The Lunatic Club

[Darth_Lavos]

(Ubel Engel)

No one has advice for me for chapter 2?

_{Don't mind me, just trolling DLV for his avatar and sig selection, and my name change came back up :D}

It seems the consensus strategy is to send Freddy up and to the left as high as he can go after giving him a Bronze Sword and Virion's elixer, and then just having him tank it with elixers. One of the Merc's'll come down to your left, but you can put one unit in his range but not the horde taking on Freddy and then get all of your other units out of enemy range completely. After you deal with the Zerg Rush below the bridge it's not that bad, just know the Merc's and the boss will double anybody not paired up and that the boss can attack from a range.

[Fateborn]

Alright thank.

I guess it'll be breeze after that torture. Other than Chapter 4, it'll be ease.

(Unless I get RNG shoved up my ass.)

[Paperblade]

I must be doing something wrong, then, because I never had as much of a problem with RD HM part 1 as I'm having on Lunatic. And I'm using everything at my disposal. I've just gotten to Chapter 5 and have basically had to turtle every map. For chapter 2 I basically had to memorize RNG strings to get the appropriate crits and dual attacks just so I could keep everyone alive. (I'm playing Casual but I still like to keep the classic mindset of not letting anyone die)

Prologue: Frederick OHKOs Myrms/Mages and can weaken Barbarians for Chrom/Avatar to kill. If you have Chrom w/Fred pull the second wave, you can pull back and have him kill the Myrms (with Lissa healing him) and a Barbarian depending on what the AI does. Gamble is dumb on generics, but avoidable on the boss (you can get support level 3 with Avatar, and Fred can take a crit from full HP)

Ch. 1: MU+Chrom can go stand on the event tile that's in a forest to bait the Merc, while Fred heads south to bait the Fighter, which lets Virion get an easy pick off next turn when he shows up, and lets Sully pair onto Fred to make him even tougher. The other Merc and a Fighter will attack Fred on enemy phase, and Chrom should move back to get healed (he might kill the Merc on enemy phase, depending on misses/dual strikes, if he doesn't it's not a huge deal since you can keep pulling back). It's difficult to give a strategy beyond here because what you do on Turn 3 onward depends on which way the rest of the enemies start running (for me they usually go after Fred which means he has to retreat because Hammer), and you can kite them around the map. Zeal is dumb

Ch. 2: This is probably the hardest chapter itg. If Fred has +1 attack over base (either +1 Str or A Lances), he OHKOs Mercs with Vaike, so you can just pair them and send him in range of 2 Mercs and a Barbarian and have everyone else move into a safer position, then kite people around. Gamble is dumb

Ch. 3: You have all the time in the world to set this map up because enemies only move if you're in their attack range at the start of enemy phase, so Chrom can talk to Kellam, pair up, and have Kellam move out of attack range. Fred w/Kellam takes like 3-4 damage from enemies and leaves them with very low HP with Iron, so the strategy here should be pretty self explanatory. After that the chapter should be fairly straightforward. Open the doors, kill both knights, then pull the enemies. They all aggro at once since you've killed everyone else, so you can just sit at a chokepoint or kite them around the map. Then kill the boss.

Ch. 4: At this point Chrom and/or MU should hopefully be strong enough that they can actually double while paired, which will make this chapter easier. As long as you can kill 2+ enemies a turn this chapter is easy, if you can't you can get overwhelmed. Basically, if you're struggling with this map, you gave too much EXP to Fred and not enough to everyone else, or got bad level ups.

Paralogue 1: Free EXP for Lon'qu, Thieves are fast but Fred w/Kellam keeps them down.

Ch. 5: This is the last chapter that I consider hard, since the wyvern riders ignoring the terrain in tandem with the enemies running down the mountain can be very difficult to handle if your team isn't capable of killing the wyverns. Have Ricken pair onto Maribelle and have her run south, and then have Lissa Rescue her down. If Lissa's Mag isn't good enough unpaired, Miriel gives +4 at base level. Ideally, you have a durable Avatar who can sit at the chokepoint paired with Kellam or something and sit there killing guys. If not, Fred can do it (or Lon'qu if you're feeling lucky). Then have the rest of your team go clear out the enemies west of you, and plug up the nearest fort so you have some time to plan ahead for reinforcements. If Chrom can double wyverns that's awesome, since he should ORKO with Falchion. If not, that kind of sucks, but Ricken has an Elwind and Virion/Miriel/Avatar are all good at killing them too.

After this, things should get easier. Enemy stats don't increase as sharply compared to how they did from Prologue to Ch. 3, and your units keep getting stronger. Ch. 6 has a lot of chokepoints and a useful NPC, Ch. 7 gets you Steel weapons, Ch. 8 is a joke, Ch. 9 can be a bit tricky depending on how mobile your team is in a desert, and Ch. 10 is 0% hit heaven for sword users. Ch. 11-13 can be hard due to promoted enemies showing up to increase stats, but after 13 you can buy Nosferatu and go do easy children's paralogues and all sorts of nonsense.

The big thing to remember is to feed kills to people other than Frederick whenever possible. Frederick is not a good long term unit due to his high base level and poor personal stats, even though his growths are on par with everyone else. Enemy stats increase far too much over the course of the game for personal bases to have a significant effect on longterm use of a unit, unless your bases are so horrid that you are are unusable on join time (which imo only applies to Donnel). In other words, all those things that people say about jeigans stealing EXP actually applies in this game.

Edit: Also, +HP MU is great because it boosts your HP growth to >100 (and seems to boost Defense a bit, unless I'm just lucky), meaning you get really tanky really quick.

Double Edit: I also like to reclass unpromoted units rather than promoting them with a few exceptions (coughcoughAvatar), since their EXP gain while unpromoted is nuts and quickly gives them more skills. However, you should try to have people ready for promotion around Ch. 12 when Master Seals become buyable.

Edited February 25, 2013 by Paperblade

[Kngt_Of_Titania]

Paperblade, since you've done Lunatic already, how common are second seals in this game? I'm trying to do a Lunatic efficiency run, but I don't know how liberal I can be with them.

Edited February 25, 2013 by Kngt_Of_Titania

[Paperblade]

The same as every other mode, you can buy them after Ch. 16

I buy them from Anna shops since I think it's a more useful investment than forges

[Florete]

Well, at least I'm almost past the really hard stuff.

Indeed, chapter 4 has been the easiest for me so far. I didn't even know the Ch 3 enemies wouldn't move and did end up with some tough problems, but it still wasn't near the insanity of Ch 2.

[Balcerzak]

Paperblade, since you've done Lunatic already, how common are second seals in this game? I'm trying to do a Lunatic efficiency run, but I don't know how liberal I can be with them.

I direct you to a list of seal locations.

[Kngt_Of_Titania]

I direct you to a list of seal locations.

Tyvm...noted, and favorited for future reference!

[Illustrious Soren]

Hey everyone, just finished the game on Hard-Classic few days ago and just started out on Lunatic. Now, I started it casual just to get used to the few chapters and made it to chapter 5. Thinking about restarting it on Lunatic-Classic though. I read a few replies here about people being able to level MU a lot on the early chapters, and how exactly would I go for that? I was thinking about making her + Def - Lck like someone suggested and pairing Fred up with her to just make her a wall, and have her clean up most of the enemies. Would that work, or are there other suggestions? Thanks in advance, and hope I get to unlock Luna+

[XeKr]

Avatar tank works well and I think it's the easiest way to beat Lunatic. Some brief strats for reference (essentially the standard, except substitute Frederick for Avatar).

Prologue: I'm lazy so I have Frederick kill all the Myrms/Mages and weaken the Barbs (all with Silver Lance) to feed the Barb kills to Avatar. Avatar paired with Chrom next to Lissa/Frederick can slowly chip the boss with no chance of dying. Avatar at level 4ish, it's probably possible to be higher.

Chapter 1: Avatar paired with Frederick using the Bronze Sword easily tanks this chapter on the north Fort. Has the advantage of not being afraid of the Hammer. Switch to Thunder to counter the Archer/Boss when other stuff is cleared out. Avatar at level 8ish.

For these chapters, unequip Chrom/Frederick or whoever Avatar is paired with so she gets a little more chip exp on the bosses.

Chapter 2: The easy way is, trade Avatar the Elixer, Avatar with Frederick goes to the leftmost tile of the right Myrm's range. Next turn, Avatar/Frederick go to the Forest. Use Thunder or Bronze Sword depending on what enemies are left, Soldiers or Barbs. Can take some resets, but not much more than if Frederick did the tanking instead. A slightly more consistent strat is to tank on the left mountains but it's a little harder to explain in terms of saving everyone else. With the first strat you move them to the 4 safe spots, then to the right. After, heal up, aggro the north, pull back, tank on the middle forts. Avatar is level 14ish.

There are some minor stat benchmarks but Avatar has to really get RNG screwed in Spd/Def growth for them to matter. The averages are sufficient. Obviously the more Hp/Def Avatar procs, the easier it is.

Chapter 3/4 are easy with both Avatar and Frederick being good. Afterwards, grind on DLC or buy a Second Seal/Master Seal from Anna or use the Renown Second Seal for Avatar (should be level 20 by Chapter 5). Cruise on. Lategame can be hard without self-healing from Nosferatu/Sol or Avoid stacking so plan for that. The final boss is hard without a trained Falchion user, but the non-Chrom one can have pretty high bases, Veteran for near 100 exp per kill for a while, and you can Rally Spectrum for some easy training.

Since I find balanced teams more fun, I actually like using this super-Avatar in a Jeigan-like role to help other units get some levels instead of soloing everything.

Edited February 25, 2013 by XeKr

[Illustrious Soren]

Thanks for the tips, XeKr. About the second seal on Avatar, what class do you suggest changing to? I figure going after Galeforce would be the best bet.

[XeKr]

Well the easy way is Dark Mage, then use Nosferatu. Avatar's ridiculous stats from being overleveled can carry him until Nosferatu is buyable.

I haven't actually tried it, but I'm pretty sure going to Merc->Hero for Sol or Wyvern Rider->Wyvern Lord for Avoid stacking similarly trivialize.

More "standard" play has Avatar promoting and getting Rally Spectrum so you pass it to your children and also train other units easier. Galeforce is only good if you plan to Rescue-chain and bossrush the later chapters. However, the Bow/Wind magic weakness is pretty severe if Avatar is your main combat unit. It's much easier just to slowly walk up and tank them with Nosferatu, Sol, or Avoid-stacking.

[Illustrious Soren]

All right, thanks. Just got done with chapter 2, my avatar is level 12 and no unit has died (yet). Chapter 3 should be a breeze now. Will probably go for Dark mage if I get the second seal first or just regular promotion if I get the master seal first.

[Crimson Red]

...Level 12? O_o

Also is it just me or is speed the most useful stat for avatar at least early on? ._. not getting doubled seems to be more helpful than having the defense boost (this coming from the guy who last chose defense for his asset in lunatic... XP)

[Illustrious Soren]

I went with Speed on my Hard-Classic run, definitely worked out nicely. The thing with getting defense here is to make your Avatar "another" Fred. If you pair them up, your avatar gets absolute beast. I've been cruising through all the chapters. Finished chapter 4, still nobody died, Avatar level 19. Chrom is around 5 though, I might have to start leveling the others a bit. But with the powered up avatar it's easier to weaken enemies for a teammate to get the final kill or to simply save them from harm, since the avatar just gets soo strong.

[eclipse]

Wasn't HP supposed to be the best, so you can absorb enough damage to be useful/have fun with Vengeance?

[Othin]

Speed is just the best stat ever, especially in Awakening's harder difficulty levels, even though dodging attacks isn't even a thing that exists there.

[melossage]

I'm on ch14 on lunatic(exponential growth grinding)

I am getting the children characters and training them at the moment

[Paperblade]

Speed is just the best stat ever, especially in Awakening's harder difficulty levels, even though dodging attacks isn't even a thing that exists there.

Avatar gets so overleveled that I've never had doubling issues with him past early game, so I like HP since it makes you super fucking buff.

Edit: Plus I find I have plenty of Speed from pair up, whatever Rally Speed bot I'm using (usually Lissa), and Avatar's non-Morgan kid using Rally Spectrum.

Edited February 25, 2013 by Paperblade

[Quick]

Avatar gets so overleveled that I've never had doubling issues with him past early game, so I like HP since it makes you super fucking buff.

Edit: Plus I find I have plenty of Speed from pair up, whatever Rally Speed bot I'm using (usually Lissa), and Avatar's non-Morgan kid using Rally Spectrum.

Wait who did you pair MU up with? And how did you manage to get MU to a level 15 Grandmaster and then a Sorcerer so quickly to nosferatank chapter 16? I'm still on chapter 13 (the level itself is easy but the problem for me is that I'm trying to stall it through so I can get Olivia to dance abuse so I can get a decent Lucina and I'm having troubles doing that) and MU is only a level 3 Grandmaster. Then again, I have been using Lissa, Lon'qu, Panne, Frederick, Chrom, and Libra, but the level difference is that huge?

[XeKr]

Yeah I did +Spd on my first Lunatic run but Avatar was just like level 6-7 by Chapter 3 instead of level 13-14. The level lead +Def/+HP (I don't think there's too much difference) affords is very significant and lets you snowball quickly. +Spd Avatar needs Frederick to feed her kills while +Def/Hp can do the majority of fighting starting from from Chapter 1. Essentially Avatar can get all the earlygame exp Frederick normally takes.

By the lategame you have Pair Up (Chrom/Lucina), Speed Tonics, Rally Speed (I use 10/5 Cordelia), Rally Spectrum (I use Morgan since I favor Lucina too much. >_>) which is something ridiculous like +20 Spd so there are no issues.

I don't think +Hp for Vengeance matters too much except for the final boss, and I usually have some combination of Chrom/Lucina/Avatar/Morgan + Olivia to Brave + Dual Strike him down.

[Othin]

Hmm. I'll have to give +Def another shot when I finish Lunatic again and get around to Lunatic+. I tried it on my first attempt at Lunatic with poor results, but it sounds like it's worth a second try.

[Paperblade]

First playthrough I paired him with Cherche, second with Chrom (male Avatar though), third with Lon'qu.

idk how you're having EXP issues unless you're waiting til 20 to promote.

[PKL]

Yes things exist that help mitigate the difficulty, but it's still nowhere near "joke" level. To me that implies you can go into any given chapter blind, without prep, and beat it without having to restart.

Now maybe you /can/ do this if you're just avatar solo, but I don't consider that standard play.

Technically, Im not blind since Ive played multiple times through HM. But, after Chapter 8 and Anna's paralogue, i only reset in Chapter 17 and Yen'fay's chapter. I've been using Panne (Lon'qu pairup), Cordelia (Fred pairup), Cherche (Gaius), Libra, Anna, Lucina, Morgan, Say'ri Avatar and Chrom. Though Morgan is kinda like the male pair ups, he didnt get trained much. Avatar was +def - res and I rely on her paired up with Chrom, but my other units are doing ok (well except Cherche). Im now in tiki's paralogue and this map is actually really challenging :o. Idk if i can even do this in Chapter 19 lol.

[Quick]

First playthrough I paired him with Cherche, second with Chrom (male Avatar though), third with Lon'qu.

idk how you're having EXP issues unless you're waiting til 20 to promote.

I promoted him at 15. Which is my fault though, seeing as how I promoted Lissa and Lon'qu first, perhaps I should pair MU up with Cherche myself since I bet the boosted range and the fact that if I need to heal somebody I don't waste a turn for MU. I doubt it actually matters though, I think it's just the fact that you basically MU soloed it.