Tempest Trials+: Life & Death (Part 5)

[Diovani Bressan]

A new chapter of the Life & Death Tempest Trials+ Series is coming!

 

The curtain rises on Life & Death, a series of events focusing on the story of Eir and others from Hel, the realm of the dead!

Plus, story elements that feature Special Heroes chatting will be released on the 4th day and 7th day after the event starts!

The bonus allies of this TT+ are:

Haar's skills at 5★ Lv 40:

A dracoknight and former Daein soldier. Can he stave off sleepiness long enough
to make his mark on the ninja festival? Appears in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.

 Wyvern Katana+ (Mt: 8 / Range: 1)
Grants Def/Res+5 and inflicts Spd-8 on unit. Unit attacks twice. (Even if foe initiates combat, unit attacks twice.)

 Swap (Range: 1)
Unit and target ally swap spaces.

 Atk/Def Form 3
If unit is within 2 spaces of an ally, grants Atk/Def+X to unit during combat (X = 2 × number of allies within 2 spaces, + 1; max 7).

 Atk/Def Oath 3
At start of turn, if unit is adjacent to an ally, grants Atk/Def+5 to unit for 1 turn.

And the Sacred Seals are:
* Description for the enchanted version of each sacred seal *

 Spd/Def Catch 3
At start of combat, if foe's HP = 100% or if [Penalty] is active on foe, grants Spd/Def+5 to unit during combat.

 Chill Def/Res 2
At start of turn, inflicts Def/Res-5 on foe on the enemy team with the highest Def+Res total through its next action.

 

You can also earn some Divine Codes: Ephemera 11 by reaching the 6,000 score, and an Anima Blessing by reaching the 12,500 score.

The final event in the series, titled Life & Death Finale, is scheduled for Ver. 7.0.0. Because the story of Life & Death is told through a series of events,
you will be able to view the story on the Tempest Trials+ event page after the event is over, even if you didn't participate in it.

[Mercakete]

All these people on wyverns and then there's Fjorm just standing there.

Anyway, have to say, Eir's really stepped up. It's good to see her consulting with Ymir, and her response of "Then I will not." after Ganglot says "Don't tell me that Lif was defeated." was just such a bold move! And now that I can see her clearly, Ganglot's design is really neat! It's always such a task making sure that anatomy is correct in a drawing, but there's really no escaping it whith designs like these where you can actually see the skeletons inside. Man, that hand with the finger bones all foreshortened and posed so nicely... I'm really, really impressed! And it's cool how Ganglot has such a similar color to Hel, while still being a bit more blue. It's storytelling in artwork right there. (She's a Hel (location) native and has the role that Hel (person) had, but still isn't quite the same.) Looking forward to seeing how things go! (Also, it just made sense to kill Ganglot with Lif, so I kept doing that.)

[Ice Dragon]

Watching all of the wyverns on the bonus hero screen beat their wings in almost unison is very satisfying.

I'm surprised Spd/Def Catch is the Sacred Seal that is unlocked at a lower score. Chill Def/Res is an amazing skill at tier 4, but not so much at tier 3.

I'm also a bit surprised that our showdown with Ganglot is not the series finale, granted I also haven't really been paying attention to the story, so I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be expecting. (Reading Japanese is tiresome.)

[Diovani Bressan]

5 hours ago, Mercakete said:

All these people on wyverns and then there's Fjorm just standing there.

I play it with Duo Lite mode, so she is not there to me. lol

[DefyingFates]

Ganglot looks pretty cool! It's interesting that she's visually a younger Hel, and I really like the combination of the Hel (realm) aesthetic with a more sleek, "modern" look. Not sure what that slightly lowered neckline is meant to be doing though, that's just kinda funny 😛

Also, she has an Arcane weapon! I really didn't expect that, I was sure she'd have a Prf weapon as a godlike being, but if she gave one to Lif I guess it makes sense for her to have one of her own. I wonder where they originate from though. Also, this is yet another weapon with CD and follow-up related effects, but I think that's just because those two are universally appreciated. Only having follow-up denial and nothing to help herself makes me think this is a more defense-oriented weapon though, or is that just me?

[Ice Dragon]

9 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

Also, she has an Arcane weapon! I really didn't expect that, I was sure she'd have a Prf weapon as a godlike being, but if she gave one to Lif I guess it makes sense for her to have one of her own. I wonder where they originate from though. Also, this is yet another weapon with CD and follow-up related effects, but I think that's just because those two are universally appreciated. Only having follow-up denial and nothing to help herself makes me think this is a more defense-oriented weapon though, or is that just me?

There was a bit of talk about it in the general discussion thread earlier, but that was mostly in spoiler tags.

Arcane Downfall appears to be most suited for units that are already fast, given that it doesn't have a guaranteed follow-up of its own, but grants +5 Spd that can be boosted to +8 Spd with a Spd refine. Lacking a guaranteed follow-up is a pretty big issue for slower units, so while it is probably still the best-in-slot weapon for them (overtaking Seahorse Axe), I don't think it's really worth giving it to them over a fast unit.

The most notable feature of the weapon is that it grants the combination of the Slaying effect, +1 Special charge rate, and 7 HP recovery per attack, which makes it extremely well suited for running with Godlike Reflexes. Coincidentally, Ganglot is an infantry axe unit, which gives her the ability to inherit Godlike Reflexes and pass it on at the same time as Arcane Downfall, though it comes at the cost of not being able to also pass on a premium 3-tier skill like Velocity.

 

The best units to inherit Arcane Downfall are Ninja Hana, Pirate Lifis, Ninja Shamir, and Resplendent Raven. Hana, Lifis, and Shamir have identical offensive stat spreads with maximum investment and are the fastest infantry axe units without exclusive weapons of their own (and will likely never receive an exclusive weapon). Raven with his Resplendent boosts and maximum investment has 2 more Atk than the others at the cost of 1 less Spd. His exclusive weapon is outdated, and Arcane Downfall is strictly better. Of the four, Shamir scores the highest in the Arena.

Anna is an okay choice if you want to make doing quests with her less of an absolute pain in the ass.

 

The other movement types don't really have particularly good options, as they lack fast units with no exclusive weapon or outdated exclusive weapons.

Summer Seth is a decent choice for cavalry, but he's already quite a bit slower than the infantry options. Desert Kris, Groom Marth, Spring Saleh, and Titania are all strictly worse than Seth.

Young Minerva is the best choice for fliers, but her default weapon is already almost as strong as Arcane Downfall and she is quite a bit slower than the infantry options, so I don't think it's actually worth it. She's also scheduled to get a refine, though it won't be anytime soon (it's currently 14 months out). Spring Innes, New Year Azura, and Resplendent Minerva are the next best options, but are all quite a bit weaker than Young Minerva.

Ascended Fjorm is actually a viable option if you want to switch her over to Near Save for whatever reason, especially now that A/S Near Save exists, though I wouldn't recommend it. Otherwise, Resplendent Amelia is the only other real option for armors, and she's also still slower than the infantry options.

Edited November 10, 2022 by Ice Dragon

[DefyingFates]

8 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Of the four, Shamir scores the highest in the Arena.

I already have a +10 Hana, so I thought Downfall was the perfect excuse to build Shamir up too. Thanks for the glowing recommendation! Having to find fodder for her is going to suck though.

And thanks for such a lengthy summary of Arcane Downfall too, I really appreciate it!

[Mercakete]

So, I guess it's canon that Minerva is the only female wyvern here. So, that means, for example, that Laegjarn's wyvern is also a dude.

Also, it just occurred to me that this would have been a good event to include Percy and Ace. It would have been fun to see how Ace and Minerva got along.

 

On 11/9/2022 at 4:09 PM, DefyingFates said:

Ganglot looks pretty cool! It's interesting that she's visually a younger Hel, and I really like the combination of the Hel (realm) aesthetic with a more sleek, "modern" look. Not sure what that slightly lowered neckline is meant to be doing though, that's just kinda funny 😛

Hey, more cutaways mean more chance to show off the bone structure. In this case, the lowered neckline means I can marvel at how accurate her ribcage is. ^_^ (Biology nerd, yeah yeah.) Anyway, the basics of it are that it's a design choice (and one of the only ways to use this sort of design without sexualization since, well...yeah. Jelly skelly. Lacks certain anatomy.) Ah, also, I like how she wears the Hel symbol big, bold and dead center (heh) on her dress. I didn't think of her looking like a younger Hel. To me, she looks like a younger person, yes, but also someone completely separate from Hel.

[defensedefumer]

Here is my playthrough. 

I enjoyed the maps this time, as the enemies were reasonably tough and not overpowered.