Grinding for perfection? (Birthright) + another question

[moxis]

I recently ordered Birthright (yep, yall convinced me) and I'm super excited so I'm already reading up on the new mechanics and planning my playthrough.

In my main Awakening playthrough, I used spotpass teams (and Risen skirmishes, to an extent) to grind for all of the characters, including reclassing for skills and stats. I didn't feel like I was truly done with the game until I pretty much maxed out all the characters and reclassed them into the class I preferred for them. I this was on Hard Classic, so it's not like it was a challenge. It's more like a completionist thing, I guess. I don't even use half the characters.

Anyway... I'd like to know if it's possible/reasonable to do the same in Fates. From what I understand, it's completely impossible to do in Conquest, so that one is meant to be played like a classic FE game (kinda like Lunatic Awakening?)

As a side question, what difficulty level do you recommend me? Awakening Hard was hard only for the first few chapters, but I found it to be the perfect level for my main, first playthrough. I'm tempted to go for casual in Fates though, even though I like having "classic" on my calling card like a badge of honour lmao

I think that's all... I'm stuck on mobile for the time being so I'm sorry in advance if there is anything wrong with this post. Cheers

EDIT: To clarify, I am not a serious strategic player. I play FE for the plot and characters, and I don't marry them for stats or tactical advantage. When I decide on a final class for a unit, its mostly for an aesthetic/personal reason, although I do take everything into account, of course.

Edited August 20, 2016 by moxis

[DKlein89]

The first 6 chapters can be an enormous pain in the butt on hard, but it's doable. However, once you've gotten to where you choose your path, you can select "Branch of Fate" in the main menu when you start a new save file and start a new game at any difficulty where you make your decision, skipping the first few chapters.

Since there isn't a whole lot of opportunity for milking in the first few chapters, it doesn't make that much of a difference.

[moxis]

So how would one go about grinding, regardless of difficulty?

I thought that using Branch of Fate just starts you at chapter 6 with the dificulty level you chose at the start of the game. I still don't really understand how it works, but it's not really something I'm worried about right now.

[Thinks Their Own Way]

Personally on Birthright, I like buying the same skirmish twice in row. It gives you more enemies and more opportunities to get items like stat boosters and gold in a single skirmish.

[Petersheikah]

I, like you, love to grind all my characters to max their stats. I've played that way both Birthright and Revelations on Hard Classic without too many problems. The only problem is that in order to get all your characters to perfect stats you'll have to grind for statues and eternal seals, which is very very ripetitive. One statue increases your units' cap of one stat by a single point, and it requires you to get 12 dragon vein points (which basically means completing 12 missions) and almost 200 kills with the unit. Eternal Seals raise your level cap by 5 for the price of 12000 gold, which means that by playing the gold farming DLC you'll be able to buy 6 of them.

I recommend spamming the scouting mechanic on the first couple of maps to farm supports, weapon ranks and statues. Buying the DLCs also help a bunch. Also remember to capture the unique bosses instead of killing them!

[Anomalocaris]

It's a lot harder to cap all your stats here than in Awakening; you'd have to get statues of every character upgraded to gold, then keep switching them out to max out each stat individually; like, say, build all your Strength-cap-boosting statues, max your strength, then switch them out to build all the Magic-cap-boosting ones, ect.

Also, Eternal Seals are very expensive and only give you five more levels, it's not like Awakening's easy infinite grinding, but at least you don't have to keep buying weapons.

The good news is that once your unit is strong enough to solo the Boo Camp DLC stage, you can easily gain those five levels in a single battle each time.

[moxis]

Ok, so maxing stats is hard and tedious. I'll probably try not to be tempted to do that then. Reaching all the (non eternal seal) max levels should be a reasonable goal though, right? And then I might spend some more time on just my favourite units. Thanks guys

Since we're on the topic, I understand that the reclassing system has been changed completely, right? Now you can never return to a previous level, but rather continue levelling in the new class from the level you were at before reclass. (I know how skill learning works, too, I think) So it's more similar to older FE games, and makes character building a lot more limited, in a way. But I assume the basic purpose of reclassing stay the same: Choose classes which boost the stats you want and have the skills you need. Just plan ahead so you don't run out of time(levels), I suppose? I'm basically just using Serene's resources atm; I find there aren't as many character guides as there were for FEA. But if anyone knows of any good resources I'm all ears.

[Emerson]

Ok, so maxing stats is hard and tedious. I'll probably try not to be tempted to do that then. Reaching all the (non eternal seal) max levels should be a reasonable goal though, right? And then I might spend some more time on just my favourite units. Thanks guys

Since we're on the topic, I understand that the reclassing system has been changed completely, right? Now you can never return to a previous level, but rather continue levelling in the new class from the level you were at before reclass. (I know how skill learning works, too, I think) So it's more similar to older FE games, and makes character building a lot more limited, in a way. But I assume the basic purpose of reclassing stay the same: Choose classes which boost the stats you want and have the skills you need. Just plan ahead so you don't run out of time(levels), I suppose? I'm basically just using Serene's resources atm; I find there aren't as many character guides as there were for FEA. But if anyone knows of any good resources I'm all ears.

That is a good goal. I was doing so in my grindy BR!Hard!Classic file before I dropped it due to lacking the effort for such things. It's not actually very difficult or, tbh, tedious to get to 20/20, but I got bored personally since I had other things to replace it's save with.

You cannot return to Lv 1 like in Awakening, no. It works more like FE11 and 12 indeed.

Also, this may help. It can show what classes they get via S-Support and A+-Support. It's not a spead sheet, it's more about that growths and max stats, but it does have a complete and functioning way to find out what classes they get.

http://soapy4159.github.io/ferevpairings/

[Blademaster_Aio]

Yes, it's been overhauled. Your levels don't reset, and well, you can always buy skills from my castle, should you wish to. It is much less broken, but if you're willing to put the time into it, you can learn so many skills. And of course you need moneys to do it. I spend all my money on seals. Usually.

[moxis]

That is a good goal. I was doing so in my grindy BR!Hard!Classic file before I dropped it due to lacking the effort for such things. It's not actually very difficult or, tbh, tedious to get to 20/20, but I got bored personally since I had other things to replace it's save with.

You cannot return to Lv 1 like in Awakening, no. It works more like FE11 and 12 indeed.

Also, this may help. It can show what classes they get via S-Support and A+-Support. It's not a spead sheet, it's more about that growths and max stats, but it does have a complete and functioning way to find out what classes they get.

http://soapy4159.github.io/ferevpairings/

That's a great page! Perfect for calculating the best class for wanted stat growths.

Quick question: During battle, does A+ support give the same benefits as an S support or an A? I've looked around but can't find a specific answer.

Hm... I know I'll end up getting Conquest and Revelation too... I might take it easy in Birthright, maybe even play on casual, and save my completionist urges for Revelation, lol (is Birthright Hard as difficult as Awakening Lunatic? What about Conquest Hard or Revelation Hard? I'm sorry for asking so many dumb questions hsdgfsdf)

Edited August 21, 2016 by moxis

[Blademaster_Aio]

A+ supports give slightly less bonuses than S.

A+ support = A support

S support gives the most, A / A+ gives slightly less.

[moxis]

So literally the only benefit of A+ Support is the additional class for Friendship Seal? Good to know.

[Edelgard]

You know, if you want to grind your team to perfection, I would recommend putting your effort in Bond Units instead of characters. They can have skills such as Astra, Sol, Vantage, Rend Heaven etc as their personal skill, I find this much more rewarding than the slight benefits S support provides. Bond Units are also very easy to max out if you use a certain trick.. It's worth considering when you're done with the story and ready to create the ultimate (legal) battle team.

[moxis]

Eh, that's not really what I'm going for. I'm not really grinding to create the strongest team, just to bring each recruitable character to its full potential. I'm not really interested in Bond Units. But I didn't know about them before, so thanks for the tip!

[Experiment 626]

Birthright is the easiest version of the three Fates' story lines. Hard & even Lunatic are apparently not all that difficult.

Revelations is the 'medium' level difficulty, while Conquest (due mostly to the complete lack of grinding outside of the Boo Camp DLC map), is by far the hardest version of the game.

Still, DLC access means that even Conquest can be made easy'ish if you do a lot of grinding through the Ghostly Gold & Boo Camp maps. And if you enjoy making super weapons, then of course, there's the Museum Melee map as well, in which you can endlessly grind for any of the limited quantity weapons.

And yeah, make sure you make use of the Capture/Kidnap characters!! (Orochi on Birthright, Niles on Conquest) On the Birthright path, you can capture the boss of Ch.14 - Daniela, a Strategist who comes with the otherwise Malig Knight exclusive skill Savage Blow!

Most of the best bosses worth capturing can be gotten on the Conquest path, (Haitaka in Ch.9 & Kumagera in Ch.14), and/or in the child paralogs.

Note that the child paralog bosses will also show up in the Museum Melee DLC, so you can actually recruit them a lot earlier too!

It's fun for completion sake to at least capture/recruit all the bosses to your Unit Logbook, even if you don't ever intended to use them. That said...

If you play on Hard or Lunatic difficulty, then many of the bosses will also come with additional skills as compared to playing only on Normal difficulty!

For example, the Spear Fighter Haitaka (Conquest Ch.9 boss) on 'normal' difficulty, only comes with Rally Defense. However, when playing on Hard/Lunatic, he instead comes with Rally Defense + Strong Repost!

This also applies to generic enemy units as well, meaning that on harder difficulties, not only do the various capturable bosses/units come with better stats, they can also come with more innate skills, most of which are unobtainable for their basic class tree!

(ie: on Ch.14 Conquest, I captured a Samurai w/Pass - normally an Adventurer exclusive skill!)

Captured units can allow you access to normally unobtainable classes when playing Birthright/Conquest, and they're not nearly as blatantly OP/bat-gak broken as Bond Units. (though the 'statue trick' still applies, meaning their stats IIRC, can far exceed anything your regular characters can ever achieve!)

With my current Conquest/Hard play through for example, thus far I've captured & recruited;

- Haitaka (Ch.9 boss, Spear Fighter w/Rally Defense + Strong Repost innate skills)

- Kazunari (generic Diviner from Ch.11 w/Miracle)

- Ariyoshi (generic Samurai from Ch.14 w/Pass)

- Kumagera (Ch.14 boss, Oni Chieftain w/Certain Blow + Darting Blow? + Counter-Magic innate skills)

They're fun to use, and give me access to classes like Basara, Spearmaster, etc... which normally aren't obtainable outside of choosing them as your Avatar's secondary class.

[moxis]

Thanks for the tips about difficulty! With Awakening I didn't buy any dlc because I'm CHEAP, but seeing as dlc is shared accross all three versions of Fates I might actually indulge myself.

I don't think I'll be using any captured units, but I'll try to get them all anyway for completion's sake.

[Experiment 626]

I'd definitely give Captured/Bond/Einhergar Units a go if/when you ever do a second play through of the various paths.

It can actually be quite fun once you get to the Revelations path for example, to use the 'statue trick' and get ALL 68 stat bonuses on each of your various Guest Units! (note: it takes a loooooong time to grind them to such a pedestal of absolute perfection!)

Of course, you'll also need a Hoshido file to get access to the final 3 statues...

On the other hand, I've found it's actually really, really hard to avoid getting hooked into grinding the Museum Melee map for at least 100+ hours! It's just so much fun stealing other people's treasured possessions! ;)