LTC

[Espinosa]

Yeah agreed, I also felt the POW Plus on Yuni was a bit of a misinvestment considering most sperms she fights are at >1/2 mHP anyway.

I've been thinking about backtracking to map 17 instead of map 14, and tutoring Raffin Plains Fighter. Don't want to lose my progress and I'm more or less comfortable with the other decisions I made, besides losing 1 turn in map 21 but I'm loading a hard save so I don't know if I want to re-do that - I'd have to return several maps back to my latest save state for that map.

Also,

Lionel with 9 move OHKOing Zachariah with an Armorslayer on turn 1 just now. Without a Power staff boost!

Now the only question is if I'm okay going back several maps to 5-turn map 21. Hmmm.

ACTUALLY i just had another idea for chapter 35. warp sierra next to julius with an amulet. have her attack julius on turn 1 PP (or not attacking works fine either, since sierra's hit just barely scrapes 50 at best). when julius attacks her on turn 1 EP, as long as she has <35 combined HP + def, the amulet will prevent her from taking damage. once she connects her counter with sylpheed, julius's double attack is blocked. KO on turn 2 PP. there's a bishop behind julius, but sierra gets 3 chances to attack, so even assuming that this doesn't work exactly as planned, one could use something more reliable like a repeater bow instead of the gatling bow.

Why do the counter though? If you assume that Julius loses 30 avo on EP that is, which I'm pretty sure can't be the case because he's a Dragon Lord and therefore gets his avo from stats alone. I say just do the job on turn 2 PP because there's less work to be done that way and you get to keep your Amulets for chapter 37.

Edited June 24, 2013 by Espinosa

[dondon151]

do it!

fuck you and your 9 mov lionel lol... i have to blow another 7000G on a tutor, thus exhausting my funds (well, holmes still has 3 gold bags for another tutor). i really regret not keeping a save after chapter 15. at least now everything is easier because i have the formations written down.

EDIT: also, my pilum purchases in chapter 8 were, like, perfect. holmes's team is short 1 pilum but mahter doesn't need it in chapter 21 and zeek can just use a hand lance instead. i think there's a fair chance that i may not need to buy anything else for the entire game.

Edited June 24, 2013 by dondon151

[Espinosa]

iirc one of the two procs Lionel got occurred in the pre-map 20 caves... So if I go back to my map 17 save, I lose that and have to re-do a lot of chapters and probably have to pay 14K gold for both Plum's and either Lionel's or Sun's Plains Fighter, money which I simply do not have unless I sell a lot of items that I like having. I also didn't send the first Magic shield together with Holmes, nor the Lan mirror, so my chances of 5-turning map 21 will probably be less than 10%. Right now I'm inclined to re-do just maps 22 & 23, otherwise I feel like we're never reaching those lategame maps we have been theorycrafting so thoroughly and will be stuck in permanent grandjackal Sansara of re-doing the same earlier maps until the work can be seen on our fingertips. Better be progress and check if the desert items plan works.

Edited June 24, 2013 by Espinosa

[dondon151]

nah i think we'll be good after this. this is the last major revision possible to the plan. there's no possible way to shave more turns, i'm pretty sure.

i don't really have much doubt that the chapter 25 plan will work fine. the one change that i'm doing this time around is that i'll actually be using frau. the WLV plus obtained on holmes's route will give her the wlv to use a thunder sword, which will allow her to operate functionally on the top half of the map (i don't remember how much AS they have, though; they need to have at most -1 AS so that frau can double at base). raffin can then concern himself with taking on the draco brothers.

Why do the counter though? If you assume that Julius loses 30 avo on EP that is, which I'm pretty sure can't be the case because he's a Dragon Lord and therefore gets his avo from stats alone. I say just do the job on turn 2 PP because there's less work to be done that way and you get to keep your Amulets for chapter 37.

i know that you're just going to use master sword lionel, but i need to use loffarl, and i'd much rather rely on as few necessary hits as possible. hitting julius twice with sylpheed puts him in OHKO range of a master bow, giving loffarl 2 chances to KO (with hit rates of ~35). if sierra gains 1 more mag on base, loffarl can use a bowgun instead, pushing his hit rate up to 50.

Edited June 24, 2013 by dondon151

[dondon151]

redid chapters 9 and 10 and manipulated the absence of an encounter prior to chapter 12. raffin and sasha are slightly worse than before, but narron's skl and agi are above average and he's even more insanely str blessed than he was the last time around.

well, i'm not complaining. as long as it makes barbarossa easier.

[Espinosa]

Didn't we find out that dropping Sasha in Loffaru's support range is possible on turn 2 (I assume Plum needs to dance her on the last turn)? That should boost Loffaru's hit rates to far higher numbers than Lionel could hope for (since his best support is like... Norton? lol). Sierra needing to connect two attacks instead of one just doesn't sound like a better alternative variable to me, but maybe it's just because you didn't contrast the probablities of success here.

Frau isn't a bad character at all. Thunder Sword with a WLv Plus and high base AS is nice, and she even has pretty high base strength if you compare her to Mahter. If you were somehow not interested in training Sun, you could get Mahter to promotion range within the mummy map alone. It's probably worth thinking about not feeding Mahter too many kills before the split since Frau does some of the same things anyway, focusing on Vega and Barst/Sasha instead.

[dondon151]

no, it's not possible. sasha is 2 tiles short. (unless plum has CF, but we're not teaching her that...)

frau is only backup for chapter 25 since the demand for fliers is high. she might be moderately useful for chapter 24 too. other than that, we don't really need much of anyone for the rest of the game except for some good bosskillers.

Edited June 25, 2013 by dondon151

[dondon151]

replayed up to chapter 13. i redid the tail end of chapter 10 again so that narron isn't so monstrously blessed in his important stats. better kill allocation means that shigen and vega are closer to L10 going into chapter 14 and won't cut it so close this time around.

[dondon151]

update again: restored the run up to chapter 17. i don't think i'm really any better off for chapter 18... i'm considering using the SKL plus on narron, which will have minor repercussions on sierra in the long run, but it increases narron's hit rate on both attacks against barbarossa and it reduces his sol proc rate.

chapter 16 went more smoothly this time. i did have a couple of runs ruined because the boss decided not to attack vega for some reason.

EDIT: soldiered through chapter 19 this time. chapter 18 went really well. narron's hit rate against barbarossa was pretty good; only one run got ruined due to a pavise proc.

EDIT 2: awww, i was hoping that chapter 23 could be 1-turned with a couple of forest fighter tutors, but fliers are still 1 tile short.

Edited June 27, 2013 by dondon151

[Espinosa]

Map 9 in 5 turns.

Agreed with dondon that this is one of the tougher maps.

[MacLovin]

oh god that map is hell in a draft if you don't have 2 mounts with good combat.

[dondon151]

oh yay i finally caught back up! after the agony of multiple failures on chapter 21 (i failed for about an hour straight), i revise my decision on the save staff: send it with holmes. plum should be able to use it on turn 4.

unless you find a way to 1-turn chapter 23, there's no more backtracking from here on out.

Chapter 22

Assignments:
Killing Edge - Sun
Sun needs at least 12 str and 16 agi to ORKO the boss with a Power Staff charge and a critical.

Formation:
Sun, ..., (4) Mahter, ..., (6) Lionel, Plum, Frau, Lyria

With PF on Plum and Sun, Zachariah can attack Sun on turn 1 EP. Sun ORKO'd him with a KE critical.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Holmes 12.30
Mahter 16.67
Katri 3.20
Lionel 13.31
Plum 8.45
Frau 2.06 25 7 5 12 5 8 9 5
Sun 15.99 32 14 17 16 12 5 6 15
Lyria 5.37
Leonhart 12.20

Cleared in 1 turn.

Chapter 23

Assignments:
Thunder Sword - Mahter
Mahter needs at least 11 mag and 15 agi to ORKO the boss with a Thunder Sword.

Formation:
Shigen, Lionel, ..., (5) Sun, Frau, Lyria, Plum, Vega, Mahter

Obtained: Master Sword

There's really nothing to say here. I entertained the idea of 1-turning this map, but even with Forest Fighter on Plum and Mahter, I'd still be one tile short. Grr. It's simply not possible with a grounded unit, either. I double checked to make sure that the boss doesn't move to attack on his own on EP, and it looks like he doesn't (though I only tested once).

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Holmes 12.30
Mahter 18.32 27 11 12 17 7 11 17 11
Vega 14.56
Katri 3.20
Shigen 13.49
Lionel 13.38
Plum 8.85
Frau 2.46
Sun 16.65 32 15 18 16 12 5 6 15
Lyria 5.71

Cleared in 2 turns.

[dondon151]

made quite a bit of progress today; prepare for massive wall of text

Sealed Bridge (Encounter)

Assignments:
Master Sword - Sun
Gargoyles have high AS, but the Master Sword hits twice. It has a whopping 70 uses, so it'll never run out.
Killing Edge - Shigen
Even though Shigen's goal is to get killed, he can still get some good EXP by ORKOing gargoyles with a critical.

Deployed:
Shigen, Maerhen, Plum, Mahter, Sun, Frau

Getting Shigen killed here is critical because it allows for the recruitment of Sierra after Division 2 on Holmes's team. Shigen also gets revived automatically. The two strategies that I employed were putting Shigen in range of Maerhen (reducing his avo to 0) and hitting Shigen with Katri's Breath (L). Shigen ORKO'd a couple of gargoyles on turn 1 EP and died on turn 2 PP.

Katri and Sun handled the rest of the map. Sun ORKO'd most of the remaining gargoyles; a couple decided to attack Katri despite being unable to do damage and also got killed. Holmes and Frau sniped a KO each. I got a lucky enemy formation that allowed for all of them to kill themselves by turn 2 EP.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Holmes 12.63
Mahter 18.40
Katri 3.20
Shigen 13.93
Maerhen 17.78
Plum 9.14 19 0 2 5 1 6 14 6
Frau 3.14 26 7 6 13 5 9 9 6
Sun 18.75 33 16 19 17 13 6 6 17

Cleared in 2 turns.

Division 2

Runan's team:
Raffin, Narron, Sasha, Mahter, Frau, Sun, Yuni, Lyria, Vega, Maruj, Meriah, Plum
Wow, that's a long list.

• Raffin, Sasha, Mahter, and Frau (hereafter referred to as the Royal Air Force, RAF) are all fliers to assist in chapter 25.
• Narron and Sun are grounded mounted units, who are essential in chapters 24 and 26.
• Yuni can find treasure in chapter 25.
• Lyria's Power Staff helps Runan to cut his way through chapter 24 and Raffin to deal with the draco brothers in chapter 25.
• Vega is required to obtain the Rukuud in chapter 26.
• Maruj and Meriah might be potentially useful in chapter 25.

Runan's items:
2x Armorslayer, 1x Estoc, 2x Thunder Sword, 1x Shield Sword, 1x Master Sword, 2x Physic, 1x WLV Plus, 1x Super Proof, Magic Shields, Melee Shields, Amulets

• Runan's route has armored enemies in chapters 24 and 25, giving his team priority for the Armorslayer.
• The Estoc and Thunder Swords are good options against ballistae in chapters 24 and 25. Mahter relies on the Thunder Sword for offense occasionally.
• Runan needs the Shield Sword to help survive his maps.
• Vega can 2HKO the chapter 26 boss without getting countered if he uses a Master Sword.
• Holmes's route will have no staff users; Runan's route will get another Physic in chapter 24, and Rebecca wants to staff spam as much as possible.
• The WLV Plus is so that either Frau can use a Thunder Sword or Rebecca can get closer to using the Repair Staff. I haven't decided yet.
• Mahter is close to L20, so she will get a Super Proof.
• Runan's maps are combat heavy, so his team will get most of the shields and Amulets.

Holmes's team:
Lionel, Loffarl, Leonhart, Racquel, Maerhen, Attrom, Thomas

• Maerhen needs to open chests in chapter 27.
• Attrom recruits Renee in chapter 29.
• I have an idea to use Quick Rain Thomas in chapter 29 to conserve Renee's Warp uses, but I don't know right now if it will work.

Holmes's team automatically gets Sierra and Shigen, and he doesn't really need many other units.
Lionel, Racquel, and Loffarl are mostly there to help with the chapter 27 rout and engage enemies in chapter 29.

Holmes's items:
1x Sylpheed, 1x MAG Plus, 2x AGI Plus, 1x Iron Shield, Salia Tome

• Sylpheed, the Salia Tome, and the stat boosters are for Sierra.
• An Iron Shield helps Attrom to sustain a couple of attacks in chapter 29 if needed.

The question of which team gets Plum is an important one. The answer is pretty obvious for this division: Plum saves 1 turn in each of Runan's 3 maps, whereas she can only save 1 turn in one of Holmes's 4 maps.

Chapter 24

Assignments:
Shield Sword - Runan
Runan needs to sustain 3 Stonehenge attacks and up to 5 other physical attacks on turn 1 EP.
Leather Shield - Runan
The Shield Sword isn't very reliable in protecting Runan, so a full use Leather Shield bolsters his defense.
Magic Shield - Runan
Runan also needs to sustain both mage attacks on turn 1.
Amulet - Runan
In case all of the above isn't enough, Runan has 2 free slots for Amulets to keep him from dying.
Thunder Sword - Mahter
Mahter and Sasha should be able to ORKO ballistae dismounted.
Estoc - Raffin
Raffin doesn't have good mag, so he requires an Estoc instead.
Armorslayer - Frau
Frau has neither enough str nor mag, plus I had a 2 use Armorslayer lying around.
Iron Shield - Frau
Frau never had to use the Iron Shield, but she has the worst durability of the RAF. With the defense boost, other fliers (who have higher avo) are targeted.
WLV Plus - Frau
This gives Frau the WLV to use Armorslayers and Thunder Swords.
Super Proofs - Narron, Mahter
Narron is fast approaching L30 and Mahter is close to L20.

Formation:
Lyria, Plum, Sun, Mahter, Narron, Sasha, ..., (8) Meriah, Vega, Frau, Raffin, Maruj

Turn 1: Used Super Proof on Mahter; used WLV Plus on Frau.
Turn 3: Used Super Proof on Narron.
Obtained: Amulet, Killing Edge, Physic, Bridge Key

The chapter 1 Sea Fighter tutor pays off here: it saves a whole 2 turns. This is one of the toughest maps in the game for Runan to survive because of the huge amount of combat that he has to sustain on turn 1. Runan has to use his full movement on every turn in order to reach the gate on turn 6.

Narron's starting position let him kill the Sword Breaker sword knight, who can potentially break the Shield Sword if left unchecked. Runan got a Power Staff charge so that he could ORKO the Poleaxe axe knight.

The RAF got in position on turn 1, then flew across the river to dismount and begin eliminating the ballistae. Frau needed a dance to get across safely, but the others outranged the ballistae.

Meanwhile, Vega, Meriah, and Maruj cleaned up the stragglers for EXP. I didn't have enough units to visit all of the houses in the northeast part of the map, as the dropped items are more important.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Runan 12.96 31 10 10 13 4 0 10 10
Sasha 22.54 36 12 15 20 9 6 13 12
Raffin 20.86
Narron 30.46 46 24 20 18 17 7 18 14
Enteh 7.55
Mahter 19.36 28 11 12 17 7 11 18 11
Vega 15.46 35 14 18 21 9 2 8 14
Maruj 4.47 21 0 8 9 4 7 5 8
Meriah 4.25 20 0 7 8 3 8 7 6
Plum 9.98
Frau 3.74
Sun 22.53 35 17 22 18 14 8 6 19
Lyria 6.74 19 0 2 5 2 4 14 4

Cleared in 6 turns.
Bought 2x Door Key after the map.

Chapter 25

Assignments:
Thunder Sword - Mahter, Frau
Mahter and Frau can ORKO every bow knight with a Thunder Sword.
Iron Shield - Raffin
Raffin needs to tank all of the draco brothers.
Amulet - Raffin
The draco brothers have up to 57 crit, while Raffin only has 14 cev with Sasha's support in range. He can fit up to 3 Amulets in his inventory.
Lan's Mirror - Sasha
I had forgotten that I can trade this around. Raffin needs every point of hit that he can get.

Formation:
Frau, Sun, Mahter, Lyria, Maruj, Yuni, Plum, Vega, Raffin, Meriah, Narron, Sasha

Turn 5: Meriah learns Frontier Fighter.
Obtained: Canto Manual, MAG Plus, SKL Plus, POW Plus, AGI Plus, MHP Plus

So it turned out that Vega, Sun, and Narron were completely useless on this map, other than opening the door near the starting point on turn 1. The RAF picked off bow knights and armor knights one by one. PKs with a Thunder Sword and Raffin can outrange every enemy, including the Quick Rain ballista, and all members of the RAF have no problem ORKOing enemies.

Raffin got a Power Staff boost from Lyria on turn 1, then he headed south and west. I think I could have done this part of the map better because he and Sasha were mostly out of action in the top part of the map after turn 1. I thought that I would have to pull the draco brothers west, but I realized a couple of turns in that that was a bad idea, since Yuni would be digging up treasure there. So they just ended up flying east and pulling the brothers north.

Raffin killed one of them on turn 4 PP, then retreated and annihilated the other four on turn 4 EP. He even got a critical on the leader (with a Steel Shield) to ORKO him as well. Runan got a lucky critical on the general boss and also ORKO'd the guy on turn 5 EP.

Meriah went to recruit Rebecca and learned Frontier Fighter because why not. I was hoping that Maruj might have proven useful, but he would have needed a shield that I neglected to give him. Yuni got a dance on turn 2 and retrieved the items in the order listed above. I debated between the AGI Plus + MHP Plus or the Mug Manual, and decided on the former because there aren't many opportunities to mug enemies in the remainder of the game.

I can't say at all whether Frau is necessary for the strategy as a whole to work. She was certainly incredibly useful, although technically there isn't a whole lot of purpose in killing the bow knights, since Runan can theoretically just tank everything with the Shield Sword. However, he does need fliers to help him break down a couple of doors.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Runan 15.23 34 10 11 14 4 2 12 10
Sasha 23.74 37 12 16 21 9 7 13 13
Raffin 22.28 41 16 15 16 14 1 10 16
Narron 30.46
Enteh 8.15 17 0 8 8 1 11 9 9
Mahter 20.54 28 11 13 17 7 11 19 12
Vega 15.46
Maruj 4.47
Yuni 5.65
Meriah 4.25
Plum 10.82 19 0 2 5 1 7 14 6
Frau 4.75 26 8 7 14 5 9 9 10
Sun 22.53
Lyria 7.71 19 0 2 6 2 4 14 4
Rebecca 3.69 20 0 4 7 2 9 7 10

Cleared in 6 turns.
Other notes: Raffin needs 15 str and 13 agi to ORKO four of the draco brothers with a Pilum and a Power Staff boost.

Chapter 26

Assignments:
Amulet - Plum
Plum needs to walk through a gauntlet of possible ballista fire. She doesn't need too many, especially if you have the Zombie Staff, but at least two is a good bet.
Master Sword - Vega
Rentsen doesn't stand a chance.

Formation:
Sun, Narron, Lyria, Rebecca, ..., (6) Raffin, Vega, ..., (10) Plum, Sasha, Mahter

Obtained: 2x Leather Shield, 2x Gold Bag, Repair Hammer, Steel Bow, Master Lance, Rukuud

The hidden artillery can be frustrating, but they're also inaccurate. The RAF dismounted and went among the rows of houses collecting items while Narron, Sun, Vega, and Plum accompanied Runan across the map.

Plum had to use an Amulet to ward off death, and I had given her two just in case. Rebecca used the Zombie Staff on turn 1, which helped to divert a couple of attacks early on. Their spawn locations and movement directions are a little random, but they have the potential to be very useful. Runan needs to be danced on turn 1 and Vega on turn 2 in order for the 3-turn to work at all. Vega also needs to be promoted, but we needed that back in chapter 16.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Runan 15.55 37 13 14 17 7 6 12 12
Sasha 23.82
Raffin 22.37
Narron 30.86
Enteh 8.15
Mahter 20.58
Vega 16.52 36 14 18 21 9 2 8 14
Plum 11.39 19 0 2 5 1 7 15 7
Sun 23.33 35 18 22 18 14 8 7 19
Lyria 8.01 19 0 2 6 2 4 15 5
Rebecca 4.37 21 0 4 7 2 10 7 11

Cleared in 3 turns.
Runan promoted to lord after the map.
Other notes: Runan needs 8 str and 10 agi to ORKO a horse thief reinforcement with the Shield Sword.

Edited June 29, 2013 by dondon151

[Espinosa]

Looking good.

I'm still too upset to come back to my run because I didn't leave a save before map 21. That's kinda the only map I really want to redo (1-turning Zachariah is easy with the Lionel that has as much move as mine).

[dondon151]

to be fair, i haven't thought that an extended move lionel would be of any special use so far in the run.

anyway i might regret not tutoring FF to rebecca in chapter 25 and using the WLV plus on frau. i have a faint notion that chapter 40 can be 4-turned if renee can warp two of holmes, runan, or sennet next to gerxel on turn 4 (and the remaining can just walk up), but i won't have enough warp uses if i warpskip every floor of the morse tower. renee will inevitably use warp once in chapter 29, morse tower requires 5 uses, and all of holmes's maps before chapter 40 require 8 uses iirc. i'm 1 use short. which means that in chapter 40, i need to have rebecca use the repair staff on renee's warp by turn 4.

i'm not sure what kind of terrain that is at the base of that crater. if it's swamp, maybe i can do it. rebecca still needs 3 more WLV procs, but chapters 36 and 37 take awhile, and i can use plum to help rebecca spam summons.

(unless it is not possible to warp units onto the crater in chapter 40? then my concerns are of no matter.)

EDIT: wait, if it's possible to warp units onto the crater in chapter 40, then i don't need 2 warp uses. i just need to warp one lord, another can walk up, and the third can reach one of gerxel's sides with plum's help.

Edited June 29, 2013 by dondon151

[Espinosa]

Turns out I had a raw save before map 21 all along...

So now I'm redoing the map to figure out how everything works and I notice some problems that I didn't see coming:

- Mahter has problems one-rounding a Summoner. Your has 10 str, 17 agi, while mine has 10 str, 15 agi, which is 2 point short of doubling the Summoner with an Iron Lance. She 2HKOs and doubles with a Scimitar though, but that's 72% hit... doesn't help the already unreliable strat at all. Killing Edge is an option, but she's one point of WLv short (not sure if wasting the WLv Plus here is a good idea).

- there's a dismounted DK who seems to not like attacking my units on enemy phase, opting to run away instead. Dunno what to do about him.

This will take a while huh.

[dondon151]

ouch, that sucks about mahter. even having 16 agi would be good because she could double with a steel sword. mahter's agi growth is lower than i thought and she does only average 15 agi at L17.

i had the same problem with one of the DKs. he sometimes attacked zeek and sometimes didn't.

so like i said before, i definitely would rather have the save staff here instead of chapter 18. these factors would do it.

[dondon151]

finished the rest of holmes's maps before the third division

Chapter 27

Holmes learned City Fighter in Brahd prior to the start of the map.

Assignments:
Sylpheed - Sierra
Janura and Sylpheed will be Sierra's primary weapons.
MAG Plus, 2x AGI Plus, Salia Tome - Sierra
All of these items help build up Sierra's offensive power.
Estoc - Maerhen
Maerhen can mug an armor knight.

Formation:
Loffarl, Maerhen, Leonhart, ..., (7) Lionel, Sierra

Turn 1: Used AGI Plus on Sierra.
Turn 2: Used AGI Plus on Sierra.
Turn 3: Used MAG Plus on Sierra.
Obtained: Super Proof, Physic, Steel Shield, Arvanrest
Mugged: Steel Sword

What an easy map. Maerhen's starting position is kind of crappy for the rest of the the team, but what can you do. A shield on Maerhen isn't a bad idea since he might need it to survive, but the way it worked out here, he didn't need it.

Most of the enemies over on the left side of the map don't attack Sierra (at least when she has Janura equipped). The boss willingly goes after her, though. After 2 AGI Pluses, she can double and ORKO him with Janura. Sadly there's no possible way to 3-turn this map, even with Sea Fighter tutored to Yuni. Or maybe it's fortunate, since this way I can send her to grab the desert items in chapter 25.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Holmes 13.17 35 13 13 15 11 0 10 12
Shigen 14.60 30 13 20 20 8 0 7 11
Lionel 13.78
Maerhen 18.41 28 9 5 6 4 0 2 6
Loffarl 25.40
Leonhart 13.14 33 14 12 13 9 0 5 10
Sierra 9.29 26 0 8 17 3 15 3 12

Cleared in 4 turns.

Chapter 28

Formation:
(4) Lionel, Sierra, Loffarl

Obtained: Master Sword

Warp Sierra to bosskill, end chapter.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Holmes 13.48
Shigen 14.80
Lionel 13.98
Loffarl 25.42
Sierra 10.29 27 0 8 18 3 15 4 12

Cleared in 1 turn.

Chapter 29

Assignments:
Arvanrest - Loffarl
Loffarl can help break down the door to Renee's group on turn 1 at 4-range.
Master Sword - Loffarl
So I don't actually need to kill the boss, but why not? Loffarl can deal a good amount of damage on counter.
Longbow - Racquel
Racquel can attack the door with a Longbow from her position on turn 2.
Gatling Bow - Leonhart
Leonhart might need this to ORKO a mage (an Iron Bow works if Leonhart has gained +1 str).
LUK Plus - Sierra
Sierra's low base luk renders her susceptible to critical hits.
Healing Fruit - Attrom
It's just in case Attrom needs to sustain more than one attack.

Formation:
Lionel, Racquel, Sierra, Thomas, Leonhart, Attrom, Loffarl

Turn 2: Used LUK Plus on Sierra.

Trying to 3-turn this map is annoying and rather luck-reliant. In order to 3-turn, Renee has to end turn 2 EP in one of four tiles on the left side of the bottom door. Only then can she reach Holmes on turn 3 after being recruited by Attrom and warp him to the gate. So the important question is, how can we manipulate her?

One precaution that would have simplified this would have been tutoring City Fighter to Holmes at Brahd (which is what I did). That increases Renee's successful locations to 14 tiles. This isn't absolutely necessary, though. On turn 1, Renee will always warp one of the Repeater Bow archers at the north end of her group. That just means that one needs to manipulate Renee into moving back towards the door on turn 2.

I warped Sierra into the group of enemies on turn 1 so that she could slaughter them, but only about half of them were willing to attack her. The other half tried to run away instead. I found the magic spot to be the tile above Renee, but I have found in my experience that this doesn't tend to be consistent. What ended up happening was that a group of enemies fled north and another group fled south. The group that fled north could be blocked off from Renee by Sierra because the passageway is 1 tile wide. The group that fled south required that the mage be killed in order for all of them to be outside of Renee's movement range, which is exactly what Leonhart did.

I will also note that if there is a wounded unit in range, Renee prioritizes using her Heal staff, though this is difficult to set up because there is another Physic bishop on the map who can move first. Otherwise, she will try to warp her allies. Renee walked towards the partially accessible group of enemies and brought herself within range of Holmes.

Loffarl took a shot at the door on turn 1, and Racquel and Holmes broke it open on turn 2. Loffarl baited the boss on turn 2 EP and Racquel and Sierra finished him off for the EXP. Lionel and Shigen planted themselves in the center of the map for some combat EXP; Shigen died once but had the Dullahan equipped to revive himself.

Thomas ended up being a spare deployed unit due to how the formation works. If Leonhart falls short of ORKOing an enemy on turn 2, Thomas might be able to pitch in the extra attack.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Holmes 13.48 37 14 14 15 13 0 10 12
Racquel 16.36
Thomas 4.42 30 10 7 7 15 0 2 7
Shigen 15.70 31 13 20 21 8 0 8 12
Lionel 15.58 36 16 12 17 9 0 7 14
Attrom 3.82
Loffarl 25.66
Leonhart 13.68
Sierra 12.15 28 0 9 18 3 15 9 12
Renee 13.17

Cleared in 3 turns.
After the map:
Holmes promoted to hide hunter.
Obtained the Luna Sword.

Chapter 30

Formation:
Renee, Loffarl, Sierra

Uh... warp Holmes; seize because the boss isn't on the gate. What. None of the skills here are necessary, so I skipped them. If you do tutor any skills, do not tutor Gale to Sierra.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Holmes 13.48
Sierra 13.15 29 0 9 18 3 16 9 12
Renee 13.34

Cleared in 1 turn.

Morse Tower (Floors 1-6)

Deployed:
Renee, Loffarl, Leonhart, Lionel, Racquel, Sierra

Obtained: Goddess Shield, Prelude
Mugged: Thief Sword

I warpskipped every floor. Sierra got mummy kills whenever possible and the other deployed units scrounged as much EXP as they could before Holmes went from floor to floor. Maerhen was deployed on the first floor so that he could take a Thief Sword, thus obsoleting himself for the remainder of the game.

Name Lv.Ex HP Str Skl Agi Def Mag Luk Wlv
Holmes 13.48
Racquel 19.36 28 14 21 19 8 2 12 19
Shigen 16.86 32 14 21 21 9 0 9 12
Lionel 16.74 37 16 13 18 9 0 7 14
Maerhen 18.97
Loffarl 25.70
Leonhart 14.33 34 14 12 13 9 0 5 11
Sierra 16.75 30 1 10 19 3 17 10 12
Renee 14.18 23 0 13 13 4 17 8 18

Cleared in 5 turns.

Edited July 7, 2013 by dondon151

[dondon151]

i've got bad news. or rather, it's not so much bad as it is incredibly puzzling.

i got to chapter 34, and plum and raffin... have no movement bonus. they have plains fighter.

so we must have gotten it wrong, right? except i have almost every terrain skill covered by some member on runan's team. racquel has forest fighter and city fighter, and she only has 5 mov. runan has sea fighter, and he only has 6 mov. yuni has frontier fighter and mountain fighter, and she only has 5 mov.

so unless arena fighter conveys +1 mov in chapter 34... i have no idea what's going on here. and for the time being, the 1-turn is out.

EDIT: i suspect that we've been misled all along. the maps that the game labels as 平地 (which translates to level ground or plain ground) do not benefit units with plains fighter at all. i tested this by visiting brahd and il, which are both labeled as such, and units with plains fighter did not get +1 mov. only maps labeled 草原 (grasslands; prairie) confer this bonus. my guess is that level ground maps have no corresponding terrain skill.

in the meantime, i'll just 2-turn chapter 34 and continue onwards.

EDIT 2: i soldiered on to chapter 37 and discovered a couple of other things that are helpful or detrimental to our playthroughs.

1. the anti-evil staff is locked to renee. the bad part about this, obviously, is that there's no easy button for chapters 36 and 37 (and in fact, chapter 37 is now so much more difficult). the good part is that the encounter before chapter 31 can be cut down to 2 turns. there's also absolutely no reason to bring anyone else but yoda and renee along with holmes.

2. speaking of chapter 37, runan @ main gauche can reduce enemy dracozombie hit rates into the 10s.

3. if 1-turning chapter 34 is not possible, then we can use a significantly more relaxed 2-turn strategy. sierra can get ernst to unequip his holy sword and equip his hand lance instead if she ends her turn in ernst's stationary range on turn 1. he'll get weighed down and lose avo, he'll lose 7 res, and he might lose his gate bonus if he attacks her on EP. if sierra is fast enough, she just needs one amulet or a shield to survive.

4. the 2-turn strategy for chapter 35 works like a charm. the hit rates aren't bad, either.

Edited June 30, 2013 by dondon151

[Espinosa]

Interesting... and ouch @ our chapter 34 strat. I guess we now have to prepare to eliminate the dozen of woodshooters in front of Ernest, as well as deal with the ballistae? Shouldn't be too bad with Narron, Sun, Lionel, Raffin and others, though.

Can you confirm the stats needed to 1RKO Zeek in both encounters? I take it we're not sending Rukuud with Holmes for the third split (might be helpful in chapter 37).

[dondon151]

i actually did chapter 34 perfectly fine in a very underprepared fashion, haha. it was basically an extended version of our 1-turn strategy. same raffin @ luna sword with a power staff charge, same sierra @ god hand. you get a goddess shield from the 6th floor of morse tower and that negates his arrow weakness. i had him ORKO the nearby DK on turn 1, but i didn't even eliminate the ballistae - i had rebecca use the zombie staff, and they all targeted the zombies instead of plum, who was in range of all 3 of them and was OHKO'd by every single one. honestly i found it amusing that the chinaFE player considered his 2-turn strategy of this map the highlight of his run, because i found it to be laughably relaxed. i think you can literally get away with deploying only raffin, lyria, plum, rebecca, and sierra.

i sent rukuud with holmes because it just made everything easy. zeek in chapter 31 has the same stats that he had when he left after chapter 23. the biggest problem here is that he has a silver shield. it's pretty easy to quad him with a master weapon, but the first 2 attacks will invariably tink and the last 2 attacks probably won't 2HKO. i just had yoda kill him with a double rukuud crit. i don't see how it would be very helpful in chapter 37 right now. sure, it's effective against the dracozombies, but most of them are going to end up killing each other anyway, and the remainder can be dealt with using other broken stuff like the shramm, master spear, salia lance, or even just bows.

rukuud also makes the chapter 33 boss much easier. you have to kill him in one hit (or two if using a master weapon) because his tomaharn nullifies your second attack, but you also need 29 atk to kill him using 2 shots of a master sword. just blick him with the rukuud.

Edited June 30, 2013 by dondon151

[dondon151]

okay, i forayed into chapter 37 a bit because i didn't play much TRS today, and i have some amusing findings:

1. the zombie staff is great here; it diverts the witches from plum and rebecca to the summons. but only if they warp in range of the summons.

2. i lied when i said earlier that the main gauche lowers the dracozombies' hit to the 10s. it lowered their hit to 1 in my run. i think you might have to actually worry about them not attacking runan at all if his avo is higher than their hit.

3. racquel is pretty great in this map. if you got her to L16 to learn anti-evil, that gives +20 avo against the dracozombies. consider investing in a silver bow in chapter 35 so that she can 2HKO dracozombies without relying on str procs, skill procs, or criticals. she gets OHKO'd but can probably reduce their hit to near 0.

4. i can't say this for sure, but tutoring gale to sierra was a huge mistake. enemies refuse to attack her at all. even the boss decided to attack her with bau crash instead of tomaharn since she would just ORKO him first (i tried doing this on an odd-numbered turn, and he just ignored her entirely). don't tutor gale to sierra.

right now i'm pretty confident that runan can reach the altar by turn 4. i'm not as confident that the map will be as easy to clear after that. with average luck, 5-6 of the 15 dracozombies will kill themselves on turn 1. vega and racquel need to kill 1 each on turn 2 PP so that runan can get through. i'm not sure how quickly they will fall like flies after that, since there are fewer targets among themselves to hit. racquel also can't walk far enough to lure the invincible dracozombie into runan's range on turn 5.

so i think that 6 turns is about as much as we should expect, unless you can: 1) tutor plum city fighter (+10 avo, +1 mov), 2) tutor plum anti-evil (+20 avo), and 3) give her a inventory full of amulets and hope that she doesn't die against a mob of ~6-7 dracozombies who have 20 hit on her over a few turns. and right now i can't even say anything about the rest of the map. i think for sure that we want sierra to kill the golem summoner on turn 1 because those summons are super difficult to kill. she'll need at least 2 turns to handle the boss's area (assuming the physic sorcerors even attack her), another turn to attack an isolated dark mage, and probably one more turn to finish off any witches that warped randomly around the map.

honestly though i think the 5-turn might be worth a shot? i would just need to go back to before chapter 23 if i can scrounge up another 14000G.

[Espinosa]

Thanks for telling about Sierra being ignored, but we do not yet know if it has something to do with Gale (probably but not necessarily so). Sometimes enemies just don't want to attack the units who they get ORKO'd by.

Shouldn't Lionel have 7 minimum promoted move with CF (8 on average assuming 20 level-ups)? Mine will have 10, definitely enough to lure the armoured dracozombie in the right direction. Right now I'm having difficulty understanding why Runan can't finish off the last DZ next turn after seizing - is it because he runs too fast with 7 move? Can a 7-move Lionel be danced?

Have you thought what other tutors could be useful in C30? After all, we can revisit the map like we can revisit Brahd.

edit: Also, right now my Runan isn't anywhere as evasive as yours (speed screwed). I think being hit by breath attacks will be a real threat on my run.

Edited July 1, 2013 by Espinosa

[dondon151]

Thanks for telling about Sierra being ignored, but we do not yet know if it has something to do with Gale (probably but not necessarily so). Sometimes enemies just don't want to attack the units who they get ORKO'd by.

units do like to ignore sierra more often than they do other units. a lot of the units in chapter 29 ignored her too, but i think janura might have influenced that decision. in chapter 36, pretty much none of the enemies wanted to attack her.

Shouldn't Lionel have 7 minimum promoted move with CF (8 on average assuming 20 level-ups)? Mine will have 10, definitely enough to lure the armoured dracozombie in the right direction. Right now I'm having difficulty understanding why Runan can't finish off the last DZ next turn after seizing - is it because he runs too fast with 7 move? Can a 7-move Lionel be danced?

hoo this is a little hard to explain coherently

runan's going to get swarmed by DZs on turn 1 EP. they're not all going to kill each other instantly, so what usually happens is that runan's surrounded on 3 sides (the sides that he needs clear in order to move towards the pedestal) at the beginning of turn 2 PP. so we need to kill a couple of DZs! except you have to kill the one adjacent to runan at 2+ range. you could use racquel @ silver bow or lionel @ salia lance for this. there will always be a second DZ in the way, which you can kill with vega @ shramm or lionel.

obviously you can see the problem now. the issue isn't how far lionel can move, but how far vega and/or racquel can move. maybe this can work if you can make lionel or runan a more appealing target than vega or racquel so that the DZs follow him instead. i should test this out when i have some more time. i think i'll backtrack and grab a silver bow from chapter 35 in order to reduce DZ hit on racquel to 0.

Have you thought what other tutors could be useful in C30? After all, we can revisit the map like we can revisit Brahd.

edit: Also, right now my Runan isn't anywhere as evasive as yours (speed screwed). I think being hit by breath attacks will be a real threat on my run.

you can really just tutor anyone anything... most skills boost offense, which you don't need, and a lot of bosses have nihil anyway. gale is really the only useful one.

i don't think runan getting hit would be a problem; he'll probably face ~10 hit at worst and you can load up on amulets in chapter 35.

anyway i think i have a very real reason to tutor mug to sierra. assuming that my 4-turn idea of chapter 40 works, renee won't be free to use the anti-evil staff to help clear out the opuses on turn 4, because she'll be warping a lord instead. alfred's tornado, even if shared with sierra, isn't sufficient to clear all paths to tiles adjacent to the boss.

chapter 37 witches all have land crash, which have a 3x3 range that can clear almost all of the opuses in a single attack. you could use maerhen, but i really don't even want to try, considering that the witches all have janura and it'd be super chancy to weaken them to a point where maerhen can finish them off. getting mug in chapter 25 does entail skipping the MHP plus and either the SKL plus or the AGI plus, though. the AGI plus can be useful for sennet.

EDIT: wait, i'm dumb. of course you can mug them with maerhen. just wait until they use land crash, weaken with a strong attack (i'm probably going to use meriah @ starlight), finish off with maerhen. with both at base in their offensive stats, maerhen can use an iron sword.

Edited July 1, 2013 by dondon151

[Espinosa]

That explains it - I guess Plum can help Vega/Racquel escape away from the zombie dragon's sight? Perhaps Amulets on the right characters would be helpful. Maybe Vega's Shramm and Racquel's Anti-Evil boost would force the dragon to prioritise Lionel.

That Maerhen mug strat sounds reliable - bait them with summoned zombies, then rob with Maerhen. Estoc for the highest hit rates without WLv Plus (though attack won't be too high).

There are also other AoE tomes - Evil Thunder, Ifrid, Tornado - that Sierra can use; have you thought if we could steal those?

In map 40, do you find yourself ever needing anybody in Holmes's party? Since it's just Yoda, Shigen and Renee.