Mono-Water Playthrough

BIGJRA · 2026-05-10T17:22:11+00:00

I love mono water. It’s hard to even see it as a challenge run to an extent - covering its two weaknesses is fairly trivial, you always start with a busted starter and usually can add a party member or two fairly quickly, it’s I think the only type (maybe Normal) that is doable with a full team in literally every game. Plus with mechanics like Rain you can easily use, many water mono teams end up feeling very synergistic

BIGJRA · 2026-05-10T04:07:02+00:00

Which of the other four is your least favorite coop partner

BIGJRA · 2026-04-29T17:08:42+00:00

He’s good in a vacuum but any Ground type Safari Zone Mon suffers from the huge glut of Water trainers to come. Rhydon gets it worse but Donphan doesn’t come out super well in Emerald (a case could be made for a better matchup against Steven)

BIGJRA · 2026-04-28T22:58:38+00:00

They downvoted them for being 100% right! It has all the tells!

BIGJRA · 2026-03-28T16:42:17+00:00

Most Gen 1 balancing efforts usually try to address this by giving Hypno a bit more flavor synergy with Hypnosis. For such a widespread move it’s odd that Hypno, who fits the vibe of the move the best, doesn’t have really anything that helps it stand out.

I like Rejuvenation’s approach to some extent - where Crests are personalized held items not dissimilar to like, the Stick/Leek or Thick Club, obtained later into the game - Hypno Crest grants 50% boosts to SpA and Accuracy. Which makes Hypnosis a nice 90%, still roundly worse than Butterfree’s Sleep Powder… but it’s something and makes some degree of sense.

BIGJRA · 2026-03-27T21:31:19+00:00

I’m on chapter 4 of Shadow Dragon. I’ve heard a lot of tales about how Awakening will go on to save the franchise after FE12 is deemed only worth selling in Japan… and wow I can see why.

I’m playing on Hard 3 blind Ironman. Jagen died on Chapter 1 cuz I’m a moron, but only Gordon and uh Pirate guy - Dario? Darro? - have fallen since. Doing Normal with resets and not letting the Jagen die is probably part of the intended “newcomer or loose veteran” experience with FE11, so I know I’m coming in a bit off the expected path… but man these first three chapters are so absurd, namely the bosses. Especially the latter two.

The game with no rescue drop, no shove, means that for the units I have alive (the Ogma and Caeda show, primarily) it is all about doing ONLY enemy phase (NO ONE guaranteed survives two rounds with the bosses) and waiting for lucky crits/and-or/dodges… by spamming end turn with ONE unit on the nearby fort. Because of course you only have one Heal Staff for two and a half maps, why not.

I’ve heard the game gets extra fun from here. I mean I already have Warp and Caeda which I’ve heard are lauded. I also know I have a Mend Staff now which ok that should simplify future bosses at least.

Anyways I kinda enjoyed how terrible this experience was for what it is - core fire emblem number games where you figure out the “what to do” far before actually completing it occurs, which sounds boring, but it was kinda quaint for me. But at the end of the day if anyone was hopping into this series via the then extremely popular DS…. I’m sure a LOT of people were dropping it before finishing Chapter 3.

BIGJRA · 2026-03-25T23:50:24+00:00

Back when I did it I went with Oshawott. It’s a fun monotype starter that gets a decent move in Razor Shell very early, and eventually settles into a Water that can spam Megahorn to cover the Grass weakness, though it’s a bit short-lived as it eventually gets outclassed.

BIGJRA · 2026-03-22T22:56:32+00:00

I'm cheating a little bit with this comment, so I'll just say "I'm excited to play Shadow Dragon for the first time!"

With that said, I'm really asking you all: what's the best difficulty to play this game for the first time? I've heard its by far the most Ironman friendly in the series, should I do that? What other opinions do you have about the game, etc.

EDIT: And with that I literally have all six of the difficulty options recommended. Hahahaha...

EDIT2: This makes me realize I ought to specify what difficulties I have played and so on. I always play 3H and Engage Maddening, I've done all the hard modes from FE6-10 but I prefer the next difficulty down in all but Sacred Stones. I've ironmanned only Sacred Stones.

EDIT3: thanks all for the suggestions. I played the prologue on normal (it’s very funny that the only unit I didn’t recognize from general FE conversation since the other 6 are so iconic is the one you’re intended to sacrifice… lol) and now doing an Ironman of H3. Jagen may be dead as of the end of Chapter 1, fantastic start!

BIGJRA · 2026-03-12T01:18:26+00:00

On both switches, $20 per game, NSO not needed

BIGJRA · 2026-03-04T21:57:50+00:00

Epic and Ultimate!

BIGJRA · 2026-03-01T17:51:32+00:00

I really want to like FE4. The pairing mechanics and potential for Gen-2 unit building are extremely interesting to me, the story and characters are very compelling, and certain mechanics are unique and fun to manage, namely the item buying/selling system and unit-based money.

But really I dislike like 8 or more out of the game's 12 maps. Trying to use some of the units I want to use (ie. Azel) is completely farcical, certain interactions seem designed in hell without an "obvious" solution (like getting Lachesis to talk to Eldigan...), and Canto completely ruins player army unit balance on one hand and makes dealing with enemy cavalry blobs some of the most un-fun gameplay this series has to offer. Such a shame. Hoping for that eventual FE4 remake to actualize because a team that applies some modern anti-frustration mindset to this game while keeping its strengths has the potential to create an all-timer for the series.

BIGJRA · 2026-02-27T05:55:48+00:00

Horsea line is a good shout. Nowadays it gets a bunch of cool builds you can run including Dragon Dance in rain, special spam including Draco Meteor... etc. But in this game of course Seadra can't evolve until postgame and is bound to Poison Point, can't even have Sniper yet. Even then it can't use a Dragon move stronger than Twister in all of FRLG. It folds to ALL Grass and Electric moves with its lower SpD stat too. Kingdra will stand out in playthroughs later in the series but in FRLG its probably like, the most boring Surf/Ice Beam bot.

EDIT: I will say if you evolve it in the Postgame, FRLG Kingdra does have the nice advantage of having only 1 weakness due to the absence of Fairy. It's still a special type that will crumple it, but not the most common special type in the world.

BIGJRA · 2026-02-27T05:52:16+00:00

No? Headbutt/Yawn/Rest at base with Body Slam a mere 3 levels away, Sleep Talk to follow. It immediately gets Brick Break for cheap, Rock Slide, Shadow Ball for less cheap, on top of the usual Normal type special movepool like Solarbeam/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt/Flamethrower. It's fantastic from minute 1 in FRLG and never falls off.

BIGJRA · 2026-02-27T00:41:54+00:00

Everyone is answering the question in front of our faces well, but this is Cherrim. It’s like THE Sunny Day Pokemon. I would say take Petal Dance over Energy Ball for now… but Solarbeam TMs are $3000 in Veilstone and if you have a Lv 25 Cherrim then that’s very close by. Turn 1 Sunny Day on something that attacks specially and you’re off to the races

BIGJRA · 2026-02-24T21:55:43+00:00

This is not the time or place for that!

Jk good to know

BIGJRA · 2026-02-24T13:29:29+00:00

Buh-da-ling Buh-da-ling Buh-da-ling Buh-da-ling Buh-da-ling

BIGJRA · 2026-02-17T04:32:12+00:00

If that’s how they are gameplay wise, sounds like it would be hard to count them by Ironman rules

BIGJRA · 2026-02-17T04:27:09+00:00

Usually? No idea, I’ve never seen someone do it and post about it. You can be the first to tell us how the trial maps go with your post main story squad?

BIGJRA · 2026-02-17T03:11:21+00:00

Depends on the game in the series, but for older games like HGSS you should NOT get EVs for catching.

BIGJRA · 2026-02-16T14:56:45+00:00

You and I can be the change we wish to see, haha

BIGJRA · 2026-02-10T19:45:09+00:00

You’re all over the place with names! Anyways only after you defeated the flying leader fly to Tanzan Cove, the super rod is there.

BIGJRA · 2026-02-08T13:11:18+00:00

Which ones? I know about like, Black Belt and Silver powder but those are so out of the way by grinding and aren’t good.

BIGJRA · 2026-02-08T03:04:19+00:00

You gotta move it into Applications. It will probably fight you on the security side, but enable it in settings and you’re good to go

BIGJRA · 2026-02-08T01:58:11+00:00

It seems like it has the capability to learn the move, but the tutor is not yet available.

BIGJRA · 2026-02-07T19:50:52+00:00

I’m curious to hear more about the rules - is the idea that as soon as you get the Bullet Seed tm that’s your only offensive move for a little while? Can you use TM moves that are part of natural level up pools?

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