Well, I guess I'm done for now...

[Anacybele]

I don't mean I've finished the game (I wish it did, believe me). I mean I should probably quit playing for now and maybe even restart sometime in the future. I've just hit a roadblock that I think would take a long time to get around for certain reasons. It's possible, but I'd need to grind a lot, I think.

Still, I'm upset at how much the difficulty suddenly goes way up from chapter 23 to chapter 24 in Birthright. I didn't have much trouble at all until now, and one or two chapters I won by default because the Faceless literally couldn't do squat to my party (0 damage, all of them, even the boss lol). I didn't even have trouble with the second Camilla battle because 1, having five different staff users (Sakura, Jakob, Orochi, Hinoka, Subaki) was an insane help, and 2, Takumi never DOESN'T one-shot Camilla.

Now all of a sudden, just about anyone in my party gets one or two-shotted by something. My units are that much weaker in just one chapter. I'm only on normal mode too. So like I said, I could go grind, but it looks like I would need to do a lot of it and I don't really want to right now. Perhaps next time, I should use a smaller party so I end up with higher levels. Or use some different units.

Glad I never wanted Conquest though, I should probably stay away from it if I can't finish Birthright. I never was very good at FE anyway (although I did beat RD which people seem to agree is hard even on easy mode), never could do too well on difficulties higher than easy/normal.

Did anyone else have a similar problem here though? I mean, find that there's a big gap in difficulty all of a sudden? I kind of hate when games do this... I prefer a gradual increase in difficulty, not something fairly easy and then all of a sudden a hard challenge.

[1% critted]

Chapters 23 to Endgame of Birthright basically said okay we are done playing around. Good thing you breezed through 23 it's one of the more annoying ones. What I did for 24 was to bunch my units south for the first wave and use the magic ballista. The enemies up north don't move until you are in range. Lobster lord is great for this chapter against the berserkers and especially the boss. If you can survive the initial part of the chapter, the rest is easy. Also unless you are planning to take a sky battle with the wyvern reinforcements, activate the tornados ASAP.

Chapter 25 on the other hand, has THAT ENTRAP MAID.

[Rapier]

I don't remember the chapters by numbers, but I recall that Birthright becomes much harder after that lava chapter. Take my observations with a grain of salt, though, because I'm a mediocre FE player.

Hans' chapter was hard for me because there was a lot to do and the player team starts surrounded by enemy units merely a feet away. Then Iago's chapter was also a pain because it had a lot of tanky enemy units and tanky enemy reinforcements, and Entrap is the bane of distracted people like me. Garon's is also tough because the enemy team starts too close to the player team, and they can easily kill your units with one or two hits. The endgame isn't really difficult (and I played it on Hard), but if you screw up you'll have to do it all again.

[veetasoy]

I'm on Chapter 23 on Hard right now, and Birthright latter chapters are a pain in tne ass. Can't say I'm having a good time with it.

[Radiant Dragon]

Chapter 24 is the one with Hans in the Dueling Grounds, right? I ran into the same problem in that chapter - the enemies just started doing way too much damage.

The key to this chapter (or rather, what worked for me) is to focus the majority of your offense on the southern group on the first turn and eliminate all/most of them so that's one less front you have to fight. This also gives you some room to outmaneuver the enemies approaching you from the north. Then you want to keep the left and right sides mostly segregated so that one unit doesn't end up facing attacks from both sides. Ryoma w/Guard Stance can almost handle one side on his own with a tiny bit of luck (I sent him east, personally) so the rest of your army can focus on dealing with the other. In addition, by fighting on both sides you end up forcing the northern reinforcements to divide their strength as well (for example, the first units to reach you, the three Great Knights, will send one unit down one side and two down the other).

The trick here is having good offense, though. You'll want to be able to pull an enemy or two to it's maximum range with a few tankier units (I say tankier and not tanky since Birhtright doesn't seem to have any real tanks. Even Scarlet, who's great, suffers from having a low HP pool), then on your turn have your rearguard focus fire them from behind your tanks so your tanks can move up slightly to draw in the next group. Going slow is key, because you don't want to aggro too many enemies at once. The Dragon Veins are important as well so you don't get attacked from behind, although the only reinforcements I saw before finishing the chapter came from the southwest. The southwest Dragon Vein can be activated on turn one by anyone as well, since it doesn't start in any enemy's range.

Have you recruited Yukimura yet (upgrade any Puppet in My Castle to Rank 3)? He should be a great addition to your fighting force with his good stats and high weapon ranks, especially with a Silver Yumi and/or Sting Shuriken. This is also when you're going to want to really start paying attention to your units personal skills, especially auras such as Sakura's Quiet Strength and Izana's Peacebringer. Hinoka's Rallying Cry and Yukimura's Perspicacious are good for a little extra offensive boost, as well.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Radiant Dragon

[Anacybele]

I was wondering why those tornado Dragon Veins were there when there are no flying enemies at the start of the battle... Thought there could be reinforcements, but I wasn't sure.

Glad I'm not the only one that had trouble and that I simply don't suck though. :P

Lobster lord is great for this chapter against the berserkers and especially the boss.

Except Ryoma almost got killed even with some help from nearby units. Not even he stands much of a chance right now. That's why I said I should probably grind. My party is just too weak right now.

EDIT: Post above was made as I was posting... Argh...

Edited February 28, 2016 by Anacybele

[Espinosa]

The Hoshido endgame is when you should start getting 1-2 turn clears by just assassinating the boss straight away.

[Radiant Dragon]

To be fair, my Ryoma was like level 15 or so at this point, since I used him way too much in the previous chapters. I don't think this is a dealbreaker, however, it'll just require you to distribute your forces a little more evenly and take the chapter a little more slowly.

Are any of your units close to S-rank? Thanks to Offspring Seals, the children characters can autolevel to where in the story you are (although the seals will not work if you use another seal first, from what I've heard). Spending a skirmish or two to unlock some Paralogues will give you a some instant, battle-ready units.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Radiant Dragon

[Anacybele]

The Hoshido endgame is when you should start getting 1-2 turn clears by just assassinating the boss straight away.

Except I'm not an expert player... I wouldn't know how to do this at ALL.

And see, Radiant Dragon, my Ryoma is at lv. 10 or so.

Chapter 24 is the one with Hans in the Dueling Grounds, right? I ran into the same problem in that chapter - the enemies just started doing way too much damage.

The key to this chapter (or rather, what worked for me) is to focus the majority of your offense on the southern group on the first turn and eliminate all/most of them so that's one less front you have to fight. This also gives you some room to outmaneuver the enemies approaching you from the north. Then you want to keep the left and right sides mostly segregated so that one unit doesn't end up facing attacks from both sides. Ryoma w/Guard Stance can almost handle one side on his own with a tiny bit of luck (I sent him east, personally) so the rest of your army can focus on dealing with the other. In addition, by fighting on both sides you end up forcing the northern reinforcements to divide their strength as well (for example, the first units to reach you, the three Great Knights, will send one unit down one side and two down the other).

The trick here is having good offense, though. You'll want to be able to pull an enemy or two to it's maximum range with a few tankier units (I say tankier and not tanky since Birhtright doesn't seem to have any real tanks. Even Scarlet, who's great, suffers from having a low HP pool), then on your turn have your rearguard focus fire them from behind your tanks so your tanks can move up slightly to draw in the next group. Going slow is key, because you don't want to aggro too many enemies at once. The Dragon Veins are important as well so you don't get attacked from behind, although the only reinforcements I saw before finishing the chapter came from the southwest. The southwest Dragon Vein can be activated on turn one by anyone as well, since it doesn't start in any enemy's range.

Have you recruited Yukimura yet (upgrade any Puppet in My Castle to Rank 3)? He should be a great addition to your fighting force with his good stats and high weapon ranks, especially with a Silver Yumi and/or Sting Shuriken. This is also when you're going to want to really start paying attention to your units personal skills, especially auras such as Sakura's Quiet Strength and Izana's Peacebringer. Hinoka's Rallying Cry and Yukimura's Perspicacious are good for a little extra offensive boost, as well.

This is pretty much what I was trying to do, actually. I typically always take things slow in FE, in fact, and I was dividing my party up into two halves. I also take out the general and mage guy to the south right away because that launcher hurts. I'm also all about high strength units for the most part, so much of my team has high strength stats.

But what are these stances people keep talking about? I haven't seen any command buttons or anything for a guard stance or attack stance or whatever.

I did just get Yukimura, actually.

I see. I have been trying to make the most of personal skills, but I guess there's more use to them that I never found.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Anacybele

[Radiant Dragon]

'Attack Stance' is when two units are standing next to each other and they both attack the enemy, and 'Guard Stance' is when you Pair Up two units for the stat bonuses and the Dual Guard gauge. You will definitely want to have the units who will be seeing Enemy Phase action in Guard Stance, if you aren't already. The cool thing about it as well, is that a unit in Guard Stance can still contribute a Dual Attack as the support unit in Attack Stance. Try to position your units such that your high-offense units like Takumi can take advantage of Attack Stance to get multiple attacks in each turn, as this will greatly increase the amount of damage you are able to do during your turn.

For example, if a General attacks Ryoma on the Enemy Phase, before moving Ryoma on your turn you can have another unit walk up behind him first and attack the General from range, taking advantage of Ryoma's excellent offense (even if Ryoma is in Guard Stance) to deal more damage. Then you can move Ryoma into position for the next Enemy Phase, maybe getting an attack in on a nearby enemy as well. Maybe you can even have yet another unit move next to Ryoma to let him get another attack in, if the enemies line up just right!

Note: While on the damage forecast screen (right before committing to your attack), if your unit is standing next to multiple allies, you can use the R button to cycle between them to see which would be best to Dual Attack with. Took me a while to notice that, and from what I've read I'm not the only one.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Radiant Dragon

[Espinosa]

Do you pair your units up like you did in Awakening? That's defensive stance. Pair Ryoma up with a Paladin or Great Knight and he will enjoy better bulk and mobility. Doubling and proccing Astra, he should be able to build up Dual Guard very quickly, evading many of the attacks that do get through the shield. You can practically afford to field just Ryoma and a good Avatar + their supporters in the lategame.

[Anacybele]

No, I hardly use pair-up because I felt it got nerfed to hell in this game. I mean, I wanted it to be nerfed just like pretty much everyone else on this forum did, but I didn't want it to be nerfed THAT much. Now I see that units don't dual-strike or dual-guard when you pair them up, only if they're just standing right next to each other. At least this is how it's been going for me. And the dual-strikes and dual-guards have been really handy. I only use pair-up to protect a weaker unit if necessary.

Simply put, pair-up sucks now and feels pointless to me.

[secondworld]

Now I see that units don't dual-strike or dual-guard when you pair them up, only if they're just standing right next to each other.

Incorrect, dual guard only happens when paired up.

Pair-up is super useful, the stat-boosts, dual guards, and negating enemy dual strikes can help a lot.

I can't speak about Birthright, but for Conquest at least I got to a point where I was barely using attack stance anymore because I needed my units to survive and pair-up is so good.

[Radiant Dragon]

I edited my earlier post in case you didn't see it, but I actually greatly prefer Fate's pair up system because it's no longer luck based. Two units standing next to each other will always dual attack (although if you double the enemy you'll still only dual attack once). Likewise with Guard Stance and dual guarding, see the little shields that fill up underneath your unit's name (EDIT: HP, actually. My bad.) when they're paired up? Those fill as the unit attacks/is attacked and once the gauge is full and the shields turn blue, you will dual guard the next attack, without fail.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Radiant Dragon

[Thane]

I always did find that map unnecessarily hard; Birthright is supposed to be the easier route, but this one feels harder than many chapters in Conquest. I simply don't understand what happened there.

[clazio]

Simply put, pair-up sucks now and feels pointless to me.

I just finished Conquest on Hard. I would have lost if it weren't for Guard Stance. I accidentally placed Soleil in Takumi's bow range, then Takumi initiated the battle and would have one-shot Soleil (she's a Falcon Knight).

So Guard Stance/Dual Guard is not pointless! It is very useful for tanking or for stacking speed. It helped a lot in the Endgame chapter.

And note, not having Guard Stance would allow the enemies to Dual Attack on your unit.

[Natsu_T]

There's your problem, pair-up is amazingly good. I feel like it's absolutely necessary to abuse it. Currently, I'm on ch. 23 Birthright hard classic, and I refuse to reset when units die. I haven't really had any issues so far, and from the sounds of it, my party is much less leveled than yours is. Almost all of my units are advanced class level 5's or around there. I have no idea what ch. 24 entails, but pair-up has usually been the answer for me in the last few chapters. Also, are you making sure to dump your money supply into tonics and steroids, as well as eating a rice/daikon dish before every major fight?

[Espinosa]

Not using pair-up at all is the reason why you're failing. I'd recommend buying a bunch of strength, defence and maybe speed tonics too.

[Roflolxp54]

Another benefit from Guard stance is that it ALWAYS shuts down secondary attacks coming from the supporting unit in an enemy Attack stance, which is useful if you don't want the lead unit to get piled badly.

Even a weak untrained unit can be useful as a Guard stance bot when paired with the right units (especially with an A or S support). For instance, I like to use Rinkah as a guard stance bot for Silas.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Roflolxp54

[Thane]

Another benefit from Guard stance is that it ALWAYS shuts down secondary attacks coming from the supporting unit in an enemy Attack stance, which is useful if you don't want the lead unit to get piled badly.

Aye. You mentioned you had problems with Ryouma getting ganged up on, and since he can kill a lot of enemies in one turn, he doesn't need help in the form of the atack stance.

That said, the jump in difficulty is rather extreme.

[Radiant Dragon]

Another benefit from Guard stance is that it ALWAYS shuts down secondary attacks coming from the supporting unit in an enemy Attack stance, which is useful if you don't want the lead unit to get piled badly.

This can't be overstated. Even a powerhouse badass such as Ryoma will easily crumple by facing enemy Dual Attacks at this point in the game. Enemies will simply have too much offense going forward.

[Anacybele]

Sorry, but I just don't like pair-up in this game and it hasn't helped me much at all. So no, it's not the reason I'm "failing." Also, I've hardly been failing up to this point anyway. So I just can't agree that it's any good anymore.

I haven't really needed Tonics at this point, I might consider it. Although some of my units' inventories are full because multiple weapon types.

[Thane]

Sorry, but I just don't like pair-up in this game and it hasn't helped me much at all. So no, it's not the reason I'm "failing." Also, I've hardly been failing up to this point anyway. So I just can't agree that it's any good anymore.

I haven't really needed Tonics at this point, I might consider it. Although some of my units' inventories are full because multiple weapon types.

Mate, if you make a thread like this and most of the forum gives you the same advice, I'd recommend trying it out before shutting it down; if you haven't used it a lot, maybe you simply aren't used to it and require more practice.

[Radiant Dragon]

Once you're ready to tackle it again, I would definitely recommend pairing up since now that enemy offense is ramping up Guard Stance is more useful than it would have been before where you didn't need it to reduce the damage you were taking.

Also, the cool thing about tonics is that you can use them at your castle or in preparations and then refill your unit's inventory. You don't need to use them in chapter.

[secondworld]

Sorry, but I just don't like pair-up in this game and it hasn't helped me much at all. So no, it's not the reason I'm "failing." Also, I've hardly been failing up to this point anyway. So I just can't agree that it's any good anymore.

I haven't really needed Tonics at this point, I might consider it. Although some of my units' inventories are full because multiple weapon types.

Have fun hitting brick walls and annoying difficulty spikes for not utilizing the tool to relieve them then.

You know what's annoying? When you try a chapter over and over and keep failing. You know how I usually get past that? I change my strategy, try something different. There's no reason to not try anything that's been suggested in this thread, if you were going to ignore everyone then why bother making it? You are artificially making things harder for yourself by not using a major game mechanic that would, if every other person who's posted here has attested to, be the thing that helps the most in this situation.

Edited February 28, 2016 by DavidSW