Lunatic+ playlog/guide/walkthrough - COMPLETED

[Czar_Yoshi]

Congrats and thanks for the write-up!

[Knusperkeks]

Thank you for patiently waiting for updates~! ^-^

[Interceptor]

Very nice, congrats on a really successful run and thanks for sharing it. It's refreshing to see that LAURENT! is exactly as much of a house with Sol as you'd think, and that Chrom is pretty usable outside of Lord. I was not expecting you to be able to field so many competent mages/staffers, but that's a thing that happened and it appears to have been pretty helpful.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Grats! I'm always amused by how much staff EXP throws a wrench into Lunatic(+)s attempt to EXP-starve the player units.

On a tangentially-related note, I've been working on my C5 strat and realized I've been pretty dumb about it. I mean, kiting generally works okay and the forged tome strats pay off in securing kills, but random enemy behaviour really messes with its reliability. Combined with lots of Counter, The main issue I've run into lately is despite the AI targeting Robin all night last stream (who, with Fred's help, can demolish a triple-Counter left side enough for her to have pretty high odds of surviving), when I run other permutations, they want to target Fred. Even with 19 Def, he's still a more enticing target. Except when he's not on every 4th or 5th ability reset (with stats having hardly even changed).

Anyway, it's just not reliably feasible unless it's just Robin/Chrom doing the ring-around-the-rosy, while Maribelle and Ricken die horrible, horrible deaths. Now the reason I was being dumb about it is because this is a strat I'd originally laid out to be flexible enough to take on the chapter pre-P1. However, p1 is easy enough to clear (by throwing money at it) and the extra EXP makes Robin a much more reliable tank, so there's hardly any reason for me to hold the chapter. So I think I'm going to adapt Interceptor's turtle strat, since I've already got the Rescue in-hand (and am pretty much guaranteed to get it if a run makes it this far).

I haven't had time to test this, so it's all theorycraft at the moment, but here's what I'm thinking:

-Since I don't have Miriel trained and am pretty unlikely to invest in her, I'm thinking of using unequipped Vaike in her place as a damage soak. I figure I can have the nearly-dead Sumia pair onto him to stop him from being doubled. Since I have no concern for getting Vaike experience, Robin can obliterate every Wyv with her forged Wind (I considered cutting this out, but I think it still provides enough safety here, especially during the final Boss pull, as well as insurance for C7, that it's still worth picking up). Mend Maribelle with Ricken should be enough to keep Vaike healthy, since there's only 6 Wyvs total (although turn 4 and 5's reinforcements might blend together a bunch, since turns 4's start in the top left corner).

-I figure Lissa with Miriel and Healtouch should be enough to keep Fred trucking too (possibly Robin, but since the AI seems to more consistently want to pick on Fred...). Her average Speed at level 10 is 9.5, while she only needs 7 to not get doubled by ranged units.

-Fred will get Kellam plus a Def Tonic.

-Robin will get Chrom, plus a Def Tonic.

-I originally had Chrom and Fred with Str Tonics, but I can throw this out the window with the turtle strat.

-I'll have to figure something else out for a post-Wyv formation or general strat, since no trained Miriel to clear the enemy in front of Robin.

In planning for the future:

-I'm going to try to cram as much of the healing EXP into Lissa as possible. She'll be by far the higher level and I want to push her Mag as high as possible, because in C9, there's a very small window for Libra living if enemy skill RNG is bad (2 turns if the Soldier has Counter without Pavise+, unless Libra crit-blicks him). If I can snag Libra, though, I think saving Anna in P4 might be a feasible thing, though.

-I might try to get Fred a kill or two. Robin's gonna max out before the Master Seal, anyway, and Cordelia doesn't come until C7. Having a level 3 Fred for C6 could be helpful. Granted, a higher level Robin could help too, but Fred's basically my only Counter-peeler other than Lucina (who is notoriously bad at the whole living thing), so anything that may increase his survivability is good (can't count on Def or Res, but at least HP is guaranteed).

-Also gonna try really hard not to use more than that 1 Rescue Staff use at the start. Each use can let me pull Robin or Fred in for a pit stop heal during C6 (or having Maribelle with Gaius or Ricken run out to heal bomb something—namely Lucina, then get pulled back). I'm willing to burn all 4 remaining uses there if it reliably gets me through, since C8 throws a new one at me to save Libra (and Anna) with.

[Interceptor]

What's the plan for dealing with Luna+ in Ch5? Do you figure that a powered-up Lissa will be enough to stay ahead of the curve? I never tried beasting through it in my PT, just because targeting only those two skills on a reset is an easy mark to hit.

[Czar_Yoshi]

If you want to stuff Lissa as much as possible, do it in Par.1. The walls of the Boss room are 1 think and there are two Archers in there, making it extremely safe and easy to get 70 heals from them (and have two Archers with broken weapons to feed to whoever you wish). If the Chest Room Archer lacks Pass, you can do it to him as well (you can do it even if he does have Pass but you'll have to stuff the corridor to stop him from moving). That's 105 heals (more if you can't heal all the damage in one shot), which is usually a good 10 levels for Lissa at least.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

What's the plan for dealing with Luna+ in Ch5? Do you figure that a powered-up Lissa will be enough to stay ahead of the curve? I never tried beasting through it in my PT, just because targeting only those two skills on a reset is an easy mark to hit.

For Lissa, I mostly just want her to be able to snatch Libra (and possibly Anna, if her Mag gets better than Libra's) from the jaws of death. This requires grabbing a lot of Mag. It's possible for Sage!Lissa to be a semi-competent fighter, so if I have a spare Master Seal to throw around later in the game, I may consider trying to use her for something. However, I currently have no plans for her beyond making C9 and P4 Rescue shenanigans more reliable.

As for Luna+, Fred should be able to tank one, but not two. I'll have to toy around with scenarios where Robin picks off a choice enemy or two and see how the formation falls in. If I can get something consistent out of that, I should be set (maybe get a Myrm in there instead, since they seem to be more likely to target Robin). For her part, Robin shouldn't have to worry about dying if a Luna+ Barb and a Luna+ Wyv decide to take a shot at her.

If you want to stuff Lissa as much as possible, do it in Par.1. The walls of the Boss room are 1 think and there are two Archers in there, making it extremely safe and easy to get 70 heals from them (and have two Archers with broken weapons to feed to whoever you wish). If the Chest Room Archer lacks Pass, you can do it to him as well (you can do it even if he does have Pass but you'll have to stuff the corridor to stop him from moving). That's 105 heals (more if you can't heal all the damage in one shot), which is usually a good 10 levels for Lissa at least.

Unfortunately, the way I'm budgeting things (which is extremely tight), I won't have the heals to spare to do that. And as much as I'd like to up her Mag, I don't think it's worth losing out on Robin's offense. I suppose I could afford to do one staff if I were to hock it instead of keeping it on hand for Fred, though. Lissa's already level 10 by C5, though, so I don't think it's gonna be a huge problem getting her up there if she gets precidence over Maribelle.

[Knusperkeks]

The reason for my support units having high staff experience gains on average is that I abused Leif's blade.

I didn't do any maths on it, but essentially, the earlier you use it, the less money you get from it, but you also gain that money earlier! I think I started using it around ~40% armsthrift and invested the money into rescue staffs.

In retrospect, I still had 2 Seraph's Robes, 3 Energy Drops, 1 Spirit Dust, 5 Secret Books, 1 Goddes Icon, 2 Dracoshields and 2 Talismans, one pair of boots(two if you count renown), 1 Naga's tear (renown) left unused in my inventory up until the very end.

Mainly because I didn't want to use them on unpromoted units in fear of wasting the item since the unit would have capped the stat by itself eventually anyway.

About earlygame: I do not think that my Miriel would have been able to tank in chapter 5 without the level boosts from paralgue 1. It would be amazing if you can somehow manage to to ch.5 before p.1.

Edit: Thanks everyone!

Also, from what I have seen, the Leif's Blade/Despoil doesn't work on enemy phase.

Edited March 6, 2015 by Knusperkeks

[eclipse]

Congratulations! Looks like "one-turn Grima's sorry ass" is still the go-to strategy.

[Knusperkeks]

Thanks! <3

Edit: Wanted to emphasize how comical your choice of words is, ecplise. I had to laugh quite a bit reading it.

Edited March 7, 2015 by Knusperkeks

[Cat1803]

I hope this doesn't count as a necro since this is a project thread but if I derped just let me know.

Inspired by KTT, I've been doing a lot of work in chapter 5 (before and after paralogue 1) and I've realized something.

If the player brings a bunch of heal/mend staves into chapter 5, Maribelle (and an undertrained Lissa) can get a lot of levels using Interceptor's Chapter 5 turtle.

The point being that one doesn't need to put off paralogue 1 until after chapter 5 to train Maribelle. I had Lissa powerleveled in Paralogue 1 and had her burn a rescue charge, and after getting rid of the two-range guys manipulated Hawkeye enemies to target Robin and Fred. My Maribelle was level 15 with B Staves by the end of it all and Demoiselle that early was really potent.

Thoughts on this as an alternative to the RNG fun of doing Chapter 5 rescue-less?

[Knusperkeks]

Thoughts on this as an alternative to the RNG fun of doing Chapter 5 rescue-less?

I think it's better to do it the way you did. Getting experience from paralogue 1 to make chapter 5 more stable.

[Cat1803]

^It especially helped that my Robin was already in Mercenary. The support points gained in paralogue 1 also helped with Avo rates for Fred and Robin. I'll do some additional testing to see if Maribelle can get stuffed even more, but I think it's somewhat reliant on how many Hawkeye enemies the game throws at the player. The whole thing did make chapter 6 far easier thanks to having an extra Physic user.

Thanks!

[Czar_Yoshi]

I think it's better to do it the way you did. Getting experience from paralogue 1 to make chapter 5 more stable.

KTT's Fred seems to be implying otherwise- that Robin's Def being too high will sink the turtle.

[Cat1803]

KTT's Fred seems to be implying otherwise- that Robin's Def being too high will sink the turtle.

Yeah, that's the one hiccup I'm trying to get around. I've been trying to get my back units to snipe the units in front of Robin and Fred until the guys attacking Fred don't have Luna, making the turtle more stable. Hopefully I can get the situation more reliable in terms of AI behavior, but sometimes only Luna+ guys want to attack Fred and Robin.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Hmm, you're sniping melee and getting more melee to fill the ranks? How are you doing it? My own experience is that if the melee get murdered, the next closest, which are usually the guys 2 tiles away from Robin and Fred, will move to fill the gap. With those spaces 2 tiles away now free, the mages decide to start taking shots at Fred.

[Cat1803]

For me the mages don't move in if Fred is at full HP. If he's taken any damage the mages go ahead and kill his face but they don't seem to want to bother if he's at full HP, even if they have Hawkeye. This puzzled me when I first came across it. The only time this isn't the case is if Robin has better Def/HP than Fred, in which case it's about 50/50 what the mages do. Considering that things go wonky in this case as is, I'm really not surprised.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Hrm, if you can get me some screenshots or a video of what you're doing, I'd like to see that. Because if I can find a way to stop the mages from attacking Fred from 2 tiles away every time there's an opening, that will add a ton of ways I can start the chapter (namely, allowing me to snipe problem enemies other than a very small, designate safe list).

[Cat1803]

No problem. I just started a new experimental file and should be to chapter 5 within the next day or so. I'll have to roll with screenshots since I'm running on the New 3DS and don't have another way to record.

I'll also try for a Sumia C Support so he could take her for the extra Res/Avo while unweaving through the mooks if need be. I did this occasionally without the C Support and it worked rather well.

I'm mostly going off of notes from my last run, so hopefully this will be repeatable with a new set of stats. I'll try to get two different saves - one with a high-Def Robin and one with a low-Def Robin - so I can get something consistent for each going.

[Alastor15243]

Hey, I'd just like to point out that your plan in the prologue for dealing with the mage not only won't work if they have luna+, but apparently also won't work (unless you get lucky with dual guards or use the more spacious right water side to back away for healing) if the mage has mag+2.

Edit: Oh shoot, does this qualify as a necro?

Edited June 5, 2015 by Alastor15243

[Czar_Yoshi]

I think this counts as a project thread so you should be safe.

[eclipse]

Hey, I'd just like to point out that your plan in the prologue for dealing with the mage not only won't work if they have luna+, but apparently also won't work (unless you get lucky with dual strikes or use the more spacious right water side to back away for healing) if the mage has mag+2.

Edit: Oh shoot, does this qualify as a necro?

As long as it's a relevant question/update to the guide itself, I don't mind.

[Interceptor]

Hey, I'd just like to point out that your plan in the prologue for dealing with the mage not only won't work if they have luna+, but apparently also won't work (unless you get lucky with dual strikes or use the more spacious right water side to back away for healing) if the mage has mag+2.

Doesn't surprise me, it's pretty old. The newer strategies are better, especially since you can conserve vulneraries for later use. If I ever win the lottery and quit my job, I'll add one of those to v2.0 for sure.

[Alastor15243]

Doesn't surprise me, it's pretty old. The newer strategies are better, especially since you can conserve vulneraries for later use. If I ever win the lottery and quit my job, I'll add one of those to v2.0 for sure.

Fair enough.

Also I want to clarify, I accidentally typed "dual strike", instead of "Dual guard". I WAS using Lissa, just like the plan said, just wanna make sure no future astute reader gets the wrong impression.

[EduSubGamer]

Hey dude your playthrough is amazing, i'm folowing it and it is great, but i have a doubt, when i started the run (PS: i'm doing this run on lunatic NOT lunatic+) my idea was to get most part of the male cast to go for Warrior class, since their SPD and DEF is high and they have counter as well, but i'm in earlygame and can this plan be good or is it a waist of time ???

Edited July 4, 2015 by EduSubGamer