S-Ranking Hector Hard Mode

[Anouleth]

I haven't played HHM or EHM before, and I just want to know how difficult S-Ranking HHM is, since I've heard people mention that it's very difficult. I'm partway through LHM now; is there anything I should be doing to prepare?

So if someone with experience could answer a few questions:

-Should I enter Gaiden chapters?

-How many characters can I promote without hurting my funds rank?

-Will I need to rotate characters to keep EXP rank high?

-Should I avoid using Eli/Lyn/Hector's prf weapons?

-Are there any characters I should really really be using?

[Dr. Tarrasque]

EXP rank will require some attention. You may want to occasionally field an underleveled unit or 2 and feed them kills.

Avoid Gaiden chapters, my first attempt at S ranking this was screwed because I went to 32x. Go to a gaiden if you deem it beneficial and know that it won't hurt your other ranks much.

Use the PRF weapons.

http://serenesforest.net/fe7/rank.html

Also, I would recommend using 2 save slots.

Edited February 4, 2010 by Zetta

[Anouleth]

EXP rank will require some attention. You may want to occasionally field an underleveled unit or 2 and feed them kills.

Avoid Gaiden chapters, my first attempt at S ranking this was screwed because I went to 32x. Go to a gaiden if you deem it beneficial and know that it won't hurt your other ranks much.

Use the PRF weapons.

http://serenesforest.net/fe7/rank.html

Also, I would recommend using 2 save slots.

I know that 13x and 19x are important to complete for Merlinus and the Silver Card, but I'll probably avoid the others.

I'm playing this on an emulator, but I'm going to try very hard not to RNG Abuse.

[Balcerzak]

I haven't played HHM or EHM before, and I just want to know how difficult S-Ranking HHM is, since I've heard people mention that it's very difficult. I'm partway through LHM now; is there anything I should be doing to prepare?

So if someone with experience could answer a few questions:

-Should I enter Gaiden chapters?

-How many characters can I promote without hurting my funds rank?

-Will I need to rotate characters to keep EXP rank high?

-Should I avoid using Eli/Lyn/Hector's prf weapons?

-Are there any characters I should really really be using?

I'm currently working on ranking it, and have previous experience with HNM and EHM, so take that in mind when you listen to my advice.

Gaidens are all worthwhile. Exceptions are the 0 turn tactics requirements if you're tight on tactics. I know I had to skip Value of Life once before. Specifically though:

13x is very useful for giving you liquid assets, reducing the amount of hit you take to the funds rank by selling things to purchase weapons.

17x allows you to shave 5 turns off of Tactics while maintaining even (or very slightly falling behind) on XP, no clue how it affects Funds

19x has the Silver Card.

19xx, I have no idea, but I'm interested in trying it.

23x has always been a Tactics, and XP goldmine. Miss it at your own peril, as you'll miss out on ~1000 XP cushion and ~10 turns shaved off. No clue its affect on Funds.

28x while the Tactics requirement was difficult on Normal Mode, it was considerably relaxed for Hard Mode, so can be reasonably met, and likely even gain turns here. The map also nets you some opportunities for juicy XP. No clue how it affects Funds.

31x No reason not to do it. It gives you a 1 turn deficit, but XP and Funds can easily be had, plus it fulfills your one stop shopping needs.

32x Big crunch on Tactics, may need to skip it.

How many characters to promote depends a lot on who you're promoting, and who you're hiring. On one HNM run I hired Farina, promoted her, Eliwood, Hector (duh), and 5 others. On my EHM run I promoted all three lords, and 7 others.

Yes, you will definitely need to do some rotation at some point to satisfy the XP requirements. EHM especially was a beast, HHM may be more lenient with those 0 req chapters. I find magic users the easiest to baby personally, due to 1-2 range, so in EHM I left Canas, Lucius, and Erk at low levels, then brought them out some of the final chapters to get free kills, topping them off at near to 20/--.

Lyn's prf weapon costs 0 money, so use it until it breaks. Rapier and Wolf Beil, while expensive, can definitely be worth using for survivability and Tactics reasons. When you get more Wolf Beils in Hector's promotion chapter though, you can probably leave those in Merlinus' hands.

You really, really should be using Raven, Pent, Priscilla, and Serra. The rest of your team is up to you, but IMO those four are mandatory. Ninian, too. In EHM I had to pass on Harken because he was way too overleveled and I was feeling the XP rank crunch. Your mileage may vary though.

[Florete]

While you're here, Balcerzak, which maps would you recommend using the Mine trick on (For EHM or HHM)? I imagine that would be extremely useful in some circumstances.

[Balcerzak]

While you're here, Balcerzak, which maps would you recommend using the Mine trick on (For EHM or HHM)? I imagine that would be extremely useful in some circumstances.

I must honestly confess to never having used the Mine trick (it feels too much like cheating, though oddly enough I feel no such compunction manipulating the RNG a bit here and there) so I'm afraid I can't really shed any light on that.

[Florete]

I must honestly confess to never having used the Mine trick (it feels too much like cheating, though oddly enough I feel no such compunction manipulating the RNG a bit here and there) so I'm afraid I can't really shed any light on that.

Are there any you can guess would benefit well from them?

[dondon151]

I've never used the mine trick either.

The only gaidens I wouldn't recommend entering are 19xx and 32x, since you don't get much out of those.

Edited February 4, 2010 by dondon151

[Mekkah]

I don't really advocate Mine Trick because it's a very affecting glitch and doesn't really feel like playing the game properly. But it's interesting to theorize about.

Funnily enough the Mine Trick would be hard to time because you want enemies to be able to attack you, not waste time by sitting around doing nothing because of having no weapons. Especially because they still like to cling to your units without doing anything, or running off to forts or clerics to get themselves healed.

First, Uber Spear. Not much else needs to be said. It won't speed up MUCH because most enemies go down to Javelins, though it can help bosskilling, or babying something (a Peg Sister, most likely).

An obvious use of it could be CoD, to disarm Valkyries and Druids of all that makes them so dangerous, or at least make them throw away their status staves. Maybe make Druids trade with a Shaman so that the Druids have Flux/Nosferatu while the Shamans have Luna, making it overall less dangerous.

BBD would be good too, except you need some tricks to do it properly in Fog of War. Disarming enemies around the green units definitely helps, and Ursula is obvious. Something similar goes for 13x: it's Fog of War, but it's one of the hardest maps.

Night of Farewells has a lot of long-range you want to get rid of. There's no known way of stopping snipers from using ballistae, but the LRTs/wyverns/status staves can all be taken care of.

[Florete]

Night of Farewells has a lot of long-range you want to get rid of. There's no known way of stopping snipers from using ballistae, but the LRTs/wyverns/status staves can all be taken care of.

Rescue them.

[Mekkah]

I guess you can make the enemy wyverns pick them up, yeah.

[Geriba]

I'd actually advocate using it on Port of Badon, turn 1. Put it on the bottom corridor below the villages and Damian (or whatever his name is) will rush your mine before other enemies have a chance. This allows your horseback unit to rush to Fargus free of worry while your other units can take on the (normally far too powerful to fight directly) main route enemy units.

[Life]

Gaidens: Skip 19xx and 32x. Do the rest.

The way I play, I always S Rank LHM in preparation for HHM. That automatically makes me ineligible for 19xx because Nils isn't level 7+, more like level 4 or 5 (usually 5 but this last one was 4). As for 32x, it's a 0 chapter and since Tactics is probably going to be your problem thanks to Another Journey, Talon's Alight, Crazed Beast and The Berserker, you're going to want to skip it so that you don't lose extra turns.

Promotions: Be careful with this one. Once I re-unlock HHM, I'm going to do a run and count up all of the money so that I can properly plan out a new S Rank run. Including Eliwood, you'll want to promote about 5~6 characters max and use a lot of prepromotes (Harken, Geitz and Pent are all fantastic). Also save a bit for stat-boosters, these will come in handy.

Exp units: Short answer - Yes. Your main team will be the guys that you bring to Light and those should be rotating round in order to gain Exp at equal rates. The Exp units should also be rotating round and getting those kills. After that, field at least 1 thief, 1 healer and Ninils in every chapter possible. The thieves will help keep your Funds afloat by stealing EVERYTHING that's not nailed down. Ninils is an extra... anything + 10 Exp per turn and a pure healer before Serra or Prissy promote will get full staff Exp rather than 1/2 staff exp when they promote.

Prf Weapons: Once again conserve these but use them when you need to. But use the Hammerne (1800G for the whole thing) on the Mani Katti (90 uses for 600G) and Hector's first Wolf Beil while sticking the second in the storage for good. Don't waste the last use of the Hammerne on the Rapier, use it on another expensive weapon instead. Oh and both Forblaze and Aureola are free too.

Tips for characters: Raven is awesome here. Same with Guy. They get HHM bonuses which really help. Marcus, Serra and Prissy are all great too.

If you plan out your money properly, I'd suggest promoting a thief. The Fell Contract is worth 50k but Assassins are a major help to the Exp rank (1.8x Exp if Silencer activates). Aside from that, good luck.