Began my first playthrough of Awakening

[Zihark49]

I haven't played any Fire Emblem games in a few years. Recently I decided to buy a 2DS and Awakening and new go. I played most of the English releases, but I've never been particularly good at the games so take my "experience" with a grain of salt.

So I started playing Awakening on normal. I didn't look at any guides until about chapter 12 (except for a tier list just before I started). I've just finished chapter 13 and Paralogue 8. I have a few questions about what I should do during this playthrough.

1. What should be the timing for promotions/using master seals? I'm used to the older games where you should usually wait til lv.15-20 before promoting. The existence of second seals means that characters don't have a level cap, strictly speaking. Is the timing for promotions relatively the same, or should the timing for them change?

2. Is it necessary to use second seals to beat normal? I've only used one (to change Panne to a Wyvern Rider). I'm assuming that they won't be strictly necessary.

3. Here are the pairs I currently have (I just let them happen naturally, didn't realize until recently that some were questionable) What classes would be good for the children? I've only recruited Kjelle and Lucina so far.

Stahl x Sully (realize now that Kjelle's class pool is a problem)

Vaike x Miriel (I don't know why I thought this would be a good idea)

Chrom x Sumia (Finally a good Pairing)

Gregor x Nowi

Future pairs:

Libra x Lissa

Robin x Lucina

4. Considering the above, what other 1st gen pairings should I make?

This is probably obvious from the above, but no spoilers please.

[Alastor15243]

Honestly, your first playthrough on normal? I'd just do whatever you feel like for fun. You only get one first playthrough after all, and normal is really, really easy.

[OutOfMana]

It's not necessary to wait until Level 15-20 to promote. If anything, I'd promote early to get your Level 5/Level 15 skills ASAP. Since you can effectively reclass and promote at will - and Seals are buyable - you can just do so over and over and cap all your stats with enough patience.

Awakening is an easy game compared to other FEs, and Normal is indeed very easy. Try out skill/parents combinations as you see fit, you don't really need to worry about optimization until Hard (and even that can be trivialised if you know the tricks). You've only got one blind playthrough after all, so have fun! Also, since Reeking Boxes are super cheap, you can grind at will, so everyone can get viable at some point.

If you still wish to optimize your pairings, The Pairing Thread is a good resource.

Edited July 9, 2015 by OutOfMana

[Czar_Yoshi]

1. I usually go to 20 or when my stats are starting to cap, but it's not very important.

2. Nope.

3. None of those are problems, and you've got room to make any pairs you want.

4. I'd advise pairing up all the units you intend to use, no more and no fewer. How you pair them won't matter on Normal/a first playthrough.

[Zihark49]

Thanks for the answers. I have a few more questions about children, but I'll move that to the pairing thread. One last thing though. I want to use Cherche and Gerome. Out of the guys left, who has the most interesting support convos with her?

[Alastor15243]

Thanks for the answers. I have a few more questions about children, but I'll move that to the pairing thread. One last thing though. I want to use Cherche and Gerome. Out of the guys left, who has the most interesting support convos with her?

Definitely Gregor. Most interesting backstory. There's also Henry if you want a little insight into that guy's screwed up childhood.

[Zihark49]

Definitely Gregor. Most interesting backstory. There's also Henry if you want a little insight into that guy's screwed up childhood.

Darn, already paired Gregor with Nowi. Maybe I'll use the pair for the next run. Henry works for me though. I'll try that. He has a weird appearance with almost no explanation. He could use some filling out as a character. (And I could use a dark mage.)