New fire emblem noob question(s), please! :)

[devinias]

Hey guys, I am newer to the series. I know awakening is very deep, but how many play throughs would be smart to get a lot of the mechanics down? Also, I will be getting the dlc in small pack format, maybe one or two at a time. When should I start attempting these? I will be playing on "normal" mode where if they die, they die, but not lunatic mode yet. :)

Edited March 31, 2014 by devinias

[Potato123]

Everything dies when you look at it in normal mode, so you don't have to use DLC until postgame.

The mechanics start making sense when you have to think about them, so you might have to play on hard or above to understand them.

[IceBrand]

Since you're doing normal mode the mechanics will make sense as you play the game. You unlock the stage to do DLC after chapter 4. You can start the DLC whenever you feel like it. Although I would not recommend Lost Bloodlines, Smash Brethren, and Rouges and Redeemers until later in the game.

Edited March 31, 2014 by AllAroundGamer9

[lazydoggamer]

All of the dlc maps come with difficulty ratings to give you a general idea of how hard they are. Anything higher than a 3 star you'll need to grind to beat.

[TheFreshestSlice]

If you really want to learn how to play, I'd advice playing Hard Casual. Normal doesn't get you ready for anything except Normal.

[Czar_Yoshi]

The mechanics start making sense when you have to think about them, so you might have to play on hard or above to understand them.

This is a pretty good way to put it.

If you haven't already, a good first step is to switch the bottom screen to full so it shows your character's stats (there's an icon in the top right). For the record, I started getting into something resembling strategy near the end of my second playthrough and cleared all the DLC on my third.

Anything higher than a 3 star you'll need to grind to beat.

Higher difficulties have more exp to go around, so a proper Lunatic endgame team should be able to clear RaR3 (even with the enemy's Lunatic buffs), while a Normal endgame team might not go higher than LB3 right off the bat. Not to mention that any DLC map can be cleared without grinding if you know what you're doing.

It's a good general rule though, start with the first ones and move up from there. You can skip playing CoY 1 and 2 if you're not very early in the game, and you might want to beat Infinite Regalia ASAP once (just kill the boss, don't go for the treasure- you only have to fight ~4 enemies instead of 36) to get the Silver Card, which helps a lot.

[TheBattyOne]

I think the mechanics just start making sense once you get used to playing, at least the basics. But then when you get to the higher difficulties, you really learn how they work by being forced to manipulate them. I learned a lot about the Pair Up system when I started playing Lunatic, even though my basic strategy has always been "pair everybody with everybody and see what happens".

[devinias]

Thanks for all the great advice!!