Doing a FE9/FE10 run on the Hardest Difficulty tips?

[MitoRequiem]

Hello guys, Never really posted on her but been lurking for years and just barely made an account like a year ago lol. ANYWAYS

I'm doing this whole "FE year thing" Which will probably be ruined by the newest Fire Emblem in June cause I'm importing it, but basically my goal is to beat all the FE games on the hardest difficulty this year. I'm doing a weird order and starting with FE9/FE10 first and I was curious what are the best characters to complete the games? I know there are tier lists for S-Rank but I just want to know some characters that just make both FE9/FE10 not as stressful on Hard/Maniac(Oh I might actually go out of my way to get the JP versions for these games but I'm sure that shouldn't change character choices much lol)

Anyways! Thanks in advance.

[Radiant head]

Path of Radiance - mounted units dominate this game. Marcia, Jill, Tanith, and an army of Paladins (Titania, Oscar, Kieran, etc.). As far as foot units go, Ike is great and somewhat needed because you have to sieze some chapters and he's one of 3 units who can damage the final boss, but he does gets overshadowed by the above units. Boyd is awesome as well. I wouldn't bother with other foot units, unless it's just favoritism. But basically mounts are overpowered as hell in this game.

Radiant Dawn isn't as straight forward, because you're dealing with different teams. The first part is arguably the hardest, because you have Micaiah's team who are fragile as hell. Exp is somewhat scarce compared to the easier difficulties, so it's recommended to use a selective elite team. I would basically stick to using Nolan, Jill, Sothe, Zihark, and Volug. The first two are tier 1 units, so I would focus on training and promoting them. The last 3 are prepromotes who won't gain much exp in Part 1, but they're extremely helpful for clearing these chapters. Then this team returns in Part 3, where they're facing laguz units, and these chapters can be really difficult. Training Nolan and Jill will payoff here. Sothe sort of stops being good after Part 1, but the rest of the units I mentioned are solid.

For Ike's team, Haar and Titania are your best units. You need to boost their speed a bit so they can double units, but once that happens, they will dominate the maps. Ike, Mia, Gatrie, Shinon, and Oscar, Janaff, and Ulki are all great too. And people use Reyson when they want to clear chapters as quickly as possible.

Part 4, you use whoever are your best units up until now, plus overpowered Laguz royals. I guess I'd especially recommend having both Haar and Jill at tier 3 here.

You might also want to get transfer boosts from Path of Radiance, but it's a bit harder to do so for a lot of characters if you're playing Hard Mode.

Edited April 8, 2015 by Radiant head

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

As already mentioned the difficulty in FE10 is unbalanced:

In part one most of your units are same or lower level than the enemies.

The Dawn Brigade isn't bad like people say. Only the enemies are pretty tough and will hit you hard especially in early game.

The lord is a mage so she's very fragile and sort of slow. She will be oneshotted or doubled by lots of enemies. So keep both eyes on her!

Units like Edward, Nolan or Jill have excellent growths!

Sothe is a "semi-Jagen". He's pretty much the lifeshield and the best unit to weak enemies in part one, but becomes worse and worse later.

Though you shouldn't ignore him complety, because he's forced for the entire game. He musn't die at any point in this game except in the endgame.

A few tips for part using the Dawn Brigade effectively:

• only focus on using a few units

• supports gain much more importance than in FE9! The system is different: One character can support with only any one character. It's a flexible system: You can cancel and create new supports at any time in this game. Since the possibilities of supports is reduced (three instead of five) the support boosts are increased. Earth-earth is the best support combination in this game! An A-support will give you +45% evasion. Godly in hard mode! There are three good units in part one, who have earth affinity. So support them!

In part two you fight with second tier units and a third tier unit against first tier and low second tier units. Not hard!

Only 2-1 is a little bit difficult, because you have to fight with only two units against lots of enemies and you're under time pressure.

In part three you have the strongest party (Ike + Greil's mercenaries).

The are lots of great units: Ike, Titania, Shinon, Gatrie, Mia...

Almost each one of this group is usable.

And it becomes stronger, because some units of part 2 and one unit of part will 1 will join very soon.

In part three you also play three chapters with the Dawn Brigade and one chapter with the Crimean Knights.

In part four you can create three groups individually, although a few units can't be moved.

Edited April 8, 2015 by Mister IceTeaPeach

[Baldrick]

For Radiant Dawn Part 1, Sothe and Volug are fairly RNG-proof, and can carry you through the part 3 chapters as well. Remove Volug's Wildheart in part 3, and give him Olivi Grass so he can maintain his gauge. You should focus all the EXP on one unpromoted scrub; I would use Nolan, then compare his stats to Jill's when you get her. Jill also has flight which is useful for the desert, while Nolan has a special weapon that helps him tank in part 3.

Part 2 just use the people you have.

In Part 3 Ike/Haar/Titania/Gatrie are all solid, and use anyone else who seems to be doing well.

Part 4 use the Royals, and anyone else who's in tier 3.

[Soledge]

In radiant dawn, the dawn brigade is the hardest section.

Due to a lack of exp must focus on 3/4 unit.

Micaiah should be focused on as she is mandatory and is the only Mage, use sacrifice ALOT.

Edward is basically unless without weapon triangle. (And to a lesser degree Zihark)

Leonard is an archer, nuf said.

Nolan is a beast since he can destroy myrmidon now without the weapon triangle

Sothe, Volug and Taurenaoe receive next to no experience so don't use them yet.

Jill is great as well because of th lack of triangle, great growths and is a flier.

Laura is a healer so she'll gain exp naturally but make sure she doesn't die its a pain without her (belivie me its a nightmare)

Meg and Fiona..................................................................................................................................................LOL

Tourmod, vika, and muarim won't come back until endgame and at point only Muarim is possibly usable so don't bother with them.

I'd recommend givin exp to Micaiah(mainly through sacrifice, just enough exp to keep her going) Nolan, Jill and at stretch Sothe cause he's mandatory.

After the Part 1 the rest is significantly easier except the DB chapters.

Question will you be doing stat transfer, it can really help the dawn brigade especially Jill , Zihark and Sothe.

[Mekkah]

Radiant Head gave you good advice, so I recommend following that. FE9 is pretty easy even on the most difficult modes, allegedly even the Japanese Maniac. FE10 is tougher. Don't be afraid to use your most overpowered units when the situation calls for it, even though they don't need any EXP.

[MitoRequiem]

Thanks guys, Yeah I shoulda said I'm not too worried about FE9 that game is fairly balanced imo lol, and If I decided to go JP route I really have nothing to worry about with the crit glitch.

It seems like I was right Dawn Brigade is gonna be a giant pain in my first playthrough I used literally no one from Dawn Brigade except for Jill? I tried using Nolan he couldn't double anything for me and I abandoned Edward and Leonardo so I think I'll try with Nolan.

and yessss stat transfers is the main reason I'm gonna do FE9 first. My route I was doing for my "FE Year challenge" was gonna be least enjoyed to most enjoyed(Not necessarily the games I think are bad because I love every FE game) and RD was gonna be first then Awakening but I realized I'd be a waste if I didn't do PoR first and transfer good units/potential supports

[Radiant head]

The problem with Nolan is that his speed is weighed down by the Steel axe. You can forge him an Iron Axe in the base of 1-4. Ideally he'll gain enough strength (15) by the end of 1-5, so that he can use the Steel axe properly, and then you can pass the forge to Jill (who has the same problem). But aside from that, Nolan has really amazing speed growth, so he shouldn't have doubling issues once you fix that strength problem.

And Jill is basically just Nolan with wings, so you can't go wrong with using both of them. She wants basically as many PoR transfer boosts as possible. Personally, I have never had good luck with this, because I don't reset abuse much. But Jill benefits from transfers arguably more than anyone else. She's also a good candidate for the stat booster items that the DB gets. Energy drop will help her reach the 15 strength faster, and seraph robe fixes her low hp base. People give her the Dracoshield too, but if she has a defense transfer, then I give the dracoshield to Nolan.

Edward is really popular because his growth spread is really great, but his low bases and fragility makes him a pain to use. I find him overrated. And it's worse in hard mode, because there's no weapon triangle, so he'll be getting hit a lot by axes.

[MitoRequiem]

Ah I see, I should look into that so I understand how exactly transfers work, As for reset abuse that is also something I haven't done in any FE game(Mainly cause I haven't bothered to figure out how it works probably just reset after a level?) which amazes me how I got through some games on harder difficulties but I guess bad stats don't make the game impossible just makes it easier lol.

[Baldrick]

The tier 1 DBers are generally make or break on their early levels. Eg. don't be afraid to use Edward if he gains a lot of good levels.

Transferred characters get a small bonus in stats they cap in PoR, if they reach level 20 promoted. It'd be best to focus on getting a couple of characters transfers, and save the statboosters to use on them if they're just short of capping a stat at max level.

Edited April 9, 2015 by Baldrick

[Lord Raven]

The problem with Nolan is that his speed is weighed down by the Steel axe. You can forge him an Iron Axe in the base of 1-4. Ideally he'll gain enough strength (15) by the end of 1-5, so that he can use the Steel axe properly, and then you can pass the forge to Jill (who has the same problem). But aside from that, Nolan has really amazing speed growth, so he shouldn't have doubling issues once you fix that strength problem.

You also get a hand axe in the village in 1-1

Avoid Edward in Part 1, I did a casual run of FE10 hard mode where Edward got to Level 12 by 1-7 and he still had a lot of issues. I'd use Zihark over him if you really need a Myrmidon/Swordmaster unit. Zihark even has an earth support to help compensate for his poor durability because he'll get +30 evade with an EarthxEarth support by Part 3, but his durability still limits him on EP because Part 3 Laguz have a bunch of hit.

Edited April 18, 2015 by Lord Raven