Elite Ring

[Big Klingy]

Ok, I'm doing a Fire Emblem 4 PLaythrough at the moment, and I might need a little advice. I've got several candidates for the Elite Ring in 2nd Gen. but I need help narrowing it down.

For the record, I'm making these pairings:

Edain/Midale

Ira/Holyn

Lachesis/Beowulf

Sylvia/Claude

Fury/Levin

Tiltyu/Azel

Brigget/Dew

IMPORTANT: This is NOT a pairings thread, so ABSOLUTLY NO PAIRING DISCUSSION! Save it for the many, many topics dedicated to that. And don't ask me to change any of these either. I'm only mentioning it so you can tell who inherits from who.

Moving on...

My first Elite Ring candidate was Leaf. Being one of those 'starts off weak, ends up awesome' characters, and considering my success with Elite Ring Lachesis, (reached Lv 20 by the end of Ch2) I considered it a natural choice... until I took the time to think it through properly, and realised it has some HUGE flaws. Firstly, Ethlin needs to have the ring when she leaves at the end of Ch3, which means losing it for the rest of 1st Gen. Secondly, she somehow has to aquire 40000 gold by that time, which, considering her crappy preformance in the Arena, (and the horrendously bad level ups she's been getting. Seriously, they're so bad I'm starting to doubt whether she's really Sigurd's sister or just some obscure relative of Zealot) is much easier said than done. I COULD get Cuan to give her his gold, but that'll rob Altenna of a lot of inheritance... (I could also give her the Thief Sword, but that's just getting desperate)

Patty would be another good option. I'm considering training her in this playthrough, so she can be a decent fighter and supporter for Shannan with her fangirl lover bonus. I'm starting to like the idea of this, as Dew only needs 20000 gold to buy the Elite Ring, and he can pass the Wind Sword on for her to spam use.

And finally, I know enough Japanese to understand that the Official Guidebook recommends giving it to Celice. That's a pretty good option too. (I normally don't get him premoted until late Ch9/early 10) Although I won't be seeing as much of his awesome crit animation if he premotes early...

I'm probably going to go with Patty, but I'd like feedback. Again, remember this is purely about who, out of the children I'm getting, to give the Elite Ring to.

Also, if the Elite Ring is passed on, you won't get another if you recruit Johalva, right?

Also, another more minor question. I"m on the start of Chapter 3 now, and I hve no idea who to sell the Thief Sword to. (Lachesis already has enough special swords as it is, and needs space for more weapons. I'm thinking Earth Sword, Prayer Sword [for the moment], Silver Lance, Silver Axe [won't really see much use, but it's proved useful in the arena] and a Staff)

Anyway, Ira has no problems with gold, and she's about to have an even easier time getting money (Brave Sword + Astra = arena pwnage) so that rules her out. Holyn too, really. I've pretty much dropped Noish and Alec by this point, (Noish got RNG screwed, big time and Alec's getting outclasses by better pursuit users) along with Arden (no explanation nessisary) I guess that leaves Beowulf...

Advice on who to give the Prayer Sword would be appreciated too. (BTW, if someone were to use the 'Prayer Sword for males' glitch, and that male ended up paired, a male child can't inherit it, am I correct?)

[Fia]

The ring should fall for either Selis or Arthur, imo. You get them in CH6 and the faster they promoted the better (= +2 mounted units).

I'm leaning more to Arthur since Selis can earn money with Thief Sword though.

And yes, there is only one Elite Ring.

As for Prayer, I usually give it to Lakche or Patty.

[Big Klingy]

The ring should fall for either Selis or Arthur, imo. You get them in CH6 and the faster they promoted the better (= +2 mounted units).

I'm leaning more to Arthur since Selis can earn money with Thief Sword though.

And yes, there is only one Elite Ring.

As for Prayer, I usually give it to Lakche or Patty.

1: I've never had any problems leveling Arthur, but it sounds like a good idea. Looks like Azel's going to need more cash...

I just realised, Pattly will have Bargain too, so she can buy the Elite Ring for half price once Celice or Arthur is done with it.

2: I tend to prefer the Hero Sword for Lakche, but Patty sounds good. I wonder if she can inherit it through the 'Prayer Sword for males' glitch... Anyway, she could easily buy it off Nanna.

[Ardan]

I'd consider giving the theif sword to sigurd so he can pass it down to celice. reason being sigurd should be strapped for cash at the end of the first gen due to paying for his holy sword ontop of any other rings you want to give celice such as the elite and/or leg ring. I'm not sure what the mechanics are like for celice's mother (d something) with passing down money but w/e, I still think celice would probablly be one of the best candidates for it.

also curious about the no pairings advice, are you playing halfway through a playthrough or something? If so, that's pretty understandable

EDIT: oh I have 2 dots now, I'm moving up in the forest food chain

EDIT 2: I just realised, you also have the option of passing it down to whoever then giving it to shannan or aless when they become available. although you are going for shannan/patty so he probablly won't need nearly as much cash.

Edited October 16, 2009 by Ardan

[Fia]

I'm not sure what the mechanics are like for celice's mother (d something) with passing down money but w/e,

Diadora. And yes, her money is also passed down to Selis.

[Big Klingy]

I'd consider giving the theif sword to sigurd so he can pass it down to celice. reason being sigurd should be strapped for cash at the end of the first gen due to paying for his holy sword

also curious about the no pairings advice, are you playing halfway through a playthrough or something? If so, that's pretty understandable

EDIT: oh I have 2 dots now, I'm moving up in the forest food chain

EDIT 2: I just realised, you also have the option of passing it down to whoever then giving it to shannan or aless when they become available. although you are going for shannan/patty so he probablly won't need nearly as much cash.

1: Thanks for mentioning that! I'd almost forgotten he needs to pay a fortune to repair the Tyrfing.

2: I have my reasons. I've decided to do this playthrough with the first pairings I ever used, and I'm partway through it.

3: Shannan has easy access to the Bargain Ring, and I'm getting Aless the Thief Bracelet. Unlsess the Thief Bracelet works for mages, in which case it'll go to Sety.

[Fia]

Unlsess the Thief Bracelet works for mages, in which case it'll go to Sety.

It can work on anyone, even mages.

Edited October 16, 2009 by Fia

[PuffPuff]

Advice on who to give the Prayer Sword would be appreciated too. (BTW, if someone were to use the 'Prayer Sword for males' glitch, and that male ended up paired, a male child can't inherit it, am I correct?)

I've tried that myself. Males still cannot use the weapon, but they might get the Prayer bonus from it having it equipped on them!

I'd consider giving the theif sword to sigurd so he can pass it down to celice. reason being sigurd should be strapped for cash at the end of the first gen due to paying for his holy sword

also curious about the no pairings advice, are you playing halfway through a playthrough or something? If so, that's pretty understandable

EDIT: oh I have 2 dots now, I'm moving up in the forest food chain

EDIT 2: I just realised, you also have the option of passing it down to whoever then giving it to shannan or aless when they become available. although you are going for shannan/patty so he probablly won't need nearly as much cash.

1: Thanks for mentioning that! I'd almost forgotten he needs to pay a fortune to repair the Tyrfing.

2: I have my reasons. I've decided to do this playthrough with the first pairings I ever used, and I'm partway through it.

3: Shannan has easy access to the Bargain Ring, and I'm getting Aless the Thief Bracelet. Unlsess the Thief Bracelet works for mages, in which case it'll go to Sety.

Shanan can already win the arena easily with any other weapon to get him the money to pay for his Balmung. It is heavily suggested to have Ardeen have the ring, so that Rana can have it as staves are incredibly expensive. But your call.

[Mekkah]

Don't worry about Cuan's gold pool, or anything about him and Altenna. Out of every 20G, you only get 1G to pass on to one of his kids (or 2G, I forgot). That makes it inefficient to save up anything for kids like that, unless you want to buy something like a Life Ring with it so Altenna can sell it. But Altenna doesn't have any sort of cash problem. Her first 50 uses of the Gae Bolg are on the house (assuming he left in Ch4 with 50 on it), and by the time there's any remote need to repair it, she's already stormed several arenas and had access to some remote villages such as Ch9's.

In other words, cash is not a problem for Ethlin if your Cuan has enough. Your real problem is of course that you'd lose Elite Ring for Ch4 to Ch6. I would personally pass it to Celice, Delmud or one of your other Ch6 joiners for sheer availability reasons. Let Leaf inherit something costly (like Knight or Life Ring) so he can sell it for 20k, which is half of what he needs to buy it. Leaf also gets about as much milage out of Pursuit Ring compared to Elite, and since every single fighting kid of yours has Pursuit (not counting Patty), the only competition is more obscure units like an axe brother.

[Nice]

1. Elite ring - I'd suggest Celice (since you have no problem with Arthur, I always has problem with low-movement unit because I don't like to wait.)

Celice must go around to conquer the castles in Ch6-7 so he may be behind other units. Also, the earlier, the better.

Then you can sell it around after you meet Leaf/Party and Celice can get money too.

2. Thief sword in 2nd gen. At first I let Celice have it but immediately I sell to Oifye so he can "almost" kill enemies (and don't hog exp) and let someone do the finishing blow. Thief sword are really cheap to sell around. I prefer mounted units have it so they can switch to appropriate weapon after stealing. Money is not the problem in 2nd gen after you get Patty, you can sell it to almost every units when entering arena. My units are on or almost on Lv30 in the mid of ch10, no boss abuse. I don't do this on my 2nd playthrough (you can say it's my 1st, see sig)and just let the money die in the pocket of some units, what a waste.

btw, after I finished my 2nd playthrough I reallized that I don't need silver axe at all. Too heavy so that the triangle advantage is not much and The Master Knights already full of stuff.

3. I always give Prayer sword to Pegasus knight because she solo a lot (along with Hero/Brave lance). When Fee is tough/fast enough I sell it to Altenna because it's light-weight and useful when she faces mage with shield in the Arena - Pray and hope for critical and it works! (Wtih Gae borg, she may lose before do critical)

P.S. I always train Patty because she's easy to train in my pairings (Holyn and Lex) one of hero swords go to her when she can use it, along with a lot of rings *favouritism* :P

P.P.S. I tried Prayer sword for male glitch in 2nd gen (sell and buy, not by interit) unfortunately, male can have it but he can't use it.Is that normal? :(

Edited October 16, 2009 by Nice - SE7ENize.com

[Chalis]

P.P.S. I tried Prayer sword for male glitch in 2nd gen (sell and buy, not by interit) unfortunately, male can have it but he can't use it.Is that normal? :(

IIRC, Prayer Sword won't work for males even if you break it and sell, buy and fix it. At least I think this is the glitch you're talking about.

[Big Klingy]

It is heavily suggested to have Ardeen have the ring, so that Rana can have it as staves are incredibly expensive. But your call.

I didn't get the bargain ring in Chapter 2. I've heared its incredibly difficult to do, though. For the record, I didn't get the Knight Ring either. (Lachesis's knighs kept trying to suicide themselves at every oppertunity, and in the end I just got fed up with them)

[Nice]

I didn't get the bargain ring in Chapter 2. I've heared its incredibly difficult to do, though. For the record, I didn't get the Knight Ring either. (Lachesis's knighs kept trying to suicide themselves at every oppertunity, and in the end I just got fed up with them)

I have no problem with getting both ring in 10-11 turns. I'm lucky enough that in my 2nd play I can get knight ring easily without reseting (I mean reset when the trio dies, I use savestate though). but in my 3rd play I must reset about 2 times to plan new strategy.

Here's some of my suggestion

- Put Ethlin to where the boss can hit her but (almost) nobody can't, so the boss won't kill the trio. Put Cuan/Sigurd near her if possible. (but sigurd must talk to Lache immediately so he's always infront of the castle). Ethlin may do critical to weaken him.

- Fin is the target (and can die)

- Midir is the target (hope he can avoid with speed ring)

- enemy don't like to attack Lex and Cuan.

- Put units adjacent to trio to protect them. hmm this maybe useless because mounted can move after attack, and the trio move around too after recruiting Lachesis.

and the next castle, to get the bargain

- Sigurd go as far as possible, kill the staff user first. Don't go back, attack and forward only.

- Cuan with Jeveline/Lex with hand axe follow him to clear the enemies in front of the castle.

- other units to lure the big army behind.

- Ethlin: enemy love to attack her, right? place her well. Follow Sigurd to relive and bonus to kill the boss.

I know personal exp means nothing but I think it's not that difficult.

hope this help :)

[Big Klingy]

I didn't get the bargain ring in Chapter 2. I've heared its incredibly difficult to do, though. For the record, I didn't get the Knight Ring either. (Lachesis's knighs kept trying to suicide themselves at every oppertunity, and in the end I just got fed up with them)

I have no problem with getting both ring in 10-11 turns. I'm lucky enough that in my 2nd play I can get knight ring easily without reseting (I mean reset when the trio dies, I use savestate though). but in my 3rd play I must reset about 2 times to plan new strategy.

Here's some of my suggestion

- Put Ethlin to where the boss can hit her but (almost) nobody can't, so the boss won't kill the trio. Put Cuan/Sigurd near her if possible. (but sigurd must talk to Lache immediately so he's always infront of the castle). Ethlin may do critical to weaken him.

- Fin is the target (and can die)

- Midir is the target (hope he can avoid with speed ring)

- enemy don't like to attack Lex and Cuan.

- Put units adjacent to trio to protect them. hmm this maybe useless because mounted can move after attack, and the trio move around too after recruiting Lachesis.

and the next castle, to get the bargain

- Sigurd go as far as possible, kill the staff user first. Don't go back, attack and forward only.

- Cuan with Jeveline/Lex with hand axe follow him to clear the enemies in front of the castle.

- other units to lure the big army behind.

- Ethlin: enemy love to attack her, right? place her well. Follow Sigurd to relive and bonus to kill the boss.

I know personal exp means nothing but I think it's not that difficult.

hope this help :)

PEMN refers only to character dabates. There's nothing wrong with giving general chapter advice based on personal experience. (unless you got some serious RNG wierdness and every character ands up exelling at something they're not meant to, but that's hightly unlikely)

Thanks for the hepl, I've already completed the chapter though... And it wasn't the Heirhien enemies (1st castle) that were a problem for the NPC trio, it was Anphony. (the 2nd) Basically, after you recruit Lachesis, her knights try to remain as close to her as possible. Since I like to have her close to the action so she can be healing someone every turn, and I needed her to finish off Voltz for the Elite Ring, I had to position her very close to Anphony. Unfortunatly, this puts the NPCs in charge range of the huge bunch of Armours near the castle, causing them to charge in and proceed to get boxed so I can't heal them. I couldn't help them because I needed to deal with Voltz. (who, IMO, is easily the most annoting boss in the game up until that point. Decent stats + Continue is not nice, nor is 3 star leadership [thank goodness his troops are terrible])

[Fia]

Usually I let Lachesis to play around with Ethlin's Return Staff in Evans (With Sylvia's help too), she can get more EXP and her knights can stay alive.

[PuffPuff]

To get the Knight Ring, you've got to prevent Lachesis' guards from fighting later on in the Chapter, and that to save them at the start of the Chapter, you have got to defeat Elliot first to get his troops to lose that leadership bonus that is helping them. You do the same to get the Bargain Ring by defeating Philip and trying to ignore the other henchmen with Sigurd and Cuan as you only should be sending them to the castle to seize it before Turn 11.

[Eltoshen]

It depends a bit on your luck with the RNG in keeping the knighttrio alive.