@@ichigokurosaki7762 it's very difficult tbh since especially in Maddening you need these harder hitting units but lack most of them until later when you're units hit much harder but even then by then Edelgard and Hubert would still be much more powerful.
My boi don't forget the final chapter of Silver Snow also contributes to its difficulty. That map is way harder than the other final maps in my opinion
@@christianmario9753 Golem, white beasts, Pegasus who double everything. Golems resist magic until their shields break, and high res enemies galore invalidate your mages. It's a nightmare. The boss is just added salt into the wound. Such a hard final level.
Some other pros and cons BE (empire): easiest access to the two meteor users, Dorothea and Hanneman, you don't have to fight Miss 64 speed Petra. Can't get Thunderbrand until the very last chapter tho. You also miss out boots from Cath's paralogue BE (church). Can't find more pros. Edelgard is forced so you're missing one slot for your units until time skip. You get the worst Hilda. BL: rallyman's daughter A.K.A Annette. Arguably hardest chapter 13 due to Dimitri being footlocked. Also Dimitri can't be easily customized due to emo phase GD: Hilda can express her full potential here. Can't find other cons
Da Maverick Blast If you recruit Ashe you can do Cat’s paralogue and still get the boots, add that with March ring from the second DK encounter and the DLC +2 movement and that’s +4 movement to someone. Put this on Byleth if you make him a Wyvern, another damage or healer/dancer and this game becomes easier.
@@NadiaRayne Even still, Dimitris survival is completely dependant on RNG. Even with his personal active and Swordbreaker, the hit chance is still around 40-50% which isn't reliable for dodge-tanking at all. And the thieves on that map are very fast, so he gets doubled and probably dies.
GD imo is easiest. You get some Juggernauts of units and the final map is very easy (impo) Even Chapter 13 isn't as bad since Claude has a good flying class from the get go unlike Dimitri, and is a lot easier to use than Seteh. Its basically if Church route made you want to pull your hair out just a little less.
Silver Snow's final map... as if all the dragons and enemies aren't annoying enough to kill and survive against already, Miracle alone will force Divine Pulses out of you.
I divined the heck out of the pulses because I was stupid enough to make Mercedes my dancer and I didn't do Flayn cause I was originally going to play Crimson Flower but forgot one important step of talking to Edelgard before the chapter you raid the Tomb-
Yes, GD definitely has the easiest final battle. There are no surprise reinforcements at all, and the enemies don't rush at you at once. The final boss himself is super easy to kill as well.
Silver Snow is just pure Nightmare fuel even from the chapter 13. Black Eagle in general is filled with shitty unit in term of capability as well so double the pain. Blue Lion has Dimitri, Felix, Mercedes to save your sorry ass (I ditched Ingrid when RNG screwed me). Golden Deer is filled with versatile game breaker you need a lifetime worth of bad luck to be able to screw them all somehow.
Well, one pro for Crimson Flower is that you skip the reunion chapter. That monstrosity of a chapter is basically a coin toss for every route it appears in. You can prepare for it all you want, but your victory is basically decided by RNG. To top that all of, you cannot change your equipment beforehand, so you MUST have a chapter 12 save to salvage stuff. Tl;dr Chapter 13 on any other route than Crimson Flower will probably kick your ass.
I only leveld 4/9 of my original team on GD maddening. You basically just have to be really smart when and where you use your gambits. Tea time for +20 Byleth charm comes in clutch too.
If you go in blind it really can be a run killer, and the game should be marked down for that nonsense. Still, you can make reasonable preparations most of the time. Just stacking endless defense into characters like Seteth, dodge tanking with Byleth, dodge or physical tanking with Dimitri, and when possible having a good backup unit that shows up on the left side (Leonie and Petra are naturals as wyverns, wyvern Annette or wyvern Ashe is also a possibility) can make the level as reliable as anything in the game without requiring significant planning. The defense stacking in particular I think people overlook. The thieves are fast, but most are not that strong. Silver shields on high defense units can really reduce the damage, or even bring it to zero.
I accidentally saved on the wrong file that was supposed to be a chapter 12 save, so I lost my chapter 12 save. I got very, very scared that I would have to play the whole game all over again. But I had a strategy. The strategy being Impregnable Wall saving everyone’s butts over and over again. I put it on my wyvern Hilda and I would’ve died if I didn’t
I went in blind on GD my first time, maddening. Of course no NG+. I was borderline about to restart my game because all the units I got at the start were neglected units with virtually no items. By the grace of crazy luck I was able to cheese Claude across the map and get lysithea out just to have Claude one shot the fake boss and warp him to the real one. It was a nightmare though.
Silver snow is my vote for most difficult route. Chapter 13 will be extremely difficult to plan for during chapter 12, especially losing out on 2 key units. Honestly I think that Catherine and Seteth combined more than make up for Edelgard, and if you have Lysithea then it will make up for Hubert. But losing Edelgard and Hubert during chapter 13 in particular will hurt a lot since it's fewer units to deal with those fast bandits. Post chapter 13 I think that Catherine and Seteth prove their worth and are more than good enough, but 13 is a struggle for sure. Throw in the hardest final map IMO as well for added salt into the wound.
I'd say the 2 black eagle routes are the hardest cause those final chapters suuuuck (but are awesome) and it's harder to have the skills you want before Eddie's endgame. Chapter 5 was the only chapter on golden deer where i though "damn i need some defense" otherwise i hit them with a long range blitz. I also think the combat arts/skills golden deer come with and learn made the game a lot easier. Using curve shot with ignatz while having his seal ability equipped was waaaaay useful
So somehow I’m on my first maddening run and i didn’t mean to go snow route but it did and I had no idea I was gong to lose Edelguard and Hubert. Now I’m at the time skip and might restart this game. Can’t find a way to beat right after the timeskip because I invested too much in the units that I lost. It’s rather unfortunate
Just beat blue lions on maddening, and I can't see how crimson flower and verdant wind could be more difficult. first 6 chapters are pretty difficult, then the rest of the pre-time skip is pretty easy. chapter 13 is extremely difficult, but I kinda enjoyed that chapter. The Next couple of chapters I didn't experience too many problems, but they were still pretty difficult. But those last 3 chapters are now my new definition of pain. They all took me over 50 turns. And that last chapter took me 5 attempts where I used every divine pulse, and I still just had to accept losing Felix to kill the boss, while relying on a 39% crit, then a 19% crit, then for her not to get a 60% crit on my sylvain when she counter attacked with vantage. Those moments were the first time where my hand was shaking from a single player game. And before I could even get to her, I had to deal with all those war masters and gremorys that one shot all my units except for dimitri, byleth, and Felix, Edelgard snipe critting my healers until you enter the throne room, with the meteor and bolting mage reinforcements. WHY.
This was made probably without beating BL's maddening route and just the first chapters done for each. BL has slightly easier early game solely because of Dedue but its lategame is absolutely difficult. IIRC he said in a stream recently GD is the easiest route now. Personally I disagree though. I think BE - Edelgard route is the overall easiest since you skip that bandit ch13 (in turn allowing you to ignore base units if you want), keep Edelgard and get Amyr, shortest route, and even now get Jeritza who basically op when class mastered cause of distant counter. Overall don't think there's too much if of a difficulty difference between each route though. The talk is kind of exaggerated and mostly ego stroking/favoritism.
I disagree with the con that GD have no good tanks. “Missing out on a character like Dedue and Edelgard who have pretty good defense” ??? Dedue, I understand. Edelgard, I don’t. Edelgard is more of an all-around tank, having 35% in both def and res. While Raphael has pretty shit resistance, he has 10% more defense. Also, armored lord/ emperor only gives 5% to def and res making both of her defensive stats 40%. As a fortress knight, Raphael will have a 60% growth in defense, which is WAY better than Edelgard. Hilda, who has all proficiencies needed to get into fortress knights, has a better defense growth than Edelgard as an emperor by 10%. However, I do agree that GD will have the hardest early game.
okay but he said good tanks, not raphael, probably one of the worst units in the game, in fact the 2nd worst only better than anna. (above raph is ignatz, then gilbert for unit rankings in 3h)
People also sleep on Leonie's early game tankiness. She starts out with decent def and her prf skill boosts that even more. Give her the prf and res batallion you get, and she'll be able to tank pretty well. Maybe isn't Dedue level, but still people really undervalue how tanky she can be when you don't really have a good tank.
My first maddening run was Byleth only Crimson flower. Successfully ignored every single maddening guide that ever existed and proved that excessive grinding can carry on any difficulty.
Im currently doing a Sliver Snow Maddening run! I managed to beat chapter 13 and let me tell you that whole map does not care if you 1) got Swordbreaker 2) got alert stance 3) Byleth flies The strategy is be patient and use your options wisely. IF YOU HAVE BYLETH AS A FLIER TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT. Hope no one aims for Seteth or Dorothea. Even though I didn’t plan on using Caspar, I made him a Fortress Knight so he doesn’t make this map harder than it already was. My first few turns were to fly over where Caspar and Dorothea appeared and dismount while praying to god that Byleth does the Martrix. I did have the chalice of beginning to help me with the annoying Snipers on the map. After destroying that whole clusterfuck I made sure everyone stayed together to take down the rest of the bandits. What mainly made this hard was Seteth and his poor bulk, I made him a adjustant to Byleth in the previous chapter and leveled him up once. Because the timeskip levels characters up he was at level 25. Still didn’t help. Also folks I would like to stress that if you want to play on ng+ to conquer maddening then do it. It honestly helps you get the characters you need for your team and or the paralogues. It essentially allows you to make your own difficulty
On the topic of Felix being "the best phys unit". I think Felix is a pitfall unit. Yes he's good, he's damn good. But to make the most of him you need to give up a battalion which hurts his survivability significantly on maddening, and hinders his ability to control a swarm of enemies or demonic beasts because he has no gambits. Plus, sone battalions already give +5 or more atk and then some, but Felix doesn't have that option bevause his authority is bad.
@@theonewingedangel8680 I suppose. Though with Warp, you can just book it to the boss and not have to deal with any of that. I honestly don't really see the point with doing everything there is to do in a Map on MM when doing so is more likely to mess you up than just training three or four strong primarily combat Units and finishing the Map ASAP.
D3-LL having invested 73 hours into AM maddening, I can tell you that warp skipping isn’t viable, especially on the last few maps. They’re just too big to warp through, forcing you to fight your way through a majority of the enemies. The exceptions are Aillel: the lava chapter, Retaking fhirdiad, and saving deridu. You can warp assassinate after cutting through most of fort merceus, and the imperial streets. You will want to route or 98% route the last chapter just to remove the ambush spawns.
Don’t even beat around the bush with it, the only reason you ever get Thyrsus is to give it to Lysithea so she can snipe the bitches outside the designated danger zone. 4 range alone before Dark Magic +1 range? Just destroy everybody (and also, Hades Omega is a stupidly good nuke if used at the right time) with little effort.
I did a tiny bit of GD Maddening and then realized only Byleth could get kills and everyone else is struggling to get any levels. It's just not fun when the best approach is for Byleth to carry.
If Petra is supposed to be one of the best units in the game, mine must have gotten seriously stat screwed. She barely has the speed to avoid getting doubled and will have to resort to Lethality to kill anything.
My first maddening run was Golden Deer and honestly, aside from the general high difficulty, it was a pretty "fair" experience🤔👌🏻 I'm looking forward to Black Eagles this summer!😁❤️
So, I know this is like 3 years old, but I think the order is wrong. I think the hardest is still SS, but I think CF or VW is the easiest with AM being the next hardest. CF gets to skip the brutal chapter 13 everyone else gets, and is only 6 chapters long post timeskip. This means you can abuse Aymr BS on this route where you wouldn't be able to on other routes. You can obviously use it on the last chapter for free and you're guaranteed the opportunity to get Arganthian on one chapter (15/16?) for a second earlier chapter use, and if you get lucky you might find a desert auxiliary battle for an additional chapter to abuse Aymr. For that alone I can argue CF is the easiest, but Jeritza has some dumb stuff too. VW is also pretty easy overall and tanks can be circumvented by making your characters dodge tanks instead, which is arguably better. AM has some busted units yeah, but chapter 13 can be brutal since the game neuters Dimitri for that one chapter. The forced class change can be annoying, but the class isn't really the issue though...it's the fact that his battalion gets fully healed, meaning you can't abuse BV/BW. That alone makes Dimitri go from being the literal most OP unit to just fine since maddening is wild LOL. You could arguably let Dimitri keep taking attacks and healing him back up to get his battalion to 1/3 hp to reactivate being busted but, considering it has 120hp and battalions take half the damage your character takes...you'd need to take 160 hp to drop his battalion to 1/3. That's a lot of healing just to fix a problem the game made for you. You really need to rely on Byleth here instead. Also, while Chapter 13 sucks...the late game has some really hard maps worth acknowledging, although to be fair, your Dimitri and other units will be OP has hell by now, but it's still worth mentioning.
i don't know if i can really agree with BL being the easiest especially with that final map but i do agree that silver snow is the hardest. i finish my no bonus GD run awhile back (no DLC, amiibos, online,NG+, etc) and it was really tough in the beginning but got easier the more i played (and grinded auxiliary maps) i'm going through BL now and going to have fun breezing through it with bonuses because i earned it after what i went through with GD.
Having beat both silver snow and golden deer routes on maddening without new game plus, i can say that there is no comparison. Ss is definitely more difficult. Base seteth is good, but not nearly as good as a wyvern trained edelgard. Losing out on your lord is bad enough, but you don't get one of the better battalions without edelgard. Also, miracle on the final boss... not cool.
Currently doing my non NG+ maddening on Azure moon since it has the best units overall and the easiest boss. Did a Maddening NG+ run on Crimson Flower and realized the restricting conditions in each map wasn't going to work for me.
I'm glad my first maddening run was Silver Snow; when maddening was first released everyone was doing Azure Moon or Verdant Wind which I believed were just objectively easier than choosing the Black Eagles. Crimson Flower was a bit short for my liking so for the sake of feeling the difficulty in full I opted for Silver Snow and that was such a great experience.
From hardest to easiest: Church >> Black Eagles >> Blue Lions > Golden Deers Golden Deers has the best cast overall (mainly that certain mage with the certain staff), easiest version of chapter 13 and easiest final map. Hilda can work well as a "tank". Her HP is good enough to take a few hits and her speed is also fine not to get doubled permanently with lighter weapons.
Raphael can work as a tank if you invest in him with his super high HP and strength and decent defense which can be even better by putting him in the armor line and I'd argue why not for GD because as you said they don't really have any tanks plus having a unit with free rally strength could come in handy sure he gets doubled but his speed growth is so low and the enemies on maddening are so fast he'll get doubled anyway so you don't even have to worry about weight for things like a silver shield.
People think since GD has Raph Lorenz and Ignatz as some of your only units makes it harder, when in the early chapters, with the batallion you get from the quest, give the defensive one to Leonine, Jeralt's Mercenaries to Byleth, and the last reamining one to Lorenz. That and his prf will allow him to do some good damage with tempest lance and chip with magic if you really want. If you invest in him further, I think giving him Thyrus is best. Though you should be passing it around. He gets some high power spells and his boons help him get into Dark Knight easily. So he can be a good chip unit since magic is the best for chip damage. Ignatz is imo underrated. He has some insane utility and his authority can allow him to use some very powerful high rank batallions which can give him a huge stat increase and allow him to help out with demonic beasts on the map. He also gets some great rally skills, mainly rally speed early on. His combat arts in bows also allow him to get stuff like break shot which while still niche, still has plenty of uses, and since his best class will probably be Sniper, that means you can just focus on bows and authority. (with D+ axes if you plan on using him with Hunters Volley) Which makes him a lot less high investment. Also his prf gives him Hit +20 right off the bat, but you can also get Archer for another or if you just need his utility, though I'd just stick with Brigand if you want him to be a combat unit. Hunters Volley isnt exclusive to him, but he can get to Sniper and the certification pretty easily. Also from what I've seen when using him, his crit is insane when using hunters volley due to his high dex. He can also go into Assassin if you're worried about him dying and plan to use him a utility, though he'll crit a lot in that class too, but you also have to get A swords, which he has a boon in, but still. Only one I can see being really bad is Raph, but he gives you free Iron Gauntlets and if you play as FemLeth you can just replace him with Sylvain instantly. Same goes for the Ashes Wolves. I don't have DLC so I didn't use them, but if you do, you can definitley replace your bad or medicore units with them.
Man remember when people thought Mercedes was the best healer? And then you realize that you will basically never use her personal or fortify And lindhardt is much tankier and has warp And Marianne is the most diverse one who can actually kill things reliably and have silence support
I was so close on reaching the final chapter of Crimson Flower and yet I fucking suck. I legit used all that blood and sweat to get this far and yet I'm not able to beat it. I don't want to restart because it is a pain in the ass. Fucking kill me goddamn it. Maddening mode was a MISTAKE
is Cindered Shadows in hard mode equivalent to maddening in the main story ? And is it possible to beat the lake Teutates in maddening (or classic maddening) ?
I'm sure you can but it'll be extremely difficult and will probably make your character weaker as you spread out your skills instead of focusing on important ones
Physical combat isn’t as useful on maddening BL. Chip and magic are much more useful. Barring a handful of beasts very late game, you can magic blast everything with little difficulty. Also dedue isn’t available for half of post time skip.
Da Maverick Blast have you done it on maddening? The exp limit means he’s going to be even more under leveled by the time you reach the bridge. Secondly, his defense isn’t that useful, you need a multi purpose tank. Being mediocre at both means you can survive either coming at you, rather than getting deleted by one, and bruised by the other. Plus poison strike being a thing.
I almost couldn’t beat “the immovable” boss on that paralogue map with crimson flower because no lords I had to wait a couple of months and come back after training up a couple of other units to stand in
I might be okay with my church run not using Edelgard or Hubert at all, neither have a single exp yet. I’m doing the 6 students byleth and the 8 obtainable church and knight members to round out my 15. Early game is rough with 7 units but the exp helps. Also I’m not quick completing maps so I am getting good levels. Chapter 13 will be rough but I’m sure I won’t be soft locked... hopefully
Just play however you want it. Its not worth the challenge just for the yellow title screen lool I am now currently doing maddening new game casual mode with Blue Lions . I use divine pulse when I have to and try not make my units die despite playing casual
Crimson Flower has the worst tanking in the game, not Verdant Wind. Raphael and Leonie are both better physical tanks than anyone in the Black Eagles, including Edelgard as her native Def growth is only 35 and she'll be way more useful in Wyvern Lord than Armored Lord. Hard agree that Azure Moon is the easiest class in Maddening though. Dedue and Ingrid can completely neutralize most physical and magic attacks respectively from the beginning of the game.
I feel like FED really doesn’t like Dimitri, which is weird because he feels like he is the best unit in the game, especially late game. For all the other lords he put them as Pros, but not Dimitri. Doesn’t really make sense to me. While Claude does have a great physical battalion, Dimitri’s is better imo.
Because we are talking about Maddening here, and Dimitri is truly a physical powerhouse, but he does not bring anything to the table like Edelgard and Claude. Edelgard has her weapon that allows her to galeforce an entire map, and Claude has many schemes under his sleeve as a Barbarossa that allows maddening to be easier. Dimitri is good but he is only a powerhouse, he does not bring anything unique to the table.
@@LCardosed92 sure. Raging storm is a FANTASTIC combat art, but it’s also slightly overrated because the ore needed to repair the weapon is much harder to obtain than all the other ore to repair other relics. There is also no need to bring anything unique when what you can do is top tier. All you need is battalion vantage and battalion wrath, and most enemy phase becomes a joke. I don’t see how that raging storm and Barbarossa class is better than that.
@@moberlysquad67 Aymr is not that hard to repair. You get the material to repair the weapon by killing those robots on the chapter you take down Cornelia. There are 3 golens, and they all give you 4 materials each, meaning you will be able to repair Aymr 3 times in total. And yeah, Edelgard and Claude are unique, but Dimitri is not. I finished Golden Deer on Maddening and with a little bit of effort my Hilda could do the exactly same thing a Dimitri would. I could say the same for other characters. All characters would be able to do what Dimitri does with a little effort, but no one could copy Claude and Edelgard, that is why their are considered better in Maddening than Dimitri.
I feel like the easiest way to beat maddening is mages and bows. Black eagle is advertised as the mage class but Hubert's not as good as Lysithea, Dorothea's not as good as Marianne, and Edelgard should not be a mage anyways (although I will say an armored mage would have been cool). I think Golden Deer has a top tier pick of mages, the best archer in the game, and if you replace the bad units with easy recruits like Sylvain and the Ashen Wolves, you have a full team.
What is it your struggling with there? If it is the reinforcements at the top, they are tile based (trigger area starts behind a pillar if memory serves right). Just walk a bit ahead with the units that can take some hits, keep the others a bit further away, and lure the second wave with what is basically your scrub squad, since usually, having all 4 thieves in one area is a bad idea.
Agreed. That thing is absolutely brutal. Though fortunaltely, I only got hold of Maddening quite some time later, so I knew what was coming, so I could do sufficient preperations to not get my ass kicked. And even then, it took some crits to pull through.
Post time skip can be a bit difficult for BL just cause scooter boi decided to get edgy, meaning you can’t train him for a bit and a certain unit “dies”.
>Sliver Snow route being the hardest on Maddening
*cries playing Maddening for the first time on the church route*
@@ichigokurosaki7762 it's very difficult tbh since especially in Maddening you need these harder hitting units but lack most of them until later when you're units hit much harder but even then by then Edelgard and Hubert would still be much more powerful.
same tho
My boi don't forget the final chapter of Silver Snow also contributes to its difficulty. That map is way harder than the other final maps in my opinion
I just finished silver snow and I've got to agree. The enemies on that final map are just awful.
Yh the golems are ridicilous
@@christianmario9753
Golem, white beasts, Pegasus who double everything. Golems resist magic until their shields break, and high res enemies galore invalidate your mages. It's a nightmare. The boss is just added salt into the wound. Such a hard final level.
Harder then maddening GD?
@@nocturnalanimal6815 definitely. Maddening GD is not that hard
Some other pros and cons
BE (empire): easiest access to the two meteor users, Dorothea and Hanneman, you don't have to fight Miss 64 speed Petra. Can't get Thunderbrand until the very last chapter tho. You also miss out boots from Cath's paralogue
BE (church). Can't find more pros. Edelgard is forced so you're missing one slot for your units until time skip. You get the worst Hilda.
BL: rallyman's daughter A.K.A Annette. Arguably hardest chapter 13 due to Dimitri being footlocked. Also Dimitri can't be easily customized due to emo phase
GD: Hilda can express her full potential here. Can't find other cons
Da Maverick Blast If you recruit Ashe you can do Cat’s paralogue and still get the boots, add that with March ring from the second DK encounter and the DLC +2 movement and that’s +4 movement to someone. Put this on Byleth if you make him a Wyvern, another damage or healer/dancer and this game becomes easier.
Dimitri is fine in chapter 13, if he has sword breaker. Only the archers are a problem for him. Seteth is way worse than Dimitri.
@@NadiaRayne Even still, Dimitris survival is completely dependant on RNG. Even with his personal active and Swordbreaker, the hit chance is still around 40-50% which isn't reliable for dodge-tanking at all. And the thieves on that map are very fast, so he gets doubled and probably dies.
You get me thinking with the worst Hilda and when I understand...
.... yes that Hilda does suck.
GD imo is easiest. You get some Juggernauts of units and the final map is very easy (impo) Even Chapter 13 isn't as bad since Claude has a good flying class from the get go unlike Dimitri, and is a lot easier to use than Seteh. Its basically if Church route made you want to pull your hair out just a little less.
Silver Snow's final map... as if all the dragons and enemies aren't annoying enough to kill and survive against already, Miracle alone will force Divine Pulses out of you.
+ the boss
I divined the heck out of the pulses because I was stupid enough to make Mercedes my dancer and I didn't do Flayn cause I was originally going to play Crimson Flower but forgot one important step of talking to Edelgard before the chapter you raid the Tomb-
I played GD Maddening (NG+ Admittedly) and the Hilda/Claude/Lysithea combo just destroyed. I feel they have the easiest final battle too.
Yes, GD definitely has the easiest final battle. There are no surprise reinforcements at all, and the enemies don't rush at you at once. The final boss himself is super easy to kill as well.
Silver Snow is just pure Nightmare fuel even from the chapter 13. Black Eagle in general is filled with shitty unit in term of capability as well so double the pain.
Blue Lion has Dimitri, Felix, Mercedes to save your sorry ass (I ditched Ingrid when RNG screwed me). Golden Deer is filled with versatile game breaker you need a lifetime worth of bad luck to be able to screw them all somehow.
That is what I was thinking, since last map on hard mode took me no effort really.
Idk, in my opinion the easiest final boss was CF
Rina Aria I swear with the RNG my Ingrid has she might as well be A Magic Unit
Well, one pro for Crimson Flower is that you skip the reunion chapter.
That monstrosity of a chapter is basically a coin toss for every route it appears in. You can prepare for it all you want, but your victory is basically decided by RNG. To top that all of, you cannot change your equipment beforehand, so you MUST have a chapter 12 save to salvage stuff.
Tl;dr
Chapter 13 on any other route than Crimson Flower will probably kick your ass.
I only leveld 4/9 of my original team on GD maddening. You basically just have to be really smart when and where you use your gambits. Tea time for +20 Byleth charm comes in clutch too.
If you go in blind it really can be a run killer, and the game should be marked down for that nonsense. Still, you can make reasonable preparations most of the time. Just stacking endless defense into characters like Seteth, dodge tanking with Byleth, dodge or physical tanking with Dimitri, and when possible having a good backup unit that shows up on the left side (Leonie and Petra are naturals as wyverns, wyvern Annette or wyvern Ashe is also a possibility) can make the level as reliable as anything in the game without requiring significant planning.
The defense stacking in particular I think people overlook. The thieves are fast, but most are not that strong. Silver shields on high defense units can really reduce the damage, or even bring it to zero.
I accidentally saved on the wrong file that was supposed to be a chapter 12 save, so I lost my chapter 12 save. I got very, very scared that I would have to play the whole game all over again. But I had a strategy. The strategy being Impregnable Wall saving everyone’s butts over and over again. I put it on my wyvern Hilda and I would’ve died if I didn’t
I went in blind on GD my first time, maddening. Of course no NG+. I was borderline about to restart my game because all the units I got at the start were neglected units with virtually no items.
By the grace of crazy luck I was able to cheese Claude across the map and get lysithea out just to have Claude one shot the fake boss and warp him to the real one.
It was a nightmare though.
Silver snow is my vote for most difficult route. Chapter 13 will be extremely difficult to plan for during chapter 12, especially losing out on 2 key units. Honestly I think that Catherine and Seteth combined more than make up for Edelgard, and if you have Lysithea then it will make up for Hubert. But losing Edelgard and Hubert during chapter 13 in particular will hurt a lot since it's fewer units to deal with those fast bandits. Post chapter 13 I think that Catherine and Seteth prove their worth and are more than good enough, but 13 is a struggle for sure. Throw in the hardest final map IMO as well for added salt into the wound.
to me is 21
I'd say the 2 black eagle routes are the hardest cause those final chapters suuuuck (but are awesome) and it's harder to have the skills you want before Eddie's endgame. Chapter 5 was the only chapter on golden deer where i though "damn i need some defense" otherwise i hit them with a long range blitz. I also think the combat arts/skills golden deer come with and learn made the game a lot easier. Using curve shot with ignatz while having his seal ability equipped was waaaaay useful
No, blue lions isn’t easy on maddening.
One word
Reinforcements
War Master, Gremories, and Assassins, oh my!
Edelgard in the final map is bs.
Fucking ambush artillery mages right next to the last room, it’s actually disgusting.
she easy for me
& el focusing lysithea
I feel so sorry to those who wanted to wait until there was a harder difficulty and have put most of their investment into Edel, Hubert, and Flayn.
So somehow I’m on my first maddening run and i didn’t mean to go snow route but it did and I had no idea I was gong to lose Edelguard and Hubert. Now I’m at the time skip and might restart this game. Can’t find a way to beat right after the timeskip because I invested too much in the units that I lost. It’s rather unfortunate
lol!!! damn that sucks, good thing i did my research before playing this route.
Just beat blue lions on maddening, and I can't see how crimson flower and verdant wind could be more difficult. first 6 chapters are pretty difficult, then the rest of the pre-time skip is pretty easy. chapter 13 is extremely difficult, but I kinda enjoyed that chapter. The Next couple of chapters I didn't experience too many problems, but they were still pretty difficult. But those last 3 chapters are now my new definition of pain. They all took me over 50 turns. And that last chapter took me 5 attempts where I used every divine pulse, and I still just had to accept losing Felix to kill the boss, while relying on a 39% crit, then a 19% crit, then for her not to get a 60% crit on my sylvain when she counter attacked with vantage. Those moments were the first time where my hand was shaking from a single player game. And before I could even get to her, I had to deal with all those war masters and gremorys that one shot all my units except for dimitri, byleth, and Felix, Edelgard snipe critting my healers until you enter the throne room, with the meteor and bolting mage reinforcements. WHY.
This was made probably without beating BL's maddening route and just the first chapters done for each. BL has slightly easier early game solely because of Dedue but its lategame is absolutely difficult. IIRC he said in a stream recently GD is the easiest route now. Personally I disagree though. I think BE - Edelgard route is the overall easiest since you skip that bandit ch13 (in turn allowing you to ignore base units if you want), keep Edelgard and get Amyr, shortest route, and even now get Jeritza who basically op when class mastered cause of distant counter.
Overall don't think there's too much if of a difficulty difference between each route though. The talk is kind of exaggerated and mostly ego stroking/favoritism.
I disagree with the con that GD have no good tanks. “Missing out on a character like Dedue and Edelgard who have pretty good defense” ??? Dedue, I understand. Edelgard, I don’t. Edelgard is more of an all-around tank, having 35% in both def and res. While Raphael has pretty shit resistance, he has 10% more defense. Also, armored lord/ emperor only gives 5% to def and res making both of her defensive stats 40%. As a fortress knight, Raphael will have a 60% growth in defense, which is WAY better than Edelgard. Hilda, who has all proficiencies needed to get into fortress knights, has a better defense growth than Edelgard as an emperor by 10%. However, I do agree that GD will have the hardest early game.
okay but he said good tanks, not raphael, probably one of the worst units in the game, in fact the 2nd worst only better than anna. (above raph is ignatz, then gilbert for unit rankings in 3h)
People also sleep on Leonie's early game tankiness. She starts out with decent def and her prf skill boosts that even more. Give her the prf and res batallion you get, and she'll be able to tank pretty well. Maybe isn't Dedue level, but still people really undervalue how tanky she can be when you don't really have a good tank.
My first maddening run was Byleth only Crimson flower. Successfully ignored every single maddening guide that ever existed and proved that excessive grinding can carry on any difficulty.
Im currently doing a Sliver Snow Maddening run! I managed to beat chapter 13 and let me tell you that whole map does not care if you
1) got Swordbreaker
2) got alert stance
3) Byleth flies
The strategy is be patient and use your options wisely. IF YOU HAVE BYLETH AS A FLIER TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT. Hope no one aims for Seteth or Dorothea. Even though I didn’t plan on using Caspar, I made him a Fortress Knight so he doesn’t make this map harder than it already was.
My first few turns were to fly over where Caspar and Dorothea appeared and dismount while praying to god that Byleth does the Martrix. I did have the chalice of beginning to help me with the annoying Snipers on the map.
After destroying that whole clusterfuck I made sure everyone stayed together to take down the rest of the bandits.
What mainly made this hard was Seteth and his poor bulk, I made him a adjustant to Byleth in the previous chapter and leveled him up once. Because the timeskip levels characters up he was at level 25. Still didn’t help.
Also folks I would like to stress that if you want to play on ng+ to conquer maddening then do it. It honestly helps you get the characters you need for your team and or the paralogues. It essentially allows you to make your own difficulty
On the topic of Felix being "the best phys unit". I think Felix is a pitfall unit. Yes he's good, he's damn good. But to make the most of him you need to give up a battalion which hurts his survivability significantly on maddening, and hinders his ability to control a swarm of enemies or demonic beasts because he has no gambits. Plus, sone battalions already give +5 or more atk and then some, but Felix doesn't have that option bevause his authority is bad.
I was feeling dumb so for my first Madaning I choose a silver snow routen but only using church units and the ashen wolves, it's been an experience
I'd argue recruiting Linhardt over Marianne on AM. Linhardt gets both Physic AND Warp, while Marianne just gets Physic.
She does get silence tho, useful for 70 atk gremories.
@@theonewingedangel8680 I suppose. Though with Warp, you can just book it to the boss and not have to deal with any of that. I honestly don't really see the point with doing everything there is to do in a Map on MM when doing so is more likely to mess you up than just training three or four strong primarily combat Units and finishing the Map ASAP.
D3-LL having invested 73 hours into AM maddening, I can tell you that warp skipping isn’t viable, especially on the last few maps. They’re just too big to warp through, forcing you to fight your way through a majority of the enemies. The exceptions are Aillel: the lava chapter, Retaking fhirdiad, and saving deridu. You can warp assassinate after cutting through most of fort merceus, and the imperial streets. You will want to route or 98% route the last chapter just to remove the ambush spawns.
B-but Marianne X Dimitri support....
Why not both?
Don’t even beat around the bush with it, the only reason you ever get Thyrsus is to give it to Lysithea so she can snipe the bitches outside the designated danger zone. 4 range alone before Dark Magic +1 range? Just destroy everybody (and also, Hades Omega is a stupidly good nuke if used at the right time) with little effort.
My first maddening was golden deer which I think was good since golden deer isn't super hard
I did a tiny bit of GD Maddening and then realized only Byleth could get kills and everyone else is struggling to get any levels. It's just not fun when the best approach is for Byleth to carry.
If Petra is supposed to be one of the best units in the game, mine must have gotten seriously stat screwed. She barely has the speed to avoid getting doubled and will have to resort to Lethality to kill anything.
if you have to resort to lethality throw the whole character away
Just started maddening (no new game+) and holy sheet the mock battle took me at least an hour to beat.
Haha, I'm starting with Silver Snow on Maddening. It's the only route I haven't completed so far. Can't wait to do chapter 13.
My first maddening run was Golden Deer and honestly, aside from the general high difficulty, it was a pretty "fair" experience🤔👌🏻 I'm looking forward to Black Eagles this summer!😁❤️
So, I know this is like 3 years old, but I think the order is wrong. I think the hardest is still SS, but I think CF or VW is the easiest with AM being the next hardest.
CF gets to skip the brutal chapter 13 everyone else gets, and is only 6 chapters long post timeskip. This means you can abuse Aymr BS on this route where you wouldn't be able to on other routes. You can obviously use it on the last chapter for free and you're guaranteed the opportunity to get Arganthian on one chapter (15/16?) for a second earlier chapter use, and if you get lucky you might find a desert auxiliary battle for an additional chapter to abuse Aymr. For that alone I can argue CF is the easiest, but Jeritza has some dumb stuff too. VW is also pretty easy overall and tanks can be circumvented by making your characters dodge tanks instead, which is arguably better.
AM has some busted units yeah, but chapter 13 can be brutal since the game neuters Dimitri for that one chapter. The forced class change can be annoying, but the class isn't really the issue though...it's the fact that his battalion gets fully healed, meaning you can't abuse BV/BW. That alone makes Dimitri go from being the literal most OP unit to just fine since maddening is wild LOL. You could arguably let Dimitri keep taking attacks and healing him back up to get his battalion to 1/3 hp to reactivate being busted but, considering it has 120hp and battalions take half the damage your character takes...you'd need to take 160 hp to drop his battalion to 1/3. That's a lot of healing just to fix a problem the game made for you. You really need to rely on Byleth here instead. Also, while Chapter 13 sucks...the late game has some really hard maps worth acknowledging, although to be fair, your Dimitri and other units will be OP has hell by now, but it's still worth mentioning.
Tbh for golden deer I thought leonie was best ealry game tank for her personal and good speed making her harder to double
She is a better tank for the early game than any BE or BL but dedue
i don't know if i can really agree with BL being the easiest especially with that final map but i do agree that silver snow is the hardest. i finish my no bonus GD run awhile back (no DLC, amiibos, online,NG+, etc) and it was really tough in the beginning but got easier the more i played (and grinded auxiliary maps) i'm going through BL now and going to have fun breezing through it with bonuses because i earned it after what i went through with GD.
Prepare yourself to ambush meteor spawns that can 2 shot even resistance tanks
Having beat both silver snow and golden deer routes on maddening without new game plus, i can say that there is no comparison. Ss is definitely more difficult. Base seteth is good, but not nearly as good as a wyvern trained edelgard. Losing out on your lord is bad enough, but you don't get one of the better battalions without edelgard. Also, miracle on the final boss... not cool.
Currently doing my non NG+ maddening on Azure moon since it has the best units overall and the easiest boss. Did a Maddening NG+ run on Crimson Flower and realized the restricting conditions in each map wasn't going to work for me.
silver snow chapter 21 is the hardest for me on maddening
I’m doing a CF maddening currently I actually have to reset bc I’m too under leveled to beat chapter 5 lol
I'm glad my first maddening run was Silver Snow; when maddening was first released everyone was doing Azure Moon or Verdant Wind which I believed were just objectively easier than choosing the Black Eagles. Crimson Flower was a bit short for my liking so for the sake of feeling the difficulty in full I opted for Silver Snow and that was such a great experience.
From hardest to easiest:
Church >> Black Eagles >> Blue Lions > Golden Deers
Golden Deers has the best cast overall (mainly that certain mage with the certain staff), easiest version of chapter 13 and easiest final map. Hilda can work well as a "tank". Her HP is good enough to take a few hits and her speed is also fine not to get doubled permanently with lighter weapons.
They are hard to RNG screw up too. The most suspectible victim from GD are just Lorenz, Ignatz, and Raphael.
Raphael can work as a tank if you invest in him with his super high HP and strength and decent defense which can be even better by putting him in the armor line and I'd argue why not for GD because as you said they don't really have any tanks plus having a unit with free rally strength could come in handy sure he gets doubled but his speed growth is so low and the enemies on maddening are so fast he'll get doubled anyway so you don't even have to worry about weight for things like a silver shield.
People think since GD has Raph Lorenz and Ignatz as some of your only units makes it harder, when in the early chapters, with the batallion you get from the quest, give the defensive one to Leonine, Jeralt's Mercenaries to Byleth, and the last reamining one to Lorenz. That and his prf will allow him to do some good damage with tempest lance and chip with magic if you really want. If you invest in him further, I think giving him Thyrus is best. Though you should be passing it around. He gets some high power spells and his boons help him get into Dark Knight easily. So he can be a good chip unit since magic is the best for chip damage. Ignatz is imo underrated. He has some insane utility and his authority can allow him to use some very powerful high rank batallions which can give him a huge stat increase and allow him to help out with demonic beasts on the map. He also gets some great rally skills, mainly rally speed early on. His combat arts in bows also allow him to get stuff like break shot which while still niche, still has plenty of uses, and since his best class will probably be Sniper, that means you can just focus on bows and authority. (with D+ axes if you plan on using him with Hunters Volley) Which makes him a lot less high investment. Also his prf gives him Hit +20 right off the bat, but you can also get Archer for another or if you just need his utility, though I'd just stick with Brigand if you want him to be a combat unit. Hunters Volley isnt exclusive to him, but he can get to Sniper and the certification pretty easily. Also from what I've seen when using him, his crit is insane when using hunters volley due to his high dex. He can also go into Assassin if you're worried about him dying and plan to use him a utility, though he'll crit a lot in that class too, but you also have to get A swords, which he has a boon in, but still. Only one I can see being really bad is Raph, but he gives you free Iron Gauntlets and if you play as FemLeth you can just replace him with Sylvain instantly. Same goes for the Ashes Wolves. I don't have DLC so I didn't use them, but if you do, you can definitley replace your bad or medicore units with them.
Man remember when people thought Mercedes was the best healer?
And then you realize that you will basically never use her personal or fortify
And lindhardt is much tankier and has warp
And Marianne is the most diverse one who can actually kill things reliably and have silence support
Ye this video is so outdated xd
I was so close on reaching the final chapter of Crimson Flower and yet I fucking suck. I legit used all that blood and sweat to get this far and yet I'm not able to beat it. I don't want to restart because it is a pain in the ass. Fucking kill me goddamn it. Maddening mode was a MISTAKE
Is there a point to even using Hubert in church. As soon as you recruit lysithea wouldn’t you just replace Hubert with her
Black Eagles is in my opinion harder than Verdant Wind because not Catherine.
is Cindered Shadows in hard mode equivalent to maddening in the main story ? And is it possible to beat the lake Teutates in maddening (or classic maddening) ?
@FED can u use new game plus
Can you recruit everyone on madening or you have to be on new game plus?
I'm sure you can but it'll be extremely difficult and will probably make your character weaker as you spread out your skills instead of focusing on important ones
I’ve played maddening so many times I just focus on making the characters op. I like golden deer for this.
NG or NG+?
Physical combat isn’t as useful on maddening BL. Chip and magic are much more useful. Barring a handful of beasts very late game, you can magic blast everything with little difficulty. Also dedue isn’t available for half of post time skip.
Sure but Dedue's earlygame is so good that he is worth using for that alone.
Dedue is Oswin but good
Da Maverick Blast have you done it on maddening? The exp limit means he’s going to be even more under leveled by the time you reach the bridge. Secondly, his defense isn’t that useful, you need a multi purpose tank. Being mediocre at both means you can survive either coming at you, rather than getting deleted by one, and bruised by the other. Plus poison strike being a thing.
I almost couldn’t beat “the immovable” boss on that paralogue map with crimson flower because no lords I had to wait a couple of months and come back after training up a couple of other units to stand in
I might be okay with my church run not using Edelgard or Hubert at all, neither have a single exp yet. I’m doing the 6 students byleth and the 8 obtainable church and knight members to round out my 15. Early game is rough with 7 units but the exp helps. Also I’m not quick completing maps so I am getting good levels. Chapter 13 will be rough but I’m sure I won’t be soft locked... hopefully
Question? Would it be easier to play my first maddening on casual with no divine pulse, or classic with divine pulse but no reloading
Just play however you want it. Its not worth the challenge just for the yellow title screen lool I am now currently doing maddening new game casual mode with Blue Lions . I use divine pulse when I have to and try not make my units die despite playing casual
personally i say just do classic with pulse but restart if you have too, maddening is too stressful (unless you doing NG+)
@@1hardyparty yup exactly. Its not worth the stress since there's no achievement given by Nintendo except for the yellow screen
I'd say casual with divine pulse tbh xD
Crimson Flower has the worst tanking in the game, not Verdant Wind. Raphael and Leonie are both better physical tanks than anyone in the Black Eagles, including Edelgard as her native Def growth is only 35 and she'll be way more useful in Wyvern Lord than Armored Lord.
Hard agree that Azure Moon is the easiest class in Maddening though. Dedue and Ingrid can completely neutralize most physical and magic attacks respectively from the beginning of the game.
I feel like FED really doesn’t like Dimitri, which is weird because he feels like he is the best unit in the game, especially late game. For all the other lords he put them as Pros, but not Dimitri. Doesn’t really make sense to me.
While Claude does have a great physical battalion, Dimitri’s is better imo.
Because we are talking about Maddening here, and Dimitri is truly a physical powerhouse, but he does not bring anything to the table like Edelgard and Claude. Edelgard has her weapon that allows her to galeforce an entire map, and Claude has many schemes under his sleeve as a Barbarossa that allows maddening to be easier. Dimitri is good but he is only a powerhouse, he does not bring anything unique to the table.
@@LCardosed92 sure. Raging storm is a FANTASTIC combat art, but it’s also slightly overrated because the ore needed to repair the weapon is much harder to obtain than all the other ore to repair other relics.
There is also no need to bring anything unique when what you can do is top tier. All you need is battalion vantage and battalion wrath, and most enemy phase becomes a joke. I don’t see how that raging storm and Barbarossa class is better than that.
@@moberlysquad67 Aymr is not that hard to repair. You get the material to repair the weapon by killing those robots on the chapter you take down Cornelia. There are 3 golens, and they all give you 4 materials each, meaning you will be able to repair Aymr 3 times in total.
And yeah, Edelgard and Claude are unique, but Dimitri is not. I finished Golden Deer on Maddening and with a little bit of effort my Hilda could do the exactly same thing a Dimitri would. I could say the same for other characters. All characters would be able to do what Dimitri does with a little effort, but no one could copy Claude and Edelgard, that is why their are considered better in Maddening than Dimitri.
I feel like the easiest way to beat maddening is mages and bows. Black eagle is advertised as the mage class but Hubert's not as good as Lysithea, Dorothea's not as good as Marianne, and Edelgard should not be a mage anyways (although I will say an armored mage would have been cool). I think Golden Deer has a top tier pick of mages, the best archer in the game, and if you replace the bad units with easy recruits like Sylvain and the Ashen Wolves, you have a full team.
He blinks a lot
Help me :(
I can’t get passed the Gautier map :(
What is it your struggling with there?
If it is the reinforcements at the top, they are tile based (trigger area starts behind a pillar if memory serves right). Just walk a bit ahead with the units that can take some hits, keep the others a bit further away, and lure the second wave with what is basically your scrub squad, since usually, having all 4 thieves in one area is a bad idea.
I’ve played GD and BL maddening with no NG+ and I have to say fuck chapter 13.
if you have a DLC, Yuri is really broken and can possibly replace the Lord in SS but still I would never play SS in maddening haha
I played Silver Snow N NG+ ... zhe first time skip chapter nearly broke me
Agreed. That thing is absolutely brutal.
Though fortunaltely, I only got hold of Maddening quite some time later, so I knew what was coming, so I could do sufficient preperations to not get my ass kicked. And even then, it took some crits to pull through.
Best part of CF. No Hunting By Daybreak.
HBD is easy unless you are AM.
Silver Snow Maddening is hardest?
Omegaevolution: Allow me to introduce myself!
it not pokemon
GD ez
Post time skip can be a bit difficult for BL just cause scooter boi decided to get edgy, meaning you can’t train him for a bit and a certain unit “dies”.