LTC

[dondon151]

i don't really think you need to worry about power staff usage; there are only two maps where we determined that a use is required. i doubt any starred weapon will be in need of repairing, short of having abused vega's shramm or the canaan lance later on.

if you don't want the mug manual, you can still grab the mhp plus or the skl plus.

do you know if mug steals enemy elixirs and prevents them from being used?

[Espinosa]

Well, that's because we're still at a kind of a theorycrafting stage when it comes to the second half of the game, so we'll probably end up repairing the staff at least once unless we find a better use for the WLv Plus items (outside of giving Rebecca Repair staff access, the second best option is selling them I would argue). Before we did map 16 we didn't think we'd need to burn 3 Power staff uses, plus a POW & WLv Plus and a collection of good weapons for Yuni, but that's exactly what we did to ensure a reliable 10-turn clear. Ernest and Julius are two bosses that necessitate a Power staff charge, but there's not a whole lot of better uses for the Repair staff (Janura is one, then you have the crit Irons and Vega's Shram, perhaps the Memory staff?) so we might as well go out with it you know? Runan will surely appreciate +10 strength in chapter 37, as will others fighting against bosses or just durable enemies.

Map 23 was interesting (2-turned). The AKs had Iron Shields, giving them ridiculous durability, so I had to use my trusty Iron Lance (42 crit now) to ORKO them rather reliably (the Hammer lets Lionel 2HKO these guys but he won't double with it). Sun is great right now, sitting at 16 strength and capped speed - she's almost like Narron (I've always called her 'Narron lite' actually).

I've thought about Mug and its relation to preventing boss resurrection, but cannot offer any information on it besides speculation. I guess if nothing else, the scroll could be sold, and it never hurts to try doing something with it.

Right now it's second split time, so I'm thinking carefully whom I want in which team:

(Pretty much) obligatory:

Runan

Vega - gets Rukuud

Plum - shaves off the most turns here

Yuni - 6 move in the desert; only thief

Holmes

Shigen

Sierra - you don't get to choose I think, but either way you want her for the Plumless 1-turn clear of map 28

Attrom - recruits Renee; mine is still L5...

Raffin - since mine didn't learn Plains Fighter in map 17, he'll do it while backtracking with Holmes to the ship

Would work well:

Runan

Raffin - probably an efficiency run's best bet for fighting the dracoknights in the desert IF Plains Fighter has been learnt; can also destroy a ballistician before any can reach him due to 8 move

Lionel - at L14 still appreciates some good levelling and Runan's maps offer plenty; highly mobile, desert included.

Any and all fliers - good for killing those snipers with their long-range bows in the desert; could take some shields and lure the DKs away from Yuni and/or Runan but none of them are really ready to fight (Mahter too, in spite of being pretty competent)

Narron/Sun - highly mobile and reliable dudes; you need them so that Runan doesn't die and can advance

I don't think any mages are capable desert fighters - they're much too fragile. If only we had Rishuel...

Holmes

Loffaru - there's barely any room to grow during Holmes' 4 chapters and Loffaru hardly needs any levelling at his L25 with bad growth rates; has City Fighter for map 29 and with Mighty Guard is a good candidate for luring Shion away from the throne

Racquel - could assist in feeding Attrom some kills for that extra point of move

Besides these, Maerhen and Lyria deserve some thought. Lyria is probably best for Runan's maps because there are also some enemies with a crapload of shields that Runan might appreciate being able to ORKO (23 strength after a boost is no joke). Then again, Runan is probably stuck with a Shield sword/Main gauche just to try to survive in those enemy phase heavy maps.

[dondon151]

i don't think 3 power staff uses are necessary in map 16 ._. who would need it outside of yuni and maerhen? it's moot now that you're past the map, but i still have to consider it.

anyway, holmes route needs maerhen to 4-turn chapter 27, which could be a little frustrating since maerhen's positioning to get the chests requires you to put him in mug range of your allies or in enemy attack range - either way, it's bad. on my file i will take lionel with holmes if he hasn't grown mov. i agree with sending loffarl with holmes, since you probably only want 1 mounted unit for chapters 27 and 29. sun and narron should go with runan for chapters 24 and 25. fliers (raffin, sasha, mahter) should go with runan.

one mage for the desert will be nice because he can detour for rebecca. that way, the fliers can concentrate on dealing with the dracos and the snipers. there's really no harm in having both, though.

(the rest of my post got eaten again... i was just saying that i had L17.34 mahter going into chapter 21 and she will probably get a super proof.)

EDIT: random thought - wouldn't renee's anti-evil staff be really good in chapter 37? or does it not remove the dracozombies?

Edited June 16, 2013 by dondon151

[Espinosa]

Besides the thieves, I gave Lionel a Power Staff boost, allowing him to OHKO any sperm with Pilium (when out of range) / Slim Lance (to avoid being doubled and reduce risk of death) / Iron Lance (for highest accuracy). Though unpromoted, he had 6 move and could therefore preceed Holmes and clear the enemies who would otherwise make unlimited navigation impossible. If you're training Barts, at 10/1 he should have 23.1 atk, 114 hit with a Scissor Axe (could either try stealing one with Yuni or buy one right before the map), so Lionel could help out in the northeastern corner instead and train there.

You could argue that nobody actually NEEDS the Power staff boost in map 16, but it helps all 3 recepients in my case. Yuni OHKOing sperms makes her progress more possible, and Maerhen is less likely to die if he counterkills whatever engages him (he can still get doubled if he whiffs with the Estoc). Vega can KO anything with Shram and one-rounds the boss with what seems to be just one strength proc and is therefore the best combat unit for this map.

Crap, I forgot about needing Maerhen to open the other three chests. Yeah, that leaves no choice then (can hardly imagine him following Runan though). I wonder if there's any sense in trying to get Maerhen to rob Shion - with Lyria's Power staff (which is probably more useful in Runan's chapters), he can rob Shion of his Dragon Spear, Goddess Shield and Magic Shield, which is quite a haul. He might want to take a WLv Plus to wield some stronger swords though, because 23 atk with Estoc after a boost is a bit too low, being his most accurate option. He should mug you plenty of Steel Lances in map 27 though, lol.

Concerning facing the DKs in the desert without a magical Thunder Sword build, if you exploit Lyria, you need 7 AS to double everybody including the boss DK, or 14 AGI with a Pilium. Besides the super-bulky boss (who still has 0 res), you need 35 atk to 2HKO, or 15 strength with a Pilium and Lyria's help. Hard to reach for Mahter, but not nearly as hard to Raffin (mine going with Holmes) and Sasha (I have one at like L4). Base Frau is a decent flier in a pinch. I need to rig two STR level-ups for Mahter to 2HKO all DKs besides the boss.

That's a higher-levelled Mahter than mine; your exp distribution always perplexes me (how about raising a competent Sasha without diminishing Narron, Raffin and Runan's performance). I guess it's because you gave all the mummy kills to Mahter before map 20 though (could be wrong). Welp, at least my Mahter will take the flute once she joins Runan's team again.

[dondon151]

you guessed correctly in that i sent lionel to the top right to train him and clear the way for maerhen; i also sent zeek with him for a little support in case he missed.

i gave all but one of the mummy kills to sun; the last one went to mahter. in the first encounter i had thunder sword mahter gain ~2 levels by soloing the right side of the map, which ate up half of a thunder sword. she was slightly mag blessed and had the requisite 10 mag (or was it 11?) to ORKO all of the ogres.

mugging shion is ambitious, but i ultimately think it's kind of pointless since the dragon spear is far from necessary and his shields aren't terribly useful.

oh, i just remembered something else that got eaten in my last post! chapter 24 looks like it can barely be 6-turned by SF runan, but he needs a dance on the first turn and will walk into a mob of enemies. with the power staff, he might be strong enough to ORKO the enemies that he can counter if he uses a shield sword.

and do you know if my anti-evil staff idea works for chapter 37?

Edited June 16, 2013 by dondon151

[Espinosa]

Yeah, by map 37 there are too many effective weapons to deal with monsters anyway.

The Shield Sword gives him 30 atk. Sounds impressive, but I'm pretty sure many of the enemies near the starting position have shields. Still, Runan has Continue and isn't that far from RISING DRAGON. He might need a Charm or two, too, but this map also feels like the best application for those (I think I sold one of the ones I had, and I made sure Krisheenu and Maruju don't waste theirs dying in their starting maps).

The Anti-Evil staff doesn't seem to be Renee's Prf weapon, and it can definitely remove Dracozombies. Could prove to be very destructive, but Plum is busy dancing Runan on turn 1 and Runan is already in range of most of them when he full-moves twice after a dance. Maybe it's Rebecca and not Sierra who wants to eat all of our MAG Plus items? If she eats two stat boosters, she should wipe out 6 extra monsters (if I'm understanding the properties of the staff correctly).

[dondon151]

you can have rebecca, lyria, and enteh triple-use the staff on turn 1.

EDIT: huh, i just realized that plum can't use dance on neuron. that's new!

so i think that witches prefer to attack units that are within walking distance, but i'm not sure. i tested to see if the sorcerors prioritize damage, but they prefer to attack 13 mag zeek instead of 2 mag holmes, and there's no way to nullify their damage completely because zeek's max mag is 15.

so i guess there's no way to 5-turn chapter 21 after all.

Edited June 17, 2013 by dondon151

[dondon151]

sweet! i 6-turned chapter 24. your shield sword idea worked like a charm. runan might want an amulet just in case he gets hit by a stonehenge and the shield sword doesn't boost his def very much. the power staff on runan didn't do much, but it helps him ORKO the poleaxe axe knight on turn 1 when narron and sun charge in (no pun intended). i had raffin, mahter, and sasha fly in with thunder swords and estocs on turn 2 and start killing the ballistae.

on turn 2 EP, the dismounted fliers are at risk of dying if hit consecutively by stonehenge, so they need shields or amulets. after turn 3, most of them should be dead, so it's not a problem.

onto chapter 25. i bought 4 door keys after the map just in case.

EDIT: okay, i had forgotten to tutor FF to yuni, so i couldn't really test out the itemfinding strategy. the enemy DKs do indeed move once you pass a certain point on the map, though i couldn't figure out where. i had all 3 of my fliers occupied with killing bow knights and opening doors (because, wow, mounted units really are totally worthless on this map), so i don't know how many resources you can afford to divert down for the DKs. again, runan ran through the map with the shield sword most of the time.

i used quite a bit of thunder sword on the map because mahter needed it to ORKO the quick rain ballista and the armors.

chapter 26 is kind of a bitch... i didn't send vega with holmes the first time around, so he never promoted, and i couldn't get the rukuud. runan needs 10 agi to double the horse thief that he has to face with the shield sword, or he could switch to the rapier and equip a shield instead. plum needs at least an amulet as insurance against stonehenges. katri's zombie staff would actually be useful here because they can divert enemy fire. vega needs 13 str to cleanly 2HKO renshien with shramm, which should prevent him from dying if renshien gets a crit. (or you can use the master sword.)

chapter 27: easy. sierra used 2 agi pluses, ORKO'd the boss, then used a mag plus. maerhen needed a 1 use leather shield to survive turn 1 EP, but the middle of the ship was cleared after turn 2.

chapter 28: i was dumb and didn't get sylpheed, so i had to rig either a mag or an agi level up on sierra in the previous chapter in order for her to ORKO the boss with thunder or janura.

Edited June 17, 2013 by dondon151

[Espinosa]

One way of making the DPs attack Holmes is by targeting him with Katri's breath so that he's about to die, and then rig his EP to dodge the spells. Evil Worm is hardly the most accurate tome so it shouldn't be too bad. Not sure about the rest of the variables though. If you could clone Katri, then we'd talk.

Glad to hear that the Shield Sword comes so handy for Runan's 2nd split chapters - they were part of the reason why I seriously considered Lee as my first pick.

My Vega does have exactly 13 strength, but I think Master Sword might be a better idea to avoid the counter entirely. Then again, there's the Memory staff. Not having Raffin or a good Sasha on Runan's path will haunt me I fear, but at least I have a 9 move Lionel (who could smash the doors before Runan).

Going to mourn the second AGI Plus in map 28 ('rigging' a Death crit is far easier after 2 SKL Ups though), but I think I've already said that 10 times in this thread.

[dondon151]

are you sure that they will target holmes? AI can be really stupid...

having katri hit holmes might prove to be very hard to do, but that's something that i will keep in mind the next time i get to chapter 21. an alternative is to just let the monster enemies hit him a couple of times (give him a gatling bow for good measure).

master sword isn't necessary on holmes's map. you get one from the chapter 28 boss anyway.

chapter 29: i can confirm that this can be done with base attrom and no-CF holmes in 3 turns. the tricky part is manipulating renee into going to the right place on turn 2 so that she can warp holmes after attrom recruits her. she has 5 mov due to CF, so there are only 4 tiles to which she can go. some of the enemies over there behave oddly and like to run away from sierra instead of attack her - i couldn't figure out if this behavior was consistent. i had success with rewarping sierra to the tile above the top left archer and killing him on turn 1 PP. the hammer axe knight and the mage ran away, but the bow knight on the bottom right stayed in place for some reason. renee warped the other archer on turn 1 EP. on turn 2, sierra killed the hammer axe knight and stood in renee's path such that she could only warp the archer that stayed in place on turn 1. this put holmes in her range on turn 3.

i'm sure there are other possible configurations, and i can't say if this will work again if we tried it out. but it can certainly be done.

loffarl took a pow plus and 2HKO'd shion with the dolharken.

chapter 30: tutored sierra gale, warpskip, blah blah blah. can chapter 30 and morse tower be skipped? i really don't feel like doing morse tower. honestly i think i'll just warpskip it and repair the warp staff later.

[Espinosa]

In my experience, if somebody is close to death, they won't be ignored. The only exception is Witches - I had a Lionel standing with 8 HP and neither of the two Witches in map 16 warped to finish him off.

Enemies don't like attacking units they can't hit or ones that will kill them without suffering any (significant) damage - e.g. Rishel with Sunflame, Gale and a Magic staff boost will rarely be attacked on EP. Also, if you remember the chapter 1 boss, that guy will hit whoever does NOT have Estoc/Rapier - ignoring the defensive parameters and the presence of shields and just hit the unit who doesn't counterkill him.

I'm not sure if my Attrom will even promote on time for chapter 29, but it's good to hear you can 3-turn without City Fighter. Sierra's stats could be a variable that provides some explanation to the enemy behaviour. Will they still ignore her if she attacks with something other than Janura?

Also, keep a save before tutoring Sierra Gale just in case this decision results in Sierra being ignored too.

I don't think Morse Tower can be skipped, but why not give Sierra, Holmes and others some levels? But yeah, Warpskip is the way to go if you care about your turncount in the non-storyline maps.

[dondon151]

i never tried not using janura because sierra dies too easily and the test wouldn't be possible.

it's not so much that i want to LTC the non-storyline maps - though it's odd for an LTC to justify taking one's time like that - i just don't want to deal with the tower. it's kind of a waste of time.

[Espinosa]

All those 0% growth runs must have spoilt you, lol. You're too used to skipping as much of the game as possible. Though in the case of Morse Tower, that's a decent reason to send extra units together with Holmes, even if Runan has the most demanding chapters of the two. If you can grow Shigen into a decent enough unit to warpskip Holmes's 3rd split maps (or even Holmes himself) with his bosskilling capacity so that Runan has all the best fighters for map 37, then by all means go for it. It kinda helps that Renee is able to warp any fighter to any part of the map in the final chapter, but I'm finding an efficient clear of that hard to imagine exactly until I get there.

By the way, is there any point to killing Shion with Loffaru besides the bosskill exp? I find it hard to believe you took two hits with Dolharken and survived the EP (though I guess some enemies won't double Loffaru when he's weighed down by it so the damage reduction kinda works, but I'd rather have more avo with a lighter weapon).

Speaking of 0% growths, I wonder how one would go in this game. Characters like Raffin, Narron and Zeek would grow obsolete with time, while Sun, Sasha and Lionel would never really be any good. Maps like C16 would be more or less the same while defensively demanding maps would be hellish.

[dondon151]

you don't get very many units with good bases in this game. zeek's bases are among the best, so i doubt he'll grow obsolete. narron's bases are among the best after his promotion to gold knight. raffin also has decent bases after his promo - they're about as good as roger's.

we might want to invoke the "recruit everyone" clause, which gets us mel, roger, samson, mintz, and rishel (as well as narcus, who i heard can transform). a lot of maps will play out similarly, but some of the later bosskills probably won't work, and chapters 18 and 24 in particular sound nearly impossible - how do we kill barbarossa? we'll need at least narron and zeek for that.

i had loffarl engage shion a few tiles above the door on the left side of the map where he didn't have to face any enemies aside from an armor knight. lionel ran up the middle for the EXP and died on a couple of attempts because i got ambitious.

after morse tower, since i neglected to tutor PF to raffin, i'm going to restart, maybe make my own topic so i'll stop cluttering yours.

[Espinosa]

Yeah, Narron and Raffin are still very good, but only in relation to the rest of the cast - their performance still takes a dive down, and they will not clear maps as quickly. Killing Barbarossa sounds impossible efficiencty - anybody targeting him will get doubled and, if not given shields/charms, ORKO'd. Depending on the amount of rigging involved, Zeek has 49 atk with the Hammer at base, which is 98 critical atk - more than enough to OHKO Barbarossa. Just hitting him is hard enough though, to say nothing of getting the crit.

And you're welcome to log your new file here since it follows the topic outlined in the title - but it's your choice.

I'm about to do the Sealed Bridge. Goals include, besides having Shigen die, getting Attrom a couple levels (might be a waste of exp, as idk how much combat he will participate in in map 29) and a strength level for Mahter so that she can rambo the DKs in the desert with Lyria's help and some shields - if she's even doing that. Should also plan carefully what items will be carried by each characters because Holmes's items cannot be accessed by Runan's team unless you transfer them through specific characters. And Runan essentially has all the best characters you can get, though I'll leave Loffaru, Raffin, Racquel (she can really fight after those Elite levels; wonder if Anti-Evil will be of any help later on) and Lionheart (Runan doesn't care about him at all) with Holmes.

Also, map 29 doesn't look like it can be any 2-turned in any possible universe, even with 5 move Plum, 7 move Attrom and 6 move Holmes. How would one kill Shion too (besides getting really lucky with Sierra, but I still can't imagine it).

[dondon151]

sierra can ORKO shion if you give her a mag plus and 2 agi pluses and she gets 3 straight agi levels in a row on the 27, 28, and 29 bosses (or 3 out of 4 levels). it's definitely possible. the bigger problem is that i'm pretty certain that renee will definitely be out of holmes's range after turn 1 no matter where sierra goes.

holmes's team really needs next to nothing. you technically don't even need to kill shion. chapter 27 enemies are super chump and chapter 29 is an EXP grind for your foot units. unless you have plans for it elsewhere, i recommend that you bring the salia tome with holmes and glue it to sierra to increase her likelihood of gaining skl and agi on level up. you don't even need sylpheed to ORKO the chapter 28 boss if you give sierra a mag plus and a fire tome!

Edited June 17, 2013 by dondon151

[Espinosa]

Yeah, I've been thinking about the Salia tome and Sierra is easily the best candidate - worst growths and biggest demand for level-ups in, like, all stats but strength (even her luck could use some work).

Since I derped and missed an AGI Plus, I either need to rig a Death crit on the C28 boss or get a level up in both magic and speed to double and 2HKO with Thunder. I'm not sure if Sierra is able to level up twice in C27 - if she can, two AGI level-ups and a Fire tome also do the job (assuming one of each AGI Plus and MAG Plus are used).

Morse Tower is also a good time to train Holmes - after all, he has to take down the final boss. There are others though (Runan should be pretty beastly), and even base level Holmes should be neither doubled nor OHKO'd by the last boss. We're also probably savescumming (passing it around perhaps) and waiting for crits too.

[dondon151]

WRT the final boss, don't you also have sennet and tia to help kill him?

[Espinosa]

Yeah, they have to be adjacent to the boss the moment the boss's HP reaches 0 whether they're fighting or not. Tia will probably be the only one of the four Lords able to double and with the best crit rate, while Sennet has Life or Death if it's possible to get him low on HP (with a Charm or something) beforehand. There's 3-way Charisma and high crit rates on the legendary blades so I expect that an efficient completion will revolve around getting the crits at an appropriate time (not too early but within the same turn).

[dondon151]

Ah, fuck it, I'm not going to make a new topic.

Chapter 1

Turn 1: Runan learns Sea Fighter.

Obtained: Iron Sword+, WLV Plus, Amulet, Leather Shield (4), 2x Herb

Kate ORKO'd the boss with an Estoc crit on turn 5 EP. She has 25 crit with Sasha's support in range. It's impossible for Runan to engage the boss before turn 6 EP because of how Kate moves as an NPC.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Runan 2.00
Arkis 2.14
Kreiss 2.76
Garo 7.20
Kate 3.46 23 6 8 9 5 0 3 6
Sasha 1.48

Cleared in 6 turns.

Chapter 2

Recruited Narron at Verge.

Assignments:
Herb - Raffin
He's bound to get damaged at some point.
Iron Sword+ - Narron
Narron's going to be finishing a lot of kills, which is ideal for building up crit.

Formation:
Raffin, Narron, Estelle, Arkis, Garo, Kreiss

Obtained: MHP Plus, 2x Gold Bag, Poleaxe, Lan's Mirror

I spent a lot of effort feeding kills to Raffin and Narron. Raffin also helped set up 2 kills for Runan as he walked to the gate. I was considering giving Runan the bosskill too, but Raffin also needs the EXP and he precisely 2HKOs the boss with Needle Spear at base.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Runan 2.98
Arkis 2.42
Kreiss 3.33 24 7 6 5 6 0 4 5
Garo 7.20
Raffin 8.92 29 9 9 7 8 0 3 10
Estelle 2.80
Narron 5.80 23 9 4 5 5 1 7 7
Julia 2.19 22 4 10 11 3 0 5 9
Barts 3.50
Enteh 2.48
Plum 1.00

Cleared in 9 turns.

Chapter 3

Assignments:
Hand Lance - Raffin
Raffin can counter a bunch of enemies on turn 1 EP.
Killing Edge - Raffin
Lets Raffin ORKO the Leather Shield horse knight.

Formation:
Sasha, Narron, Arkis, Kreiss, Estelle, Raffin, Barts, Julia

Obtained: Knight Proof, Canto Manual, Super Proof, LUK Plus, Iron Lance+, Bowgun, Leather Shield (2), Gold Bag

With this unit formation, I could blitz the enemy cavaliers easily, leaving most of my units free to chase down the horse thief reinforcements later. This was a lot easier than the first time I tried this chapter. Raffin didn't have the AS to double the enemies with a Javelin, which is actually good, since he wouldn't need a Leather Shield to stay alive that way. Raffin ORKO'd the boss with the Needle Spear. I even had Sasha take two kills! Unfortunately, Runan couldn't get anything because the enemies were too far away from the house that he had to visit.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Runan 2.98
Arkis 3.52 23 5 6 7 4 0 4 3
Kreiss 3.91
Sasha 2.57 19 3 3 6 2 2 7 5
Raffin 10.81 30 11 10 7 9 1 5 11
Estelle 3.32 22 5 4 5 4 0 5 3
Narron 7.88 25 10 5 6 5 1 7 8
Julia 2.84 22 4 10 11 3 0 5 9
Barts 3.96
Enteh 3.20 15 0 6 8 1 7 7 8

Cleared in 5 turns.

Chapter 4

Formation:
Julia, Plum, Barts, Arkis, Raffin, Kreiss, Narron, Sasha

Obtained: Healing Fruit, Physic, Scimitar

It really kind of doesn't matter where people start, because this map is so laid back. Narron got a bunch of kills over on the left hand side of the map, but I forgot to bring the Knight Proof with me, so he didn't promote. He ended up pulling Roger to the left side of the map. Mahter spent most of the map either setting up kills for Runan, Narron, or Sasha, or attacking Mel for EXP. Sasha got one kill before having to detour for Racquel and Runan got one kill as well. I feel like I could have done better and gotten Sasha another kill, especially since she started in the lead position, but it probably won't matter too much in the end.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Runan 3.40 23 6 6 9 4 0 5 5
Arkis 4.04 24 5 6 7 4 0 4 3
Kreiss 4.16 25 8 6 5 7 0 4 6
Sasha 3.25 19 3 3 7 3 2 7 5
Raffin 11.50 31 11 11 7 9 1 6 11
Narron 10.16 27 12 5 7 6 1 9 9
Julia 2.98
Barts 4.21 29 9 6 10 6 0 1 8
Enteh 4.12 15 0 6 8 1 8 8 8
Plum 2.00 19 0 2 3 1 4 7 4
Mahter 4.07 22 7 8 11 4 8 6 5
Vega 4.40
Racquel 11.00

Cleared in 11 turns.

Chapter 5

Assignments:
Canto Manual - Racquel
Zeek needs to use the Canto Manual to 3-turn chapter 6, and given the formation below, Racquel is the best unit to pass the item.
Knight Proof - Narron
Promotion! It really doesn't matter in this map.

Formation:
Racquel, Plum, Raffin, Narron, Vega, Barts

Turn 1: Promoted Narron to Gold Knight.
Turn 2: Used Canto Manual on Zeek.

Most units won't see combat in this chapter, so deploying, for example, Sasha is pointless. Racquel leaves the boss with 1 HP with the Master Bow and anyone can finish him off. Giving Zeek a Hand Lance might be necessary depending on how the dark mages move.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Runan 3.99
Raffin 11.58
Narron 10.16 35 18 12 14 11 1 9 13
Barts 4.21
Enteh 4.12
Plum 2.24
Vega 4.40
Racquel 11.32
Zeek 5.40
Maruj 1.53

Cleared in 3 turns.

Chapter 6

Assignments:
Estoc - Mahter
Mahter needs the Estoc to ORKO the ballista near where she starts out.
Estoc - Raffin
Raffin uses the Estoc to weaken an armor knight for Runan's kill.
Steel Sword - Mahter
Mahter needs either this or the Iron Lance+ to ORKO enemies that she can train on.
Needle Spear - Zeek
Zeek's crit rate is through the roof with Life or Death, so the Needle Spear raises it even further.

Formation:
Narron, Barts, Zeek, Mahter, Sasha, Vega, Maruj, Raffin

The units in slots 9 and 10 don't matter.

Obtained: Pegasus Flute

Mahter's starting position lets her kill 4 enemies in this map for a good bit of EXP. Vega's str is low enough that he puts soldiers in Sasha's KO range, so this lets Sasha grab a kill on turn 1 PP and another kill on turn 2 EP. Raffin and Narron charged down the bridge and helped Runan get an armor knight kill.

Zeek getting hit by the Fire mage is the easiest way to drain his HP so that Life or Death boosts his crit rate. If he gets hit twice and doesn't gain def on level up, he needs a Leather Shield to not get killed by the boss. Using this strategy, Zeek can get ~77 crit with a Needle Spear. He needs to crit twice or crit once and proc Adept to ORKO. This is a good time to use the Memory Staff.

Thanks to Espinosa for figuring out how to shave off a turn in this map compared to the ChinaFE LTC.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Runan 4.55 23 7 7 9 4 0 6 5
Sasha 4.31 20 4 4 8 3 2 8 5
Raffin 11.66
Narron 10.74
Barts 4.50
Enteh 4.12
Mahter 5.38 22 7 8 12 4 8 7 6
Vega 4.96
Zeek 7.66 33 15 11 13 11 8 9 11
Maruj 1.99

Cleared in 3 turns.

Chapter 7

Assignments:
Needle Spear - Raffin
This is the most reliable way to try to kill the boss.

Formation:
Mel, Racquel, Raffin, Mahter, Zeek, Plum, Sasha, Narron, Vega, Barts

Turn 1: Sasha learns Arena Fighter.

Obtained: Armorslayer, Bridge Key, Thunder, Sword Breaker

Basically, Narron, Raffin, and Zeek charged through the map. Narron left the armors alive for Vega and Barts to pick off, then the infantry spent the rest of the chapter tinking the wood shooter. I never actually had to use Zeek at all during the chapter. Runan picked off an armor knight on his way to the gate; Mahter spent the first two turns in the arena, then Sasha took over. I tried to give the bosskill to Raffin by fishing for a Needle Spear crit, but that didn't work out, so Narron got the bosskill instead.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Runan 5.22 23 7 7 10 4 0 7 6
Sasha 6.43 21 4 5 9 3 2 9 5
Raffin 12.58 32 11 11 8 9 1 6 12
Narron 12.90 36 20 12 15 11 1 10 13
Barts 5.34 30 9 6 10 7 0 2 8
Enteh 4.78
Plum 2.72
Mahter 6.88 22 8 9 12 4 8 8 6
Vega 6.05 28 7 13 14 5 2 5 10
Racquel 11.96
Zeek 7.66
Thomas 3.00

Cleared in 6 turns.

I bought 6x Pilum, 1x Steel Sword, and 1x Steel Lance from the armory.

Narron might be extremely str-blessed. Sasha's level is a little low without 4 extra turns of arena compared to when I recruited Roger previously, but I think she can make it with careful favoritism in chapter 8. Barts might prove to be unable to make it to promotion before chapter 16, but Vega is closer. Chapter 8 is coming up next and I have to figure out how I can reach targets.

Edited June 18, 2013 by dondon151

[Espinosa]

Great job with the log, good detail - I feel like I was watching you play. In chapter 5's description, you mean to say that Zeek will 3-turn chapter 6, though, might want to correct that.

You did a far better job at distributing exp in chapter 6 too, and good Lord @ 20 strength Narron. Yours has more power than mine going into chapter 24 (though mine has capped agility).

From what I've observed, there are some surplus Wood Shields that you don't really need much so feel free to give them to units who require training (like Sasha) so that they can take a more ambitious enemy phase. Probably the best usage for them.

A question about your previous run: did Raffin had time to do anything after learning Plains Fighter? And were you able to get all the items from the enemies besides a Pilium (including Quick Rain)? I actually had to kill the boss with Kreiss because Narron, Sasha and Raffin were busy getting all the items, and I would've missed some of the drops/the Wisdom Proof if I had tutored PF. My Sasha couldn't do much besides help break the shields and visit the Wisdom Proof house.

[dondon151]

i forgot to tutor PF to raffin in my previous run, so i can't answer that. i wasn't able to get all of the items anyway because i had sasha kill the boss. i didn't think that quick rain would be very useful, but i'll remember to give sasha an estoc next time for the ballista.

you shouldn't need a flier to get the saint proof. a 5 move foot unit (best candidate: julia) can pretty easily walk over there in 5 turns. meriah starting in position 3 might also be able to make it across the river (i don't know if mages can cross those pebble tiles) and nuke an enemy on turns 4 and 5.

i tried to un-rig narron's str and he still gained str. well, it's his highest non-HP growth, though it's still only 35%.

[Espinosa]

Good point, and my Julia wasn't doing a whole lot after grabbing the Thunder Sword. Meriah helped deal with the Great Knights on my run, and I think also chipped at the boss so that Kreiss could finish him off and enable the seize. Quick Rain was useful for breaking into the fortress in map 18, in a situation where I lacked a good Sasha.

Higher Str growths than Narron:

55% - Sennet, Zeek

50% - Tia

40% - Attrom, Garo, Norton, Rennie

And that's it, so Narron has the best strength potential in the game (losing to two Athoses, an Orson, an archer Est, two thwomps and a sword dude with problems of growing).

[Espinosa]

Chapter 7 in 6 turns. Runan is fed 4 kills.

Really sorry about the animations - turned them off completely after this map (I thought second option would only show bosses and promoted enemies, but it seems that everything besides soldiers, bandits, archers and monsters is shown that way).

Edited June 18, 2013 by Espinosa

[dondon151]

Chapter 8

Assignments:
Estoc - Raffin
Raffin can ORKO zombies with this because he's kind of slow.

Formation:
Sasha, Zeek, Vega, Plum, Racquel, Narron, Mahter, Raffin

Turn 9: Promoted Sasha to Pegasus Knight.

Obtained: Iron Shield (4), AGI Plus, Knight Proof

Sasha, Vega, Racquel, and Zeek went up the left side of the map to help Sasha train. Zeek didn't fight at all at the beginning and was only used to influence the zombies in the swamp to approach Sasha. He got a couple of kills against the sword bandits, because why not.

Narron and Raffin went up the middle of the map to pick off most of the zombies near the gate. I prioritized kills on Raffin because Narron doesn't really need them. I set up two zombie kills for Runan, but he missed one of them. Mahter flew around the map and got convenient kills that were out of range of other units. I tried not to use Xeno at all, so kills that he would have gotten mostly went to Mahter.

Sasha had enough AS to double Zombies with an Iron Sword, and I fed her a mummy kill. After the reinforcements started to appear, Sasha had no problem reaching L10 to learn Paragon.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Runan 5.82
Sasha 12.26 25 7 8 16 4 9 11 8
Raffin 13.38 33 11 11 8 9 1 6 13
Narron 13.70 36 20 12 15 12 2 11 13
Enteh 5.00 15 0 6 8 1 8 9 8
Plum 2.72
Mahter 9.88 22 9 10 13 5 9 10 7
Vega 8.11 29 8 13 15 5 2 6 11
Racquel 12.82 25 12 17 17 7 0 8 17
Zeek 8.66 34 16 12 14 12 9 9 11
Xeno 1.00
Yuni 1.00
Katri 1.00

Cleared in 10 turns.

I just realized that I'm not going to have enough Hero Proofs to promote Barts, Vega, and Shigen before chapter 16, so I'm going to ditch Barts.