don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Lethality is just the name Lethality tossed onto a stronger version of Luna that is exclusive to daggers (the original skill kills the opponent instantly), and Deadeye is just the name Deadeye tossed onto a stronger version of Glimmer that is exclusive to bows (the original skill puts the opponent to sleep and passively increases accuracy with no boost to damage). Neither of them have any more resemblance to their original skills than Vital Astra has to the original Astra. At the same time, Vital Astra is a "prefixed" Astra. It's as much Astra as Dracofalchion is Falchion or Virtuous Naga is Naga. If you're going to argue that Vital Astra is just some arbitrary skill that they gave the name Astra to, then you're going to have to do the same for all of the other prefixed weapons that don't have the exact same name as their original weapon. And finally, Vital Astra has every right to be a damage reduction skill. Vital Astra represents the stat spread archetype of the Swordmaster class. As a class with high Spd, the damage from Vital Astra is based off of Spd, and the skill grants Dodge to reference the fact that Spd is tied to evasion in the main series. Like Lethality and Deadeye, Vital Astra is not a one-to-one copy of the original skill, but is based on the general intent of the original skill (or in Vital Astra's case, the unit class the skill is associated with). Also, it's probably no coincidence that the two Jugdral Astra users that didn't get custom versions of Astra are the two Jugdral Astra users that aren't Swordmasters.

Summer Edelgard can literally solo almost all of this game's PvE content, so you could run a level 1 character and not experience any difference, especially since you're already running two units with Savior. Contemporary infantry now have higher stats than launch armors, so unless you're spending Dragonflowers on them and getting their refines, there's very little reason run launch armors. Most armors that lack an exclusive weapon also have a rough time unless you have access to some of the more recent inheritable weapons that have good effects. Grima is a pretty good choice overall. He has a Distant Counter weapon with a solid refine effect, so he should be usable for other content. If you don't mind using Grails, I would recommend Valentine Lissa. Your team isn't really lacking in combat performance, so adding Lissa as a support unit could be helpful.

Even though Valaskjalf got upgraded, it's still far too weak in comparison to contemporary weapons to be his weapon if he becomes playable. Even if high-HP Vantage is a neat effect, his weapon is only on par with weapons from 2 years ago (i.e. right before CYL 4 established the baseline for contemporary weapons; compare with Kris's weapons). If he becomes playable anytime soon, he'll need yet another upgrade to his weapon or a really damned good exclusive skill to make up for how outdated his new weapon is. His face looks so empty without his mask on. There's so much empty space on it. I feel so lost. I like Veronica's new art. I'm a huge sucker for that particular type of smooth, glossy texture used for the top of her dress that has a "half specular" at an angle that you normally don't get a reflection from. I'm not sure if there's a real-life material with that texture, but I've always interpreted it as "stiff silk". The sleeves blending into the pauldrons and really just all of the gold parts also look great. Gold on black just looks really good. I'm still trying to decide what I think about her hair. I prefer long hair, but long hair would definitely get in the way of the design of the dress, so I think it's better as it is. I like how it's still an unruly mess even when it's this short. Comparing Veronica's arts also made me realize why Brave Veronica had always looked weird to me. The hair that normally falls in front of her shoulders is pulled behind her shoulders in her Brave version's art, which makes it look like something is missing. Also, short Veronica's vertical proportions just look really weird in Kozaki's art. My super-out-of-date-as-all-get-out anatomy reference book from 70 years ago puts an 8-year-old at 6 and a half heads, and while the anime art style typically draws girls up to a half head shorter proportionally than in real life, Kozaki's short Veronica being less than 5 and a half heads tall is kind of pushing it a lot. New Veronica is 6 heads tall, which looks much better (plus, her skirt goes all the way to the floor and fully conceals her legs, which makes it harder to notice odd proportions, even if they did exist). For comparison, Spring Veronica and Valentine Veronica are both about 6 heads tall. Harmonized Veronica is somewhere between 5 and a half and 6 heads tall.

Added translation notes for Atlas's and Brigand Boss's weapons and possessed Bruno and his weapon from the story map.

Because Volke is associated with Lethality even more so than Mareeta is associated with Astra. Being an Ascended Hero isn't why Mareeta got Vital Astra. Being a female character isn't why Mareeta got Vital Astra. Being Mareeta is why Mareeta got Vital Astra. (Vital Astra's name in Japanese also appears to be a reference to Mareeta and Shanam's conversation in Thracia where Mareeta learns Astra.) Volke was the series' second canon Assassin, was the first Assassin after the reintroduction of the skill system made Lethality into a proper skill and gave it its current name, and even had Assassin as his exclusive class in both of his games (Thieves in Path of Radiance were unable to promote at all, and Thieves in Radiant Dawn promoted into the weaker Whisper class). Jaffar is the only character in the series that is more deserving of having Lethality, but he was released too early to receive it. Of the pre-DS games, the only characters I can see getting Lethality are Jaffar, Volke, and Radiant Dawn Sothe. If they're playing favorites, they might give it to Heather, and I will be happy to see it get better distribution, but I don't think she deserves it if Ascended Joshua didn't get it. Similarly, Shinon is still the only character in the game that currently comes with Deadeye (excluding Duo, Harmonized, Legendary, and Mythic Heroes), as he was the series' first Sniper after the skill was first introduced in Path of Radiance and the only canon Sniper from the game. No character in the series has a greater claim to Deadeye than Shinon does, but I'm actually not sure who else they'd be willing to give Deadeye to. I can see Jeorge, Briggid, and Faval getting it and maybe also Rolf and Leonardo.

What I'm getting at is that if Ascended Mareeta weren't on the banner, Vital Astra flat out wouldn't exist because Galzus still wouldn't have gotten it.

Ymir is obviously a Xerneas. Now we just need to wait for Ganglot to be revealed to be a bacon bird.

Joshua didn't get Lethality despite being an Ascended Hero and being in his actual Assassin promoted class. Galzus never stood a chance.

Mareeta at least as the excuse of being a character that could introduce Vital Astra to the game. The developers are extremely stingy about handing out inheritable 500-SP Special skills (other than Galeforce), so the pool of characters that they'd actually let get Vital Astra as a default skill is pretty small. For comparison: Aether is only given out to Ike, Greil, Chrom, and Lucina. Blue Flame is only given out to Owain. Ruptured Sky is only given out to Byleth. Deadeye is currently only on Shinon and two fancy units representing the Sniper class. Lethality is currently only on Volke, and it's unknown how Assassiny a character has to be to get the skill yet, as Ascended Joshua somehow didn't get it despite being a semi-fancy unit representing the Assassin class. Extremely stingy. Legendary Sothe will likely get Lethality as a replacement for Radiant Dawn's one-off Bane skill that he has, but he would also count as a fancy unit. Of the games I'm familiar with, the only characters that really make sense to give Vital Astra to are Mareeta and Stefan. (The Isaac royals have their own custom Astra skills and are unlikely to ever get Vital Astra because of it.) (Given that Joshua wasn't considered Assassiny enough to get Lethality, the only Sniper I can think of that is as Snipery as Shinon is Jeorge, and the only Assassin I can think of that is as Assassiny as Volke is Jaffar. Basically the first characters of each class.)

Unlike all other sources of the Null Follow-Up status effect, Infantry Null Follow-Up doesn't apply its effect to the unit with the skill, so even though it's now available in the C slot, it has to be someone else's C slot, and there aren't that many infantry that run a support-oriented C skill (as opposed to Time's Pulse, Menace, Smoke, or Joint Drive) that don't already have an exclusive one. Dancers, staff units, and Mediuth, I guess. It's a really awkward skill.

Given that Legendary Heroes are currently mostly reserved for main characters and Heroes-original characters, most villains simply don't have the same level of clout necessary to qualify. We do have Grima and Eitri, but the former is a possessed version of Robin, who is a main character, and the latter is a character original to Heroes. In order to mirror the criteria for playable characters, villains would need to be the main villain of their game or close to it in order to qualify as a Legendary Hero. However, every character that fits those criteria already tend to be more suited as a Grand Hero Battle opponent (e.g. Garnef), a Mythic Hero (e.g. Mediuth), or a character on a Fallen Heroes banner (e.g. Hardin). Legendary Heroes also typically depict the character at the height of their power, which is typically at the final chapter or in the immediate epilogue for playable characters. For villains, it's typically right before the player defeats them, which happens to be exactly what a Grand Hero Battle map is. Other than possessed Robin and Genealogy's first generation, we're unlikely to get any canonically dead characters (within the context of their source game) as Legendary Heroes.

I have no idea why I still bother trying to "pull until I get x" after a spark. It never goes well. Literally never. While I said in the banner thread that I'd probably just pull green and use my spark on Celica, that got derailed pretty quickly by the fact that the game absolutely refused to give me green orbs. So I got tempted into pulling for Est and Celica. And got Est on my second pull in the first session. I ended up getting one copy each of Est, Celica, and Ymir before the spark and ended up using the spark on another copy of Ymir. And then decided to pull until I got another copy of Ymir because the first copy was [+Res, -Atk]. What could possibly go wrong. 40 pulls up to the spark (in order): 1 Est [+Spd, -Def] 1 Ymir [+Res, -Atk] 1 Celica [+Spd, -HP] 133 pulls after the spark (in order): 1 Ascended Florina 1 Brave Marianne 1 Nagi 1 Eleonora 2 Ascended Laegjarn 1 Ascended Fjorm 19 pulls after that bullshit (in order): 1 Ymir [+Res, -Atk] 1 Charlotte 1 Ymir [+Atk, -HP] 2.6% focus rate, which is obviously below average (~3.3%). 6.8% 5-star rate, which is slightly above average (~6.5%). As can be clearly seen from the fact that 5 of the 7 pity breakers were not green, the game absolutely refused to give me green orbs. Laegjarn is now +10 for some reason. After getting a literally identical copy of Ymir after pity breaker hell, I decided to rage pull another Ymir. Anyways, it's now 5 in the afternoon; I've been awake for the past 21 hours; I'm going to bed; Good night.

Est has every right to be on an Echoes banner because she's an Echoes character. Given how few Echoes characters are left, she's bound to eventually be on a banner. Not particularly special? All of the cavalry dragons have Atk stats in that range, and she's still offensively inferior to Legendary Xander, who was just released.

Another Hall of Forms with no Grail unit. Back to just grabbing the rewards and bailing.

Stats haven't been posted here yet, but I'll respond to them anyways: No surprises for Celica, Est, or Ymir. Kamui's stats after Dragonflowers are comparable to Male Byleth's. Not bad. Atlas is a trainee and hits the 190 stat bucket after a merge. His offenses are basically the same as Summer Caspar or Young Boyd. Also not bad, but also nothing special. He comes with Threaten Atk/Def, which is nice if you're wanting to grab Atk/Def Menace with another skill and don't want to use a Grail unit for that. He has Stout Axe, which has the same effect as Roshe's Stout Lance. Brigand Boss is literally Gonzalez, but with a few points of HP moved into Def and Res. He has Vulture Axe.

Ashera performs similarly to the typical Litrblade unit, but comes with Null Panic support. Null Panic is a somewhat niche effect outside of some competitive game modes, so its value is mostly based on how often you actually run into opponents that can hit you with Panic. Mediuth is a very solid tank and doubles as a support unit due to being the only source of En Garde. En Garde is a pretty useful effect in challenge maps, as they often include units with Sweep and out-of-combat damage as a counter to Savior, and it also allows him and his allies to run Fury or Push without taking recoil damage. Canto Control is a nice bonus in Arena and Summoner Duels if you often run into opponents with Canto and don't want to deal with it, and because it's just a C skill, you can swap it out for other support effects in other game modes as needed. As a tank, he has both follow-up prevention and a guaranteed follow-up with a lenient condition along with percentage damage reduction and self-buffs. His Spd with a double Fury build is also high enough to block guaranteed follow-ups from almost all of the usual slow units. Ashera is good, but doesn't stand out against other units with similar effects on their builds outside of Null Panic. Mediuth is very good.

It depends on how valuable Florets are to you compared to Trait Fruits. Valentine Lucina wants a Spd Asset, but [+Atk, +Spd] is not significantly better than [+Spd] for her, so it's probably more worthwhile to spend Trait Fruits on her than a Floret. I think it's better to save Florets for units whose function is more strongly reliant on both stats.

Kaze was released with a 3-unit banner (Hinoka, Kana, and Shigure). After that, we had a short stretch between CYL 3 and the start of Book IV where we had Banutu, Valbar, Ross, and Chad added as off-banner demotes before Peony's banner set the pattern we still have today. (The banner Ross was attached to also had Duo Ephraim, who wasn't added to the standard summoning pool.) They haven't changed their mind on anything with this banner (or Letizia's, for that matter). New Heroes banners with original characters still get an off-banner demote to make up for the original character taking a banner slot. This has been true since the beginning of Book IV. Ascended Heroes still take up a banner slot without replacement. This has been true since the release of Ascended Heroes. Ash's banner not having an Ascended Hero on it is not unexpected in hindsight. The Ascended Hero mechanic had only existed for 2 banners at that point, so it makes sense that there might be some inconsistencies while they were still finding their footing. However, as it stands, we can now expect them to have an Ascended Hero on every New Heroes banner. (As before, "New Heroes banner" in this entire post excludes the Fallen Heroes and CYL banners, which have always done their own thing.)