First HM Playthrough

[ClLoulD]

So yeah I wanna do my first HM playthrough, I've played NM twice and EM once or twice? I found both to reward you with WAY too much BEXP to fix bad characters and I think HM will stop that but I've seen quite a massive difference in difficulty from threads in this mode.

So really I'd like some tips for the first part of the game on

1) Which units I should use

2) Which supports I should use

3) Forges where/when

I'll be using my PoR Transfers which is most characters and I'd also "Like" to use Edward/Leonardo for part 1 (I believe they have a decent support too?) I'm not really bothered about "Optimum" LTC and such but more so just finishing HM. I don't want to restrict myself without Edward and I like to think that Leonardo's chipping may become helpful, that being said if I see awful growths I'll bench them.

[Mekkah]

You should definitely use Leonardo and Edward early on, but especially the former drops like a rock in performance level really quickly. If you want to use them long term, you're really making the game much more difficult than necessary. Edward will never escape getting 2HKO'd and doesn't even double reliably.

Jill and Nolan you almost cannot go wrong with. If you want to use Edward or Leonardo long term, I'd support that guy with Nolan and leave the other. If you really want to use both, support them with each other. Zihark is not as good as Jill/Nolan, but he's still pretty good. Aran is useable. Treat Micaiah as a staffbot even when she doesn't have staves. Everyone else on the Dawn Brigade is only good up until a certain point. I'm sure you can guess the expiration dates of units like Sothe, Volug and the temporary godmode units of the DB by yourself.

For the GMs, Ike, Titania and Haar are no-brainers. Mia, Janaff and Ulki are the only other units I'd say are really good. Gatrie and Nephenee have their perks. I like supporting Mia with Ike, and Savior Titania with Mist in her saddlebags.

Edited December 20, 2014 by Mekkah

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

1.

• Edward, because he can double most stuff. Give him range weapons to make better use of wrath. Otherwise he could kill hisself. Also giving him Leonard's cancel would be useful for him.
• Leonardo, because he can become pretty useful with Lughnsadh in part 3.
• Nolan is a good wall for early game. He also has earth affinity and gets a good weapon in part 3
• Jill. Tbh the best unit in the game. She starts delicate and weak, but she will become a fast powerhouse
• Zihark because of adept and earth affinity
• Volug, because he's the wall in part 3 and also has earth affinity

2.

• Make earth-earth supports: Zihark x Volug, Nolan x Volug or Zihark x Nolan. High evasion is the best thing you can get in hard mode. Another good combo is lightning x earth. Jill x earth affinity unit is also pretty good
• I always make a support between Edward x Leonard. If Edward has a decent defense, he could take two hits except by axes.

3.

• Iron axes for Nolan and Jill to improve their accuracy and to avoid any speed penalty due to low strength
• Iron sword for Edward, but only if he lacks in strength
• thunder tome for Ilyana, if you want to use her in part 1

You only have access to forge steel weapons 1-E. So I also recommend to forge a steel axe for Nolan or Jill.

Edited December 20, 2014 by The Taninator

[ClLoulD]

Very solid advice!!

Edward and Leonardo I expect to expire after part 1 in all honesty, I'm thinking of supporting them with each other so no one loses out when they're no longer useful.

Volug I plan to get S strike level by 1-E.

Aran I'm unsure of? He really sucks until 2nd tier and even then isn't extraordinary, that seems like a lot of EXP for not much return.

Jill (ED/SR/DS) will definitely be used, Nolan yes but I won't expect to depend on him quite as much...

Do I need to use Sothe as an offensive unit to blast through everything or meatshield so other units like Nolan get EXP? (That's something I've pondered)

Yes, GM Ike/Titania/Haar are definitely going to be there but I'd also intend on using units like Shinon/Soren?/Nephenee perhaps. I understand Soren may succumb to staff botting.

I won't worry about part IV at all simply because I can spare a second slot just before picking units and take the cheap Laguz royals way out if needed.

Finally, any particular supports that should be used? I know EarthxEarth is godly but what else?

[Mekkah]

When I played HM for the first time, the only units I consciously put EXP into were Jill and Nolan. I was only barely able to promote them for 1-E. Maybe one of them in 1-8, not sure. So that shows how hard it can be to use a guy like Aran.

For forges, forge whatever you need. The forges I seem to always do are:

1 max hit/mt Iron Axe for Jill

1 max hit/mt Iron Axe for Nolan

1 max hit/mt Steel Axe for Jill

1 max hit/mt Steel Axe for Nolan

1 spare max mt Steel Axe for the Dawn Brigade

238972389237892478942789 max mt Hand Axes, some of them with boosted hit in part 3. You can never have too many of these, especially in part 4, with so many different units wanting to have as many as possible.

Mia and Nephenee like to have max mt/crit Steel weapons as they combine well with doubling, Adept, innate Crt, and later on, their masteries.

Do not worry about supports too much. Earth x Earth is definitely nice for the Dawn Brigade, but only if it's not inconvenient for you. My fliers are usually supportless. Earth x Earth is a waste for the GMs, since they usually have more trouble killing stuff than surviving.

If you plan to use Soren, he's probably Ike's best support, but not by much. He will prolly still be bad at this whole enemy phase thing. I do not recommend using him, but if you do, probably best to try and capram his Mag/Res and then BEXP up his Spd, maybe Crown him.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Very solid advice!!

Edward and Leonardo I expect to expire after part 1 in all honesty, I'm thinking of supporting them with each other so no one loses out when they're no longer useful.

Volug I plan to get S strike level by 1-E.

Aran I'm unsure of? He really sucks until 2nd tier and even then isn't extraordinary, that seems like a lot of EXP for not much return.

Do I need to use Sothe as an offensive unit to blast through everything or meatshield so other units like Nolan get EXP? (That's something I've pondered)

Finally, any particular supports that should be used? I know EarthxEarth is godly but what else?

Aran's biggest problem is his base speed and speed growth. If he will be doubled, his good defense is useless.

I always give him two levels. If he doesn't grow in speed at least once, I'll drop him at once.

Sothe is the Jagen for part 1. You can use him to weak the enemies so other units can finish them. Same goes for Volug btw to get strike level.

Also try to steal with Sothe as much as you can to get easy 10 exp. points. You can make the prey into money. But beware in part 3. Two tigers will kill him.

Try to do supports with the same affinity or affininites, which have at least one identical boost.

Edited December 20, 2014 by The Taninator

[ClLoulD]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYGWmiSM770

^ 1-P

I'll try to upload each chapter if possible :) recording does drop my FPS quite a fair bit unfortunately.

1-1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUDy8i-zn28&feature=youtu.be

Edited December 20, 2014 by ClLoulD

[PKL]

Eh, if you're good you can train whoever you want in the DB longterm in HM. Just distribute exp well. I managed Jill Edward Nolan and Micaiah training by 3-6. I ended up dropping Nolan even though he was sufficiently leveled because he got terribly screwed though. Of course, if you're playing LTC just train Jill you dont need anyone else in the DB lol

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Good video.

However very risky to place Edward in the attack range of the javelin soldier in turn 1 in 1-1. He usually never would survive two hits.

[Chiki]

Don't waste time getting Volug to S-strike. He drains exp from Jill and Nolan. Just train Jill as much as you can, with Nolan on the side.

[Mekkah]

You can find a happy medium by having Volug weaken things without killing, still giving him strike EXP. Especially if you need someone to set up kills for scrubs like Leonardo/Edward.

[dondon151]

Don't waste time getting Volug to S-strike. He drains exp from Jill and Nolan. Just train Jill as much as you can, with Nolan on the side.

uh if you're not going fast, this is not a problem

[General Banzai]

If you get past the first 5 or so chapters you can coast through the rest of the game on the backs of all the ridiculous units you get

I wouldn't be too concerned with investing in weak units for the long term too much, Nolan and maybe Jill are the only unpromoted units worth putting resources into

Haar can solo carry all of Part 3

[Chiki]

uh if you're not going fast, this is not a problem

It is a problem if you let Volug get kills, because it's not easy to have Jill ready for 3-6 on HM. At all. She needs as much exp as possible, and with Nolan around it's even harder.

[Lord Raven]

I think you missed the fact that he's not going fast, so he doesn't even necessarily need a good Jill.

[Chiki]

I think you missed the fact that he's not going fast, so he doesn't even necessarily need a good Jill.

Jill makes the game easy no matter what style you're playing. Please don't talk about things you're not good at.

[Lord Raven]

I'm pretty well aware. A well-trained Volug makes it easy too no matter what your playstyle.

I guess dondon's not good at this game either given that he didn't suggest something too different from me.

Edited December 22, 2014 by Lord Raven

[Florete]

Jill makes the game easy no matter what style you're playing. Please don't talk about things you're not good at.

Your "advice" is not appreciated.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Most of these mentioned advices are for LTC.

It's possible to beat the DB chapters on hard mode with other units.

In 3-6 you just have to turtle carefully. Play slowly! Make sure that your front units don't kill too many laguz. Otherwise more enemies will wreck your units in enemy phase. Most of the DB characters except for Volug and a very good Nolan and Jill (seraph robe necessary) wouldn't survive two attacks by the tigers.

I'd recommend to give beastfoe to Jill. In each player turn she can kill one laguz and fly back to a save spot thanks canto.

Volug and Zihark with an A-support are the best units in 3-6 for the front. Give resolve to Zihark so he's almost invulnerable, if he's <50% HP.

Bring Edward in wrath zone and then only let him attack with range weapons.

If Volug has reached S-strike, he can kill a cat in one turn.

Edited December 22, 2014 by The Taninator

[Mekkah]

I actually like Beastfoe on Nolan more since he's more durable, has room for Vantage and thus gets more mileage out of it. If Jill is only going to attack once every turn anyway, might as well give her Paragorn and let her loose with the Brave Axe.

[BillNyeTheBlackGuy]

So yeah I wanna do my first HM playthrough, I've played NM twice and EM once or twice? I found both to reward you with WAY too much BEXP to fix bad characters and I think HM will stop that but I've seen quite a massive difference in difficulty from threads in this mode.

So really I'd like some tips for the first part of the game on

1) Which units I should use

2) Which supports I should use

3) Forges where/when

I'll be using my PoR Transfers which is most characters and I'd also "Like" to use Edward/Leonardo for part 1 (I believe they have a decent support too?) I'm not really bothered about "Optimum" LTC and such but more so just finishing HM. I don't want to restrict myself without Edward and I like to think that Leonardo's chipping may become helpful, that being said if I see awful growths I'll bench them.

I personally think you can't go wrong abusing Sothe, Nolan, Zihark, and Volug throughout all of part 1 and part 3. IN my opinion, all four are the most useful units in those chapters since they are good from the start and they require those babying or paragon favoritism (like Jill) to get going. However, using Eddy, and Jill are great once they gain a few levels.

I also think Aran is very underrated in HM. Even though he gets double sometimes, most of the other DB units can't match his defense in HM. He also does nice damage with forged weapons, and he's a good candidate for bones exp level ups after level 20/8.

[Florete]

Most of these mentioned advices are for LTC.

Not really.

Sure, it's possible to beat the chapters with other characters. It's possible to beat the game with anyone you want. But this is an advice thread asking for which units are recommended to use to beat the game. Characters used in LTC runs typically fit that bill by their nature, but most of the posts here are not at all focused on the idea of an LTC run. Just ignore Chiki.

[ClLoulD]

1-2

Again very cautious but I'm pretty sure after I get characters like Jill up to speed I'll be able to relax a tad bit more.