Fire Emblem Gaiden blind playthrough

[Dr. Tarrasque]

First I'll start by saying that I DO NOT wish to see comments or discussion of chapters and battles I haven't done yet (don't expect more than 2 people to read this but eh, gotta throw it out there >_>).

The videos will be saved to this playlist:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ThunderManEX#grid/user/8580D5786482C55C

The rules of this playthrough is that I play on normal mode and proceed all the time. I will only go to shrines for promotion so there will be no grinding involved here. The only information I have would be the Class bases, Character growth and bases and Magic levels. Everything else will be blind or will depend on whatever I remember from my previous playthrough that ended in Chapter 3's start (lost the save for that one).

So far I finished the first 3 battles and promoted the villagers as I had intended.

:

Not much to say about this. I had Alm and Ruka tank to weaken the enemies for Robin (Bird) and Cliff to finish off the enemies for EXP so they can reach level 3 ASAP to promote them as soon as I hit the first Shrine (Villagers promote at level 3 and it seems best to promote them ASAP).

:

Same intention as Chapter 1 but this dragged out a little more than it should've due to the Thief returning to heal and the Archer moving on forests which I didn't want to attack until he got out. Clever bastard.

:

A quick win here and got Cliff to reach promotion level. I think I screwed up a little on the EXP distribution here, meh.

Promotion:

Cliff as a Mage since he learns good spells at decent levels.

Grey as Mercenary because his growths suck save for STR which is somewhat decent. The bases of this promotion path will keep his SPD at a decent level so he can double.

Robin as Archer, I don't care much for him since his stats look pretty lame but I thought a 6 SPD archer would be pretty decent stuff early on.

Lion Head Bonus distribution:

Gave the 3 SPD to Cliff since his first spell would result in 1 AS... 3 SPD might been a bit too much though, oh well.

[grandjackal]

Promotion:

Cliff as a Mage since he learns good spells at decent levels.

His overall stat growth spread could have also made him a good cavalier, but mage is a nice option for him as well.

Grey as Mercenary because his growths suck save for STR which is somewhat decent. The bases of this promotion path will keep his SPD at a decent level so he can double.

Good thinking.

Robin as Archer, I don't care much for him since his stats look pretty lame but I thought a 6 SPD archer would be pretty decent stuff early on.

You would be correct, sir. In fact, if you had made Cliff a cav, you could have given that speed to Robin, because even his speed is garbage, since he doesn't have one good growth to speak of outside of Skill and Luck. Those stats however are good for archers because for some reason, bows have shit for accuracy. I'm going to guess it's because of how archers work in this game. You did right to make Robin an archer, I just feel Cliff being a mage was your mistep, not that he's a bad one.

Lion Head Bonus distribution:

Gave the 3 SPD to Cliff since his first spell would result in 1 AS... 3 SPD might been a bit too much though, oh well.

It depends on how much you value the damage he will do as a mage. If he's doing great damage as a mage, obviously you'll want him doubling. However, if he could have done similar damage as, let's say, a cav...

[Dr. Tarrasque]

His overall stat growth spread could have also made him a good cavalier, but mage is a nice option for him as well.

What a coincidence, that's the class I had in mind before I was reminded of the magic levels.

You would be correct, sir. In fact, if you had made Cliff a cav, you could have given that speed to Robin, because even his speed is garbage, since he doesn't have one good growth to speak of outside of Skill and Luck. Those stats however are good for archers because for some reason, bows have shit for accuracy. I'm going to guess it's because of how archers work in this game. You did right to make Robin an archer, I just feel Cliff being a mage was your mistep, not that he's a bad one.

Well, hitting RES is good stuff though probably not too great early on since the DEF to RES gap may not be as huge but I'm sure that'll change soon. Plus Thunder at level 4 is appealing.

It depends on how much you value the damage he will do as a mage. If he's doing great damage as a mage, obviously you'll want him doubling. However, if he could have done similar damage as, let's say, a cav...

Well, I remember an enemy Merc being rather troublesome due to his freakish SPD at the time and with a shield equipped so Magic would come in handy here. I just tested Magic Cliff with the SPD boost and 11 damage + doubling is pretty damn good. With Cavalier he would need Lances and I know there's some other people that will use them so no competition for weapons for Cliff.

Off to do map 4 now.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Chapter 1 Map 4 ended up divided in 2 parts because the recording took 12 minutes. Pretty glad I had a Mage at the time or that blasted Mercenary would've taken quite a while to kill.

Chapter 1 Map 5 fortunately didn't take as long. I was surprised to see the 1-5 range from Archers appear this early which proved to be trouble and once again made me glad I had a Mage at the time. It didn't help that the Solders in the center would go back to that healing spot and you could be interrupted by another Soldier, allowing the other to heal.

Chapter 1 Map 6 is pretty simple, my units at the time had no trouble taking care of the first group of enemies while the only thing you need to concern yourself with regarding the Cavalier is not allowing someone that could get doubled in his ranged, specially Silk. Tried to keep Clea away from the Archer. Grey gets the Thunder Sword due to having the lower ATK of the 2 capable of using it.

Chapter 1 Map 7, another simple map where you're given a very easy to use chokepoint. I let the Cavaliers get past it so I could finish them off faster. I was amused to see Robin kill that Cavalier trying to run away.

Chapter 1 Map 8 is full of weak Zombies that have 5 ATK and deal like no damage to what you have. The Skeletons are a different story though, more props to Thunder Sword and the mage you have at the time if any. The Lion bonuses all went to Clea as STR.

Chapter 1 Map 9 was kinda tedious because of how I went through it. Don't know if the door could open or not so I just took the other path. I had Clea lure the Paladin and made a stupid mistake with her position which was luckily salvaged by the SPD level up she got. Krebs also had a pretty close call there, a risky move on my part to try and speed things up a bit.

[Balcerzak]

I never knew how ugly the first Gaiden patches were. That's almost painful to have to suffer through. I only made it up to Map 1-4 on your playthrough at the moment, but I'm interested and will continue to watch, and feedback as things progress.

One thing I did find very interesting is that you didn't seem to feed any kills to Silk. Are you planning on just using her for healing purposes only?

[Dr. Tarrasque]

One thing I did find very interesting is that you didn't seem to feed any kills to Silk. Are you planning on just using her for healing purposes only?

I've just been neglecting her since I'm currently undecided in regards to that. I don't know how good Warp is in this game and that's probably the only thing she would be capable of reaching. Might just go for it. I've been focusing mostly on my physical units to improve them with promotion gains so I don't run into trouble.

I'm now in Chapter 3 the next map is that one with the 3 Paladins which I've already figured out but the problem is that after beating that map I'm attacked by Tozeh's reinforcement team of 1 Paladin, several 7 SPD Cavs, Archers and 1 Bishop. This bunch has been problematic since I could face one alone and then be forced to face another that'll appear soon enough or proceed to the next map to beat the 3 Paladins and endure the invasion of the reinforcement which has proven to be very difficult so far but I think some re-arranging of my items will fix this..

Edited June 25, 2010 by Sirius

[Balcerzak]

I've just been neglecting her since I'm currently undecided in regards to that. I don't know how good Warp is in this game and that's probably the only thing she would be capable of reaching. Might just go for it. I've been focusing mostly on my physical units to improve them with promotion gains so I don't run into trouble.

I'm now in Chapter 3 the next map is that one with the 3 Paladins which I've already figured out but the problem is that after beating that map I'm attacked by Tozeh's reinforcement team of 1 Paladin, several 7 SPD Cavs, Archers and 1 Bishop. This bunch has been problematic since I could face one alone and then be forced to face another that'll appear soon enough or proceed to the next map to beat the 3 Paladins and endure the invasion of the reinforcement which has proven to be very difficult so far but I think some re-arranging of my items will fix this..

Yeah, you'll never be promoting them to Saint, much less getting advanced spells like Dear or whatever, with either Silk or Jenny, but I did find Warp to be somewhat situationally useful on one or two maps, I think (I honestly can't remember which onese, and even if I could, I wouldn't bother saying, as spoiler, etc.). As far as how Warp works, it is unlimited range for something on the order of 8HP, if I recall correctly.

Getting Jenny to use Illusion and Physic is more important, IMO, but I didn't make it to watching your Celica Party videos yet. Anyway, you're right, Silk's spell level progression is kind of ass.

Keeping your units promoting on schedule is very important, and since XP is scant, you might just be taking the best policy on that regards.

As for your current situation, I'm not sure I quite understand what you're saying. (I'd probably have to grab the world map, or load up an old save or something.)

It doesn't sound like this is the case, but if there's a reinforcement group sitting on top of a regular map group and you're having to fight them both combined (I remember this happening to me, and it was quite a bitch), consider moving about with Celica's party to see if the reinforcements will leave the area and assault you. I don't remember if that even works, to be honest, but I'm not sure it could hurt.

(rereads)

Oh, I think I get it. You would wait, defeat the group, but then a new one will spawn, since you can't clear the objective before time. OR, you press forward, and get back-to-back battles, which are kicking your ass, but will allow you to forgo a second set in the future. Yeah, I'm not sure I have any particular advice in that case, except try re-arranging your items, your roster position (to affect starting positions), and hope for the best.

Edited June 25, 2010 by Balcerzak

[Dr. Tarrasque]

I haven't uploaded the Cellica videos yet. Will do so after waking up tonight. I'll try raising Silk and Jenny some and beat the 3 Paladins + Tozeh reinforcement invasion... as in, they move to your location and get the first turn. Do note that on the first turn they're able to put my Archers in death range for the next turn and the same could be true for some of my other characters.

Edited June 25, 2010 by Sirius

[Dr. Tarrasque]

The Cellica chapters have been uploaded. Here's the playlist

The Lion Head bonuses went to Cellica as +1 STR and +1 SPD as well as May in +1 SPD. The other shrine's bonuses all went to Cellica as +3 HP. What I find amusing is that Sevr ended up as level 6.98... 2 EXP AWAY FROM PROMOTION -__-

[grandjackal]

The Cellica chapters have been uploaded. Here's the playlist

The Lion Head bonuses went to Cellica as +1 STR and +1 SPD as well as May in +1 SPD. The other shrine's bonuses all went to Cellica as +3 HP. What I find amusing is that Sevr ended up as level 6.98... 2 EXP AWAY FROM PROMOTION -__-

That's what you get for not giving the speed boosts to Bowie.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

That's what you get for not giving the speed boosts to Bowie.

Screw Boey.

Anyway the videos for Chapter 3, Alm's route that I have done are finally uploaded... the game's getting increasingly difficult and isn't giving me the freedom to do much without being forced to fight reinforcements which I would rather avoid to prevent grinding levels. It's also taking more time to beat the maps since I'm being forced to play defensively.

Again here's the link to the playlist, Map A3P is map 3 but against the Paladin unit that ambushed me. An interesting battle to watch if you're a sadist >_>.

Next I think I'll be taking on some Cellica maps before finishing with Alm's since now I've got a Hero reinforcement unit coming after her soon X_X. Expect videos to come slower than they have been.

Edited June 26, 2010 by Sirius

[Dr. Tarrasque]

As already mentioned, a Hero reinforcement would come for Celica soon so I decided to take on some of her maps before continuing with Alm which oddly enough, stopped the Hero from appearing and also gave me the opportunity to get the Holy lance from the village and send it to Celica's team.

Map 1: Vs some Thieves and Mercenaries with Paola and Katua as NPCs.

Map 2: Vs some Zombies and Mummies which are basically the same as Zombies but grant way too much EXP. Had to come here the time you see in the video, after getting Atlas (which is what I did right after this map) and after returning to go to the Sniper on the map after getting the Promtions from the Dragon Shrine. Oh yeah, good use of the Angel ring granted some nice level ups for my characters. I learned of its effects mostly from remembering TheEnd (Mr. Facepalm) mentioning something about Est + Angel ring and since Est is usually a growth unit, I thought to try it on someone who was about to level up.

Map 3: Vs Bly, the Hero with a Dark Sword. It was this or the Sniper map... tried the latter and noticed that it would be too tedious and troublesome at the time.

Map 4: The name gave me a thought about what enemies I could expect from this so it wasn't too difficult to prepare for this one. Atlas got promoted to Merc because his base 14 MT coupled with 10 SPD seemed pretty good, better than unarmed Sevr in terms of offense except against enemy Mercenaries of course.

Map 5: Vs Wolf and his army of Archers. I hate this map, I really do. It's tedious and you pretty much require Physic on Jenny if you don't want to have a tedious time doing this one.

[Balcerzak]

Just finished watching the Celica route videos. I think Leo almost dies in almost every playthrough to be honest. Well, at least he did in mine, and I don't really know that there are any better strategies to get to Valbo's group any faster.

[spoiler=Since you're probably not going to go back to the Sea Shrine]I don't think I saw you do the second battle in there, or grab the Holy Sword from the chest. It is somewhat hidden, though, so you probably just missed it I guess. It sucks, though, because that certainly would have given Sabre the extra XP he needed, and Celica really would prefer the Sword to the Ring, IMO.

I'll catch up on chapter three a bit later I think.

[PuffPuff]

It depends on how much you value the damage he will do as a mage. If he's doing great damage as a mage, obviously you'll want him doubling. However, if he could have done similar damage as, let's say, a cav...

It really doesn't matter what you make Cliff as he is by far the best character in this game.

I never knew how ugly the first Gaiden patches were. That's almost painful to have to suffer through.

Yeah, and I'm surprised that he's using it unless that if it's Starwolf's patch that is. =[

That's what you get for not giving the speed boosts to Bowie.

Bowy sucks. He fails at doubling for a while as May could already do that from the start.

May and Sonia are only any good.

I think Leo almost dies in almost every playthrough to be honest. Well, at least he did in mine, and I don't really know that there are any better strategies to get to Valbo's group any faster.

Honestly in a no grinding run Balbo would only be useable.

[spoiler=Since you're probably not going to go back to the Sea Shrine]I don't think I saw you do the second battle in there, or grab the Holy Sword from the chest. It is somewhat hidden, though, so you probably just missed it I guess. It sucks, though, because that certainly would have given Sabre the extra XP he needed, and Celica really would prefer the Sword to the Ring, IMO.

I'll catch up on chapter three a bit later I think.

If he isn't going for the sword then Sabre should get some Lion Head Str boosts since he averagely grows str like once every few level gains.

[Balcerzak]

Your strategy on Chapter 3A1 was completely different than mine, but looks like it worked pretty well. I had Cleive, Cliff, and someone else actively head west to cut off the cavaliers, had Claire cross back and forth over the river to distract half of the enemy knights so my main force wasn't overwhelmed, and then pushed across.

Now that I see what you meant about dealing with the reinforcements, yeah, that was a pretty brutal map to get stuck fighting them on. I honestly can't remember where I ended up meeting up with them.

On Chapter 3A4 I must admit I was completely surprised to see that the door could be opened. I never figured out how to open any doors in my run-through.

I noticed you had quite a bit of fun randomly selecting attack targets in the gargoyle cave (A6). It was very amusing.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Your strategy on Chapter 3A1 was completely different than mine, but looks like it worked pretty well. I had Cleive, Cliff, and someone else actively head west to cut off the cavaliers, had Claire cross back and forth over the river to distract half of the enemy knights so my main force wasn't overwhelmed, and then pushed across.

I was thinking of something similar but expected to screw up so one of the Cavaliers would attack someone else and make me restart so I decided to go more defensively about it....

Now that I see what you meant about dealing with the reinforcements, yeah, that was a pretty brutal map to get stuck fighting them on. I honestly can't remember where I ended up meeting up with them.

Fighting them else where would've generated similar but less difficult battles and another Paladin coming out of the fort so yeah...

On Chapter 3A4 I must admit I was completely surprised to see that the door could be opened. I never figured out how to open any doors in my run-through.

Yeah that knowledge would've been useful to have on that last Chapter 1 map.

I noticed you had quite a bit of fun randomly selecting attack targets in the gargoyle cave (A6). It was very amusing.

It's what I do when I don't have much incentive to focus and I'm trying not to bore whoever is watching by cutting down on thinking time.

Anyway, uploaded 3 chapters of Celica's side, completing her half of it. Got Dean, promoted Jessey and Paola after reaching Mila's temple. I fought 2 Paladin reinforcements from Celica's side of the map but they were basically the 3 Paladins from that battle on Alm's route and it wasn't anywhere to close to being difficult like that so I decided not to record it. Next thing I'm doing is transferring the Angel ring and Steel or Holy Lance over to Alm's team.

Map 6: Vs Sonia. I think this could've gone little faster but I didn't wanna risk having someone bombarded by multiple witches as it didn't look like they'd be able to do that very well.

Map 7: Vs Geyse. I hate that Fortify/Reserve Sorcerer and that damn Shaman. Props to Valbo for having the SPD to double the Skeletons and 1RKO them with the Holy Lance. Also, is it me or was the game REALLY biased against me when it came to Katua vs that Fortify/Reserve Sorcerer?

Map 8: Mikhail. EASY all thanks to the Triangle attack preventing that blasted Shaman from summoning anything.

*Sees the spoiler about the Holy Sword*

Damn it, that would've helped greatly against Geyse's map.

Again, here's the playlist link. The new videos are Map C6 and on.

Edited July 5, 2010 by Sirius

[PuffPuff]

On Chapter 3A4 I must admit I was completely surprised to see that the door could be opened. I never figured out how to open any doors in my run-through.

Only surprising as there are no Thieves in this game.

-----

@Sirius

Are you planning on training Est, because it doesn't look that you are?

Edited July 6, 2010 by Ayanami

[Dr. Tarrasque]

@Sirius

Are you planning on training Est, because it doesn't look that you are?

I'm leaning towards no. While transferring the Holy lance (which for some reason is the only thing I could transfer), I managed to get Katua and Paola to promote to Falcon Knight. A 3rd Falcon Knight seems pretty cool but that'll take a while and I'm already trying to get Valbo promoted as well as 2 Demon Fighters. Also got May to level 12 but goddamnit, she doesn't promote. Had I known that, I would've given those Mummy kills to Jenny or Valbo =\

I'll be using her to tank some magic if possible and of course to do the Triangle Attack on bosses and such but if I happen to come across a decent number of mummies as I play, I may feed her some of those.

Also, that Bow Knight class is a freaking troll.

Edited July 6, 2010 by Sirius

[Psych]

Female mages are kinda fail. But they do promote.

Good thing there are only three.

I chose Sonia over the other guy when I played through.

[spoiler=How they promote]They promote at Level 20 instead, and just to Celica's class.

[PuffPuff]

Female mages are kinda fail. But they do promote.

Good thing there are only three.

I chose Sonia over the other guy when I played through.

[spoiler=How they promote]They promote at Level 20 instead, and just to Celica's class.

I would recommend her too since you already get more than enough Mercs on your team that you don't possibly need another one. Plus it's too good to pass up her 30% growths to absolutely everything upon which Mei doesn't have who is also prettier, and having better base stats making it so that only Cliff is better than her in this game.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

If it's not level 12 that they promote, I'm guessing that spoiler's going to say they either don't promote or it's later. That being the case, I won't bother with May for level ups anymore. Man, why didn't I focus on Jenny instead...

Edited July 6, 2010 by Sirius

[Psych]

Jenny's awesome.

I used her Dear spell and the Peggy's to clear the swamp levels super quick.

Edited July 6, 2010 by psychout50

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Chapter 3 is complete, finished the last 2 Alm maps.

Vs Bow Knight: This one reminded me of the Celica map with the Sniper boss but fortunately it was nowhere near as bad since it lacked that blasted terrain and this team packs more defense than just Valbo and Steel Shield wearer. That Bow Knight attacking at such range was quite a surprise and the best part of all is that he did it while forest terrain and stayed there the entire time as I tried not to give him reason to move else where to avoid putting someone like Silk at risk.

I think I might be using Excalibur too often even if it's just because I hate missing attacks.

Vs Dyute and Sorcerer: I got lucky on the run you see here as Dyute was pretty damn stupid in this attempt. In the previous attempts, Dyute would warp near one of my units and bombard them. For a while I thought that keeping her HP low would prevent her from attacking for the rest of the map but then I remember that boss having Fortify/Reserve. One thing I could've done to kill the boss was doing so with Claire equipped with a better Lance like Holy as it could've finished the map faster.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Playlist

Started with Celica and got past the Lost Wood, ended up repeating some of the battles (the Majin bunch the most). Ended up finding Norma since the visible treasure chest in Mila's temple kinda motivates you to look around for a secret passage and boy am I glad to have found it as that Magic Ring is badass.

Map 1: Not much to say here, I could've spread EXP out a little more but I wanted to avoid making this tedious so I decided to just have the Falco sisters kill monsters and feed Est some kills to get a 3rd Falco Knight whenever possible.

Map 2: I'm betting this has random enemies, on the bright side these 3 Dragons were easy and made a nice short video but on the downside, the EXP spread here wasn't anything special.

Map 2D: The Dragon ambushed me, basically the same as before only they get the enemy phase which sucked for May as she ended up being the closest. Luckily she lived and I believe the same would've been true if both Dragons had hit her.

Map 3: ... I facepalmed when I saw this map. I thought the other 2 were ridiculous fanservice for the Pegasus Sisters but goddamn this one is just too much. Honestly, what's the point of using all those other units here? Norma just moved around to provide a nearby recovery in the event that a sister needed to retreat for healing as Physic might not have been enough. For some reason the enemy didn't summon any Dragons on this attempt but I doubt that would've made much of a difference as the Falco sisters would only take 3 Damage from each Dragon and they'd end up 1RKOed.

Map 4: It could've been worse.

Map 5: Way too generous.

Map 6: Somehow I found this bunch to be less troublesome than the full Wizard map. Sure they pack some serious physical damage but Magic hurts 'em pretty well and I've got Physic on my side.

I got the Silver Lance, Silver Sword and Silver Bow. Transferred the Silver Lance, Magic Ring and extra Steel Bow over to Alm's team. Ended up fighting the maps here a couple of times as I tried to go through these woods without a guide or anything and couldn't memorize my way around well enough.

Dean, Saber, Est, Leo and Valbo are now promoted. I looked over at Alm's team to set up the items and Alm seems to have promoted. Unlike Celica, his promotion gains are awesome, was this the help Hark mentioned?

Also, leaving a note here from one a villager that disappeared something about

Judah's spell and turns 4, 8 and 12 I believe.

Edited July 8, 2010 by Sirius

[grandjackal]

That chapter that has the summoner that summons dracozombies? That was the chapter I was having a headache over lastnight. 9 dragons. No Falcoknights.