Czar_Yoshi

It'll add 4/3 Str (or 1.33).

Precise builds (as in Unit@Class (skill/skill/skill/skill/skill) x Unit2@Class (skill/skill/skill/skill/skill)) will change a bit, but generally you'll still be caring about the same things: hitting some Spd threshold (you should never have a lead below 60 Spd on a non-LB run), at least one GF per pair, at least one proc on every unit who will ever be up front, Faires on everyone not named Lucina (and without LB she'll want one anyway) and Agg and LB wherever possible unless banned. If you find yourself with more room than you need for that, adding mobility skills is always a good idea. Female is +Mag/-Def Sumia!Lucina!Morgan@Valkyrie (LB/GF/Aether/Ignis/TF) with a Sage support (Chrom!Cynthia!Morgan is the same thing), and male is some version of Yarne!Morgan. I'd advise Gregor x Miriel. Going as small as possible is always going to be "optimal", but it's not necessarily the most fun. Players who are good at the game can usually get away with up to five active pairs at once without significantly throwing themselves under the bus. But if you're not accustomed to Lunatic, I don't advise that.

That should be good, but there is merit in making more than two (I'm using three and it works very well).

I'd say whether they completely monopolize the story (and whether that's a bad thing) is more important than them being a self-insert.

You definitely shouldn't be using it every turn- what you want is the option to use it every turn to compensate for bad RNG. But if you're doing a completely controlled/precalculated run where all the damage you take is fully intentional, then you don't need the precaution and it'll only see as much use as you plan for. Here you go: -Opening: There's probably a better way to describe it than "an alternate version" because that could confuse people as to what they need to buy. I'd start by saying that Apo is a challenge map, then talking about how it has two routes, a little bit on the differences between the routes, and then explaining why you're going to be focusing on the Secret route, in that order. Also make sure to explain that and why you're not using braves. -Talk about Rescue. It's a pretty important thing that wasn't common knowledge for far longer than it should have been. Same goes for Rallies, S ranks, and why you shouldn't trust Sol/Nos- remember that you're not writing an expansion to any existing guide, because there isn't one. -It might be better to number the major bosses with something other than numbers (bullet points, -s like I'm doing, etc) because you've got two sets of numbers right now and that could be confusing. -Invincisorc: might be better to say Vantage (not +) so people know it's not a typo. -The Shadowgift DFs may try to snipe you, but it's probably best not to refer to them as Snipers. It's also a good idea to get rid of them before tackling Thronie so they don't bug you- I've never had turn limit trouble doing that even without a full team. In general, give context for everything and remember that you're talking to a wide audience and there will be people who are much smarter than you're expecting, as well as people who are much, much... Less.

If you're going to fort spam for exp, do it with someone other than Gangrel and his droppable Levin. Him and his entire party won't aggro until you get in their range, so you can just take a Fighter from the last wave of reinforcements and abuse him or something. The window of time for stopping the Thief without aggroing Gangrel is really small though, so you have to either know it or just camp the side of the map to get him while doing that.

I'm not really sure I'd call that a healthy relationship...

It's from the opening/ending of Harvest Scramble.

Sumia should be getting a decent amount over 8 though, and if you can get her some chip exp too... For reference I can take DF Olivia from 1 to 15 in time to get GF on Lunatic. There are a good bit more enemies there, but Olivia's also a higher level so she grows slower. If you go for it (which it looks like it's too late to do now), you'd need to commit 100% to it and focus on nobody else. That would significantly drag your exp gain down.

What about Laurent? He's pretty much an infinitely superior version of Brady. Comes with weapon levels? Check. Comes with decent skills? Check. Comes with DM as a reclass from his mom? Check. Comes with a higher Mag mod from his mom than Brady? Check. Comes in an easily accessible Paralogue? Check. His mom is a good unit? Also check. Brady is actually pretty much the worst child in the game (outside of DLC/postgame) due to his slow start issues, so if he's working well for you... You should see the others.

3rd gen and Cynthia?

I only look past it because Owain's mods always do that. You can't get an Owain with actually good mods without a +Spd Avatar fathering him. A few things you can do: -Have the pair split up in range of an enemy on the first turn of a wave, use a high Mov Rallybot (usually the one without +Mov) to Rescue the support away, out of range of the enemy but within range of the lead, let the lead take damage on EP 1, then move the support back behind the lead. This leaves you closer than the rest of your units to the enemy since you ended in range, so you have a good pick of who to use Vengeance on. -Have the Vengeance unit attack and kill something far away that they can still safely fight. -Move the rest of your team in. Kill the units who are nearby with GF, but don't use your second moves. -Since the Vengeance unit(s) are fairly far away from the normal fighting units, you can use Fortify and heal only them. Leaving your Mag deliberately low on one Staffbot might be useful. -From here, you play it by ear until the end of your turn- either pick another safe target to poke/kill, fight normally after healing up if there weren't any safe targets, etc. Two other ways you could use it are to simply ignore dedicated setups and just be opportunistic, healing at the start of your turns instead of the end and letting any Vengeance users who took damage during the last turn to go again before you heal, and to use Counter to set up Vengeance, as it's a DG-proof source of damage that shows up in safe spots in waves 2 and 5. I tend to use these two more often when playing because they take significantly less forethought for the same reward (since all my units are designed to do everything, if I get no Vengeance I just fight hard things with someone else). Howdy! You do typically run it as a regular proc in place of Luna (and Astra/Aether). It plays differently and not everyone likes it, but it does expand options a lot for units like Severa, Owain and Nah. I tend not to like VV and never recommend it unless you already know why you need it (need, not want). The problem with relying on counterattacks for Vengeance boosts is the relying part- DGs happen pretty often in Apo (a little less without LB, but still very often) and will screw up your plans if you assume they won't happen, so you either need to go to lengthy lengths to insure they can't happen (fighting unpaired) or simply take advantage of when they don't happen but never count on it before the fact. It's similar to how Luna has an activation%, but here you get to see the roll one battle before you have to use it rather than at the attack itself. Virion is a definite for Yarne, their synergy is some of the best in the game. Gerome will benefit most in a standard set from Henry, but Ricken is also on the table for a very non-standard Gerome: he'll have +3 Mag and Sage (same magical supporting power as a Gregor!Laurent), as well as +3 Str and Bowfaire/Warrior for a good physical support... As well as Bow Knight for a +3 Spd support. Nah takes both Henry and Vaike well, Vaike is more straightforward and works well if you're adverse to Vengeance, Henry has a ton of support/utility skills and can do more than one set that's almost unheard of anywhere else (Valkyrie and/or critstacking). Fred, Kellam and one of Vaike or Ricken is just going to have to be a bachelor.

I wouldn't send either of them to base Peg. They'll be at E, with poor Str and cut off from their free Staff exp, and will probably drop off. If you want to build support with no exp gained whatsoever, you can do so (very slowly) using DGs while unequipped. Waiting for Barracks events also works, but that's slow and not advised. In general, I just wait for them naturally and sometimes save Paralogues for later if I need to build it quickly with a latecoming unit. You can also possibly squeeze out support gains a chapter faster by learning the numbers behind the mechanic, and then counting how much you're getting by hand (info here and here)- in general it won't make too much of a difference, but you can figure out things like who to prioritize, who to give Event Tiles to and when to use Seeds of Trust for maximum effect.

I consider unit rankings to be 100% exclusive to the context they're used in. It's a big part of why tier lists always fail, and also why I like No Holds Barred so much- it's a fairly safe assumption to make when someone's asking an Apo question.

Is there any chance that it would be useful to have something like this pinned somewhere?

I don't suppose it had anything to do with massive amounts of marketing that other entries never received... And FE has always been built on gameplay-story integration since the very first game, thanks to the combination of permadeath and unique characters.

http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=53312 It's been around for a little while now. There was also a topic related to Kaga's new game, but I don't remember where.

Trying to use these strats on Lunatic "is like taking a nuclear missile to a knife fight" in Int's own words. As long as you know how to play Lunatic you can do whatever you want. However, females tend to be better than males in higher difficulties in general, so you'd be better off designing your strategy around them. Counter also isn't very useful on player units outside of some very niche scenarios that you're not likely to run into.

Dropping kills can be taken off the table, but what about things like reaching the enemies (hence my preference for 8-Mov classes) and how much gold (in terms of weapon uses) it takes to kill them? The latter sounds superfluous but if presented with two choices to kill the same enemy and one was slightly more expensive than the other (took one more hit, maybe), wouldn't you pick the cheaper one every time? My experience says it's fairly easy to make units that tend to pick up more or less kills than others.

Play Casual mode, kill a unit holding Falchion. You'll get it back with them at the end of the chapter, but until then it's gone and shouldn't show up in the convoy. Does that work?

It's probably not a good idea to assume everyone's doing a No Braves run unless they specify otherwise...

I won't contest that Gaius!Noire is the best non-Avatar Noire. She's a world ahead of Donnel!Noire, just like Gaius!Kjelle is much better than Donnel!Kjelle. However, Donnel!Kjelle is better than non-GF Kjelles by a good margin (Kjelle is set up to lead, not support, and already has everything she wants except GF- she doesn't gain anything from non-GF dads), while Donnel!Noire is less useful than many non-GF Noires. So it comes down to getting a good Noire and an OK (but very slow) Kjelle, or getting a great Kjelle and doing something else with Noire. In fact, since Gaius!Noire's role is very telegraphed (she makes a good BK, Sniper, Assassin... All Bow classes, always), another father might even give her a role that fits your team better. The notable ones: -Ricken!Noire: Noire comes with a +3 Mag mod at base, and never gets to do anything with it due to lacking TF. Ricken fixes that, giving her a +6 Mag Sage and turning her into a female Laurent. She works well with Owain and Brady, so if you want to avoid Inigo it's easy to do so. -Lon'qu!Noire: Grants Wyvern and a +5 Spd mod (hits 75 with All+2)... But since she has no GF to fill a slot with, she can run All+2, Luna and Astra all at the same time. With her +1 Str mod, this gives her even more damage output than most Severas and Kjelles. -Vaike!Noire: Premiere Sniper Noire. Has AT for the Double Bow, a +4 Str mod and enough Spd to hit 75 with All+2 and a Berserker support (same stuff Gaius!Noire needs for 75), making her generally better at it than Gaius!Noire. -Fred!Noire: No special tricks like the other three, but Fred gives solid +2/2 Str/Skl mods and has excellent availability. This one is mostly here since I'm using her on my current ultimate team and if she can get a spot there, she can get a spot on this list. Not one Galepair, one Double Galepair. There's a big difference. Namely, GF is primarily a mobility skill. In Apo, enemies are placed in tight-knit clusters, and those clusters are relatively spread out. There's not enough stuff in each cluster to warrant a full turn to take them out if you're playing with a full team, otherwise half of your team will have nothing to do even if you're not using any GF units. GF isn't useful at all for taking down those clusters- it's useful for killing one nearby enemy and then moving farther away, so you can spread out your kills and not have units consistently doing nothing because they have no target. Having one GF unit allows you to move roughly one cluster away from where you started. If you went in at the right point, there should be enough enemies so all your units have something to do. But you can't get enough double Galepairs, or find enough enemies at once, for doubles to do anything except get two kills once they reach where they're going- so the extra GF does very little to make sure its pair gets to help out. It's still useful, and I'll (usually) use it if I have it. But its value is low enough to be on the table for dropping in exchange for more combat performance. Of course, having that extra killing power becomes really nice once you're not playing with a full team, something I like to do. But there are a lot of good girls, so Noire rarely makes it onto my roster for those in the first place and it's back to not mattering. Not really. If your units are in competition for kills, it becomes readily apparent if one pair isn't as good as they should be because they'll always be getting left behind. Why is this a problem, if you're still easily clearing the map? Because if they're doing nothing, then a) you've ground them up for nothing, b) you could be deploying a staffbot, rallybot or something helpful in that slot instead, and c) they're clearly not perfect, which bugs me given how long I spend working on teams.

Well... I'd hardly lump that in with challenge runs...

They're good, but how much exp you give someone will generally have a much bigger impact on how they turn out than how high their growths are.

I find more Pegs to always be a good thing, but if your team's pretty full already then definitely just stick with Sumia.