Stupid Things You Did As a New Player

[De Geso]

What are some stupid things you did when you first started playing Fire Emblem? I have a couple.

I killed Heath because I accidentally skipped the cutscene he talks in. I also didn't check the enemies back then, because I was bad.

I also killed Gaius because Awakening was my first game and I thought killing/beating him would make him join you, like in a lot of other RPGs I'd played.

I promoted all my healers at level 10 in both Awakening and FE7, which while not inherently bad ended up hurting me in the long run. I also had no idea how reclassing worked in Awakening when I first played it and screwed over a number of my units.

I used to think you had to use every single unit to get some kind of secret ending so I spent hours trying to train units in the arena in FE7 before just looking it up and finding out I was an idiot.

[KriegerZeta]

Spending gargantuan amount of post-battle EXP on Titania, in FE9.

Edited November 28, 2017 by KriegerZeta
Error

[Rex Glacies]

I killed Gaius and Tharja in Awakening, not knowing how to recruit them.

I also failed to recruit Laurent, as I didn't know how the paralogues worked and it was my first one.

... I can't quite think of much else, though I certainly have had more "noob" moments in the games.

[SullyMcGully]

I killed Dart and promoted a cavalier at level 10.

[Ronnie]

I too killed Gaius not knowing about recruiting enemies.

I spent too much time worrying about optimal pairings and skills on my first playthrough on normal/classic.

[Anime27Arts]

I killed Gauis in Awakening by accident. I stuck Panne there not realizing there was a recruitable unit. 

I tried to fight Black Knight in the one battle during Path of Radiance,  thinking I had to kill him.

In the same level, I killed Jill thinking she'd join if I killed her and showed her my strength.  She didn't. 

I was unable to recruit Shinon because I thought he'd join if he talked to Gatrie, not Rolf.

FE 9 spoiler 

Spoiler

Jill left because I thought it would be cool and super character developing if she fought her father.  Her support level with Mist was only a B so I lost the only flyer I invested time and gold into.  

With Dean and Sonya, I thought that you fought that the one you wanted to recruit so I ended up killing the one I wanted.

[SoulWeaver]

Not only did I kill Tharja and Gaius on my first run, I also let Libra die during his chapter…and Ricken…and Maribelle.

…it was my first experience with any game outside of Pokemon or SSB, ok?

[Christactics]

Never caring about skills and sending units out into the danger area without a plan.

[Ertrick36]

Played on Casual 

 

In all seriousness...

When first starting out, I married Robin to Sumia out of pity for her, and Chrom got the dreaded generic "Maiden" as his wife.  To be fair, I thought Lucina would show up later as a marriage option for him; I didn't think she would wind up being his daughter.  My initial pairs in Fates were so much better.  Even if I can't actually remember them aside from Corrin x Mozu and Oboro x Takumi.

I did kill Gaius at first, but since he had the unique dialogue (and I think his death had the animation and music of an allied unit dying), I think it was indication enough that he was recruitable.  When the time came to encounter Tharja, I was prepared.

When I did Donnel's map, I think he died... but because it was on Casual, he was recruited anyway?

Probably did some early promotions before.  Then I read about how it was better to wait until 15-20, and became richer from the knowledge.

My transition to Classic was a huge mess.  Far too many mistakes to count.  At the end of the day though, I wound up a better player.

I guess some might consider me buying all paths and DLC for Fates to be a "stupid mistake"...  But I actually enjoyed what I played of Fates, so maybe that's just people imposing their stinky opinions on my purchasing decisions.

Another mistake I made was assume Jeigans and prepromotes were ass.  Went into New Mystery initially without a certain masked man... but redid the game for some reason after stopping about a third or mid-way through the game.  Then I read somewhere that Sirius was worth investing, and made him my king of the skies.

And I think one of the stupidest things I did but am actually sort of glad I did so was underestimate the draw to this game.  I didn't go into this series expecting to wind up playing several other games from it, or for me to wind up becoming a member of the fandom's community.

[FRZNHeir]

Getting Soren killed in Path of Radiance, early game...
 

[FiboSai]

I got many units killed in Awakening because A) I didn't bother to check for effective weapons (Kellam got killed by the Hammer-Fighter in chapter 3 many times) or B) sending units into the fray without paying attention to the weapon triangle. I remember that I got so frustrated by chapter 10 in particular, because I kept on attacking a mercenary or mage with a lance wielding cavalier withoug noticing that they were surrounded by fighters and wyverns. No wonder I lost two units on that map. Even more embarassing is the fact that all of this happened on normal mode, which is one of the easiest FE experiences to date.

[Dismissed]

I killed Lorenz in Chapter 1 of New Mystery. That made me feel guilty in the following cutscene. I also killed Elrean, because I didn't use Wendell. I also didn't recruit Julian and I killed Matthis.

[DisobeyedCargo]

After being told that flying units are very weak to arrows, I proceed to fly sumia right into range of an archer.

i also killed gaius and tharja.

[Lau]

I didn't use my healers. At all.

I was a cocky shit who didn't know the best way to grind healers, so Owain and Brady came out realllyyyy bad.

[Armagon]

Not knowing that soft-reseting was a viable strat so i was unintentionally doing an iron-man run of Awakening. I was really bad. By Ch.6, most of my units were dead. Had to start a new file on Casual.

[Tuvy2]

I killed Florina on my first playthrough, I also tried to give matthew an armorslayer when his weapon rank wasn't high enough (I didn't know what weapon ranks were so I thought that the game was buggy and I stopped playing for a few weeks) 

[Gebby]

Never used healers, promoting at level 10, killing recruitable enemies, basic stuff like that. I also refused to use powerful weapons, but that's something I still do.

[Hawkwing]

Ooooh boy, where do I begin? My first run of Awakening was so completely and terribly BAD that I intentionally forgot how it went. Though it pains to to remember...

In my first run of Awakening, I:

• Had every unit wield only one weapon type (i.e. Sully had nothing but lances... because she started out with a lance. Stahl got nothing but swords, because he came with a sword, etc.)
• I rarely/never used pair up, and when I did, it was units in the same class (again, I only paired up Stahl and Sully, as well as Miriel and Ricken, and so on and so forth).
• I promoted right when a unit reached level ten, regardless of the practicality f such a move.
• I thought that Tharja was a moody/insightful enemy that was used for... I don't know, world-building or immersion that showed not every Plegian unit was happy with Gangrel. I didn't think she was an actual recruitable!
  • To be fair, I thought that you would only get one thief in this kind of game, so I recruited Gaius without problem (well, okay, both he and Chrom were half-dead after their first meeting, but that also means they were half-alive), and I knew that Henry was in this game (seriously, though, what happened to this guy's popularity?) so I though that HE would be the only dark mage in the game.
• I, somehow, despite getting the game years later, having played Super Smash Bros and looked at the trophies, and the fact that S-supports are only available for opposite gendered units, DID NOT KNOW THAT MARRIAGE WAS IN THIS GAME!!!

After getting through about a third of the game and realizing how terribly I was playing, I deleted that save file and tried the game again. And again. And again. And yet Again. I've forgotten how many times I restarted the game, but it was enough that I've only beaten the game four times (twice on Normal-Classic, and twice on Hard-Casual) which took around 40-50 hours, yet I have nearly 400 hours clocked for the game total.

It took me a (long) while to realize that:

• Pair up was a legitimate and useful mechanic, and not just a glorified rescue button.
• Use healers whenever I could, instead of using them only when a unit needed healing, as they don't level up quickly, or at all, otherwise.
• Child units are a thing in this game, and some strategy needs to be put into making them good.
• Reclassing is a double-edged sword.
• How to soft-reset. I legitimately turned on and off the game/my 3DS whenever I wanted to restart a mission.

On a more serious note, replaying the game so many times was a double-edged sword. It helped cement the gameplay mechanics of not only this game, but for a good chunk of the series, and it helped me see both positives and negatives about the game that I don't see brought up to often. On the other hand, I overplayed the game, which does make me weary of going back as I remember both the moments of great fun as well as great frustration.

 

[BrandedCharmer93]

Kent died. Sometime before chapter 5.

I didn't use Eliwood, I just protected him like stained glass.

May I also add that I was 12?

[sirmola]

ignoring tempest trials until I had a lot of exoerience grasp with the other mechanics in Heroes. (I was not used to the idea of in game rewards having real time windows yet.) As a result, I missed two tempest trials, and a lot of rewards. Even if i might not have been able to get the 5* units, the low tier rewards are rather low hanging fruit.

As for the main series, I had someone who was really into the series give me enough basic gameplay advice that I did not really make any big mistakes on my first FE playthrough (which was of fe7).

When I played POR, I did not realise that the support cap of 5 total levels per character applied to that game, so i was unable to get the Ike/Soren A support to see the extra scene in my RD run.

WHen I played RD, I missed a bunch of hidden items. Realising that I had saved over missing the brave bow is what made me stop playing (I have not yet picked it back up).

Edited November 30, 2017 by sirmola

[Midnox]

It's been years since I first played Radiant Dawn, so I only remember two mistakes:

1-Ignoring Nephenee

2-Promoting characters with Sacred Seals as soon as they reached lv10 

I'm sure I've made WAY more, but those are the only ones I remember

[Retyl]

.

Edited September 6, 2018 by Retyl

[Randoman]

FE3 Book 1 was my first FE, and in my first playthrough, I:

-overused Jeigan

-had Kain, Abel, Gordon, and Doga die since I heard about the Ohm Staff and it reviving characters, but didn't realize it came near the end of the game and could only revive one character

-didn't know about recruiting red units and visiting villages until Chapter 9 of FE Book 1 and as a result, I missed out on some pretty good units like Marich and Navarre. I killed Paola and Katua without recruiting them as well, due to following an FE1 guide when FE3 Book 1 has noticeable differences between FE1.

Despite those mistakes, I was still able to defeat that file 4 or so years later. I was stuck on Michalis' chapter, but with enough savestate and RNG abuse, and a lot of Star Orb boss abuse, I managed to make a pretty solid team consisting of Marth, Hardin, Lena, Astria, Samson, Thomas, and a few others I forgot.

[Starkos]

Literally everything. I played Shadow Dragon for the first time with a friend a month ago, and she about scalped me after seeing my play style. We've since moved on to New Mystery and Binding Blade, and now she only occasionally tries to skin me!

[Midnox]

While I'm far from a new FE player by now, I did a very dumb mistake as a new player of FEH: thinking manaketes deal physical damage. Can you imagine my face when I found out manaketes deal magic damage by watching an Omni Blade or phoenixmaster video where I found out the truth? Priceless. That explained why the likes of Niles and Felicia could tank my team of Priscillia, Reinhardt, Tharja, and Fae  

I've been making that mistake up until november last year or so, and I've been playing the game since it was released  . Derp me

Edited January 28, 2018 by Midnox