XeKr

<_< I've been refraining from tierlisting primarily because nowadays I lack the time (and interest) to make any serious arguments or proposals. Plus, I think I tend toward a much stricter reliability+turn count metric than is otherwise accepted. It's still quite awkward to see Olivia down in the bottom of C tier... At any rate, everyone is certainly usable in Lunatic, and it's very easy to make them usable in "casual" play. Reclass early, then stay unpromoted as long as possible. The main issue is Avatar is so far beyond everyone that, as far as I know, she and her children completely overcentralize any kind of efficient play. This both is and isn't a problem depending on one's tiering philosophy/standards, and I have little desire to get into any of those arguments atm. Though stuff like allowing more Spotpass is one promising avenue to making others better (or perhaps not). I do think a Lunatic list would be more interesting, compared to Hard imo, since I don't think it's reliable to bumrush all the latter half bosskills without Nosferatu/Sol, yet those classes generally give up tons of Move in return. So maybe there's some faster, reliable completions out there that actually require some fun tactics/team compositions. So, yes, perhaps interesting in the future where I have more time. >_>

:D >_> ^_^ That Lucina is the result when Rallies + Pair Up + Tonics give +13-17 to stats. Those boosts are pretty overpowered. And the Renown Second Seal comes really early on, after just 100. Renown only really gets broken at the very high amounts. Some people still ban Renown in entirety to be consistent, however. __________________________________________________________________________________________ Update time: I ended up doing Gerome’s paralogue right after C17, using C17 to train Sevara. This allowed others besides Lucina to get more exp. Even still, the children are all quickly nearing 20/20 so it didn’t really matter. Here's the state of things post-Valm arc. Skills/Statboosters already included. Supports that are actually used are mentioned. Which really just means for the children. Name Class Level Hp Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res Skills and Statboosters Supports Chrom Great Lord 20.00/10.87 50 24 2 26 28 21 20 8 A Kjelle Avatar Grandmaster 20.00/18.90 55 27 23 28 23 14 35 15 Lissa Sage 20.00/17.92 51 6 27 23 29 28 14 18 Tomefaire Sully Paladin 20.00/12.28 48 27 11 23 28 21 23 17 Defender Cordelia Falcon Knight 20.00/10.98 48 25 11 31 29 16 22 18 Speed +2 Gregor Hero 20.00/14.23 60 28 6 35 26 17 25 7 Libra War Monk ??.??/15.50 53 19 24 25 20 16 16 22 Anna Trickster ??.??/19.90 48 19 25 31 32 42 14 16 Cherche Griffon Rider 20.00/07.58 50 27 2 24 25 17 22 10 Strength+2 Lucina Great Lord 20.00/20.00 60 37 11 43 40 36 34 19 Defender B Gerome Kjelle General 20.00/18.21 72 41 9 36 33 32 34 19 Defense+2 Defender A Chrom Morgan Dark Flier 20.00/20.00 66 37 31 38 41 31 34 31 Speed+2 Spirit Dust Boots A Sevara Sevara Hero 20.00/18.19 72 36 13 46 39 24 39 22 Arms Scroll A Morgan Gerome Wyvern Lord 20.00/19.07 78 49 12 37 33 29 36 13 Arms Scroll B Gerome Lucina and Gerome are building support so the final boss kill is easier. Otherwise they could fight separately as Lucina+Sully and Gerome+Gregor. Sevara and Morgan are together because it’s convenient to Galeforce something then rush in and have Sevara tank a bunch of stuff. Other than that, high stats + Rallies/Pair Up/Tonic + Aether/Rightful King or Aether/Pavise or Sol or +Avoid skills makes things pretty straightforward atm. Lol at Gerome's Str as well. :( at Morgan's Mag. Morgan has the Boots, but I have tons of Statboosters to allocate still, including Naga’s Tear. I ran out of Rescue for C21, which is horribly inconvenient since I’m trying to do more optimized clears for these chapters. So I’ll wait until that Risen leaves. Still working on earlier chapter writeups as well as doing some other misc stuff. Anyways, the main difference in No Second Seals is probably just less variety, since only the children are that feasible lategame instead of everyone, and there are less skill combinations available. I expect C23 and on (and especially postgame) might be a different story though.

@Walhart: Thanks for your comments. :D I’ve used no Wireless at all. Part of it is because of the guide component for this writeup; I would prefer not to rely on certain Renown benchmarks. Other part is because I haven’t needed it and am too lazy don’t feel the need to look through and figure out what’s useful. I guess I’ll mention the Bonus Box legendary items though, as well as the Renown Second Seal since that’s pretty important. [spoiler=Chapter 10:] General strategy and map overview: ;___; That transition from the preparation screen to “Don’t Speak Her Name” always gets me… The enemy density is fairly low on this stage, but there a few factors that discourage turtling and playing it super slow. Most importantly, Thieves are running away and they have some pretty decent treasure like a Seraph Robe, Master Seal, Bullion(M), and Wyrmslayer. Depending on how strong your units are, it may be possible to just chase after them using your full movement each turn. Mounted units have the easiest time and there are no Bows or Magic to bother fliers. A few uses of Rescue can also speed up the process. Remember that Pair Up from some classes like Great Knight and Thief can give move bonuses. It’s also possible to catch all the Thieves in the top left corner near the boss if you have the lack the units to split up your team. The stage is mostly dominated by Axe users, which again can be reliably dodged by using Swords. The few Soldiers are scattered around in map and can be dealt with separately. Reclassed or promoted units with Pair Up and tonics are probably strong enough to easily beat these unpromoted enemies in a straight fight by now. Since it is a bosskill map, you should be aiming to finish him a turn or so after you’re notified of coming reinforcements. The first ones are that arrive are Wyverns that pop out of forts a bit below the boss, which are pretty dangerous. In general, I don’t think it’s worth farming reinforcements for exp unless you’re absolutely sure how and when they’ll spawn, which obviously requires detailed foreknowledge. Often times, you can block the spawn spots, but it’s difficult here because the forts are out of reach of nonfliers. The rewards of this kind of farming aren’t that great either when compared to the risk, as there’s plenty of exp throughout the game if allocated properly. Plus there’s always DLC if you want that option. No Second Seal strategy: Libra Rescues Sully with Chrom to the left who charges to the Thief. Avatar with Tharja kills the nearby Thief with the Wyrmslayer. Gregor with Panne heads upward from the starting position. Cordelia with Frederick goes nearby to lure a single enemy. Later, Sully promotes and charges through the left side. Avatar heads up to catch the Bullion thief. Gregor deals with most of the right and top, though Cordelia gets a few kills too. A quick clear overall, before any reinforcements arrive. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: I did this chapter first for the Master Seal to promote Sully who reached level 20. I rushed the left with Sully/Chrom, using a Rescue Staff so she could quickly grab the seal and promote. Some enemies try to block the way, so a Rescue use helps to speed up the chase before the area is too congested. Anyways, the enemies are still unpromoted, have fairly low stats, and are in low density. Stronger units that are promoted have very little issues. Sword users like Gregor are generally okay combatants, around 3hko’d at very low hit, though a large swarm can kill him if he’s positioned aggressively and gets unlucky. Wyverns can have Tantivy, which can slightly raise their Hit rate. The units with the most problems are likely Lance users like Cordelia who face a triangle disadvantage. Having other units to help chase the thieves and take some of the pressure off makes it easier to train these weaker units (since you don’t have to rush as much). It’s convenient to one-round the Thieves, which may involve ohkos since they’re very fast and hard to double. Should be doable with +Str Pair up, Silver/Steel/Killer, possible forging, and Tonics. Not totally necessary though, since you can just catch up again if using +Move Pair Ups or a mount. Not reclassing matters somewhat here since it’s a little easier for fliers to navigate the stage to catch the thieves and not be blocked by enemies. However, any Pegasus that attempts to do so will likely not deal well with the Wyverns. There are multiple thieves that require somewhat aggressive positioning to catch, so moving and switching doesn’t work as well as you might expect for Pegasus. Someone like Wyvern!Panne, however, can just steamroll through. [spoiler=Paralogue 4:] General strategy and map overview: Interesting chapter since there’s a high enemy density and good enemy weapon variety. Plus Anna starts off in the middle of the enemy and there’s a Thief rushing from the top left to the top right treasure. One way to approach this map is to ignore the treasure, Rescue Anna, and play it like a Defend map. The treasure isn’t that useful overall and it’s much easier to defend the chokepoints near the beginning compared to rushing forward. A variant of this strategy to obtain the treasure is to defend the bottom middle and bottom right through chokepoints, while charging someone up the left to catch the Thief as it passes the top treasure room. This usually involves some very strong mounted character that can fight independently. Also helps if that person is Chrom or can support Chrom so Anna can be recruited on the way (if not Rescued down). There are numerous ranged enemies near the starting position such as Archers and Mages. A strong mage such as Avatar or Tharja (with Nosferatu) can typically deal with them. Or another high level unit with a +Def Pair Up and Ward used on them can probably use Javelins and Hand Axes to hold that location as well. The boss and enemies near the boss move as a group. Lure them with someone and kite them around. Anna can then go around to get the top right treasure. No Second Seal strategy: Sully with Chrom starts on the left and moves up and kills the Mage through the wall. Avatar with Tharja blocks the middle chokepoint. Cordelia with Kellam, Gregor with Panne, Frederick with Sumia clean up nearby enemies. It’s safe to Rescue Anna down with Libra. Sully with Chrom continues charging upward toward the Thief. Everyone else gets what kills they can. Avatar doesn’t double, and can weaken enemies for the others. After getting the treasure, Anna opens the middle door. Avatar leads and lures enemies and the boss back for Cordelia and Gregor to kill. Anna goes around the left side to the treasure room in the top right. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: There’s enough immediate threat from enemies nearby that it may be difficult to safely Rescue Staff Anna down first turn. If she’s unlucky, she can die first turn if left alone, but the chances are probably low enough that it’s fine to ignore it if lacking a strong enough team to clean up the starting position. Still, it is possible to save her first turn to eliminate that chance completely, and really she’s a decent combatant at this time. Libra has the Mag to do so and can take a few hits. A strategy like the one mentioned here requires 1 strong tank, though the rest of the team would like to have good offense. So someone with a more defensive Pair Up/tonics to bottleneck one side, while the other characters quickly kill and clean up the other side. Stacking Spd Pair Ups and Tonics is the first priority of the non-tank units, then use Str tonics, Forging, Killers, etc or whatever for the rest of the offense. A high support level helps greatly as Dual Strike chances get very high. There are tons of ranged enemies to deal with for the tank. The unit will likely have to promoted to have the sufficient stats to tank all the enemies, though Ward can mitigate the magic damage. At worst, it is possible to have Frederick (with Kellam and Ward) tank, but hopefully not get too many kills. Someone more underleveled like Tharja can probably manage if Nosferatu uses remain and she’s fast enough to double. Someone like Gregor would be an excellent Pair Up for anyone in that tanking role, giving both Spd and Def. I had promoted +Def Avatar, who had no problems. Whoever rushes up the left if trying to save the treasure is ideally very high level, and either promoted or reclassed. They don’t have to fight too many enemies but do need to be fairly independent. On the turn they kill the Thief, they also have to deal with a Barbarian and Mage. It’s pretty essential to ohko the Thief here since he’ll run into the boss’s range otherwise. A recently promoted Sully had no problems. It’s probably possible to rush up the right side after opening the doors with Anna, though I haven’t tried it. [spoiler=Chapter 11:] General strategy and map overview: Low enemy density, but the appearance of promoted units plus reinforcements will introduce some challenge. Note that Gangrel and units near him do not move unless you get into range of them. However, they will move as a group when aggroed. Deal with the other groups first before aggroing Gangrel and friends. His group can be separated if you have some units on the left side to attract those enemies. The left side has Mercs and Fighters. The right side has mostly Mages. A few Wyverns will charge upward as well. Take advantage of the low enemy density to fight just a few enemies at once. Generally, using Swords to dodge Axes and having high defense works best on the left. Lances could be useful to drastically reduce Sword damage, especially against the Hero, but Axes from the generics become much more dangerous. Use Ward and ranged weaponry against the Mages. It’s definitely worth using the forts if you can get to them since you’ll get the terrain bonuses and block reinforcements. The reinforcements are weak overall, except for a Hero in the top left. They can spawn suddenly, so keep Olivia and healers pretty far away from the forts. The promoted units such as the Hero and the Sage are way stronger than the other enemies. A promoted unit with Tonics and a good Pair Up can probably take them on if isolated. Slowly chip them down if necessary, using healing items and Physic. Gangrel is very fast and has a forged Levin Sword. Someone with a Pegasus Pair Up and Ward can lure and weaken him. Quickly finish him with strong weapons like Killer and Silver weapons the next turn. The Thief beelines the left treasure, though he starts on the right. Have Anna or Gaius open the right chest sometime very near the turn you’re planning to finish off Gangrel and clear the area. Take out the Thief with whoever is dealing with the left side, after he opens the chest for you. Note the map is a rout, so don’t kill everything before getting the treasure. No Second Seal strategy: Sully with Chrom and Gregor with Panne head left. Olivia speeds up their journey over there. Sully deals with the Hero rather quickly with a Silver Lance and Chrom’s large Spd pair Up. Chrom deals with most of the rest after promoting with the Master Seal from the Hero, including the thief. Gregor gets a few kills, mostly a few axe enemies like the Wyverns, after taking a safe position on the middle Fort. Meanwhile, Avatar with Cordelia deals with the Wind magic users and Cordelia cleans up the rest. After waiting for all the reinforcements to finish, Cordelia lures Gangrel. Pretty standard tactics to lure enemies, weaken stuff with Chrom, Sully, and Avatar, and give most kills to Gregor and Cordelia. At this time there were more reinforcements out of the top left so killing Gangrel didn’t end the chapter. Anna opens the right chest, Gregor deals with the reinforcements as they head downward to his fort position. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: As long as dealing with unpromoted enemies, Pair Up and Tonics will usually be enough. Kellam and a Def Tonic is 7-9 Def. A Pegasus Pair Up and Spd/Res tonics is 5-7 Spd and Res. Other good filler Pairs are Panne for offense or Gregor for durability, if not training those characters. Someone that’s a Paladin gives huge Str/Skl/Spd/Def bonuses. This chapter does give the first taste of Lunatic promoted enemies. It’s probably the first time it’s very obvious Frederick will start falling behind. Enemies get a huge boost to the point where your own promoted characters, with Pair Up and Tonics might just match up with them statwise. Plus they have forged weaponry, which later on will have bonuses that are impossible for you to have. However, you can often leverage support bonuses, skills, weapon triangle, terrain, etc to get an edge. The first hero uses a Silver Sword and a lot of the damage can be mitigated by using a Lance and stacking +Def bonuses as well as Forest/Fort bonuses. The second hero that’s a reinforcement uses an Axe. A strong enough unit can dodge it with a Sword when on a fort. The sage can be tanked with the Fort bonus, +Res Pair Up/Tonics, and Ward. Gangrel has 32 atk, 29 Spd, but between a Sumia/Cordelia Pair Up, Spd/Res Tonics, and Ward, a unit can probably tank him. Obviously a promoted unit will do the best. Someone that’s a Paladin or Dark Flier/Falcon Knight has high base Spd/Res and can further lower his damage with Lances. [spoiler=Stats after chapter 11:] Within the stats I already include relevant skills such as Defender as well as statboosters (none at this time). Supports are just the main pairing they’re currently using. Name Class Level Hp Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res Skills and Statboosters Supports Chrom Great Lord 20.00/03.14 44 21 2 25 22 19 18 5 S Sully Avatar Grandmaster 20.00/08.97 46 21 19 24 18 10 27 13 C Cordelia Lissa Cleric 19.17 32 2 14 10 15 17 7 8 B Frederick Sully Paladin 20.00/05.95 43 24 10 21 23 18 21 16 Defender S Chrom Cordelia Pegasus Knight 18.17 36 17 7 21 20 13 14 12 Speed+2 C Avatar Gregor Mercenary 19.60 41 19 1 20 16 13 15 2 B Panne Libra War Monk ??.??/04.27 43 15 16 15 14 12 13 17 Anna Trickster ??.??/02.22 37 13 19 23 23 28 9 11 Chrom’s Def was way worse before, but is okay now, particularly with Sully support. Still looks below average. Avatar’s Mag/Spd suck, but his Def is really high. His support with Cordelia is building steadily. Gregor is a little slow, but Panne support and Tonics allow him to consistently double. As a side note, Gerome’s paralogue is fairly interesting if done pretty early (attempting this before Chapter 17). 71 atk Berserkers of course, but the real danger are the numerous Swordbreaker Wyverns who often also have Tantivy/Quick Burn. The combination is just as cheap when the enemy uses it, especially with their doubly hacked Forges and +Hit skills. There are also only narrow bridges to navigate, few tiles of beneficial terrain, and also villagers to protect. Here’s Lucina (bases from 20/6 Chrom and 20/8 Sully with average-ish stats) after taking Hp, Str, Spd, Def tonics, assisted by Rally Spectrum, Rally Speed, Rally Defense, A support with Paladin Sully with 20s in the main stats, and with Defender. I haven’t used any stat boosters on anyone yet. Name Level Hp Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res Lucina 20.00/13.28 61 45 15 49 53 48 45 20 This Lucina is pretty overpowered at this point in the game, but will still die if swarmed by too many units. Plus, she requires lots of help from Rally, and those Rallybots can’t exactly get very close to much combat. Even 20/9 Cordelia!Morgan with Rally Speed and Spectrum can only take a few hits, plus I sometimes need her to fight on player phase. Sevara is underleveled at this point. Can’t kite forever without Rallies and there’s too many enemies and not enough space, especially with the bridge layout and since the villagers need to be protected. In this kind of situation it’s useful to have multiple strong characters like Lucina, Kjelle, Morgan, and Avatar (somewhat) and there’s some interesting decision making involved in terms of when/who to attack versus when/who to Rally. Plus the positioning involved to split up the enemy, and to Rally the right people, etc. Sometimes it’s just a matter of burning a Rescue use but other times it can require more creative positioning for better survival chances. Getting way ahead of ourselves though… Anyways, even if it’s not terribly difficult, I do actually like No Second Seals because you see the results of training growth characters like the children, as well as the effects of a larger team with members that can support one another in different ways. In general it’s harder to reach that superunit status without reclassing (though obviously can still be done by stacking stat boosters + using Nosferatu). Still, children do level incredibly fast and can get really high stats. I’m thinking I might skip ahead to writeup the really lategame/postgame maps if I get to them since I feel like they’re most interesting in No Second Seals. Probably do the spotpass Paralogues first, then we’ll see about DLC. I might LTC them with high reliability, as possible, since everyone should be max level so no more exp allocation to do and units to train. I’ll have a nice array of units like Galeforce+Boots Cordelia!Morgan, Sol+Deliverer Gregor!Gerome, Sol Avatar!Sevara, Rightful King+Aether Sully!Lucina, Aether Chrom!Kjelle. I’ll still keep working on these earlier chapters too though.

The randomness has a lot to do with it when it comes to Anna shops. You could get lucky and promoted early, by Chapter 4 or 5, or else you'd have to wait until Chapter 8. It's really not that broken though, I agree. I don't consider my Lunatic+ run that serious because it was essentially a duo and I Galeforce+Rescue-chained a lot of the latter half with little attention to reliability, skipping enemy phases and animations and such. It just wasn't that fun. My usual playstyle is more slow-paced, uses a much larger team, and with animations on, since I rather like them in this game. My next run after No Second Seal might be a Lunatic+ run. Maybe RNG'd team or "pick my units" style to encourage some character diversity. That's probably a long way off though. >_> And discussion like this is both encouraging and interesting, so everything's good there. ^_^

Avatar can be level 14 by Chapter 3, probably like 18-20 by Chapter 4. iirc, Renown opens then, so reclass to Merc. You have Chapter 4 and Paralogue 1 to solo still and perhaps get promoted with Anna's help. Seems doable, though I haven't actually tried that exact progression myself. Even if no Sol, an effectively level ~30 Avatar with Kellam probably still takes 0 damage against most things except Counter and Luna+ and you can still kite to limit your exposure to them each turn, particularly if a Wyvern. Also, +Hp Avatar would have like nearly 60 Hp or something ridiculous (though maybe harder to train in C1-3). iirc, I didn't early reclass in my run, just went with a high level +Def Avatar, a somewhat trained Chrom, and Frederick. Probably wasn't as reliable of a strat as it could have been, however. The lategame probably can be interesting if not Galeforce/Rescue chained or Nosferatu/Sol tanked. I didn't bother because of the aforementioned reasons I've been stating (tedious to look at all the enemy skills, etc). EDIT: This was honestly pretty long ago, sometime after my first Lunatic run. Since, I've learned a lot more about the game mechanics. I think I might give Lunatic+ a more serious go sometime.

I did my only Lunatic+ run with no grinding. I used various random things like Anna shops and event tiles as they appeared. I don't think I actually bought anything from Spotpass in my run. Though it was mostly just an Avatar/Anna and Lucina/Chrom charge with Galeforce and Rescue after a certain point, because it just got too tedious. >_> You could probably have like a 20/10/5 Hero by Chapter 5 if buying from Spotpass is too "lame". And unless you make severe restrictions like banning Avatar, there's probably still a reliable strat out there, even with no self-healing. Something like Wyvern Avatar could probably slowly pick off enemies from the cliffs and kite around while having a bunch of Def and avoid. They can't all have Luna+, Hawkeye+, and Counter. And also don't all fly. Or Frederick and Avatar split the enemy attention, kiting in separate directions, etc.

I do agree with Interceptor (and others) in that Lunatic+ has some nice moments that can require some creative tactics. It's a lot less steamroll-y in that way. However, it also can require quite a bit of patience to check every enemies' skills and come up with an appropriate strategy for the specific distribution in that chapter. And that comes with a high degree of frustration if you make a small mistake. I do see how it can appeal to some players, however. Many times in regular Lunatic any mistakes can be easily covered by Rescue spam, which meshes better with my usual cruise-control strategy. >_> Also, I guess I'll mention there's always the annoying temptation of "oh, I could just reset", instead of sitting there and figuring out how to deal with a particularly nasty combination.

You can have level 20ish Avatar by then, possibly higher if promoted from Anna shops or reclassed from Renown/Anna shops (no excuse for Renown, as Lunatic has to be beaten to get Lunatic+, so you certainly have access to the Second Seal. Moreover, Seals are super common from Anna at the early chapters.). If reclassed, Nosferatu is buyable from Spotpass if you want, or Avatar is probably statistically overwhelming enough already. I haven't tried a run with similar restrictions as I typically do for Lunatic, and have no intention to. >_>

I actually think one of the better things about this game is that every character is usable, and often uniquely useful. Of course some are way better than others, particularly in optimized, LTC-like, play, but nearly everyone can be really strong combatwise (through early reclassing) or act as support utility, whether through Pair Up, Rally, Staves, etc and often can be both depending on how you want to use them. For example, I often use Sully as a Paladin pair up for Sully!Lucina, but if reclassed to Wyvern instead, she's an incredible fighter as well. The children legitimately have way more potential in the long term, and can easily surpass parents with just a little babying. This is most apparent in runs like no Second Seal, where the parents have little lategame potential. Also, I still maintain that Chapter 2 is the only really reset heavy chapter in Lunatic+. And it's technically easy and quick to brute force with the appropriate strategy. Pretty much every other chapter can be reliably done no matter the skill distribution, particularly if using stuff like Nosferatu. My main issue with L+ stems from how wildly the difficulty can change often a direct function of the abundance of Counter enemies (as well as the Luna+Hawkeye combo earlygame). As well as how tedious I personally find it to check the skills on every enemy every single attempt on every map. Plus, reinforcements will still really troll you unless you've memorized them.

Chapter 2 is the only really silly chapter in Lunatic+. The rest is okay, if tedious and wildly inconsistent in difficulty. Same turn reinforcements randomly with Counter are also silly. >_> And of course, Nosferatu is immortality except against swarms of Counter enemies and even then you can just do simple kiting. So it's pretty much all doable reliably after earlygame.

[spoiler=Chapter 9:] General strategy and map overview: Just a note, Def tonics are available where C3 was. Spd tonics are available where C8 was. These are easily the most important ones, though the others can be useful as well to get those few extra points. Generally, only try to use them where necessary as to not cut into your funds too much. Do buy a few extra in case a Challenge appears for a while on the shop. Shouldn't be a big deal, but just in case. Another desert so bring those Mages and Fliers for mobility. A small trick is to recognize there are bunches of plains tile beginning from the starting position, hugging the wall all the way downward and around. The map is designed to force you to rush and save Libra. Then very soon afterwards, reinforcements appear near the starting position and remaining enemies rush you. It’s surprisingly effective if they manage to overwhelm and corner you. So, fight them on your terms. Lure them before they charge you. Rush downward using fliers and the plains terrain. There is a mix of enemy weapon types, but they aren’t that threatening to Paired Up units with tonics. The desert again helps out by not allowing the enemies to swarm your units. Watch enemy weapons and ranges carefully. The faster you initially move to save Libra, the more time before reinforcements come so it’s easier to establish a stronger formation. Note that Libra will talk to Chrom on his turn, Ally phase, if he can reach him (he doesn’t have a penalty in desert either). You can then use his Ward and the forts to prematurely aggro and deal with the mages and right enemies, as well as recruit Tharja with Chrom. A strong sword user can slow down or take out the 6 Wyvern reinforcements that arrive on Turn 5 enemy phase near the starting position. No Second Seal strategy: Cordelia flies Avatar down who switches and kills the nearby Mage. Meanwhile Sully with Chrom charges downward along the plains tiles, followed by Gregor with Panne who stays out of the Archer range. Sully and Avatar counter a bunch of stuff at 1-2 range. Next turn, Avatar switches back to Cordelia who kills a nearby soldier. Sully charges far downward and switches to Chrom who is in Libra’s range. Gregor also charges downward. Afterwards, clean up the bottom right with everyone, leading with Avatar and Sully who have 1-2 range. Tharja is recruited when she gets close. As Wyvern reinforcements arrive, Gregor with Panne tanks them on a fort. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: Not too hard of a chapter, but probably where a no reclassing restriction is first apparent. With the C8 and Renown Second Seal, it’s possible to have more fliers such as Wyvern!Sully/Lon’qu/Panne or really strong sword users like Cavellier!Chrom or Myrmidon!Stahl/Gregor/Gaius. Wyverns make it much easier to rush downward since they actually have pretty high Def and triangle against Soldiers, plus neutral against Wyverns. Pegasus have low defense and are neutral against Soldiers and disadvantaged against Wyverns. It really does make it a lot easier if you take advantage of the path of Plains tiles to move downward instead of relying on Fliers/Mages to traverse the desert. A strong sword user can easily hold off the enemy Wyvern reinforcements and can get a nice bit of exp doing so. Since I cleaned up the bottom right fairly fast, I ended up using Gregor despite being underleveled and without a C support. He was pretty safe on a fort, facing a 3hko at around 20% disp hit, 8% real, on enemy phase with Patience. With Tonics and Panne’s nice Str/Spd pair up, he does rather well, having just enough Spd to double consistently. I suppose it's debatably risky since he's 2hko'd by the Silver Axes, but oh well. A sword user with actual supports/stats easily deals with the Wyverns, which could be Sully, Chrom, Avatar for me. At this point I’ve consolidated the team a bit and stopped using the really weak Pair Ups like Stahl for Sully. Both Sully and Chrom are high enough level to fight extremely well when Paired and with Tonics. Their stats are similar to their averages, when Chrom actually well below on Def. Still, the only threatening enemies are the Mages, which are few and Ward can also help with them. Part of the reason why I found this chapter relatively easy is I relied mostly on my higher level units since I was rushing to Libra, instead of babying Cordelia and Gregor that much. Libra joins and is a great filler character. Staves are always useful especially with his high base Mag. In addition, his combination of concrete durability, Hp/Def/Res, is very high. He can take a few hits and chip back with Axes. Of course Hammer access helps out as well. These chapters are pretty straightforward so there isn’t much to say in terms of detailed positioning, enemy stats, who attacks who, etc. As a side note, dem 65 atk, 29 Spd Berserkers in Sevara’s paralogue. :O.

Ah well, I added a few things to hopefully help clarify. At any rate, everything from now on is No Second Seal. Though I may comment on where Second Seals would be useful in a normal run. I may also go back to rewrite Prologue-C5 stuff for No Second Seals, but it’s mainly just +Def Avatar steamrolling and feeding kills to Chrom and Sully. I’ll keep the formatting for now to see if it gets fixed soon. If not, I’ll go back and change the spoiler tags to make the posts less overwhelming. [spoiler=Chapter 8:] General strategy and map overview: A desert map, meaning movement is hindered for most classes except mages and fliers. Note that Avatar’s Tactician is not a mage class despite using Tomes. It’s probably worth bringing both Sumia and Cordelia (and maybe Miriel and Ricken) just to move around easier. Just remember because of the way switching works, you can’t switch, then move. You can only move, then switch. It’s possible to take advantage of the terrain cost to isolate enemies. Using basic kiting strategies and carefully watching enemy ranges can allow your units to fight only 1-2 enemies at a time, which they can probably handle at this point. It’s also particularly useful to isolate the enemy mages (who have their full movement) to deal with them away the other enemies. Use Javelins/Hand Axes to counterattack them. Don’t feel pressured to face the charging enemies head on and use all the space you have to kite and pick them off. Nowi and Gregor can be saved just by heading upward as long as you watch enemy ranges. They shouldn’t get attacked before meeting up with your team. There’s a group of enemies near the boss that do not move until you get into range. Do beware of the Myrm with the Killing Edge in general and Mages with Arcwind for fliers. All 3 villlages have good items, Rescue Staff, Master Seal, Second Seal, but there’s no rush to get them. Deal with the enemy units first. No Second Seal strategy: Cordelia with Avatar heads left to deal with those few Dark Mages. Chrom with Sumia heads to clean the top right and visit the village. Sully with Stahl tanks in the middle and weakens enemies. After running to meet up with the team, Gregor with Panne then takes whatever kills are safe. Cordelia also joins in after cleaning the left. Afterwards, Chrom with Sumia heads left to the Master Seal village. Cordelia and Avatar head right to the Second Seal village (hey, I can sell it for gold. >_>). Everyone else deals with the enemies near the boss, with Gregor getting most of the kills. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: If you’ve been training your other non-Frederick units, the enemies in this chapter are quite tame. The chapter is quite easy as long as you watch enemy weapons and attack range. The map and enemy density also encourages kiting, so it's possible to take Spd Pair Ups for the offense and just limit the number of enemy hits each turn. +Def pairs will also work as long as you deal with the Dark Mages quickly. Lucky they have very low Spd, so they're pretty easy to double and kill. The enemies should not be close very statwise to trained Paired Up units with Tonics. Avatar is already level 20, Chrom and Sully are nearing there. Some units who have recently joined like Cordelia, and Gregor need to be babied for kills. However it should be pretty easy at this stage since other units are already competent. In general, the first Master Seal should probably go to Avatar who is probably the highest level from Veteran. In addition, Grandmaster gets Rally Spectrum which is pretty overpowered. Other alternatives for promotion first are units with good combat midgame and Pair Up bonuses for lategame. I usually recommend promoting as late as possible for most characters. This allows the most time spent unpromoted and takes advantage of the faster exp gain. Unlike other Fire Emblems, early promoted units will generally not match up statwise with the enemy late in the game (barring very low team size or extremely optimized play). In a normal run, nearly every character would like reclassing from the first Second Seal. Pick a class with common weapon ranks or is otherwise really good like Wyvern, Mercenary. This kind of early reclassing will still prepare the unit for promotion by the time Master Seals are buyable and really boost up their stats. If staying really long in unpromoted classes, leveling to near the caps, the momentum easily carries through midgame all the way to the end of the game. I would most recommend reclassing Chrom to Cavelier or someone to Wyvern like Sully, Lon’qu, or Panne. Note that around this time, even if it's your first run of the game, the Second Seal from having 100 Renown will be available. I do indeed promote Avatar who gets some much needed Spd from the promo gains. I sell the Second Seal. Chrom and Sully are nearing promotion so most exp is going to Cordelia and Gregor. I have stats and such recorded after what I feel are breakpoints in the game. So the earliest I have are after the Plegia arc, Chapter 11.

Sorry if it wasn't clear, but I wrote up Prologue-C5 during a different run with No Avatar where I did use Wyvern!Lon'qu. It's separate from my current run of No Second Seals. I didn't really bother rewriting stuff since earlygame is pretty much the same except it's a little harder for No Avatar.

If not grinding, I actually like reclassing first since the enemy stats don't ramp up that much until Chapter 17, so it's nice to use the unpromoted exp gain while the enemies are relatively tame to gain a bunch of stats. I found it can be otherwise difficult for units that promote first to keep up later on. Depends on the children and their weapon ranks, other skills, etc. Veteran is that good, however. I prefer Paladin just for the balanced Str/Skl/Spd/Def Pair Up bonuses. I think it's the only class that gives the big 3 physical stats of Str, Spd, Def. Either can work depending on you plan for her. It depends on if you want her as a long-term fighter or pair up bot (and who she is pairing with).

[spoiler=Links to specific chapters] Prologue to Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 to Chapter 11 Chapter 21 in 3 turns with all 4 chests Chapter 22 in 1 turn with Valflame, Gungnir, Helswath, and Balmunk. Chapter 23 in 2 turns. Chapter 24 in 1 (or 2) turn(s) Chapter 25 in 1 turn. Endgame in 1 turn. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ No Second Seals. Probably won't use anything from the Wireless menu including Renown and also random things like Anna shops/barracks/event tile items just because I'm lazy. They're probably not that broken though. Other than that, we'll leave all Paralogues, Skills, Weapons, Characters in. Forging and tonics in. Obviously no grinding from DLC and such. I won’t be going that fast since I find it boring in this game (too many bosskills in the latter half, plus I generally dislike LTC with random growths), though I also won’t go that slow (won’t dance/staff/boss/etc abuse). Since the earlygame is very similar across Lunatic runs, here are some general Lunatic tips and detailed strats for a No Avatar run up to Chapter 5. It gets mostly easier after that point. There’s no Second Seals until C8 anyways (if no Renown/Anna shops), so No Avatar is actually a little harder until then. The remainder of the guide (after Chapter 5) will have commentary on No Second Seals (but yes the Avatar is allowed, his main advantage Veteran is counteracted by the level cap). There will be widely applicable general strategies for every chapter for all Lunatic runs. Some of it is written in a walkthrough-like format since I was kind of working on a faq/guide. General strategy and map overview: I’ll give some introductory thoughts and as well as general conceptual tips and advice for the chapter. The idea is you should be able to complete the chapter with this advice after spending a little time thinking of a specific strategy for your team composition. No Avatar strategy: A detailed account of a No Avatar strategy to complete the chapter. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: I’ll comment on any noteworthy stats your characters should be around, other luck based components of the map, and anything else that’s interesting like analysis of character performance. Go ahead and ignore stuff if I start to ramble too much about random things for your liking. [spoiler=Prologue:] General strategy and map overview: This map may be a wakeup call for those who haven’t tried an FE Maniac or Lunatic mode before. The earlygame often requires extensive use of the prepromoted character, Frederick in this case. However, this character typically has lower bases or growths than a trained unit would have, therefore it’s typically beneficial for kills to be given to others when possible. There are exceptions, but Frederick in this game has extremely low personal bases and has little midgame and lategame potential. With Frederick as the only one that fights well here, it’s best to use him to clear the more dangerous enemies such as the Mages. He can oneshot them as well as the Myrms and weaken the Barbs to low hp, perfect for Chrom or Avatar to kill. It is possible to give Frederick the Bronze Sword here to conserve Silver Lance uses, but it’s not necessary and makes it harder to feed certain kills to Chrom/Avatar as well as making the Mages more dangerous. It’s possible to take advantage of Support bonuses for Avatar to face 0 crit against the boss and Avatar can slowly chip him down for exp. Pair with Chrom, stand next to Lissa and Frederick. No Avatar strategy: Frederick kills the middle Myrm. Lissa moves out of range and others stay put. After enemy phase, everyone retreats to the bottom left with Chrom in range of one of the Barbs, Frederick is healed up. Next turn, Lissa heals Chrom (Paired with Frederick she isn’t doubled by the Mage), and Chrom kills the other Barb. Avatar hides in the corner. Next turn, Frederick weakens the Mage with the Bronze Sword, Chrom finishes. Lissa heals everyone up. Frederick with Bronze Sword lures the top group, countering a single Myrm first. Next he kills the Mage with the Silver Lance, and Chrom goes to counter that weakened Myrm on enemy phase while out of range of the other enemies. Lissa heals up, Frederick runs away, Chrom cleans the weakened Barbs. Frederick weakens the boss with the Bronze Sword for Chrom to kill. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: Shouldn’t be any RNG-intensive parts. Everything is overall pretty consistent. Random allocation of Avoid+10 and Gamble is pretty lame, but oh well. Can Pair Frederick with Chrom or Lissa for a marginal boost to Hit and Crit avoid from Luck. Chrom is level 3, almost to 4. [spoiler=Chapter 1:] General strategy and map overview: The enemies rush the starting positions so take an advantageous position on the Fort terrain. Using Swords will work well against the many Fighters. Have someone tank the majority of the chapter on a fort with a Sword. Chrom or Avatar with Frederick Pair Up is usually the better option since they can get tons of exp. Sully and Virion come after most enemies have already charged, but can serve as distractions, especially with Sully’s 7 move. Beware of the Hammer enemy if using Frederick to tank. If he was traded him Avatar’s Bronze Sword and he's on a Fort, the hit rates are low on him, but it does a huge amount of damage. Try to give Virion’s Elixer to Frederick this chapter for a little more flexibility in the opening moves next chapter. It’s not a huge deal however since it is possible to trade in that chapter too. No Avatar strategy: Frederick with Chrom (unequip the Falchion) goes on the north fort. Without any levels yet, he brings the Fighter to 1 hp with the Bronze Sword and weakens the Myrm. 2nd turn, Chrom kills the Myrm. Sully with Virion stands in place to lure a fighter. Next, Chrom wipes out the enemies surrounding him. Sully kites her enemy up to the top right corner. Separate with Virion so he has a player phase to chip if no Dual Strikes happen so they can finish him off in time. Slowly weaken the Archer/Boss with Frederick and give Chrom the kills. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: Chrom can die on turn 2, but it’s rare, around a single digit chance, since all the enemies have to hit and they have 50 hit rates on the Iron Axes and 32 true hit for the Hammer enemy. Only 1 has to miss. Random Avoid+10 and Zeal are lame in principle, but shouldn’t cause any resets typically. Frederick should tank fine if used, just need to dodge the 20% hit for the Hammer. +Def asset Avatar should also tank fine, but might be doubled by Myrms at first (need 8 Spd). Chrom is level 5 and has C Frederick. Sully got 1 kill. [spoiler=Chapter 2:] General strategy and map overview: Just starting and there’s another jump in difficulty. The enemies now use Steel weapons and a huge number will rush all at once on a pretty open field. The key to this chapter is to trade the Elixer over to Frederick, and use the terrain and weapon triangle wisely. Also notice the 4 safe spots on turn 1 to hide people in and the mountain on the left. Leave someone unpaired so Miriel has somewhere to go when she joins. Only +Def Avatar with Frederick or Frederick himself can realistically tank the first part of the chapter. The Barbarians do the most damage, so the safest weapon to equip initially is the Bronze Sword and hopefully Avatar or Fred can dodge a few of them. After that, there are numerous Soldiers, so Tomes or Lances are safer. It may be useful to have the support character unequipped so no Dual Strikes occur so the tank doesn’t kill an enemy too early and allow more enemies to surround and attack that turn. Plan on either hiding everyone else in the bottom left or bottom right while the main tank lures enemies elsewhere and handles most of the enemies in the first wave on Mountain or Forest terrain. It’s possible to pick off weakened units with anyone that can take a hit. The second wave is easy to tank on a fort. Either rush up to the north forts or lure them down to the middle forts. Note that all the top enemies charge after getting in range of one of them. Try to feed other characters kills whenever possible. If doing a no grinding run, begin thinking of characters to train, some to become long term fighters (usually reclassed with early Second Seals), some as Pair Up partners (early Master Seals, and are in classes with good bonuses like Cavelier). Start thinking about Supports, what Pair Up bonuses they give each other and how they work with the character’s stat distribution. Think about synergistic skill combinations. No Avatar strategy: Virion trades Chrom the Elixir and pairs with Stahl. Avatar pairs with Sully. Vaike pairs with Lissa. Stahl and Sully go full left. Lissa goes full left and drops Vaike. Chrom pairs with Frederick and Frederick attacks the left Barb on the mountain with the Bronze Sword. If it dies, great. If not, someone will have to take a hit. Next turn, have everyone in the bottom left finish the Barb if necessary. Frederick goes onto the mountain and heals, equips the Silver Lance. After the enemies are thinned a little bit, switch to Chrom to finish off the weakened enemies. Depends on Chrom’s exact stats when this is safe, but he should be able to nab a few kills and get to level 6-7. Afterwards, rush the top fort with Chrom/Frederick, tank everything. The Barbs and Boss have <20 hit (spoiler: axe enemy hit doesn’t increase much for a long time) and everything does single digits. I fed the bosskill to Sully since I’m going to try and use her for Chrom’s marriage, Lucina’s bases, and as a Pair Up partner. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: This strategy feels slightly more reliable than the often advised, go to the left end of right Myrm’s range -> then forest next turn. Here, Frederick or whoever tanks will face less attacks on the turn when not on favorable terrain, and is on a mountain instead of a forest, so +1 Def, +10 avoid. Plus the terrain penalties mean he’s less surrounded each turn. I didn’t even need any Elixer uses. It should really be very consistent, but you have to judge when it’s safe to have Chrom (or Avatar if using him/her) tank instead of Frederick. It depends on what enemies are left, and what stat ups they get, but near the average or even a little below is sufficient to get a lot of exp. Avatar will need 8 Spd to avoid being doubled by the Myrms. Chrom is level 8, almost to 9 with 98 exp. Sully is level 3. Frederick is level 2, almost 3. [spoiler=Chapter 3:] General strategy and map overview: Go ahead and talk to Kellam with Chrom, Pair Up with him and have him move out of range. You have as much time as you need to set up the initial offense. Both sides in the bottom will only rush someone is in range of an enemy. The idea is to clear one of the sides quickly so everyone can regroup and face the other side as it charges toward you. Because of the Archers, this usually involves either Frederick with the Javelin or Avatar with Magic to initially counterattack and weaken the enemies so others can finish them off the next player phase. Give them the Elixer if needed. The top is easy to clear. Anyone can kill the knights without aggroing anything, though beware their high attack. However, again note that getting in range of anything else will cause the top to all to chase you. Anyways, slowly kite all around the stage to pick off enemies and feed kills to whoever you want. Beware of a Hammer Fighter that starts in the top right. No Avatar strategy: Chrom talks to Kellam, pairs with him, they move out of range and separate. Frederick takes the Javelin and Kellam pair up. Next turn they move left and attack a Soldier (unequip Kellam so no Dual Strikes). Chrom is with Sumia. Sully is with Stahl. Everyone else is unpaired. Next turn, Chrom/Sumia finishes an Archer. Sully/Stahl finishes the Soldier. Frederick finishes the Knight. Others stay out of range. Chrom or Sully can finish the remaining archer. Lissa heals Frederick, who goes right and heals with a Vulnerary. Then feed Chrom and Sully kills as safety allows. Use Miriel/Virion/Vaike chip as necessary. Afterwards, Chrom with Frederick opens the left door and kills the Knight with a Rapier. Frederick with Chrom with Javelin goes to the stairs tile to lure enemies. Kite all the way back around, feeding kills to Chrom and Sully. Boss is easy with Chrom. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: If Chrom is too weak to take an Archer + other hit (not including Knights because they’re slow and easy to kite) Frederick needs to be used slightly more to weaken enemies. However the Archers have 22 att, Myrms around 24. Fighters maybe around 27 with WTD. Level 9 Chrom will usually have 27 hp, 9-10 Def + 5 from Frederick, so it’s a fairly generous benchmark. Other than that, it’s possible to use more Miriel/Virion/Vaike chip to clear the bottom groups if offensive stats aren’t up to par. At this point, if Avatar was used instead of Chrom for the previous chapters, Avatar can really solo this entire map. Or else weaken enemies for Chrom/others. Chrom is level 11. Sully is level 4, very close to 5 and has C Stahl. Both still need some babying. [spoiler=Chapter 4:] General strategy and map overview: The way the map plays out depends on how the AI feels like moving, because it will box you into different situations. The important issue is to not let the Mages be too close to each other because they’ll 2hko everyone. Still it’s sometimes needed to have Frederick take hits and ohko mages with the Silver Lance (use tonics/Pair Up as necessary). Also Lissa or really anyone with Kellam can usually take a single hit if necessary. Kellam with Sumia can take hits if necessary, and can survive a round with the boss with a Def tonic. Sully/Stahl should be able to take 1 hit too and then outrun most enemies. Use these free hits wisely. Other than that, start moving to one side and kite to the other side. It can be tricky but as long as the Mages are dealt with quickly and you watch movement ranges, it should be doable. Remember Knights have only 4 move. Frederick with Kellam has very high defense, so use him to weaken enemies and feed kills to others if they need it. Careful positioning is most relevant if you’re trying to feed kills to other units for the long term. Otherwise, it’s much easier to solo/duo with Frederick or Avatar. No Avatar strategy: If I don’t mention them specifically, they just stay somewhere near Chrom but out of range. I brought Lissa, Kellam, Sully, Stahl, Frederick. The general strat for me is, Chrom with Frederick with Tonics can oneround the Fighters so they go right (but still within 6 spaces of the left Fighter on turn 2). Next turn, Chrom or Frederick kills the left Fighter depending on if Chrom was hit or not. After that, go in whichever direction looks safer. The priority is to kill the Mages in the next 1-2 turns, and the Knights soon after that. Ideally Frederick can kill a mage with the Javelin and either get a Dual Strike to take no damage or Lissa can heal while out of range of the other mage. It’s fine to use Chrom if he doubles or the Silver Lance as well, and Lissa can heal and take a hit from that mage. The Short Axe enemies are not a threat to a leveled Chrom and neither is the boss. Sully can nab weakened enemies or just run around and kite stuff with her 7 move. I gave her the bosskill. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: 15 Spd is a magic number for your units because the enemy Fighters and Mages all have 10 Spd. Doubling lets to quickly kill each enemy wave as they moves downward so you’re ready for the next wave. If Chrom cannot double Fighters without a boost, I would Pair with Sumia instead and use the Frederick/Kellam + Chrom/Sumia combination to kill them. If Fighters have Hp+5 or Chrom is weaker, then Chrom can weaken them for someone else, like Sully in my case. If Chrom cannot take multiple hits from the Fighters and Mages, Frederick needs to ohko the mages. Chrom at this point should have around 11-12 Def on average + 5 from Frederick + 2 from tonics + 1 from weapon triangle. The Fighters shouldn’t be a major threat to him. The Short Axe ones have like 30 disp hit, which is quite low. Even if Chrom has lower defenses or Frederick is needed elsewhere, it shouldn’t be a huge problem, as the majority of the time they’re kiting and had opportunities to heal. On the offensive side, my Chrom had fairly high speed, so I could afford the Frederick Pair up and still double. If Chrom’s speed is not as good, it’s a good idea to try to build C support with either Sumia or Sully instead, then use Str tonics for that extra boost. The chapter is more difficult if no one can one round the Fighters, and it may be necessary to use Frederick much more in that case. It’s not a huge deal since there aren’t too many kills to allocate anyways. The chapter is substantially easier with a strong Avatar since they have access to Tomes which are 1-2 range. In addition they’re probably really overleveled and with high Def. You can use both Avatar and Frederick to tank and weaken enemies and feed kills to whoever you wish. At this point, no one else really has the exp to fight that well. Afterwards the DLC opens up, so it’s now possible to grind if you bought it and want to. Chrom is level 12 with 70 exp. Sully is level 5, almost 6. [spoiler=Paralogue 1:] General strategy and map overview: The key to this map is to clean up the right side relatively quickly so that someone can catch the Thief with the Killer Lance as it’s heading down. If you don’t care about that item, then you can take more time, but it’s fairly lenient to do so you might as well. The other Thief near the bottom won’t move unless a unit gets in the range of the western enemies. With that said, it’s easier if your Sword using units have the +10 Avoid from a C support and a decent sword rank. They can quickly reduce the enemy hit rate to very low numbers, particularly if standing in a forest. Lon’qu can already do this at base level due to his Avoid+10 skill, but requires a +Def Pair Up or Defense tonic to not get ohko’d for better reliability. A general starting strategy is to have a strong unit like Chrom/Avatar with Frederick head upwards to clean up the nearby enemies. The Archer and Thief are pretty dangerous to the others. In the meantime, have some Sword wielder hold off the Barbarians coming from the left. Clean the the starting area, regroup, and head left as the Killer Lance Thief is heading down. Be careful not to aggro a few of the upper enemies with ranged weapons too early by watching movement ranges, and you should be fine. All in all, this is a great map to get tons of levels for your weaker characters. Donnel can be easily leveled by surrounding Archers and having Donnel poke them to death. I tend to use Frederick to drop Donnel next to the upper left Archer that’s already boxed in by the walls. It’s possible, though more risky, to weaken enemies then have Donnel snipe the last hit. No Avatar strategy: Chrom with Frederick attacks and kills the northern Barbarian. Sully with Stahl lures the north Thief with an Iron Lance. Lon’qu with Vaike and Def tonic heads into the forest in the bottom, using the Killing Edge to hopefully clean them up faster. Lissa and Donnel hide next to Sully. Afterwards, the enemies are split, with the dangerous Archers heading upwards near Chrom. He cleans them up in the next few turns, and then heads down to help Lon’qu. Sully finishes the Thief and runs out of range or can help Lon’qu if it looks safe. Lon’qu finishes all the Barbs surrounding him. Quickly heal up and head left. Frederick can rush from just out of range of everything to next to the west Archer, who Chrom kills. Again Sully lures the Thief while Lon’qu lures the Barbarians. After that, have Donnel poke at the upper left Archer while slowly luring enemies and feeding kills to Lon’qu/Sully. In my case, Chrom with no Pair Up weakens enemies just enough. Lon’qu with Vaike and Def Tonic can slowly chip and kill the boss, a 4hko. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: The chapter is much easier if Chrom or someone can double and oneround the Barbarians and Archers, which means having around 16 speed. Chrom or Avatar, if fed kills earlier, with Sumia should really meet this benchmark easily, but will have much lower Defense. A really high level unit won't even need Sumia and can use Sully or Frederick Pair Up instead. The issue isn’t that big if Chrom’s Weapon Rank is high and he has a C support for +10 Avoid, since he will face very low hit rates against the axes and doesn't need to oneround them. The Thieves and Archers are spread out and rare throughout the chapter and aren’t a huge threat as long as the Thieves don't double. Lon’qu faces low hit rates at base against the axes, around 30% which is around 18% true hit. Though unlikely, it is possible for him to die if he gets hit multiple times in a row. Again, that’s pretty unlikely, so it’s acceptable for a strategy here. If he criticals enemies with the Killing Edge, they would have less attacks on him and therefore less chances to hit him. But it’s not a big deal if he doesn’t critical, he just has a slightly higher chance of dying. In most playthroughs you’ll have Avatar, Chrom and Frederick to help out to Lon’qu so he'll have more assistance against his enemies. I also had Lon’qu with Vaike face the boss and he did have a chance of dying from a critical, but it was so low (maybe around 1-2% per round) that it’s fine. Sully just has to 2hko the Thieves which is very easy with an Iron Lance. Using Str Tonics or any Str Pair Up makes it easier. Though she is doubled by them, it’s easy to get enough Def to survive with using a Lance, a +Def Pair up and Tonics. Lon’qu is level 9 with C Vaike. Sully is level 7. Chrom is level 14 [spoiler=Chapter 5:] General strategy and map overview: First off, this chapter is certainly easier if you got the Rescue Staff from Paralogue 1. Pair Miriel with Lissa to get enough Magic and range to Rescue Maribelle + Ricken turn 1. The enemies in this chapter rush the team from 2 fronts, with numerous reinforcements. In addition, the Wyvern Riders will easily bypass whatever formation and chokepoints you set up. Therefore, it’s much easier if the enemies are bottlenecked at the fort above your starting position and your tank takes advantage of the terrain bonuses of that Fort. Remember than any strong Sword user can reduce Axe hit rates to very low, so any unit that gets on the fort should be able to tank most of the chapter. The only really threatening enemy is the mage and there’s only 1 if the initial Dark Mage in the middle is dealt with quickly. The idea is to get onto the fort on turn 2 and there are many ways to do so. One good way to do this is have whoever is going on the fort, usually someone + Frederick to rush as far up as possible and attack or kill the Barb (you have enemy phase and chip as well if necessary). Have Virion or any meatshield who can take a Nosferatu hit (Virion can also counter for a little damage) just behind that person. On enemy phase the Dark Mage will usually attack the bait so the tank can go on the fort, finish the Dark Mage and tank the rest of the chapter. Alternatively, Sumia could fly someone onto the fort, the main issue being the lack of a +Defense from Pair Up. In the meantime, someone needs to hold off the enemies coming from the left. Luckily, you have the rest of your whole team to do so, and they’re usually low accuracy enemies that someone like Lon’qu can dodge. There’s only a single enemy with high hit, the Myrmidon. Don’t be too aggressive and stay near the middle Fort and forests near the start until the enemies stop coming. All the reinforcements will rush you but there’s a group of 3 ground enemies in the top left and a bunch of wyverns + the boss who do not rush you unless you get in range of one of them. After clearing the moving reinforcements, lure a Wyvern, then get back onto the fort until everything is clear. Then clean up. No Avatar strategy: I use the above strategy to get Chrom with Frederick onto the fort. He destroys stuff. Meanwhile, Lon’qu with Vaike in a forest demolishes most of the bottom left with Killing Edge, one rounding most enemies without crits. He got a ton of levels in Paralogue 1 so he can double non-Myrms even with no Spd Pair Up. Once it’s more clear, Sully helps out too and gets some exp. She can Killer Lance the Dark Mages to one-round them. Some Wyverns are lured to the bottom level so Chrom doesn’t take all the exp. Spread kills to Lon'qu and Sully. Chrom got the bosskill. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: Hopefully you have at least 1 strong unit besides Frederick from all the previous kill feeding. Otherwise, Frederick is the one who has to take the fort and it’s quite hard to give other characters many kills. Luckily, any sword user with a decent sword Rank like C rank, and a C support for the 10 avoid can usually suffice. Also they need to have good enough Def/Spd to survive the Myrms. Hopefully the support partner is someone who gives lots of defense like Kellam or Frederick. Remember to use tonics as well. You should really be training Chrom at least, and he only needs a few levels on average to have good enough stats. It does help if this strong unit doubles the Barbs and Wyverns, but is not necessary. My Chrom had Spd a bit above average and Str/Def below average. Luckily those are the stats boosted by Frederick and Tonics. My Chrom completely destroyed this chapter and a much weaker one can probably beat it as well. It's a little risky to use someone like Lon'qu there in the middle because he probably isn't as strong, has much lower Defense, and doesn't support either Frederick or Kellam. A trained Sully or Stahl might work. If Lon’qu doesn’t have many levels and a C support, he could die from the bottom left enemies. In that case I would Pair with Sumia so he can double and for a tiny bit of avoid and Res (not as good long term Pair however since they don’t support). With training and the C Support with someone, he really shouldn’t have any problems. It is slightly riskier if the Dark Mage has Anathema, but the hit rates overall should be really low in general. Again, you have most of your team to deal with these few enemies and a little space to kite and back off, so it shouldn’t be a big problem. With weaker units, it’s probably necessary to turtle a little more than I did. Note that Sully is probably a better filler support for Lon'qu than Vaike since she gives Speed. Lon'qu, if a little Spd screwed like mine, is very borderline on doubling. However, I'm trying to train Sully too so they're separated. Lon'qu barely has enough Speed to double. It’s pretty easy to kill the Dark Mages, who have single digit stats. For my Sully who is currently by far the weakest combat unit of the ones I'm using, the Dark Mage would have to hit with Nosferatu, Sully would have to not crit twice at 30%, and Stahl would have to not Dual Strike twice at about 40%. Overall she kills with 90+% consistency. Chrom and Lon’qu easily kill them and can usually dodge the Nosferatu as well. A potential issue for slightly weaker units is that it’s hard to chip them down, especially those with Anathema/Hex because of an accurate Nosferatu and their decent Hp/Def. Using someone like Sumia’s Pair Up for the Speed to double and the Resistance is useful. Most people can take a hit, including the healers, so could also just try for a Killer crit each turn and heal if it fails. Chrom is level 17 with A Frederick. Lon’qu is level 11. Sully is level 9. Chrom can nearly solo chapters while Lon'qu and Sully are becoming competent. That’s all for No Avatar. Just for reference, I completed the No Avatar run with Swordmaster Gaius (probably Def blessed, but was ridiculous after the start and getting reclassed by the C8 Second Seal), Wyvern Lon’qu (I’m pretty sure anyone reclassed to Wyvern is op and Lon’qu is one of the easiest to train early on. He took the C12 Second Seal), Paladin Sully!Lucina (amazing <3), Tiki (Manakate. :D), and crew who pretty much still steamrolled later on. I stopped taking detailed notes. <_<. Really, any unit that reclasses properly can steamroll after getting a few initial levels, which is quite easy. That's the inspiration for a No Second Seal run instead. Everything afterwards will still have a general tip/advice section, but detailed strategies/misc comments will focus on the No Second Seal run. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Main difference in Prolouge-C5 for No Second Seal is I used +Def Avatar instead of Chrom early on to phase out Frederick faster. Also didn’t train Lon’qu, but used Chrom and Sully more in place of him. Sully is really good. Chrom is really not good. Avatar is a slowpoke though has high Def. Stats to come. The planned final team is: Chrom, Avatar, Lissa, Sully, Cordelia, Gregor, Libra, Anna, Lucina, Morgan, Kjelle, Sevara, Gerome, Flavia, Basilio. I’m also using filler until everyone, particularly the children, join, so I’ll mention those when appropriate. I also plan to do as much postgame as possible, if any, and might use the Spotpass paralogue characters if I can get them. With all that said, finally here’s Chapter 6 and 7. [spoiler=Chapter 6:] General strategy and map overview: May look intimidating, but most enemies come in distinct waves and there are chokepoints to use. It’s fairly useful to have a few competent units, hopefully not Frederick, by this point to hold various key positions. The most important of these positions is the middle chokepoint. The narrow hallway prevents too many enemies from attacking you at once and bottlenecks a bunch of dangerous Thieves and Mages. Note that a Thief will be in the position you want to block off at the start of Turn 2 so you’ll want another unit to take him out so your tank blocks that middle chokepoint. The Fighters and Dark Mages there have pretty low hit. Thieves have very high hit (particularly since they have Underdog for some reason), but low Str. Whoever tanks the middle probably wants a Sword to dodge Axes and Def support/tonic for the Thieves. Marth can hold off the first few waves coming from the right side, which leaves the rest of the team to the left. Chrom is likely part of the left group to recruit Gaius early. It’s typically better to have multiple units on the left to team up on the Dark Mages. The reason this chokepoint strategy works is Marth will take care of the single Thief on the right side and the all the others are blocked by the middle chokepoint. The door to Emmeryn is safe. There are other ways to position your units beside the one mentioned here. Just take advantage of Marth’s decent combat and finish off each wave on the left quickly so they never become overwhelming. Beware the Cavaliers which may be surprising with their high move and also the last Fighters that arrive since they have Silver Axes. No Second Seal strategy: Chrom with Frederick and Avatar with Lon’qu left. Sully with Stahl and a Def tonic in the middle. The chapter is very straightforward, with Avatar weakening things like the Dark Mages on the left and Chrom getting most of the kills. Sully and Marth slowly grind through the enemies in the middle and right. Panne does some meatshielding in the narrow corridors since she can take a hit, multiple with Kellam and a Defense tonic. That’s mostly used to protect Lissa from getting surrounded. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: The primary benchmarks to note regard Spd. If your units are not doubling, they won’t clear the enemies quickly and can get overrun. This is most important for the left enemies since the middle and right are mostly blockaded. At this point in the game, most trained characters will likely still need some kind of +Spd Pair Up like Lon’qu or Sumia (or Avatar, but he’s usually fighting). Naturally fast characters like Lon’qu or Sully may be able to take better supports like from the Caveliers, which also give Str and Def. There is often a balance in Lunatic between Speed (which determines offense, doubling damage and increasing Dual Strikes) and Defense (Frederick or Kellam Pair Up give huge durability boosts especially at this stage in the game, like +50%) My Avatar is nearly max level unpromoted so I want to use him to weaken stuff. His Mag and Spd are terrible so he Pairs with Lon’qu. Because he’s weakening enemies, I can have Chrom with Frederick, even if he doesn’t double, which allows him to tank the Fighters and Caveliers better. In general, Sumia may be a better Pair Up for Chrom if he heads to the left because of the Spd to double and the Res against the few dangerous Dark Mages. Unless Chrom is very overleveled, he lacks the capability to deal well with the Mages alone so he does need some help. Marth, with no help, dies maybe 40% of the time during the wave with the enemy Caveliers. By that time the enemy numbers have thinned out, so it’s not a huge deal if it happens. The right enemies still have to go through the tank in the middle since there’s no thieves to open the door to Emm. My tank for the middle, Sully, doesn’t have as much avoid as other Sword users like Chrom or Lon’qu. She makes it up by having very nice Def and even okay Resistance. It is somewhat required to be a decently high level, say 10+, and with a good, at least C rank, support like Stahl. In the past I’ve used a trained Lon’qu who can also do well in the middle since he has the avoid to dodge Axes and Dark/Thunder magic well. At this point he likely has a few Def from a C support and Tonics as well so Thieves do pretty low damage. Anathema is a more problematic skill here, since the Fighters/Mages hit very hard if not dodged. It’s just 10 hit, but does manage to influence the reliability percentages somewhat. Sully has less trouble than Lon’qu in that regard since she can take a few more hits. Of course Frederick can pretty easily hold the middle with a decent Pair Up, but all the beautiful exp, etcetc. Same deal with my overleveled Avatar I can’t promote yet. Compared to the no Avatar run, I’m using mainly Chrom, Avatar, Sully instead of Chrom, Frederick, Sully, Lon’qu, Gaius. As a result, everyone is already very strong. Chrom is probably the worst since he’s not fast enough to double without Sumia, but is also super Def screwed, 9 Def at level 13 so he needs Frederick. Avatar is level capped, so Sully ends up doing a lot of fighting. I’m not really keeping track of levels anymore but I’ll note important things like Skills/promotion and have stats later. [spoiler=Chapter 7:] General strategy and map overview: A straightforward map since any Sword user you’ve been training can probably take on most of the map. Just kill Thieves and Archers on player phase and rely on mostly Avoid and counterattacks to clear out the Axe users. There are a lot of Wyverns scattered around the map and they have high Defense. Chrom easily slays them with the Falchion, but other Sword users may want to use the Killing Edge to clean them up at a reasonable speed if they lack the Str. The reason you’ll want to clear them somewhat quickly is 3 Wyverns reinforcements will arrive around turn 5 enemy phase and at the same time the rightmost enemies and the boss charge in a pincer maneuver. By clearing out most of the map beforehand, you eliminate any threat of your healers and other soft units getting trapped. No Second Seal strategy: Chrom with Avatar and Sully with Stahl can easily steamroll the map with Swords, using Forests as convenient. However, I actually use Frederick for a decent amount of combat because I’m trying to marry him off to Lissa so I get Owain’s map for exp if I need it. So basically just exposing Frederick to a few attacks each turn while cleaning up everything else with Chrom and Sully. Cordelia joins but it’s halfway through the chapter and there are too many axes. She doesn’t do much except try to leech kills. It’s very dangerous for her to do so as well. Stat benchmarks/Other RNG/misc comments: Spd to double is again probably the most important benchmark, particularly to kill the Archers quickly. However, since Avoid is pretty reliable on this stage, it’s not as necessary to use Def Pair Ups so +Spd ones can be used, making that benchmark easy to meet. What’s probably more important is having a strong Sword user in general. It changes what could be a very challenging chapter, with numerous Wyverns and a pincer attack, into something quite easy. It’s been a common theme that Weapon triangle + high Weapon rank + C support + Skills give a unit Avoid necessary to dodge Axes which then makes a lot of the early maps much easier. Yes, Frederick can also use Swords, but that’s tons of exp “wasted”. There are numerous other candidates to give those kills to. Avatar is overleveled from Veteran and is dominant so that’s that. Chrom/Sully are similar in having balanced stats. Depending on their levels, they can take Spd Pair Ups like Sumia and Lon’qu/Chrom respectively. Or +Def from Frederick or Kellam. Or balanced stats from the Caveliers. The flexibility makes them good options to train and Chrom gets to easily slay Wyverns as a bonus. Stahl is in the interesting position of not really having a good early Spd Pair up until Panne/Cordelia, fairly late in the arc, and low Spd base/growths. With a little luck he’ll reliably double with Sully support, but another option is go heavy on the Def with a Kellam support, which quickly makes him a nice tank. Lon’qu loves the earlygame axefest. High Spd, Avoid+10, base C rank Sword mean he’s able to quickly become a reliable contributor. He does have low defenses, so some bad luck or Anathema/Hex can hurt his durability. Gaius actually has amazing personal bases, but is held back by Thief. In addition he joins relatively late compared to others, is underleveled, and doesn’t have any Avoid skills. He does have some of the better long-term potential once reclassed or promoted. Still, any of these Sword users are options to invest exp into so that it doesn’t all go to Frederick. It’s somewhat notable that after the Plegia Arc, and heading in Valm, Sword users tend to have a harder time against the increased weapon variety, particularly from the numerous mounts. One way to keep these units useful is to also train in a secondary weapon, easy for the Cavs. Or in a regular run, reclass early to really boost up those stats. Another alternative is to promote and then have them as mostly Pair Up partners later on. Spd is one of the most important stats throughout the game, particularly later on as enemy stats really ramp up, and these units tend to give a lot of Spd in Pair Up. That won’t happen for a while, but it’s fairly important to plan for the future. And we will be seeing a few more enemy Lance/Tome users in the chapters coming up. Quite a lengthy tangent, but it has important considerations to earlygame Lunatic and the implications are very obvious in this Chapter. I’m think I’m saving some Paralogues until I need them to train Sevara/Gerome when I get them. Paralogue 2 is pretty easy to do as it opens though, just need to realize some of the middle Barbs are not aggressive, so Sumia is safe to fly over with someone like Chrom to save Anna and the Village. For Paralogue 3, just need to clear the west enemies quickly to save at least 1 Villager for the Seraph. No need to worry too much about the east enemies until later. I’ve done a few more chapters, but need to write them up. Stuff gets more interesting down the line and we begin the see some early effects of the No Second Seal restriction.

I'll likely post the earlygame No Avatar stuff just so people don't have to search this topic for earlygame strategies. The rest I'll just work on as I have time.

So LClNGNWNBNETINASNCPNSHNANNNP* happened. It mostly reaffirmed that nearly anyone that’s properly reclassed can steamroll most of Lunatic. I ended up using mostly Swordmaster Gaius with Great Knight Chrom support, Wyvern Lon’qu with Hero Gregor support. Paladin Sully!Lucina with Paladin Sully support and some Tiki with Say’ri support. A no Second Seal run is pretty interesting so far, if still not that hard yet. Even pretty early on there’s some minor, but notable, effects from no reclassing. Though I’m fairly certain it can be cheesed with +Def Avatar, then some child with self-healing like Avatar!Sevara, or Tharja!Morgan or Henry!Morgan or Gregor!Morgan, etc. I am planning on using a few of the children, though no Nosferatu. I’m thinking of posting a detailed writeup since there don’t seem to be many, if any, guides/logs for reliable clears of Lunatic. Any interest? I half-started something for my No Avatar run, with some earlygame stuff written up, and I may post that anyway. *Yes that's a joke. However, for reference, it’s Lunatic Classic, No Grinding (No DLC/Challenges/StaffDanceBossAbuse/etcetc), No Wireless menu (No Spotpass/Renown), No Barracks, No Event tile items, No Anna shops, No Children paralogues, No Self-Healing Skills, No Avatar, No Nowi, No Panne.

I think it's that axe weapon mt is doubled, which is consistent with the effective damage multiplier in this game. Brave Axe if no one uses it to fight, should break Doors. For some reason I remember doors not actually having that much Hp, so (forged) Silver and Siege likely works as well. I know in MM the bigger issue is more the max Def generals in the way alongside several Sleep staves, something similar might be true in 0% growths depending on how tame HM enemies are. Great job so far, I'm particularly interested in how you're dealing with Sleep staves reliably.

The only somewhat iffy thing I've noticed is Avoid+10 on earlygame Myrms can result in like 70% hit rates. Other than that, I've yet to reset due to Gamble/Zeal, mostly because Axe hit rates are low if you use Weapon Triangle against them. Your own accuracy is usually pretty high with Support, Skill bonuses, and the weapon triangle. Enemy hit is usually high in Lunatic later on, except against lots of avoid stacking. I think the most RNG dependant thing for LTC will be earlygame maps when Dual Guard/Strike chances are low. So you theoretically could take no damage and one round everything, but the chances are low.

Olivia can ride Griffon!Minerva or something. Yay Pair Up. >_> To elaborate a little, obviously if you can't clear the chapter that turn, don't do it or Olivia will die. It just gives a burst of move on the last turn. For example, for maps ~30 spaces across, have Panne/whoever + Cherche/Olivia move 11 or 10 spaces first turn. Next turn move both, Dance, have Panne finish the boss. And still, there are maps like C13, C14 which are trivial to do with Olivia + Flier, no Rescue, or you can take the long way and fight through all the enemies. The bigger issue is these maps plus other bosskill maps can be 2-3 turned without Olivia or Rescue with bumrushing the boss with Griffons alone, which is just not that interesting in general. But that's more of a personal opinion, not an point for argument.

Then make clear rules about it? It seems you're kinda allowing Rescue but not really in some cases. Just assume no buyable Rescue or something. I also don't see why moving Panne/Avatar 11 spaces every turn for a 3 turn clear (22 spaces on the first turn with Olivia's help. ;D) vs. Rescue chaining it all in 1 turn is too much different, but w/e. >_>

Re: Olivia. If you don't use Rescue, her ability to extend move is unique to efficient play. The reason she's not as good as she could be is maps like 13, 14 can be 1 turned by having just 1 of Olivia, Libra, or Anna, plus a flier. Using all of them is overkill. If you do use Rescue, she is invaluable to numerous later maps. The longer the Rescue chain, the better she is because she extends movement with no regard to the quantity of and range of Rescue on your team. Speaking of which 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, E are all bosskills, so I don't know where people are thinking there are tons of routs. Most routs after Olivia/Libra/Anna join are also fairly easy to 2-3 turn without an optimized team or strat, except for C24. Also why I think this game is boring for "efficient" play, but that's another story. Again, it depends on just how fast you're going. I'm assuming it's not actually that fast if Ricken is the worst character and Olivia is D tier. >_>

Lunatic's difficulty is overstated in general. Why is Panne without Swordbreaker facing 0/0/0 against Yen'fay and one rounding him with a Bronze Lance, etc. It does require planning and smart Pair Up + exp allocation. So still fun, if not that tactically challenging like FE12. Very possible. For Ricken/Maribelle, have Miriel pair with Lissa to use the Rescue Staff from Paralogue 1 or kill the middle Myrm and take advantage of safe spots that appear. Can use Sumia to help ferry them down too.

As people have said, Libra too low. Being outclassed by Anna isn't much of a reason considering you can (almost) never have enough Rescue. Plus he has concrete Hp/Def + Hammers + Physic while Anna has limited Levin Swords. Olivia is too low (Dancing can be mostly replicated by Rescue, but they cost gold and there's a few things she does you'd need a huge number of Rescue staves to match), and certain low level combat units like Miriel (not any better than Ricken imo), Lon'qu (are we assuming Draco for him too?) are too high. In my experience, there's really not that much exp to go around before the stat curve is too high. But I suppose it depends on how fast you intend on going after Chapter 12 and buyable Rescue.

The main issue with the stat curve in this game is the huge stat point swings (up to 10) that occur. It can be the difference of getting doubled to doubling. It can be getting 4hko'd, say 15 damage to 60 hp, to 12hko, like 5 damage to 60 hp. Or alternatively, doing that much damage on offense. Also Dual Attacks can roughly double or triple (12x vs. 4x for Braves) your damage output and is fairly reliable at S rank, again a huge swing. This causes lots of complaining about enemy stat inflation if you're not using more optimal Pair Ups. I really like the mechanic, as well as it being restricted to your own units. Very thematic for FE. However, it would be easier to balance if the bonuses were much lower. Or even near 0.