Lunar and Solar Routes

[Psych]

Other than the characters or the manuals is there anything big one route has over the other? I'm almost there and want to know if one route is easier or gives me better items or something.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Seems to depend on the player. Some say the Lunar Route is harder, others say the Solar route is harder. Personally I prefer the Solar route due to the characters, Sol > Luna and one of the maps in the Lunar route being chock full of forests with Dark Mages Rewarping in to attack often.

Here are the maps if you want to see for yourself...

Solar:

http://www.fireemble...guia/cap16a.htm

http://www.fireemble...guia/cap17a.htm

Lunar:

http://www.fireemble...guia/cap16b.htm

http://www.fireemble...guia/cap17b.htm

Edited March 15, 2010 by Speedwagon

[Icon of Sin]

Other than the characters or the manuals is there anything big one route has over the other? I'm almost there and want to know if one route is easier or gives me better items or something.

Solar: Eyrios is a great character, but can't be used if Olwen is alive or captured, Sleuf is basically a staff spammer who just needs some magic to be good at endgame and Misha is a bad flyer. You also get Amalda later and she's a decent staff user, though a meh fighter.

Lunar: Shanam gets you things at half price, but is an atrocious fighter, Miranda is basically the Nino of the game + Wrath, but good luck using her seriously with all the ballistae. You get Conomore later and he's only average at best at fighting considering your other units should have better stats already.

Lunar nets you an earlier Sara, Pugi and a Berserk staff, Solar gets you Awareness scroll, another arena and up to 3 Sleep Swords mostly.

Solar is considered tougher, but the rewards are better as well.

Edited March 15, 2010 by BsTrD

[Psych]

Well I planned on using Olwen, but not Othin, and another flyer never hurt anything, so I'm still not sure. But I guess I'm leaning towards the Lunar route, since until Salem and Olwen the only attacking magic user I have is Asvel, so Miranda would really help.

Edited March 15, 2010 by psychout50

[Icon of Sin]

Well I planned on using Olwen, but not Othin, and another flyer never hurt anything, so I'm still not sure. But I guess I'm leaning towards the Lunar route, since until Salem and Olwen the only attacking magic user I have is Asvel, so Miranda would really help.

You get Homeros and Linoan just before the road split though, and Sara happens to join in both routes. All of them are very good.

[Scarlet]

I played both, and I actually have to say that I personally thought the Solar route was not only easier, but also more fun. The Lunar route nets you an additional Pugi and a Berserk Staff (as well as basically a ton of Rewarp staves, but if you still haven't got enough of them after 14x...), but Berserk isn't really that great, and with 60 uses of Pugi, chances are that you won't even need a second one. However, the Lunar route's first map is basically just a massive forest, which makes it very annoying to progress and costs you a ton of turns - thus, if you aren't planning on warp-skipping it, you should probably avoid it if you want any decent rank after finishing the game. I found the second map of the Lunar route to be more annoying than its alternative as well, simply because of the massive ballista spam which you can't do much against. Warping someone over there to take care of them is basically suicide.

The solar route, on the other hand, has some ballistae as well, but they by far don't cover as much area as in the Lunar route, and are a lot easier to dispose of if you ask me. And sleep swords are really awesome, you'll probably want at least one to turn bosses and other annoying dudes into really pathetic jokes. They're also really handy to capture dudes that usually are mounted (*hint*Misha*hint*). 17-Solar throws a ton of authority stars at you after a while, but you should've disposed of most enemies by that point, so who gives a damn.

Personally, I'd go with the solar route, but everyone has their own preference.

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

Lunar: Shanam gets you things at half price, but is an atrocious fighter

Fun fact: Shanam's bases is actually also the bases of the Swordmaster class in general. I consider him to be the absolutely worst unit of the entire FE series(Yes even more useless than Meg and maybe even Est)

But IMO, I prefer the Lunar route. It's nice to get another Pugi, meaning that you don't have to worry about wasting a repair staff use to repair the original Pugi

[Aquilae]

Solar Route is better, even if you're not using Eyrios because Sleuf >>> all the characters you can get in the Lunar Route. Sleuf comes with A Staves, he doesn't need to be trained to stay relevant throughout the game. C17 in the Solar Route has Cyas too, which makes it more fun (gogo 10 Leadership stars).

Also, the Sleep Swords can't be obtained unless you Sleep the Cavs holding them and then capture them, which is a waste of Sleep Staff uses imo, considering the Sleep Sword has only 1 range and 20 Weight. You also have to use a Sleep Staff if you want to recruit Misha.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Also, the Sleep Swords can't be obtained unless you Sleep the Cavs holding them and then capture them, which is a waste of Sleep Staff uses imo, considering the Sleep Sword has only 1 range and 20 Weight. You also have to use a Sleep Staff if you want to recruit Misha.

Even though it's 1 Rng, it's still 10 more sleep uses for the price of 1 and the WT is only an issue if you're giving it to someone with low BLD which is pointless and it also helps that most enemies lose a lot of AS from their weapons so there's little reason to worry about being doubled. There's also the option of just stealing them with the Thief Staff.

[Icon of Sin]

Also, the Sleep Swords can't be obtained unless you Sleep the Cavs holding them and then capture them, which is a waste of Sleep Staff uses imo, considering the Sleep Sword has only 1 range and 20 Weight. You also have to use a Sleep Staff if you want to recruit Misha.

Though you can still use a Sleep Sword for that as well. And unlike staves, they have 10 uses. Basically you're trading 1 use of infinite range but magic needs to be higher for 10 uses of only 1 range but it automativally sleeps if I hit, regardless of how tough that enemy is. It also works for Blizzard, except you have more range (3-10 + mov), less uses (5 is still enough) and arguably you have less A Wind units than A Swords.

There's also the possibility of using the Thief Staff, since those Social Knights have awful magic as well.

Edited March 16, 2010 by BsTrD

[Narga_Rocks]

Solar Route is better, even if you're not using Eyrios because Sleuf >>> all the characters you can get in the Lunar Route. Sleuf comes with A Staves, he doesn't need to be trained to stay relevant throughout the game. C17 in the Solar Route has Cyas too, which makes it more fun (gogo 10 Leadership stars).

Also, the Sleep Swords can't be obtained unless you Sleep the Cavs holding them and then capture them, which is a waste of Sleep Staff uses imo, considering the Sleep Sword has only 1 range and 20 Weight. You also have to use a Sleep Staff if you want to recruit Misha.

1 sleep staff use or 1 mup/pure water + 1 thief staff use gets you 10 uses of sleep sword. Then use your dancer and two uses of the sleep sword you just got to get the other two sleep swords. 1 use of sleep staff gets you 28 uses of sleep swords. Or 1 use of a magic up type of item and one use of thief staff (provided she has 14 magic already) gets you 28 uses of sleep swords. That's pretty crazy.

Even though it's 1 Rng, it's still 10 more sleep uses for the price of 1 and the WT is only an issue if you're giving it to someone with low BLD which is pointless and it also helps that most enemies lose a lot of AS from their weapons so there's little reason to worry about being doubled. There's also the option of just stealing them with the Thief Staff.

Considering just how very many uses you can get out of these things compared to sleep staves, and that 1 for 28 is an amazing deal, I agree that they are totally worth it.

Though you can still use a Sleep Sword for that as well. And unlike staves, they have 10 uses. Basically you're trading 1 use of infinite range but magic needs to be higher for 10 uses of only 1 range but it automativally sleeps if I hit, regardless of how tough that enemy is. It also works for Blizzard, except you have more range (3-10 + mov), less uses (5 is still enough) and arguably you have less A Wind units than A Swords.

There's also the possibility of using the Thief Staff, since those Social Knights have awful magic as well.

Yeah, I agree that 28 for 1 is great. I'm concerned about critting with Blizzard, though, and do you even get Blizzard this early? The site says chapter 19 is the first time you can get Blizzard.

Oh, weird question on thief staff. I know that she needs to match/beat the enemies' mag and beat/match the wt of the item, but I can never remember which is which. She either needs 20 magic to steal a sleep sword, or 21 magic to steal a sleep sword, and I don't remember which. And for an enemy with, say, 13 magic, she either needs 14 to steal from it or 13 to steal from it.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Oh, weird question on thief staff. I know that she needs to match/beat the enemies' mag and beat/match the wt of the item, but I can never remember which is which. She either needs 20 magic to steal a sleep sword, or 21 magic to steal a sleep sword, and I don't remember which. And for an enemy with, say, 13 magic, she either needs 14 to steal from it or 13 to steal from it.

WT is irrelevant when it comes to the Thief Staff. For Tina to steal from enemies, her MAG > enemy's MAG is the only requisite.

And yes Blizzard comes somewhat late but if you're playing without warp skipping and have Asvel with A rank in wind, Blizzard is well worth it. Yes, critical hits with Blizzard would kill the enemy but at max it's only a 25% chance of critical.

Edited March 16, 2010 by Speedwagon

[Icon of Sin]

Yeah, I agree that 28 for 1 is great. I'm concerned about critting with Blizzard, though, and do you even get Blizzard this early? The site says chapter 19 is the first time you can get Blizzard.

Oh, weird question on thief staff. I know that she needs to match/beat the enemies' mag and beat/match the wt of the item, but I can never remember which is which. She either needs 20 magic to steal a sleep sword, or 21 magic to steal a sleep sword, and I don't remember which. And for an enemy with, say, 13 magic, she either needs 14 to steal from it or 13 to steal from it.

Blizzard shouldn't crit all that often. May I remind you that critical is capped at 25 on a first hit. While it is available only later, it is still useful against the likes of Elf who has so much Magic it's nearly impossible to status her with staves (Fire Sword on a Female Paladin with M UP/Holy Water can work though, but it would still require high magic, which they don't have). It's also often in the hands of bosses (3 in a row even: 21's Phlaus, 21x's Zaom and 22's Coen), though so it's a bit tougher to get. Also another idea would be to use Silence. It works perfectly on Phlaus since he's a Bishop.

You need to have your magic higher than the enemy's. Mind you, these Social Knights last I recall had 2-3 magic. Base Tina has 3 as well.

Edited March 16, 2010 by BsTrD

[Narga_Rocks]

WT is irrelevant when it comes to the Thief Staff. For Tina to steal from enemies, her Mag > enemy's MAG is the only requisite.

And yes Blizzard comes somewhat late but if you're playing without warp skipping and have Asvel with A rank in wind, Blizzard is well worth it. Yes, critical hits with Blizzard would kill the enemy but at max it's only a 25% chance of critical.

Odd. I thought I tried and it would only let me take stuff that she had more magic than. She can go after any enemy that she beats their mag, but can only take what she has more mag than wt. Then I just loaded and stole a hammer (18 wt) with 16 magic on her. But I was sure that some of the enemies in other maps had items greyed out even though she beat their magic.

Oh well. Guess I wasted a use of the magic up staff when I took a sleep sword. Don't know what I was seeing earlier, then, because I was sure she wasn't able to steal certain things even when she beat an enemy's magic.

Even more reason to just use her thief staff. What else is there to steal that is better than letting you put 28 enemies to sleep?

And the weirdest thing about this game is that a 20 wt weapon is not permitted to double. Fergus had the speed and build to double some enemies and he only swung once. Which means that even if you use a really fast unit with a lot of build they won't waste a shot of sleep sword when putting an enemy to sleep. Just make sure you hit.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Even more reason to just use her thief staff. What else is there to steal that is better than letting you put 28 enemies to sleep?

Nothing really though if you want to recruit Xavier with a "luckless" method BsTrD and I found, you'll need a couple repair staff uses for Thief. Basically you steal the hammers from the Lenster armors with the Thief Staff (unless you happen to have a 19 BLD Thief) and then proceed to stealing the Killer Lances with a Pahn that was given the BLD ring.

[Narga_Rocks]

Nothing really though if you want to recruit Xavier with a "luckless" method BsTrD and I found, you'll need a couple repair staff uses for Thief. Basically you steal the hammers from the Lenster armors with the Thief Staff (unless you happen to have a 19 BLD Thief) and then proceed to stealing the Killer Lances with a Pahn that was given the BLD ring.

Wow. That seems painful. That would be a lot of uses of the thief staff.

It's too bad that sleeping units can't have conversations. It makes sense, of course, but it's still a shame. Just put them all to sleep. Ditto with Shiva, actually. I didn't know at first, so I put him to sleep. Then I tried to talk to him and there was no talk option. Oops.

[Icon of Sin]

And the weirdest thing about this game is that a 20 wt weapon is not permitted to double. Fergus had the speed and build to double some enemies and he only swung once. Which means that even if you use a really fast unit with a lot of build they won't waste a shot of sleep sword when putting an enemy to sleep. Just make sure you hit.

Wait a second. If you did manage to hit your opponent with the Sleep Sword, why would you want to hit him again? I believe once the status effect comes in play, you stop attacking, so if you really do miss, you continue until you hit your opponent.

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

You could also use it to have a MUCH easier time getting the Dragon Lance. Basically you have Tina steal the Master Axe and Tornado tome from Paul, then warp Dean to the village, have him stay close enough to the Ballista near that house so he's not in the range of it. Also equip him with a scroll so the knights with Killer Lances that are near that house can't crit him. Then bring him back with the Rescue staff if you have it.

[Icon of Sin]

You could also use it to have a MUCH easier time getting the Dragon Lance. Basically you have Tina steal the Master Axe and Tornado tome from Paul, then warp Dean to the village, have him stay close enough to the Ballista near that house so he's not in the range of it. Also equip him with a scroll so the knights with Killer Lances that are near that house can't crit him. Then bring him back with the Rescue staff if you have it.

Instead of Thief I elected to put him to sleep. I also removed Dean's lance before he entered the village, meaning he'd have the Dragon Lance equipped instead of his starting Silver, so the Armors are much less dangerous. Dean already starts with the Dain scroll, and I don't see why you should remove it since he benefits plenty from it, aside maybe from passing it around during the chapter since he's far away (and everyone likes Def and Mov).

With the boss asleep and him being close to the ballista and all the armors dead, it only leaves the Bishop for an easy capture. Then steal his shit, kill the ballista, then capture Paulus and steal his items as well. If the priests are still in the general area, have Dean capture them too unless someone cleared all the southern armors and managed to join him. Though you have to be pretty quick since the Dragon Knights come on turn 8.

Edited March 16, 2010 by BsTrD

[Narga_Rocks]

Wait a second. If you did manage to hit your opponent with the Sleep Sword, why would you want to hit him again? I believe once the status effect comes in play, you stop attacking, so if you really do miss, you continue until you hit your opponent.

Well of course you don't want to hit him again. And I loaded and reset until he missed and it seems you do swing again if you miss. Again, I thought I remembered differently. It still seems strange that the game would actually be nice about that. I mean, why program it such that when an enemy goes to sleep you don't make your second swing? Now, sure, I'm glad it is set up that way so that you don't waste uses of the sleep sword, but that doesn't mean that it makes any form of sense. It's not even as if the game goes to map animations if you attack a sleeping enemy, so it wasn't some kind of need to stop the battle from continuing because of some programming setup issue.

[Icon of Sin]

Well of course you don't want to hit him again. And I loaded and reset until he missed and it seems you do swing again if you miss. Again, I thought I remembered differently. It still seems strange that the game would actually be nice about that. I mean, why program it such that when an enemy goes to sleep you don't make your second swing? Now, sure, I'm glad it is set up that way so that you don't waste uses of the sleep sword, but that doesn't mean that it makes any form of sense. It's not even as if the game goes to map animations if you attack a sleeping enemy, so it wasn't some kind of need to stop the battle from continuing because of some programming setup issue.

I think the same thing happened in FE 4 actually, except in the arena where the likes of Patty could just scratch anyone unlucky to have fallen asleep by their hands until their hp goes to 0. I'm not 100% sure about it, but I do believe it works like that.

[Narga_Rocks]

I think the same thing happened in FE 4 actually, except in the arena where the likes of Patty could just scratch anyone unlucky to have fallen asleep by their hands until their hp goes to 0. I'm not 100% sure about it, but I do believe it works like that.

That one would be more frustrating to test since sleep isn't guaranteed on anyone but Yurius, Alvis, and some versions of Ishtar. I suppose Lakche would have enough speed to double Yurius even with sleep equpped. Or units like Patty with a speed ring. Then just try try try until the first swing connects and see if there is another.

And fe4 arena is funny since even doing 1 damage to an enemy with over 50 hp, the sword doesn't actually break until the fight is over (through victory or loss). So I had fun things like using effectively 60+ uses of weapons once or twice in the arena.

[Icon of Sin]

That one would be more frustrating to test since sleep isn't guaranteed on anyone but Yurius, Alvis, and some versions of Ishtar. I suppose Lakche would have enough speed to double Yurius even with sleep equpped. Or units like Patty with a speed ring. Then just try try try until the first swing connects and see if there is another.

And fe4 arena is funny since even doing 1 damage to an enemy with over 50 hp, the sword doesn't actually break until the fight is over (through victory or loss). So I had fun things like using effectively 60+ uses of weapons once or twice in the arena.

There's some funny shit out there involving Berserk and its sword version. My favorite was to use the staff on Zehn (the Dark Bishop Warlord with Hel) and the sword on Ishtar. Zehn managed to hit Julius, beinging him down to 1 HP before he killed him, and then Ishtar Thorhammered her lover, pretty much ending the game.

I tend to do that with weapons with low uses. A few free swings of a legendary weapon are appreciated.

[Kriemhild]

There's some funny shit out there involving Berserk and its sword version. My favorite was to use the staff on Zehn (the Dark Bishop Warlord with Hel) and the sword on Ishtar. Zehn managed to hit Julius, beinging him down to 1 HP before he killed him, and then Ishtar Thorhammered her lover, pretty much ending the game.

I tend to do that with weapons with low uses. A few free swings of a legendary weapon are appreciated.

Wait, what? If Julius dies in Ch 10, the game ends?

[Narga_Rocks]

Wait, what? If Julius dies in Ch 10, the game ends?

Ishtar exists in ch11 as well. I don't think a hel mage exists in chapter 10, either. Could be wrong. But he named him, so that makes it one of the 11 (was it 12?) in chapter 11. No idea how he managed to get Ishtar to run back to the castle and attack Yurius, though. That takes skill, I'm sure. It also might take sacrifices, but it would totally be worth it to have Ishtar KO Yurius. Just too funny.