Xenologue Maddening completed (mostly deathless, no DLC skills/builds)

[DrDimentio]

Gallery of screenshots - only from maps 3-6: https://imgur.com/a/fWVbGgZ

This was my first and only Maddening run of the Xenologue - my previous run was on Normal, just to rush through it for the story and to know what to expect from the gameplay.

Only base-game builds: I wanted to test/confirm for myself that it’s not unreasonable to complete the Xenologue 'deathless' with a party taken from a completed no-DLC Maddening file of the base game, with no new additions - i.e. not learning new skills specifically for the Xenologue. In my view, even the highest difficulty shouldn’t be designed around assumptions of players having specific builds - in this case referring to builds that are specifically well-suited for the Xenologue. After all, you might have insufficient Bond Fragments left on your endgame save, and I don’t think players should be expected to grind in the main game just to make the DLC’s highest difficulty bearable. I also think the Xenologue somewhat overcompensated for the forced Casual mode with its increased difficulty compared to the rest of the game, but that’s another matter.

My builds that I carried over to the Xenologue are listed here, in my report about my completed no-DLC Maddening run of the main game - obviously only the inherited skills are relevant for the Xenologue: https://forums.serenesforest.net/index.php?/topic/98374-engage-maddening-classic-completed-main-story-detailed-report/

On that note, it was a weird design decision for the Xenologue to have fixed classes and inventory but customisable skillsets - that can unfairly disadvantage players depending on which units they trained in the base game, and in some cases certain skills wouldn’t work nearly as well on the Xenologue’s forced classes. A notable example is Anna being stuck as a Berserker, whereas in the main game she was vastly better in a magic class.

Almost deathless: I only lost 2 units right near the end of map 4, and 2 units at the very end of map 6 - but all of these deaths were easily preventable. In both maps I only had 3 rewinds remaining when those units were lost, so I didn’t want to risk failing those missions by rewinding back too far and losing my identified path to victory.

 

Xenologue 1 (no units lost) - it was all about Zelkov’s fog, Alear’s Bonded Shield, and Jade’s high Def to block the Wolves from reaching Nel and Nil who retreated to the top-left corner and never faced any combat on this map.

Xenologue 2 (no units lost) - took all my units to the bottom-left corner then used the narrow paths to form chokepoints until all approaching enemies were gone, then defeated Celine, then finished off Alfred with the help of Lucina’s All For One (a lot of units chain attacked with it).

Xenologue 3 (no units lost) - Held a chokepoint just above the starting area, then used Zelestia’s Elthunder + Alcryst’s Astra Storm to defeat the Cannoneers on the distant platforms. Zelestia had to be in range of Seadall’s Dance to retreat every time the low-hit Elthunder missed, as I needed Elthunder to hit on the same turn as Astra Storm due to the Cannoneers’ healing tiles, and I couldn’t leave Zelestia in range of the archers on those platforms. Then I used luring tactics with a single unit to trigger the flying reinforcements, while the rest of my party bunched up together at the reinforcement locations (the locations were learned from failed attempts and rewinds), so I could deal with them immediately. Then retreated to a central chokepoint near the starting area to deal with both bosses.

Xenologue 4 (2 units lost right near the end) - Lured Timerra away from her minions by putting a unit in range of her Engage Attack, then froze her with Zelkov-Corrin’s Dreadful Aura while my party got into position to defeat her. Then tried to take out some approaching Corrupted Wyverns from long range (e.g. with Astra Storm), until Ivy was close enough that I could go all in to finish her off - she’d taken Astra Storm damage on turn 1. Going all in on defeating Ivy meant that I had to sacrifice a few units that were unlikely to hit Ivy or deal much damage to her. It was definitely possible to clear this map deathless with my builds, but would’ve required a lot more patience; I just wanted to finish this chaotic and stressful map. Things only got out of control after some unlucky RNG with low-Hit attacks actually landing from Ivy and Corrupted Wyverns. At that point I could see a likely path to victory at the cost of losing some units, so I didn’t want to risk failing the map just to try for a perfect run, since I only had 3 rewinds left.

Xenologue 5 (no units lost) - Rushed to defeat the Cannoneer below Alear, using Zelkov’s Dragon Vein fog to make chokepoints in narrow corridors as my party approached. Then kept Celine below Alear’s cage to heal her, eventually using Celine’s Warp Ragnarok to rejoin my party in Nil’s room - had to do that so Celine could trade for another Physic when she ran out. Should’ve brought Micaiah for Great Sacrifice - instead had to rely on Astra Storm for the Corrupted Wyverns frequently spawning above Alear. That meant I had to prioritise filling Alcryst’s Engage Meter as soon as his Engage ran out. For the Wolf pack on the right of the map, relied on Zelkov in fog/pillars to avoid most of their hits, as well as Jade who couldn’t be damaged by them - both had Pair Up. Then lured Fogado and Hortensia from the edge of their range, and used Zelkov’s Dreadful Aura to freeze them (both were adjacent) while defeating their minions. Then used Amber’s Momentum+ with 14 movement range to rush the 2 extra Cannoneers that spawned near Alear on turn 20. To defeat Nil quickly, I used Anna’s Instruct (Byleth) for +4 Str on Zelkov, so after he inflicted Draconic Hex he could actually damage Nil with a dagger, which enabled him to then stack full poison on Nil.

 

Xenologue 6 (16 turns, left path taken, 2 units lost in final enemy phase) - detailed notes below:

- Deployed units’ starting spaces from top to bottom, left to right: Ivy, Zelkov, Alcryst, Seadall, Jean, Boucheron, Jade, Amber.

- Emblem pairings: Alear-Lucina, Nel-Marth, Zelestia-Micaiah, Madeline-Leif, Gregory-Celica, Zelkov-Corrin, none-Seadall, Alcryst-Lyn, Boucheron-Roy, Jean-Eirika, Amber-Sigurd, Ivy-Byleth, Jade-Ike.

In some ways this final map is great, with its unique mechanics unlike anything else in all the FE games I’ve played. But the unique mechanics and some other aspects led to so much frustrating trial and error; I took 38 hours of attempts to finally clear it. I think the two longest attempts were each around 8 hours, including the successful run. There were just so many possibilities to consider, and so much careful deliberation about long-term consequences. I haven’t had to think this hard since Conquest Lunatic’s Endgame map.

My main issue with the design of this level is that Fell Nil’s defensive stats are so absurdly high that he takes zero or near-zero damage from most attacks, even with Draconic Hex plus Alear’s personal skill. It’s incredibly restrictive that you can only deal significant damage with specific skills such as Lunar Brace, and it also heavily depends on how many hits you can deal with Lunar Brace in each round of combat. This restrictiveness is especially problematic when limited to base-game builds, as it rules out other notable damage-boosting skills such as Reprisal. So my only unit that could seriously damage Fell Nil was Jean with Eirika - thankfully he had *just* enough Spd to quad-attack with Silver-Spirit Art, but only with the combination of Speed +4 (skill from my base-game build), Seadall’s Special Dance, and -4 Spd on Fell Nil from Draconic Hex. But even the four hits while Engaged and adjacent to Alear only dealt 68 total damage, so my other units had to take off the other 12 HP for each 80-HP bar - the boss had 3 revival stones in my successful run.

As I had calculated Jean’s damage numbers in advance of my successful run, my entire plan for this map depended on getting my critical units (Jean, Seadall, Alear, Ivy) to the final Fell Sigil, while clearing out enough enemies that I’d be able to survive until turn 16. That was based on my previous failed run where I noted Fell Nil’s actions for each turn, so I knew he’d arrive at the final Sigil on turn 15. Ideally I wanted to kill him on that turn, but my party other than Jean didn’t have enough power for that, even when using the Dance + Goddess Dance combo on Jean. It turned out fine because I cleared out enough of the nearby enemies, and didn’t need to worry about the vortex-summoned enemies that appeared on turn 16 since I knew I could finish the boss on that turn.

Apart from the issue of most units struggling to damage Fell Nil, my other issue with this level’s design is how it led to so much 'trial and error' gameplay - especially with the reinforcements, summons, destruction areas and Fell Nil’s movements; some of these things can vary depending on the player’s actions. Only after completing the map did I find out online exactly how the reinforcements depend on your path through the map - and how could a player know that excessive reinforcements essentially serve as a 'punishment' for taking the left path through Alfred? In my view, standard game design would suggest that the difficulty of getting past Alfred (due to his defensive prowess and Piercing Glare) should indicate that his area is a high-risk high-reward path. I had only tried the middle path in an early attempt of this map, but gave up on that because it seemed too difficult to block many of the Mage Cannoneer summon spaces in time, and even more difficult to escape the middle area before it’s destroyed. This was another case of too much trial and error being required to figure out this map - a downside of introducing unique mechanics in a final mission, whereas standard game design would typically have new mechanics introduced in easier situations earlier in the game.

So after many failed attempts, I gradually refined my strategy until I stuck with this approach: Turn 1 Astra Storm (20-range with Alcryst) to lure Timerra, so that she dies from the first area’s destruction - I kept Ivy just out of the destruction zone as my only unit in Timerra’s range, to make sure Timerra would be in the zone when it’s destroyed. I figured it was better to defeat her early on, due to a failed attempt where she arrived at the final Sigil area at the worst possible time, and I couldn’t stop her from getting kills due to her Engage Attack’s flame terrain hindering my efforts to reach her.
    After removing Timerra, I then rushed to kill Pandreo, to prevent his Revival Blessing on Fell Nil. Meanwhile, Alcryst used Summon Doubles below the second Sigil to stall the first Wyvern reinforcements from the bottom of the map. Alfred was conveniently lured out to attack a low-Res unit near Fogado’s spot (he attacked with Runesword), so I easily killed Alfred on non-forest terrain with magic double-attacks from Ivy and Zelestia. Then rushed north to escape the destruction zone, using Zelkov’s Dragon Vein fog at the rear of my party to prevent the closest Wolf from reaching any units - I really didn’t want any units to have reduced HP. Seadall’s Dance + Zelkov’s Dreadful Aura allowed Zelkov to immobilise both Hortensia (who approached my party first) and Ivy, so I could finish them off as my whole party reached the northwest area on turn 8; Fogado’s area gets destroyed on that turn’s enemy phase.
    Then it was a very difficult balancing act of guarding the party’s rear from the left-side reinforcements, while luring out Celine and finishing her off - then had to very carefully approach the middle area below the final Sigil, due to the excessive number of Corrupted Wyverns spawning at the top of the map above that Sigil. To deal with them, I used various methods such as: Rescue and Amber’s Canter+ to retreat after killing them, using Alcryst’s Summoned Doubles as bait (80+ Avoid vs the enemy’s 100 Hit), Zelkov’s Dragon Vein fog to completely prevent them and other enemies from attacking units they can’t hit, etc. Notably used Amber’s Override to kill two Corrupted Wyverns plus another enemy all at once. The Corrupted Wyverns are generally only a threat when combined with other types of enemies in range of your units, as their damage and Hit rates are very low - mainly have to worry about miasma being inflicted on units that don’t have enough Avoid to reliably dodge other enemies’ attacks.
    The weapon-wielding Wyvern reinforcements were often more of a problem than the big Corrupted Wyverns, as I only had one unit that could defeat them in one round under normal conditions: Alcryst with Ivy.
    In the lead-up to turn 15 when I knew Fell Nil would then arrive at the final Sigil, I made sure all the relevant Engage Meters were full, and in most cases I waited until turn 13 for my units to Engage for the final time on this map, so they’d still be Engaged on turns 15 and 16 when attacking Fell Nil. This mattered most for Jean-Eirika and Ivy-Byleth, as I needed the Lunar Brace damage and the Goddess Dance.
    I only had 3 rewinds left for the last few turns while waiting around at the final Sigil, in some cases due to very unlucky RNG, but I should’ve had 5 left - made 2 very stupid mistakes just from lack of concentration. One of the RNG rewinds was after Zelkov died to summoned-Leif’s Light Brand crit (with very low Hit), but then after my adjustments Leif double-critted Gregory. Amazingly, Gregory survived that due to his very high Res. With only 3 rewinds left for the combat against Fell Nil, I felt a strong sense of dread, knowing that all the time on this attempt could be wasted if the boss got lucky with Sandstorm procs when countering Jean.
    Fell Nil had absorbed both Sandstorm and Luna, but it turned out that Jean could just barely survive a Luna hit from full HP! He only got hit by one Luna and no Sandstorms. As I was relying mostly on Jean (Engaged with Eirika) to defeat the boss, I improved the odds of dodging a Sandstorm hit by stacking his Avoid with the forest terrain next to the final Sigil, plus support bonuses and Alear’s Bond Forger (+30 Hit/Avoid) from Engage+. I just used the Engage+ on Jade since she didn’t have much else to contribute at that point.

Edited August 25, 2023 by DrDimentio
typo

[samthedigital]

Now that you've completed it can you make an educated guess on how early you could complete the Xenologue on a Maddening playthrough? Congrats on the achievement in any case; it was a fun read.

[DrDimentio]

8 hours ago, samthedigital said:

Now that you've completed it can you make an educated guess on how early you could complete the Xenologue on a Maddening playthrough? Congrats on the achievement in any case; it was a fun read.

Thanks - and that's a good question, considering it can be played as soon as clearing Chapter 6 of the main game. At that point the only available Emblem Rings for a non-DLC run would be Marth, Sigurd, Celica and Micaiah, and they'd also have lower Bond Levels. If I remember correctly, there probably wouldn't be enough SP earned at this point to inherit any notable skills either. I don't think the lower Bond Levels would matter so much in terms of the lower stat boosts, but lacking the higher-level Engage Weapons and skills would be a problem. It didn't matter so much on the pre-deployed units in my run - e.g. in Xenologue 6, Gregory was still a powerful user of Celica's Warp Ragnarok, and Zelestia still provided utility with Micaiah's Great Sacrifice when she wasn't attacking low-Res enemies, such as both types of Wyverns. Madeline could obliterate a full HP bar from bosses thanks to Leif's Quadruple Hit, but apart from that she wasn't good for much other than Swap, and sometimes blocking enemies from reaching my less defensive units.

The loss of Pair Up would require a complete rethink of my Map 1 solution, and the loss of Dual Support on Alear and Zelkov would make my usual Avoid-tanking tactics much less effective. Especially since I wouldn't have Corrin for Dragon Vein fog. Anyway, now I'm interested in testing how difficult Xenologue Maddening would be from a Maddening pre-Chapter 7 file of the main game. I assume someone has probably done it though?

Also, forgot to post my clip of the boss-finishing move in Xenologue 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NiGZ6v-eQ8

[samthedigital]

44 minutes ago, DrDimentio said:

Anyway, now I'm interested in testing how difficult Xenologue Maddening would be from a Maddening pre-Chapter 7 file of the main game. I assume someone has probably done it though?

I'm honestly not sure. I'd be interested in seeing the strategies involved, but I couldn't much with a quick google search.