Let's talk about Combat Manuals

[Garlyle]

Combat Manuals will be under Manage Barracks from September, next to Send Home function. You can Create Combat Manual, Exchange Manuals, and check Your Manuals.

Instead of holding heroes in your barracks, you can send them back to their world to get Combat manuals, which by the looks of it can be used to Inherit Skill or to Merge Allies. You can have up to 9,999 of each type of Combat Manual.

Combat Manuals do not inherit Level, merges, exp, learned skills, inherited or refined skills, coferred blessings, supports, seals or accessories and skill sets.

Couple of questions it raises already. How does it affect rarity and merges? How does Exchange Manuals work? What do we know about Enhance on Combat Manuals?

[bottlegnomes]

On the surface this seems nice, but unless there's a way to up rarity on the manuals themselves, I don't known how much it'll help. For example, I have about a dozen 3 star Hinatas in case I need fury, but don't have a 4 star one. I'm not exactly going to send them home if I can't use them for fury 3, and I don't exactly want to spend 24000 feathers upping them and then converting them before I actually need them.

Same with merges. I'm not going to convert my Reins to save barracks space while I save up feathers to 5 star them if I can't 5 star them after they're converted.

[Ice Dragon]

The English bulletin is apparently really terribly translated, based on what I've seen in the General Discussion, so here's all of the stuff I know from the Japanese bulletin:

• Instead of sending a Hero home, you can choose to transform them into a book Combat Manual.
  • Transforming a Hero into a Combat Manual will cause them to lose all customizations such as levels, merge levels, skills, etc.
• Combat Manuals do not take up barracks space. Combat Manuals stack to a maximum of 9,999 per type.
  • Presumably, "type" refers to the pair of a character and rarity.
• Combat Manuals cannot be deployed in battle. They are books, after all.
• Combat Manuals cannot be leveled and cannot be on the receiving end of Skill Inheritance or Merge Allies.
• Combat Manuals can use Unlock Potential to increase their rarity, and this can be done without the need to level them up to level 20 (because they cannot be leveled). They can also be used in Skill Inheritance and Merge Allies to enhance other units.
• Combat Manuals can be sent home sold, presumably for their feather equivalent.

 

Here's a quick summary of my speculation on what they might be used for in the future:

• Merge opportunities for Alfonse, Sharena, and Anna. This gets around the fact that it makes no sense to be able to summon additional copies of them.
• Rewards for Grand Hero Battle and Bound Hero Battle quests and as a general means of distributing additional merges for limited characters.
• Skill shop. Maybe using Arena medals, which would actually give players a reason to finally use their massive stockpiles of dueling sword restores.

 

22 minutes ago, Garlyle said:

How does it affect rarity and merges?

Manuals are treated as items. They will retain their rarity, but not their merges. You can use them as merge fodder for other units.

 

22 minutes ago, Garlyle said:

How does Exchange Manuals work?

The Japanese menu option for that is "秘伝書の売却", which simply translates as "Sell Combat Manuals".

 

23 minutes ago, Garlyle said:

What do we know about Enhance on Combat Manuals?

My bullet points above should cover everything.

Edited August 30, 2018 by Ice Dragon

[Garlyle]

@Ice Dragon Ok, so I can get 4* Combat Manuals from my Lilinas, and then later I can spend feather (or hopefully something else) to turn them to 5* Combat Manuals for merge purposes.

Exchange is a strange word to choose instead of Sell. What's wrong with selling combat manuals?

[Diovani Bressan]

45 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Combat Manuals can use Unlock Potential to increase their rarity, and this can be done without the need to level them up to level 20 (because they cannot be leveled). They can also be used in Skill Inheritance and Merge Allies to enhance other units.

This is great! So we can promote a combat manual from 4* to 5* without need to spend crystals to do it, or spend time to level up a unit to Lv 20. I have a doze on Cain that I want to keep for Skill Inheritance (wings of mercy), or even if I decide to do a +10 Cain.

45 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Merge opportunities for Alfonse, Sharena, and Anna. This gets around the fact that it makes no sense to be able to summon additional copies of them.

That's a great solution for them. Give us quest to get Askr Trio's Combat Manuals would be amazing, or even TT reward. But I hope we don't need to use Arena's crown to get Askr Trio's books. I would like to give merges to Alfonse.

45 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Skill shop. Maybe using Arena medals, which would actually give players a reason to finally use their massive stockpiles of dueling sword restores.

That's also a good idea. But, if we consider this idea, we would buy the skills or the units combat manuals? If we consider buy the unit's books, it would make easier to +10 some units. Unless they are a different type of combat manuals than cannot be used for merges.

Edited August 30, 2018 by Diovani Bressan

[Othin]

Seems like a nice way to ease up on barracks restrictions.

1100 is still such a weird number, though.

[redlight]

I personally have been extremely bitter with the direction IS has taken these past few months, but this... IS SO FANTASTIC THAT HAS ME QUESTIONING WHETHER IT'S THE SAME DEVELOPER TEAM PULLING THE STRINGS. This will have a great start and has extremely good potential

[Diovani Bressan]

3 minutes ago, silveraura25 said:

I personally have been extremely bitter with the direction IS has taken these past few months, but this... IS SO FANTASTIC THAT HAS ME QUESTIONING WHETHER IT'S THE SAME DEVELOPER TEAM PULLING THE STRINGS. This will have a great start and has extremely good potential

In my opinion, this "can" be the best game game mechanics since Weapon Refinery.

[Vaximillian]

30 minutes ago, silveraura25 said:

I personally have been extremely bitter with the direction IS has taken these past few months, but this... IS SO FANTASTIC THAT HAS ME QUESTIONING WHETHER IT'S THE SAME DEVELOPER TEAM PULLING THE STRINGS. This will have a great start and has extremely good potential

Praise be to Intern-kun.

[MacLovin]

i mean fuck the combat manuals. Odin might actually be good with a tome refine.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

I can't wait to summon these Heroes unwillingly and then trap them into books :O

 

[Landmaster]

My Barrack space is saved from worthless Titanias, Sheenas, and Cecilias finally

[Xenomata]

Alright, I can finally get rid of all those spare copies of GHB and TT units that I know I'll never use because I already have one copy of the unit set aside!

I just hope there isn't some stupid and unreported restriction on how many different types of combat manuals you can hold.

[Johann]

Seems to me that the reasons you WOULDN'T want to convert an unwanted hero to a Combat Manual would be:

• They have merges, inherited skills, blessings, etc but the wrong IV - it'll remove all of these things, reducing the unit to its bare features. Save these units until you get the right IV. Example: If I converted my 5*+3 unit into a Manual, the +3 is gone forever and the merge would only provide +1 instead of +4.
• A unit you're saving to promote and merge has the right IVs - units converted to Manuals can only be used to add another +1 to an existing unit, and are no longer units themselves. Save the ones with the good IVs, or else you'll have to summon that IV again!
• It's your only copy of a unit that you may end up wanting to use - converted units are no longer usable, and you can't undo it. Example: If all of your Michalises are 4* or lower, you should probably save at least 1 as a unit in case you want to promote him someday. If the rest are Manuals, you can then use them for merges or SI purposes
• The unit has inherited skills that you want to have a different unit inherit - converting them will make them lose any inherited skills, so instead use the regular Inherit Skill function. Example: A Laslow who inherited Slaying Edge+ that you want to pass onto someone else should be saved as a unit. Converting that Laslow to a Manual would make the Slaying Edge/+ both disappear forever.
• You just want the feathers - use the ol' Send Home button.

You SHOULD convert them to Combat Manuals if:

• The unit is someone you intend to fodder at some point, with no extra skills/etc you've inherited onto it (unless you won't miss those things)
• You have extra copies of a unit that you want to save for SI/merges, and none of them have the IVs you want, inherited skills, blessings, etc

[Othin]

29 minutes ago, Johann said:

Seems to me that the reasons you WOULDN'T want to convert an unwanted hero to a Combat Manual would be:

• They have merges, inherited skills, blessings, etc but the wrong IV - it'll remove all of these things, reducing the unit to its bare features. Save these units until you get the right IV. Example: If I converted my 5*+3 unit into a Manual, the +3 is gone forever and the merge would only provide +1 instead of +4.
• A unit you're saving to promote and merge has the right IVs - units converted to Manuals can only be used to add another +1 to an existing unit, and are no longer units themselves. Save the ones with the good IVs, or else you'll have to summon that IV again!
• It's your only copy of a unit that you may end up wanting to use - converted units are no longer usable, and you can't undo it. Example: If all of your Michalises are 4* or lower, you should probably save at least 1 as a unit in case you want to promote him someday. If the rest are Manuals, you can then use them for merges or SI purposes
• The unit has inherited skills that you want to have a different unit inherit - converting them will make them lose any inherited skills, so instead use the regular Inherit Skill function. Example: A Laslow who inherited Slaying Edge+ that you want to pass onto someone else should be saved as a unit. Converting that Laslow to a Manual would make the Slaying Edge/+ both disappear forever.
• You just want the feathers - use the ol' Send Home button.

You SHOULD convert them to Combat Manuals if:

• The unit is someone you intend to fodder at some point, with no extra skills/etc you've inherited onto it (unless you won't miss those things)
• You have extra copies of a unit that you want to save for SI/merges, and none of them have the IVs you want, inherited skills, blessings, etc

You can still Send Home manuals, presumably for the same amount of feathers.

So it looks to me like the only reason not to Manual fresh duplicates is IVs, or if you really think you'll want to keep multiple copies of that unit.

[Ice Dragon]

Just now, Othin said:

You can still Send Home manuals, presumably for the same amount of feathers.

But that's like a dozen or so extra taps.

[Lord-Zero]

1 hour ago, Landmaster said:

My Barrack space is saved from worthless Titanias, Sheenas, and Cecilias finally

In my case it would be Hinatas, Selenas, Ninos, Seths, Shannas, Lon ‘qus, and some other 5* extra copies. 

[Azuni]

This change is absolutely amazing, it'll completely negate the barrack space problem, bringing me down from 654 units to ~272 at most.

Those accursed GHB unit copies will finally bother us no more.

[EricaofRenais]

This will make my Heroes playing so much better because all these dang Faes, Hawkeyes and Sheenas that are taking up space can be turned in to books until I need their skills.  This update can't come soon enough for me. 

[XRay]

59 minutes ago, Johann said:

You have extra copies of a unit that you want to save for SI/merges, and none of them have the IVs you want, inherited skills, blessings, etc

Depending on how much you plan to inherit, you may might not want to convert the copies to Manuals. You can get extra SP from snowball merging fodder into each other and then merge the +9 fodder into the base.

[ILikeKirbys]

So, does this mean we'll be able to get Manuals for the Grand Hero Battle and Tempest Trial+ reward units in lieu of making them available more often? Because I'd like to be able to get some merges for Marisa and Julius.

Also it'd be nice to get merges for Alfonse and Anna if they do that (and given that this is a way to give us that without actually having to give us more of the Askrtrio, I see no reason for them not to do this). Wonder if we'll get Combat Manual quests when this feature gets added in...

[Othin]

14 minutes ago, ILikeKirbys said:

So, does this mean we'll be able to get Manuals for the Grand Hero Battle and Tempest Trial+ reward units in lieu of making them available more often? Because I'd like to be able to get some merges for Marisa and Julius.

Also it'd be nice to get merges for Alfonse and Anna if they do that (and given that this is a way to give us that without actually having to give us more of the Askrtrio, I see no reason for them not to do this). Wonder if we'll get Combat Manual quests when this feature gets added in...

I've seen a lot of people talk about getting GHB/TT unit manuals, but I'm not sure what that would accomplish as opposed to offering full extra copies of those units as rewards for the same accomplishments. It's pretty much the same to anyone who already has them, and just prolongs the frustration of anyone who doesn't.

Askr trio manuals would make perfect sense, though.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Can't wait for the Manual Quests that only serve to give us good skill fodder. Goodbye 4 star rarity banners. We hardly remember you.

[Landmaster]

1 hour ago, Lord-Zero said:

In my case it would be Hinatas, Selenas, Ninos, Seths, Shannas, Lon ‘qus, and some other 5* extra copies. 

Just give me the Lon'qus

Why am I so unlucky that I have only pulled one? ;~;

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, Othin said:

I've seen a lot of people talk about getting GHB/TT unit manuals, but I'm not sure what that would accomplish as opposed to offering full extra copies of those units as rewards for the same accomplishments. It's pretty much the same to anyone who already has them, and just prolongs the frustration of anyone who doesn't.

It basically makes it more palatable for IS to hand out more copies of the unit than they already do. It also makes it so that it's less of a big deal to hand out 5-star book versions since many Grand Hero Battle units don't have particularly good skills for Skill Inheritance and the book versions wouldn't be able to be fielded as units.