Very hard mode run

[Tables]

I posted this on GFaqs as well, but people her might like to take the challenge (well, those who haven't already done so anyway...).

Basically, the rules are:

Hard mode (duh)

No promoting characters (except trainees automatic promotion

In every chapter, choose the lowest level characters (Trainees are -10, Promoted are +20 - or in other words, Trainees always get deployed and promoted units never do). In the case of a draw, go to exp. If still drawn, it's your choice.

No deaths

No Tower/Random battles

I would say it's comparable in difficulty to HHM, possibly a little harder. Hmm, imagine what this would be like in HHM on FE7...

Progress:

Prologue: Lol, do I need to say how I did this?

Chapter 1: Again, easy. Eirika dealt with the axe users, Gilliam and Franz dealt with lances. Seth killed the boss (it would've taken too long for other people)

Chapter 2: Vanessa grabbed Ross and then Garcia, then flew off towards the village. Bought a fair number of iron weapons - low CON makes Irons pretty useful (as well as ranged weapons). Cleaned up the rest of the enemies, and gave Ross a level

Chapter 3: Neimi recruited Colm and the went to raid the northern chests with Franz and Vanessa's help. Ross and Neimi also sniped some enemies down. Then advanced on the boss, with Colm stealing what he could.

Chapter 4: No more Seth :(. Vanessa went and recruited Lute, Ross and Garcia tackled the monsters near the start position and everyone else advanced right to deal with the Evil Eyes and stuff. Evil Eyes are not fun when they go over cliffs and some of your team are 2HKOed by them.

Chapter 5: Now the game started getting slightly challenging. Ross, Lute and Franz took the left hand path - Ross reached level 10 here. That mercenary in the north is EVIL. 12 AS doubled Lute (1RKO) and Ross (3HKO with almost 100% hit) and Franz only had 9 speed (level 5)

Levels 4-6 + Natasha (2), Ross (Pirate, 1)

Chapter 5x: I'm planning to take Eirikia's route, so Forde and Kyle did all of the work here. Used every Vulnerary (I think), but they managed it and got to level 10/11.

Chapter 6: Well, that went well. Vanessa flew on ahead of her escort, since she didn't need it and my main army was getting annihilated. The cavaliers who came from behind were especially annoying, Garcia with the halberd dealt with the lance ones and Eirika and others dealt with the sword ones. Also, Gilliam is horrible - he gets doubled by most enemies and doesn't deal all that much damage, so he isn't durable, or good offensively.

Level 5-7 + Ross (4), Natasha (3)

Chapter 7: Asides from Neimi and Garcia deciding 70-80% hits were enough to miss a few times, not too bad. Ross got some combat by crossing the river, took out a few soldiers and a mage.

Level 6-8 + Natasha (4)

Chapter 8: Fairly straightforward. Broke left, met up with the cavs and Ephraim (it is quite funny seeing Ephraims Cavs as the strongest units in your army :P) and went up. Vanessa took out the thief and then Garcia, Lute and other strong units took out the armours in the chest room, while Ross and his 15 strength took out Tirado. I started making a support square between Eirika C Ephraim C Kyle C Forde, and Forde * Eirika will finish it off later.

Level 7-9 + Joshua (10), Kyle & Forde (11)

Chapter 9 (Eirika): This went... wrong. Ross and Tana went south to take out Pirates, but Tana was too weak to do much so really, it was Ross taking out Pirates. He then lured the soldiers around Amelia out so Franz could rush in and recruit her, on turn 10, but by that point the west village had been destroyed (no Angelic Robe or Dragonshield, evil :@). Then I forgot about the pirates as I advanced and they destroyed the Rapier village too.

Level 8-11 + Amelia (7t)

Chapter 10: everyone fought the starting guys off, then Tana grabbed Eirkia and flew down the left (Gerik killed the archer, how nice of him), and recruited Innes. Then I advance Garcia, Franz, Colm and Moulder down the right hand passage by the fort to fight off Marisa's troop - Gerik recruited Marisa, who took a few weapons and started destroying stuff to gain some levels, while my other units fought of bandits and stuff. Just as I thought I was done, 12 enemy reinforcements came along (how fun!). My two groups took care of them with little trouble though (stole the Talisman too) and went to take out Pablo and co. Pablo himself was pretty tough but a lucky Killer Lance crit from Vanessa finished him off.

Level 10-12 + Marisa (8), Tethys (2), Amelia (Cavalier, 1)

Chapter 11: Surprisingly easy. Amelia, Natasha, the Myrmidons and Tana went right and through the building while Eirika, Garcia, Forde, Niemi and Colm went south. Not much else really to say about it.

Level 11-13 + Amelia (10), Tethys (4), L'arachel (3)

Chapter 12: Another fairly easy chapter, except for the gargoyle reinforcements. Got Ewan, gave him a few levels, nicked the bosses halberd, bought some heal staves.

Level 11-14 + L'arachel (6), Tethys (6), Ewan (4t)

Chapter 13: This took a few tries. I rotated units chokepointing on the right so they all got experience (there was no way I was strong enough to break through to kill Aias). Meanwhile, other units held the left hand side (Ewan got some exp here), and eventually Cormag turned up and started killing red people. Generally it was quite a crazy battle. I wish I had 3 healers here instead of just 2 (Natasha was about 1 heal too high)

Level 12-15 + L'arachel (8), Tethys, (7), Ewan (Mage, 1)

Chapter 14: Swordmaster bosses are NOT FUN. With my hit rates around 20-40% with Javelins or magic, I was dealing almost no damage and having healers and Tethys working overdrive for about 25 turns. The actual chapter was better, though - Amelia, Ewan, Tethys, Gilliam, Gerik and Natasha went north, cleared out the enemies and cavaliers and then circled back to the other treasure rooms, while L'arachel, Eirika, Forde, Kyle, Marisa and Colm went left to cut Rennac's escape off. The Sniper was also a problem, since he OHKOed L'arachel with 70-odd hit, so I had to use a rescue/take chain to get her past him.

I bought lots of killer weapons here. With steel being too heavy, and the crazy amounts of money I have from selling every promotion item, it seemed the logical weapon to use for most people.

Level 13-16 + Ewan (11), Tethys (12), L'arachel (12), Kyle (17)

Chapter 15: I was really dreading this chapter. Two powerful bosses, Critmagnet Knoll to train, and huge amounts of enemies, including lots of flying ones. But it turned out to be pretty easy, maybe because I managed exp well enough to get Ewan, Artur, Moulder, Tana and Cormag along, and no mounted units except L'arachel. Ross with the Swordslayer pwn'd Calleach (Hero's are vulnerable despite Calleach using an axe), and then I lured the cavalier reinforcements onto the sand and took them out with Knoll, Ephraim and help. Then most people went south and turned towards Valter, while Tana and a few others went treasure hunting.

Level 14-17 + Myrrh (1)

Chapter 16: Another surprisingly easy chapter, asides from a few problematic enemies (that Swordmaster has stats almost as good as Carlyle, chapter 14's boss). Warp got 3 uses - one to send Myrrh over the wall to the Warriors, one to send Colm to the chest on the left (with a Tomahawk) and one to warp Franz over after I realised a Luna Druid could OHKO Myrrh after she'd moved. After the chapter I went shopping in Ide.

Level 15-17 + Eirika (20), Natasha (20), Myrrh (11)

Chapter 17: Ah, another nice easy chapter. A few promoted enemies but nothing too bad, I sent Amelia (ferried by Vanessa) and Myrrh to kill the southern Heroes, and everyone else held the middle ARGH SURROUNDED TOO MANY ENEMIES *fail*

A fairly tricky chapter, I rushed everyone into the middle and held it against ARGH WYVERNS NOBODY USEFUL DOUBLES THEM NOO *fail*

A menacingly difficult chapter, I had to use all of my mounts to rescue people and rush them up to the middle, recruit Syrene before she kills herself, and then hold against the onslaught from all sides. This is possibly my last shopping trip except getting some silvers before chapter 20, and I brought excessive numbers of killer and reaver weapons (very useful when all but 1 class has 1 weapon type, and only two units have WTA on lances).

If this strategy had failed, I would have Rushed Vanessa up to recruit Syrene then formed defences on the original island. Probably would have been a bit too slow but, safer.

Level 16-20 (average 17.99)

Chapter 18: Shadowshot could OHKO the majority of my team, with 50%+ hit rates... hence the first few turns basically were about RNG abusing the Gorgon that moves so I could take it out with Tana. After that my original strategy was to fly off and destroy the eggs, but I found out I couldn't (safely) get to them in time so I changed my plan, sent everyone towards the right hand side, took out the bottom and middle eggs, and then held a line as I took out the Gorgons. Never before have I disabled so many traps, probably about 8 in total.

Level 17-20 + Myrrh (16), average 18.94

Chapter 19: I HATE PROMOTED ENEMIES

I tried this chapter a few times and failed, as people got basically overwhelmed on defence (enemies consistently hitting 30% hit rates didn't help the matter, and Lute missing a 99% was just an epic facepalm). So I basically said, screw the treasure, screw the experience, I'll just warprush Riev. And I did. Warped Lute, Ephraim and Myrrh over (turns out Myrrh could easily solo him but...), and Lute went and got critted :(.

I did the same thing next time for the exp, Myrrh got the kill but the others got a good hit in to save a dragonstone use. I dunno if I'm gonna be using warp again anyway, maybe to defeat Lyon.

Level 18-20 (average 19.47)

Character stats here (YT)

Chapter 20: lolmonster chapter... wait, it's actually hard? With almost entirely promoted enemies, tons of deathgoyles, 50 enemies initally plus 88 reinforcements (and a few mogals), and a crazy strong boss who OHKOs all but 3 people (and doubles 1 of them). I basically advanced in one big group to where the cyclopses come out, Vanessa went south to take care of a few enemies and then I went back and forth for about 20 turns, taking out all the enemies who charged me. Eventually the reinforcements depleted and I could actually advance, Vanessa killed most of the Shadowshot Arch Mogalls, Neimi had been killing most of the Deathgoyles, and Gerik weakened Morva until he got a critical, at which point Ephraim swooped in and finished him off exactly. Not as bad as chapter 19 but still very tricky.

Everyone is now level 20. Video of stats

Endgame team:

Eirika (forced)

Ephraim (forced)

Myrrh (awesome, boss killer)

L'arachel (18 magic, mounted healer)

Gerik (High speed, strength, defence, HP, CON)

Cormag (Flying, enough speed, good CON, 20 STR)

Ewan (My best mage, Thunder with 16 SPD & good stats)

Kyle (Good supports (B Forde, C Ephraim), good stats)

Ross (Axe monopoly with great stats)

Moulder (Boots used earlier, MAG is lacking but sufficient)

Forde (Great supports (B Kyle, C Ephraim, C Eirika), only decent stats though)

Tethys (Dodgemaster with good defences, and obviously dancing)

Narrowly missing my team were:

Amelia (A little better statwise than Forde, but lacking supports)

Lute (Again, lacking supports, and just a bit worse than Ewan in stats)

Joshua (Good offence but poor defences)

Vanessa (Great stats... except lol 9 STR. If I don't succeed first time I might swap her in and give her both energy rings)

Gilliam (20 DEF and 10 SPD, but he's still inferior to other lance users, who I have plenty of)

Game = Complete

Endgame: Ridiculously simple. I didn't know which chest had the angelic robe, so I split my party both ways. Then my left army turned and rejoined the others, and I advanced on Lyon from the right, with Myrrh 1RKOing with a critical hit (not that I needed it, I would've danced her, healed her and attacked again). Then Myrrh solo'd the Demon King, beating him easily in 2 turns.

Turn + Kill counts:

Turn counts:

Prologue: 4

Ch 1: 6

Ch 2: 6

Ch 3: 15

Ch 4: 8

Ch 5: 12

Ch 5x: 27

Ch 6: 14

Ch 7: 15

Ch 8: 31

Ch 9: 23

Ch 10: 24

Ch 11: 18

Ch 12: 24

Ch 13: 12

Ch 14: 43

Ch 15: 28

Ch 16: 22

Ch 17: 19

Ch 18: 25

Ch 19: 5

Ch 20; 46

Endgame: 19

Total: 446

And for lolz, Kill counts:

Seth: 1

Franz: 43

Gilliam: 32

Vanessa: 37

Garcia: 42

Ross: 65

Colm: 21

Neimi: 70 (!)

Artur: 51

Lute: 45

Joshua: 32

Forde: 47

Kyle: 49

Tana: 36

Innes: 1

Amelia: 52

Knoll: 25

Cormag: 31

Gerik: 31

Ewan: 59

Marisa: 34

Saleh: 2

Myrrh: 26

Ephraim: 45

Eirika: 65

Total: 942

Edited November 14, 2009 by I eat tables

[Jaybee]

You should limit yourself by picking only, say, 4 characters, otherwise it's just rotating with a somewhat lower-level team.

[Tables]

Yeah, I know, but it's a big rotation, people are only getting deployed about once every two maps or less now. Being limited to something like 4 characters would be ridiculous, they'd all be OHKOed from low levels as they'd be deployed like, once every 6 chapters.

[Jaybee]

Yeah, I know, but it's a big rotation, people are only getting deployed about once every two maps or less now. Being limited to something like 4 characters would be ridiculous, they'd all be OHKOed from low levels as they'd be deployed like, once every 6 chapters.

And that's where the challenge comes in.

[Tables]

No, that's where the run goes from 'challenge' to 'rng abuse every move' :/. Maybe if I limited it to, say, 8 characters deployed, it would work, that'd be more challenging, but for now I'll stick to this.

[Silith]

This is interestingly hard for Sacred Stones even though the game itself is piss easy using no Promoted units means you'll be stuck with the level 20 unpromoted stats.

Later chapters will be mindnumbing hard even for Sacred Stones.

[Eltoshen]

No, that's where the run goes from 'challenge' to 'rng abuse every move' :/. Maybe if I limited it to, say, 8 characters deployed, it would work, that'd be more challenging, but for now I'll stick to this.

Exactly. There's a difference between challenges and having to RNG abuse to clear chapters. Challenges should rely on character manipulation, not RNG manipulation.

[Tables]

Right, added all of the chapters I've done recently. Chapter 18 doesn't look that bad, I have two staff users and 3 flyers with me, which should help.

[Junkhead]

Basiclly I made this game harder beyond HM:

Ch 14 enemies:

Ch 16 enemies:

Nefing your units really sucks, it's not them that need to be weaker but the enemies are the ones who should be stronger.

[Tables]

Okay, done chapter 19 (at last), schoolwork is slowing down my progress but I'll finish this probably by the end of this week.

[Jaybee]

Now I'm curious to do one on FE7. Or I could try to beat your turncount here :P

[Tables]

Beating my turncount probably wouldn't be too hard, I took too long on some chapters (eg 8). FE7 would be crazy, even going through ENM. More characters (admittedly more prepromotes, though), higher difficulty, higher average endgame level. But if you wanna go for it, make sure to play Lyn's mode first :P.

[gloomflake]

Beating my turncount probably wouldn't be too hard, I took too long on some chapters (eg 8). FE7 would be crazy, even going through ENM. More characters (admittedly more prepromotes, though), higher difficulty, higher average endgame level. But if you wanna go for it, make sure to play Lyn's mode first :P.

I'd imagine the only reason you can even beat the game is because this is Sacred Stones. Even the power of RNG Abuse probably couldn't save you in other games.

[Tables]

Yeah, probably. Onto the final chapter now (main post updated)... doesn't look too bad to me actually, and my DK beating 'strategy' is all planned out (Rrraww! Myrrh smash!)

[gloomflake]

Ahhh... I forgot about Myrrh! And she doesn't even need to be promoted to destroy everything, does she? It's a shame that dragonstone only has 50 uses.

[Rewjeo]

She doesn't promote period. Although, she can OHKO the DK with a crit IIRC.

[Tables]

Whoo, game complete! Now I need a new project... maybe hacking everyone into archers/Snipers on FE7... could be an interesting challenge :P

[gloomflake]

I know she doesn't promote. That was bad wording on my part. Sorry.

And congratulations for beating it! If you're still taking ideas for new challenges, try hacking everyone into magic-using dancers. Well, that's not as much challenging as it is just plain fun, but I digress. Once again, nice job!

[CT075]

Try changing everyone into monsters.

Magic users would be Mogalls with different magics (I guess staffers remain the same)

Sword/Lance users would be Skeletons

Axers are Centaurs

Generals are Cyclops

Knights are Baels

Tethys is the same and Myrrh is the Demon King

Either that or you could make the legendary weapons unusable

[Jaybee]

Beating my turncount probably wouldn't be too hard, I took too long on some chapters (eg 8). FE7 would be crazy, even going through ENM. More characters (admittedly more prepromotes, though), higher difficulty, higher average endgame level. But if you wanna go for it, make sure to play Lyn's mode first :P.

I'd imagine the only reason you can even beat the game is because this is Sacred Stones. Even the power of RNG Abuse probably couldn't save you in other games.

It might be possible, though it would involve uber amounts of Luna spam. Canas FTW. Or Nergal would kill me.

Screw this, I'd die at Lloyd.

[CT075]

Beating my turncount probably wouldn't be too hard, I took too long on some chapters (eg 8). FE7 would be crazy, even going through ENM. More characters (admittedly more prepromotes, though), higher difficulty, higher average endgame level. But if you wanna go for it, make sure to play Lyn's mode first :P.

I'd imagine the only reason you can even beat the game is because this is Sacred Stones. Even the power of RNG Abuse probably couldn't save you in other games.

It might be possible, though it would involve uber amounts of Luna spam. Canas FTW. Or Nergal would kill me.

Screw this, I'd die at Lloyd.

How to beat final chapter like this:

make sure that your lowest units are staffers with the rank to use Berserk, Rescue, Hammerne, Warp

Berserk Bosses. Lock them in the room with Light Runes.

RN abuse to berserk that Berserk Sage

Watch the sparks fly

Killing the Fire Dragon:

Have Athos Luna him to death.

[Jaybee]

Oh god. I'm trying this now and doing C6 without Colm and Franz is killing me >_>