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

[Anacybele]

For 25, I don't know the layout of normal all that well, but I think you might be able to pull off a bait-and swarm on normal (take a tankish unit to bait a couple dudes in, then just overwhelm them with offense). Ryoma can basically solo middle room, since it's just a bunch of berserkers and like a sorc. If you have 3 tanky enough units you can try choking. Guard Naginata is good. If you can't blitz it and need to tank, Hinoka can reclass to Spear Master.

I also recommend investing in a dual katana for ryoma because as far as I remember after he's done dealing with berserkers there's gonna be some generals. switch to dual katana to fuck up their day.

The map starts off with three generals and a valkyrie right in front of you. I can take out the generals easily because I've got Hana with an Armorslayer and two units who can fuck them up with magic. Ryoma, Ike, and Corrinetta with their brute strength can do a lot of damage too.

The incoming Great Knights are no problem as well because more magic takes them down easily and my own Great Knight Silas can tank against them. But after that I've got mages up ahead that can use those launchers as well as a berserker or two. Ryoma or Ike can take care of the berserker easily, but then they get fucked over by the mage launcher. I had them paired up and Ike still got beat and then Hana was one-shotted. All the hits they took had fairly low chances of striking too. I paired Ike with her because I thought if one had more speed, that makes them more dodgy. Hana usually dodges a lot of stuff, so... I guess maybe I had some bad luck in addition to somehow not making a good decision.

I love using Ryoma and Ike as a team though, they're the godly two-range swordsmen of this game! As an attack team, I mean, not as a pair-up. Otherwise, only one of them would be doing the attacking.

Edited February 29, 2016 by Anacybele

[Thor Odinson]

If you have a spare seraph robe it might be good time to slap that on Hana. Her durability is really awful and unlike Ryoma, she doesn't have solid HP, not paper defense, and a god tier 1-2 range to use vantage with. Hana's offense is very good, but her defense is very bad and she doesn't have the same fallback options as Ryoma.

Ryoma should be able to take at least one shot from the mage launcher. If you got any Wane festals, Now is a good time to bust that out too. Or just make him beeline to the Sorc and take them out first while he laughs at all the berserkers and give no fucks.. I like pairing him to Scarlet, supports be damned, she's an 8 move ferry and lets him move really far. She'll even make him 7 mov too.

I remember on Lunatic there was like, one general in there while Ryoma wiped the room and I'm like, fuck, but really I just ran circles around the General until I got rid of all the zerks and then swapped to Dual katana and really screwed up that poor general's day.

It was not even fair (to the enemy)

Edited February 29, 2016 by Thor Odinson

[Chaotix]

The map starts off with three generals and a valkyrie right in front of you. I can take out the generals easily because I've got Hana with an Armorslayer and two units who can fuck them up with magic. Ryoma, Ike, and Corrinetta with their brute strength can do a lot of damage too.

The incoming Great Knights are no problem as well because more magic takes them down easily and my own Great Knight Silas can tank against them. But after that I've got mages up ahead that can use those launchers as well as a berserker or two. Ryoma or Ike can take care of the berserker easily, but then they get fucked over by the mage launcher. I had them paired up and Ike still got beat and then Hana was one-shotted. All the hits they took had fairly low chances of striking too. I paired Ike with her because I thought if one had more speed, that makes them more dodgy. Hana usually dodges a lot of stuff, so... I guess maybe I had some bad luck in addition to somehow not making a good decision.

I love using Ryoma and Ike as a team though, they're the godly two-range swordsmen of this game!

Here's the strategy I used for that chapter-

Basically split your team into three groups: left, right, and center. The center group can be smaller, it won't do much.

The left and right groups deal with the enemies to your left and right (obviously) but then don't rush forward, there are a couple of waves of reinforcements. Once the reinforcements are done, send them down the corridors to clear them out and get the chests.

Meanwhile, the center group should just be slowly picking off enemies without entering the center chamber or the launchers' range. You can pull away almost all the enemies without being in any real danger. Once that is done, you can go for the launchers, but beware of the unit with the Entrap staff - I would definitely send a paired-up duo to take him out, because he will pull you towards the north corridor and you could get swarmed.

But anyway once you have recovered those chests, there should be no more reinforcements and you should be able to pull together all your groups and finish the last section.

This one requires patience, be sure to keep track of the launcher and staff ranges.

[Anacybele]

If you have a spare seraph robe it might be good time to slap that on Hana. Her durability is really awful and unlike Ryoma, she doesn't have solid HP, not paper defense, and a god tier 1-2 range to use vantage with. Hana's offense is very good, but her defense is very bad and she doesn't have the same fallback options as Ryoma.

Ryoma should be able to take at least one shot from the mage launcher. If you got any Wane festals, Now is a good time to bust that out too. Or just make him beeline to the Sorc and take them out first while he laughs at all the berserkers and give no fucks.. I like pairing him to Scarlet, supports be damned, she's an 8 move ferry and lets him move really far. She'll even make him 7 mov too.

I remember on Lunatic there was like, one general in there while Ryoma wiped the room and I'm like, fuck, but really I just ran circles around the General until I got rid of all the zerks and then swapped to Dual katana and really screwed up that poor general's day.

It was not even fair (to the enemy)

Yeah, maybe I should put Ryoma with a flier. But I haven't used Scarlet at all, so she'd be underleveled for this fight. Hinoka might work though. She has high res too, so I can easily switch to her if another mage is incoming. Thing is, there was a second mage somewhere, as Ike can actually take a shot from the magic too (though barely...poor guy), he just ended up taking a second blow from another enemy. -_- Maybe I didn't realize he was in another mage's range...

Ryoma's defenses aren't actually much better than Hana's though. Either that, or he got defense/res screwed for me... But I probably have some Seraph Robes, I'll give them both one depending on how many I've got.

EDIT: Oh, thanks for the warning about that Entrap staff. Also, I've not seen a weapon called a Dual Katana, so I can't use that.

Edited February 29, 2016 by Anacybele

[solrocknroll]

I do think that you put way too much focus on Ike. Ike is the equivalent of a Level 12 promoted unit right now in your game. That's a little much. I think you left your other units behind for a while because you focused way too much on Ike.

edit: this goes for Ryoma too.

Edited February 29, 2016 by Ms. Andrews

[Sunwoo]

The strategy for Hoshido 24 is to kill the boss as fast as you can. In this chapter, dual guard helped me out a bit when I had to hide my squishier units and boost up my more offensive units' stats.

[Anacybele]

I do think that you put way too much focus on Ike. Ike is the equivalent of a Level 12 promoted unit right now in your game. That's a little much. I think you left your other units behind for a while because you focused way too much on Ike.

edit: this goes for Ryoma too.

Really? I wasn't trying to do that. I seriously wasn't... But I guess I like him AND Ryoma even more than I realize.

The strategy for Hoshido 24 is to kill the boss as fast as you can. In this chapter, dual guard helped me out a bit when I had to hide my squishier units and boost up my more offensive units' stats.

You're a little late here, I already finished that chapter.

[Thor Odinson]

Yeah, maybe I should put Ryoma with a flier. But I haven't used Scarlet at all, so she'd be underleveled for this fight. Hinoka might work though. She has high res too, so I can easily switch to her if another mage is incoming. Thing is, there was a second mage somewhere, as Ike can actually take a shot from the magic too (though barely...poor guy), he just ended up taking a second blow from another enemy. -_- Maybe I didn't realize he was in another mage's range...

Ryoma's defenses aren't actually much better than Hana's though. Either that, or he got defense/res screwed for me... But I probably have some Seraph Robes, I'll give them both one depending on how many I've got.

EDIT: Oh, thanks for the warning about that Entrap staff. Also, I've not seen a weapon called a Dual Katana, so I can't use that.

Upgrade your shops if you haven't done that---it should be in the Hoshido armory. By this time you should definitely have lv 3 shops(if not, upgrade to lv 3 shops) and they're in there.

What's Ryoma and Hana's defenses, respectively? Ryoma's base 16-1 is already pretty high for Hana to ever reach, so she could even be def blessed. I had him in the 20s by chapter 25, but since you're on normal enemies shouldn't hit as hard as they do on Lunatic and even with base def he should be ok.

You definitely want to watch range and not place Ryoma haphazardly. He's a great map-wiper, but his positioning still needs to be strategic. You don't need to use Scarlet to deploy her---some strategic use of Azura and front-back unit swapping pretty much ensures Ryoma's in the front when it matters. Select and paying attention to enemy range is how you win. When I play on Lunatic I usually do select all (purple range) then also select the nearest enemies I can eyeball to be close enough to my level, then deselect the ones I want to draw in and make sure I stay out of the range of the rest, while plop my tanky unit/Ryoma in the range of the enemies I'm okay with them dealing with. Sometimes I'll even use a squishy to distract an enemy if I can ensure the squishy can take that one hit. I mentally run a bunch of calcs on the fly.

Edited February 29, 2016 by Thor Odinson

[Anacybele]

I do have level 3 shops. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention.

Ryoma's def and res respectively: 18, 15 (they'd each be one point higher, but Raijinto subtracts that)

Hana's: 9, 16 (all her weapons except for the armorslayer take a point off both. With armorslayer, they're both a point higher)

Not really a huge difference. And Ryoma is six levels higher. Both are Swordmasters.

I pay as much attention to range as I can, but it seems I still slip up on occasion. Just need to be careful, you're right...

Edited March 1, 2016 by Anacybele

[Thor Odinson]

Uh, that is a huge difference. Ryoma should only face 1 mage at a time if you position right, so Res is mostly irrelevant, but 9 points of defense is massive if you're going against multiple enemies. If say you face 4 guys and they have, idk, 19 mt (not a thing at that point in the game, but for the sake of math), and they somehow all hit Ryoma and Hana, Ryoma would take 4 damage and Hana would be dead because she does not have 40 HP unless you really stuffed her HP with boosters.

[Anacybele]

lolwut. 9 points isn't that big a difference when stats in this game can go pretty high. Not as high as in Awakening, I think, but still high. My Corrin has nearly 40 Str and Ike has 50 HP.

[Butterfly Pink]

I used Scarlet and Reina to fly around the map, avoiding all the enemies, and to land Sophie to do almost all the damage, while finishing him with Scarlet (Hand Axe) in a single round.

To be fair, I tried tanking the map, but the endless waves of fliers made that a losing prospect. I finally just used paratrooper strat's.

[Anacybele]

Well, that's all dandy, but once again, I've already finished chapter 24. I'm on 25 now and I don't think there are any enemy fliers in it. Do people ever read the recent posts in this thread? Sorry, but I dislike repeating myself...

Edited March 1, 2016 by Anacybele

[Butterfly Pink]

Do you not have a good ninja or high RES character leveled for dealing with mages? If not, you can always ride in (Silas?), kill a mage, and then rescue staff them out, depending on how many staff uses you have left.

Someone wielding Guard Naginata may also be helpful.

I didn't read your recent posts, but you could just not repeat yourself, instead of replying.

Edited March 1, 2016 by Butterfly Pink

[Thor Odinson]

lolwut. 9 points isn't that big a difference when stats in this game can go pretty high. Not as high as in Awakening, I think, but still high. My Corrin has nearly 40 Str and Ike has 50 HP.

Most units don't have 50 HP. Mid 30s is average so if you take an extra 36 damage you are likely gonna die.

HP is pretty low in this game, and Hana is even on the lower end. If she has even 30HP I'll be surprised and you probably got lucky.

Sorcs have 6 move, 2 extra range. Scarlet has 8 move, carry around Ryouma and swap lets him cover 10 tiles. If Ryoma initiates the mage shouldn't even touch him. And if on the off chance they do, That's what Wane festal is for.

The 2 mages in the center room should be far enough apart that if you pick out 1 the other wouldn't reach you anyway even if they aggro'd. Also there's uh, a dragon vein in the middle room, if you really need that. I think it removes enemy weapons in that room. I didn't use it because Ryoma kinda just wiped house in that room and there wasn't a point. After he wiped out the middle I bumrushed top and they couldn't really retaliate either.

Edited March 1, 2016 by Thor Odinson

[Anacybele]

Do you not have a good ninja or high RES character leveled for dealing with mages? If not, you can always ride in (Silas?), kill a mage, and then rescue staff them out, depending on how many staff uses you have left.

Someone wielding Guard Naginata may also be helpful.

I didn't read your recent posts, but you could just not repeat yourself, instead of replying.

Yeah, of course I do. But those high res characters typically have low def and the mages are accompanied by a few high str enemies. I do have the Guard Naginata on Hinoka though.

Most units don't have 50 HP. Mid 30s is average so if you take an extra 36 damage you are likely gonna die.

HP is pretty low in this game, and Hana is even on the lower end. If she has even 30HP I'll be surprised and you probably got lucky.

Sorcs have 6 move, 2 extra range. Scarlet has 8 move, carry around Ryouma and swap lets him cover 10 tiles. If Ryoma initiates the mage shouldn't even touch him. And if on the off chance they do, That's what Wane festal is for.

Well, guess what? My Hana has 32 HP currently at lv. 7 Swordmaster.

Hinoka has 8 mov too, you know. I did say I was using her.

[Thor Odinson]

I mean you get 15-16 deploy and Hinoka might have some other business she might want to attend to, but w/e sub in whatever 8 move unit for Ryoma's ferry. I pick Scarlet bc she gives +str which means better orko counters esp if on the off chance Ryoma does need to tap into Vantage (she also gives him more def for a buffer)

Hinoka's great for dealing with mages, but no lance unit want to ever be in the same room as a Berserker. Though you could try Dual Naginata for that.

Congratulations, your Hana is +3.65 HP blessed. Considering she has 35% HP growth, it's a pretty big margin. She has 3 less defense than she should, though, so she's even more papery than normal. Despite the seemingly large stats, even a +5 in something makes a huge difference. That's why Guard Naginata is so good.

Edited March 1, 2016 by Thor Odinson

[Butterfly Pink]

Try using HP/Defense/Resistance Tonics on units able to handle both types of damage well, or make use of Rescue or Silence staves.

[Anacybele]

I mean you get 15-16 deploy and Hinoka might have some other business she might want to attend to, but w/e sub in whatever 8 move unit for Ryoma's ferry. I pick Scarlet bc she gives +str which means better orko counters esp if on the off chance Ryoma does need to tap into Vantage (she also gives him more def for a buffer)

Hinoka's great for dealing with mages, but no lance unit want to ever be in the same room as a Berserker. Though you could try Dual Naginata for that.

Congratulations, your Hana is +3.65 HP blessed. Considering she has 35% HP growth, it's a pretty big margin. She has 3 less defense than she should, though, so she's even more papery than normal. Despite the seemingly large stats, even a +5 in something makes a huge difference. That's why Guard Naginata is so good.

Well, like I said before, I haven't used Scarlet, so she's underleveled for this point.

I see. I didn't want to have to go back to the shops right now since I saved at the battle... (if I do, I'll have to see the whole story sequence again) But I guess I might have to...

Well, Hana has still been good for me. Not as good as Ryoma, obviously, but still good.

Edited March 1, 2016 by Anacybele

[Butterfly Pink]

Start button skips story sequence.

[Anacybele]

I didn't know you could skip story sequences...

[Thor Odinson]

Press start to skip is standard in...just about any FE?

And like I said, using an extra flier as a ferry that doesn't require seeing combat at all really doesn't matter if they're trained or not--and Scarlet's bases are super good, as well--I can see them being relevant even in Normal mode endgame.

Hell, I have trained Scarlet but I don't even think I made her front that much in 25/27 because of the amount of bow knights. Ferrying Ryoma around is a job any 8 move unit can do regardless of stats because he'll still be the one in front.

But I mean, whatever 8 move unit you wanna use is fine. Just find him an 8 move unit to pair on to and enjoy 8 move initial, 7 after on Ryoma

Edited March 1, 2016 by Thor Odinson

[Butterfly Pink]

To second Thor Odinson, I fielded Scarlet as a ferry on Endgame, and she hadn't even leveled once. Paradropping is a powerful strat' in FE:Fates, so she'd certainly be more than powerful enough as is so long as you kept her in the back.

Edited March 1, 2016 by Butterfly Pink

[Locke087]

I didn't know you could skip story sequences...

Fun Fact you can also use start to skip combat in FE 11-14

[Anacybele]

Press start to skip is standard in...just about any FE?

And like I said, using an extra flier as a ferry that doesn't require seeing combat at all really doesn't matter if they're trained or not--and Scarlet's bases are super good, as well--I can see them being relevant even in Normal mode endgame.

Hell, I have trained Scarlet but I don't even think I made her front that much in 25/27 because of the amount of bow knights. Ferrying Ryoma around is a job any 8 move unit can do regardless of stats because he'll still be the one in front.

But I mean, whatever 8 move unit you wanna use is fine. Just find him an 8 move unit to pair on to and enjoy 8 move initial, 7 after on Ryoma

Well, I just didn't know somehow, okay?

Okay, if it doesn't matter as long as the unit has 8 mov, why are we still talking about Scarlet? I can just use Hinoka like I said.