Alternative ways to grind?

[The Man Called M]

Personally, I like playing Fire Emblem with a team of badasses, and not just one Uber unit. I know that in the gba games especially, one way of getting units to become absolute units is the Arena. (As well as the Tower of Valni in Sacred Stones)

But from what I’ve been hearing, nowadays the Arena is mostly frowned upon, with people calling it, “inneficent”. 
 

So I ask, while getting back into romhacks, and playing FE7 on Switch Online, what are some alternative methods to training units, at least in the GBA games? (I have used the “hide Nino behind Oswin” tactic, but I wish to see if there are any others.)

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Arena IS the most efficient. What those people are talking about is Efficiency in terms of how many turns it takes you to beat a map. FE7's Tactics Ranking judges you on precisely that. Not the real life time investment. In terms of real life time investment, the Arena is the way to go. Especially if you're willing to slam down a save state every so often.

Of course only a couple maps have Arenas, so there's also the slower Boss Abuse method. Any boss sitting on a thrown can't move and heals every turn. So you chip them with weapons each turn to get some exp that way, and try you're best not kill them until you're satisfied with your gains. The appeal of this method is that you're not risking any unit's life unless you just really neglect to pay attention.

You definitely don't need a squad of high level units to beat the game, but if it enhances your enjoyment of the game then go for it.

Edited 3 hours ago by Zapp Branniglenn

[Capt. Fargus]

1 hour ago, The Man Called M said:

 

But from what I’ve been hearing, nowadays the Arena is mostly frowned upon, with people calling it, “inneficent”. 

By who? 🤔

Bushwa. Play how you wanna play and to Hell with the noise, and that means trainin your squad at the arenas then so be it. I do it too 

Your healers benefit from that too BTW

I definitely dont pay no mind to the LTC guys and the ones who go on about “that’s turtling and thats not allowed” Lol. Let em get offended 😎