My attempt at Nohr!Hard

[Leif]

UPDATE:

Ok, I completed both Ignatius's and Forrest's paralogues. After completing Forrest's I used part of the money to buy a Master Seal for Laslow who promoted to a Bow Knight (for Rally Skill). Once he gets Rally Skill, I'll use a Partner Seal and an Arms Scroll to change him into a Falcon Knight with decent weapon levels. This way he can get Rally Speed. He's currently at a B support with Keaton so, if I'm feeling ambitious, I'll make him into a Berserker for Rally Strength. Not sure if it's feasible to have him be a Berserker this late into the game, so I may reclass him back to Hero for Sol and skip Berserker all together. Corrin is very OP and close to getting Defender. I'll make her change back to Nohr Noble for Dragonic Curse. It'll sting not having 9 movement, but when paired up with Elise or Jakob, she'll have 8 move, which is decent.

I attempted Velouria's paralogue, but had to reset because I got RNG screwed with my Corrin + Effie Pair up getting Entrapped + Enfeebled + Frozen and dying.

I have a good strategy, which involves Camilla ferrying Mozu to the top and bottom parts of the map to snipe the Fire Orb Dark Mages, when lure the main force, down in the middle valley, with my Corrin + Effie Pair-up (Corrin has 30 defense with it). I guess I used up the dragon veins too soon and got lazy with buying tonics. I'll buy some Resistance Tonics so Corrin doesn't get staffed haxed and save one Dragon Vein when Corrin lures the middle troop. I believe her Resistance will be 21 with a Resistance Tonic, which is not shabby at all.

Velouria is level 17 upon recruitment and has amazing base stats, even surpassing Keaton in some. With Aptitude, she'll wreck faces.

Edited June 29, 2016 by Leif

[Alastor15243]

UPDATE:

Ok, I completed both Ignatius's and Forrest's paralogues. After completing Forrest's I used part of the money to buy a Master Seal for Laslow who promoted to a Bow Knight (for Rally Skill). Once he gets Rally Skill, I'll use a Partner Seal and an Arms Scroll to change him into a Falcon Knight with decent weapon levels. This way he can get Rally Speed. He's currently at a B support with Keaton so, if I'm feeling ambitious, I'll make him into a Berserker for Rally Strength. Not sure if it's feasible to have him be a Berserker this late into the game, so I may reclass him back to Hero for Sol and skip Berserker all together.

Laslow usually has great strength so he should do just fine getting a few levels if you give him a bronze axe to help with his reduced dodge. It may seem like a big hurdle, but trust me, once you get all three rallies and then reclass him to mechanist to cap off with replicate, seriously, you will wonder how you ever functioned without the guy.

Oh, and yes, Velouria is amazing, easily one of the best kids, and with aptitude? Holy cow she'll be a menace.

Edited June 29, 2016 by Alastor15243

[Leif]

Mini Update: Completed Velouria's chapter. I decided to bench Keaton since Velouria has better stats overall. Thankfully Velouria will have Mozu and Corrin to have support bonuses with.

Before I start Chapter 16, should I spare Shura or kill him? I could always spare him and get the extra boots via Anna's Gift DLC lol, but that would violate my no DLC rule.

Also, it seemed kinda pointless to get all the other kids. My promoted units are still stuck around level 1-2 save for Corrin, Camilla and Leo. =/

Glad to have all the nice rewards, though..

Edited June 29, 2016 by Leif

[Alastor15243]

Mini Update: Completed Velouria's chapter. I decided to bench Keaton since Velouria has better stats overall. Thankfully Velouria will have Mozu and Corrin to have support bonuses with.

Before I start Chapter 16, should I spare Shura or kill him? I could always spare him and get the extra boots via Anna's Gift DLC lol, but that would violate my no DLC rule.

Also, it seemed kinda pointless to get all the other kids. My promoted units are still stuck around level 1-2 save for Corrin, Camilla and Leo. =/

Glad to have all the nice rewards, though..

Shura isn't fantastic, but sparing him gets you a killer bow, which is nice if you have an archer.

[Leif]

Shura isn't fantastic, but sparing him gets you a killer bow, which is nice if you have an archer.

Yeah I'll do that so I can forge a +1 Killer Bow for Mozu. I was planning on keeping him alive for his gear only.

BTW: I managed to forge a +3 Iron Lance for Effie and she's fantastic with it! I just used all the Iron Lances I got from Benny, Silas, and Ignatius to make it!

Edited June 29, 2016 by Leif

[Avalanche]

Up to you really. Free Killer Bow is cool and all (plus his stats aren't awful), but if you've put work into Niles and gotten he an Camilla married, he's probably more useful in the long run. Did you use your boosters yet? I can also vouch for Velouria being a monster. Selena was her mom on my last run (Selena herself received basically no training btw) and after recruiting her before Chapter 21, her and Percy (a Berserker mothered by Mozu) performed wonderfully for the endgame.

Edited June 29, 2016 by Avalanche

[Shadow Mir]

As for Shura, I'd spare him partly for the gear, and partly for the convo against Douche Ninja next chapter.

[Leif]

Mini Update 2:

Finished Chapter 16 and earned 8800 gold. Spared Shura and forged a +1 Killer Bow. Straightforward and easy. Velouria is at level 19 at 53 EXP. Should I use a Master Seal on her now or wait till she's Lv. 20?

Anyway...

Chapter 17 is up next. Damnation, I remember Chapter 17 gave me a damn headache when I did my Nohr!Normal play through. I will be giving Speed Tonics to everyone and their mother. Hopefully the Mess Hall will help me out in the speed department too. I used a Heart Seal to class change Corrin back to Nohr Noble. I won't reclass Jakob to Great Knight just yet since I want that magic and speed boost.

Edited June 30, 2016 by Leif

[Avalanche]

Get the level. I'm assuming she inherited Aptitude, so why make it go to waste?

[Leif]

UPDATE:

After another My Castle support grind fest, I had Xander marry Charlotte. Laslow and Keaton reached A+, so Laslow has the Berserker class available to him. I also completed Seigbert's chapter relatively quickly since there were no promoted units there whatsoever. I benched Azura for that chapter since I wanted to get my primary attackers a few more levels. Velouria promoted and she's absolutely amazing. Can't wait for her to shred foes apart. Arthur used my last Master Seal to promote to Berserker to give Effie godly pair-up bonuses. Charlotte and Keaton will eventually use Master Seals as well when I get the fully upgraded Staff Store.

Now, I am just about to start Chapter 17. It doesn't seem bad per se, but I'm worried about all the debuffs and keeping Saizo alive (for the reward). Should I split up my forces?

On a side note it seems that I'll only be using these units from now on since all the paralogues have been completed:

- Corrin

- Azura

- Jakob (pair-up bot for Corrin)

- Xander

- Camilla

- Leo

- Elise (Healer)

- Laslow (Rally Bot)

- Niles

- Effie

- Mozu

- Velouria

- Arthur (pair-up bot for Effie)

- Charlotte (pair-up bot for Xander)

- Felicia (pair-up bot for Leo)

- Keaton (pair-up bot for Mozu and/or Velouria)

The final chapters in Conquest use 15 characters + the avatar. Five units are pair-up bots for their significant others, two are mostly for support, and the rest are for combat.

Strangely, I'm not having as hard of a time as I initially expected. The first few chapters were a bit nerve-wracking, but once my units started to pick up speed, things have been pretty easy. I think getting Kana's and Dwyer's paralogues early helped my units get tons of levels. I'll probably eat my words once I reach the final few chapters, especially Iago's.

Last Question: Should I make Leo a Strategist? He's awfully slow.

Edited June 30, 2016 by Leif

[Alastor15243]

Last Question: Should I make Leo a Strategist? He's awfully slow.

I wouldn't, strategists aren't that much faster, have rather lame skill growths (and his skill isn't that high to begin with in my experience), and as a dark knight he's got pretty good durability, which a paired up fighter generally wants.

Edited June 30, 2016 by Alastor15243

[Shadow Mir]

Last Question: Should I make Leo a Strategist? He's awfully slow.

Personally, I think it isn't worth it since making Leo a Strategist throws away a lot of bulk for... not much of anything really.

Edited June 30, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Dark Holy Elf]

I wouldn't, strategists aren't that much faster, have rather lame skill growths (and his skill isn't that high to begin with in my experience), and as a dark knight he's got pretty good durability, which a paired up fighter generally wants.

Let's not pretend that Skill growth matters. A 10% skill growth difference will take 14 levels just to result in a difference of a measly 2 hit.

Strategist does have slightly more speed so it can be good for reaching certain benchmarks. It also has staves and at Level 15 gets Inspiration which is really useful IMO. If you have the spare seal I think it's a decent idea to hop over for a few levels just for that. It depends what role Leo is serving in your army and what his stat spread looks like.

[Alastor15243]

Let's not pretend that Skill growth matters. A 10% skill growth difference will take 14 levels just to result in a difference of a measly 2 hit.

Strategist does have slightly more speed so it can be good for reaching certain benchmarks. It also has staves and at Level 15 gets Inspiration which is really useful IMO. If you have the spare seal I think it's a decent idea to hop over for a few levels just for that. It depends what role Leo is serving in your army and what his stat spread looks like.

Well yeah, but as I said, it exacerbates a weak point of his, and more importantly, he needs the defense more than he needs the speed.

[Leif]

Update:

So, I competed Chapter 17, 18, AND 19 with relative ease. I had to reset once on both chapters 18 and 19 due to tactical mistakes.

Chapter 19 was the most difficult of the bunch. I had to rely on Effie to tank all the Life or Death Kitsunes and Ninetails.

Odin is doing extremely well for minimal stat investment, which makes me happy. He's a VERY good Nosferatu tank. Laslow is now a level 6 Falcon Knight, so he'll become a Berserker in the next chapter or two. Velouria is getting very good level ups.

I promoted Charlotte and Keaton for better pair-up stat bonuses because I nabbed extra Master Seals from Chapter 18 chests and from the Merchant in the Invasion 2 battle. Everyone is in the level 9-5 range save Velouria who's level 3.

Chapter 20 is up next. Wish me luck...

Edited July 2, 2016 by Leif

[Leif]

Update (again):

Ok, I'm REALLY feeling the difficulty spike now.

I had WAY too many close calls during Chapters 20-22. I would have had to reset some of these chapters had it not been for the miraculous guard gauge saving one of my units from a fatal blow.

Laslow finally became a Mechanist after getting Rally Strength, so he'll become a Bow Knight again once he gets Replicate. So far, everyone is in the level 10-15 range. Corrin is absolutely broken and has stats in the high 20's to low 30's in every stat save Resistance which is at 24. She now has a +1 Levin Sword.

Chapter 23 is a bitch.

I had my WORST reset ever since Azura died to a Basara once I made it to the top of the Great Wall and killed off 80% of Oboro's squad. So now I'll have to do it all over again. FML.

Practically everyone relies on tonics now and I'm still around 9K gold. I REALLY want to buy brave weapons, but they're so damn expensive.

FYI, "A Dark Fall" music is really starting to get on my nerves now. I'd wish I'd have the option to play "Alight" since it's a 10000x better soundtrack.

Edited July 4, 2016 by Leif

[Leif]

Probably my last update post:

So I made it ALL the way to Chapter 27. I had to reset Chapter 24 only once since I forgot to have Ophelia equip her Calamity Gate spell. She was subsequently OHKO'd by a Falcon Knight. I had to reset 3 times on Ryoma's chapter since the Spy Shuriken ninjas with Grisly Wound and Poison Strike screwed over Effie. Other than that I think I did alright! My second attempt at Chapter 23 was very smooth, BTW. In chapter 26, Xander survived the onslaught of Generals and Berserkers by class changing into a Hero (thanks to Charlotte). Both he and Corrin (with a Dragon Stone) guarded the right entry way while Lv. 16 Replicate!Bow Knight Laslow (he class-changed back to this to get Shuriken Breaker) rallied both Corrin and Xander. I didn't even bother to kill the monsters on the left side of the map or get the Spy's Shuriken. It was extra work and I didn't want to risk losing any more units especially considering that ELISE avoided being killed by ORKO'ing an Enfeebled Iago with a +1 FIRE spell. It was a mis-click on my part; I didn't mean to have Elise land in his attack range. I dodged a damn bullet.

Xander was most definitely my MVP in Chapter 25 and 26. He and Corrin are now level 20 with some maxed stats. Niles is now outperforming Camilla!!! He destroys any Maid or Ninja since he has Shuriken Breaker. He can reliably weaken or ORKO all other kinds of units. He's about Level 18 with max speed and almost max resistance. My worst units are most definitely Leo and Camilla since they are among my lowest level units (15 for both). Their stats aren't up to par with the rest of my team, even with Rally Skill, Speed, and Strength. Velouria, Odin, and Ophelia are Level 15 too, but have way better stats.

I did a test run of the Empty King Chapter and (with Tonics) I have absolutely no problems. My entrapped units can easily take out the enemies in the little rooms and the Soldiers and Merchant aren't too scary. Brave Bow!Mozu and Corrin can easily demolish Garon.

Now regarding the Endgame, I was thinking of having Flora become a Strategist and use the Entrap Spell to remove the Enemy General out of the way and have a Falcon Knight!Elise (she A+ ranked Azura) use her rescue staff to ferry a Paladin!Corrin all the way down to Takumi to clear it in one turn. It looks too fricken hard to sit through (I had to reset that chapter 4 times in my Conquest Normal play through).

I have an Arms Scroll, Dracoshield, and Seraph Robe to spare, who should get them? I also have 25K gold. What should I spend the rest of my funds on? Brave Weapons?

Edited July 8, 2016 by Leif

[Alastor15243]

Brave weapons? Depends... brave weapons are best for player phase units who have good accuracy (since the things tend to be pretty damned inaccurate) and difficulty one-rounding enemies. If you don't have anybody who isn't wiping the floor with enemies on player phase, they're probably not worth it.