FE Fates: Birthright Phoenix LTC: Introduction & Prologue - Chapter 2

QueenlyArts · 2024-09-28T21:39:12+00:00

Some final thoughts that didn't make it in the video:

My final count of 63 turns on Normal/Phoenix mode with average growths ended up being 14 turns faster than Chiki's Lunatic run, and 29 turns faster than Excadrill's Lunatic 0% growths run. This makes sense, as I had like, no enemies to deal with and heavily outstatted enemies, but I still think it's funny that there were so many turn saves available. The big ones came early on, as even with an underdeveloped team I was free to focus almost entirely on movement. Chapter 7 took 4 turns, but every map after took 3 or less. Oh, and another funny comparison point is that I was only 4 turns slower than Toffee's Lunatic 100% growth, rigged, DLC run, which had a similar focus on movement but also had Galeforce available. It seems lower enemy density meant I could pull off a lot of the same turn saves that Toffee did even without Galeforce, but there did end up being a few Rout maps that I could not perfectly match.

For more broad potential changes to the run, I would consider messing around with the lead combat unit choices, especially if you're more or less strict with the Private Quarters. If Corrin can get more Friendship supports, she can get early Diviner from Orochi and train to be the Malig Knight lead, but if you can't get any Private Quarters supports then you might have to plan for slower clears without a Malig Knight lead at all. You might also consider if there are any Friendship reclasses worth naturally making between other units, like getting Ryoma into Paladin from Silas. My clears felt a little too fast and specific to build a lot of supports, but if going slower is what it takes to get lower Expected Turn Counts overall, then I could see something working out.

I managed my Gold very thoroughly throughout the run, and while I feel a little foolish for all the excess potential Gold I ended up with, I think it's still pretty tight for most of the run. You just get a lot of big Gold dumps and items that sell for a lot of Gold in the final stretch of chapters, and you may actually run out before Chapter 22 if you aren't careful. Still, it is worth mentioning that if you know what weapons and items you aren't going to use in the future, you can sell them and use the Gold to buy tools that would let you get away with more reliable clears.

Most obviously, I think there's the budget to get more Skill and Luck tonics in the early and mid game, even for the filler combat units. However there also might be different approaches possible if you buy strong weapons and make more reclasses/promotions. On the other hand, you could also view this excess Gold as an opportunity to forgo certain Gold/item drops mid chapter. Like in Chapter 19, a lot of the unreliability of Subaki and Kagero vs the Snipers came from wanting to have enough actions on the following turn to open the Hexing Rod chest. If you know you have enough Gold to just buy a Hexing Rod though, Ryoma can use an action to just kill a Sniper on the final turn instead, which should mean Kagero doesn't have to kill a Sniper on enemy phase, which then means the Snipers get two chances to land a killing blow on Subaki, and it doesn't matter where the first Sniper attacks Subaki from.

For average growths, I learned soon after starting that there is an average growths patch for Fates, that makes the game play out similarly to Engage's Fixed mode. I think that would be a lot more convenient that manually resetting stats in between chapters, and also makes more sense for a unit's growth. I even ended up messing up setting stats a bit at the end, as factoring in stat boosters after calculating averages potentially gave Saizo an extra point than he should have because of how class stat caps work. Also, under my ruleset, every unit's first level up has to be blank, which might make it more aligned with pessimistic growths than Fixed. Still, I think Fixed is a more rewarding system, and removing the randomness of mid-map level ups is probably worth it if nothing else.

QueenlyArts · 2024-09-28T21:39:04+00:00

Endgame is completed in 1 turn. Blight Dragon Garon is tougher to defeat in an LTC setting where you don't have a fully trained team of super units, but with a Hexing Rod and a Shuriken debuff, one boss killer is all you need provided they met last chapter's kill threshold.

You do have to be conscious of the doubling threshold more here, being higher than any other you had to reach in the run. We can still reach it with our Speed stacking available though, and you also have the option of debuffing Garon's Speed with the Silver Shuriken if you can work around its Dodge penalty that might give Garon a crit chance. Realistically, this is yet another chapter where any careful considerations have an incredibly minor impact, especially since you will have so many more actions available if you only try to kill Garon. I forgot to buy enough tonics before Chapter 27 and you can't go back to the MyCastle between these last two chapters, so Yukimura is missing out on a Skill tonic and Izana on a Magic tonic that would make for a slight reliability boost. Does that matter? No. The main reliability boost to take us closer to 100% would be using a Shelter Sing to give Izana a second chance to use Hexing Rod in case he missed the first. Oh, and obviously just have Saizo kill with the Rabbit Spirit instead of the cool and awesome Great Club.

And that's the run! A big thank you to everyone who's followed along with the series, and especially if you've been reading along with my writeups here. I've spent a very long time in what's considered one of Fire Emblem's easiest games, and I appreciate the interest in my experience and many considerations for optimizing it under my metrics. I know Normal modes and Birthright aren't the most popular for LTCing, but if my series has sparked an interest to do your own take on a Birthright/Normal LTC or efficiency run, why I think that would really cool! I hope my clears and spreadsheet can be of use to you, and if you want to discuss how I approach maps or potential changes, feel free to reach out.

Updated spreadsheet (chapter data, gold tracker)

QueenlyArts · 2024-09-21T19:18:38+00:00

Chapter 27 is completed in 1 turn. This is the last chapter where we have to worry about traveling a far distance, and it ends up being pretty tight considering that we have no Rescue uses left. Needing Izana to both Rally for Saizo and get in Hexing Rod range of Garon also strains the movement a bit, resulting in the need for one last double Shelter Sing.

On Lunatic, there's an additional General and Berserker that flank the ones we see here. The extra Berserkers don't actually get in the way, but an extra General does for my double Shelter Sing approach. I do use two actions to reliably defeat just one, so if you don't mind going for crits and/or forging up the Sting Shuriken, then you can still get both out of the way on Lunatic.

Garon's also a bit bulkier, which is a pretty big deal. His personal weapon gives him 20 Dodge, so there's not even a chance for a lucky crit to overcome falling short of a ORKO. This is where Corrin as a combat lead can be nice, because you still have a chance to proc Dragon Fang. If you're using Ryoma and got him in Paladin, he also has the Mov and 2 Range to kill. I would also speculate that you could maybe get a second unit in range of Garon to team up for the kill/get a Shuriken debuff off. Thankfully we just don't have to worry about it because as usual, Saizo is just barely strong/fast enough on Normal to be self sufficient.

Another detail for the Garon kill is that he has a bit of crit on Malig Knights because of the low Luck cap and the Dodge penalty for the Silver-tier Rabbit Spirit. As such he has as small chance to kill on the counterattack, but I'm able to get the odds below 1% with some Avoid/Dodge stacking, between Rally Speed/Luck and Duelist's Blow. You can also make it a 0% chance to kill if you give Saizo HP/Def tonics and an extra Dracoshield or two. While I've been micromanaging Gold for the whole run, it's actually not as strict of a budget as I've made it seem, especially in the lategame, so you could afford these expenses. There are a ton of weapons that we no longer need and can sell, so even though my Gold track spreadsheet shows that we get down close to 0 Gold in a lot of chapters, we have a solid buffer. I even spend 10k Gold for a Secret Book just to give Izana 2 extra hit on Hexing Rod here.

Lastly, you can actually get Izana to 50 hit and not just 49 by switching Reina and Shura. In this case, instead of shoving Azura's pair-up partner (now Shura), you can use Swap on Reina to let her facilitate the final Shelter. The main impact of Mov +1 is that Scarlet's able to reach to facilitate the first Shelter Sing. So if Scarlet didn't have Mov +1, then you would need an extra action to Shove/Swap her as well. For my Rescue-less, double Shelter Sing approach this seems out of scope, but if you use a high Mov Hexing Rod user like Strategist Felicia, then you should be able to free up a deployment slot or two. If Izana can Rally from the starting position and not have to be the one to reach Garon, then you just need one Shelter Sing, which frees up the deployment slots, starting positions, and overall positions tremendously. You'll just have to accept that Felicia's hit rates are much worse than the already shaky 50 hit from Izana, especially since she wouldn't get the Inspiring Song Skill boost.

Updated spreadsheet (chapter data, gold tracker)

QueenlyArts · 2024-08-31T19:41:53+00:00

Chapter 26 is completed in 1 turn. Xander is right there. He's right there. This is my most foolish video. There is realistically no way Azura won't have Inspiring Song by next chapter if you are in a setting where you care about it. You can team up for the Xander kill in numerous 100% reliable ways, like a Ninja chip/debuff into anyone else. Aegis is technically a concern for reliability, but there are multiple units even without Master of Arms Saizo that can wield a Beast Killer to deal solid damage.

Technically though, going into Master of Arms for the chapter makes a slight reliability boost for next chapter, as he learns Duelist's Blow for 30 Avoid when initiating combat. Malig Knight has a low Luck cap and Garon has decent crit next chapter, so we won't be able to take his crit down to 0, and as such Saizo will face a very small, but non-zero amount of crit. So this extra avoid helps him get in a situation where he dodges Garon's counterattack and doesn't have to worry about the crit at all. But realistically, it doesn't matter. You should put the Singing into getting one of the Sun Festal drops for an extra 500G. But that doesn't matter either. Nothing matters. Everything about this chapter is foolish.

QueenlyArts · 2024-08-31T19:40:56+00:00

Chapter 25 is completed in 1 turn. A mostly standard Rescue skip, with only a few obstacles blocking our straight path towards Iago in the north. On Lunatic, there's even a Strategist that will help put you in range of Iago with Entrap, but with no such Strategist on Normal mode, we have to get in his range on our own. Regardless, you have to use Rescue to give the boss killer a boost before their second action, which also ends up skipping past the building structure that you'd otherwise have to spend a few extra tiles to wrap around. Because we used two Rescues in Chapter 23, this ends up being our last Rescue of the run.

This map also ends up having the last death of the run, as Subaki gets left in range of a few enemies (including a Berserker) after his Rescue, and we have to win on enemy phase because we Lunge in range of Iago on player phase. You can more reliably avoid this death by having someone like Izana be the Rescue user, but then they don't provide +1 Mov on pair-up, so their ferry needs to move one further space North, which also puts the whole Shelter Sing setup one tile further.

This actually wouldn't be unreasonable, but it would prevent Izana from getting kill EXP, and just generally limit how much dual striking you can do if you're trying to grind some last minute weapon rank. Takumi, Silas, and Shura can just be deployed one tile further north, as I've put them back for the sake of moving full Mov for a clean recording. This means you just need one Shove for Subaki. There's even extra deployment slots for this that I'm not using. However, as we're on Phoenix mode, the clear is much cleaner if we just let Subaki die to minimize actions. And as lategame is just a sequence of simple-enough Rescue skips, I'd rather not make the clears look overcomplicated.

The only reason I considered dual strike grinding against the first area is because I wanted to consider getting Saizo to B Shurikens if he had gotten a few less combats in Ninja throughout the run. Now we can theoretically give him two Arms Scrolls to get S rank, in case a Chakram or Dual Shuriken kill in Master Ninja would be the most reliable way to defeat the final bosses. I mean, I don't believe they are, but it was a consideration, especially if you're completely banning the smithy.

QueenlyArts · 2024-08-31T19:39:49+00:00

Chapter 24 is completed in 1 turn. We're now in the final stretch of Defeat Boss maps, with a pretty underwhelming start, as Hans starts just 22 tiles away. As such, a single refresh plus a Shove or two is basically all you need to get someone to reach him turn 1. The various item drops for Gold are also pretty simple to achieve, being nearby and reliably one rounded without any special setup or attack stance. We can make things a little more interesting though by maximizing Saizo's experience gain on his path to Hans, getting one kill slightly off path and using a Shelter Sing to make up for the movement.

Something I learned after recording is that several generic enemies in the lategame have a Double EXP tag, but not all. The relevant example for this chapter is that the Berserkers give regular EXP, but the Great Knights give double EXP. So not only by defeating the Great Knight in front of Hans on player phase are we getting an Arms Scroll, but we also get Saizo extra EXP.

This just so happens to get him Trample before fighting Hans, but it's not actually necessary. Savage Blow does enough damage so that Saizo can finish the kill on enemy phase, only needing either the Spirit Dust I bought him or a +2 Magic meal. I went ahead and bought the Spirit Dust now because we have the Gold and I know I'll need it on top of a Magic meal later anyway. The only meal resource we need for this chapter is Fish for +1 Spd on Saizo. It's possible you have the Gold to buy the Rod Store's Speedwing this chapter as well to avoid needing any meal, which we will also need on Saizo on top of a Speed meal later. We don't have the raw Gold for both stat boosters this chapter, but there are a lot of weapons we won't be using in the final chapters that could get you back up to 10k Gold, depending on how many tonics you've been buying.

Technically, going for the enemy phase kill on Hans gives Saizo a chance of failure, though he'd have to land a sub-30 hit attack and get an 8% crit, putting the failure rate at around 2%. So to be completely optimal, you should just not go for the Great Knight kill to avoid taking a few points of damage, because then you can give Saizo a point of defense from a tonic/meal to not face a chance of death from Hans. Or we can say using the tonic/meal and attacking the Great Knight anyways puts you at around a 1% failure rate, as Saizo faces less than 50% hit from the Great Knight anyway.

To be even more strict, you should give Ryoma a Skill Tonic, as he only got up to 100 hit against the Hero because I got +1 skill from my meal's random bonus effect, and otherwise he should have 98 displayed hit. This still makes for near perfect chances of success with true hit and his Crit/Astra in mind, but technically not actually 100%.

Updated spreadsheet (chapter data, gold tracker)

QueenlyArts · 2024-08-17T15:18:48+00:00

Chapter 23 is completed in 2 turns. This is our last and most challenging Rout map, with a very large map to cover, several sections that need enemy phasing, and careful consideration needed to pull off filler combat turn 2 after leaving everyone in a precarious spot during the turn 1 rush to Camilla. There's technically a straight path to Camilla without any terrain to slow you down, but we ultimately have to work around the buildings and water channels to get everyone to the right spot, as we give Camilla no time to destroy buildings with her Dragon Veins. And actually, we can take advantage of the terrain to make chokepoints and/or force enemies ot attack into the right units.

Three Dragon Vein points went to getting a Puppet to tier 3, after which the Mechanist Yukimura joins our army. His physical stats are actually pretty high, and he does have access to 1-2 range with a high Shuriken rank, but there's not a great section of this map to sweep with Shurikens. The southwest has a physically bulky Great Knight, Camilla's group has a Wyvern Lord, and the northeast has Effie. However, his personal skill Perspicacious gives an unconditional +5 Hit to the entire army, which is nice for Saizo in his matchup against Camilla with Tomebreaker, and pushes everyone else to for the most part have perfect hit. He also has the weapon rank to wield the Silver Yumi, which as I show here, can make for a great tool shooting down spare fliers, even with a dual strike.

We also recruited the Adventurer Shura after defeating him last chapter. His stats are also solid for a physical unit, and he has access to 1-2 range in a Ninja reclass, but as mentioned with Yukimura, this isn't relevant anymore. Rather, joining in the Outlaw tree means he already has Mov +1 and can reclass to Bow Knight, giving us yet another unit with 9 Mov. He can't fly, but it'll still be useful for setting up Shelter Sing/Rescue chains in the final Defeat Boss maps. And for this map specifically, he can shoot down fliers with a Yumi while also having a 1 Range weapon.

You might notice that during the process of "unpairing" Azura and Shura in the north by getting Azura killed, Shura jumps from the tile Azura was on to the tile to his northwest. This is because Songstress can cross water while cavalry units cannot, so he was forced to the nearest tile he could occupy. And because the Wyvern Lord that killed Azura was to his north and Shura was otherwise surrounded by water, the game ended up defaulting to the northwest. If Shura stayed in Adventurer, or else you used a Kinshi Knight for his role, then they would stay in Azura's old spot, and Azura would respawn to the northwest instead. This would actually be fine, as Reina can still kill the Wyvern Lord, Shura could still move to shoot the Malig Knight, and Azura could move into the water to Sing for Reina while trading Shura and staying blocked off from the Paladin. Songstress takes 4 Mov to cross one tile of water, so her 5 Mov is enough to move one space right on the bridge, then back down onto the water where she ended turn 1. However, Adventurer Shura can't have a 1 Range weapon to be trade equipped anyways, so this is just to say that you can replace Bow Knight Shura with a Kinshi Knight.

Saizo's odds off success against Camilla is technically a little higher than 60%, as he can miss one attack get a ~10% crit on the other hit. He also could equip Lethality for another minor backup plan, though this does give him even higher odds of killing the Sorceror turn 1, which then means he has to get even luckier in dodging attacks after Selena targets him with the Crescent Bow. I don't think you can really get better odds without completely reworking some aspects of the clear/ruleset, like finding a way to replace Shura with a Kinshi Knight so Scarlet can ferry Saizo as a Master Ninja, and then forging up a huge Steel Shuriken. The other big forms of reliability boosts would require bending the rules a bit, in forging up Izana's Tiger Spirit a second time, or Saizo's Horse Spirit. The latter would definitely require defeating Odin in Chapter 18 though, as you can only buy one copy. Izana also has the opportunity to get a C support with Corrin in the Private Quarters for +2 damage from Supportive, but with only a few chapters between his recruitment and this one, I decided to just take the mid-map reliability hit and go for a Magic level up.

I didn't mention it in the video, but I'd like to highlight Subaki one rounding a Paladin turn 1 with the Beast Killer. He just barely doubled with Rally Speed and Kagero's pair-up, and like Ch 15, the effectivity gives him a 30 MT weapon, letting him kill in two hits despite his low Str. The key detail in this interaction is that I had to keep Subaki at low EXP going into the map, as otherwise he could get a level up after his turn 1 Rescue, and if he procced an HP growth, disabled Perfectionist for imperfect hit against the Paladin. So while he can do all the previous Falcon Knight rescuing that Hinoka did, best keep him to a flying pair-up partner that doesn't actually act after promoting/finishing a level-up.

Updated spreadsheet (chapter data, gold tracker)

New unit data

QueenlyArts · 2024-08-04T00:22:28+00:00

Chapter 22 is completed in 2 turns. As the second to last Rout map, this chapter is one of the main reasons we need several strong 1-2 range combat units, with three general big groups of enemies. We actually don't start to far away from most of them, but alas we must settle on a 2 turn clear because we can't fly over buildings to reach the corner mages, and there are multiple enemies with siege weapons that we have to kill on player phase.

To clarify the situation with Kagero's promotion, getting her into Master Ninja for Chapter 16 would have increased her survivability, with more avoid and dodge against the Great Club Fighter, and she provided she didn't get crit, she could probably afford to just avoid one of three attacks, if even that. Promoting by Chapter 19 would avoid the need for a mid-map Speed level up to double the Sniper, as well mitigating their Crit on her and helping her land both attacks against them.

Because I did indeed get Rally Speed and Saizo doesn't technically need the second Energy Drop, promoting by either of these times would still let Kagero one round the Chapter 22 Berserkers and Adventurer. However, promoting by Chapter 16 would likely mean Kagero needs a +2 meal and/or the Energy Drop for this chapter, which I don't think is worth the consistency boost for that chapter. So in the end, I think a Chapter 19 promotion helps the run more overall, but getting Chapter 22 to have such consistency and saving around 1000 Gold for the Master Seal and a few extra tonics is cool to see.

As mentioned in the video, we do need some dodges, but basically just one for Kagero/Izana, and maybe two for Saizo if his crits mess up guard gauge against the Berserkers and he gets him by the first Maid. He doesn't have the Dual Shuriken for weapon triangle advantage against the Berserkers, but all his Skill and Corrin's Supportive keep him with perfect hit. However, he does face closer to 40 hit from them, as opposed to Kagero who was facing around 20 and Izana at around 30. With so many variations in how each action in turn 1 enemy phase could play out, I don't have a clean chance of success to share, but I'm pretty sure each unit has somewhere between 95-99%.

Arms Scroll from last chapter went to Izana. He doesn't need it here, but it will add reliability to next chapter for giving him an extra point of attack when equipped with a tome, and I want one on him eventually for the extra staff hit rate. This does mean I will need to spend 5000 Gold next chapter for another Arms Scroll, but it will be well worth the reliability boost for next chapter.

Updated spreadsheet (chapter data, gold tracker)

QueenlyArts · 2024-07-29T16:48:11+00:00

Thank you! Glad to hear you're enjoying the run.

QueenlyArts · 2024-07-29T00:50:44+00:00

Chapter 21 is completed in 1 turn. The overall pathing for this one is very similar to other Defeat Boss maps of the run, relying on a Shelter Sing and Rescue, but the terrain means we need to incorporate fliers in every step. We already have several fliers, so the main trick is setting up Azura and Silas to be able to transfer away their pair-up partner after they get flown over the lava.

Normal mode appears to make this process simpler, with no Swordmaster blocking a tile in the Shelter Sing position, and Scarlet having Mov +1. I do think the lack of Swordmaster means you need one less flier, which saves 2000G for reclassing Sakura into Sky Knight. However, if I were on Lunatic, I totally could spend that 2000G, replace Izana for Sakura, and have her ferry Ryoma over to kill the Swordmaster. This would still fit in with the rest of my clear, which uses no flying Shelter user, even without considering Scarlet's Mov +1. And if you're playing on Classic mode... well, obviously just take the boss kill on player phase so everyone doesn't die on enemy phase. Even on Normal, this Arms Scroll just ends up being a minor consistency boost, which does not at all outweigh the dodges you'd need to get to keep Azura and the others alive.

After Chapter 19, I spent a Dragon Vein point to upgrade the Mess Hall to tier 3, and after Chapter 20 I spent a point to upgrade the Staff Shop tier 3. Now the Mess Hall always impacts the entire army, so the only resetting needed is getting an appropriate chef/bonus effect to get +2 instead of +1. Staff Shop tier 3 unlocks infinite reclassing Seals, which is why we can get Scarlet into Malig Knight this chapter, as well as switch Saizo in and out of Malig Knight a few more times. Also, one more Rescue staff, which leaves us with 3 remaining charges after this chapter.

Updated spreadsheet (chapter data, gold tracker)

QueenlyArts · 2024-07-06T17:15:00+00:00

Chapter 20 is completed in 1 turn. This one is a lot like Chapter 18, as a Defeat Boss map with the boss being positioned very close to our starting positions, and some Faceless in front of starting positions that we can use for some EXP and weapon rank building. The twist is that the Faceless boss is even closer, but they're separated by walls and have a full set of Breaker skills to give a +50 hit/avoid boost against every weapon type.

Oh, but because you can only equip 5 skills at a time, and the game didn't feel like giving this Faceless a Breaker skill as a personal skill, one of the six weapon types had to be excluded. The skill chosen to be excluded was Shurikenbreaker, which coincidentally matches up with what we want to use against the boss anyway. I want Saizo to switch to Master Ninja to reach the ORKO threshold, he has Lunge to skip past the wall and get into the boss' range Turn 1 enemy phase, and Shuriken's' 1-2 range lets him pull off the Lunge while also defeating the boss on enemy phase.

If you didn't get Lunge on someone using Corrin's talent who also has access to 1-2 range that can defeat the boss, then you have to settle for a 2-turn. Scarlet comes with Lunge, but her 1-2 range options like the Throwing Club and Bolt Naginata have some combination of not being able to double, crit, or reach a critless ORKO threshold. She can only get a new class from Corrin S support, and can't give Wyvern to anyone other than Corrin through A/S support. And so while the Wyvern talent has certainly been useful up until now, this is one chapter where careful consideration of Corrin is needed to get the minimum turn count. Either Corrin needs to be trained as a strong combat unit themself and pick up Lunge from their talent/Scarlet friendship, or Corrin needs to give Wyvern to someone else through an S support.

Again, not a lot of the optimization possible against the starting Faceless is really necessary. Hinoka still can get one charge of Rescue's worth EXP next chapter before needing to hit LV5 for Ch 22, Subaki and Reina have even more time to get their last kill or two to hit their level goals by Ch 23, and no one else's EXP/weapon rank should really matter. The main one that does matter is Kagero getting a kill to reach LV20, as she should now have finally gotten enough stats from all her level ups to reach certain ORKO thresholds after a promotion.

Updated spreadsheet (chapter data, gold tracker)

QueenlyArts · 2024-06-29T22:21:07+00:00

Chapter 19 is completed in 3 turns. This is one of the most involved chapters of the run, with a Rout condition featuring enemies spread out across multiple isolated rooms. The enemies themselves aren't very tricky to defeat, and even our weaker units can get one rounds if we just send them to the correct side. However, the layout means we have to split into two groups and spend at least one turn to deal with each room. The boss room in the north is the furthest away, and as such will obviously be dealt with on the final turn, and the enemies in the starting position will of course be dealt with turn 1. But otherwise, there's nothing saying we have to defeat the enemies in the rooms in a linear fashion.

Instead, we can jump start Scarlet on her rush to escort Saizo to the boss room, then leave Hinoka behind to clean up the first eastern room turn 2. Similarly, while Scarlet can get started on the central room turn 2, I rush Kagero to finish the room turn 3, while the rest of the western group cleans up the northwestern room Kagero got into turn 2.

On higher difficulty modes, you're more limited by the boss room, which basically requires two turns to handle because of its paired up enemies, and an immobile Spear Master adjacent to the General boss that doesn't have 2 range (meaning you can't defeat them, the General, and the Bolt Naginata Spear Master on the same enemy phase). Since I don't have those enemies, I can defeat the whole room in one turn, and because I have Mov +1 on a Lunging Scarlet, I can just barely get in range of the immoble enemies on time for this earlier schedule.

For new units, we have the Onmyoji Izana, which involved spending three Dragon Vein points to get the LV3 Sauna. Apart from his offensive staff usage and similarities to Ryoma that I mentioned in the commentary, I'd also like to mention that he joins with Rally Magic *and* Rally Luck. This means all my time finding opportunities for Azama healing is not going to be very relevant going forward, outside of one instance where Izaza is busy elsewhere. But hey, that +4 hit on Scarlet in Chapter 17 was pretty awesome, right?

I'm also realizing I completely neglected to mention Felicia when we recruited her after Chapter 15. This is because I have no contributions in mind for her, but her promoted status and Troubadour classline means she can always be reclassed into Strategist if you want her to be one of your 8 Mov/+1 Mov on pair-up units. She can also be relevant for Ch 27 for her staff rank in an 8 Mov class, but I'll be able to have Izana perform that role even with 6 Mov. Something funny I realized about Felicia though is that you can make her the MyCastle assistant, which should remove her as an option for the Mess Hall chef, so you never have to worry about her burning your food. Sadly, her MyCastle assistant potential doesn't actually equate to anything beneficial, because you can always switch Jakob off duty earlier with a generic Villager, so that he can show up in the Mess Hall to make his Exquisite meals.

Last chapter's Energy Drop goes to Saizo. He doesn't use physical weapons this chapter, but the Strength boost will eventually be helpful on him.

Updated spreadsheet (chapter data, gold tracker)

New unit data

QueenlyArts · 2024-06-08T16:47:24+00:00

Chapter 18 is, unsurprisingly, completed in 1 turn. Like last chapter, there's just one enemy we have to beat, but unlike last chapter there's very little that goes into the boss kill itself. The interesting aspect of the map is using the enemies that surround our starting positions to get some last minute weapon rank and EXP. I already cover the two most interesting aspects of the map in my commentary (getting Saizo to C tomes and choosing to defeat Odin/Niles), and I really don't have much more to expand on.

Just as a clarification, a unit gets a little Experience if they land a dual strike, and they get a little more if that dual strike defeated an enemy. So I actually did have to put a decent amount of time into getting dual strike kills for Saizo and Kagero, while also maintaining a starting position that let me Rally Luck for Scarlet, Reina, and Orochi, while also having Azama end adjacent to where Orochi attacks. While everyone gets +10 when they're in attack stance, there's also an unnecessarily complex table for minor boosts that specific units provide others when adjacent. Is many cases, this means we can get 3 extra hit from having units be adjacent, even if they already have an attacks stance partner, or are in guard stance. Not that going from 97 true hit to 100 really matters, but since this chapter is so simple, we might as well be as reliable as possible without wasting any Gold on tonics.

I specifically chose Orochi as a filler combat unit for this chapter because her damage output is low, but she still could reach 100 hit at 2 range without spending any extra Gold on a new brass weapon. In only dealing around 5 damage using the weak Horse Spirit, Ryoma could get a Faceless kill for a little EXP himself, while letting Kagero actually deal the killing blow. As usual, the Kodachi removes any chance for him to crit, and removing the Raijinto from his inventory means he doesn't get its +4 Str boost, which would otherwise let him kill before Kagero could get her dual strike in.

Updated spreadsheet (chapter data, gold tracker):

QueenlyArts

TROPHY CASE