incognit0's HM Efficiency Playthrough

[incognit0]

HM Efficient Transfers Playthrough

Turns:

1-P   7 turns	2-P   9 turns	3-6   10 turns	4-2   5 turns
1-1   5 turns	2-1   6 turns	3-7   13 turns	4-3   5 turns
1-2   7 turns	2-2   4 turns	3-8   4 turns  	4-4   6 turns
1-3   6 turns	2-3   5 turns	3-9   5 turns 	4-5   1 turn
1-4   4 turns	2-E   3 turns	3-10  4 turns   4-E   7 turns
1-5   6 turns	3-P   7 turns	3-11  4 turns	Total   194 turns
1-6   6 turns	3-1   3 turns	3-12  4 turns
1-7   5 turns	3-2   2 turns	3-13  2 turns
1-8   4 turns	3-3   5 turns	3-E   4 turns
1-9   8 turns	3-4   5 turns	4-P   2 turns
1-E   6 turns	3-5   2 turns	4-1   3 turns

*Maps where I think I could have shaved turns: 1-2,1-8 & 1-9 combo, 2-E, 4-3, DB part 3 (maybe), 3-9 (with a Marcia Transfer)

is a link to the Epilogue. There have been a lot of efficiency Playthrough, but I wanted to make mine as fast as I could without spending loads of time trying to make a low % strategy work. Here are my transfers:

Transfers

Jill - HP, Str, Skl, Spd, Def

Haar - Spd (I gave him all three speedwings)

Nephenee - Str, Skl, Spd

Ike - HP, Str, Skl, Spd, Def, Res

Titania - Spd

Oscar - Str, Skl, Spd, Def

Boyd - HP, Str, Skl, Spd

Mia - Str, Skl, Spd

Ulki - Str

Tanith - Str, Skl, Spd

Giffca - Str

One thing I would like to note is the consistency of the RNG. Although all I am going on is a hunch from playing this game 11 times, I believe the RNG is actually slightly predictable. I have found that often I will continually fail or continually succeed despite low % chance of said occurrence. For example, my 4 turn clear of 1-4 requires a certain very specific crit by Ilyana, and I never failed to get it in 4 tries of the map. Similarly, Ike died four times in a row on 4-E-1 while he only had a 17% chance of death. It has some peculiar results, but in general the bad and the good luck evens out.

Part 1

1-4:

Sothe went south then east, while everyone else heads north. First time Ilyana got a crit that allows me to finish the map in 4 turns, but I messed up Nolan's placement. Second and third time I got the crit again, but couldn't get Beastfoe with one shot of best bio and one of regular biorhythm. Fourth time I got it

1-6:

I took extra time on 1-6-2 to give Jill the boss kill; she had been sealed at the beginning of 1-6-1. The boss kill was probably a bad idea.

1-8 & 1-9:

I struggled to 4 turn 1-8 even when Sothe had Celerity. I have never been able to get 11 turns combined on these two, and I suspect it will be a while before I get it.

Part 2 (I hate part 2)

2-E

I hate this map (along with the rest of part 2) and have never been able to get the drop and draco in two turns. So I spent an extra turn and grabbed Nullify as well. Everything here was put to good use, especially the drop, but I probably should've done this one faster. I never even entertained the idea of a one-turn clear but judging from all these drafts (despite the fact that they are NM) it seems possible.

Part 3

3-1:

Used Xander's strategy for a three turn, not of my own making.

3-6:

Jill got a lot of experience this way, and she was also Def blessed so I wasn't going to restart this one. To be honest, I believe 16 turns DB part 3 is my record anyways.

3-8 and 3-10:

These maps were pretty simple. Just charge your best units at the boss area ASAP. Janaff/Haar/Titania were used in the Reyson diamonds for both maps, but I used Boyd in 3-8 and Oscar in 3-10. Janaff was quickly transformed in 3-8 with a 0-damage trick. Boyd was great in 3-8 because it was a smaller map, but I didn't promote him to ORKO generals. Instead I used Celerity Titania who performed capably. 3-10 was really simple. Boyd cleared the south on his own, Oscar plus the Big Three went up with Reyson and destroyed the boss area. Oscar was pretty weak so he stayed away from the boss and just used a horseslayer to kill paladins. Ulki and Ike had to help the CRK kill their couple of halberdiers; Ulki had Wildheart in both maps for strike purposes.

3-11:

This was an easy four turn. I gave Haar pure water turn 1. Next turn Sigrun gave Ike to Haar, then he killed a general, and cantoed next to a wall. Leanne vigored, Haar moved forward. Then turn three Haar dropped Ike, who was equipped with Pass, near the boss area. Haar killed Goran, Ike seized. Easy chapter if you give Haar Celerity and Savior.

3-12:

Really, it just came down to having epic Jill. Having poured all my resources into her, I gave her paragon. She got all kills but four; Volug killed someone PP turn 4, Tauroneo killed someone and Leo and Nolan killed the pegs that fly up towards you.

3-13:

Jill got the boots and Pass. Brave Axed Ike turn two, then he suicided EP. She needed Paragon last map to do it, because she needed to get to 29 Str. I had purposefully not leveled Ike very much (Blossom is good) in order to let Jill kill him; he only had 25 Def.

3-E:

This was actually fairly difficult to four turn, for me anyways. The general idea is to kill the sleep staffer turn two and then get in the boss' area turn 4. Unfortunately Jill kept killing my units before I could recruit her. After starting turn five with 77 and 78 killed, I decided to simply put a full health Boyd loaded with Resolve and Paragon, and a ton of hand axe forges into the boss area. Jill almost killed him, but he managed to survive and get me to 80.

Part 4

Main Fighters:

Silver:

Naesala, Janaff, Skrimir, Haar, Jill

Greil:

Ike, Titania, Nailah, Boyd, Ulki

Hawk:

Tibarn, Oscar, Mia

Out of all the units up there, Oscar and Mia were the worst; however, they only had one chapter of fighting, and they had Reyson so it worked. Greil also had Volug who saw some minor combat with his 42 Atk and 34 Spd.

4-P:

I hate this chapter. Two turns is pretty well documented though. Only requires four fighters, I didn't waste a stone use on Janaff.

4-1:

I sent Boyd west and Nailah east. Titania got celerity and killed the druids on turn one EP, although she needed a pure water. Turn two she healed, headed back, got vigored, and then equipped the Brave Axe parked between Catalena and two generals. On turn three I only had to kill a couple of guys. Nailah needs to use her player phases on turns two and three to kill the short Spear and the horseslayer generals respectively, while Boyd, who had Resolve, killed the bishop turn two. Mist and Rhys were incredibly useful. Mist used the torch turn one to reveal the bishop for Boyd, then after he killed him turn two, she moved to reveal the west bishop for Ulki. Rhys had to sleep a warrior turn one and rescue Rafiel turn two to keep him safe. Basically, this chapter is all about protecting and using Rafiel.

4-3:

I am fairly certain that I could have done this a turn faster had Janaff not died, but I didn't really want to restart considering Naesala found the Laguz Gem turn 4.

4-4:

There are many different types of 6 turn clears, but here I loaded up Nailah with Celerity and Pass so she can kill the sleep staffer by turn 3. I used rescue twice on this map, once to rescue Titania up the ledge, and again to rescue Boyd back towards the main group after he killed the west treasure room on turn 1 EP. Heather traded for rescue, got Mist to hammerne it, then headed back to the treasure room to send it to the convoy.

4-E-1:

Wow I hated this map. At first I came up with several strategies that needed Naesala to proc Tear/Adept a ridiculous amount of times, then Ike died four times in a row when he had a 17% chance of death, then I ended up one player phase action short of routing in two turns. Finally by tweaking Naesala's placement I was able to squeak out a 2 turn.

I would like to thank everyone who has done an efficiency run, especially dondon, because many of my ideas and strategies have been drawn directly or indirectly from what others have posted.

Edited August 23, 2011 by incognit0

[Junkhead]

WHAT THE-

That's a new record. Those turncounts are just incredible. Amazing. Very, very well done!

[Fenrir]

Holy fucksauce!! you sir, are a boss.

[Galenforcer]

4-5 is missing from the list.

[Lord Raven]

I believe the RNG is actually slightly predictable. I have found that often I will continually fail or continually succeed despite low % chance of said occurrence

I think this is because the RNG is seeded based upon the time in which you press start at the title screen.

[incognit0]

4-5 is missing from the list.

Thank you, it has been added.

I think this is because the RNG is seeded based upon the time in which you press start at the title screen.

That explains a lot now.

One more thing that I thought I should mention was Jill's lead over Haar in overall kills. Going into Part 4, Haar was fairly Str screwed, to the point where Jill had tied him. She also led him in every other stat but Skl, and the stat lead plus the fact that I gave her the Boots ended up getting her more combat and more kills.

[Ciarre]

Holy shit, you're amazing. D: Like, woah.

[Fenrir]

I think this is because the RNG is seeded based upon the time in which you press start at the title screen.

No... I always end up missing stuff like this...

[Florete]

I think this is because the RNG is seeded based upon the time in which you press start at the title screen.

Not at all. If that were true you couldn't use Battle Save to reset for good levels, crits, etc. The only thing that's determined so early is probably Coin cards, and it would be upon creation of that game file. What incognit0 experienced is mere coincidence.

[Lord Raven]

Not at all. If that were true you couldn't use Battle Save to reset for good levels, crits, etc. The only thing that's determined so early is probably Coin cards, and it would be upon creation of that game file. What incognit0 experienced is mere coincidence.

Well of course when you battle save and reset you'll get different RNs. Because the seed will change if you press it at a different time. If you don't keep pressing it at the same time when you see the title screen you'll get different sets of RNs, but there is a chance that you'll end up with the same set of RNs because you're pressing it at the same time everytime on the title screen.

At least this is how Pokemon works so I'm basing my hypothesis off that.

Edited August 22, 2011 by Mercenary Raven

[Florete]

Well of course when you battle save and reset you'll get different RNs. Because the seed will change if you press it at a different time. If you keep pressing it at the same time when you see the title screen you'll get different sets of RNs, but there is a chance that you'll end up with the same set of RNs because you're pressing it at the same time everytime on the title screen.

At least this is how Pokemon works so I'm basing my hypothesis off that.

Oh, I see what you mean. I don't think I'd guess that, but that's all I can say here.

In any case...

Looks like a nice job overall, but there are more places you could have improved:

3-6 10 turns

I suppose it's possible your Jill wasn't good enough, but this could have been possible in 8 turns (7 as well but that's much more of a stretch), and it doesn't require a big team, just a few units that can take some hits each phase and deal enough damage back.

1-2 7 turns

I want to say this could have definitely been at least a turn faster, though in HM with getting Thani (and Energy Drop since you probably did) I'm not sure how reliable that is.

2-E 3 turns

I hate this map (along with the rest of part 2) and have never been able to get the drop and draco in two turns. So I spent an extra turn and grabbed Nullify as well. Everything here was put to good use, especially the drop, but I probably should've done this one faster. I never even entertained the idea of a one-turn clear but judging from all these drafts (despite the fact that they are NM) it seems possible.

I don't know why you bothered with the Draco in particular, and the Drop probably wasn't worth it either with your transfers. One turn would have been simple, in fact, because you wouldn't even have needed the 2-3 Wing due to your Haar having a Spd transfer.

3-5 2 turns

There's more than one way to do this in one turn, so I have to assume you went for the Energy Drop. I figured I'd mention this since the Drop probably isn't worth it after transfers.

Speaking of stat boosters, do you have a list of who received what boosters?

There are other places that could have been faster, but they would for the most part have required units abnormally strong (like 3-12) that you would not likely be able to get, or they would have probably been impossible anyway without sacrificing turns earlier on (3-13), so they're not worth mentioning. A good job overall, either way, seeing as I could only point out 4 maps and 2 of those may be justifiable based on low % chances.

I should also mention that you did some maps faster than I knew were possible/reasonable at all, like 3-1, 4-2, and 4-3.

But Soul said this is a new record. What was the previous one?

[incognit0]

I agree with Mercenary Raven on the RNG thing.

Looks like a nice job overall, but there are more places you could have improved:

I suppose it's possible your Jill wasn't good enough, but this could have been possible in 8 turns (7 as well but that's much more of a stretch), and it doesn't require a big team, just a few units that can take some hits each phase and deal enough damage back.

I want to say this could have definitely been at least a turn faster, though in HM with getting Thani (and Energy Drop since you probably did) I'm not sure how reliable that is.

Jill needed every point of Str to 2RKO Ike in 3-13, so the 1-2 drop definitely paid itself back. In 3-6 I decided to save the Brave Axe for later, and could not put anything into Nolan so I was actually pretty happy with 10 turns and Jill being 14/18 by the end. The team I had could not have done it faster than possibly 9 turns without shifting the skills around, and then Jill would not have been able to 2RKO Ike because I would have to focus kills to Volug. Jill was essentially the only fighter in 3-12, otherwise I would have had her take Beastfoe and Brave Axe to absolutely wreck 3-6 because she could limit her exposure plus had awesome defenses. You are probably right in that I could have saved turns, however, considering that I needed Jill to nearly singlehandedly clear the rest of DB part 3 I doubt it would have been more than 1 turn.

I don't know why you bothered with the Draco in particular, and the Drop probably wasn't worth it either with your transfers. One turn would have been simple, in fact, because you wouldn't even have needed the 2-3 Wing due to your Haar having a Spd transfer.

There's more than one way to do this in one turn, so I have to assume you went for the Energy Drop. I figured I'd mention this since the Drop probably isn't worth it after transfers.

Speaking of stat boosters, do you have a list of who received what boosters?

I now regret going for the Drop/Draco but in I would bet that they shaved a turn considering a drop essentially gives me another Part 4 fighter (Ulki).

Stat boosters as far as I remember:

Jill - Drop, Draco, Robe, Robe

Titania - Robe, Draco

Janaff & Ulki - Drop

Haar - Speedwing

Skrimir - Speedwing

Boyd - Speedwing

Talisman was sold.

There are other places that could have been faster, but they would for the most part have required units abnormally strong (like 3-12) that you would not likely be able to get, or they would have probably been impossible anyway without sacrificing turns earlier on (3-13), so they're not worth mentioning. A good job overall, either way, seeing as I could only point out 4 maps and 2 of those may be justifiable based on low % chances.

I should also mention that you did some maps faster than I knew were possible/reasonable at all, like 3-1, 4-2, and 4-3.

BTW I just copied Xander's 3 turn of 3-1, so he deserves the credit for an awesome strategy on that map. Yeah I think my DB part 3 could maybe be a turn faster, but going through part one that fast only allows one of Nolan/Jill and Volug to be trained, so it is rather tough. I know for a fact that on 3-12 turn 4 I just made it, having two extra units that would have suicided into Jill.

[Lord Raven]

I want to say this could have definitely been at least a turn faster, though in HM with getting Thani (and Energy Drop since you probably did) I'm not sure how reliable that is.

I did 6 turns (not my NM draft, fyi, it's a separate HM run) with Energy Drop, Thani, AND Wind Edge. It's strangely unreliable to try and get all 3, though, simply because of the Myrmidon and the fact that Nolan's biorhythm is a MASSIVE factor in trying to get a hit on the Myrmidon. The Myrmidon also doubles Nolan, so he may either need to proc Def, proc Str/Spd, or use the Dracoshield (preferably the latter).

I can't recall my exact strategy, but on Turn 1 Leonardo shoves Micaiah so she can attack the Northern Fighter which Nolan proceeds to kill while Edward blocks the chokepoint. Laura needs to go one space below the ledge so she can later be rescued by Leonardo.

On Turn 2, you want Leonardo and Laura blocking the chokepoint and Micaiah heading towards Edward. Edward needs to be unequipped and using a Herb (though there are circumstances where he doesn't need to do either because he gets 3HKO'd by the Soldiers sometimes, so he just needs to use an Herb every turn). Nolan wants to go west above the Soldier, equip the Hand Axe and use a Vulnerary.

Turn 3, you want to position Sothe so that all enemies suicide into him on enemy phase (he needs Kard equipped unless you have a +2 Str transfer). This is where it gets a little fuzzy for me, but on Turn 4 Leonardo needs to start moving (count the Archer's range so that he doesn't get killed by him) whereas Nolan needs to pop a Vulnerary so the Myrmidon gets killed on Turn 4 EP. Sothe needs to kill the Soldier near the boss on Turn 5 and Leonardo needs to drop Laura, and then Turn 6 you can open the Energy Drop chest and then Leonardo shoves Laura so she can Arrive.

Edited August 22, 2011 by Mercenary Raven

[dondon151]

Good job, sir.

I 6 turned 1-2 in my 0% growths playthrough with Thani and Energy Drop obtained, so this is definitely one that you could have easily shaved a turn on.

I think if you transferred Marcia for str and spd, you could have 3 turned 3-9 by having her ORKO Roark with the Brave Lance. She needs 33 atk (23 str) and 27 AS, which requires transfers, promotion gains, and then +2 str and +3 spd through manipulating her level ups and possibly dumping a whole bunch of BEXP into her.

These were probably the 2 most obvious opportunities for improvement that I could discern immediately; one could probably shave a turn here and there and end with a combined total of sub-190 turns.

[Xander]

Great job man, and thanks for the credit on 3-1. You could've cleaned up a bit by shaving unecessary turns off of chapters like 1-2, 1-8, 2-E, and 3-6 but this is definitely the most impressive recorded run to date.

[Catnip]

All I can say is wow. I think this is the lowest turncount of a HM playthrough on this game I've ever heard of. Great job! I don't think I'd even be able to do this on easy!