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Easy. Chrom can do nearly the same as +Def Avatar, just not quite as op. Just needs slightly more Frederick early on. EDIT: I'll amend my statement by saying it's nearly the same difficulty as one with Avatar. Which can still be challenging on your first Lunatic run, particularly early on. It also depends on how well you know the leveling mechanics, like not promoting early and such.

@Snowy: That's a separate issue, expected turn counts don't tell you everything. Most agree that not all turns are equal, etcetc. There is still debate on things like complexity, varying contexts, etc. The point is if we use statistics to describe things, we don't run into the issue of whether something is or is not discretely "efficient" or "reliable". We adopt expected turn counts as a tool for measuring efficiency because it combines things we value, low turn counts and high reliability. We use it as evidence when trying to decide if something is more efficient or not and reward more efficient things with a higher ranking. This is independent of "ideal" or "optimal" cases. There are indeed those cases, but we can deal with the others as well, as we're comparing things relatively. @Redwall: <_<. I was just referring to an alternative explanation for your example which may be more intuitive for others. The method is still essentially the sum of a geometric series, 1/(1-r), we just change the wording to deal with success rates instead of failures/conditionals. I suppose there are more rigorous statistics to be applied here, but why bother? Ideally discussions are generally accessible and the simpler the better. And as I mentioned, heavily simplified approximations will usually suffice to distinguish most characters. EDIT: Admittedly, my explanation may be a little too "handwavey", but oh well. >_>

It's worth noting that in most cases, exact calculations for a specific chapter are not necessary to distingush 2 characters, so many approximations can be applied. Or else other factors will be more important like stats/growths, which have set distributions instead of a bunch of branching and conditional probabilities. In some cases strats will transition and be like a 40% 4 turn, ~60% 5 turn (~100% to complete in 5 or less turns) and we'll stop there for 4.6 expected turns. Very close to 100% of cases are captured, and any extremes are weighed so low they don't effect the expected turns much. In recursive cases like where Grima can heal or in cases of must-have success or death, we can apply geometric series. Or even simplify with N/P calculations. You'll notice in the case of 0.4 success rate for a 1 turn or "failure" (whether by Grima healing to reset the situation or the unit dying to as to literally reset the situation). 1/0.4 = 2.5 as in Redwall's example.

That's where I was going. I've favored expected turn count for a long time. >_> @Chiki: Crits/skills are considered in the weighted probabilities.

Well there are, but they're very, very, very rare. Some of FE9 fixed could be. Some bosskills in this game are probably 100% though, or can be made so (Basilio vs. flier with Rallies). But in general you're very right, especially with growths (which the community generally doesn't consider the statistics of... <_<). How about a 80% vs. a 60% clear then? Or in general, are all clears above a certain cutoff reliable? Instead of a cutoff, above which is reliable and below which is not, why not treat reliability more continuously. Things are relative: they are more reliable or less reliable instead of "reliable" or not.

Just curious, you wording seems to imply you see "reliable" as a discrete thing. Clears above an arbitrary cutoff of ~60% are reliable while others are not. Assuming some set turncount, do you consider a 100% clear ~= 60% clear > 59% clear ~= 0% clear? All clears above ~60% are "reliable" and equivalent? Also, are strats that transition on into 1 turn more clears equivalent to strats that are success or death? If 100% is better than the 60% > 59 > 0, etc, why not just weigh them by reliability for a continuous metric instead of discretely "reliable" or not? If an arbitrary cutoff, why not 95% since that's more standard in terms of "scientific" cutoffs.

Aggro behavior is pretty well defined.There are set patterns and triggers that Kuroi mostly covered.. Specific AI movements appear random if there's a choice. You can do the exact same positioning and the AI will attack different units or the same ones from different sides or move in different directions (I think it's most obvious in Chapter 4). There is some logic to this, but there's also a definite RNG component as well.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. I like Pair Up thematically, but it also inherently causes these kinds of issues. Even if disregarding the op other bonuses like stats, Dual Strikes, etc. To give more depth to Pair Up would require other strategic pressure besides the raw bonuses and mobility concerns. Something that exploits the fact you're giving up more potential combat units for stronger ones (ideally not that much stronger, but that’s not the case here). I think it's important to note there's no trade off for Pair Up. It pretty much just improves mobility. Maybe if it halved stats as suggested, but then it becomes kinda silly, as Pairing is "supposed to" make you stronger. Re: More defense maps: I don't think they would help much because you can still just send a superpair out in the middle of the enemy to steamroll stuff. They'd have to be like Tiki's map where it's wide open and the AI deliberately ignores your units to go for NPCs. But those kinds of maps also tend to be ones where you can just mash end turn after setting up a formation. Having chokepoints instead still encourages stronger, paired units unless deployment slots are super strict (which they typically aren't). Even in Tiki’s map there are enough slots to surround Tiki with a group of 5 Pairs if trying to defend. Not pairing units is probably more useful in a quick hyperoffensive clear since there’s enormous pressure to finish in 2 turns before more reinforcements, since there’s no enemy phase in that strat. Emphasizing player phase more is actually something that can encourage not Pairing. For example, in C3 there’s pressure to clear one side before the other reaches the team. It’s not so easy to clear in time with enemy phase alone because of Counter, Pavise+, and Aegis+ and the weak team in general. More units to chip and such results in a more reliable and flexible clear. Or else could emphasize player phase by higher offenses, lowered defenses, sorta FE12 style, etcetc. Could help.

Pair Up gives overly huge stat bonuses like +7 in Str/Skl/Spd/Def or +8 Mag/Spd +7 Res or other silliness. In any other game that's like 15 levels worth of growth at a very solid rate. Even in the earlygame, it can give +5 Spd or Def. 10 levels worth of a stat in the earlygame is huge. It also gives up to like 80% Adept and sets a ceiling on enemy hit rates at around 75%. Oh and Braves can result in reliably attacking up to 12 times. I really like the mechanic since it’s quite thematic, but the bonuses are just too high. You could argue for inflating enemy stats to match Paired units, which is exactly what Lunatic does. However, the huge gap between Paired and non-Paired units then results in the issues that have been mentioned. I'd like to see Pair Up vs. non Pair Up be a tactical decision. There are glimpses of this in some earlygame chapters like C3 in Lunatic+, but otherwise it's always Pair Up ftw. As mentioned, the movement possibilities alone do make Pair Up a somewhat interesting tactical option. Just that instead of Rescue-take-drop chains which requires a team to execute, you can hide a weak unit in the support slot instead. You don’t have to chain because Pair Up makes you stronger, rather than Rescue which makes you weaker. If there were Seize maps you don’t need a team to ferry Chrom (or protect the ferry), since Avatar can do it all by herself, then switch to Chrom at the end. Also, buyable Rescue Staves are far more ridiculous than the old rescue…

Iirc generics that orko will attack before the boss, so you’d have to get down there without exposing Olivia/Rescuers to all the Mire and numerous enemies if you want to finish on enemy phase. If finishing on player phase, there at least 2 enemies directly blocking the way and I think they're both too far from each other to Galeforce and too far from the boss. Well actually, it appears that a 12 move unit can do it. So Mounted + Deliverer + 1 move Pair Up + Rally Movement. Though it seems doable to me without Valkyrie or 12 move depending on how much exp for others was obtained. My suggestion is more of a Rescue chain Galeforcer1 with Rescuer1 down. They kill enemy #13 (from that link), then move down and Rescue Galeforcer2 with Rescuer2. They kill 23, then move and Rescue Olivia down. Dance and kill the boss. Seems doable with 6 move Galeforcers unless I'm missing something. Lissa, Maribelle, maybe Cordelia, maybe Lucina are there for the initial Rescue chain. May require Anna, however, or at least someone else besides Libra with high Mag. Or if going Valkyrie to guarantee the Rescue range, could possibly switch classes again before C23/24? It is indeed probably too squishy otherwise. C23 isn’t that limiting positioning wise since there are convenient magic squares next to Validar. The hard part is surviving and orkoing everything reliably. Though Rescue always has uses.

You were probably already going to address most of this, but some theorycraft musing about turncounts: A lot of turns can probably be shaved at the cost of reliability (plus growth rigging), but I'll let others comment on that. Pro-C10: Earlygame is hard to optimize. >_>. C11: Depending on how strong Frederick is, can 2 turn though reliability may be questionable. C12: 2 turns is doable with 1 strong unit with 8 move (might have to fly too), but maybe not in LM with forged Silver Bows. Still 3 turns is maybe doable. C15: Seems like 3 turns should be possible, especially with 2 Galeforcers. C21: 1 turn feels doable with 2 Galeforcers? Rescue chain someone who Galeforces the middle Assassin and then moves and Rescues the other Galeforcer down. Other Galeforcer kills enemy blocking the way in lower right side, Galeforces and Rescues Olivia. Then Dance and kill boss. May require Valkyrie Avatar or Rally Movement or something. C23: 2-4 turns seems doable but depends on stats ofc. 4 turns is doable with 1 strong Galeforce, 8 move Avatar, positioning wise. C24: 3 turns is really impressive, I thought the reinforcements would be too much. But if 3 turns is doable, it seems 2 turns should be possible as well. E: Requires just 3 Rescues, no? Maybe less if a non-Falchion clear is doable with 36 Forged Waste/Brave attacks from Dancing and enemy phase. Plus some Vengeance. Might lack the necessary Mag though. Maybe with Ignis, but that may delay Galeforce by too much. Hmm…maybe I’m greatly overestimating Avatar/Morgan’s stats. I do think Morgan use is the way to go. Maybe Merc-Hero-Griffon could work for him but it depends on if the Move is overkill and if Ruin is necessary for reliable offense in some cases. Really nice work though. I intend to try something similar sometime. I’m particularly curious as to your reclasses/levels/stats. EDIT: A side note, it seems from how late you got Galeforce and the turns you spent training Morgan that a run without paralogues could potentially be faster overall if going Deliverer instead of Galeforce. Or a mix. I might try that instead. Maybe Morgan isn't worth it. >_>

I think bosses go first unless a generic can kill one of your other units. This prevents suicidal Rescue chains, among other things.

That map is a little strange in general since the enemies are weaker than in Chapter 2 and there's other cases where they're weaker than HM (iirc Shinion onerounds the Hand Axe Fighter consistently in MM whereas he needs a crit in HM).

Hmm, I actually don't mind Lunatic or Lunatic+, though I still dislike the randomness of the latter in principle. I think I prefer the difficulty of enemies putting huge pressure on your movements and positioning (as in FE9 Maniac, FE12/13 Lunatic), which feels more organic than setting arbitrary values you must meet (as in Funds, Exp rank, etc). Though I know some people feel the opposite way. There is a tendency for maps to become repetitive steamroll fests but I consider it more an artifact of other intrinsic issues with the game mechanics (namely fast exp gain and high stat caps encouraging superunits) rather than enemy stat inflation or the actual map design. And Lunatic+ does mitigate aspects of those issues, at the expense of other stuff. I would prefer Lunatic+ style but with fixed skills, or more of the Future Past style with tons of tricky skill builds and enemy variety/positionings (restricted Rescue also matters a lot). More on topic, TC, if you're planning to grind, it's probably easier to use a Frederick+Chrom and +Spd Avatar brute force strategy to get to the DLC. If not, a +Def Avatar is much better long term. And there are no unwinnable combinations, just ones where it's not reliable to complete. And I think that's only true for some rare combinations in Chapter 1 and 2 with a high density of Luna+ and Hawkeye spawns. Chapter 1 still might be reliably doable with complex kiting tactics, but Avatar likely can't get all or most of the exp. It's still quite hard to say if maps are or aren't doable reliably since there's always strategies out there you probably haven't tried. It is also exceptionally hard to give detailed advice due to the randomness of the mode, but kiting/turtling tends to fix mostly everything. <_<

Marcia should be fine if rigging growths/dodges. Chapter 6 and 7 are the next really hard ones I think. Have fun against the Siege/Status later in the game. ;D

Yeah I just played it a little on my no Second Seal file and it's actually really quite hard. Breaker skills counter Weapon Triangle. Rescue is banned. Reinforcements with Mire. X_x Much harder than even the spotpass Paralogues imo. Also really liking the dialogue so far too.

I just checked a Chapter 24 Lunatic file and there's some enemies that are 20/20 (only some maxed stats), but some older ones that are 20/14. I don't think it's an all maxed or nothing type of thing, it's just that the challenges are usually harder than story chapters and so not really worth doing. Probably it's story progression since average level is skewed heavily by untrained units. Hard to test rigorously though. Though maybe checking/playing DLC triggers some flag. And iirc I remember reading there may be a difference in Lunatic+ stats. I'll note a few things like that (and skill distribution) as I do my Lunatic+ run.

Oh I agree, especially on Lunatic+, that Chapter 2 is harder. I was just offering a reason why some people don't find Chapter 3 that hard since it's pretty trivial with +Def Avatar and Kellam/Frederick Pair Up.

For Chapter 2, Fred or Avatar need to have pretty exact positioning or the team is overwhelmed turn 2. Plus the enemy now has Steel which actually hurts. Plus need to protect Miriel, etc. It is not that bad in Lunatic once you know what you're doing. Also I think more people do Avatar-centric strategies now, and a level 14 Avatar + Frederick makes chapter 3 quite easy. Or Frederick+Kellam can tank stuff. On that note, letting Kellam die is minor issue since he gives the most Def early on in Pair Up, but it shouldn't be a huge problem depending on the rest of the team. >_>

[spoiler=Chapter 24 in 1 (or 2) turn(s) General strategy and map overview: Another rout with high enemy density and more reinforcements this time. The many forests somewhat mitigate the swarming issue with respect to the ground units, but there are still tons of Wyverns that just fly right over. Unlike some of the previous maps, the enemies are less damaging and slower, but much more durable. Also, one very notable addition in Lunatic is the enemy now all have Hit rate+20 and fixed skills such as Luna, Aegis, or Swordbreaker. In addition, a large majority of the map can get randomly other skills, including +Hit skills such as Outdoor Fighter, Tantivy, or Quick Burn. This encourages the use of only your strongest pair to solo the chapter, likely a super tanky unit with Sol/Nosferatu or that is a Manakate, though it is not necessary. There are a variety of enemy class types but they are all vulnerable in some way. Bring out all the effective weaponry and forge +Mt onto them (each point is worth 3 mt) if necessary. Valkyries are very fast and do the most damage, but are also the most fragile. Deal with them on player phase and it’s possible to OHKO them or Dual Strike to avoid a counterattack and heavy damage. Use Rescue Staves to reposition afterwards if necessary. Many other enemies are mounted Paladins and Great Knights. They are mostly scary because of Great Knight Luna procs which halve defense. They also tend to have pretty high concrete defensive stats and the Paladins are resistant to magic as well due to high Res and Aegis. Use Beastkillers, Hammers, and Rapiers liberally. It may be useful to have these weapons on the support partner and have the fighter in front use a 1-2 range weapon to counter the variety of weapons they use. The numerous enemy Wyverns are especially notable because of their huge mobility and because they always have Swordbreaker with synergizes well with their Axe use as well as avoiding Wyrmslayer and Falchion effective damage. They have +Hit skills on top of their Hit rate+20, such as Tantivy and Quick Burn and those skills can give a sizeable boost to Avoid as well. Basilio can also be a good filler unit against them with his high Bow rank. Tiki is another, with Wyrmbane. Or any mage with Wind magic. Again use Rescue as necessary to reposition these units if they can’t take hits in return on enemy phase. Axes are probably the safest overall weapon to combat the enemy variety throughout the map, especially from your own Wyverns that have Swordbreaker. Alternatively a strong Hero can combine Armshrift, Helswath (1-2 range, +5 def), Sol, and Axebreaker for extremely high durability. Flavia can somewhat fill this role with an Arms Scroll and a few levels if you need another competent fighter. If bringing a balanced team, the key is still to move as far out as possible initially, to free up the most space to kite or as safezones for utility units. Use the forts and forests for defensive bonuses and also to slow the enemy advance so they don’t overwhelm the team. Obviously block as many forts as possible, though it can be difficult due to the enemy Wyverns. Still, taking a strong position in the middle of the map will bottleneck the Wyverns so that staff users can safely Physic from afar. Rush Rally units out with fliers and Rescue them back the first turn or so until the enemy numbers are thinned. Reinforcements (numerous starting turn 2) may make this not safe after a while, but it’s not as necessary against lesser enemy numbers. If your combat units are strong enough without Rallies or the enemy is too overwhelming to protect weaker units, it’s possible to forgo staff users completely and just rely on Elixers and fort healing. Outtank them with item/fort healing, as well as terrain/support/tonic bonuses. No Second Seal strategy: This strategy is for a reliable 1 or 2 turn clear. Gerome unequips Swordbreaker for Str+2. Hp+Def+Res tonics to Flavia, Lucina, Kjelle, Gerome. Str tonics to Gerome, Sevara, Flavia, Lucina, Kjelle. Spd tonic to Gerome. Also Speedwing on Gerome. Energy Drop on Sevara. 2 Seraph Robes and a Talisman on Lucina. Dracoshield and Talisman on Kjelle. Forge +2 mt Noble Rapier. +3 mt Beastkiller. +2 mt Short Axe. The initial formation is carefully set so the right people can be Rally Spectrum’d and reach certain locations. Kjelle starts near the bottom but moves up to Pair with Chrom. Lucina and Cherche start in the middle but move up to Pair with Sully and Gerome respectively. Avatar Rally Spectrums on Flavia, Basilio, Chrom with Kjelle, Gerome with Cherche, and Sully with Lucina and Sevara alone. Sevara pairs with Morgan in the middle, who flies to the middle of the map to kill a Wyvern with Arcwind. She Galeforces to a magic square on the right (2 left and 1 down of the right Valk. This is in range of all the bottom right enemies and many middle ones) and switches to Helswath Sevara. Gerome flies up to kill a Paladin. He’s danced by Olivia, then flies way right to kill a Bow Knight with a Short Axe. Also in range of all the top left enemies. Lissa walks up and Rescues Olivia. Sully with Lucina runs down a bit and switches to Lucina. Short Spear on Lucina, forged Beastkiller on Sully. Anna who’s near the bottom moves far right to near a rubble terrain. She Rescues them to the right of her. Libra Rescues Anna back. Chrom with Kjelle walks to the right and switches to Kjelle. Kjelle with Hand Axe, Chrom with Forged Noble Rapier. Flavia with Basilio walks a little to the right near the top of the map (in range of 1 Paladin and 1 Valk), equipping the forged Short Axe. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: The positioning is pretty interesting and involved for this chapter. The terrain heavily restricts the enemy ground movement and there are many cases where some enemy ranges just barely don’t overlap so another combat unit is needed. This is most obvious when dealing with a few Paladins on the south. It would be much more convenient if Lucina and Kjelle could pair together to solo the south with higher reliability, but they have to remain separate to deal with some isolated enemies. Also it’s necessary to take full advantage of ignoring terrain penalties, including Anna’s Acrobat to Rescue Lucina into the correct position and flight for Gerome and Morgan/Sevara need to get all the way to the far right side. I played around with different enemies that Morgan can Galeforce to shift positionings around, but it’s most reliable for her to deal with the middle Wyvern since Lucina/Kjelle have weak 1-2 range weapons and Chrom/Sully have Beast killing weapons (plus Wyrmslayers would be inaccurate). They’d need Aether and multiple Dual Strikes to kill, which is just too unreliable for me. Olivia’s use is critical because Anna ignores terrain and has to be the one to Rescue Lucina outward and also someone has to Rescue Anna back for safety. So the best way to safely extend Gerome’s move is to Dance and Rescue Olivia Back. Could have Lissa Rescue Gerome out, then Dance for Libra to Rescue Lissa, but Special Dance can actually help reliability with that +2 Str and this also allows Gerome to kill an extra nearby Paladin so that Flavia does not have to (as she’s reliant on Dual Strikes with no Basilio Support ranks). Despite all the work on positioning, this strat is not as clean as some others because of so much randomness, but it does transition into a 2 turn most of the time. Gerome has a tiny chance to die if hit by everything, including a Great Knight 50% hit 27% Luna, and he never activates Sol or Dual Guard. Lucina and Kjelle can also die in similar circumstances with marginally greater probability, if hit by Luna and a few Valk spells with no Aether/Dual Guard. The statboosters make it so they can’t die to just all normal hits, they would have to be Luna’d and hit by every enemy they face to die. I think Sevara can’t die because of Axebreaker, or maybe even if she “can” she has 50+% Sol and is like 10hko’d at often <10 hit rates. Flavia can’t die because she only faces 2 enemies. So it’s pretty easy and high probability for everyone to survive at least. The hard part about 1 turning is one-rounding everything. Gerome and Sevara (Energy Drop helps) do cleanly one-round almost everything they face. Gerome does demolish everything with Cherche support (Speedwing+Tonic lets him double Valks). Sevara needs Morgan to help on 4 Great Knights which is pretty simple. Flavia needs the forged Short Axe so that 2 hits (not 100%, especially if there’s Outdoor Fighter) and 1 Dual Strike kills a Paladin. Chrom needs the forged Noble Rapier so that Kjelle onerounds Paladins with 1 Dual Strike from Chrom and the Great Knight with an Aether or crit or no Aether/crit + 2 Dual Strikes from Chrom. Similar deal with Sully and the forged Beastkiller. Lucina needs 1 Dual Strike for the Paladins plus Aether or a crit or no Aether/crit + 2 Dual Strikes for the Great Knight. The issue of course being that the Great Knights are so durable and there’s seriously imperfect accuracy by Chrom and Sully if they have to go against weapon triangle. Lucina and Kjelle’s positions are mostly interchangeable but the one detailed is slightly better because since Kjelle/Chrom face a Silver Axe GK and Lucina/Sully face a Spear GK. Still, Lucina and Kjelle simply don’t have that good 1-2 range. If only they had Luna… I could blow the remainder of my gold (like 20k) forging +Hit on everything for slightly better success chances but there’s always the Flavia/Basilio Dual Strike that’s just 64%ish, then like ~80% successes at best for Lucina and Kjelle’s kills on the Great Knights, plus survival chances and etc. And that’s a lot of gold for small increases in reliability. However, note I did forge some +mt to meet certain att benchmarks. Those kinds of forges tend to make huge jumps in reliability (Flavia/Lucina/Kjelle no longer need 2 Dual Strikes for Paladins, etc) There’s also a nontrivial, but small, 3 turn chance simply because reinforcements start appearing turn 2 enemy phase and it is possible for an enemy composition to survive through turn 2 player phase. Mostly because Sevara can’t always reach stuff to allow Morgan to Galeforce. Pretty unlikely though. In general, variance is just huge between hit rates, Aether, Dual Strikes+Guards, their Outdoor Fighter and Luna, their Tantivy and Quick Burn. The enemies have 1 fixed skill like Luna/Swordbreaker, but the others are random. The variance is so high it’s not really worth estimating most success chances, except for really rough estimates. Last 2 chapters and other notes to come.

I'm not experienced enough in Nowi usage to know for sure, but the principle behind the team is to focus on overwhelmingly fast growers like Nowi!Morgan and Avatar!Nah with Veteran (Tiki also has silly good bases for her level. Nowi has low bases and is low level. Promoted human units do slow down growth a bit even with Veteran.). The Manakates are the focal point of the formations and the rest of the team supports them by dealing with Luna+/Counter (and Aegis+ somewhat). There's also a few Avoid stacking units like Lon'qu, who deal well with most stuff except Hawkeye/Counter (and Pavise+ somewhat). It's a team effort to kill the right enemies and have the right positioning for units to get favorable combat matchups since enemies get 2 Lunatic+ skills each. That's the theory at least. >_> I will feed kills to Nowi and perhaps use her more if it seems like she grows fast enough. Though Nowi can't really do her normal tank-everything and get a bunch of exp due to Counter.

Do whatever you find more fun and interesting. Don't restart if you don't want to. Any sort of log would be interesting imo. I'm likely also doing an Lunatic+ run somewhat soon. I want to see how viable a playthrough that's not centered on a Chrom/FeAvatar Galeforcing family is. Also no Nosferatu, maybe no Sol. Of course that'll probably mean reliance on other "cheap" stuff like Manakates and Avoid-stacking with a balanced team + Rescue spam to deal with the skill variance. Probably going to center mostly around a largish team of Manakates, particularly Nowi!Morgan, Avatar!Nah, and Tiki (not going to use Nowi long-term) + various glass cannon types like Sumia!Lucina and Lon'qu. Plus I kinda want to try misc things like Taguels as support partners for their Str/Spd Pair Up and Beastbane Dual Strikes.

Manakates are in general really good because of their leveling. They always level like an unpromoted unit and when reclassed from 30->1, they get exp like a level 15 unit with stats like a level 30 unit. The enemy is promoted and high level by this time, so you get like 80-100 exp per kill for a while. Tiki is really close to that so all of a sudden Tiki is effectively level 50, which combined with her insane bases for a level 20 unit, means near max stats and fun. Plus they have concrete durability resulting in effective immortality and strong 1-2 range, which no one else but overleveled Veterantar/children with Tomes really claim (Luna units can also somewhat claim this). Similar to Nosferatu except Manakates level faster. Nowi!Morgan with Veteran (+Deliverer somehow?) would be fun. Might even be better than the usual Chrom!Morgan or Avatar!Lucina though no Galeforcing. I usually use Tiki (because <3) but I find the wyverns more useful in general because of mobility and the fact they're around for so much longer. Probably a playstyle thing, but I usually have enough competent fighters and Rescue to deal easily with Wind magic/Bows. And Tiki comes in a part of the game where I usually rushrushrush. Haven't tried saving paralogues for her though, that's a really good idea. Though regarding Wyverns in Lunatic, tbh I didn't notice much difference between Wyvern Lon'qu with Hero Gregor and Wyvern Panne with Assassin Lon'qu (obviously different runs). Both steamroll after a while and Lon'qu is probably easier to train because of 2 early Killing Edges versus the early axefest. Also Lon'qu has more consistent Avoid and in the rare cases of half health, he has Vantage+Dual Strike/Crits for more effective avoid (against squishes it's basically multiplies their hit about another 20-30%). Haven't looked too carefully at the averages though admittedly, which may be the difference since Panne's personal bases and growths are ridiculous. I don't think Sully is too different either though slower to train in Lunatic. Anyways, Wyverns = good in Lunatic. Re: the 2 turn clear of Tiki's paralogue. There are no reinforcements until turn 2 enemy phase, so if you deal with the starting enemies by turn 2 player phase, you can clear it early. Requires Rescue and Olivia and a balanced team. Maybe forged effective weapons. Made much easier by Galeforce.

These chapters are surprisingly fun to ltc with the variety of units I have. Also, the cutscenes look pretty cool with everyone in their default promoted class. <_< [spoiler=Chapter 22 in 1 turn with Valflame, Gungnir, Helswath and Balmunk:] General strategy and map overview: Don’t split up your team. Instead, engage each group separately. Use Rallies, Pair Up and Tonics to buff up and gang up on them. Beware the Warrior with Counter. The Swordmaster is also extremely fast, at 51 Spd. No Second Seal strategy: This strategy is for a reliable 1 turn clear that gets Valflame, Gungnir, Helswath and Balmunk. Str tonic to Gerome, switch Swordbreaker temporarily to Str+2 for this chapter only. Forge +1 mt on a Silver Axe for Gerome. Pair Up, Rally Spectrum and Rally Speed everyone. Libra rescues Kjelle with Chrom to the right, using the wall to send them further to the right. They kill the Valflame Valk with a Beastkiller. Gerome with Lucina kills the Gungnir Paladin. Anna Rescues Olivia to the left who dances for Gerome. Gerome nabs Helswath. Lissa moves far up and Rescues Morgan with Sevara. Morgan kills the Balmunk SM with a Killer Lance then Galeforces to Aversa who Sevara onerounds easily with a Silver Axe. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: The +Str stuff was actually nice to cleanly one-round the Gungnir Paladin and Helswath Warrior instead of relying on Lucina’s Dual Strikes. If Lucina doesn’t Dual Strike first turn (20%), and Gerome didn’t cleanly one-round, he can kill himself on Counter. This actually happened once before I did the Str stacking. Gerome still faces a small chance of death if hit by all the attacks he faces due to the Warrior’s Counter (like 3% from Paladin, 32% from Warrior, ~1% overall death chance. Could eliminate this chance with another Staff user, but I didn’t have any free ones that could use Physic). The order of getting Gungnir, then Helswath matters since Gerome needs the Str boost from Special Dance to cleanly oneround the Warrior. Morgan needs help from Sevara or a crit to oneround the Balmunk SM which is ~96%. Could very marginally increase a few success chances with Skl+Luck tonics and some minor +hit forging but not really worth the gold I think. [spoiler=Chapter 23 in 2 turns:] General strategy and map overview: The enemy density and stats are quite overwhelming at first glance. There is huge initial pressure on the team in the bottom half of the map. It might take some experimentation to find a way for your team to survive the opening turn. If Chrom or Avatar are in a mounted class and have the Boots and/or Deliverer/Move+1, they have 10-12 move and can clear Validar first turn and allow Rescue Staves to be used. This allows tons more flexibility in the opening moves and frees up a lot of the early pressure. If either has 8 move from being mounted or Boots/Deliverer, one can drop the other into Validar’s range so that the barrier breaks on enemy phase. Other combinations may be possible if either is in a class that gives +Move in Pair Up. At any rate, it’s important to take the barrier down quickly so Rescue Staves can be used. Afterwards, use all the empty space above to turtle and use Rescue Staves for positioning. A useful tactic is to rush out to kill an enemy, then Rescue Staff that unit back. As always, Rallies, Pair Up, Weapon Triangle, and skills are all things to leverage against the enemies. If you have trained a super tanky unit, whether pure defense like a Manakate, Avoid-stacking like Wyvern!Panne, or a Nosferatu/Sol user, it’s probably a good idea to rely heavily on those units to steamroll though or as the focal point of your formation. A balanced team will likely require much more careful positioning to deal with all the enemies properly. When the barrier goes down, Flavia and Basilio join. They are immediately competent fighters, especially as Avatar should be nearby to Rally Spectrum. Take advantage of Chrom’s convoy to equip them properly. Flavia has Armshrift and can make legendary weapons last a long time. Both are also very nice for their Hammer usage in this chapter. Reinforcements periodically arrive from the staircases, starting turn 4. If your team is hanging around the north side of the map, they shouldn’t be a huge deal. If you can get into position, block the stairs to stop the spawns. Validar is actually quite a difficult boss. He halves damage, heals 24 hp per turn, and has 76% Vengeance. His skills synergize well such that it’s hard to chip him down. Tomebreaker is an easy solution or else just have your strongest Pair with Hp/Res Tonics and Ward fight him. Let him attack you first so that he has no Vengeance damage. Your unit will counterattack and you have your player phase to finish him before he heals. No Second Seal strategy: This strategy is for a reliable 2 turn clear. Hp+Def+Res tonics on Kjelle, Lucina and Tiki. Str tonics on Lucina, Tiki, Gerome, Sevara, Morgan. Spd tonic on Anna. Sevara gets another Goddess Icon and an Energy Drop. Gerome gets a Secret Book to max Skl. Chrom and Avatar move toward Validar, unpaired. Libra Rally Lucks Sevara, Kjelle, Tiki from a safe position. Kjelle with Sully goes up to oneround the north Sorcerer with Silver. Anna and Lissa heal Kjelle if she was hit or crit from a safe position or they Ward Lucina or Gerome if there’s free actions. Olivia dances for a staff user if the Assassin does not have Move+1. If he does, then Olivia just hides by Pairing with Libra. Cordelia Rally Speeds Tiki with Say’ri support, who uses a Pure Water to protect the utility group from the Berserker (she’s also in range of a Sorcerer). Gerome with Lucina flies up and to the right to oneround an Assassin with a Javelin, Lucina equipped with an Armorslayer. Morgan with Sevara kills a General in the south (need Hammer strike from Sevara), then Galeforces to the right of the middle Rexcalibur Sorc who Sevara Helswath kills. After lots of enemy death, Chrom onerounds Validar, Avatar can Rally Spectrum Flavia and Basilio and they can take a few kills like the north Generals if necessary. Tiki with Say’ri finishes the weakened Berserker and Sorc nearby with Olivia’s help. Cordelia Rally Speeds Kjelle, who Javelins a nearby Assassin (also in range of a middle Hero). Anna trades with Kjelle so Kjelle equips a Silver Lance. Lissa Rally Magics Anna. Gerome flies to the upper right group of enemies, switches to Lucina who kills an Assassin with a Javelin. Morgan finishes an Axebreaker Hero if Sevara failed to kill it (or a northern Berserker), then goes a position SE of Validar and in range of a bottom right General, equipping Gungnir and switching to Helswath Sevara who hits Validar. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: So we go for the 2 turn here which I think is the lowest in No Second Seals (if no Spotpass for Mire) since Chrom/Avatar don’t have the Move to reach Validar first turn. I suppose technically Boots Chrom or Avatar can drop one of them into Validar’s range turn 1. However the barrier doesn’t go down until enemy phase so no Rescue shenanigans and I’m not sure if Validar gets another enemy phase attack anyway. There are probably many strats that can 2 turn and it’d be quite difficult to find the most reliable one. This particular one worked really quickly, however, before I had even really planned my positioning that carefully. Even if the strat appears fairly consistent, it can very likely be further optimized. The nearby north Assassin randomly gets Move+1 which makes it so there are less safe spots for the utility people. In that case, Olivia needs to Pair with Libra first turn. Cordelia, Anna, Lissa occupy the other safe spaces. Kjelle can get crit by Ruin first turn (10-15% depending on Anathema/Hex), but it doesn’t matter too much since the Staff users are mostly free to Physic then. Tiki’s accuracy against her enemies isn’t the best, but it’s at least >90% true hit and it’s overall very lenient considering how many attacks she gets on them. Depending on AI weirdness, sometime the Assassin attacks Tiki, sometimes Kjelle. Sometimes the Hero moves differently, etc. Sometimes Tiki misses and Say’ri does no Dual Strikes. Etcetc. However, Anna with a Spd Tonic, Tiki with Say’ri and Kjelle with Sully (all with Cordelia’s Rally Speed) can all do pretty heavy damage. Testing with some retries, some combination of their attacks, Dancing, and Lissa/Libra chip or Rescue can very reliably deal with any situation on turn 2. One such combination is detailed in the above strategy. Gerome uses a Javelin first turn because the Wyrmslayer enemy does have 18% true hit, doing 45 damage, despite Swordbreaker if using a Hand Axe. I did see Gerome die once because of that enemy though the percentages suggest that be a rare circumstance. At any rate, using a Javelin solves any potential issue and doesn’t seem to impact his combat too much against the Berserkers and Generals. Regarding the Generals, Gerome’s attacks + Lucina’s 80% Armorslayer Dual Strike generally deals with them, though percentages get a little tricky if they spawn with Pavise. Regardless, it’s possible to rely on Rally Spectrum’d Flavia/Basilio to take a few of the northern kills if necessary. Lucina does end up fighting turn 2 enemy phase because that particular Assassin apparently has a Bow equipped by default which hits Gerome really hard (he’s on the edge of the move range such that only ranged weapons will hit). Of course Gerome has high enough Avoid+Sol so that he can likely still take it and be okay, but I think Lucina is a bit more reliable. She does need help to oneround, which is still like 99% for at least 1 Dual Strike/crit/Aether. If every enemy hits and the Ruin Sorcerer crits and Lucina never activates her 33% Aether, she can die, but that’s pretty unlikely. In hindsight it’s possible Gerome would maybe still be better since his Sol activation is higher and Avoid is higher. Probably also possible to do some Physic+Rescue play to heal him. Validar is a little tricky because of how hard it is to damage him. Sevara does 16x2 at 17 crit, Morgan does 14 at 75% Dual Strike, 12% crit. Validar also heals 24 hp if he gets to his enemy phase. In most cases 3 of 4 Dual Strikes are necessary for up to 106 damage. With crits it’s probably 85%ish estimated success. It’s probably possible for Sevara to die if hit really hard by Vengeance and then hit by a bunch of other enemies but between her high Hp/Def (79/50, could add tonics too) and Sol, Axebreaker, etc, the chances should be quite low. In general there’s a lot of misc randomness in the generics from the Generals using Pavise constantly to the Heroes with Axebreaker. The most luck-based generics are probably Axebreaker, Silver Sword Heroes which Helswath Sevara has just 50% hit on. However, Gungnir Morgan still 2hkos assisting at high Dual Strike rates, so the overall chances some combination of hits or crits kills is probably 90%ish. Maybe I’ll do some specific numbers later. Plus they don’t consistently spawn with Axebreaker and it only matters for a single Hero on turn 2 enemy phase since other Heroes can be dealt with. The strategy transitions pretty cleanly into a 3 turn that can be finished on player phase if random Heroes/Validar survive. Still 23 uses on Helswath too though I probably should have used a Luck tonic. Amusingly I just realized today that Rescue Staves don’t work while the barrier is up. In the past I’ve always had Boots Avatar clear the barrier first turn. I didn’t really do any Rescuing turn 2 after the barrier is down, so it’s again possible some Rescue tactics then can further optimize reliability. Another option would be to split up Lucina and Gerome to gain more competent fighters. Still trying to build that Support though; it’s up to A now. Also for some reason I always thought that enemies got Hit Rate+20 and fixed skills this chapter, but apparently it actually happens in Chapter 24. I suppose it’s just the high enemy density and stat bump that usually surprises people here. Also, I 1 turned 24, 25, E. The latter 2 are pretty trivial but I want to spend a bit more time on 24 to see if I can optimize it a bit more. There’s tons of randomness so I don’t think I can manage a super high percentage 1 turn. It’ll probably be a strat with a good chance of a 1 turn that easily transitions into a 2 turn. Gerome/Cherche and Sevara/Morgan do their jobs very consistently which is like 90% of the map, but Flavia/Basilio, Lucina/Sully, and Kjelle/Chrom have some issues. There are usually just 1 or 2 enemies that aren’t dead. Lots of stuff to writeup. I will say I didn’t expect the children to be this strong without reclassing. Re: Spotpass Paralogues. At a glance, P18 and P20 seem easy to 1 turn and give 2 more Rescuers, though P18 might require some fancy Rescue chains and Galeforce shenanigans. Could cheese P22 for a Nosferatu Galeforcer. As for the others….lol. >_>

And now we jump ahead. I am somewhat working on earlier chapter write-ups, but they are admittedly lower priority atm. I really liked this strat though. [spoiler=Chapter 21 in 3 turns with all 4 chests:] General strategy and map overview: Chapter 21 introduces hacked, +8 mt, +20 hit forges (on every enemy instead of special ones), but the enemy stats aren’t overwhelming quite yet. The enemy density is medium, but the real challenge comes from the Mire tomes with a huge range of 10 and tons of reinforcements (which includes more Mire Sorcerers that are impossible to reach). The chapter heavily encourages rushing through the chapter. The easiest way is to use only a few of your strongest characters with high move and beeline the boss. Mire is generally inaccurate and Pure Water can help against it. The treasure is decent, Noble Rapier, Fortify, Bullion(L), Secret Book, but hardly necessary. Depending on your team size, some members can go for the chests instead of the boss. It is also possible to move even more quickly, using many Rescue Staff users, Olivia and skills like Galeforce to complete the chapter in 2-3 turns. If not going super-fast with Rescue chains, it can be difficult to protect weaker characters, particularly Olivia, so it’s perhaps not the best idea to the bring them. A more medium pace strategy with a balanced team can still work and get the treasure. The important issue is to stay ahead of the reinforcements from the staircases or block those stairs. Don’t have weak units like Olivia exposed at all (in fear of being ambushed by Mire), and use a variety of characters to deal with the various threats like the Mire Sorcerers that are actually reachable, as well as blocking the staircases, using Rallies, and using the narrow corridors as chokepoints. No Second Seal strategy: This strategy is for a reliable 3 turn clear that gets all the treasure. The tonics are Hp+Def on Tiki and Gerome, Skl+Str on Gerome, Morgan and Sevara, Luck on Gerome. Tiki, Avatar, and Gerome have Chest Keys. Morgan has 2 Door Keys. Morgan can use a dropped Master Key instead as well. Initial formation is such that Gaius can open the nearby door. Avatar can Rally Spectrum everyone after they’re paired while out of range of the northern SMs. Kjelle with Chrom can move below Gaius, kill the Mire Sorcerer with a Hand Axe. Tiki with Say’ri moves below the north Berserker, heavily damaging or killing with a Dual Strike (Anna finishes if no Dual Strike). Morgan with Sevara can kill the Ruin Sorcerer to the left with a Javelin. Lissa can Rescue Gerome with Lucina down a little, who then goes and kills the Assassin a bit south with a Hand Axe (in range of left Berserkers as well). Morgan flies down and switches to Sevara, who kills an Assassin from below with a Hand Axe. Anna, Libra, Olivia rescue Gaius and heal Tiki if necessary. Next turn, Tiki goes far left and heals with Concotion/Elixer. Avatar moves to a safe position (within 6 squares of the chest) and Rally Spectrums if necessary for Kjelle who goes and kills the more left SM while blocking the top one. Gerome flies way down and kills a Berserker. Anna move left and Rescues Libra, who moves down and Rescues Lissa, who moves down a bit and Rescues Olivia with Gaius into a perfectly isolated yet safe position right next to Gerome. Olivia dances and Gerome kills the other Berserker. Sevara walks down, switches, and Morgan kills the Assassin from range. She Galeforces to the left door and uses a Door Key. After stuff happens, Tiki, Avatar open chests. Libra Rescues Anna to open the right chest. Lissa rescues Gerome to open the left chest. Morgan opens the bottom door and Olivia with Gaius has just enough move to Dance for her. Morgan kills the Assassin below, then Galeforces to the boss who Sevara Killing Edges. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: Firstly I’ll mention the 2 turn without all the treasure is fairly trivial with a Boots+Galeforce user and that 1 turn doesn’t seem possible with my team. The main issue with 1 Boots+Galeforce, 1 Deliverer, 3 Rescue is there are at the very least 2 enemies directly blocking the way and a few others that need to be moved around. The boss is far down enough that somehow the Galeforcer needs to get within 20 tiles of the boss while still active that player phase and with Galeforce intact. The Deliverer needs to reach and kill the SM in the way right there, about 12 tiles from the boss. And someone needs to kill the enemy blocking the middle of the stage. It’s pretty easy if saccing Olivia/Rescuers to finish on enemy phase, but otherwise, I don’t see how there’s enough move with this composition to get everyone to the right place in 1 turn. Anyways, it’s was pretty fun working on this 3 turn strat with all 4 chests, even if it’s completely unnecessary. I think this strat is quite optimized. Some of the movements are exact tile specific, the order of the movements/Rescue chain matters, and the reliability is overall fairly nice. The most luck based component of the map is Tiki’s survival first turn (she’s still at bases). She kills the Berserker around ~57% of the time as she needs 1 Dual Strike in 2 chances. If she does kill, she’s pretty safe even if counterhit, barring some insanely rare double Astra from both SMs with Swordfaire. If the Berserker misses her at 49% hit, 14% Dual Guard, she’s also pretty safe even if she doesn’t kill (Anna can kill and be Rescued). So safe at least around 81% of the time. There aren’t enough staff users (if Anna has to fight) to Rescue Gerome, Anna, Gaius, and heal Tiki. I do suppose it's possible to replace someone with Cordelia/Maribelle for another Rescue but deployment spots are pretty tight and everyone does something necessary. In the 19% that Tiki fails to kill and the Berserker hits, she’ll die if 2 of the 3 enemies she faces has a –faire skill and the SMs also both hit or one Astras (fairly likely). There’s also a little Mire damage in there, 8 at 22% true hit. I’d still estimate around ~90% survival overall. Meanwhile, everyone does need to oneround the enemies they face, but can all do so with just 1 Dual Strike. For Kjelle, it’s 98% of at least 1 Dual Strike/Aether/Crit. When Morgan attacks, that’s ~96% of at least 1 Dual Strike/crit. Reliability for Morgan could be marginally improved by forging a +2 Javelin. But it only matters for 1 enemy Assassin and it’s such a little difference. For Sevara, it’s around ~96% too. Gerome doesn’t need any Dual Strikes with a Str tonic. Still building Lucina support though. As for durability, Sevara faces 0% from Axes and 20% true hit from Magic that 4hkos, but has 52% Sol and probably doesn’t even face that many mages in total. Gerome first turn faces a combination that includes a few 11% true hit Axes, an 18% true hit Tome and a 50 damage 71% true hit hit Silver Bow. But the combination that kills is like 2% likely and that’s assuming he never activates any Dual Guard or hits of 42% Sol in like 8 attacks as well. If he was chipped first turn, he later faces a miniscule death chance from a few 20% sword chip hits and a 42 damage 85% true hit Killer Bow (no crit with Luck tonic). But again, Sol, also ~20% Dual Guard, etc. It’s probably <1% chance of him actually dying. Anna does face an attack on turn 2 enemy phase and can die if that SM spawns Astra (seems rare) and activates at 18% and hits 4/5 times at 94% hit. Still fairly unlikely. Finally, Sevara has 43% crit, 73% Dual Strike against the boss, so that’s another ~98% kill. Yay. So the most luck based part is the ~90% Tiki Survival and that could be much more reliable if I had the insight to build Tiki/Say’ri support earlier or gotten just a few levels for them. On that note, they somehow reached C support after this map, after just 3 battles. I’ll note that Olivia/Gaius position on turn 2 enemy phase is a single safe spot in a sea of purple/red squares. And it’s exactly 6 spaces from the bottom door to dance for Morgan next turn, so that Gaius Pair Up is very necessary. I do suppose it’s possible to Statbooster + Pure Water to survive a Mire, but it’s still nice how it works out. Also I gave Sevara all the Goddess Icons and Naga’s Tear in preparation for potential Armthrift+Rally Spectrum+ Rally Luck Helswath/Ragnell. We’ll see how it works.