Silith's new playthrough.

[Silith]

So as I stated before I am trying to do things with only the lowest 4 units in my army fighting.

(Laguz level = x1.5)

All other units must have their weapons unequiped but are allowed to bodyblock with no weapons.

Laguz being untransformed fighting while not one of the lowest 4 is illegal and will result in chapter restart.

Laguz are prohibited from transforming if not among the lowest 4.

T2 = +20

T3 = +40

Ike is excluded from all lists and may only attack BK and Ashera.

When choosing an army for the endgame the same rules apply forcing to pick the lowest units in the army besides the forced ones. (have to pick as many as you can (evil)

Lowest 4 must ALWAYS be fielded.

No Deaths are allowed.

Healing, magic cards and Singing is equal to attacking.

Hard Mode ofc.

No Royals in endgame even if they are among the lowest in the army (lol not like that's likely)

[Silith]

Double Post lol who cares.

So I started.

The first 2 chapters have no restrictions yet but still I have found myself playing different then I would usually.

In Chapter 1-P I usually restart if Edward scores a critical hit. It's a total waste to let him have exp. Now he critted twice and I've let it slide. He and Leonardo got a bit of EXp without leveling. Micaiah scored most the kills including the boss kill and made it to level 3!

As expected 1-1 goes pretty much the same. I use Nolan mostly to weaken enemies so that Micaiah and Leonardo get some kills. Edward goes Off-tank not capable to take more then one hit at a time. Edward does level to level 5 and Micaiah reaches level 4. Now to do chapter 1-2 without Nolan and Sothe (oh help me!)

Edited October 13, 2009 by Silith

[Blackbird]

Sounds like a pretty ball-busting variant. Can Ike even beat the BK at base level?

[Albino]

With promotion bonuses, the hammer, tarnsfer bonuses, stat boosters, cover tiles, earth support, and Ragnell's +5 def, you can probably work something out.

[NinjaMonkey]

I take it from your first post that you'll be using Meg, Laura and Fiona a lot then (and on HM as well)!

Anway, good luck with this (you're gonna need it)!

[Killer Poleax]

wow, that sounds really hard. good luck with that

[Silith]

First of all. I reclaim Vika away from Ninjamonkey. And I keep it on one girl too.

Then back to bussiness. First I though I would be stranded on chapter 1-2 because it is Laura arrives in 8 turns. Guess it's just Laura must arrive. Turtle mode! Blocking northern path off and letting the enemies come on through the eastern gate one by one for Edward/Leonardo to kill while Micaiah Sacrifices health for Edward afterwhich Laura heals Micaiah. After all reinforcements are dead I could move up without much problems. Still I had to reset on this chapter 3 times because Edward got lucky crits killing an enemy making way for a new one and he still can't take 2 hits.

Laura got to level 3

Micaiah got to level 8

Edward got to level 8

Leonardo got to level 7

And at the start of chapter 1-3 those 4 are still the lowest members of my army.

[Jaybee]

If you use Sothe as a meatshield you can do fine. Just abuse chokepoints while Micaiah shoots people from behind.

[Silith]

1-3 and EXP dancing started. afterall if a unit is 2 exp below the 5th lowest and he attacks he gets to be the 5th. This is dangerous sicne if he then gets an attack because he still has a weapon equiped it's a big no-go and I have to restart the chapter.

Aran joins on lvl 7 and is therefor besides Laura the lowest in the group by default. Again turtling up while killing the reinforcements and one by one kiting is a good strategy to finish the job though it takes a loooong time. Got many levels to the point where Nolan started to get in the lowest 4 on occasion.

Micaiah got to level 10

Leonardo got to level 9

Edward got to level 9

Nolan got to level 10

Laura got to level 5

Aran got to level 10

Behold teh weakness of Mehg!

[Silith]

EXP dancing seemed a bit OP at start but with units staying too close to each other in exp it's verry confusing and easily goes wrong breakign the rules so I am changing something.

AFTER base at the start of a battle the 4 lowest units including those I will recruit that chapter are the only ones who are allowed to fight/heal/sing. All others will have to deequip weapons and are not allowed to transform.

So At the start of chapter 1-4 the units I'm allowed to use are:

Meg : 3

Laura : 5

Edward : 9

Leonardo : 9

I knew Meg was going to be a problem when I started this PT but this chapter is AWESOME for abusing thanks to non-breakable weapons on enemies and healing jars. I Started off breaking the wall directly north of the group and stationing Sothe north where there could be one of my units save standing next to him on his right and bottom. There he dodgetanked all of the top enemies while Laura healed all his injuries.

On the bottom I had Nolan and Aran without weapons equiped tanking the bottomside using lots of Vulnararies and herbs. Leonardo sniped all laguz there before the real abuse started.

When the laguz untransformed and the gauge is almost full so that turn he could transform again I had Leonardo shoot it causing it to be near death. Then the next turn instead of running to the healing jars the laguz will first transform. Meg with the Windblade could with a lucky shot kill the laguz then. Transformed luguz are after all worth more exp the untransformed ones.

Level-ups!

Micaiah made it to level 11 thanks to Sacrifice

Sothe made it to level 22 thanks to dodgetanking.

Edward made it to level 10 (23 exp)

Leonardo made it to level 12

Nolan is still level 10 (75 exp)

Laura made it to level 8

Aran is still level 10 (99 exp)

Meg made it to level 7

With the addition of Volug who is level 22 (15*1.5=21.5=22) the 4 used in the next chapter are.

Meg

Laura

Edward

Nolan

[Killer Poleax]

wow, you must have TONS of patience to pull this off. this is interesting!

[Silith]

Okay chapter 1-5 is one I always hated because it requires luck of Jill and Zihark not getting killed in the first 2 turns before you can get to them.

Now on this PT I lack thew power to push over there and make a defense with them so it requires 300% more luck! Afterall they have to defend themselfs while I can't get over there.

After 3 failed tries of just hiding in the corner I tried somethign new. At the start of the match I send Sothe weaponless over the bottom of the map to taunt the boss. When he does that he runs back. A lot of enemies that would normally go GRRRRRRR on Jill and Co now come for my group who are turtled in the southwest corner.

Because I don't kill much in this chapter I don't gain much exp either.

Aran who was at 99 exp leveled to 11 through tanking weaponless.

Nolan leveled to level 11

Meg leveled to level 8

Laura leveled to level 9.

4 lowest for 1-6-1 are.

Meg

Laura

Edward

Aran

[bunny: spider bitten]

Doing this with only 4 is, unfortunately, unsustainable. Unfortunate because it's an interesting idea. But due just to the sheer number of characters, and the illogical length that some characters disappear without gaining any XP, you'll head into the final chapter with second tier characters.

I'd probably continue to prove me wrong, but as you head towards the end of the game, you'll either have to add restrictions, turtle to ridiculous lengths, and even then you'll probably have trouble working it out.

Edited October 15, 2009 by bunny: Now with Pancakes

[Jaybee]

Last chapter will be fun for you :)

Though this seems pretty damn interesting.

[Silith]

I'm living on the edge here. litterary. Since flying units can't hover over cliffs I blocked the south-east corner so that even the flyers had to take the ground route on the northwest of your starting position.

Letting Meg and Aran snipe with Javelins and teh Windsword seemed like a good idea while Tauroneo, Sothe and Zihark were tanking. After the enemy's Bullrush was over I just pulled and killed anything that opposed and though it took well over 50 turns I managed to beat the chapter. When there was only 1 priest left however I realised Edward was going to be in the lowest 4 AGAIN so I had him pick up Micaiah so he couldn't double the priest and abused the crap out of the poor guy. Afterall his staff heals him for 5 HP at the start of the enemy phase.

Also onh a + for Meg. She pulled the Killer Edge guy with no fear that's to that awesome skill she has :D

Edward leveled to level 13

Laura leveled to level 12

Aran leveled to level 12

Meg leveled to level 12

The 4 lowest units for chapter 1-6-2 are:

Nolan lvl 11 (31 exp)

Micaiah lvl 11 (99 exp)

Ilyana lvl 12 (0 exp)

Aran lvl 12 (38 exp)

EDIT to prevent Double posting.

After 1-6-1 I've had lunch, dinner mutiple visits to the toilet and getting drinks inbetween. The rest of the time has been at chapter 1-6-2. And I had no resets.

Tauroneo and Zihark block the left bridge on turn one. On turn 2 Zihark runs as far to the right as he can adn Tauroneo does the same to the left. This causes him to have 15 Cavaliers (initial 9 + 6 reinforcements) to beat on his head every turn without doing damage. Going to kill those 15 with the 4 I had picked was impossible too so there were 2 options. Leaving those 15 cavaliers with Tauroneo and go for the objective. Ooooooor.... wait till their weapons break.

95 turns later.....

I whop those weaponless cavaliers and refrain from using Thani on every single one to WTF-oneshot. I manage to pull the group around the balista one by one and pull the boss away on his own into the northwestern corner. This allows me to finish off every single unit besides the boss before doing the boss the lol way. No Thani just slaps to the face with non super effective weaponry.

Level-ups.

Micaiah leveled to 15

Sothe Leveled to 23 (dodge tanking)

Tauroneo leveled to level 42 (seriously that's 9 level-ups) by tanking 15 cavaliers and a boss.

Nolan leveled to level 14

Ilyana leveled to level 15

Aran leveled to level 13

So levels now from 1-7 from high to low.

Tauroneo 42 (39)

Muarim 29 (0)

Tormod 25 (0)

Sothe 23 (21)

Zihark 23 (11)

Volug 22 (0)

Vika 20 (0)

Micaiah 15 (58)

Ilyana 15 (0)

Jill 14 (48)

Nolan 14 (26)

Aran 13 (90)

Edward 13 (18)

Laura 12 (90)

Leonardo 12 (82)

Meg 12 (72)

Fiona 9 (0)

So Laura, Leonardo, Meg and Fiona are the victims in chapter 1-7.

Edited October 16, 2009 by Silith

[Silith]

Double post again.

After I finished 1-6-2 I realised I had only 3 real chapters to level my d00ds before they all (besides Ilyana) dissapear till chapter 3-6 at least. To survive 3-6 the lowest 4 then will have to be level 18 at least and even then it's shaky. If I don't count Ilyana I had 7 units that didn't meet that mark so I knew I had to find a solution.

I started off by giving Fiona 99 exp with BEXP so that she could start off with an awesome level-up in 1-7. I also forged her a Iron Lance with +2 Mt +15 Hit and -1 weight. Her starting strength means she loses 5! speed from a steel lance which is verry fatal for her. By moving into the south-east corner and turtling there I managed to beat off the reinforcements that came for me getting Fiona as many kills as she could. I whopped the enemy's on the map one by one and freed all the soldiers in the cages and then I encountered.... THE BOSS!

Ok well he's not that special but he has capped Defense. With Leonardo I let him break his weapon while Laura was healing Leo. Thanks to the +3 def from Leo's support with Edward he managed to take hits pretty well though his initial defense is crappy. Fiona and Meg did verry little damage too and when Leonardo's last bow broke I knew I had to find a way to beat this boss. After a while Fiona kept on getting no extra str (though she has what is average for her level) and at level 20 her last steel lance broke and the iron lances and Javelins did no damage. Laura's last heal staff broke too so there was no hope of using the Light Tome Micaiah is holding either. It was all up to Meg and here is where I had to be smart. I had Meg pick up Leonardo to prevent doubling the boss and whacked at him with all iron swords I had with me (dealing 1 damage). When Meg finally reached level 21 and promoted I gave Leo to Fiona and started attackign with Steel Swords whcih did 6(x2) damage. The boss downed quickly since I had stolen his vulnerary's earlier.

Level-ups!

Micaiah went to level 16 by Sacrificing health.

Leonardo made it to level 17.

Laura went to level 18

Aran got to level 14 by tanking at the start of the map.

Meg got to level 21 and is now a General

Fiona made it to level 20 but since I'm going to spend a Master Seal on her she'll be level 21.

Lowest 4 for chapter 1-8 are...

Edward (level 13)

Aran (level 14)

Nolan (level 14)

Ilyana (level 15)

(Jill (level 14) cannot be fielded in 1-8)

[Hexmaster44]

How much harder/easier would it be if you said only 3 units, but could use the healer of your choice? 2 units?

[Silith]

So far I've found that using a healer as one of the 4 units is only restricting since you can use all the damage you can and believe me you will be attacking only on your enemy's phases.

If you attack on your own phase you risk losing health and not having max health at the start of your enemy phase is lethal.

I'll edit this post to update 1-8 when I finish it unless someone posts inbetween. Gonna start chapter now.

EDIT:

And I finished up.

Took me well over 500 turns but I did it. Resterted this chapter about 10 times till Edward got that needed Crit on the Brigand that blocks Tormod and pals their way up. Moving the army to the northwest corner and turtle up. Ilyana is perfect for sniping the wyverns and Sothe Dodgetanks like a man.

Deequiping Tormod's weapons and give him loads of healing items and a paragon scroll and let him tank those silly mages and the boss till they run out of juice. Got him nearly to level 8 Sage!

The Priest in the southeastern corner got the harshest treatment however. He heals 5 HP each turn and I kept whacking him as often as I could (Edward, and Aran had to pick up another ally not to double him)

Micaiah got to level 17 though Sacrificing health.

Nolan got to level 19

Aran got to level 17

Edward got to level 16

Ilyana got to level 16 (with 96 exp) (all her tomes broke)

Tormod got to level 27.

EDIT 2!

1-9 isn't anything special as always. BK whops butt and Micaiah is scaredypants in a corner. This timer however I let Micaiah fight some enemies including 2 strange eneies who don't move at all. She also killed the boss who in this chapter lacks a ranged weapon and so Micaiah got to level 19.

Edited October 18, 2009 by Silith

[Aether7]

Very interesting playthrough. Congrats on getting this far (1E)!

Ooooooor.... wait till their weapons break.

95 turns later.....

I never thought I'd see a situation where corrosion would be useful.

[bunny: spider bitten]

Would still probably suggest an increase of characters you can use per part. While not needed for part 2 and most of part 3, it solves a delicate issue of the rest of part 3 and part 4, which will just end up impossible because they come in so underleveled.

[Mister Cold]

I love reading up on this :)

good luck on your challenge

[Silith]

Daein, Arise! Part 1.

This chapter is one of the hardest in the game if you don't use the BK or Nailah at all.

Now I did take both with me. Unequiped BK is a great wall and Nailah gets your entire team 3 stars to even the field (Jarod also has 3 stars)

The hardest part is that I'm stuck with Edfail, Ilyana and a base Jill along with a decent Aran to clear this bitch.

Now two things are mandatory to happen. At the reinforcements Aran and Ilyana need crits every time and Edward must never be hit.

Well lovely combination with 10-15% crits and enemy hits at 60%+. Oh and no save states either.

I think I'm on a good 300+ restarts.

Right now I'm almost through the reinforcements part but I need to know, does Rafiel AoE heal occur before or after poison?

To be Continued later on today.

EDIT:

Okay so i didn't feel like waiting and I felt like taking a risk. Afterall I had this huge luck up to that point in the chapter. And luckely it lasted. Aran went from 1 Hp to 4 and then down to 2. The other way around would've killed him.

I used the BK to pull enemies one by one again and then kicked the crap out of them. Heal up next to Rafiel and moving on.

There are 2 priests with Psychic staves which heal them for 20 health at the start of the turn and one Boss who heals 3 HP every turn to abuse so abusing went pretty fast. A good 200 turns later all Edward's weapons had broken and I think it's enough to push on.

Miciah Sacrificed health so she reached level 20 and then auto-promoted to level 21.

Sothe stole his way to level 24

Edward has reached level 23

Aran reached level 22

Ilyana reached level 23

Jill reached level 22

Laura, Leonardo, Nolan and Micaiah seem to be the victims for chapter 3-6. Now unto part 2!

EDIT 2!: Ilyana transfers nothing besides her Thundah tome(forged) and a vulnary since the heavy abuse is hard on the durability of weapons and they break all the time. DB is almost out of money.

EDIT 3!: 2-P and 2-1 were pretty standard.

On 2-P i couldn't use Elincia since she's the highest level so i had Marcia hugging Leanne at the end of turns so she would get those minor heals. Also I had Leanne vigor a unit for no good reason on the last turn for those extra 10 exp.

On 2-1 I actually used Nephenee a bit instead of just Bromraping the chapter. Got a lucky Disarm on the Javelinknight so I stole it and used it all up against the priest on the bottom right. Nephenee reached level 22 and Brom reached level 23

For chapter 22 I have

Leanne level 7

Nephenee level 22

Brom level 23

Mordecai level 24

Heather level 27

Lethe level 31

Lucia level 34

So Nephenee, Brom, Mordecai and Leanne are the players this round. Ohg I'm so giving that magic card to Leanne XD. (good memories)

Edited December 2, 2009 by Silith

[Naglfar]

This seriously sounds impossible. But your recount of 1-7... everyone running out of weapons, and then it all coming down to Meg, of all units... nothing has ever been so epic.

This painful turtling really seems to be working, too. Fiona to 20 in her starting chapter? On HM? Meg promoted? TAURONEO promoted on 1-6-2?

That's it. If you succeed, I'm going to be doing one of these myself.

Oh, and can your "lowest units" change mid-chapter? Or is it decided every chapter for the length of it, for the sake of simplicity?

Edited December 3, 2009 by Naglfar

[Oceanbourne]

Wait, so you can only field the four lowest units in your party to Endgame (+forced)? Can you also deploy other units to bless additional weapons? ex: Renning to bless Alondite/Vague Katti

[Silith]

Exp dancing is forbidden. The lowest 4 at the start of the chapter are the only 4 for the entire chapter.

For 2-2 I'm allowed to use

Nephenee

Brom

Leanne

Mordecai.

This seems like it's not a real problem here since those 3 can easily clear this chapter on their own while Nephenee will as always be struggling.

Now the problem is I need to think long term.

While handfull in this chapter later on ahving a heron as one of my 4 units will be a huge disadvantege so I had to get Leanne to maximum level in this chapter.

Lucia won't be seen untill 4-2 and in chapter 3-1 Lethe could be a real help.

Sadly I can use neither to fight.

Solution is to let Lucia dodgetank without weapons of course.

With Lethe I had her get in 2 range with enemy archer and dodge the attacks for 1 exp every time. With 2 archers with roughly 30% hit and the boss later on I could get 2 level ups for her.

In Lucia's case I abused her at the Sword General left of the boss. Since Bliss and Sorrow work 2 turns each I could keep Lucia on max Biorythm and the General on minimum giving him a 12% hit chance (real hit 3%). With his 35 use sword it would take over 1000 hits to break it so i stopped the Bliss/Sorrow abuse when Lucia hit level 36 and even then it took 169 more turns to break the damn sword.

Of course I got the Discipline scroll and the skill book and I even stole a coin and a mend staff so heather is geting closer to leveling herself even though she hasn't seen combat yet.

Lucia got to level 47 (3 ups)

Lethe got to level 23(35) (2 ups)

Nephenee got to level 24 (2 ups)

Brom got to level 26 (3 ups)

Leanne got to level 40(60) (35 ups)

Total turn count chapter: 583