Westbrick Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 In honor of this game's eventual US release, I figured it'd be worthwhile to chronicle my attempts at beating Lunatic+, and I'm sure many on this board would be interested in seeing just how hard the hardest mode can really get. It'll be a chapter-by-chapter analysis, and I've decided to add a few special conditions to the run: -No buyable Nosferatu -Must field at least 5 non-Frederick units each chapter Small unit size and Nosferatanking trivialized my vanilla Lunatic run, so these conditions are designed to preserve that awe-inspiring earlygame challenge throughout the campaign. Wish me luck! [Prologue coming later tonight.] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ema Skye Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Gonna watch this. I think we can learn from this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZemZem Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 I still don't know much about FE13 compared to a lot of you due to mainly avoiding the forum, but since it's gonna come out over here soon, I want to know more about Lunatic+. I'm interested in this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppy Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Let's just see how much this difficulty has to offer to the world! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Othin Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Ooh, this sounds exciting. Hope you can find some good way through the first few maps. Those seem like the most frustrating part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exiledwolf Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Maybe it's only the skills that'll provide the challenge for the beginning parts. But this us a god way to learn strategies. Good luck with your run! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Othin Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Only the skills? I still can't find a remotely reliable strategy to get through Ch2 on regular Lunatic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enex Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Gonna watch this. I think we can learn from this. Yeah... this is gonna be interesting =) i hope that the quality of the video is going to be good xD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remnant Sage Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Chapter 2's driving me insane so I gave up trying for the time being... I got past it once, but I don't remember what I did. Then Ch.4 happened. This should be interesting. Looking forward to it~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exiledwolf Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Not wanting to derail this topic. But eep, I saw your description for Ch11 Lunatic. Thats pretty crazy. It seems fort Lunatic, you also have to worry about the sheer power of the enemies. And avoid bring doubled Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westbrick Posted June 12, 2012 Author Share Posted June 12, 2012 Yeah... this is gonna be interesting =) i hope that the quality of the video is going to be good xD No videos, unfortunately! I'm not the media-savvy guy you are Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luchinania Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 I'm going to keep track of this, and hopefully I'll pick up some tips. I can't figure out how to pass ch2 on normal lunatic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enex Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 No videos, unfortunately! I'm not the media-savvy guy you are Ok... whatever... yay xD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shun One Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 This will be good. I'm interested to see your solution to the various problems you're going to run into. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreyas Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Videos or not real. LOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westbrick Posted June 12, 2012 Author Share Posted June 12, 2012 (edited) ~Prologue~ Quick aside: while I'm a big fan of FE13's My Unit feature, that initial joy of throwing a virtual self into the world of Fire Emblem dies down after one or two playthroughs, and given how difficult Lunatic+ is likely to be, it's less important I create an accurate avatar of myself and more important I generate a unit most capable of dealing with the challenges that await. So I went with Mia, a cute pink-haired gal (+Speed -Skill) that's sure to appreciate the S-Rank bonuses coming from Krom. Especially since Krom is such a hunksicle After a quick romp through the Fragment, it's onto the main game. Right off the bat, I notice that every enemy- even your basic grunt- is packing at least two or three skills. Christ. The most common seem to be Luna+ and Vantage+, although I still don't have the skill icons memorized. To start things off, I trade MU's bronze sword to Frederick and double into Krom, have Frederick attack the myrmidon for 15 damage, and then end my turn, baiting the myrmidon and allowing Krom to get a kill for much-needed experience. Seems like a turn-one strategy I'll be sticking with. Progress! But sweet Jesus, these exclusive Lunatic+ skills are insane. Even with a sword equipped, bandits have a 52% chance of hitting Frederick, and their Luna+ skills mean that every hit will do 11 or so damage. Not even our Jeigan is safe. Oh, and about half the units have the assassin's Pass skill, meaning that I can't even keep my healer safe. Anyway, I can't even get past the second turn without losing somebody. Ugh. Time to take a break! EDIT: One more thing I should mention. I was a little reluctant to try this mode at first because, based on what I was hearing, the broken skills were randomly distributed among the enemies, which made me think that the entire mode would boil down to resetting until the skills weren't too broken to overcome. Thankfully, this isn't at all how things work. While enemy skill sets do have a degree of flexibility with each chapter attempt- sometimes you'll have Luna+ and Vantage+, other times Vantage+ and Accuracy+- enemy units will always pack at least two of these skills. Which means that while "randomized" enemy skills could change up strategy occasionally with each restart, it's not something that can be exploited, and certainly doesn't minimize strategy. This is looking to be the hardest FE mode by leaps and bounds. I can't wait to get deeper into the game! Edited June 12, 2012 by Westbrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shun One Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Glad to hear that about the Enemy skills. I had hoped that they weren't as random as some led to believe, so hearing that they work this way makes me quite pleased. Still, this sounds brutal. I wish I had more knowledge of the game out-right to offer some potential strategies, but for now I'll be content to sit back and enjoy the ride. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Othin Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 I'm trying to understand your explanation. Are you saying there are constraints on the frequency of each skill, or what? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westbrick Posted June 12, 2012 Author Share Posted June 12, 2012 I'm trying to understand your explanation. Are you saying there are constraints on the frequency of each skill, or what? Not quite. There are a limited number of skills Lunatic+ enemies can have (so no Luna + Sol + Great Shield from prologue enemies, thankfully!), but they will always have at least two of these. From what I'm observing, those skills during the Prologue can be either Vantage+, Luna+, Pass, Accuracy+10, and Absolute Hit (which can lead to some redundancy). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Othin Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Hmm. Speaking personally, that's pretty much what I had already heard about it, and it still sounds really random. In particular, Accuracy +10 isn't remotely on the level of the rest, so whenever you see it, it means the enemy is substantially easier than if they had, say, Vantage+ and Luna+. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Not-So-Great Knight Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Lunatic+ sounds scary, to say the least. If I work my way up to it, this would probably be the only time I'd utilize casual mode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westbrick Posted June 12, 2012 Author Share Posted June 12, 2012 (edited) Hmm. Speaking personally, that's pretty much what I had already heard about it, and it still sounds really random. In particular, Accuracy +10 isn't remotely on the level of the rest, so whenever you see it, it means the enemy is substantially easier than if they had, say, Vantage+ and Luna+. There's certainly some randomness, and it can surely benefit you from time to time- I just stumbled upon a myrmidon with both Absolute Hit and Accuracy+10- but it's not nearly as random as it's been made out to be, as all enemies have at least a couple of these skills at minimum. Anyway. ~Prologue: More Attempts~ Back during my vanilla Lunatic run, I made a conscious effort to minimize Frederick use early on and try to get Krom / MU leveled up quickly, which paid huge dividends down the road. I'm not sure that's going to be a possibility here. There are simply too many enemies that are too strong to not have Frederick take off at least a few. Especially those damn mages, who always seems to have Luna+ and can take off more than half Frederick's HP in a single hit. Thankfully, a silver lance takes 'em out in one round, so pray they don't get Vantage+. Oh, and it seems that Krom / MU fighting next to Frederick increases evade by 10%, which is rather helpful here. Does Outdoor Battle normally extend to adjacent units? So, I cleared out the bottom siege of units, got a nice 17 experience for MU from the shiny tile, engaged in a healthy amount of staff abuse, and prepared for the upper-map assault. The boss doesn't move, thankfully, but that still leaves us with two myrmidons (in this runthrough, one has Pass, one has Luna+, and both have Absolute Hit), two bandits (one with Vanguard+, one with Pass, both with Luna+), and a mage with Luna+, Pass, and... some skill I don't recognize. A vertical blue line that involves the numbers "3" and "+10" in the description? Either way, I really don't expect to survive this. ...Ah, but it seems my strategy paid off! What I did was place Frederick right in range of the bottom-left myrmidon, which, thanks to the new enemy AI, brought the entire fleet storming towards me. Then, I moved Frederick&Liz towards the far left of the map, and Krom&MU to the bottom. Frederick baited the mage, a bandit, and killed the other myrmidon with the silver lance, while a single bandit approached Krom&MU. Everything worked out, and I got some great level-ups to boot. Now all that's left is the boss. He's got an 8% critical chance against Frederick normally, but this can be reduced to 6% when he's doubled with Liz; he's got Luna+, so if that crit lands, it's a guaranteed 42 damage. Thankfully, I get lucky, and pull this thing off. That. Was. Hell. TOTAL TURN COUNT: Prologue -> 27 (lmfao) Edited June 12, 2012 by Westbrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Othin Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 (edited) I don't think it's ever been made out to not entail enemies having a constant number of those skills, just a matter of the variability as a result of what different skills they cna have in that number. The Mage skill is Concentration, which gives +10 Crit when no allies are within 3 squares. Having two support levels active should give +10 Avoid, which Krom should get if he's doubled with MU and moves next to Krom. Was the Avoid increase more than that? And wow, I took a while on the Prologue, but... not that long. Do you know how many attempts this took? I'm especially curious about your attempt numbers for the next few maps. Edited June 12, 2012 by Othin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Not-So-Great Knight Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 TOTAL TURN COUNT: Prologue -> 27 (lmfao) fuhfuhfuhfuhfuhfuhfuhfuh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westbrick Posted June 12, 2012 Author Share Posted June 12, 2012 (edited) The Mage skill is Concentration, which gives +10 Crit when no allies are within 3 squares. Ah, right. Not particularly dangerous, but we can add it to the list of possible Prologue enemy skills. I wonder if the skills enemies can have on Lunatic+ will change from chapter to chapter? Having two support levels active should give +10 Avoid, which Krom should get if he's doubled with MU and moves next to Krom. Was the Avoid increase more than that? Krom&MU apart from Frederick put the hit% at 58, while next to him it was at 48. I'm still not entirely familiar with how the support mechanics operate, but this seemed like a rather large jump. And wow, I took a while on the Prologue, but... not that long. Do you know how many attempts this took? I'm especially curious about your attempt numbers for the next few maps. You can probably shave off about 7-8 turns as buffer turns, but what I called "staff abuse" is probably going to be necessary. When lone grunts are doing 15 damage to Krom / MU and are two or three rounding Frederick, keeping everyone at peak HP seems to be a necessary delay. As for number of attempts, I believe it was 6-7 total. I'll keep a more precise tally for future chapters. Edited June 12, 2012 by Westbrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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