Czar_Yoshi

In theory, yes they're interchangeable. However in practice there are only two possible outcomes, and with so few factors involved (compared to pairings in general) one of those outcomes tends to be just slightly better. In this case, Kjelle would have Myrmidon overlap from Gaius and Noire doesn't, so by giving Gaius to Noire she gets the option to procstack Luna/Astra. I also happen to like the supports better this way. It's nice when aesthetics and functionality line up so well.

Generally, the number of Galeforce units you have is less important than the number of pairs with at least one Galeforce you have. With Avatar-M x gen 2, you have 7 Galepairs, two of which have double Galeforce. With Avatar-F x gen 2, you still have 7 pairs, but there are 3 double Galeforce pairs. With Avatar-F x Chrom, you only get 6 gen 2 Galepairs (one boy will have to be benched- probably Yarne or Gerome), and Morgan can't marry Lucina, but Avatar and Chrom can get 100% DS so they're possibly better than a 2nd Gen pair. With Avatar-M x gen 1, you only have 6 Gen 2 pairs. Avatar can still perform decently when paired with someone like Cordelia or Sumia, but it's not as good as Gen 2. Avatar x Nowi is a special case and fairly complicated. Any non-2nd Gen pairings that give only one Morgan aren't very good (though still serviceable), but if you want to do one anyway then Walhart and Aversa are the best.

Really? It feels to me like the Devs gave me room to add challenge myself. Almost every single game I've considered to be one of my all-time favorites (OoT, TTYD, Awakening) has an incredible amount of room for the player to customize their playstyle, add or remove challenge, and go about clearing the game in whatever way they please. Many games that I tend to dislike (Sticker Star, to an extent Skyward Sword) have no room for this. If every playthrough felt the same, sure, I'd get burned out too. In regards to any story complaints, I got Awakening shortly after I finished Sticker Star and am probably a lot more forgiving of the story than it deserves. It's riddled with plotholes and cliches, but at least it exists.

Minmaxing on Lunatic+ is very difficult because pulling an optimal Avatar (usually -Def) through the earlygame is a nightmare. If you want to make your main file be Lunatic+/Cla, prepare for pain early on.

^Chrom x Olivia: True, it's not very useful as far as Chrom is concerned (he can still be a Double Bow Sniper if you want him to fight, but all Chroms can do that), but it does have a use- Chrom is Inigo's only +Spd father who passes Luna. Gaius!Yarne gets no Hit+20, is inferior modwise to Fred and Gregor, and Gaius is effectively locked to Noire. Vaike!Noire lacks Sage, Tomefaire, Vantage, the ability to marry Lucina, and is down 1-2 Mag compared to a good Laurent. Fred!Gerome gets no Faires, no Berserker and no Hit+20. Alright then... That list is fairly solid, but add Stahl as an option for Gerome. No Berserker, but Bowfaire Warrior is almost as good (better, Hitrate-wise) if you don't care about Berserker's +Spd boost. Anyway, when building your team the main thing to keep in mind is making sure the pairup boosts of your 2nd Gen pairs match their partner's main attacking stat, making sure every pair has at least one Galeforce/Proc unit, and making sure you have at least one pair with 75+ Spd. If you have all that, you can clear Apo pretty reliably as long as you make all the right ingame preparations beforehand (forge your weapons, use tonics etc). Male unit's physical/magical alignment tends to matter more than female's because all girls can access Bride, which attacks physically but gives +Mag/Spd. That said, most units depend on their parents and can actually go either way (sometimes simultaneously like Nah and Gerome). Lucina: Physical (Olivia/Avatar), Magical (Maribelle/Sumia/Avatar) Kjelle: Both (good Bride candidate) Cynthia: Always Magical Severa: Physical (Lon'qu/Stahl), Magical (Ricken), Both (Virion) Nah: Physical (Vaike/Gregor/Stahl), Magical (Virion), Both (Henry) Noire: Both (good Bride candidate) Owain: Always Magical Laurent: Always Magical Brady: Always Magical Yarne: Always Physical Inigo: Physical (Chrom/Stahl), Magical (Ricken/Libra) Gerome: Physical (Vaike/Gregor/Stahl), Both (Henry) So, when putting a team together, Lucina gets first priority because she has DS+ which allows her to either support VV or safely fight more dangerous things. Her preferences are generally Avatar-M > Morgan-M > Laurent > Libra!Owain > everyone else, though she can work well with anyone and generally wind up as part of your best pair. Second priority goes to Morgan. Morgan-M will prefer Lucina best with everyone else mostly equal (keep in mind Nah means no double Galeforce), Magical Morgan-F is generally Owain/Brady >Magical Inigo, Physical is Physical Inigo >Yarne/Gerome. I tend to prefer Owain to Brady, but the two are pretty much equal. Third priority goes to Nah because she has no Galeforce and must marry a boy with Galeforce to be useful. Physical Nah is locked to Inigo unless Physical Morgan-M wants her, Magical Nah can go to any of the Galeboys. Fourth priority goes to Physical Severa because her high Spd, natural Vengeance, loads of Breakers and inclination toward Physical give her a very large niche-filling potential. Namely, Lon'qu/Virion!Severa, paired with a Berserker and using All+2 can hit 75 Spd (the threshold to double every enemy in the game) as a Wyvern Lord, and are the only unit suited to do so besides Morgan. Gerome and Yarne are her best candidates, though Physical Inigo can work as well. Everyone else can then get matched up however you like, there should be a magical Galeboy or two, Cynthia, Kjelle, Noire, possibly Laurent and a Galeforceless Berserker left. Passing skills: Always Galeforce, if that's missing then DS+ is fine. Panne passes Str+2 or Swordbreaker unless marrying Fred in which case it doesn't matter. Donnel passes Underdog, for male-only skills Axefaire is good for combat and Despoil is nice for training. End classes: Sage and Dark Flier are good for magical. For Physical, Assassins are weak but give +Str/Skl/Spd and have very high Skl, Snipers can attack at 3-range, give +Str/Skl and have very high Skl, Paladins are high-Mov and give +Str/Skl/Spd/Def, Berserkers are very strong/fast and give a ton of +Str/Spd but have terrible Hit, Warriors are very strong and give +Str/Def, Wyvern Lords are slow but have high Str/Mov and give +Str/Def, and Dread Fighters look cool. Brides attack physically but give magical pairup boosts.

I suppose Lunatic+ is extremely easy, then. Games' difficulty should be judged based on the hardest thing they have to offer, not the easiest. That's like saying Melee is easy because you can go into training mode and the CPU won't fight back. In Awakening's case, there's a large amount of different challenges, a large amount of customization to play them with and an even larger amount of challenge runs you can make by playing around with that customization.

It's probably a case like TTYD where the MacGuffins are needed to both unseal and seal the boss except that the boss will be unsealed without them anyway because story (except in Awakening's case, they forgot to mention that part). Or it's just a regular plot hole. Awakening doesn't really lend itself to close examination. Basilio's trick was more likely in response to Validar and his mind control. Avatar acknowledges in Cht.23 that he didn't know he was Grima's vessel (unless he's both lying to trick Validar, hasn't told Chrom yet, and still decided that it would be a good idea to come along in Cht.21 and 23), and somewhere around Cht.21-23 they also find out that the Awakening works for Grima too. Thus, it's highly unlikely that Basilio knew exactly how Validar would try to resurrect Grima in advance. Selena and Pheros: I'm inclined to agree with Jotari, the only thing the two have in connection are being mounted tome users with high positions in an Emperor's army, remaining civil to the lord before they fight, and having done something good in the past. Hold on... Was it another topic, or did we just have this same exact Selena vs Pheros discussion a few pages back?

So mostly classes for aesthetics with as much RNG/Player error leeway as possible? I've always wanted to try that. Interesting to see the lack of Galeforce on the no DLC builds though.

Dancing Olivia for high stats is a possibility, but I don't usually do it because Dancer has fairly low growths and it'll take several Second Seals for her to cap. I don't have that many Second Seals to spare prior to Cht.16, and by that point all my units will be promoted and Dancer's low caps will make her not that strong. Also, repeated reclasses will ruin her IL, so I won't be able to get any other skills for her and she'll have trouble leveling up normally in a class with higher caps (she also has no classes with good Def). The two times it is worth it is if you need Special Dance early, and if you're marrying Olivia to Chrom and want to give Lucina good bases. It's possible to get Inigo Galeforce as well, but you have to go straight from Dancer to Dark Flier and that's usually more trouble than it's worth (I just postpone getting Inigo until postgame in that case).

Growths actually matter more than bases as far as asset/flaw are concerned with Lunatic+ earlygame because even with a Def flaw it's still possible (just a little more luck based) to feed everyone but the starting Myrmidons to Avatar in Prologue. Resetting on the Prologue (and probably Cht.1) for massive Def boosts is the best way to clear out Cht.2. Starting there, it's a good idea to have Fred help, and it's also very important not to use all of the Elixir. Cht.3 is the real hard spot without +Def, especially if you're out of Elixir. It takes a combination of perfect enemy skills, perfect RNG and perfect strategy to clear, and even then it's borderline impossible without battle saves (Casual), or save backup (digital/save dongle). I've cleared Cht.4 with a Def flaw though, so it's definitely possible.

Tiki Here. Take Azure, exalted ones. With it, you possess two of the five Gemstones. Now you must seek out the others and perform the Awakening. Our world must be defended from Grima at all costs! Chrom But I'm confused... I thought Grima's power was sealed away. Tiki Yes, but ever since, there have been those who would change that. Grima's life force grows even now, and with it, the long shadows of despair. Lucina ...... Chrom When will he return? And where? Tiki I cannot know these things. But I can feel his presence... It looms, closer and closer... This task is a heavy burden, but as he of exalted blood, it must fall to you, Chrom. They need it because Tiki said so. Also, I'll say this again: unless it's a plot hole, the Stones aren't needed to resurrect Grima and he knows it.

I'd like to hear why you did what you did before making too many comments, as a lot of that stuff looks out of place for "normal" play but having some highly specialized use. Skillsets would also be cool.

My favorite is to fight all the Risen without Einherjar or DLC. You could also try full deployment, though that's funner if you either allow one DLC map per normal chapter or use Einherjar to get all your units Paragon (otherwise it's just a headache). No Second Seals can be interesting, but requires a good bit of planning in advance. Similar to that is No Promoted Classes, which is mostly very interesting except for Grima who's borderline impossible without LB. EDIT- On an unrelated note, I was just messing around on the Lunatic+ Prologue and found a way to do the Water Trick with Chrom. There's a good bit of RNG involved in getting good skill rolls, but I might be able to tweak the method to make it more reliable (or at least replace RNG deaths with RNG Vulnerary uses). I'm going to test more tomorrow and if it's possible to do a variation on Frederick Emblem using Chrom instead of Frederick, that could be incredible for clearing Lunatic+ earlygame with any asset/flaw.

Additionally, if you recruit them and they kick the bucket, you can just recruit them again, and even keep all the levels/skills you got them the first time if you're willing to pay a little gold. Also... Linde: "You win... I am bested.." Close enough.

Since Galeforce isn't available, Vantage should be Noire's second priority (which both Gregor and Lon'qu give). Since they both have that, it's fairly even, Lon'qu gives 1 more Mag/Skl but Gregor gives AT for Aversa's. That one's also a matter of taste. What Asset/Flaw does your Avatar have?

Vaike is better than Gregor because he gives 1 more Str. Fred gives no Berserker and no Faires and is actually a pretty bad choice for support Gerome (which is what he should be doing). That said, I've been becoming fonder and fonder of Henry!Gerome as of late. Yes, he's 2 Str behind Vaike, but... First, he gets Anathema which is a fun support skill no matter what you're doing, is important given his low Hit and could combo with DS+ nicely if raw stats don't matter. He also has Sage and a +2 Mag mod, and while Gerome in general screams physical Henry!Gerome can still double as a magical support in a pinch (particularly useful if paired with Virion!Severa, the two can hit 75 Spd with Wyvern x Berserker and make an epic physical team, but both have Tomefaire and Sage/DF for magical builds, allowing for much more versatile builds). Noire (Sniper/DF) also works. Gregor!Gerome performs a little bit better as a Berserker, but Henry!Gerome is better at more things. It's your call.

Well, their models look nothing like how the character is supposed to 97% of the time (the three exceptions being the Marths). But if you really like them... That's what spotpass is for. No need to pay for DLC when everything you want is free (aside from throwing money at Nintendo because you like the game). Just grind up the characters you like and stick to Risen skirmishes/the Challenge Pack and Future Past. Also, never fight Streetpass teams.

That's awesome, what are you doing next? About time this thread got bumped, I was worried people had forgotten that Lunatic exists...

Make sure your 3ds's clock is set right and hasn't been changed in the last 24 hours.

You don't even need that- the boss moves, and all you have to do is leave a unit in his range on turn 1 and he'll waltz over and suicide before anyone else moves (even to attack Villagers). I did this on Lunatic btw.

I don't count Spotpass shops (or Streetpass shops) as part of Nogrind because they can't give you exp or money and don't raise your battle count. I'd call going without that stuff no Wireless instead. But yes, if you're not using Wireless shops/Mire/Dark Mages, then Nah's Paralogue is definitely not the easiest.

Just for beating the game, go Gen 1 or Lucina (only do Lucina if you haven't beaten any Paralogues yet and still have the Seed of Trust from Renown). Good candidates for wives are Lissa (early access, gets staff exp and can train without robbing Avatar of exp, gives a boy and a girl allowing two Gen 2 S pairs with only 2 Gen S pairs), Sumia (early access, good base Spd, comparatively easy Galeforce pass), Panne (incredible growths especially on Yarne, good pairup boosts, also gives a boy and a girl), and Nowi (early Second Seals, Nah has the easiest Paralogue, high Def, but hard to start, expensive and not as effective as in Lunatic). The most important trait is early access, which is why 2nd Gen isn't recommended (Lucina is only possible with a lot of foresight, every other 2nd Gen makes Morgan come too late to help). Beyond that, either Spd or Def needs to be exceptional or staff access needs to be present in order to train. Having good starting classes for Morgan and her sibling is very useful but not required, though if you're willing to dance spam Olivia then it might be worth it (Cordelia is also good at passing useful starting classes). This is assuming Nogrind, of course. With grinding it doesn't matter.

Unless you know how to decrypt Awakening's saves, I don't think that's as simple as taking the save file from the dongle and putting it in the right place on your SD card.

FE has several examples (granted, they mostly involve Gaiden) of characters that share a name with someone else in the series for no reason (or might as well, depending on how you translate them), so I wouldn't sweat it.

In rare cases where Henry is free and all the Vantage parents are taken, the loss of swapping a Vantage parent with Henry never outweighs the benefit of giving Laurent Vantage. You could, for example, use Lon'qu!Severa, Gregor!Gerome and Stahl!Nah and say the Vantage parents are all taken, but Henry is perfectly serviceable (and possibly better) in Gerome and Nah's cases. Even if you don't care about other pairings, children are almost always better than their parents in a vacuum, and how good they are is measured by how much they outperform a no-father version of themselves. In Henry!Laurent's case, he outperforms Nobody!Laurent by 1 Mag, 2 Skl and Thief, a class he doesn't need. That's a pretty small difference. Again, pairing for aesthetics are fine, but gameplay wise Henry x Miriel just isn't that good.