FE8 100% Enemy growth hack

[Anouleth]

Eirika has A Ephraim and Ephraim has B Eirika, for some reason.

Have you tested whether the 100% growths apply to Knoll's Phantoms? Either way, the ability to lure enemies towards you could be really useful. Perhaps it's not worth it when they deal 0 damage and can't dodge, but it's better than an empty slot.

[Tables]

It shouldn't, I didn't edit the phantom classes/characters. And fixed the supports. There's not a lot to say about chapter 17, asides from Lyon is one of the weakest, if not the weakest, enemies in the chapter. Rescuing Syrene and the generics might be tough - I'll try, for the Rescue staff, but if it proves difficult I'll just defend the island you start on.

[chococoke]

It shouldn't, I didn't edit the phantom classes/characters. And fixed the supports. There's not a lot to say about chapter 17, asides from Lyon is one of the weakest, if not the weakest, enemies in the chapter. Rescuing Syrene and the generics might be tough - I'll try, for the Rescue staff, but if it proves difficult I'll just defend the island you start on.

I thought you failed the chapter if all of the generic citizens were killed...?

[Tables]

Er... I've never heard of that, but I've never let it happen. Hmm... let's find out...

Edit: Nope, nothing happens. They can die.

Edited April 23, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[chococoke]

I may have pulled that out of my ass, but if it's true, good luck with this chapter.

[Anouleth]

Syrene can be recruited on turn 1 if desired, with Boots on Tethys and Vanessa. Turn 2 with no Tethys. Then she can pick up a civilian and flutter somewhere safe.

[Tables]

That reminds me, boots went on Gilliam. I should add that. Still debating the Body Ring, and other stat boosters don't matter that much. I'm not actually bothered much about Syrene, so, we'll see what happens.

[Tables]

Okay, chapter 17 is worrying me. On the starting island, you basically have 4 points to hold/win. The north-west bridge is fairly easy, one man can hold it without too much problem. The east bridge is 2 wide and has tons of Druids, which are innacurate but can kill quickly, making them pretty annoying. The south-east has 4 Heroes, who cross the river slowly but cause a lot of problems if they get across. Finally, there are Wyvern Knights flying in from the north. These are probably the worst bit, since they easily get through (Vanessa can only ORKO them with a Moulder support, and only one at a time obviously) and can attack just about anywhere. The promoted one is the most annoying, given that he takes about 3 times longer to kill and deals a lot more damage.

So, yeah, that's my situation. 3 men are needed to block the bridges, someone/two people need to hold the Heroes off, and two people kill Wyverns, Exceeding my total of 6 (properly trained) people. I can use phantoms to slow down the Heroes, or Vanessa + Knoll can stop them indefinitely (with healing). Two people, possibly Eirika and Ephraim, can hold the Druids, while Franz/Gilliam takes the western bridge while the other tries to deal with Wyverns (Moulder is healing most turns). Basically, I just don't have the people I need. This is going to be fun...

[Anouleth]

Vanessa should be able to 1RKO with the Dragonspear. Also, you could try deploying Tana/Syrene/Seth, have them rescue civilians, one other trained unit (or Kyle/Forde/Franz) rescues the last. They'll be easier to protect because you can control them, and Tana/Syrene can go to the mountains and survive there.

Finally, Lyon is a pushover. If the worst comes to worst, Warp Eirika up there and Sieglinde his ass.

[Tables]

I always forget about specialty weapons. I'm entirely not bothered about civilians or Syrene, so don't worry about them. And, yeah, Lyon is completely pathetic. I want to try and train Eirika and Ephraim up this chapter though, I might need a speedwing on Eirika though.

[Tables]

Chapter 17:

After getting whumped a few times, I took Anouleth's advice, sending Vanessa far north with the Dragonspear and a vulnerary, where she easily dealt with all of the Wyvern Riders. This freed up Moulder to hold the left bridge while Eirika and Ephraim got their supports for the Druids (and mages) on the right. Gilliam and Franz used their weapon triangle control to hold the Heroes and kill them with little problem, and Knoll provided summons and healing. After the Heroes and Wyverns were gone, Franz and Gilliam took over from Ephraim and Eirika who used their specialty weapons to pierce through the Paladins and Valkries in the west, and Vanessa came back and helped hold the bridge with Moulder at times as well (everyone was helping against the Druids at one point).

After the Druids were gone, all that remained was a Swordmaster, Berserker and Lyon. I triggered the Warriors for exp, though, and fought them mostly with Eirika.

Just in case anyone's wondering, here are everyones weapon levels (and rough wexp to next level):

Eirika  | S Swords
Franz   | S Swords, A Lance, C Axe (1/2)
Gilliam | S Axe, A Lance, C Swords
Vanessa | S Lance
Moulder | S Staves, C Light (2/3)
Ephraim | S Lance
Knoll   | C Dark (3/4), D Staves (1/4)

Name    | Lvl   | Exp  | HP | ST | SK | SP | LK | DF | RS | Supports             | Boosts
Eirika  | 54/08 | 8.43 | 60 | 24 | 24 | 25 | 30 | 22 | 25 | A Ephraim, B Seth    | +2 CON
Franz   | 51/11 | 8.00 | 60 | 27 | 24 | 24 | 30 | 26 | 13 | A Gilliam, B Seth    |
Gilliam | 45/14 | 9.96 | 60 | 29 | 27 | 24 | 14 | 30 | 18 | A Franz, B Mouler    | +2 MOV
Vanessa | 58/12 | 8.00 | 60 | 24 | 27 | 29 | 30 | 20 | 23 | A Moulder            | +2 DEF, +7 HP
Moulder | 47/10 |10.62 | 56 | 25 | 25 | 24 | 10 | 20 | 22 | A Vanessa, B Gilliam |
Ephraim | 49/05 | 5.78 | 60 | 24 | 26 | 24 | 30 | 23 | 18 | A Eirika             | Metis Tome (lvl 39)
Knoll   | 10/04 | 4.25 | ?? | 14 | Irrelevant Data

Everything's looking good, basically. Knoll can use Mend for 34 HP healing, which isn't bad. I'm finding myself relying on Mends even with Moulder, though, with every enemy being almost as strong as me (supports give me the edge), people are getting down to single digit HP pretty often and obviously want to spring back from there as quick as possible, 45 HP healing lets me do that.

Edited April 25, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[Anouleth]

I like the way that every stat on Knoll aside from Strength/Magic is 'irrelevant'.

[Tables]

It is . He dies in one hit (at best, one round) and he doesn't even carry a tome, so it doesn't matter. All that matters is his Magic, and once he can use Recover even that becomes obsolete (kinda, he might carry a physic/the fortify). Even his level doesn't really matter, Summons are even more fragile than he is and at the moment, deal 0 damage with low hit.

[chococoke]

It is . He dies in one hit (at best, one round) and he doesn't even carry a tome, so it doesn't matter. All that matters is his Magic, and once he can use Recover even that becomes obsolete (kinda, he might carry a physic/the fortify). Even his level doesn't really matter, Summons are even more fragile than he is and at the moment, deal 0 damage with low hit.

Eh, at least the phantoms are legit enemy lurers! :D

[Tables]

Oh, I completed chapter 18 and have almost completed chapter 19. But I'm about to head to bed, so can someone post just so this appears on my watched topic list tomorrow morning ?

Might as well make some very brief comments:

Ch 18: Tana goes up, Gilliam and Franz go to the bottom right, everyone else goes through the centre. Eggs hatch and Seth dies.

Ch 19: The enemies are too strong to completely block easily without everyone's help, so everyone helps. I just have to warp someone for the Riev Kill now.

[Integrity]

This post exists solely to remind IET of the watched topics thingamabob that I am helping him with.

[chococoke]

This post exists to mourn Seth's death :(

[Tables]

Okay, whee.

Chapter 18

I expected this to be a nightmare, with Stone, Shadowshot, and tons of Gorgons against my little army. Well, it wasn't that bad, thanks in part to Summons and Vanessa. After everyone rushed forwards and took out the initial eggs, Vanessa went upwards to the northern cliffs and took out a few eggs there, but since I did this completely unplanned she had no Vulneraries and so got trapped in the top left corner by a Gorgon (it turns out I could out move it, but I didn't realise until later ). Most of the army went towards the top right and centre right eggs, taking the right hand ones out but getting caught by Gorgons at the top. Bah. Franz and Gilliam didn't have too much trouble at the bottom. One egg did hatch, but Garm saved the day with a OHKO. Seth got killed by a Shadowshot double, I believe, which sucked, but it did take away 2 uses of Shadowshot . He served his purpose well.

I forgot to record stats at this point. Very little changes now, though.

Chapter 19

The initial plan was to send 2-3 people to the bottom left, 1 to the bottom right (and then the chests), and have 2 hold the top, so I can get all the chests. Unfortunately, thanks to there being Druids at the bottom that rush up to kill Knights, this proved very difficult, so instead I decided on a bosskill win as quickly as possible. I blocked the bottom left up and warped Eirika to Riev, who just 4HKOed him with a Killing Edge. Fun fact: Doing this chapter this way means a fighter comes within 1 square of Mansel.

Name    | Lvl   | Exp  | HP | ST | SK | SP | LK | DF | RS | Supports             | Boosts
Eirika  | 54/11 | 8.38 | 60 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 30 | 22 | 25 | A Ephraim            | +2 CON
Franz   | 51/12 | 9.07 | 60 | 27 | 24 | 24 | 30 | 27 | 13 | A Gilliam, B Seth    |
Gilliam | 45/17 | 7.00 | 60 | 29 | 27 | 24 | 14 | 30 | 18 | A Franz, B Mouler    | +2 MOV
Vanessa | 58/15 | 8.00 | 60 | 24 | 27 | 29 | 30 | 20 | 23 | A Moulder            | +2 DEF, +7 HP
Moulder | 47/13 |10.52 | 58 | 25 | 26 | 24 | 12 | 21 | 22 | A Vanessa, B Gilliam |
Ephraim | 49/08 | 8.26 | 60 | 27 | 26 | 24 | 30 | 23 | 19 | A Eirika             | Metis Tome (lvl 39)
Knoll   | 10/06 | 6.05 | ?? | 15 | Irrelevant Data

Edited May 11, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[Tables]

Chapter 20:

Another chapter I had plans for I had to change. The initial plan was for Vanessa to grab Eirika (T1), then get warped towards Morva, dropping Eirika diagonally from her and standing in front of the gate (T2), killing Morva on the enemy phase, so on turn 3 Eirika could seize. Well, it's possible, but it required dodging Morva's attack or dodging lots of other high hit % attacks, both of which I couldn't be bothered with.

My backup plan was pretty similar, though. Fight around until I'm next to the lake, have Vanessa fly across and 1RKO Morva (with Pierce) and warp Eirika to the throne. This was also fairly easy to do - one Gorgon got in the way and lots of Wights, a few Gargoyles, and other assorted enemies, but fortunately the Sacred Twins rip through them.

Before this chapter I distributed stat boosters. Not exactly sure how. I also didn't record character levels - there's almost no growth left anyway.

Endgame (version 1)

I did this chapter twice. This was a bog standard, "I'm at the end of the game let's finish this" run. Turn 1, Vanessa flies up into warp range of Lyon. Turn 2, Moulder Warps her, and she Crit pierces him. The Demon King is pathetic and dies in two turns to Ephraim and Eirika.

Endgame (version 2)

This is more like a real run. I didn't warp, and instead fought my way through to Lyon, killing him with a team attack. This is of course easier said than done, thanks to these:

That's the weaker one. The other had 35 SPD, more STR and DEF, but a little less HP. And in case you didn't already know, they can fly over gaps. So first I kill all the nearby Wights, then have to find a way past these. Fortunately, Knoll really earns his keep here, using Phantoms to lure the left Dracozombie (the 'weaker' one, although I can't kill either) towards the centre, opening up the left hand side. I advance everyone up there (having lured the Arch Mogalls out earlier), kill the stuff at the top of the stairs, use Phantoms and dudes to take the Shadowshots, then advance on the stationary Gorgons, taking them out in one turn, and then Lyon the next.

The Demon King, I decided, I would take down using no Sacred Twins. I didn't know if it would be possible, since as soon as his Monster Spawns start moving I'm screwed, but...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCQhInrKXfs

And that's the end of my playthrough. My total turn count was something like 800. Brilliant, eh?

Anyway, I learnt some useful things from this playthrough. Here are the two I can think of off the top of my head:

• While money at the start was a real problem, by about chapter 15 I could completely ignore it. If you were playing the normal game, you'd have even more by then. Money really IS ridiculous in this game.
  
• Due to the strength of enemies, I was using the Sacred Twins quite a lot. I didn't even come anywhere near breaking any. You can pretty much use them any time you aren't ORKOing and you won't break any by the end of the game, I'd expect. The closest any came to breaking was Garm, at 15/30 uses.
  

I think I'm going to try and make a tier list for this soon (Eirika's route based). For now, here's an assessment of each character I used:

Eirika

With characters getting a lot of oppertunity to grow, Eirika has a major advantage. Except Myrrh, her lowest growths, DEF and RES at 30%, are higher than every other characters lowest growths. This matters mainly because it means she's unlikely to have any really lagging stats, by promotion don't be surprised if she's capped everything but HP.

Asides from her growths, Eirika is fast, and so may be doubling when others aren't, but her durability is poor - at the start of the game, she'll be 2HKOed most of the time. Fortunately she has swords, reducing the frequent axe uses hit, but past about chapter 6 this starts to become a problem itself as she will rarely see double digit damage, and as enemies get faster her low CON means she might be the one getting doubled herself (but only if you weigh her down, which you won't). She also has the Rapier, which is nice for dealing with frequent horseriders and Knights, and she has some fast supports such as with Seth. Oh, and she's also forced.

I'm definitely happy I picked Eirika to use. Being the main Lord, it was pretty much decided anyway, but even so, she's a decent character in her own rights.

Seth

Seth is a little different to normal play Seth. Because he grows relatively slowly anyway, add the Juna Fruit in and his stats quickly become obsolete even if you give him a majority of kills (well, probably). This means he's mainly an early game character to make those early chapters more possible. After about chapter 8, he starts to just be there for supports and occasional chip damage, after about chapter 12 he's getting ORKOed frequently. He is pretty invaluable in those early chapters though - two weapon types, and by far the stongest member of the team.

The way I used Seth I think is probably the best way to use him. While I could have trained him and used him, I think he would have fallen behind for too long in the midgame and never really caught up (assuming 30 levels in total, he'd end up capping STR, SKL and SPD only)

Franz

Two weapon types? Three after promotion? Good growths almost all around? A horse and the proper CON to wield axes? Joining in chapter 1? In short, Franz is awesome. He has weapon triangle control (and due to high enemy defensive stats, you get lots of hits and therefore WEXP), good growths in everything (almost...), and since he can promote to Great Knight, decent caps and great CON too. Of course, he does have downsides. He starts at level 1, which makes his first few chapters a little shaky (then again, everyone except Seth is shaky in chapter 2) and his defensive growths aren't so stellar - 25% DEF and 20% RES means you might not see his defences getting good until the midgame. Regardless, Franz has so much going for him that he really helps - a sword is great in the early chapters against the bandits, lances help when you start seeing the very scary mercenaries, and eventually axes for sheer power at the end of the game. And to be honest, you can pretty much pick whichever one you want for Franz to specialise.

Franz is certainly a good pick and so I'm glad I did choose to use him. While I might not have if I didn't use Gilliam due to supports, there's not a whole lot of reason to say no to him, in my opinion.

Gilliam

Gilliam was probably my luckiest character on the run. Consider that on average, his SPD and LUK should be about the same until promotion, after which he has +3 SPD, and you'll see what I mean.

Anyway, Gilliam is a decent character in this run normally. His DEF is very good, capping relatively quickly, after which his other stats rise up to meet it. He's normally going to have to get doubled until midgame at least, probably by most enemies until about chapter 12-13 or so. Fortunately he has the DEF and HP to make up for it and with his high CON, can hit hard with Steel Lances and stuff.

Gilliam is the only questionable character that I used. While he can level fast to get that borderline not-being-doubled speed (and possibly take a speedwing), normally his slowless would be a problem. Fortunately, I got very lucky with him, getting speed up quickly and high enough that being doubled was never a problem.

Moulder

I won't mince my words here. In this hack, you need a healer or even two, unless you like the idea of using about 10 vulneraries every chapter. Moulder joins right as things start heating up, and remains invaluable from then forwards. An awesome Vanessa support helps things, too. Asides from staff utility - which I would say is easily enough to make Moulder the best character in the hack - Moulder can promote to Bishop allowing him to deal decent damage in a pinch even without any weapon rank training - He has 18mt Shine available instantly and later 24mt Divine for only 1AS loss.

Moulder or Natasha had an instant place on my team, and Moulder tends to be the better option due to his higher level. He'll have about 7 magic when Natasha joins, so it'll take about 25 levels before she catches up. By my reckoning, about chapter 13. Of course, Moulder is better up to then, and thanks to affinity, supports and CON, I'd say Natasha doesn't really take over, either.

Vanessa

Vanessa has some weaknesses - she starts at a low level, has abyssmal CON (which, once her SPD caps, is a problem since she often can't double and sometimes even gets doubled if I use a powerful lance), and some of her growths are poor - STR and DEF in particular are a bit meh. However, she has something invaluable time and again to my team - a winged horse/dragon. Thanks to that she can do useful things throughout the game - watch and laugh at save Garcia and Ross, get the Dragonshield and Angelic Robe (fun fact: I never used them until Endgame after all the fuss I made about getting them), fly over to Innes and his group, fly over mountains and distract enemies, cut Eirika across gaps... There's basically something for Vanessa to do in every chapter with her flying.

Combat wise, she's okay. She has some problems, but her SPD is good, her STR is offset by lances and an Anima affinity, and her RES is pretty decent, making her good for sponging some magic attacks. Her low CON really limits her midgame, although +4 at promotion with a 29 cap is nice.

Vanessa, as well as Moulder, are two characters I don't think I could have done without. Their utility value is immense, and Vanessa's good combat ability just makes that even better.

Ephraim

Ephraim has great bases and very good growths. His only low growths are RES at 25% and DEF at 35%, and neither of those are really that low. Of course, this silver lining has a cloud, and that's availability. Ephraim gets some chance to level in chapter 5x, then a little more in chapter 8, but then he comes back and is about as strong as the average enemy Soldier. Yeah. With a little TLC he can easily become as strong as others on the team by about chapter 16, and then he can promote, fixing his only major weakness (+5 RES). Oh, and he can also build up a quick Eirika support. Unfortunately he then becomes limited by low stat caps, which really sucks for him, since he could have easily reached much higher stats.

Ephraim is actually the weakest member of my team and if I dropped anyone, it would be him. He's good, but he takes a bit too much effort to get up to that point and asides from having a prf Sacred Twin, he doesn't really do anything another Paladin/GK or flier could have done, and he's also limited to 1 weapon type. And those stat caps really do hurt him. It makes him very meh in the last few chapters, when he should be at his best.

Edited May 11, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[Integrity]

Did I miss something or, uh, how the balls did everybody have 60 HP?

Probably a stupid question, but >>

Also, yay Gilliam!

[Narga_Rocks]

Did I miss something or, uh, how the balls did everybody have 60 HP?

Probably a stupid question, but >>

Also, yay Gilliam!

Unlimited Juna fruit or something. Only way to make it even possible to do this without making it insanely tedious, I think. Hence everyone has gained about 60 levels or more or something like that allowing for much higher stats than normal.

[Integrity]

Unlimited Juna fruit or something. Only way to make it even possible to do this without making it insanely tedious, I think. Hence everyone has gained about 60 levels or more or something like that allowing for much higher stats than normal.

Ah. He did mention the Juna Fruit once, I just thought nothing of it.

[Tables]

Exactly that. I lost track of everyone's levels by the end, but everyone had gained about 50-60 levels in total, so almost everything caps thanks to the Juna Fruit (level 5-10's gain exp a heck of a lot faster than level 15's etc.).

Anyway, just going to finish my thoughts on Vanessa and Ephraim now.

[Mekkah]

This was interesting to read. It brings back memories of playing "Hard Mode" hacks of people just boosting enemy growths. It was always the same type of characters that become almost pointless, the same maps that become impossible to do perfectly (mostly those with a time bomb somewhere, e.g. Rennac taking treasure, Duesel's cavs dying, villages being destroyed), the same enemy classes becoming big threats (20 spd Mercenaries), etc.

[Tables]

Hmm, yeah. I initially wasn't even planning to play through the entire hack, just release it as a fun little challenge, but then I decided, hey, why not?

Fun fact: I still haven't completed HHM. I really want to, but I lost my cartridge and don't want to play it on an emulator.