Tips for Hard Mode

[Ema Skye]

Normal mode is kinda getting too easy so I'm looking to upgrade to Hard Mode. I know about all of the gameplay changes (no weapon triangle, no enemy range) But I'd like to know how much of a difficulty increase Hard Mode is and what's the best way to survive Hard mode (because I've heard it's really hard).

[PKL]

Normal mode is kinda getting too easy so I'm looking to upgrade to Hard Mode. I know about all of the gameplay changes (no weapon triangle, no enemy range) But I'd like to know how much of a difficulty increase Hard Mode is and what's the best way to survive Hard mode (because I've heard it's really hard).

It's honestly not that hard when compared to other modes in the series. I used to play it a lot before joining SF, so it cant be too hard :P.

Hard Mode is a big increase in difficulty for sure though. Especially in the DB chapters. You have stuff like Edward not being able to double some of the more buff bandits in the very first chapter if they proc 9 spd and other stuff that's actually very annoying. The best way to survive Hard Mode? I recommend lots of Nolan, Jill, Volug and Sothe spam. Don't be afraid to mash Tauroneo here and there if needed too. Get the 1-4 Beastfoe. Your biggest challenge as an HM newcomer WILL be 3-6. Trust me on this. Buy Physic for Micaiah, stuff Jill with boosters, etc.With Volug Nolan Jill Physicaiah Sothe and maybe Edward/Zihark you should be fine for that chapter.

In Part 2, I honestly recommend transfers on Nephenee to make 2-1 that much easier. It's a nightmareish chapter otherwise unless you're taking it slow. Remember to stuff whoever gets the 2-3 Speedwing with enough items to be able to send it to convoy so Haar gets that much better.

Part 3 is a joke except for, I guess, 3-6 3-12 and 3-13. Also, don't do the Jill team swap strat. Just...no. The DB needs her in HM. Hope that helps.

[Scarlet]

For the Failure Brigade chapters, focus on a small team and abuse the prepromotes - there's a lot less Exp to go around, so trying to raise everyone will just leave all of them too weak to deal with the absurdly strong enemies. That's the really hard part.

The Crimea Knights chapters aren't that much harder than on Normal, and the GMs still roflstomp everything.

[BrightBow]

Maybe I'm alone with that but in my run I had the biggest troubles in Ike's chapters in Part 4. Despite Ike's team already being the strongest of the three, I had to do a lot of restarts. So personally I think that it is a good idea to assume that his chapters are going to be quite a bit harder then those of his comrades when creating the teams,

Edited May 28, 2014 by BrightBow

[Junkhead]

Maybe I'm alone with that but in my run I had the biggest troubles in Ike's chapters in Part 4. Despite Ike's team already being the strongest of the three, I had to do a lot of restarts. So personally I think that it is a good idea to assume that his chapters are going to be quite a bit harder then those of his colleagues when creating the teams,

I don't think you're being specific enough, haha. For all we know, there could've been a ton of reasons why you've had to restart often.

And yes, the Greil Route chapters are harder.

[PKL]

Part 4 Greil is actually easy imo. It goes like this:

Ike Ragnells everything. Nailah kills stuff. The end

[S_Cero]

Part 4 Greil is really only hard for the second chapter in the manor. And that's only if you are soloing or using low amounts of units. sleep staff will fuck you up

[IceBrand]

Part 4 Greil is actually easy imo. It goes like this:

Ike Ragnells everything. Nailah kills stuff. The end

What about the Bishops with Sleep Staffs and the high amount of reinforcements?

[PKL]

What about the Bishops with Sleep Staffs and the high amount of reinforcements?

Ike Ragnells everything, make sleep target someone useless to distract, make you way there, have Nailah bite him. Profit.

[BrightBow]

Well, I think I did beat 4-2 on my first try but I lost Rafiel to the Falcon Knights and I could do too little to keep those Thunder Mages with their scary critcal hit chance away from Haar and Kieran.

In 4-4, the Swordmasters were a massive pain with their high avoid and of course scary hitrates. When they didn't crti killed on of my mounts, I ended up being screwed over by the sleep staff Bishop, who wasted Ike's and Nailah's player phase while the rest of the team struggled to keep the reinforcements from below at bay. Even when I successfully finished the map, I lost not only Tormod's entire group but even Nailah. Sleep Staff + Arc Fire = Don't push the Laguz Kings too far.

I thought that Micaiah's team would cause the most trouble. Micaiah and Sanaki can die if someone just glares at them and Sothe and Sigrun are not the most formidable combatants. Yet somehow those chapters ended up being a total pushover. And Sigrun actually ended up kicking tons of ass along the way.

Edited May 28, 2014 by BrightBow

[IceBrand]

Well, I think I did beat 4-2 on my first try but I lost Rafiel to the Falcon Knights and I could do too little to keep those Thunder Mages with their scary critcal hit chance away from Haar and Kieran.

In 4-4, the Swordmasters were a massive pain with their high avoid and of course scary hitrates. When they didn't crti killed on of my mounts, I ended up being screwed over by the sleep staff Bishop, who wasted Ike's and Nailah's player phase while the rest of the team struggled to keep the reinforcements from below at bay. Even when I successfully finished the map, I lost not only Tormod's entire group but even Nailah. Sleep Staff + Arc Fire = Don't push the Laguz Kings too far.

I thought that Micaiah's team would cause the most trouble. Micaiah and Sanaki can die if someone just glares at them and Sothe and Sigrun are not the most formidable combatants. Yet somehow those chapters ended up being a total pushover. And Sigrun actually ended up kicking tons of ass along the way.

Well in those maps you have Skrimir and Naesala to back you help.

[BrightBow]

Well in those maps you have Skrimir and Naesala to back you help.

Sure, but Ike had himself and Nailah. Ike has actual range and Nailah has less vulnerabilities then Naesala while obviously outdoing Skrimir.

Edited May 28, 2014 by BrightBow

[IceBrand]

Sure, but Ike had himself and Nailah.

True, but Micaiah's maps were more open while Ike's were boxed in.

[BrightBow]

True, but Micaiah's maps were more open while Ike's were boxed in.

I expected this to be part of the problem since that way it would be harder to cover Sanaki and Micaiah. Not to mention that most of the other units couldn't take too much damage either.

Edited May 28, 2014 by BrightBow

[IceBrand]

I expected this to be part of the problem since that way it would be harder to cover Sanaki and Micaiah. Not to mention that most of the other units couldn't take too much damage either.

Well the first map consisted of mostly Generals and Paladins, something Micaiah can defeat easily with Thani. The desert in the second map limited most of the enemy movements. You also have the Black Knight and possibility Stefan to help clear the chapter.

[Junkhead]

Part 4 Greil is actually easy imo. It goes like this:

Ike Ragnells everything. Nailah kills stuff. The end

Not saying it's hard, just, harder than the others, lawl.

I mean, Jill and Haar dominate the Silver Route and the Hawks dominate the Hawk route, or something.

Ike Ragnells everything, make sleep target someone useless to distract, make you way there, have Nailah bite him. Profit.

Nailah loves 2-range enemies as well.

[PKL]

Irrelevant because most of the enemies in Oliver's room dont move so her 1 range doesnt matter.

[dondon151]

titania is also forced to ike's route, so you'll probably have 2 good beorc and a laguz royal to wreck stuff with.

[Junkhead]

Irrelevant because most of the enemies in Oliver's room dont move so her 1 range doesnt matter.

That's actually great to know. The enemy density there...brrr.

[Vykan_12]

Don't be afraid to use pre-promotes since with very few exceptions (Sanaki, Sigrun, couple others), they are superior to units who require more leveling due to having much higher growth rates than they really should.

Build up some key earth x earth supports in part 1. You can't go wrong with a Zihark x Nolan/Volug/Jill pairing.

Do NOT miss beastfoe in 1-4.

Forging 1-2 range weapons is pretty broken. In part 1 this means forged knives for Sothe, otherwise it's forged javelin/hand axe parade for parts 3 & 4.

Avoid using paladins (except Titania) and magic users for combat (except Elincia).

Have Reyson use most of your laguz stones when you recruit him. Getting 4-way vigor from turn 2 onwards is a huge boon.

In 1-E, give Ilyana brave sword, hammer, celerity, savior and a couple other useful items (probably a gem or two).

Give Haar celerity + savior for pretty much the entire game, sometimes switching celerity with pass.

Don't worry too much about part 4 since each route has its fair share of safety buttons: Micaiah has Naesala & Skrimir, Ike has himself & Nailah, and Tibarn has himself & Elincia. Then in 4-E you have all the royals.

Resolve is h4x.

[PKL]

Don't be afraid to use pre-promotes since with very few exceptions (Sanaki, Sigrun, couple others), they are superior to units who require more leveling due to having much higher growth rates than they really should.

Build up some key earth x earth supports in part 1. You can't go wrong with a Zihark x Nolan/Volug/Jill pairing.

Do NOT miss beastfoe in 1-4.

Forging 1-2 range weapons is pretty broken. In part 1 this means forged knives for Sothe, otherwise it's forged javelin/hand axe parade for parts 3 & 4.

Avoid using paladins (except Titania) and magic users for combat (except Elincia).

Have Reyson use most of your laguz stones when you recruit him. Getting 4-way vigor from turn 2 onwards is a huge boon.

In 1-E, give Ilyana brave sword, hammer, celerity, savior and a couple other useful items (probably a gem or two).

Give Haar celerity + savior for pretty much the entire game, sometimes switching celerity with pass.

Don't worry too much about part 4 since each route has its fair share of safety buttons: Micaiah has Naesala & Skrimir, Ike has himself & Nailah, and Tibarn has himself & Elincia. Then in 4-E you have all the royals.

Resolve is h4x.

For a moment there I thought you were saying to not use Elincia and Titania and was like...whaaaat. And then I read it again :P

But yeah, this is pretty good advice too.

[Chiki]

Train Jill as much as you can in Part 1. She makes Part 3 very easy.

Edited May 29, 2014 by Chiki

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I've completed my third HM run just this moment. It was surprisingly better than I expected.

Here's a summary about my run:

First thing:

I used PoR boosts, so Jill and Ilyana could do more in part 1.

Part 1 was hard, but I had no death till 1-F. Jill died twice in 1-F.

I used Sothe, Volug and later Zihark to do chip damage to the enemies, so "weaker" units like Eddy, Leo or Micky could finish them. I didn't use Laura after chapter 6 so Zihark replaced her. After chapter 8 I dropped Aran because he was way too slow. I forged an iron axe for Jill and later a steel axe for Nolan.

I could promote Jill and Ilyana via masterseal. Ilyana brought the "paragon" skill to Greil's Mecenaries, because I didn't want to bring any DB units to the final except for the obligatory units. In general I don't recommend to do it, because DB members need all the exp, they can get especially on hard mode.

I had these supports:

Micky x Sothe (default)

Edward x Leonard

Nolan x Zihark

Volug x Jill

Part 2 was not bad either:

The prologue was even easier, because Marcia had no more weapon triangle disadvantage. 2-1 is probably one of the most annoying chapters, if Nephenee has no boosts. You are under pressure to visit the villages, to recruit Heather and clean up the map. In 2-3 I gave Marcia 80% of the kills, because she's the only one Crimean Knight, I trained. In 2-F Haar, Elincia, Marcia, Brom and Nephenee were enough to defend. Elincia killed Ludveck.

Part 3 the chapters with GM were easy, but the DB ones were itense.

3-6 cost me lots of time and patience. I had to restart at least 5 times. The tigers have around 40 attack, so no one except for Volug and a very good Jill can survive two attacks of them. I spend much time to give the proper skills to the characters. I gave Jill a seraph robe, so she could survive two attacks by a tiger, because she had a great defense at this point already. I gave Nolan and Eddy bexp, so I promoted them in level 19 through using the masterseal.

In 3-7 my units had these skills

Sothe: resolve

Zihark: vantage, cancel, adept

Jill: beastfoe

Nolan: renewal

It worked much better, because Sothe, Volug and Jill could wreck the enemies. The supports helped me a lot for dodging. The only problem was that Eddy, Nolan and Leo could not get many levels.

Part 4 was easy except for 4-1, because the falcon knights can fly behind your defense line, but Soren's tornado and a sniper could eliminate this problem. 4-3 was easy, because I brought Jill. 4-4 was really fun, but also really difficult because of the mass of reinforcements from everywhere! I "sacrificed" Vika and Tormod in this chapter. I could train Ike and Mia very well in this chapter.

The final chapters are not hard, maybe except for the first one. I played these maps very agressivly, so I finished all maps in the final not later than turn 3.

In summary:

Only the chapters with the DB were pretty difficult, especially if you don't use PoR boosts. Part 2 and 3 are marginal harder than on normal. Part 4 is also no big deal, if your groups are balanced.

I love the challenge on HM that you haven't the movement range of the enemies. So you really have to think in each turn.

Here are a few tips:

- give reasonable supports (earth-earth) and skill combos (vantage, cancel / vantage, adept / adept, cancel) to your units

- only use characters, you really want to and don't train too many units

- if someone from the DB has two very bad level ups in the beginning, I would drop it immediately

- use prepromoted units only for doing chip damage, if it's possible

- forge weapons, if you've enough money

- bring Jill to the silver army in part 4

- get the "nullify" skill in 2-F and give it to Haar or a falcon knight

- use bexp. very carefully, because it's by far less than on normal mode; it's almost impossible to bring all units to level 20

Edited May 29, 2014 by TalesOf Hysteria