Just attempted my first paralogue... Story time! (and spoilers)

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I just unlocked paralogues yesterday and I was SO hyped to start Ingrid and Dorothea's since I love both characters. So after quick explore session to build support and replenish battle supplies, I jump right in and I'm immediately hooked by the story. Ingrid's dad is trying to marry her off to some shady jerk and Dorothea's like "yeah this guy's bad news, wanna go check him out?" Hell yeah! And then it turns out he's a black market merchant doing business in a volcano of all places! And that's all before "Tempest of Seasons" kicks in and sets the mood for what I'm sure is gonna be the best mission in the game so far...

...and then it hits me just what a paralogue is. Fire Emblem's version of the good ol' fashioned escort mission. A double escort mission involving two of my squishiest units aside from Lysithea. On a map crawling with archers and axe wielders who will literally hunt down Dorothea and Ingrid to the ends of the earth.

So on my first attempt I split up my party into two groups. I had Byleth, Edelgard, Felix, Lysithea and Marianne take the southern route with Ingrid to get her to the exit while Dorothea, Petra and Bernadetta took the northern path to go deal with the leader. Which turned out to be a VERY bad idea when the reinforcements showed up and trapped Ingrid's group. Bernadetta (she's come a long way haha) almost managed to kill the leader but one of his inner circle killed Dorothea and I had to start over.

On my next try I said screw the leader, thinking that my party could outrun the advancing group frrm the north. I sent everybody south to brute force their way through the reinforcements and get Ingrid to the exit ASAP. This of course didn't work out any better since the northern group caught up and every single one of them immediately went after Dorothea and Ingrid with murder in their eyes. And so once again Dorothea fell. With Ingrid mere steps away from the exit.

Today I'm giving it another go with a fresh new plan. I'll bring Shamir instead of Lysithea and park her, Byleth and Edelgard at the starting point to hold off the northern group while the rest head south with Petra, Felix and Bernadetta leading the charge, Marianne in the middle and Dorothea and Ingrid in the back so they're the least targeted. I'm hoping Ingrid will be able to slip past on her pegasus and reach the exit while the rest keep the reinforcements busy.

Is the healing staff from the chest to the east worth having though? I'm sure that once the quest is almost over, I can send Shamir east to get the chest no problem. But if it's just a piece of junk or I can find something better, I won't waste my time getting it.

[haarhaarhaar]

Yeah this is a hell of a paralogue to start with in 3H haha. Good on you for not rage-quitting. 

The healing staff has good use for at least the next few chapters, though you can survive without it. Both Dorothea and Linhardt will have Physic soon if not already, and Healing Staff really helps make the most of the Physic uses you get, although it tails off once you get a unit certified as Bishop. It's never bad though, for example if you have a Gremory endgame as your primary healer and you're not too worried about their offense then Healing Staff is a good thing to put on them. There is at least one other available Healing Staff in Part I - I can't remember where exactly though.

I can't remember if you said you were playing on Maddening, but if you are (and even on Hard/Classic if you're underleveled) there aren't that many occasions early game when splitting your forces is a safe thing to do. And while it is possible to outrun the merchant's reinforcements, if you end up triggering at least one ambush (which you have to near the end of the map) then they tend to catch up. It's pretty hard to get both chests and avoid getting bogged down.

A big thing this paralogue doesn't tell you is that reinforcements trigger in the clearing directly east of your starting point only when Ingrid (or maybe Dorothea too) goes into the clearing. So a safe strategy is for everyone to go north (after grabbing the nearby chest and killing the nearby fighters), kill the myrmidons on the way to killing the merchant, get the healing staff and then take the top path with the archers - those reinforcements won't then trigger at all. The Devil Axe guy and the other boss head towards you once you get to that path, so it isn't too hard to bait-kill them if you want the weapon. After that there's that last ambush, but you should be able to deal with that.

Anyway hope all that helps!

[Punished Dayni]

15 minutes ago, RainbowMoon said:

Is the healing staff from the chest to the east worth having though? I'm sure that once the quest is almost over, I can send Shamir east to get the chest no problem. But if it's just a piece of junk or I can find something better, I won't waste my time getting it.

I will say this: It's not absolutely necessary, but it's a great boost to any mage acting as a support and it does give a large boost to heal spells, to the point where it's worth considering unless the unit has Recover.

As for this paralogue, I can't say this one did much of a number on me, but there's a thing or two to keep in mind. First, the large enemy reinforcements are zone based and they do so based on Ingrid moving towards the area for sure, I've never seen it with Dorothea because she's never been that fast moving. I tend to have Ingrid skate around over the horizontal lava area in the middle while my main force goes above there to remove the boss and northern troops. Some other units might head south but it's not got too much enemy force early on, the chest grabber goes with. Ingrid (outside my SS playthrough where she wasn't recruited) is a pretty credible fighter (I hope for you too), so with the rest of the force with her they should be able to deal with what comes. Most of the reinforcements will be ignored, the boss won't spam more when he's gone, you can go down for the chest... but there's a bunch to the south who'll appear when she gets close enough to the exit, so keep that in mind regardless of your objective.

You can also rout, which I end up doing with this anyways because I do this early enough and the army usually isn't too high moving and tanky (and I don't have a dancer/warper to make the final stretch a joke)

Few paralogues will actually do a "get to the end" objective, but because they require certain units you're forced to handle the focus units with care.

[Shadow Mir]

3 hours ago, RainbowMoon said:

Is the healing staff from the chest to the east worth having though? I'm sure that once the quest is almost over, I can send Shamir east to get the chest no problem. But if it's just a piece of junk or I can find something better, I won't waste my time getting it.

Yes. It boosts healing by 10 points. Given that outside of being a Bishop, you probably won't be healing for very much (the healing formula uses Magic/3 plus the base healing amount to get the HP recovered), this is good.

3 hours ago, RainbowMoon said:

...and then it hits me just what a paralogue is. Fire Emblem's version of the good ol' fashioned escort mission. A double escort mission involving two of my squishiest units aside from Lysithea. On a map crawling with archers and axe wielders who will literally hunt down Dorothea and Ingrid to the ends of the earth.

At least you can control them; the worst escort missions in Fire Emblem BY FAR tend to involve NPCs that suffer from Artificial Stupidity. Also, Binding Blade.

By the way, Petra and Bernadetta's paralogue, which is after the timeskip, actually lies to you as to its win conditions; you're better off killing as many units as possible before the inevitable reinforcements.

Edited May 28, 2020 by Shadow Mir

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3 hours ago, haarhaarhaar said:

Yeah this is a hell of a paralogue to start with in 3H haha. Good on you for not rage-quitting. 

The healing staff has good use for at least the next few chapters, though you can survive without it. Both Dorothea and Linhardt will have Physic soon if not already, and Healing Staff really helps make the most of the Physic uses you get, although it tails off once you get a unit certified as Bishop. It's never bad though, for example if you have a Gremory endgame as your primary healer and you're not too worried about their offense then Healing Staff is a good thing to put on them. There is at least one other available Healing Staff in Part I - I can't remember where exactly though.

I can't remember if you said you were playing on Maddening, but if you are (and even on Hard/Classic if you're underleveled) there aren't that many occasions early game when splitting your forces is a safe thing to do. And while it is possible to outrun the merchant's reinforcements, if you end up triggering at least one ambush (which you have to near the end of the map) then they tend to catch up. It's pretty hard to get both chests and avoid getting bogged down.

A big thing this paralogue doesn't tell you is that reinforcements trigger in the clearing directly east of your starting point only when Ingrid (or maybe Dorothea too) goes into the clearing. So a safe strategy is for everyone to go north (after grabbing the nearby chest and killing the nearby fighters), kill the myrmidons on the way to killing the merchant, get the healing staff and then take the top path with the archers - those reinforcements won't then trigger at all. The Devil Axe guy and the other boss head towards you once you get to that path, so it isn't too hard to bait-kill them if you want the weapon. After that there's that last ambush, but you should be able to deal with that.

Anyway hope all that helps!

I'm on Hard/Casual. I'm just still pretty bad at this lol

Thanks for the info about the healing staff. I'll definitely pick it up for Marianne since I do plan on making her a Gremory and she almost never attacks. I'd rather keep Dorothea focused on offensive spells and Linhardt's kinda busy riding the bench.

I hadn't considered sendng everybody north, actually. But if killing the merchant gets rid of one wave of reinforcements then I'll do that first to make life easier for Ingrid. Byleth and Edelgard can deal with Devil Axe guy no problem and grab the staff. Then it's just getting Ingrid past the last ambush safely. I'll do everything I can to keep them focused on the others but I swear Dorothea and Ingrid are like catnip to them. I'll save all my divine pulses for that part though in case anything goes screwy.

[haarhaarhaar]

22 minutes ago, RainbowMoon said:

I'm on Hard/Casual. I'm just still pretty bad at this lol

Lol sorry didn't mean to make a dig - IMO this is one of the tougher Part I paralogues, especially if you're going in blind, and it works a little differently to missions before that point so it completely makes sense to stumble on it.

25 minutes ago, RainbowMoon said:

I hadn't considered sendng everybody north, actually. But if killing the merchant gets rid of one wave of reinforcements then I'll do that first to make life easier for Ingrid. Byleth and Edelgard can deal with Devil Axe guy no problem and grab the staff. Then it's just getting Ingrid past the last ambush safely. I'll do everything I can to keep them focused on the others but I swear Dorothea and Ingrid are like catnip to them. I'll save all my divine pulses for that part though in case anything goes screwy.

The merchant summons one or two myrmidons every turn (which stop when you kill him), and there are also some other reinforcements that come from the west (which can't be stopped unless you clear the map before the turn they arrive). Going north first puts you in a better position to fight those guys, and it means you go around the east clearing which is the trickiest reinforcements-wise. If you're happy to take the map nice and slow, then you can basically rout the final ambush anyway - if Ingrid is a flier the she can utilise terrain to do hit-and-run attacks, and the ambush units at the end aren't archers IIRC, so if you trigger them at the beginning of a player phase (position the rest of your army in advance after the lava terrain on the top path but before the destination point, then send Ingrid out first) they can be wiped out that turn without risk to any flier/mage. 

[Shadow Mir]

35 minutes ago, RainbowMoon said:

I'm on Hard/Casual. I'm just still pretty bad at this lol

Thanks for the info about the healing staff. I'll definitely pick it up for Marianne since I do plan on making her a Gremory and she almost never attacks. I'd rather keep Dorothea focused on offensive spells and Linhardt's kinda busy riding the bench.

I hadn't considered sendng everybody north, actually. But if killing the merchant gets rid of one wave of reinforcements then I'll do that first to make life easier for Ingrid. Byleth and Edelgard can deal with Devil Axe guy no problem and grab the staff. Then it's just getting Ingrid past the last ambush safely. I'll do everything I can to keep them focused on the others but I swear Dorothea and Ingrid are like catnip to them. I'll save all my divine pulses for that part though in case anything goes screwy.

You can just defeat everyone to get the big thumbs up. Also, killing the priest stops reinforcements.

Edited May 28, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[SumG]

One thing to know about the design of the recent Fire Emblem games (including Three Houses) is that the main campaign is designed to be completed, while the paralogues are designed to be challenges.  This is the compromise Intelligent Systems has made to try and satisfy both newcomers to the franchise (who may be less experienced but still want to complete the story) and longtime players (who are extremely well versed in the mechanics of the game and want challenges).

While this paralogue specifically is an escort mission, the scenarios involved in paralgoues tend to be more complex and complicated victory conditions than story missions.  Everything from capturing points, rescuing civilians, defending regions, and defeating particular enemies will be covered in different paralogues in the game.  Whereas most story missions have simple 'rout the enemy' or 'defeat the boss' objectives.

So if this is your first playthrough, there's no shame in needing to try the mission a few times (or even to wait a few in-game weeks to gain more experience).  These missions are generally intended to be harder than the story missions.  But I will say you are incentivized to get as much treasure as you can from these missions, as the rewards are generally very good.

[MiaMain]

Was it just me, or did this paralogue seem incomplete? Like they never actually mentioned what they caught the suitor doing. Felt really disjointed to me.

Edited May 29, 2020 by MiaMain

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17 hours ago, haarhaarhaar said:

Lol sorry didn't mean to make a dig - IMO this is one of the tougher Part I paralogues, especially if you're going in blind, and it works a little differently to missions before that point so it completely makes sense to stumble on it.

The merchant summons one or two myrmidons every turn (which stop when you kill him), and there are also some other reinforcements that come from the west (which can't be stopped unless you clear the map before the turn they arrive). Going north first puts you in a better position to fight those guys, and it means you go around the east clearing which is the trickiest reinforcements-wise. If you're happy to take the map nice and slow, then you can basically rout the final ambush anyway - if Ingrid is a flier the she can utilise terrain to do hit-and-run attacks, and the ambush units at the end aren't archers IIRC, so if you trigger them at the beginning of a player phase (position the rest of your army in advance after the lava terrain on the top path but before the destination point, then send Ingrid out first) they can be wiped out that turn without risk to any flier/mage. 

No offense taken haha I'm completely new to the series so mistakes will definitely be made. I do follow online guides for some missions but I got totally screwed over by one on the Underground Chamber fight so I know to take their advice with a grain of salt.

I did it though! I sent everybody north to take out the merchant like you said and grabbed the healing staff. Then I had Ingrid trip the ambush at the exit while hovering just out of their reach. Byleth and El went in and cleaned house on them while Felix and Shamir took care of Prayer Ring guy and the rest formed a protective circle around Dorothea. Once Devil Axe guy and the reinforcements were gone, Ingrid just darted to the exit and that was that lol

12 hours ago, MiaMain said:

Was it just me, or did this paralogue seem incomplete? Like they never actually mentioned what they caught the suitor doing. Felt really disjointed to me.

I think the idea was that the guy's doing shady illegal trading inside a volcano and leading a small army of bandits. There's no way a respected noble can be marrying into that without raising a few eyebrows about her family.

I loved the ending though. I don't ship them (Dorothea/Petra all the way) but Dorothea and Ingrid are just so sweet to each other their friendship moments are always nice to see. Really shows that for all the undeserved flak Dorothea gets from certain parts of the fanbase, she's a wonderfully written character. I can't wait to see what Edelgard's paralogue is like.

Thanks for the advice everyone! :)

[Shadow Mir]

16 hours ago, MiaMain said:

Was it just me, or did this paralogue seem incomplete? Like they never actually mentioned what they caught the suitor doing. Felt really disjointed to me.

I dunno about you, but leading bandits and attempting to kidnap the girl you're proposing to sounds shady as hell to me. Doesn't really help that it's practically implied that the suitor wants Ingrid for a trophy wife.

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1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

I dunno about you, but leading bandits and attempting to kidnap the girl you're proposing to sounds shady as hell to me. Doesn't really help that it's practically implied that the suitor wants Ingrid for a trophy wife.

Exactly! Not to mention he sends his bandits out to kill her (and Dorothea just because she's there) the moment she refuses to go with him. "Blood money" is right, the guy's a creep and a half.

[MiaMain]

7 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

I dunno about you, but leading bandits and attempting to kidnap the girl you're proposing to sounds shady as hell to me. Doesn't really help that it's practically implied that the suitor wants Ingrid for a trophy wife.

I just thought the way they transitioned from the conversation at the monastery straight into the map was jarring.