Life's AAAA Rank Run (FE4)

[Life]

Finished Chapter 1! I'm about 3 levels behind Bal at this point but since he smashed Exp by a good 160 levels, I'm not worried. My only concern is my shit Dew since he couldn't go nearly as far in the arena as I wanted him to (Bal had him at 30 after Chapter 5 so my goal is 20 due to beautiful RNG screwage). Everyone else is fine.

I'll post details and shit later. Feels good to finally be done that chapter.

[Thor Odinson]

I'm just going to say that I wholeheartedly approve of AyraHolyn since it's my favorite pair even have having done Lex and Noish //shotshotshot

After all, AyraHolyn is easy, quick, and guarantees a Hero Sword without having to glue horses to her forever. *coughNoishcough*

Great pairing, hated gluing him.

Personally, I think Ayra's pairings are least of concern since it's just, if they can reach the enemies, it's dead enemy vs dead enemy vs dead enemy in various different ways but it all ends up as dead enemy.

also I'm following this.

Edited December 9, 2011 by Luminescent Blade

[Shin]

Maybe you're right ( I am very stupid)

Patty doesn't seem to be very hard to train, so pair Lex with brigid seem waste, pair lex with slyvia (i think) better for you

Elite/Ambush/Sleep Sword in the arena pretty much guarantees that she'll clear it.

I'm not sure if it's applicable to an AAAA run, but in drafts, Dew can gain around 15 levels by baiting the Cross Knights in chapter 3. All he needs are the Elite and Pursuit Rings, along with the Light Sword, which might be asking for a lot outside of a draft.

[Life]

All he needs are the Elite and Pursuit Rings, along with the Light Sword, which might be asking for a lot outside of a draft.

That's a lot of money. I know that this is Dew and he steals like a motherfucker but that's asking for over 100k in about a chapter.

EDIT: I'm also about to start doing the practice run followed by the recording. I need to make sure my strategy works (I love multiple saves but I always need a fresh save starting from the absolute beginning of a chapter as the one that counts).

Edited December 10, 2011 by Bblader

[General Horace]

Remember, Dew has Bargain, but yeah, it's still pretty tough to pull off

[Life]

Remember, Dew has Bargain, but yeah, it's still pretty tough to pull off

Completely forgot about that.

In addition, Dew's now a lock for the Power Ring (shit levels ups will do that to you). That's an additional 10k (after Bargain) on him. So it's really tough to pull that off. I might have to forgo Elite and try to bait the Cross Knights with just the Light Sword and Pursuit Ring. In this kind of run, I can't think of anyone who needs Pursuit more than Dew (at least Ardan can do some damage).

[Balcerzak]

Elite/Ambush/Sleep Sword in the arena pretty much guarantees that she'll clear it.

I'm not sure if it's applicable to an AAAA run, but in drafts, Dew can gain around 15 levels by baiting the Cross Knights in chapter 3. All he needs are the Elite and Pursuit Rings, along with the Light Sword, which might be asking for a lot outside of a draft.

I don't know if Dew can legitimately afford to be by the Cross Knights. If he's aiming to get the Wind Sword in anywhere near a timely fashion, he should be hanging by the tip of the peninsula IMHO. On a related note to that peninsula, I saw somebody pull off some amazing level-feeding there by giving Ardan the Hero Sword.

Edit: I guess it may be possible, but it would take very clever timing, probably.

Edited December 10, 2011 by Balcerzak

[Shin]

I don't know if Dew can legitimately afford to be by the Cross Knights. If he's aiming to get the Wind Sword in anywhere near a timely fashion, he should be hanging by the tip of the peninsula IMHO. On a related note to that peninsula, I saw somebody pull off some amazing level-feeding there by giving Ardan the Hero Sword.

Edit: I guess it may be possible, but it would take very clever timing, probably.

If he baits them in the forest with the Light Sword and heads east, he should end up somewhere near beardy's castle. He should be fine without the Elite Ring, I imagine there are other people who want it too.

[Life]

So as Bal knows, I wasn't happy with my results of Chapter 1 simply because Dew stank. So... I redid them.

Couple of things:

1) Dew still stinks. He was pretty much tinking the Axe Armour in Round 5 and was facing 4 Hit in return (which meant he died a lot). Fuck him.

2) Lex couldn't clear the arena. The second time I did the arena, I had hilariously bad strings of RNs and the only good one was probably wasted on Dew trying to pass Round 5.

3) I received the Return and Warp Staves in this chapter and have used a total of 13 Returns and 9 Warps to date. Yeah, I think I've been "abusing" those staves more than a heroin addict abuses China White.

4) Deirdre was hilariously awesome. And still is. 46 Atk without a Holy weapon is nothing to sneeze at.

Chapter 1: Completed in 29 Turns (41)

Evans -> Genoa: 4

Genoa -> Marpha: 6

Marpha -> Verdane: 19

Person      Level   HP  Str  Mgc  Skl  Spd  Lck  Def  Res   Gold   Arena  Rings
Sigurd     *13.33   43   19    0   15   15    8   11    3    3000    *    
Noish        8.96   37   13    1    9    9    4   10    0   22500    *    
Alec         8.69   36   13    1   12   10    5   10    2   24140    *    
Ardan        6.75   38   15    1    5    4    3   13    0   26000    7    
Fin          7.43   36   14    0   10   10   12    9    1    3230    *    Speed
Cuan       *10.91   42   21    0   12   12    5   12    3   13000    *    Skill
Midir        8.67   37   12    0    8   11    4    8    0   17700    *    
Azel         6.68   32    0   14    7   12    2    3    7   29910    *    
Lex         12.82   37   15    0   10   11   12   14    1   22500    7    
Ethlin      13.05   34    9    8   11   17   11    5    6   46830    7    
Aideen      11.20   32    1   14    8   12   16    2   12   37475    1    
Dew          6.72   30    6    1    8   17   12    2    2   15500    7    
Ayra         7.88   34   12    0   17   18    6    7    1   23500    *    
Jamka        9.08   39   11    0   15   16    5    9    0   27900    *    
Deirdre     13.04   33    1   21   11   15    7    3   24   43080    *    Magic

[Life]

And... I'm bringing this back from the dead. No more videos though.

So I've been playing through Chapter 2 a few times and I've come to some conclusions:

1) Ethlin will hit 30 easily. I had her at about 19 at Anphony. Too easy. Her husband, on the other hand, struggles to gain EXP. I have a bad habit of killing Voltz with Fin so I'm going to have to get Cuan to take that kill.

2) Dew is complete crap and I'm finding it impossible to use him outside of being Warp-bait for Lachesis late into the chapter and midgame money pick-ups.

3) Deirdre doesn't promote. Shame. The Magic Ring should be going over to Azel once he can afford it. If he can afford it. And the Elite Ring.

4) I came up with this brilliant idea of letting Ethlin get the Return Ring. Then I see Bal's Chapter 2 and this idea is no longer original.

[Balcerzak]

And... I'm bringing this back from the dead. No more videos though.

So I've been playing through Chapter 2 a few times and I've come to some conclusions:

1) Ethlin will hit 30 easily. I had her at about 19 at Anphony. Too easy. Her husband, on the other hand, struggles to gain EXP. I have a bad habit of killing Voltz with Fin so I'm going to have to get Cuan to take that kill.

2) Dew is complete crap and I'm finding it impossible to use him outside of being Warp-bait for Lachesis late into the chapter and midgame money pick-ups.

3) Deirdre doesn't promote. Shame. The Magic Ring should be going over to Azel once he can afford it. If he can afford it. And the Elite Ring.

4) I came up with this brilliant idea of letting Ethlin get the Return Ring. Then I see Bal's Chapter 2 and this idea is no longer original.

Real glad to see this once again in the recent topics list, looking forward to seeing the progress. I don't blame you about discontinuing the videos, they can be a pain in the ass to make. It is kind of a shame, because they're fun to watch, but I more than understand where you're coming from on that decision.

1) Cuan does indeed fall sore victim to the XP formula and the fact that there just aren't enough high levelled enemies around, really, during the time he is available. It's good to hear that you've figured out Ethlin though, as I remember you mentioning you were worried about her because you'd never maxed her before.

2) Dew has the hardest early game, no lie. You practically need to rig Str on all his levels for him to have any chances in the arena, which is where the bulk of anyone's XP is bound to come from. Once he gets the Wind Sword and Pursuit (upon promotion) taking him the rest of the way should be easier, trust me. That said, getting to that point is enough of a chore it wouldn't be surprising to just take the loss on him and make up the levels elsewhere.

3) I was disappointed when I couldn't promote her either. I'm not sure if they just didn't expect anyone to power level her in the time she had, or what the deal was.

4) Haha, it is a great idea, isn't it though? I thought it was pretty good and then I realized one of the nico runs did it, and felt the same way. Nothing new under the sun, and all that jazz, I guess?

[BBM]

Drafters normally get Dew a bunch of EXP by giving him the Light Sword and having him kill Eltshan's troops. That's with a limited amount of people to focus on though, so I don't know if you want to give that EXP to someone else.

EDIT: I read the thread and a bunch of people offered you this same advice earlier, so yeah.

Edited September 12, 2013 by BigBadMarshmallow

[Refa]

Thankfully he has Bargain inherently (you have no idea how obnoxious Gen 2 bargainless thieves are...to me anyways), so he can easily afford Elite, Pursuit, and Light Swords if you stack the money on him the previous chapter. The great thing about Dew is that the Cross Knights either attack him at range for WTN or close for...WTN (but generally they go with Javelins for more damage, which is good for you because Dew has move avoid on those and actually does damage at long range), he's actually really dodgy to begin with (for comparison, I had a harder time doing the same strategy with Ayra in a draft), and the more levels he gains on the Cross Knights, the more likely he is going to be able to proc Sol for some major healing.

I've never done an AAAA run before, so I can't say with authority if you should really give Dew all of those kills, but I think it's a pretty good idea that a bunch of people have apparently suggested before, sorry!.

[Guy Starwind]

Doesn't something special happen in after the credits if you get A ranks on everything? Despite beating this game numerous times I've never seen the rankings at the end due to hard patching it.

[General Horace]

Doesn't something special happen in after the credits if you get A ranks on everything? Despite beating this game numerous times I've never seen the rankings at the end due to hard patching it.

you get a short scene where birds fly around and then you get shown Darna briefly, its like, 10 seconds long, right after it shows the world map.

its a pretty sad reward tbh :(

Edited September 16, 2013 by General Horace

[Guy Starwind]

So, it seems I'm not missing much