The Lunatic Club

[Czar_Yoshi]

Assuming defeating the Risen for money, exp and weapons is out of the question, summon Tiki's spotpass team (Wireless -> Bonus Box -> Bonus Teams -> Shadow Dragon -> Tiki -> Summon). She sells Dragonstone+'s. And Hand Axes, if you need one.

Risen do despawn as time passes (including while the 3ds is off). Messing with the 3ds clock usually slows things down and is only useful if you -need- to manipulate a certain barracks boost and are doing it by spamming someone's birthday.

Nowi should not leave Manakete in Lunatic unless you do not want her as your #1 unit. She'll be handicapped be her E rank weapons, lose a lot of Def, and the skills she gets aren't even that good.

You might want to try training another unit (pick one with Veteran) for the later chapters. There are a load of enemies there, and you'll run out of money if you have Nowi spamming her expensive weapons all day without Armsthrift. If you have an unpaired Male Avatar, I'd advise marrying Nowi (her stats are pretty high if you've taken her to Lv.30, so she'll give Morgan good bases and Manakete. Manakete + Veteran + Armsthrift is a good way to break Lunatic) and the pairing is even pretty good for postgame because it gives Nah Galeforce and Luna. Nobody else in the game can give her that, you know.

Edited December 7, 2013 by Czar_Yoshi

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Started another standard no grind, no DLC Lunatic+ so that I could stream the joy of the mode for some friends. Dumped most of the early EXP on Avatar (+Def/-Luk) to make her the tank of the army as usual, which seemed to be turning out pretty good by the end of chapter 1 with 15 Def and 9 Spd. The levels after that, though... well, I just capped her at 20 at the end of chapter 3 and she only went up to 19 Def and 10 Spd (;_;). She does have a whopping 17 Str, though. It's like having a female Fighter or something. >.> One of the two Anna shops spawned with a Second Seal, though, so hopefully I can fix that Spd with even more Tactician levels (tomes are far to valuable to give up and I really, really don't need to be losing more Spd by swapping her to Mage or Dark Mage).

[Interceptor]

Man, and I thought my Avatar had SPD problems. What's your general strategy for the run? Are you going to Galeforce kite again?

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Hehe, yeah, that's the RNG for you. 19 Def is enough to laugh at anything that doesn't have Counter or Luna+, though. As for strategy, I'm probably going to avoid doing the duo run again, because I don't think that'd be particularly entertaining to watch. I'm winging it a little, but I have a set of 5 combat pairs laid out, plus a support battery. There will probably be some Galeforce kiting, but with that many pairs, I'll most likely be leaning on Rescue abuse. I may also do more early unequipped face-tanking in order to try to feed EXP to the weaker units.

For pairs I'm looking at:

Avatar/Chrom - the usual here

Lucy/Morgan - the usual here too, with them being the only pair that will swap lead unit often

Nowi/Gregor - hopefully feeding Nowi properly this time... I think what Avatar is doing for me now is a taste of what later stages will be like in terms of tanking hard, but not killing terribly fast

Panne/Gaius - Lon'qu fell off a bit hard on me last time and Panne wasn't in a position to take the lead after having him lead before. So this time I hope to build Panne as the lead and I like Gaius' class set a bit better for the support role (we'll see if that works out in practice).

Cordelia/Vaike - I used this before, but with Vaike as the lead unit. He could deal a ton of damage and with hardly any defenses to speak of, take a ton back. So I'm going to try swapping it around with Cordelia taking the lead and Vaike as support. If all goes well, this should also allow me to generate a Severa rallybot with both Spd and Str boosts.

[Rapier]

Is it possible to beat Lunatic (or Lunatic +) without grinding, DLCs, using the Avatar of the last save, buying items with Renown, etc.? As in, in a completely 'clean' run?

[shadowofchaos]

Is it possible to beat Lunatic (or Lunatic +) without grinding, DLCs, using the Avatar of the last save, buying items with Renown, etc.? As in, in a completely 'clean' run?

Definite yes on Lunatic.

As for Lunatic+, definitely requires a bit more.

Interceptor has a playlog/guide of it on here: http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=40300&p=2407860

...but he does use Renown up to the Large Bullion.

Edited December 10, 2013 by shadowofchaos

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Is it possible to beat Lunatic (or Lunatic +) without grinding, DLCs, using the Avatar of the last save, buying items with Renown, etc.? As in, in a completely 'clean' run?

I've also done Lunatic+ without grinding, Renown, the Wireless Menu and even a run where I banned lifesteal and regen skills. Very early game has a rather large luck component, although that starts to diminish quite quickly as Avatar and company start to be less overwhelmed by stats and actually pick up some useful skills. The first three chapters (although, depending on luck, up to and including chapter 6 can still be really gross) are the most annoying for me because in a lot of tough situations, the only option is "roll the dice and hope it works out." As more options become available, there's more that I can do to stack the chance of success in my favour.

Definite yes on Lunatic.

As for Lunatic+, definitely requires a bit more.

Interceptor has a playlog/guide of it on here: http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=40300&p=2407860

...but he does use Renown up to the Large Bullion.

He also used wireless teams to buy gear he normally wouldn't have access to. It was necessary to bring the luck factor down enough for reliable strategies in early chapters, though.

[Czar_Yoshi]

He also used wireless teams to buy gear he normally wouldn't have access to. It was necessary to bring the luck factor down enough for reliable strategies in early chapters, though.

More of to go through classes for skills he wanted/needed (Mercenary) without insane anti-Counter manipulation. The objective of his playlog was to make Lunatic+ as consistent as possible without grinding, and I think he did a pretty good job.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

More of to go through classes for skills he wanted/needed (Mercenary) without insane anti-Counter manipulation. The objective of his playlog was to make Lunatic+ as consistent as possible without grinding, and I think he did a pretty good job.

Yeah, I'm not knocking it or anything, just making the comment because normally people don't come across that many Levin Swords and Mire tomes. And your comment on the objective is basically the same as what I was saying with the reliability part. Overall I was more making a comment on how not using the Wireless Menu makes the early game much more luck-based (which typically isn't a good thing).

And this goes back to the original question: Can it be done without Wireless Menu/Renown/Grinding/etc.? Yes. Which brings up the question: Should you do it that way? To which I answer: That depends. How masochistic are you?

[Tribute]

augh.

I REALLY want to have my fun with this lunatic run using a str MU, but holy shit having to slog the first 4 levels of either frederick chess or "rng abuse chrom and MU for hours" is so annoying. Makes me wish I knew 3DS players irl so i could just get someone to do it for me lol

On a semi related note since I do casual lunatic because RNG resetting the entire level isn't fun for me, it does actually add a sort of interesting mini game to cheating. It turns it into a slower paced "There has to be a move that gets me through this turn, I just have to find it"

Edited December 19, 2013 by Tribute

[Czar_Yoshi]

Are you using the water trick on the prologue to feed all but 1 or 2 enemies to your Avatar? If you do that and get decent level ups, you're all set for cht.1 and 3.

If you aren't, clear out the enemies on the bottom, then put Lissa behind Avatar and Fred behind Chrom and have them hide out on the water. Avatar should fight the mage until it's dead with combat on enemy phase and Vulneraries on player phase, and Chrom should hide somewhere. none of the enemies can walk on water, so once the mage is dead you can just snipe everything at your leisure.

[Tribute]

Whats the water trick? Afaik none of the starting 4 can water walk either

Been working up MU, on 2 atm with 14 str and 9 spd @ level 7, Not as much as i could but not totally awful I guess. Chrom is 2, hes just pairing with freddy

Edited December 19, 2013 by Tribute

[Elieson]

Chrom and Avatar can both water walk, actually.

[Interceptor]

Whats the water trick? Afaik none of the starting 4 can water walk either

Just as he described. Avatar and Chrom can occupy a Water tile, so just hide Frederick and Lissa on them. It's a good idea to actually drop them ON the water, since next turn you can Pair Up and have them move one square further, out of range of everything but the mage.

[Czar_Yoshi]

It costs 5 Mov, but Lord and Tactician can indeed swim. If you need a better example, here:

Not my video, but it shows off the trick pretty well (and on Lunatic+).

Edited December 19, 2013 by Czar_Yoshi

[shadowofchaos]

It costs 5 Mov, but Lord and Tactician can indeed swim. If you need a better example, here:

*video*

Not my video, but it shows off the trick pretty well (and on Lunatic+).

Uhh... wrong video of mine.

This one uses the water trick.

Starts at 8:55.

Edited December 19, 2013 by shadowofchaos

[MelonGx]

The first Water Trick I have found comes from

the Japanese Wiki:

http://www18.atwiki.jp/fireemblem3ds/pages/420.html

Edited December 20, 2013 by MelonGx

[Tribute]

How do you change the rng in awakening?

I remember reading in previous games it was moving x amount of squares with the arrow turning a certain way or something

edit:

Got a Kris' Confect in ch1.

Only the boss and axers can hurt Avatar+Freddy on a fort (for 1, Literally invincible on a mountain and forts because healing)

Edited December 20, 2013 by Tribute

[shadowofchaos]

How do you change the rng in awakening?

I remember reading in previous games it was moving x amount of squares with the arrow turning a certain way or something

"You don't".

They took it out in Radiant Dawn, and it remains that way for Awakening.

To RNG abuse, you must burn an RN with actual actions. Like having someone miss for 495 turns to get this:

[Tribute]

Seeing how broken avatar carrying can be (and this is with str not def) is making another crack at Lunatic+ tempting (but actually going def carry)

But, whatever I'll probably keep on this berserker MU thing. Lunatic+ i'll just restart what was supposed to be my throwaway lunatic+ unlocking run once my "new main run" gets off the ground.

And just like that nothing else matters and I'm sucked back into fire emblem. Why is this not game of the year. Oh right, WTB online

Edited December 20, 2013 by Tribute

[tuvarkz]

Cleared my lunatic run, now at luna+ chapter 2. +STR-LUK MaMU, it's hell. I could actually do it if RNG actually benefits me for once. (which means the rightmost soldier not having vantage+, the merc and the bandit at right getting dual striked so they die in enemy turn 1, and at most one of the other enemies in the southern part having luna+)

[ShadowSlayer]

Using +Mag -Str on my Lunatic run. It seemed like a good idea at the time, I never really used swords on my Avatar in my other playthrough so I thought it would be good to lower that and raise Magic. Anyone think I made the wrong decision?

[Redwall]

Using +Mag -Str on my Lunatic run. It seemed like a good idea at the time, I never really used swords on my Avatar in my other playthrough so I thought it would be good to lower that and raise Magic. Anyone think I made the wrong decision?

+Mag/-Str is fine.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Avatar is at his/her best when making use of his/her strange combination of high durability and magic damage dominance, so Mag is a pretty good choice.

[MJThom_2009]

How should I approach chapter 2 in lunatic mode?