buttmuncher.ops Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 Hi, I'm new to these forums but have been playing FE3, FE4 and FE5 for awhile now and using Serene's Forest as a great resource to help me complete these games. I restarted FE4 about 3 times after reaching Second Generation because I messed up on what I felt were optimal pairings and / or item inheritances. This third time around I was very happy with the results after playing about two chapters into Second Generation what with certain children starting out at Level 1 with double digit stats in some categories as I had four Level 30 parents in First Generation. Needless to say, I Arena / Staff Abuse to the max, use Elite Ring on key characters that start at a low level (Lachesis, Tiltyu, etc. having Celice inherit it) and leave non-parents at home with the exception of Lex, Fin and Dew. I level up Lex and Fin to Level 20 only to get them promoted and allowing Fin to "pass down" A rank lances to himself after which point I only use them for tanking / softening up enemies as the chapter mission sees fit. I still felt that I could do better as this was the third play-through and I pretty much swept through entire enemy armies without triggering some events that produce extra enemy armies (such as Gandolf asking what the hell is going on out there in Chapter 1 and deploying his other army, not just the one at the beginning of the chapter that chased Dew / Aideen). This really concerned me as there's probably a lot of EXP out there that I didn't allow myself access to that could have produced extra levels probably letting me have more Level 30 parents, resulting in stronger children. As I have my First Generation played out (somewhat) perfectly by my standards I was going to start FE5 for storyline purposes before starting the Second Generation in FE4. However on Serene's Forest I noticed that there was a "Reinforcements" link detailing in which chapters enemy reinforcements arrive, how many, by what Turn / action are they triggered by. There is no such link for FE4 although I am positive that there are enemy reinforcements available to trigger on certain chapters, but am not clear on how to trigger them or by what Turn they appear. If anyone could help me out with a list of enemy reinforcements by chapter in FE4 and how to trigger them it would be very helpful as even Google searching isn't netting me any results nor is any other FAQ / Walk-through related forum. Even if you don't have an entire list, any knowledge you have of enemy reinforcements and how to trigger them would be very helpful to my attempted fourth play-through in which I abuse enemy reinforcements in addition to everything else to gain the most levels. We could possibly also use this list if edited into a nice format for future FE4 players to use on the Serene's Forest resource page. Thanks for reading ^_^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mekkah Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Are you just triggering these because you like farming EXP or are you worried that you can't finish the game without superhuman children? Because you really don't have to worry about the latter. Their growths hold up on their own, and even if not, you get a few static characters that can sweep the Epilogue even at base level (Shannan, Aless). Anyway, lots of armies simply need a large portion of their generic squad defeated in order for their captain to retreat to where he came from in order to get more. Not all of them work, but here's a few that I do know that work, or am at least pretty sure of. FE4 has the most inconsistent AI I have ever seen though, so some testing may be required. Ch1: - Kinbois - Gandolf's army (I don't think the captain actually retreats, the brigands just kept pouring out for me once) I have never seen Jamka retreat for more guys, and it's so far away that I kind of doubt he'd do that. But it may work. Ch2: - Elliot - The Ridersbane dude with the Harold face. Zaine? Pretty sure Voltz doesn't work. Fury doesn't work. In fact, she just sits there and refuses to attack Levin if you kill all her friends. Ch3: - The Pirate boss with Leg Ring. - Elthsan (not 100% on this one) Ch4: - Both pegasus squads (not 100% on the first one, but I have seen the second one work) - Lamia Ch5: Haven't ever seen one work, but Schmidt and Andre might work. Leptor has no castle to retreat to so I'm pretty sure he can't generate new friends. Ch6: - Slaydar or whatever his name is. The guy with the Hero Axe. Ch7: - The Armors, Mage and General out of Blume's castle. They like, never stop coming until some kind of seize event I think. - Jabarro (not 100% sure) - One time I think I saw Dark Mages coming out of Yied. Either need to leave the boss alive or kill him without seizing for this, I think, though I may be confusing it with the fact that the guarding Dark Mages start moving if you kill the boss but don't seize. - Linda, and maybe that other Mage group as well. Ch8: - Ovo (untested, but again, all the right symptons) - Koruta or something. The guy that goes with Altenna. I also know for sure that this works on the group with just a generic captain. Ch9: - Hannibal - Pretty much every Dragon Knight squad, with the possible exception of the three headed dragon assault. Ch10: - Robert (I think? The Paladin that says he's bored) That's like the only army I can think of that has all the right patterns. Final: - Ishtar's army (you don't get new Falcoknights to deal with, thank God) Don't think there's any other, but maybe the mounted squad you fight first. Have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Othin Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 (edited) I believe I've talked to someone who said he saw Voltz retreat, and I've seen Deet'ver retreat. But yeah, FE4 isn't that difficult; you can beat the game with any pairings and no abuse. Hell, Sigurd and Celice can easily solo their respective gens with the exception of Julius. Celice can kill Julius alone, but I'd recommend using Julia anyway; the battle is ridiculously stupid and takes so much abuse. I had to send Oifaye into the arena repeatedly to waste RNs, which kinda breaks the solo rule anyway, but any alternative would probably take weeks. In short, just don't worry about things. Edited October 9, 2011 by Othin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balcerzak Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 This really concerned me as there's probably a lot of EXP out there that I didn't allow myself access to that could have produced extra levels probably letting me have more Level 30 parents, resulting in stronger children. This single most important factor for hitting level 30 is proper use of the Arena. Minor milking of some reinforcements may help to pad, but shouldn't be necessary unless you're training your whole army (and you stated you leave some folks at home). Ch4: - Both pegasus squads (not 100% on the first one, but I have seen the second one work) I can 100% confirm the first squad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byte2222 Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Ch6: - Slaydar or whatever his name is. The guy with the Hero Axe. 1. The guy's name is Schmidt, Slayder is from Ch5 (and FE2) 2. Johan and, I imagine, Johalva will retreat and get reinforcements Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttmuncher.ops Posted October 9, 2011 Author Share Posted October 9, 2011 (edited) Thanks a bunch for all the information..I was worried that this was going to end up a dead topic and I was just going to go ahead and start my 4th play-through today anyway because I wanted different pairings. I play with three save-states per chapter (one at the beginning of each turn, one at the beginning of the chapter after everyone's "ready" before deployment and one in between successful unit actions) so I'll have no problem going through the game and using this information to test and 100% confirm what I can. I'll probably be posting consistent results within 2 weeks once my official gaming comp gets out of the shop with a complete polished reinforcements table like the one for Thracia 776 so it can be used for the Seisen no Keifu resource once I complete the game. Thanks again =) Edit: I forgot to answer your question haha; I'm doing this because I want double digit stats for as many children as possible at Level 1 (or whatever level they start at), trying to get them stat-capped in some categories by or after promotion. I also break RN's with non-key personnel to advance key personnel but even though I did this properly in the Arena I was somewhat disappointed as my four Level 30's were only the "obvious" ones: Sigurd, Aideen, Claude and Lachesis. Noish was the closest with 28(95) =/ I want more primary damage dealers on that exclusive list ^_^ Edited October 9, 2011 by black.ops Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttmuncher.ops Posted October 12, 2011 Author Share Posted October 12, 2011 Chapter 1 Update Kinbois - Confirmed retreat. - Recommended conditions: Kill all enemy units and lower Kinbois' HP to below half. Gandolf - Army chasing Dew / Aideen does not retreat but I have confirmed reinforcements. - Recommended conditions: Kill all units serving under the Axe Fighter and then kill the Thief to spawn reinforcements. - Note that Gandolf only sends out as many reinforcements as the Axe Fighter army lost, so to get the most EXP I recommended the above. You will lose a bit of gold leaving the Thief alive to deal with the Axe Fighter's army but Dew on a forest means axe accuracy for the regular enemy units = 0 so he can steal as he pleases to make up for it. So far my levels are looking good as all parents at the deployment of Chapter 2 are Level 11+ with the lowest being 11(80) or so (not counting Deirdre who's at 6~7). I'll have a Chapter 2 update either later today or early tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttmuncher.ops Posted October 15, 2011 Author Share Posted October 15, 2011 (edited) Chapter 2 Update Elliot - Confirmed retreat. - Recommended conditions: Kill all enemy units and lower Elliot's HP to below half through ranged attacks. If you talk to Lachesis though, leave Elliot at full HP as if he is the last unit remaining the the Cross Knights will lower his HP for you through Javelin attacks (if you attack him beforehand they have a chance of killing him after your turn and the reinforcements would be lost). - Edit: You will lose the Bargain Ring village most likely if you trigger these reinforcements as they will get in your way of being able to capture Heirhein within 9~11 turns (9 was my best record) so Levin can be recruited and make his way over there. And it's almost impossible to break RN strings to have him proc Continue / Critical on EVERY Thief the way over even then. Zyne - Confirmed retreat. - Recommended conditions: Kill all enemy units and lower his HP to half through ranged attacks, Lex / Fin Hero weapons or Alec. He will retreat the safest way between either the west or east route so unit placement really isn't a problem to assault Shagall right away so he won't be using his Libro Staff on the reinforcements that come out (they still come out even if Shagall is defeated). Make sure Zyne has a clear path to the castle though after Shagall is gone to save a few turns to setup your units in a defensive formation for the impending reinforcements. Levels look really nice as Ethlin promoted before the assault on the last two castles in Chapter 2 and Fin promoted a few Arena battles into Chapter 3. Levels for parentals ranged from 13(75) for Deirdre at the lowest to 24(23) for Ethlin at the highest at the deployment of Chapter 3. I'm not counting Sylvia's Level 4 something as she is utility and not a primary damage dealer. I expect every parent to be promoted at the end of Chapter 3 or after Chapter 4 Arena with the exception of Tiltyu. Edited October 15, 2011 by black.ops Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttmuncher.ops Posted October 18, 2011 Author Share Posted October 18, 2011 (edited) Chapter 3 Update Pizarl - Confirmed retreat. - Recommended conditions: Kill off as many enemy units as humanly possible utilizing Sylvia's dance to reduce the army to 1~2 units if needed to force the retreat. He will retreat as long even if there's one unit remaining so use this method if he'll likely kill himself on counterattack. You don't need to reduce his HP but if you want to for "Boss Abuse" purposes feel free. This is the chapter where the reinforcement run looks like it's actually paying off. I had my doubts earlier about doing this but now I'm glad I did. I had Midir, Lex and Beowulf promoted before the assault on Orgahill. The Lenster trio's final levels were Cuan 20(51), Ethlin 27(54) and Fin 23(41). I left Fin guarding Agusty base since he had served his purposes and used Fury, Levin, Cuan and Ethlin with their respective ranged attacks (Javelins, Elwind, Light Sword) to clear the Cross Knight army with leadership + Lachesis nearby with Sylvia to talk to Eltshan. It should be noted that although Eltshan does not retreat, he will not attack Lachesis so you can "Boss Abuse" him a little bit (read: only one turn) with your ranged attackers + Alec (Awareness will negate Critical and if he has a Shield Ring and RNG blessed defense he will be able to take the hit and survive). Good luck getting your attacks to land without some RN string breaking though. You can also use Lachesis to heal whoever and then dance afterwards to have her talk to Eltshan subsequently. Papillon led his squad against Madino castle using this strat for those of you who are used to facing him near Silvail so beware that your Madino castle defense squad has significant backup (I sent Levin + Fury after they were done with the Cross Knight massacre). I actually did two runs of this chapter as I was unhappy with Tiltyu's initial Level 7~8 and on the second run got her to Level 11~12 by feeding (hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn wrath) her all the Pirates + army chasing Brigid, only using Claude's Reserve Staff when RNG showed Brigid would die from tanking the swordfighters. Tiltyu started the Chapter 3 and 4 Arena's with the Elite Ring (passed it around like candy) and then got it back after everyone was done with the Chapter 4 Arena (would have gone to Brigid if she had enough gold). The only parent to not complete the Chapter 4 Arena was Sylvia. Everyone, including Tiltyu is promoted, much to my surprise. My lowest level parent is Brigid at 19(70) and my highest level parents are Lachesis and Aideen both at 30(0). Sylvia as utility is at Level 9(68). I'm leaving Lex at home since Lachesis can use the Hero Axe and get kills on it as the last unit to move. She has no use for staves (to abuse) at this point so I gave the two Live staves to Levin and Fury, Claude gets the Relive staff and Aideen is using Recover. Until I get my gaming comp fixed in about 1~2 weeks this next update will take awhile as I'm playing this on my bro's (slow) comp atm and I can only use it when he's not busy with the family business. I might have a Chapter 4 update by Halloween. Stay thirsty, my friends. Edited October 18, 2011 by black.ops Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttmuncher.ops Posted October 18, 2011 Author Share Posted October 18, 2011 (edited) Chapter 4 Update Deetva - Confirmed retreat. - Recommended conditions: Kill all enemy units and reduce Deetva's HP to below half. I also recommend rushing the Thief's in the villages (don't forget about the southwest village) and the solo Mage chillin on top of the mountain enjoying his peppermint patty (I sent Fury) as well as camping the squares across Thove to bait and kill the ranged attackers with your ranged attackers using love bonus + Leadership + Charisma so you don't have additional problems when the reinforcements come out. Pamela - Confirmed retreat. - Recommended conditions: Kill as many enemy units as humanly possible using Sylvia's dance to whittle away the enemy army to 1~2 units to force Pamela's retreat. She will retreat no matter what her HP is so use the above strategy if it's possible she will kill herself on counter attack. You can additionally "Boss Abuse" as she's retreating. Make sure Silesia castle is taken before she gets her reinforcements to change her AI away from Thove and give yourself time to warp / return your defense squad down to Silesia / Sailane. Lamia - Confirmed retreat depending if she doesn't die in her initial rush / counter attack. - Recommended conditions: Kill ALL of the enemy units. She will still attack one of your units provided you are in range / her army has committed to the attack so make sure you haven't weakened her / durable units in her range only if you want the reinforcements. You should have about at least half your Thove defense squad warped / returned down to Silesia / Sailane by the time she makes her move to help out as well. I recommend sending Sylvia asap to blitz rush kill all of the enemy units with dance so you don't have to play the FE3 bait game and so your units don't die upon counter attack from Hero Sword / Sleep Sword / Pursuit / Continue / Lions / Tigers / Bears / Oh My. The sentence about this update coming out on Halloween was my version of an April Fool's joke. Chapter 5 Arena compared to Chapter 4 Arena was significantly harder to break RN strings for certain stat-ups etc. but all parents with the exception of Sylvia / Claude / Aideen completed it just fine although I had to emergency "Give" money to Noish from Dew to buy some weapons to defeat certain opponents since he was short a bit after buying the Elite Ring. I used to think Alec was a subpar unit to Noish until this moment but Alec's blessed Defense from non-abused field RNG statups + Shield Ring might have something to do with it. My lowest level parent is Beowulf at 27(55) and my highest level parents are Lachesis, Aideen, Claude and Tiltyu at Level 30(0) as of the deployment of Chapter 5. Claude reached Level 30 before the assault on Thove's guards. Edit: Sylvia as utility is Level 14(68). It made the most sense to give her the Elite Ring after the Chapter 5 Arena phase and before deployment since any other parents who could afford it were at Level 29. Since I had all my couples paired before the end of Chapter 4 I was able to juggle around money from a higher level parent to the lower level parent in the coupling to allow for more Elite Ring passing for Chapter 5 Arena. I have six parent units just sitting at Level 29, laughing in my face. It's maddening. But a lot of parents hit their stat caps in key categories so it's fine. Levin probably would have been Level 30 as well but I made the mistake of using the Sleep Staff on Bishop Cuvuli as opposed to the Silence Staff (I thought it would be smarter to stop his leadership). It wasn't until the end of the beginning of Chapter 5 that I realized 1 Sleep Staff use = 3 Silence Staff uses (30,000 gold,) so he wasn't able to buy the Elite Ring. I had a savestate for the deployment of Chapter 4 but I hardly think it would have been worth replaying for Levin to hit Level 30 when he's just sitting at Level 29(39) anyway after Chapter 5 Arena. I'm really loving this playthrough as I expect children to start with base stats of 10~15 in their key categories at Level 1 and such. I'll be posting a screenshot along with my Chapter 5 Update to show you guys how many more Level 30 parents I had on this playthrough compared with my last playthrough (four: Sigurd, Aideen, Claude, Lachesis). Edited October 18, 2011 by black.ops Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttmuncher.ops Posted October 20, 2011 Author Share Posted October 20, 2011 Chapter 5 Update Slaydar - Confirmed retreat. - Recommended conditions: Use Sylvia to launch 4 units at them on Turn 1 to kill as many enemy units as you can ASAP so on the following turn after counter attack you can wipe the rest of them out / Byron talks to Sigurd so Slaydar at less than half HP won't engage him upon retreating. Slaydar is the only army that retreats and although you can set up on just the outskirts of Andre's army's range they will not trigger until the reinforcements spawn and engage your army for which I recommend keeping Sylvia nearby so you can take them all out in one shot with Pursuit / Hero Weapon users as they will provide quite deadly upon counter attack with their Hero Bows. I won't detail Levels or Stats this post as I have screen shots as promised. It should be noted for Stats that units have their respective "best" weapon equipped, so for Holy Weapon users subtract the known numbers for true stats. Levels: Stats: I fast forwarded to Chapter 6 and took a look at the stats of the starting units and was not disappointed overall. Skasaher and Lakche had double digit stats in four separate categories, effectively up 200% from my last play through with only four Level 30 parents where they only had double digit stats in two separate categories. Rana had a starting Magic stat of 10 with 7's - 9's across the board. Celice was somewhat disappointing with no double digits but a bunch of 9's and 8's. He also had a Magic stat of 1 which was surprising as I took a lot of time feeding kills to Deirdre and had her able to clear the Arena fully in Chapter 3 with Magic and Resistance stats well over 20. I must be calculating something wrong. I don't know. Also, I won't be providing second generation updates on a regular basis as my priority now is to finish FE3 before I start FE5 before starting second generation of FE4 for storyline purposes. If anyone wants to test second generation thoroughly and update as well I will recheck them on my play-through as well and when I submit the collected information to the Site Content forum I will acknowledge your equal contribution. Thanks in advance ^_^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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