The Lunatic Club

[Othin]

Even without an excessively overleveled Avatar, I had much more trouble on Ch2 than on Ch3 both on Lunatic and on Lunatic+.

[XeKr]

Oh I agree, especially on Lunatic+, that Chapter 2 is harder. I was just offering a reason why some people don't find Chapter 3 that hard since it's pretty trivial with +Def Avatar and Kellam/Frederick Pair Up.

[Othin]

Oh yeah, I misread. That makes sense.

[Galenforcer]

Well, finally beat Lunatic. All purpose was gone after Chapter 13, thanks to Nosferatu.

The final chapter got in the way of a clear Sorcerer Miriel sweep though...

[1% critted]

I've been having this thought for a long time now, and I think it's a good time to ask. Does anyone know the criteria for Lunatic skirmish levels? I've been experimenting a lot and I've come with two conclusions that seem plausible:

-Enemy levels are based on total of battles completed

-Enemy levels are based on total/average level of the party.

I know it's not based on the last battle you faced since in one run where I used DLC enemies were promoted already after Chapter 5. While in my Luna+ run they are still not promoted on chapter 10. Just been meaning to ask this.

[euklyd]

I've been having this thought for a long time now, and I think it's a good time to ask. Does anyone know the criteria for Lunatic skirmish levels? I've been experimenting a lot and I've come with two conclusions that seem plausible:

-Enemy levels are based on total of battles completed

-Enemy levels are based on total/average level of the party.

I know it's not based on the last battle you faced since in one run where I used DLC enemies were promoted already after Chapter 5. While in my Luna+ run they are still not promoted on chapter 10. Just been meaning to ask this.

I read the bolded text as saying your previous run (with DLC) was not Lunatic+. If this is an incorrect assumption, then all that follows is pointless:

I haven't played L+ yet, so I can't say about that, but I'm almost positive that on vanilla Lunatic the Risen Skirmish enemies jumped from moderately overwhelming to Lv. 20 promotes with capped stats over the space of one chapter (around Ch. 5, IIRC), and this was without DLC/Spotpass units/grinding (at that point).

So I would imagine that if you haven't the levels/difficulty is just calculated differently between vanilla Lunatic and Lunatic+, although the function relating battles/levels to enemy levels could just be really weird.

Not sure though.

[1% critted]

Wow then that is really weird. Lunatic and Lunatic+ skirmishes are the same though just so you know but, jumping from moderately overwhelming to 20/20 in one chapter, that's what happened to me in vanilla Lunatic(With DLC). Without DLC on vanilla I would usually get promotes after chapter 10. Sometimes chapter 9.

[XeKr]

I just checked a Chapter 24 Lunatic file and there's some enemies that are 20/20 (only some maxed stats), but some older ones that are 20/14. I don't think it's an all maxed or nothing type of thing, it's just that the challenges are usually harder than story chapters and so not really worth doing.

Probably it's story progression since average level is skewed heavily by untrained units. Hard to test rigorously though.

Though maybe checking/playing DLC triggers some flag. And iirc I remember reading there may be a difference in Lunatic+ stats. I'll note a few things like that (and skill distribution) as I do my Lunatic+ run.

Edited May 8, 2013 by XeKr

[Anouleth]

Spotpass units don't affect risen skirmishes at all. I've been using the Spotpass encounters to grind supports to unlock all the child paralogues, but risen skirmishes are unaffected. In Chapter 16, with three Paralogues beaten, I'm seeing skirmish enemies at around level 7-9 promoted. That's still a good deal ahead of storyline enemies, but I think I could still beat them if I pulled out all the stops.

[1% critted]

Then I guess that rules out the number of battles done theory I had. Which leaves me to the party total level theory. I doubt it's story progression because like I said, in my vanilla Lunatic run where I did complete skirmishes, I already had promoted enemies by chapter 9, but in my Luna+ run i'm doing now, I just beat chapter 10 with all paralogues completed and enemies are still level 17-20 on skirmishes.

But like you said, maybe it's different on Luna+.

[Missile]

In my Endgame Lunatic File, every skirmishes has 20/20 units (except some on level 18), some units have one or zero stat capped. And I've never seen unbeatable ennemy, it was always possibile to beat it, I wonder why...

[euklyd]

Hmm. If everyone else is say the jump wasn't that fast, I suppose I was probably wrong. Not positive either way, though.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

With my one Lunatic+ run where I bothered to checked, when skirmishes were first available, enemy units were around levels 8 to 10 unpromoted. After chapter 5, I noticed they jumped up to level 20 promoted with one maxed stat. I didn't check anymore after that.

With my vanilla Lunatic file, I didn't check until after I had beaten the game (it was a no grind run) and beaten the first two of the Spotpass paralogues. I was typically facing level 20 promoted units with 2-3 maxed stats. I distinctly remember these fights being in the chapter 13 and 22 maps. On the other hand, my friend did a Lunatic run where he was grinding a lot and beefing up the kids and ended up facing skirmishes where enemies had all but 2-3 stats NOT maxed and he wasn't quite at Endgame yet. I'm not entirely sure which maps those were on, though, but his team was strong enough to kill them.

[1% critted]

Hmm, this is a big mystery indeed. Everyone has different experiences with them.

[Anouleth]

With my one Lunatic+ run where I bothered to checked, when skirmishes were first available, enemy units were around levels 8 to 10 unpromoted. After chapter 5, I noticed they jumped up to level 20 promoted with one maxed stat. I didn't check anymore after that.

One possibility: it's affected by Renown or Bonus Box use. Maybe if you grab the Supreme Emblem, it gets factored into enemy strength?

[Othin]

If everyone keeping track of when the skirmishes showed up? It's my understanding that their stats are set based on your progress when they first show up, so if they stick around for a while, they can end up with lower levels than new skirmishes would have at that time.

[Mighty Kamina]

If everyone keeping track of when the skirmishes showed up? It's my understanding that their stats are set based on your progress when they first show up, so if they stick around for a while, they can end up with lower levels than new skirmishes would have at that time.

I remember that after chapter 6 for me all skirmishes had promoted enemies with mostly capped stats.

[1% critted]

Did you do DLC/wireless combat before that?

[Mighty Kamina]

Did you do DLC/wireless combat before that?

Nope.

[Interceptor]

Color me confused. I loaded up my Lunatic+ file that's up to Ch20, and went to a skirmish that JUST SPAWNED on top of an Anna merchant, in Port Ferox (Ch12 area). The enemies are promoted level 9-14 (most are level 11). There are no capped stats, other than on my own units (which have a one or two each on the Leads). It's entirely beatable, and in fact I just cleared it for grins using AvatarxChrom and MorganxLucina.

[1% critted]

This just makes no sense. The game is just throwing my theories aside. Is it really completely random? I don't even.

[Interceptor]

I reloaded my save, and this time visited a skirmish that spawned on top of the Anna merchant in Border Wastes (Ch11): it has the same level distribution as the one I just fought in Ferox (the boss is a Berzerker with 50 capped STR, though).

Then I reloaded one more time, and went into a stale Skirmish that was already sitting on Valm Harbor (Ch15). This one has a level 6-11 promoted level distribution, plus a level 28 Entombed (...wat?).

Finally, visited Midmire (Ch10), another stale skirmish, enemies range promoted 8-13, with most being level 10. No capped stats.

This file has never fought any Spotpass, DLC, or Skirmish battles: story and Paralogues only.

[1% critted]

A similar thing is happening in my playlog. My regular units I'm training are in a higher level than the most recent skirmishes. And like you, no spotpass, DLC,skirmishes. I think it's more about the total number of battles now, because of that info you are stating. How many characters do you have?

[Interceptor]

I have all of the recruitables up to Ch20, other than Tiki (to hell with that chapter) and Donnel (died gloriously in battle). Far fewer are actually trained.

Also, just to throw a wrinkle in this, I also had a Ch19 clear save from the same file. This one spawns fresh Skirmishes on Ch18 (level 11-13, lvl 16 boss), Ch17 (level 8-10, lvl 13 boss), and Ch16 (level 8-10, lvl 13 boss).

The elapsed time on the saves are around 38.5 hours, since I tend to leave the DS open on my desk.

[1% critted]

So it's not dependent on the amount of characters or their levels either. Just what is it. After I finish my current playthrough, I will experiment on save, just to find out what gives the skirmishes levels. I really doubt it's playtime though if you have 38 hours.